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Devlog: Mapping Out the Campaign

Greetings, Kings and Queens!

Big changes are coming to ORX! And one of the areas we always found lacking, is the campaign map. Well, it wasn’t even really a map before. Which is exactly what we’re changing in the next update! Now, let’s go on a proper adventure, shall we?

[h2]An Adventure Song[/h2]
What is the key component behind any adventure? A map, of course! And for strategy maps it’s doubly so. After all, nothing gives you a bigger high, than glancing over a global map and planning out your next step. This is why we’re adding a proper global map to ORX!



Each mission and even the shops are now separate regions of the map. And you’re free to pick any point of interest adjacent to you. Now your journey is no longer tied to an arbitrary path. Along with this change we’ve also increased the number of missions in each act. Which means this entire continent is just a single act!


However, if you could complete every mission and visit every shop on the map — as cool as it sounds, — the power creep would completely break the game by the end of your run. Of course, you can still technically do this. But… “Every action has an opposite reaction”.

[h2]Through The Fire And The Flames[/h2]
As you begin your journey, the first couple missions go without much trouble. Once you finish the third mission, though, corruption begins to accumulate around the world. At this point, the longer you explore the same continent, the more corrupted it becomes. After venturing into the next continent, the corruption will subside, to a minimum threshold which rises with every Act.



As always, corruption increases the difficulty of the mission, which might become a much bigger deal in the upcoming update. We’ll go into details in another devlog, but let’s just say ORX are truly a threat now.

Each step increases the corruption level of all adjacent missions by a certain amount. And each mission or shop can have up to 5 of those levels. “Wait, shops?” Yup, you’ve read this right! Now even the shops feel the influence of the Void… but not in the way you’d think.


[h2]Keeper of the Royal Treasure[/h2]
Firstly, all the shops are going to have all of their slots unlocked from the get-go — which should help immensely in building and managing your deck. Now, let’s talk about something spicier — the corrupted shops.



These shops are not meant as punishment, but a gamble. They won’t lock out their slots, but instead have them afflicted with corruption. Using those offers a unique opportunity to get the best deals available nowhere else.




For example, you could get the chance to upgrade a level 1 card to its maximum. Or a chance to get an extra enchantment. However, if you lose the bet, you will suffer from potent curses, like an increase to the gold cost of the upgraded card, or having its charges swapped for fragile ones. Remember: risk management is important!

Note: This feature will be added in a later update.

[h2]Change The Tide[/h2]
Hopefully, we’ve provided a good glimpse at the big campaign overhaul. And in case you’re wondering, we do consider adding new mission types into the game. Actually, one of them will be included in the upcoming update! And it’s the type that many of you anticipated for a long time.

Also, as you might've guessed from the screenshots, the game's user interface and menus will get a complete overhaul. It will both make the game more accessible, clear and overall better looking. Hopefully you can already get the general feel of the UI rework from this devlog alone!

Speaking of the upcoming update: in our next devlog we’ll cover the biggest overhaul in ORX’s history — the archetype system, as well as a couple smaller, but very noticeable changes.

Stay tuned! See you in the next devlog.

For now, don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server!







Boreal Nomads Reinforcements Update

Greetings, Kings and Queens!

The Tsar of Boreal Nomads has called for reinforcements! This small content update brings Boreal Nomads Advisors, unique new buildings and artifacts to help the northerners overcome the green menace!

The Council of Advisors is here! And this time we thought it’d be cool to introduce them one-by-one


[h3]                                   Yaga, The Miracle worker (Relics)[/h3]


[h3]                                   Georges, The Coin Swain (Economy)[/h3]


[h3]                                Beloslava, The Holiday Aurora (Holidays)[/h3]


[h3]                                           Wodin, The Seer (Circles)[/h3]

Like other Advisors, they provide the cards tied to their speciality, once used. However, they might get more influential than that in future updates! So keep their names in mind.

Boreal Nomads also received new useful buildings. One of them is the Brewery, which expands your hand if you place cards into this building. This makes it very handy, especially since Boreal Nomads didn’t have hand extending cards in the past.



The other one is the Lumbermill, which has a unique mechanic where it raises the health of all the village palisades for every forest tile you’ve destroyed while building it. Which makes sense, since all that wood must’ve gone somewhere!



This update also brings new Boreal-exclusive artifacts and a relic swapping system. Now you can click on any slotted relic and place it into a different slot or even a circle! No longer do you have to get mad when the Boreals place the strongest relics into the least important circles!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
  • Added Boreal Nomads Advisors
  • Added 2 new buildings for Boreals
  • Introduced new Boreal-exclusive artifacts
  • Introduced the relic swap system
  • Improvements to stagger — a unit is granted stagger immunity for a couple of seconds after being staggered
  • Boreal Nomads can no longer get the artifacts, which provide no benefits for them (i.e Tax Puch)
  • The effects from palisade offences now have a maximum spawn distance
  • The Boreals now prefer buying a new weapon instead of weapon polishing

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed the issue causing the currently dragged card to stick to the cursor and preventing the player from interacting with the game
  • Fixed a bug where the Boreals didn’t get the reward for slotting a relic into a circle
  • Fixed a bug where the Boreals didn’t get the reward for each segment of the boss’s health
  • Fixed the “Static” enchantment not halving the card price if the player has Ben’s Hat artifact
  • Fixed the visuals for relic circles for the Summer biome


Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server.



Introducing Outcast Tales!

Greetings, ORX-slayers!

Today we bring another gem of an indie game to you! Our friends at Hardlane Studio just launched the prologue for their upcoming turn-based action-comedy rogue-like — Outcast Tales: The First Journey!

[previewyoutube][YT VID][/previewyoutube]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/882590/Outcast_Tales_The_First_Journey/

Outcast Tales is a turn-based tactical rogue-like where party members can bicker or forge bonds. Pick their classes AND personalities, explore (and plunder) the Wastelands, fight formidable enemies, and create your own Tale! And find out which one is deadlier — a heavily armored robot with rocket launchers or your insufferable companions!
  • Outcast Tales: The First Journey is completely free to play!
  • Audio narration for the events, done by Samuel Barnett — the famous Dirk Gently from Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Delamaine from Cyberpunk 2077!
  • Twitch Integration — interact with your friends or viewers through a multitude of features!

And if we’ve piqued your interest, consider following Outcast Tales on Twitter, joining CRITICAL REFLEX Discord to follow the game's development and wishlist the full version of the game to be the first to play it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2551970/Outcast_Tales/

Version 0.12.2.5 — Giga ORX path finding hotfix

Greetings!

Thanks to the player feedback, we were able to reproduce and fix a critical bug tied to GIga ORX!

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed Giga ORX path finding sometimes causing a critical error which subsequently led to a mission-wide freeze


Places to report bugs or give feedback:

Sneaky New Years Update

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.

[h2]Father Christmas[/h2]
Let’s start the list with the deceptively simple, but actually complex addition — the in-mission events. 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.

You can feed Ben by playing cards on him. Don’t worry, the cards won’t lose charges from this!

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 we will add more in-mission events in the future to break the routine of the wave survival objective! Truly, a great present in a very nice wrap!

[h2]Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)[/h2]
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 multihit and knockback! These new stats do what they say — providing your attacks with an extra punch.

Watch the numbers go!

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, multihit will be replacing the attack speed in the “infinitely scaling” cards, while still leaving some room to get some amount of attack speed.



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.

[h2]All I Want for Christmas (is to kick your ass)[/h2]
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 added armor for them! Armor works as a sort of “shielding” on top of certain ORX’s health, and breaks after a certain amount of damage. Keep in mind though, that the bonus damage from elemental weaknesses does not apply here!

Armor also gives immunity to knockback.

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.

[h2]Things I Want![/h2]
This update also brings even more Holidays for Boreal Nomads, and improvements to how the Boreals handle relics (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]
  • New Boreal Nomads Holidays
    • Song to the Stars
    • Dance of the Falling Knives
  • New artifacts
    • Soul Furnace (Boreal exclusive)
    • Eternal Damnation
  • Introduction of in-mission events
    • 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
  • Added multihit stat
    • Some units have innate multihit
    • Many cards now grant multihit instead of attack speed
  • Added knockback stat. It has two visually distinct states:
    • 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
  • Armor and defense revamp
  • Damage reflect revamp
    • Now returns damage only in melee range
  • Changed ORX Warlord armor value to be a flat amount instead of scaling based on his maximum health

[h3]AI Improvements[/h3]
  • Improved relic usage logic for the Boreals
    • The relics can be moved to another empty slot
    • The relics can be swapped between each other

[h3]User Interface[/h3]
  • 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

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
  • 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


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.