Abalon News

Happy Halloween everyone!

The hordes invasion of Abalon continues throughout Stream's Scream event. In response to our players victories in endless survival mode, the horde is growing, and becoming even more deadly. Do you have what it takes to survive?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681840/Abalon/?utm_source=screamFest2023



This week I'd like to recognize Dusty, the first player to successfully clear Wave 24.



And here's a look at the custom deck used to win:


Congratulations, Dusty!

Other notable champions include Jear, Scharlatan, Lykurgos, and PorkDiesel. Each player devised a unique strategy to defeat the horde.


Jear's army of super Ironclad soldiers.


Scharlatan's super-charged firepower strategy

The v1.28.0 update adds an additional 6 waves to endless mode and a number of key balance changes. Who among you will be the first to survive the new waves in endless survival?

1. 6 New Waves added to Endless Survival and a new Steam Achievement for clearing Wave 30.
   
2. New Rule For Survival Mode: "Units summoned from non-unit cards and abilities do not persist between waves.”
   
3. Added new rules for Combos: “Combos don't trigger Inflict” and “Units can only combo once per turn.”
   
4. Vigil units may combo unlimited number of times per turn.
   
5. Created new status icon to show that unit has combo attacked. It appears in the same slot as the cannot attack icon. If the unit has used their combo and can still attack, you’ll see the combo used icon. If you have exhausted your attack, the cannot attack icon will replace the combo used icon (since you cannot combo if you cannot attack).
   
6. Balance: Mating Season now draws 2 cards instead of 3.
   
7. Balance: Liche King now raises a 1/1 Skeleton instead of a 1/1 Skeleton with Block when defeating an enemy with attack
   
8. Balance: Raise Dead and Your Soul Is Mine now place a Mind Control effect on the revived unit so that it can be recovered by the owning player by using buff removal spells and abilities.
   
9. Balance: Sojurn’s Double Strike will no longer trigger a second strike for combos.
   
10. Balance: The harpoon attack used by Clik’Clik’, Gladiator and Ninjas now treats the second attack as a combo, meaning that it will deal half damage (rounded up) - unless the character has vigil - and will no longer trigger inflict abilities.
    
11. Balance: Titus, Gladiator gains Vigil ability.
    
12. Balance: Preserver’s healing reduced from 4 to 3.
    
13. Balance: Sojurn’s defender ability changed from “Prevent 2 damage from attacks on surrounding ally units.” To “Prevent 2 damage from non-triggered physical attacks on surrounding ally units.”
    
14. Balance: Krox’s Gravity pull ability changed from Farshot to Sprintshot.
    
15. Balance: Krox gains the Vigil ability.
    
16. Balance: Reduced Muse’s buff from +3/+3 to +2/+2
    
17. Balance: Forcefields created by the Auramancer are now removed if the Auramancer is removed from the board.
    
18. Balance: Sir Cheezles, Chronomancer gains Lunge and Support: Remove debuffs.
    
19. Balance: Occuloid no longer deals friendly fire damage. Melee attack power reduced from 5 to 4.
    
20. Fixed Bug: where the cost discount granted from units like Spriggan and Preserver would be removed again from the owning player when they are defeated while mind controlled by opponent, resulting in spells costing higher than their original casting cost.
    
21. Fixed Bug: where spells that apply a cost discount like Resurgence, Meditate and Time Warp would continue to add cumulative discounts each time the spell was returned to hand. (Thanks mr.kitty)
    
22. Fixed Bug: where Sojurn’s defender ability would trigger on surrounding ranged units when they attack.
    
23. Fixed Bug: Units that throw harpoons (Mantis, Ninja, Gladiator) afflicted by the Weaken spell can no longer combo on pull.
    
24. AI Improvement: AI makes better assessments on the value of farshot attacks.
    
25. AI Improvement: AI makes better assessments on the value of using sprintshot attacks.
    

SIX Online airs tomorrow, Saturday 10/28 starting at 9:30AM PT - and featuring 25 amazing games from the Pacific Northwest.

I'll be streaming live with some popular streamers including MacNCheeseP1z, AlchemistJoker and Stephazoid starting just after 11:00AM PT, so be sure tune in on the SeattleIndies Twitch channel here:

https://www.twitch.tv/SeattleIndies


Speaking of amazing streamers, Kormakrtv was kind to share the replay of his recent live stream of Abalon - Horde Survival, and we'll have it broadcasting here on our store page for the duration of the Scream Fest.


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:

1. 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 :)
   
2. 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.
   
3. Post a message on our Steam discussion board.
   
4. Join our Discord community
   
5. Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)
   

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Abalon is a proud to be featured in the 2023 Roguelike Celebration alongside a curated collection of other fantastic games created by fellow passionate developers. For the duration of this event and through to the end of Steam Scream Fest, Abalon is on sale for 40% off. Don't miss your chance to fight the spooky hordes of withereds, vampires, and other horrific monsters this Halloween season with our latest major update: Horde Survival!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681840/Abalon/?utm_source=roguelikeCelebration2023Sale



I'm both shocked and amazed that one of our players, mr.kitty, was the first to complete all 20 waves of endless mode. I truly didn't expect anyone to survive this far in our first week, but I did hide a little easter egg at the end for the first player that managed to achieve it just in case. As promised by said easter egg, I'm making good on my promise to add additional waves and ensure the horde is truly endless.

Congratulations, mr.kitty!


Traps were a key element of mr.kitty's strategy, so I've armed higher wave summoners with spells that can clear your traps.

The v1.27.0 update adds an additional 4 waves to endless mode as well as several key changes I hope will keep you challenged a little longer this time. Keep up your amazing gameplay, and I'll keep expanding the horde throughout the end of this month.

Speaking of amazing player strategies, I'd also recognize the following players: Lykurgos, puninokp, Kiro, Dustbunney, Agent Merlin, 1499148650 and stauchd who devised a clever tactic of creating their own horde of withereds to defeat and transmogrify the enemy horde. I hadn't anticipated the chaos that could happen:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Effectively, these player-created withered hordes turned Abalon into an auto-battler. The problem, though, is that they were so effective that their hordes eventually filled the entire board, making it impossible for the enemies to spawn. To remedy this, I've added a new rule to Horde Survival: "Copied units do not persist between waves." Additionally, enemies can now spawn in the player spawn area if their spawn area is completely blocked.

You'll still be able to keep your summoned withereds, but the copies they create will no longer remain, making it a little more difficult to mass a huge horde. I reached this decision after deliberation and discussion with our Discord community. I always like to understand the impact of balance decisions so I can address bugs like this without taking away the fun and creative strategies you come up with.

1. Added 4 new waves to endless survival mode. Complete the 24th wave of endless mode and I'll continue adding more.
   
2. Enemy summoners in endless waves may now carry cleanse spells to remove player created traps.
   
3. Copied units do not persist to the next wave in survival mode.
   
4. Enemies in survival mode may now spawn in the player area if the tiles in their spawn area are filled.
   
5. Fixed an AI sync error that occurred as a result of a speed optimization introduced in the last build. (Thanks kilokkkk, まあええか, bilbort scruomblb, Taokaka, 後藤, 黑翎, and hexau)
   
6. Guardian Heart now fully heals guardians it's given to, as well as removes all debuffs/mind control effects.
   
7. Pendant of Ryu Sage will now activate its ability during battle if played in Survival Mode or with the Pyramid Vault. (Previously, it only applied to the next encounter).
   
8. Sybilla's +1/+1 to summons now persists after wave change in survival mode. (Thanks CoolStory)
   
9. Fixed Bug: Neuks Scorch Trap. After the initial trigger, this trap leaves behind a tile which has a description telling that it will do 1 damage and instead, it does 4 damage. (Thanks Lykurgos)

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:

1. 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 :)
   
2. 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.
   
3. Post a message on our Steam discussion board.
   
4. Join our Discord community
   
5. Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)
   

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Hey everyone! I'm pretty excited to bring you this update inspired by my conversations with many of you who've long been asking for an "endless mode" style challenge.

Fair warning: The new survival game mode is not for the feint of heart. It's intended to be brutal and horrific, and I'm sure you'll be cursing my name in frustration the first few goes at it. Expect to die quite a bit until you discover how to make the best use of your resources and optimal placement for your defenses. After that, I think it'll grow on you. And, I'm quite certain a few of you are going to find ingenious ways to break this that I couldn't possibly anticipate. So, have fun with that!

As always, I'm very open to hearing your feedback - but do please try and give it a day after your first couple runs before you tell me it's totally broken ;)

Onto the official feature description!


As Halloween approaches, a dark horde of withered beings, vampires, and scavenging horrors gathers in the world of Abalon. You must carefully choose your team of heroes and arsenal of magical spells to make your final stand. Abalon's all-new survival game mode combines turn-based tactical combat with a layer of strategic defense where players can place walls, traps and units to thwart the advancing waves of enemies.

1. A full run of Horde Survival (8 waves) lasts about 45 minutes (Many of you have requested shorter runs and more cut-to-the-chase on strategic planning, so this is for you
2. Build your entire team and 20 card deck before the battle begins or choose amongst 20 different all-star teams.
   
3. Your heroes also begin the fight with a small supply of satchel cards including health potions, recovery vials and traps that can be played anytime during battle.
   
4. There's no exploration, camping or shops in survival mode. Instead, you'll need to make use of your satchel card supplies to recover and build defenses.
   
5. Enemies can drop additional satchel cards, but supplies are limited. Use them wisely.
   
6. Your traps and summoned units persist on the board between waves.
   
7. Enemy waves always spawn on the board side opposite of your Summoner.
   
8. Buffs and debuffs do not persist between waves.
   
9. Players who beat survival mode by completing the first 8 waves may choose to continue to "Endless" mode and face even more terrifying combinations of enemies.
   
10. The environment and all of the waves of horde survival are handcrafted (including the endless waves). I wanted to ensure a consistent experience for all players and provide a fair opportunity to exploit your knowledge of the enemy.
    
11. New satchel cards include walls, barricades, traps, and explosives.
    

Our dear friend, Kormakrtv, will be pitting his resolve and viking warriors against the horde this coming Wednesday, October 18th, so be sure to follow his Twitch channel and mark your calendar:
https://www.twitch.tv/kormakrtv

The stream block will be starting 10am CEST - 4pm CEST with a 2-4PM spotlight on Abalon.

1. Balance: Largely considered the most difficult boss in the game, Nithsrot Gerr has been configured to only (and always) appear in chapter 3 of the Dungeon Biome. I have reflected this in the Dungeon Biome description that when played on Chapter 3, the Difficulty is 5. I'm hoping this helps both new players from rage quitting (when previously encountered on the first chapter) as well as hardcore veterans who specifically want the challenge of hunting this beast down.
   
2. Fixed bug where switching between custom and all-star decks would sometimes result in the deck list being invisible until a deck on that page is selected.
   
3. Fixed bug where loyal characters in shops (such as the Ironclad Soldier) could appear at the camp as if they were a guardian after being hired. Attempting to add them to the party could then cause an exception error. (Thanks The Grand Mugwump, Realm Imp and others).
   
4. AI: Enemies will now attack summoned spore pods and obstacles.
   
5. Fixed bug where Celestial Barrier didn't block all forms of ranged attacks and sometimes resulted in animation soft locks. Additionally, the spell no longer counters the attack if the triggering unit is the primary target.
   
6. AI: Optimized algorithm for calculating lightning bolt targets to improve AI turn calculation speed.
   
7. New Keyword: Flexible allows select satchel cards (such as traps) to be played during battle without the Pyramid Vault. To play these cards, access your deck, then switch to the satchel tab.
   
8. Guardian Revival: The new Scroll of Resurrection, Bonfire Elixir, and the existing Revive spell can now bring guardians back to life, even if they were defeated in previous battles and even if playing with the Lost Guardians challenge.
   
9. New Card: Bonfire Elixir
   
10. New Card: Scroll of Resurrection
    
11. New Card: Neuk's Scorch Trap
    
12. New Card: Caltrops
    
13. New Card: Cryonic Chrysalis
    
14. New Card: Ghost in a Jar
    
15. New Card: Spiked Block
    
16. New Card: Brick Block
    
17. New Card: Wooden Barricade
    
18. New Card: Powder Keg
    
19. New Card: Wall of Brambles
    

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

Greetings Abalon fans!

I’m excited to announce our participation in Steam’s Strategy Fest with a 35% discount on Abalon. In addition, we’re running a special event this week that will unlock several characters that normally require completing some achievements before they can be played. These include the Pyromancer, Fighter Mage, Liche King and Ice Queen. Simply login to play during the duration of Steam Strategy Fest and you’ll automatically unlock them.

Additionally, I have some more balance changes and bug fixes for you!

1. Balance: Metamorph no longer shape shifts as a counter attack to ranged attacks. Metamorph now inherits the life total and any status effects (ex: poison, frozen, etc.) to the new creature it transforms into (and vice versa when changing back). Metamorph can no longer target other metemorphs to create an infinite transformation loop.
   
2. Balance: Muse gains the Unique ability to prevent infinite musing between two muses.
   
3. Balance: Ice Fall, Blizzard, Flash Bomb and Time Bomb can no longer damage obstacles that cannot be targeted by attack (ex: trees)
   
4. Fixed Bug where losing a unit that grants a card cost discount could result in cards drawn later during the game costing more than their base cost.
   
5. Localization: Fixed bug in Russian translation that prevented exiting the End Turn warning prompt when actions were still available (Thanks Neuk)
   
6. Localization: Updated French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese translations.
   
7. Fixed Bug where particle effects (ex: Cleanse Animation) were not animating all the way across the map when framerate is set to 120FPS
   
8. Fixed Bug where Fellow Adventurer or Mercenary would fail to spawn in the dungeon room containing a path of spike traps. (Thanks Rathskellar and hbm001)
   
9. Fixed Bug where player couldn’t access the gold chests as there is an invisible barrier at the boss gate and there are no other paths. (Thanks hbm001)

If you're attending PAX Seattle this week, don't forget to stop by and check out the Seattle Indies Expo. I'll be showcasing Abalon there, so this is your chance to meet the developer in person as well try our upcoming mobile build. Details: https://six.seattleindies.org/



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