ORX News

Greetings, exalted orx-slayers!

The upcoming major update "Legacy of Kings" (name pending) is not too far from being finished! It's now feature complete (which means we won't be adding any more big features) and we're busy polishing and balancing it.

While you wait, though, you might want to have a little appetizer for things to come — which we're more than happy to provide!



"What sort of magick is this?!" Not magick, but Spirits — they occupy a tile, and if you were to build on top of it, you will reap the Spirit's powerful bonuses. These range from an extra card slot for your hand to, our favorite, making the tile you've just placed cost 0 gold! We hope that they'll make the map more 'tactile' and provide extra initiative to expand your Kingdom's premises!



"What sort of unholy Necromancy is this?!!" Hold off your accusations, good sirs and madams! This one's a good kind of resurrection! The one to help you overcome a wall, instead of crumbling under the crushing weight of defeat. As we make the game more and more complex, introduce new devious ambushes, branching event choices and, frankly, a little bit of chain jerking — you might find yourself losing a mission or two. Well, now this just doesn't mean that you'll be forced to abandon your run. Because we believe in you, and sometimes all you need is just a 2nd chance! At a fair price, of course.

However, this is just a tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of just how much we've included in this update. Don't worry, the core gameplay loop of fending off ORX and getting more powerful remains intact. We just added dimensions to it! Hopefully, you now see why we didn't release these changes as separate, smaller updates. It just wouldn't make sense nor feel coherent. We employ you to bear the wait juuust a little longer, as we aim to release this update in about 20 or so days!

And while you wait,
[h3]why not check out a free demo for a grimdark deck building colony sim — IRONHIVE![/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2679070/IRONHIVE/

Here's what you can expect from the demo:

• Rebuild your home. Elevate housing, utility, social, production, and defense buildings. Beware – a big city requires a lot of resources, and if you can’t provide them, your colony will lose Stability, which will lead to rapid collapse.
  
• Deal with tough choices. Use the cards you’ve been dealt wisely. Each turn represents a season you’ve survived, and while you have Stability, there’s still hope. If it reaches zero, it’s over for you.
  
• Explore the Wasteland. Send out expeditions in search of vital resources, technologies and various items. But remember: the sweeter the reward – the higher the risk.
  
• Take On the Harsh World’s Challenges. The decisions you make will directly impact your city. All the narrative events are interconnected, creating a different story for each of your colonies.

See you in the next post! For now, don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server!

Greetings, esteemed rulers and orx-terminators!

The work on the next update is in full force — and while we work on proper devlog, we’d like to share an update preview to break up the silence in the meantime!

First of all, it’s the end of June, which means… Steam Summer Sale is here!! And, of course, ORX is part of it too — don’t miss your chance to grab the game with -30% off!

And looking at what's next... you really should consider grabbing the game now! Look, we don’t want to overhype the next update, but it is shaping up to be the biggest one yet — with considerable changes in a lot of aspects! And to back our words, here’s an assorted list of things to look forward to!

[h3]Global Map[/h3]
This is going to be the first considerable change you’ll notice — old, cramped up act window is gone, making space for a grandiose and scenic global map! You can go through as many regions as you’d like before fighting a boss, and the transition between the Acts happens seamlessly on the same map! There is more to this, however, so you should definitely read more about it in our last devlog.
Artistic rendition. NOT actual gameplay.

[h3]Branching events[/h3]
After we’ve added the Global Map, it became apparent that the old event structure just doesn’t feel engaging enough to be a region on the map. So we’ve improved and extended our event system to include branching stories, multiple choices and… ambushes!!


[h3]Combat archetypes and total rebalancing[/h3]
The main meat of the update — global rebalance, which took us months to implement! Everything now has new attributes, which govern previously existing stats. And based on the value of those attributes, all combatants — both player and ORX, — now follow one of three archetypes. Which interact between each other similar to widely known “rock-paper-scissors” rules. We’ll talk about this in detail in our upcoming devlog, so stay tuned!


[h3]Brand new UI and card design[/h3]
We’ve reworked a lot of screens and interfaces, and ALL of the cards! And you’d be surprised how much freshness all of this brings. Seeing is believing with this one, so you’ll experience it fully only when you get your hands on the update. That being said, here’s a small preview!


[h3]And SO MUCH MORE![/h3]
Constant ORX flow, updated economy, restoration mechanics, village overtake and patrolling ORX, new castle building variables, neutral villages, new elite ORX types and more stuff we’re probably forgetting or can’t name just yet!
Artistic rendition. NOT actual gameplay.

And on that note, we're back to working on the update again! As promised, we'll publish the next devlog, detailing the gameplay changes, pretty soon. And then you'll get a chance to try out the update yourself on the Experimental Branch! Until then, cheers!

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

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!

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.

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/