Age of Darkness: Final Stand – v0.11.2 Beta Update – Out Now!

Protectors of the Light,

Thank you all for sharing your insights and feedback on the Beta build over the past few weeks - and a special shoutout to our Discord community for the extra information you’ve provided in some of your feedback.

This feedback has been indispensable to our development team, and has already helped us to identify various improvements that will help us to deliver the best possible experience for our players at the full launch of Exile’s Return.

Today’s Beta branch update (version 0.11.2) addresses several known issues, in addition to addressing much of the feedback that we have received from our community over the past two weeks.

Survival Balance Changes

Alongside campaign updates, we’ve also noted community feedback around Survival balancing. Our latest Beta branch update brings several balance changes to Survival mode. We’d love for Survival fans to check out the latest changes now live on the Beta branch, and as always, welcome all of your thoughts and feedback on these.

A full changelist for Beta branch 0.11.2 has been included below.

Our team is committed to ensuring that the full launch of Exile’s Return meets the standards our players expect, and we will continue to use this Beta period to address additional stability, performance and other balance improvements.

To our community, our team will be taking a short break over the Holiday period, and will be back in early January. We look forward to sharing release details for the full launch of Exile’s Return early next year.

Thank you for your patience and your continued support.

The Age of Darkness: Final Stand Team

HOW TO ACCESS THE BETA

In order to access the Beta branch, please ensure you have Age of Darkness: Final Stand installed and updated on Steam. Select Properties, then Betas and select the following branch from the dropdown:

v0.11.0_opt_in

Please note that save files will not carry over to the live version of the game.

BETA PATCH RELEASE NOTES

Community Raised Issues Fixed

• Fixed an issue where in some cases Units fail to align in Formation when ordered to do so within close range of the Unit Group’s starting location.
• Fixed an issue when selecting enemy or neutral units they will have Formations Options enabled by default.
• Fixed an issue where buildings will sometimes fail to select all when double clicking to select all of a single-type of building.
• Fixed an issue when ejecting ranged units from Towers they may get stuck.
• Fixed an issue where Aurelia’s Flail Whip will grant Dark Essence correctly after the first time.
• Fixed an issue where Hero VFX may persist on screen in some cases or be different colours in others. This is noticeable with Edwin’s Enflame, Aelis’ Royal Decree and Cyrus’ Caltrops.
• Fixed an issue where Cyrus’ Ability SFX can be heard across the map during Mission 10.
• Fixed an issue where In some cases Cyrus can appear at Level 1 in some cases.
• Fixed an issue where Minimap Objective Pings in Campaign are not always persistent in some missions.
• Fixed an issue where in some cases Rally Points from Training Halls and Towers may not update in world space if clicked within close succession of one another.
• Fixed an issue where Walls can be placed in between tiles when click dragging to place.
• Fixed an issue where in some cases Siege Units will not target and attack enemies despite being within range.
• Fixed an issue where certain objective conditions will not be marked as complete on the Mission Success screen.
• Fixed an issue where several Cutscenes are missing Cutscene Actors.
• Fixed an issue where in Mission 7, Vizargo and Aurelia’s level may be set to Level 1.
• Fixed an issue where Units wouldn’t attack when commanded.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 7 where a Sentinel would break their pathfinding trying to find a target.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 10 where Aurelia was in the corner of the map.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 9 where Archers were firing from 0,0,0 coordinates in the map.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 10 where entities around a Tower would cause attack pathfinding issues.
• Fixed an issue where Catapults could move in siege mode.
• Fixed an issue where Nightmares would get stuck on Points of Interests during Death Nights in Survival.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where collison was missing on the Dark Crystal during the ‘Protect Aurelia’ objective.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where you could not place a Quarry on certain Gold Veins.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 10 where you could save/load during the final fight.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 10 where after save/load you could build on non-buildable zones.

Balance Changes

From some small QoL improvements to unit balancing, we hope these changes grant a general reduction in frustration, and help solidify the roles of the Pikemen, Flamer and Harbinger units.

We will continue to monitor the effects of these changes along the road to 1.0!

Aurelia
• Reduced Aurelia’s Crimson Lightning cooldown per level from 90/79/70/62/55/50 seconds to 63/55/49/42/39/35.
• Added shred damage to Aurelia’s Crimson Lighting per level from 0 shred damage to 5/10/15/20/25/30.
• Increased the health of Aurelia's Midnight Bloom ability from 100/120/140/160/180/200/220/250 to 100/150/180/230/260/310/340/400. Units
• Increased the Pikeman’s engagement range from 0.7 to 1.3.
• Increased the Pikeman’s damage from 10 to 13.
• Increased the Pikeman’s knockback from 0.025 to 0.35.
• Reduced the Pikeman’s production cost from 200 Gold to 175.
• Removed the Pikeman’s production cost from 5 Stone to 0.
• Increased the Pikeman’s health from 75 to 90.
• Removed the Flamer’s knockback from 0.2 to 0.
• Increased the Harbinger’s ability buff duration from 10 seconds to 25.
• Reduced the Harbinger’s attack time from 3.5 to 2.75 (+27%).
• Removed the Harbinger’s production cost of Dark Essence from 2 to 0.
• Increased the Harbinger’s shred damage from 0 to 2.
• Increased the Arbalest’s movement speed from 1.1 to 1.2.
• Increased the Sentinel’s movement speed from 1.1 to 1.2.
• Increased the Lightbearer’s heal range from 6 to 8.
• Increased the Lightbearer’s number of units healed from 4 to 12.
• Increased the Lightbearer’s attack range from 0.75 to 1.25. Buildings
• Reduced the Bellows Tower construction cost from 25 Iron to 22.
• Reduced the Bellows Tower construction cost from 50 Stone to 45.
• Reduced the Grand Ballista research cost from 3000 Gold to 2000.
• Reduced the Grand Ballista construction cost for both Iron and Stone from 75 to 60.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s Max Storage capacity of Wood from 400 to 520.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s Max Storage capacity of Stone from 300 to 400.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s Max Storage capacity of Iron from 200 to 260.
• Reduced the Trade Bazaar’s gathering speed of Wood from 180 seconds to 120.
• Reduced the Trade Bazaar’s gathering speed of Stone from 270 seconds to 180.
• Reduced the Trade Bazaar’s gathering speed of Iron from 360 seconds to 270.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s sell price of Wood from 1 Gold to 4 per unit.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s sell price of Stone from 2.5 Gold to 10 per unit.
• Increased the Trade Bazaar’s sell price of Iron from 4 Gold to 20 per unit. Other
• Reduced Economy Drought’s negative effect from 30% to 15%.
• Reduced Hazy Skies’ negative effect from 25% to 15%.
• Increased the Formation’s Dead Zone Range from 0.5 to 1.2.

Audio Changes

• Unit attack SFX and vocalisations have had their timings tightened up.
• Gameplay battle audio has been refactored and better optimised for more overall clarity.
• Theda now has attack sfx that better suit her weapon and combat expertise.
• Young Edwin, Vizargo and Merek have had their attack SFX and exertions reshaped and balanced.
• Aurelia's ability SFX has been tightened up.
• Objective UI pings have been given better spatial positioning relative to their visuals.

Performance Improvements

• Addressed Cutscene flow throughout Act 3 to resolve performance issues when entering and exiting cutscenes.

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that could occur during the “For Erodar!” objective in Mission 10.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when attacking enemy Towers in Mission 10.
• Fixed a crash related to units moving to an invalid tile.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when the Mini-Map refreshed.
• Fixed a crash related to Unit Formation States.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when the game is changing the mouse cursor state.
• Fixed a crash when skipping Cutscenes in Mission 9.
• Fixed a crash related to pathfinding in Mission 8.
• Fixed a crash when the countdown during the ‘For Erodar!’ objective depleted.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting to the Main Menu from within a Cutscene in Mission 10.
• Fixed a crash that could occur during the first Death Night in the Survival gamemode.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on the Mission Success screen in Mission 8.
• Fixed a crash that could occur in Mission 10 when receiving reinforcement units.
• Fixed a crash that could occur with how we were accessing data.
• Fixed some crash outliers in the pathfinding code and now gracefully handle errors.
• Fixed some crash errors with handling tiles.
• Fixed multiple crashes by refactoring functions surrounding units exiting some buildings for consistency and reliability.
• Added defensive code and data checking for areas in the campaign triggers system.
• Fixed some issues with accessing data for abilities for heroes and agents.
• Fixed a crash in Mission 4 that occurred if Edwin died during ‘The Light in the Dark ll’ objective.
• Fixed a crash in Mission 10 caused by attacking enemy buildings with Ballista Towers.
• Fixed a crash that could occur in Mission 7 if Vizargo entered a Cutscene in Serenity mode.

Fixes & Changes

SURVIVAL
• Fixed an issue where the Hero Ability UI would disappear if a Hero was selected while receiving a “Research Complete” notification.
• Fixed an issue where the Volatist keep's smoke VFX was off-centre on the keep.
• Fixed an issue where map generated Nightmare cracks were overlapping on top of each other.
• Fixed an issue during the Final Stand, Crystals near Nightmares could take damage and be destroyed again.
• Fixed an issue where hovering over a destroyed crystal showed a full health bar.
• Fixed an issue where the Final Stand UI did not display. SURVIVAL AND CAMPAIGN
• Fixed an issue where Merek’s Crushing Weight ability can be cut off by an Auto Attack in some cases.
• Fixed an issue where Aurelia's ability audio levels were unbalanced.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to build walls on half tiles.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from gaining resources on the map's edge.
• Fixed an issue where the Soldier’s voice lines had no delay between movement commands.
• Fixed an issue where the Cultist’s voice lines had no delay between movement commands.
• Fixed an issue where the Order Knight’s exertions were not triggering as intended.
• Fixed an issue where SFX continued to play when the game was paused.
• Fixed an issue where the pause menu SFX was audible when transitioning from loading to gameplay.
• Fixed an issue where VFX would become static on the edges of the player's screen view.
• Fixed an issue where Hero ability UI HUD elements disappeared after any research completed.
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo's Serenity ability's attack SFX persisted after the ability ended.
• Fixed an issue where units failed to align in formation when the formation command was used at close range of the unit's location.
• Fixed an issue with Aurelia's Midnight Bloom Crystal creating a "Unit Killed" notification.
• Fixed an issue across all campaign missions where Rebellion banners changed to The Order banners after a load/save.
• Fixed an issue where the Spitter’s fire/spit effects had low SFX.
• Fixed an issue where placing farms on the map edge would yield 0 food. CAMPAIGN
• Removed building complete FX from Cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue in Campaign where all ranged units did not play their Firing SFX.
• Fixed a problem where pressing the spacebar during a loading screen would load the player into a black screen.
• Fixed an issue where Flamers continued to deal fire damage to enemy units while the game was paused.
• Fixed an issue where Cutscene Actors could slide into place rather than animate.
• Fixed an issue when loading a mission, alert and objective SFX would desync from visual indicators. Prologue Mission
• Fixed an issue where Merek faced the wrong direction in the Cutscene after completing the 'Lingering Remnants' objective.
• Fixed an issue where Edwin and Vizargo could be moved outside the bounds area during the 'Lingering Remnants' objective.
• Fixed an issue where Crawlers were visible in the final Cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where Merek faced the wrong direction in the final Cutscene.
• Fixed a visual bug in the prologue where Hector did not have a flame in his staff throughout gameplay and Cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue with Hero pathfinding in the first Cutscene. Mission 1
• Fixed an issue where Edwin and Aurelia would walk through a closed Gate in the final Cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where objective markers remained on the Minimap after completion. Mission 2
• Fixed an issue where a Gate may not open blocking the player from completing the mission.
• Fixed an issue where robo VO still played when obtaining Norfolk Pikemen.
• Fixed an issue where attacking specific buildings units broke pathfinding. Mission 3
• Fixed an issue where Edwin and Theda would have their VO overlap in Cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue where the ally Storehouse became controllable before the Iron Talon Tower was destroyed.
• Fixed an issue where Norfolk villages had buildings that you owned in them.
• Fixed an issue where some Iron Talon Soldier’s failed to pathfind correctly during the ‘Circling Vultures’ objective.
• Fixed an issue where freeze spikes were observed each time a Nightmare wave spawned. Mission 4
• Fixed an issue where some VO across cutscenes had no audio.
• Fixed an issue where Aurelia and Edwin were missing dialogue lines during the 'Reach the Nightmare Source' objective.
• Fixed an issue where there were missing audio barks just before entering the Nightmare wave during the objective 'The Light in the Dark II’.
• Fixed an issue where Aurelia slid into position during a cutscene when she should have been walking.
• Fixed the overwhelming Nightmare ambient audio across the map.
• Fixed a sequence issue where, in the middle of the 'Cornered Rats' Cutscene, players came back out to make a choice and then returned to the Cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where Nightmares stuttered in place until the player was within their aggro radius.
• Fixed an issue regarding the Quarry Defense objective, where Nightmares sat at spawners for a while before attacking.
• Fixed a visual problem in the Rebellion Narrative cutscene in Mission 4, where the 'Below Tower' cutscene looked incomplete.
• Fixed an issue where Alderin units moved and pushed 'Edwin' during the 'Mediate' choice Cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where the game would get stuck when loading a manual save after the ‘Rebellion Blockade’ completion cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where the Solider’s “By the light we must retreat” dialogue line had no audio.
• Fixed an issue where completing the mission would fade to black and not continue to the Mission Success screen. Mission 5
• Fixed an issue where the Mission Success screen displayed incorrect information. Mission 6
• Fixed an issue where Order banners would display as Rebellion banners on Towers after save loading the mission.
• Fixed an issue where skipping cutscenes in Mission 6 could result in dialogue lines repeating after the cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where unconscious Cyrus was incorrectly displayed as level 1.
• Fixed an issue where Fire FX appeared static when too close to the camera. Mission 7
• Fixed an issue where Aurelia and Vizargo's levels were incorrectly reset to 1.
• Fixed an issue where no destroyed buildings were visible whereas the fire FX for them were.
• Fixed an issue where Merek’s Crushing Weight ground telegraph wasn’t always visible. Mission 8
• Fixed an issue where the Catapults' impact VFX caused different effects when hitting different terrain surfaces.
• Fixed an issue where Alderin Arbalests were not attackable.
• Fixed an issue related to load/save, where massive purple UI FX were appearing across the map.
• Fixed an issue where Vizargos VO line may stutter.
• Fixed an issue where archer towers are observed vacant at the ‘Nightmare Deterrent’ objective location
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo and Aurelia fail to appear during the intro cutscene. Mission 9
• Fixed an issue where barks were being repeated after the 4th Cutscene.
• Fixed a problem where skipping a Cutscene resulted in the bark appearing twice over the player's UI.
• Fixed an issue where the final Cutscene was missing a Gate asset.
• Fixed an issue where an enemy Archer was shooting from the 0.0.0 coordinates across the map.
• Fixed an issue where, at the end of the final Cutscene, Aurelia yelling VO was occurring.
• Fixed an issue during the cutscene with Vizargo and Aurelia, where Aurelia was too close to Vizargo, causing their models to jitter.
• Fixed a mismatch between the 'Rebellion Soldier' VO and the subtitles during the Cutscene played during the 'Find the Barrier’s Source of Power' objective.
• Fixed an issue where the Elosa's sacrifice failed to heal Hector's barrier after giving damage to the keep located at the left side of the map.
• Fixed an issue where Queen’s Rage VFX and Shield VFX appear in Cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue with Edwins pathfinding when moving towards ‘Meet with Hector to Discuss Vizargo’s Return’ objective.
• Fixed an issue where an enemy Tower had no garrisoned units and was empty. Mission 10
• Fixed an issue where Nightmares could get stuck on Fissures.
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo and Aurelia would display two health bars.
• Fixed an issue where some Food Huts and Farms would not always correctly grant food to the player.
• Fixed an issue where the player could not always build on the same tile after a building was destroyed.
• Fixed an issue where the Fissures were visible off the map edge.
• Fixed an issue where the’ 'Red Veil’ VFX was missing during the ‘The Veil Lord’ objective.
• Fixed an issue in the final fight where damage over time abilities continued to damage units when the game was paused.
• Fixed an issue where certain objectives failed on the mission success screen.
• Fixed an issue where Cyrus's keep would disappear after Death Night 2.
• Fixed an issue where the player could trigger the final fight early.
• Fixed an issue where fog would turn off.
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo's entrance only opened if the weaver gates were destroyed.
• Fixed an issue where Edwin's model was observed missing during cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue where the VFX within Fissures was observed missing during the ‘Hold back the Nightmares III’ objective.
• Fixed an issue where Death Night 1 was missing Broken Wall art assets.
• Fixed an issue where Death Night 2 breach VFX was not displaying on the top spawner.
• Fixed an issue where final enemy ability SFX would loop during the final Cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where Fissures disabled after a save/load.
• Fixed an issue where save/loading resulted in a missing statue entity during a Dynamic Cutscene moment.
• Fixed an issue where Catapults weren't attacking enemies in range even when ready to fire.
• Fixed an issue where you could save during the final fight.
• Fixed an issue where save/loading before Death Night 1 caused Nightmares to break pathing later in the Mission.
• Fixed an issue where Cyrus's caltrops ticking damage FX were blue.
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo was unattackable during the ‘Avatar of the Veil II’ objective.
• Fixed an issue where save/loading made all of the final arena buildable terrain.
• Fixed an issue where floating rocks appeared after the Fissure exposure.
• Fixed an issue that caused fire FX in Cutscenes to flicker.
• Fixed an issue where there was a damage delay compared to VFX impact during the final fight.
• Fixed an issue where the "Biding His Time" texture and subtitles were missing.
• Fixed an issue with enemy abilities appearing in cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue where some of the 'Hunter' units failed to clear FOW after converting to the players team.
• Fixed an issue where Veil Fog can appear during the final few cutscenes
• Fixed an issue where the final fight arena has no height fog
• Fixed an issue where Vizargo’s animation would lock after teleporting.
• Fixed an issue where Fissure would not render inside cutscenes.
• Fixed multiple issues with set-dressing having no collision turned on throughout the map.
• Fixed an issue where neutral units did not convert to the players control.
• Fixed an issue where the auto-save before the final fight would lock the player from continuing gameplay.
• Fixed an issue where the final Cinematic played regardless of win condition if the player had previously beat Mission 10.

v0.11.2 Known Issues

• Game can crash if Edwin is defeated in Mission 4 during the “The Light in the Dark II” objective.
• Using old saves in the new update will cause various unintended gameplay behaviour.
• In some cases Units will get stuck running on the spot when trying to reach unreachable terrain.
• Some UI Prompts remain untranslated across all languages.
• Enemy UI does not update in real-time as the player is attacking them.
• In certain situations the player can instantly transport Garrisoned ranged units from one tower to another tower in the map.
• Pressing Space bar on loading screens can freeze the player on the loading screen.
• Cinematic Subtitle Timing is not matching to Cinematic Audio for Dunstock, Storm Eye and the Final Cinematic.
• Building a Lumber Yard won’t highlight trees within its radius.
• In some cases Heroes and Units can get stuck on terrain set dressing during Campaign Missions.
• We are aware of an issue where Hero abilities sometimes fire in the opposite direction.
• Aurelia’s Flail Whip is not damaging buildings in Campaign.
• Merek’s Halberd Hurricane can miss in some cases when used in a group of Nightmares.
• Burster VFX may persist after dying in Campaign and Survival.
• Buildings may display construction VFX when the camera focuses on them while navigating throughout the map.
• Player can see objective locations early on the Mini-Map in Mission 8 and 9.
• Player may be able to incorrectly path through the enemy’s gates in Campaign.
• Save / Loading can cause Nightmare Pathfinding to break across the Campaign.
• In some missions background music may not play correctly or at all.
• Units may try to pathfind through Units to reach their target.
• World Map Mission Select is not always playing background music and click SFX.
• Music may not always play during Death Nights and Survival.
• Character Models can stand and clip with the Character Pedestal on the World Map.
• In Mission 5 the player will see incorrect Objective Information on the Mission Success screen.
• In some cases across Campaign, Nightmares may not advance towards the player.
• In Mission 6 Edwin can become unresponsive after cutscenes in some cases.
• In Mission 6 when skipping the intro cutscene player may observe a black screen for a period of time before resuming gameplay.
• In Mission 7 Volatist Units can continue to spawn from Weavers that are destroyed.
• Dialogue Barks may repeat within Campaign Missions, specifically in Missions 8 and 9.
• Save Loading throughout the campaign may cause issues with Progression triggers for that mission.
• In some combat scenarios in Mission 10 Nightmares may not target the player.
• We are aware of an issue where during the final fight in Mission 10 the enemy’s health bar can freeze due to them being invulnerable while casting abilities.
• Cutscenes may play twice when skipped in certain situations.
• Cutscenes may have to be skipped twice to actually have the player skip the Cutscene.
• In some cases Cutscenes can reset Fog of War around the Map in Campaign Missions.
• In some cases Edwin’s Fire VFX and Unit Embolden VFX are appearing in Cutscenes.
• In some cases the player will see missing Audio across cutscenes throughout the Campaign.
• If following the Rebel Quarry choice in Mission 4 in some cases Nightmares and Cutscenes may not trigger.
• In some cases Units given to the player during Campaign may not be marked as controllable after their corresponding cutscene trigger.
• Nightmares can stutter in place in some cases until the player falls within the Aggro radius during Campaign & Survival.
• Food Count is not always decreasing when building structures inside the yield radius for Food Huts and Farms.

We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.

Till next time, Protectors of the Light…

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