New superweapon: Eye of Ra replaces Pharaoh’s Serpents. After an automatic five-minute charge at normal game speed, the Great Temple grants continuous map-wide vision to Egypt and its allies.
Counterplay: destroy, sell or capture the actual revealing temple to restore ordinary fog. Already explored terrain stays remembered. Replacement temples, including captured duplicates, must charge again.
Limits: the Eye does not detect camouflaged units, deal damage or create soldiers. A water shortage does not pause it.
Saved games: charging and active states retain their source and progress after loading. Losing a restored temple removes its vision too.
Balance and compatibility
Chariot statistics are unchanged in this release. Egypt’s broader balance remains provisional and needs more playtesting. Labor Levy, False Signs, native movement, harvesting and combat mechanics are unchanged.
Both players need 0.1.8 for the matching hosted rooms. Older clients cannot join this version. The signed, notarized Mac installer includes all required game content for offline skirmish, plus complete source and licenses. Mid-match reconnect remains unsupported.
Harvester wall stalls: carts choose a reachable granary instead of repeatedly trying to cross a wall. If new construction blocks an automatic drop-off route, the cart can reconsider its destination and use another reachable granary. Explicit player-directed drop-offs remain player-directed.
Balance
Mighty Men: health reduced by about 9%, movement speed reduced by about 14%, and sustained melee damage reduced by about 27%. Damage to buildings is reduced further, leaving that job to siege. Egyptian and Babylonian elite infantry are unchanged.
Siege movement: Sling Engines and Stone Throwers move about 18% faster, Babylonian Rams about 22% faster, and Siege Towers 25% faster.
Siege firing: at normal game speed, stone engines fire every 3 seconds instead of 3.6, Rams every 2.2 seconds instead of 2.6, and Siege Towers every 2.6 seconds instead of 3. Costs, training times and range are unchanged.
Maps
Added Wilderness of Zin and Pass of Michmash for two players, Wells of Beersheba for three, Hill Country of Judah for four, Plains of Shinar for six, and Egyptian Frontier for eight. Larger maps also support fewer players and teams.
Compatibility
Update both players to 0.1.7 for the matching hosted rooms. Version 0.1.6 cannot join 0.1.7 matches. Game content remains bundled for offline skirmish; no separate asset download is needed. Mid-match reconnect remains unsupported.
Introduced the Covenant multiplayer directory and a release-specific client/server version. Hosted service expanded to two password-free rooms and a separate private room.
Verified a complete automated two-client network match, synchronized game state, both independent replays, disconnect handling and room reset.
Corrected complete-source packaging to retain the engine’s required Support source files, with matching source verified and compiled on Linux.
This older release remains available for rollback and offline play; current hosted rooms require the latest version. Automated clients on one workstation do not replace human testing across separate computers.