Sacrifice Patch #3 notes (Patch3_English.txt)

Congratulations On Downloading Sacrifice Patch #3!

We listened to your comments and implemented the most requested features, we
hope that you will continue to support us and provide your feedback -

http://www.sacrifice.net/messageboard.htm (Voodoo Extreme Message Board)

or

via email: teamsacrifice@shiny.com


*********
*WARNING*
*********

(a) You MUST install DirectX8 for this patch to function properly. If you do not
have Microsoft's DirectX8 you can download it from this site
www.microsoft.com/directx/

(b) Because Patch 3 adds additional items to any Saved Game, your current Saved
Games will *** NO LONGER WORK *** once you have installed Patch 3. In the single
player campaign, however, your characters (the WIZ files) are still OK.

These WIZ files store which Ethereal Realm Level your Wizard last visited.

To Load A WIZ File
******************
(a) Select Single Player from the Sacrifice Main Menu.
(b) Select Sacrifice Campaign.
(c) Select the Wizard you want to load by highlighting its name.
(d) Click Select Character and the game will load the last Ethereal Realm that
your Wizard entered.



-TABLE OF CONTENTS-

1.0 Multiplayer
1.1 Network Upgrades
1.2 New Modes
1.3 Game Summary Screen
1.4 Multiplayer Ranking System
1.5 Game options in Lobby
1.6 New Multiplayer Settings
1.7 General Upgrades

2.0 Keyboard Options
2.1 New Commands / Key Bindings

3.0 Balance
3.1 Creature Balance
3.2 Spell Balance

4.0 Added Triggers
5.0 Fixes



---------------------------
1.0 MULTIPLAYER
---------------------------


1.1 NETWORK UPGRADES/ ADDITIONS

We have upgraded Sacrifice to use DirectX8' Direct Play to improve your Internet
games:

(a) Sacrifice Now Polls DX For Connection Bandwidth
DirectX8 allows Sacrifice to determine the bandwidth connection of each player.
This means that the game can send more updates down a faster connection,
resulting in smoother gameplay.  The nature of Sacrifice's networking however,
(every message is sent to everyone) means that the bandwidth available is the
lowest of the bandwidths to each player. This means that if there is a 28K modem
player in a game of people on T-1's or cable modems, that game will not send as
much data.

Remember, though, that the game was designed to run well over a modem, so this
is not a problem. Also, when the modem player quits, the game will start sending
more data, since the lowest bandwidth connection has increased. Even better,
Sacrifice now divides the bandwidth more efficiently between players; players
with more creatures use more bandwidth since they have to send more information.
Before patch 3, everyone had an equal slice of bandwidth. This is especially
helpful with the addition of Observer Mode, since observer players generally
control only 1 thing; the observer view.

(b) A progress bar and cancel button have been added to the network re-synch box
for more user control.

(c) The join box is now the same for all create/join game operations

(d) Several "Anti-Hack" measures are now in place to prevent "hacked" players
from ruining your friendly games of Sacrifice:)

(e) Added GameSpy Chatroom "Daily Message"
There will be a daily message in the GameSpy Lobby letting you know if there is
a new patch available for download or some other Sacrifice related news.


1.2 NEW MODES

(a) Observer Mode
Have you ever been desecrated and wanted to watch the rest of the game? Well now
you can! Either stay in a game as an observer after you have been desecrated or
join a new game as an observer to watch the action!

Note: Observers will be able to chat unless the "no observer chat" option is
selected in the multiplayer game lobby screen. Observer mode will not
automatically end when the game is over. You will need to hit ESC to bring up
the menu and click "Finish" to exit observer mode (you can do this to exit the
game at any time once in observer mode).

(b) Edit Wizard/ Spellbook
Now you will be able to edit any custom wizard without having to play the single
player game over again! You will also be able to edit the wizards spell book!
(Provided you have finished the single player game at least once).


1.3 GAME SUMMARY SCREEN

See how you fared in your latest game of Sacrifice with our new (and much
requested!) Game Summary Screen.

This screen appears after you have played a multiplayer game. You can access the
screen by clicking on the "View Summary" button on the victory/defeat screen.

Note: If you enter "observer mode" you will no longer have access to the Game
Summary Screen.

The Game summary screen will list the following information:

Total Number Of Kills
Total Number Of Wizards Banished
Highest Level Attained
Number Of Creatures Cast
Number Of Souls Harvested
Number Of Souls Acquired
Number Of Manaliths Built
Number Of Shrines Built
Number Of Manaliths Destroyed
Number Of Shrines Destroyed


1.4 MULTIPLAYER RANKING SYSTEM

Sacrifice now tracks all games that you play over the Internet.

If a game takes less then 2 minutes then the result is not recorded, even in the
number of games played field.

When you have amassed 5 wins against any opponents, you get assigned a ranking,
which is updated as you play.

A game is ranked so long as there are at least 2 humans, no computers, everyone
is on a different team and all human players are ranked players.

The winner of a ranked game gets his ranking increased, and the losers get their
rankings decreased.

The amount of the increase depends on the relative ranks of the players; winning
against someone with a higher rank gives a larger increase than winning against
someone with a lower rank. Conversely, loosing against someone with a lower rank
gives a larger decrease than loosing against someone with a higher rank. Also,
Sacrifice keeps track of which gods you play over the Internet and this affects
your rank assignment.

Rankings are as follows:

Mystic denotes alignment to Persephone. The other gods' alignments are Geomancer
(James), Sorcerer (Pyro), Elementalist (Stratos) and Necromancer (Charnel).

(not ranked)	Novice
(0-499)		Charlatan Mystic
(500-799)	Hedge Mystic
(800-1099)	Initiate Mystic
(1100-1199)	Apprentice Mystic
(1200-1399)	Journeyman Mystic
(1400-1799)	Master Mystic
(1800-2099)	Champion Mystic
(2100-2399)	Mystic Avatar
(2400+)		Supreme Mystic Avatar


1.5 GAME OPTIONS IN LOBBY

(a) Display Ping
Ping is the trip time of a message from one machine to another and back.
Generally, the lower a ping is to a player, the better the connection and the
more responsive the game. However, Sacrifice is extremely tolerant of high
pings; games can and do work perfectly against someone with a 500+ ping.

(b) New Alignment Custom
This uses the spell book of a MP wizard that you can modify as long as you have
completed the single player campaign at least once.

(C) New Alignment Observer
Observe and chat during the battle without having to get involved in the carnage


1.6 NEW MULTIPLAYER GAME SETTINGS

(a) No Custom Spell Books
Disallow the use of custom spell books.

(b) No Observer
Disallow player/s to join as observers or go into observer mode when they have
been banished.

(c) No Observer Chat
Disallow observer/s the ability to chat to any other player. This includes other
observers.

(d) Allied Vision On/ Off
Share vision with your ally in multiplayer for better strategic cooperation, or
don't:)

(e) Show Blue Souls On Mini-Map
With this option turned on, all blue souls are shown on the minimap.


1.7 GENERAL UPGRADES

(a) Enhanced Landscape Renderer
The landscape now makes better use of statically cached meshes. When it detects
that a new mesh is needed, it is created in exactly the form the video card
requires, and then not touched again until another new mesh is needed. This is
made possible by the use of hardware lighting where available (before, the
landscape was lit in software), and hardware texture coordinate generation where
available. Also, the rendering method for detail textures has changed slightly,
making them available on more video cards.

(b) Greatly Improved Speed On T&L Cards
The new landscape renderer is designed for maximum throughput with hardware T&L.

(c) New 3 Pass Lightmap Render Mode Allows Older Cards To Use Lightmaps
Our light maps use additive lighting (the light adds color to the texture,
rather than lack of light removing color as is the norm), older cards do not
support this mode. The new 3-pass method allows this mode to be emulated with an
additive layer.

Basically instead of rendering (light map + light values) and then rendering the
texture on top, we render the lightmap, render the light values as an additive
transparency, gouraud shaded polygon over the lightmap, then render the texture
on top of that. This additive layer is supported on nearly all cards, making
lightmaps available to nearly everyone.

(d) New Ultra-Fast No Lightmap Render Mode
Some cards do not support multitexturing (the default lightmap mode) and don't
have the fillrate to support multi-pass rendering (described above) and so this
single pass no lightmap mode is great for speeding up their framerates. However,
the game will no longer have the ultra moody lightmaps that you're used too:)


---------------------------
2.0 KEYBOARD OPTIONS
---------------------------

2.1 NEW COMMANDS/ KEYBINDINGS

(a) Context Sensitive Cursor
Save time with the new Context Sensitive Cursor.  Place your cursor over a red
soul right click and it will automatically change to cast convert! This feature
will appear when you place your cursor over a red soul or over an unclaimed
manafoutain.

(b) Drop Soul
Drop a blue soul for your soul-starved ally in a Multiplayer game. Players will
be able to drop blue souls for the teammate by pressing the assigned drop soul
key.

(c) Cast Creature @ Key #
No need to re-map your hot keys! Assign a key to cast you first level ranged
unit creature and it will always cast your first level ranged unit regardless of
what god or custom spell book you are currently using!

(c) Cast Spell @ Key #
No need to re-map your hot keys! Assign a key to cast you first level attack
spell and it will always cast your first level attack spell regardless of what
god or custom spell book you are currently using!

(d) Cast Structure @ #
Assign keys to always cast a selected structure spell.

(e) New Formations
Two new formations have been added these are Flank left and Flank right.

Note: there is no VO for these formations, but they have been added to the X-
Menu


---------------------------
3.0 BALANCE
---------------------------

3.1 CREATURES

(a) Storm Giant takes less damage from lightning attacks.

(b) Brainiac has had its firing rate and damage per shot increased. Shrike has
had its health and damage per shot slightly reduced.

(c) Frostwolves are now more resistant to damage from ranged creatures.

(d) Ent protector shield no longer stacks, i.e. the effects of Protector Shield
are no longer cumulative.

(e) Viscous oil no longer stacks, i.e. the effects of Viscous Oil are no longer
cumulative.

(f) Removed area of effect damage for each target hit on Silverback, i.e. the
attack of the Silverback no longer does damage to an area.


3.2 SPELLS

(a) Animate Dead, Breath of life, and Charm automatically adds a unit to group
10 and selects it.

(b) Halo of earth and rings of fire cease when the target dies, i.e. these
spells will no longer give away the location of a wizard that is in ethereal
form.

(c) Death can no longer be stopped by player, i.e. the player can no longer
stand in front of Death to stop the effects of this spell.

(d) Players can now teleport to allied structures.


---------------------------
4.0 ADDED TRIGGER ACTIONS
---------------------------

(a) Music Reset
Resets all music moods to their starting settings, usually resulting in the
music changing back to the level's ambient track.

(b) Music Add Too
Adds a value to one of the music moods, perhaps making it the dominant one
thereby changing the track.

(c) Music Turn
Enables or disables the music on a per game basis.

(d) Order (Creature Group) Go To With/ Order (Creature Group) Attack With/ Order
(Creature Group) Guard With
Currently works for "go to", "attack", and "guard" orders, it can also use any
formation available in game.


---------------------------
5.0 FIXES
---------------------------

(a) You can no longer cast a creature that you did not have the souls for
This has now been fixed, such that the second creature will act as though the
spell was interrupted and fade away after the casting completes.

(b) Fixed Scapex "hyper" movement on Pentium 4's.

(c) Fixed wobbling detail levels on characters and other game entities
(noticeably on Pentium 4's).

(d) Fixed screen fades (noticeably on Pentium 4's).

(d) Win and loss dialogs no longer pause local games.

(e) Unit View Updates And Unit AI Are Time Sliced For Better Performance
Unit AI and view updates take a hefty chunk out of the run time of the game -
it's a complex task. The more creatures you get, the more creatures have to be
checked to see if they're in view for each creature. This soon builds to where
it can slow the game down on some machines. The act of slowing it down makes the
game have to do more view updates in a single turn, which slows the game down
even more... Now, each side can only update 1 creature's view and AI per frame.
Each creature's view is updated against only 1 side's creatures at a time. There
is a queue of view updates for each side, which is sorted by the need for an
update. Giving a creature an order forces it to the head of this queue, making
it update its unit AI with these new orders almost immediately. In this way, the
load is taken off of a slow machine and spread around, making the game run
faster in large battles.