Hero's Hour News

The faction is coming with a bunch of new content: 26 new units, 8 new unit abilities, 2 new hero skills and 5 new faction unique mechanics

[h2]Check our new trailer[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Lexicon preview[/h2]

[h2]In love with beta test new updates?[/h2]


[h2]Exclusive discounts![/h2]
If you don't have the game or want to check more Goblinz Games, we are running exclusive discounts for our Publisher Week:
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/goblinzpublishersale2022

The version 2.1a is up on the closed beta! Here is a list of new content and changes :

[h3]Added the Delirium faction[/h3]
Added the Roar and Gaze faction hero skills
The fear mechanic has been changed to support the Roar and Gaze skills
Added 9 Delirium faction units + 9 upgrades
Added the Sacrifice, Evolve, Swallow, Wail, Astral, Host, Potent Soul and Heir unit abilities
Added the Tainted Mines mechanic
Added mechanics for Crystal of Tainting, Forbidden Tome, Lost Tavern and Idol of the Three faction
specific buildings
Added the Glare spell accessible via the Gaze skill
Added three new boss units for the Idol of Three

[h3]Unit Expansion[/h3]
New neutral units: Grey Boy, Sneagle, Spinesaur, Thorn Giant, Grell, Dragonworm and Wyvern

[h3]Faction Mechanics Reworks[/h3]
Earthen’s Monument of War now works as both the Monument of War and Temple of War combined
Earthen’s Temple of War now gives +1 morale to visiting heroes and a rankup of Grudge or Soul of the
Earth
Decay’s Soul Siphon, Soul Transmuter, Soul Beacon and Throne of the Dead have been reworked. Raising undeads no longer cost Binding Power; Binding Power has been removed altogether. Instead,
the Soul Transmuter allows you to spend Mercury to instantly convert 30 Soul Power into units
Enclave’s Incubation Chamber and Slithering Temple are now accessible one town level earlier
Enclave gets a new building: The Dragonworm Shrine, which allows upgrading Leeches into Dragonworms

Helloooooo everyone!

As we announced a few days ago, in addition to the open beta, we are now opening a closed beta for a major update that's coming! So, a quick recap :

- Why a closed beta?
Since this is a Major update, a lot of different things could go wrong, so we want to limit the access to people that are aware of this and willing to take the risk to test new features

- How do I opt-in?
To get the access code, as announced previously, you'll have to subscribe to a newsletter, and a code will be sent to you to access the branch, with the procedure on how to do it, and the procedure to report any issue you'll face. However, there's a mistake I made in the last news and I want to correct myself : when you'll subscribe to this newsletter, you'll also receive news concerning Hero's Hour later. People that already registered to the newsletter before will also have to register to this one

- Why giving the code by mail?
We do have some procedures we want you to read (either to access the closed beta branch or to report the issues), and the easiest way for you and for us was to give all the informations in one place. A mail seemed like the best option!

- What's new?
There is a patchnote coming. However, to sum it up, what's to test is the new faction with their many new mechanics, as well as changes to faction unique buildings for Enclave, Decay and Earthen

- How long is the closed beta going to last?
We plan to leave it for a week, and then pushing the version on the open beta branch after that. Note that it will depend on how many and how severe the issues you might find are


Please note that this code we grand you access to the Closed Beta Branch, so you'll also get access to all future closed betas, and you'll get a mail notifying you when they come!

Something we wrote it in the mail you'll receive but I'm writing this here too, cause it's important :

As the traductions are not yet fully done on beta, you cannot play the closed beta in any other language than English. If your game was set in another game language before launching the 2.1a version you have 2 solutions :
- Get back to another version of the game and set it to English, then come on the closed beta branch again
- Delete the opt.txt file in C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Hero_s_Hour

Please click here to get your code & instructions! :





Cheers,

Thomas

Hello everyone!

As you migt have seen on the news/Forums, we have an open beta branch for the game! Here are the changes that have been done for this 2.0.7a update on the beta branch.



[h3]CHANGES TO RESOLUTION, WINDOW/FULLSCREEN AND UI SCALING[/h3]

changed the way the game draws things in different resolutions
UI scale 100 is now default
UI scale 100 draws everything at a 1:1 scale for all resolutions
due to the new use for UI scaling, the arrows for UI scaling now change the scale by 10 points, and the buttons for "Reset Scale" and "Auto-Scale" have been removed
all common resolutions are now available as options for the size of the window mode
changed the way the game view updates when changing resolutions
the game should now support all aspect ratios without black bars
the game now remembers your window resolution and windowed/fullscreen settings


[h3]FEATURES[/h3]

you can now toggle on and off mods within the game settings menu. Restart is still required
a new button in the game options menu now allows you to restart the game to instantly reload mods. Might lead to memory leak if used several times
uploading mods to steam workshop has been changed to be more user friendly and give better feedback


[h3]SKILL BALANCE[/h3]

when units created via bodyguards die, they will now take some time to replenish (10% replenishment per day)
the champion statue now gives:
week 1-3: +1 bodyguards rank
week 4-6: +2 bodyguards rank
week 7-9: +3 bodyguards rank
armorer now gives 6% health increase (up from 5%) and 50% chance of projectile protection (up from 20%)
offense now gives 6% attack speed and movement speed increase (up from 5%) and 15% rage damage increase (up from 10%)
archery true-strike proc chance is now 4% + rank (down from 5% + rank)
hydromancy, aeromancy, terramancy and pyromancy now give +65% base spell effectiveness increase (up from +50%)
all spells now have a 6.667% longer cooldown
sorcery now gives 35% faster cooldowns and scales more predictably (up from 33% with diminishing returns)
scouting's diminishing returns from proccing often are less powerful (-25% per proc, down from -33% per proc)
diplomacy, necromancy and demonology now offers 5% more units, and at 10% less cost
diplomacy description has been updated with the v1.9 buff + the new buff
demonology procs are now less random
mysticism now gives +40% base spell effectiveness increase (up from +25%)
plunder now gives 10% more gold after combat
plunder now has a moderate chance of yielding artifacts after combat
First Aid tent now costs 2000g (up from 1000g), and Ballista now costs 1500g (down from 3000g) - since the total cost of both is now 3500g instead of 4000g this is considered a buff to Engineering
combat now gives +100 hp (up from 75) and +30% damage per rank (up from 25%)
midas touch now gives +65 hp (up from 50) and 20% proc chance (up from 15%)
bloodwarping now scales less strongly - rank I now and before are the same, but rank IV now will be only as strong as rank III was before


[h3]FACTION BALANCE[/h3]

Counting House, Hostler, Conscription Centre and Gryphon Tower are now all available one town level earlier
the cost of using the Aether Forge now increases by 5% each time it is used
Banner of Champions now costs only 2 crystals (down from 5)
Sky Pillar is now available at town level 2, but also costs 5 ore
Pearl mechanic for Tide is now 50% more impactful
Pillars of Essence now costs 10% more resources to use
Recipes for the Pillars of Essence are now randomised each match
Pillars of Essence is now available one town level later
Tea House is now available one town level later
Enclave and Earthen have a buff scheduled for v2.1


[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

minor adjustment of the detailedness of the unit coloration surface in battles
the main menu battle now draws a black background
dragging the screen with middle mouse button now disables the auto camera the same way that scrolling or WASDing does
changed the way the UI for selecting the position of using an adventure map spell looks
Pillars of Essence unique building is now placed on the 4th row of the build grid
Tea House unique building is now placed on the 3rd row of the build grid
the hero window UI will now always show the hero page at the start instead of showing the spellbook if you had opened the spellbook last time
units with Rebirth active (phoenixes) will now be resurrected when combat is won
MODDING: the various ways of spelling the Windup and Projectile Prot abilities now all work
MODDING: Artifact mods can now give faction skills
Faction choice screen has been redesigned to better support various resolutions and extra modded factions
The Lexicon is now shown at 100% scale always, but players using lower resolution displays can scroll around it using WASD or holding the mouse at the edge of the window
The Achievements lexicon page no longer moves as you move the mouse
the AI will now choose the 2nd alternate unit instead of always picking the first
spell descriptions for Magic Arrow and Iceball are now more precise
island maps will no longer generate landmasses that reach the edge of the map, which fixes issues with unlucky placement of Docks
the game will now display the world scaled to 1x - 2x - 3x - 4x instead of 1x - 2x - 2*sqrt(2)x - 4x when zooming in and out


[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

fixed Puzzle Master achievement not unlocking
fixed the previous balance changes to neutral units applying to the wrong units
fixed how adventure map building windows were placed on the screen to better support low resolution monitors
changed the position of the "Done" button in the town screen for low resolution monitors
changed the position of the Army Creation screen in the town screen for low resolution monitors
the position of the "Advanced" and the "Back" buttons in the map selection screen have been fixed for low resolution monitors
fixed the UI for selecting the position of an adventure map spell being weird in some resolutions
fixed a crash happening whenever you hired too many heroes as a modded faction
fixed a rare issue that could cause a crash in combat
fixed a rare crash that could happen when alt-tabbing from the game at the precise moment it opened
fixed an unexpected interaction between right clicking units in the army deployment tab and right clicking to split war groups on the battlefield, which could be used for unit duplication
Bodyguards units no longer die at the end of combat the way that summoned units do
fixed a bug that would make some of your units disappear if you exited an adventure map building UI by unconventional means
opening the lexicon in the main menu now pauses combat, improving performance while in the lexicon
fixed Resurrection spell resurrecting corpses of upgraded units as their base versions
fixed unit group mods breaking if more than 1 of them were loaded due to their names loading wrong
fixed (unused) the technical unit groupings being messed up when faction mods were loaded
fixed the Tooltip for Overgrown Gold Mines saying they give 5000 gold each week when they actually give 2500
fixed the Overgrow Gold Mine? UI window saying they give 5000 gold each week when they actually give 2500
fixed a building being able to spawn right at the diagonal lower left corner of a town, blocking paths to the left
fixed a bug that would unlock the Patience achievement when playing on a custom map
fixed a bug that would give a hero infinite XP gain if you continuously equipped and unequipped an artifact that gives Learning
fixed a rare crash that could happen when entering battle while tabbed out
fixed the tooltip of spellpower erronously saying it increases power by 5% when it actually increases it by 10%
fixed an issue that made the game hang when using certain cheats in debug mode

Hello everyone!

It's been a while we didn't really give news over here. I'm here to fix that! Bear with me, it'll be a bit long but I think that's important.
So! First of all, ThingOnItsOwn wrote a message he wanted to post here, but due to some Steam Forum's witchery, he wasn't able. But here is the message he wanted to post :

"Hi all! I don't think I've formally introduced myself. I don't much come around these strange steam parts. Usually I hang out over on the HH discord server, but I'll do my best to show my head here now and then when there's stuff to tell.
And there *IS* stuff to tell, in fact. The rumours of my demise are vastly exaggerated.
Throughout the last three weekends, I've been working on three different things:

1. Modding improvements
   
2. The 12th faction
   
3. The v2.0.6 and v2.0.7 updates
   

But in this strange land of post-release development, time has become a relative substance, so the things I am working on now might actually be things related to events in the future. As such, the three points above each relate to their own point of time.
Right after releasing the game, I made several major patches, which we rushed through QA. This ended up backfiring when I accidentally released an update that reliably corrupted any save file from previous versions when loaded in the new version. I managed to fix this issue within 24 hours of the update, or something like that. But it still made me realise that with such a large playerbase, I have to be more careful.
Being careful and patient does not gel with my personality. But I'll have to make an attempt at prudence.
Thus, the v2.0.7 patch is not being pushed to all of you just yet. It is, instead, currently an opt-in beta. I'll be posting the patch notes in a separate announcements so you can see what awaits in the 2.0.7 update. It's a lot of good stuff. Monitor support, modding improvements, bug fixes and MANY balance changes.
The beta branch for v2.0.7 is named beta_for_next_minor_update. This branch will continuously be used to test updates before they go live. If you experience crashes while playing a beta branch, please tell us what version you were playing as the crash happened.
As the name might suggest, I am also planning to get a beta_for_next_major_update up at some point when we get closer to the v2.1 update. The v2.1 update, planned for late April, will add in a new faction, with all usual madness that a new faction entails. That's:

• 26 new units
  
• 8 new unit abilities
  
• 2 new hero skills
  
• 5 new faction unique mechanics
  

It'll be a doozy. And it'll be a free update. To thank you all for the great launch experience and for bearing with me as I try to get everything together to make the game shine as best it can.
The last cool thing I want to share is that I took some time this weekend to implement some custom scripting for Hero's Hour, which will - when it's finished - allow modders to add skills, abilities, spells and other mechanics to the game.
It's still far from fully finished - the Discord modders, whom I gave a preview of the implementation, are varyingly growing grey hair or pulling that grey hair out - but when it's finally ready, it'll be the greatest update to Hero's Hour modding since the faction mods were implemented for Christmas. I'm expecting it in some sort of less limited release in May.
Okay, I think that's it for now. Hope you all are safe whenever this reaches you. Have a good one!
- ThingOnItsOwn"

Soooo let me summarize !

There is, right now, a beta branch with version 2.0.7a on it. We did not deliver it right away, cause there is a lot of things that's been changed/fixed, patchnote coming shortly after this post. The game is huge, wide, and actually I, as a QA, cannot really ensure how stable it is. So remember, if you chose to opt in this branch, that it might not be stable. To access it, simply right click on your game in your library, go to properties, beta tab, and you should be able to chose "beta_for_next_minor_update" branch. It'll update your game, and there you go!
To revert it, you can simply go back to the default branch and it'll update your game back to the stable version

I know a lot of you are willing to help, given the different bug reports we have here, in steam reviews, on discord, in mail.. And that's something I had trouble keeping under control. So if you're asking yourself, when having a bug, "Well tell me Thomas, where and how do I report it?"
Well let me give you a quick process that'd help both ThingOnItsOwn and I for reporting/finding cause/resolving :

1. First of all, tell us which version you're on. Even more since there's now this open beta branch, it is important that we know this
   
2. A quick description of what you were doing when the bug occured
   
3. If you had a crash, please copy the text in the window that appears when the game crashed
   
4. If possible, send your game files as a .zip file. They are located in this folder : C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Hero_s_Hour. You can send the full Hero's hour folder. Appdata is an hidden folder, you might have to make windows show hidden folders to you
   
5. And lastly, depending on the issue you're having, if you've got a screenshot of what's happening, that'd be perfect!
   

"Alright, we now what we can do.. But where do we report it?"
Well there are 2 solutions that'd be the best for us :

1. Directly in the Bug reports section on the Discord : And ThingOnItsOwn is more active over there, as he says himself!. Here's an invitation link : https://discord.gg/AHVr5r3PPY
   
2. You can also send everything to Goblinz's support mail : [email protected]
   

The fact that the reports would be mainly focused on just 2 different places would help me a lot!
Alright, now for the last part of this message : We indeed talked about a 2.1 major update!
Before release, it'll also be on a beta branch, but this time it'll be a closed beta.

How do you join this closed beta?
Well keep in touch, we'll post messages in different places. We'll grant access by mail!
Just to precise, to be sure : If you've already suscribed to Hero's Hour newsletter, you will still have to register to get a mail with the access to the future closed beta branch
We do this to be sure that Newsletter and granting access to the closed beta are two separate things (so we won't spam with news mailboxes of people that just want the code for the closed beta)

Keep an eye on Steam forums and Discord to be aware when we open this closed beta!
Alright, that's it for me, thanks for taking some of your time to read all this!

Cheers,

Thomas