Thronefall News

Hello fellow Kings and Queens!
As promised last week, here comes a little sneak peek of what’s to come with the next update. Most importantly it will feature a brand new map: Wildbach.

Everything seems to be a bit larger than usual in the fruitful forests of Wildbach. The merchants often told tales of the gigantic, winding trees, hosting a plethora of the most colourful critters. But why might it be that no people ever chose to make this lush place surrounded by glistening rivers their home? Maybe everything is a bit larger in those woods, not only the delightful things…


We don’t have a set release date for the update yet, since there is still quite a bit of work to do and we want to make sure to provide you with a polished and well balanced experience. All we can promise right now is: We’re doing our best to get it out to you as fast as possible.

We’ll keep you posted about our progress and share some details about what to expect from the new update soon. As always, thank you all for being such an amazing community, thank you for your feedback and your support — it’s an invaluable contribution to Thronefall’s development.

All the best,
Jonas & Paul

Dear Queens and Kings,
just a little hotfix containing score adjustments for the Gold Puzzle Mini Mode on Durststein (the desert map). We forgot to lower them accordingly when we decreased the "No Restarts Bonus" from 10% to 1% in the mini modes. Sorry about that!

All the best,
Jonas & Paul

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CHANGES:

• Lowered the score requirements for the quests in the Gold Puzzle Mini mode. They are now possible to achieve again.

Dear Queens and Kings,

After last week's update containing the new mini-modes we received an extensive amount of (constructive) criticism from you — and we get it: Not only was it unclear how much the new modes were meant to be part of the main progression and whether it was mandatory to play them, but some were also balanced quite harshly. First and foremost we want to apologize for this suboptimal experience. Thank you for providing us with so much thoughtful feedback! We understand your concerns and here is how we tried to address your points in this update:

[h2]Re-Structuring Overworld and Achievements
[/h2]
The modes are meant as totally optional late game content, for players that already have seen most of Thronefall and are eager for a fun twist on the original mechanics. We can see how the original layout made them seem much more important or even mandatory to beat before moving on to the next main level. We now moved the bonus modes to separate “islands” next to each main level’s region and bundled them under one flag for each level. They unlock once you beat the main level of the next region.

The modes also no longer reward crowns for completing their quests. That means they are not needed to achieve any of the game’s achievements. We adjusted the existing achievements accordingly. The mini-modes grant stars for completing their quests, so you can still track your progress there if you want to.



[h2]Balancing Improvements
[/h2]
Some of the modes turned out to be just too difficult to be fun. We toned it down a notch for the Bow and Arrow, Lightning Storm and One-Person-Army modes.

Additionally we reduced the “No-Restarts” bonus from 10% to 1% in the mini-modes and lowered the score requirements for the quests to reflect this. This allows you to use the restart option while still being able to achieve all quests, making the more puzzle-like modes more forgiving. The “No-Restarts” bonus stays unaffected for the main campaign levels (for now).

Please keep providing feedback on the mini-modes, both what you like and dislike, as it will continue to inform further balancing decisions during Early Access.



[h2]What about the new map?
[/h2]
We’re on it! It’s coming along quite nicely and we’ll be able to share some sneak peeks into what we're working on next week.

Thank you again for all your valuable feedback! It matters a lot to us and you’re an integral part of making Thronefall the best game it can be.

All the best,
Jonas & Paul



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[h3]FULL PATCH NOTES:

[/h3]
CHANGES:

• New Level Select Layout for mini-modes. The mini-modes are now less prominent on the map to avoid confusion. They looked a bit too important for what they were and are now located on their own “island” next to the main regions. All modes of a region are bundled under a single flag.

• Crown Count now only counts crowns from main campaign levels and achievements have been adjusted accordingly. This makes it easier for completionists to ignore the bonus modes as they are not necessary for any achievements. Instead the mini-modes now grant stars.

• The "No-Restarts" bonus is reduced from +10% to +1% for all mini-modes. Score requirements for each mini-mode have been adjusted accordingly. This allows you to use level restarts to optimize your 3 quests strategy without having to restart from scratch every time. The "No-Restarts" score bonus will remain unchanged for main campaign levels for now.

BALANCING:

• One-Person-Army mini-mode weapon changed to Bow and Dagger and enemies rebalanced to be a bit easier. More different builds should be possible now, though this is more of a quick fix as the royal forge might need some extra balancing work in the future.

• Lightning Storm mini-mode has been rebalanced to be easier and you now have the Castle Fortifications perk (once you start a new match in this update).

• Bow and Arrow mini-mode has been rebalanced to be easier.

Dear Queens Dear Kings,

We’re excited to roll out a collection of 15 unique twists on Thronefall’s core gameplay, based on your amazing submissions to the Quest Fair community event. Sure, you’ve played Thronefall — but have you played Throneball?

Since some of the new game modes alter the rules quite wildly we decided to package them in separate challenges (three for each region) that unlock after beating the region’s main level. They come with their own leaderboard, quests and a unique set of rules that can be found on the left side of the loadout selection screen.

In this post we highlight five of those modes (including the winners of the Quest Fair event) to give you a little overview of what to expect:


[h3]The Great Wall
[/h3]Inspired by CaporalNico


Based on CaporalNico’s idea, you start with a fully upgraded wall and economy buildings in this mode. The wall is what’s keeping your throne from falling and it is only repaired by small amounts between nights, so protect it at all costs.

[h3]Just The Way They Are
[/h3]Inspired by Gertimoshka
Inspired by Gertimoshka’s submission you suddenly have a sore throat and your units just won’t listen! Defend your castle with nothing but towers and units that do whatever they want. To make things even more challenging, you can’t bring a weapon.

[h3]One Man Army
[/h3]Inspired by Hjorse Rider


This mode inspired by Hjorse Rider is pretty much the opposite of the last one. All you have are five royal forges to upgrade your stats to ridiculous levels. Demolish entire armies on your own.

[h3]Time Flies
[/h3]Inspired by matan


You thought with Thronefall we eliminated the stress from the traditional RTS formula? Well, thanks to matan we now re-introduced it in this challenge. You have 20 seconds to prepare for the next wave each day before the night sets in automatically. Use your time wisely!

[h3]ThroneBall
[/h3] Inspired by a silly pun



Oh no! You got stuck in a massive snowball again. Well… Perhaps you can use it to your advantage? Roll over enemies and make your foes wish they had never attacked the round ruler of these lands.

10 More Modes In-Game!
And that’s not all! In the game you can discover ten more modes — from very challenging to very silly. Thank you so much for providing us with countless fantastic ideas. Have fun! We can’t wait to hear what you think.

What’s next?
You probably guessed the answer. It’s about time for a new map! We’re already on it behind the scenes and will share it with you as soon as we can! As always, thank you for being such a great community. You make working on Thronefall so much fun!

All the best,
Jonas & Paul

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[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]

- Towers that are meant to attack the closest enemy actually do that correctly now. (Ooops)

- Fixed a bug that incorrectly reset the damage modifiers of shrines when continuing from a saved match.

- Fixed a bug that caused enemy archers not to attack in certain situations.

- Ring of Resurrection makes it so your own health resets to full health the first time you respawn as intended.

- Game no longer crashes when you have too many coins.

- King health bar is now always displayed above all other health bars.

- Heavy sword manual attack visual effect adjusted to better reflect its attack range and direction (this weapon will likely need some more attention in the future, this is a quick fix)

- Eternal trials loadout navigation fixed to always cycle in the correct direction.


[h3]Balance Changes:
[/h3]
- Ballistic Spire now ignores the "armored against ranged" tag on enemies. This means the ballistic spire deals +66% damage against battering rams. Other interactions should be unaffected.

- Heavy Sword splash area increased. Damage increased by +10% and by +40% against ranged units.

- Your berserks have additional resistance against fire and explosion damage (66% of explosion damage is blocked, 50% of fire damage is blocked)

- Flying wizards no longer keep attacking walls when no other priority targets are nearby.

- Rams have smarter targeting and no longer chase after pointless wall pieces.

- Implemented a tie-breaker mechanic that slowly deals damage to an enemy anywhere on the map if at least 60 seconds have passed since an enemy or a building was last destroyed (and no boss enemies are on the map). This is to reduce ridiculous wait times and soft-locks for edge cases only.

- Magic armor deals +20% more damage.