Early Access Update 1.1
Dear Kings and Queens,
We just rolled out the first regular Update for Thronefall. Here is a quick summary of what changed:
• Key Rebinding: This has been requested a lot and should obviously be part of every decent game. It is now possible to set up your own control configurations. By default everything should work like it used to, but due to technical reasons you might have to rebind movement to the W A S D keys if you were used to it. This is because there’s only one slot to bind per action per input device and the default binding for movement is the arrow keys. On the upside a lot more controllers should be supported now.
• Upcoming Night Preview: Another much requested feature. The pause menu now displays a summary of the enemies attacking during the next night in the pause menu. There you can read a quick description for each of those enemies and see how many nights you’re away from your next victory. This should help a lot in making the right preparations.
• More specific tooltips for Perks and Mutators: Many of you were understandably annoyed by the lack of information in some of the tooltips in the perk selection. You’ll find specific numbers and percantages, instead of some vague “does much more damage” blabla there now. We know that some other places in the game could very much use the same treatment as well. We'll see what we can do! ;)
• Balancing Changes: Based on your feedback we tweaked many of Thronefall’s endless balancing parameters. The new version should play more intuitively and increase the overall fairness of the game. You’ll find a comprehensive list of all changes at the end of this post :)
That’s it for this update – now we’re off to work on new gameplay content. We’re excited to share the next level and maybe even a little surprise with you soon. Thank you all for being such an amazing community, thank you for providing us with tons of useful feedback. It made working on this update a joy.
All the best
Jonas & Paul
Here are the balancing changes in full detail:
[h2]GAME BALANCE
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As you can see we do not want to be shy about making necessary balance adjustments in this early phase of early access. We greatly value all the feedback you’ve provided us with and tried to reflect it as best as we could in the following changes.
[h3]YOUR UNITS:
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- Your units will only start chasing after enemies once they arrive at the position you sent them to. That means your units will obey your orders much more strictly and not get distracted on the way when you send them somewhere.
- Your melee units have a small agro range in hold position mode now so they will no longer watch their comrades being slaughtered right next to them in hold position.
- Units on hold position lose their hold position state when they die and respawn
This is to prevent some exploits and unwanted behaviors
Hunters:
- Prioritize attacking monsters when different enemy types are in range
- Arrow range increased by +40% when attacking monsters
Hunters, while strong in certain situations, were not the most exciting unit to build. This should help you make much better use of their strengths.
[h3]ENEMY UNITS:
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Elite Crossbowmen:
- Instead of attacking immediately when you enter their range they will foreshadow their attack with a red line giving you some time to react.
Some of you complained that the elite crossbows were too strong and frustrating to play against. While the difficulty is not something we want to change (it has to get more difficult somehow), we agree that they need more counter-play so they are more fun to play against, which should be the case now.
- Attack speed increased by 20%. Elite crossbows lost a lot of dps (damage per second) to the change above. This adjustment brings their dps roughly back to the old level. That being said, if you micro well, they will barely deal any damage to you and your troops now.
Extra note: Towers are generally a good counter to elite crossbows as well.
[h3]WEAPONS:
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Long Bow:
- Renamed to "Bow & Dagger"
Better reflects the character of this weapon as it is both ranged as well as melee.
- the stab automatically prioritizes lower health units and stab range increased by 20%
This is the first weapon you play with so the main purpose of this weapon is to be beginner friendly, not powerful beyond belief. That being said, we want to allow for some more expression of skill and reward making good use of the stab mechanic. With these changes, skilled players should be able to get quite a bit more out of this weapon making it a more viable pick for them.
Spear:
- Damage reduced by -5%. Damage against fast enemies increased by +5% (so unchanged). The spear was a bit too strong as an all round weapon. Enemies without the "fast" tag will take one or two more hits to kill now.
Sword:
- Auto attack damage increased by +5%, manual attack damage increased by +10%
Not that it really needed the power increase at a higher skill level, but this should make the weapon a bit more fun to use and learn for more casual players as well.
[h3]LEVELS:
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Durststein:
- Added some additional enemies coming in from the right (where the mills are) in some waves. Protecting the mills was a bit too easy on Durststein. This also makes the level a bit more difficult (which should hopefully be fine considering it felt like the easiest level for a lot of you and also considering all of the other buffs in this patch).
- Final wave has some extra ogres coming from the front in the end
This wave could at times feel a little anticlimactic as all of the enemies are trickling in a bit. This should help with that.
[h3]META PROGRESSION:
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- Required XP for leveling up reduced across the board by roughly -30% (varying depending on the specific level a bit)
- Some mutators give a bigger score and XP boost as well now.
So far only 10% of players reached the maximum meta progression level unlocking all available perks. On top of that, some people have complained about the meta progression feeling a bit grindy. That was not our intent. In Thronefall the main purpose of the meta progression is to reduce decision paralysis and complexity for new players. Looking at the numbers and the feedback we received from you, we're happy to speed up this leveling process.
- "Warrior Mode" and "Commander Mode" perk are moved to an earlier point in the meta progression. We received feedback that perks do not feel impactful enough. This feedback usually comes from newer players who feel a bit underwhelmed with the perks they unlock early on so we want to move some of the higher impact perks to an earlier point in the meta progression. Please note: This means the perks you have already unlocked might change a bit as a result of this adjustment.
- Castle center upgrades reordered in the meta progression
Due to the castle center upgrades being rearranged in game we had to do the same in the meta progression. Please note: This means you might have different upgrades at your disposal now compared to before this patch.
[h3]CASTLE CENTER UPGRADES:
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Assassin's Training:
- The old effect of this upgrade is completely scrapped scrapped. New effect: Doubles the cooldown of your auto-attack but it increases your attack damage by +250%. The main idea of this upgrade was to reward you for skillful play in combat. The previous effect of this upgrade was a bit too confusing and not as interesting as we hoped so we feel like this might be a simpler and more elegant solution to achieve the same thing but better.
Commander Mode:
- Instead of the healing aura this upgrade now allows your units to attack while you command them. This upgrade was intended to be for those who enjoy micro-managing their units and should allow for some expression of skill in that regard. We felt like any "punishments" for moving your units should definitely be removed from this upgrade path. In our opinion this upgrade path makes a lot more sense now and the advantage you gain from this is equal or greater than the healing aura for sure.
Upgrade Order:
- The Godly Curse and Magic Armor switched places in the castle center upgrade choices. That means Magic Armor can now be selected as a lvl 2 upgrade and Godly Curse is a castle center lvl 3 upgrade. There were two offensive upgrades in the lvl2 choices of the castle center that had too much overlap with each other (Godly Curse and Assassins Training both increase your damage in slightly different ways). Rearranging the upgrades like this resolves this problem and makes both the lvl 2 as well as the lvl 3 choice a bit more interesting.
[h3]BUILDINGS:
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Towers:
- "Iron Plates" tower renamed to "Fortress Tower"
- Fortress towers still have the same insane amount of health but they can now shoot two arrows at once. (That means an incredible +100% extra damage output.) Hot oil and ballista towers are extremely powerful so this one better be powerful, too, to keep up. This makes the fortress tower a better all round option for your front line. (It was definitely way too weak considering its price before.)
- Healing orbs from healing towers travel 50% faster. Healing towers are likely never gonna be something you will clutter all over the place, but a healing tower here and there can still be nice for long waves. Faster travel speed for the healing projectiles means you and your units are more likely to survive in battle (the amount healed is already quite good so let's keep that unchanged for now).
Mill:
- Explosive Mills deal +30% more explosion damage when destroyed (on every mill level).
- Scarecrow range increased by 20% and projectile speed increased by 20%
- Wind spirit range increased by 15%
The economic upgrade of the mill was still too attractive compared to the other options you can choose here. This should help a bit.
[h3]PERKS:
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Our goal for perks is to make each of them feel as impactful as possible. That's why this list is pretty much buffs only. Some perks did not feel all that useful, yet, so we want to make sure each perk has its place in at least some viable builds.
Royal Mint:
- On top of the passive income from the castle center this perk also gives a starting gold bonus of +1 now. This perk was already quite useful but we want to make perks feel as impactful as possible so let's help this one out a bit more. This should make it more useful for low-eco levels like Frostsee
Heavy Armor:
- Health boost increased from +300% to +350%. This was already a pretty good perk but it was not used as much (probably due to the fact that the exact numbers were not shown in game). Just to make sure, we gave it a bit of an extra bump to make it even more useful for your warrior builds.
Ring of Resurrection:
- On top of giving you a fast revive once per night, this perk now also revives all or your dead units with you. Let's be honest, this perk was utterly useless before this update. Now it should be quite powerful and provide a new strategic option to play around with.
Pumpkin Fields:
- The health increase for fields has improved from +400% to +900%. This perk needed just a little bit of extra help. Increasing the income of fields further would be too powerful so let's hope this does the trick.
God's Lotion:
- Your health regeneration is improved from +100% to +120%. We want to help this perk out a bit, but we also feel like it's quite good already, so only making a careful adjustment here for now.
Gladiator School:
- Your units respawn +75% faster (up from +50% faster). Units are very powerful in Thronefall so having a faster respawn rate is a massive advantage. This perk also makes all barracks more expensive, which is quite a huge downside, though. This power increase should hopefully warrant the extra costs!
War Horse:
- The cooldown between damage ticks is reduced by 15% making this perk 15% stronger. It is more of a niche perk but it is quite powerful in certain situations and in the right builds, so only making a careful adjustment.
Big Harbors:
- In addition to all of the other benefits (more health, 2 more boat capacity) fishing harbors spawn with one boat on the water. Especially niche perks like this should be powerful in order to make sense. We hope this can also help people who are struggling with their economy on Frostsee.
Archery Skills:
- On top of the existing +60% range increase archers also get +20% move movement speed now. Making this perk more attractive for unit / commander type builds.
Faster Research:
- On top of upgrades finishing much faster they now also cost -1 gold. Making this perk more powerful and potentially helping with the economy on Frostsee.
Fortified Houses:
- Health increased from +150% to +250%. Making this a more viable option as a defensive perk.
Healing Spirits:
- All healing effects on you and your units are +65% more effective (up from +50%). This is not too bad because this also applies to your self-healing etc.
Ice Magic:
- The slow effect on enemies lasts +200% longer (up from +100%) and enemies move -30% slower while slowed (-25% before). Not even sure if this is enough to make this an interesting pick, but we hope this will at least help it in some niche builds on specific levels.
Melee Resistance:
- You, your units and your buildings start the game with +35% resistance against melee attacks (up from +30%). Small buff to make this perk more impactful.
Ranged Resistance:
- You, your units and your buildings start the game with +35% resistance against ranged attacks (up from +30%). Small buff to make this perk more impactful.
Power Tower:
- The attack speed of the tower closest to you is increased by +233% (up from +200%). This perk is quite powerful and fun to play around with so let's help it out a bit more to make sure it remains a viable pick in this ocean of perk-buffs.
Treasure Hunter:
- Gives you +50 gold (up from +40) before the last night. For casual players +60 would probably even still be a balanced amount but that would almost force highscore players to go with this perk, so let's meet in the middle.
Warrior Mode:
- Your own damage can increase all the way up to +160% (up from +150%). Making careful adjustments as this perk definitely has some game breaking potential when it's too strong.
[h3]MUTATORS:
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Challenge the Turtle God:
- Score Boost increased from +20% to +40%. For highscore hunters this was by far the least popular perk to pick. This change might not even be enough to fix that, but let's see what happens. This should open the doors for a possible shift in the meta at least.
Challenge the Snake God:
- Score Boost increased from +20% to +30%. For highscore hunters this was another unpopular pick for obvious reasons (gold being pretty important for your highscore) so this should help in making it a slightly more attractive choice to go with.
Challenge the Falcon God:
- The chase-the-player duration is decreased by -60% (instead of just -33% before) which makes it more difficult to distract enemies when this perk is active. This should make the mutator feel more impactful and bring it more in line with the difficulty increase of other mutators.
Challenge the God of Destruction:
- Buildings only heal 25% of their health per day (instead of 33% before). Trying to bring the difficulty increase more in line with the other mutators and trying to make mutators feel more impactful.
Challenge the Wasp God:
- Instead of only doubling the amount of enemies spawned in the first 3 waves, enemies also spawn in +25% faster in those waves now. As enemies kind of tend to trickle in a bit in the first waves, the difficulty increase from this mutator was not as noticeable as it should have been. This should bring it more in line with the other mutators.
[h3]MODDING:
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Two little goodies for the modding community:
- Enemies are in a Resources folder now. This should give you the possibility to spawn in your own enemies.
- Balancing data is in a Resources folder now. Modifying this won't do anything but you could use it to display additional data in game.
A New Weapon:
There were rumors of vast, fertile lands on the distant shores of the great sea. But just a few days after their arrival, some people claimed to have seen eerie shadows at the edge of the forest. Could they be believed?
