Although it's indeed pretty useful, it is a bug because you are not supposed to be able to know what cards a player has sent.

The Arsonist is missing the <Mercenary> Unit Type tag.

EDIT: So does the Repentant Arsonist, so both should get the tag.

[This message has been edited by Felix Hermansson (edited 12-09-2007 @ 02:44 PM).]

The arsonist is what the grenadier should be... useful

Arsonist costs about 33% more, with only 25% more hitpoints. Yet it does have about 43% greater ranged attack and easily 100% better building attack.

I guess it depends how you look at it though.

If it is classified as a merc, it can get german mercenary combat upgrade (which I would like)
However, it would be susceptible to spies and ninja like nobody's business (which I assume you would like)

IF ES/BHG decide to add the mercenary tag to unittype, they need to add the decal (symbol under unit) for spcarsonist.xml as well.

Just my two bits. I do not care either way. I would rather have 11 halberdier than 4 arsonists. (equal cost)

[JPEG, (229.52 KB)]
A polar bear in borneo!!, BHG needs to fix the RM

ES said the lack of the Mercenary tag is by design.

Updated with "Polar Bear"," expensive Ronin Army" and "Japanese 2x signs on card disappearing" bugs.

ES said the lack of the Mercenary tag is by design.

Ok, I found that. But I hope they will indead reconsider as Wibble said they might. After all, as you said in your own post about this issue, the Arsonist is called a Mercenary and works as a Mercenary.

Reply Set HG-XXXIV

Happy Holidays!~

New Issues Confirmed:

Howdah / Mahout card has inaccurate bonus descriptions when placed in the Home City decks.

Nanban Trade tech does not increase trade route income.

Warchiefs and Monks that on horseback cannot gather treasure in Trample mode.

Cherry Orchard build space restriction is not retroactive nor is it reciprocal. Players are not likely to be able to build replacement Orchards if the old one is surrounded by buildings.

Train Gurkha hotkey listed as Train Urumi Swordsman - it's just a string bug, but the actual hotkey does work and affect Gurkha units.

Blind Monks do not show up on the Minimap.

If you get 2 Surgeons from the India Consulate (British), they cannot make field hospitals.

When playing a custom scenario online on ESO, the player is marked as "Online" instead of "In a Game" on the Friends List.

(Suggestion added) Scenario Editor designers request an import/export feature to handle decks better; this includes the ability to create and transform TWC-->TAD without having to recreate entire new decks.

Enemy players can view Japanese player's Home City and figure out which cards were played because of a missing "x2" symbol.

Enemy players can determine where Japanese Shrines are by the floating "No Hunt" symbol.

Enemy players can determine where any building is through FOW by attempting to build a Farm / Rice Paddy / Mill / Plantation over the area.

Russian Blockhouse from Chinese Consulate does not train Banner Armies (or anything in that matter).

Chinese Heavy Cannons from Russian Factory (sent from Consulate) missing audio.

Klamath Huckleberry Feast gives 9 crates at most instead of 10 at the 30 minute maximum.

Russian Fort shipped from Consulate has Portuguese names.

Gorasksha card only affects the base gather rate when livestock is not tasked to a Sacred Field; has no bonus when tasked to a Sacred Field. - This may be by design, but noted in case.

Yellow River and Large Yellow River not balanced for all players as some may get an extra Wood Crate.

Shrines do not attract wild turkeys.

Heavy Fortifications does not unlock Revetment.

Ottoman "3 Galleys" card shows a Frigate instead of a Galley - This was fixed in Age of Empires III but the change was not propegated to TWC/TAD.

Chinese starting crates not consistent per starting map - noted, but this is more of a balance issue.

Exhalted Meteor Hammer upgrade only grants a +30% damage bonus instead of +50% bonus.

Counter Infantry Rifling does not affect Renegado units.

Ranged Cavalry Caracole only increases damage for Comanchero but not their LOS.

Sepoy tooltip incorrectly indicates that they're good against cavalry with their ranged attack.

Sending the Distributivism card triggers the wrong string, "Agrarianism has arrived".

Heavy Fortifications overwrites the Fortified title with Frontier for Outposts.

Mercenary units are not consistent, at least not in the UI, often confusing players in determine what actually counts as a "Mercenary" with regards to Spy attack bonuses.

British Consulate Life Guard units have 10% ranged resist instead of 20% (need to go through balance on this).

Ottoman Consulate Gardner units have 10% ranged resist instead of 20% (need to go through balance on this).

Zen and Shaolin prop groupings are blocking Sohei and Rattan Shield units in Ceylon, Honshu, and Yellow River.

Cover Mode hotkey overrides the auto-correction in viewing player recorded games (Alt-C); Workaround is to reassign Cover Mode to something else, then the auto-correction in viewing distance will work.

Having both Monks selected, using Smoke Bomb on one will cancel the other's Smoke Bomb command.


Existing / Old Issues / Already Reported:

Cannot view stats on opponent minor native units.

Aztec (infinite) 500 Coin is missing purple frame.

Ceasefire rollover tooltip does not show up.

Current gather count on whales is zero.

Russian Advanced Churck Kalmucks missing audio.

Blood Brothers causes shipped native units to have the inferior titles when they are actually the upgraded superior ones.

xpWarCanoe and xpTlalocCanoe are missing the LogicalTypeNavalMilitary, which also prevents the AI from using them.

Ottoman Team Defenses ships Outpost Wagons to allied AI players but they do nothing with them.

(TWC Only) ChampionNootka does not increase NatClubmanLoyal HP.

Large Texas is missing from the largerandommap.set list.


Confirmed but Low (or No) Priority:

Tashunke Prowler history description lists them as being available in the Colonial Age.

Comanchero Melee Mode attack is classified as Siege Damage.


By Design:

Daimyo units are listed as "Hero" units from Hotkey options, but they are not classified as "Hero" in-game for purposes of the Spy unit - We feel that its useful for the player to cycle to the Daimyo using the Idle Hero hotkey, but we don't feel as of now that Spies should get attack bonuses against them.

You can type in empty space in chat - sure, if that is what you want.

Shader and shadow quality setting options change as you toggle other video options - this is how it's supposed to work. Some cards do not let you have higher/lower settings if you restricted others.

There is a 50XP treasure that looks like a treasure chest. - So?

The Year of the Ox has different Age requirements between SPC and non-SPC - The cards in SPC are technically different and do not necessarily match with their ESO/Skirmish counterparts.

The Chinese card that lets you make additional houses enables the player to have a max population of 220.

Iroquois All Infantry upgrades do not affect Rattan Shields. This is by design - not every Native unit must be affected by player upgrades.

Upgrading Castles to Hill Castles do not change anti-ship damage - this is by design, you need to upgrade to the Age IV version to double their anti-ship.

Disciplined Zamburak gives Zamburaks an additional "2.3x" bonus to cavalry instead of adding "1.25x" - And that is what it is supposed to do. The tech adds 1.25x damage to an existing 1.0x, making it 2.25x, which rounds to 2.3x in the UI.

The probability of playing a Asian civ vs. Asian civ. is small! - 3 / 14 random civs are Asian. Assuming you are playing an Asian civ, that least you a 21.4% chance to randomly match up with another in a 1v1.

NatMercHuronMantlet is missing the AbstractInfantry tag.

The French are not able to research Incendiary Grenades but they can unlock Garde Imperial I/II/III from the Advanced Church - This is completely intentional because if you check the techtree definitions, you will see that Garde Imperial III actually unlocks Incendiary Grenades.

If you resume from a loaded saved game, you will not get XP for it - this is by design and has been discussed extensively why we no longer allow XP accrual from saved games.

Russian Factory shipped from Chinese Consulate cannot upgrade their cannons to Imperial Heavy Cannons - you can't normally upgrade any of the Consulate-shipped units to Imperial and that is how it's supposed to work.

HCArtilleryHitpointsPortugueseTeam increases Abus Gun HP - it's supposed to in case you have an Ottoman teammate.

HCArtilleryHitpointsPortugueseTeam increases Grenadiers - by design, in case you have teammates with Grenadiers.

HCXPMercsHessiansRepeatTeam infinite_jaeger.ddt has green and purple border - by design, to show that it's both a TEAM (green) and INFINITE (purple) card.

Arsonists are missing Mercenary tag - actually all of the "criminal/outlaw" units are not classified as Mercenary units.


Won't Fix / No Impact:

Shrine does not have a hotkey to toggle XP trickle.

Steppe Rider upgrade description states it adds 1.00 Siege attack against Villagers - no impact.

Agra Fort hotkeys do not work.

Hostages attack your units if you hit them with splash damage.

If you have 1 population left, you cannot make another Shinobo no Mono or Konsha.

When exiting from a TWC or TAD game, the game will play the Age of Empires III music theme instead of the respective expansion's theme.

Chinese TC art obscures shipments; this can be said for any building and we really don't address art issues at this point.

HCXPMercsGreatCannon uses the wrong art icon.


No Repro / Needs More Information / Under Investigation:

ESO decks are deleted when revising.

When the Japanese monks vanish, the units attacking them also get teleported to their TC.

Zen Diet reduces your Villager population count.

Watching replays always forces the player to view it in the resolution of the recording player.

Navajo Shepherds have no effect on Shrines and Sacred Fields.

Rural Sentry and Rural Irregulars in the Chinese TC have reversed art.

If you shift-click and order a Villager to create a Chinese Village, they will garrison into the Village immediately after creating it.

Recorded KOTH games go OOS once the hill is captured.

(Still investigating the minor Asian native spawn blockage problem.)


Note: The purpose of discussing these issues is to inform the player community on some of the decisions on reported issues; it is not a promise, expressed or implied, that these issues will be addressed or fixed in subsequent patches.

---

// Wibble
// Microsoft Game Studios
// Age of Empires III Multiplayer Test Lead

[This message has been edited by Wibble (edited 12-13-2007 @ 07:48 PM).]

Wibble - do you need screenshots or recorded games of the minor Asian native spawned units being trapped in the midst of the 'village'? I can send to you if you want.

Yes, screenshots are good. Please post a link on this thread.

Thanks Wibble! And Happy Holidays to you too

Arsonists are missing Mercenary tag - actually all of the "criminal/outlaw" units are not classified as Mercenary units.

The issue is that most of us believe they are mercenaries, not criminal/outlaws.

- They are called "ypMercArsonist" in the Proto
- They are shipped through cards which work just like any other mercenary shipments - YPHCMercsArsonist1 and YPHCMercsIndianArmy. In fact even the description of these cards state "Ships a number of Indian Arsonist mercenaries..."
- Their description states that they are mercenaries.
- They are not available at Saloons based on the map, like Outlaws/Criminals, but randomly, like other mercenaries.

In fact they work just like mercenaries in every sense, except technically being countered as mercenaries. I'd say that even discussing if they were or weren't supposed to be mercenaries it's out of question, because they obviouslly were. It's just a matter of discussing if they should be countered like all other mercenaries, or remaining as an exception.

[This message has been edited by Cherub Walker (edited 12-12-2007 @ 10:04 AM).]

Gardeners / King Life Guard Hussars from Ottoman/British Consulate have only 0.10 RR.

Quoted from wibble:

The probability of playing a Asian civ vs. Asian civ. is small! - 3 / 14 random civs are Asian. Assuming you are playing an Asian civ, that least you a 21.4% chance to randomly match up with another in a 1v1.

That chance isn't functioning.

I already played 30+ matches 1vs2, and only one was asian.

I didn't have that (lack of) randomness problem on TWC.
And i keep playing vs. random natives with no problem, with the suitable randomness (an asian civ having 3/13 probability to match a random asian on 1vs1 games). The problem is only with asians and may be a bug.

Please check it out, you will note the strange lack of random asians (and the normal presence of native civs) on very most games.

Ferdinand - statistically if you are playing as an Asian civ, the chances of playing another Asian civ in Singleplayer is 2/13(there are 2 other Asian civs, it will not pick the same one you are using, and there are 13 other civs) - so between one out of every 6 and one out of 7 games you should get another Asian - ON AVERAGE. If playing as a previous civ - American native or Euro - the odds are 3/13 of getting an Asian opponent.

I saw your note about this, and paid attention during a lot of random map testing where I started several dozens of games while testing maps as the Indians or Chinese, and my experience is that I saw plenty of other Asians, definitely not less than expected. Maybe it is just your computer(not sure how the random choice is generated), or maybe you are just a statistical fluke and someone else is getting the Japanese or Chinese almost every time he starts a game as India.

I make custom random maps, and in the scripts there is a function that selects a random number (for example x = rmRandInt(1,4); should select randomly an integer between 1 and 4 inclusive. I believe the random selection of a civ works in the same kind of way with some kind of exclusion for any civ selected already.

Wibble - here are 2 screenshots showing trapped Sohei from the "native zen temple cj 02" grouping (exact same results from the ceylon and yr groupings which structurally are identical - I believe the basic grouping was made then some slight terrain variations were laid down to distiguish between the 3 map versions).

The first link shows a single Sohei warrior trapped inside the grouping - I can march him around inside a bit but he cannot escape anywhere:
[JPEG, (233.47 KB)]

The second link shows a group of 5 created at once - same problem:
[JPEG, (227.12 KB)]

As noted in my prior post about this, the trapping only occurs if the gather point is set somewhere in the 10-2 o'clock positions above the native village. This #02 village occurs 1/5 of the time when the Zen are used (total 5 village types for each map used), so this likely does not get seen all the time. But it can really be upsetting to see that much resources lost and unusable. And if you do not happen to notice the trapped natives and do not delete them, they take up some of your native pop and make the value of your native TP investment really poor. I thought about creating a map with many Zen villages so I could try to cram as many Sohei as possible into the space for the shock effect...but I think you see the point

I could not reproduce this with any of the other native groupings, just this type(s).

Should be easily correctable.

If I had spare time I would go back and check all of the villages from the original AOE because I did see this before on one or more of them(and others saw it too), but that's a lot of work!

Noted the following issues:

Mercenary units are not consistent, at least not in the UI, often confusing players in determine what actually counts as a "Mercenary" with regards to Spy attack bonuses.

British Consulate Life Guard units have 10% ranged resist instead of 20% (need to go through balance on this).

Ottoman Consulate Gardner units have 10% ranged resist instead of 20% (need to go through balance on this).

Zen and Shaolin prop groupings are blocking Sohei and Rattan Shield units in Ceylon, Honshu, and Yellow River.

Cover Mode hotkey overrides the auto-correction in viewing player recorded games (Alt-C); Workaround is to reassign Cover Mode to something else, then the auto-correction in viewing distance will work.

Having both Monks selected, using Smoke Bomb on one will cancel the other's Smoke Bomb command.

---

// Wibble
// Microsoft Game Studios
// Age of Empires III Multiplayer Test Lead

[This message has been edited by Wibble (edited 12-13-2007 @ 07:47 PM).]

Wibble - I have tested out the Shaolin villages (as noted in a prior post), and although they look like there is an opening in the center of the village( or temple, whatever), their units do NOT get trapped at all in my tests for all of their villages.

Noted - Only Zen.

Caracole does work on the Saloon Comanchero and the Monastery (repentant) Comanchero units as they are classified as lightcavalry. It does not affect the guardian version however as it is only classified as cavalry.

None of the Comanchero versions have a bonus vs heavy cavalry in melee (siege) mode either, but that may be by design as many guardians are not exactly the same as non-guardian counterparts.

The effect of the japanese card Onin War (YPHCJapaneseSiege) does not show up in the ui unit stats (+33% infantry attack bonus vs buildings). But a tech like Pillage (from arsenal or Golden pavillion shows up for cav).

[This message has been edited by Ekanta (edited 12-17-2007 @ 10:47 AM).]

That's because the Onin War adds +33% siege damage. This means that a unit that has 100 base damage against buildings will have it increased to 133. And it'll be displayed from now on in the UI as 133.

Pillage, however, doesn't boost the base damage, but instead adds a 1.3x multiplier against buildings. So the UI will still display it as 100, but now it's 100 x1.3 against buildings. You can note the difference between the two more easily when comparing a card such as TEAM: Ranged Infantry Damage with an Arsenal tech like Counter Infantry Rifling. The first will boost the damage of a Skirmisher by 15%, while the second adds an extra 1.0 multiplier against Heavy Infantry.

In practice, the difference between Onin War and Pillage is that the Onin War is based on the base damage while Pillage is not. If Onin War is applied at a unit like the Ashigaru, that deals 21 siege damage, it'll always increase by 7. It doesn't matter if you send the card when your Ashigaru is in Imperial level and deals 42 Siege Damage, it'll increase it by 7. The multiplier that is added by Pillage, however, is based on the current attack value of the unit, so it'll always increase it by a total of 30%, no matter how much you upgrade the unit

[This message has been edited by Cherub Walker (edited 12-17-2007 @ 11:09 AM).]

Well thanks for clearifying walker (Guess ashis are good enough, lol).

Thanks to Cherub Walker for explanations !

I think, I have found some more little bugs.

TWC & TAD:

1. Tech "NatHorseBreeding" (Comanche) affects AbstractCavalry (OK) and AbstractLightInfantry (?). It's NOT a TEAM Tech.

2. Tech "NativeCherokee" enables the wrong nativehouse, should be NativeHouseCherokee and not NativeHouseIroquois.

3. Techs "NativeTupi" and "NativeCheyenne" have no nativehouse enabled. Should be NativeHouseTupi and NativeHouseLakota respectively.

4. Tech "HCXPSiouxYanktonSupport" increase the Damage action and the RolloverHelp says that Hitpoints are increased. (Stringtable TextID 44703).

5. File chatset.xml, AIChat name "ToEnemyIDestroyedHisNativeSite" (ivan260.mp3) is wrong. Should be like ivan262.mp3.

TAD only:

1. If you get 2 Surgeons from the India or Chinese Consulate (British) they have no sound.

2. Consulate shipped Portuguese HorseArtillery sound is french.

3. Consulate shipped Portuguese Petard sound is english.

Final, for this session, I have seen some strange effects (AOE3, TWC and TAD) not affecting the game but optical bad by using some special ChurchTechs.

1. ChurchQuatrefage (Spanish) and ChurchStadholders (Dutch) injure Barrack.
2. ChurchKalmucks, ChurchBashkirPonies (Russian) and shipping Card HCShipWingedHussars (German) injure Stable.
3. ChurchGardeImperial1, 2, 3 (French Grenadiers) injure Artillery Depot.

They all influence the Improvement row on the CommandPanel of barracks, stable and artillery depot. If used, improvement buttons are displaced to the right, so that they are not below their corresponding unit button.
I think the cause of this is that all delivered units are not Standard units. (for example: French civ has no Grenadiers by default).

Happy Holidays !

1. Tech "NatHorseBreeding" (Comanche) affects AbstractCavalry (OK) and AbstractLightInfantry (?). It's NOT a TEAM Tech.

Of course it's not a team tech, because it's a minor native tech that you get when you build a TP at a Comanche settlement. AbstractLightInfantry stands for the Aztec "cavalry" units - Coyote Runners and Eagle Knights plus a few asian units (Disciples, Tiger Claws, etc.). In game they work just like AbstractCavalry, though they usually get less damage from their counters. While a Pikemean has 5x against AbstractCavalry, it has only 3x against AbstractLightInfantry.

2. Tech "NativeCherokee" enables the wrong nativehouse, should be NativeHouseCherokee and not NativeHouseIroquois.

3. Techs "NativeTupi" and "NativeCheyenne" have no nativehouse enabled. Should be NativeHouseTupi and NativeHouseLakota respectively.

Got that, you're correct. But does it have any impact in gameplay? I can't understand what those codes stand for :S

4. Tech "HCXPSiouxYanktonSupport" increase the Damage action and the RolloverHelp says that Hitpoints are increased. (Stringtable TextID 44703).

You sure? My version is in portuguese, but it says that the damage is increased. As they usually traduct it word by word I'm unsure about the bug, could you provide a screenshot?

Final, for this session, I have seen some strange effects (AOE3, TWC and TAD) not affecting the game but optical bad by using some special ChurchTechs.

True. That actually doesn't happen because of the units, but because their upgrade techs (such as Veteran Grenaders, Guard Dragoons, etc.) are researched, even though those civs can't research them. Apparently the game acts like the techs were there before being researched, moving all other techs. I'll add it to the list, but I don't think ES can fix them.

And thanks, updated the main list

Don't forget Cossacks! They also get the RR nerf. Their RR is only 10 too, which is a bigger screw up than the Hussars even.

Also, Wonders seem to have the exact opposite of what a Fire Pit Bug was. If you ring your town bell, and then unring, it will say there are already 8 people tasked to the Wonder.

TWC and TAD:

1. Tech HCXPSiouxYanktonSupport: I have the german version of the game and it seems to be only a translation error in RolloverText (String _locID ="44703" in file stringtablex.xml and stringtabley.xml).
It should be useful to check it on other language versions.

2. Optical effects using special ChurchTechs:

I think, I have a solution for this problem. To avoid the <Flag>UpgradeTech</Flag>, I have done the following:

Example Tech ChurchBashkirPonies:

I have replaced the two code lines

<Effect type ='TechStatus' status ='active'>GuardHussars</Effect>
<Effect type ='TechStatus' status ='active'>VeteranHussars</Effect>

with

<Effect type ='Data' amount ='1.50' subtype ='Hitpoints' relativity ='BasePercent'>
<Target type ='ProtoUnit'>Hussar</Target></Effect>
<Effect type ='Data' amount ='1.50' subtype ='Damage' allactions ='1' relativity ='BasePercent'>
<Target type ='ProtoUnit'>Hussar</Target></Effect>

The amount 1.50 is the sum of both techs (veteran=1.20 and guard=1.30) calculated with basepercent.

All other special ChurchTechs are similar to solve.
ChurchQuatrefage (Spanish), ChurchStadholders (Dutch) ChurchKalmucks (Russian), shipping Card HCShipWingedHussars (German), ChurchGardeImperial1, 2, 3 (French Grenadiers).

I tested them out and it works fine. Only the visual update does not work (missing Upgrade Flag), but I think that is not important.

Happy Holidays !

[This message has been edited by fz501 (edited 01-08-2008 @ 08:58 AM).]