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Total War: WARHAMMER – First major update released, adds DX12 beta support

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Creative Assembly has released the first major update for Total War: WARHAMMER. This update comes with one hell of bug fixes, balance tweaks to all races, a number of technical improvements and beta support for DX12. This update is 2GB in size and will be auto-downloaded from Steam. You can find its complete – and huge – changelog here, and a portion of it below.

Total War: WARHAMMER – Update #1 Changelog:

Battle AI

  • Improved the Siege AI’s unit selection when deciding to attack city gates so that missile-heavy AI armies can have a better chance at being successful.
  • Siege AI will now attempt to assault the gates even if they only have missile units.
  • Increased the width of the walls the Siege AI will attempt to defend.
  • Improved the AI’s positioning on walls when defending during siege battles.
  • When the Battle AI decides to switch from defence to attack, it will fully commit instead of sometimes trying to pull back and defend again.
  • Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented the attacking Siege AI’s flying units from engaging.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the defending Battle AI to unnecessarily move a few meters forward at the start of battle.
  • Updated the Vampire Counts army templates for the AI to improve army quality.

Campaign AI

  • Increased war co-ordination attack priority in Campaign, to help make allied AI factions respond more readily to war targets/war co-ordination.
  • Diplomatic treacheries now have a bigger impact on the player’s reliability rating, and the AI remembers them for a longer period of time.
  • Campaign AI is now less likely to offer money and more likely to sign more alliances.
  • Campaign AI is now a bit more cautious with intercepting enemy armies.
  • AI is now less inclined to start chasing the Chaos player around the Campaign map.
  • Increased the chance of Chaos recruiting when they are in the position to do so, when controlled by the AI.
  • Changed late game (‘Age of Peace’) AI behaviour, to make AI factions more aggressive and unreliable. As a result they are more likely to return to the pre-Chaos status quo, breaking treaties and turning against one another. Also increased the Great Power penalty at this stage of the game.

Multiplayer and MP Campaign

  • Unit rebalancing across all races (see Unit Rebalancing By Race).
  • Added 5 new Multiplayer maps: Alpine Ridge, Crossroads, Heorot Ridge, Peak Pass and Blue Reach River.
  • Fixed an issue in Quick Battle mode where players click Start Battle and change factions very quickly, leading to mixed up units and factions.
  • When playing a co-operative Multiplayer Campaign, if a player has a Waaagh! Army, their co-operative ally can no longer target their Waaagh! and attack it.
  • Fixed a Multiplayer Campaign Progression Blocker which occurred if a Greenskins player had a WAAAGH! When the Chaos Invasion triggered, and made their End Turn button permanently greyed out.
  • The player list will now display correctly in the Chat window when opened in the front end.
  • Players with Team Merging unselected in Quick Battle mode will no longer be merged into teams.
  • A tool-tip which erroneously displayed “AI Player” when any player hovered the mouse over a human player in a LAN Multiplayer Battle Lobby has been corrected.
  • Added a tool-tip to the blue map marker (telestration) on the Tactical Map during Multiplayer Battles.
  • Fix for MPC issues where multiple “allied attacked” prompts would appear simultaneously, causing progression to be blocked for the player.
  • Fixed some cases where the player could move the camera in Multiplayer Campaign mode, when they weren’t supposed to be able to.

Campaign – general

  • Autoresolver now deals less damage to high quality units (e.g. Slayers) in standard battle situations and deals more to low quality units.
  • Subculture targeting missions are now always cancelled when the targeted subculture is destroyed.
  • Diplomatic attitudes will no longer change by opening and closing the diplomacy menu.
  • Displayed diplomatic attitude updated to more accurately reflect the AI’s attitude.
  • Changing diplomatic relations should now trend towards the target attitude much faster.
  • Fixed a bug during diplomacy involving the AI breaking military access with the player.
  • Fixed a bug during diplomacy offers where all options would remain greyed out, blocking the player’s progression.
  • Added a warning when the player tries to switch stance while the army has pending recruitments.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the units in the unit exchange panel to have the wrong size.
  • Fixed an issue that caused some mission objectives to wrongly display player’s faction.
  • Details of candidates will now be displayed when recruiting new agents or lords.
  • Removed the ‘Zoom to Location’ icon from followers that have been attained but are not attached to a character.
  • Dragging the scroll bar to the end of the victory screen will no longer return it to the start of the bar.
  • Fixed an issue that caused some locked actions in the Agent Info Panel to be displayed in the wrong order with the wrong tooltip.
  • Fixed an issue sometimes causing the missions and events radar panel to overlap in Campaign.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the units panel to not refresh when equipped ancillaries changed.
  • Improved legibility of event text.
  • When joining a war through diplomacy, the player’s Greenskin Waaagh! faction will now also join the war.
  • Fixed character scaling on the pre-battle screen in campaign when an army is attacked while sieging.
  • War co-ordination targets are now removed when a military ally is no longer at war with the target
  • Fixed a bug where after one Greenskin Tribe confederated with another which had a WAAAGH! Army, the WAAAGH! Army would stay loyal to the original tribe (which no longer existed).
  • When a lord is wounded, the banners they own are now removed from the units they are assigned to.
  • God-rays indicating the war target of an opposing army on the campaign map are now hidden when attacking that army and entering the pre-battle screen.
  • Skills that increase Hitpoints such as The Scarred Vetaran are now maintained after the Lord with the skills is injured in battle then re-recruited.
  • Tweaked the lighting on the advisor portholes.
  • Fixed an issue with glowing Marienburg flags.
  • Fixed an issue with flag ownership for the Greenskins.
  • Campaign difficulty text when “hard” or higher is now coloured red.
  • Reduced Great Power penalty for late game Campaign AI personalities (except on Very Hard and Legendary difficulties)
  • Improved the Specular and Gloss levels on the Campaign Terrain in the Badlands.
  • Building upgrades are now correctly cancelled after a settlement is sacked and the primary slot is downgraded.
  • Improved the lighting / climate transition when the player passes the camera over the Gianthome Mountains in the northeast of the Campaign map.
  • Fixed a missing lake under the shroud south of Helmgart/Montfort on the Campaign Map.
  • Increased the visual fidelity of the dragon bones and the props around the Greenskin settlements on the campaign map.
  • Mork is now considerably Morkier.
  • Fixed some stretched and misaligned textures on the Campaign map.
  • Improved the coastal shadows from cliffs on the Campaign map.
  • Fixed an untextured coastal edge on the Campaign map.
  • Fixed an issue where Chaos Chariots and Gorebeast Chariots were receiving too much upkeep reduction under certain circumstances and weren’t affected by certain technologies.
  • The Nuln unique building for artillery recruitment (Nuln Cannon Foundry/Nuln Artillery School/Special Forges) will now impart an experience bonus when artillery is recruited from the global pool.
  • Fixed some flickering around the edges of lava streams near the two large volcanoes in the southern part of the Campaign map, which appeared for some users.
  • Improved the shroud in the top edge of the Grand Campaign Map, to hide the crenellated edge of the Chaos Wastes area.
  • Made the Teleport button on Quest Battle Notifications clearer to the player.
  • Fixed an issue with the Jack of All Trades, Master of Some achievement not triggering correctly.
  • The Gatebreaker achievement will no longer be unlocked during the vampire prelude battle as the Varghulf attacks the gate.
  • Fixed the Grafs of The Empire achievement, which incorrectly unlocked when completing a Quest Battle with no heroes.
  • Updated the Skull Staff objectives when playing as Vampires, so the third objective is no longer already complete as a result of the second.
  • Bonus chapter objectives that require the player to construct a specific building will now also allow a higher level of that building to complete the objective.
  • Completing the first quest battles will no longer complete the bonus chapter objective to complete a quest chain.
  • Any item that grants attribute Enables Terror now also grants Enables Fear.
  • Character experience is no longer awarded for sacking a settlement.
  • Added tooltips to treaty icons above Heroes.
  • Colour coded Vigour state text on unit tooltips in battle.
  • AI-controlled Chaos Warriors race will no longer be able to offer or accept peace once war has been declared.
  • Fixed a rare case of seeing a Horde Infighting effect when using a Hero to target a horde army.
  • Vampiric Corruption payload that has negative effects on the player now has red text instead of green (except when the Vampire Counts faction is a human player).
  • Dwarfs are much less likely to get the Likes Greenskins trait, and the trait will never trigger on Dwarf faction leaders.
  • Fixed a rare case where a random magic item would be awarded when completing a quest battle that was underground.
  • A large number of followers used by human factions have had their effects tweaked, along with the chance of them dropping and the triggers that cause them to drop.
  • While playing as Chaos Warriors as either Kholek or Sigvald, the text for unlocking Archaon has been corrected.
  • Slayers now take 1 turn to recruit, rather than 2.
  • Fixed a script error in the Prelude triggered when the player skipped over FMV and cutscene very quickly via the [ESC] key.
  • Added a new random incident that may respawn the Savage Orc Skull-takerz or Top Knotz tribes if they are destroyed.
  • Norscans now correctly suffer attrition when standing in areas of high Vampiric corruption.
  • Fixed a case where the previous/next armies buttons on the recruit Lord/Hero panel would read “province” when playing as Chaos.
  • Reduced the number of factions the player needs to be at war with to complete the chapter objectives in the Vampires and Chaos campaigns.
  • Corrected some male traits (using male pronouns) applying to female characters.
  • Added in-line images to many tooltips that were missing them.
  • Clarified some text to say that some tier 1 and 2 buildings can only be constructed in a province capital and not in a minor settlement upgraded to tier 3.
  • Followers will no longer be lost after a certain number of turns.
  • Arcane items are now available to all subcultures except Dwarfs so shouldn’t be able to be stolen by them.
  • Negative or neutral innate traits are now less likely to appear when recruiting a new Lord or Hero.
  • Fixed a rare case where a grudge would be issued against the player’s own faction.
  • Fixed a rare case where Bjornling navies may spawn in inaccessible areas during the Chaos Invasion event.
  • At the point Heroes are spawned through random events or mission rewards, they will have full movement range.
  • Fixed a mismatch between the 3D and 2D portraits for some Norsca characters.
  • Fixed a rare case where one of Azhag the Slaughterer’s quests would ask the player to raid the player’s own territory.
  • The Stand or Die ability now replaces the Rally ability when unlocked via Chaos Lord skill trees.
  • Fixed a rare case where the Immortulz banner may be issued as a mission reward.
  • Fixed a progression blocker where the End Turn button became greyed out if the player was allied with one of the factions Chaos started at war with during the Chaos Invasion.
  • Event messages in which a faction has joined a war against you now instantly open.
  • Fixed a rare case where one of Heinrich Kemmler’s quests would ask the player to raid the player’s own territory.
  • Fixed the Defiler of Ancient Barrows technology not applying the upkeep reduction to Skeleton Infantry.
  • The Chaos Sorcerer Hero action ‘Damage Buildings’ now correctly damages buildings in the target settlement.
  • Random incidents that reduce the player’s treasury will no longer trigger if they would result in bankrupting the player.
  • Fixed a rare case where a mission would be issued to capture a Norsca-owned settlement.
  • Reduced the rank requirement of the grudge to rank up a Master Engineer from 15 to 10.
  • Rivers now blend into the sea better on Campaign maps.
  • Manfred von Carstein is now granted the Swarm of Flies ability by the Zombie Dragon mount.
  • Rebalanced some common leader abilities that are unlocked in Hero/Lord skill trees.
  • Fixed a dwarf statue prop on the campaign map, so it no longer pops in and out when the camera approaches/recedes.
  • Fixed a campaign pathfinding bug where it was possible to move multiple heroes simultaneously to the same location on the campaign map, and they’d get stuck in the same spot.
  • Increase in movement range is now more accurately depicted as increasing when enabling Forced March stance in Campaigns.
  • Fixed performance issue when selecting forces in Use Underway stance on the Campaign map.
  • Goblins are now more ticklish.
  • Greenskin factions can no longer be asked to break a military access agreement with their Waaagh! army.
  • Battles in the Chaos Wastes are now assigned a valid battle name.
  • Decline option for intercepting an ambush is now greyed out.
  • The Pre-battle options Spectate and Fight as AI are now greyed out when other player has decided to auto-resolve.
  • Disabled the [HOME] key during pre-battle, as it could move the camera out of underway pre-battle scenes.
  • Fixed attrition preview not showing on health bars of embedded agents.
  • Select next/previous character shortcuts (</>) now also include embedded agents while in character details so the player can cycle through all owned characters.
  • Fixed an issue where if an embedded agent was selected, selecting the army again on the campaign map wouldn’t reselect the general/army, which could lead to accidentally moving the agent out of army.
  • The faction screen/spell browser is now closed when playing fullscreen movie to fix movie playback issues.
  • The Diplomacy screen will no longer display incorrectly when there are no opposing factions surviving.
  • The Item in Transit icon on the Character Porthole will now update / refresh more regularly along with the Character Details panel.
  • Communiteam will now have immunity to all Trolls
  • Fix for autosave occurring between a chapter objective being completed and new chapter objective being issued on Legendary Campaign. This fix will only affect new save games.
  • Damaged Buildings advisor message will no longer trigger during the AI turn cycle.
  • Fixed some white squares appearing on the textures of the Dwarf starting area on the Campaign map.
  • Fixed some stretched and misaligned textures on the Campaign map.

Technical

  • Fixed a number of rare crashes and memory leaks during campaign and battle.
  • Improved AMD Eyefinity support
  • Numerous minor typo and text-display issues found and fixed
  • Loading the debug camera by changing the default_battle_camera_type and default_campaign_camera_type to 2 in the preference.script has been disabled, as it was causing crashes.
  • Fixed an issue with Korean font rendering, which made characters shift around and flicker.
  • Fix for transparent trees with MSAA turned on.
  • The R7 M260 card will now display the correct Video Memory in the Advanced Graphics options.
  • MSAA will no longer expose flat planes around the edges of battlefield vegetation.
  • Fixed some buildings not opening in the Building Browser and Game Guide.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Unit Cards to become blurry when mouseing over them in the Building Browser.
  • Fixed an issue where couldn’t mouse over unit info panel on building browser card if info panel was on the right of the card.
  • Fixed an issue where players could open chat with the shortcut key while the button is inaccessible (which caused a renderings issue when opening the chat while in spell browser was already open).
  • On the Character Details panel UI lock-up bug fixed.
  • Fixed a bug where tool-tips on the Game Guide were not being updated after moving the mouse off the link that made the tool-tip appear.
  • Fixed the link to the Game Guide from the Recruit Lord panel in Campaign modes.
  • Game Guide now scales better when the user changes the games resolution in windowed mode.
  • Fixed right-clicks in the Game Guide not taking the player to correct page in non-English languages.
  • Corrected some Empire building technology unlocks in the Game Guide.
  • Global recruitment options will now highlight when the cursor is hovered over help page term.
  • Fixed a bug with hard collision breaking the navigation.
  • Fixed some dark areas in the Thundering Falls Quest Battle map which didn’t interact well with the Screen Space Reflections graphics option.

Known DX12 issues

  • Crash on startup on AMD R7 200 series GPUs.
  • Shadow flickering on some maps in very large army scenarios on R9 Fury and 300 series cards
  • The game will stop updating on-screen when switching between Fullscreen-Windowed mode on HD7800
  • When Multi-Sample Anti-aliasing (MSAA) is enabled on some AMD R9 300 series cards, some models may exhibit a wireframe like appearance when close to the camera
  • Nvidia GTX 900 series GPUs may experience occasional shadow flickering with Multi-Sample Aliasing enabled