Those Who Rule News

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]For those of you who remember the roadmap I posted a while back, I'm excited to announce the delivery of the final entry: Mod Support.[/p][p][/p][carousel][/carousel][p]Here is what is currently being exposed to mod with this patch:[/p]

• [p]Player Unit Base Stats.[/p]
• [p]Player Unit Growth Rates.[/p]
• [p]Player Unit Base, Advanced, and Exalted classes.[/p]
• [p]Player unit equipment.[/p]
• [p]Player unit starting chapter.[/p]
• [p]Storage and Denari.[/p]

[p]For those of you familiar with playing with the game's save file, this will use the exact same system, but with a few more things exposed.[/p][p]I've also put together a modding guide for people who are completely new to something like this. I tried to be as thorough as possible, but this is also my first time trying to implement modding in a game, so please let me know any pain points you may have! I tried to include step by step examples on how to make any changes, as well as resulting screenshots. There is also an example file you can use to start at the end of the guide.[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Hope this helps bring some more replayability to the game for those of you who love to tinker! For those of you who aren't into modding, the modding code is separated from, so you shouldn't see any changes.[/p][p][/p][p]Also made a few small changes as things are reported.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Fix: Shiva's passive now correctly gives 3 ATK instead of 3 HIT when she is Hidden.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Small cooldown added on loading a chapter to being able to skip all cutscenes. This solves an issue in chapter 1 where spamming ENTER could leave you in a weird state.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed issue where losing all units in the prologue, chapter 1, or 2 doesn't bring up the defeat screen. No longer will you need to ALT+F4 to retry those maps if all your units die![/p]
• [p]QoL: The game will now pause when it loses focus (tabbing/clicking out).[/p]

[p][/p][p]As always, thank you all for the amazing support. This is something I really wanted to do since modding is what sparked my interest in programming, and ultimately my career path and life. Hope you're all doing well, and I'd love to see what you all create in the game's official Discord![/p][p][/p][p]Best,[/p][p]Eldin T.[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]I've been taking notes over the past months of your feedback, particularly what classes/items have felt under-powered, and wanted to do a patch to stabilize some power levels between the under-used characters, classes, and items.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Balance: Fury (Kaelith) - If this unit is hit, gain 2->3 ATK, 2>3 SPD, and 1>2 MOV until the end of your next turn.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Iron Maiden (Quincy) - Now grants ATK and SPD alongside DEF per stack. "On being hit, gain 1 stack, up to 5 stacks. Each stack grants 1 (+ATK), (+SPD), DEF and 4 HIT. Lose a stack on round start."[/p]
• [p]Balance: Guardian (Arland): Now triggers for any injured ally instead of only ones under 50% HP.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Skewer (Lancer) - Ability can now multi-hit.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Rally (Centurion) - Fortify adjacent allies for 2->4 DEF.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Stregthen Resolve (Centurion): Fortified allies within 2 tiles gain 2->3 ATK and 0->3 SPD.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Concussive Blow (Marshal): Now staggers elites since elites can't be stunned. Also guaranteed to hit.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Steel Boots: Now adds stagger to the kick along with increasing Kick damage and range.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Bear Effigy: After defeating an enemy, fortify a random ally within 2 tiles for 3->4 DEF for 1->2 turns.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Whetstone: All weapons gain 1->2 ATK.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Drakkar's Idol: Now fully restores VIT on death instead of to 1.[/p]
• [p]New: Added the first three brutal completionists to the end game credits.[/p]
• [p]New: On promoting to exalted, gain minimum B rank in all available weapon types.[/p]
• [p]QoL: Dialogue conversation highlight colors changed to be brighter when selected for easier readability.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue where you would get a black screen in the formations menu. This was caused by having permadead units keeping their old formation menu tile assignments. Haunting your game from the grave![/p]
• [p]Fix: Certain items weren't dropping if you saved in battle prep and restarted the chapter. This was mainly for the featherweight refinement in chapter 11.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Drakkar's bloodlust refinement triggering on weapons where it isn't equipped.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Hunters could walk onto chests and some abilities could knock enemies onto chest tiles.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue with enemy group movement in Brutal mode where they could get an extra movement point to traverse forest tiles when they didn't have one of your units to attack (but they still wouldn't attack).[/p]

[p][/p][p]It's been awesome hearing everyone's experience with the new brutal mode. I'm still working with the first place winner to get their character created, so expect that to be added in a future patch![/p][p][/p][p]I've applied to GoG and the major console developers to see if they are interested in adding TWR to their catalogue. The wait has been a bit long, but hopefully I will hear back soon. If accepted, and I have the requirements in hand for what really needs to be done, I can then make a better informed decision on whether it's worth it to work on a port to specific consoles.[/p][p][/p][p]Full disclosure, if it looks like the porting process takes longer than a month or two, I think I would rather spend time working on a second game.[/p][p][/p][p]Due to Epic Games requiring integration of their APIs into the game, I won't be pursuing launching on the Epic Store.[/p][p][/p][p]I've also been working on a bit of mod support, and will hopefully have that out to you all soon. Still not 100% sure what I'll be able to expose, but I'm pushing myself to get as much as I can. It will mostly be utilizing the save system so people can read the files in plain text and won't require any programming knowledge.[/p][p][/p][p]Again, thank you all for your overwhelming support since launch. I hope with these balance changes and upcoming mod support you can get some more good times out of the game![/p][p][/p][p]Best,[/p][p]Eldin T.[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]I'm excited to announce we have our first 3 players who have conquered the challenge of Brutal mode![/p][p][/p]

1. [p]RideHades[/p]
2. [p]Patterknife[/p]
3. [p]Scarlet0580[/p]

[p][/p][p]I'll be working closely with RideHades in the coming weeks to create a custom character that will appear in other brutal mode play-throughs, while all three are getting put into the end game credits. Also, we've create a special title for those who finished in the Discord, so join if you haven't already and claim your Ranger (completing the game), or Ranger General (completing on Brutal mode) role![/p][p][/p][p]In the meantime, I also am pushing out some fixes for bugs that have been reported with the influx of new players from the #TurnBasedThursday Fest. Welcome in![/p][p][/p]

• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue where stats were still reset in chapter 7 if \Benjen or Rho\ were promoted.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue with continuing on chapter 4 and 5 in brutal mode.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue where you could exceed the weight limit by exchanging lower weight refinements with higher weight refinements.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed issue in the Shadow Blade elite ability where it wasn't correctly showing the rounds of combat they had been in that turn.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue where you could equip Ahriman's Curse and Counter refinements to bows.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Minor text fixes.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Added an early droppable iron battle axe to chapter 4.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Lastly, I'll be poking through the code for the next week to see what I can feasibly expose for mod support. The game wasn't built with it in mind from the ground up, so it may be a little restricted, but it's something I want to try out at least once. My main priority will always be keeping the game as stable as I can for everyone.[/p][p][/p][p]Hope you're all enjoying the new mode if higher difficulties are you cup of tea! It's been a joy seeing all the different builds people are using to tackle the new challenges. Have a good rest of the week, and I'll see you all soon![/p][p][/p][p]Best,[/p][p]Eldin T.[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]If you're reading this, you should shortly be seeing the download for patch v1.3.0, kicking off the race to complete the new Brutal Mode difficulty![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For those of you wanting to participate for a chance to immortalize yourself with a custom in-game character, here are the ground rules.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]The winner will be the first person to send me the save file of their completed Brutal mode run. Emailed to [email protected]. Winner is decided on first to hit my email inbox. I'll take a few days to process and verify all the entries. Please title your submission "Brutal Mode Completed Submission" to make it easier on me to filter.
• [p]Local save location: C:\\Users\\{your_username}\\AppData\\LocalLow\\eBrothers LLC\\Those Who Rule\\thoseWhoRuleSaveFinalV1_{X}.es3 (Where 'X' is the save slot).[/p]
• [p]This is not an ironman challenge, you may restart chapters as many times as you need.[/p]
• [p]You may still choose between random or fixed growths.[/p]
• [p]I've decided to not require a video recording of the entire play-through, as I know this will make it too cumbersome on many people who'd like to attempt the challenge. Instead, I've added some protections against cheating, and detection for any tampering.[/p]
• [p]Hacking or save tampering of any kind will disqualify you.[/p]
• [p]Knowingly abusing a bug to gain an advantage will disqualify you. If you run into one on accident, please email me so I can patch it out instead.[/p]
• [p]If I don't receive any finished runs within 3 weeks, I may tone down the difficulty a bit. I still haven't beaten the last chapter, so if you complete it you'll truly be the first person to complete a full brutal run, even before the dev![/p]
• [p]In the off chance you run into any game breaking bugs/freezes, you may send me your save file and I'll try to fix it ASAP. I'm not aware of any currently in game.[/p]

[p]There are also some changes/fixes that will affect the entire game.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Performance: Optimization changes to chapter 8 and 18 that were causing high GPU load.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed grouping issues in various chapters on all difficulties.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed instances of longbowmen in the late game instead of snipers.[/p]
• [p]Fix: Fixed an issue where units with abilities that granted extra follow-up attacks weren't displaying preview damage correctly on the "secondary affected units" HP bar blink.[/p]
• [p]Balance: Added more elites to chapter 20 for all difficulty levels.[/p]
• [p]QoL: Slightly increased the speed of holding space bar to end your turn.[/p]

[p][/p][p]May the best tactician win![/p]

Hey everyone!

As I posted on the roadmap, I've been working on a Brutal mode for fans who enjoy a really difficult challenge. I also wanted to make it a fun community event with a friendly competition, with an in-game prize immortalizing the winner. It's almost ready, and I'm ready to announce the start date:

June 7th, 10 AM PST (UTC−07:00)

• EXP gain reduced by 20%, scaling down sharply when overleveled, leading to no gains once 4+ levels over the average enemy on a map. Healers happens sooner at 2+.
  
• New powerful elite abilities meant to counter popular strategies. More bonus stats to elites. More elites throughout the game.
  
• Scaled up enemy stats, with extra scaling depending on the class' strengths. More enemies and reinforcements.
  
• AI behavior tweaked in almost every chapter to better act in groups.
  
• More loot provided through chapters.
  
• Permadeath always enabled.
  

1. The winner will be the first person to send me the save file of their completed Brutal mode run. Emailed to [email protected]. Winner is decided on first to hit my email inbox. I'll take a few days to process and verify all the entries.
   
2. This is not an ironman challenge, you may restart chapters as many times as you need.
   
3. You may still choose between random or fixed growths.
   
4. I've decided to not require a video recording of the entire playthrough, as I know this will make it too cumbersome on many people who'd like to attempt the challenge. Instead, I've added some protections against cheating, and detection for any tampering.
   
5. Hacking or save tampering of any kind will disqualify you.
   
6. Knowingly abusing a bug to gain an advantage will disqualify you. If you run into one on accident, please email me so I can patch it out instead.
   
7. If I don't receive any finished runs within 3 weeks, I may tone down the difficulty a bit.
   
8. In the off chance you run into any game breaking bugs/freezes, you may send me your save file and I'll try to fix it ASAP. I'm not aware of any currently in game.
   

• The first person to complete the game on Brutal mode difficulty will get to commission a custom in-game character that will appear in other Brutal mode play-throughs. We'll work together to create a mood-board we'll send to the character artist, as well as their stats/classes/personal skill. I will then work to get that character into the game on other Brutal mode play-throughs.
  
• The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will all get a special shout-out in the post-game credits.
  

We're also currently on an all-time high sale of 30% for the #TurnBasedThursday Fest, so now is the best time to pick up the game if you're wanting to prepare!

This new content will be completely free and optional. I hope it allows those of you who relish challenging content further enjoy the game.

Again, thank you everyone for your support thus far. I couldn't have asked for a better community around the game, and I'm truly humbled by the level of attention it's received. Hoping I can continue to deliver these kind of experiences to you all for many years to come!

Best,
Eldin T.