ORX News

[p]This update is primarily about stability and performance. We targeted the problems that most directly damage the feel of a run: frame-time spikes in large fights, slowdowns that build up over long sessions, and hitches (or freezes) during mission load/unload. The approach here was pretty basic: ship the quickest wins that are safe to integrate without destabilizing gameplay - cutting recurring costs in rendering, batching/atlasing, fog/visibility evaluation, animation overhead, and scene cleanup (costs that scale with everything on screen, from units to trees and biome textures). Alongside that work, we fixed a set of gameplay/UI/VFX issues that could stall enemies, break interactions, or confuse feedback, and we improved bug-report tooling so future fixes can be faster and more accurate. Shout out to everyone who took their time to message us their feedback![/p][p][/p][h3]Performance / Optimization[/h3]

• [p]Mission render optimization (general performance pass on mission rendering).[/p]
• [p]Scene unloading optimization (cleaner unload / less leftover state).[/p]
• [p]Reduced rendering costs for dynamic fog recalculation.[/p]
• [p]Field Observer optimized (visibility / detection system that continuously evaluates units and objects in the field).[/p]
• [p]Faster mission loading by optimizing collider recalculation for building highlights.[/p]
• [p]Biome atlases regrouped.[/p]
• [p]ORX sprites regrouped into atlases (more intelligently).[/p]
• [p]High-res (512) biome images packed into large atlases (with correct form of compression that does not kill the quality of textures).[/p]
• [p]Reduced sprite overhead: stopped creating clones of sprites already loaded from an atlas.[/p]
• [p]Runes moved to the custom animator.[/p]

[h3]Gameplay / Logic Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Final boss phase: fixed a case where the “day” wouldn’t start when the final boss entered its aggressive stage and stepped onto the field (boss could stand idle until killed).[/p]
• [p]Wizdomiac totems: fixed spawning/placement so totems don’t appear outside warriors’ attack reach.[/p]
• [p]Walls: fixed a case where a wall could get stuck into a farm after capturing a neighboring village.[/p]
• [p]Tile progression: fixed cases where a village could be cleared but the tile stayed blocked/closed despite no longer being obstructed.[/p]
• [p]ORX targeting: fixed ORX units stalling near a destroyed town center (main building) while other village town centers were still alive.[/p]
• [p]ORX movement: fixed an issue where ORX could run “backwards” (orientation/animation).[/p]
• [p]Snipers: fixed “strange” behavior (AI/targeting/movement pass).[/p]
• [p]Boreal crossbowmen: fixed an issue where they didn’t damage lairs.[/p]
• [p]Boreal contracts: fixed an exploit where contracts could be played on permanently dead ORX/warchiefs.[/p]
• [p]Worm interactions: Fixed a bug when casting a weapon on a camp whose warriors were killed by the worm would crash the mission. Fixed a restore-blocking issue tied to the worm (restore being blocked on the wrong target).[/p]
• [p]Fixed incorrect behavior when Revenge and Resurrect were combined.[/p]
• [p]Towers: removed “cold start” behavior (towers no longer start in a delayed/disabled state).[/p]

[h3]UI / UX / Tooling[/h3]

• [p]Added a Bug Report button that packages logs + saves and sends them.[/p]
• [p]HP bar: added a clear “vulnerable” indication when the target is vulnerable.[/p]
• [p]Buildings: added an indicator for buildings with an active ability while it’s running, including a multiplier/stack count for multiple timers; fixed ability UI showing grey/inactive while the ability still works.[/p]
• [p]Fixed UI rounding/formatting for very small multiplier numbers.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where description text color didn’t update.[/p]
• [p]Artifacts: added dynamic attribute tooltips; adjusted tooltip bottom padding for better readability.[/p]
• [p]Vault upgrade UI: fixed scrollbar behavior when selecting cards.[/p]
• [p]Fixed hover detection when dragging/hovering a card on the left side of a road/path.[/p]
• [p]Player Options: added windowed mode.[/p]
• [p]Medieval warriors UI: added a title text-sprite showing the warrior count.[/p]
• [p]Legendary reward icons updated/added (scope unclear).[/p]
• [p]Advisors: additional “hide/cover” behavior implemented (scope unclear).[/p]

[h3]Visual / VFX Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed broken “void edge” visuals/tiling.[/p]
• [p]Decoration layering pass: removed “standing” decorations and moved decorations to the road level.[/p]
• [p]Poison VFX: updated trail + bullet visuals.[/p]
• [p]Targeting VFX: beam + target circle now stay on the target until the hit connects.[/p]

[p]RUNE GUARDIANS[/p]

• [p]Veterancy now grants unit-type-specific bonuses instead of a single generic curve:[/p]
  • [p]Militia: stronger STR-focused bonuses[/p]
  • [p]Spearmen: stronger VIT-focused bonuses[/p]
  • [p]Orbcaster: stronger DEX-focused bonuses[/p]
  • [p]Paladins: more balanced, averaged bonuses across stats[/p]
• [p]Paladin base stats reduced.[/p]

[p]CAMPAIGN & DIFFICULTY[/p]

• [p]Further reduced Zeppelin and Titan spawns from spawn points in early Acts (1-2).[/p]

[p]CAMPAIGN & DIFFICULTY[/p]

• [p]Mission scaling adjusted from Act 3 onward. Later-campaign waves will be slightly harder.[/p]
• [p]Reduced the aggressiveness of ORX Zeppelin spawns from forests and destroyed buildings.[/p]
• [p]Wind/Water/Fire/Earth ORX Villages reintroduced in Act 4 in low quantity. Elemental ORX have been rebalanced, each gaining their own passive abilities.[/p]
• [p]Wizdomiac boss: when forced to retreat between waves, it now destroys its own totems (should remove several stupid softlocks that happened occasionally due to random map generation).[/p]

[p]DUNE REAVERS[/p]

• [p]Full card cost rebalance; cooldowns added to a number of cards.[/p]
• [p]Updated many card descriptions that did not match real behavior.[/p]
• [p]Cards are now correctly distributed across 3 rarities.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a visual issue where Dictates were not carrying over when moving a unit.[/p]
• [p]Archers damage behavior changed to reduce lag (less attack speed, more damage + Multistrike).[/p]
• [p]Warriors should no longer spawn outside of map bounds.[/p]
• [p]Expanded/fixed behavior for multiple cards and effects, including: Dictates, Geology, Well, Road Lamp, Orator, Weapon Craftsman, Mystic Crypt, Fight Club.[/p][p]Dune Reavers warning: this is by no means the final iteration of Dune Reavers, but this update makes them playable in terms of balance on the current patch.[/p]

[p]BOREAL NOMADS WARNING[/p]

• [p]Added a prominent in-game warning that Boreal Nomads are currently not balanced and may be broken. The faction remains available to play, but expect issues.[/p]

[p]BALANCE[/p]

• [p]Starting Initiative reduced from 3 to 2.[/p]
• [p]Artifacts that grant Initiative at the start of combat now grant 1 less Initiative.[/p]

[p]QUALITY OF LIFE[/p]

• [p]Each redraw now reduces the remaining cooldown by 10 seconds for all cards currently in the cooldown deck.[/p]

[p]FIXES[/p]

• [p]Fixed an error that could occur when opening building info.[/p]
• [p]Ability Active Time now displays and applies correctly (we will be updating it to give more clarity to buff bastions in the future, but for now we are fixing a bug related to it).[/p]

[p]ENEMY COMPOSITION & DIFFICULTY[/p]

• [p]Metaclans now ramp more smoothly across missions.[/p]
• [p]Biome matchup tuning: Dune Reavers and Boreal Nomads now face more appropriate metaclans in their home biomes (e.g., Tacticsclan in winter, Eliteclan in desert).[/p]
• [p]ORX Titan spawns from forests and destroyed buildings tuned down again; Titans are slightly weaker; Titans Defense scaling removed, replaced with Armor (will become weaker to Multistrike).[/p]

[p]FACTIONS & BALANCE[/p]

• [p]Dune Reavers: unit scaling updated — Strength-based scaling increased across the roster.[/p]
• [p]Dune Reavers Spearmen: added Thorns and Knockback.[/p]
• [p]Dune Reavers Shieldbearers: replaced Thorns with Reflect.[/p]
• [p]Dune Reavers Archers: removed Wind element.[/p]
• [p]Dune Reavers Grenadiers: attack less frequently, but their hit strength is significantly increased.[/p]
• [p]Dune Reavers: Bazaar added to the starting deck.[/p]
• [p]Rune Guardians: Veterancy progression now spans 10 ranks instead of 5 (smoother scaling).[/p]
• [p]Rune Guardians: Buffing Bastions reduced buff strength.[/p]
• [p]Starting gold capacity increased to 200 (was 100).[/p]

[p]WORLD & VARIETY[/p]

• [p]Added one new sub-biome variant per biome: Ruins, Volcano, Enclave, Abyss.[/p]
• [p]Weather is now biome-locked to prevent cross-biome inconsistencies.[/p]

[p]FIXES[/p]

• [p]Map generation: second pass fix for the map layout issue that could lead to a game freeze when loading into a mission. If this still happens - message me in our discord in the english-chat or help sections. https://discord.gg/hTgGrkf34m[/p]
• [p]Fixed Hell difficulty not starting missions.[/p]
• [p]Korean localization: fixed square glyphs in most strings.[/p]
• [p]Fixed several softlocks based on recent bug reports. If you were affected by this before, check if it happens again. If it does - report it please and share the logs (don't forget to close the game prior to that).[/p]