It's here! Version 0.2.0b (Frozen Tundra) release is finally available to play! We are releasing this into a new Beta branch at first, before an official Stable release, so that we can head off any major bugs and finish up a bit of polish here and there. Still, all the content is available and playable right now, and everything should be able to go to the main branch pretty soon.
How do I download the Beta Branch?
Opting into a Beta branch is easy on Steam. Simply right click Time Break Chronicles in your Library, select Properties, and then click "Betas." From there you can select the Beta branch from the dropdown, and Steam will download the files for you.
Changelog for version 0.2.0b
There's a lot of new content for you to explore in this update. We'll separate it out below, into a few categories.
New Content
- A new act, with new enemy types, relics, encounters, and a useful new item when you defeat the final boss
- 15 new characters to find and unlock, bringing the total available to 40:
- Banshee: Scream and wail over your fallen allies, and possess those that are still alive
- Barbarian: Cleave your foes in two with a massive claymore, and scare them into submission with a mighty roar
- Caveman: Command a mighty Sabertooth tiger while bashing your enemies over the head with primitive weapons
- Cleric: Banish the undead from the battlefield, and use holy magic to protect and heal your allies
- Cursed: Ignite a fearsome inner fire as an endless undead skeletal warrior
- Dark Knight: Wield the forces of dark magic and armor to crush your foes and steal their life energy
- General: Inspire and directly command your allies to victory, and conscript new ones to replace those who fall
- Ice Mage: Assault the forces of evil with bone-chilling blizzards and protective frozen armor
- MedBot: Keep your friends in top-top shape with this automated medical bot from AutoMedico(tm)
- Ninja: Keep to the shadows, utilizing crafty ninja tools like shurikens and grappling hooks
- Necromancer: Exploit risen zombies to be your literal meat-shields, as the master of death itself
- Pioneer: Boldly forge a path forward with the hunting and tracking skills of a true outdoorsman
- Sasquatch: Literally hurl your allies into the fray with the awesome strength of a massive bigfoot
- Viking: Battle on the bloody edge of aggression and wield the lightning power of Odin himself
- Vul: Stay versatile and nimble as you juggle aggression and defense with this vulpine heroine
- A new form for our hero, Claire: Frozen form. Empower your allies with icy technology, and deploy blizzard-summoning drones
- Two new Time Break skills to unlock
General Balance Changes/QOL items
- Special midbosses (Big Blob, Broodmother, etc) now only appear in the actual midboss fight. Other "extreme danger" fights are now elite fights vs husks and higher-power enemy groups, such as Triple Wrestlers or Death Worms
- Shift, and skills that cause position shifts, can now target and trade places with downed allies
- Improved husk AI for Rocker, Immortal, Lawbringer, Marine, and Medic
- Bosses now have an innate 75% resistance to interrupt type skills (such as Chuckles' Honk skill)
- Added a new distortion that adds holy damage to attacks
- Added "BLOCKED" text when damage is negated by a skill or effect, instead of showing nothing
Hero Balance Changes
- Samuel's Lawbreaker trait level 3 now applies to allies as well as Samuel
- Yukiko's Execute can now target any critical enemy, instead of just Melee range
- Darius' Grenade skill damage reduced from 125-175 to 100-150
- Darius' Smoke Grenade skill dodge bonus decreased to 35% from 50%, but the effect no longer diminishes every turn.
- Zeke's Dropkick skill damage increased from 1.25x to 2x Power
- Zeke's No-Sell new blocks up to 100% Max HP damage before ending, instead of reducing damage for 2 turns.
- Wensho's Stone Skin now blocks 1x Focus damage, and non-dodging effect is removed. Level 3 blocks now more damage types.
- Wensho's Chakra now heals allies for 1.5x Focus instead of 0.5x, and level 2 restores 1.5x Focus MP
- Ambroise's Incision skill has replaced his old basic "Scalpel" skill, and he now has a new skill, Bubo Burst
- Javed's Adrenaline Rush Power bonus moved to level 2
- Harry's Suppressing Fire now cannot miss
- Harry's Non Combatant trait now lasts for 5 turns or until targeting an enemy
- Lydia's Piety trait's focus bonus decreased from 20% to 10% of Discipline
- Lydia's Healing Word power increased from 0.4x Focus to 0.8x Focus
- Lydia's Renewal power increased from 0.25x Focus per turn to 0.5x Focus per turn
Bug Fixes
- Fixed bug where Marine's Rucksack relic did not interact properly with gadget restoring skills or distortions
- Fixed a few automated skills from being able to be triggered when the character should be unable to act
- Fixed possible rare crash from Yukiko's Dagger relic
- Fixed occasional bug with idle animation being overridden incorrectly when an effect ended
- Fixed bug where face menu overlay was not re-enabled after opening and closing the party menu
- Fixed some occasional animation issues with Ambush and Hide skills
- Added a fix for occasional issue where effect icons and a few other things were sometimes breifly scaled wildly large or offset incorrectly
- Fixed HP/MP changed values not displaying when viewing relics to add or remove
And last, but certainly not least, we'd like to extend our thanks to the community for passing on your bug reports and feedback as we go along in early access. You've all been helpful and supportive, and we'd like to wish you all a happy holidays and a hopeful 2021! Come and join the community on our discord at https://discord.gg/m9MAfrP if you haven't already.