Abalon News

1. Fixed bug where player was receiving the Exploiting Fate Encounters penalty when choosing the "Flee Immediately" option on Goblin Birthday Party and ambush encounters (Thanks Rathskellar, Esfer, Lykurgos and hoodsome)
   
2. Fixed bug in early level gameplay that could result in adventure being reset (Thanks hbm001 and Bill the Butcher GangsofNewYork)
   
3. Fixed bug where Fallen Angel was not granting blessing. (Thanks Thăm Ngàn)
   
4. Russian Localization Fully up-to-date (Thanks Neuk)
   
5. Spanish Localization Fully up-to-date (Thanks Semaniel)
   
6. Balance: Metamorph changed: Instead of taking 2 damage to base life when transforming and receiving a new unit (which, unless killed, prevented any damage being dealt back to metamorph), I have removed the transform penalty and increased its life from 8 to 10. And, instead, whenever the unit metamorph is transformed into takes damage/is healed, that damage will now be reflected back on the metamorph when it changes back. So if you transform into a dragon, take 10 damage while transformed but don't die, you will die when transformed back as your life total will now be zero. Note: We’re still playing around with possible solutions to improve the balance of this character; let’s try this out for now and see if it feels good or still needs further tweaks.

Greetings Abalon fans!

Today’s update includes a whole bunch more fixes and improvements, leaderboard reset, plus I’ve got some exciting news to share!


Per my communication in the last update, I have reset the top leaderboard scores to give everyone in our community a fair shot at the top positions with the latest balance changes and score exploit fixes. I look forward to seeing who will claim the new high scores and earn a place in our next hall of fame.


I’m thrilled to announce that Abalon was selected to showcase in the highly competitive Seattle Indies Expo that’ll take place the weekend of PAX West in Seattle on Sunday, September 3rd from 12pm-9PM on the 3rd floor @ the Motif. Additional details at: https://six.seattleindies.org/


If you live in the Seattle area or are visiting for PAX West, attending the Seattle Indies Expo is a must-experience event for indie game lovers: it’s free, there’s an after-party after 6PM, and no PAX badge is required to attend. I’ll be there in person showcasing our exhibition demo on a number of different devices, including our upcoming mobile release, and I’m eager to meet new and existing fans alike in person.


Abalon is also currently participating in the Dreamhack Beyond Summer Indie Showcase that runs 8/18 -> 8/27. Be sure to check us out and play some other great indie game demos as well.

1. Russian Localization received a massive update to the translations. (Thanks Neuk)
   
2. Fixed bug with Finding the Perfect Tree encounter where the Woodcutter axe would not get added to the deck after helping the goblins if player had less than 20 cards. (Thanks Thăm Ngàn)
   
3. Fixed bug where an exception is thrown when resizing the screen or changing the UI option for Large UI while in the challenge modifier selection screen.
   
4. Save Exploit Fix: Abalon does does not currently support saving during fate encounters and players have discovered they can exit the game while prompted to avoid undesirable outcomes. To remedy this, I’ve introduced a system that will detect when this exploit is used and prompt the player. You are welcome to use this exploit, but each time you do, it will have an increasingly negative impact on your run score to keep leaderboard rankings fair.
   
5. Fixed bug Fixed bug where storing the dice roll results could potentially wipe adventure save data if player exited during a roll in an attempt to exploit the save system to try for a different result.
   
6. Fixed bug where Sojurn's defender ability was behaving in way that confused players. I made a new targeting type for targetsOfAction so that Sojurn filters out allies who are not adjacent as well as enemies. Instead of applying the prevent damage to action, it's now applied to the individual ally units. I also made it so that this ability now triggers on any enemy attack so that it will properly defend units who are surrounding Sojurn, but are not the primary target (ex: when a bear swipes) (Thanks mr.kitty)
   
7. Fixed bug where touch controls threw exception when attempting to drag a card that could not be played (Thanks Kolbex, DaneSilverHawk)
   
8. Resource Limit: Set the flag for ignoreResourceLimits to avoid game crashing when texture memory is exhausted.
   
9. Fixed bug where clicking to cast a card while on the AI's turn would result in the card being stuck in view mode. Disabled click to cast for mobile.
   
10. Fixed bug where player could discard during the AI's turn, creating a desync with the AI. (Thanks kyon)
    
11. Fixed bug where the previous update’s fix for challenge run scoring could win the adventure save data of runs with challenge modifiers started in older versions instead of simply not counting the challenge mod scores. (Thanks Reiga)
    
12. Improvement: Made it so the scrim shows when using touch controls so that there is a way to deselect the currently selected card and view the other choices together.
    
13. Fixed bug where the extra gold earned from the Cursed Coin artifact could drop into impassable terrain. (Thanks Thăm Ngàn)
    
14. Fixed bug where, if player clicks to cast on an enemy turn, the card could get stuck in the show position until player’s turn began.
    

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

Congrats to Thăm Ngàn for once again taking first place on the leaderboard with a top score over 1.3M and discovering a vital bug for us all in the process. As mentioned, I'll be reseting top leaderboard scores this week to put everyone on even playing field. For now, here's a few quick fixes to our update from last week.

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

1. Challenge Modifier Scoring: Fixed bug where end of run scored challenges (ex: Lost Guardians) was accruing more and more points each time the run-score prompt was opened, allowing for the potential to gain excessively large scores. (Thanks Thăm Ngàn)
   
2. Anti-Cheese: Fixed a form of cheesing where player could quit the game after rolling the dice for a retreat roll and then restart the game to receive a different roll. (Thanks mr.kitty)
   
3. Balance: Changed Orc Battle Horn from a cost 2 spell that read “All Allies Get +1/+1. Orcs and Goblins get +2/+2.” To a cost 1 spell that reads “All allies get +1/+1 until start of their turn. Orcs and Goblins get +2/+2”.
   
4. Fixed bug where camera would pan extremely slowly back to the character when retreating while having set the frame rate above 60FPS in Video Settings (Thanks bumbaclad)

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