EP3 Public Release
Posted: 18 Mar 2017, 05:22
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am proud to announce the long-awaited public release of EP3!
Our team works hard to continually improve the patch experience by bringing in brand new maps, balancing the power gaps between civilizations, implementing quality-of-life game features and battling cheaters. Many thanks to everyone who was involved in the making of this awesome update.
The new version of ESOC patch brings in a number of balance changes aimed at improving both 1v1 and team balance alike. These changes have been carefully considered, tested and eventually selected by our Patch Team, which consists of top players in the community. We will, of course, continue to monitor the metagame and be prepared to make additional changes as necessary. Currently, we are most interested in how will these changes shake up meta in the upcoming ESOC Spring Tournament.
Alright, let's get to the changes themselves. You might recognize the majority of them from last week's sneak peak post, however, there were a couple revisions/clarifications to the notes since then.
General changes
- Reverted counter-infantry rifling (CIR) to its original state (no longer adds multiplier against light cavalry)
- Mass cavalry church tech cost changed to 600c, effect adjusted to -40% train time
Iroquois
Along with Sioux, Iro were the lowest rated civ in the community poll and although the team feels that they are underrated, a buff is still in order. A boost to their start was chosen because it gives them a more consistent age up and a faster build order in general, without heavily favouring a certain play style. If anything, it makes colonial play slightly more viable which in the current meta can't hurt. Of course, without the free early TP Iro will still not be close to as strong as on RE patch.
- added 100f starting crate
Germans
Because uhlans were underwhelming, especially in colonial, and Germans have seen much less play in recent times, we thought it okay to tweak the change in their favour a little. A notable effect of this change is that uhlans can now take 1 more hit from hussars in colonial than they could in the previous patch.
- Uhlans get +5 hitpoints
Portuguese
A small tweak because Ports seemed on the strong side, and were rated as such in the last community poll. Ports, compared to the previous EP, have 30-35 less food in discovery age and will lose 5 food per 25 seconds per TC, which in their case will be about equal to -0.3 vill in colonial, -0.5 vill in fortress.
- Villager cost increased to 85f (up from 80f)
- Genitours card now increases Dragoon range by +4 (down from +5)
Ottomans
Ottomans have seen very little play recently. With this change we want to take a small step towards further encouraging economic play styles with the civ, while not nerfing the aggressive styles they favour currently. It is up to the players to experiment with this, and certainly 20 range abus guns in fortress age have potential yet unexplored.
- Mosque villager upgrades halved in cost
Dutch
A small tweak because we felt the wood buff was slightly overdoing it. With this change, it is still easier for them to boom than on RE patch but they no longer get a free TP with their 4 banks.
- Bank cost changed from 300w/350f to 350w/300f
Russians
Undoing a change that turned out to be unnecessary.
- Villager batch cost reverted to 270f
French
Because French seem slightly underwhelming currently, we felt it would be okay to take a small step in the direction of their former glory. The added food crate in combination with increased villager cost will make the French discovery age almost as smooth as it is on RE patch, though still slightly worse.
- added 100f starting crate
- Coureur Des Bois cost increased to 125f (up from 120f)
- Thoroughbreds card no longer decreases train time of Cuirassiers
Aztec
The Aztec Warchief's cover mode was too strong in combination with card bonuses and the firepit abilities. Due to the general buggy nature of cover mode, we have decided to completely remove this ability from the Warchief.
- Warchief's cover mode tactic has been removed
- Team Cheap Fishing Boats card effectively removed (has no effect now)
Japanese
Both changes are aimed at toning down the strength of Japanese in teamgames.
- "Way of the Bow" card no longer increases Yumi hitpoints
- "Bakufu" homecity shipment Daimyo & Shogun training-rate effect decreased from 100% to 50%.
India
The 5 urumi card was a must-have in any india team deck and felt a bit overpowered. We feel that reducing the number of urumis to 4 will make the card more in line, while not removing it from play completely.
- Team 5 urumi card reduced to 4 urumi
Sioux
As the other lowest-rated civ in the last community poll, we've opted for somewhat heavier changes in order to hopefully make Sioux more appealing to play in competitive games. The aim is to make their unique teepees a worthwhile investment and improve their economic sustainability.
- removed 4 Villager card
- added 5 Villager card to Colonial Age
- Teepee base hitpoints increased to 800 (up from 300)
- Teepees now have a gather rate aura boost of 4% per Teepee
- Teepee HP aura range increased by 50%
- Teepee damage aura range decreased by 25% (standardized all three Teepee auras to have the same range)
- War Hut infantry units are now able to build Teepees by default
- Aggressive Policy card redesigned, now changes the gather rate aura boost of Teepees to 6% (instead of all of the card's previous effects)
- Teepee build limit decreased to 6, down from 10
- Nomadic Expansion card now increases Teepee build limit by 6, down from 10
Map changes
- removed ESOC Lake Tahoe from the map pool, there are still some issues with the map that need to be worked out
- new map ESOC Iowa added
Launcher fixes
- launcher now remains usable when the update webservice isn't responding
- launcher will now display custom text when user cancels an update
- launcher will now not offer a corrupted update when the update service is in an invalid state
Fixes to anti-cheat/reporting
- detected cheating incidents are now automatically reported
- detected runtime errors are now automatically reported for troubleshooting purposes
Getting the update
1. If you have a previous version installed, simply run the launcher and auto-update should have you covered.
2. If you're installing for the first time, download the exe installer:
3. If you cannot do either of the above for some reason, download the zip package and unpack it manually into your AoE3 installation folder:
Now go check it out for real in-game and feel free to give us feedback!