v2.86.0 - More Balance & Bug Fixes!

Greetings Abalon Fans!

While I'm working to improve the AI engine and then back onto the next major features, here's another update for you containing more balance & bug fixes! As always, thank you so much for your feedback!

Remember, I personally read and respond to your in-game feedback daily during my work week (and often on the weekend, too) and I enjoy answering your questions and improving the game for you. If you haven't tried this feature yet, give it a go by using Menu -> Share Feedback. I even credit player suggested fixes in each update's release notes.

I'm also very active on our Discord server if you want to share videos, screenshots, meet other players, chat about the game, or even try out our upcoming multiplayer via the beta signup: https://discord.gg/d20studios

v2.86.0 Release Notes

1. Balance: Summoned placable obstacles (ex: Wall of Brambles, Wall of Ice, Brick Blocks, etc.) are now destroyed upon entering explore mode.
2. Balance: Retreat Changes: Placable obstacles (such as brick blocks, wall of ice, prison of brambles) will no longer block a player's ability to retreat from a battle. All placable obstacles are now removed upon retreat.
3. Balance: Scribe now triggers on acknowledgment of the battle victory prompt instead of when exploration mode starts. This change enables the Scribe ability to now work in Survival Mode as well as within encounters that include multiple battles (such as the Sandpit Arena and Yellowjacket Nest). (Thanks Nabastag)
4. Fixed bug where Skeleton Bro could spawn on an adjacent trap and prevent the event from continuing. (Thanks Guest_284800)
5. Fixed bug where Fennec Fox could trigger a combo off its own attack when swapping position with an ally and using its triggered attack. (Thanks Provocation)
6. Fixed bug where Pied Pipe wasn't working in Survival Mode. (Thanks Nabastag)
7. Fixed bug where the language sub header in the Language selection menu on mobile reverted to "Language" after making a selection instead of the currently selected language. (Thanks AvalonAbalon)
8. Fixed bug where Frog Demon heart wasn't dealing its 2 damage to enemies upon its wielder being attacked. (Thanks BADASSMOFO 👻็👻็👻็ , Ivellios and Hess)
9. Fixed bug where units could sometimes get stuck in the mist of mayhem when retreating until exiting and restarting the game. (Thanks Trojan Bull and Sinthores)
10. Fixed bug where Wall of Ice was not removing after battle and when retreating. Existing Wall of Ice blocks left on board from previous adventure can now be attacked. (Thanks Lance and Lord Cameron)
11. Fixed bug where placing an obstacle (such as a Forest Energy tree) on the summoner's starting location within the Sandpit arena would break subsequent battles as the summoner attempts to return to their starting space. (Thanks KagitarShadowscale and Lifeisfree)
12. Fixed bug where the entrance to a battle area adjacent to a river could be blocked. If map with a battle borders a river and it isn't a boss fight, the procedural algorithm removes non-attackable terrain on that map that isn't in the playable area on the sides containing a river. (Thanks Ivellios)
13. Fixed bug where attacking a barrel with a Pyromancer fireball while an enemy is adjacent to it in the next map causes an exception for updateProjectile. (Thanks Guest_308587)
14. Fixed bug where attacking with an enemy that triggers a combo with a hydra and then selecting the attack again quickly could generate a null exception for handleAttackHit.
15. Fixed bug where AI turn time exhausted error would appear if minimizing the game on mobile while the AI is taking its turn for more than 2 minutes.
16. Fixed bug where using a Scroll of Resurrection while playing with the Lost Guardians challenge modifier (also Descent 5) would allow the resurrected guardian to revive an additional time at camp. (Thanks Manchot_Royal)
17. Fixed bug where removing equipment that increased max life would trigger surprise spells such as Celestial Shield and Reflect Damage. (Thanks Lord Cameron)
18. Fixed bug where using Animal Growth on yourself while transformed into a bat by Sassy Molassi, your Summoner is transformed into the mutated version of the anime, then back to your summoner, then back into the bat permanently, causing you to lose instead of being transformed back into your summoner when the bat is killed. Using Animal Growth will now transform you into the Mutant Bat successfully, but only until the end of battle. Also, transforming into a Mutant Bat removes the "until defeated" condition, meaning that if you die while in the form of the Mutant Bat, you will lose. (Thanks Xomnikai).
19. Fixed bug where, while in the form of the Sabertooth Tiger, drinking the beetle juice and transforming into a beetle returns you into your original form and throws a bug dialog. (Thanks muussi)
20. Fixed bug where, while in the form of a beetle from drinking the beetle juice and transforming into a Sabertooth tiger by Sassi Molassi, your original summoner joins the team along with the sabertooth tiger and a bug prompt may trigger. (Thanks Guest_206661)
21. Fixed bug where the Summoner would have a yellow reticle during battle (indicating that it is interactive) after clicking the Nemesis HUD icon until the Nemesis is defeated. (Thanks Arianna)
22. Fixed bug where shop music would briefly play then switch to the default biome music while exploring the shop while being chased by a nemesis instead of playing the shop music. (Thanks Arianna)
23. Fixed bug where player could not use the replay button to rewatch the AI's last turn if the AI's last turn was the first turn of the battle. (Thanks Arianna)
24. Fixed bug where game could soft-lock at camp when speaking with the shopkeeper. This was only reported to occur running at 30FPS and was caused by the animation queue getting clogged and often was preceded by a staccato hero movement (one tile at a time) and a camera following the hero (which should never happen at camp). This change may have also fixed characters leaving the camp while still holding their marshmallows. (Thanks Lance)
25. Fixed bug where AI sync error could occur when additional enemies are called to the battle for encounters like Viking Vanguard if trap tiles on the board had changed status during the battle. (Thanks Guest_306412)
26. Fixed bug where AI Sync error could occur in multiplayer coop when an AI player is defeated on its own turn. (Thanks ♂Van Darkholme♂)
27. Fixed bug where AI Sync error could be generated on Catch of the Day if a controlled Marauder is defeated by a Marauder Retiarius, resulting in the AI believing that the restoration of the net is its own cause. This should also fix any other sync errors caused by triggered actions being their own cause within the AI simulator. (Thanks Guest_309018)
28. Fixed bug where inspecting equipment while waiting for the next round of battle in the Sandpit arena or entering a new battle would throw an exception. Also, if inspecting equipment on a unit while transitioning into a new battle, the unequip button will now disable to prevent potential de-syncs between the prior game state and new battle. (Thanks Garylove00)
29. Fixed bug where resizing the screen while editing a Summoner's starting deck would throw a series of errors that required the game to be restarted. (Thanks Guest_306026)
30. Fixed bug where it was still possible to stuck on shopkeeper by double clicking on the tile just above where the shopkeeper spawns when entering the mist of mayhem. (Thanks Arianna)
31. Fixed bug where Bigbeard had an extra Knockback (1) listed on his card. (Thanks Anotnio)
32. Fixed bug where loaded dice item is removed from inventory if you equip and un-equip regardless of if there is an active encounter. (Thanks Nabastag)
33. Fixed bug where null pointer exception could occur in the showUI method of the battleHUD when saving game settings by explicitly checking each of the properties and the isDisposed state. Also, removed unnecessary call to showUI in the updateHUD method. (Thanks pandaboy)
34. Fixed bug where player could get Error 1009 mouseMoveHandler() by checking all possible references and adding conditionals.
35. Fixed bug where exception could be thrown in the tint() method of UnitViews when transitioning out of battle.
36. Fixed bug where player could get a null exception while dragging cards.
37. Fixed bug where Error #3768 is thrown on iOS devices when attempting to set the toggle state of a DynamicLabelButton while the app is deactivated. This primarily occurred when setting the toggle state for the DevMessageService.
38. Fixed bug where Error #3768 is thrown on iOS devices when attempting to rasterize DynamicTextBlock while the app is deactivated. This primarily occurred when receiving Leaderboard results.
39. Fixed bug where Error #3768 occurred on iOS if attempting to rasterize a StoreImage while the app is in the background.
40. Localization: Changed Simplified and Traditional Chinese translations of Petrify from 惊恐 and 驚恐 to 石化. (Thanks jack)
41. Localization: Fixed translations in all languages for the Shatter spell that were broken in v2.84.3. (Thanks jack)
42. Localization: Added Simplified and Traditional Chinese translations of the Celestial spell "Purify". (Thanks jack)
43. Localization: Added translations in all languages for "Deck at max size" message. (Thanks jack)
44. Localization: Fixed Japanese translation of Hellfire Candle. (Thanks Guest_8084)
45. Localization: Fixed several more missing/incorrect Polish translations. (Thanks Ivellios)
46. Localization: Fixed translation of the Elixir of Eternal life to correctly specify that a bad roll now transforms you into a Skeleton instead of dealing 20 damage. (Thanks Ivellios)
47. Technical: For mobile devices, I now pause the persistent world clock in addition to the main game loop clock so that no animations play while the app is minimized (deactivated) to help prevent errors that might arise from the app attempting to animate while in the background.
48. Technical: Made some adjustments to the rasterization code to help improve memory and garbage collection and identify potential causes for failed texture loading errors.
49. Technical: Made optimizations to the AI Sync error code to further identify causes of any further/future potential AI sync related issues.
50. Gold Star: Congratulations, you made it to the end of the list! :)

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

We've successfully hit part 1 of my year-end goal for Abalon: 500+ reviews! Thank you all so much :)

Part 2: Can we make it to "Overwhelmingly Positive"? As of today, we're at 94%. We need just 1% more to make it to 95% and hit this goal! I'd greatly appreciate your help to write a Steam review. Let me know what you like about the game and also where I can continue to improve for you. If I've addressed your feedback, please update your review. You can also leave me feedback directly in game via Menu -> Share Feedback. I personally read and do my best to reply back to every single player request.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and ongoing support :)

~Ross