There Will Be Ink News

Hey there! Spooky season is upon us, so, naturally, for all of October (and the first several hours of November, if we want to be accurate) There Will Be Ink "Spooky Edition" is back! See all your favourite stickfolk spurting pumpkin juice from their pumpkin heads before leaving this cruel, pumpkin spiced world as tiny ghosts. Also, look how spooky those trees are?


There is also a new game update! Though I've been working on a bunch of new content, most of it is not yet ready, so this update focuses mostly on some smaller changes and extra modding support. Although, it turns out the mod support is mostly for my own use, as it makes managing units, weapons, promotions, etc. much more easy. It's just a bunch of numbers in a text file, as much as it can be. I fully reworked the unit promotions system to work that way. A side effect of that is that unit upgrades will need to be re-chosen from the Barracks page. My hope is that this new, modular system will allow for the randomization of unit upgrades from the Campaign Generator, which should help with replayability and make for some interesting loadouts. That's not yet in place but is coming soon! There's still one big update I'd like to finish and then it is just more polishing prior to release. After that, who's to say!

Changes & Enhancements

• AI: Units will now capture enemy buildings if no other valid targets are available
  
• Weapons no longer blend to unit colour by default; reworked existing weapons to use custom colours
  
• Weapons are now drawn overtop of Units
  
• Fully refactored unit upgrades/promotions
  
• Now fully modular and moddable
  
• Reworked some promotions to be more general as well as some additional balancing
  
• Creatures (eg works/etc) will no longer bunch together
  
• Added knockback effect to most weapons
  
• Projectiles no longer hit targets at a lower height (eg. bullet firing down from jetpack, and other future weapons)
  
• Consolidated how damage is dealt to units (and blood spatter, too)
  
• Lots of additional modding options for units (canRun, canRoll, canWound, etc) and weapons ()
  
• Added new melee weapon system (WIP)
  
• Re-added Tank as a unit type in factions
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Campaign Gen crash when faction has no buildings
  
• Fixed Ski mission (Double Daffy) not saving victory upon completion
  
• Fixed crash relating to custom units in factions
  
• Fixed bodyArmour mod setting not working
  

Hey there! I've got a smaller update today with some AI improvements and important fixes. Check out the full list below. Cheerio!

Changes

• AI: Units will now try to avoid marked (visible + enemy) landmines (and potentially other future dangers)
  
• AI: Units are better at getting to water when on fire
  
• AI: Snipers will no longer move to avoid friendly fire (since they cannot friendly fire)
  
• AI: Engineers should properly put out building fires before trying to repair them
  
• AI: Improved squad flanking
  
• Adjusted way campaign progress is saved - should copy over for existing files (may need to exit/restart game)
  
• Weapon target cursor/sights now drawn while reloading
  
• Added "Exit" key to end-of-battle buttons
  
• Added "Hold" underlay for end-of-battle buttons (retry, barracks, etc)
  
• Made end-of-battle buttons less transparent
  
• T-Rex can no longer become a hero, at least not in the game
  
• Disabled heroes on "Min(e)d the River"
  
• Minor performance enhancements
  

Fixes

• Fixed bug where mission progress is sometimes not saved
  
• Fixed hero-death screenshot position when zoomed in
  
• Fixed bug where battle wouldn't end if only AI and neutral buildings remain
  
• Fixed bug where missions with same name count as being completed
  
• Fixed end-of-battle stats being semi-transparent and controls unresponsive after retreating when zoomed in
  
• Fixed three-player missions not ending when player team is defeated (campaign only)
  
• Fixed mission completion progress getting overwritten when changing game modes and replaying mission
  
• Minor pathfinding fixes
  
• Fixed some memory leaks
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed occasional crash bug when sandworms die
  
• Fixed sandworm bites not working
  
• Fixed sandworm chomper positioning
  
• Removed debug lines from tank pathfinding (oops!)
  

Hey there! Beta 9.1 is now live. This update focuses on several quality-of-life adjustments, new missions, and the new "Fallen Comrades" page, to honor heroes killed in battle.


TWBI is also 20% off on Steam during the Summer Sale!

[h3]Fallen Comrades[/h3]

The Fallen Comrades page can be accessed from the "Campaign" menu. It displays a field of flowers (one for each player death) as well as headstones for any heroes killed in battle. The fanciness of the headstone is determined by the rank at which the hero was killed in battle. Headstones also list during which battles the hero respectively emerged and was killed, number of kills, battles, and victories, and even a small screenshot from the time of the hero's death.


[h3]New Missions[/h3]

There are 4 new missions this time around, each offering something new. One is a skiing level, while another involves neutral buildings that can be captured and offer a new unit type. Yet another is kind of strange and I won't say much about, while the last one is just a big ol' battle, which I guess isn't anything that new. Sorry, I also wish I wasn't such a liar.


[h3]Up Next[/h3]

I've begun work on the last mission of the main campaign. The other feature I'd like to get in place is the end-screen for when a campaign is finished. That will be used for procedural campaigns as well, as right now things are a little anticlimactic when victory is achieved at the end of a campaign. I hope you enjoy the new content, and please feel free to send any questions or feedback my way. Cheerio!


New Features & Content

• Fallen Comrades - A new Campaign page showing a cemetery with heroes killed in battle. Includes some stats and even a screenshot of the hero's last moment
  
• New Campaign Missions: Double Daffy (ski level), Lake Frends (it's a surprise!), High Mountain (new unit type), and The Calm (big ol' battle)
  
• Added Neutral Buildings - won't spawn units/abilities until taken over. AI will attempt to capture as well
  
• Added game option (off by default) to save end-of-battle screenshot, either at display resolution or capped to 1080p (Saved to %localappdata%/Users/ThereWillBeInk//Campaigns//Screens)
  

Changes & Enhancements

• Added Hero stats for number of battles (includes retreats) and victories
  
• Tanks now use same pathfinding as other units (much better, but still room for improvement)
  
• Added one second pause when loading mission description between missions, to avoid accidental skip
  
• Advancing to the next level/barracks/restart now requires holding on button for a half second, to avoid accidental skip
  
• Next battle/retry/barracks buttons are once again active when zoomed in at end-of-battle
  
• All buildings are now visible on night missions
  
• Adjusted end-of-battle message backing and placement (less transparent, no overlap)
  
• Adjusted checkmarks (skill progress, etc) to be more visible (black instead of green)
  
• Added sound when selecting Hero for deployment with gamepad on Barracks page
  
• Made target crosshair location sprite less transparent
  
• When highlighting a unit note on Barracks page with gamepad, other notes will fade
  
• Changed "Campaign Stats" notes on Barracks page to blue
  
• Units no longer get suppressed by flames
  
• Mods: Added autoHealWound unit attribute - allows wounds to automatically heal over time
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where heroes would disappear after playing a mission where heroes are disabled
  
• Fixed issue where Jetpack units could rarely go prone unless exhausted
  
• Fixed gamepad not working to adjust music/effects volume on Game Options page
  
• Units who can't go prone will no longer become suppressed
  
• Fixed issue where Heroes could still be killed by lightning (reduces to 10% of current health instead)
  
• Fixed possible crash when hero gets kill after battle is over
  
• Fixed crash for units with no weapon
  
• Fixed bug where victories/battles stat wasn't counted on Hero's emerging battle
  
• Fixed rank not being up to date at time of Hero's death
  
• Fixed double shadow issue for paratroopers
  
• Fixed some placement issues with modded units
  
• Fixed issue where tank sprite/facing would flicker at certain angles
  
• Fixed display issue with "Hit %" stat on Campaign page for new campaigns
  

Hey there! Here is a small update containing mostly fixes and a couple small changes. Have a good weekend!

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Engineers now put out fires
  
• Pressing "Select" (gamepad) or Alt (kbm) when in grabby mode will select the nearest available unit, regardless of distance
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed hero-related crash bug in tutorial 3
  
• Fixed grabby hand being able to go outside the bounds of the battlefield
  
• Fixed units sometimes facing the wrong way/going upside down when being controlled with gamepad
  
• Fixed "Dishonourable Mention" badge not working (and fixed Dr. Death badge, for Base & Alt Medics at least)