Finally, Update 1.7 comes with a number of balance and stability fixes. A complete list of patch notes is below:

• Fixed a bug that prevented roaming independent monsters from attacking undefended cities.
• Fixed a bug in the Random Map Generator where the setting ‘Random Map Type’ would sometimes generate incorrect maps.
• Fixed a rare crash caused by independent heroes casting spells during city battles.
• Draconian Monster Hunter now has the correct damage upgrades when levelling up.
• Mounts of Unlife now also displays Inflict Noxious Vulnerability in the unit panel.
• Fixed Falling Clouds not affecting unit vision range.
• Fixed issue where cosmic happenings fired by the Box of Cataclysms would sometimes not apply to all players.
• Penguins are even more dire now.
• Vampire Spider no longer is dedicated to evil.
• Load time optimization for low specs machines.
• Fixed a rare issue where the AI would hang in tactical combat when trying to retreat heroes.
• Fixed a crash when a cosmic happening ended.
• ‘Flaming Mace of Yakka’ is now called ‘Flaming Mace of Yaka’.
• Fixed an issue where a player would lose the game when their throne city was a Reef Dwelling far from land, and their leader returned from the void.
• Added failsafe code that detects a rare issue when a player loses both their leader and throne city without losing the game.
• Added PBEM Version Upgrade confirmation dialog. This is intended warn people of possible version conflicts in PBEM. E.g. if some people in a PBEM session forgot to switch out of a beta build before playing.
• Fixed an issue where an incorrect error message would be displayed for the spell currently being cast in the spell book.
• Fixed a translation issue that caused some Polish text to be displayed in the French version and vice versa.
• Fixed a bug where clicking ‘Yes’ on the duplicate color dialog during leader customization could cause the starting layer to be different from what the player had selected.
• Burial Ground now costs 100 gold (was 100 gold, 50 mana)
• Basilica now costs 100 gold, 50 mana (was 200 gold, 50 mana)
• Dwarf Economic 1 now gives cities with Stone Walls +10 production for Necromancer Players
• Corpus Furia now does 15 blight damage (was 10 physical)
• Domain of XXX spells will no longer appear in the spell book for Necromancers
• Essence Harvest no longer gives casting points for killing Ghouls
• Necromancer players will now almost always be offered a necromancer hero in the first round.
• Whispers Of The Dead now costs 15 mana per turn (was 10) and gives a small amount of knowledge for each unit the player kills in combat and each unit that dies in battles that the spell detects
• Phantasm Warriors now have resistance 8 (was 9)
• Fixed an issue where units with multiple copies of the same ability would sometimes be able to bypass the ability’s cooldown.
• Fixed high elf race governance upgrades having the wrong names
• When a debuff stacks on a target, the timers on other copies of the debuff will now be reset so all copies share the same timer.
• Necromancer players can no longer select the Creation specializations (almost none of the skills in the sphere were of any use to them)
• Fire Wyvern now has 52hp (was 44), does 7 fire damage (was 6)
• Frost Wyvern now has 52hp (was 44), does 7 frost damage (was 6)
• Bone Wyvern now has 52hp (was 44), does 7 blight damage (was 6)
• Gold Wyvern now has 54hp (was 46), does 7 spirit damage (was 6)
• Obsidian Wyvern now has 48hp (was 40), does 10 physical/3 blight damage (was 11 physical), has Inflict Weakened on gold (was Inflict Exhausting Fatigue)
• Fixed City Quake to have proper happiness and relation damage.
• Fixed an issue in the launcher that prevented some Mac users from accessing user content.
• Increased the maximum number of PBEM games from 5 to 10.
• Necro Frostling Prophet Economic Racial Governance now correctly gives 10 gold and mana instead of 5.
• Stables of Vigor bonuses cannot be applied on undead units anymore, nor can the upgrade be built in undead cities.
• Fixed Cragmire in the Caldera Games map so that you now can declare war on the city and its Dragon.
• Fixed root spears not reducing move points of units that didn’t have full move points
• Fixed an issue where units with Pass Wall and Floating could move through enemy units when those units were stood in open gates or on walls.
• Poison bolts, bane fire, and spirit rays are now available in the item forge
• Fixed an issue where using scripts to trigger a spell on a city would cause a crash
• AI no longer surrenders when it’s near a seal and beacon victory
• Savage Rage and Lion’s Courage can now enable the physical damage channel.
• Power Ritual can now enable both the physical and blight damage channels.
• Victory Rush now heals 12hp (was 6)
• Orc Priest now has Bane Fire (was Black Bolts) and Break Control
• Orc Razerbow now has War Cry
• Orc Apprentice now has Fairy Fire
• Orc Shaman now has Bane Fire (was Black Bolts) and War Cry
• Node Serpent now has 75hp (was 65)
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from saving mid turn in PBEM games
• Fixed a bug that meant certain units (like dire penguins) would ignore terrain penalties
• Fixed a bug that meant race happiness wasn’t always being applied to units (e.g. when the game started, or when the unit changes sides)
• Fixed some issues that allowed players to detect units who were concealed or behind the fog of war using builders/settlers
• Fixed an issue where losing mind control over a unit who was mind controlling a third unit wouldn’t cancel the control over the third unit
• Goblin Economic 5 now gives +1 production per swamp hex instead of +3 happiness
• Fixed an issue where clicking on an enemy stack which had concelaed units meant the unit select buttons malfunctioned

Modding tools allow users to:

• Modify existing units, as well as create entirely new ones with new art.
• Change spells, skills, specializations .
• Create new recruitable heroes
• Create entire new races and classes
• Change the overal gameplay rules
• Use Mods in combination with new Campaigns and Multiplayer.
• Create entire new worlds, basically create a new game

Early Mods to Check Out:

Over the period that the mod has been in Beta, a number of Mods have already been made available via the Steam workshop. Some are complete, while some are still work in progress, but all of them improve the game for the better:

• Extra Support Units – Tibbles the Cat and myself have created this mod which adds a new tier 3 unit to each race. Each unit has a unique look, and a new ability, such as the Draconian Ascendent Elder, who can transform into an enormous Fire Drake in combat.
• Racial Reinforcements – Axios has been busy adding new racial units to the game, he’s added 8 so far, and shows no signs of stopping!
• The Dragon Mod – Chrysophylax Páuperem has been fiddling with the Dragon Dwelling to add a host of new upgrades so that your Dragons can become even more powerful than before.
• Triumphant Heroes – Tibbles the Cat and myself have put together this mod that adds another 35 new, recruitable heroes to the game. See if you can find the mythical “Spoekie”, greatest kitty cat Tigran the world has ever seen.
• Variants Arsenal – Garresh has been adding new class units, such as the new Conjurer, a variant of the Apprentice who can summon lightning sprites in battle.
• Racial Class Unit Reskin –Tibbles The Cat has been hard at work adding a unique looks to some of the class units. So far the Bard, Shaman and Hunter have been modified, and more are to come!
• Age Of Wonders 1 Orcs –  Gloweye is part of a concerted effort to bring the original Age Of Wonders 1 into the new engine, this mod adds old favorites such as the Orc Warlord and even allows Orcs to build Gluttons.
• High Elf Warbreed Replacement – Gamling has replaced High Elf Warbreeds with Wardancers, tier 3 dual wielding martial artists!
• Dark Elf / New Race Template – Adding a new race to the game is pretty complex, so Arnout has made this template to help players see all the different things that need to be done. An editable version of the mod is available from our Website!

There are still more to see! Head over to the Workshop to check them out:

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=226840&browsesort=mostr...

Creating your own Mods

For information on how you can make your own mods, see this thread on our forums.  The tools seem complex at first, but a lot of people should be able to understand the basics.  No programming knowledge is required.

http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/getting-started-with-modding/

It contains a link to our official modding guide, as well as some example mods to help you get started.

Due to technical constraints, the modding tools are only available to Windows users, however our Mac and Linux users will still be able to download and use mods made by other users.