I’ve been a bit late with v2.7.2. It’s actually been out and in beta for a while, but it has only been pushed live recently. It has 10 adjustments, 9 changes to map generation, 37 bug fixes and 5 modding changes. This is as an apology for allowing at least one sort of common bug into v2.7.1. When that happened, I knew I had to be more careful with v2.7.2. Thus, it’s taken longer - but it’s here, finally. Here are the full v2.7.2b patch notes. Below that, I’ll be writing about v2.8. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/52de8d72fbcd5e540ae1b1ff5a98cdc357f346f5.png[/img] [h2]v2.7.2b CHANGE LOG[/h2] [h3]ADJUSTMENTS:[/h3] [list][*] Changed Pain Aura so it now actually doubles damage taken in combat instead of applying a -50% rallying aura. This is also a nerf [*] Now the game remembers the last picked map so when exiting a map and opening the New Game menu, it automatically selects the last picked map [*] Added a slight bit of variability in the power of Potent Soul, making it so that a unit such as the Shadeamander now sometimes will be able to resurrect units it previously would not because they were just beneath the cost threshold [*] When several heroes are dead, the Tavern will now offer the highest level hero first, instead of the order being random and potentially different when saving and reloading [*] Changed the code so the gold spawned after a battle always is spawned by the feet of the victorious player [*] Standardised outcomes for gold spawned after combat [*] Bloodwarping now scales better for rank II and rank III, to offset the difficulty of ranking it up as a subskill [*] Torblok now has Bearguards as unit for players without Rogue Realms instead of Militia [*] Creativity can no longer offer Infest, Tinker, Exploitation or Crystal Assembly for players who do not own the RR DLC [*] Adjusted the power of the Reap spell down by about 20%[/list] [h3]MAP GEN:[/h3] [list][*] Made sure the "Check Missing Coastal" subroutine during map generation does not only work for docks placed automatically, but also for docks in forcelists or docks in map elements [*] Made sure the "Check Critical Failure" subroutine also activates to restart map generation in case a map-element-created structure is not possible to be placed on the map [*] Readjusted the placement of map cells during map generation to make them slightly better spread across small maps [*] Readjusted the code for connecting cells to make it more accurately connect cells supposed to connect together together [*] Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow the rare sea town to be generated on the bottom edge of the map, leaving an inaccessible town [*] Adjusted map generation to make it less common that part of areas aren't connected such as on maps like Mare Nostrum [*] Reduced time before giving up on clear-pathing to objects [*] Adjusted placement of water encounters to avoid cases where some of the resources would end up being placed on the coastline [*] Fixed Order units spawning at sea for players playing without the RR DLC on some maps[/list] [h3]BUG FIXES:[/h3] [list][*] Fixed a bug preventing AI from using Monuments correctly, leading to the AI not being able to play maps like Exile correctly. This should also make the AI slightly stronger on other maps by more effectively being able to use the offered map opportunities [*] Fixed a bug that made the Underdog skill prevent heroes from bringing in single-battle entourage units [*] Fixed a bug that made the Underdog skill sometimes calculate the relative difficulty of a fight differently than the overworld difficulty estimation [*] Made sure the AI won't cast Regroup! at random [*] Fixed Cult Recruiter being able to convert heroes [*] Banditry will now give Mercenaries if the player does not own the Rogue Realms DLC. This is a temporary work-around until a more appropriate solution can be implemented in v2.8 [*] Reworded the Skirmish achievements to detail which Skirmish had to be fought to get them [*] Turn Living can now no longer affect Hexed units [*] Fixed several players starting as Random Rogue on the same map always ending up as the same hero [*] Fixed minor typos in map descriptions [*] Fixed only a single Raffe Rest getting restored even if the hero had picked up several Raffes before entering battle [*] Reworded the Industrial Smithy perk to better reflect its effect [*] Fixed units with Lash sometimes standing too far away to hit their intended target, making it look like they repeatedly miss their opponent [*] Temple of War now ranks up Grudge/Soul of the Earth for Stonemasons/Runecarvers even if they do not already know Grudge/Soul of the Earth [*] Heroes with a high number of warmachines will now have the icons for said warmachines resized instead of the list overflowing in the army overview UI [*] Fixed tooltips getting cut off at the top of the screen with screen resolution aspect ratios far from 16:9 [*] Fixed an issue where buildings placed on the top row of tiles of the map would sometimes not draw their sprite [*] Fixed a visual glitch related to Gold Veins which would be obscured by the terrain features when saved and reloaded [*] Added a maximum distance for casting Gold Digger (24 tiles) [*] Fixed Patience achievement not working when playing in other languages than English [*] Fixed an exploit allowing you to start as any hero while using the Arcane town [*] Fixed a bug related to Entourage units being sent as reinforcements [*] Fixed a nerf for Coil of the Dead for Life Reapers not working as intended [*] Fixed certain Adventure Map buildings not registering being discovered when touched [*] Fixed the Scrying achievement not unlocking correctly [*] Fixed a bug that would make the After Combat results page show the wrong numbers if attacked by the AI during their turn [*] Fixing an issue with enemy AI, making it sometimes avoid good possibilities because the AI would think it had to fight its own armies to get to places [*] Fixing an issue with the AI where it sometimes would correct for the danger of a nearby enemy several times when picking a goal [*] Fixing a bug that made the AI move one tile less far for every 50 potential goals it was thinking about reaching, potentially locking heroes out of moving altogether on very large maps [*] Fixed a bug that made Ritual of Power not give XP in case you had too few units for a full levelup [*] Fixing evolution turning high-tier units into lower tier units [*] Doppelgangers spawned at sea now have boats. When they leave the water, their boat disappears [*] Fixed the Legend set and similar artifact set bonuses naming the unupgraded unit but creating the upgraded unit [*] Fixed Blight Monstrum being considered a Draconic unit for players not owning the RR DLC, as well as some other strange unit living assignments for boss units, such as the big dragons being beasts [*] Fixed Forlorn Cloister only keeping a single artifact post transformation [*] Fixed the non-DLC version loading and then just hiding the DLC maps, instead of not loading the DLC maps at all [*] Fixed achievement "God" only being granted when the hero ranks up a skill during level-up, thus becoming impossible in v2.7 [*] Fixed a bug that made the Haberdashery crashed when using two times by the same hero [*] Fixed a typo in Morale's tooltip[/list] [h3]MODDING:[/h3] [list][*] Added Raffe Rest as a building placeable in the tilemap editor [*] Hero Replacement mods will now keep the default hero rarity modifier, allowing changing hero portraits for alt heroes and still keeping their town dwelling replacement mechanic [*] Added a new Hero mod tag "Replace Town Dwelling" to mimic the function of normal alt heroes to replace the town dwelling with their unit [*] Fixed "endai" variable only toggling off part of the AI code [*] The "endai" variable can now hold any number, and it will turn off ai for 10 frames for each 1 value it has[/list] So, as you can see, it’s rather a big minor update - if that combination of terms make sense. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/1f34c8c3f7d0705d1311bf5c16a8d5b87d7e74fd.png[/img] Development on v2.8 is just about done - or at least, it is entering the stage where I’m waiting for various things to be ready, rather than having particularly much left to develop myself. You can find the v2.8 beta up on steam. The core goals of v2.8 were: [list][*] To be smaller than v2.7 and v2.6 [*] To improve various aspects of towns [*] To improve Rogue towns, especially[/list] Other secondary goals snuck in, such as expanding the dragons of the game and reworking the Arcane faction skills. The latter might sound out of nowhere, until you remember the Arcane fighter hero class skill is literally “get ore after combat”, which is about as boring as a skill can get. Let me just run through the various major changes and talk about what they are and why they are. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/6d416ce81f86f6ccc3c9d7b34131453cd7c012ef.png[/img] [u][b]New building requirement system and UI[/b][/u] There has been growing sentiment about the building requirement system for towns being bad. The general desire has been for all limitations for one building to require another to be removed - or most, anyway. My own issue with the current system is that as development has gone on, more and more buildings have been moved to be early on in the town’s development, which creates a flood of choices early on. Especially when a new development level was reached and - POOF - now you have 6 new buildings available - that felt somewhat off. I’m trying out a new building requirement system which sorts buildings into three categories - commercial, warfare and magic buildings. Instead of building requirements either being a global amount of buildings built and/or a specific building, the new requirements are based around number of the various types of buildings built. So for instance, you might want to build Archmage Tribunal, but to do so, you’ll need two more warfare buildings and one more commercial building. This will still keep limits in place for building up your town and planning out your build order, while not being quite as limiting. It also comes with a new UI which sorts the buildings in the three categories, which I hope will make it easier for new players to get an overview of their options. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/1c178356e452eccb1910bcc3927f013521636baa.jpg[/img] [u][b]New system for upgrading units[/b][/u] Unit upgrades have been tough to balance. They’re very core to the game, with most units actually being pretty basic and only getting their interesting abilities once upgraded. As well, they allow the player to focus on what units they think are most core to their strategy. However, I feel like as the game is now, usually unit upgrades are something you get not because you want to, but because you need another building and the upgrade is cheaper than the other options - and otherwise, you’d rather steer for more impactful buildings. There’s also a lot of micro-managing of bringing your units back to town to get upgraded, and then returned to your main hero. The new upgrade system seeks to improve this by removing dwelling upgrades, and instead creating a single two-tier building which allows you to upgrade units. Once a unit upgrade is bought, it affects all your units across the map instantly - no more micro-managing upgraded and unupgraded unit stacks! This also leads to a minor reduction in the unit stack clutter. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/87ed418736315a93163c5ca92a2824fdfb371b18.png[/img] [u][b]Tavern rework[/b][/u] This one is a bit more experimental, and might change with more player feedback. There is a problem in how central the tavern is to the current way the game is played. It allows you to get more heroes for: [list][*] Scouting [*] Moving around units [*] Extra units [*] Secondary heroes for leveling[/list] I’ve tried disincentivising getting the tavern early and hiring several heroes early by changing the cost, the availability of the tavern - neither seemed to really fix the issue. The building is simply too strong and also too necessary. I also do not enjoy the inconsistency of sometimes getting a hero that can do nothing, and sometimes getting one which gives gold each day or gets entourage - completely at random. The new version of the tavern goes as follows: [list][*] You can hire “Scouts” even without building the actual tavern [*] Building the tavern allows you to upgrade Scouts into full heroes [*] Champion Statue etc. have been improved to offer even more heroes[/list] Scouts are heroes in all ways apart from having skills and leveling up. You can even get xp on a scout and they’ll then level up when you upgrade the scout into a full hero. The scout is cheaper, too. Really, instead of trying to nerf the tavern, I’m now making it so that you don’t need it if all you really wanted was a scout - and the tavern, then, is more useful if you’re looking for a real hero to level up secondarily. Other changes: [list][*] Fewer units for hiring a scout [*] Larger cost increase from hiring several heroes [*] Heroes now level up when hired, making new hero levels more consistent, and giving you better control over their skill choices[/list] [u][b]3 New Buildings for Each Rogue town[/b][/u] This one is kind of obvious. All Rogue towns had the same buildings. Boo! Made them feel less like 12 factions and more like a single faction (okay I guess that was the goal). Anyway, I’ve now added three unique buildings per Rogue town, which mimic the design style of the unique buildings per normal faction (i.e. Hostler, Counting House, Conscription Centre, Tower of Idolatry). That is, in total, 36 new buildings with different effects - most of them at least slightly unique. I won’t go into detail about all of them here, because that’s a lot of buildings. I’ll just let you know I tried to develop on the various themes of the Rogue towns with the aesthetic and gameplay design of the buildings. Additionally, several of them use the new improved system for custom resources, such as the Scrap resource for Industry. As an aside, the introduction of these new buildings have also made me go through the Rogue towns and remove various buildings from them. Thus, all Rogue towns no longer have all five of Colossus, Lieutenant Hall, Deity, Summoning Circle, Mercenary Hall - instead, each town only has two of the five, different ones depending on what town. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/482c15bc7a755c136a32f21513b80d21390719c3.png[/img] [u][b]Rework town perks, Rogue expansions[/b][/u] With the removal of the old town level system with thresholds for number of buildings constructed, a new system was required for unlocking the town perks. But I do actually like the new system, because it always felt a bit jarring that you suddenly got a town perk pop-up out of nowhere when you were actually planning on doing something else. Now, instead of them being unlocked after building X buildings, they’re unlocked when building specific buildings. For normal faction towns, such as the Order town, this is the Centre of Order, Palace of Order and Empire of Order. For Rogue towns, this is one of their Expansions, the Turrets, and the Elemental Spire. Additionally, the other Rogue expansions are getting secondary effects, too. Finally, there’s five new perks per town. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/e99d0730d4cfd05420289b0915c1c64c494fc074.png[/img] [u][b]Arcane faction skill rework[/b][/u] Instead of the Arcane class skills giving, respectively, a resource that can only be used in a single town building, or boring ore, the Aether system has been expanded, and the skills now do something on their own, too. Aether is now granted in four varieties: Fire, Earth, Air, Water - and is granted by defeating various enemies. Usually, it’s kind of obvious what units give what Aether, like, the Spirited Fire giving Fire, and most human units giving Air. Aether can then be used in one of three ways: [list][*] Casting a random spell when entering combat with element and power based on the highest amount of Aether carried [*] Aether Forge now offers appropriate bonuses for the various types of Aether [*] Special spells with unique effects that cost Aether instead of mana[/list] [u][b]New Units[/b][/u] v2.8 is going to launch with around 28 new units. For now, just 10 have been added, most of which are dragons. The rest will be tied to the various Rogue towns, and are currently in development by a community artist, who has been commissioned for this. Actually, the community will get a say in what those latter 18 units are. There will be various options that the community will vote to pick which get into the game. Join our discord and keep an eye open for when the votes start. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40741272/7f5bf796fc35cac7db9cf98af5c24a0c1f6ba99b.png[/img] [u][b]15 new suggestions implemented[/b][/u] As usual, there’s been a bunch of new suggestions in the discord. A total of 145 new suggestions with 773 votes have been tallied and selected between, with 15 of them getting added to the game. These range from minor changes, like Balaenopteras getting Aquatic, to larger changes, such as new game options and a way to see the total cost of all units available in town. The largest change is that there’s now a much better system for managing artifacts. [u][b]Miscellaneous[/b][/u] There’s likely going to be other things sneaking in, as well as minor other improvements. For instance, there’s going to be a general graphical improvement to spell effects. Anyway, I hope you’ll try out the v2.8 beta. If you do, feel free to come by the discord server and leave some feedback that will help steer development. I’m expecting v2.8 to launch around the end of quarter 1 2025. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1656780/Heros_Hour/