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DR4X News

Strategic Ship Updates!

This update is all about enhancing ship gameplay/strategy and boosting performance.

Changes:

-Ive updated the itch/steam/gamejolt store page, with new information/a new screenshot so it reflects the game better.

-I've optimized getComponent checks in the unit logic. This means a smoother, faster game experience, especially when there's a lot of units on the screen and during AI turns.

-I added the ability to scuttle ships! Once you've explored a body of water, you can now scuttle your ships to conserve resources. But beware - it's a gamble! Scuttling involves rolling a d20. Roll a nat 1, and you might just attract an enemy sea monster. Roll over 10, and you'll create a new treasure for your units to grab. (AI can do it too!)

-Wind mechanics are now in play (I've been watching a lot of videos about Ultima!). But don't worry, my wind system is less frustrating and only really grants bonuses. The wind direction, which changes (or doesn't) randomly each turn, is tracked by the world and affects ship movement. For balance, I've reduced ship base movement points (MP) by 0.5. However, a favorable wind can give you a significant movement bonus. And don't worry about constantly checking the wind - the movement highlight on tiles takes wind conditions into account automatically. It adds an extra layer of strategy to ship navigation.

-Ships now can move through swamps unless the wind isn't in their favor. But if you've invested in certain techs and your ship has 2 or more MP, you'll navigate swamps as if they were "normal" tiles

-Wind conditions are mentioned in the world news and in the ship flag tooltip.
Rest assured, wind direction saves and loads correctly. For existing saves, the default wind direction is set to north.

These updates should make ship's more dynamic and strategic. Hopefully its fun :)

New Unit Portraits and text updates.

This is pretty minor, got blindsided today by family commitments. Wanted to put out update anyway as i think it is only making the game a bit better so why not put it out.

Changes:


-Fixed some typos.

-More tweaks to advantage/disadvantage system to make it more in line with what i want.
--Numbers are more deterministic
--Humanoid units will say stuff under certain conditions now. Just for fun it doesn't check their personality or anything its just some predefined lists of phrases.
-Maybe it will get more complex later :P

-On scenario setup screen emphasized more text in certain places (EG Making "Not For Beginners" warning on world age selection red)

-On scneario setup screen reworded a lot of the text (Especially for dark forces.) to be more booky.

-Added some lore/set dressing to the red city in the renovations mission that i've wanted to add for a bit (See its details screen and its description)

-Brownwood too (the starting city in the debauchery and lawlessness scenario) now ha smore lore/set dressing

-Moved lore for other campaign cities and towns to their "main description" in the middle of the defualt description and the extra details and kept them in the details screen too.

-Replaced skeleton warrior profile pic, i actually added this the other day but didn't mention it anywhere.
It Went from this:

I'll probably use this old one for some other flavor of undead later. Maybe a WIght?
To This:


-Added new realmchild priest protrait


-Other tweaks around the edges heh

-[NODEOSERROR]




Making The Game More Fun!

This update should reduce frusteration and curate your first skirmish a bit better.

Changes:


-Cranked up the Wendigo's cost and threw in a fire vulnerability for good measure.

-Put an informative flag on the ancient skeleton warrior to make it crystal clear that it very much resists arrows.

-Made the default world age setting Middle Ages (aiming to craft a more curated first skirmish game for newbs that start skirmishes without tweaking anything).

-Ensured the default dark force isn't one of the "multi" types or "It Follows" - those are intended for challenge runs (This change is part of the aformentioned curating)

Added an option to pick "none" for your dark force, giving you more control over your game setup (It also informs you that you could have just ticked the box below it to disable them).(This change is ALSO part of the aformentioned curating)

-Archers now have a hard counter bonus against Ghouls.(They were supposed to always be that way)

-Popped ihandy little flags on several units hinting at "hey, maybe try something other than archers against this, it's pretty tough!" - so players can see their folly.(Also part of the aformentioned curating)

-Rolled out a discreet but major tweak to the advantage/disadvantage system to cut down on frustration. Let's see if you can figure out what I did there... (Another change to make the game less frusterating for newcomers)

DR4X Art Stream

Join us in the DR4X art stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/natch_evil

More updates!

I managed to fix the spazzy healthbar bug entirely and I also , like i said in the comments on the last anouncement, rebalanced mass sacrificer again to bring back its tension!

Changes:


-Fixed the cause of the other healthbar spazzing out issue, which might also lead to the game being more performant aswell!

-Cult AI is now compelled to make more hideouts so it doesnt feel as stupid

-Fixed major bug with grex tenebris/any time cults spawned next to wildlife that broke the game completely and hardlocked the game

-Fixed bug where sometimes units healthbar would just turn permanently filled with green which made it hard to see what their health actually was

-More rebalancing to the Mass Sacrifice Ability, it no longer destroys control points and only captures 33% of them.