Hexworld News

[h2]Welcome, queens and kings, to 0.11 Update![/h2]

This time we brought you:

Capturable busters! Finally, incorporate some big hulking guns into your island. As well as the special resource to power them up - we deliberately decided not to reduce the power of cannons, but you will have to secure a source of ammunition to reliably use them.

New stashes with this resource, as well as Aether shards and mana refills on the levels.

Shorter hexagons for a more aesthetically pleasing sky-drifting experience.

This update is not as big as the last one in terms of game-changing content, we mostly did the groundwork in preparation for 1.0.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!



[h3]Full Patch Notes[/h3]
- [New] Flame Cannon, Dark cannon, Heavy Ballista can be captured now
- [New] Resource - Pyrite, a special resource to power these structures
- [New] Boss - Manta, guarding the desert biome (Fortress Tower is moved to cold region)
- [New] Ancient Tower and Ancient Tower Cell as a weapon to defeat the Manta boss
- [New] Artifact - Unstable Power Core Artifact, makes golems explode on death
- [New] Artifact - Energy Potion Brewery, produces potions for golems to consume to get a heavy boost
- [New] Brand new visuals for clouds and Fog of War
- [New] Golem 'souls' indication with particles flying back to spawners upon golems death
- [New] Brand new tutorial system with a much lower amount of text and better indication
- [New] Effect for summoned structures (e.g. summon tower spell)
- [New] Shorter hexagons and we love them!
- [New] Structures - Pyrite Deposit, Pyrite Mine, Mana Deposit, Aethershard Cache, Storage House
- [New] Better corruption indicators for golems and structures
- [New] Boss icon that is always visible indicating the location of the important enemy
- [New] Fancy health bars for structures with ammo and reload indication for towers
- [New] Settings are now available from level menu
- [New] Settings - Camera Zoom Sensitivity slider
- [New] Settings - secondary Camera Zoom key bindings (mouse wheel is always assigned)

[h3]Fixes, Balance and Improvements[/h3]
- Flame Cannon does not deal crush damage anymore which means they do not damage the hexagons
- Fix for summon tower spam by the enemy (still spams on higher threat)
- Fix for swarm hexagons spawned inside cliffs (thanks Melavex and skipydog)
- Better level border detection, always at midpoint of player’s formation (thanks skipydog)
- Fix for a wrong tile placed when an ice mountain is hit really hard (thanks skipydog)
- Fix for hexagons stuck inside another formation, they should reconnect now
- Fix for melee golems to finish the attack and hit the ground even when target is already dead
- Fix for ‘eyes are looking’ message to not be covered by the victory banner
- Some music tweaks for better transitions
- Better Aether Swarm platforms emerge animation
- Worldstones should not spawn on stashes and misc structures anymore
- Flying golems now fly to the castle if their spawner is lost instead of idling
- Boss levels now have Aether shard stashes to give a way to charge artifacts faster

Welcome, rulers of the Hexworld! Today is a special day, as we are celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Hexworld going Early Access. It was an incredible journey, and we'd never be able to go as far if not for you all. Just take a look how far we've progressed thanks to your love and support:

(before)


(after)

Hexworld is slowly moving towards its final development phase. We'd really like to announce 1.0, but there are still several annoying issues in the core gameplay which we'd really like to address first, and for that we'll need to make some daring jumps into the uncharted Aether. We are also aware of the feedback for the Swarm update and working on the most troublesome issues. For the upcoming patch we've prepared some important performance optimizations which should address some of the CPU and GPU bottlenecks and make game more playable on the low-end hardware. If you'd be still experiencing issues after that, please contact us on the Discord or Steam, so we can give your issue a proper attention.



Thank you very much for being with us. If you feel so, please drop by in our Discord and give us some cheers!

Love you all
Volcanic Giraffe Team.

[h2]Aetherswarm Update[/h2]

It took a long time. but 0.9 is finally here. And what an update it is!

Eerie voices in your ears, dark clouds moving under the mist, sharp spires growing like tumors through the surface. Aether eyes are looking at you.

With this update, we bring you a whole new faction of unique and dangerous inhabitants of primal Aether - the Swarm. Playing by their own rules, they will make every encounter much more interesting and intense.

Rival kingdoms aren't just going to sit and watch - they will use forbidden raw Aether magic as a means to greater power, corrupting factories and challenging your builds and strategies. This system will replace much despised building tier degradation on capture, so you can finally stop worrying about your buildings losing the third tier after one stray fireball.

To help you with those challenges, we introduce the artifact system that requires you to kill swarmlings and collect their remains to charge powerful relics for substantial bonuses on each level. Yes, so very original, but in our defense - we always wanted golems to collect and pillage resources for you, and this first step towards this turned out really nice.



⚠️Important!⚠️
Your old save file is compatible, but it is highly recommended to start a new game to unlock all new features of this update.

[h3]Full Patch Notes[/h3]
- [New] Faction - Aether Swarm
- [New] Swarm Units: Crab, Spider, Crawler, Ranger, Jumper, Swarmie, Medusa
- [New] Swarm Structures - Nest, Spire, Hatcheries
- [New] Game Mechanics - Aether Swarm Waves (triggers every 5 minutes or when Nest is destroyed)
- [New] Game Mechanics - Corruption (boosts some enemy structures, removed upon capturing)
- [New] Game Mechanics - Artifacts (collect Aether shards to charge useful artifacts during the battle)
- [New] Game Mechanics - Worldstones (collect 3 to complete a level)
- [New] Fog of War introduced to make levels more interesting to explore
- [New] Tutorial hints for Aether Swarm, Worldstones and Artifacts
- [New] Trait 'Artifacts', increases maximum amount of active artifacts

[h3]Fixes and Improvements[/h3]
- T2/T3 structures can't be 'downgraded' anymore. Yay!
- Better icons for selected structures and golems
- New dodge effect icon
- Abordage platforms won't spawn if player is nearby
- Main Menu UI improvements
- Victory and Game Over screens improvements
- New upper level info panel with a better efficiency bar (in progress)
- New vortex visual effect for vortex levels
- Performance optimization - sleeping state for units under the fog of war
- Move camera with keyboard by holding right [shift]
- Level bounds border becomes visible when you are close to it
- Secondary music theme for Desert Region
- Some other very important things I forgot to write down (Duh!)

[h3]Balance[/h3]
- 'Cacti sands' tiles now allow structures placement
- Much shorter range (~50%) for HexBusters (Flame Cannon, Dark Cannon, Heavy Ballista)
- Multiple Firebowl buffs make fireball attack more powerful instead of adding more fireballs
- Poison debuff can be stacked from now on
- Structures are now immune to parasite/poison/freeze debuffs
- AI enemies will counter flying units more often with spells
- AI enemies could use spells more often when receiving huge damage
- T2/T3 structures have more heath, +50hp each stage (e.g. Archery: 200, 250, 300)
- Fleshmound - attack distance 0.4 (was 0.3)
- Elite Archer Golem - reload time 2.0 (was 1.5)
- Wasp Nest - spawn time 3.0 (was 2.0)
- Hornet Nest - spawn time 2.0 (was 1.0)
- Hammer Archont, Sacred Hammer Archont - reload time 1.2 (was 1.5)
- Divine Hammer Archont - reload time 1.0 (was 1.5), damage 14 (was 12)
- Hound Golem - hp 40 (was 50)
- Battle Hound Golem - hp 60 (was 75), armor 2 (was 0), damage 10 (was 8)
- Elite Hound Golem - hp 80 (was 100), armor 5 (was 0), damage 16 (was 12)
- Scarab - damage 8 (was 10)
- Royal Scarab - damage 12 (was 15)
- Sacred Scarab - damage 16 (was 25)

[h2]Bloo Continent is available![/h2]

Prepare some warm clothes, my friends, as we are heading north! Last major school of golembuilding, the masters of Order, are reverent, devout and proficient in both magic and mechanical works. They command powerful constructs of steel and ice armed with huge mana cannons, and will not be conquered easily.

With this big content update ready, we finally can move towards the balancing final region, the wretched Mortum.
Thank you for your continued help and support, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!



[h3]Full Patch Notes[/h3]
- [New] New region - Bloo (start a New Game to unlock)
- [New] Golems - Hammer Archont, Gun Archont, Ice Elemental
- [New] Structures - Bazaar, Observatory, Gun Shrine, Hammer Shrine, Cryo Machine
- [New] Spell - Lightning Strike with some extra crushing damage
- [New] The Red King boss is guarding Green Region instead of Fireball Wizard
- [New] Ice Wizard and Flame Wizard will be guarding Bloo and Mortum regions (temporary)
- [New] Bonewarriors and Crossboners leave corpses that resurrect as original golems unless destroyed
- [New] Dynamic Music is now a complete set for all regions including some boss-area specific tracks
- [New] Keyboard bindings menu

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
- Pause the game and session timer completely when pause menu is active (thanks skipydog)
- Hex Editor store and storage will be unlocked for every consequent new game runs
- Some adjustments to the spells shop rng to make it more random between runs
- Ability to disable gamepad input in settings menu (thanks alcaron)

[h3]Balance[/h3]
- Reduced prices on some desert tiles so they match similar tiles of other regions
- Farm, Bazaar, Observatory now produce only 'native' resource, while Village produces all three
- Some tweaks made to knockback mechanic making golems fly upon collisions
- Changes to AoE/splash damage so the direct targets gets a full amount
- Boulderswags splash set to 0.3 (was 0.8) so the projectile feels more like a rock not a bomb
- Bonewarriors and Crossboners lower HP (20-30% less) due to new corpse mechanic

[h3]0.7.4 Fixes (was not announced)[/h3]
- Fix for Shield Generator Crystals to spawn inside the level bounds (thanks Kaki-Senpai)

(Fortress Tower sketches)

[h3]Update Notes[/h3]
- A new danger! Strong Aether currents will dominate some levels, making a giant merry-go-round. With arrows and fireballs.
- Introducing Overcharge mechanic! Now if you increase your building efficiency over the 100%, it will increase spawn rate and health of produced golems.
- Use [Z] to revert the last action (up to 3) in Kingdom Editor. Useful if you sold or merged something unintentionally
- Fix for Level started inside of a cliff destroying some hexagons (thanks delta61251 and others)
- Exiting to menu now will keep all your hexagons even if not connected to the Castle (thanks spacecheese6 and others)

[h3]Fortress Tower[/h3]
- New art and sfx
- New ground and aerial attack
- Shield Projectors are shown on the main HP bar

[h3]Misc[/h3]
- [Fireball Wizard] Additional attack added
- Some inertia added to the golems when two islands collide
- Dynamic music added for Desert Region
- More info is shown for spells in the Shop (e.g. shield hp, boost duration)
- Game time added in pause menu and game completion screen
- 'Structures Lost' stat now includes captured structures not just destroyed ones
- Floating platforms should not spawn near blocked tiles anymore

[h3]0.7.2 Fixes (was not announced)[/h3]
- Fix for sprites artifacts in Hub on 4k screens
- Fix for Boss HP Bar scaling at 4k screens
- Fix for unexpected camera slide to the center of a level in some cases