Just played the mod on a normal run through and THANK YOU! This mod is perfect to me. In vanilla normal was way too easy and hard literally always placed me next to Necrophages and I get mushed every time. The AI plus some of the other changes are really quite nice. Hope this works with the new DLC coming out and the one thing I noticed concerns the Cultists...

Dear lord they actually require attention now... The old Cultists could literally be ignored for most of the game and they'll have less level 3 districts than they do regions...

Hey everyone, ELCP is now available for the newest patch and DLC! Remember to join my [Discord Channel], if you want to have a chat. Further information for newcomers on [page 1].

This patch was intended to be released two weeks ago, but after that surprising DLC announcement, I thought it's better to wait a bit ;). There are only a few improvements targetet at the new Symbiosis mechanics, the main focus for now was to get everything up and running. I already have made a list of AI-Issues I noticed (like Mykara not using their faction defining teleport ability) - these will be addressed in the near future.

One neat new UI feature this update offers are the new stockpile buttons you can find in the City List Screen and the City Info Panel. These allow you to activate stockpiles with one click directly in the city you need them. No more unnecessary clicks and navigating a confusing list! Examples: [City List Screen] [City Info Panel] 

As for the future: Next to aforementioned AI Improvements, I'm planning to nerf the Kapaku. These guys have been absurdely strong since they were introduced: They gain 5 FISDI on their preferred tiles (as opposed to the standard 3), tech fast, usually start with more strategics and one of the best era 2 units. Their only real disadvantage is the reliance on volcano forming, something that is not a huge issue early on (where it counts most). My current idea is to reduce the food gain on all volcanic tiles by 1. This (hopefully) would make growth a weakness of the Kapaku. As a side benefit it wouldnt affect the tile gains other races get from volcanic tiles at all. What do you think?

Downloadlink (Installer) || Downloadlink (Zip) || Downloadlink (Mac)

Note: Multiplayer saves from older versions are not compatible with newer versions (Singleplayer saves are fine)

Changelog for v2.3.0:

• Ports the Community patch to Endless Legend v1.7.2 S3 - Symbiosis!

General

• Armies can no longer teleport to cities that are in an ongoing battle zone
  • Doing this let to weird behavior like world armies standing around in the battle zone which could be confusing for battling players
• Fixed a longstanding issue, that would lead to no quest armies spawning in step 3 of the alternative Chapter 2 Faction Quest for vaulters and Mezari rendering the quest unsolvable
• Fixed a bug that prevented armies from entering or leaving camps, when its main city is besieged
• Fixed some bugs of the (oceanic) trade route calculation
  • The pathfinding for oceanic trade routes is now "smarter" and more reliable; It will try to avoid enemy regions which often prevented routes that should work from establishing
  • Oceanic trade routes are now recalculated every turn to account for region ownership changes and effects like ice shelves (thanks Robin Claassen)
  • Roads are now recalculated on season change and on reload for similar reasons
• Dust, Science and Influence Modifiers of the ELCP-"Handicap" setting are now applied on an empire level, not on a city level
• Improved lategame-stuttering that occured when a city battle was active
• Improved stuttering that could occur, if an AI wants to explore or colonize a region but parts of it are unreachable
• Fixed an issue where AI-Battles could lock up forever because when reinforcements without standard units where in play (thanks VoidInsanity)
• Fixed an issue where the mac version did not properly load ELCPs custom module override, leading to a bunch of issues like not being able to join other elcp hosts through ingame browser, weird AI behavior, etc. (thanks Robin Claassen)

UI

• Stockpiles can now be used directly from the City List Screen and the City Info Panel (new UI elements can be found in the FISDI-Panel)
  • This is the first time I basically added an UI-Element from scratch (without using hidden leftover prefabs made by Amplitude). Since all of it is done in code, bugs may occur. If you find something reproducable, message me!
• Also gave Cadavre and Rubble Stockpiles a color (slightly different in comparison to normal Food/Industry Stockpiles)
• Technologies the AI is not interested in are now marked red in the Negotiation Screen
• The "apply unused army movement"-button now queues up the order when it is used during the transition between two turns
  • You no longer have to spam click that button to immediatly send out movement orders at the start of the next turn, one click is enough
  • Only works when the button is active/reactivated (that means: not greyed out)

Balance [Core]

• When using the ELCP-Fortification Ruleset, cities and Armies located on them will now always take part in the battle, if a battle counts as a city battle
  • Under the Vanilla-Ruleset, besieged cities, that are in the enemy's deployment zone get removed from the battle (their tiles and their reinforcements)
  • I changed it because the rule is confusing, undocumented, and bad for the Defender
  • Note: Besieged Cities in the enemy deployment zone will still be removed, if the battle is not a city battle (i.e. none of the main contenders are on an exploitation tile)

Balance [XML]

• Increased the diplomatic point gain of Peace (to 3) and Alliances (to 7)
  • The rework of the diplomatic Victory in 2.2.2 was succesfull in neutering the explosive nature of that victory condition
  • This change is intended to further "nudge" that playstyle towards general peacefullness instead of spamming trades, Diplomatic Victory also was a bit too hard to achieve otherwise
• The Victory Alert for the quest Victory now only triggers after the first step (visiting a ruin with a suitable army) has been completed
  • Also removed the warning after completing the second step, since it occurs shortly after the (now) first warning and is rather redundant
• All Guardians except Neros have received the Flamewalker Ability (immunity to Lava rivers)
• Reduced Helm of the Urkans Health Gain from 900 to 90 since I have the strong suspition the former was a typo
• Improved Flamewalker Stats so they are comparable with era 3.5 strategic equipment
  • Flamewalkers are in a weird spot right now, while lava rivers are annoying, experienced players usually dont trade away raw stats for convenience
  • This should also make researching the necessary tech a bit more enticing, which is currently very niche anyway
  • Additionally it will help AIs that rely on them to not burn their units, since reworking the AI pathfinding in a way that it intelligently avoids lava tiles while not shooting itself in the foot in certain situations is beyond my capabilities
• Increased the Dust gain of the Broken Lords' Founder Memorial to 10 (same as Forgotten) in order to boost their early game economy a bit

AI

• AIs will value Flamewalkers higher for units that have no innate lava immunity
• Adressed an issue where AIs that try to dispose Fungal Blooms sometimes stand around and do nothing
• Prevented AIs from trying to tame Urkans that they can not reach (due to missing ship tech or closed borders) which led to armies assigned to that task standing around with no purpose
• AICommanders responsible for taming Urkans will now benefit from ELCP's grouping AI
• AIs will now always try to activate Siege Mode before attacking a city (to prevent defenders from stalling by spamming retreat)
• Fixed an issue where AIs would try to attack their own Armies when under the influence of blackspot, which predictably failed and could led to the AI locking up
• Improved Camp defense behavior, the AI will not be so overzealous when it comes to defending camps
• AIs no longer receive their difficulty related production cost bonus when building the Temple of the Earth's Core (Victory building)
  • The free production cost reduction AIs gain on higher difficulties could lead do very fast, impossible to stop victories on higher difficulties
  • In turn improved the AIs evaluation for industry stockpiles once more, so they will prioritize using them on wonders
• Guardians are now heavily prioritized when the AI reevaluates its unit designs
  • Previously they where often naked or had few items allthough the AI could afford more, because it treated them just like any other unit design
• Also improved AI-Guardian usage: Skoros can use his heal ability now (also on allies!), Gios will no longer guard cities that are not endangered
• Improved AI Fleet behavior
  • AI Fleets are more likely to leave a fortress, if a weak enemy army is nearby
  • AI Fleets can now dynamically attack opportunity targets, that are not their main target (should make them more responsive)
  • AI Fleets will be better at respecting vision restrictions (Camouflage, Fog) when deciding what to attack, so they no longer follow your yellow bathysphere around the globe
• Improved Hero skill builds once again
  • Also fixed a bug that would prevent AIs from learning the "Inspirational Leader" Governor skill, when the player has purchased the "Shadows"-DLC
• AIs will now alter their behavior and reactions depending on how much they like another empire
  • Note: "Like" refers to the opinion the AI has of another empire, not the relation state - An AI may hate you even if you are at peace with it, and it may like you even if you are at cold war
  • Example: If AI A likes empire B:
  • A will no longer attempt to pillage buildings, Fungal Blooms or attack armies of B during cold war
  • A will not try to steal pearls from B's territory (it may still collect them by accident)
  • A will avoid hostile infiltration actions towards B
  • A will not react negatively to pearls taken in neutral territory by B
  • A will not react negatively to armies of B within A's borders
• AIs will respect invisibility when it comes to stolen orbs and will no longer be angry if they cant see the army doing the deed
• Friendly AIs will no longer be mad at you for declining to join a war against an enemy they are significantly superior to anyway
• Fixed some bugs in the AIs success projection of city battles
• Improved city defense behavior in general, AIs are more likely to wait for reinforcements instead of attacking immediatly
• Raised Morgawrs willingness to use dissent
• Fixed a bug where Roving clans would give away market ban removal for free

Modding

• Fixed an ELCP issue where capacities would not display for (modded) hero classes that have no innate abilities (thanks Cornebre)
• The Unitdesign Debugger now displays skill weights
• The Infiltration Debugger now displays decision weights