Greetings, Adventurers!
It hasn't been long since our last update, but we've been able to implement several features and new content in these past few weeks and we'd like to keep you in the loop.
Two bigger changes have made it in - first, as promised we're expanding the variance on world map types and introducing the Crypt variant. The Crypt is now available for Skirmish mode runs and you're welcome to jump right in and give it a go!
Secondly, we finally got to replace the human faction models and portraits - the placeholder assets were a long way from our own hand-crafted ones, and we've been wanting to get to it for a LONG time.
Thank you for providing constant feedback and being a part of our journey, multiple aspects of this update have been guided by our fantastic Discord and Steam communities.
Major Changes (0.13.0.1, 0.13.1)
- New Crypt strategic map variant for Skirmish mode.
- Placeholder human faction models and portraits finally replaced.
- Implemented full descriptions for traits to clarify their effects.
Balance & AI
- Party creation cost reduced from 400 to 200 Beetcoins.
- All plot costs now start at 200 Beetcoins, and increase by 50 for every plot excavated.
- Savage's Claws now hit twice causing low damage when attacking, rather than once for high damage.
- The bleed effect caused by Claws now requires level 6 instead of level 4 and is twice as strong.
- 'The Skull Key' difficulty balanced by making the second group of enemies stay in place before being discovered.
- Building and guild upgrade effects now included in AI calculations.
- Strategic AI aggressiveness lowered in low difficulties, including early aggression on Normal difficulty.
- Strategic AI will play less defensively and leave fewer guards back home.
- Strategic AI will prioritize preserving its heroes and will avoid fights in which they are likely to perish except against player factions.
- Strategic AI now understands it should farm XP in easier fights even if they aren't guarding map rewards.
- Health increased by 1 for human, skeleton and goblin mages in Normal Difficulty.
- Adjusted low difficulty stats for enemy heroes and player creatures to make enemy heroes less potent.
- The Terrible trait will now cause the unit to push targets in a direction 45 degrees clockwise from the original path.
- Fixed an issue causing performance drops in strategic AI.
- AI party size is now properly affected by purchased upgrades, except for the initial party on game start which is decided by difficulty level (replenishing lost units will be capped by upgrades).
- Tester Access - Removed the Stun mutator.
Visuals & UI
- Ability icons will now gray out while units move to prevent misclicks or mid-action clicks that aren't properly registered.
- Added a 'Purged' status icon to make it easier to understand why a unit isn't stunned or otherwise debuffed.
- Whirlwind has a new visual effect.
- Electrocute visual effect cleaned up and improved.
- Fixed some broken tree models to fit better within tiles.
Bug Squashing
- Evasive Instincts bug causing Savages using it to become invisible to direct attacks fixed.
- World map camera will no longer get locked to the bottom of the map when returning from combat after casting Fireball as the last action.
- Mission stats will now properly change the amount of renown received, which didn't work in some cases. AI will also now properly get renown when fighting against the player.
- Taunt now works as intended after being broken.
- Fixed unwalkable tiles in forest and village maps.
- Passive abilities gained by leveling up will now apply immediately when chosen.
- Plank wall health adjusted, and they are no longer toppleable (as they weren't meant to be).
- Sight calculation is now symmetrical to prevent battles from starting with undiscovered (but activated) enemies. Also fixed an issue causing a gap between sight calculation and displayed range outlines when using ranged abilities.
- the 'Construction Available' info button is fixed and will open the town screen as intended.
- AI can no longer mistakenly interact with story missions.
- Leap, Lift and Telekinesis can now properly work for tiles that were previously mistakenly marked as unavailable.
- Standing in Shallow Waters will properly override Stun Protection.
- Sight behavior around doors improved to be more intuitive.
- Fixed a bug causing units that are pushed onto stairs in Village maps to sometimes drown and insta-die.
- Purge now properly removes all debuffs.
- Dodge Stance effect now properly lasts 1 turn.
- Fixed some Cave and Crypt walls.
- Fixed multiple tooltips, enemy cards and status effect descriptions.
That's it for today, on our plate for the next updates - local multiplayer and multiple enemy factions in Skirmish mode!
Hope you're having a great time and please, keep the feedback coming! The suggestions and thoughts we've been getting over at Discord and in our forums have been and are extremely useful, we'd love to hear yours :)
Onwards!