EP3 Public Release

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Czech Republic EAGLEMUT
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EP3 Public Release

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Post by EAGLEMUT »

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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

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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:
ESOC Patch 3.0.0.0.exe
(14.82 MiB) Downloaded 125 times

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:
Update_3.0.0.0_manual.zip
(23.86 MiB) Downloaded 171 times


Now go check it out for real in-game and feel free to give us feedback!
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Argentina AraGun
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by AraGun »

First bitches! xD

Cant wait to try dem sioux
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Re: EP3 Public Release

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Post by macacoalbino »

It's the first time I'm able to launch the patch from the launcher ^^ I have a good feeling about this
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Re: EP3 Public Release

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Post by Aizamk »

Bit of a bug report: because of how you guys implemented the 4v->5v change for sioux, players not only have to activate the 5v card in the homecity, but also, decks which had 4v in them will show 25/25 (without 4v) when there are actually only 24 cards in them on EP.

Solution: players need to make a separate deck for EP sioux.

(FROM SCRATCH. COPYING A DECK WHICH HAD 4V IN IT WON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM)
oranges.
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New Zealand JakeyBoyTH
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by JakeyBoyTH »

Sioux are insane :)

@hleung
Advanced Wonders suck

- Aizamk

Ugh Advanced Wonders suck

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Poland pecelot
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by pecelot »

Big shout-out to Eaglemut, proud member of WPact!
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by querty »

Good work guys!

Does the tp gathering Bonus has a cap or can you pump it up to 6*4% = 24%? (36% with Aggressive Policy card)
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by EAGLEMUT »

Aizamk wrote:Bit of a bug report: because of how you guys implemented the 4v->5v change for sioux, players not only have to activate the 5v card in the homecity, but also, decks which had 4v in them will show 25/25 (without 4v) when there are actually only 24 cards in them on EP.

Solution: players need to make a separate deck for EP sioux.

(FROM SCRATCH. COPYING A DECK WHICH HAD 4V IN IT WON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM)

Correct, thanks for pointing this out. I am aware of the problem, but not sure on how it could be fixed since the 4 vill card is shared with other civs (therefore I couldn't just change its effect). If you have an idea on how this could be implemented in a better way, let me know.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by EAGLEMUT »

querty wrote:Good work guys!

Does the tp gathering Bonus has a cap or can you pump it up to 6*4% = 24%? (36% with Aggressive Policy card)

There is no cap on the gathering boost. The formula is actually 1.04^6 (27%) for max boost without cards and 1.06^6 (42%) using Aggressive Policy card. With Aggressive Policy and Nomadic Expansion together, you can reach up to 1.06^12 (101% boost).
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Garja »

Really good job for the release!
Aztecs changes are hilarious tho. As if warchief card amd team schooners were usable in real games.
Cover mode removed for the warchief but China monk which way stronger still has it. Ah btw China has a card for an extra monk. Let's nerf that too? lol

Also no cal on teepees, rofl

The patch went fron a controversial but acceptable one to complete bs.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by MCJim »

Garja wrote:Really good job for the release!
Aztecs changes are hilarious tho. As if warchief card amd team schooners were usable in real games.
Cover mode removed for the warchief but China monk which way stronger still has it. Ah btw China has a card for an extra monk. Let's nerf that too? lol

Also no cal on teepees, rofl

The patch went fron a controversial but acceptable one to complete bs.

Then why leave the patch-team?
:food: My AoE3 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MCJimAgeofEmpiresIII
:wood: My AoE3 Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/MCJim_


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Brazil lemmings121
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by lemmings121 »

Wc cover mode wasnt acceptable lol
For some rrason no one was laming it but still was a autowin on industrial...

......
Thanks for the hard work guys, lets go all playtest now :D
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by musketeer925 »

EAGLEMUT wrote:
Aizamk wrote:Bit of a bug report: because of how you guys implemented the 4v->5v change for sioux, players not only have to activate the 5v card in the homecity, but also, decks which had 4v in them will show 25/25 (without 4v) when there are actually only 24 cards in them on EP.

Solution: players need to make a separate deck for EP sioux.

(FROM SCRATCH. COPYING A DECK WHICH HAD 4V IN IT WON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM)

Correct, thanks for pointing this out. I am aware of the problem, but not sure on how it could be fixed since the 4 vill card is shared with other civs (therefore I couldn't just change its effect). If you have an idea on how this could be implemented in a better way, let me know.

You could give it an effect that is dependent on other techs being owned (I forget the terminology on it but it exists -- there's some card a civ has that makes all other cards grant some unit) that grants an extra villager based on Age0Sioux. This would result in the number and description being wrong, though.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Mitoe »

That's kind of a huge nerf to Aztec in general to be honest. Basically just removed a huge tool from their fights at all points in the game, and with him being easier to kill you'll receive less xp during fights too. The nerf should've been compensated with some kind of small hp buff or something too, but whatever I guess.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by EAGLEMUT »

Garja wrote:Really good job for the release!
Aztecs changes are hilarious tho. As if warchief card amd team schooners were usable in real games.
Cover mode removed for the warchief but China monk which way stronger still has it. Ah btw China has a card for an extra monk. Let's nerf that too? lol

Also no cal on teepees, rofl

The patch went fron a controversial but acceptable one to complete bs.

Thanks!
While I'm not the one calling shots on balance, I can still try to give some insight on those changes.
- Aztec are able to revive their Warchief very easily using the firepit. I think that is the reason why he was nerfed while the Chinese monk remains untouched for now. In a future patch, I wouldn't be too surprised to see cover mode removed from the Chinese monk as well.
- If team cheap boats card wasn't usable before, I guess you can care less about its removal. Some of the top team players apparently did consider it too strong.
- The teepee bonus looks very strong on paper, but the balance team felt it is not overpowered after actually playtesting it. In fact, the percentage bonus on closed beta was initially lower, before it was reconsidered and buffed to the final 4%. Of course, if the change still turns out to be problematic, we can always put out a new patch and tone it down.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by deleted_user0 »

Aztec >>> Russia

Russia gets nerfed and Aztec gets bug fix'd and caria goes cry.
Logic.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by lordraphael »

wtf lake tahoe was awesome? if its the map i have in mind :)
breeze wrote: they cant even guess how much f***ing piece of stupid retarded they look they are trying to give lesson to people who are over pr35 and know the best mu. im pretty sure that we need a page that only pr30+ post and then we could have a nice discussins.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Garja »

MCJim wrote:
Garja wrote:Really good job for the release!
Aztecs changes are hilarious tho. As if warchief card amd team schooners were usable in real games.
Cover mode removed for the warchief but China monk which way stronger still has it. Ah btw China has a card for an extra monk. Let's nerf that too? lol

Also no cal on teepees, rofl

The patch went fron a controversial but acceptable one to complete bs.

Then why leave the patch-team?

I never left patch team? The war chief thing is a last minute thing btw.
EAGLEMUT wrote:
Garja wrote:Really good job for the release!
Aztecs changes are hilarious tho. As if warchief card amd team schooners were usable in real games.
Cover mode removed for the warchief but China monk which way stronger still has it. Ah btw China has a card for an extra monk. Let's nerf that too? lol

Also no cap on teepees, rofl

The patch went fron a controversial but acceptable one to complete bs.

Thanks!
While I'm not the one calling shots on balance, I can still try to give some insight on those changes.
- Aztec are able to revive their Warchief very easily using the firepit. I think that is the reason why he was nerfed while the Chinese monk remains untouched for now. In a future patch, I wouldn't be too surprised to see cover mode removed from the Chinese monk as well.
- If team cheap boats card wasn't usable before, I guess you can care less about its removal. Some of the top team players apparently did consider it too strong.
- The teepee bonus looks very strong on paper, but the balance team felt it is not overpowered after actually playtesting it. In fact, the percentage bonus on closed beta was initially lower, before it was reconsidered and buffed to the final 4%. Of course, if the change still turns out to be problematic, we can always put out a new patch and tone it down.

Ye but the whole revival and speed card thing is just troll stuff. On the other hand cover mode is legit and actually useful feature and it has been nerfed. And china monk also doesnt need a cover mode nerf either, even if it is very strong.
The teepee bonus is OP even capped at 5 of them. I tested it and it simply is. If there isnt a cap it is simply broken. Someone really fucked up the math on that.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Atomiswave »

EAGLEMUT wrote:
querty wrote:Good work guys!

Does the tp gathering Bonus has a cap or can you pump it up to 6*4% = 24%? (36% with Aggressive Policy card)

There is no cap on the gathering boost. The formula is actually 1.04^6 (27%) for max boost without cards and 1.06^6 (42%) using Aggressive Policy card. With Aggressive Policy and Nomadic Expansion together, you can reach up to 1.06^12 (101% boost).


It sounds too much even without testing.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Dsy »

I dont like some of the changes but explorer removed cover mode is actually a very good change.
Aztec/china tactic is always sneak the explorer in the middle of battle with cover mode. You dont even lose a unit... I call them terminators btw. And i dont think age of need terminators. If civ is weak buff them other way.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

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Post by Mr_Bramboy »

Realistically though, at what point in the game are you going to get 12 teepees in the same place with both cards sent?

Regarding the warchief, one major problem that hasn't been mentioned is that the warchief remains in cover mode after being revived from the war pit, even though its speed isn't halved. There is no way to fix this, so removing cover mode all together turned out to be the best option. I wouldn't mind removing cover mode from the chinese explorer as well though.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Dsy »

Other thing is (which Noone mentioned) that the devs alraedy compensated the lack of ranged attack with health on the melee explorers... Cover mode is just a double buff which isnt needed.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Darwin_ »

I'm interested to see how this all plays out. I definitely think that the nerf to the azzy warchief should have also been applied to the china monk. I am not sure how the balance is going to be, but I think sioux will be one of the top civs now, (IMO their semi-ff was already underrated, but now they have an extra villager and new boom mechanic so their mass should be even more insane.)

Edit: WHY are there incan natives in Iowa? https://www.google.com/search?q=incan+e ... Zrt7CN3GIM:

As you can see from this, the Incan empire never came close to reaching north america, let alone central america. Something like comanche or cheyenne would be more historically accurate.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

Post by Rikikipu »

Darwin_ wrote:Edit: WHY are there incan natives in Iowa? https://www.google.com/search?q=incan+e ... Zrt7CN3GIM:

As you can see from this, the Incan empire never came close to reaching north america, let alone central america. Something like comanche or cheyenne would be historically accurate.

If you want to respect historical accuracy, then you should ban TWC civs from playing on Asian maps and only allowing Brits, France, Spain and Portugal and TWC civs to play on American continent maps.
So I decided to sacrify the holy "historical accuracy" in favor of adding new potential strategies.
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Re: EP3 Public Release

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Post by Aizamk »

Rikikipu wrote:
Darwin_ wrote:Edit: WHY are there incan natives in Iowa? https://www.google.com/search?q=incan+e ... Zrt7CN3GIM:

As you can see from this, the Incan empire never came close to reaching north america, let alone central america. Something like comanche or cheyenne would be historically accurate.

If you want to respect historical accuracy, then you should ban TWC civs from playing on Asian maps and only allowing Brits, France, Spain and Portugal and TWC civs to play on American continent maps.
So I decided to sacrify the holy "historical accuracy" in favor of adding new potential strategies.

I also wish to file a complaint: Malaysia doesn't look like that. Also, it should be Malaya. :chinese:
oranges.

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