Our 1.0 release is just 8 days away.
As part of our launch patch we have some big gameplay changes, which we are rolling out today on our "unstable" beta branch. If you want to take a look and give us feedback, we'd appreciate it.
We will *NOT* be including the new Drauven campaign or achievement features in this preview, and there may be some bugs, so be warned!
NOTE: these changes are ONLY on the unstable branch. They will go live when 1.0 ships on June 15.
1.0 Spoilers Below:
Generic Campaign Rework
We've revamped our generic campaigns, and it's a huge improvement!
Now instead of seeing generic events, each chapter will have an omen, capstone, and victory events that fit together, with a custom capstone mission. Some chapters also include custom keystone missions. These chapters will be mixed together to create a whole campaign. Some are monster specific, and some work for any monsters, but they all have unique battle maps and stories that match what's going on in the overall campaign.
Over 25 "chapters" are planned for launch, and most of those are working today.
Ability Upgrades are here!
When a hero levels up, they will now often see 4 choices instead of 3. The 4th choice is for upgrading an existing class ability or theme attack. This is a very big change to how heroes are built, and we think it will allow players to be more intentional with their builds, and differentiate heroes more.
As part of this, we've made some balance changes. In particular, we're halving the base scaling of theme attacks, but we now allow you to pick an ability which doubles the scaling (to where it used to be) as well as adding +1 base damage to that attack. So theme limbs won't be as good "out of the box", but they can keep up if you invest in an ability. Check out the full changelist below for details.
Mortal Choices and Final Moments
Wildermyth handles Death and Injury in a unique way, and we're leaning in to that. In place of our old plain mortal choices, we're rolling out a large number of more specific events. These events depend on the character and the situation, and give the hero one last chance to shine. Some updated Mortal Choices have been showing up in recent patches, and we're releasing many more today.
In addition to the Mortal Choices you know and love(?), we're adding Final Moment events, which occur when a character is not eligible to fall back. These give the hero some final words and sometimes offer a choice, although it's never a good choice. (The point isn't to make the death mechanically powerful, only memorable.)
Here's the full changeset:
1.0 Preview Build
Generic Campaign Events and Maps! (~20 chapters done, more coming)
Many more Mortal Choices added
Final Moments (Death Events) added when a hero can't fall back
Abilities can now be upgraded on level up! Ability rebalance!
(A fourth slot for upgrades has been added to the level up screen)
WARRIOR ABILITIES
* Upgraded Backslam: Knock an enemy into another to deal damage
* Upgraded Battledance: Gain free movement after 1st melee attack
* Upgraded Bloodrage: new active ability +2 dmg, can't die this turn
* Upgraded Broadswipes: Double broadswipes damage
* Upgraded Engage: Engages all adjacent enemies, grants +2 armor for each
* Upgraded Paladin: Guardian activates even if you attacked this turn
* Upgraded Raider: double scenery damage, can start fires on enemies
* Sentinel No longer interrupts enemy movement, range reduced
* Upgraded Sentinel: Interrupts movement, +1 Range
* Upgraded Shieldshear: No cooldown, can use multiple times per turn
* Stalwart now grants a hero armor & warding at the cost of speed
* Upgraded Stalwart: While active, you are immune to status effects
* Upgraded Thundering Challenge: Becomes a small area of effect
* Upgraded Untouchable: Effect doesn't wear off
* Vigilance no longer scales with potency, 2 uses per turn
* Upgraded Vigilance: 4 reaction strikes per turn
* Upgraded Wolfcall: Grants +1 flanking damage to affected heroes
* Upgraded Zealous Leap: Clears pin, can be used every turn
HUNTER ABILITIES
* Upgraded Ambush: Interrupts movement
* Upgraded Archery: +30 defense against ranged attacks
* Upgraded Crippling Strikes: +2 damage vs hobbled foes
* Upgraded Ember Arrows: new active to jump to a nearby blaze
* Upgraded Flashcone: Puts all affected heroes in grayplane, +1 use
* Upgraded Foxflight: Grants 3 automatic dodges instead of 2
* Upgraded Jumpjaw: +1 use, shreds 1 armor
* Upgraded Piercing shots: Ranged attacks shred 1 armor
* Upgraded Quellingmoss: +1 poison to attacks and aoe
* Upgraded Rogue: Attacks against damaged enemies deals +1 damage
* Thornfang no longer scales with potency, 1 use per turn
* Upgraded Thornfang: Can be used three times per turn
* Upgraded Through Shot: hit all in a line -1 dmg each
MYSTIC ABILITIES
* Upgraded Arches: Single action, no cooldown
* Upgraded Compulsion: Becomes a swift action, still once per turn
* Upgraded Earthscribe:
** grants improved HP and range to Bonewall
** +2 temp hp to the Rock Shield ability
** Calcify grants extra +1 armor, warding, and tmep hp
* Upgraded Elementalist:
** Infernal Rain now an area of effect
** Splinterblast and splintersalvo +1 damage and hobble.
* Upgraded Humanist:
** Shackles now a single action
** Shardnado doesn't expire
** Increases the area of effect of Stunning Barrage.
* Upgraded Ignite: You can now ignite tiles without debris
* Upgraded Indignance: Damage and Range increase by 1
* Mythweaver: Loredump stuns for two turns on hit
* Upgraded Mythweaver:
** Loredump damage and range increased
** Increases the damage and hobble of Greater Constrict.
** Lightning Learning: book or statue, +3 potency to ally, decays
* Upgraded Naturalist:
** Wild Grasp becomes a swift action.
** Roots and Shoots: single action AOE creates plant scenery
* Upgraded Openmind:
** Increased range of Interfuse
** Withdraw now free
* Upgraded Soulsplitting: 2 damage prevented for each interfusion
* Upgraded Spiritblade:
** Blazing Sword and Burning Arrow now single action attacks
** Heroes walling with an intefused object gain +10 stunt.
* Upgraded Vigorflow: +1 damage and +1 speed per intefusion
COMMON ABILITIES
* Upgraded Aid: +1 use per combat
* Upgraded Bard: Swellsong: +50 stunt to nearby allies
* Bowmaster name changed to Sharpshooter
* Sharpshooter improves all ranged abilities
* Upgraded Sharpshooter: +1 Range with ranged attacks
* Upgraded Endurance: +1 armor and +2 warding
* Upgraded Hardiness: +50% health, +healing rate, +5 retirement age
* Upgraded Heroism: +1 action points
* Upgraded Inspiration: increase aura size and grant 1 warding
* Upgraded Long reach: + 1.6 range to all abilities and attacks
* Upgraded Riposte: when hit, +20 dodge until missed, stacks
* Tinker now grants an ally +3 armor and +2 warding
* Upgraded Tinker: +1 use per combat
* Upgraded Viciousness : +1 damage on melee attacks
* Upgraded Windwalk: +1 use per combat
* Upgraded Wisdom: +10 retirement age, +15 charisma
THEMES
* Theme attack scaling has been halved.
* Themes attacks all have an upgrade ability now
* Upgraded theme attack doubles scaling and +1 base damage
New music for the Legacy Browser!
Cower goes away when Dart uses prepared shot and vice versa
Specterstep cooldown is slightly increased
Deafened is now a status effect
Being stunned removes the Dart's Cower ability
Haunts are now easier to see while using Specterstep
Stormthroat bird no longer stacks
Generic campaigns can now start with any classes
Temp armor will be used up before permanent armor
Ability buttons now show remaining uses and cooldowns
Horn child flanking attacks now hobble instead of pinning
Gorgon pin lasts for one turn instead of two
New incursion defense map
Incursion and Calamity timers now always show in the HUD
New interfusion particles
Multiplayer: Camera adjustments
Fix a bug where Weldling's firewall targeted heroes incorrectly
Fix a bug where the Chastised could target heroes in grayplane
Fix a bug where the Chastised could ignore being Engaged
Fix a bug where monsters standing on two fires don't take damage
Fix a bug where taking poison damage would remove blind
Fix a bug where dealing damage to scenery would remove blind
Fix a bug where Terrorbird's inspire would remove blind
Fix a crash bug
Fix some typos
Tools: 8-tile monsters can now be created