For The King II News

Amazing to see everyone enjoying Dark Carnival and Bards! This is a quick hotfix to address a couple of issues that we’ve had reported on the update. Most pressing is players have been able to get into a state where they are no longer able to move after interacting with a Town Market - either buying, trading items, or shift to inspect - across single player and multiplayer games. We also fixed a couple of issues that we were seeing with loading into certain dungeons in save files from the previous game version.

[h2]Bug Fixes [/h2]

• Fixed the issue where players would no longer be able to move after interacting with Town Markets.
  
• Fixed an online softlock during the Dark Carnival Wheel of Fate that could happen when the active player spun the wheel while a non-active player was changing their viewed wedge.
  
• Fixed an issue with previous save games causing a softlock when continuing or loading into specific dungeons across overworld adventures.
  
• Fixed a softlock caused by the Floating Chest encounter when the “Fight” outcome was rolled by the player.
  
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to press/click “Continue” on the Adventure Summary if any of the party members didn’t generate any stats.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could happen when buying from a market with a controller or keyboard.
  

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback and input so far. We are love seeing everyone post early leader board scores, chatting on the various elements in the Dark Carnival, and the return of the Bards!

Once you have updated your game with this hotfix, if you experience issues please let us know in the support channel on Discord so we can assist you.

All players will need to have updated to the latest build to play together in multiplayer.

Happy Carnivaling!
⚔️IronOak Games

Attention Fahrul!

At IronOak Games we are passionately dedicated to making For the King II the best experience it can be for everyone. We've been closely listening to feedback and working hard to address various network issues and bring new content with the Dark Carnival update. We truly hope you enjoy these improvements, the new adventure, and the re-introduction of Bards.

Step right up and enjoy the endless fun that the Ringmaster has brought to Fahrul with his traveling band of misfits! From carnival tickets, clowns, games, and leaderboards galore - the Dark Carnival has something in store for everyone! The Dark Carnival attracts all kinds of sorts, and the Minstrel has been seen regaling her tales of splendor at many a pub; meanwhile, the Busker has his hat passing around as he entertains the crowds.

The Dark Carnival is an infinite dungeon mode that challenges adventures to put their skills to the ultimate test. Your goal is to conquer as many floors as possible before you meet your inevitable demise. Will you be able to unlock all of the mysteries of the Ringmaster? Many surprises await those who dare to enter. But, be wary of the many fates of the Dark Carnival, as the deeper you go the more twisted it becomes. Perhaps fortunes will favour you and the Wheel of Death will aid you as you try to escape your fate!



[h3]WATCH THE LATEST BOOK OF LORE & UNRAVEL THE DARK CARNIVAL[/h3]
If you’d prefer to watch a short video that delves into the mysteries of the Carnival, simply watch our latest Book of Lore. It’s sure to give you a crash course in everything weird and wonderful the Dark Carnival has to offer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]NEW DARK CARNIVAL CONTENT [/h3]
We’ve been working hard to develop a ton of new content for you to enjoy! We don’t want to spoil everything, but on your adventure expect to find:

• New weapons
  New enemies
  New gear
  New achievements
  New environments
  New Lore Store unlocks
  New Markets

[h3]CARNIVAL TICKETS[/h3]
In the Dark Carnival, Carnival Tickets are shared as a party resource. Located in the top left of the global header, parties will see how many tickets they have in any given room. Carnival Tickets are required to access the hallways presented at different times throughout your journey.

Spend your Carnival Tickets wisely. If you run out of tickets you may end up face to face with The Royal Droll.





[h3]WHEEL OF DEATH[/h3]
Deep within the Dark Carnival is the Wheel of Death. A curious device that will manipulate the behaviour of the carnival itself. Certain paths will allow adventurers to take their fate into their own hands. Is it wise to collect wheel wedges, or use them as they arrive? Only time will tell.





[h3]BARDS[/h3]
The sound of music is sweeping across Fahrul as the Minstrel and Busker arrive to help quell the Queen and tame the Dark Carnival. Bringing their entertainment and inspiration to every party they join, the fan favorites are making their welcome return!





[h3]NEW ENCOUNTERS[/h3]
Bold new encounters lie within the Dark Carnival. Will they aid you in your quest to escape the Carnival, or are they more twisted machinations of the Ringmaster devised to end your party. Each party may need to look deep within themselves to see if they can pass these trials.





[h3]LEADERBOARDS[/h3]
What good are fun and games if you can’t strive to be the best and showcase your parties abilities across all of Fahrul? Whether you take on the carnival alone, or with a party of your choosing, there is now a leaderboard to highlight your exploits.

Each month will also showcase recent champions, and their Stone Heroes will populate adventures in the overworld and Dark Carnival. Stay focused adventurers, for the memories of Fahrul will fade and new champions will be selected each month.





[h3]NETWORK UPDATES[/h3]
In addition to bringing you a wealth of new content, we’ve also been hard at work to improve network stability by making improvements in three key areas. If you’ve already played the Experimental Branch, you may already be aware of these new additions. First, we have reduced the amount of data we are sending - which will improve reliable connections and reduce the potential for disconnections. In addition, we’ve also implemented two new key features to improve the reconnection experience: Auto-reconnect and Join-in Progress. More details on these areas below.

NEW FEATURE: AUTO-RECONNECT
We’ve implemented a system that will attempt to automatically reconnect players that get disconnected from their session.

If a player drops out of the session due to loss of connection, the game will attempt to reconnect them within a 30-second window. Players will now be able to reconnect seamlessly if rejoining within 30 seconds.

If a client rejoins after a crash, quitting the game or timing out on a reconnect, the host is informed with a party management pop-up that will allow them to reassign characters back to the player that disconnected.

NEW FEATURE: JOIN IN PROGRESS
Players now can join an adventure that is already in progress. This means you can join friends who have started an adventure already or rejoin a game if you were disconnected from the session.

Alongside these three improvements, we’ve also fixed a number of issues leading to online softlocks and desyncs. The overall online experience is greatly improved with this update. We remain committed to continuous improvement of our online experience and extend a huge thank you to our community, and everyone that has played FTK2, that has provided feedback and helped us improve our networking.



[h3]GAMEPLAY CHANGES[/h3]

IMPROVED DUNGEON TIMELINE
To coincide with the release of Dark Carnival, the dungeon timeline has been improved. We’ve improved the descriptions and have added new icons and colours to depict rarity for the rooms that lie ahead. These changes are in both the Dark Carnival, as well as the overworld adventures.

IMPROVED LOOT DROPS
We’ve heard frequent feedback that it can be frustrating to not always get weapon drops that match your party composition. We’ve made a few adjustments that will now have loot drops detect if your party has appropriate weapons based on their class. The rate of detection will vary across the various difficulties, but you will now have a much easier time finding a wand for your Scholar or a better bow for your Hunter.

LORE STORE
We’ve removed the “Items” tab from the Lore Store. This contained the weapon families for certain weapons. These were in the Lore Store and intended to be a feel-good unlock that added to the player's experience. That hasn’t translated to the game as expected and caused confusion regarding weapons. The previously locked weapons are now part of the loot pool by default.

When these changes go live, anyone that used Lore to purchase the weapon families will have their spent Lore refunded.

ENEMY FOCUS BONUS
Enemies being able to use Focus is a bit of a divisive topic in the community. Our initial goal with enemies and focus was to show that enemies have evolved since the events of For The King. We were a bit overzealous with Focus and that has lead to periods of unbalanced gameplay and frustration. With that in mind we’ve removed Focus from lower level enemies and boss minions:

• Druid
  
• Mystic
  
• Witch
  
• Skelly Brute
  
• Skelly Cannon
  
• Boss/Scourge Minions
  

EVASION BALANCING
Evasion meta has been running hard with a couple of bugs. Namely players could overclock Evasion above the cap of 95, and there are generally too many ways to raise evasion. To bring evasion back into expected ranges we’ve fixed the bug with player stats able to go higher than 95 and we’ve reduced the amount of evasion provided by statuses. Evasion gear is still handing out the same evasion benefit, but spells and pipes have had their evasion reduced. The three evasion statuses will now apply 15 → 25 → 35. Previously the high side was granting 50 evasion. The Smoky Pipe and Fine Smokey Pipe will also grant these more appropriate evasion ranges.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Players have been able to get into states where they complete the requirement to unlock an achievement and the achievement stays locked and prevents the player from being unable to meet that first-time condition again. This has been corrected and players who were missing certain achievements should have them unlock correctly on next start up. Some achievements may need to the condition to be met again.

COMBAT

• We made a small tweak to the combat camera transitions during hit animations. If you’ve played a bunch you’ll notice a much smoother/quicker combat flow.
  
• We’ve added new animations to a variety of player skills - Party Heal, Mend, Justice. We’ll continue to add more in future updates.
  
• Characters with Attack Down would heal the opponent if their max damage value was negative.
  
• Fixed the issue that 2x2 enemies (ie Trolls) would only have statuses applied if their primary tile was targeted.
  
• Improved how Bleed status was being communicated on the combat timeline.
  

KRAKEN

• Fixed the issue where the Kraken could still be found after killing his head the first time.
  

MERCENARIES
We’ve lowered the base price of all mercenaries that are found in town shops on the overworld.
Mercenary shop prices scale up in the Dark Carnival as Mercs will not leave the party until their demise, or if they are affected by the Hangman.


ENCOUNTERS

• One of the Devious Enchanter outcomes had his worst outcome switched from Skip Turn to Max Focus Down.
  

UX/UI

• When shopping in Markets the selected items will now show the current quantity for each player. Helpful to see who is really hoarding all the Godsbeard!
  
• Fixed an issue where the Overworld would go blurry if the application window was resized during combat, or in a dungeon.
  
• Updated various icons throughout the game.
  
• We’ve improved how the Load Game Browser and Continue Preview present information about the previous game run.
  
• Adventure pathing - After completing an adventure the Adventure Map will now draw a line to the next story adventure.
  
• Added the lobby name to the chat window.
  
• Chat window can now be collapsed and moved around.
  
• Chat window "!" icon has been updated and moved to the global header. Notifications will now present as a red icon on the header.
  

SCOURGES
Scourges have undergone some changes to allow their abilities to affect the Dark Carnival, and in-turn, dungeons in the overworld adventures. We’ve also made some improvements to how they spawn in the overworld. This will be most noticeable in the second adventure, The Primordial Oak. We have plans to improve scourges in an upcoming update. Please let us know how their spawn patterns feel now so that we can make sure to update them closer to being line with game design and community expectations.

• Bogdrinker
  • Overworld ability now applies poison & acid to combat tiles.
• Foul Priestess
  • Now has a chance to consume, or turn, sanctums after each dungeon room. Sanctums will be destroyed on encountering in dungeons if the Foul Priestess haunt is active.
• Disciple
  • Darkness will now consume the dungeon and combat timelines.
• Hangman
  • Ghost followers will now be removed when the Hangman dies.
• Royal Droll
  
  • The Royal Droll has been confined to the Dark Carnival… for now.
    

DIFFICULTY SETTINGS

• No actual changes to the difficulty settings themselves, but we have moved the custom rules into a slide out to improve the visual layout during adventure selection.
  

SETTINGS

• We’ve added a “Reflections” option under the Graphics settings. This will allow players to have more control over reflection settings which could lead to performance gains on certain machines.
  

OPTIMIZATION

• Improved load times at the start of the game.
  
• Reduced memory footprint of certain fonts and textures to improve memory usage.
  
• Improved performance for FX on lower quality settings.
  

OTHER BUG FIXES

• Fixed the issue where earned Lore Points were not being saved for the Host if the Host disconnected during a loading screen.
  
• Fixed clipping on Queen’s Apprentice & Queen’s Novice Robes.
  
• Fixed the Hanged Soul’s portrait not being centred.
  
• Fixed the level 3 Pirate Maurader’s eye patch.
  
• Fixed the cosmetic Lucky Suit clipping on the Friar and Hobo.
  
• Fixed the Pickpocket mask clipping on the cosmetic Merling Skin.
  
• Fixed a debug string on the Gallows in the fourth adventure, The Hangman’s Noose, if certain conditions were met.
  
• Fixed the Reload action using the incorrect animation.
  
• Fixed an issue where quest Mercs or NPCs would join the party and appear in the next dungeon room.
  
• Fixed an issue where using a consumable would trigger the animation twice.
  
• Improved the visuals around status affects and how they are being cleaned up after combat.
  
• Fixed Bird Steal attack missing effects.
  
• Fixed the animation for Heroic and Plump characters when using Volley attacks.
  
• Fixed certain weapons not having the correct physics resulting in wild ragdoll events.
  
• And more!
  

Thank you for your continued support!
⚔️IronOak Games

Join the IronOak Games and For The King community on:

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[h3]UPDATES TO THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH[/h3]

Greetings Adventurers,

The time has come for us to turn off the Experimental Branch in advance of our upcoming release of Dark Carnival. The Experimental Branch has been incredible experience for us. We've been able to test out critical updates to our networking, give early access to the Busker & Minstrel, and show off our upcoming infinite dungeon mode, Dark Carnival.

We've gained invaluable feedback that we've already actioned and implemented, from new features to balance items - and we can't wait for everyone to get a chance to experience Dark Carnival and everything that the next update has to offer.

A huge, huge thank you to everyone that played on the Experimental Branch, provided feedback, interacted with the team.

We'll see you all in the Dark Carnival!

Thank you for your continued support!
⚔️IronOak Games




[h3]UPDATES TO THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH. PATCH 1.1.131[/h3]

Greetings Adventurers,

We love seeing the continual feedback on Dark Carnival as we work to refine the experience based off of what we’re hearing in the community. This weekend update comes in with a handful of fixes and another round of balance changes.

We've attached the latest round of patch notes here, but you can find the original post way down at the bottom!

Balance

Early to Mid Game Balance

• Concession Stands - Last patch we reduced the amount of Concession Stands down to one. This helped balance the economy but resulted in upping the difficulty in early game. As a result we’ve added Concession Stands to the first three floors. When the lighting changes on the fourth floor, the Concession Stands get moved behind the boss door. So they are still present, but you have to work for them. This should help ease late game, and help influence decisions on when to approach the boss channel.
  
• Carnival Tickets - Boss chests now give less Carnival Tickets.
  Late Game Balance
  
• Global Modifiers - Global modifiers will now start after beating the Ringmaster the first time. Previously they started on the second defeat. Global modifiers have also increased in difficulty to make late game a bit more difficult.
  
• We also fixed the issue with these modifiers not displaying correctly.
  

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a long pause that was happening between treasure and rest phase on first launch.
  
• Fixed a softlock if Distract triggered during an attack that was targeting a combat tile (ie poison).
  
• Fixed Popcorn text not displaying correctly during boss fights.
  
• Fixed a softlock when using the shock ability on the Ranch Prod weapon.
  

Online Fixes

• Fixed a softlock when passing on a Stone Hero.
  
• Fixed a Join-in-progress” softlock when an off turn player leaves adventure.
  

Other Fixes

• The Inventory “peek” will now show how many items/gear/etc that each party member has when shopping in a market.
  
• Improved the delay on the render time of the tooltips. They will now appear a bit quicker and more naturally.
  
• Fixed Entangle and Resistance Up icons not displaying correctly.
  
• Added more text and translations for missing strings.
  
• Fixed an issue on controller/Steam Deck where players couldn’t navigate the Player Summary.
  
• Various art polish tasks.
  

[h3]UPDATES TO THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH. PATCH 1.1.2.8[/h3]
Experimental Build/Dark Carnival patch notes are here!

Greetings Adventurers,

Wow, what a reception to Dark Carnival! We are overwhelmed with the tremendous feedback that we’ve had with our new infinite dungeon mode. This first patch looks to address some of the early feedback that we’ve seen around too many markets, too much demon gear, missing player models from the Hangman fight, and a bit more.

Balance Updates

• Updated the Concession Stand frequency.
  - Players will now encounter a Concession Stand when they first enter the carnival, and then after each boss battle. Previously it was the start of every floor. Hopefully, this helps curtail the flooding of consumables due to Concession Stand frequency. We’ll be watching this area closely.
  
• Refined the Clown enemy immunities.
  
• Fixed the issue where the mimics weren’t scaling in Fahrulian Fortune.
  
• Adjusted Demon gear drop rates.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a softlock if a solo-party in Dark Carnival died while playing in offline mode.
  
• Fixed a softlock on the final dungeon of the fourth adventure, The Hangman’s Noose.
  
• Fixed Party Heal visual effects not playing when allies are healed during rest phase.
  

Localization

• Fixed various missing strings in the game. (ie. Cleanse)
  
• Added translations for Dark Carnival strings. There may be a couple missing as we make changes based on feedback.
  

Adventure Challenge and Achievements

• Fixed both the Royal Droll Adventure Challenge and Achievement.
  

UX/UI

• Fixed the player models disappearing momentarily in the Hangman fight.
  
• The Evasion icon is now consistent across the game.
  
• Polished the juggle animation when Shorty procs Distract.
  
• Fixed the issue where players could not cycle players/inventories when clicking HUDs in certain phases.
  
• Fixed the visuals for Party Heal during rest phase.
  

Upcoming Balance Areas

We’re also looking into the following areas that we’re hoping to get on to the Experimental Branch in the next couple of days:

• Gold!
  - Too much gold, this is a knock-on from too much gear and too many consumables. We want to see how the Concession Stand changes the economy and then look to balance gold after this first change.
  
• Distract!
  - We’re watching how Distract is too… distracting. Likely on too many enemies and/or proccing too often.
  
• Bosses!
  - We’re looking at boss immunities, boss attacks (We’re looking at you Royal Droll!), and the order of certain bosses.
  
• Items!
  - Despite the overabundance of items we’re looking at the infrequency of lock picks, tinder pouches, and Hag’s Bane. If there are any other items you never come across let us know in FTK2-Experimental.
  
• More!
  - We have a bunch of other feedback areas on the go but the above has been the most recurring.
  

Once again, thanks so much for your feedback. It's been so exciting for us to watch folks hop in and share their experiences and we've LOVED watching you all stream Dark Carnival too! More to come, but in the meantime, thank you so much and as always, happy adventuring~

[h2]Original post follows below.[/h2]



Attention, Fahrul!

We’d like to thank all the players that have joined the experimental branch to help us test network stability and the new Join in Progress and Auto-Reconnect features over the last week. Your help has been immensely valuable to us and as a result we’ve been able to resolve a handful of online issues - you really are the true heroes of Fahrul!

[h3]TEST THE NEW INFINITE DUNGEON MODE[/h3]
As a thank you, and to further continue testing stability, we want to give you a sneak preview of the brand-new Infinite Dungeon Mode coming soon. From today, you can now access the new mode through the Experimental Branch! In addition to the new mode, we’ve also included a ton of new improvements that you can read about below.

The new Infinite Dungeon Mode includes a huge array of new features and gameplay mechanics that we’re so excited for you to get your hands on. Discover new characters, enemies, weapons, gear, environments, lore store unlocks and markets!


The new mode challenges adventurers to put their skills to the ultimate test. Will you be able to unlock the mysteries of the Ringmaster and his band of misfits? Many surprises await those who dare to enter... Be wary of the many fates of the Dark Carnival as the deeper you go the more twisted it becomes. Perhaps fortunes will be on your side and the Wheel of Death will aid you as you try to escape your fate.

To test the new infinite Dungeon Mode, simply follow the instructions below in the ‘How do I access the Experimental Branch’ section. Once you’re on the correct branch and have started the game, load up a Campaign or Multiplayer adventure and select the new red ‘Dark Carnival’ banner from the adventure select screen.

Thank you again for taking the time to test the improvements we’ve made to For the King II. Make sure to let us know how much you’re enjoying the new mode in the Experimental Branch over on Discord!



[h3]EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH INFORMATION[/h3]
This is an Experimental Branch and you will encounter some bugs you have not seen before. You may even see some areas that are work-in-progress. For example, the Bards may not have all of their audio cues hooked up. If you do come across any issues you can report them by pressing F1 within the game. Please note that these bugs are not a representation of final gameplay, and the purpose of this branch is to test the new network features we have added to the game. To ensure we can gather this information, please head into your game and navigate to Settings > Gameplay > Ensure ‘Allow Data Sharing’ is turned on.

[h3]HOW DO I ACCESS THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH?[/h3]

• Open Steam
  
• Right click on ‘For the King II’ in your Library and select the ‘Properties’ option
  
• Choose the ‘experimental’ branch from the ‘Beta Participation’ dropdown menu
  
• Your Steam client will then start downloading the new branch
  
• Once finished downloading, launch the game
  

[h3]OTHER CHANGES TO THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH[/h3]

Online Softlock and Desync Fixes

• Fixed an issue where navigating settings as a client could lead to the UI freezing when the Host moved to new prompts or scenes.
  
• Fixed an online softlock that could happen when taking side quests in the overworld.
  
• Fixed a desync that could happen when joining an adventure mid-dungeon.
  
• Fixed a desync that could happen when using focus in traps.
  
• Fixed a desync that could happen when non-active players were attempting actions in traps.
  
• Fixed an online softlock that could happen when entering a boss fight.
  
• Fixed an online softlock that could occur when hovering over specific buttons.
  
• Fixed a desync for Join-In-Progress when players had different encounter menu states.
  
• Fixed a desync for Join-In-Progress when the party had a delivery quest in progress.
  
• Fixed a desync for Join-In-Progress when the dungeon continue state is inconsistent for all party members.
  
• Fixed a desync that could happen with the combat Move action.
  
• Fixed a desync for Join-In-Progress when joining mid-dungeon when the party is in the middle of an overworld quest.
  
• Fixed a desync for Join-In-Progress when two players joined the host simultaneously.
  

Online Changes

• Added the lobby name to the chat window.
  
• Chat window can now be collapsed and moved around.
  
• Chat window ! icon has been updated and moved to the global header. Notifications will now present as a red icon on the header.
  

Enemy Focus Balance
Enemies being able to use Focus is a bit of a divisive topic in the community. Our initial goal with enemies and focus was to show that enemies have evolved since the events of For The King. We were a bit overzealous with Focus and that has led to periods of unbalanced gameplay and frustration. With that in mind we’ve removed Focus from lower level enemies and boss minions:

• Druid
  
• Mystic
  
• Witch
  
• Skelly Brute
  
• Skelly Cannon
  
• Boss/Scourge Minions
  

Evasion Balancing Evasion meta has been running hard with a couple of bugs. Namely players could overclock Evasion above the cap of 95, and there are generally too many ways to raise evasion. To bring evasion back into expected ranges we’ve fixed the bug with player stats able to go higher than 95 and we’ve reduced the amount of evasion provided by statuses. Evasion gear is still handing out the same evasion benefit, but spells and pipes have had their evasion reduced. The three evasion statuses will now apply 15 → 25 → 35. Previously the high side was granting 50 evasion. The Smoky Pipe and Fine Smokey Pipe will also grant these more appropriate evasion ranges.

Combat Fixes

• Characters with Attack Down would heal the opponent if their max damage value was negative.
  
• Fixed the issue that 2x2 enemies (ie Trolls) would only have statuses applied if their primary tile was targeted.
  
• Improved how Bleed status is being communicated on the combat timeline.
  

Kraken

• Fixed the issue where the Kraken could still be found after killing his head the first time.
  

UX/UI

• Continue and Load Game Browser
  
• We have redesigned how the ‘continue’ and ‘load game’ browser show information from the current, or past, runs.
  

Other UI Changes

• Removed the “Market” button when visiting a market in Dungeons.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Overworld would go blurry if the application window was resized during combat, or in a dungeon.
  
• Updated the difficulty icons on the Global Header.
  
• The Adventure Map now shows a trail between the overworld adventures as they are completed.
  

Scourges We have future scourge work planned but have made some changes amidst the Dark Carnival work including:

• Added a notification for when the Necromancer resurrects an enemy in combat.
  
• Improved the spawn area of scourges in the second adventure, The Primordial Oak.
  
• Certain Scourges have had their abilities re-worked to better fit the Dark Carnival experience.
  
• We’ll share more on Scourges when the Dark Carnival is officially released.
  

Cosmetic Bug Fixes

• Fixed clipping on Queen’s Apprentice & Queen’s Novice Robes.
  
• Fixed the Hanged Soul’s portrait not being centered.
  
• Fixed the level 3 Pirate Marauder's eye patch.
  
• Fixed the cosmetic Lucky Suit clipping on the Friar and Hobo.
  
• Fixed the Pickpocket mask clipping on the cosmetic Merling Skin.
  
• Fixed a debug string on the Gallows in the fourth adventure, The Hangman’s Noose, if certain conditions were met.
  
• Fixed the Reload action using the incorrect animation.
  
• Fixed the Bogdrinker armor clipping.
  

Known Issues

• Merc Deed costs are not scaling correctly and become too expensive on higher floors.
  
• Protect Status applied from Wheel of Death does not have the visuals cleaned up correctly.
  
• Game soft locks after user selects the 'Straight' pathing option in the Queen's Labyrinth in adventure 4, The Hangman's Noose.
  
• Game soft locks after user selects the 'Straight' pathing option in the Powerstone Castle Dungeon in adventure 5, Castle Gates.
  
• Non-english language players will experience missing loc strings within the Dark Carnival, and the Minstrel and Busker tooltips.
  
  

Thank you for your continued support!
⚔️IronOak Games



Join the IronOak Games and For The King community on:

➡️X
➡️Discord
➡️TikTok
➡️Instagram
➡️Facebook

Greetings, Adventurers!

Hold on to your land boats, we have a ton of new content heading your way very soon!

While more will be revealed in the coming weeks, our focus over the past months has been to improve network stability for all For The King II players.

From today, we are opening an “Experimental Branch” that will allow anyone to try out the new features we’ve been working on to improve your multiplayer experience… and get a little musical taste as part of a larger content drop we can’t wait to reveal!

Please note these new features are not live yet on the default version of the game and will only be accessible to those playing in the Experimental Branch. You will find below more details on the content of this branch and how to try out these new features first.

We are immensely grateful for the support we have received from our community, and with the help of the Experimental Branch players we are hoping to release those multiplayer feature improvements for everyone as soon as possible. Gather the masses, venture forth, let’s take this show on the road.

[h3]NEW MULTIPLAYER FEATURES AND BARDS![/h3]
To improve our network stability we have improvements in three areas. First, we have reduced the amount of data we are sending. This will improve reliable connections as well as reduce the potential for a disconnect. We have also implemented two new key features to improve the reconnection experience: Auto-reconnect and Join-in Progress. More details on these areas below.



While we have been improving our networking, we’ve also been hard at work on new content that we cannot wait to roll out for everyone. On this Experimental Branch, you will also have access to both Bards, the Minstrel and the Busker. To help flaunt your musical prowess across the lands of Fahrul Bards, we’ve also unlocked all adventures and various Lore Store content. Hopefully, this allows everyone to jump into any mission, with any party, and really help test out these network improvements.

Other changes on the Experimental Branch:

New Weapons
What is a Bard without an instrument? With the addition of the Busker and the Minstrel comes the addition of a wide variety of playable lutes. We’ve also added new sets of full armour ranges, as well as new trinkets.

Improved Loot Drops
We’ve heard frequent feedback that it can be frustrating to not always get weapon drops that match your party composition. We’ve made a few adjustments that will now have loot drops detect if your party has appropriate weapons based on their class. The rate of detection will vary across the various difficulties but you will now have a much easier time finding a wand for your Scholar or a better bow for your Hunter.

Dungeons!
Dungeons are in a state of renovation (wink, wink) so you may see a few changes across all dungeon situations. One highly notable area is the Dungeon Timeline. The Dungeon Timeline now shows off a bit more detail - both in colour, as well as in description.

Difficulty Settings
This one is worth noting as it is a stark visual change. No changes to the actual difficulty settings themselves, but we have moved the custom rules into a slide out to improve the visual layout during adventure selection.

UX/UI
There are various visual changes on the Experimental Branch, from new icons, subtle shifts, etc. We’ll have a full list of these changes when we release the update publicly.

Lore Store
We’ve removed the “Items” tab from the Lore Store. This contained the weapon families for certain weapons. These were in the Lore Store and intended to be a feel-good unlock that added to the player's experience. That hasn’t translated to the game in the ways we expected and has caused confusion with regard to weapons. The previously locked weapons are now part of the loot pool by default. When these changes go live, anyone that used Lore to purchase the weapon families will have their Lore refunded.



[h3]EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH INFORMATION [/h3]
This is an Experimental Branch and you will encounter some bugs you have not seen before. You may even see some areas that are a work-in-progress. For example, the Bards may not have all of their audio cues hooked up. If you do come across any issues you can report them by pressing F1 within the game. Please note that these bugs are not a representation of final gameplay, and the purpose of this branch is to test the new network features we have added to the game. To ensure we can gather this information, please head into your game and navigate to Settings > Gameplay > Ensure ‘Allow Data Sharing’ is turned on.

[h3]HOW DO I ACCESS THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH? [/h3]

• Open Steam
  
• Right click on ‘For the King II’ in your Library and select the ‘Properties’ option
  
• Choose the ‘experimental’ branch from the ‘Beta Participation’ dropdown menu
  
• Your Steam client will then start downloading the new branch
  
• Once finished downloading, launch the game
  

New Feature: Auto-Reconnect
We’ve implemented a system that will attempt to automatically reconnect players that get disconnected from their session.

If a player drops out of the session due to loss of connection, the game will attempt to reconnect them within a 30-second window. Players will now be able to reconnect seamlessly if rejoining within 30 seconds.

If a client rejoins after a crash, quitting the game or timing out on a reconnect, the host is informed with a party management pop-up that will allow them to reassign characters back to the player that disconnected.

New Feature: Join In Progress
Players now can join an adventure that is already in progress. This means you can join friends who have started an adventure already or rejoin a game if you were disconnected from the session.



[h3]FAQs[/h3]
What’s the difference between client and host and how does that affect reconnects?
If any player disconnects, including the host, they will trigger the auto-reconnect feature and the game will attempt to rejoin them to the session. If the host is unable to reconnect, all players will be disconnected, and all players will have to rejoin the adventure.

What happens if I encounter a bug while playing?
If you experience any form of bug, could you please ensure you press the F1 button and submit a bug report to us. This will provide us with all the pertinent information and data we need to resolve the issues, please provide as much detail as possible!

How long will the test last on the Experimental Branch?
The test will last for at least one week, we may increase this depending on the amount of data gathered to ensure we can properly identify the most important fixes.

Will I be able to play with friends who aren't on the experimental branch?
Yes you can! To do so they will need to join the Experimental Branch as well. Anyone can join by following the steps above. All game sessions must be done on the same branch/version. You may see other game sessions in the lobby menu. Any attempt to join games from the main application will result in a version mismatch prompt.

Will I be able to keep my save data?
No, the Experimental Branch is kept separate from the main application. This is to make sure that any time and hard work you have put into the main application isn’t deleted by joining any optional branches.

Why have my game settings not carried over to this branch?
Each branch should be treated as a fresh save or a new game, this does, unfortunately, mean your settings from the live game will not be carried over and you may need to do some manual adjustments.

Will all of these new features be added to the main application?
Yes! Everything contained on the Experimental Branch will eventually come to the main application. The goal of this branch is to ensure that we are making meaningful improvements without disrupting the main application and player’s current progress.

Thank you for your continued support!

⚔️IronOak Games



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We hope this update finds you well! We’ve resolved a handful of softlocks that were causing issues for multiplayer and local games. We also fixed the online issue that was causing the Pass UI to bounce during Dungeon Traps. This update also cleans up a few UI issues that had crept in. Thanks again for everyone reaching out!

[h2]Softlocks[/h2]

• Fixed a softlock that was occurring when defeating the Kraken in adventures that had been started with less than 4 adventurers.
  
• Fixed a softlock during the Kraken fight that would occur when one of the players was being held by a tentacle and the last free combat tile was filled with a summon and the released player had no tile to return to.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could occur when proccing a follower in a dungeon.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could happen if the Farmer proc’d Eager and Last Straw at the start of combat.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could occur if the ESC key was used during a refund focus event.
  

[h2]Online[/h2]

• Improved error messaging when trying to join a full lobby.
  
• Fixed the issue in trap phase where the Pass option couldn’t be selected and the UI would “bounce”. We also fixed the occurrences for softlocks that could sometimes happen in the next room after the Pass UI bounce.
  

[h2]Combat[/h2]

• Fixed the issue with the Boner appearing in Kraken battles, and that pesky Kraken trying to break out of the sea into other combats.
  

[h2]UX/UI[/h2]

• Fixed the issue where the Sheeps Taunt VFX weren’t being removed upon the Sheep’s death.
  
• Fixed the issue where proccing Herd in dungeon rest phase could result in riding the sheep.
  
• Cleaned up the combat encounter cam for Jellies.
  
• Improved the Shift More Info behaviour during loot phase.
  
• Improved the Goblin Merchant market flow where players couldn’t navigate players from right to left.
  
• Added back the Thorn Damage modifier icon.
  

Once you have updated your game with this hotfix, if you experience issues please let us know in the support channel on Discord so we can assist you.

All players will need to have updated to the latest build to play together in multiplayer.

We will continue to hotfix as we improve the game so please stay tuned for further updates.

Thank you for your continued support!

⚔️IronOak Games