Bowmen News

What's New?: Release Candidate (RC) v0.1.5.4 from v0.1.5.3
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• We've added a more extensive cheat detection system to prevent hacking and leaderboard manipulation.
  
• A text warning and error sound effect will now trigger if you attempt to use the Melee Slash ability, but do not have enough strength or mana to do so.
  
• The level cap has been reduced to 40 (down from 60).

What's New?: Release Candidate (RC) v0.1.5.3 from v0.1.5.0
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• The window for which the Melee Slash ability can hit targets has been tightened. This was to avoid some enemies appearing to get hit by the slash after the animation has finished.
  
• The window for which the summoned Sword of Justice can hurt enemies has been tightened. This was to avoid some enemies appearing to get hit by the sword after it despawned.
  
• A "death animation" sequence has been added, where the camera will rotate around the player during death before fading to the summary screen.
  
• The usable item Akash now drops more frequently than other items.
  
• Some audio has been reworked to be more clear.
  
• Early waves will no longer drop epic/legendary quality items. These will drop later on during the encounter to match the wave difficulty.
  
• The damage from bombs and the summonable Wizard's "Genesis" attack have been reduced.
  
• Lord Pain is now immune to certain effects, like the bleed effect associated with Bloodlust.

[h3]Item Changes[/h3]
Angelsbane

• This item now costs 120 HP to activate instead of mana per second. In addition, this item will remain active for 45 seconds as long as it is equipped.
  
• This item now has camera shake and other effects that play upon its activation.

Bloodlust

• The proc chance has been increased to 33% (up from 30%).

Masfury

• The damage of the fire summoned by this item has been reduced to 15-35.
  
• The fire summoned by this item now has a sound effect associated with it.

[h3]Skin Changes[/h3]
Forgotten

• This skin now requires the rank of Ranger or better during season of the phoenix to unlock.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where the effect of Bloodlust was not occurring as often as indicated on the tooltip.
  
• Fixed various GUI issues that were known to occur on the Mac version of the game when keys were pressed or held down.
  
• Fixed an issue where the GUI elements would be improperly aligned on Mac clients, when the game did not save your resolution of choice properly from the last play session.
  
• Fixed an issue where some of the buff icons were improperly aligning to the top left of the screen under certain circumstances.
  
• Fixed an issue where enemy projectiles could, on occasion, "double" hit.
  
• Fixed an issue where the ghost ship from the Captain's Mace could be summoned while the 2 second pickup cooldown was in effect.
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the power of your shot would not reset to 0 after using the Multishot ability.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could sometimes "double shoot" by holding down both the left mouse button and the space bar, and releasing them at the same time.

What's New?: Release Candidate (RC) v0.1.0.5 from v0.1.0.4
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• Steam saves are now being sorted by Steam user, rather than by computer. This allows for multiple Steam users to play Bowmen on the same machine, while keeping their game data separately stored. If this update causes issues with your game data, download it from the Steam cloud when prompted upon startup. We will also be offering support on the Steam forums to help recover your game data if you have issues with this update.
  
• The level cap has been reduced to 60 (down from 100).
  
• A Melee Slash ability has been added to the game, that allows you to finish off enemies quickly in front of you with a cone slash attack. The ability is unlocked after investing 8 stat points into Strength.
  
• Enemy health, movement speed, and damage (with the exception of bosses) have been increased across all difficulties.
  
• The health of the Infernal Balrog has been reduced across all difficulties.
  
• The cooldown on the Multishot ability has been increased.
  
• An additional shooting animation has been added to the Multishot ability to give it more flair.
  
• The cooldown on the Fire Arrows ability has been reduced. In addition, the single target damage from the Fire Arrows has been increased.
  
• The "terms of service" is no longer shown before creating a character, since it is now being handled through a Steam EULA (End-User License Agreement).
  
• The time interval between spawns of the Skeleton Knight have been increased. They now only spawn once every 5 waves.
  
• The damage of the Skeleton Mage's ranged attack has been increased.
  
• There is now an animation that plays when you upgrade the Multishot ability or unlock the Melee Slash.
• A notice about how Steam saves are handled has been added to the start screen.
  
• Two new background music tracks have been added to the game for a little more variety.

[h3]Item Changes[/h3]

Scroll of Regeneration

• Both the passive and active health regeneration amount of this item has been reduced.
  
• Both the passive and active regenerate rate of this item (ticks per second) has been reduced.

Hypermace

• The amount of spirit the item gives has been reduced to +14 (down from 26), but it now also reduces the cooldown on the Multishot by 8 seconds.

Frosthowl

• The additional ice damage per hit has been increased to 15-22 (up from 8-16).

Rico's Cheté

• The cleave damage has been reduced to 50% and 25% (down from 75% and 25%).
  
• The amount of strength the item gives has been reduced to +8 (down from 12).

[h3]Skin Changes[/h3]

• The Chief Bandit skin now unlocks with the Untouchable achievement.

[h3]GUI Changes[/h3]

• Text has been added showing the time remaining on Mark of the Barbarian and the Spirit Golem when they are active.
  
• Key text in item tooltips (such as item damage or cooldown reductions) are now in yellow text, to help them stand out at a glance.

[h3]Achievement Changes[/h3]

Swashbuckler

• This achievement now requires a score of 3,500 on inferno difficulty (down from 5,000) with the Captain's Mace equipped to unlock.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where the ice damage from Frosthowl was lower than stated in the tooltip.
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes your previous onslaught performance would not post to the chat.
  
• The time interval for recognizing a kill as a Double Kill or Multikill has been increased. This was to fix an issue where sometimes double kills would not register, or a multikill would register as a double kill.
  
• Fixed an issue where Double Kill and Multikill text would sometimes disappear randomly if multiple kills were achieved in rapid succession.

Greetings fellow archers!

We've been hard at work over here at Ethereal Gem trying to make Bowmen the best possible game it can be before we launch it, officially, to the rest of the world. Your feedback during the Early Access period is paramount to Bowmen's success, and we are very grateful to the few of you who have already provided us with some feedback, you know who you are. You make working on the game fresh and fun, and we get very excited when we implement a suggested change and send it out back to you for play testing.

As you may know, the targeted release date that we had set for ourselves (May 3rd) was fast approaching. Based on the state of the game, feedback we've received, and some ideas we still wished to implement, we decided that it was best to keep the game in Early Access for a little while longer. For example, we noticed during our own internal play testing sessions that we would often angle our bow down and rapid fire at bat enemies that were getting too close to our player if we didn't finish them off at a distance. This takes away from firing at farther enemies, and makes the gameplay a little stale. To remedy this, we've been toying with a "melee" attack, whereby you can finish off any enemies close to the player with the shift key. This makes gameplay a little more complex and dynamic, and allows you to finish off enemies close to you with ease while still shooting at farther targets.

So, there's still a lot more to do, and your feedback during this period is really what is making Bowmen shine. So while we were reluctant to postpone the "official" release of the game, keeping it in Early Access for the time being will be best for the game in the long run.

Your continued support and feedback are very important to us. Thank YOU for all your hard work, playing the game, and helping us make Bowmen better. You rock!

Sincerely,
The Bowmen Team

What's New?: Release Candidate (RC) v0.1.0.4 from v0.1.0.3
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• The level cap has been raised from 30 to 100.
  
• The damage of enemy projectiles has been increased across all difficulties.
  
• Some variability has been added to enemy accuracy, which means that they will miss more often than they did in previous builds.
  
• The movement speed of the skeleton knights has been increased dramatically and is difficulty dependent. These enemies were initially intended to be a fast and immediate threat to the player, requiring swift action to avoid death. Their slow movement speed wasn't cutting it, and so we increased it.
  
• The "kill counter" time window, that is, the time window for which enemies can be killed and contribute to a double kill, multikill, etc. has been increased. This was because some enemies could be killed relatively close to one another and it wouldn't register with the current settings.
  
• The timer "between waves" is now more variable, and increases with increasing wave. This is so there isn't a large gap of time in between waves in the beginning of onslaught, and no "overlapping" waves later on.
  
• Items that can be "activated" have a 2 second cool down when they are equipped before they can be used. This was to fix a bug in RC v1.03 (see "bug fixes" below).
  
• Due to encryption efforts, we have changed how often the game autosaves game data. This is to increase game performance over previous game versions.
  
• Bombs no longer spawn on the map in random locations. Instead, they are "carried" by the skeleton knights, and can be detonated by hitting them with a fire arrow. If the skeleton knight is not killed before it reaches the player, it will detonate to deal bomb damage to the player and any enemies in the vicinity.
  
• Animations have been added for player attacks and taking damage.
  
  • Note: Steam cloud saves in this build are currently still being saved by computer, rather than Steam account. We are looking for ways to backup data based on Steam user, so be careful if more than one Steam user uses your computer to play Bowmen. For more information, please see the Support forum.

[h3]Skin Changes[/h3]

• The Panda skin has been added to the game, which unlocks for every Steam account that has purchased the game during Early Access. This skin will growl at enemies after receiving a double kill or higher during onslaught. Since this is an Early Access exclusive, this skin will be available for a limited time up until the game's official launch later this year.

[h3]Achievement Changes[/h3]

• The achievement Infernal Balrog Slayer is now correctly being reported as being unlockable on Hell difficulty as well as Inferno.
  
• The level requirement for the achievement Blood Soaked has been increased to 30.
  
• The level requirement for the achievement Inside Good, Outside Bad has been increased to 50.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• We fixed an issue where some items could be picked up in an "activated" state. This meant that when they were turned off from the "activated" state, it in some cases readjusted the player's stats incorrectly. This issue was fixed by adding a short cooldown upon pickup to items that can be activated, and adjusting how items modify player stats.
  
• We fixed an issue where the chat rank (i.e. the rank that appears next to a user's name in Bowmen world chat) was not always updating correctly, especially when switching between Steam accounts.
  
• Steam cloud saves are now correctly being stored and updated on the Mac version of the game client.
  
• Fixed some minor GUI issues where you could spam the "back" button on some menus and re-trigger the fadeout repeatedly to another scene.
  
• Fixed a bug whereby Greybeard (the "Wizard") would not play his run animation after finishing the tutorial and moving out of view.