Successor News

Hi everyone

We are back with another update that mainly addresses general hiccups and bugs during the tactical pause, UI feedback, and enhanced player experience by testing character voices from our dear Lords and Heroes.

We are still getting lots of feedback through our questionnaire and Discord. Thanks for that. Our focus for the past weeks and a few to come are to polish and improve the content already in the game while we are working on the SAVE GAME system, which is highly requested.

We also merge from Unreal 4.27 to Unreal 5. However, this build is still made in UE4, but we expect our next update to be in UE5. (a bit nerdy info. We know) ːsteamhappyː
[h2]
Patch Notes for build 0.6.22.6[/h2]

[h3]Bugs and other issues
[/h3]

• Fixed most issues of abilities that did not work well during the tactical pause.
  
• Fixed/reduced issues when using abilities to fast after each other the tactical pause would freeze ( It can still happen, though)
  
• Fixed issues with Sorceress freeze not supporting tactical pause
  
• Fixed hit effect when struck by lightning.
  
• Darkmoon seer now use their primary ability again
  
• Skeletons now move at their correct speed
  
• Lower the intensity of camera shake when units die
  

[h3]Additions and corrections[/h3]

• When using an ability, a line will show the origin and target of the ability in the UI
  
• Nerfed Critters spawned by the Druid
  
• Nerfed a Legendary item giving the team a fire shield
  
• Fandgripper is now equipped in the correct hand
  
• Darkmoon lord now has info on its weapon
  
• Added portrait of Shieldmaiden
  
• When loading a new battle board, the camera will be further away, allowing players to view the whole board.
  
• Added voices to all Lords and Heroes so they respond to issued commands during combat.
  
• Partly added voices to Lords and Heroes to respond to interactions on the region map.
  
• New UI sounds when interacting with elements during battle
  
• Cooldowns on Dregg corpse pile showing time to next spawn.
  
• Removed the idle question mark on units not doing anything.
  
• Druids can no longer wield wands (this might be changed again in the future)
  
• A new priest mode has replaced the old (placeholder)
  

Feel free to ask questions or comment and let us know what you think so far and what features or iterations you want to see.

If you like what we are doing, remember to Wishlist and follow to stay updated and maybe even join our discord channel.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone
/ The Playwood Project Dev Team

Thanks to our active community helping us discover and report bugs and other gameplay issues so that we can efficiently address and fix a few of those.

Patch notes v.0.6.21

• Fixed Hero rewards lacking from the later regions in Regicide Campaign
  
• Minor changes to story elements
  
• Fixed Crow attacking during a tactical pause
  
• Removed physical throw from Gween exploding traps
  
• Fixed “auto attack” triggers on Spider Nest and Fire Shrine
  
• Fixed Falcon shot missing damage
  
• Fixed some tiles placed too high to walk on
  
• Decal from Garden of Wines fixed
  
• Healing herp now supports tactical pause.
  
• Stats from Shield did not show right
  
• Scoundrel illusions no longer spawn unit cards
  
• Removed tooltips after the tent was burned
  
• Sword of Frost gives damage again
  
• Fixed a few typo errors
  
• Fx no longer scales with summon frog
  

Current development
Our focus for the next few weeks will be on the small but essential things, like fixing bugs, improving UI visuals, improving special effects and the timing of animations, and testing voice outbursts from characters as a response to in-game events. Everything that makes the moment-to-moment combat or tactical decision-making more compelling and entertaining.

Blood & Dice Demo
We had an available demo on the store page during the latest Digital tabletop festival. We will remove the demo anytime soon, so there is still time if you have not tried it yet. It's relatively short but shows some of the fundamentals in Successor, except the grand Kingdom map.


Help from our Community
We have experienced a massive increase in sign-ups in our Steam Playtest, which is fantastic. However, it will be a few weeks or more before we open for new playtesters as we are still working on the new features we would like to be evaluated, so be patient, everyone ːsteamboredː.

We also want to thank everyone who has already spent a few minutes filling out our google questionnaire with feedback and suggestions. All the data we receive are helpful for us in steering toward the right design decisions and understanding the current state of Successor.

Especially a shout out to our Discord members goth_milk and Kevin, who tirelessly play Successor, resulting in an endless stream of reported bugs, corrections, and feedback we need to attend to. It is a massive help for a small team like ours.

Remember to follow and wishlist Successor and maybe join our community on discord.

Have an excellent time until next time
The Playwood Dev Team

Hi Everyone

We are back with quite a significant update, especially in our combat system, which has been reworked to support what we internally call focus moments.


[h2]Tactical Pause[/h2]
This means that you can use your abilities and pickups during the tactical pause, and the ability's effect will fully play out.

Tactical pause has two modes.

1. Manual pause is when you press the spacebar. The game will stay paused during all your commands and actions until you press the spacebar again to exit the tactical pause.
   
   
2. An auto-pause occurs when you click a new unit or select an ability. The game stays paused while using an ability or choosing a move destination and will exit the tactical pause once the action is fully completed.
   

If you have already tried Successor, maybe now is a good time to try this new mechanic, and let us know your thoughts.

[h2]Campaigns[/h2]
Available in the playtest are now three campaigns.

1. Betrayal a prologue introducing key game mechanics
   
2. Revenge introducing the region map
   
3. Regicide introduces a medium-sized kingdom map.
   

For any newcomers to the playtest, you should be playing the campaigns from the top down.
[h2]New equipment & legendary Items[/h2]
We have also added lots of new types of equipment and awesome loot for you to try out.

• Fangripper bow
  
• Blightbloom crossbow
  
• Yetitoth spear
  
• Bone Splinter mace
  
• Khaituns Shiv
  
• Sagebane wand
  
• Rauhxhirs Tome
  
• Rams Anvil
  

and many more...

[h2]Doomed regions.[/h2]
When defeated in a region (getting wiped out in a battle), you will return in “dishonor” to the kingdom map only to realize that several regions now have been doomed. You will lose the region and the full campaign if you are defeated inside a doomed region.

[h2]The KingsGuard[/h2]
In the Regicide campaign, we have added a showdown with the king at the Capitol in the final region. By viewing the king's combat traits, you can prepare and set up your team of promoted heroes and legendary equipment for the final fight.

As an endnote, we want to share a few cool moments from Successor.
https://youtu.be/DKGOfuw2JMg

Remember to wishlist and follow us to stay updated.

Best regards
The Playwood Project Dev Team

Hi everyone

With this patch update, we will again open the Steam Playtest for a while and are looking forward to the feedback from our community who want to try our Successor by themself.

For everyone participating in the playtest, see patch notes for 0.6.6, as this update contains the most significant updates since our latest playtest.

Introducing “take a dip,” a new feature allowing you to push or kick enemies into water, mud, or even lava pools. Being pushed into a deep tile will significantly slow movement, but sometimes also health, like with the muddy pools in the forest inhabited by piranhas that will tear apart anyone in the water.


We have added a Tutorial for more smooth onboarding of new players. However, this is still a work in progress.

Please spend a few moments filling out our questionnaire or joining us at Discord and let us know your thoughts.

Have a nice weekend

Best regards

The Playwood Project Dev Team

Hi everyone

We have another major update to Successor with new heroes, battles with more tactical depth, and a new Dregg lord.


[h3]Three new playable heroes[/h3]

Inquisitor
An Inquisitor from the Owl of Athena, directly by the high priest. Loyal to the religious organization but often set to serve the interest of like-minded houses.

Druid
Child of the forest, devoted to protecting and caring for wildlife and its untainted spirits.

Sorceress
Originating from the houses of the north and practitioner of frost magic.

[h3]Improved tactical challenges[/h3]
We also made quite a large update to all the factions to increase the tactical challenge when facing them. These adjustments will be an ongoing development toward the final release.

Grim Legion
Skeleton warriors were made slightly weaker.
Necromancers can now summon skeletons much faster and can cast life drain.
Enforcers have been made slightly more robust.

Havengore
Introducing the Shield Guard has a trait that significantly increases the armor of adjected friendlies.

Blackrock Bandits
Reworded Assassins who now will shift in and out of combat, always seeking to prey on the weak.

The Dregg
Introducing Blighters are now slightly stronger Dregg with the ability to convert itself into a rot hole from where Bloaters will surface.
Bloaters sometimes enter a tantrum with the chance to blow up in a poisonous cloud.
Lord Goremaw spits poisonous liquids and grabs you with its tentacles.

Calsey
They changed their swordsman out with a spearman able to spawn several spiky roadblocks.

[h3]Gameplay initiatives [/h3]

Enemy positions
We changed how enemies are spawned and positioned on Battle Boards at the start. This is to avoid situations where the players find themself surrounded.

Faction traits
Now you can view unique traits for each faction. However, this is still WIP; not all factions have visible traits.

New abilities
You are now able to upgrade the abilities of your promoted heroes.

Environment enemy
The tentacles of Goremaw now occasionally appear in the swamp, be careful not to be grabbed by it.

fire
Fire now ignites poison clouds and extinguishes if in water.

[h3]Community[/h3]
A huge thanks for all the feedback we get from our community. We are working hard to sort out and prioritize all the points and ideas made and figuring out how to best address them. Our focus for the next few months is to improve the moment-to-moment feel of tactical depth and enjoyment of the battles.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Soon we will begin to run more closed playtesting, so please consider signing up for our newsletter or joining us on Discord, and as always, leave us a steam follow and wishlist ːsteamhappyː

Have an awesome weekend, everyone.

Best
The Playwood Project Dev team.