Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Patch v1.0.1

Protectors of the Light,

Thank you for your ongoing support following our 1.0 release. Your input has been crucial in helping us identify and address the feedback shared by our players.

Our latest patch addresses a variety of community suggestions, including several fixes and improvements across Campaign, Survival, and Co-Op game modes.

You can read all the improvements and community feedback we have incorporated in v1.0.1 below:

Balance Adjustments

• Increased melee range for the Order Knight auto-attack by 0.4.
• Lightbearer attack range increased, now attack from a short distance.
• Increased the Lightbearer’s base Health from 90 to 125.
• Added Armour to the Lightbearer from 0 to 25.
• Added Armour Regeneration to the Lightbearer from 0 to 0.02.
• Changed the Rogue’s basic attack to now be a multi-hit cone attack.
• Increased the Rogue’s Attack Rate from 0.25 to 0.15.
• Reduced the Rogue’s Gold Steal on kill from 3 to 2.
• Reduced the Rogue’s base Damage from 15 to 7.
• Increased the Rogue’s production Gold cost from 160 to 175.
• Increased the Rogue’s production Stone cost from 2 to 5.
• In Multiplayer T2 and T3 POI Camps reward slightly more Units/Siege Units.

General Fixes & Improvements

• General improvements to load times and performance across the game.
• Fixed a situation where unlocked Survival Difficulties wouldn’t save correctly.
• Fixed a situation where Cloud Saves wouldn’t sync.
• Fix for buildings that aren't impacted by the treasury getting icons as if they are impacted after paying off a debt.
• Fixed Aelis's royal guards displaying a visual flicker under certain conditions.
• Fixed a selection bug caused by holding shift and selecting buildings.
• Fixed the objectives UI not updating correctly when you change the language.
• Fixed UI not displaying correctly on the action grid when canceling research.
• Fix for some situations in which some units wouldn't animate correctly.
• Improved Audio balancing across all three game modes.
• Fixed Audio timing issues present with Crushers.
• Added audio to various buttons that were missing audio feedback.

Campaign Specific

• Fixed a situation where Campaign progression wouldn’t save correctly.
• Improved overall Cutscene audio within the Campaign.
• Fixed an issue where Nightmares could get stuck during Mission 3.
• Fixed audio timing related to Ritual Crystals in Campaign.
• Fixed Vizargo's shield in Mission 10 not displaying during combat.
• Fix for the wrong audio playing during cutscenes in Campaign Mission 10.

Multiplayer Specific

• Fixed a crash that can occur when pressing the Multiplayer Button.
• Added a pop-up when you’re not logged into Steam and try to access Multiplayer.
• Fix for the host sometimes not properly loading into matches.
• Fix for being able to select the other player's team color button in the multiplayer lobby.
• Greyed out the "send" button in the trading window if no resources are going to be sent to the other player.
• Fixed an issue where Units gained from captured POI camps spawned in a single point.
• Removed the ability to transfer ownership of the Fishing Port in Multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where for Death Nights that break two Crystals only one would drop Dark Essence.
• Disabled “+ buttons” in the trade menu when there are no more resources to send.

Balance Adjustments Deep Dive

As noted above, we've made a number of changes to balance Heroes, Units, and Buildings. The goal here is to improve early-game survivability, smooth out some frustrating aspects, and give a few underperforming characters a much-needed boost. Here’s a closer look at the v1.0.1 as well as 1.0 balance adjustments, and how your gameplay experience will change.

Heroes

Merek
Merek has always had great potential but struggled with low survivability and clear speed, especially early in the game. We've made a few tweaks to ensure he can shine as a tank-healer hybrid, excelling alongside an army that benefits from his presence.

• Improved base HP from 170 to 320 (this change reflects across all levels)
• Improved base damage to 17 from 14
• Increased damage of Crushing Weight across all levels

Vizargo
Vizargo was a bit too frustrating early on, especially for new players, though his potential was clear. We've given him a boost to his survivability and skills, especially during those early stages, to make him more approachable and effective.

• Improved HP across all levels, ie:
  • Level 1: 165 from 145
  • Level 10: 905 from 880

• Added small amount of armour per level after level 3
  
• Claw Dash cooldown reduced by approximately 7 seconds across each level
  
• Small boost to Claw Dash damage DASH and VORTEX (swipe at the end)
  
• Moderate boost to Impaling Wrath damage across all levels
  
• Small boost to move speed from 1.6 to 1.65

Aelis
We’re planning to revisit Aelis soon for some further improvements, particularly for the late game, but for now, she’ll receive a small armoUr boost at early levels to help new players get more out of her.

• Added small amount of armour per level after level 2

Units

Rogue
Rogues have gotten a rework! They now perform more like an aggressive soldier-pikemen hybrid. While they’re still squishy and gold-hungry, Rogues now clear more effectively but remain risky to use!

• Added splash to attack instead of single target
• Reduced gold gain to 2 again (to account for faster clearing)
• Adjusted purchase price to reflect effectiveness
  • 175G, 5 stone, 5 wood

• Lowered base damage to 7 from 15
  
• Increased attack count to 2

Lightbearer
Lightbearers still need time to figure out their place but for now, they’ve received a range boost, allowing them to support from behind melee units instead of dying up front. They also get some bonuses to their survival.

• HP increased to 125 from 90
• Added Armour 25 from 0
• Starting Engage range pushed forward from 0 to 0.65

Order Knight
The Order Knight is still solid, but we’ve increased their attack spread so they can now hit more enemies at once, making them more effective in large fights.

• Increased attack range to 0.4

Harbinger
Harbingers still need further attention, but we’ve made a few changes to help their survivability and give them a slight edge in mobility.

• Starting HP increased from 120 to 250
• Move speed increased from 1.2 to 1.35

Flamer
Flamers now have better survivability and a slight improvement to their knockback ability.

• Added Armour to 16 from 0
• Added Knockback 0.1 from ~0

Hunter
The Hunter has been performing well, but we’ve given the Hunter Trap a small upgrade to improve its effectiveness.

• Trap duration increased to 5s from 3.5s
• Trap size increased to 2.5 from 1.5

Buildings and Research

Triage Tent
We’ve reduced the cost of researching the Triage Tent, making it more accessible for players in the early game.

• Research cost reduced to 300 from 750

Trade Bazaar
The Trade Bazaar has had its purchase cost reduced, making it more affordable for players looking to expand their economy.

• Purchase cost reduced to 650 from 850

Grand Bellow Tower
We've given the Grand Bellow Tower a bit of a buff, especially in its range, attack rate, and damage, making it a stronger defensive option- We’ll be keeping an eye on this and other attack towers in the future.

• Attack range increased to 15 from 12
• Attack rate increased to 5 from 8
• Base damage increased to 10 from 8

Advanced Farm
The Advanced Farm was a little too pricey, so we’ve reduced its cost. We’ll keep an eye out for other later game research in the future.

• Research cost reduced to 1200g from 1500g

Your insights and thorough reports have been invaluable helping us to better refine the gameplay experience for you, our players. We’re truly thankful for your engagement and encouragement, driving us to make Age of Darkness: Final Stand the best it can be. We encourage our community to continue to communicate with us regarding any feedback, as we’re always here to help.

To give back to you all, we’ve also launched a community challenge with prizes which you can check out here.

Thank you,
The Age of Darkness Team