v2.89.0 - Fixes and Improvements

Thanks for playing and sharing your feedback with me! This update fixes bugs introduced in the last version and features a major overhaul to the AI worker system that I hope will result in greater responsiveness and less AI timeouts. The "big" AI update is still coming but this update has lots of the legwork that should improve technical performance.

Stay tuned for our upcoming Double XP Event that I'll be kicking off later this week :)

1. AI Improvement: Optimized the AI worker thread by creating it from a dedicated byte array and having it transfer only the definition data it needs from the main thread rather than having it load all definitions. This should result in considerable memory usage and performance and hopefully eliminate many of the AI timeout errors that primarily occur on Android. Note: Maps heavy in units or complex spell calculations may still result in timeouts, but I'm still working on building the new AI engine and expect I'll be able to resolve remaining timeouts when this is rolled out.
   
2. Performance: Removed embedded loading screen backgrounds from the main application runtime to reduce memory and overhead.
   
3. Fixed Bug where interacting with the Skeleton Bros encounter could result in one of the bros spawning on top of a player's unit causing them to be removed from the party. (Thanks fchswd)
   
4. Fixed Bug where dealing ice damage to a fire elemental would cause all status effects and equipment to be removed from them, including challenge modifier status. (Thanks Manchot_Royal)
   
5. Fixed Bug where unequipping Saddlebags from an animal wearing the Wizard Hat would not also unequip the Wizard Hat (which requires the ability to use summoner gear). (Thanks burritonator)
   
6. Fixed Bug where fast traveling into a treasure room with brambles blocking pathing such that your entire party doesn't fit in the pathable area could result in your party being truncated and losing members. Terrain such as brambles will not be removed automatically to make room for your party. (Thanks SHAWSHANKER)
   
7. Fixed Bug where cards stolen from Glyph of Nitsrott, Stolen Dreams, Dreamstealer and the Skeleton Dragon boss were being cast by the original owner of the spell instead of the character whole stole them. (Thanks Ephryos, KagitarShadowscale, QuantumEnigma, Adam and many others!)
   
8. Fixed Bug where Gate of Fate failed to summon the next unit within player's deck as described on its card. (Thanks wmfrederick, Forke, Arlimon and Andy)
   
9. Fixed Bug where context 3D loss could result in an error when attempting to update god ray VFX. (Thanks Con)
   
10. Balance: Increased the max equippable item count on Summoner in Survival Mode from 5 to 16 since there is no way to unequip summoner gear due to the nature of the continuous battles. This way, players can now utilize all of the artifacts discovered. (Thanks yaj0779)
    
11. QoL: Removed the "Welcome back to Abalon! Tap to continue." screen that would hold the game paused when returning to a battle. (Thanks Whitewolf)
    
12. QoL: Added the Summoner Gear tag to Wizard Hat, Emperor Robes and Sacrificial Orb to be consistent with other artifacts. (Thanks jack)
    
13. QoL: When unlocking a boss pillar, the map will now reveal that a boss is located in that area. (Thanks Manchot_Royal)
    
14. Fixed Bug where the Super Summons challenge modifier could grant player units the +1/+1 bonus if the new unit for the player was summoned by an enemy (ex: Toxic Spores spawn Cornflowers for the player when enemy units are defeated). (Thanks Manchot_Royal)
    
15. QoL: Set a 500 character limit of on the Share Feedback prompt to ensure your messages are translated and delivered instantly via Discord to Ross. (Thanks Scotty_Money and fchswd) It's best to use this feature as "one issue per report" and ideally submit your request during the same battle in which you observe a bug so that I can address your feedback as timely as possible.
    
16. Fixed Bug where shooting a fireball at barrel near trees in explore mode would result in the trees setting on fire before the fireball impacted. (Thanks Arianna and ElCarpintero79)
    
17. Fixed Bug where the sacrificial orb unit destruction grants extra mana if the unit is equipped with weapons. (Thanks Das)
    
18. Fixed Bug where the Portuguese translation for the purchase loyal animal prompt wasn't presenting any choices. (Thanks Das)
    
19. Fixed Bug where firing a barrage of squirrels at a unit with a shield wouldn't disarm the block after the first squirrel impact. Now, successive impacts from additional squirrels will hit the target.
    

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

[h2]Reviews[/h2]
We've successfully hit part 1 of my year-end goal for Abalon: 500+ reviews! Thank you all so much :)

Part 2: Can we make it to "Overwhelmingly Positive"? As of today, we're at 94%. We need just 1% more to make it to 95% and hit this goal! I estimate we currently need about ~17 more positive reviews to hit the mark. I'd greatly appreciate your help to write a Steam review. Let me know what you like about the game and also where I can continue to improve for you. If I've addressed your feedback, please update your review. You can also leave me feedback directly in game via Menu -> Share Feedback. I personally read and do my best to reply back to every single player request.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and ongoing support :)

~Ross