Abalon News

Greetings D20 Fans -

Thank you all so much for your continued feedback and support! Version 2.0 is proving to be our most successful update yet. I am thrilled you're enjoying the new changes!


[h2]Double XP for Harvest World and Survival Mode Access[/h2]
I'm still working through a lot of your feedback, but I wanted to get this patch out to address some immediate issues and provide a fun little surprise for Halloween. From now until November 1st, I'm running a special event for Halloween where you'll earn double XP for battles and encounters in the Harvest biome to give you some extra incentive to explore this spooky world. Additionally, I've temporarily removed the level restriction for Survival Mode so you can try and survive against the withered horde.

Here's a list of the other build changes:

1. Fixed bug with Plague (which was ignoring undead targets as its text changed to "All enemies get -1/-1 until end of their turn." (Thanks CoolStory, Mittens the Maleficent, Sinzar and Sigvuld)
   
2. Fixed bug where the Joker's Last Stand potion returned to the inventory after being consumed. (Thanks Dusty)
   
3. Fixed bug where Native Linux version (SteamDeck) was incompatible with AIR51.1 (Thanks Goose, dienekes00 and Tequila007 for verifying the fix)
   
4. Balance: When a unit is removed but pending revival from a Spirit Recall or Joker's potion, your equipped items are no longer removed.
   
5. Balance: Per player request, spin attacks can now target units diagonally.
   
6. Balance: Adjusted the upgrade tiers, allowing an additional artifact slot in silver tier (moved equipment slot 7 to gold tier).
   
7. Language Support: Updated the Spanish localization (huge thanks to Semaniel for providing the translations). We're expecting updates for other language translations are expected
   
8. Language Support: Corrected issues with Traditional Chinese translations on several cards. (Thanks Kantsume)
   
9. Font Change for Asian Languages: To conserve file space and fix issues with some missing characters, I've changed the fonts used for SC, TC, JP, and KO from embedded to system fonts. This means the fonts will now render based on the versions supplied by your OS system. I'd love to get your feedback on this change so that I can improve it, so please let me know how the new fonts impact your experience.
   

Hey everyone! Thanks for the reports this morning. It seems a few players were affected by a bug introduced after my patch yesterday (to unlock the Custom Adventure) that resulted in their tower level being reset back to 0. I have fixed this issue and, to remedy any lost playtime, any players who were potentially affected will be automatically promoted up to level 9.

I take data/progress loss very seriously, so please do reach via the in-game "Share Feedback" mechanism if you weren't able to recover your progress with this fix and I'll be happy to support you.

Much appreciated,

~Ross

[h2]Patch 1[/h2]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your feedback on Abalon 2.0 so far. I'm very happy that most of the new changes were very positively received. I'm also grateful to hear your concerns where I may have over-indexed the balance a bit. But that's the great thing about being a player-driven developer - nothing is set in stone, I'm eager to improve the quality of the game, and I want to hear your thoughts.

I also want to express that my intent for 2.0 was not to take away or remove anything from the game that you liked, but rather, create a path going forward that helps new players get best introduced to the many features and mechanics we've added to Abalon over the past few years. This is important for growing our community and so that I can continue developing Abalon longterm. I can't speak for other experiences you many have had on Steam, but I am sincere in my desire to create the best experience I can for you.

On that note, here's a few changes I've made in our latest patch:

1. Custom Adventure Mode (which enables you to choose between Abalon's signature play mechanic of cards as resource and Traditional Deckbuilder playstyle where cards always reshuffle after battle) - has been changed from "Unlocks at Level 10" to "Play an adventure". I recognize that many players simply prefer this playstyle, so there's no reason to force you to play our signature mode if it's not your thing. I think this is a good solution that still provides the new player curation (i.e. the opportunity to at least try the signature mode once) - and if they then decide it's not for them, you can move right on to custom mode. This change will also automatically unlock Custom Mode for anyone who has already played an adventure.
   
2. Fast Adventure Mode changes from "Unlocks at Level 15" to "Unlocks at Level 10".
   
3. Max Equipment Count - The initial 2.0 update saw the max item count for all characters change from 8 to 3, with optional upgrades to bring the Summoner back up to 8. To clarify, the reason for this change was to correct an over-step I made to the balance in our previous release (Gear Up!) where the overabundance of items diminished the importance of skillful deck building synergy and key decision making (i.e. which items to take best compliment my team) because you could simply equip everything you found. At the same time, I'm willing to recognize the change may have been a bit too dramatic, so I've changed it as follows: Summoners start with max item count of 5 and can upgrade up to 8 (which is only intended really for playing descent level difficulties). Other characters will still have a max of 3. Certainly, I'm willing to revisit these values again, but do please try it out and let me know if the limitation helps the spirit of what I'm trying to do with the design and the gameplay.
   
4. Upgrade order has been changed to provide earlier access to artifact selection (by shifting the max equipment upgrades down a bit since you can now start with 5). My aim is that you'll have the same effective experience you had before with choosing cards, but even better balanced since you can now choose 3 spells, plus items, plus artifacts. Also note that the Bronze upgrades are very easy to achieve for any summoner in that a single XP tome will fully unlock all of these upgrades.
   
5. Fixed the Sprintshot targeting for Darakai (Thanks Plykiya)
   
6. Anchored the Staircase so Cora can no longer stomp it away (Thanks Plykiya)
   
7. Our fix is confirmed for SteamDeck: Native Linux is now working again!
   

I also want to thank everyone in our community who has responded with in-game feedback, Discord feedback, and contributed to the 2.0 comments on Steam in this post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/eventcomments/4692279782567165753/

Special shout out to folks with very detailed feedback and suggestions to improve: Lord Cameron, DramaLama, Himmelblauer Panther, Snoob, and 1075185437 

And thanks again to the many SteamDeck players who reported the AIR SDK issue and helped verify the fix: DramaLama, Shadow Lord, Tequila007 to name a few :)

More fixes and changes to come, so be sure to tell me what you like/didn't like. Your Steam reviews are also very appreciated!

~Ross

Attempting another rollback on the AIR SDK to correct the error prompt occurring OLED Steam Decks. Let me know if I got it this time.

Thanks for the reports from my Steam Deck players. I understand the last fix didn't correct the OLED version, so here's another attempt to solve that problem. Let me know if this one works. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience here, and I really appreciate your patience and support as I work to fix this for you.