The October update is here!

My Lords, My Ladies

Today we proudly present the big October update for Diplomacy is Not an Option. Without further ado, let's explore some of its key features.

One more themed section has arrived in challenge mode, dedicated to battles against a new faction. Halloween is approaching, so we thought the time's right to introduce you to our Undeads. We're talking not just about zombies or horses risen from their graves, but about a far more dangerous enemy.
Meet:

• Drake of doom.
• Dreadful ghoul
• Shepherd of horrors
• Machine o'flesh

The Undeads' roster presented in the update is incomplete, after leaving Early Access their troops will become a bit more diverse.

In both new challenges you will face Nightmare Generals as well. It's a mini-boss of some sort (that's right, there will be some bigger bosses someday) - armored, can hit multiple enemies at once, regenerates health and dodges strikes. In other words, it won't let Diplomacy is Not an Option veterans get bored.

We've promised a long time ago that mission objectives are going to be different from each other in the future. In the "Kill it before it's too late!" challenge there's no need to wait for the main enemy forces to arrive. All you have to do to win is to kill all the Nightmare Generals on the map. We've even delicately marked them on the mini-map. However, given the General's characteristics, it still won't be an easy task.

In a recent announcement we told you about changed explosions. Just in case, let's say again exactly what has changed. Previously when Meteorite or Catapult and Trebuchet projectiles hit, the damage was evenly distributed between enemies, with the October update everything in our game will explode in a more realistic way. Each explosion has its own epicenter, and the farther away from it, the lower the receive damage. Enemies are still being thrown into the air by blast waves, so stay vigilant. The chance of getting an almost undamaged enemy behind your line of defense has increased.

Also, if you remember, there was a post about UX metamorphosis. We'll duplicate it in this article as well. By popular demand, in Diplomacy is Not an Option we added... some options to display:

• attack range of all ranged units, war machines and Trebuchet
• player and enemy troops, as well as civilians that cannot be seen behind obstacles.

Some players have complained about the behavior of war machines. Well, good news: we finalized the logic of the parabolic trajectory attacks. As a result, Trebuchets and Catapults learn to hit targets more cheerfully. Improvements have also been made to Ballista. Before the October update it often happened that while attacking the enemy, Ballista hit obstacles standing between it and targets. From now on Ballista will shoot at enemies only if they are in the path of its projectile, taking into account both: the altitude difference and the presence of obstacles.

Since we are talking about war machines, it is worth to mention that from now on they hot their own type of armor. We have a tradition to call a spade a spade. Therefore, the new type of armor was named "War machine". As for its attributes, you can try for yourself already today.

Axe warrior hasn't escaped the enhancements too. Now he has a new active skill, temporarily accelerating him and giving him a chance to dodge an enemy's strike. As a consequence, another research has been added to unlock the skill.

We continue the visual polishing of Diplomacy is Not an Option. With the October update the game got:

• Redesigned icons
• New cursors
• Arrow and projectile trails

Also, your troops automatically turn to face the specified direction when they reach the endpoint of their route.

A minor detail, but pleasant, you must agree.

To conclude our story, we want to say a few words about the balance. In response to your feedback and suggestions, we increased the airship's capacity, removed gold from the cost of Horseman and Mounted Archer, increased the cost of the Trebuchet. Additionally, to avoid provoking the Player to use the "human shield" tactics, which we consider inhuman even for a game with a potentially colossal number of deaths per second, now attacked buildings cannot be repaired. Made a lot of other changes, but we will not describe them in detail here. Hopefully, we are moving in the right direction in terms of balance. Don't hesitate to share your opinion with us.

This concludes our presentation of the October update. Thank you for being with us. Thank you so much for your support. Traditionally, the full list of changes is attached below.

Yours, Door 407 team.