Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga News

If you had any doubt as to whether a game was a strategy-focused roleplaying game, a JRPG in the style of Fire Emblem or Ogre Battle, I can bet you'd be clear that it is when I tell you it's called Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. Preposterously grandiose name aside, this indie could be game of the year material if you're a fan of the genre...
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We've developed a Hotfix for:

-Diana Bond (retroactive)
-Chapter 15 blocker (retroactive)
-Beatrix Achievement fix for Chapter 11

Thank you for your patience and support!

Hey everyone!
We're excited to bring you our next patch update. This time we bring you quite a few additions and fixes for you all. Thank you for all of the kind words and support you have been giving us since launch. It's been incredible to see! If you haven't already, please consider leaving us a review. We love hearing all of your feedback that is helping us continue improving the game.

[h2]Version 1.0b[/h2]

[h3]UI/UX[/h3]

• Selection cursor has been made more visible
  
• Using any controller input will now cause mouse cursor to hide itself after a bit
  
• Units with sound effects in their idle animations will no longer play these sound effects when they appear in status menus or Squad Operations
  
• Left/right navigation of unit and squad focused menus has been improved
  
• Left/right navigation has been given dedicated buttons for the mouse to click
  
• Left/right navigation for squads now respects player reordering
  
• Left/right navigation for units can now browse into and out of squads
  
• Removed multiple unnecessary text breaks, continued in progress
  
• Fixed the colors of Dragon sprites in squad display
  
• Change the Sorceress animation to one with much shorter duration
  
• More sweeping UI changes are coming, focused heavily on mouse usability!
  

[h3]General Changes / Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed: Finishing a chapter with a win condition of eliminating a squad using a cavalry squad will no longer cause odd cursor behavior in the next map
  
• Fixed: Squads moving in their preferred terrain type (cavalry in open terrains, light squads in rough terrain) will no longer ignore the Zones of Control tech
  
• Fixed: lone Ally (green) healers should no longer auto Surrender entire Enemy squads
  
• Fixed: Ally and Enemy squads should no longer be able to Surrender each other (they retreat instead if conditions are met)
  
• Fixed: Moving the mouse to the extreme right edge of the screen in fullscreen should no longer cause the screen to scroll back and forth wildly
  
• Fixed: Soha’s Blood Shard no longer makes the challenge mission for avoiding hazard damage fail
  
• Fixed: Surrenders should now grant granting Class Promotion points as intended
  
• Fixed: Jules no longer has to demote to be able to promote onto the mounted archer path
  
• Fixed: Rare shop table (usually 2nd to last slot) not rerolling correctly in ch30
  
• Fixed: you can no longer cancel movement after hiring a merc in the Bazaar
  
• Fixed: an empty mercenary reference that could rarely cause a crash
  
• “Industrial Blast Furnace” tech’s retroactive refund fixed for units that were at one point temporarily hidden in the roster. If you already have the tech, refund will be checked again for all units when loading a save file.
  
• Fixed: Chapter 11 challenge mission requiring you to defeat an opponent no longer triggers when they retreat.
  
• Units that can now promote via Proof of Merit will now have the Class Up indicator in Organize
  
• Adjusted the message given to players after Chapter 12, making it clear that you have not lost anything permanently
  
• Corrected some threat calc inaccuracies due to caching
  
• Made the Chapter 4 event to trigger recruiting Diana no longer end Hero's turn
  
• Fixed Chapter 7 Challenge Mission to capture all Tidereaver ships
  
• Fixed Chapter 11 Beatrix running away achievement bug
  
• Improved Medic action SFX
  
• Soha's Blood Shard clarified description
  
• Clearing the final boss with a Cavalry squad no longer causes a softlock
  
• Timed disappearing chests now display a turn timer before they poof
  
• Fixed the Nephilim Powers unlock from Chapter 21
  
• Fixed the 2 chests access in the bottom left corner of Chapter 25
  
• Player can no longer move to the tiles adjacent to Westerfeld Keep in Chapter 15
  
• Removed ability to teleport into walls in various indoor chapters
  
• Various Typos
  
• Various updates to Tutorial
  
• Tutorial Data cache will now clear on this and each future update to ensure each user has -the most up to date in game reference material.
  
• "Brad" added to Random Name Bank
  
• "Chad" added to Random Name Bank
  

[h3]Difficulty[/h3]

• Permadeath is now a separate toggle option for game start and can be used with any difficulty mode. Existing saves with Warlord will continue with Permadeath ON, and others will continue with Permadeath OFF.
  
• Permadeath mode now refunds resources (iron, obsidian, etc used on those classes)
  
• Adjusted enemy stats on Captain upward very slightly
  
• Adjusted enemy stats on Warlord upward, with stronger changes in late game
  
• Added a significant amount of Max HP to the final boss
  

[h3]Gameplay/Balance[/h3]

• Full Dodge chance is now hard-capped at 95%.
  
• Beatrix no longer counts as 3 units for moveset determination, down to 2
  
• Beatrix is now able to grow leadership from combats (very slowly)
  
• Sorceress and Siren skill damage has been increased, and their attacks no longer need a turn to charge (they no longer need Magician’s Initiative to cast right away)
  
• Adjusted down several Unique Mercenary starting LDR stat to be more in line with a reasonable median
  
• Sunstones increased in price
  
• Jules's starting STR and STR growth has been increased
  
• Removed all variance in affinity granted stats for level ups, greatly reducing the variance on level ups overall
  
• Wall Advantage (being on a wall when your opponent is not) now offers protection and evasion from ALL attack types except dragon/flying and those exempted by traits
  
• Highground Advantage (being on highground when your opponent is not) now offers a slight damage bonus to and slight protection from projectiles as well as an evasion bonus versus projectiles, and stacks with Wall Advantage.
  
• Improved tactical map AI’s awareness of Wall Advantage
  
• General Protection from forts and bases increased slightly.
  
• All units will now take a bit more morale loss for taking damage
  
• Morale is now tracked more accurately across battles (corrected fractional losses being rounded down to 0)
  
• Morale loss penalty for having a unit (especially the leader) fall in battle has been increased to track with how much of the squad they comprise (squads with fewer units lose a bigger chunk of their total morale for a single unit falling).
  
• With few exceptions, enemy squads with incapactated leaders will no longer regain morale between Tactical Map phases
  
• This should make it significantly easier to “break” the morale of squads during the early game.
  
• Very slightly increased morale attrition for being attacked repeatedly (should now outpace the bonus you get from “Winning” after a few battles in the same turn)
  
• Slightly decreased damage penalty for having below average morale
  
• Increased the amount of “pity” experience received when not defeating units
  
• Sisterhood of Mercy tech effect lowered from 50% to 25%
  
• Hand of Zanatus and squad greatly strengthened for Chapters 15 and 17
  
• Fang of Duros reduced STR from 35 to 25
  
• Soha's Blood Shard reduced STR from 20 to 15
  
• Temporal Modulator no longer gives +16 SKL
  
• Adjusted deploy points on Chapter 30
  

[h3]Roadmap[/h3]

• Renaming Squads
  
• Renaming Units
  
• Major UI/UX pass for reducing clicks, drag and drop, and more
  
• Sandbox game modes such as post game EX final boss fight
  
• Replayable past missions or some kind of barracks training mode
  
• Permadeath and Ironman mode as options for any difficulty
  
• New, highest difficulty with hardest possible options locked in, crueler AI
  
• Enforced Ironman save rules
  

Version 1.0b

UI/UX

-Selection cursor has been made more visible
-Using any controller input will now cause mouse cursor to hide itself after a bit
-Units with sound effects in their idle animations will no longer play these sound effects when they appear in status menus or Squad Operations
-Left/right navigation of unit and squad focused menus has been improved
-Left/right navigation has been given dedicated buttons for the mouse to click
-Left/right navigation for squads now respects player reordering
-Left/right navigation for units can now browse into and out of squads
-Removed multiple unnecessary text breaks, continued in progress
-Fixed the colors of Dragon sprites in squad display (Dragon riders work in progress)
-Change the Sorceress animation to one with much shorter duration
-More sweeping UI changes are coming, focused heavily on mouse usability!

General Changes / Fixes

-Fixed: Finishing a chapter with a win condition of eliminating a squad using a cavalry squad will no longer cause odd cursor behavior in the next map
-Fixed: Squads moving in their preferred terrain type (cavalry in open terrains, light squads in rough terrain) will no longer ignore the Zones of Control tech
-Fixed: lone Ally (green) healers should no longer auto Surrender entire Enemy squads
-Fixed: Ally and Enemy squads should no longer be able to Surrender each other (they retreat instead if conditions are met)
-Fixed: Moving the mouse to the extreme right edge of the screen in fullscreen should no longer cause the screen to scroll back and forth wildly
-Fixed: Soha’s Blood Shard no longer makes the challenge mission for avoiding hazard damage fail
-Fixed: Surrenders should now grant granting Class Promotion points as intended
-Fixed: Jules no longer has to demote to be able to promote onto the mounted archer path
-Fixed: Rare shop table (usually 2nd to last slot) not rerolling correctly in ch30
-Fixed: you can no longer cancel movement after hiring a merc in the Bazaar
-Fixed: an empty mercenary reference that could rarely cause a crash
-“Industrial Blast Furnace” tech’s retroactive refund fixed for units that were at one point temporarily hidden in the roster. If you already have the tech, refund will be checked again for all units when loading a save file.
-Fixed: Chapter 11 challenge mission requiring you to defeat an opponent no longer triggers when they retreat.
-Units that can now promote via Proof of Merit will now have the Class Up indicator in Organize
-Adjusted the message given to players after Chapter 12, making it clear that you have not lost anything permanently
-Corrected some threat calc inaccuracies due to caching
-Made the Chapter 4 event to trigger recruiting Diana no longer end Hero's turn
-Fixed Chapter 7 Challenge Mission to capture all Tidereaver ships
-Fixed Chapter 11 Beatrix running away achievement bug
-Improved Medic action SFX
-Soha's Blood Shard clarified description
-Clearing the final boss with a Cavalry squad no longer causes a softlock
-Timed disappearing chests now display a turn timer before they poof
-Fixed the Nephilim Powers unlock from Chapter 21
-Fixed the 2 chests access in the bottom left corner of Chapter 25
-Player can no longer move to the tiles adjacent to Westerfeld Keep in Chapter 15
-Removed ability to teleport into walls in various indoor chapters
-Various Typos
-Various updates to Tutorial
-Tutorial Data cache will now clear on this and each future update to ensure each user has -the most up to date in game reference material.
-"Brad" added to Random Name Bank
-"Chad" added to Random Name Bank

Difficulty

-Permadeath is now a separate toggle option for game start and can be used with any difficulty mode. Existing saves with Warlord will continue with Permadeath ON, and others will continue with Permadeath OFF.
-Permadeath mode now refunds resources (iron, obsidian, etc used on those classes)
-Adjusted enemy stats on Captain upward very slightly
-Adjusted enemy stats on Warlord upward, with stronger changes in late game
-Added a significant amount of Max HP to the final boss

Gameplay/Balance

-Full Dodge chance is now hard-capped at 95%.
-Beatrix no longer counts as 3 units for moveset determination, down to 2
-Beatrix is now able to grow leadership from combats (very slowly)
-Sorceress and Siren skill damage has been increased, and their attacks no longer need a turn to charge (they no longer need Magician’s Initiative to cast right away)
-Adjusted down several Unique Mercenary starting LDR stat to be more in line with a reasonable median
-Sunstones increased in price
-Jules's starting STR and STR growth has been increased
-Removed all variance in affinity granted stats for level ups, greatly reducing the variance on level ups overall
-Wall Advantage (being on a wall when your opponent is not) now offers protection and evasion from ALL attack types except dragon/flying and those exempted by traits
-Highground Advantage (being on highground when your opponent is not) now offers a slight damage bonus to and slight protection from projectiles as well as an evasion bonus versus projectiles, and stacks with Wall Advantage.
-Improved tactical map AI’s awareness of Wall Advantage
-General Protection from forts and bases increased slightly.
-All units will now take a bit more morale loss for taking damage
-Morale is now tracked more accurately across battles (corrected fractional losses being rounded down to 0)
-Morale loss penalty for having a unit (especially the leader) fall in battle has been increased to track with how much of the squad they comprise (squads with fewer units lose a bigger chunk of their total morale for a single unit falling).
-With few exceptions, enemy squads with incapactated leaders will no longer regain morale between Tactical Map phases
-This should make it significantly easier to “break” the morale of squads during the early game.
-Very slightly increased morale attrition for being attacked repeatedly (should now outpace the bonus you get from “Winning” after a few battles in the same turn)
-Slightly decreased damage penalty for having below average morale
-Increased the amount of “pity” experience received when not defeating units
-Sisterhood of Mercy tech effect lowered from 50% to 25%
-Hand of Zanatus and squad greatly strengthened for Chapters 15 and 17
-Fang of Duros reduced STR from 35 to 25
-Soha's Blood Shard reduced STR from 20 to 15
-Temporal Modulator no longer gives +16 SKL
-Adjusted deploy points on Chapter 30

Roadmap

-Renaming Squads
-Renaming Units
-Major UI/UX pass for reducing clicks, drag and drop, and more
-Sandbox game modes such as post game EX final boss fight
-Replayable past missions or some kind of barracks training mode
-Permadeath and Ironman mode as options for any difficulty
-New, highest difficulty with hardest possible options locked in, crueler AI
-Enforced Ironman save rules

Hey everyone!
First off, I want to say thank you all for such an amazing launch last Friday! It has been awesome getting to watch you all enjoy the game finally! Please keep the feedback coming and don't forget to leave us a review if you haven't already. If you find any bugs you would like to report, or just want to come hang out with the community, you can join our Discord. Now onto the patch notes:

[h2]Version 1.0a[/h2]

• Full Screen "black screen" issue addressed
  
• Challenge missions should no longer “stick” when restarting a mission
  
• Adjusted the Turn Limit number display to correctly reflect the threshold for S Rank (actual limits not changed)
  
• Corrected an issue where “Form New Squad” would not immediately be available after disbanding a squad
  
• Fixed a rare crash caused by mouse double click check in and out of the game client
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Hospitallers can now lead squads
  
• Disarm no longer breaks certain abilities
  
• Chapter 3 Recruits will now appear in the next home base rather than having to wait a couple missions to get them
  
• The Challenge Mission to spare Isanter Cavalry Squads in Chapter 9 has been changed from 2 to 4
  
• Removed “cancel cavalry movement” property from all apprentice and siren class variants
  
• Chapter 30 generic enemies can no longer surrender
  
• Adjusted some character portraits that were covering text
  
• Players are now able to skip base conversations
  
• Chapter 10's mapping has been made more friendly to the player intending to reinforce Isanter
  
• Added 2 medics to Isanter's defending Squads on Chapter 10
  
• Magician classes no longer disable Cavalry movement
  
• Fixed looping defeat trigger on Chapter 20C
  
• The Challenge Mission to avoid killing a squad with Zelos in Chapter 1 has been removed
  
• Chapter 1 tutorials updated for clarity
  
• Fixed incorrect deploy tiles for Chapter 20B
  
• Various updates to the Tutorial section
  
• Various typo fixes
  
• You can now gain more than 20 XP and CP codexes
  

[h3]UI/UX[/h3]

• Backspace is now a universal cancel input
  
• You can now type characters a-Z into the name input window with your keyboard
  
• LBumper and RBumper functions for controllers have been corrected. (They can be used to cycle player squads on the tactical map, page up and page down in menus)
  

[h3]Future plans:[/h3]

• Renaming Squads
  
• Renaming Units
  
• Major UI/UX pass for reducing clicks, drag and drop, and more
  
• Sandbox game modes such as post game EX final boss fight
  
• Replayable past missions or some kind of barracks training mode
  
• Permadeath and Ironman mode as options for any difficulty
  
• New, highest difficulty with hardest possible options locked in, crueler AI
  
• Enforced Ironman save rules
  

Thank you! Sincerely,
Phil