*** Beta patch 1.09u was released on 12/11/2010 ***
Changes:
1. Fixed a bunch of monsters that had essence (and therefor the ability to cast) that the player might get by picking a guardian unit.
2. Death Worship faction bonus now correctly gives +10% to hit points, previously it didn't do anything.
3. Fixed Empire city bonuses (previously they were giving way to much of a % boost), set equal to the kingdom cities of the same level.
4. Removed the Enchantment, Combat and Summoning spellbooks from the Empire Advanced spellbooks tech.
5. Added the Book of Summoning tech to the Empire tech tree.
6. Removed the Refined Essence Use tech from the Empire tech tree.
7. Removed the Essence Transference tech from the Empire tech tree.
8. Added the Master Spellbooks tech to the Empire tech tree.
9. Arcane Experiments Empire tech now requires Shard Harvesting.
10. Arcane Armor Empire tech now requires Arcane Experiments.
11. Arcane Weapons Empire tech now requires Arcane Armor (with the huge advantage of moving the Sword of Wrath to a late game tech instead of being a 2nd tier tech).
12. Fixed an issue that was keeping Wargs from spawning.
13. Modified spider stats (tougher ones get tougher, weaker ones get weaker).
14. Fixed an issue that wouldn't allow players to cast natures bounty on a city under rations.
15. Fixed Assassin's Strike.
16. Fixed an issue that could cause combat text to not be displayed.
17. Balanced children (which lead me to ask one of our female developers "sarah, how do you make babies?", HR complaint pending). Children's stats will be based more on the parents and children won't get free defense, attack, etc.
18. Fixed an issue that could wipe out your population if your city leveled up while relying on housing from a Refugee Camp.
19. Kingdom Peasants now have a 5 constitution (like empire peasants).
Known Issues:
1. There is currently no way to target a unit in an army for a strategic spell (without breaking him out of that army, which is a pain).
2. In the design a unit screen off hand items appear black. It is because they are being lit from the wrong side.
3. At the victory/defeat screens, the music level ignores your settings.
4. Sometimes improvement icons don't show in the build lists. http://ewom.sjwt.org/2010-12-11/01/24%20-%20Missing%20build%20icons.png
5. Custom unit info card pictures are lost after a few turns.