We are equally thrilled and nervous to announce this next big update for Artifice: War tactics. From all the feedback we have received we have concluded that the game as it stands is not fun enough and lacks emergent gameplay due to the probabilistic nature of its combat system. As such the game will now feature an active combat system that will allow players to attack during their turn rather than setting an overwatch. Such a massive change was a tough pill to swallow at first but after a lot of playtesting we feel confident that overall, this system feels way more intuitive, exciting, emergent, and frankly more fun. We hope you enjoy this update and as always please feel free to reach out to us with your feedback. Tons more updates coming soon so stay tuned.
Please note that your current save files will be deleted as it will be incompatible with the new updates. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Artifice: War tactics Demo will now be available with the updated gameplay changes.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Core gameplay update – Active attack: All champions can now actively attack any enemy that falls within their attack range (previously overwatch zone)
- New rule – All champions must perform at least one action: Move or Attack. All Champions can move and attack in any order.
- Asymmetrical combat system - Enemies set up overwatch zones that can be avoided in numerous ways:
- A Champion can avoid movement by attacking any enemy that falls within their attack range from their current position.
- Champions can now actively eliminate or disrupt the overwatch of enemies that pose a threat to an ally.
- Champion traits and abilities can now be used with more accuracy allowing for more devastating combos.
- Tutorial has been reworked as per the new combat rules.
- The order of islands in the campaign has been rearranged with the starting island being Mycella: Realm of Boletuza.
- HUD has been overhauled segmenting Character stats on the left and attack and ability buttons on the center.
BALANCE
- All Champions base armor reduced from 1 to 0.
- Maximum number of enemies on the battlefield increased from 5 to 6.
- Enemy spawns and reinforcement count reworked for provinces in each island.
- Updated Champion XP requirement for each level based on current balance updates.
- Double move ability has been removed from Emissary.
- Sand worm damage increased from 1 to 2.
- Items - An overhaul of nerfs across most items due to the change in the core gameplay.
- Jagged edge – Reduce Crit chance from 20 to 10.
- Ritual Dagger – Removed -1 Armor negative stat.
- Serrated Edge – Reduced Bleed chance from 25 to 15 and Crit chance penalty from -25 to -5.
- Firebrand – Reduced Burn chance from 25 to 15. Removed -1 Damage penalty and replaced with -10 Resistance chance penalty.
- Siphoning Dagger – Reduced Lifesteal from 3HP to 2HP. Removed -25 Crit chance penalty.
- Boletari Dagger – Reduced Poison chance from 25 to 15. Removed -20 Resistance chance penalty.
- Executioner’s Axe – Reduce Execute chance from 25 to 15. Added -1 Armor penalty.
- Vampiric Edge – Reduced Lifesteal from 5HP to 3HP.
- Frost Blade – Removed Lifesteal. Only applies Frostbite now.
- Vanquisher – Reduced Crit chance from 50 to 25.
- Volatile Sceptre – Reduced Burn chance from 40 to 25.
- Exalted Edge – Reduced Bleed chance from 30 to 20.
- Enfeebler – Reduced Damage reduction from 4 to 3.
- Death Bloom – Reduced Poison chance from 30 to 20. Reduced Lifesteal from 3HP to 2HP.
- Punisher’s Great Cleaver – Reduced Execute chance from 40 to 35.
- Fortuitous Blade – Reduced Crit chance from 75 to 35.
- Infallible Axe – Reduce Crit chance from 50 to 30.
- Bloodthirst – Reduced Bleed chance from 75 to 35. Reduced Lifesteal from 5HP to 3HP.
- Paralysia – Reduce Poison chance from 75 to 50.
- Varpulis Boots – Dodge chance reduced from 25 to 15.
- Royal Guard Medallion – Reduced Resistance chance from 20 to 10 and Lifesteal from 2HP to 1HP.
- Ilvaari Cloak – Reduced Dodge chance from 20 to 10 and Crit chance from -20 to -5.
- Tempest Boots – Reduced Dodge chance from 25 to 20.
- Deft Gauntlet – Reduce Resistance chance from 30 to 20.
- Akhlys Cloak – Reduced Lifesteal from 3HP to 2HP.
- Blood Rite Pauldron – Reduced Resistance chance from 30 to 20.
- Helm of Hermes – Reduced Resistance chance from 40 to 20.
- Vidar’s Shoes – Reduced Dodge chance from 50 to 30.
- Regal Plate Mail – Reduced Resistance chance from 40 to 20 and Dodge chance from 30 to 20.
- Assassin’s Breeches – Reduced Dodge chance from 40 to 25.
- Sigmund’s Armor – Reduced Resistance chance from 60 to 40.
FIXES
- An SFX glitch for Mastodon unit death has been fixed.
- Controller updates, polish, and fixes have been made. More updates are coming soon!
- A bug where changing champs does not update item slots preview in Loadout has been fixed.
- Under the hood tweaks and updates have been made.
- Various other bug fixes have been implemented.
- Modified Shade AI behaviour to be more aggressive.
- Updated AI for smarter and more objective oriented moves.
POLISHES
- The spell cast animation for Zephyr has been updated.
- Added Ability animations for Pathfinder and Berserker.
- The idle 2 animation logic has been reworked to reduce repeats.
- Added Theosus idle animation for the intro screen.
- Updated Trait previews of all champions.
- Players can inspect enemy movement by pressing space and hovering over them.
- Updated certain toast messages.