Unsung Ballads News

Hi Everyone,

We're excited to reveal the latest update, introducing two interconnected systems into the game: Duties and Attributes.

The attribute system, acronym S.A.D.I.C., adds more depth to the character progression and performance. Attributes values can range from Abysmal to Balladic with 7 total levels, and can be improved through training, combat and duties, and affect many different aspects of the character, from the damage they deal with certain weapons, to how many cards they can draw and keep in their hand at the end of the turn.

You can now hover over each one to get a list of current bonuses and what the next level would bring.


You can also hover over each combat attribute to see where the different bonuses are coming from.


The other major system, the Duties, is primarily used to boost attribute progression, at least at lower ranks.
Duties are assigned at intervals of 3 days for Trainees and 5 for higher ranks. When it is time for duty, the "Pass Time" hourglass button turns into a duty button, and a new badge also appears on the map.


You can't train until you complete the duty, but you can still go on missions as those take priority in the eyes of the Legion.

As a trainee, you will only have access to 3 duties initially, and that number increases as you go up the ranks.
When it's time for your assigned duty, a new screen will show the available duties as cards for you to inspect. Selection is done with cards face down currently, but the plan is to have up to 5 cards and have the cards face up in certain cases.


One thing to note about the Duties screen is that it has a lot of animations, some of them quite long. The good news is you can skip them by pressing SPACEBAR. One of our philosophies is "do not waste the player's time needlessly", so this is the first step in aligning the execution of our game with that philosophy. Animations are great, they are the bread and butter, the cherry on the topping, but when you've seen the same one the hundredth time it can become annoying. So we took a page from Civilization here.

Apart from these two major systems, there have been several touches to UI, and bug fixes, all of which we'll detail in another post.

Thank you for your continued support!
If you haven't already please wishlist and consider buying our game, or if you have any questions or feedback don't hesitate to contact us on the forums or our Discord.

Enjoy!

Hi All,

The Steam Summer Sale is just around the corner, so if you were planning to buy the game, wait a little bit longer.



As for development, I am still hard at work on the duties and attributes system, the latter of which has been the focus for the past two weeks. Progress is steady, with most attribute effects implemented. In the next couple of weeks, the focus will shift back to duties in order to complete their implementation and finish off the integration of the two systems.

That's all for now, have a marvelous weekend!

Hi All,

It's been two busy weeks since the last update.

I have been working on the Duties feature; please take a look at the concept below.


In your journeys through the lands of Unsung Ballads, the Legion will call upon you to undertake periodic, mandatory, and (sometimes) menial duties. These tasks will be represented by a unique set of cards, from which you will draw three initially and up to five as you ascend the ranks of the Legion.

Initially, you will have to do a blind selection of the duty, meaning the cards will be flipped after you've had a chance to inspect them. The selection will change through progression to be more strategic rather than random.

Our philosophy is "bells and whistles shouldn't waste the player's time." With that in mind,
it took a bit more effort to animate the cards and ensure the animations were all skippable.

There's still work to finish the feature, and before we release it, we'll need to implement another system that's currently missing and integrate it with the Duties one. The hint is in the cards.

We've also been hard at work, signing up for the game for a few events, but we still need participation confirmations. We'll drop the news when we do.

That's all for now, have a lovely weekend!

Hi all,

Today's small update changes how the initiative works during combat:
- initiative values are now correctly taken into account; before, all characters started at 0
- delaying the turn will decrease the initiative at the end of the round by the character's max AP value
- ending the turn without taking any actions will not affect initiative
- initiative increases at the end of the round by the number of spent APs, provided the character didn't delay their turn

Other changes:
- Inventory visual update
- A few combat visual updates
- various UI/UX bug fixes

Enjoy!

Hi all,

Today, we bring you another vital feature: sparring!

If you felt that combat was brutal and there wasn't any chance to experiment, this is the update for you. Sparring is a combat scenario that doesn't end the game when defeated.
You can access it through the new interactable badge.



Upon clicking it, you will be presented with a short dialogue, and then you'll face a force similar to your team.



And since Sparring is now implemented, the Trainee rank now tracks your sparring sessions. Hint: you don't have to win them.

Enjoy!