AoW+ is a patch that introduces a large number of gameplay changes. The following is an abridged breakdown of the most notable changes:
- In the campaign, players may realign with the Keepers/Cult after playing as the Lizards.
- Race relations have been brought more in line with the lore of the game.
- Heroes join for free and independent heroes can be recruited.
- Friendly cities no longer demand any gold.
- Neutral cities can now be bought but may also rebel.
- Migrating and rebuilding cities takes longer.
- Shipyards now generate income but can no longer be built.
- Overall income has been reduced.
- Unit upkeep has been reduced for lower level units and increased for higher level units.
- Halfling Pony Riders and Elephants have been nerfed.
- Ranged attack abilities have been rebalanced.
- Unit spells can no longer be cast on machines.
- Heroes gain fewer skill points per level and Defence is more expensive to increase.
- The effect of terrain on unit morale has been amplified.

AoW+ is currently at version 1.45 and comes with extensive documentation.

Download and more info at AoW Heaven

Oh gods, I hope you're at least keeping track of the details of your hex edits for your own future reference! LOL
Regardless this is very exciting, will download immediately.
Interesting to note that your version of the .exe is 2082 kb in size, up from 2078 kb - must be a lot of changes
Yay, spellcasting reduced to 15 pointcost!

Don't put it past me to start piecing together a changelog. If I do it in a google document I could give you editing rights too.

Don't worry, I have documentation of everything, and anyway each new build is always built from the base files so I can easily look up any changes. It's just that a lot has been changed and not everything in a straightforward way, so what I'd really need to do is write something like the manual addendum. And since I wanted to get the patch out earlier rather than later all that documentation will be provided with one of the next builds. Don't let that stop you from trying to figure out all the changes yourself, though.

The difference in filesizes is entirely due to icon encoding, as the old indexed icon doesn't display properly on my PC. There's a whole bunch of unreferenced code space in AoWEPack (which is really the main engine file) that I made use of whenever I needed to add rather than merely replace code. As to the amount of changes, there are about 1500 byte edits altogether but that's really a rather meaningless number; in some cases a single byte was all that was needed for a major change while on the other end of the spectrum there's a 150-byte subroutine just for the new unit promotion arithmetics which most players will likely never even notice.

Edit: I did not modify Self Destruct in any way; 8 ATK 6 DAM should be the v1.36 values. However, Self Destruct has become somewhat more useful now since HP of wooden walls has been reduced.

And G thank you. Im so happy.

I enjoy the hero stat cost change, and skill points! but also unit upkeep, migration time 2x, wall costs.

Not sure if i broke something (need clean install), or if its intended but all unit installation cost 50 and take 1 turn?!

Yep, working as intended. I considered installation to be too much of an investment in some cases but didn't want to do away with it altogether, and this seemed a reasonable compromise.

I will have a lot to say after playing through some of the campaign.

That made me laugh a lot harder than it should have.

EDIT: rewritten to be less of a ramble
The campaign is a pretty interesting puzzle now!

Things I like:
-DEF to 10 points, Spellcasting to 15
-1 turn installation. This is good for t2s and t3s specifically, now you can make choices, instead of choosing 1 unit and sticking with it forever.

100 gold, 5 turn city upgrade - this works. I'd favour it being scaled a bit with city size, i.e.

80 gold, 3 turns - upgrade a t2 city
120 gold, 4 turns - upgrade a t3 city
160 gold, 5 turns - upgrade a t4 city

-silver medal = +1ATK/RES, gold medal = +1DAM/DEF.
I actually had this exact idea last year and totally forgot about it because I don't know hex editing well enough.

-perhaps silver and gold medal should each give +2 movement points? This would make a lot of sense historically - better trained/experienced troops have always been better at long distance travel, forced marches, etc.

-reduced racial relations - this is a purely good thing, all racial relations were too friendly before. The new relations work fine.

-Wooden and Stone walls are now distinct from each other, thanks! However, no matter how strong they are, I think costing 5 turns and 100/150/200/250 gold is impractical - would prefer to see 60/90/120/150 and 3 turns. After all, even the strongest wall just sits there, and at some point paying for the most unbreakable, most expensive walls, just leads to the rest of the map getting conquered by the enemy.

-Stronger city garrisons, I think you overdid it a bit, but it's still an improvement. Maybe tone the garrisons down to 80% of their current strength? In the United cities scenario I actually recruited multiple armies when an AI unit raided my cities, they all rebelled, and I recruited the rebels - for free. Also, the AI is really struggling to keep conquered cities, because of these garrisons and the diplo changes.

Things I don't like:
2/5/10/15 upkeep instead of 4/6/8/10 actually takes things too far the other way.
Previously, it was stupid that 5 archers cost the same upkeep as 2 dragons. But now, we have 15 archers for the cost of 2 dragons - and I think 15 archers can actually kill 2 dragons, sometimes. 5 archers also cost the same upkeep as 1 tier3 unit, and will always kill a t3 unit.
I recommend 3/6/9/12 upkeep scaling.

halved income from all sources - it doesn't break the game, but it's also rather unfun, and I don't see the need for it. Combined with the need for stronger garrisons and longer migration, this is pretty brutal.
Only the upkeep of t1 units was halved in tune with this. Maybe revert farmland to 2 gold a hex, and only halve other stuff?

5 levelup points per level - it works okay for the campaign, but for multiplayer this makes heroes very weak.
DEF takes four times as long to accumulate, even Spellcasting actually takes 3 levels now per 1 level of spellcasting. Halving the rate at which DEF could be gained would've been enough, and it'd be nice to see more Spellcasting. Maybe leaders have to be developed now as Spellcasters with damaging spells to gain XP, and not melee at all outside of taking on small numbers of enemies using high ATK values.

One problem with nerfing hero DEF too much is, it makes whoever has Stoneskin, or gets a good armour item, on a whole different level for the strength of their heroes - and non-Earth heroes won't be able to catch up.

It's not very fun to not have many levelup points. I am still doing stuff with my leader with Unholy Champion, Charge, Lightning strike, and high ATK, but it feels weak. I think this is overkill and 10point DEF was enough.

Movespeed was fairly cheap at 2 points before, now it's too expensive at 5. I think 3 would be ideal.

Rebuilding cities is absurdly slow and expensive, it takes about 50-60 turns for the investment to pay off. No joke! 1000 gold to rebuild a full city - and then 25 turns for it to happen - the game will be over by the time this investment pays off.
I can see that Rebuilding should be made more expensive so that you can't just raze and rebuild more easily than a migration, but this is overkill on the numbers. Migration could also be made 1 turn faster than at present in my view.

Also, looting should give more gold. At present it gives less gold than the upkeep cost of the soldiers who are used to keep the city in line for the duration, which makes it strictly worse than razing. I got 60 gold from a full city! - considering I had to commit about 25 gold per turn in unit upkeep standing atop it for four turns, I think 200 gold, or even more, would've been appropriate.

It's cool that you can buy cities with Neutral relations now, but they're so expensive that the feature won't be used. 750 gold for a stack of t1s and a 3-hex town - not worth it. I recommend reducing price to 60% of the current value.

-silver and gold medal no longer give HP, levelup can no longer grant HP. I can see the logic behind this, but I also did enjoy that units could become more resilient even against attacks they can't prevent with DEF. I liked gold medal archers having 7 HP, frankly. With DEF costing 10 points - 2 levels! - it'd be nice to buy HP.

-Orcs should probably not be unhappy with cave terrain. In the first cult mission my two orc assassins actually deserted from me because of this. In the lore, Orcs wage war against the dwarves in the caves, and while ordinary Orcs don't have darkvision, Orc heroes do, indicating that the developers were indecisive about their cave status.

flat 50 gold install cost - this is bad for t1 units, not much different for t2s/t3s, and too generous for t4s.
I think making installation always last 1 turn is enough, and install cost could be left as unit cost.

IMO, you shouldn't always to be able to recruit your own race's cities for free - I think it should start very cheap, then become free if you butter them up more with migrations.

Come to think of it, I think walls improving race relations were fine, and not abusable - could be restored.

AoW+ Engine Mod

Firstly, this is a fantastic effort and right down to changing the version number at the intro-screen, I can see alot of meticulous tinkering has gone into this. The save format is interesting, when trying to switch between the original and the new, I noticed xsg and xcg (instead of asg and acg), renaming the files extension lets you open it up interchangeably. Was there a reason for this?

Some topics to jump into:

1. Freemovement (FM), Windwalking (WW), and FireHalo (FH):

Was Wishing for...
-WW and FH will kill units on invalid terrain when removed (Crushed!) but FM still doesn't.
-I was really hoping there was a way to make dispel castable on enemy units, perhaps with a removal delay like we see with Flood

Mixed Feeling?
-FM and WW can't be cast on machines, meaning no one has to argue about FM warships in PBEM (RIP flying boats)
-FH can still be cast on boats, meaning you can still navigate some underground terrain with boats (giving Fire Magic a small, but well needed, situational leg-up)

The Bad!
FM and WW can't be cast on machine, meaning battering rams and catapults too. Now only Azrac Elephants (and Goblins Bombers) can use low-level wallcrushing over mountains with FM. Huge disadvantage for other races. Lizards are the third-running race with tier-2 FM turtle-pults

Upgrading and Migration:
Upgrades only cost 100 and take 5 turns instead of 250 at 3 turns. All installs are now a flat 50 cost with 1 turn.

The Good?
Faster turn-around for pre-upgraded, migrated cities looking to get level 4 units. Stealing cities is a bit more appealing.

Mixed Feelings?
- level 4 unit now takes 16 turns to start production. It used to take 12 turns to start production.
- level 3 unit now takes 11 turns to start production. It used to take 8 turns (based on 4-block city)
- level 2 unit now takes 6 turns to start production. It used to take 4 turns (based on 4-block city)
- Install costs are a flat 50, meaning no pressure to situationally choose the less expensive unit to install. Installing all units within a tier is faster, but it is rare to see the need to install all of the units.
Yes, the upgrade cost is lower, but you also lose production and merchandise bonus for 2 extra turns. Mixed feelings.

The Bad!
- Migration can take up to a max of 6 turns; this was 5 before.
- Upgrade costs make it prohibitive to try strategies with higher level units. Why upgrade when you can just stack archers? The question is now more deeply emphasised.

Upkeep
Gold upkeep: T1: 2 gold/turn; T2: 5 gold; T3: 10 gold; T4: 15 gold

Was Wishing for...
Gold upkeep to be relatively lower for mid-tier units, to encourage their use. Not sure if it's possible, but 2 gold/turn for goblin bombers and 6g/t for elephants (individualised upkeep) would give good balancing opportunities.

Mixed Feelings?
Summon upkeeps appear unchanged.

The Bad!
- Higher level units are now extremely cost prohibitive
- Archers, Pony Riders and Elephants are now insanely inexpensive at 2 gold upkeep per turn! A stack of 8 elephants costs you just 1 gold/turn more than one level 4 unit (ignoring upgrade costs and downtimes). Where before this was almost a 2:1 ratio.

Morale
Some default race relations have changed. Some changed to be in line with the story (I mean, why wouldn't the Dark Elves hate humans?)

The Bad!
- Units with good morale can now leave you without warning... And the AI has no idea how to manage this properly. Play as humans, stacks will sometimes spontaneously leave right at the beginning of the game. Playing any map with humans means that your armies will leave you, it's just a question of time.
- Units, including heroes, even if they are on good terms, will leave you by chance! (especially as humans that now only have polite relations with other humans). There is no warning, and they will readily rejoin your empire for a fee (or free). That's harsh gameplay for newbies trying to get into the game and not understanding why their unit left them (or as a veteran player trying to explain why that is normal behaviour).

Hero/Leader levels
I understand this is experimental, and that the finer balances haven't been worked out yet but I believe that escalation to "superweapon heroes" is the thing that makes AoW1 so unique and enjoyable compared to similar games like HoMM. Mostly because it cuts down a slow and drawn out attrition near end game, and adds some risky-play opportunity to the mix. I never enjoyed the Warlock mod because it took away the superweapon heroes and just became bland. Without oomph to leaders and heroes, there is no reason to use them to explore, and therefore less encouragement to put them into risky situations (risk vs reward in gameplay). Out of anything changed, I completely disagree with the concept of making movement expensive. Not being able to level up health? OK (it doesn't scale well anyways). Expensive def? OK (it places more emphasis on stoneskin and other spells). But expensive movepoints? it seems like a needless handicap that gives way too much power to haste.

I want to give this a chance, but I just don't see it as a viable mod at the moment.

I really enjoy the fact that you have a separate .exe that doesn't require manual switching. I'm looking forward to the next fix up.

This only happened to me playing as Goblins (in the campaign) with orc troops quitting, while in the caves. What context caused it for you? I suspect this occurs with specific terrains.

Thanks for the comments. A couple of notes:

The new savegame extensions are to prevent players from accidentally breaking their saves by switching between versions, and to unclutter the savegame folder. The version number change is mainly for network compatibility.

My main priority is to make the game, especially the campaigns, feel as fresh as possible without breaking the already overchallenged AI too much, so in many cases I went for the boldest approach. I understand that everyone has different ideas how AoW could be improved; the changes I made represent mine.

I exclusively modified engine files, and I will not make any changes that would contradict in-game descriptions (which is why I did not alter Stone Skin in any way). If units like the Elephant or Pony Rider are considered overpowered, and I would be inclined to agree, then I suggest that someone build a mod to make them into L2 units. Introducing a rule that some L1 units cost more upkeep than others would make no sense.

Archery, Poison Darts, and Hurl Stones all have lower ATK, which makes the basic ranged units overall less effective (and Giant Slugs slightly more attractive in comparison). This can be further reduced if appropriate.

I still believe that the higher upkeep for L3/L4 units is justified in many cases by the abilities those units possess that go beyond their pure combat value. The idea behind the new upkeep progression is for armies to primarily consist of L1/L2 units with L3/L4 units used sparingly either as force multipliers or in specialised roles. And where L3/L4 units are pure combat units, they should still be paired with L1/L2 units for screening. I realise that this vision cannot fully be achieved using engine modifications alone, but nevertheless it is what I've chosen to aim for.

I do see the point about leader/hero levelling being less fun now, and while I won't change the 5 skill points per level I can absolutely make level-ups much more frequent. They're already a little more frequent at lower levels, but admittedly it's not very noticeable.

I also see the point about city garrisons. They have been doubled in strength but perhaps a factor of 1.5 would be adequate.

I will look into looting rewards; I don't have the files at hand right now but I believe this is dependent on city income in which case it should be trivial to modify. In fact I'm thinking of scaling this up drastically, perhaps even exponentially so that there is a real incentive to loot large cities rather than migrate them. Honestly most maps have too many large cities already.

Unfortunately, the way AoW handles spells is quite inconsistent. There are different validation checks for world map casting and combat casting and I haven't yet figured out how to edit the latter. If I ever do, I plan to make all unit spells uncastable on machines, though this would also require me to figure out how to prevent machines from being Blessed by Springs of Life and the like. I also believe that certain spells should be removed altogether, but this is an HSS issue, not an engine issue. (The same goes for summoning upkeeps.)

Regarding unit desertions, terrain now plays a much bigger role than before. Basically, there is hostile terrain which lowers morale by 1 point and super-hostile terrain which lowers it by 2 points. For most races, only wasteland is super-hostile terrain, so as long as you have at least polite relations with your units they shouldn't desert. At one point I even made all surface terrains hostile for Goblins, but the AI couldn't deal with that at all.

I also considered merely polite self-relations for most races; the problem with this is that it limits relations with other races. If Elves have polite self-relations and are neutral towards Frostlings then what about their relations with Halflings and Dwarves?

Lastly I want to say that I understand some people will be disappointed by the changes I chose to make, especially if you think of AoW+ as a multiplayer balance patch, which it is decidedly not. This is unlikely to change with further updates. Suggestions are still welcome, of course.

That's good to hear about certain ranged attacks being lower ATK - it's a vitally useful change for multiplayer, even if not intended for multiplayer. Good for SP too of course, and it makes the new upkeep scale much more accurate.

ATK reduction makes them weaker relative to the other unit tiers, it means that a ruleset can actually fix the archery problem by just giving some +DEF to weak melee units, without borking the balance of everything else.

15 archers vs 2 dragons upkeepwise is a lot more reasonable when the archers hit the dragons a lot less, though I'd still like upkeep to scale less hard than 2/5/10/15

Since lowering ATK doesn't really affect criticals and Hurl Stones DAM is already at 1, the only other option is to reduce the number of missiles. This would make ranged units much less effective, but also give more weight to the RNG. This needs some care to balance the three different basic ranged attacks, and it also needs to consider the marksmanship progression (which I won't change because of the in-game description).

Here's what I'm currently considering implementing, for marksmanship 0/1/2:

Archers ATK: 4-5-5 → 5-6-6
Archers DAM: 2-2-3 → 2-2-3
Archers REP: 2-2-2 → 1-1-1

Darters ATK: 4-5-5 → 3-4-4
Darters DAM: 1-1-2 → 1-1-2
Darters REP: 3-3-3 → 2-2-2

Slingers ATK: 3-4-4 → 4-5-5
Slingers DAM: 1-1-2 → 1-1-2
Slingers REP: 4-4-4 → 2-2-2

Objections?