Olden Era: Combat Beta Reworks Damage, AI and Creature Balance
Olden Era beta 0.82.02 changes damage scaling, creature balance and map AI. Here is what changes and how separate beta saves work.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's public beta reworks how Attack and Defense affect damage, alongside faction-wide balance changes and new map AI behavior. Unfrozen announced beta 0.82.02 on October 15. These changes are available for optional testing, not a finished update to the default game.
Attack and Defense now depend on the gap
The current formula divides 20 plus the attacker's Attack by 20 plus the defender's Defense. As large hero bonuses raise both totals, the original difference between creatures matters less. Unfrozen says that weakens high-tier creatures relative to cheaper units in longer matches and reduces the impact of combat-stat artifacts.
The beta instead calculates the difference between Attack and Defense. Equal increases on both sides therefore leave that gap unchanged. Each extra point of difference contributes slightly less than the previous one; once the difference reaches 100, further increases no longer change this damage multiplier.
The aim is to keep creature stat advantages relevant later in a match. It is not a blanket damage buff, and it does not establish that every army composition is now balanced. Skills, artifacts and creature upgrades are changing too, so judging one stat in isolation will miss part of the rework.
Two neutral creatures and new map AI behavior
The test also adds two neutral creatures and rebalances skills, artifacts and alternative creature upgrades across all factions. The combat interface gains quick access to three favorite spells, while a new Morale and Luck mechanism is intended to reduce excessively long lucky or unlucky streaks.
On the Global Map, AI heroes can flee difficult battles, learn higher map magic and use travel spells. The notes also describe changes to resource allocation, artifact equipment and skill selection. Those are developer-described behaviors; we have not playtested whether they make the computer a better opponent.
Join the beta with a separate save list
In your Steam library, right-click Olden Era, open Properties, then Game Versions & Betas, and select public-test-branch. Let the download finish before launching. If the branch is missing, Unfrozen suggests restarting Steam. Choose Default Public Version in the same menu to return to the normal build.
An empty save list after switching is expected. Your main-version saves have not been deleted; they reappear when you return to the default version. The beta stores its saves in saves_beta and campSaving_beta, disables cloud saves, and does not make beta saves visible in the main game. Multiplayer uses separate beta servers, and everyone in your group needs the same game version.
Unfrozen expects testing to last several weeks but has not announced the default-branch release date. Individual changes may be adjusted or removed. Try the beta if you want to compare combat setups and submit specific feedback through the official beta forum, or use F1 for a bug report. Keep an ongoing main-version campaign separate rather than assuming progress transfers between builds. Our Olden Era hub tracks the game, and the Steam listing is the official PC access destination.