Hello everyone!
I'm happy to announce that our newest 1.3.0 demo is out with a new gameplay trailer:
New features:
- Reworked traits system. Every character will have a background trait that represents what they did before joining the resistance + 0-3 random character traits. Backgrounds can be region-specific.
- Recruitment cost and starting level depend on the character's background. The worst backgrounds can be recruited for free.
- Removed weapon schools. Every weapon adds its own advanced skill to the character that equips it.
- The Trickery, Teamwork, and Aggression schools have been reworked into 6 classes, one for every region.
- Completely reworked profile images, that respect which region the character is from.
- Added pushing as a core mechanic. A melee attack if hit by default will push the attacked out of the tile and the attacker will take its place. If the target can't step back, it will count as cornered and the attacker receive +20 attack against it. This gives another way (besides flanking) to increase hit chance with better positioning.
- Added a lot more region-specific names for the random name generator.
- Added an overall difficulty estimate to the party builder that takes into account your current party, the enemy composition, and their amount. This should help the player to make a more informed decision.
The eastern region has been opened up. Can host a resistance base and will be a target of army missions as well.
- Added the story introduction video into the demo when starting a new game.
Balance:
- Magic dust has been renamed to etherglow, and the amount that can be earned depends on the enemies faced and the amount of them.
- Added the ability to sell etherglow on the black market (5 dust for 50 gold by default).
- Reverted the extra starting unit change of the previous patch. Now, the ability to sell etherglow and the possibility to recruit units for free should give enough options for players to manage their unit count.
- Level 1 units do not have access to any skill, besides the one that their weapons provide.
- Redid the starting roster of every region.
- Unit cannot be retrained for free anymore, it will cost 20 gold to reset their skills. Except for universal skills, they can still be swapped around freely.
- Simplified and rebalanced stamina usage. The second action no longer costs 1 more stamina. Instead nearly all skills cost at least 1 stamina, but every character regains 1 at the start of the turn.
- Missed attacks now do not cause distraction by default. Normal hits cause 1 (previously 2) and critical hits 2 (previously 3).
- Rebalanced and simplified equipment point costs. Now by default, every smith creates 1 equipment point.
- Updated AI to be able to handle the new cornered and pushing mechanic.
- On the escort VIP mission, one pod will guard the exit rather than hunting the VIP. In addition, the enemies' spawn points have a minimum range from the VIP.
- The strategist move order skill causes a forced move condition, that makes that unit unavailable for further move order commands till it activates.
- Rebalanced headquarter bonuses.
UI:
- Made the combat map overlay thicker, to make it better seeable while zoomed out.
- The camera will only jump to the next possible unit when the other one is finished moving.
- The fog of war will only be updated with the unit's dead after it happened.
- Added a loading screen when starting a game, to avoid confusion.
- Reworked the UI for choosing headquarters.
- Reworked the research and project tabs.
- Added a purple cloud over units that have been converted to a redeemed to make them visually distinct.
- Added a unit overlay to the team builder screen when a player hovers over a unit to make it clearer that it can be clicked on.
- Made the victory and defeat screen pop up in combat after the last action finishes, not when it starts.
- Redid the visual for the enemy counter in the combat map.
- Enemy reinforcement teleport circles are seeable behind walls.
- Reworded and added new tutorials.
- Combat map settings preferences are saved.
- Added a new music track for team builder.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a map generation hanging issue that was more prevalent the higher the enemy unit count was.
- Fixed a dead zone where commands were not accepted in the combat map left size.
- Fixed pop-ups being obstructed by the tabs in the barrack scene.
- Fixed mouse wheel affecting combat map zoom level while on the tutorial page.
- Fixed blood appearing instantly when an attack is successful, spoiling the result before the animation finishes.
- Fixed buttons not gradually transitioning to the not hovered over state.
- Fixed when a unit was being attacked while it was standing on a corpse, the corpse knew the result of the attack sooner than it was visually shown and it moved in anticipation before the unit died.