Those Who Rule News

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.

Hey everyone!

Just a quick little patch before I head out for a week to visit family. Will be using some of the down-time while away to work on the story patch, where I'm thinking I'll add 2-3 new playable characters. Which designs do you all think are the most interesting from the cast that didn't make the initial cut? Any cool personal abilities that come to mind when you look at a particular character?



This patch is mostly centered around addressing feedback Valve sent me from the Steam Deck verification review, but also reverts a small change I made last patch to auto-select abilities, as it was putting some people in a weird place of not being able to toggle between weapons.

I reverted the auto-select for now in the main branch, and I have a fix out for it in the "beta" branch, so feel free to point there if you want to try the fix out. I didn't want to make the fix part of the main branch because it's a fairly hefty code change, and I didn't want to push out a big change before leaving for a week.

Also we're already up to 30 responses to the item voting form, keep it up! Loving to see which abilities the community finds the most interesting.

• Fix: Temporarily removed the auto-select that was introduced in the last patch as it was putting some units in situations where they couldn't equip their other weapons as the auto select kept trying to defer to any usable abilities.
  
• Fix: Font sizes increased across settings/inventory/glyphs to better support readability on the Steam Deck.
  
• Fix: Fixed a scaling issue when listening to conversations in the base menu. (They would scale to whacky sizes after a conversation)
  
• Fix: Fixed a scaling issue when moving items within the inventory. (Again scaling to weird sizes)
  

As always, I'll be away from my development computer, but I'll still be on the forums/email/Discord and socials if you need to reach me. Hope you're all still enjoying your time with the game, and I'm excited to get back and get the story patch out to you all!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

Let's go through the changes first, as I had some time to add some QoL that has been requested since launch.

• QoL: You can now hold down space to end your turn. A popup will show up giving you time to do it.
  
• QoL: Weapons in the units inventory in base will now also show upgrades/refinements.
  
• QoL: Added D-Pad support for controllers in menus.
  
• QoL/Balance: If you have perma-death turned off, and are playing on casual/normal difficulties, you now need to lose all three mains for a "game over" on the chapter. For all veteran play-throughs or if you have perma-death enabled, this will not change. I've heard a lot of frustration voiced around having to redo a chapter when you're close to the end, and since there is no rewinding mid-battle, this feels like a good middle ground for those who don't enjoy the more punishing experience.
  
• QoL: You can now exit the player unit info UI in base by hitting E (the same button used to open it).
  
• QoL: Updated escape tile victory condition to state "any single unit".
  
• Balance: Short and Long bow given a refinement slot to help them feel a bit closer to the Horn bow power wise.
  
• Fix: Carry weight of late game units fixed.
  
• Fix: Fixed a bug where Warrior's weapon master ability was affecting shields when equipping them, allowing people to go over the weight limit.
  
• Fix: Small typo fixes in dialogue.
  
• Fix: END GAME SPOILER Only lose 1 unit in the end game depending on choices. Accidentally left in code that had you lose a few more units than anticipated.

With this patch, everything from patch v1.1.0 (controller support), is also now in the game ("default branch"), you can read more about it here.

I've also closed the item submission form yesterday, and coalesced all of the responses into different tabs in a Google Sheet. I'm really excited to get some new weapons/shields/items/refinements into the game!! How voting will go:

1. Open the sheet and browse through the submissions and make note of your favorites you want to see in game, keeping in mind you can vote for 3 in each category (Weapons/Shields/Items/Refinements). Sheet with all items to browse through and pick your favorites here.
   
2. Open the voting form, and choose UP TO 3 for each category and submit. Voting form here.
   
3. In the interest of fair voting (1 per person), an email/account is required. If you don't want to login to Google to vote, you can email me your choices at [email protected], or post a comment on this thread, and I'll record them.
   

NOTE: For the most part, I have not modified responses. That means that the final output of an ability is subject to change for balancing/thematic purposes before it is put into the game. If something cannot realistically be implemented into the game in a reasonable time-frame, it may be edited to better fit. But I wanted to leave things unfiltered as that way I can get a good idea on the kinds of things people want to see.

Thank you all who took the time to leave their ideas. It's been great reading through them, and I'm excited at the idea of implementing community driven items into the game. Happy voting!

I also want to mention that I'll be visiting family over the next week, so I won't be at my main development computer. However, I'll still be available through all the regular channels (forums/email/Discord). I'll be working on the story update patch (writing support conversations/new potential characters), as well as filling out the Wiki that was so generously started up by @SigismundsWrath as I can do those on my laptop. Thank you all again for your outstanding support, couldn't do this without all of you!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey Everyone!

I'm happy to announce that controller support is finally in the game! It's not completely fleshed out as I still will be looking to implement controller re-mapping (for keyboard/mouse as well!), and I still need to think of how I want to handle tool-tips with controller, but I wanted to get this change out before those for early feedback.

Also, due to the large amount of changes required for native controller support, I will be releasing this into the "beta" branch first, but it is still accessible to everyone who owns the game!



Here are the steps to access the beta version:

1. Right click the game in your Steam library.
   
2. Click "Properties"
   
3. Click "Betas".
   
4. In the field underneath "Private Betas" input "ThoseWhoRule" (case-sensitive).
   
5. Click "Check Code". You should now have access to the beta version!
   
6. In the top right of the same UI, hit the drop-down and choose "beta - Branch for beta testing".
   

A download should start shortly after!

I haven't used a controller to play tactical RPGs for a long time, and I had a lot of fun testing it, and I can see why so many people enjoy it on a controller as well. I hope for those of you who have that preference, this patch can allow you to enjoy the game the way you like to play. I don't have a ton of experience playing the genre with controllers, but I studied how other grid based games handled things, and tried to make the controls at least somewhat similar to what you'd already expect. I tested with a PS4 controller and the Steam Deck primarily, so if you have other controllers I'd love to know if they're operating well!

The glyphs for inputs have also been updated. Some of you said they were hard to read, so I upped the transparency and am now using darker glyphs. They will also dynamically change depending on if you're use controller or M&K!

We've also submitted the new build to Valve, so stay tuned for any potential Steam Deck announcements. As of this patch, if you're playing on Steam Deck you should now be able to go into "Controller Settings" when in game, and use the "Gamepad" template to get the new mapping.

• Qol: Native controller support now built into the game!
  
• Qol: Input icons updated (dynamically will show either keyboard/mouse or gamepad) and upped the transparency from 0.5 -> 0.75 to make it more visible.
  
• Fix: Fixed a UI scaling issue seen on 2560 x 1600 where the battle info UI input guide on the top left could go off screen.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where after a mid chapter dialogue, the invisible "continue button" in the dialogue UI that takes up the entire screen wouldn't get cleaned up so you could still hit ESC/right click, but the game wouldn't register your mouse movement as it was blocked by the invisible button. The button is now gone and dialogue is continued in a different way that doesn't rely on such a dumb implementation. The dev who thought it was a good idea has been moved to a different department to limit the damage he can do.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue in the battle preparation phase when flipping through enemy units a player unit would always be "next up" instead of allowing you to go through all enemies.
  
• Fix: When continuing a mid battle save, aura abilities are not triggering properly.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where a certain recruit conversation between a main character and a recruitable character in chapter 10 wasn't changing context correctly based on earlier decisions.
  
• QoL: Vital points now gives 10 EXP.
  
• QoL: Changed more newly joined units starting with advanced/exalted promotions to have a minimum B rank with all available weapons. This was intended from the start, but as I changed weapons available for classes through development I forgot to go back and add minimum ranks for the new characters.
  
• Balance: Finn's passive "Quick Learner" nerfed from 100% bonus EXP to 50% bonus against higher level enemies. VIT growth reduced from 90%-80%. Finn should be a rewarding character to train up as he starts out fairly weak. However, he seemed to be coming online a bit quicker than anticipated in many run-throughs. I think this nerf will help keep him a powerful unit, while required a bit more investment to take him to the levels people have showcased in their runs. And while he is an offensive powerhouse, I don't want him to be unbeatable, so a slight nerf to his VIT was in order. Enemy units need counter-play too! I will continue monitoring how he performs in everyone's runs, but I think the overwhelmingly majority at this point see him as too strong, so this is another attempt at toning him down a bit. I think with this he'll be in a good spot.
  

I'll be looking to quickly address any issues you all bring up while using the beta branch. You can switch back and forth freely for any reason, and I really appreciate any of you who take the time to try it out. I'll likely be pushing this in the next couple days to the default build so everyone gets it assuming there are no large issues.

Next up will be some more QoL, and I'm going to consolidate all your awesome ideas in the suggestions for and put it up for voting, so stay tuned for that! Then working on the story patch update. One main QoL that I think will help a lot of people who don't like permadeath is the suggestion that the defeat conditions don't trigger on the three main characters deaths if permadeath is disabled. It's an idea I like a lot, at least for normal/casual difficulties.

As always, thank you all for your support. Reading your feedback and builds always puts a smile on my face, thank you for being such an amazing community. Hope to keep bringing you the most highly requested updates!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey Everyone!

HUGE NEWS! We got a Valve review of the game's compatibility with the Steam Deck, and we are already sitting at Playable.



Why is this such big news? Well the way the approval process works, you can apply for review yourself. However, the response back will take an unknown amount of time, and it's not available for all devs right off the bat. However, once games meet some automated heuristics, they can be put into the review queue, and I think that is what happened here!

Since some of you had already played through the entire game on the Deck, it triggered this system. We now have a review, and we have ONE WEEK to apply for re-review if we want that golden "Steam Deck Verified" stamp of approval. If we don't, we will be given the "Playable" stamp in the store and would need to re-apply manually for approval.

This is a huge opportunity, and I want to grab it with both hands, so I'm switching up the roadmap just a little bit to bump controller support to the top of the line. I will need to try and get controller support added in the next 7 days to meet the re-review timeline. I think it can be done. So to all you who have been wanting proper controller support, your wait may soon be over!

But also know, I'm still looking to make fixes to anything you report. Anything that negatively affects the experience will be my priority #1. Here is the list of everything fixed with v1.0.13.

• Fix: Attempted to fix an issue where the game could freeze player inputs after restarting into a chapter with a dialogue cutscene turn 1. Coudln't reproduce the issue, but I restructured the places in code that handle skipping dialogue, and consolidated them all into one place. That also now has a 0.75 second delay before skipping to allow portraits to load in.
  
• Fix: Attempted to fix an issue where hitting ENTER too rapidly during the formation menu could skip the entire chapter. Another I couldn't reproduce, but there is only one thing that takes you to the save screen in code, and that is hitting victory conditions for the chapter. So I wrapped that code in a check for if the player has at least played a turn of the chapter. A bit of a hacky fix, but should help intercept any attempts at skipping over a chapter.
  
• Fix: Fixed the hit upgrades always showing three up arrows even when it was only upgraded once.
  
• Fix: Fixed an issue where winning the battle, but having a status effect kill one of your main characters could cause a game over in the next chapter.
  
• Fix: Enemies with droppable items dying to status effects will now correctly drop their items on death.
  
• Fix: Adding frenzy description to thrillbeat. Slightly tweaked Marshal's description for more clarity.
  
• Fix: Made tile markers more visible. Increased the transparency of the special tile indicator from 25% to 50%.
  
• Fix: Added a "block" animation to the idle animations for units. This should solve one more case of freezing when you attack an enemy in the "idle" animation (very rare) and doing 0 damage to them.
  
• Fix: Retrying the same chapter in the same "session" and saving to the same slot could cause the first attempt to not be overridden by the second. The second save over the top of the first will now successfully apply to that slot.
  
• Fix: Small typos in dialogue.
  
• Balance: VIT ring stat growth increased to 30%. High VIT growths are pretty standard, so this particular growth ring wasn't feeling as impactful.
  

NOTE: When I say "attempted to fix" it means I couldn't reproduce the issue fully, but I have a good idea of what may be causing it based on player descriptions. If you're still seeing these issues after playing on patch v1.0.13, please please reach out and tell me so I know they still need some work. I'll never be upset at you telling me about bugs! I want to get as many fixed as possible.

A big thank you to all of your for you continued support/patience, and thank you everyone who takes the time to leave feedback and report bugs. Your detailed reports help me a ton, and make tracking down bugs 10x quicker.

Also a HUGE shout-out to those of you who have already played the game on the Steam Deck without proper controller support. Without you, I don't think we would have been put in the review queue, so this opportunity is all thanks to you. THANK. YOU!

Best,
Eldin T.