Together in Battle News

[p]Hey there, tactics fans! A few days ago, Unity posted about a newly revealed security flaw that primarily affects Android apps but which could conceivably affect other platforms as well under specific circumstances. In Windows, the exploit seems to only affect games that use functionality not used in Together in Battle--but just to be on the safe side, I've rebuilt the game anyway in a patched version that does not have this vulnerability.[/p][p][/p][p]I'm normally loathe to switch editor versions like this, as doing so can break game functionality; however, I've tested the game and haven't seen anything misbehaving. As always, if you run into any issues, please post about it in the bug report forum and I'll get it fixed post-haste! Tactically yours, Craig[/p]

[p]Hey all! I've got another update for you with a bunch of UI improvements designed to make it easier to keep track of worn and broken weapons, as well as making weapon-swapping quicker and easier in battle. I also have some bug fixes focused primarily--but not exclusively--on gamepad. This brings us up to version 1.0.55.[/p][p]Without further ado...[/p][p][/p][h3]...here are the UI improvements![/h3]

• [p]weapons now show a red warning icon if they're broken.[/p]
• [p]weapons now show an orange warning icon if they're at 1/3rd uses remaining or less.[/p]
• [p]recolored the old "new item" indicator in light green to make it stand out from the new warning indicators.[/p]
• [p]the Reserve Supplies screen now shows a red warning icon over any character in a weapon-reliant class who is currently equipped with a broken weapon (or not equipped with any weapon at all).[/p]
• [p]the Reserve Supplies screen now shows an orange warning icon over any character in a weapon-reliant class who is currently equipped with a weapon that is down to 1/3rd of its maximum uses or less.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]in battle, if a character has no weapon equipped and they have at least one equippable weapon in their inventory, the game now displays a "no weapon" warning button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Clicking this button will have the character automatically equip a weapon.[/p]
• [p]in battle, if a character has a weapon equipped and they also have alternative weapons they can equip in their inventory, the game now displays the current equipped weapon in the bottom-left corner of the screen along with two arrow buttons. Clicking this item button (or the arrow buttons) automatically cycles through the character's weapons, auto-equipping them and updating the Actions Bar (and any onscreen attack UI elements) accordingly.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]new hotkeys (',' and '.') now let you quickly cycle through the current selected character's equippable weapons as if you'd clicked the weapon selection arrow buttons.[/p]
• [p]when playing with gamepad, the right trigger button now only acts as a shortcut for End Turn if no character is selected; if a character is selected, however, it now instead cycles the current selected character's equipped weapon as if you'd clicked the weapon selection button.[/p]
• [p]updated the gamepad controls guide in the game settings menu.[/p]
• [p]if a character gains a tag that alters the after-attack behavior of a skill (for example, making it so that using the skill no longer ends the turn), this is now mentioned in the text description for that skill's mouseover tooltip in dark green lettering that stands out from the skill's default description text.[/p]
• [p]when a character equips a new weapon that grants a weapon skill, that weapon skill now appears all the way at the leftmost position in the skills in the actions bar.[/p]
• [p]the Manage Supplies option can now be selected in town on scheduled arena match days.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Miscellaneous improvements:[/h3]

• [p]further reduced the AI value for the Disarmed status effect to make the AI less likely to value Disarm over damage-inflicting skills.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Additionally, we have new bug fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed: under some circumstances, a flying character Twirling an enemy down into water or lava off of a cliff could produce an infinite loop of the victim splashing into the liquid.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when playing with gamepad, opening the army overview screen would start the cursor off over the salary icon, making it difficult to navigate down to the individual character rows. (The cursor now starts off positioned over the level/experience icon instead.)[/p]
• [p]fixed: when playing with gamepad, empty character rows in the army overview screen were navigable.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when playing with gamepad, the bug reports screen still opened the virtual keyboard despite the fact that there is no longer an input text field there.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when playing with gamepad, the bug reports screen had certain disabled UI elements still treated as viable targets for cursor navigation.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when playing with gamepad, the bug reports screen had issues with gamepad cursor alignment.[/p]
• [p]fixed: a handful of inanimate destructible objects were missing their immunity to Poisoned status.[/p]
• [p]fixed: Powerbot 5000 was missing its immunity to Poisoned status.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55a: unlearned skills and masteries with "Claw" as part of their name (e.g. Claw Mastery or Claw Counterattack) left in a spriggat's skill progression were not being added to their new skill progression upon promotion (most often in cases of promotion via Book of Power), causing the character to simply never learn them.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55a: when playing on Steamdeck, the save and main menu buttons in the deployment and victory screens appeared halfway offscreen.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55b: in many instances during the summer palace investigation, if a character volunteered to lockpick the study drawer, the wrong name would be displayed during their dialogue.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55b: the kineticist boss in the summer palace escape was not getting activated as intended.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55b: the character creator was allowing custom characters to be created with a nickname identical to their first name.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55b: the cancel button in the character creator's custom dialogue screen was partially overlapped by the Secret dialogue button.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.55b: when right-clicking a destructible object with a custom sprite, the game would fail to load the custom sprite for the character screen and would end up throwing a null error.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Custom campaign contest update[/h3][p]We now have just over 3 weeks remaining until the conclusion of our custom campaign contest! I am so excited to see what everyone's been making. 😀[/p][p]If you haven't started yet, don't worry, it's not too late--check out our video tutorial series for a guided walkthrough on making a custom campaign of your very own![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Annnnnnd that's it for this one, folks. Thanks to all the new players who've been trying out the game, and especially to the folks who've taken the time to leave a nice review! It makes a big difference. Until next time![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]I keep finding little things that need fixing, and so I continue to fix them! Here's what's new in version 1.0.53:[/p][h3][/h3][h3]UI and other improvements:[/h3]

• [p]the game now gracefully handles weapon-switching while attack tiles remain visible onscreen.[/p]
• [p]added in version 1.0.53a: it's now harder to kill the kineticist who calls in reinforcements in the blacksmith rescue battle when playing on difficulties above Relaxed.[/p]
• [p]added in version 1.0.53b: a new unit appears in the last battle on difficulty levels above Relaxed.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed: a change to the game's code intended to let it gracefully handle missing dialogue lines in other contexts had caused it to stop generating missing response lines on the fly during camp, leading to a lot of "I don't know what to say" moments.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Reinforcing Spine item was not adding to the target weapon's max uses correctly.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then equipping a new weapon that retained access to the selected skill was not causing the game to update damage and to-hit-chance data reflected in the attack tiles based on the weapon's new stats.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then equipping a new weapon that causes the character to lose access to the selected skill (or the base skill the selected skill depends upon) was not causing the game to deselect the skill and clear its attack tiles.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then unequipping a weapon that grants the base skill the selected skill depends upon was not causing the game to deselect the skill and clear its attack tiles.[/p]
• [p]fixed:  the game was using an item's full, base value rather than its modification cost when charging the player for repairs and engravings at the blacksmith.[/p]
• [p]fixed: human female hairstyle 20 had somehow lost its formatting, causing it to no longer show up.[/p]
• [p]fixed:  one of the snow-chasm-transition terrain tiles (snow-chasm3TipTL, to be exact) had incorrect rotation data.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the game was not wiping its memory of old characters when starting a New Game Plus (as it was supposed to be), meaning that custom characters recruited in the prior playthrough would not show up again during recruitment.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53a: when playing with gamepad controls, selecting the dialogue option to return to the shop after clicking to exit was not returning gamepad focus to the shop interface.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53a: when playing with gamepad controls in roguelike mode, the game was inappropriately treating the gamepad as having focus on the save game button in the turn box at the start of each player turn in combat after the first.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53a: one of the camp activity narrations for wood carving was missing a special character necessary to account for characters without male pronouns.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53b: major plot events occurring in town in the morning (specifically those tied to the game's first bad ending) would get preempted and fail to appear if they coincided with a scheduled league match in the arena.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53b: one of the units in the last battle was mistakenly spawned at level 38 instead of level 20.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]And for campaign creators:[/h3]

• [p]updated the moddable version of the main Together in Battle campaign with scripting fixes from the last month of updates.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was overwriting character default facial expressions when filling in gaps at the conclusion of character creation.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53a: generic gasul units with Changing gender created in the campaign editor's character creator were not being displayed correctly when spawned in battle.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.53a: the custom portrait button tooltip for generic characters in the campaign editor's character creator was being displayed on the wrong UI layer.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Until next time![/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours, [/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]I have another small update for you all: version 1.0.52! We have some more class balance tweaks, interface fixes, some extra capability for the item editor, and other miscellaneous bug fixes. Let's get right to the changes:[/p][p][/p][h3]First, miscellaneous balance tweaks and changes:[/h3]

• [p]increased the salary and appetite of cavaliers somewhat for balance reasons.[/p]
• [p]reduced the energy gain on the Mant Lancer promotion from 10 to 8.[/p]
• [p]the "-arch" promotion variants for the four elemental psy fighter types now gain +20 accuracy on their relevant elemental blast skill instead of an energy cost reduction, making these variants more distinct from (and competitive with) the "-kurios" alternative.[/p]
• [p]in the Snow Leopard League qualifier, the boss, assassin, and psy healer no longer remain immobile if the player enters their area prior to round 9.[/p]
• [p]in version 1.0.52a: rapier-based attacks Thrust and Lunge now have a big +75 accuracy buff to help provide more counterplay against Dodge tanks and provide extra utility to rapiers.[/p]
• [p]in version 1.0.52a: increased the energy cost of Defiant Stance from 2 to 4.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed: character tooltips had begun showing up when mousing over attack tiles in battle (these could obscure targeting reticles for skills that hit multiple spaces laterally, like Impale or spriggat breath attacks).[/p]
• [p]fixed: character tooltips could be made to show up during the gap between an army winning and the victory/defeat window popping up onscreen; these would then obscure part of the victory/defeat window.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when choosing who to make a buy-out offer for, Ishita Svaamee was using characters' displayed levels instead of their true levels, leading to her making offers to buy out recent promotes (with a lower displayed level) instead of unpromoted characters whose true level was actually lower.[/p]
• [p]fixed: upon winning the battle in the northern stepwell or the smuggler's den battle, the game would progress straight to the calendar screen instead of back to late camp.[/p]
• [p]fixed: following the revenge quest battle, the player would return back to camp at a normal time instead of late.[/p]
• [p]fixed: if the player lost the treasure thicket battle, they would restart it instead of being returned to camp.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Sick camp event could display the wrong character name.[/p]
• [p]fixed: clicking one extra time during a specific window in the introductory dialogue to Battle in the Northern Stepwell, just before the kidnappee is shoved into the water, could result in babble sound effects playing continuously until the end of the dialogue sequence.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: because the brother from the brother leader arena event and the inspirational leader from the inspirational leader arena event shared a script ID, and because the brother from the brother leader event was saved as a persistent characters, if the brother leader event happened and then, in a subsequent battle, the inspirational leader event happened, the brother would deliver the death monologue for the inspirational leader in place of the inspirational leader themselves, in turn causing the game to lock up upon completing the battle.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: there were a couple of remaining cavosphere activity narrations that shadowlings could get which used the descriptor "kick."[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: female human hairstyle 20 was sitting a little bit too high up on the head.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Campaign editor fixes and improvements:[/h3]

• [p]when creating items for a custom campaign, you can now make up entirely new equipment slots at will (e.g. Tail, Shoulder, Eyebrow, Essence...literally whatever you want) for items to equip to.[/p]
• [p]when adding traits to characters for a custom campaign, the game now displays descriptions of the personalities, physical traits, and backgrounds at the bottom of the window.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Neck equipment slot was missing from documentation (and from auto-completion in the item editor).[/p]
• [p]fixed: a previous fix to a different bug had broken the physical attribute and background selectors for newly created unique characters in the character creator.[/p]
• [p]fixed: camera bloom was making explanatory text in the character creator's text fields difficult to read.[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's all for the changes![/p][p][/p][h3]Custom campaign contest update![/h3][p][/p][p]In five days, there will be one month remaining in our custom campaign contest. All entries will be played live on stream, and the very best ones will win cash prizes of up to $100! I cannot wait to see what you all create. 😁 [/p][p][/p][p]To help out people new to this, I've been releasing video tutorials that walk you through the process of making a custom campaign. Here, for example, is the last episode I released (about making a custom battle):[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]I'm taking suggestions for future videos, so if there's something you want to do but don't know how, reach out and I may just make a video for you about it! 😉[/p][p][/p][p]All right folks, that's all I've got for this one. See you in the next update![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]Greetings, tactics fans! This is another small update in which I continue to fix bugs and improve the experience in small ways.[/p][p][/p][h3]Changes to the Main Campaign[/h3][p][/p][p]First, we have a few changes designed to make it easier to keep lower-level characters caught up with the rest of the team without risking their lives in the arena, and to ensure that that remains possible throughout the campaign:[/p]

• [p]increased the availability of battle primers somewhat in the shop to make it easier to catch up underleveled characters.[/p]
• [p]increased the range of levels where novice and intermediate battle primers are effective to keep them useful for longer.[/p]
• [p]in the shop, intermediate battle primers are now much more likely to appear instead of novice ones once the player enters Gharial League; and once the player enters Snow Leopard League, expert battle primers are now much more likely to appear instead of novice or intermediate ones.[/p]
• [p]added in version 1.0.51a: the game now actively checks non-Golem, non-Spirit custom characters when initiating camp and--if they're missing Practice, Clean, and Talk camp activities--adds them.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]fixed: the game was playing drowning sound effects when checking environmental damage for destructible objects submerged in water.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: custom characters were being generated without certain core camp activities available to them.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: mind controlling an enemy minion during Psy Clash would result in the minion's attack sound effect reverting to a sword slash sound.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: the epilogue used the word "screenplay" where "stageplay" was appropriate.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: there was a "the" missing in one line of Malatose's dialogue during her first interrogation ("Getting straight to point now, are we").[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: some background- and trait-specific camp activities for certain custom characters were still not showing up post-hotfix.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: portraits for certain generic characters were not loading due to a mistake in the code adding support for custom static generic character portraits.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: a bug fix from a previous update was causing characters already present among saved characters to not get recruited during battle (most noticeably during the character sibling event in the arena).[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: skills which place multiple holds or create multiple objects at once were granting experience multiple times.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: skills which place multiple holds or create multiple objects at once were counting multiple times for purposes of how many times the skill had been used in battle.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Campaign Creator improvements[/h3]

• [p]you can now assign your own custom static portraits to generic unit types in the character creator![/p]
• [p]you can now manually select skin and hair palettes for generic character portraits (and, for humans, their corresponding unit sprites) in the character creator.[/p]
• [p]updated placeholder text in the tags field for the map editor's Unit Properties window, removing the long-since-deprecated "Add," text.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was formatting portrait data for generic characters in such a way that their hair layer wasn't being detected upon loading them in a custom campaign.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was not saving hair palette or skin palette data for generic characters.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the map editor was throwing a null error when trying to create tooltips upon mousing over FromPlayerRoster character stand-ins.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Create your own campaign![/h3][p]As you can see, I've been focused on fixes and improvements to the campaign creation suite. We are now just a bit more than 1/4th of the way through our campaign creation contest, and I want to make sure that campaign creation is as fun and painless as possible![/p][p][/p][p]In that vein, I've been uploading a series of tutorial videos designed to teach people how to create their own campaigns in the campaign editor. As of today, we now have four videos up--these (and all future videos in the series) appear in this Youtube playlist: [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][h3]New Playthrough Stream![/h3][p]In the meantime, SRPG luminary Titanium Legman has begun a series where he livestreams Together in Battle while recruiting as many player-created custom characters as possible. (Tonight will be the third episode--don't miss it! 😉)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Anyway, that's all I've got for this one; see you all in the next update![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p][p][/p]