Abalon News

Thanks again for all of your feedback! Here's the fifth patch for the latest major update (v2.70.0).

1. Fixed Bug preventing launch of Abalon on macOS versions 10.x and lower caused by a minimum requirements change in Xcode. This was previously thought fixed in v2.74 but it turns out multiple native libraries were affected. The issue should now be resolved.
   
2. Balance: The "Cannot Block" status will no longer be removed when equipping a new shield. (Thanks Drylord)
   
3. Fixed Bug where the card description for the Naga Leader was listing Inflict Poison (1) twice instead of Inflict Poison (2) (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
4. Fixed Bug where the Stone Helmet was removing Radiant Amethyst instead of protecting against its vulnerability damage. (Thanks Sinzar)
   

Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback on the 2.70 major update and Animal Gear DLC! Here's the fourth round of fixes in response to your suggestions.

1. Fixed Bug where Abalon Arena Demo multiplayer games would not draw cards and fail to start after playing the tutorial or having a gained a level in the single player demo of Abalon. (Thanks James)
   
2. Fixed Bug preventing launch of Abalon on macOS versions 10.x and lower caused by a minimum requirements change in Xcode.
   
3. Balance: Krox now gains the Lunge ability at Summoner Upgrade II in addition to his extended gravity pull. This is so that Krox can attack and Knockback units standing on a surrounding diagonal space. Krox will still follow normal combo mechanics and not attack for gravity pulls of units that land on surrounding diagonal space. (Thanks coolsteel, Kaaz and Jear)
   
4. Balance: Units with the harpoon ability (Clik'Clik', Gladiator and Ninja) will now trigger combos on diagonal enemies pulled by the harpoon if there are ally units adjacent to them. (Thanks Kaaz and Jear)
   
5. Fixed Bug where Rogue's finishing shot ability could be blocked after attacking an enemy with a shield blocks the first arrow, allowing it to block twice. (Thanks Guest_174147)
   
6. Fixed Bug where a broken translation in the Japanese localization of the "Stitched with Love" encounter prevented completion of the event. (Thanks Andy Mickey)
   
7. Balance: Lowered the gold cost of Fire Orb (Firepower (1)) from 1200 to 800 so it's value is now correctly relative to the Arcana (1000 gold) which adds Spellpower (1) and Spellblock. This also changes it from a Tier 8 to Tier 7 item, making it a more common drop that can now be found in chests and from Elites. Had also considered keeping the price and increasing the ability to Firepower (2), but players felt the cost decrease was more gradual change. (Thanks to Golgoth for calling this out and help from Kaaz, 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3 and Rhubarb314)

8. Fixed Bug where equipping the Metamorphic harness on a Summoner already transformed into an animal (such as via Savage Transformation or via Fortune Teller) could enable an infinite transformation loop by adding "Requires: Non-Morphed" to the Metamorphic Harness requirements. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
   
9. Fixed Bug where enemy summoner could use "madness" spell on an animal wearing a Metamorphic Harness. While under enemy control, enemy morphed into another unit. After returning to animal form, it became permanently under enemy control rather than returning to player control. Mind Control effects will now transfer to the morphed unit. When returning from morph, if a unit doesn't have the Mind Control effect, it will be automatically returned to the control of its original owner. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

10. Fixed Bug where mind controlling a skeleton bro during the fight could result in gaining 3 loyal skeleton bros instead of 2 (though one of them will then betray you in the next battle). (Thanks Dieszy)
    
11. Fixed Bug where Patchels loses life when unequipping the Wolf Skin helmet by changing it from +0/+3 to Max Life +3. (Thanks Guest_287303)
    
12. Fixed Bug where where attempting to retreat after the first turn and accepting could improperly shift the camera.
    
13. Fixed Bug where the Hellhound puppy was being drawn face down, not returning to the deck after resting at camp, and potentially being removed from deck. (Thanks Guest_167424, Dobermann and Rhubarb314)
    

Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback so far on Abalon's 2.70 major update and Animal Gear DLC! I'm working as fast as I can to address issues you've discovered and implement the many great ideas you've suggested. So far, I've implemented 3 patches (see release notes below).

It seems the second patch introduced some new issues (which I've corrected in today's update). Sorry about that!

To address an overall concern I've heard from a few players about the difficulty being harder in 2.70: The main change I suspect is raising concern is the change to No Retreat challenge that appears starting in Descent 2. The change was to add dice rolls to retreat encounters which I made to address prior build feedback about the utility of the White Flag artifact (which removes the need to roll dice when retreating). The only other change that might have affected perception of difficulty is the increased cost of some equipment (which was also balanced by a major decrease to artifact gold cost). I've addressed both of these concerns in the patches below by increasing your starting gold for items by 25% (so you can take more powerful starting gear at the start) and I have also increased the quantity of items and artifacts you can take at all tiers so that you can take the White Flag as a starting artifact to offset the dice roll change without hurting your builds. Or, if you want to exploit the new boost to starting gear in other ways, you're welcome to that, too! White Flag has also been cost reduced greatly and is now a Tier 5 item so it can appear in chests in Chapter 1.

Please continue to make use of the in-game feedback tool (Menu -> Share Feedback) for any support needs, suggestions for improvement, etc. I've been doing my best to reply to each player's comments and/or resolve bugs within the day. You're also welcome and encouraged to use our Steam discussion board and our Discord.

Happy adventures!

1. Fixed Bug where AI Sync error is caused by the Warcry: Fetch card ability of the Hellhound Puppy and Orb of Insight. This occurred because I added a seed modifier based on the position of the unit (to provide greater variety in card draws per battles) but the AI board was not getting synced with the correct seed value because it's game board uses an offset coordinate to coincide with the actual world coordinates of the battlefield. (Thanks coldsteel, Firearmsex, adjustalex, 路高升, 堵塞, TOTOP, Wonderben, Pingo, Guest_282307, and 4stanislava)
   
2. Fixed Bug where Traditional Mode benefits (reshuffling cards into deck and seeing enemy card hand) were being removed after battle due to recent change correcting the challenge modifier buffs stacking on enemies after battles. The conditional check was incorrect in last patch and has been fixed. (Thanks Sinzar)
   
3. Fixed Bug where buffs and debuffs were incorrectly persisting in Survival Mode. (Thanks Sinzar and 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
4. Fixed Bug where Iron Hulk nemesis assassin wasn't displaying a power/life and had incorrect attributes being applied. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
   

1. Fixed Bug where Skeleton Bros encounter was only apply challenge modifier buffs to one of the two skeletons. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
2. Fixed Bug where, after retreating from an ambush encounter, enemies would retain their challenge modifier buffs and then stack additional buffs upon returning to the fight, making it unintentionally escalate in difficulty. (Thanks Guest_245765)
   
3. Fixed Bug with Hero Doll returning 5-Cost Units instead of 4-Cost Guardians. Also made it so that if there are no valid guardians to summon via the Hero Doll, the item is no longer consumed. (Thanks DarthMcStuffins and 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
4. Fixed Bug where Saddle Bags and Orb of Insight where no being translated properly in Spanish and other languages. Also fixed several broken {SUBTYPE} translations in other cards and prompts for our other supported languages. (Thanks SoyAbel and Esfinge)
   
5. Fixed Bug where Orb of Insight was consistently fetching only a small subset of the potential cards and quite commonly the same card. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
6. QoL: The traveling salesman will now sell a bonus 3 cards (animal harnesses) if you own the Animal Gear DLC to maintain the prior card pool available for humanoid equipment. (Thanks Coolsteel)
   
7. QoL: When a unique artifact appears in a traveling salesman shop, it will no longer count as being encountered for that chapter. This is intended to help players who might desire a particular item, not enough gold, and want to return to the traveling salesman to purchase. The traveling salesman shop inventory is specific to the campsite they spawn at, so players can spend marshmallows to setup camp at the same site and purchase items previously offered at that site.
   
8. Balance: Sacrificial Orb changed from "Support: Destroy to gain mana equal to its cost." to ""Support: Destroy to gain mana equal to its cost. It cannot Downfall." This prevents units with downfall abilities such as cat of nine, hellhound puppy, and bone harness from being sacrificed multiple times without consequence. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
9. Balance: Increased starting gold for Items by 25% for all upgrade tiers. This is to offset the increase in equipment gold price so you can now afford to take the same gear as starting equipment relative to before the 2.70 major update. (Thanks DARLING)
   
10. Balance: Increased both the item limit and artifact limit by 1 for all upgrade tiers. This is to ensure you have an extra slot for additional gear and potentially taking the White Flag as a starting artifact without disrupting builds prior to the 2.70 major update. The White Flag artifact offsets the changes made to the No Retreat challenge modifier so that you don't have to roll dice when retreating in Descent. (Thanks DARLING)
    

1. QoL Changed Simplified Chinese translation of the Raise Dead spell to "復活並控制最後被擊敗的單位" to help clarify it will also control enemy unit. (Thanks Ganty)
   
2. Fixed Bug where Equipment descriptions weren't showing on the Korean translations. (Thanks Guest_271288)
   
3. Fixed Bug where Equip keyword was mismatched on equipment cards for several of the translations.
   
4. Fixed Bug where Bosses were dropping Tier 6-8 items instead of Tier 8-9 items.
   
5. Fixed Bug where Lore Collection completion was rewarding Tier 7-9 items instead of Tier 8 items.
   
6. Fixed Bug where Elites in chapter 3 were rewarding Tier 7 instead of Tier 7-8 items.
   
7. Fixed Bug where defeating the Skeleton Bros and having them join your party wasn't clearing the encounter and awarding leaderboard points. (Thanks Rhubarb314 and Firearmsex)
   
8. Balance: further reduced the cost of White Flag by 200 gold (from 650 to 400) and made it a Tier 5 item so that it can be dropped from chests in the first chapter. If you don't like rolling dice to retreat in Descent, take this item :) (Thanks DARLING and Guest_8080)
   
9. Balance: The Arcane spells Gateway, Teleport and Wormhole gain the Gravity tag to further synergize with Krox's gravity spell discount. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
10. Balance: Tribal Harness gains Knockback (1), Pierce), +3 Max Life
    
11. Fixed Bug where Gate of Fate could throw exception during conditional checks for "isHumanoid". (Thanks Guest_220802, Seikens, and coccos81)
    
12. Fixed Bug where cards generated from Orb of Insight and Hellhound puppy weren't getting card discounts applied from other artifacts. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
    
13. Fixed Bug where cards generated from Orb of Insight were persisting within the deck instead of acting as temporary cards. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
    
14. Fixed Bug where the Death of a Salesman encounter where you first acquire the Traveling Salesman could potentially spawn as your first battle by flagging it with difficulty 3 so it will only spawn after clearing all the difficulty 1 and difficulty 2 minion battles (or having cleared at least 6 battles total). (Thanks BlackHammer)
    

[p]Enjoying Abalon's updates? Be sure to give the game some love by writing a Steam review. We're just 8 away from my year-end goal of 500 reviews, and I'd greatly appreciate your support!

Please share what you like about Abalon and where I can continue to improve and do better.[/p][p]Also very important: If I've addressed your feedback, please do update your review as well![/p][p]Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :) ~Ross[/p]

Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback on the 2.70 major update and Animal Gear DLC! Here's the second round of fixes in response to your suggestions.

1. Fixed Bug where Skeleton Bros encounter was only apply challenge modifier buffs to one of the two skeletons. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
2. Fixed Bug where, after retreating from an ambush encounter, enemies would retain their challenge modifier buffs and then stack additional buffs upon returning to the fight, making it unintentionally escalate in difficulty. (Thanks Guest_245765)
   
3. Fixed Bug with Hero Doll returning 5-Cost Units instead of 4-Cost Guardians. Also made it so that if there are no valid guardians to summon via the Hero Doll, the item is no longer consumed. (Thanks DarthMcStuffins and 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
4. Fixed Bug where Saddle Bags and Orb of Insight where no being translated properly in Spanish and other languages. Also fixed several broken {SUBTYPE} translations in other cards and prompts for our other supported languages. (Thanks SoyAbel and Esfinge)
   
5. Fixed Bug where Orb of Insight was consistently fetching only a small subset of the potential cards and quite commonly the same card. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
6. QoL: The traveling salesman will now sell a bonus 3 cards (animal harnesses) if you own the Animal Gear DLC to maintain the prior card pool available for humanoid equipment. (Thanks Coolsteel)
   
7. QoL: When a unique artifact appears in a traveling salesman shop, it will no longer count as being encountered for that chapter. This is intended to help players who might desire a particular item, not enough gold, and want to return to the traveling salesman to purchase. The traveling salesman shop inventory is specific to the campsite they spawn at, so players can spend marshmallows to setup camp at the same site and purchase items previously offered at that site.
   
8. Balance: Sacrificial Orb changed from "Support: Destroy to gain mana equal to its cost." to ""Support: Destroy to gain mana equal to its cost. It cannot Downfall." This prevents units with downfall abilities such as cat of nine, hellhound puppy, and bone harness from being sacrificed multiple times without consequence. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
9. Balance: Increased starting gold for Items by 25% for all upgrade tiers. This is to offset the increase in equipment gold price so you can now afford to take the same gear as starting equipment relative to before the 2.70 major update. (Thanks DARLING)
   
10. Balance: Increased both the item limit and artifact limit by 1 for all upgrade tiers. This is to ensure you have an extra slot for additional gear and potentially taking the White Flag as a starting artifact without disrupting builds prior to the 2.70 major update. The White Flag artifact offsets the changes made to the No Retreat challenge modifier so that you don't have to roll dice when retreating in Descent. (Thanks DARLING)
    

Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback on the 2.70 major update and Animal Gear DLC! Here's the first found of fixes in response to your suggestions. I've also noted a few changes I'll get in the next patch for you.

1. QoL Changed Simplified Chinese translation of the Raise Dead spell to "復活並控制最後被擊敗的單位" to help clarify it will also control enemy unit. (Thanks Ganty)
   
2. Fixed Bug where Equipment descriptions weren't showing on the Korean translations. (Thanks Guest_271288)
   
3. Fixed Bug where Equip keyword was mismatched on equipment cards for several of the translations.
   
4. Fixed Bug where Bosses were dropping Tier 6-8 items instead of Tier 8-9 items.
   
5. Fixed Bug where Lore Collection completion was rewarding Tier 7-9 items instead of Tier 8 items.
   
6. Fixed Bug where Elites in chapter 3 were rewarding Tier 7 instead of Tier 7-8 items.
   
7. Fixed Bug where defeating the Skeleton Bros and having them join your party wasn't clearing the encounter and awarding leaderboard points. (Thanks Rhubarb314 and Firearmsex)
   
8. Balance: further reduced the cost of White Flag by 200 gold (from 650 to 400) and made it a Tier 5 item so that it can be dropped from chests in the first chapter. If you don't like rolling dice to retreat in Descent, take this item :) (Thanks DARLING and Guest_8080)
   
9. Balance: The Arcane spells Gateway, Teleport and Wormhole gain the Gravity tag to further synergize with Krox's gravity spell discount. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
10. Balance: Tribal Harness gains Knockback (1), Pierce), +3 Max Life
    
11. Fixed Bug where Gate of Fate could throw exception during conditional checks for "isHumanoid". (Thanks Guest_220802, Seikens, and coccos81)
    
12. Fixed Bug where cards generated from Orb of Insight and Hellhound puppy weren't getting card discounts applied from other artifacts. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
    
13. Fixed Bug where cards generated from Orb of Insight were persisting within the deck instead of acting as temporary cards. (Thanks Rhubarb314)
    
14. Fixed Bug where the Death of a Salesman encounter where you first acquire the Traveling Salesman could potentially spawn as your first battle by flagging it with difficulty 3 so it will only spawn after clearing all the difficulty 1 and difficulty 2 minion battles (or having cleared at least 6 battles total). (Thanks BlackHammer)
    

[h2]Coming in Next Patch[/h2]
I didn't get a chance to finish these yet, but I'll have them in the next patch.

1. Increase card pool for merchants. Add additional card slots for animal gear to prevent the card pool being diluted. Add additional spells. (Thanks coldsteel)
   
2. Sacrifical Orb should prevent downfall abilities so that cats, puppies and bone harness units cannot be sacrificed multiple times without consequences. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
3. Fix bug with Hero Doll returning 5-Cost Units instead of 4-Cost Guardians (Thanks DarthMcStuffins and 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)
   
4. Increase the starting gold for items and possible the quantity of artifacts selected in the pre-adventure Summoner selection screen. (Thanks DARLING)