Hey Folks -
Following the fix for last week’s FLC issue, we promised to keep you updated on our direction of travel towards the next game update. This week we’ve continued our work on building out fixes and improvements that will form the foundation of what we’re internally calling 6.3.4. We start our testing on 6.3.4 later this evening, continuing through the weekend, and right across all of next week.
We’re not currently locked in on the release date for 6.3.4, but we have softly targeted its release on November 6th. We hope that you’ll understand that our testing phases for significant changes is often extensive and can cause us to make changes to release dates, or make further revisions to what we include in the update itself over the course of testing.
I’m happy to shed as much light as possible today on what our top focuses and expected fixes are based on where we stand today, but please expect some changes to the below between now and 6.3.4’s release. What I’m sharing today is pretty raw information, hot from the ovens, but all things that we’re happy to chat about.
What key issues are we looking to address in 6.3.4?
- Idle Armies on the Campaign Map
- Chaos Dwarf Recruitment Issues (Higher Tier Units)
- Golgfag Idle AI Campaign Behaviour
Before I get into breaking down our progress on these three key issues, it’s important that I highlight that we are in the earliest stages of testing. As you’ll read below, we have different levels of confidence on these three key issues, which may see us change up what’s included in 6.3.4. If we make changes, you’ll hear that from me as soon as we make that decision. If we do remove one of these key issues from 6.3.4, please know that it won’t mean that we’ve stopped working to solve the problem, only that we’ll continue to work on the problem and instead look to make it a part of a future update.
As things stand today, Idle Armies is something that we have a positive outlook on. The issue itself is presently believed to be a complication of several different issues, all conflicting with one another, and causing the behaviour that many of you have highlighted across our communities, where you see multiple armies standing around settlements and not taking any direct actions in your campaigns.
We’ve looked to address problems we’ve discovered over the ways in which Campaign AI is prioritizing Defensive Tasks too aggressively (a lovely bit of Friday irony for you there), a specific issue with Vampire Counts that often saw them get tied up in odd recruitment logic (similar to what we’ve recently tackled with Lizardmen and Tomb Kings), and instances of factions who sit idle whilst surrounded by allies (despite having valid enemy targets in more distant provinces). We’re also starting to investigate complaints of cowardly diplomacy AI, where if an AI faction isn’t presently at war with anyone, it languishes around settlements instead of engaging with all the tools in the toolbox. There’s no guarantee we’ll have a solution for this last one in time for 6.3.4, but we are looking at it and will keep you updated on our progress.
In spite of the complicated web of problems that contribute toward some of these remaining Campaign AI Issues, we presently believe that fixing the issues detailed above will significantly reduce (though likely not entirely remove) instances of Idle Armies from occurring in your campaigns. Testing over this weekend and through next week will start to paint us a better picture of how effective our changes are proving. Initial tests are showing a positive sign, but we are in a very early stage of that testing, and we’re not out of those woods just yet.
Chaos Dwarf recruitment is showing a similar early sign of improvement. We’ve observed that they hadn’t been recruiting higher tier units on a consistent basis, and some of the changes that we’ve developed are giving us an early indicator that we’re starting to see some success in changing that. As with other Idle AI issues, there’s lots of testing to do here to give us a better idea of how successful we’ve been in this space, as well as a need for us to be diligent about checking that we haven’t introduced any new unintended behaviors, but from our initial limited testing, we’re progressing in a positive direction here.
Finally, Golgfag has had their Campaign AI reviewed, and has now started to show consistent interaction with campaigns. Of all of the 3 key issues listed here, this is one that we are most confident that we’re currently making a good improvement on, but still something that will require a lot more testing and plenty of careful study on Golgfags impact in a campaign.
As of today, he’s properly attacking and expanding his territory, though we’ve had a few early tests that raise concerns that he’s prone to enter a state of megabonk, and can often be found to act as quite a menace to anyone within reach. Making a change to Golgfag to get him active is a good first step, but we’re going to be doing some further balancing as part of this process to ensure he doesn’t get out of hand.
Before I move onto chat about other fixes and improvements that we’re also looking to make in 6.3.4, I’ll call out that right now our testing is largely focused around new campaigns, and a lot of the confidence we have today is borne from testing in this condition. We do have access to plenty of saves where these types of issues are occurring, but we currently find that the AI struggles to resolve itself away from its bad behaviors on existing campaigns where these types of problems are already present. Building out fixes that would allow for existing saves to convert into healthier states is likely something of a distant stretch goal for us, and we’re currently forecasting that to make the most of the improvements that we’re looking to make in 6.3.4, a new campaign start is likely to provide the best possible experience.
What else are we looking at for 6.3.4?
There are a host of additional changes and fixes that we’ve been tracking in recent weeks, and whilst Campaign AI and related issues are a high priority for us, there are other things that will also enter testing next week and possibly arrive as part of this update.
Here’s just a handful of those fixes, but more are in testing and whilst minor in nature, these are changes we’re keen to make alongside 6.3.4’s Campaign AI focuses.
- Ironman mode now autosaves when a mission is issued which will protect progress in multistage missions and you may see more autosaving as a result.
- The 2nd level of the Word of Pain skill for lords now gives an increased cooldown, as does the 3rd level for the hero version.
- Occupying the Oak of Ages as Warriors of Chaos now provides the correct building. If you currently own the settlement as Warriors of Chaos, it will not automatically be updated so you will need to re occupy after losing it to an enemy.
- Sequence of the Hardened Scales now correctly applies unit mass to Kroxigors.
- Blades of the Blood Queen (Har Ganeth Executioners) now have the correct Melee Attack.
- Hideous Visage trait provides fear as well as terror.
- Oxyotl's "Inner Sanctum" buildings now give the correct benefits.
- The Big Name Gnoblarkicker correctly unlocks with Gnoblar Flingers in your army.
- Cave Painter follower can now be equipped by Golgfag Maneater, Camp Tyrants and Paymasters.
There’ll be further updates and amendments that we’ll be looking to make as we progress through our testing, so do expect further comments from myself and the Community Team as we regroup from the weekend, as well as a return to our usual schedule livestreaming next week over on our Twitch, and Total War Live YouTube next week.
Thanks for reading – see you on the battlefields
Freeman // Head of Community
— The Total War Team
