Patch Notes 1.0.013

 

Hello mercenaries!

 

We've just updated the game with a large patch that we've been working on for the past few weeks. A big thanks to everyone who helped us test it on the public test branch and gave feedback on the changes.

 

Before diving into the change log, we'd really appreciate you taking a moment to leave a review for the game if you're enjoying it. They help a lot with visibility here on Steam (especially with the Winter sale right around the corner), and we value your feedback! Thank you! :)

 

In case you missed our last update, here are the main things we aimed to address with this patch:

 

Early Game Progression

 

We've made some significant changes based on player feedback about the early game experience. Characters now begin with 3 abilities instead of 2, and receive a few more ability upgrade points in the early levels than they previously did. We're hoping that with more tools and combos at their disposal, these changes will help players get into the game a little easier (as the early game could be a bit slow going with only 2 abilities and limited charges).

 

Additionally, loot is now guaranteed from every combat (beginning after the tutorial), making it easier to gear up your company through combat instead of having to purchase the bulk of your equipment from markets in the early-mid game. You'll still end up buying a few pieces here and there to fill in the gaps, but we feel these changes make combat more rewarding (especially boss fights) and progression feel more natural.

 

We plan to make a few more tweaks to the tutorial and prologue in the future to improve the experience a little more, but for now we're happy with these changes.

 

Economy Tweaks

 

We've also made some changes to the game's economy, as it was too easy to stockpile coin and players had little use for it. Now that gear or enchants drop from every combat, coin rewards from quests have been lowered across the board, and the cost of repairing gear with coin has increased.

 

Instead of selling all the wood, iron, cloth, and scrap you come across, you'll now want to hang on to them to repair your gear, as it is generally far more cost effective (with the exception of a perfect storm of city events). Gear durability also wears out at a faster rate, so you'll be needing to make repairs a bit more often, making company upgrades like Forging far more worthwhile. Overall, we found that repairs were often not needed in the early-mid game, as you would typically acquire new and better gear before ever needing to repair your older stuff.

 

We didn't want to go too overboard on the economy just yet, so you'll likely still find yourself with a bit of excess coin eventually. We're planning to add some more meaningful and rewarding gold sinks in the future to give you something to spend your hard-earned coin on!

 

Combat Balance

 

Lastly, we've made a few changes to combat aimed at making late game encounters a bit more difficult, and to address player feedback about reinforcements. While we don't want to get rid of the mechanic entirely, we do understand that it can be a bit tedious at times with 2 or sometimes 3 extra waves of reinforcements commonly being added to the fight and slowing things down.

 

To remedy this, we've added Veteran enemies to the game which bridges the gap between normal and Elite enemies. This allows us to make encounters more difficult without having to add extra units to accomplish that. We've also increased the number of up front enemies in overworld encounters, so they won't be spread out so much via reinforcements, and you'll have more opportunities to use your AoE abilities on larger groups of enemies. Overall, there will be far less reinforcements than before, and they'll typically all come in one single wave if there are any.

 

 

Patch Notes 1.0.013

 

New

Added Veteran enemy types to bridge the gap between normal enemies and Elites (Veterans have a bronze flair on their HP bar and portrait). They have slightly increased Health, Defense and Power (values subject to change), but they do not possess traits like Elites

The party selection screen now displays the jobs of your selected characters under their portraits

Added a visual indicator of the path you will take when moving during dungeon exploration

Added a Company Upgrade that allows you to assign Jobs from anywhere in the overworld

Added an option to disable the screen flash effects that occur when killing a boss (Settings > Other > Strobing Effects)

 

Combat Changes

Made some adjustments so 4 and 5 skull encounters should be a bit more challenging. Previously we felt that the difficulty tended to peak in 3 skull encounters and gradually fell off after that as you got more powerful (especially 5 skull). We'll likely make some more adjustments to this in the future

If an encounter is set to have reinforcements, Elite enemies will now be spread out a bit more, with approximately 2/3 appearing up front, and the rest coming as reinforcements (previously all elites would appear up front)

With the addition of Veteran enemies there will now be fewer reinforcements on average (for the most part they'll all come in a single wave, with a few exceptions)

Adjusted overworld encounters so they have a few more enemies up front compared to the average dungeon fight

Lowered the Health multiplier for Elite enemies (2x -> 1.75x) but increased their Power multiplier (1.5x -> 1.65x) to compensate for it

Bosses can no longer spawn as Elites, and their stats now scale based on the skull difficulty of the encounter

Fire Terrain now persists for 2 Rounds by default

Replaced one of the Wildfire duration upgrades with a new upgrade called Flamewalker, which grants the Pyrolancer immunity to all fire terrain effects (the effect is always active)

Bandages now restore 1 Bleedout point in addition to its other effects

Optimized enemy AI a bit more so they should act faster on average

Sped up character movement across the board to help speed up the flow of combat

Helping up an adjacent downed ally now has a sound effect

Slightly lowered the Defense of Wealderes and adjusted their point values so they won't be as numerous (they were a little undervalued relative to their strength)

Wealderes are no longer immune to Root

Slightly increased the Health of Brightmanes

When using an ability that has no remaining charges, your defense and damage shields are now ignored (it will always do 40% of your max health regardless of any status effects)

Removed instant death as a penalty for some injuries (especially when you were given no notice of the risk)

The Deathlord and Conjurer now start with 0 Soul Fragments instead of 2 and 1 respectively, giving you a bit more time before they're able to raise the dead

 

Other Changes

Level 1 characters now start with 3 abilities instead of 2

The 4th, 5th, and 6th abilities are unlocked at levels 4, 7, 10

Frontloaded Ability Points a little bit more (they alternate between 2 and 1 each level until level 10, and then grant 1 per level from 11-20)

1-3 Skull encounters grant more XP than before, while 4-5 Skull encounters grant less than before. This makes the early game progress a little faster and slows down the latter levels

Adjusted the XP required to level up from 20-40 so it's not so easy to hit the cap

Rebalanced contract difficulty so you're given a good balance of quests that are appropriate for your level (while still having a chance to see things that are higher/lower). Previously it would push higher difficulty quests on you too much (for example, if you were around level 6, you'd start seeing mostly 3 skull quests, aside from some patrols or escorts)

Slightly raised the floor of recruits available from inns as you progress through the game

Euric now starts with Rare medium armor instead of Epic medium armor, and his age is slightly reduced

Changed the enemies you encounter in the first mission during the prologue from demons to creatures so there is a bit more enemy variety early on (the quest still has a Demon boss, however)

The first job a character is assigned is free, but switching Jobs afterwards now costs 500 coin (reduced by the Retraining company upgrade)

Slightly adjusted the coin value of some equipment

Lowered the Falchion's critical chance and increased its accuracy (and damage slightly) so it's more in line with other swords

Lowered the critical chance of weapons across the board (high tier ones in particular) as it was a bit too easy to get an extremely high crit % (nothing too drastic, the biggest change is masterwork bows and staves are now 10% and 12%, down from 14% and 16%)

Rebalanced the costs of repairing gear so using resources is generally more cost effective than spending coin: Using coin to repair in cities is now roughly 2x as costly as using a primary resource (Iron, Wood, etc) to repair something (it previously was around 1.5x the cost)

Gear now takes more durability damage from use (taking damage for armor and shields, and dealing damage for weapons). We felt that durability and repairs played too small of a role, especially in the early-mid game, as you would usually find new gear before ever needing to repair

Increased the drop rate of scrap (to help with repairs)

Every combat is now guaranteed to drop at least one piece of gear or enchantment scroll

Gear that drops from enemies has less durability (20-50%) so it's not as lucrative to sell

Bosses now have an increased chance to drop enchantments along with a piece of gear

Coin rewards from quests have been lowered across the board (guaranteed drops from combats help to offset the loss a bit)

Lowered the coin value of some enchantment scrolls

Adjusted the gear that was available in a city's Market so higher tier gear doesn't appear too soon

If a city doesn't specialize in any gear, then they receive a tier/rarity penalty of -1

Removed the random resources you would receive upon completing a quest (with the exception of escort type quests), and instead display a sack of coin to represent your reward

Increased the default capacity of your storage/inventory and increased the effectiveness of the Draft Horse company upgrades

The tooltip for equipment now says 'or' in between the resources needed to repair (since it's not a combined cost and you can mix and match)

When going to repair gear you can now click and hold the arrow buttons to quickly add or subtract materials

Using Tools in dungeons now consumes the provision (so you'll likely need to bring more than one!)

Increased the cost of Health Potions and reduced their effectiveness (especially with higher tier potions) since it was too easy to go from 0 to full even without points invested in Mending

Reduced the XP granted from the generic 'Knowledge' events found in dungeons

Lowered the XP bonuses from the Training Dummies upgrade from 20/35/50% to 10/20/30%

The tooltip for Death Terrain now displays the damage it inflicts

Enemy traits and combat conditions are now sorted by alphabetical order in the Codex

Set the difficulty level for the Dark Deeds unique quest chain at 4 Skulls (it should only be completable once now, but let us know if it continues to show up multiple times!)

Updated the timers for the Scourge so it reoccurs a bit sooner than before (on existing saves, this will only take effect at the end of your next Scourge)

Patrol quests now only spawn 1 combat (instead of 2)

Markers for patrol quests no longer spawn right next to a city where it can be obscured by the city event icons

Tweaked the Thieves' Den quest so it's not as difficult and gives a better indication that it contains multiple fights

The Savage and Cannibal traits should now appear more often on characters

Buffed the 'Scroll of Leeching' enchantment to heal for 66% of damage done with basic attacks (instead of 25%)

Added a new video tutorial during the tutorial dungeon on how to quickly view enemy traits and their effects

 

Combat Fixes

Stun and Freeze can no longer be overwritten by Taunt, Sleep, Charm, Fear (these latter 4 still overwrite each other as intended)

Charmed units will now move and attack their allies properly instead of sometimes passing their turn

Fixed a bug where Charmed and Feared enemies could sometimes move a lot further than they should be able to (or even teleport in some cases)

Fixed a bug where channels would get interrupted by Fear, Sleep, Taunt, Charm, Freeze, Stun even if the target had conditional immunity

Fixed some logic around buff durations and channels. Previously if you had a buff and used a channeled ability, the buff duration would tick down once when the channel started, and again when the channel finished. Buff durations will now only go down once when the channel completes.

If you have the Smart Arc upgrade for Arc Lightning, your allies' sprites will no longer be highlighted in red indicating friendly fire

The Pyrolancer's Fuelled by Fire passive now updates more often with the correct number of stacks

Fixed an exploit where having conditional immunity made you immune to taking damage when using an ability that had no charges left

Fixed a bug where Skewer was incorrectly doing 25% less damage to the second target

Fixed an issue where a Rooted character could not help up an adjacent downed ally

Fixed an issue where if you moved, undid the move, then moved again very quickly which resulted in you getting hit and downed by an Attack of Opportunity, you could still move the downed character

The Encore upgrade for the Balladeer's Renewing Melody ability now works properly

Fixed an issue where Cleansing Light's Twin Pillars upgrade wouldn't let you select the same target twice

Fixed an issue where using Rainfall would also clear Burn conditions on units that weren't targeted

Grievous Wounds will no longer be applied to a target that has conditional immunity

Fixed a softlock that was related to abilities and other mechanics that reflect damage

Fixed several softlocks that occurred from Attack of Opportunities

Fixed a softlock that could occur when getting knocked down from an Attack of Opportunity

Fixed an issue where a softlock could occur if multiple taunted units acted in a row

Fixed an issue where turns were sometimes being skipped after a taunted unit attacked

Nullbeasts can no longer use Deadzone Surge if they're Rooted

Bannerman and Hornblowers will no longer buff each other endlessly and should now prioritize other units

Units that run through Fire Terrain spawned from Wildfire now properly suffer Burn

Blighted Hulks should no longer be able to charge and get stuck in a charging animation for a few seconds if they hit a trap while charging

Ice Terrain and Water Terrain now lasts 3 rounds (previously was incorrectly lasting forever)

Fixed an unintentional interaction where Death Terrain would get cleared by Water Terrain when it was applied on top of Ice Terrain

Fixed the Risen Scourge's Boneyard ability so it no longer spawns in potentially problematic spots (such as on top of wood planks) which could cause various issues (like making the hole traversable once the object was destroyed)

The Conjurer is no longer able to perform Attacks of Opportunity

Fixed a bug where the enemy cap for individual units wasn't always working (ie. it was possible for 2 Anguished demons to spawn in a 1 Skull dungeon, but there now won't be more than 1 in that case)

A horn sound no longer plays when Dire Hoarwulfs use their Pack Hunt ability

Fixed an issue where some battles could spawn with unusable cells

Fixed a bug with "ghost" enemies in the final boss fight

Fixed a few bugs where you could pull Torin out of the sky when he was channeling his Death from Above ability (either by interrupting him with Blinding Light's interrupt upgrade or by removing his immunity buff and then cc'ing him)

Fixed an issue where enemies falling into ice pits could cause a softlock

Fixed an issue where if an enemies movement was interrupted (from something like Overwatch's Lockdown) it could lead to a softlock

Fixed an issue where bosses were counting as elites when filling out combat encounters, so there were less elites in boss fights then there should have been

 

UI Fixes

Shields and Legendary items now display their rarity/tier in the tooltip

Fixed a bug where enemy portraits were appearing as if they had taken damage when playing on a difficulty level that lowered their health (this might have been something that was only bugged on public test)

Fixed a bug that was making Serenade, Ice Wall, Cyclone, Frozen Tomb and Rainfall show a damage value in the tooltip and a damage preview when hovering an enemy (now only shows now if you get a damage upgrade for them)

Arctic Armor, Guardian Angel, and Safeguard now displays the proper damage shield value in the ability tooltip (and takes Mending into account)

Wildfire now shows a damage value in the tooltip and a damage preview on enemies when you have the Firestarter upgrade

Fixed a bug where falling rock hazards were incorrectly being included in the 'total reinforcements remaining' number next to the turn order

The Morale tooltip (when hovering the Morale bar on a character's portrait) now updates to show the correct value

Fixed an issue where the ability tooltips could be formatted incorrectly when moving quickly between them

The save/load window when playing on Ironman is now properly sized

Fixed an issue where sometimes the system menu icons (in the bottom left corner) would be visible during combat

You can no longer change characters in roster management screens without the correct number of abilities equipped, preventing an issue where people could get into combat without the correct number of abilities

Fixed a bug where ally NPCs could show up in the camping UI and could be taught abilities (which would usually cause softlocks when used)

Fixed an issue where the exit dungeon UI element would sometimes pop in multiple times upon completing a quest objective

Updated some text that still mentioned the campaign length being 25 years instead of 30

 

Other Fixes

Set up a warcamp theme for the Dunes and Marsh tileset

Fixed a few things around city specialty gear to ensure they show up in markets more consistently (shields in Jorhurst, for example)

Fixed some issues with city events where cities wouldn't always use the right parameters for market and recruit availability

Fixed a bug where refunding a character's attributes wasn't actually charging you any coin

Fixed an issue in one event where a character's name was displayed as a random string of letters and numbers when looking up their job

Fixed an issue with 'Dark Deeds' quest where the associated quest city would incorrectly change, and would incorrectly play the completion event upon arrival

Fixed a bug where the destination city for the first 'Path of Vengeance' quest (where you need to build your reputation) could incorrectly change to a different city

Fixed an issue where items could duplicate and go over the cap for a single stack

Named gear no longer drops at a higher rarity than what is appropriate for the encounter difficulty

Fixed an issue where default gear had repair costs at the market

Fixed an issue where repair costs for at the market could be incorrect

Fixed dungeon exploration pathfinding so it always tries to take the shortest route (if you still find yourself going down an undesirable path, you can hit Esc to stop moving)

Fixed the Scroll of Armor Penetration enchantment so it now correctly ignores 15% of the target's Defense (ie. If you attack a target that has 30 Defense, it is treated like they have 15)

Fixed a number of stat-based enchantments that weren't working (Speed, Evasion, etc)

Fixed a dialogue issue where sometimes the incorrect speaker would be chosen (particularly when it involved someone with a certain job acting and speaking)

Icebinders should now show up in the Northern Hold more often

Updated a few more Trait conflicts so they won't be applied to the same character (not retroactive)

Fixed an issue where the 'Crisis Averted' achievement for defending a city during the Scourge Crisis wasn't being given in some case (the fix is retroactive and should now be given when you load in)

Retroactively fixed the following achievements: Masters of their Craft, Devotion, The Librarian

Fixed a softlock that could occur from a certain quest during the Scourge Crisis in rare situations

Fixed an issue where if you won the Scourge Crisis and then loaded an autosave afterward before turning the quest in, the crisis would still be active with no way to interact with it

Fixed an issue where sometimes after finishing combat and completing your dungeon objective, you would be unable to move the camera

Fixed an issue where sometimes legendary items would become duplicated (any duped items will be retroactively removed)

Fixed an issue where some dungeons could spawn as a 'Long' dungeon (which no longer exists)

Fixed the 'Exhaustion' dungeon modifier so it properly reduces available ability charges by 1

Named Gear will no longer drop with 2 of the exact same enchantments

Fixed an issue so melee Named weapons won't come with an enchantment that increases the range of ranged basic attacks

Fixed an issue where some quests (such as A Blacksmith's Request) were issuing a random tier reward instead of something tied to the quest's difficulty

If tutorial tips are disabled you will no longer hear a sound effect as if it was still being shown

Fixed a rare issue where if you had a softlock and then loaded a save, some weird things could still occur

Fixed various typos and grammatical errors

 

Notes

We're going to need a few more days for the Vanguard/Wealden quest line. We'll be aiming for the weekend (Monday at the latest)

With this patch out of the way, we plan to start adding some additional quest content next week before we go on break for Christmas and New Years (with more to come when we get back!)

 

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We hope you enjoy the update and all the changes. As always, we thank you for your support and words of encouragement! It's appreciated and helps to keep us motivated as we continue to improve the game :)

 

-Curious Panda Games