Those Who Rule News

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all enjoying the changes in the story patch. Nothing super new with this one, just wanted to push out fixes for issues people have reported the last few days.

• Fix: Hotkey inputs now working in promotion UI.
  
• Fix: Group Prayer now heals the caster as well, as shown in the preview. Description updated.
  
• Fix: Active abilities that could multi-hit no longer use up multiple charges.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where "Cannot have two of the same refinement." was showing up at innapropriate times.
  
• Fix: Fixed another refinement duplication that could happen when you unnassigned and re-assigned a refinement in a single action. I think the initial unnassign puts it in storage, and then when you re-assign it re-assigns from the "removed refinements" list but not the storage. Make it clean up the storage too.
  
• Fix: Added "1H" and "2H" to all the filter tooltips in the base menu.
  

Thank you all for the continued support, and such detailed feedback on any issues you might run into!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

I'm excited to announce the release of the largest content update to Those Who Rule yet!

• 2 new characters with unique abilities.
  
• 14 new unique, community driven weapons, items, and refinements.
  
• 7 new support conversations.
  
• 9 new elite enemy abilities, including unique ones for the three final bosses.
  
• Reworked item drops in the last quarter of the game to scale with enemy difficulty.
  

Two new characters that come with their own unique personal skills.

• Drunkard: Status effect duration on this unit is doubled. For each status effect, gain 2 STR and SPD, and 1 DEF.
  
• Ambush: When initiating combat without moving, gain 6 ATK and 30 HIT.
  

• Yew Bow: SS Rank Bow. Restore {0}% of this unit's health according to stacks on this weapon, consuming used stacks. Gain a stack every time you defeat an enemy with this weapon.
  
• Throwing Knives: Throw the knife at an enemy. Apply 20% bleed for 2 turns. Can multi-hit. (2 Range) (3 charges)
  
• Javelin: Throw the javelin at an enemy, dealing double weapon damage to staggered enemies or enemies without block. Refresh a charge on kill with this ability. (2-3 Range) (1 charge)
  
• Maul: SS Rank Battleaxe. Doubles weapon damage against armored units (Defenders and their promotions). If this strike defeats an armored enemy, fully restore the health of the lowest ally within 2 tiles (including self).
  Armor Bane.
  
• Parrying Dagger: Gain 3 ATK and 15 AVD when facing the enemy, and your block is full.
  
• Swordbreaker: Gain 10 AVD when facing the enemy, and your block is full. If you dodge an attack with full charge, stagger the enemy at the end of combat.
  
• Ethal's Kite Shield: Block regenerates according to the user's unused weight. Any regeneration over the shields block amount is restored as vitality.
  
• Weapon Training Manual: Doubles weapon EXP gain. Proficiency required to equip any weapon is reduced by 1 level.
  
• Coin Pouch: Store 100 denari each time you defeat an enemy with this item equipped. Store up to 5,000 denari total. Obtain all stored denari upon selling this item.
  
• Cloak: Gain 15 AVD.
  
• Shieldmaster's Gauntlets: Gain 2 DEF against frontal attacks with a shield equipped. Double shield regeneration.
  
• Featherweight Refinement: Gain 1 SPD for each unused carry weight.
  
• Drakkar's Bloodlust Refinement: Heal unit for 25% of the vitality damage they deal (rounded down). Reduce this weapon's damage by half.
  
• Counter Refinement: Gain 6 ATK, enemies always strike first.
  

And last but not least, some new elite abilities to spice up the late game. I tried to make abilities that will push some of the more popular strategies to their limits.

• Back From The Dead (UNIQUE): The first time this unit's vitality would reach 0 from an attack each chapter, end combat and gain 10 Fortify and 5 Frenzy for 2 turns and fully restore your vitality.
  
• Manipulator (UNIQUE): Takes no damage while there are allies within 2 tiles.
  
• Young Lion (UNIQUE): Gain 2 ATK/SPD/DEF, and 10 HIT for every enemy within 3 tiles.
  
• Sure Strike: Guaranteed to hit.
  
• Invincible: Take no damage from the first 2 rounds of combat each turn. (Multiple hits count as one round of combat).
  
• Martyr: On death, give allies within 3 tiles 4 Frenzy and Fortify for 2 turns. Deal 25% VIT damage to enemies within 3 tiles.
  
• Iron Marshal: Gives self and allies within 3 tiles 4 DEF.
  
• Shadowblade: Gain 50 AVD for the first 3 rounds of combat each turn. (Multiple hits count as one round of combat).
  
• Patient: Gain 1 STR and 5 HIT for each turn in the chapter.
  

I've also made some increases to denari income in the late game to compensate for the increase amount of elites in later chapters. I hope this patch can lift the final quarter of the game to be a similar challenge level to the chapters that precede it.

I knew early on I wanted to do something like this as a small way of saying THANK YOU to the amazing SRPG community on Steam. I know our genre isn't as popular as some, but I was blown away at the reception to Those Who Rule. To everyone who has played, reviewed, or even just followed the progress of the game, I couldn't do this without you. I hope you enjoy the additional content!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to push out a little bug fix/balance update as I am wrapping up the story patch. I'm expecting to get it released this Friday, April 4th.

(Example of one of my favorite new Elite Abilities: Martyr)

I'm done with all the elite abilities, characters, items, weapons, and refinements. All that's left is the additional support conversations, recruitment of the two new characters, and some additional side objectives in the last quarter of the game.

• Fix: Button clicks on bows in the action bar to function properly with auto ability select.
  
• Fix: Row highlights now cleared in shop and inventory when using a controller.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where the "cursor" was lingering on Steam Deck when using a controller.
  
• Fix: Small typo fixes in tooltips and dialogue.
  
• QoL: Total charges now shown on all abilities in the promotion UI.
  
• Balance: Longbowman "Arched Shot" can now multi-hit. HIT penalty per tile traveled reduced from 10->5. Charges reduced from 3->2.
  
• Balance: Chapter 13 spoiler. Increased Wesley from 19 to level 21 to better align with the average level of the chapter. Stats scaled accordingly. You will still pick his tier 3 promo on level up. Also his AGL/DEF wasn't scaled correctly, so those have been increased to better reflect his growths.
• Balance: Fated refinement no longer loses ATK on odd turns.
  

Also wanted to give an update to those of you who may be newer to following the game, this is what I have planned for the roadmap of the game, and what has been completed so far.

1. Gameplay affecting bug fixes. This will always be priority #1.
   
2. A patch focused on base/storage/shop QoL improvements, as well as general QoL. Keep sharing what improvements you'd like to see!
3. (Releasing April 4th) A patch focused on expanding the story a little bit more. This will mainly involve more support conversations in the latter third of the game, and potentially a few side objectives, maaaybe even some new characters that were designed, but didn't make the original cut. I also want to slightly tweak the epilogue based on some more choices/side objectives, but this will require some work with the voice actor so may happen asynchronously.
4. (Releasing April 4th) A patch where I implement the most popular weapon/item suggestions from the community. Now that a lot of you have had time to get to know the game's mechanics, I know you have ideas for things you'd like to see in the game, well this will be your chance! Stay tuned for more news on this.
5. (Controller support is done, hopefully a few more days of Steam Deck approval. Planning on achievements after the story patch!) Controller support, Steam Deck Verification, potentially Steam achievements here as well.
   
6. A pass through for more performance optimization.
   
7. Brutal difficulty. With the first person to record themselves beating it getting a custom illustrated in-game character that will show up in other brutal mode playthroughs.
   
8. Some level of mod support. Likely to do with a pre-built save file so you can edit character starting stats/growths/classes/inventory.
   

Thank you all who have taken the time to play the game and leave your feedback. Hopefully the new planned content will provide many more hours of enjoyment, and some fresh new play-throughs!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

With a gargantuan effort from @Sigismund's Wrath, we can finally announce the release of the official Wiki for Those Who Rule! https://thosewhorule.wiki.gg/



It will contain a ton of useful information for those of you who like to theory-craft, as well as useful information that can help answer questions like "how do I recruit X?", and "where can I get item Y?".

It's not fully filled out yet (Chapters, npcs), but we are opening it up as it has the majority of information that anyone would need in a play-through. We welcome any feedback/contributions you'd like to make! I'd love for this to be a community led page as much as possible, and I'm always happy to fill in any gaps that there might be. Let us know what else you'd like to see in the forums or the Discord!

Also wanted to push out these bug fixes as they are some of the last "big ones" that are affecting play-throughs. I think I've finally solved the dreaded "chapter skip" when spamming ENTER bug. If you ran into this, it means that you could spam the ENTER button faster than once every 16 milliseconds (60 FPS), pretty impressive! (Delayed input registration is a little more likely though)

• Fix: Button clicks on bows in the action bar to function properly with auto ability select when a unit has a weapon with a movement skill.
  
• Fix: Double input registration happening in the shop on Steam Deck fixed. This was also affecting being able to input settings.
  
• Fix: Final fix for skipping chapter when rapidly hitting ENTER. I have finally given up and just put a big fat "Wait" between when you can press "ENTER" to skip cut-scenes. There will now be a multiple second cooldown for when you can press the enter button. Functionally, this changes nothing for the player. But I've tried some cute fixes, and they didn't work. Time to embrace the caveman solution.
  

Other than that, I'm going to continue chugging along on the story patch this week. See you all on the other side. And as always, thank you all for your boundless support!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

After 2 weeks of voting, and 51 responses, we have our winners for the community suggested items! More detailed descriptions here.

Format below is: Item name (votes) (creator) - description (dev notes)

• Yewfelle (11 votes) (Sigismund's Wrath) - Bow that has healing charges based on killed enemies. Gain STR and SPD if user has SS rank in bows. (Love the extra bit to encourage weapon ranks)
• Throwing Knives (10 votes) (HP) - Sword with throwable charges. (Will take a bit due to new animations)
• Javelin (8 votes) (DK) - Spear with throwable charges. (Same here with animations!)

• Parrying Dagger (15 votes) (Ryelic/victor44) - Low block "shield" that gives you extra damage and dodge. (Will be very cool seeing a dagger in the off hand)
• Holy Kite Shield (12 votes) (DK) - Shield with total block equal to carry weight, regen is unused carry weight. (Very creative design DK)
• Swordbreaker (11 votes) (Seamisiona McDonogh) - Another kind of parrying dagger that staggers enemies when you dodge. (Great new way to apply statuses)

• Weapon Training Manual (19 votes) (No name submitted) - Doubles weapon EXP gain. (Probably will exclude Illyana from this. Also whoever submitted it, are you okay with making it a refinement since item slots are tight?)
• Coin Pouch (12 votes) (HP) - Basically Melanie's passive in an item. (I knew when I saw this it was winning lol. Balancing nightmare, but a promise is a promise. @HP would you be cool with making it slowly build up with each kill, then you get the gold when you sell it? Think it could be a cool trade off)
• Cloak (11 votes) (No name submitted) - Extra evasion. (Will have to monitor the numbers for dodge tanks)

• Featherweight (22 votes) (victor44) - Gain ATK and HIT based on unused carry weight. (Love this design, will probably need to cap it though)
• Vampiric (20 votes) (PStift) - Deal less damage but heal for a % you do. (Great trade-off)
• Adaptive (19 votes) (PStift) - Proficiency required for the weapon reduce to 1. (Only worry is how to equip the refinement beforehand)

Thankfully no names that I can't put into the game. ;) Some very interesting new ideas that I'm excited to introduce! I'm going to have to take a bit of time to implement all of these, and a balancing round is in order before they're put in. I'll also be picking a few for categories like "historical accuracy" that I may add in. Expect to hear more about this after the story patch!

I also wanted to focus on some low hanging fruit with QoL features, and trying to continually fix any of the larger bugs that have been reported while I work on the story patch.

• Feature: Game setting to mute menu sounds, tile cursor movement, and EXP bar noise. Basically the higher pitched sounds that can play rapidly can be grating to some people, and disabling them has been requested for a long time without muting battle sounds.
  
• Feature: Checkbox to disable auto-ability selection. Auto-ability selection now moved from beta branch to the main one with fixes for changing weapons.
  
• Fix: Another attempt to fix an issue where pressing ENTER too quickly on restarting a chapter could cause you to skip to the next level. There is only one place in code that increments the chapter index, so I'm basically bubble wrapping it as much as I can. I still can't reproduce the issue unfortunately. REQUEST: If you still run into this bug at any point in your playthrough, please immediately zip up the save/logs folder and send it to eturulja@thosewhorule. I've been banging my head against the keyboard trying to reproduce this issue with no luck, and a log file with potential errors would help a ton.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where archers taking 0 damage would lock up the game. This was due to not having a "block" animation on archers which is what is played when 0 damage happens. Can't believe I went this long without seeing that happen!
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where exiting/continuing immediately after a turn refresh effect wouldn't save the effect when you continued the battle.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where loading in the battle could sometimes have your units not in the proper animation state, causing a freeze if you attacked with them.
  
• Fix: Weapons keeping upgrades/refinements after restarting the chapter using the "Main Menu" button in the base. More info: If a unit was starting their first chapter where they were assigned "default equipment", upgrades and refinements to that equipment would persist through a "Restart Chapter" from the main menu without the player actually saving. This will fix dupes.
  
• Fix: Small typo fixes as I was putting data into the Wiki.
  
• QoL: Added unit quick info on hover during battle preparation phase. Easier to distinguish units when editing formations!
  
• QoL: Units that have already acted ("Exhausted") will now have the ring under them turned grey as well. I heard a few complaints about having a hard time distinguishing them when they're in a group as some characters have naturally "greyer" palettes, so this should help make it more clear moving forward! Shoutout @Wolfenacht and @Lampros for the idea! (And anyone else who may have suggested this earlier).
  
• QoL: Increased text size in tool-tips for better readability on the Steam Deck.
  
• Balance: Heavy Bandage added to the shop starting in chapter 9.
  
• Balance: The two unique spears come a little late and underpowered, so giving them a boost. Serrated and Taunting spears now both have 1 refinement slot.
  

We've also made huge strides in creating a wiki page, thanks to the enormous work of @Sigismund's Wrath. It's not completely finished, but we'll be releasing it here soon for community contributions. Here is a little sneak peak into what some of that content will look like:


We're still a few changes away from full Steam Deck approval, and I need to get the double click figured out for the default Steam controller when in the shop.

I'm also still working on the quests/new characters/dialogue writing for the story patch, so keep an eye out for that as well.

As always, thank you all for your amazing support. An awesome community has developed around the game, and it's been my favorite part of this whole dev process.

Best,
Eldin T.