SpellForce III: Reforced Edition Live on PC

The free "Reforced" upgrade for SpellForce III, that's totally not a jab at WarCraft III's Reforged disaster, is now live on PC, with the console release scheduled for next year. This update overhauls Grimlore Games' RTS/RPG hybrid with tons of improvements, fixes, and new features.

So, here's the official Reforced release trailer:

And a quick overview of the new stuff:

The free SpellForce 3 Reforced upgrade on PC is OUT NOW!

Reforced is a complete overhaul of SpellForce 3 with tons of improvements, fixes, new game modes and even more features:
  • Enhanced campaign experience
  • Visually and functionally enhanced UI
  • Full Gamepad Support
  • A new skirmish map “Bitter Canyon”
  • Journey Mode: An additional game mode similar to the original SpellForce’s “Free Game Mode”
  • Journey Skirmish: Play PvP skirmish matches against other players with your journey heroes
  • Arena Mode: An endless game mode where you fight waves of monsters
  • Improved Mod Support and mod support for the new modes

And here are the actual patch notes:

SpellForce 3: Reforced

During the last year we have been hard at work to deliver you this update. We spent a lot of time gathering feedback, reworking map scripts, fixing bugs and improving the game in many aspects. But not only that, we have also included two completely new game modes: Journey (our version of the Free Game Mode) and an Arena Mode - free for all owners of SpellForce 3, Soul Harvest and Fallen God.

This is our way to say "Thank You!" for your dedication, support and love for SpellForce 3. We hope that you enjoy SpellForce 3: Reforced and all its new content, and are looking forward to meeting you in the World of Eo!

Cheers

The Grimlore Games Team

General Changes

Improved "Burning Blood" Campaign:
  • Improved RTS mechanics and reworked RTS faction (Humans, Orcs and Elves) designs, introduced in the expansions Fallen God & Soul Harvest
  • Updated skill trees with new spell mechanics introduced in the expansions
  • Improved questflow
  • Improved loot distribution for a smoother progression
  • Added and improved unique artefact puzzles
  • Visually and functionally enhanced user interface
  • Reworked crafting
  • RTS AI Balance overhaul
  • Complete rework of the hub for minimizing downtimes
  • Fixed all campaign and quest logic issues of the 40+ hours long campaign
  • Improved coop mode
  • Full gamepad support for controls and UI
New Game Modes:
  • Journey Mode: An additional game mode similar to the original SpellForce’s “Free Game Mode”, providing more than 20 hours of unique content and a lot of replay value. Can be played in Coop!
  • Journey Skirmish: Play PvP Skirmish matches against other players with your Journey heroes
  • Arena Mode: An additional endless game mode where you start with a fresh character, fight against waves of monsters, buy items and spells from merchants to compete with other players in the leaderboards including the possibility to play this mode in Coop.
New Content:
  • A new Skirmish map “Bitter Canyon” set in a mountainous environment. SpellForce 3: Skirmish now offers 18 maps in total!
  • Improved mod support, also for the new Journey and Arena Modes. Create your own Journey or Arena maps and share them with the community!
Versus Changes

Over the last months, we gathered all your feedback and compiled an early launch patch addressing some of the most concerning issues. As always, we will continue to monitor the game and make changes as needed, so stay tuned for more!

Ladder Reset
  • For reforced, we are resetting the ladder progress and are excited about the new top competitors!
Adjusted Matchmaking
  • Matchmaking has been adjusted to help with a better overall ranked experience and distribution of leagues!
New Map Pool
  • "Bitter Canyon" is available in custom games and has been added to the ranked map pool
  • "Hard Rock" has been added to the ranked map pool
  • "Old Battlegrounds" has been removed from the ranked map pool
  • "The Mystic Valley" has been removed from the ranked map pool
Other Improvements
  • Added Crossplay between the different steam games versions
  • Added an icon at the location of knocked-down heroes
  • Added allied heroes to the hero bar, just like the RPG party in campaign
  • Added more control group options to match current RTS standards
  • Fixed various crashes in second lobby when using the "End session" option
  • Fixed creep icon disappearing for host when opponent killed their creep offscreen
  • Fixed issue where creep icons would stop disappearing on a reloaded game
  • Improved lobby by allowing to check the leaderboard at the same time
  • Replaced default AI with the improved Spandau AI
  • Spandau AI has been renamed to the default AI names
  • Spectators: Added a "Rename Replay” function in the replays menu
  • Spectators: Now able to see resources of all participating players while spectating games
  • Humans: Added new and improved building icons for better readability
  • Trolls: Improved icons for better readability
  • Elves: Renamed Skirmish Hero "Druid" to "Archdruid"
  • Orcs: Renamed Skirmish Hero “Goblin Shaman” to “Goblin Warlock”
Balance Changes: Multiplayer & RTS

RTS Buildings

All
  • Increased costs of all forges from 5 Wood 5 Stone to 15 Wood 15 Stone
  • Reduced health of all forges from 4000 to 3000
Humans
  • Marketplace: Increased cost of Iron from 20 to 40
  • Marketplace: Increased cost of Aria from 30 to 70
  • Foundry: Reduced cost from 18 Wood 18 Stone to 10 Wood 10 Stone
Elves
  • Enchanter: Reduced cost of Wood from 25 to 20
  • Lenya Harvester: Reduced cost of Wood from 25 to 22
  • Lenya Purifier: Reduced cost of Wood from 40 to 35
Orcs
  • Outpost: Reduced cost from 12 Wood 10 Food to 10 Wood 10 Food
  • Woodcutter: Reduced cost form 10 Wood to 9 Wood
Dark Elves
  • Border Fortress: Increased build time from 20 to 30 seconds
  • Border Fortress: Increased cost from 15 Wood 10 Food to 18 Wood 12 Food
  • Citadel : Increased cost from 30 Wood 30 Stone 20 Food 20 Stone to 40 Wood 40 Stone 20 Food 20 Stone
Trolls
  • Hunting Cabin / Stonecutter / Woodcutter: Reduced cost from 13 Wood to 12 Wood
  • Tribe Shelter : Reduced cost of Wood from 30 to 25
RTS Units

Humans
  • Infantryman: Reduced upgraded damage from 80 to 75
  • Infantryman: Reduced upgraded health from 931 to 875
  • Keeper: Increased cost from 5 Food 4 Iron Bars to 6 Food 4 Iron Bars
  • Keeper: Reduced restiances from 25% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege to 25% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege -25% Magic
  • Catapult: Reduced area of effect magic damage of the upgrade from 15 to 10
  • Champion: Increased the cost from 8 Food 5 Iron to 8 Food 6 Iron
Elves
  • Guardian: Increased resistances from 25% Pierce -25% Magic to 25% Pierce -10% Magic
  • Protector: No longer impairs surrounding enemies. Still impairs targets hit
  • Treant: Standard attacks no longer knockback enemies hit
  • Treant: "Ability" apathy duration reduced from 10 to 5 seconds
  • Warden: Adjusted the cost from 5 Food 2 Iron Bars to 4 Food 3 Iron Bars
Orcs
  • Brute: Attacks no longer have secondary damage type Siege
  • Brute: Attacks deal 30 Siege damage to buildings on top of their normal Strike damage
  • Hunter: Reduced raw Pierce damage from 130 to 110
  • Hunter: Now additionally cause creatures to bleed for 10/s for 2 seconds.
  • Ravager: Increased attack range from 7.5 to 9 to help with attack reliability
  • Ravager: Reducest cost from 10 Food 4 Iron to 9 Food 4 Iron
  • War Troll: Decreased cost from 20 Food 12 Iron Bars to 18 Food 11 Iron Bars
Dark Elves
  • Harvester: Reduced upgraded HP of Harvesters from 1000 to 750
  • Scion: No longer drops souls on death, and is worth no souls in sacrifice
  • Specter: Impair amount of "Mind Invasion" reduced from 25% to 15%
  • Strider: Increased cost from 7 Food 6 Iron to 7 Food 7 Iron
  • Strider: Reduced resistances from 25% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege to 0% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege
  • Twisted One: Reduced attack range from 200 to 175
Dwarves
  • Berserker: Increased attack range from 7 to 9 to help with attack reliability
  • Combat Balloon: Reduced speed from Liquid Fire stance from 75 to 60
  • Combat Balloon: Reduced area from Liquid Fire from 150 to 125
  • Molerider: On-Hit impair reduced from 50% to 40%
  • Sentry: "Precision Stance" replaces "Sharpshooting Stance": On-Hit impairs 40% for 2 seconds and interrupts casts.
Trolls
  • Bone Hexer: Reduced resistances from 25% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege 25% Magic to 0% Strike 25% Pierce 75% Siege 25% Magic
  • Bone Hexer: Adjusted balance distribution to 130 Magic, 10 Leech damage
  • Bone Hxer: Reduced movement speed from 50 to 45
  • Corpse Seeker: The ability now properly creates a buffing area for its allies
  • Ironbeak Fighter: Reduced movement speed from 90 to 70
  • Spike Flinger: Increase damage from 90 to 100
  • Thrower: Reduced cleave damage from 20 to 15
Skirmish Heroes

Humans
  • Royal Mage: Reduced focus cost "Incinerate" from 15 to 10
  • Royal Mage: Reduced cooldown "Incinerate" from 25 to 15
Orcs
  • Occultist: Reduced health cost of Demonic Pact Lv2 from 400 to 200
  • Occultist: "Blood like Tar" impair reduced from 15% to 10%
Dark Elves
  • Guardian of Nor: Reduced "Soul Explosion" number of targets from 9 to 8
  • Guardian of Nor: Range set to Weapon Range to ensure reliability in casting
  • Reaper: Reworked "Siphon" spell. Now channels for 7 seconds, leeches 40 damage per second. Channeling successfully for the full duration empowers the Reaper for 7 / 13 seconds (15%/20%)
  • Reaper: “Demonic Pact” renamed to “Dark Pact”
Dwarves
  • Hierophant: Increased cooldown of "Barrage" from 20 to 25
  • Warrior of the Depths: Increased weapon attack range from 7 to 9 to help with attack reliability
  • Warrior of the Depths: "Battle Frenzy I" now requires Hero Level 3
Trolls
  • Chieftain: Slam Lv2 area of effect radius increased from 100 to 110
  • Plaguebringer: Increase standard attack range from 75 to 120
  • Plaguebringer: Increase chain radius from 30 to 40
MP Creeps
  • Ice Wyvern: Reduced duration of freeze from 10 to 5 seconds
  • Bear: Increased resistances from 50% Strike -25% Pierce 75% Siege to 50% Strike 0% Pierce 75% Siege
  • Medusa: Reduced surrounding units impair from 50% to 40%