Sacrifice
---------

patch #3

company: Shiny Entertainment (www.shiny.com)

homesite: www.sacrifice.net

NOTES:
* Observer follow mode:
Press wizard's slot # key (1-4) to attach/detach or 0 to randomly 
switch

* Auto demo mode, when enabled makes the game go into a (up to) 10 
minute demo if left on the title screen for approximately 1 minute. 
This can be disabled in the options screen.

* After installation of the final patch 3, your rankings (if any) 
will be reset. This is to rectify a bug in the ranking system that 
calculated your rank incorrectly.


WARNINGS:
* Breaks in-game saves, but not characters.


NETWORK:
* Upgraded to DirectX8 for DirectPlay

* Added progress bar and cancel button (quits game) to network 
resynch box.

* Changed join box to be same for all create/join game operations.

* Game now polls DX for connection bandwidth.

* Game now assigns more bandwidth to players with more creatures.

* Anti-hack measures are now in place.

* Game now properly handles the local player being dropped.


NEW FEATURES:
* All new formation icons.

* Added observer mode & observer follow mode.

* Added auto demo mode.

* Added edit wizard option.

* Added spellbook editor (must finish sp campaign once though)

* Added game summary screen for skirmish.


* Added allied vision option.

* Added more context sensitive cursors (free manafont/red soul)

* Multiplayer ranking system.

* Added AI player damage multiplier in skirmish (AI difficulty 
setting)

* Added trigger actions:

* Music reset (resets all moods to initial settings)

* Music add <num> to <mood> (currently can add to "battle" mood)

* Music turn <switch> (ability to turn music on and off per session)

* Order [creature group] go to <location> with <formation> (use any 
formation!)

* Order [creature group] attack <location> with <formation> (")

* Order [creature group] guard <location> with <formation> (")

* Added GameSpy chatroom notification when new patch is ready

* Rewritten landscape renderer:

* Greatly improved speed on T&L cards.

* New 3 pass lightmap render mode allows older cards to use 
lightmaps.

* New ultra-fast no lightmap render mode.

* Added bump mapping for cards that support the DOT3 operation.

* Detail limit is set much higher for newer cards.

* Added full scene antialias option.


GAME OPTIONS / GAME LOBBY:
* Display ping to each player.

* New alignment: custom (uses spellbook of MP wizard)

* New alignment: observer

* New game setting: Allow custom spellbook

* New game setting: Allow observer

* New game setting: Allow observer chat

* New game setting: Allied vision


COMMANDS / KEY BINDINGS:
* New command: drop soul

* New command: cast creature spell #

* New command: cast spell #

* New command: cast structure spell #

* New formations: flank left and flank right


BALANCE:
* Balance: Storm Giant takes less damage from lightning attacks.

* Balance: Brainiac and Shrike.

* Balance: Animate Dead/Breath of life/Charm adds unit to group 10 
and selects it.

* Balance: Blue souls are now shown on minimap.

* Balance: Halo of earth and rings of fire now stop when target 
dies.

* Balance: Ent protector shield no longer stacks.

* Balance: Viscous oil no longer stacks.

* Balance: Death can no longer be stopped by player.

* Balance: Can now teleport to allied structures.

* Balance: Removed area of effect damage for each target hit on 
Silverback.

* Balance: Any poison type stops mana and health regen.

* Balance: Increased poison damage by 50%

* Balance: Heal spell only heals 1000 health.

* Balance: Healing aura only heals while spell is in effect.

* Balance: Frostwulf has much higher resistance to all ranged 
attacks (they are so fast that they can dodge missiles)

* Balance: Seraph and Gremlin abilities will fail to grab a shielded 
unit.

* Balance: Erupt now throws units around correctly.

* Balance: Bombardment no longer hits units for the first second of 
each boulder's flight.

* Balance: Increased rung 1 melee damage

* Balance: Decreased scythe's melee bonus

* Balance: Given Troggs a small melee bonus

* Balance: Increased Fallen's ranged recharge time.

* Balance: Locust drain mana ability reduced based upon maximum mana 
capacity of target.

* Balance: Gargoyles take slightly more damage from spells - all 
level 1 spells now kill them


FIXES:
* Fixed bug where you could cast a creature that you didn't have the 
souls for.

* Fixed Scapex "hyper" movement on Pentium 4's

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

* Fixed screen fades (noticeably on Pentium 4's)

* Fixed buffer overwrite in landscape renderer causing random 
crashes.

* Win and loss dialogs pause local games

* Unit view updates and unit AI are now timesliced better = better 
performance.


Ranking mode:
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, losing 
against someone with a lower rank gives a larger decrease than 
losing against someone with a higher rank. Also, Sacrifice keeps 
track of which gods you play over the internet and this affects your 
rank assignment.
These are the ranks. 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
