Tainted Grail News

Whenever you've been guessing what the next playable class might be, the most requested one was... a ranged class. We've been listening — and here we are, finally ready to show you the new Faction we've been working on for quite a while now.



Several hundred men perished when they tried to seal their conquest of Avalon by destroying Tuathan, the holy capital of their enemies. The Fore-dweller city never yielded, and the humans eventually had to give up. Arthur then ordered a watchtower, Longbarrow, to be built here, atop the graves of his soldiers.

Guardians stationed in Longbarrow were supposed to ensure Fore-dwellers never returned to the lands of men. And the tower itself was supposed to be a sobering reminder that human holdings in Avalon are far from safe.



Before we get down to sharing more information about the classes themselves, we need to explain one of the new systems we've introduced with this new Faction:



The playstyle of Watchers of Tuathan relies heavily on a new card-type we call the Maneuvers. This means that plenty of their cards change their sides after they're played - as if you were tossing a coin. And, as you've guessed, changing the card's side changes its effects.

Let me share an example.



This Faction doesn't rely on Blocks - it relies mostly on Barriers.

However, their Barriers last for only one turn.

As you can see in the example above: this particular Maneuver gives you 10 Armor, then generates a Barrier equal to 100% of your current Armor. For 2 out of 3 new classes, it gets discarded after that, and when it gets back - its effect changes to just giving Barrier (depending on how much Armor you have). So you need to think carefully about what you play and when you play it -- because if you have 0 Armor, using that 2nd side of the card will give you... 0 Barrier.

And here's more info about the new classes!



[h2]Sentinel[/h2]
Sentinels focus on shooting as many arrows as they can. Their weak statistics can be greatly buffed with thoughtful preparations. Sentinels collect energy from used arrows to unleash them later as their Ultimate ability.

[h2]Zealot[/h2]
Zealots focus on shooting rarely but lethally. Their weak statistics can be greatly buffed with calculations and waiting for the right opening. They collect unused cards and use them later to forge a powerful elemental arrow with their Ultimate ability.

[h2]Apostate[/h2]
Apostates focus on flipping Maneuvers and using the most powerful side of the cards because, after flipping, cards stay in their hand. Maneuvers are used to increase their weak statistics and allow them to turn every situation to their advantage. Apostates charge their Ultimate Ability with every flip performed and use their Ultimate ability to flip their whole hand.





Two amazing members of our community, Kittea and lMaltel, started working on a Wiki for Conquest. It's already full of great info and it's an amazing base of knowledge about the game. Make sure you visit THIS LINK to check it out!



So... We're almost ready for launch. It's the last 7 days and we're stressed out of our minds and really tired, but at the same time extremely happy. The game went through some MAJOR changes over the past year and we're really proud of what we've managed to accomplish in the end. It's a huge game, it's a really unique game, and we hope it's also a really, really good game, too!

Also, we've decided to unlock our beta branch to everyone on our Discord server so if you want to start playing our final build and help out in polishing the experience before it's fully released - join our server, and check the announcement for info on how to access the build!

Hello! We're back with a new patch brining a lot of fixes and balancing-related changes :)



Quality of Life

• All in-game texts were updated to the newest versions. We expect some typos, errors, and other problems with that but we needed to do that now. Please let us know if you find something wrong, we'd really appreciate it!
  
• NPCs you can recruit to your village can now be found on Tier 1, too.
  
• Added subtitles to the game's intro.
  
• Items usable in combat (like starting healing mixtures) should now be automatically placed in your inventory combat slots the moment you get them.
  
• Changed impact of combat hits, they should have more "punch" now. Still working on that!
  

Bugfixes

• Secret end fight now should have a correct boss (expect further tweaks)
  
• You can't boost a milestone and then use its other bonuses anymore.
  
• Fixed another one of the reasons for 'stuck in combat' type of issues.
  
• Fixed Tainted Altar's missing passives.
  
• Fixed missing localizations from the Scientist's shop.
  
• Fixed 'New Card' option price error in Master at Arms.
  
• Fixed the missing cards Lich should've been getting from its Ult upgrade
  
• Fixed counter of items in inventory for two-digit values
  
• Fixed Wyrdstone dropping from fights outside of Wyrdness
  
• Fixed missing female footsteps sound
  
• Spikes Throw now has a proper slashing effect
  
• Restored description for unavailable classes in the tutorial.
  
• Fixed some missing/wrong Intents on enemies
  

Cards & Passives - Bugfixes

• Haste passive now activates minions spawned at the beginning of combat
  
• Death Mark now correctly decreases enemy armor instead of increasing it (but it still shows an incorrect reduction value on the enemy stat, sorry about that)
  
• Eerie Look displays proper values
  
• Protection no longer has a doubled effect.
  

Village Balancing

• Seamstress Passive cost is rising much faster.
  

T1 Balance:

• Warped Lightseeker damage changed from 4-5 to 3-4
  
• Faceless Hunter damage changed from 6-8 to 5-6
  
• Deformed Peasant XP reward changed from 100 to 125.
  
• Shaman Armor changed from 25 to 0.
  
• Shaman's Totems HP changed from 40 to 20.
  
• Corrupted Lifeforce Hits needed to disable Negation changed from 4 to 3.
  
• Corrupted Liferece Negation is disabled on Stun.
  
• 1 Fight composition changed.
  
• Renegade Cutthroat behaviour fixed (he actually does things now).
  

T2 Balance:

• Disease Spreader damage changed from 12-15 to 10-13
  
• Soulblade damage changed from 12-15 to 6-9.
  
• Soulblade now deals a maximum of 10 attacks, but he will attack immediately if he gets that angry.
  
• Harvested Soul damage change from 10-10 to 6-6
  
• Corrupted Lifeforce Damage threshold for Negation changed from 50 to 30.
  
• Deranged Lifeforce Negation is disabled on Stun.
  
• Mindbender will no longer summon enemy summons
  

Also, 5 Fight compositions changed.

T3 Balance:

• Blooddrunk damage changed from 28-32 to 10-14
  
• Juggernaut damage changed from 22-26 to 12-16.
  
• Juggernaut will now deal maximum of 10 hits, hits will double if none of them hit, and if at least 1 does hit, he will deal 2 hits less.
  
• Reaver damage changed from 22-26 to 16-20
  
• Tormented Shaman's Totems HP changed from 120 to 80
  

Also, 1 Fight composition changed.

T3 Miniboss Preacher:

• Loses 50 Armor instead of 20 when you kill one of his Burning Followers.
  
• Base Armor changed from 50 to 0.
  
• Burning Follower base Armor changed from 0 to -25.
  
• Divine Oil damage changed from 100% to 200%.
  

Summoner:

• Abomination HP gain changed from +5 to +2.
  
• Abomination Armor changed from 50% to 25%.
  
• Wyrm HP gain changed from +5 to +2.
  
• Totem HP gain changed from +5 to +2.
  
• Totem Armor changed from 25% to 10%.
  

Blood Mage:

• Blood Abomination HP changed from 40 to 30.
  
• Blood Abomination Armor changed from 50% to 25%.
  
• Blood Wyrm HP changed from 50 to 40.
  
• Blood Totem HP Changed from 25 to 20.
  
• Blood Totem Armor changed from 20% to 10%.
  

Necromancer:

• Necro Golem HP changed from 35 to 60.
  
• Necro Abomination HP changed from 25 to 20.
  
• Necro Abomination Armor changed from 50% to 25%.
  
• Necro Wyrm HP changed from 30 to 25.
  
• Necro Totem HP Changed from 20 to 15.
  
• Necro Totem Armor changed from 20% to 10%.
  

Moonring cards

• Barrier and Arcane Shield Barrier changed from 15 to 10.
  
• Force Field, Battle Enchantments and Living Shield Barrier changed from 20 to 10.
  
• Conversion Armor reduction changed from 10 to 20.
  
• Protection, Fury, Existence, Acid Blood, Acid Saliva, Conversion, Overdose, Sign of Revenge and Sign of the Rat cost changed from 1 to 0.
  
• Battle Enchantments, Oversaturation, Mystical Blood and Enraged Flailing cost changed from 2 to 1.
  

Summoner's passives:

• Precautionary Measures Barrier changed from 25 to 20.
  
• Last Layer, Protective Spells and Whispering Stones Barrier changed from 15 to 10.
  

Blood Mage's passives:

• Eternal Leash Barrier changed from 15 to 10.
  
• Nullification Armor reduction changed from 20 to 10.
  

Necromancer's passives:

• Another Try restored HP changed from 25 to 10.
  
• Deadly Mark Armor reduction changed from 50 to 20.
  
• Fearsome Reaper Armor reduction changed from 25 to 20.
  
• Cessation and Leech Form Barrier changed from 25 to 10.
  
• Deadly Protection Barrier changed from 30 to 20.
  
• Inner Growth Barrier changed from 5 to 3.
  
• Inner Growth bonus damage changed from 5% to 7%.
  
• Archgolem Barrier changed from 15 to 10.
  

Hi everyone! First things first - thank you for checking out the game in its still unpolished form, it means a lot to us! We've seen a huge amount of new players starting the game over the weekend and we want to thank you all for joining us and helping out with making Conquest the best game it can possibly be :)

We've been carefully reading and checking all of your bug reports (sent in-game, reported on our Discord, and here on Steam) and we think we've been able to fix a couple of issues some of you have encountered!

• Fixed one of the bugs that made some of you get stuck in combat after winning/dying. We're still investigating a couple of additional things that could've caused that.
  
• Fixed the Blacksmith's runestone drop upgrade - it should work properly now and be saved throughout all of your runs.
  
• HOPEFULLY fixed the can't-return-to-base issue that's plagued some of you.

This last one needs a bit of explanation:
We say that we hope we've fixed it because we're unable to reproduce this bug (quick explanation: saving and loading the same game file fixes the issue -- and because we're testing such bug reports through playing your saved games, well, you see the problem - we can't quite reproduce this bug). But we've reworked a couple of things related to portals so it might be OK now.

PLEASE let us know if this problem still persists after this hotfix!

• Fixed chain animations after 0 chains
  
• Added missing VFX
  

Hey everyone!

After months of work we are finally ready (and super excited) to bring you ALMOST everything that we have been cooking up!

Our team has been working really hard on pretty much every aspect of the game and we are really proud of what we were able to accomplish. We were working on the game in Early Access for over a year together with you – it was a demanding but amazing journey and we would like to thank you for all the feedback, support, and… well, just being here with us!

Before we will get to the meat of this major patch, we are also announcing when the game will leave Early Access and be available as a full product! Take a look at the trailer ;)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So, we are about a month away from the full release, and here’s an updated roadmap of major things that this release will have in store for y’all.



So! What do we bring you today?





Basically, if we wanted to post here proper patch notes, this update would be around 20 pages long – or more!

But here is a general breakdown:

• Major re-balance of all playable classes
  
• Tons of new cards and new passives for all classes (at launch we’ll have 340 passive skills, 460 cards)
  
• New masteries for all classes (at launch: 50 masteries across 9 classes)
  
• Almost all enemies had their behaviors re-designed
  
• We’ve added new boss fights and added some new minibosses to the game
  
• We’ve re-balanced the overall difficulty of the game
  

Overall, we’ve been polishing the gameplay aspect of the game for A LONG TIME now and we feel we are in a really good place! As always, we’ll be listening to your comments on that!





We have added a HUGE AMOUNT of new quest and story interactions to the game. All of these new quests are much more interconnected between different NPCs and will surprise you with a lot of really interesting interactions!

Generally, the game is now full of vivid characters, weird knights, improbable lovers. Tons of stories waiting for you to discover them (and get some cool gameplay bonuses in the meantime).

All in all, it will take you MANY, MANY HOURS to see everything and help out every NPC in the game. There are also many secrets – like a new, hidden villager you’re able to recruit – and we hope you’re going to have a lot of fun trying to discover everything there is to find in the game.

Two important things here:
One: Expect some bugs in the story-related content because not all texts are final yet and we weren’t able to implement a couple of things. The next patches will add more things and fix some bugs! The game, also, currently has no “true ending”. It’s teased, but not implemented yet.

Two: Upon full release, we will also add voiceovers to all dialogues in the game.





We’ve also changed how the village – meaning: your passive progression – works in the game. Each building has its dedicated resource (and every one is gathered in a different, gameplay-related way) and there is quite a lot of new things to unlock in there.

Mind that it’s the first iteration of this feature and we’ll be polishing it quite a lot in the coming weeks.

There is a lot of extra passive progress that will stay with you in-between the runs and help you conquer the wyrdness!

(Oh, and on top of that, every NPC in the village has their own extra storyline and quest – but we’ve already mentioned that there’s a lot of new stories in the game, right? :D)



We think it’s safe to say that the game never looked better. But in this case, well, a picture is worth a thousand words, isn’t it? ;)



Our artists were working HARD on replacing the old models and placeholders we've been using early in development. We've added A LOT to the game -- and the models aren't the only thing that's changed. We've also revamped our Combat UI, Reward screens, the Character Panel, and so on.

A LOT has changed.

But please note that we’re still working on new models (those buildings!), fixing broken animations, and the general flow of the game so it’s going to look even better at launch!




[h2]SAVE WIPE
[/h2]Unfortunately, taking into account the huge amount of changes, this patch brings a save-wipe.

We had to do this – mostly because of the revamped economy, passive progress, and a lot of new quests which would’ve totally been broken were it not for the wipe.

However, we hope that the amount of changes in this patch is so huge that you’ll have a great time re-discovering the game as if was a new experience (because, in a lot of ways, it is)!

PLEASE NOTE THAT: We really HOPE that this is the last save wipe we’re going to do before launch, but please keep in mind that since the game is still in development, plenty of weird things can happen. We wouldn’t want to delete your saves but if something breaks in a major way… Well, you get it.




We’ve been working hard on yet another thing that you’ve been asking for: support for translations.

It’s the first time we’ve ever tried to do such a thing and… well, we can say that it’s not easy, especially not when we’re talking about a game drawing heavily from RPGs and containing MASSIVE amounts of text!

In the end… we decided to try and support 4 language versions on launch.

ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, and POLISH

We really hope that everything’s going to be okay with these language versions because we’re still testing out our tools and we’re a bit afraid that something will break :D

However, we hope to add more languages not too long after launch!

And yes, we’ve already started talking about Russian and Spanish! :)



Ok! This is it everyone!

We really hope that you will enjoy the new version of the game!

If you do – remember to leave a review on Steam. This really helps us a lot!


Take care,
AR Digital team

Hi everyone! We've been silent for a while so we have something a bit different this time. It's a... development video Instead of a normal blog post :D

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And, as always, we'll try to come back with some new info SOON! :D