Abalon News

Hi Abalon Fans -

Thank you so much for feedback and support. It makes all the difference in fine tuning the game and creating a wonderful experience.

This update aims to resolve the bulk of the issues reported since the Treasure Trove update and create a nice stable base on which to continue building new features and content. In addition, I'm introducing the Abalon Hall of Fame to recognize our top players and give everyone else a fair playing field on which to attempt the next run of global high scores. Read on to learn more.

1. Fixed bug where party members didn’t follow their hero into a battle map because the hero entered in an area blocked off by bushes a there wasn’t room for the other heroes to follow. (Thanks rh)
   
2. Fixed bug where armor and weapons racks were dropping artifacts (ex: Sacred Sapling) instead of equipment. (Thanks mr.kitty)
   
3. Fixed bug where a mercenary could spawn in a narrow chokepoint path in the floor spike trap room of the dungeon and prevent the player from passing until their were hired. (Thanks mr.kitty)
   
4. Added Timekeeper tag to the Glimpse spell (Thanks Mantis)
   
5. Specified on its card that Magma Giant deals Fire damage when its stomp ability is triggered (Thanks Mantis)
   
6. Fixed bug where, when the alchemy table exploded, it failed to cause damage to player's summoner (Thanks Napoleon)
   
7. Fixed bug where Carniflowers spawned from the Toxic Spores spell could emerge after winning a battle and lock the game. (Thanks Napoleon)
   
8. Implemented Player Suggestion: When the axe slayer is found "weakened in the tomb" it'd be thematically neat if they joined your party with partial HP.) Guardian is now found with 3 damage on it. (Thanks Reiga)
   
9. Fixed bug where the Celestial Blast card implies that it cannot heal Void allies, but it does. It now clearly states that it deals 4 damage to 'enemy' void units. (Thanks Mantis)
   
10. Fixed bug where Necromancer's staff had “Create Skeleton Warrior (Block)" printed twice. (Thanks CoolStory)
    
11. Fixed bug where “Spoil the Surprise” would counter your own Guardian Angel blessing from the fallen angel fate encounter. (Thanks jsssonic)
    
12. Fixed bug where having too many loyal followers blocked the ability to enter the demon world dungeon because, due to lack of space, allies would wedge themselves into the tile where the one-way push block needed to go to enter the dungeon. When pushing a block into an ally, the block is now destroyed. (Thanks Rathskellar)
    
13. Fixed bug where playing a satchel card with Zenon and then attempting to use a portal, exit a shop, camp or interact with other map items, or resize/re-orient the screen threw an exception. (Thanks to many for the reports and Kelly and Wesley for the repro steps)
    
14. Fixed bug where Transfer Consciousness did not restore control to the player’s original summoner if their original summoner was defeated in battle. After the battle, a defeated summoner is now returned to the board with full life and restored as the player’s controllable character in battle. (Note: This fix does not correct existing games where the player is already stuck as the transferred unit; a new adventure will need to be started). (Thanks Chichi2000fgh, Fungamer07 and Pipmalice / 悪気ピップ)
    
15. Fixed bug where playing a rejuvenation potion in battle could desync the AI (Thanks rh)
    
16. Fixed bug where the companion created by using the Chronomancer Hat satchel card did not actually become loyal as specified on the card, and thus left the party after surviving one fight. (Thanks Lykurgos)
    
17. Fixed bug where Challenge Modifiers with battle score bonuses were also getting score bonuses from completing fate encounters, resulting in over-scoring.
    
18. Fixed bug where Challenge Modifier score was not totaling correctly and not being applied to the run score. Note: Due to the excessive over-scoring that was fixed in this patch, this fix will only apply to new adventures started in v1.21 and later. (Thanks Thăm Ngàn and mr.kitty)
    
19. Fixed bug where the battle score for par sometimes reflected differently than the score awarded to player, even if they had the par number of turns. Because the par scores were based on average turn floating point, not a whole number, they reported different values. I changed the calculation for new average score to round the average turn so it reflects a whole number par value. Now the values are consistent. (Thanks mr.kitty)
    
20. Fixed bug where player received a "No usable cards found" prompt when attempting to acquire a locked card from the Dice Mistress instead of obtaining the final card needed to complete their collection (Cover of Shadows). It turns out that the algorithm was preventing shop-exclusive cards from being acquired. (Thanks jsssonic)
    
21. Fixed bug where if you open satchel card menu in progression, exit out of progression, open progression, then it will show normal cards but satchel card tab is highlighted and the normal cards show with the satchel card UI. (Thanks Wesley)
    
22. Fixed bug where it was no longer possible to drag cards to the discard pile. (Thanks diezy and jsssonic)
    
23. Fixed bug where Bleet’s Bestiary could sell guardian animals not compatible with the color of your Summoner.
    
24. Fixed bug where summoners were receiving artifacts/artifact choices that didn’t make sense for their magic colors (example: a Demon lord, which does not control arcane magic, will no longer receive a Radiant Amethyst, which only benefits arcane magic users, as a choice. (Thanks mr.kitty)
    
25. Fixed bug where event and achievement specific artifacts (like Big Beard’s Helmet and Goblin Party) were being found in chests, armor racks, and shops.
    
26. Added the unique keyword on certain artifact satchel cards that don’t make sense to have more than one to prevent these cards from surfacing as rewards during the same adventure once player has already encountered them. For example: World Map, Compass and Insatiable Coffer are now unique since their ability provides a global benefit for the entire adventure. To clarify how this works: Unique Artifacts will only be encountered once per adventure, meaning if you acquire one, you won't find it again. If you see them in a shop, you'll need to buy them at that shop or you won't find them again during your adventure. If you are presented with a choice of a unique artifact and don't choose it, then it is not encountered and you can still find it in future choices or shops. (Thanks Strider)
    
27. Non-fate-event driven alchemy tables now always drop a potion instead of a spell card.
    
28. Went through every artifact and satchel card and clearly indicated in the card text which ones do not stack to avoid confusion.
    
29. Fixed bug where retreating from Caged animal encounter battles and returning did not initiate a battle, but rather a passive enemy that could be attacked in exploration mode. (Thanks Reiga)
    
30. Fixed bug where Hero Doll card was allowing player to pick from any card instead of just unlocked guardians (as stated on the card). (Thanks Wesley and Mantis)
    
31. Fixed bug where satchel cards purchased from Betty's Brews were being added as cards to the deck instead of to the satchel. Note: This fix does not correct potion cards already added to the deck, but will fix future purchases.
    
32. Early level spawn protection (which automatically swaps early difficult battles in the world with easier fights) now disables when player equips a Compass or Insatiable Coffer to ensure that enemies and treasures located on the map don’t change position.
    
33. Streaming on Discord: We received some reports that Abalon crashes when attempting to stream the game with Discord. It doesn’t seem to happen for all users, but what we did find out is that this problem can be solved by disabling a setting called “advanced technology” in Discord. I’ve posted this (and more) solutions that should get you streaming on Discord happily again here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/7134317381874610530/ (Thanks Sandling)

Per player request, I've decided we're going to attempt our first leaderboard reset this coming week. Many of the recent changes to balance and challenge modifiers have affected the scoring potential, so I agree this is a nice way to put the top global positions back on an even playing field that everyone can strive for.

Before this takes place, however, I want to recognize our top worldwide players for their incredible accomplishments. Behold and congratulations to our first players to enter Abalon's Hall of Fame:



And congratulations to the players who achieved the top high scores for each Summoner. Welcome to the Abalon Hall of Fame:



As Abalon continues to progress, we'll be thinking up ways to recognize and reward player achievements like this. It could be a special badge on your name, a new special in-game tab listing the hall of fame entries, and more. I'm open to hearing your suggestions and ideas. Let's make this fun together!

For the time being, your scores are immortalized here in this update and added will be added to a permanent registry so we can track and apply rewards when we come up with them.

[h3]How will the leaderboard reset take place?[/h3]
To be clear, I don't intend to delete anyone's high scores; rather, I'm going to clear the top 16 positions in the global leaderboard and reset the global summoner leaderboard for scores earned prior to the release of v1.21.0 for some fresh competition. The reset will take place this coming week after the update has had a chance to fully propagate. You'll still be able to see your previously earned high scores in your personal leaderboard.

As we evolve the game and learn more about how folks are engaging with the leaderboards, I plan to create new events (perhaps weekly or monthly challenges as many of you have suggested) and give everyone exciting opportunities to compete and accomplish great things. As always, player input is most welcome and highly encouraged :)


In addition to continuing to evolve leaderboards and events, I'm also still aiming to revamp the AI engine from 2.0 to 3.0. This is one of this things that just gets better and better the more feedback and information I have from you. The best way I can train the AI is with test cases, so when you experience the AI do something odd or see an opportunity where the AI could have performed a better move, submit a report in-game at the precise moment by going to Settings -> Share Feedback and jotting a few notes. This way, I'll have a reproduction of the battle and I can tweak the algorithm, then re-run the test case to see if it now performs as expected. And on that note, I wanted to give a special shout out to jsssonic for the excellent bug reports regarding AI Behavior. I'll be making use of these to help hone the new engine in the near future.



Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:

• Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)
  
• Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
  
• Post a message on our Steam discussion board.
  
• Join our Discord community
• Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

I'm beyond thrilled to share that Abalon is now officially Steam Deck Verified! This is a goal I've been striving for ever since I heard about Steam Deck back in July of 2021.

The first major milestone was integrating Steam Input controller support back in October 2022. It turns out this was a lot more challenging than I initially estimated, but well worth the effort and a fantastic learning experience. The second milestone was adding Native Linux and Steam OS support, which I was very proud to accomplish this year in early July. Finally, my latest push to add UI scaling and controller glyphs this month finally saw my goal realized, and I couldn't be happier to bring you a turn-based tactics and card strategy experience that plays great on Deck!

Achievement Unlocked: Steam Deck Verified!

I hope you enjoy and I can't wait to hear about your experiences playing Abalon on Steam Deck :)

~Ross

[h2]Version 1.2.0 Release Notes[/h2]

Hi Abalon Fans -

I'm excited to deliver on another round of QoL (quality of life) improvements you've recommended in your feedback to me. Here's what's included in today's update:

1. Control Prompts: Added control prompting during battles to help better communicate how to execute commands like move and shoot with sprintshot units. The control prompts adapt to the last input used (ex: mouse, keyboard, gamepad) and will even show the proper image glyph of the controller button you've mapped to that action. These control prompts are optional and you can disable them from the control options.
   
2. UI Scaling: Added a new video option called "Large UI". When enabled, this will re-rasterize the cards and prompts to a larger size so they are more legible on the SteamDeck or when playing on a TV from the couch. It will also increase the size of unit stats and your resource HUD so these are legible as well.
   
3. Card Controls: You can now use the cancel button (default key "X", default button "B") to deselect a card when on the choose a card screen if you want to see the entire offering.
   
4. Card Controls: Made it easier to perform a click to cast by adding a click delay. This way, if the mouse is moving/drags slightly while pressed, it'll still count as a click to cast instead of a drag and release.
   
5. Card Controls: Made it so that when using click-to-cast, mousing outside the grid does not reset the action. The player must explicitly right click or press the X button to cancel. This makes it much easier to cast AoE spells by clicking twice instead of having to click to cast, then click on the grid.
   
6. Card Controls: Right clicking to cancel an action will no longer show the card underneath the mouse cursor. To show the card, you'll first back out of targeting, then right click to view click.
   
7. Targeting Controls: Fixed bug where if player confirms movement space, but then mouse off the grid and returns to grid, it removes the drawn arrow but shows a pulsing blue space.
   
8. Card Controls: Fixed bug where the default discard controller button (X) was not discarding cards because of an issue being double mapped to the undo button.
   
9. Card Controls: Made it so right click now discards a card in hand.
   
10. Fixed bug where it was possible to fire multiple discards on a card in hand.
    
11. Card Controls: Made it so that cards that cannot be played present warning immediately on click to cast or attempt to drag to board versus waiting for release or secondary click. (Saves a lot of time thinking you can cast the spell only to release you don't have the mana for it)
    
12. New QoL: Added "Disable screenshake" option to game options
    
13. New QoL: Added "No Lightning Flashes" option to video options
    
14. New QoL: Added "Always Confirm Move" option to control options
    
15. New QoL: Added an Animation Speed slider to video options. This currently ranges 1-2 with 5% intervals. 2X speed is quite fast, but please let me know if you need more range here. Also - I'd love to hear from you what animation speed setting you prefer to play the game at ;)
    
16. Card Controls: When a card is shown, dismissing the card no longer selects the contents underneath (in combat and in explore mode). The first click dismisses the card. Then, it allows interactivity with the board in the next click.
    
17. Fixed bug where the Counter Attack tip was not playing in the tutorial.
    
18. Fixed bug from a previous fix that seemed to cause a number of issues with guardians such as no longer showing fast travel animation, not healing at camp, not being able to be equipped with satchel cards, etc. where guardians were no longer showing their fast travel animation or behaving correctly when making camp, etc.

That's all for today's update. If you don't see your requests addressed in the list yet, don't worry. I couldn't get to everything in this update, but rest-assured I have your feedback captured and aim to incorporate your requests in future updates. (And I aim to be as quick as possible with turnaround)


[h2]Your Feedback Matters[/h2]

Just wanted to say again how much I greatly appreciate everyone's feedback and Steam reviews. These seriously help development a lot. It brings me a lot of joy to see you satisfied with the game, so please continue to share with me.

Here's some ways you can contribute to our player-driven development:

• Write a Steam review for Abalon
  
• Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
  
• Post a message on our Steam discussion board.
  
• Join our Discord community
• Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Hi everyone and thank you for the feedback on our latest update, Treasure Trove! I appreciate your suggestions and bug reports and will be doing my best to get you taken care over the next several days. For starters, here’s a few fixes in today’s patch.

1. Fixed were entering a battle while transformed into an animal and Summoner had been carrying an artifact (ex: Juggernaut Rubrix) before having been transformed resulted in an exception. (Thanks robin_hood_md)
   
2. Fixed bug where attempting to enter battle with Azmodius the Mad with the extra minions challenge activated would throw exception because there were no valid minion encounters found to add. (Thanks CoolStory)
   
3. Fixed bug where the Totem of Azurach artifact would heal units when retreating from a battle. This artifact should only heal upon winning the battle. (Thanks CoolStory)
   
4. Fixed translation of the Hero Doll artifact. This artifact finds and adds a previously unlocked guardian card to your deck. It does not summon or recruit the guardian. However, you can use the artifact to add a guardian to your deck, then, at camp, move the card out of your deck to become a guardian. (Thanks
   嘉然很良)
   
5. Fixed bug where the More Minions challenge would spawn minions outside U'lag'u's Cave (Thanks mr.kitty)

Remember that you can report feedback in game using Settings -> Share Feedback. This is the fastest way for me to reproduce and fix any bugs you many find. Additionally, if you trigger a bug, please include some notes about what you were trying to do (otherwise, I may have a harder time trying to figure out exactly what caused the bug and the fix will take longer).

My dear players -

We've raided the dragon's den and bring you a Treasure Trove of exciting new content to put your synergy building skills to the test. There's a LOT to cover, so let's dive in...



Since our EA launch, challenge modifiers have been among the top player-requested features. For the past year, we've been collaborating directly with many of you on Steam discussion and Discord to design this system together to deliver the precise sweet spot of challenge customizations you've been dreaming up. This culminated late last night with a final send off of the designs to our prerelease testers to get direct player input on the balance. Special thanks to Reiga, Kaaz, and Psilioxus for their input and recommended tweaks on the balance tuning.

This update introduces 27 distinct challenges ranging from level 1-3 in difficulty rating, all of which can be stacked together for an insane total challenge level of 40 (Which you will not survive...)



Some examples include the "Lost Guardians" challenge that effectively gives your guardians permadeath, adding to the intensity of each battle. We've also got "Bigger Bosses" (nuff said), "More Minions", and the "Deadly Poke of Zorro" that will see every enemy piercing through your armor and shields. And if you think you can run from this, the "No Escape" challenge ensures you cannot retreat after your first turn.

With greater challenge comes greater rewards: Each activated challenge will supply a bonus score percentage to your battles, fate encounters, or grant an additional run completion bonus. Whether you're psyched to compete globally or take pride in beating your personal best, the leaderboards just got a whole lot more fun!



Our second biggest player feature request has been to supply more permanent ability upgrades for your heroes to help further synergize with your decks. Treasure Trove brings just under 40 new artifacts, each adding a distinctive, game challenging ability to encourage new deck construction and make careful resource management even more rewarding.

Among these new artifacts, our skeleton summoning fans will surely enjoy Semaniel's Necronomicon that allows your hero to summon a skeleton warrior for every unit it defeats on the battlefield. This could be with its attack, an AOE destroying half the map, or poison enveloping your foes - creating instant undead armies. This artifact is made in honor of Semaniel, who we thank and honor for translating the game in Spanish and the wonderful coverage on YouTube.

You'll also find the "Weighted Die of Theron" I promised in response to the RNG feedback in our Steam forums. This artifact will ensure you get a 20 the next time you roll dice.

Additionally, to encourage exploration, we've eliminated the "automatic" treasure finder and instead added things like maps and compasses to reveal new areas. And that's just the tip of the ice berg.



I've been promising and delaying this feature for too long...no more! Thematic shops are here at last. This was another heavily player-requested feature, and I gotta say, it was a good call. It really does add a lot to the feel of exploring - you never know which new weird character you're going to find in the wilderness and what kind of exciting goodies they have in store for you.... a Satyr selling loyal bunnies, a potion brewmaster, an ironclad outpost stocked with a legion of soldiers to recruit?



Special shout out to community member Neuk for providing Russian translations for the game!

While these are still a work in progress, it is more than 99% complete and I'm very excited to roll it out this update. Please feel welcome to share your feedback via the in-game reporting system and enjoy!

We'll be coming up with something special to honor Neuk in the game in our next content update :)

[h2]Additional Build Notes[/h2]

1. Fixed AI Sync error caused by Nithsrot retaining ownership of the Treant card in Animate Tree for discard purposes after action has been undone. This happens because the triggered ability in the card itself is reassigned to the previous card action user (Nithsrot) in the undo sequence before assigning the previous user (Rugged Mage). (Thanks Daniel Taylor, Havok, UwUShuna and 野蛮人)
   
2. QoL: Made it so that artifact equipment cannot be removed by spells like Rust.
   
3. QoL: Indicated on all equipment cards the equipment slot that is used (ex: right hand, left hand, two-handed, helmet, outfit)
   

Lastly, I'm super excited to share that Valve honored us with a home page feature as July 19th's "Deal of the Day". From now through this week, you can pick up Abalon for our biggest discount yet of 40% off.

I hope this encourages even more folks to discover Abalon and share with their friends! It's my aim to continue developing this game and the Abalon series of games for the next decades into the future.

So please keep your feedback and reviews coming! It's my drive and passion to see you that you have the most satisfying experience in the tabletop inspired world of Abalon!


- Steam discussion board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios (RossD20Studios#2359)

Thanks so much!

~Ross