• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Dev Diary #45 - Archon Prophecy: Tomes (Part 1)

Hello! My name is Luis, I am a senior designer here at Triumph Studios and I will be telling you about the tomes for the Archon Prophecy expansion, coming out on the 12th of August. In this first Dev Diary, I will be going over the Tome of Virtue and the Tome of Prophecies.

01.jpg


Tome of Virtue​

02.png


The Tome of Virtue is a Tier 2 pure Order tome that is all about fighting back in the toughest of moments and being able to pull through.
There will be two units to help you in your fights, the Paladin and the Vigil:

03.png

The Paladin is a Tier 3 racial shield unit with support capabilities. Their Lay on Hands ability lets them or another unit keep pushing in combat, healing them and giving status protection against future attempts to place debuffs on them. While their smite is an excellent first strike ability, a single action attack that does good damage and places the Paladin in defense mode.

04.png

The Vigil is the first new angel type unit you will gain access to in the Archon Prophecy expansion. They are summoned in the World Map and help support your other units with their radiant attacks. The Purifying Blast ability hits a main target and all adjacent units to it, removing all positive effects from the main target and two from all adjacent.

05.png


Virtuous Spirit is a Minor Transformation that enhances the units of your culture to be stronger and sturdier. They gain Spirit Resistance and when dropping below 60% of their health they gain Defense and Resistance as well as ignoring part of their Casualties which would otherwise reduce their damage.

Other Spells and Unlocks:
The spell Heroic Stand is a Tactical Combat support spell that removes negative status effects from a friendly unit, gives them Steadfast so they cannot go under 1 Hit Point for a turn and removes all their Casualty penalties so they fight at full strength no matter how many losses they suffered.

House of Charity is a part of the Virtuous spirit of the tome. This city structure shows that charity can have its benefits as it turns 10% of the gold income in that city into double that amount in Food and Production. So if your city produces 100 Gold they lose 10 but it then gains 20 Food and 20 Production in return!

06.gif


Tome of Prophecies​

07.png


The Tome of Prophecies is a Tier 3 Order and Astral affinity tome. Its spells manipulate probability and apply a new status effect, Precognition - a non-stacking buff that allows a unit to foresee the next direct attack against them and completely evade it. And one of the ways to apply it is through this tome’s new unit, the Oracle:

08.png


The Oracle is a Tier 4 support unit that has two support abilities. Healing Portent heals all friendly units in an area for a 40 Hit Points and gives them Precognition. Striking Portent manipulates their offensive capabilities and in an area gives all friendly units True Strike so that they cannot miss on their attacks, and Fortune which increases their critical hit chance.

For the gameplay curious, True Strike bypasses Precognition, as Precognition makes you see the attack coming and thus making it easy to dodge but True Strike makes the attack unable to miss so there’s no dodging that.

09.png


There’s two unit enchantments on this tome. The first one is Fated Projectiles giving ranged units an increased Critical Chance and Faithful reducing their Upkeep. And probably the coolest arrow enchantment particle effect in the game right now.

10.png


Not to be outshined by the arrows on how cool it looks, the second enchantment of this tome is Prescient Circlets. This enchantment applies to all Melee type units and gives them a reliable way to gain Precognition, granting it to units whenever they enter Defense Mod.

Other Spells and Unlocks:
Battle Divination is a combat spell that has three phases - when cast it grants all units a 25% chance to evade ranged attacks. On the following turn it gives all your units Precognition. When it ends on the next turn, it gives all your units a 20% damage increase until the turn ends.

The siege project Foresee Downfall gives your units Precognition and a critical chance increase for the duration of the battle. It also gives all your enemies in that siege a chance to Fumble until the battle ends.

Temple of the Prophet is a simple Special Province Improvement for your cities - a Conduit that grants mana and gains additional Knowledge for each adjacent Conduit to it.

11.gif


That’s all for now! Hope you are looking forward to the release of Archon Prophecy on the 12th of August and in the meanwhile I will see you next week when we go over the Tome of the Archon and the Tome of the Revenant.

You could rely on prophecies to get your news...or you could just follow us:
 
Last edited:
  • 25Like
  • 17Love
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
Mixed thoughts at the Tomes.

Pure Order is good to see, after the Pure Materium from the Tome of the Dungeon, it makes me think we'll be getting more in the future, which is good to see, as T2 Pure Affinity Tomes really could do with a Third Choice. And the Tome of Viture is solid. The Paladin is a potent shield and calavy unit, with healing and a strong smite+defence combo, so I can see it being a pretty solid until, while the Virgil is... well. Other people have already said how annoying 'get rid of all buffs' is to see, and this from a T2 tome? Really wish there wasn't so much cleansing in the game, honestly. Makes me wonder what's the point of having all these stacks.

The Spells are fun, though, reducing the effectiveness of casualties feels extremely thematic. House of Charity makes me arch an eyeridge, though. I'm unsurprised to see a 10% Gold into Food and/or Production. But as a Tier 2 tome? And to both Food and production? That feels... strong, very strong. Especially with the right build to get early gold to help give Food and Production a heck of a shot in the arm.

Then we have the Tome of Prophecies. And well. The precognition Condition is cool. The Oracle is a fun support for T4, and the range boost for more crit change is nice. But uh. Giving Precognition on Defence Mode for all meele unit? What? Are, are you serious? Unless the AI are specifically designed to notice that and not Shock Units people with it, that is an insane boost to defence, as the AI would charge their shock units in and have their singular massive attacks negated without even losing the Defence Mode! For players, it's not as bad. But godamn, will it just be tedious to deal with. I really can't say I'm a fan in the slightest.

And the SPI is a Conduit that gives Knowledge surrounded by other Conduits? Bit of a snoozer of an SPI there.
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Even if every affinity has access to cleanse, players still have to research the tomes or build the units that can initiate them. It should be up to players to decide if the tedious task of researching and cleansing units is worth it.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Age of Order 4.

No point doing anything else now. Just research all Order tomes ftw. Hopefully they tone down these bonuses before release.
You'll have to be more specific; it compares well with the more utilitarian Tome of the inquistion,
which would be a little weaker offensively if the enemy has regeneration versus Burden of Guilt.

Vigil is about on par with a Watcher but with two weaknesses; Mistling is a little sturdier.
Paladin is a little stronger than Inquisitor, but Shade might have more utility against ranged units.

Virtuous Spirit is a fan-requested effect for units near half health, but such is is hardly the strongest in the game, it activates defense at half health but steadfast only kicks in if you'd already be dead that turn.
 
Last edited:
Astral is STILL the most powerful and useful affinity. Combining astral with Shadow usually stops pure order in its tracks.
Well I seriously still hope they consider toning down the bonuses before they release this. There are way too many negative status cleansers as it is, to make a case for Astral/Shadow.

There are too many bonuses per skill/spell I mean, take Battle Divination (20% evade, precognition and 20% crit) is absolutely ridiculous. Let's not even talk about the Melee enchantment that gives Precognition on Defense mode. I can already see T1 units going against Karaghs no problem. And the worst part that one tome is also part-Astral.... Might as well remove Shock units from the game.

This will honestly be the first time I am not buying a DLC.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
It wouldn't be the end of the world if they end up turning it down some time after release. They toned down Tome of Mists after awhile.

If you really want to spend your spells on getting a one in five chance to evade ranged attacks, I'm not convinced it's game-breaking.

Your enemy notices you have it, they could basically just shift towards melee units, but I think evasion is counterable anyway?

By like, watcher, another t2 unit
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
Reactions:
There are way too many negative status cleansers as it is, to make a case for Astral/Shadow.
The name of the game is currently "All Buffs, All the Time", having varied sources of cleansing/purging brings opportunities and breathing room instead of being pushed into a few select builds.
Battle Divination (20% evade, precognition and 20% crit) is absolutely ridiculous
Battle Divination which each lasts only for a single turn, with the whole spell only lasting three turns. You don't get these effects all at the same time, if you want to benefit from them you need to time them correctly.
Melee enchantment that gives Precognition on Defense mode. I can already see T1 units going against Karaghs no problem.
Entering Defense Mode means that you're giving up attacking for the turn. There are 2 Cultural Spells that grants Defensive Masters to your Units, Tome of the Construct has Cascading Command: Defend and then there's the Units with a "Enters Defense Mode ability" - Barbarian Warrior, Industrious Anvil Guard & Bastion, Primal Protector & Ancestral Warden, Oathsworn Honor Blade, Monk, Pyre Templar, Earth Spirit, Radiant Guardian, Beetles and Entwined Protector. Ignoring a single Direct Damage is hardly oppressive when there's Ranged and Repeating attacks in play.
 
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
The name of the game is currently "All Buffs, All the Time", having varied sources of cleansing/purging brings opportunities and breathing room instead of being pushed into a few select builds.

Battle Divination which each lasts only for a single turn, with the whole spell only lasting three turns. You don't get these effects all at the same time, if you want to benefit from them you need to time them correctly.

Entering Defense Mode means that you're giving up attacking for the turn. There are 2 Cultural Spells that grants Defensive Masters to your Units, Tome of the Construct has Cascading Command: Defend and then there's the Units with a "Enters Defense Mode ability" - Barbarian Warrior, Industrious Anvil Guard & Bastion, Primal Protector & Ancestral Warden, Oathsworn Honor Blade, Monk, Pyre Templar, Earth Spirit, Radiant Guardian, Beetles and Entwined Protector. Ignoring a single Direct Damage is hardly oppressive when there's Ranged and Repeating attacks in play.

Engaging first is always a bad idea for shield units, particularly into other shield units. You give 1 or 2 attacks into defense mode, and then eat 3 in return. Precog makes attacking first even worse, and hard counters shock units, which are right now the units the Auto resolve AI does the best with
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
On the one hand shield units are in a bit of a tricky spot, as almost all cultural shield units are mounted or optionally mounted, making them weak to polearm units, which they are meant to engage favorably.

On the other hand shock units are meant to knock shield units out of defense mode, opening them up to further attacks. Precognition means you need to hit them twice, either having to sink up to 3 attacks into defense mode, waste an additional units turn or find another way to trigger/remove precognition. As a collorary, a lot of skirmishers also have attacks that are single shot opening moves which get negated too.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Entering Defense Mode means that you're giving up attacking for the turn. There are 2 Cultural Spells that grants Defensive Masters to your Units, Tome of the Construct has Cascading Command: Defend and then there's the Units with a "Enters Defense Mode ability" - Barbarian Warrior, Industrious Anvil Guard & Bastion, Primal Protector & Ancestral Warden, Oathsworn Honor Blade, Monk, Pyre Templar, Earth Spirit, Radiant Guardian, Beetles and Entwined Protector. Ignoring a single Direct Damage is hardly oppressive when there's Ranged and Repeating attacks in plplay.
As others stated, enter defense mode is basically what is expected from shield units.
This ability is too powerful against support-, shock- and skirmisher-heavy armies.
I think, full negation of attack should be changed to negate half of damage.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
As others stated, enter defense mode is basically what is expected from shield units.
This ability is too powerful against support-, shock- and skirmisher-heavy armies.
I think, full negation of attack should be changed to negate half of damage.
I’m not sure this kind of armchair strategizing is productive. They have access to the changes and can test it. We don’t.

The feedback will carry more weight after we get to play it.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
I’m not sure this kind of armchair strategizing is productive. They have access to the changes and can test it. We don’t.

The feedback will carry more weight after we get to play it.
You might be right.
But we all know there is a "rule of coolness" for DLCs. Triumph is really good at avoiding leaning on it too much, but in general DLC Tome is better than original game Tome. I'm afraid, one day Triumph may fail to keep the balance.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
You might be right.
But we all know there is a "rule of coolness" for DLCs. Triumph is really good at avoiding leaning on it too much, but in general DLC Tome is better than original game Tome. I'm afraid, one day Triumph may fail to keep the balance.
I get what you mean. And if that day comes, so will the nerf and patch.

It’s crazy to look at how the game was at lunch compared to now.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Currently what we know is that it affects al melee units, which usually means:
- Shield
- Polearm
- Shock
- Skirmisher
- Fighter

I think we can seperate this in that the latter 3 probbably wont become too tough from it, while shield and polearm units as designated "Stand and defend" units might become quite a bit harder to deal with, especially shield units if it negates the shock units ability to chancel defense mode.

Right now we don't know how much an impact that'll have but can be concerned.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
The name of the game is currently "All Buffs, All the Time", having varied sources of cleansing/purging brings opportunities and breathing room instead of being pushed into a few select builds.

Battle Divination which each lasts only for a single turn, with the whole spell only lasting three turns. You don't get these effects all at the same time, if you want to benefit from them you need to time them correctly.

Entering Defense Mode means that you're giving up attacking for the turn. There are 2 Cultural Spells that grants Defensive Masters to your Units, Tome of the Construct has Cascading Command: Defend and then there's the Units with a "Enters Defense Mode ability" - Barbarian Warrior, Industrious Anvil Guard & Bastion, Primal Protector & Ancestral Warden, Oathsworn Honor Blade, Monk, Pyre Templar, Earth Spirit, Radiant Guardian, Beetles and Entwined Protector. Ignoring a single Direct Damage is hardly oppressive when there's Ranged and Repeating attacks in play.
Entering Defense mode means giving up attacks, right. So Cascading Command: Defense, will not trigger Precognition? Doesn't it affects constructs and "linked minds" to them? Asking for a friend.
 
Last edited: