Protectors of the Light,
v0.8 is encroaching upon us. To help you navigate the coming darkness, let this be your flame in the night.
[h2]New Units[/h2]
[h3]Hunter[/h3]
The Hunter is a Rebellion-specific unit, replacing Arbalests for the faction. What the Hunter lacks in range, it makes up for in tactical options. The Hunter comes with the capacity to place a trap at its feet that when triggered, slows and damages enemies within its area of effect. You can use your Hunter to pull groups of nightmares into a deadly snare, or lay down lines of traps in preparation for a Death Night.
Hunter Trap -
Active ability: Deadly trap that when triggered releases a puff of toxic smoke that damages and slows enemies within.
[h3]Cultist[/h3]
Cultists are also faction-specific units, replacing Soliders for the Volatists. When trained, two Cultists are provided for the price of one. They don’t hit nearly as hard or have as much health as a Soldier, but when you train one, you get two. They also have the ability to shred armor with their attacks – an attribute not available so early to other factions.
[h3]What about the Order? [/h3]
As of this coming release,
the Catapult will become an Order-only unit. We can also share with you some awesome things that are coming in v0.9:
- NEW Order-specific unit, The Lightbearer
- Further Faction modifiers, giving more play differentiation between each Faction
Wait a minute, we said shredding armor?
Pretty sure if you look here,
you’ll see it’s pronounced “Armor”.[h2]Armor System[/h2]
A long-standing issue with Age of Darkness was the tendency for more advanced, higher cost units to completely supersede early units. The prime example of this was the Arbalest, which for a long time was strictly better than archers of equivalent cost, except for its lower movement speed.
Unrelated to this, we also felt that players, regardless of faction, could generally reach the perimeter of the map - where all those juicy gold veins live - too quickly. The strategy for experienced players tended to involve making a beeline for the edge and scouting for the best veins early.
We also had a smaller issue that Armor in Age of Darkness was of negligible usefulness. It flatly reduced incoming damage, and no unit had more than 1.5 armor. Also, secretly, damage was never reduced below 5, so armor did nothing to mitigate Crawler attacks.
To recap, we had three issues: Units became obsolete, players could reach the edge of the map too quickly, and armor was not very useful. Our solution was to completely rethink armor.
Armor is now a resource. While a unit has armor, incoming damage is reduced by 70%. If you want to deal full damage to that unit, you'll need a way to get through its armor.
So we're also introducing a new stat -- Armor shred. Armor shred acts like damage, except it only applies to armor. A unit with 5 armor shred will need to hit an enemy with 15 Armor 3 times to break through. Damage is calculated after armor shred is applied, so the final of those three hits, in addition to removing the armor, will deal full damage. Once Armor is depleted, it will only recover when you're near your Keep or one of the Workshop buildings.
What does this mean in practice?
Well, many units now have some armor or armor shred. Sentinels have extremely high armor, and Arbalests have high armor shred. But Nightmares now ALSO have armor and armor shred.
While exploring the map, you'll need to consider your unit composition more carefully now. Do I have enough sources of armor shred to take high-tier nightmares down before they can wreak havoc? Do I have enough raw damage to kill a Wraith before it can shred through my Sentinels?
In all likelihood, you’ll find it a lot harder to reach those outer limits, as units like Axemen and Spitters become much tougher to take down with pure damage. Likewise, you’ll find that many units which normally get left by the wayside become integral to keeping up your momentum. Arbalests can punch through armor like no one else, but you may want to keep a squad of Archers waiting in the wings to deal pure damage once that tough shell has broken.
You’ll also find units with armor much more durable in some scenarios and much less in others. Your Sentinels can withstand far more attacks from a swarm of Crawlers, and can hold the line in a Death Night much longer. But if you want to keep getting value out of those units, you’ll want to consider where you’re building your Workshops.
This system is designed to create roles for existing units as well as create space for future units to exist without invalidating any of the current line up. It also opens up space for future blessings, malices and faction properties – some of which you’ll hopefully see sooner rather than later.
[h3]v0.8 will be releasing
next week - make sure you finish your current saves![/h3]
As always, if you come across any bugs or crashes, please report them to us either through the
Steam forums, our
Discord server in the ‘bug-reporting’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
[h3]AoD Social Links:[/h3]
AoD Discord - Join our
official Discord server
AoD Website -
Official Website & Blog
Twitter - Follow us at
AOD_FinalStand
Facebook -
Like Our Facebook Page
Reddit - Join the
r/Age of Darkness: Final Stand community
YouTube -
Subscribe To Our YouTube ChannelHave 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.
Speaking of which, you can also chat with our team and ask them questions on our
official Discord server here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426450/Age_Of_Darkness_Final_Stand
