Author: Liso1 April 8, 2024 0 Comments

Horn of the Abyss project development continues, and release 1.7.1 brings fixes for a number of critical bugs (both old and those that appeared in 1.7.0), as well as some minor innovations — for example, a new battlefield for underground combats on sand terrain and events that can only be activated when playing at a certain difficulty level.

On top of that, HotA team revised the scenarios of the Forged in Fire campaign: at the Easy and Normal levels, they have become a fair bit less challenging, while the higher levels now pack a greater punch. There are also some new trials for those who haven’t had enough of them the first time around. If you’re already missing Henrietta and her friends, then it’s a good time to play the campaign once again!

The changes include gameplay, graphical, and interface fixes to the game itself and the associated tools, the scenario, campaign, and template editors.

Underground sand battlefield

Horn of the Abyss v1.7.1 changelog:

[!] – Important Information.
[-] – Bug and error fixes and changes to previous elements.
[+] – Innovations.

Version 1.7.1 (06.04.2024)

[!] Forged in Fire campaign difficulty on Easy & Normal levels has been significantly reduced
[!] Fixed many bugs in Forged in Fire campaign. Several bugs unintentionally reduced difficulty on higher levels
[!] Some of the critical bugs mentioned below have already been fixed through HD Mod updates

HotA Bugs
[-] Fixed a possible crash when clones and summoned creatures perished during Dreadnought’s Heat Stroke ability
[-] Fixed a bug: a hero dismissed in an Airship was corrupted during turn replay
[-] Fixed a bug: tavern heroes weren’t regenerating mana; besides that the game could possibly crash on saving
[-] Fixed a possible crash when creatures perished during Gunslinger’s Preemptive Shot ability
[-] Fixed a possible crash when defeated in a battle
[-] Fixed a bug with Crimson Couatl missing sounds in English version of the game
[-] Fixed a non-working fixed hero level setting in campaigns and map specifications
[-] Fixed various bugs with hero transfer between campaign scenarios, including bugs with non-working Prisons
[-] Fixed bugs with hero invitation (HD Mod option) occurring when there’s no available heroes to invite
[-] Fixed Wagon, Campfire and Lean To synchronization on Mirror Templates
[-] Fixed HotA campaign save conversion from versions below 1.7.0
[-] Fixed possible crashes caused by having unsupported/corrupt campaigns in the Maps folder
[-] Fixed bugs and crashes caused by AI upgrading a Dreadnought in Factory
[-] Fixed a bug: a hero with Fly spell standing on an impassable map cell (e.g. on an adventure map Tavern trigger cell right after hero buy) couldn’t fly anywhere else
[-] Fixed a bug: an AI hero in a Boat could occasionally teleport to a disembark cell using Dimension Door spell together with the Boat
[-] Fixed a bug: when an AI hero in a Boat is wearing Angel Wings or Boots of Levitation, during disembark he could unreasonably try casting Fly or Water Walk spells
[-] Fixed AI value calculation for War Machine Factory (AI considered it useless)
[-] Fixed a bug: AI attacked meditating Coatles with Area Shot
[-] Fixed a bug: AI summoned elementals when already having maximum number of stacks and unreasonably lost mana
[-] Fixed an AI bug: casting Clone spell AI value was doubled for Eovacius even if only single stack could be summoned
[-] Fixed a bug: when battle AI without a hero was calculating value to decide if a ranged stack should go melee, AI didn’t take into account that the stack will be blocked
[-] Fixed a bug: when AI was on the attacking side, he almost never cast in the first round caused by mistake in hit-n-run forbid logic
[-] Fixed mistakes in choosing faction types for random map zones, including higher probability for zone without a town to have Castle faction
[-] Reworked Sacrifice bug fix: now cast cannot be prevented by Anti-Magic and power to reanimate at least one creature is not required anymore
[-] Fixed a bug with incorrect Morale and Luck bonuses for Rally Flag
[-] Fixed an Oasis bug: it increased Luck instead of Morale
[-] Fixed a bug: sometimes a wrong side could be taken during Morale and Luck checks: e.g. Town Tavern Morale bonus could work for a besieger
[-] Fixed expert Disguise bugs with Cove and Factory creatures
[-] Fixed available targets highlighting while selecting Heat Stroke ability direction
[-] Fixed refreshing UI after sending resources to another player
[-] Fixed a bug: maximum number of move points changed to maximum number for Water terrain after opening Hero Information for hero in an Airship
[-] Fixed music play interruption because of implemented earlier music freeze fix
[-] Fixed a possible crash when running all existing music tracks during a single game run

Gameplay
[+] Reworked how Patrol works for AI: now a hero strictly can’t go outside the area
[-] Maximum move points cap increased: 32768 -> 99999
[+] If there’s an empty Tavern slot, a retreated hero now always occupies it instead of replacing a hero in another slot
[+] AI now chooses aesthetically best-looking direction for Dreadnought Heat Stroke ability among choices with same value

SoD Bugs
[+] Fixed crashes on scenario start while attempting to generate a random hero without any available; now a forbidden hero is generated in such case
[+] Fixed a bug: AI could pass through map cells near monsters using Water Walk or Boots of Levitation attacking those monsters and stopping without a Boat on Water terrain
[+] An unsuccessful Water Walk cast attempt messages in a Boat or an Airship during AI turn are not shown to a player anymore
[+] An unsuccessful Dimension Door teleport attempt from ground into water and vice versa doesn’t spend mana anymore
[+] Fixed a bug: when attacking stack died from Fire Shield, retaliation strike into nowhere still happened
[+] Fixed a bug with clones, remaining inactive on battlefield after their expiration caused by Poison effect
[+] Fixed a bug: if you summon 20 stacks and then destroy some of them, you still can’t summon new stacks
[+] Fixed a bug: Pit Lord summoned Demons or Fangarm hypnotized creatures could be affected by negative Morale, even though Morale should be positive
[+] Fixed a bug: at some time after a clone had perished, some of theirs passive abilities were still being in effect (e.g. Azure Dragons Fear, Familiar Magic Channel)
[+] Fixed a defect: Vampire Lords could Life Drain from clones
[+] Fixed a bug: Efreet Sultan Fire Shield damage mistakenly increased caused by Hero stats and artifacts
[+] Fixed an AI bug: Bow of the Sharpshooter was not taken into account when attempting to block ranged stacks
[+] Fixed a bug: eliminated after not having a city 7 days player heroes could become invisible in online-match turn replay
[+] Corrected displaying of certain elements belonging to another players during hot-seat turn replay
[+] Removed Surface/Underworld View button flickering during turn replay
[+] Path-route arrows are now removed during turn replay
[+] Actual amount of resources and actual date are now displayed on the bottom bar during Victory/Lose message display
[+] Fixed displaying main menu background parts inside unfilled part of loading map progress bar
[+] Music bug fixes: wrong track selection or playing position reset after quick starting/stopping/switching of tracks

Graphics
[+] Added an underground sand battlefield
[+] Added a new cactus
[+] Improved Dreadnought Heat Stroke animation: now attacked stacks hit animation starts right in the moment of ray-stroke passing through them
[-] Fixed wasteland Tar Pit and Fissure images: they can no more overlap roads
[-] Fixed outlines not blinking when building certain Factory buildings
[+] Fixed outlines not blinking when building certain Fortress buildings
[-] Fixed defects with Factory units start move and end move animations
[-] Fixed Nix and Nix Warrior move animation speeds
[+] Removed an extra pixel in Efreet Sultan adventure map attack animation
[+] Fixed a graphics defect in Hero Position image in Map Editor

Map Editor
[+] Added a new option in Event and Pandora’s Box settings, which allows to specify difficulty levels on which the object will be present on the map
[-] Maximum move points number given in Events and Pandora’s Box increased till 99999
[-] Returned a Guardhouse requirement to build Archers’ Tower and Barrack in Castle town
[-] Fixed a bug: new placing objects allowability rules did not take effect when drawing terrains
[-] Fixed a bug: it was possible to choose 1 skill less in Seafaring Academy, which led to game crashes
[-] Fixed a bug: incomplete creatures list was displayed during editing in Event and Pandora’s Box settings
[-] Fixed a bug: unavailable for generation town spells’ checkboxes were not properly marked

Campaign Editor
[-] Fixed some problems with text input fields
[-] Fixed problems with file associations

Template Editor
[+] Added an ability to fine-tune customize faction zones independently from main town faction
[-] Fixed a bug: First Aid skill could be unavailable in the secondary skills list
[-] Fixed a bug: maximum number of rounds in a battle couldn’t be changed
[-] Fixed problems with file associations

UI
[+] The Shipyard and Airship Yard dialog now opens despite not having enough resources, now you can always see Boat and Airship prices
[+] Clones and summoned elementals now do not count to casualties in the Battle Results window
[+] Text in scroll-able messages is now center aligned
[-] Word wrapping by a hyphen doesn’t occur anymore if the hyphen is between digits
[+] Town’s Shipyard with a boat now correctly responds to a mouse click
[+] Fixed centering for message window about inability to build another ship because of too many ships already present

Miscellaneous
[-] Updated Cove and Factory creature sounds, volume increased
[+] Balanced music and voice volume levels in campaign cutscenes
[+] Completed campaign checkmarks are no longer dismissed while traveling in the main menu
[-] Fixed a check updates system bug, which caused wrong new version available message to appear
[-] Huge amount of various fixes for maps, campaigns and texts