0.5.0 Update Patch Notes
Hello, Heroes!
Firstly, let me introduce myself to those who don’t know me: I’m Gary “Cerith” Paskins, a game designer at Mediatonic, and I’ve been working on Fable Fortune since the beginning! It’s a great honour to be here today providing you with the latest updates from the team, and a pleasure to meet you all. Don’t worry about Wimbles, he’s just tending to his chickens.
It’s been a little while since our last update, but we’re back with lots of good stuff! Daily Bounties are a new source of Silver income, providing you with some objectives to strive for during your battles. Mass Salvage will be a welcome addition for many veteran and future players alike: you can now salvage all extra copies of cards you do not need with a single button press. Fabled & Mythic guarantees have been added to card packs to ensure that you are always adding rare cards to your collection. Some other handy additions include Windows 10 friend invites, increased turn timers in training and Co-Op and a swifter end-of-match results sequence.
This is also the first big balance patch in a while, the focus this time around is primarily on neutral and Quest Reward cards, with a few tweaks here and there to some Heroes cards.
As always, sound off in the comments to let us know what you think. And keep an eye out on http://www.fable-fortune.com, as well as our Facebook and Twitter for future updates. Our dev roadmap also has a list of upcoming features.
Happy chicken chasing!
- Gary “Cerith” Paskins, Game Designer (Mediatonic)
Features & Updates:
Daily Bounties:
Daily Bounties are sets of objectives you will acquire each day you log in, completing these will award you with a bunch of Silver. The first time you log in each day, you will be presented with a Daily Bounty, where you can decide whether to take 1 of 2 versions of that bounty, depending on how long you have to play that day. For example, you may be presented with the quests to “Win games with Shapeshifter”, one bounty will be to win 1 game, the other will be to win 3 games. Taking the longer bounties results in a higher Silver reward, and there are also even bounties that award a card pack! With the introduction of Daily Bounties, we will be retiring the daily log-in bonus of 300 Silver.
Daily Bounties can be completed in PVP and Co-Op modes, including friend battles, and you can store up to 5 bounties. Additionally, new and returning players will find 5 Daily Bounties waiting for them upon logging in to get you started.
- Bountiful - Players can now take on a Daily Bounty to complete for large Silver rewards.
Mass Salvage:
Do you have a bunch of excess cards that you have no need for? Well then, we have just the thing for you. You can only have 2 of each non-Fabled card in a deck, and only 1 of each Fabled card in a deck. Any further copies can be salvaged all at once with the Mass Salvage button, now found in the crafting. You needn’t worry about your cards’ experience, Mass Salvage will only salvage the lowest experience copies, meaning the two highest experience copies you’ve worked hard leveling up will remain in your collection.
- Massively Convenient - Players can now salvage all surplus cards with the “Mass Salvage” button found in crafting.
Fabled & Mythic Guarantees:
We’re excited to announce that, starting with this patch, we’re adding guarantees to your card packs, to ensure you’re working towards opening Fabled and Mythic cards! You’ll now know that within a certain number of packs, you are guaranteed to open a Fabled and Mythic card.
- Feeling Fabled - Players are guaranteed to open at least 1 Fabled card every 20 card packs.
- Mythic Matters - Players are guaranteed to open at least 1 Mythic card every 10 card packs.
Friend Invites:
With this update, Windows 10 players now have access to friend invites, apologies for the delay! Players on either Xbox One or Windows 10 can play against each other in PVP battles, or with each other in Co-Op.
- So Friendly! - Players on Windows 10 now have access to friend invites.
Turn Timers:
Training should be a place of learning in your own time, with much less pressure on timers running out on you. We’ve increased your turn timer to 5 minutes in Training mode, as well as increasing Conjure, Invest, mulligan and Quest-related timers to 1 minute and 30 seconds. This should help give you the time to read and better understand your cards and choices.
We’re also increasing Co-Op turn timers by 30 seconds, so you and your partner now have 2 minutes per turn in order to plan how you’re going to bring your foe down.
- Take Your Time Learning - Players now have 5 minutes during turns on Training, as well as 90 seconds for Conjure, Invest, mulligan and Quest-related timers.
- Team Planning - Players now have 2 minutes during turns while facing a boss in Co-Op.
Faster End-of-Match Sequence:
We’ve removed a couple of screens from the end-of-match sequence, in order to speed the whole process up. You’ll now see Silver earned from the match, medals gained/lost, and any rewards gained via Hero level up or other means. The card experience screen has been temporarily removed while we explore other options - it was a confusing screen that people only really knew what it meant after they had found out from others in the community. We’re exploring clearer ways of displaying card experience, so please bear with us until we have more news to share on this. Your cards will still continue to gain experience and level up through Wood, Stone and Gold.
- Spare me the details - The end-of-match sequence has been sped up.
Battle Messages:
There are now messages that display for various actions that occur in battle, such as turns starting, invalid targeting, etc. This should hopefully help players better understand what actions are occurring and why certain actions cannot be performed.
- Give me the details - Battle messages now flash up during battles.
New Cards:
We’ve not made any announcements about new cards thus far, so here’s a collation of all recently released new cards. These cards can be obtained for free by participating in their relevant PVP Leagues and Co-Op challenges as they pop up; don’t worry if you miss them though, Co-Op rewards will be available for crafting and in card packs 2 weeks after their initial release, and PVP rewards will be available at the end of the season. We hope you enjoy the new cards, let us know below what your favourite ones are so far!
- Rosewight Cager - (3) 3/8, “Last Laugh: Your opponent summons a unit from their deck.”
- Cloud of Bats - (4) 2/1, “At the end of your turn, summon another Cloud of Bats.”
- Rebel - (1) 1/2, “Big Entrance: Shuffle three Rebels into your deck. Gain +1/+1 for each other Rebel you control.”
- Rhubarb Forager - (4) 3/3, “After this unit is targeted with a spell, heal your Hero for 2 and draw a card.”
Card Changes:
Alchemist:
ENHANCE. ENHANCE!
Miracle is overall performing relatively well, she could use a few buffs here and there, though. So to start off, B.O.G.O.F now gives Enhanced Vials. Double the efficiency for the same gold cost. Truly “buy one get one free”.
Liquid Fire served as a low-cost, low-damage removal spell, however, 2 damage doesn’t get you very far these days. We’re redesigning it into a higher damage, slightly more volatile area damaging spell: it now does 3 damage to all characters - units and all Heroes.
Card changes:
- B.O.G.O.F - Now gives an Enhanced Vial of Strength, and allows you to choose from 1 of 4 Enhanced Vials.
- Liquid Fire - Redesigned to (4), “Deal 3 damage to all characters.”
Knight:
Too hearty
Ok, real talk. We know Marshall is strong. Wimbles alluded to potential changes coming to Knight in his State of the Game Review not long ago, we’re not ready to share any details just yet, but I am here today to confirm to you that we are indeed reworking a large number of Knight cards. Our intention is to give them more options and play styles, and hopefully encourage some more meaningful decisions to make each turn other than “summon a Peasant Sapper, put it in Guard.”
With that in mind, you’ll notice that we’re not doing any sweeping changes with this patch. This is because we don’t want everyone to have to learn a whole bunch of changes with another big set of changes on the horizon. However, we are going to hit two cards this patch, in an attempt to at least slow them down a bit.
Card changes:
- Hearty Breakfast - Gold cost increased from 2 to 4.
- Veteran Battler - Health reduced from 4 to 3.
Prophet:
”Could you Vial of Confusion my Sand Fury, please?”
Sand Fury just needs to be that little bit more durable to fully make use of its ability, so we’re swapping its stats around. Voila, it’s now a 4/5.
Minion can get a little out of control in Co-Op in its current state, and while we like its place in PVP, having a 17/4 Minion in co-op can trivialise things slightly, so the check for its ability is now based on its Strength, rather than its Health.
Sand has a Strength reduction theme in his kit, and now we’re redesigning Smite the Cynic to try and hone in on that a bit more, and also to give it a little more utility.
Card changes:
- Minion - Now gains +1/+1 if it has less than 5 Strength, rather than Health.
- Sand Fury - Strength reduced from 5 to 4; Health increased from 4 to 5. Text updated to correctly reflect the ability: “After this unit is targeted with a spell, gain +2 Strength.”
- Smite the Cynic - Redesigned to (1), “Deal 2 damage to a unit, then reduce its Strength by 2.”
Shapeshifter:
A CRIMSON BUFF?!
Don’t panic, it’s just a small buff to Savage Charge. This is a cool card that just isn’t seeing a lot of play. 1 less gold cost for you.
Card changes:
- Savage Charge - Gold cost reduced from 8 to 7.
Neutral:
Shh, shh… it’ll be OK
Lots of stat changes and tweaks here, notably Bank Clerk having its cost increased by 2. Right now it’s sort of crazy how much value it provides for its very low cost, and this was a knock on from when we changed quests to make them much more appealing to complete quickly, thanks to the new quest reward spells.
The other noteworthy nerf is to Magehunter. Silence is an incredibly powerful mechanic, and although we do want every class to have access to it, via neutral cards, right now there is no reason to not run two of these in every deck. The lower stats should now make including Magehunter a real decision as to whether or not your deck needs the extra removal.
We’ve also buffed some lower cost units in an attempt to widen your options for early game strategies: Apprentice Will User, Battle Medic, Corrupted and Depraved Cultist should now make for some powerful and interesting turn 1 and 2 plays.
Shopkeeper has been redesigned into a true Co-Op card. This is something we’ve been wanting to try out for a while now, so please let us know what you think of ally-affecting cards.
Card changes:
- Apprentice Will User - Strength increased from 1 to 2.
- Bank Clerk - Gold cost increased from 2 to 4.
- Battle Medic - Strength increased from 1 to 2.
- Corrupted - Strength increased from 2 to 3.
- Depraved Cultist - Health increased from 3 to 4.
- Flagellant - Strength reduced from 2 to 1; Health increased from 5 to 6.
- Magehunter - Strength and Health reduced from 3 to 2.
- Reformed Criminal - Strength and Health increased from 4 to 5. Now has -5 Strength while undamaged.
- Shopkeeper - Redesigned to (3) 3/3, “Big Entrance: Your ally draws 2 cards.”
- Voice of Avo - Gold cost reduced from 6 to 4; Strength reduced from 3 to 2; Health reduced from 4 to 3.
Quest Rewards:
Half-Emptying the Tombs
Quest rewards should be very powerful effects that influence how you’re going to play each game, and the feel of each location. We’re happy with a lot of them, but a few stand out as overpowered (even for quest rewards), or just leave something to be desired.
Brandish feels inconsequential to use because of its very low gold cost; we’re upping it to 3 gold so that the turn you decide to use it feels like you made a powerful play by playing the card, by weighing it up against your other options. This also reduces its power as a first quest reward.
Empty the Tombs stood out well above any of the other quest rewards as the most powerful, so much so that it was basically whoever played it first won the game. We want them to be powerful, but not a win condition as strong as it currently is. Rather than filling your board, Empty the Tombs will now summon 3 friendly units that died this game. Sorry, Good Dog!
Guards, Guards! significantly slowed down the early turns in the Graveyard, and did not offer much decision-making with its ability. We’ve redesigned it so that now you get to Conjure a guard. These are a selection of collectible cards that are guard/knight/army themed, so you can pick a card that’s helpful to your current situation.
Card changes:
- Brandish - Gold cost increased from 1 to 3.
- Empty the Tombs - Now only summons 3 friendly units that have died this game, instead of 6.
- Guards, Guards! - Redesigned to (1), “Conjure a guard”. This Conjure offers a lot of the guards and knights found in the game.
Bug Fixes:
Cards:
- Barter’s Hero power now displays the correct image.
- Brandish will now correctly trigger Sand Fury’s ability.
- Flask Golem no longer visually buffs the wrong card for different players in Co-Op.
- Returning Colin Mk 2 to a player’s hand will no longer cause an error.
- Sand Fury no longer sometimes has its Strength buff applied twice.
- Sand Fury no longer still gets +2 Strength after being silenced by Blackmail.
- White Hart’s ability now takes into consideration other friendly units, rather than just enemy units.
Misc:
- Boss Hero Powers now display correctly while holding LT on Xbox One.
- Cancelling playing a unit with a targeted Big Entrance no longer causes quests to progress.
- Card frames will no longer sometimes incorrectly highlight on the wrong cards after opening a card pack.
- Instantly confirming your mulligan on Xbox One no longer incorrectly positions the first card in your hand on top of your other cards.
- Nostro’s boss power now has its own icon.
- Opponent’s conceding while you are picking a card from Conjure or Invest will no longer cause an error.
- Players can much easily navigate between individual cards in the Salvage screen one Xbox One.
- Rapidly backing out of the delete deck confirmation pop-up no longer causes an error.
- Returning Hobbes to player hands whilst other Hobbe effects are in play should no longer cause an error.
- Stone cards now have their Strength and Health numbers aligned correctly.
- The Guildmaster’s boss power now has its own icon.
- The Lady of Rosewood’s boss power now has its own icon.
- The options menu is no longer automatically dismissed when your opponent’s turn starts.
- The Salvage button no longer shows items as part of the image on the button.
- Trial users should not longer encounter an error the first time playing after upgrading to Early Access.
- Units now receive multiple tooltips when they have multiple of the same effect applied to them.
- When losing medals in the Hero League, the line will now decrease in the correct order when dropping down a boundary.
- When switching between pages in your card collection, card outlines will no longer linger if there is no card to display on the next page.
- When your Hero takes damage, the damage text will no longer clip through your Hero’s art.
- Windows 10 users will no longer sometimes fail to load into games, causing their opponent to see them instantly concede.
- Xbox One players can now instantly go from Store to Cards when on the main menu by tapping left and/or right.
Known Issues:
- Cards that have a temporary cost change in your or your ally’s hand sometimes do not update correctly.
- If you have entered the Hero League, finishing a Training game will incorrectly show an inactive medals screen.
- In Training, having a card picker (Invest/Conjure/Evil Alchemist Hero Power/etc.) on screen as your turn ends will cause an error.
- Returning Colin MKII to the player's hand whilst an aura is in effect may cause an error, causing you to lose.
- Suggestion lines are currently disabled in Co-Op.
- White Hart does not include damage done to itself in healing calculations.
Found a bug? Let us know via our helpdesk!