Abalon News

Hey everyone!

We're approaching the timeframe I had hoped to release our next game update. I'm currently working on addressing the QoL requests I've received from you.

This includes:

1. Key-binding
   
2. Mouse-binding
   
3. Gamepad controller support
   
4. Disable screenshake
   
5. Disable character lookup
   
6. Various UI customization options (ex: larger cards, larger stats for visibility on TV screens)
   
7. Better overall controls for character movement and attacking (particularly sprint shot)
   
8. Many more usability + bug fixes

The full list is quite extensive, but just wanted to give a sense of the scope. As the game was initially designed for mouse-only control, adding key-binding and gamepad support has taken a lot more work than I'd hoped (and requires a lot more testing). But, I know how important this is for many of you, so I have diligently kept at it.



Summoners Fate will be featured in the upcoming Tacticon event on Steam (an event dedicated to strategy/tactics games) that runs September 22nd-26th, and I wanted to let you know that I am pushing hard to deliver this update to you on or before these dates.

Twitch Streamer kormakrtv (https://www.twitch.tv/kormakrtv) will be interviewing me and streaming a Let's Play of Summoners Fate on Saturday, September 24th from 10AM-1PM MT.



Thank you so much for your patience and support of the game! I'm absolutely thrilled by the positive Steam reviews (I can't express enough how much these matter to me) - we're now at 93% Very Positive rating.

Any questions, concerns, or just want to chat? I can be reached as always here:

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

~Ross

Don't you love it when your hot-fix needs a hot-fix? "It's a hot-pocket, hot-pocket!"

This fixes (hopefully for good) another bug with Error: Clock cycle error: TypeError: Error #1009 at hm.gameLogic::ProceduralSpawnLogic() that was preventing ability to start up battles for some players. Thanks for your bug reports 不赦之业 and Kuza :)

Thanks everyone for your bug reports! Here's the fixes included in this patch:

1. Fixed bug where Big Beard would not drop his helmet as reward if player defeated him as the last unit using a mind control effect (Thanks 镜中人)
   
2. Fixed bug where Big Beard's health was being assigned an incorrect low value in higher difficulties of the Arena Ambush encounter. (Thanks mr.kitty)
   
3. Fixed bug where Error: Clock cycle error: TypeError: Error #1009 at hm.gameLogic::ProceduralSpawnLogic/removeSpawnPointFromArray() was thrown when attempting to enter the boss room because there wasn't a valid space for the boss to spawn centered with the hero. The boss will now pick a random alternative spawn point if it fails to find preferred spawn. This bug occurred as a result of expanding the potential boss fight rooms to medium/large within the dungeon. (Thanks wolvje27 and (●,...,●))
   

Psychic Loot Drop Functioning Correctly:
https://youtu.be/hT07LVdxB8M

Psychic Loot Drop (Pre-Fix):
https://youtu.be/u0g2wkcNDeA

Psychic Loot Drop (Post-Fix):
https://youtu.be/A9cCqGbYdJM

Hi everyone -

Thanks so much for your feedback and support! This is shaping up to be just the kind of collaborative Early Access I had hoped for. Over the past couple weeks, I've carefully reviewed your game balance suggestions as well as our Steam gameplay data and painstakingly recalibrated the game with a new difficulty curve that I hope will satisfy most players' desires.

I've also added a ton of new content to the game, so let's dive and see what's new!



As the name suggests, this update focuses on bringing new enemies to the game - a whole lot them - including 3 new bosses and 3 new elites (the Masters) and 15 new enemy encounters (the Minions). That's one additional boss per each of our current biomes, totally 9 bosses (3 per biome), plus new lore to boot!

In addition, Masters and Minions will allow you to unlock one of the game's bosses, the Liche King, as a playable Summoner. It's prestigious to play the boss, so to receive this reward, you'll first need to claim a bunch of souls, prove yourself in battle, and defeat the Liche King in adventure mode to unlock the Revenant Regicide achievement. Doing so will reward the Liche King as a playable character in adventure mode as well as unlock a new All Star deck in Battle Mode.



Every aspect of the game's difficulty curve has been carefully re-tuned to create a more rich experience for beginners and advanced players alike:

1. The desert biome can now surface in the first chapter so that any biome can now appear in any order. The experience of each biome will be different depending on which chapter it is played on. For example, deserts in chapter 1 will not have heatwaves and deserts in chapter 2 introduce sandpit arenas.
   
2. Each biome has been re-calibrated with chapter-appropriate minion encounters: easier enemy groups in the first chapter and harder enemy groups in successive chapters.
   
3. Elites now have a progressive health distribution. This means the difficulty of each elite fight will escalate with each new elite encountered during the chapter.
   
4. Elites now have chapter-specific Minions. Elites in chapter 1 will have fewer minions so they're more evenly matched to the player's available resources and additional minions when they are encountered in higher chapters.
   
5. In novice mode, we've introduced a "mana curve" to Elites (-2 mana starting mana in Chapter 1, and -1 in Chapter 2) to help new players better onboard to the mechanics.
   
6. In advanced and hardcore mode, the final chapter adds further additional Minions to Boss and Elite encounters for extra challenge, plus much harder minion mobs!
   
7. Improved enemy spawn logic now prefers placement of ranged units at the rear.
   

[h2]Additional Improvements and Fixes[/h2]
[h3]*This update is also applied to our free demo version.[/h3]

• Improvement: Expanded the radius of a looting treasure chests to a 5x5 area around the player’s hero so that’s easier to collect the gold from sets of 3 chests if you don’t click the center one (Thanks Abaddon)
  
• Improvement: Further improved parallel animation system to allow more concurrent unit movement and attacks where possible and fix some issues where newly created units could move/attack before they were finished being summoned or walk through units that were knocked back.
  
• Balance: The Freeze mechanic has been changed to fix the OP perpetual lockdown Cora and Ice units could previously achieve on bosses and provide more tactical utilty. Details here. (Thanks all players who engaged in our discussion)
  
• Balance: Dreadnought Spellweavers gain ability Inflict -2/-0 until end of their turn
  
• Fixed bug where unit cards cast by Zenon or summon spells that were countered would remain momentarily stuck on the screen instead of being removed on cast.
  
• Fixed bug where resetCardPositions() might try and act on disposed cardViews resulting in exception TypeError: Error #1009 at com.d20studios.aura.animation::Animate$/killProcessArray() at view.smartAssets::HM_CardHandView/positionItem() (Thanks LittleLionMan)
  
• Fixed bug with localization where game state was storing the literal name of encounters rather than the localization id. This meant that if the language setting ever changed, the name would remain the same, and if the new language didn't support the characters, it would show no name.
  
• Fixed bug where some elites (ex: Gremella) were showing the Sprintshot or Farshot keyword twice on their card. (Thanks RyuSage)
  
• Fixed bug where equipment keyword was showing on some Elites (ex: Wight)
  
• Fixed bug where clicking twice to interact with a chest would result in the game showing the nearby chest's gold removed before the animation to doober the gold had played.
  
• Fixed bug Error #1009 at view.screenLayouts::TitleScreenLayout/jumpDevButton() (Thanks Baffledtoast)
  
• Fixed bug where some unitViews were still lingering after disposal of the game view. Hopefully this also helps with performance and memory leak problems. Any unit views that were getting trapped in memory should now be getting disposed at the start of each new battle.
  
• Fixed bug TypeError: Error #1009 at view::HM_UnitView/toggleLifebarStats() that could appear upon exiting game to return to the title menu (Thanks cxp032, Vindi008, fantom0020 and TheBaldr)
  
• Fixed bug TypeError: Error #1009 at Main/handleExitToCamp() that appeared after the game crashed on entering the portal to complete tutorial (Thanks Cheschire)
  
• Fixed bug where "I am currently unable to interact with the cosmic tortoise at the end of the tutorial." (Thanks tacocat and Squashbelge)
  
• Fixed bug where units still lingering in the mist from past world saves (before our units in mist fix) would still show on the board.
  
• Fixed bug where clicking on a goblin in the mist would result in the goblin party being repositioned away from their cake. They can't party without their cake, afterall ;)
  
• Fixed bug where retreating from a goblin party and then returning would result in the goblins being repositioned and no longer around the cake. Let them have cake!
  
• Fixed bug where TypeError: Error #1009 at hm.gameLogic::GameState$/getGameStateObj() could appear after retreating from a battle after having visited a map containing a shopkeeper. (Thanks 巷羽Azarisa and zyeast2005, scottoconnell30)
  
• Fixed bug where TypeError: Error #1009 is called on PointValidMove(). (Thanks Muppet and 堵塞)
  
• Fixed bug with Chinese translation of Ryu Sage Pendant (Thanks typiglet)
  
• Fixed bug where hero could become "stuck" and have the screen jitter on last tile after clipping an obstacle such as a tree. (Thanks Wesley)
  
• Fixed bug where some of the game server messaging (such as notification of in-game feedback being sent successfully) was not displaying.
  

[h2]Coming Next[/h2]
Up till now, I've delivered regular weekly updates since launch to address most players' immediate concerns and keep everyone engaged. The next goals I'm working on include remaining QoL issues such as keyboard mapping, gamepad support, performance plus continuous bug monitoring and fixes and additional cards per our road map. There's quite a bit of work involved, so I'd just like to communicate that I'll be doing the best I can, but going forward, please don't expect regular changes every week ;)

Gamepad support, in particular, is new for me, and I want to make sure I spend the time to get it right. I'm aiming for another update between end of August and mid September - and I'll keep you posted in our discussions if I plan to change that as I work through the process.


All these changes take a ton of work, and it's my pleasure to deliver regular new experiences for you to enjoy in the game. Help me out by taking a moment to write a Steam review and let me know what you think of the progress :)

And of course, I'm always available for regular communication via our usual means below:

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 -

I want to thank you for the 103 steam reviews we've received so far and the 90% Very Positive Rating! This is a wonderful accomplishment. I'm so grateful that you are enjoying Summoners Fate and I really appreciate the feedback and continuous growth I've seen to our community as a result. Truly - thank you!

Today, I bring you update #8 on 8/8 with Bugs and Balance fixes (don't you just love alliterations?). In addition to the improvements here, I've also been working to address our overall adventure difficulty curve and bolster up the content. I aiming to deliver these major balance changes next week with a large content update including new bosses for each biome as well as new elite and minion encounters.

New cards added in this update

[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 Card: Bigbeard's Helmet - This card is the first of our "boss specific" artifact cards suggested by players in one of our Discord discussions. This artifact is also an equipment (so it has a permanent aesthetic effect as well) and allows you to mind control marauders injured by your attack.
  
• New Card: Katana - Two handed weapon that grants +2 power and Pierce.
  
• New Card: Ironclad Sword - Single hand weapon that grants +1 power and Pierce.
  
• Improvement: Vastly improved our Parallel Animation system. This is the feature that allows enemies to animate movement and attacks of their units simultaneously to speed up gameplay flow. The system is designed such that any triggered effects will automatically switch the system seamlessly to serial animations so players can still follow the event sequence. Previously, any kind of applied VFX (for example, snakes inflicting poison) would unnecessarily interrupt the parallel flow. The improvement fixes this so that the parallel flow is not interrupted unless it initiates a new unit action (for example, a unit who casts or sets off a new event flow in response to a trigger).
  
• Improvement: Discarding a card to trigger its "Discard" ability can now be undone. Previously, it shared the same behavior as a surprise being triggered and could only be replayed, not undone. (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Improvement: Made lunge attacks easier to execute. When drawing movement path, units with lunge now have extra padding along the edges of tiles to make selection of diagonal targets while moving easier. Selected movement path is now tinted green so it’s clear whether or not the space will be moved to regardless of the directional arrow length.
  
• Balance: In addition to having unlimited counter attacks, Vigil units now combo attack at full power rather than half power like other units.
  
• Balance: Reduced the cost of the spell Vigilant from 2 to 1
  
• Balance: Reduced the cost of Tactician from 2 to 1
  
• Balance: Added Pierce ability to Dreamstealer (Thanks Frosty the Pyro)
  
• Fixed bug where lore inside barrels/crates would fail to drop after defeating Cho'Tuk the Wanderer in bear form until after entering another battle. (Thanks oneofmany and Marvin)
  
• Fixed bug where lore would fail to drop if a bandit blockade encounter is swapped with a battle encounter containing lore (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where player would Error #1009 at view.ui::HM_CardView/updateUnitScale() when customizing their starting deck with specific cards in specific slots (ex: placing Disintegrate in the 3rd slot containing Fire Elemental would always trigger this bug). (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where walking into a battle after being transformed into a beetle by the Beetle Juice encounter would cause the game to freeze. (Thanks mrwaffles31) Additionally, when transformed into a beetle by the Beetle Juice encounter, the effect now lasts until the end of battle (or until resting at camp) instead of start of your turn (which removed the effect before it had any chance to challenge the player).
  
• Fixed bug where casting Arcane Insight with Zenon when remaining cards in deck are below 3 would throw a backworker error. (Thanks Tabos, Nightler)
  
• Fixed bug where spells with "closest targets" such as Lightning Storm could choose different targets than those indicated by the highlight based on which direction you chose to face the Summoner during the cast. The "closest target" sort type will no longer factor the Summoners facing (Thanks mr.kitty)
  
• Fixed bug where satchel cards chosen as starting cards could be placed in your deck at campsites (Thanks This is Fine).
  
• Fixed bug where retreating from the Golden Dragon while it was standing on a stone statue tile would result in its rewards being dropped and available on the map upon returning. (Thanks Verox)
  
• Fixed bug where picking up a satchel card during battle would throw RangeError: DataProvider index (-1) is not in acceptable range (0 - 1) and then prevent mouse interaction until restarting the game. (Thanks [rQ]Tabris10, KhardMaster, Gottes Sohn)
  
• Fixed bug where walking onto a map containing units in fixed positions (ex: Tutorial level 2) by clicking on a space where one of these units is standing would result in the group of units being reposition in a manner that might make the map impossible to win.(Thanks Rianith)
  
• Fixed bug where retreating from maps with noReposition (ex: tutorial levels dependent on a specific solution and map positioning) could have the setup changed if player retreats from the map after units have moved. We now force putting everything back to the original state. (Thanks Rianith)
  
• Fixed bug where hero could become stuck on top of shopkeeper if player clicked the space in the mist where shopkeeper spawns.
  

[h2]Coming Next Week[/h2]
Since I've extended our major balance update until next week, I'd still love to get your input in the following topics:

1. Balancing Minion, Elite and Boss Encounters
2. OP and UP cards

Once the balance update is complete, I plan to shift gears to address remaining QoL issues (such as keyboard mapping and gamepad support) before the end of the month so I can put all focus towards new content going into September (per our roadmap goals).

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

Thanks so much!

~Ross