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Hero's Hour News

Announcing v2.7 - The Progression Update

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the next update and the goals behind it. Not only have some of those goals shifted around a bit due to player feedback, but everything has become a lot more concrete. So, in this post I’ll go over the main features of the v2.7 update.

First, you might want to hear about the timeline. Work on the update started around March, and the main features were more or less finished in the middle of May - with this post, the public pre-release is more-or-less stable, which it certainly has not been throughout the whole process. Now comes a last period of polish, bug fixes, and waiting for translations. I expect v2.7.0 to land in about 1-2 months.

The Progression update is so named because it overhauls the two major systems of progress in the game: Hero levelling, specifically skills, and map exploration. However, this is a bit of an understatement, as you’ll see there’s a lot of additional goodies outside of those two systems.

Here are the current patch notes. For the major features, I’ll be going into a bit more detail.

[h2]MAP CHANGES[/h2]

[h3]Map generation completely overhauled[/h3]

The map generation algorithm, which has remained mostly unchanged since v0.5, has been completely rewritten from the ground up. The new system is better at generating smaller paths and filling out space edge to edge. This also means that with v2.7, non-sea maps will no longer be surrounded with sea on all sides. Additionally, it gives better control over the shape of maps, which allows the new v2.7 map templates to be much more varied and interesting.



[h3]All maps have been replaced[/h3]

New map system means new maps. v2.7 will launch with 31 maps of various sizes. Some of the new maps are based on the old maps and thus share a name, but even then, they are substantially different. An example is the new Duel map, which still is a small 1v1 map, but now its size is actually tiny, 32x32 tiles in all. There is also a series of maps with unique concepts, such as Path of Gold, where your enemy’s and your side of the map is connected by three paths, one which has ore, one which has wood and one which has gold.

31 maps might sound like fewer than what was there before, where the game had 43 maps. However! Many of the new maps can be played by any number of players between 2 and 6, and since many of the old maps are basically copies of each-other just with different player numbers, the actual number of maps is still larger.

Rogue Realms will still add an additional 12 new maps on top of the 31 base game maps.



[h3]New UI for setting up games[/h3]

Prettier UI, which also solves some long-standing issues with the map selection screen being too large for small screens and too small for large screens; also allows better integration of advanced map settings and choosing number of players for maps with 2-6 player slots. Even the “teams” feature makes better visual sense with the new UI.

[h3]5 new win conditions for some maps (incl. 5 new buildings)[/h3]

Some of the new maps will showcase new win conditions. Some of these are about keeping control of a town or certain map buildings, while some task you in defending a specific building. I’m not entirely convinced if these are better than the default win condition, but at least it’s more varied and in almost all maps, you can still win by defeating the opponent.



[h3]New system for creating templates for the random map generator[/h3]

A bit more controversially, the old nodemap templates will not work in v2.7, nor will there any longer be access to the nodemap editor. Instead, v2.7 will work off a new map file format which is easier to work with and generally gives better control of things. This also makes the way the in-game map templates and the modded map templates work the same, so you can edit the included map templates instead of having to do your completely own thing.

The new map template files consist of a modding format that should be familiar to anyone who has worked with Hero’s Hour modding before. One of the most important features is the ability to “paint” the map by filling out a grid of numbers.



The grid of numbers on the left create a map layout like the one drawn on the right.

The 1s designate the red area for player 1, while the 2s designate the green area for player 2. S designates a secondary area unowned by any player. And then the A, B, C, D, E and F are defined as towns and underground entrances in the rest of the map. The w regions are defined as water, however in this map the bottom half is defined as underground and thus that won’t be water, but underground void.

This, in sum, turns into the new Constellation map:


Please ignore the floating pirate.

[h3]Resource piles now have different levels of wealth depending on what part of the map they spawn on[/h3]

In short, early game resource piles will have fewer resources and late game resource piles will have more. There are also some special maps which play around with this, such as having a special area where all the resource piles are of the largest size.

[h3]Maps now generate with cliffs[/h3]

For now, this is purely visual change, but still it looks rather nice and makes the map terrain become more memorable. The maps come in two terrain heights with cliffs in-between.



[h3]Two new terrains: Gold Beach and Dreamscape[/h3]

One of the goals of the map rewrite was to make the game no longer have artificial limits on the number of terrains or players. Previously only 14 terrains were supported and only 7 players were supported. Now, any number of terrains can be added, and two have been added, one as a new Tide starting terrain and the other as a new Delirium starting terrain. Additionally any number of players can be put on a map, though I have not tested beyond 10. If at some point it becomes relevant to have more than 10 players on a map (I cannot foresee why that would ever be the case), that limit might be raised again.



[h3]New large terrain art assets for all terrains[/h3]

There’s a lot of new terrain set pieces, not just for the two new terrains, but also the old ones. The game has never looked as good as it does now. Even the sea looks better, now with waves coming off the coast-lines.



[h2]SKILLS CHANGES[/h2]

[h3]Skillsets is the new default for for hero skill progression; Skilltrees turned off[/h3]

Skilltrees were originally added in the v1.4 update as a bit of an afterthought. I was not able to do what I wanted to, so I settled for these instead. They ended up becoming a huge part of the game’s identity. Yet, they have caused a lot of issues with most later updates to the game. Especially Rogue Realms and v2.6 updates both suffered a lot in quality due to the disadvantages of the skilltree system.

Skilltrees are still playable as an advanced map settings.

Now instead of each hero having a skillltree of 14-16 skills, each hero will have a learnset of 6 major skills. These can be taken in any order. Major skills unlock various subskills, which means that on average, a hero will have access to 26-28 skills throughout their levelling. The new levelling system is both more open, full of more features (because there’s more skills), and more intelligible, since skills are grouped together into sets of major skills.

[h3]Sorted all current skills into 47 major skills and the rest into subskills[/h3]

So, what is a major skill, anyway? As mentioned, skills are grouped together into sets, and the Major skill is the one at the top, which gives access to the subskills.



Here you can see an example of these major skills and subskills. For instance, in the middle, we have the Mysticism major. Underneath, we have the Destruction subskill, Blight Ritual subskill, Buffer subskill and Mana Life subskill. To gain any of those subskills, you’ll first have to rank up Mysticism. Then, later, you can put points into them - though some, like Blight Ritual, might have additional requirements, like being level 7 and having Mysticism rank II.

Leadership is a major skill too, with Plunder and three new skills as subskills. And finally, all the class skills have been expanded as major skills with three new faction-specific subskills.

That’s a lot of new skills in a single picture, huh…

Why did I choose one thing to be major and another to be subskill? In general, the major skills are supposed to represent the most important mechanics in the game, and should generally always make you more powerful. The subskills are better suited for unique interactions and synergies that aren’t always useful. In general, the major skills are also a lot more straightforward than the subskills - many of the latter being as complex as Hero’s Hour gets.

Oh! One last thing. Skills now have varied number of max ranks. The old skills generally can have up to 4 ranks if they’re major skills and up to 2 ranks if they’re subskills, while almost all new subskills added to the game are single-rank only.

[h3]Reworked the following skills: Tactics (now called Strategist), Champion, Aeromancy, Swiftness (now called Wind Pace), Weightless Soul (now called Wing Master), Fortune, Terramancy, Heavy Soul (now called Stone Heart), Enchanting, Swordsmith, Armorsmith (now called Shieldsmith), Pyromancy, Leadership, Armorer, Hydromancy, Offense, Mysticism, Summoning, Avatar, Engineering, Wisdom, Demoralise (now called Horror), Tragedy, Mastery, Scouting[/h3]

These reworks range from being rather minor to being rather vast. For instance, Leadership and Fortune now give +2 morale or +2 luck instead of +1 - but also, the stats are changed to be half as powerful, so it all works out in the end. Other skills were changed due to becoming subskills.

Several skill changes deal with how bonuses multiply together. For instance, Hydromancy/Pyromancy/Terramancy/Aeromancy no longer give a 60% power bonus, instead giving +7 spellpower while casting that type of spell. In general, this will make late game synergies a bit less unpredictably powerful, while keeping the early game scaling the same.

One change I do want to highlight is Engineering, which now gives a new warmachine each time it is levelled up. Previously, it would only give a First Aid tent to a hero if the hero started with a point into that skill. To this end, 3 new warmachines were added so you can always get an unowned warmachine no matter at what point you put points into Engineering.



[h3]Added 2 new major skills: Carnage, Faith
[/h3]

Carnage is the new major for a group of subskills which all deal with synergies of losing your own units. Faith is the new major for a group of ostensibly spell-focused subskills.

[h3]Added 54 new general subskills: [/h3]

  • Strategist: Affinity
  • Fortune: Gambler's Wheel, Inspiration, Lucky Star, Luckyguards
  • Terramancy: Grave Guard, Life Aether, Terraforming
  • Necromancy: Mana Drain, Life From Death, Putrid Air, Undying,
  • Demonology: Demon Blood, Demonic Reduction, Demoncaller, Possession
  • Pyromancy: Cataclysm, Fireleaper, Inferno,
  • Leadership: Heroism, March Onwards, Persistence
  • Armorer: Plating, Lifelink
  • Offense: Aggression, Forceful Strike, Cult of Muscle
  • Mysticism: Manalife
  • Bodyguards: Underdog
  • Healing: Grand Physician, Vigour
  • Devour: Swallow, Belch, Digest, Spit
  • Horror: Betrayal,
  • Mastery: Survival
  • Aeromancy: Stormbringer
  • Smithing (previously known as Enchnating): Jewelsmith
  • Hydromancy: Healing Rain
  • Engineering: Sapper
  • Mastery: Conversion, Elite Guard
  • Combat: Brawn, Skepticism, One on One
  • Dragonking: Dragonform, Guard of None, Dragonslaying
  • Creativity (previously RR-only): Prism, Customisation, Whimsy
  • Estates: Productivity, Nobility
  • Carnage: Gold Teeth


So, yea, v2.7 adds a lot of new skills to the game. These range from rather minor effects, such as a stat bonus combining for instance morale and daily movement, and rather advanced effects, such as Stormbringer which summons a tornado each fight which becomes more powerful whenever you cast an air spell.

There’s a vast difference in the number of new subskills per major skill. This is related to how many old skills were put as subskills. In the end, each major skill has 3-5 subskill, most of them 4 - if you ignore faction skills anyway. About those…



[h3]Added 36 new faction subskills: [/h3]

  • Order: Salary, Royal Tribute, Old Mirth
  • Wild: Elven Artillery, Lunar Rites, March of Nature
  • Arcane: Mage General, Spire Attunement, Scholar
  • Decay: Coil of the Dead, Frost Lich, Turn Living
  • Pyre: Ritual of Power, Venomus Demonicus, Great Feast
  • Horde: Sandcaster, Hero's Horde, Ritual of Flesh
  • Enclave: Swamp Silver, Bog Witching, Scale Lord
  • Lament: Doppelganger, Tunnel, Dragon Whisperer
  • Tide: Ways of the Sea, Pearl Crown, Fire Dance
  • Earthen: Gold Digger, Carve Guards, Earthen Eternity
  • Pillar: Uphold Tradition, Serene Meditation, Tea Master
  • Delirium: Umsql, Cult Recruiter, Romance


So, yea, v2.7 adds a lot of new skills to the game. This was a wonderful time to flesh out and try to represent various themes of the factions that weren’t already touched. They range from rather simple. On the simple side, each faction gets a lvl 7 subskill which gives an entourage of a notable faction unit as well as a minor side bonus
On the advanced side, we have skills such as Doppelganger, which creates a shadowclone of your hero on the overworld, and Great Feast, which gives an overworld spell with a short cooldown that can be used to buff your hero’s units, but turns your units drunk and has an unpredictable gold cost.

[h3]Moved several subskills from Rogue Realms exclusivity to be part of the base game[/h3]; of the old Rogue Realms exclusive subskills, only Call Beasts, Infest, Tinker, Lovely Tune, Exploitation and Crystal Assembly remains locked to Rogue Realms

The Rogue Realms skills are the ones seeing the largest shake-up. Most are turning into base-game subskills, either because they were too good to be kept in the DLC, or they were too bad to be kept as paid content. Before, Rogue Realms had twelve pseudo-faction skills and a bunch of random assorted skills with little rhyme or reason. Now, Rogue Realms will have six full fledged major skills with four additional subskills each.

The change to exclusivity actually goes beyond just the above. One problem with the Rogue Realms DLC was that it split up modding into two segments, with mods not quite working for both Rogue Realms and base game. In the underlying code, even the Rogue Realms skills will now be available for anyone running mods that does not own the DLC.



[h3]Added 24 new skills for Rogue Realms: [/h3]

  • Hoard: Mana Crystals, Buying Life, Golden Blood, Dragonskin
  • Call Beasts: Bestial Fury, Life summoner, Rootcaller, Questing
  • Chemistry: Analysis, Test the Flesh, Research, Midlife Crisis
  • Infest: Spore Spreading, Budding, Neurotoxin, Mychoral Guard
  • Tinker: Artillery, Mechpriest
  • Lovely Tune: Inspiring Drum, Energetic Jam, Peace Binding, Province Guards


Chemistry is the new major skill and starting skill for the Alchemist heroes in Rogue Realms. The rest of the six main pseudo-faction skills are being fleshed out with appropriate subskills, such as Tyranny whose Hoard skill is now being supported by various resource-related or dragon-related skills.

You might wonder why Tinker has fewer than the others; it doesn’t, it’s just getting Crystal Assembly and Exploitation as subskills, since they fit it so well. So in total, each of the 6 main Rogue towns now has its own major skill with 4 extra subskills.

You might notice the above list only has 23 new skills. The last new skill is named Drown and is actually a Hydromancy subskill, but which can only be learnt by Admirals, that is, Rogue Realms heroes of the Brine town.

[h3]Designed new learnsets for all heroes[/h3]

The new learnsets are in part based on the skill trees used for Rogue Realms, but with a much larger focus on what skills make thematic sense for each faction to learn. Of course, there will be a human General that can learn Necromancy, we can have some outliers - but most of the heroes will now better fit their faction themes.



Above you see the frequency of various majors for the Wild and Pyre factions. Unsurprisingly, Demonology and Pyromancy is frequent with one, and Fortune and Terramancy is frequent with the other. They both like Summoning.

[h3]Changed which skills, subskills and units heroes start with[/h3]

The change of course goes beyond learnsets, also affecting starting skills. Additionally, the unlockable heroes, which with Skilltrees start with Rank II of a single skill, now start with Rank I of a major + Rank I of a subskill under that major.

Units are changed too. Mostly this is a redaction of a range of heroes that had non-faction units as their starting units. But also some new v2.7 units are being granted as starting units.



[h3]Added 64 new spells for the new skills[/h3]

Many of the new skills add spells, either overworld spells, combat spells with mana costs, and combat spells with day- cooldowns. Some of these are “just” summon spells, but are made special in the way they are learnt - such as Demoncaller which teaches 3 spells to summon demons, each of which has a multi-day cooldown. Others are more unique spells, such as Drown, which floods the battlefield, Dragonform, which turns your hero into a dragon, or Prism, which summons a bunch of copies of a single chosen enemy or friendly unit.

[h2]OTHER ADDITIONS[/h2]

[h3]12 new units added: Blood Golem, Medician, Mercenary, Nighthowler, Herculean, Terraformed, Questing Raffe, Aether Witch, Foxpirit, Life Reaper, Blood Aspirant, Rune Beacon[/h3]

The new units come by either because of new subskills, or because of some of the community art marathons. The latter units are, for instance, based on designs by DeadSaracen, MagicalStorm, SleepyMage, Lyolf and Kaazmun. The new units represent 4 new unit abilities: Nighthowler, Foxpirit and Blood Aspirant all have the Bloodform ability, which makes them transform when they kill an enemy; Aether Witch has the Colourcaster ability; Life Reaper has the Reap ability; and Rune Beacon has the Rune Recipient ability.



[h3]15 new adventure map buildings added to the game[/h3]

The sixth art marathon was held back in March and resulted in a lot of new buildings being added to the game:
  • Magic Mirror and Haberdashery by SleepyMage
  • Egg of Unknown Origin by Hamastra
  • Enchanted Pond and Earthblood Mine by DeadSaracen
  • Djinn Altar by me
  • Hero's Communion and Void Spiral by MagicalStorm
  • Dragon Aerie by Erridian
  • Ethereal Philosopher by Louis Morel.


Additionally, there’s five new adventure map buildings for the sea (the first of that type!): Den of Sirens, Brine Guild, Lighthouse, Calm Leviathan and Wrecking Reef.

[h3]Sea towns (Rogue Realms DLC only)[/h3]

These are a special variety of Brine towns only found out at sea. On large maps, you’ll usually find 1-2. They’re rather rare.



[h3]Added six new spells: Nightmare, Dream, Slumber, Detonate, Reap, Root[/h3]

These spells were added so that the Delirium heroes no longer had to start with Mysticism-specific spells. The mysticism spells in general were on the powerful side, and being given guaranteed access to a specific one was a bit too much, especially since generally, their power was balanced out by having to put a point into a specific skill.

[h3]Community Graphics Improvements[/h3]

Above, I’ve mentioned art marathons a couple of times. I guess I should explain what those are. They started as a tradition in the discord server where a lot of artists would all do their own version of a single thing. The first official art marathon was to create a new portrait for Hardsoul, the best hero.

The art marathons are held in two rounds: First, people draw up their designs and write a bit about their concept. Second, voting. The third round is that I ask the people who get the most votes if they want to see the thing added to the game, and if they do, I’ll do my best to implement it as close to their vision I can without messing up balance or design principles. And of course, the person with the most votes get to wish a completely new piece of content into the game.

Since then, there’s been a couple of other art marathons, before a long hiatus known as the v2.6 doldrums. Now in 2024, we’ve held three art marathons:
  • 5th art marathon: New overworld buildings
  • 6th art marathon: Faction-specific designs for default assets
  • 7th art marathon: New units based on the 12 factions


So, about half the new units are from the 7th art marathon, as well as some unit graphics being overhauled. Two thirds of the new buildings are from the 5th art marathon.



The 6th art marathon isn’t adding any new content, but it is adding new looks for old things - specifically doing faction-specific designs for things that previously looked the same for everyone:

  • Improved default boat during naval combat, by Hamastra
  • Divine Vessel spell now creates a unique boat with unique overworld and in-battle graphics, by MagicalStorm
  • Lizardfolk heroes now create Turtles instead of Boats at the docks. These have a unique overworld and in-battle graphic, by DeadSaracen
  • Most factions get unique new walls during sieges, by DeadSaracen
  • All factions get a new unique look for their first aid station warmachine, by SleepyMage
  • Updated art for Crusader, Paladin, Bloodsucker, Firestinger, Corruptor, Boneliath by DeadSaracen
  • Updated art for Enclave units by AntRose


These are all astoundingly excellent art pieces, going far beyond the general quality of Hero’s Hour art.

What’s special here is that the recent art marathons have not just been larger, more popular, and seen better and more diverse submissions, but also that we’ve held three in rather short succession, all of which will come in the v2.7 update.

Huge thanks to everyone who joined the art marathons, whether their submissions reached the top 10 or not, and whether they wished their things to become part of the game or not. They have been a blast, and they make me strive to improve my drawing skillz. I hope maybe in the 8th marathon, I will finally have a shot at the top 10…



[h3]Nine New Heroes[/h3]

These new heroes are based on suggestions by various community members and are spread around the various factions. You’ll notice only eight of them can be found on the hero selection screen. The last one is a secret…



[h3]Hand Designed Skirmishes[/h3]

For the longest time, Skirmishes have been a rather under-developed game mode. The units were assembled randomly - both the ones the player and the enemy would use - and thus the difficulty curve was very inconsistent. v2.7 comes with a new hand-designed set of skirmishes which gradually introduce more and more complex units, and with a more consistent difficulty curve.

Anyway, I think is the last I’ll write about the going-ons and ideas about the various changes. The rest will just be other changes you can expect with the upcoming update. These lists are the ones most likely to still grow before v2.7.0 is fully released.

Sandwalkers + Hero's Hour

Hi everyone,

We're really happy to announce that Goblinz Studio's new turn-based roguelike Sandwalkers is out now with a 10% discount for two weeks.
But with the Sandwalkers + Hero's Hour bundle, you can save an extra 10% discount on the game! 🎉

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/42688/Sandwalkers__Heros_Hour/

We hope you will like Sandwalkers. If you do, please consider leaving a positive review! ♥

Enjoy!

Hero's Hour upcoming update & news from Goblinz?

Hello Goblinz,

We have a lot of news lately, so we thought it would be really cool to give you a little summary here!

As you probably know, Goblinz is focused on strategy and management games, and we strive to offer you high-quality games with our selection.

We regularly offer demos so you can get hands-on experience before buying!

[h2]Synergy[/h2]
Today, Synergy is being released, a beautiful city builder inspired by Pharaoh and Frostpunk. The game is developed by Leikir Studio and you will have 10% off the 2 first weeks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1057&curator_clanid=33025551

[h2]
The Executive[/h2]
Last week, we announced a new game: The Executive, a Tycoon set in the film industry.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315430/The_Executive__A_Movie_Industry_Tycoon/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1057&curator_clanid=33025551

[h2]
Sandwalkers[/h2]
Sandwalkers will have a new prologue, this time focusing on gameplay rather than the story. It will be released on June 4th. And we can already announce that Sandwalkers will be available in Early Access before this summer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2995230/Sandwalkers__Prologue/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551

[h2]
Mini Settlers[/h2]
The demo of Mini Settlers is a huge hit with more than 80,000 players in the last three weeks! If you haven't tried it yet, you can find it here. Mini Settlers is an automation game similar to Factorio but much simpler, like Mini Metro.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521630/Mini_Settlers/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551

Last but not least, Fantastic Haven will be at the Steam Next Fest in June! If you want to join the private beta, head over to Discord:
https://discord.gg/goblinzstudio

Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2556470/Fantastic_Haven/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551

Other minor news:
  • The new update for Hero's Hour is currently in open beta
  • A new update for Racine is coming
  • Fantastic Haven will have a prologue too!


We are really happy to announce a new bundle as complete the set. Get the Best Sellers from Goblinz with an awesome 40% discount. We often create bundles to reward Goblinz fans
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41792/Goblinz_Best_Sellers/

See you soon Goblinz!

v2.6.1, v2.6.2 and v2.6.3 - minor patches

Here are the patch notes for the various minor updates. v2.6.1 was only live on beta - v2.6.2 was released a couple of days ago, and v2.6.3 is a small hotfix patch on top of that.

v2.6.1
Fixed a rare bug where an obelisk would generate an obelus ON TOP of the buried treasure
Scrying achievement text now reads "Find an obelisk treasure with no clues apart from the first obelisk"
Fixed a bug that might cause a boat or a resource to be generated on top of a coastline even when there was an empty tile available
Rearranged credits so all of them are visible
Added some new community credits and updated publishing credits
Credits are now larger and better spaced
Removed debug feature that made artifacts draw lines to other artifacts of the same set when holding backspace
Fixed a crash related to defeating hostile pirates
Fixed a crash that would occur when entering a battle while being tabbed out of the game
Fixed a bug that would make units flee more rarely unless you held your cursor above the HUD at the top of the screen
Fixed the placement of tooltips that just move a bit above the top of the screen to not be cut off at the top
Fixed a bug making the "Skilltrees: Off" advanced map setting a bit more random than intended
Fixed a typo that made Fus Sofu and Kop Laka not start with the right spell (Summon Seastar)
Fixed various issues with custom modded units using sprites larger than 24x24
Added some code to make sure that hero units that respawn after death have the correct color and angle
Fixed several issues with random events not occuring correctly during battle, which would, for instance, make all AOE projectiles land in the same spot, or make boats suddenly move strangely during naval combat
Fixed the behaviour of swimming units with ranged attacks. Units can no longer use ranged attacks while swimming
Swimming units now spend less time under water before jumping back up onto the ship
Slightly increased width of Town UI window
Made sure the Summoning Circle will not create units that should not be created by random effects
Increased the size of Wyvern
Reworked Reviving Legend achievement to now require 5 artifacts of a single set
Fixed the Ancient Power achievement to now correctly trigger at 3 artifacts of a single set
Fixed a rare situation where checking for abilities in custom scripting would lead to a crash
Fixed unitskins breaking across mods in case canvas extension is used by a single mod
Fixed a rare bug with backwards compatibility for corrupted saves, which would make the game crash whenever the player pressed the Load button
Made sure that Hostile Pirates would generate unique heroes and armies instead of rerolling the same results again and again
You may now place Rogue towns using the tilemap editor
You may now place settlements using the tilemap editor
Improved the display of what towns are available in the tilemap editor
Using mods will now always export unit group .pngs, even if not using unit group mods (since unit mods might also go into unit groups on their own)
Fixed an issue that made neutral unit mods not correctly add to the right unitgroup when using Rogue Realms
Faction mods now correctly add Hero Class lore to their classes
Fixed rare issues where a hero would get the wrong entourage units when having a specialty unit that had no unit groups - now Puk Aro, for instance, will no longer gain Great Hydra as entourage units
Made sure that faction heroes will use faction units for entourage units if their specialty unit did not belong to any unit group
Amtio now represents the Carrion unit group, and Fromage now represents the Pond unit group
Fixed an issue that would sometimes delete artifacts in the hero's inventory
Fixed a bug with Tailtoads fighting against Fireflies that could make the game hang forever
Fixed Tailtoads' death animation
Fixed a bug causing corpses to not reach the final frame of their animation when playing at 2x battle speed
Fixed a bug causing spell casts to sometimes fail when holding your mouse above a unit while selecting the spell from your spellbook and also your resolution was low
Improved the casting of Firegating and Firetrapping
Fixed a typo that prevented the flying unit air drop and teleswapping unit abilities from working
Fixed a bug related to achievement unlocking that would slow down large maps tremendously in the late-game
Fixed a bug related to flying units getting stuck on the top, bottom or right edge of combat during naval battles
Fixed living units' aura colour being coloured the wrong colour
Fixed units occassionally moving strangely during naval combat
Fixed unit corpses not moving along with their boats
Fixed swimming units occassionally moving at supersonic speeds
Increased the size of the naval combat battlefield and reduced the distance between the boats at the start of battle
Fixed a bug that made the right-side units during naval combat not be placed correctly at the start of battle
Losing skill points in Tactics, Mastery, Bodyguards and Oligarchy now correctly changes command, proficiency and entourage
Fixed a bug that made Entourage and Proficiency gain from Mastery and Bodyguards doubled
Reduced the frequency of Snowbeard and Tailtoad projectiles will freeze the enemy unit
Midas Touch now applies via Snowbeard and Tailtoad projectiles, as they should
Fixed a rare bug which could crash the game when playing on very large battlefields without any enemies left and using units with infinite range
Fixed the following spells which could make immobile units move: Swift Retreat, Army of Giants, Gigantism
Fixed the following effects which could make immobile units move: Echoes artifact set bonus, Chemun tea, Swiftness skill, Rallying, Combat skill (only relevant for modding)
Made the following unit effects no longer make immobile units move: Fast, Light, Flimsy, Flying, Mutation
Switched position of Dragonking and Blight Ritual for RR Puk Aro skilltree
Magmoles are now significantly stronger
Mirrored game files for units now accurately depict the units' stats
Fixed names for some rogue dwellings being switched
Fixed priority of modded heroes spec units when two units have the same name
Updated art for the Arachnian as well as most of the new Ants introduced in v2.6.0

v2.6.2
Fixed a rare bug that could cause a crash when playing as Tide, not having any pearls, and using the Classic town screen
Fixed a crash related to the updated Teleswap ability scripting
Fixed an issue with faction mods that would occassionally make hero portraits for the 5th and later added faction have wrong portraits used
Fixed an infinite stall bug caused by Snowbeards fighting against low-tier enemies
Reduced the frequency of Snowbeard and Tailtoad projectiles will freeze the enemy unit EVEN MORE
Fixed a bug that would occassionally crash the game when a hunted hidden beast was about to respawn
Fixed Reveal full map not working correctly for hotseat

v2.6.3
Fixed a crash that led to faction mods being unplayable for non-English language games
If mods crash the game before reaching the main menu, they now get automatically turned off next time you open the game
Changed unit edit mods to now be able to just edit a few attributes without causing a crash
Patience achievement now just requires winning on the Patience map - the time limit is removed because it led to a lot of issues

v2.6.0 - Great War out now!

So, it finally happened! Hero’s Hour version 2.6 is now complete and released. I know it has been almost a year since the last major update. You might even consider this the third Hero’s Hour anniversary release. First anniversary update was v2.0 and steam release - second anniversary was v2.4 and Rogue Realms release - and this third anniversary is v2.6 and the Great War update.
The Great War update brings overhauls, updates and new content to rather a lot of systems. The three major areas of this update are:
  • Hero classes and rare heroes
  • Artifacts and artifact sets
  • Battlefields

Let’s take them one at a time and go over the various major improvements and the ideas behind them.



[h2]Unlockable Heroes[/h2]

For the longest time now, Hero’s Hour has had a peculiar system where each faction had six heroes per faction - but then, each of those six heroes would have a copy with a different portrait and name, but the exact same skill tree. There have been a lot of suggestions across time to give those extra heroes their own specialty units at least. Well, I’ve gone now and made it so that the extra heroes actually are full heroes on their own. And to make sure they don’t just add too much extra stuff to the game, they’re becoming their own type of hero: Unlockable heroes.

[h3]BASE GAME[/h3]

  • Replaced 72 alternate heroes with unlockable heroes
  • Added 8 neutral unlockable heroes
  • Added 4 unlockable faction heroes belonging to “secret factions”


[h3]ROGUE REALMS DLC[/h3]

  • Changed what Rogue Realms rogue towns can be chosen when starting a new map, making it so that all 12 towns are now available as starting town
  • Changed the 12 Rogue Realms heroes that were previously unavailable as starting heroes to now be unlockable heroes
  • Added 24 unlockable heroes for Rogue Realms


[h3]Most hero portraits have been updated with new art by SleepyMage[/h3]

When a player first starts playing the game, they will only have the main heroes available - but as the player unlocks various achievements throughout the game, they will gain access to more and more unlockable heroes from across the various factions. When picking your starting hero, the available list expands - or you can press a button to see the unavailable options and how to unlock them.
Unlockable heroes are basically like the main heroes - but they have a bit more personality to make playing as them a bit more varied. First off, they have unusual specialty units - that is, units that are not usually part of their faction. Secondly, starting as an unlockable hero changes what units are available in the starting town so that you actually do gain access to their specialty unit. Finally, several of the specialty units for the unlockable heroes are units that are new to v2.7.



[h2]New Units[/h2]

As mentioned, the update brings a bunch of new units to the game which are slightly more unique than most other neutral units.

- Changed unlockable heroes to specialise in non-faction units
- Starting as an unlockable hero allows you to hire their specialty unit in town
- Added 29 new units, including:
  • Houndmaster is a unit that is actually three units: two hound dogs and one hound tamer.
  • Thornbinder can root enemy units from across the battlefield.
  • Ebon Paw has nine lives.
  • Elemental Nexus turns into one one of four variants depending on the element of spells you cast during combat.
  • Snowbeard calls hail down on enemies across the battlefield.
  • Goblin Ensign leaves behind a banner when it dies, which will promote another goblin into a goblin ensign after the battle.

- Added two new unit groups: Frogs and Ants
  • A whole new series of ant units drawn by AntRose, author of the Colony, Honey and other mods

- Set these new units to be used by the unlockable heroes as specialty units
Another unique thing about unlockable heroes is that they do not usually start with two rank I skills - instead they start with two ranks in a single skill, giving them a head start on (hopefully) a useful strategy.



[h2]Hero Classes and Stat Rework[/h2]

While working on cleaning up the hero system in the game, I also went and cleaned up the even more spaghetti-codey hero class system. Did you know that the first 12 hero classes added to the game had their own unique progressions of how they would gain new stats, while the latter 12 hero classes and the neutral heroes all used copies of the Warden and Archdruid classes? Fun fact, huh.
Anyway, that’s a thing of the past. Each hero class now has its own unique stat gain progression once more - also, there’s even more hero classes - and also also, there’s now more stats.

- Added 12 new hero classes for the Rogue Realms heroes
- Added Daily Movement as a hero stat
- Added Command as a hero stat, which controls how many units can be fielded at a time during combat
  • Tactics skill now increases Command; Hegemony now decreases Command

- Added Proficiency as a hero stat, which creates specialty units for the hero and increases their stats
  • Mastery now increases Proficiency

- Added Entourage as a hero stat, which creates disposable units for secondary heroes
  • Bodyguards now increases Entourage

- Added 10 new small overworld buildings that give permanent stat bonuses to heroes
- Added 5 new large overworld buildings that give choices between units, stats, etc.
- Changed all Hero Classes to now have unique stat progressions between all 10 stats
- Implemented new level-up system which increases 1-3 stats each level, weighing some stats as more valuable than others
- Expected stats for a hero class at level 20 is now shown in newly added tooltips

For a long time, I’ve wanted to solve the issue of hero classes never really mattering. While my previous collaborator for hero stats believed that you could tell hero classes apart just by four stats, I never could make it work myself. Thus this new system of ten stats.
It might look like three new stats were added, but really, they’re just reworks of systems already in place. Proficiency is Mastery, but for all heroes - as Entourage is Bodyguards, too. Daily Movement already increased with level-ups, but in an unclear manner. And Command…
Well, for a long time, army reserve limits have been dependant on how many units you had in your army. This pretty much works since it scales automatically throughout the game. But that system was never particularly clear. Command, now, should be more interesting and more clear - you will be able to feel that you’re at an advantage or disadvantage if you have more or less of this stat than your opponent in the late-game. This rework also symbolises moving from the old “can’t field too many units because the game can’t handle it” to the new “can’t field too many units because you need to prioritise strategies” - more on that later, though.



[h2]Hero and Hero Class Modding[/h2]

For those of you who make mods, the reworks in v2.6 should also vastly increase your abilities when it comes to making mods for heroes. The new modding capabilities are carried by a new mod file syntax, which should be easier and more readable - adding more functionality without making simple mods more complex too.
Some of the new functionality allows things like setting heroes to be of one type of class, another faction, and display a custom, third hero class name, while using the sprite of a fourth class. It is now also more straightforward to pick modded heroes that are aligned with a specific faction from the map selection screen. There are also easier ways to add unit abilities during combat to specific heroes or hero classes.
Finally, there is now support to add any number of heroes in a faction mod, whether it be more or less than six, and to add in pseudo-factions by creating a unit group, setting a hero to use that unit group, and then starting the game as that hero.
Oh - and the Rogue Realms system of having easily editable Skilltrees is now being added as a normal modding feature both for the DLC and for the base game.



[h2]Artifacts Rework, and New Artifact Sets[/h2]

I set up to completely overhaul the artifacts system, with two big issues that I wanted to fix. One is about how difficult it is to collect a single artifact set - it seemed easier, actually, to get duplicate artifacts than to collect a set. The other issue was about how a lot of artifacts gave +1 to some random skill, which meant that with ten artifact slots, you might end up with a hero with an extremely bloated skills page.

- Removed 130 artifacts from the game (all non-set artifacts)
- Added 217 new artifacts
- Added 24 new artifact set bonuses, all of which give a minor bonus starting at two pieces and increasing with additional pieces
- Implemented a new system where all artifacts are kept track off, minimising duplicates
- Implemented a system where artifacts in the same map realm get generated with higher chance of being of the same set as other artifacts in the same realm
- Fixed various issues preventing Delirium avatars from getting use of artifacts and artifact sets
- Added various new artifact bonuses:
  • Firepower, Waterpower, Earthpower and Airpower improving spells of a specific type
  • Skeletal Strike creates skeletons when your hero hits enemies
  • Terror terrifies enemy units hit by your hero
  • Grizzly Guard creates grizzlies guarding the hero at the start of combat
  • Elemental Guard creates elementals guarding the hero at the start of combat
  • Shadowbetrayal creates shadowy clones of enemy units during combat

- Improved UI for artifact tooltips, showing colours and icons for the artifact sets.



The new artifact system not only brings a lot of new and more varied artifacts, each of which is tied into a set with common aesthetics, but also brings a lot more variety into the artifacts available. There are still some artifacts which give +1 to a skill, but most of them now give some of these more minor and less bloated bonuses instead. Their unique effects are now more often relegated to the new artifact set bonuses.
The previous artifact sets had a small set selection of artifacts, meaning it was hard to collect enough for a set bonus - and if you did make a set, it would give a huge, often game-winning bonus. These new artifact set bonuses will be granted earlier, both because artifacts from the same set are more common, and because you only need two artifacts for the bonus to start - but the bonuses are more minor. For instance, there’s a set bonus giving daily gold income, one which casts lightning spells during combat, and one that gives a tier 7 unit each week. They will, however, scale if you have more set pieces, and they do start to become really strong at 4 or 5 pieces of the same set.
Some of the new artifact bonuses are currently being watched for feedback - I am likely to phase some of them out as time passes. As for the artifact set bonuses, I don’t currently foresee any of them being balance issues, but it’s likely that some will need buffs. That’s the thing - this is a huge rework of a core system of the game - and I’m excited to see how people find it, and how it’ll evolve in future updates.



[h2]Battlefield Rework[/h2]

One of the most common suggestions has been to improve the battlefields to add in interesting terrain features. This has not really been possible earlier due to the simplistic pathfinding of units. Units would move towards the closest enemy, and would just get pushed around any obstacles - this only worked if the obstacles were small and round (thus obstacles worked as they did previously). The largest change, code-wise, is that unit pathing during combat has been completely reworked to now take into account:
  • Obstacles blocking the path
  • Speed difference of various types of terrain
  • Number of friendly units already going that way

The new system should more efficiently have units spread out and seek out enemies, no matter what obstacles exist.
The new system also opens up the door to a lot of new mechanics dealing with battlefield obstacles. For now, there’s just a rather simple implementation, but this is likely to be expanded later on, such as having spells that create or remove obstacles from the battlefield, or having combat encounters with walls that are not just the current, well-known siege type of thing.
Joining us in v2.6, however, there’s already a lot of new terrain-specific combat obstacles that are being added. Most battles won’t change too much, to avoid the core gameplay of auto-battles not becoming too complex, but there are a lot of new avenues of strategy and decision-making for those players who want to maximise their armies:
  • Water that slows down unit movement, especially for small units
  • Mud that slows down unit movement, especially for large units
  • Flowers which increase healing effects
  • Crystals which buff magical units
  • Lava terrain which damages units walking across or landing on it
  • Cacti which damage units landing on it
  • Ice which is slippery to walk on

Various units get various immunities to the above effects. For instance, aquatic units are not slowed down in water, and demons are not damaged by lava - and there’s a new series of ant units which use their carapace to become immune to all terrain effects.



[h2]Battlefield Optimisations[/h2]

While I am happy to tout the new abilities of the pathfinding system, both what it allows adding now and what it allows adding later, the ACTUAL reason I spent all this time reworking the system was because I realised that the old pathfinding took way too much computation time. And that a new system could exist which barely would not become more slow the more units were in play during combat.
The old system calculated pathing for every unit. Mind you, it was rather optimised and fast - every unit did not have to check the position of all enemy units - but still, it was a unit-based pathing system and thus scaled poorly. The new system instead calculates pathing for all units at once. Or said in a different way: Instead of calculating pathing for each unit, it calculates pathing for each tile on the battlefield.
We’ve gone from pathing being the thing costing most processing time during large battles to it now being one of the more minor things. Anyway, after spending all that time building tools to calculate how much processing time is spent on various processes, I was also able to figure out a series of other things that took a lot of processing time during combat. Things such as drawing the coloured shading beneath units, drawing the spellbook and other UI, etc. A lot of this has been optimised now. So not only does combat scale better when there’s a lot of units - it’s also just faster overall.
The graph shown above was just a single step in the large process of finding and fixing processing time sinks - I wish I had a final tally of how faster combat is now, but unfortunately I don’t. The only thing I can say is that it’s really satisfying to now play large combat scenarios on 2x speed and still get around 55-60 fps. I hope everyone else with their various high- or low-spec setups achieve as large a performance improvement as I do - because for my PC, it is vast.
For optimisations from here on out, that’s a more complex issue. One of the largest remaining time sinks is the upkeep of drawing and moving the units each frame.
Anyway, the game is meant to now both allow more units during combat via the new Command stat, as well as actually being able to handle those extra units.



[h2]Updated Graphics[/h2]

A lot of new units are getting updated unit animations in v2.6. This is the result of a long process of Hero’s Hour slowly getting better and better art - and now, it felt like it was time to return to some of the oldest art in the game. This process has been spearheaded by KraftKraken, but also joined by AntRose and DeadSaracen. While their styles are slightly different, I’m proud of the way they each evolve the Hero’s Hour art style.
In total 65 base game units have had their art updated, and 2 Rogue Realms units have had their art updated.
Talking about Rogue Realms, the Rogue Realms rogue towns have also had their graphics updated. Buildings have been moved around to be more tidy, and most rogue unit dwellings have had their graphics overhauled or reworked entirely.

[h2]Better UI and misc. other changes[/h2]

Many UI elements have been updated with new art, making them look and feel better to use. There also various minor improvements, such as being able to close the Level-up window of a hero for later.
Dragonking skill has had a rework, which makes it so that you get dragons earlier if you stay at Rank I. Before, the skill was entirely useless unless you put several points into it. Additionally, you can now choose whether you want to get a single large dragon or several smaller dragons when it triggers, and the dragons themselves become larger with higher ranks.
There are three new music tracks for the overworld.
Unit modding can now use the new modding format, and if you choose to use the new format, new things can be set for the unit, such as whether it can be generated by random effects (making it easier to create technical units for other units’ abilities).

[h2]The Future[/h2]

As everyone has noticed, the pace of updates for the game has slowed down. This might just be how things are now that we’re a couple of years past the game’s release. I don’t plan to stop working on the game, neither for the base game or the Rogue Realms DLC - but I must be honest, there were times during v2.6 development that I was close to giving up.
This update has become way too large and I was unable to carry it on my shoulders. I aim to learn from this and from here on out, start working on smaller updates again. Just a single systems rework per update, let’s say. Maybe this means faster updates. I cannot tell the future.
I am, however, already working on v2.7, and I expect a public beta to be up on steam within the next month. But how long between the first pre-release and full release, only time can tell.
Anyway, here’s a cheers to Hero’s Hour 3rd anniversary, and a cheers to everyone still playing and enjoying the game, as well as the wonderful community and the artists who put so much beautiful stuff into the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1656780/Heros_Hour/