Necromancers,
This update brings a free content expansion and addresses friction points. I took Steam's reviews, condensed it to a checklist and made it my mission to address the issues (list at the bottom). Huge thank you to those active in the community providing feedback!
NEW
New playable unit - Deathbringer. A unit that excels at melee combat and draining human life.
Blood. Ground gets covered in blood. Off by default, enabled in settings.
Gameplay
NEW: Enemy units now block walking paths
Enemy units now act more reasonably when they can't reach any of the player units.
NEW: TAB key now cycles the units
Missions
NEW: Destroy target. A single object with a considerable amount of health to destroy.
NEW: Kill VIP. One of the enemies becomes a VIP that has increased health and behaves defensively.
Survive and Defend missions are now only available during events.
Audio
NEW: music for main menu, combat and boss fights
Ambient sound fixes and improvements
Fixed footstep sounds missing for certain characters
Abilities
Warrior:
NEW: Shield Wall - Holds a shield up deflecting all ranged damage and negating melee damage. Using this ends the turn.
Mage:
NEW: Storm Step - Teleport the unit and deal half of attack damage to nearby enemies at the destination.
Hellfire projectiles are no longer blocked by cover and friendly units
Archer
NEW: Human Trap - Places a human trap on the ground. Deals double of attack damage.
Visual improvements to some abilities
Berserker
NEW: Berserk - Goes berserk, parries all attacks and counter strikes an enemy in range during the enemy turn. Using this ends the turn.
Visuals
Visual improvements for the out of bounds areas
Background atmosphere particles
Lighting adjustments
UI
Damage/healing over time now displayed on unit cards for better visibility
Camera overhaul to reduce jitterness, jankyness, jumping and zooming
Performance
Game optimizations to improve performance up to 300% in some cases.
Achievements
Meet human rogue
Meet human militia
Win as 4 berserkers
Win as 4 deathbringers
Bugs:
Reinforcements units can no longer spawn on friendly units
Mission descriptions fixed
Community Feedback
Feedback makes any game better. People who take time to provide feedback one way or another are absolutely amazing. I've compiled most feedback into a checklist and tried resolving all of it during this year. Here's the list and what I've done to address it ːsteamthumbsupː:
Unbalanced difficulty – enemy damage, spawn rates, and mission scaling make levels nearly impossible. ːsteamthumbsupː Balanced all unit health and damage output, added more types of units with different power levels so new enemies do not feel like a big difficulty spike. ːsteamthumbsupːMission scaling adjusted, especially in Easy and Normal modes ːsteamthumbsupːEvent missions no longer have bosses in them.
Enemy spawn proximity – enemies appear too close to player units, causing instant wipes. ːsteamthumbsupːEnemies now always spawn from a portal, includes an onscreen marker.
Enemy pathing bugs – enemies move through player units, breaking tactical play. ːsteamthumbsupːAll units now block enemy unit paths.
Mission design flaws – large enemy numbers in confined spaces remove strategic options. ːsteamthumbsupːExpanded on abilities for undead units to deal with large enemy numbers or with sticky positioning.
Slow progression – leveling speed too low for difficulty curve. ːsteamthumbsupːUnit leveling speed increased. It is now also tracked and visible in UI.
Lack of player control – units are assigned randomly; no option to choose team composition. ːsteamthumbsupːUnits are now a random draft of 2 (on Normal) instead of completely random.
UI problems – poor responsiveness; requires simultaneous use of mouse and keyboard; unresponsive buttons. ːsteamthumbsupːImprovements to key bindings and bug fixes
Crashes and freezes – frequent crashes during unit selection and enemy turns. ːsteamthumbsupːMultiple of "hung game" and crashes fixed with no currently known game-breaking bug.
Bugs with turn logic – game getting stuck on enemy’s turn. ːsteamthumbsupːPathfinding and AI logic improved to end the turn if there are no logical moves.
Inconsistent mechanics – environmental effects (e.g. “fog”) penalize player but not enemies. ːsteamthumbsupː All environmental effects now fully apply to both sides
Mission repetition – limited mission variety; same types appear repeatedly. ːsteamthumbsupːTwo new mission types
Insufficient testing – unpolished mechanics and balance indicate inadequate QA. ːsteamthumbsupː14 patches later and a lot of help from community (thanks Javi)
I hope this update sparks some joy as I now feel the game is where I wanted it to be at launch.
Thanks,
Egi