Update 1.7.0

We apologize for the four-month silence, work has been hectic in all fronts. There are many things to correct and many things to add to our game, and this update tries to bring forth all our work in this time period to fruition. Most possibly, this update surpasses all others in relation to content. We have new units coming along in the next weeks, a whole lot of abilities that more than double the last amount. And there are also many fixes to bugs.

Unfortunately, all this does not take away the fact that we are late in several of our timeline milestones. We said we were eager to provide map conquest support for gameplay that gets closer to our general game idea, and this update does not provide it, yet. Instead, we continue to build the foundations for a more complete gameplay when the first template for this game mode is complete. As always, we greatly appreciate your patience and your continuous support in our project. There is always a looming threat hanging on the heads of supporters of early access titles that stay silent for a long time, and we're once again here to dispel this possibility. Delays are part of all game development processes, and this is not an exception.

To better address those who purchased the early access title, a new timeline is going to be updated for a new revision, explaining in more details which parts are ready, which are underdevelopment, those that are delayed until further notice and others that are in the pipeline queue.

Last but not least, you saw in our May news the new units. They will start being available to each tribe starting in this update, with the Visigoths now gaining a Medium Infantry unit, the Haralauhts (Swordsman).

This soldier is a head-on warrior that has abilities fit for either smart duelling or shredding lighter units with both brawn and strength.

The other three tribes will gain units that are more flavorful towards their playstyle, as well, and will serve to solidify their identity in the game.

Finally, below are the patch notes for Update 1.7.0. There will be more regular updates after this one to add the new units, as well as new content, such as new maps, and possibly the new game mode. To make testing easier, once the travelling is better, you'll be able to join the test server to check how it works.

Fixes

• Breaking error when attempting to list inventory settings that included a deleted item. Invalid unit animation states machine mapping resulting in units unable to play animations that were meeting their conditions.

• Spikes when fetching the owner unit of a state machine for the first time, thus leading to some frames to be skipped; all units and their animators are cached on startup for better animation performance.

• Comparison of the unit by memory reference was failing even if it was the same physical unit, it now compares by ID throughout the game.

• Some animators had the wrong idle state names and thus struggling to change the state properly.

• Breaking error when generating a unit with deleted initial equipment/inventory items.

• Attack Chain Points were going negative if consumption were higher than the current value.

• Breaking error when viewing an ability tree that had an ability that no longer exists.

• Breaking error when searching for an icon for an opinion range that's obsolete.

• Retaliations were not costing the proper stamina cost bonus.

• Incorrect movement stamina penalty based on unit mount or class.

• Some passive effects were applied to the same unit multiple times if it moves in and out of the effect range.

• Opinions were forced to clamp to (0:100) when there were opinions that scaled down to -100.

• A bug where damage reduction and absorption were reversed when applied to damage.

• Square Average of some effects was 0 due to one of the effects is 0, resulting in others being neglected.

• All abilities had effects that were specific only to certain abilities.

• No morale was applied for an attacker with a successful attack with no damage.

• Breaking error when attempting to defeat an already defeated unit with multi attacks like Overwhelm.

• Command ability effects with different distances were applied to all units within the max distance.

• Movement stamina cost was consumed for the entire path even though the unit may get interrupted on the way.

• Some abilities had the wrong setup, for example, Quick Swing was ignoring accuracy instead of parry.

• Some passives were having the wrong ability type.

• Some abilities were free to unlock/level/use when they shouldn't.

Changes

• Ability cooldowns are now level-based.

• Removed unnecessary obsolete libraries causing in-build issues.

• Random number generator in all systems to provide less recurring values in small ranges.

• Defending chances are now separate rolls from the attack roll (misses should be less frequent, but

• defenses should occurr more; this means units becoming more tired has a bigger effect in longer

• drawn-out fights, when accuracy remains more consistent but defenses drop sharply).

• Attacks have specific attacker and defender stats, removing the possibility of an attack providing a willpower bonus by mistake, for example.

• Stamina Cost is no longer a stat, this fixes and removes confusion between effects that cost stamina and effects that require stamina.

Additions

• Support for equipment-specific toggles to automatically switch off if the requirement is invalidated.

• Support for ability-specific animations like Shield Bash.

• Item Kind Attribute for example short and longbows are all just bows.

• The new unit effect places on the unit's body (Aura Base and Parry Effect).

• Support for equipment-based animation states, not just for weapons, for example, there are units

• now that have animations when equipping a quiver, an empty quiver, or no quiver at all.

• Better unit animation state machine mapping, allowing

• Support for tuning in and out of shield wall state without breaking shield wall.

• Shieldwall blocking.

• Shieldwall formations, allowing unit groups to form shield walls if next to each other in a certain pattern.

• Support for weapon switching animations, these are animations that show the unit drawing the new weapon instead of immediate idle animation. A few units currently do not have this on, expect them to be added in the future.

• Support for applying accuracy penalty to opportunity attacks.

• Hamstrung stacks: disabling units movements and reduces movement range.

• Support for leader Instruction abilities, consisting of a permanent buff at the beginning of battle for one single unit until combat ends:

• Instructed units can trigger automatic attacks if they and the instructor are engaged to the same target and one attacks it.

• Instructions can be disabled based on units’ opinions of each other, which means opinions are now effective in battle.

• If either participator in the instruction is defeated, the other loses any bonus morale.

• Some instructions may provide different effects, such as immunity against negative effects like Stun/Fumble/Disorient, dealing true damage instead of the target's HP is at a certain % (robbing lives of enemies) or evenprovide bonus movement range and disallow bonus stamina cost when running.

• Leader Plans: A global buff to all units that lasts until the end of combat; these are two-edged, as they provide also a penalty for units, making them be more unidimensional in combat and planning.

• Bonus chances to avoid disengagement AOO.

• Accuracy penalty on disengagement AOO.

• Plans are abilities cast on the entire tribe units, changing plans is not possible except using the Change Plans plan.

• Brothers-in-arms bonus damage and accuracy when attacking targets that are engaged with teammates.

• Commander Unit Classes: commanding effects that passively apply to certain unit classes.

• Slayer Unit Classes: Passive effects granted to units that learn these abilities specifically making them more deadly against a unit class.

• Effects that alter the attack accuracy or damage mid calculation like Twisting Stabs.

• Effects over time from attacking like Striking Combinations.

• Effect to override an attack's damage and or stamina cost situationally.

• Movement range Effects to the unit's window.

• Effects that are able to deplete an attacker's ACP if the defender successfully parries an attack.

• Effects that instantly disable a target's Reactives (Faceslash, Advancing Parries).

• Effects that modify a unit's Max HP/Stamina during the battle.

• Effects that modify a unit's opinion of another during battle, like Camaraderie.

• Effects that instantly defeat the target if its hp is below a certain percent.

• Effects that allow units to swap positions.

• Effects that allow units to redirect projectile attacks from adjacent squares to self (redirected attacks are automatically covered, as of now).

• Effects that allow units to anticipate projectiles by being more reflexive.

• Effects that disallow missed projectile attacks to hit bystanders.

• Effects that convert an attack's damage to true damage.

• Effects that use equipment weight as damage (for example using shield weight in bashing).

• Effects that stun on critical or fumble on hit.

• Effects that freeze morale loss for a number of turns.

• Attacks that are followed by automatic Free Kicks.

• Attacks that use custom strength % in damage calculation.

• Attacks that trigger friendly AOO on target if they critically hit.

• Free kicks that are reducible in true damage by the target's armor.

• Support for random morale reduction resistance like Military Discipline (this is a huge change that resulted in all morale effects in the game are calculated by the server now).

• UI display of bonus notes regarding a stat/attribute effect, for example: whether or not the effect is for/against certain attacks/units classes.

• UI messaging of ability and stat effects should provide a clearer battle log (increasing messages over time).