Greetings RotWk fans!
We're proud to announce the release of the v8.3.0 patch. Click
here to download the installer! The installer source code is located
here.
If you're new to the community and haven't played 2.02 before, you will need to download 2.02 version 8.0.0
from our download page and then v8.3.0 in order to play with others online.
The main purpose of this patch version is to see the impact of several subtle nerfs to
Elves and to provide early game buffs to
Mordor alongside minor adjustments to
Dwarven Battle Wagons and their enhancements. These changes are relatively subtle, and will help us gauge whether more drastic measures are necessary.
There are a culmination of changes in this patch that consists of:
- Lairs becoming resistant to arrows from archers and archer heroes.
Several changes over the past years (such as revealed random, tougher resource buildings, weaker RC/WC push due to armorfix and higher lair reward) have culminated in a relatively creep heavy early game by RotWK's standards. Especially for the Elven faction this has lead to what many find an unattractively defensive early game. This change aims to make the game more logical (structures should intuitively resist arrows) and also reduce the effectiveness of Elves' extremely defensive early game build where they start with two archer units to creep.
- Increased size of the Mallorn Tree's hitbox.
After doing some research, we found that Mallorn Trees have the smallest hitbox of all resource buildings. This seems particularly unfair considering how good their archers are. With the increased hitbox size, it should become easier for harassment troops to hide behind Mallorn Trees so the Elven archers can't shoot them without relocating.
- Mountain Trolls healing 40% of their health instead of 100% when eating an orc.
Mountain trolls have become a great starting unit for the Mordor faction, which is a great improvement over the Haradrim Palace dominance we saw in v7.0.0. However, their Eat Orc ability can be devastating when facing a Mordor player who abuses this mechanic to heal up trolls continuously. Hence, we decided to make this ability more micro intensive.
- Slightly faster unit production from Dwarven Forge, while adding additional Command Points cost to Battlewagon upgrades.
The old 7 seconds wait time for units to exit the Forge would often allow enemies to position pikes in front of an exiting Battlewagon. This is a mechanic none of the other factions face, and can unfairly punish Dwarves. To counteract this buff to Dwarves, their upgraded Battlewagons (particularly those with Men of Dale) will now cost more Command Points, making them more expensive to spam.
- Haradrim Palace cost reduction to 300.
Versus the Forces of Light factions, a Haradrim Palace is often a must for Mordor's early game. To smoothen Mordor's early game builds involving the palace, its cost has been reduced from 350 to 300. As a countermeasure, the level 2 research time is increased to 450. As a result, Mordor's cavalry start should be exactly as strong as it was before.
And more!
You can you check the full changelog
here.
If you have any questions about the installation process feel free to us the staff here on Gamereplays, but you can also join our official GR
Discord channel and ask in the #tech-support sub-channel.
Enjoy and good luck have fun!