To the Crown Mages,
Today we’re pleased to have released the first step in our implementation of PvE for Astatos! In this update you will be able to play single player against A.I. in Trials.
While there’s a few kinks to work out in the A.I. logic itself, the feature represents a big shift in our development of the game—and required nearly as much code as the Trial system itself. You’ll be able to access the PvE from the new Training option in the Trials menu.
As mentioned above, this is Part 1 of the PvE updates planned. Throughout three updates, we hope to implement the most commonly requested features for the game.
- Part 1: Training Trials where the player can play against A.I. opponents in single player matches. Allowing players to learn the game without the pressure of a real match, and earn daily rewards without the need to rely on other players— albeit at a reduced rate. (This patch!)
- Part 2: Tutorial Trials where the player can learn how to play the game in a structured, and interactive tutorial. This update will involve many of the functions required for Story Trials, such as in-game dialogue, scenario scripting, and fully-local Trials. At this time we’ll look into introducing PvPvE for Conquest as well.
- Part 3: Story Trials: Implementation of Trials into the Astatos’ story. As there will be significant design time involved, we may split this part to only cover implementation for the prologue chapter, then expand to cover chapter 1, and the upcoming chapter 2 at a later date.
Please note that the above is subject to change depending on the production schedule for the rest of the game, but we hope you look forward to the changes implemented in this patch, and our future progress for the game!
For the detailed changelog of changes implemented with Astatos v0.4, please read on below.
- From the team at Studio Klondike
New Features
Training Trials: A new PvE mode that allows you to play single player Conquest (4 person) and Takeover Trials against A.I. opponents.
A.I. opponents are available in 5 difficulty settings. Easy, Medium, Hard, Dummy, and Random Actions. When playing against a bot that is “Medium” or “Hard” difficulty, you will receive Monera and Reward Points for the Trial. You will not however earn EXP in Conquest, or Rank in Takeover Trials.
Even at the Hard difficulty, you should not expect A.I. to fill in for an experienced human Crown Mage. Rather, it is best to think of this mode as a way to learn the mechanics of the game, or test out new strategies.
Training Trials have their own Hero Pack equip settings that are separate from Conquest and Takeover Trials. Be sure to remember to check these before beginning a Training Trial as this specific setting is not currently saved between game restarts.
This feature is available from the “Training" button in the “Trials” menu. As this option replaces the previous “Tutorials” button that would access the text manual, that button has been moved to the “Training” menu.
Player Discovery: Within a lobby you will now see the numbers of total rooms, and joinable rooms for that game mode as well as a button to visit our official Discord. A room is joinable when it can be joined via Quick Play. A room is no longer joinable if it is private, or if it is already within a Trial. Players within Training Trials will show as non-joinable rooms. We hope this helps players better find each-other and enjoy the game in conjunction with the PvE features implemented in this patch.
Spell Card Names: After some UI adjustments, Spell Cards have now been given proper names in Trials. The name changes are as follows:
- Spell A -> Altered Trial
- Spell B -> Blessed Trial
- Spell C -> Consecrate
- Spell D -> Divine Favour
- Spell E -> Exalted Element
We hope this change serves to make spell cards more recognisable, especially if more Spell Cards are added to the game in future updates.
Ping: Your ping is now visible from the pause menu during a Trial. We recommend playing Astatos with a ping below 300ms. If your ping exceeds a certain threshold, you may be forcibly disconnected from a Trial.
Changelog
Game Features
- Training Trials have been added to the Trials menu. Allowing players to participate in PvE matches.
- Server room counts have been added to the lobby interface, with separate counts for Takeover, and Conquest Trials.
- Spell Cards have been renamed alongside the Spell Card draw UI for Aristotle being redesigned.
- Server ping added to the lower-left corner of the pause menu during a Trial.
Balance Changes
- The cost to summon Aristotle has been reduced by 1 Energy.
Game Content
- New Hero Skins have been added to the store and made available as monthly rewards.
- Varius - Control
- Cerkles - Good Doctor
Game Changes
- Music tracks have had their audio levels rebalanced so the volume is consistent between menus, gameplay, and story. Players may want to adjust their music volume setting after this patch.
- Some sound effects have been updated.
- The track “Louder Than Words” now plays during Training Trials.
Interface Fixes
- Aristotle’s card draw mechanic now has a new pop-up which appears above passive heroes on the side of the screen.
- Aristotle’s card pop-up will no longer conflict with Kyros’ card pop-up, which resulted in the opponent's card colour counters remaining visible when they should not have been.
- Improved the way the lobby locks in players when a match is beginning, as well as the behaviour of the lobby timer under some scenarios.
Trial Fixes
- Fixed various issues regarding high-ping and player desync in Trials. As a result, Trials should be significantly more stable under high-ping conditions.
- Players will no longer be able to break the Hero Stage by performing actions within the last second.
- Fixed an issue that caused Heroes to behave incorrectly when there was a significant ping difference between players.
- If the timer runs out on the victory screen, the main menu may not load in some cases.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Trials menu to open twice when returning from the victory screen.
- Occasionally Sulpicius would fail to function, causing the Trial to soft-lock.
- Occasionally Gaios would fail to function, causing the Trial to soft-lock.
Known Issues
- Playing a card at the last-second during the Trial Stage, may result in unexpected behaviour, or Trial soft-locks in rare cases.
- Playing a card at the same time the Trial Card changes elements, can sometimes result in you being unable to play any more cards when you should be able to.
- Occasionally the “Keep or Redraw a Card” stage may result in unexpected behaviour where players may not draw back a full hand of cards, and the card colour counters may desync.