Hey folks! Another big update today (several-version bump!) with a lot of cool new features for the demo! Check out the deets below:

New Features

• Combat phase has been rewritten.
  • Units that fight in melee range share a connected stage.
  • Units that fight at range each stand on separate platforms.
  • Units that are within combat range walk onto the stage, while units out of range appear standing in place.
  • Units take a step forward to attack at range, and two steps in melee, then return to their original position.
  • New star and dust particle effects.
  • Pushed unit stats to the corners.
  • The stage beneath each unit samples the average colour of the tile they are standing on.
  • Health bar windows and damage windows enter the screen independently instead of as a whole unit.
  • Rewrote the whole combat logic under the hood to use sequenced events instead of hacky frame-tracking flag nonsense.
• Added new rotary menu for the action menu and some former carousel menus.
  • Unit Skills submenu has been removed and all unit skills promoted to the primary level of the action menu. This may be reassessed in the future.
• New Map Added: Crypt of the Sun King (NOVICE).
• When hovering over various tiles containing an entity during the Unit Select or Map Survey phases, a help window will appear at the bottom of the screen describing that entity.
• Randomized name generation during Drafting now pulls from distinct lists for each unit class instead of a shared pool to be more thematic.
• Added ability to skip to next BGM song during a match in the Pause menu.
• Added prompt to try the tutorial when a player tries to start a New Game for the first time.
• Achievements can now be viewed during a match via the in-game pause menu.
• New BGM Ceremony added.
• New BGM Eastern Desert added.

Balance Changes

• Vampire Slumber command skill removed.
• Vampire Shadow Step command skill added. This action acts like Spirit Step, but allows you to jump to enemies as a free action. This means you can jump to an enemy to chain into other actions, such as using Drain after you Donate to an ally.
• Sorceress Aeromancy: Headwind skill removed.
• Sorceress Aethermancy: Transfer skill added. This allows a Sorceress to transfer negative status effects applied to allies and move them to herself instead. This adds another source of counter-play to status effects and gives Sorceress better team utility at range.
• Necromancer LCK reduced to 0 from 1.
• Overall balancing of Skulls From the Skull Throne adjusted to be more beginner-friendly. Recommended experience level reduced to NOVICE from INTERMEDIATE.
• Necromancer RET buffed back to 3. Reducing both RET and LCK was overkill.
• Villager now has the Shove skill.

Quality of Life Changes

• Cavalier and Bard units are now available to play in the demo from the start to give new players slightly more variety at the jump.
• Achievement requirements for Vampire and Sorceress have been changed.
• AI should stand in place less often when roaming, chasing and fleeing.

Bugfixes

• Fixed bug where Fencer’s second action after Exert + Fade Strike showed the attack preview based on where he started instead of where he is.
• Action tiles are no longer highlighted for Gate doors that can’t be interacted with.
• Made map filter names more consistent with descriptive names and fixed map unlocks accordingly where affected.
• Fixed sequence break/softlock in Vital intelligence map involving coordinating a Mage and Lancer to make a door impossible to open by the Sol army.
• A crash involving opening the Unit Skills submenu with a VIP unit can no longer occur since that submenu no longer exists.
• Fixed a bug in Rendezvous objectives where an army concedes and the game does not end.

Misc

• Updated lilypad sprites and added frog sprite to Vital Intelligence map. Shuffled some tiles and added disarmable traps to Vital Intelligence map.

For updates on game development progress and to join the community, consider following me on Twitter and joining the Talberon Games Discord Server. Don’t forget to Wishlist the game on Steam if you haven’t already!