Exile’s Return Beta branch now live

Protectors of the Light,

Exile’s Return, the next major update for Age of Darkness: Final Stand, is now available in Beta.

This branch includes the entire Campaign – all upcoming Act III content, alongside new Survival features such as the new playable Hero Aurelia, Formations, performance enhancements, an updated Hero Select and faction keeps, as well as Spanish localisation for the game.

As mentioned in our earlier blog post, we have opened access to our Beta to allow us to get new content into your hands now, while helping us to collate feedback and continue to add additional polish to the game.

[h2]HOW TO ACCESS THE BETA[/h2]

In order to access the Beta branch, please ensure you have Age of Darkness: Final Stand installed and updated on Steam. Select Properties, then Betas and select the following branch from the dropdown:

v0.11.0_opt_in

Over the coming weeks, we will be actively updating the Beta branch with additional fixes, and addressing some of the known issues in the current build - detailed below.

Please note that save files will not carry over to the live version of the game.

Should you encounter any bugs or issues, please report them to us using the in-game bug reporting tool (found in both the main menu and Escape menu). Your reports are highly valued in helping us continue to improve the player experience in Age of Darkness: Final Stand.

[h2]BETA RELEASE NOTES[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

Act III is now in Beta, containing the finale of the Age of Darkness: Final Stand campaign with three epic Missions, a Campaign Closing Cinematic (Reunion) and a boss fight!
New Hero: Aurelia
3D Hero Select for all Heroes
New Faction Keeps for Order and Volatist Factions
Formations

[h3]Additional Changes[/h3]

Added additional tutorial pop-ups
Added the ability to shift click units to deselect them
Pathfinding and Map Tile refactors for more reliable long distance pathfinding.
Garrisoning refactors on how we handle units entering / exiting towers.
Added Spanish European language localization
Added Spanish Latin American language localization

[h3]Crashes[/h3]

Fixed a crash that could occur when loading into Mission 5.
Fixed a crash occurring when transitioning from the World Map to the Main Menu.
Fixed a crash that appeared when alt-tabbing when drivers were being overloaded.
Fixed a crash that resulted from killing an elite in Campaign.

[h3]Fixes & Changes[/h3]

CAMPAIGN

Fixed an issue where the 'Return to Game' button fails to function after quickly clicking the 'Load' button twice.
Fixed an issue where the game would run during cutscenes.
Fixed an issue where certain entities were grey.
Fixed an issue where the ‘Hold Escape To Skip’ button was not localised.
Fixed an issue where the skip cutscene UI element was displayed in World Map.
Fixed an issue where the Camera did not display the Campaign Map correctly.
Fixed an issue where a random faction style will be chosen for the HUD and UI styling.
Fixed an issue where the Cutscene transition to gameplay lost focus on the characters after resuming.
Fixed an issue where the time of day notifications appeared in Cutscenes.
Fixed an issue when pressing the spacebar to pause the game would not pause dialogue audio.
Fixed an issue where the highlight on Main Menu would stop working after coming back from Campaign Menu.
Fixed an issue where the Campaign ‘Upgrade Keep' UI was visible when in its disabled state.
Fixed an issue where the Alderin units did not receive the Horrify stats upon becoming Horrified.
Fixed an issue where after being defeated the camera moved to the corner of the map.
Fixed an issue when playing a mission after already completing it would replay the map animation.
Fixed an issue when selecting a mission and spamming continue the camera would reset.
Fixed an issue where some areas on the World Map were linked incorrectly.
Fixed an issue in the World Map where strange lines appeared in map sky.
Fixed an issue where the Building plan circle range indicators are now removed correctly after the building plan has been closed.
Fixed situations where the main menu music could play over the top of cinematics.
Fixed issues related to attack pathfinding against buildings.

Prologue Mission
Fixed an issue in the Prologue Mission where using "F1" or "F2" would select units you don’t control.
Fixed an issue in the Prologue Mission where buildings existed in the FOW that shouldn't be there.
Fixed an issue where the Dunstock Cinematic played even if the player failed the Prologue Mission and selected ‘Return to Map’.

Mission 1
Fixed an issue in Mission 1 where a Militiaman fails to appear in the cage after loading a save.
Fixed an issue in Mission 1 where units had inconsistent pathfinding when moving around wooden fences.

Mission 2
Fixed an issue in Mission 2 where an Iron Talon dialogue line repeated twice.
Fixed an issue in Mission 2 where the Food Hut objective counter was broken.
Fixed an issue in Mission 2 during the 'Build a Training Hall' objective, it failed to complete when the Training Hall was built before the objective.
Fixed an issue in Mission 2 where the game got stuck on loading an auto-save after failing on objective: ‘Time Until Debris is Cleared’.
Fixed an issue where incorrect VO played when claiming the Norfolk Pikemen.

Mission 3
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 where exploring the south-east during objective: ‘Treading the Raven’s Soil’ autocomplete.
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 when right clicking on the gates would make the unit's animation stutter.
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 where the barrel positions on the Keep were incorrect.
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 where the Nightmare wave minimap skull icon disappeared too soon.
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 where the scouting marks from "Treading the Raven's Soil I" are still displayed on the minimap after the objective is completed.
Fixed an issue in Mission 3 where objective "The Locals I: Reach the Norfolk Village" completed by itself.

Mission 4
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where Theobold remained on the players team after choosing the Rebels side after the Cornered Rats Cutscene.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the last cutscene on the Order Stronghold still had the Keep's Narrator talking.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the 'Defence is under attack' or 'Unit killed' prompt displayed in the unexplored area after completing 'Reach the Rebellion Quarry' objective.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where a minimap marker appeared near the ‘Enforcer Ova’ cage after choosing the Order narrative.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where Walls were missing from Order Stronghold during Cutscene.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where after selecting the ‘Rebellion Quarry’ option at the ‘Crossroad’ objective there are two soldier units that don’t become controllable.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where there was an extra voice line during the first Cutscene.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the Crystal breaking SFX did not play in the opening Cutscene.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where collision was missing on a gateway when choosing to side with the Rebellion at the Crossroads.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the health bar of enemies failed to display after choosing any choice from 'Cornered Rats'.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where Soldiers and Sentinels had zero vision after being captured.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the Triage Tent at the Rebel’s Quarry remained assigned to a neutral faction and did not resurrect units.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where ‘Light in the Dark 2’ the Triage Tents were not targetable by Nightmares.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where an Arbalest from ‘Lone Survivor’ choice did not clear FOW.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where Alderin units in the Order Stronghold appeared stuck and did not move towards Nightmares.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the Sole Survivor Cutscene had incorrect UI Portraits.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where there was a missing collision from the side of the cage attached to a wall within the Order Stronghold.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where in the second Cutscene an Alderin Enforcer was freed from Jail without context.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 where the attack animation of the enemies can be seen through the FOW.
Fixed an issue in Mission 4 when protecting Aurelia did not tick as complete on the Mission Success screen.
Fixed a crash when loading a manual save created after completing the 'Rebellion Blockade' objective.

Mission 5
Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where a player was able to place an Iron Quarry where no Iron was available.
Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where the game got stuck on loading a manual save after saving the game at the end of the first Cutscene.
Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where the Nightmare Breach VFX were visible through the FoW.
Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where a negative value was displayed for the ‘Food Ration’ in the ‘Economy Panel’ at the start of the mission.
Fixed an issue in Mission 5 where the wrong UI was displayed when opening loot.

Mission 6
Fixed an issue in Mission 6 where Volatists would spawn from a destroyed Weaver Gate.
Fixed an issue in Mission 6 where Cyrus’ character mesh was hidden when unconscious on the ground.
Fixed an issue in Mission 6 where the game got stuck when the 'Find Cyrus' cutscene ended and enemies that were present behind the wall were eliminated before completing the objective.
Fixed an issue in Mission 6 where Aurelia and Vizargo appeared to walk in opposite directions during a Cutscene before destroying the final Weaver Gate.
Fixed an issue in Mission 6 where some prison cells to be opened did not have markers or levers.

Mission 7
Fixed an issue in Mission 7 where the old Campaign Select Menu displayed once the player had loaded an autosave.
Fixed an issue where Projectiles did not render correctly.
Fixed an issue where the Health bar of Theda and her units appeared in green instead of blue.

SURVIVAL
Fixed an issue where Catapults could move in Siege Mode.
Fixed an issue where the Veil did not render when panning over the Crystal during a Death Night.
Fixed an issue where Watch Towers did not show correct Death Night paths during the Final Stand.
Fixed an issue with the walking animation of an Elite Axeman.
Fixed an issue where the vision and ranged defensive building's UI replaced resources buildings with a solid shadow UI.
Fixed an issue where Elite Nightmares could change if the game was reloaded before discovery.
Fixed an issue where playing your first game the 'Welcome' popup did not appear.
Fixed an issue when discovering the Crystal the notification would infinitely pulsate if the game was paused.
Fixed an issue where Vizargo’s Impaling Wrath had no spell indicator.
Fixed the cogwheel icon failing to grey out while having insufficient resources for multiple structures in the 'Wood workshop'.

SURVIVAL AND CAMPAIGN
Fixed an issue when activating Violent Volley on top of set dressing did not damage enemies.
Fixed an issue where Heroes would play Attack Idle animations from random start frames.
Fixed an issue where Units would play their Walk animation in-between attacks.
Fixed an issue where the Fire Tower required the Braced Tower to be researched beforehand.
Fixed an issue where no farm tiles were displayed in builder mode.
Fixed an issue where Aelis did not use or trigger her idle Attack animation.
Fixed an issue where FPS would drop to single digits when using Ignite on a large group of Walls.
Fixed an issue where Harbingers would leave Axemen on 0 HP without killing them.
Fixed an issue where Elite nightmares had incorrect damage displayed and applied.
Fixed an issue where selected units will not finish their moving path when using move queue hotkeys.
Fixed an issue where Aelis' Queen's Rage would linger on units after being killed.
Fixed an issue where Cyrus displayed as having 1 armour above his health bar.
Fixed an issue where the Burster UI rings were displayed at a smaller size then the blast radius.
Fixed an issue where Edwin's enlighten perk displayed as a 0% gain.
Fixed an issue where Merek's Jump Smash didn’t land consistently to the location.
Fixed an issue where the Armour icon displayed incorrectly when generation from depletion to full.
Fixed an issue when a Unit got blocked behind other units in front when attacking.
Fixed an issue where Cyrus’ Caltrops FX would disappear early.
Fixed an issue where resource Veins would spawn too close to each other.
Fixed an issue where a building training units sold wouldn’t give the population back.
Fixed an issue where the selector did not appear on shift selected buildings.
Fixed an issue where a tutorial pop-up would overwrite the currently opened UI.
Fixed an issue where rally points may not render if building isn't in frame.
Fixed an issue where Edwin’s Flame Shield dealt no damage.
Fixed an issue that caused a crash when using an old save from v10.1

[h3]Performance Improvements[/h3]

Moved a number of VFX from CPU to GPU simulation.
Reduced VFX Draw Calls and Overdraws across Entities, Agents and Buildings.
Improved UI Invalidation and Texture Caching to prevent unneeded Layout calculations.
Refactored our Cutscene Action system on how we cache Cutscene Actions.
A number of core data oriented systems have been optimised.
Improved Gate performance by maintaining more state over time.
Minimap now remembers more state and refreshes the landscape only when required..
Reduced calls to our Campaign Trigger system.
Reduced the number of Entities ticking per frame, including additional culling.
Building animations culled by the player camera frustum.
Reduce texture sizes for less memory usage.

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

Game can crash if Edwin is defeated in Mission 4 during the “The Light in the Dark II” objective.
Using old saves in the new update will cause various unintended gameplay behaviour.
In some cases Units fail to align in Formation when ordered to do so within close range of the Unit Group’s starting location.
When selecting enemy or neutral units they will have Formatiosn Options enabled by default.
In some cases Units will get stuck running on the spot when trying to reach unreachable terrain.
In some cases Rally Points from Training Halls and Towers may not update in the world space iif clicked within close succession of one another.
Some UI Prompts remain untranslated across all languages.
Enemy UI does not update in real-time as the player is attacking them.
In certain situations the player can instantly transport Garrisoned ranged units from one tower to another tower in the map.
Pressing Space bar on loading screens can freeze the player on the loading screen.
Cinematic Subtitle Timing is not matching to Cinematic Audio for Dunstock, Storm Eye and the Final Cinematic.
Building a Lumber Yard won’t highlight trees within its radius.
Buildings will sometimes fail to select all when double clicking to select all of a single-type of building.
Walls can be placed in between tiles when click dragging to place.
There is a known issue when ejecting ranged units from Towers they may get stuck.
In some cases Heroes and Units can get stuck on terrain set dressing during Campaign Missions.
We are aware of an issue where Hero abilities sometimes fire in the opposite direction.
We are investigating an issue where Aurelia’s Flail Whip may not always grant the player Dark Essence.
Aurelia’s Flail Whip is not damaging buildings in Campaign.
Merek’s Halberd Hurricane can miss in some cases when used in a group of Nightmares.
Merek’s Crushing Weight ability can be cut off by an Auto Attack in some cases.
Vizargo’s Serenity SFX may persist after it’s been cast in Survival and Campaign.
Hero VFX may persist on screen in some cases or be different colours in others. This is noticeable with Edwin’s Enflame, Aelis’ Royal Decree and Cyrus’ Caltrops.
Cyrus’ Ability SFX can be heard across the map during Mission 10.
In some cases Cyrus can start at Level 1 in Mission 6.
Burster VFX may persist after dying in Campaign and Survival.
Buildings may display construction VFX when the camera focuses on them while navigating throughout the map.
Player can mouse over and see the enemy building yield and attack radius’ in Fog of War.
Player can see all objective locations early on the Mini-Map in Mission 8 and 9.
Player may be able to incorrectly path through the enemy’s gates in Campaign.
Save / Loading can cause Nightmare Pathfinding to break across the Campaign.
Minimap objective pings in Campaign are not always persisting in some Missions.
In some missions background music may not play correctly or at all.
Units may try to pathfind through Units to reach their target.
Audio SFX may be missing when attacking enemy buildings or using Player Units.
World Map Mission Select is not always playing background music and click SFX.
Character Models can stand and clip with the Character Pedestal on the World Map.
In some cases in Mission 3 the player is able to build within the Treeline.
In Mission 4 collision is missing on the Dark Crystal during the ‘Protect Aurelia’ Objective
In Mission 5 the player will see incorrect Objective Information on the Mission Success screen.
In somne cases across Campaign, Nightmares may not advance towards the player.
In Mission 5 the player cannot place a Quarry on certain gold veins.
In Mission 6 Edwin can become unresponsive after cutscenes in some cases.
In Mission 7 Volatist Units can continue to spawn from Weavers that are destroyed.
In Mission 7 Vizargo and Aurelia’s level may be set to Level 1 for some players.
Dialogue Barks may be playing multiple times within Campaign Missions, specifically in Missions 8 and 9.
In some cases the game may crash after clicking “Continue” on the Mission Success screen in Mission 8
In some cases Siege Units will not target and attack enemies despite being within range.
Save Loading throughout the campaign may cause issues with Progression triggers for that mission.
In Mission 9 Villagers are not behaving correctly when interacting with the final fight.
Save Loading within the final fight in Mission 10 will cause the enemy health bar to not appear.
Save Loading throughout Mission 10 can cause non-buildable areas to now be buildable.
In some combat scenarios in Mission 10 Nightmares may not target the player.
In some cases in Mission 10 the player can trigger the final fight early, if building in a very specific order.
Some VFX are missing for buildings and structures in Mission 10.
In some cases in Mission 10 the player may have Death Night fog appear in their base when it shouldn’t.
We are aware of an issue where during the final fight in Mission 10 the enemy’s health bar can freeze due to them being invulnerable while casting abilities, this will usually resolve itself is by design. We are investigating means at which we can provide better player feedback as this is happening.
In Mission 10 there is some delay between abilities being telegraphed and cast by the enemy in the final fight.
In the final fight of Mission 10 the player can still take damage from the veil while the game is paused. This only occurs in this instance.
There are some issues with Cutscenes missing characters during them.
Cutscenes may play twice when skipped in certain situations.
Cutscenes may have to be skipped twice to actually have the player skip the Cutscene.
Cutscenes that contain Choices for the player may play twice, requiring the player to select their choice multiple times.
In some cases Cutscenes can reset Fog of War around the Map in Campaign Missions.
In some cases Edwin’s Fire VFX and Unit Embolden VFX are appearing in Cutscenes.
In some cases the player will see missing Audio across cutscenes throughout the Campaign.
If following the Rebel Quarry choice in Mission 4 in some cases Nightmares and Cutscenes may not trigger.
In some cases Cutscene Actors are sliding into position rather than walking.
In some cases Units given to the player during Campaign may not be marked as controllable after their corresponding cutscene trigger.
Nightmares surrounding the Keep are disappearing after losing Final Stand in Survival.
Nightmares can stutter in place in some cases until the player falls within the Aggro radius during Campaign & Survival.
Food Count is not always decreasing when building structures inside the yield radius for Food Huts and Farms.
An Incorrect value for Objective Completion is observed in some cases on the Mission Select screen.

We look forward to sharing details about the timing of the live build release in the coming weeks.

- The Age of Darkness: Final Stand Team

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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums or using the in-game bug reporting tool.

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Have a question about the game? We have a handy FAQ we’ve posted on the Steam forums that you can view. If your question hasn’t been answered there, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with questions here, on the forums and our Discord server.

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