Happy Holidays, Kings and Queens! What present can you give to your players? A cool Festive update, of course! And true to the spirit of surprises, this update is more complex than it seems. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPPCPqDINEk][h2]Father Christmas[/h2][/url] Let’s start the list with the deceptively simple, but actually complex addition — the [b]in-mission events[/b]. We’re kicking it off with two quests: Big Naked Ben and Festive Frenzy! Both provide very powerful artifacts (especially Ben) and are well worth the trouble. [img]https://i.imgur.com/aEAyIkD.gif[/img] [i]You can feed Ben by playing cards on him. Don’t worry, the cards won’t lose charges from this![/i] However, that’s not the whole story. For the longest time we’ve wanted ORX to have some cool mini-quests happening inside the missions, and this system is finally here. This means that [b]we will add more in-mission events in the future[/b] to break the routine of the wave survival objective! Truly, a great present in a very nice wrap! [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIhIBFPtnoc][h2]Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)[/h2][/url] Despite the title, we again chose to fight the ho-ho-hordes of ORX. And to help us in this festive activity, we’re introducing [b]multihit and knockback[/b]! These new stats do what they say — providing your attacks with an extra punch. [img]https://i.imgur.com/6pamH78.gif[/img] [i]Watch the numbers go![/i] But how do you acquire them? Well, we first have to mention the attack speed stat. It was hard to balance around since it’s very linear in nature, and it also led to some issues both visually and mechanically when stacked too high. As such, [b]multihit will be replacing the attack speed in the “infinitely scaling” cards[/b], while still leaving some room to get some amount of attack speed. [img]https://i.imgur.com/0IKXXir.gif[/img] As for knockback, we want to explore more crowd control optio… bah, who’re we kidding — on top of being useful, it just looks awesome in action! Push, fling, and explode those ORX, showing them what the real power looks like. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZdvW6BBkc][h2]All I Want for Christmas (is to kick your ass)[/h2][/url] However, even the naughty boyz got a present. With so much force on the player side, the ORX needed more survivability. That’s why we’ve reworked the defense and [b]added armor[/b] for them! [b]Armor works as a sort of “shielding” on top of certain ORX’s health[/b], and breaks after a certain amount of damage. Keep in mind though, that the bonus damage from elemental weaknesses does not apply here! [img]https://i.imgur.com/vd46R6F.gif[/img] [i]Armor also gives immunity to knockback.[/i] We do plan to eventually move on from defense altogether, but haven’t decided how exactly. So, for now, it’s staying — albeit with a couple of changes. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeYzousLJeA&pp=ygUXdGVuYWNpb3VzIEQgc2hpdCBpIHdhbnQ%3D][h2]Things I Want![/h2][/url] This update also brings even [b]more Holidays for Boreal Nomads, and improvements to how the Boreals handle relics[/b] (they’re now swappable!). And even more small additions! But hey, the best way to experience all this is to go and play the update! [h2]Patch Notes[/h2] [h3]Gameplay[/h3] [list][*] New Boreal Nomads Holidays[list] [*] Song to the Stars [*] Dance of the Falling Knives[/list][/list][list] [*] New artifacts [list] [*] Soul Furnace (Boreal exclusive) [*] Eternal Damnation[/list][/list][list] [*] Introduction of in-mission events[list] [*] Big Naked Ben – feed gold to Ben by placing cards on him [*] Festive Frenzy – buy Christmas ornaments scattered around the map by playing cards on them[/list][/list][list] [*] Added multihit stat[list] [*] Some units have innate multihit [*] Many cards now grant multihit instead of attack speed[/list][/list][list] [*] Added knockback stat. It has two visually distinct states:[list] [*] Weak knockback pushes the ORX back [*] Strong knockback launches them into the air [*] Weapons and Towers only have the innate knockback power. No cards grant it currently[/list][/list][list] [*] Armor and defense revamp [*] Damage reflect revamp [list] [*] Now returns damage only in melee range [/list][*] Changed ORX Warlord armor value to be a flat amount instead of scaling based on his maximum health[/list] [h3]AI Improvements[/h3] [list][*] Improved relic usage logic for the Boreals [list][*] The relics can be moved to another empty slot [*] The relics can be swapped between each other[/list][/list] [h3]User Interface[/h3] [list][*] Compacted the space between objectives in the mission objectives list [*] Improved visuals for health bars slightly [*] Health bars no longer show up when the target’s health is increased while at full HP [*] Added more info to the relic tooltip[/list] [h3]Bug Fixes[/h3] [list][*] Fixed a rare bug where a Boreal would get stuck in place if the slot he selected for a relic was slotted by other means [*] Fixed an issue where restarting the mission wouldn’t roll back the charges on the Advisor cards[/list] And that's it for 2023! See you next year — Happy Holidays! Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server. [url=https://discord.gg/5MRJK7HKfU][img]https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/34910757/79c926634294d51f2e6c4f35fd5fd66d5cb58a56.png[/img][/url] [url=https://twitter.com/OrXgame][img]https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/34910757/37f7a3962adce0ee9041650b5fd598fd4e87d1d5.png[/img][/url]