Age of Wonders 4’s Golem update 1.3 is live now, introducing a series of AI and quality improvements alongside more beards, as detailed in the patch notes covered below.
Although described as a minor update, AoW4’s patch 1.3 brings additional polish to the 4X strategy game alongside a pair of new settings that further let us customize our experience leading our fantasy faction of choice to victory.
Age of Wonders 4 Golem Update 1.3 Patch Notes
Available as of December 5, 2023, the update also addresses several multiplayer crashes while tweaking multiple tomes.
You’ll find the full list of changes below, as detailed in the official Age of Wonders 4 Golem update 1.3 patch notes shared as part of a dedicated Steam post.
General
- Added “Pantheon Loading Failed” Error Dialog
- This Dialog helps catch situations where the game is unable to load the expected Pantheon and gives players a chance to investigate instead of automatically creating a new one.
- Added “Advanced Targeting Breakdown” Setting
- This Setting found in "Main > Combat Map" sets the Targeting Breakdown to always display split damage and detailed targeting information.
- Added “Camera Effects” Setting
- This Setting found in "Main > Camera" controls the various Camera Effects that occur during Gameplay Moments such as Spellcasting and Critical Hits.
- Expanded “My Final Form” Achievement to also account for Races that you’ve become Race Keeper off.
AI
- Improved AI Tome picking to account for Hybrid Affinity Tomes. AI Rulers would only focus on their primary affinity and therefore would never take a hybrid tome that would match all their affinities.
- Improved AI Tome picking to prioritize higher Tier Tomes instead of grabbing all Tomes of their Primary Affinity on a given Tier.
- Improved AI Mission Logic for Ancient Wonders.
- Improved AI Logic regarding Imperium Income.
- Improved AI positioning during Combat when casting Global Abilities such as Overchannel, Astral Storm and Lightning Storm.
Art
- Added Beards to Dwarf Dragoons & Berserkers
- Further reduced the frequency of the Bear Roar
- Removed blinking eyelids from the Wightborn Transformation
- Persevering Diplomat & Protective Sage Personalities have had their icons swapped
- Icons have been synced for several IP Character Personalities
Factions
- Changed Aerelazaliar the Vainglorious’ Personality from Competitive Merchant to Erudite Sage
- Changed Taiena Greyblood’s Personality from Fanatic Isolationist to Solitary Isolationist
Multiplayer
- Prevent the Combat Engage Screen from opening more than once.
- Fixed a hang that could occur due to multiple Manual Combats being active when Combat A was still being observed while Combat B was started.
- Fixed crash in Ruler Selection when the Selection is opened during a refresh of the lobby.
- Fixed several Events that could trigger an Out of Sync during Combat due to incorrect flow in the scripts.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when an Observing Player finished Observing a Combat.
Tomes
Astral
- Tome of Summoning
- Combat Spell “Arcane Supercharge” - Can only be cast on Friendly Magic Origin Units, updated the Targeting Instructions to reflect this.
- World Spell “Cascading Power” - Now lasts as long as Spell Upkeep can be paid.
- Combat Spell “Disruption Wave” - Now applies Disrupted for 2 turns, like other spells that disable enchantments. This fixes issues with the spell disabling default hero attacks.
Chaos
- Balor “Sunder the Earth” - Now correctly applies Sundered Defense instead of Sundered Resistance
Materium
- Combat Spell “Crushing Earth” - No longer ignores Status Effect Resistance
- Siege Project “Great Bombard” - Can now be properly controlled by the Player
Shadow
- Reaper “Dark Rites” - Resistance Bonus no longer stacks (The damage bonus already wasn’t stacking)
- Reaper “Finger of Death” - Now removes all status effects from a unit before turning it into a zombie. This change also gives Full HP to the created Zombie.
Fixes
General
- Optimisations for Out of Memory Crashes
- Fixed “Against the Odds” Achievement
- Fixed being unable to switch Monitors in Borderless Windowed
- Fixed several issues related to the new Exclusive Fullscreen mode </ul>
- Fixed issue where Free Cities would expand by only taking farms, now they should take a balanced expansion settings
- Fixed issue where the AI would struggle in combat while playing on a passive or low world threat
- Fixed that the AI would be overly conservative with it’s Imperium and not acquire new Empire Skills
- Fixed issue where AI units would endlessly avoid each other
- Fixed AI using Overchannel when spells can’t be used
- Fixed Missing Heads for White Witches
- Fixed Feudal Helmet missing from the Customisation Options
- Fixed missing Right Claw for Dragon Lords
- Fixed clipping issue on the Feline Dusk Hunter Cloak
- Fixed Floating elements on 2 Ruler capes
- Fixed Animation issues for Pistol/Sword Ruler Equipment
- Fixed the Boat Paddles not moving when units are moved a short distance
- High
- Champions now get the “Twin Awakening” Hero skill from their Culture instead of the “Awakening” Ability.
- Reavers
- Reaver Dragoon - Harrying Shot can now flank correctly
- Sword and Pistol Hero Equipment - Pistol Shot can now flank correctly
- Reaver Harrier - Cast net can now flank correctly
- Fixed issue where sometimes an empty trade option would appear in the close deal step when playing as Reavers.
- Fixed a crash that would sometimes happen when clicking the Whispering Stone returned notification.
- Fixed the Grievance given by Destined Conquerors getting modified by Declaration of Friendship/Rivalry.
- Fixed Destined Conquerors not providing the Grievance if it was picked after Justified Wars.
- Fixed Mana Addicts providing additional Ranks to Non-Racial units.
- Fixed pronouns changing incorrectly when switching between custom and preset titles.
- Wizard King Rulers and Heroes will now default back to Wizard King Sword and Shield when unequipping pantheon unlocked hero starting items.
- Gravecall is now considered a positive effect.
- Fixed Ice Spider, Ice Spider Matriarch, Phoenix and Thunderbird being in the Elemental Category of the Encyclopedia.
- Fixed the Mages Guild not appearing in the Structure Construction List as a preview.
- Fixed missing Text in the Province Panel during Replace Province Improvement.
- Fixed Item Forge Duration always being 1 Turn
- Fixed an issue where some realm traits would still apply settings after being removed from the realm.
- Realm trait Distrusting locals is now mutually exclusive with No Free Cities.
- Reduced the amount of mountains spawning in the Valley of Wonders (had gone up unintentionally with Golem patch)
- Further reduced the amount of mountains spawning in the Valley of Wonders (had gone up unintentionally with Golem patch)
- Fixed that the “Prometheus Avenged” achievement did never trigger after completing the “Trial of the Ancients” quest, even when not showing the Feather of the Yukara and defeating the Warden of Manuhari more than 5 times.
- Fixed Quake not putting the user in Defense Mode after use
- Inspiring presence (Eagle Rider and Captains Axe and Shield) now only applies to friendly units instead of everyone.
- Fixed Unit Rank bonuses given not accounting for existing Unit Ranks
- Fixed sieges not breaking when the siege leader is killed through a spell on the world map.
AI
Combat AI
Art
Cultures
Diplomacy
Empire Development
Faction Creation
Heroes
Interface
Item Forge
Realm Creation
Story Realms
Units
World Map
If you plan to hop back in and playing a round or two of Age of Wonders 4 after reading its Golem update 1.3 patch notes, make sure to also catch up on the available console commands and cheats.
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