Slaves of Magic News

[p]Hello everyone!
[/p][p]This patch continues with the balance changes, mostly focusing on opening up more strategies per region, equipment point changes for armors, and a few bug fixes.[/p][p][/p][h2]Balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]Regions have been rebalanced with the idea of having more "standard" resource income, opening up alternative build paths. In addition, "standard" soldier and gold income have been slightly increased:[/p]
  • [p]Deepmarsh base gold income increased (80 -> 90).[/p]
  • [p]Frostwall smith base income increased (3->5). Base gold income increased (60->70).[/p]
  • [p]Hammerfal scholar base income increased (3->5). Base gold income increased (60->70).[/p]
  • [p]Mizumori soldier base income increased (6->9).[/p]
  • [p]Zephyria soldier base income increased (6->9). Base gold income decreased (105->100).[/p]
  • [p]Winterbless base gold income increased (45->70).[/p]
  • [p]Overall base gold income has increased by 95, thanks to these changes.[/p]

• [p]Black market cost has been drastically reduced (250 -> 50), but building time increased to 30 days (up from 20). Building them now is more of an investment of time rather than upfront money.[/p]
• [p]Scrying room costs have been further reduced (gold 350 -> 200, dust 20 -> 10).[/p]
• [p]Increased the black market supply per month early game goal threshold (480 -> 560).[/p]
• [p]Reduced the soldiers per month early game goal threshold (40 -> 36).[/p]
• [p]Tier 2 and Tier 3 equipment projects' gold requirement has been slightly reduced, similarly to how it was done for Tier 1 in the 1.2.0 patch.[/p]
• [p]Medium armor equipment point cost have been increased (tier1: 2 -> 3 tier2: 3 -> 5 tier3: 4 -> 7)[/p]
• [p]Heavy armor equipment point cost have been increased (tier1: 4 -> 6 tier2: 6 -> 9 tier3: 8 -> 12)[/p]
• [p]Starting rosters have been adjusted to take into account the armor equipment point changes.[/p]
• [p]Distraction missions are still harder to do in time, even with the audio clue, so the time for the bonus dust has been increased by 1. In addition, this mission type gets harder compared to the other ones with more enemies, so on advanced and master difficulty, this timer will increase by another 1.[/p]
• [p]Reduced starting research points of the invaders on Advanced (60 -> 0) and Masters (60 -> 20). This should give a bit more breathing room for the early game.[/p]

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]

• [p]Fixed Dark Elf blade dancer having 2 expert stealth skills. Replaced one with a pass by skill.[/p]
• [p]Fixed expert stealth skill not properly providing concealed condition for enemies that are not visible to the player.[/p]
• [p]Fixed saves with active slow condition, removing an extra action point when reloading.[/p]
• [p]Fixed saves with active haste condition, adding an extra action point when reloading.[/p]
• [p]Fixed relentless offensive condition counters being lost on reload.[/p]
• [p]Fixed for the horde condition counters being lost on reload.[/p]
• [p]Fixed missing skills for units on the memorial. (Only works on the newly fallen.)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Artisan equipment wrongly provided the best of the best bonus when achieved.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone!

Thank you for continuing to share your feedback about the game, especially about the recent patch! Inspired by those discussions, this patch introduces a few more balance changes plus a few bugfixes.[/p][p][/p][h2]Balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]Added inquisitor unit type, which dual-wields axes and starts with expert stealth.[/p]
• [p]Added inquisitor unit type, which uses a two-handed hammer and starts with forceful style.[/p]
• [p]The above mentioned 2 new units are alternatives to the one-handed weapon + shield + armored inquisitor with attack of opportunity. This should provide a bit more variety to the inquisition forces at the very beginning of the game.[/p]
• [p]Inquisitor armor now only reduces 4 damage (down from 5), and counts as medium armor instead of heavy. This should increase the viability of weapons that are not great against heavy armor at the beginning of the game.[/p]
• [p]Reduced Vakondog's speed by 1. This should help the player better control where they can charge into.[/p]
• [p]Orc young replaced their second axe with a wooden shield. Their counter-attack skill has been replaced by the relentless attack skill.[/p]
• [p]Sword puncture skill now only has -40 attack penalty instead of -50.[/p]
• [p]The overhead strike skill of two-handed axes now increases critical damage as well by 3.[/p]
• [p]Distraction skill now causes shield down condition as well when used against units with shields.[/p]
• [p]Reduced preparation skill stamina cost to 2 (down from 4).[/p]
• [p]Increased throwing dagger's damage by 1, and using them no longer ends the concealed condition.[/p]
• [p]Poison ball now only causes 4 counters of poison instead of 5.[/p]
• [p]Increased base damage modifier for critical hits to 4 (up from 3).[/p]
• [p]Increased surgical precision, critical damage bonus to 3 (up from 2).[/p]

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2][p]- Fixed light magic not being researchable. This has been inadvertently introduced in the 1.2.0 patch.[/p][p]- Fixed missing basic commands (like open door, steal chest) when multiple of these commands should be added in 1 movement.[/p][p]- Fixed sword puncture skill armor pierce only working on heavy armor.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]Now that the game had some time to mature and gather feedback, I thought it was time to polish up a few rough edges, balance-wise, so that is the primary focus of this patch. Though, of course, a few new features have arrived as well. Let's take a look![/p][p][/p][h2]Memorial[/h2][p]One of the popular requests was to see the fallen soldiers. Now, you can do so by clicking the memorial tab in the barracks. You can even see statistics over the soldier's lifetime, like the strongest foe slain, for example! (But important note, these statistics are only being gathered in missions after the patch, so in existing saves, these statistics will not be completely correct)[/p][p][/p][h2]Concealed condition rework[/h2][p][/p][p]The concealed condition (and by extension, the whole rogue school) could really be only used defensively till gaining the Expert Stealth skill, making it a very situational school till the master level is researched. The most important change is that the condition, from now on, behaves as if the unit had expert stealth from the start, opening up its usage and synergies, while reworking the old expert stealth skill. Details of the changes:[/p]

• [p]Concealed condition now only gets removed if being seen by an adjacent enemy at the start of the turn (previously given by expert stealth skill).[/p]
• [p]Expert stealth skill is now an advanced-level skill (down from master), provides concealment at the start of combat, and can be reapplied at the start of the round if no enemies see you. Does not work with heavy armor.[/p]
• [p]Pass by skill becomes a master level skill (up from advanced).[/p]

[h2]New research images[/h2][p]As promised, we are getting around to replacing the placeholder images for the school's research. In this patch, light/dark, marksmanship, and strategist schools received their own images.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Frostwall headquarters buff[/h2][p]Frostwall headquarters bonus design intent was to promote a quantity over quality playstyle, but only by making recruiting units cheaper felt weak. Now, in addition to cheaper troops, every friendly unit that dies in combat increases the melee and ranged attack of every other friendly unit by 5 (max 25) till the end of the mission.[/p][p][/p][h2]Hammer nerf[/h2][p]Another popular sentiment in the feedback was that the hammers are overperforming compared to other weapons. My original design goal with the weapon was that it should be a low-damage weapon with a lot of utility, especially against heavily armored opponents. But in practice, it was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, especially with the very action-efficient stunning strike weapon skill. Details of the changes:[/p]

• [p]All hammers' min/max damage reduced by 1.[/p]
• [p]Reduced the amount of damaged armor condition two-handed hammers are causing to 1 (from 2).[/p]
• [p]One-handed hammer stunning strike skill gets -3 damage, but only costs 3 stamina (down from 4).[/p]
• [p]Staff stunning strike skill gets -3 damage.[/p]
• [p]Two-handed hammer's stunning strike skill has been replaced by Shatter. Function similarly to the old stunning strike, but in additon of the stun, it causes 2 damaged armor conditions as well. Costs 2 action points (up from 1) and 4 stamina.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Equipment balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]Heavy armor defense is reduced by 1 across the board.[/p]
• [p]Tier 1 smith weapon/armor projects cost and time have been lowered across the board.[/p]
• [p]Unit's absolute minimum stamina increased to 4. So even in the worst case scenario, every unit should be able to move + basic attack from max stamina with a melee weapon.[/p]
• [p]Acid bomb and healing potion usage stamina cost increased by 1.[/p]
• [p]Acid bomb, healing/stamina potion, all get disabled if inside a melee enemy zone of control.[/p]
• [p]Acid bomb and Acid rain skills now only cause 2 damaged armor (down from 3).[/p]
• [p]Adamantine bracers now provide 10 melee defense (up from 5)[/p]
• [p]Rune bracers now provide 20 melee defense (up from 10)[/p]
• [p]Etheral rune now reduces weapon damage by 4.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Background balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]Lumberjack background lost health bonus.[/p]
• [p]Farmhand background increase base cost from 30 to 35[/p]
• [p]Messenger background lost stamina bonus.[/p]
• [p]Monk background base cost increased from 20 to 25[/p]
• [p]Raider background got a +5 health bonus.[/p]
• [p]Rebelled noble reduced stamina penalty to -1. Added -3 health penalty. Reduced base cost from 100 to 80.[/p]
• [p]Retired soldier base cost was lowered from 350 to 250.[/p]
• [p]Mercenary got +5 defense and +3 stamina modifier, but increased base recruitment from 100 to 150.[/p]
• [p]In general reduced the cost multiplier for additional levels, making higher-level recruits cheaper than before.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Skills balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]Assassin's serial killer skill now only works when the enemy is killed with a crit.[/p]
• [p]Warrior endurance training skill now only gives +3 stamina (down from +5).[/p]
• [p]Web spell is now guaranteed to hit, so that it does not feel like a downgrade from the net items against units with magic resist.[/p]
• [p]Condition spells are not affected by the maximum of 95% hit chance rule. They are guaranteed to hit if the target does not have magic resist.[/p]
• [p]Sword puncture skill now only costs 1 action.[/p]
• [p]Obstruction rules have changed for range attacks. Now, adjacent friendly units will not obstruct the target, making it easier to shoot enemies engaged with friendly units in melee.[/p][p][/p]

[h2]Enemy balance changes:[/h2]

• [p]In new campaigns, guarantee that the tier 2 and tier 3 enemy pods will be of a different race. So, for example, if in the campaign the tier 2 enemies are the elves, then the tier 3 enemies can only be orks or dwarfs.[/p]
• [p]Dark elves, banshees, shadow panthers, and goblins increase their melee defense to +20, increasing the importance of hit chance against them.[/p]
• [p]Dark elves replace the hide skill with expert stealth. This makes the racial skill that provided them with concealment at the start of the combat redundant, so it has been removed.[/p]
• [p]Shadow panther replaces expert stealth skill (as it is now redundant) with silent killer.[/p]
• [p]Golem's punch attack now only causes 2 damaged armor (down from 3).[/p]
• [p]Dwarf thunderer reduced min/max damage by 4, but made their crossbow etheral (deals magic damage instead of physical).[/p]
• [p]Globe of invulnerability now blocks all conditions as well, not just damage.[/p]
• [p]Etherals mistakenly had 0 magic penetration. This has been corrected to 5.[/p]
• [p]Reduced average enemy count by 1, and more importantly, made the enemies spawn in more numerous but smaller groups on advanced+ difficulties. This should help improve the viability of damage/initiative-focused strategies compared to sustain-based, even on the hardest difficulty level.[/p]
• [p]Further tweaked the army's territory choices while the resistance threat is high, to make larger armies choose territories without invader bases more frequently.[/p]

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]

• [p]Now, combat saves will be correctly saved even if the player has multiple characters with the same name.[/p]
• [p]Fixed spell penetration not being properly applied.[/p]
• [p]Fixed tiles remaining visible, where previously collected supply chests were.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Closing thoughts[/h2][p]So that’s it for this patch. Thank you to everyone who supported us and shared feedback here on Steam or on our Discord. It means a lot to us and helps guide future improvements.[/p][p]We really appreciate everyone who continues to share their experiences with the game![/p]

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p][/p][p]The 1.1.12 patch introduced a new bug that caused skills that should be disabled when there are adjacent enemies to not be disabled at all. This has been fixed.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p][/p][p]A few more fixes have been implemented in this patch:[/p]

• [p]Fixed archers not being able to shoot while being adjacent to an enemy unit through a wall.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the attack of opportunity warning being shown from units that are not seen by the player.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a typo in armor/shield description. They are now properly showing that they increase initiative, not reduce it.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the expected minimum damage information on the unit's health bar not being properly cleaned after hovering over the unit with a damage skill.[/p]