Abalon News

Hi everyone -

In case it hasn't been blatantly obvious by now, I care a lot about player feedback :)

I can't speak for the early access experience of other games on Steam, but here with Summoners Fate, I sincerely want to "shock" players with how responsive I can be to your suggestions on how to improve this game. I'm committed to this because I believe our players have a really astute understanding of what works/doesn't work. You have really great ideas and your ideas have already had a dramatic impact on improving our game experience.

[h2]Improved Character Unlocks[/h2]
This weeks update focused on "Character Unlocks", a topic we opened up for discussion and received a lot of feedback on. Many great ideas were suggested and I took your feedback to heart to make the following changes:



Full write-up, explanation and details on these changes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/3417685271704370191/
But TLDR is that these changes should enable most players to unlock all the characters in rapid succession by trying out each character for a run (completion of run not required) or a playing a few battles.

[h2]New Cards[/h2]
I'm also reading and considering everyone's in-game feedback as well as our other ongoing Steam discussions. I created the following new cards to address one of the other areas of concern (the ability to recover discarded cards without relying on campsites):



[h2]Here’s the full list of changes for this update:[/h2]
[h3]*This update is also applied to our free demo version.[/h3]

• Improved Character Unlocks Character unlock requirements have been made easier and reassigned to enable you to acquire each new character with a quick try-out run of the previous character unlocked.
  
• New Card: Rejuvenate - Nature spell that allows you to Draw your last 3 discarded cards
  
• New Card: Rejuvenation Vial - Satchel card that allows you to recover 5 discarded cards.
  
• New Card: Rejuvenation Potion - Satchel card that allows you to recover all discarded decks (full deck restoration)
  
• New Card: Bag of Marshmallows - Satchel card that Provides 5 marshmallows (basically an extra campsite) that you can take at the beginning of successive runs to have an edge.
  
• Balance Change: Antarus, Battle Mage now has Knockback (1) to address player feedback that he was previously difficult to play as a straight melee character.
  
• Text Change: Changed Orc Shaman card text from "closest ally" to "closest visible ally" is healed which is how the ability actually works. (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Loot Finder Improvement: Received another report of "Missing Boss Key". This time it turns out the boss key did drop, but was left behind in a pile of debris. So I decided to add the Boss Key to the loot finder. Keep in mind that on early levels, when the player protection mechanism is in place, the boss key may get moved if the game swaps out the elite encounter holding it for an easier fight while your character is still gaining levels. Thanks 彷徨 for the report.
  
• Fixed bug where unit card descriptions for bosses and elites were showing variable names (Ex: [Object def_statusEffect] or [Object def_equipment]) (Thanks Thomas Hirsch, RyuSage, Gryllz, Nat20s, and MaKo)
  
• Fixed bug where some players would get a RangeError: Invalid child index when attempting to start a battle with a custom deck.
  
• Fixed bug where AI turn timer was not formatting minutes and seconds correctly.
  
• Fixed bug where status effect icon could remain persistent on all future status effects.
  
• Fixed bug where repeatedly spamming the "M" key on map would cause it to scale larger or shrink indefinitely.
  
• Fixed bug with Window Resizing: When manually resizing the window by dragging with the mouse, it now saves the custom dimensions. Previously, the window size would revert to the stored window dimensions each time the player opened and closed the settings menu or restarted the game. Also made it so that while changing the width of a window it will now draw the new grid area visible.
  
• Fixed bug with positioning of retreat and stat toggle buttons for ultra-wide desktop windows so they now rest correctly on the lower hud bar.
  
• Fixed bug where resource numbers in the upper HUD and unit stat numbers were not displaying when running the game in windowed mode at certain window sizes. (Thanks andouLog and dryheat)
  
• Fixed bug where Error 3013 bug in RasterJobList.writeInfo would appear when resizing the game window. This fix should also resolve the rasterizer "hangs" bug we saw reports for. (Thanks strongsad42 for the many reports on this issue)
  
• Fixed bug where a skeleton key attached to an enemy on a map that has been explored and retreated from would no longer show on the world map.
  

[h2]Coming Next Week[/h2]
For next week's update, I'll be focusing more on user-reported issues including the following popular issues:

• Bugs with the Arena event (such as being forced to fight multiple times in arena after beating, not being able to escape arena, etc.)
  
• Suspicious tomb event (not being able to open the tomb)
  
• Player feedback on retreat/save scum issues
  

[h2]Help us Grow Summoners Fate with your Steam Review[/h2]
I had aimed to hit 100 reviews by our 4th week after launch and we came pretty close at 81 reviews (still Very Positive at 86%).

If you haven't had a chance yet, please consider writing us a Steam review. Reviews are very important for helping us reach more players on Steam, which in turn helps us gather more feedback on the game and make more improvements for you. It's a win-win so please help us out :)

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

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Hi everyone -

Summoners Fate launched in Steam Early Access three weeks ago. Since its launch over 6,000 players have entered the multiverse, hurling over 1 million squirrels between them! To celebrate, we're sharing our future plans for the game, which will see new Summoners to play, more diverse biomes to explore, and multiple PvP multiplayer modes, including a ranked system.

[h2]Early Access Roadmap[/h2]


Our short term goals are to continue responding to player feedback we've been receiving by fixing bugs, adding QoL features (such as the Ambushes and Loot Finder added in previous updates), and improving gameplay mechanics (such as the Combo System we're updating today and the Unlock system that we'll be addressing next week).

Then it's on to adding content...lots and lots of new content! We have a major update planned for each quarter including a new world biome, bosses, and cards suited to theme intermixed with player suggested ideas as well. The roadmap also highlights a variety of other key updates, including PvE leaderboards and a complete overhaul to the game’s AI. Both of these are in direct response to the community feedback.

Finally, as our community grows we'll begin rolling out multiplayer modes which will include several ways to play including traditional real-time 1v1 PvP, asynchronous multiplayer battles (words-with-friends style), and even a 2v2 cooperative battle mode where you and a friend can join up to face enemy AI together.

[h2]Update #4 v0.71.1 - Combo System[/h2]
Today's build update aims to improve our Combo System by directly applying player recommended feedback we received.

The new system allows for unlimited combos from each of your allies (who will now deal half their power damage, rounded up). Combo attacks will no longer use up your unit's action, but units who have already attacked during your turn cannot combo attack.



We're still working on improving on the combo system, and you can share your feedback and additional ideas on our dedicated discussion board here.

[h2]New Cards[/h2]

Have fun "breaking the game" with these wild new satchel cards inspired by our players' suggestions in the New Cards and Characters discussion board.

[h2]Here’s the full list of changes for this update:[/h2]
[h3]*This update is also applied to our free demo version.[/h3]

• Feature Change: Combo System The combo system triggers a bonus attack that cannot be countered when an enemy is knocked adjacent to your ally. Previously, this system used up the unit’s command for the turn. Based on player feedback, we’ve change this rule so that combos no longer use up your unit’s command. Instead, you can combo unlimited times per turn with the following balance changes: Combo attacks deal half power damage (rounded up). Units cannot combo after attacking.
  
• New Card: Pied Pipe - Artifact (permanent ability) that makes all of your small animals become Loyal.
  
• New Card: Collar of Devotion - Satchel card that makes the next animal you summon become Loyal until resting at camp.
  
• AI: Increased the AI turn time limit from 60 seconds to two minutes as a temporary solution to allow players experiencing delayed slower AI processing to have enough time for AI to complete their turn before throwing a bug prompt.
  
• AI: Added a mechanism to track whether or not the AI boardstate is synced with the player. I suspect some of the sync errors I'm seeing in the reports are caused by the board state being off, even though the cmdLog is synchronized. I’m hoping this will provide some more insight into what is happening so I can resolve the few remaining AI sync bugs still lingering.
  
• AI: Fixed bug #2204 where the AI locks up due to a null ability user on an action being simulated. I'm not sure how this occurred (and I also noticed that if I undo the AI turn and end turn again, the behavior is different). Somehow the player got out of sync, though this change did allow the battle to continue.
  
• Fixed another bug where the boss key/skeleton key wouldn’t drop. Thanks to fuyu.lee and RISC_MGMT we were able to discover that this occurred because the key bearing unit was defeated in a narrow corridor where there wasn’t enough room to place all of the drops. To solve this issue, I've made it so that if there isn't enough room for each drop to land on an unoccupied tile, the drops will now stack on top of each other using this new target sort. Additionally, I’ve adjusted our procedural algorithm so that Elite fights will no longer spawn in corridors.
  
• Fixed bug where lore couldn't be retrieved because it was in Mercenary Den by making it so that lore cannot be hidden on maps containing shop encounters. (Thanks Fieri The Merry)
  
• Fixed bug where excess lores were appearing on the world map. The reason this occurred is because the bookcases had the capability to drop lore in addition to the lore hidden throughout the world. This was originally done to increase the likelihood of finding all lore, but now that we have the loot tracker, players were interpreting it as a bug. Bookcases will no longer drop lore (unless lore is hidden on that map) and have increased chance of dropping cards now instead. (Thanks RyuSage and mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where fully looted rooms were still showing "ghost" icons of keys no longer there.
  
• Fixed bug where Sibylla was buffing enemy units spawned at the beginning of encounters (Thanks Sinister Design and Tor)
  
• Added support to maintain persistency of status effects tagged with the "Keep" attribute (such as birthday hats) so that when the unit is defeated and revived with a raise dead spell, it still has its party hat. This is important for artifact cards that confer permanent abilities. It also fixes bug where player would not get credit for the "Birthday Wish" achievement if the Birthday Boy is killed and resurrected using a Stone Ankh or Spirit Recall.
  
• Fixed bug where Taurus and other Elite minions were not displaying the correct amplitude values for their abilities (Thanks Marvin for catching this, and sorry for the frustration it caused). This bug was accidentally caused by a change in last week's update when I fixed the ability grouping so that the Void Necromancers ability would be correctly identified as "Farshot".
  
• Fixed bug where the "Catch of the Day" encounter was not spawning Marauders correctly around the captured hero when discovering this event in dungeon rooms containing treasure chests
  
• Fixed "Finding the Perfect Tree" encounter so it now always spawns the Treant with 4 goblins surrounding it
  
• Fixed bug where Drax steals Frozen Blades and causes exception because there is no weapon to throw (Thanks Rioter32
  
• Fixed bug where Sunder Armor could be used to remove permanently affixed equipment (like the gear on Griegal, Goblin Warlock).
  

[h2]Outstanding Issues[/h2]
We're aware of an actively working on fixes for the following issues:

• Lag (slow frame rate) is affecting a small percentage of players. Please continue to report this in-game when you experience the issue so we can narrow down potential causes and find solution faster.
  
• Slow AI Turn Time - For a small percentage of players, AI is taking a very long time to process its turn. We're not sure yet what's causing this, but we've temporarily increased the AI turn limit from 60 to 120 seconds.
  
• Game throws error when attempting to battle with custom deck in Battle Mode. We still need additional player info to help us resolve this. Please respond on this thread if you have encountered this particular issue.
  
• RasterJobList/writeInfo and VertexData/createVertexBuffer errors - Please consider adding notes (what was happening when bug triggered) so that we can attempt reproduce these issues.
  

[h2]Help us Grow Summoners Fate with your Steam Review[/h2]
I'm proud to share that in our first three weeks since launched, we've achieved 75 reviews with an 86% "Very Positive" rating. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed a review.

Reviews factor in the Steam algorithms that help us reach more players and grow our community. If you haven't done so yet, please consider recommending Summoners Fate on Steam. We're very close to our next goal of reaching 100 reviews by the end of our first month, and I very much need your help to keep this momentum going :)

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

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Happy 4th of July everyone -

We're two weeks into our Early Access launch and I'm absolutely thrilled with the feedback and support we're getting from our wonderful player community. 58 reviews and "Very Positive" Steam rating! You've made this developer very proud, and I hope you enjoy this week's update.

[h2]Lore Finder[/h2]
This update addresses concerns players have raised regarding the tedium of (and bugs preventing) finding all the loot in the world. Certainly, we didn't intend to create a chore, but rather an incentive and reward for your exploration efforts. To that end, we've added the "Loot Finder" to the world map that will identify all the locations of lore and keys. Destroying every box/barrel is not necessary - if a map contains hidden lore, it will always be in the first object destroyed. And only minions can drop keys.

I suspect the current implementation might be a bit of an overkill (showing too much before you've actually explored the world) - but I wanted to show good faith that we are hearing your concerns and also validate that players are no longer running into bugs that prevent you from finding everything. As always, looking forward to hearing your feedback and improving :)

[h2]Here’s the full list of changes for this update:[/h2]
[h3]*This update is also applied to our free demo version.[/h3]

• New Feature: Loot Finder now shows which maps contain hidden lore and skeleton keys.
  
• Balance Fix: Units summoned by the Necromancer (or via other abilities) will now receive Sibylla’s +1/+1 benefit. Previously, the buff only applied to units she personally summoned. Units brought on the board via other means (ex: Raise Dead, Your Soul is Mine, loyal followers and guardians) will continue to not receive the buff as before as these aren’t technically summoned.
  
• Fixed bug where allies who were Mind Controlled by the enemy would flee after winning a battle instead of snapping out of it and rejoining you. (Thanks atesh)
  
• Fixed bug where damage cards increase in cost after temporarily mind controlling an Air elemental and then having it attack and be defeated by the enemy.
  
• Fixed bug where the Necromancer Staff card added last week did not allow equipped units to attack (Thanks Another Persona)
  
• Fixed bug where hurled squirrel does not land on the correct space indicated by the targeting preview. Oh, those squirrely squirrels!
  
• Fixed bug where it could become impossible to complete a lore collection because hidden lore was being cleared for two adjacent maps at the same time when standing on the edge of one map with hidden lore and destroying a container on the edge of another map containing hidden lore (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where lore collection could require more than 12 lore to be found even though only 12 lore are hidden in each world.
  
• Fixed bug where exception HM_UnitRunToPointAnimation/onDispose is thrown when hurling a squirrel at a barrel and then immediately exiting the dungeon. (Thanks El Baek)
  
• Fixed bug where enemy Summoner casting a phoenix, attacking with it, and recasting it in the same turn would throw an exception for shrinkCard.
  
• Fixed bug where transforming into a beetle (or transforming back to a human) and then using the keyboard to move character resulted in a softlock. (Thanks VladimirLedeux, Luxter, and clearfisher)
  
• Fixed bug where casting a barrage spell AOE (like blizzard or meteor shower) on a unit with redirect causes total obliteration as each meteor barrage was causing ALL of the secondary targets to take damage again. (Thanks 1012104522 and la81596961)
  
• Fixed bug where the "Goblin Birthday Wish" achievement was not rewarding the "Goblin Party!" satchel card. (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where casting Blood Sacrifice (or any mana generating spell) when you already have full mana would result in seeing a drop in mana (from the card cost) rather than a restoration to full mana. This bug affected the view only (the player still technically has the full mana, only it didn't show this reflected on the mana bar) (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where pressing "Esc" after losing a battle would generate an error and allow player to restore the game back to the point before they started the fight (Thanks Lone Sylvan)
  
• Fixed bug where after closing the game and reloading, and then looking at cards for the 1st time that session, it's always blank when opened. The 2nd time, however, it shows the cards. This bug occurred because the sort save setting for groupByType was being shared with guardianToggle. So, this error would have affected any player with the groupByType filter turned on in their sort filter (Thanks mr.kitty and BlackDragonMagician)
  
• Fixed bug where reviving after being defeated with the "Destined for Greatness" prompt that revives fallen guardians in Novice difficulty was throwing an exception at HM_TargetingLogic$/sortTargets() when the battle was located on a map that bordered the world edge.
  
• Fixed bug where exception HM_UnitRunToPointAnimation/onDispose is thrown when hurling a squirrel at a barrel and then immediately exiting the dungeon. (Thanks El Baek)
  
• Fixed bug where game would throw an exception at HM_HUDViewMap.disposeCardViews after recovering from a previous bug.
  
• Fixed bug where the ERROR EVENT: [IOErrorEvent] bug that fire when game could not connect to our game server (either due to intermittent internet connection or intermittent connection issues with our server itself).
  
• Fix for bug where exception Error #2101 is thrown when game cannot connect with server.
  
• Fix for bug where your own Summoner would drop the lore hidden in a room (Thanks noahbarker)
  
• Fix for bug where rewards dropped from destroying goblin party presents could land in the water and be unaccessible.
  
• Fixed bug where the Void Necromancer description did not include the Farshot ability keyword.
  
• Fixed bug with Chinese translation in the tortoise menu 新游戏，左边，文字错误，3“个”BOSS不是3“格”BOSS (Thanks yzj369)
  
• Fixed bug with the Traditional Chinese translation for Spirit Recall card (Thanks Kantsume)
  

We still need additional player info to help us resolve a bug where the game throws an exception when trying to battle after creating a custom deck in Battle mode. Please respond on this thread if you have encountered this particular issue.

[h2]SplatterCat Plays Summoners Fate[/h2]
I was caught by total surprise this morning on the game to find an overwhelming 400+ players viewing our live stream today on the store page. Then I discovered why: SplatterCat, a Streamer/Youtuber famous for covering indie games, released a video on Summoners Fate today which I am proud to share with you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JyMMx6Knk&t=1764s
I think the game is really well constructed. And I think it’s a really, really good game. I think that if you are into card games, this is a very, very clean reproduction of Magic the Gathering with a little bit of tactical RPG and a little bit of roguelike randomness thrown in. And honestly, I think that’s kind of a winning proposition. Thus far, I have not seen, or felt or noticed anything that made me think this game needs improvement. By all means, continue to add to it developers. But it seems as those the game is in very, very good shape. - SplatterCat

I'm so grateful to receive such praise, thank you SplatterCat! And welcome all the new players who saw his video and have joined us here in the Multiverse.

[h2]Enjoying Summoners Fate? Please let us know with your Steam review[/h2]

Your feedback and support is so important and helps to build our community and grow the game. If you have any concerns about the game, please let me know and give me a chance to address them. If you're enjoying the game, please consider recommending us on Steam. Our next milestone is 100 reviews - let's see if we can hit that by the end of our first month.

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

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Some additional fixes for build v0.70 thanks to our player reports :)

1. Fixed bug where if you press "esc" on the screen where you choose which 2 guardians you want after hiring a 3rd guardian, it will close out and soft lock the game. (Thanks Nat20s)
   
2. Fixed bug where if you click new game and then battle, you cannot use the back button to get all the way back to the main menu. You can press it once to go to the selection screen, but pressing it again to go to the main menu does nothing. You have to first go into "Adventure" and then you are able to use the back button to navigate all the way back to the main menu. (Thanks Nat20s)
   
3. Fixed bug where player attempts to flee an ambush back towards the Inkdadoo shop and game throws exception "TypeError: Error #1009 at hm.model.unit::HM_Unit/updateTransform()" (Thanks 迪克切割者)
   
4. Fixed bug where rewards dropped from destroying goblin party presents could land in the water and be unaccessible. (Thanks Nat20s)
   
5. Fixed bug where Traditional Chinese translation for Spirit Recall card was missing (Thanks Kantsume)
   

Thanks everyone for your bug reports! Saw these when I woke up this morning and immediately jumped on it. Here's the fixes included in this patch:

1. Fixed bug where playing a satchel card would throw an exception and soft lock the game.
   
2. Fixed bug where Elite ambush encounters containing minions (ex: Skeleton Lord) would not surface the ambush prompt as the minions spawned as enemies instead of neutral. Consequently, this broke the battle when the player tried to attack because the Elite miniboss remained neutral (orange life bar).
   

I apologize for these issues and I will update our test plan accordingly to mitigate this kind of thing happening in the future.

~Ross