Abalon News

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

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