Hello all! I'm pleased to announce the first major update to Within a Dead City is ready to roll out! This update introduces the goblin cult, a faction of fanatical monsters that plays by the same rules as your own heroes. When playing a game against them, you'll need to destroy their base before they destroy yours. I'm also excited that Within a Dead City can now be played in Japanese! I consider this update part 1 of 2 goblin updates. The second part will introduce a new Campaign mode, forcing the guild to claim sections of the Dead City against the goblin cult. At the end of the campaign, the mightiest heroes from the different campaign missions will join forces for a climatic battle against the goblin army - and perhaps even Nidhogg himself. I'm doing this update as two parts chiefly so that 1) people don't assume I've finished or abandoned the game and 2) I can get feedback on balancing the goblin faction. I'll need that feedback! The new faction has mechanics that add complications to the art of balancing. Namely, the goblins grow their base and their economy by stealing gold from monster lairs. (The goblins and the monsters are on friendly terms otherwise.) I've reduced the number of monster lairs in a Goblin Invasion game mode when compared to the standard conquest game mode, and that helps keep the goblin economy from exploding. However, that somewhat throws off the heroes' growth and power curve - they don't gain gold or levels as quickly when fewer monsters are lurking around. I think I've found a good balance of hero growth versus goblin growth, but do let me know what you think. Here's the full changelist for the update. - Japanese translation wooooooo - Goblins are in! The new game mode, Invasion, has the guild fend off a goblin cult. 4 goblin 'hero' types have their own exploration and mission system. 4 goblin buildings start popping up like mushrooms. Special abilities, like Whirlwind and Summon Snakes, make life harder for your heroes. - Summon Heroes and Homesickness spells now make the heroes forget about anything attacking them. This fixes a bug where you cast Summon Heroes to save a bloodied and beaten hero from being overwhelmed in combat and they safely arrive home at the base, but then they drag their broken body across half the map in a foolish attempt at vengeance. - Fixed another bug that could cause monsters to stick around after they died, standing around and doing nothing like some taxidermied trophy. - Fixed a bug where the 8th hero hired didn't get a hotkey. - When Summon Heroes brings a hero onto an unexplored square, it now gets explored. - Improved the wizards natural exploration rate from 0% to 5%. - Guard towers (friend and foe) now check that their target is (still) within range before attacking. - Support heroes (the bard and the cleric) were dying too often. Several fixes here: - Support heroes no longer accept support missions until they've bought two healing potions. - The bard gets more stat buffs on leveling up and a shorter cooldown time for Charm - The cleric gets more experience for casting Heal - Sandbox mode now has new buttons - one for each goblin unit and building (of course), and new 'Set' buttons that spawn a predetermined monster mob. In addition to Crab-pocalypse and Nidhogg, you can now spawn groups of monsters less likely to wipe out your base. From easiest to hardest, I've added... - Rat Horde: 25 rats and 5 rat kings - Magic Mob: 30 bats, 15 spiders, and 15 warlocks - Goblin Base: Loooootsss of mushrooms :) - Guardian Lairs: 20 monster lairs for high-level creatures (ghosts, cyclops, and black knights) - Goblin Army: 15 goblins ranging from levels 6 to level 12, well-equiped and on the warpath. That's all for now. I'll be doing another small update or two this week addressing some additional player feedback, and then it's off to work on the campaign.