Wargroove 2 News

Hey everyone! 🐭

We’re stopping by to wish a very happy 5th anniversary to the Wargroove series! It's been an exciting year for Aurania, with the reveal of the sequel, Wargroove 2, we’ve continued to build our community into a hub of enthusiastic tactics (and rat 🐀) fans! To celebrate this special day, both Wargroove and Wargroove 2 will be on sale from February 1st to February 8th.



Wargroove came to life as a love letter to the classic turn-based tactical games we adored and wanted to see on modern platforms. Fueled by nostalgia and an excitement to build something new after Starbound, in 2017 we got to work building a new strategy title with a retro feel. As Aurania and the factions of Cherrystone, Felheim, Floran and Heavensong came to life throughout development, we developed new twists to keep the genre fresh. With a unique Groove system, dynamic gameplay and a custom campaign and map editor, Wargroove became a full-featured title.

Wargroove not only became a labour of love by the development team, but also became a bustling community of passionate tactics fans who love creating fan art, custom campaigns, mods and our very own thriving competitive community, Groove of War. You can join our community Discord to see what all the buzz is about 🐝

After launching Wargroove in 2019, we followed up on Wargroove’s success with an all-new co-operative DLC, Double Trouble - a free update which brought a new story and a brand-new Outlaw faction into the mix. In 2020, the baton passed to our friends at Robotality, who took over with their own turn-based strategy experience and expanded Wargroove even further with Wargroove 2, introducing a plethora of new units, 2 new factions and 3 story-rich campaigns.

The anniversary sale is our little way of showing gratitude for your unwavering support. The Wargroove community wouldn’t be the same without your enthusiastic engagement and feedback. Thank you all for all the support you’ve shown Wargroove over the last 5 years. We hope you’ve enjoyed the additions made to Wargroove 2. Here’s to many more years of tactical gameplay goodness!

Version 1.2.5c is a small hotfix update to address a few technical issues.

• Fixed memory leak caused by certain combinations of item and groove modifiers stacking on units.
  
• Conquest: Fixed various issues caused by units loaded into transport units. Units are now unloaded automatically when progressing to the next event.
  
• Fixed crash rendering preview image for custom maps in map selection screen.
  
• Editor: Fixed crash when trying to edit properties of treasure chest.
  

Hi everyone!

My name is Midio, Lead Artist on Wargroove 2! I had the pleasure of crafting the visual development and design of the Faahri Commanders and Units. Today, I’m going to dig into the process of creating the Faahri faction and characters you’ve all come to know and love since the release of Wargroove 2!

When I joined the team, Simon, our art director, already had in mind a “cave dwelling folk” faction, and flirted with the idea of them being dwarves and even monks at some point! As the conceptual exercise dove deeper, he suggested them being rodents and the team was completely in love with the idea of introducing a cute little mouse faction to the Wargroove universe. The essence of the Faahri Republic’s early lore from pre-production stayed almost intact throughout the development of Wargroove 2: a nation of mouse-folk from another land, who reside in sprawling underground networks.



I went to work on developing the visual identity of the mice, blending Simon’s designs and Wargroove’s distinctive style. Wargroove's armies often draw inspiration from a tapestry of global cultures, and the Faahri faction finds some of its inspiration in the Golden Age of Islam and the influence of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Arab world on the West. This period is well known for the discovery, assimilation and flourishing of complex math, science, cartography, new technologies, culture and education that would be carried onto western societies. One of the main themes around the Faahri are their geometric designs, a theme commonly seen in the islamic’s architecture and art, symbolizing the clarity and order these little mice pursue in their society.



Once the general aesthetic and colour scheme were defined, we moved along to developing the Commanders. The beginning of this process was also through geometry: Pistil was thought as a cylinder, Lytra as a small circle and Rhomb as a big square. Pistil was born almost as we see her in the final design. I thought we could build in some of her historical experiments into her visuals with the prosthetic limb and a robotic eye (both super ornate, of course). Rhomb firstly wielded a huge axe, but ended up with two forms once we started exploring the depths of crystal technology and how the Faahri use it and its more sinister uses…



Lytra became the Commander who went through the most iterations. We loved each of her designs at every step, with some of her earliest designs making their way to other units and characters! Early on, Lytra wielded a fierce flamethrower, which eventually ended up being part of Nadia’s design! Our plan for Lytra had always been that she would be the misfit of the whole Faahri outfit. Our initial approach was to make her differences clear using her visuals by giving her a punk look with spiky, colourful hair - now used for the Faahri merfolk! Eventually, we decided that Lytra’s feelings of distance from her peers should be less outward to create nuance and make her character not so easy to define. We knew we wanted her to have a deeper connection with the magic of the world she inhabits and so we decided to give her oversized mage clothes and turned to music and experimented with instruments as a weapon.(Fun fact: Lytra once had a trombone!)



There it is, I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey down development-memory lane with me! I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the love you’ve had for the Faahri faction - I’m going to also leave you with a bit of an art-dump full of mine, Simon’s and Marion’s development sketches. We’ve loved bringing something completely new to Wargroove 2 and we’re happy to know you’ve all enjoyed getting to know Rhomb, Pisil, Lytra and their friends!


Until next time!

Midio

Hi everyone!

If you're in the Discord you'll know this one has been a while in the making, and full of some highly requested updates.

Thank you for your patience while we fixed some particularly tricky multiplayer bugs. As Wargroove is a cross-platform game, all updates have to release simultaneously, so the approval process for consoles can make things take a little longer. So without further ado, here's what v1.2.5 has in store:

[h2]Multiplayer Ranking + Changes to Quickplay experience[/h2]
This update we wanted to focus on improving Wargroove 2's multiplayer experience. Now when you enter the Multiplayer section of the game, a new 'player rating' is now visible. This rating is used in matchmaking. If you haven't played a quickplay match before the rating will start at 1200. After finishing a quickplay match, a new screen has been introduced detailing how your rating has changed based on the previous match.

(Please note: If you've already started ranking up on the Preview branch, the v1.2.5 release version will reset all rankings to 1200 for fairness across platforms).

We can't wait to see players battling and sharing their rankings!



An important note on potential transition conflicts once the patch goes live - once updated you won't be able to join lobbies, or continue ongoing games which were opened with previous patches. To finish playing any matches started during an update prior to v1.2.5, please access our "legacy" branch which will be staying as version v1.2.3.

If you were playing a match while the update went live, this shouldn't have affected play, but you will need to update to the latest version on Steam to continue further matches.

[h2]Quickplay Map Pool[/h2]
For this update we lowered the amount of quickplay maps in rotation to give players a better chance of learning them, and removed some maps which weren't a good design-fit for quickplay. We will be rotating the pool of maps for subsequent updates/seasons, so for now, please find below the selection of quickplay maps now in rotation for this season:

• Wyvern Isles
  
• Brimouth
  
• Life in 19x19
  
• Moonlight Meadows
  
• Heartsong Gardens
  
• Dusty Oasis
  
• Ban Ban Beaches
  
• Harmonious Hideout
  
• Brimwin Valley
  
• Snowdrift Harbour
  
• Pearlescent Valley
  
• Lost in Riparia

[h2]Other updates to Multiplayer include:[/h2]

• Quickplay will now play a different music when queuing for a match. Once a match has been found a notification sound will play.
  
• When a player abandons a lobby during quickplay, a more descriptive message is now displayed to the other player.
  
• Players now have 90s instead of 60s to ready when a quickplay lobby has been found

[h2]Balancing Changes[/h2]

• Kraken: Cost increased (750g->850g) and they receive more damage from water units.
  
• Ragna: Tier 1 now charges at Medium speed down from Slow.
  
• Nadia: Both tiers charge at Slow speed now.
  
• Nuru: Nuru's Tier 2 affects now all recruiting structures.
  
• Valder: Tier 1 now charges at Medium speed, up from Fast.
  
• Caesar: Tier 2 now charges at Very Slow speed, up from Slow.

The following multiplayer maps have seen tweaks in this update:

• Pearlescent Valley
  
• Lost in Riparia
  
• Moonlight Meadows
  
• Ban Ban Beaches Beyond
  
• Brimouth Channel
  
• Brightfall Plains
  
• Frostbite Plains
  
• Swamp of the Damned

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Vespers groove has received several fixes and should now work as intended
  
• Fix bug that would sometimes prevent recruiting with the Enter key
  
• Fixed Zawan's supercharged vines showing missing description when right clicked.
  
• Fix various navigation bugs when using arrow keys to navigate recruit/map lists
  
• Fix optional Kraken crit objective being wrongly rewarded in "Return to Eight-Arm Bay"
  
• Fix target portals not being available to use for team mates
  
• Fix crash bug that could occur if player placed Lytra at a specific spot during the second prologue mission
  
• Fix softlock that could occurred when player cancelled progress during tutorial campaign.
  
• Optional objective in "The Fortress" is now properly fulfilled if enemy commander is defeated with the twin's groove
  
• UI: Fixed Tenri's groove icon
  
• Ultra widescreen monitors are now better supported
  
• Controller: Improved usability in editor by showing button mapping for functions like undo/redo and toggling symmetry tools.
  
• Improved visual readability of Vesper's and Errol & Orla's grooves
  
• Fixed issue that caused Ryota's groove often not being available in Fog of War maps
  
• Neutral structures no longer take push/pull knock-on damage
  
• Fixed a bug which could cause desync and "Invalid unit order" crashes in multiplayer
  
• Fixed occasional crash after leaving multiplayer lobby screen
  
• Updated translations for the Power Gauntlet item description to match its actual properties
  
• Fixed a few spelling errors in all languages
  
• We have made some updates to the server to help with issues people have been having in multiplayer.
  
• Kraken units can no longer tentacle other tentacles
  
• Editor: Fixed issue that caused placed units to be invisible on very large maps
  
• Editor: Fixed crash issue with controllers that could occur when deleting triggers and conditions
  
• Editor: Fixed missing strings in "Units: Verbs used" condition
  
• Editor: Removed a few placeholder items in "Display tutorial box" action properties
  
• Editor: Fixed several objects being misaligned with the mouse cursor when placing
  
• Editor: Fixed "invalid config error" that could occur equipping certain items in the editor
  
• Editor: Fix neutral units causing crash when using Unit Action event trigger action.
  
• Editor: Fixed several inconsistencies with groove charge. The editor should now properly reflect the game's use of groove in %.
  
• Editor: Fixed Valder's (No Glove) and Lytra's (No Harp) voice over lines being wrong.
  
• Editor: Several story props have been made available that were previously hidden
  
• Editor: Removed "Delete All Progress" option from editor
  
• Fixed issue that caused a certain fish not being unlockable when using Mercival's groove
  
• Fixed crash that could occur in conquest mode when transitioning levels
  
• Fixed issue that caused items to be purchased immediately when selecting in merchant
  
• Fixed issue that caused a crash when purchasing discounted merchant items
  
• Fixed various typos in codex and game in general
  
• Fixed a visual gap in the tile info screen that appeared for several water units
  
• Fixed bug in "Firebird & The Oaracle" that would cause no music to be played during this level after skipping the intro
  
• Fixed issue in last mission that marked unsafe tiles as safe.
  
• Fixed buggy beach texture in "Ice Low Water" biome
  
• Fix custom difficulty description not updating properly on change
  
• Removed duplicate tracks from jukebox that had appeared under a different name
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when quickly clicking buttons in conquest menus
  
• Conquest: Fixed a merchant in Felheim conquest not being interactable
  
• Conquest: Fixed several issues in Saffron Isles prisoner event
  
• Conquest: Fixed issue in Training Camp events when player didn't have troops available to train
  
• Conquest: Fixed issue in unit transformation event that caused dialogues to go out of order
  
• Conquest: Fixed issue that caused several events to not show their Fog of War status correctly
  
• Conquest: Unlock icon no longer shows exclamation mark when there's nothing left to unlock
  
• Conquest: Fixed issue in item duplication event that could cause player to be offered the choice to duplicate more than once.
  
• Conquest: Fixed issue that allowed player to give money to Fritz, even if they had none.
  
• Conquest: During unit duplication event, player is now returned to the conquest map right away if they decline the offer
  
• Conquest: Fix soft-lock when player was facing a witch as the only remaining enemy with no means to defeat it
  
• Conquest: Fix issue that caused Emeric to have full groove charge on start of conquest
  
• Conquest: Fix issue that caused units to not retain their item abilities when they get transformed/changed to new unit types
  
• Conquest: Fix possible softlock after finishing the Donut + Fenris fight.
  
• Conquest: Fix artwork of training camps being swapped.
  
• Conquest: Fix occurence of unit stacking
  
• Conquest: Fix several issues in the Prisoner event map during the Saffron Isles conquest.
  
• Conquest: Fixed Amphibian Lucky Coin ("Alacrity") to correctly show +1 movement instead of +2.
  
• Conquest: Fixed crash that could occur during the Unit Transformation event
  
• Conquest: Merchant dogs can no longer be moved by player

Phew! That was a big one. Thanks everyone and have fun!

[h2]Hold on, there's more?[/h2]
There's so much going on this week in the Wargroove multi-media universe. If you love composer Dale North's playful new soundtrack for Wargroove 2 you're going to want to check out this amazing new vinyl release.

You can now pre-order a 2LP limited edition blue-as-the-Auranian-sea vinyl set, with beautiful cover artwork from Drew Wise, who you might recognise from the original Wargroove vinyl release!

Pre-Orders for the vinyl are available now via Ship to Shore.

Hi everyone!

We hope you've been enjoying Wargroove 2 so far. Since the launch, the dev team at Robotality has been working on patch updates addressing your initial feedback, but we're also looking into bigger updates for Multiplayer, Conquest mode, and modding - you can read more about that in our previous blog post!

We also wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who came by the Chucklefish stand at EGX over the weekend to play Wargroove 2. It was fantastic to celebrate the release by getting to meet some of the community and having a chance to see players enjoying the game in person. As a majority remote development team, it was also a special occasion for us, as it meant the dev team could celebrate all together in the same room! 🥳



v1.2.3 is now live on both Steam & Nintendo Switch, with cross-play enabled.

[h2]Changelog Version 1.2.3[/h2]
- Fixed softlock that could occur at the end of "Perfectly Natural"
- Fixed softlock if you had more than one Commander present at the end of a Conquest.
- Fixed crash that could occur during "High Noon"
- Fixed crash that could occur when the twin's groove despawned
- Fixed a crash when spectating a game that finishes
- Fixed a crash on double clicking on Campaign selection screen
- Fixed crash when a unit was blocking Koji during optional objective sequence in "Cry for Help"
- Fixed issue that could cause player to lose during "Perfectly Natural" even though they should've won
- Fixed issue that could cause random unit disappearing when the twin's groove despawned
- Fixed an issue that caused trigger actions to not be scrollable in the editor when using controllers
- Multiplayer Map: Harmonious Hideout now has both parties with trebuchets enabled
- Fixed bug that caused bonus star not to be applied in "A Great Fall"
- Fixed pointer arrow not disappearing in "..." mission during Dark Skies campaign
- Fixed player wrongly being awarded optional objective in "Capn' Sourcheeks" when they have not succeeded in achieving this
- Fixed a bug that caused Phil & Cylinder not fading in properly during a cutscene
- Fixed optional objective not being awarded in "Return to Eight-Arm Bay"
- Fixed spelling error in the objective of "Return to Eight-Arm Bay"
- Fixed asterisk in Pirate Harpoon Ship Entry
- Fixed Shosa's name label during cutscene
- Added a bunch of backgrounds and assets to the cutscene editor that appear in the campaign
- Commander-less factions are now available in the editor to use
- Fixed a missing objective string in "..." during the Dark Skies campaign
- Fixed a rouge pixel in the road tileset assets
- Fixed an issue that made some selections in multiplayer settings hard to navigate with a controller
- Fixed visual defects in the castle of "Cry for Help"
- Fix crash bug that occurred when using Wulfar's supercharged groove in Fog of War
- Fixed a softlock that could occur in "A Great Fall"
- Fixed UI location still being visible at the end of "A Great Fall"
- Fixed crash that could occur with Kraken's tentacle ability
- Elodie can no longer target tentacles with her groove.
- Frog AI will now respect Fog of War
- Conquest: Fixed wrong tile info visible in some merchant events
- Conquest: All towers now have 4 tiles for spawning air troopers.
- Conquest: Fixed issue that caused Caesar's movement buff in supercharged groove to stay past current level
- Conquest: Fixed mages spawning outside the map's border in certain maps

[h2]Upcoming Patches[/h2]
We're already working on the next patch, which we'll be sharing on the Preview branch - you can find out more about it in the Preview Builds & Changelog Steam Forums thread. This beta branch will always have the most recent build with fixes and improvements, but it may also include some new bugs not on the main branch. Please also keep in mind you can only play multiplayer with other players that are using the preview branch.

Thanks all!