EE Patch 2.8 Most Complete and Correct Changelog

[Ippert]

  EE Patch 2.8 Most Complete and Correct Changelog

Hi there,

The official changelog for 2.8 is remarkably accurate par from some minor errors. I have just rewritten every change because I use a different format.

A little explanation of the format I use. The official name for Atlantean heroes would be written like this: "unit (Hero)". I do not write it like this because I prefer to not have so many () in my notes. Instead I write "Hero unit" (for example Hero Murmillo). If it says (Hero) Destroyer this means both the Hero Destroyer and the regular Destroyer. So (Shennong) Fire Lance means both the regular Fire Lance and the Shennong Fire Lance.
If I say "Now provides" or "Now deals", this means that before this patch it didn't do what follows these lines. Meaning it is a brand new addition to the game.

This changelog provides only the changes which are most relevant to competitive play. Things such as texture and game menu fixes that have no influence over a game are not included.

If you spot any mistakes in this changelog please let me know so I can optimize this list.

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General Balance Changes:

Spoiler

• Relics - You can now dropoff relics inside allied temples.
• Repair - You can now repair allied buildings (excluding Wonders).
• Blue Lagoon - Added to the game and added to the Random & Random All & Random Land Map sets. Meaning it is now also in the set used for quick match.

Greek Balance Changes:

Spoiler

General:

• Physician - Reworked into a new hero unit called "Hippocrates" which can now also be trained from the Fortress. Every Greek can only have 1 Hippocrates at a time and the heal rate has been reduced from 12.5 to 7.5 HP/s. Heroic and Mythic age now give +25% Hippocrates healing rate.

Major Gods:    

Zeus:

• Bellerophon - Special attack hack damage reduced from 70 to 60 .  
• Myrmidon - Hitpoints increased from 110 to 120. Movement speed increased from 4.0 to 4.3.

Poseidon:

• Hipppolyta - Attack animation duration reduced from 2s to 1.75s. (this leaves her dps intact) 
• Polyphemus - Hitpoints increased from 540 to 700. Special attack can now only be used on Myth Units and now instantly kills with it. 

Minor Gods:    

Apollo:

• Underworld Passage - Pierce armor reduced from 85% to 80%.

Aphrodite:

• Divine Blood - Now affects the build rate of Towers. Build rate bonus reduced from 20% to 15%.

Egyptian Balance Changes:

Spoiler

General:

• Chariot Archer - Can no longer garrison inside Siege Towers.

Major Gods: 

Set:

• Animals - Classical Age's bonus hack damage for Animals reduced from 70% to 35%.

Minor Gods:    

Ptah:

• Shifting Sands - Potential to shift enemy units reduced from 1000 to 400 worth of hitpoints.

Hathor:

• Locust Swarm - Casting mechanism changed into a point and click system like for example the Bolt god power also uses.

Thoth:

• Meteor - Radius reduced from 32 to 25, to boost accuracy.

Norse Balance Changes:

Spoiler

General:

• Bogsveigir - Pierce and hack armor reduced from 20% to 15%. Pierce damage reduced from 7 to 6.

Atlantean Balance Changes:

Spoiler

General:

• Cheiroballista - Damage bonus VS Hero Destroyers reduced from 400% to 300%. (to match that of the damage bonus VS regular Destroyers)
• Onager - Crush damage increased from 13 to 14.

Major Gods: 

Kronos:

• Deconstruction - Amount of charges reduced from 3 to 2.

Oranos:

• Shockwave - Now affects Animals.
• Architects - No longer increases Sky Passage pierce armor from 80% to 85%.    

Minor Gods:    

Leto:

• Automaton - Hitpoints reduced from 250 to 230.

Rheia:

• Horns of Consecration - Favor gather rate bonus for Town Centers increased from 0.01/s to 0.02/s.

Hekate: 

• Architects - No longer increases Tartarian Gate pierce armor from 60% to 85%.

Chinese Balance Changes:

Spoiler

General:

• (Shennong) Fire Lance - Pierce damage increased from 4 to 5. Training time reduced from 15s to 12s. Can now garrison in all buildings excluding Citadel Centers.
• Immortal - Can now be trained from the Castle. Range reduced from 14 to 13, pierce attack increased from 6 to 7. Each age up now gives Immortals 1 range.

Major Gods: 

Nü Wa:

• Recreation - Amount of possible resurrected Peasants increased from 3 to 4.

Shennong:

• Monk - The average time it takes to convert Myth Units reduced from 15s to 14s.

Minor Gods:    

Dabo Gong:

• Imperial Examination - Now affects the build rate of Towers & Town Centers. Duration reduced from 60s to 45s.
• Landlord Spirit - Now available in the Temple.
• House Altars - Cost changed from 150 Food, 150 Wood, 150 Gold, 10 Favor to 100 Food, 100 Wood, 100 Gold, 15 Favor. 

He Bo

• Geyser - Can now be placed beneath mobile units.

Xi Wangmu:

• Golden Peaches - Hitpoints bonus for General & War Chariot & Fire Lance & Sitting Tiger increased from 20% to 25%. Now also affects Immortals.
• Celestial Palace - Now also affects Immortals.

Chongli:

• Inferno - Now respects damage caps where it before negated those existing caps.
  The useful to know caps are:
  - Max damage to enemy Villagers: 800.
  - Max damage to enemy Units: 4800.
  - Max damage to enemy Buildings: 9000.
  - Max damage to allied Villagers: 600.
  - Max damage to allied Units: 600.
  - Max damage to allied Buildings: 1200.
  Inferno no longer selects units when it has reached the damage cap for units when doing its target selection. This allows it to keep damaging buildings more reliably when the unit damage cap has been reached but the building damage still has not.

AO Kuang:

• Dragon's Scales - Now affects Heroes.
• Great Flood - The wave now picks up human units and throws them some out after some time.
  Persistent hack damage reduced from 2.5 to 1.5. It is important to note here that the persistent damage is not bound to any damage caps, only the initial blast is.
  Maximum damage dealt vs Buildings reduced from 8000 to 4000.

Deathmatch Balance Changes:

Spoiler

• Tower build limit reduced from 16 to 14.
• Fortress build limit reduced from 10 to 8.
• Sky Passage build limit reduced from 10 to 4.
• Atlantean starting Citizens reduced from 6 to 5.
• Atlantean Citizen Town Center build speed reduction increased from -10% to -20%.
• Atlantean Favor per Town Center reduced from 0.25/s to 0.225/s.

Balance Related Bug Fixes:

Spoiler

Civilizations:

Egypt:

• Laborers no longer build Wall Medium slower than the other wall pieces.

Isis:

• Unfinished Monuments no longer sometimes block god power usage.

Anubis:

• Plague of Serpents: Sea Snakes no longer show up as idle military, Sea Snakes can now attack Villagers & Caravans & Ox Cart.

Hathor:

• Locust Swarm now shows up on the minimap.

Sekhmet:

• Slings of the Sun now propperly increase the damage Slingers deal vs Hypaspists & Throwing Axemen & Axemen (+75%).

Horus:

• Tornado will not longer show up for 60 seconds on the minimap as an active god power, it will now show up for 20 seconds which is its actual duration.

Atlantean:

• Hero Citizens now get their damage bonus vs Set Animals (+400%). When you manually heroize (so not Valor) Citizens they will now remember their original build / repair task and continue performing it.

Kronos:

• Can now Timeshift Markets using the button.

Leto:

• Volcanic Forge now affects Cheiroballista.

Hyperion & Hekate:

• Chaos and Lampades Special Attack no longer work on Pegasus & Hippocampus & Raven & Oracle Scout.
• Chaos and Lampades Special Attack now work on Hades Shade & Serpent & Sea Snake & Sentinel.

Chinese: 

• Monks can now melee attack Ox Cart & Hades Shade & Ships & Titan Gates & Underworld Passage & Tartarian Gate.

Sun Wukong:

• Monkey Kings can now propperly use their special attack against Earth Dragons.

Huang Di & Dabo Gong:

• Oracle Bone Script and Landlord Spirit now have the correct modifier to reduce training time, this means that the upgrades are no longer stronger than intended when combined with other training time reducing effects. 

 

Most Relevant Bug Fixes:

Spoiler

• Locust Swarm is now rendered in a visible way.
• The hotkey bug has been fixed. You will no longer have your custom and default hotkeys active at the same time.
• Players can not longer be kicked from the game for not owning DLC-specific units. (scenarios most often)
• If you for example select 5 Toxotes and order them to attack 3 different targets via way of shift-clicking. If they killed the first target they would logically move on to attack the second target. But if that second target had died in the meanwhile the Toxotes would not start attacking the third target but they would walk to the spot where the second target died. This will no longer occur and in this example the Toxotes will recognize that their second target is dead and start attacking the third.
• Fixed melee units (and ranged units if they were in the same group that got the command) ignoring Shift-Queue attacks on buildings. Previously the units would attack the first target and then just at their own will reacquire another target instead of going to the shift-clicked targets.
• Training time reducing upgrades & relics & god powers will not longer somtimes remove units from the production queue.
• Players can no longer use the most common ways to "Town Center foundation" & "Hunt / resource* scout under the Fog of War, there are still some obscure ways in which this can be done.
• Unfinished buildings that are part of a control group no longer break the ability to use hotkeys to create units.
• Loading a saved game will no longer cause Gardens to gather all resources.
• Buildings no longer construct slower when their initial builder is garrisoned.
• War Salamanders no longer path off the map to avoid obstacles or cross cliffs.
• Fixed Auto Queue / Blessed Construction only working on one of multiple selected buildings.
• The UI now shows the Auto Queue button when multiple buildings are selected.
• Players are no longer able to get an invalid Elo ranking (billions).
• Players can now properly host maps that were downloaded to the "rm2" folder.
• God Power counters now show for Powers with multiple uses even if you're not Atlantean. (scenario only)
• Units are less likely to get stuck in gold mines.
• God Powers on flying units can now be properly cast at the edge of the map.
• Fire Ships now show the correct upgrade in the technology tree.
• All Costs in the technology tree now display the correct values.