Alt-Art & Private Games | IWC 0.45 Alpha Patch Notes

Welcome to the newest patch for Infinity Wars Classic, Alpha version 0.45.

We've got a LOT of content for you, right before the holiday break, so strap in for HUGE patch notes. Also, for players who are patiently waiting for the Free to Play Beta launch, we've got something for you. As we mentioned in a blog post last month, the newest set Intrigue will be coming with a Kickstarter Campaign, that will be launching on the same day the IWC Free to Play Beta begins, so you can sign up to the Kickstarter campaign to get alerted the moment everything goes live! And, while you're there, take a look at our Kickstarter Perks and such. Sign up today HERE, or head to bit.ly/iwcintrigue.

[h3]Reminder: FREE DEMO[/h3]
This will be the last time we mention this, as the reminder is being changed to the email alert.
All players now have the ability to download Infinity Wars Classic through Steam directly. Just make sure your game is up to date and you'll be good to go! This is a great way to get hands-on with what we've created so far as a bit of a sample of what's to come.



[h2]Major Features[/h2]

Friends Panel and Private Invites
The ability to follow other players and create private games has been added, replacing the discord invite API which we were not particulaly happy with.
Private matches and more social features has been a very commonly requested feature, both as a way to tell who is online, but also to better run tournaments and other events.
You can access the friends panel in the bottom right hand corner, we look forward to hearing your feedback on this exciting feature.

Alternate Art Systems
As we continue to work on porting across Infinity Wars 1 accounts, we have to lay out the groundwork by porting across assets and creating systems to facilitate this. The newest and largest of these systems is the addition of alternate art cards. In the deckbuilder you can change the artwork you have selected by zooming in on the card and clicking the "change artwork" button.
For a limited time only, all alternate arts will be available to all players. These work in multiplayer, so be sure to showcase your favorites when you play.
Two pieces of alternate art: The 2016 Xmas Taiga, and the 2017 penta-pack Mark of the Demon are unfortunately not currently available.
However we have over a dozen never before seen alternate arts for players to discover and use. We'll be sure to have a way to unlock these once collections are fully available.

Quest System
A new quest system has been added for more dynamic and modular requirements, as well as better separating out IWC and IH specific quests. 30+ new quests have been added and will be assigned to players every 24 hours. We will continue to iterate on these, so be sure to give us your feedback on which ones you are finding satisfying or challenging.
Please note some previous quests have been made invalid, in this case you will receive a new quest.


[h2]Minor Features[/h2]

Hybrid and Gold Frames
IWC cards that belong to multiple factions have their card frames restored!
Multifaction will have their horizontally blended border while Hybrid cards will have the vertically connected half borders.


[h2]New IWC Cards[/h2]

Drason, Armory Keeper Cost:7 Morale:8 (GENx1)
Unique Character - Human
When Drason enters the Deployed Area, create an Upgrade in your hand.
Whenever you play an ability card, if Drason is in the Assault Zone, deal 2 damage to all enemy Characters on the battlefield.
20/14

Carlotta's Honor Guard Cost:4 Morale:8 (OoSx3)
Character - Angel
Flying
While Carlota, Queen of Solace is deployed, Carolota's Honor Guard gains +8/+8
8/8

Grayscale Cost:6 Morale:4 (Factionless)
Unique Character - Artificial Human
When Grayscale enters combat with a Character, Grayscale retreats, and that Character loses all text, buffs, and debuffs. This effect is retained when leaving play.
14/6


New Cards But Restricted to Devs only for testing:

• Lilariah, Voice of Change
  
• Hinekri, Growing Bored
  
• Siege Engineers
  
• Xac, Lost to Lunacy
  

[h2]New IW1 Cards[/h2]

• Overcharged Bolt
  
• Splat
  
• War Machine
  
• Single Combat
  
• Construction
  
• Dark Vision
  
• Overcharged Bot
  
• Vis, The Furious
  
• Solace's Peace
  
• Hunted Down
  
• Find Your Way
  
• Lanstead
  
• Junkyard
  
• Vasir, The Chained Prince
  
• Aleta, Immortal Traveler
  
• Orion, Master Architect
  
• Tygris, The Architect
  
• Acolyte of the Altar
  
• Suffering Verorian
  
• Champion's Herald
  
• Voracious Goliath
  
• Alearem, The Fate Twister
  
• Nix, Justiciar of Dawn
  
• Evellee, Mage Guild Recruiter
  
• Guard
  
• Rapid Iteration
  

[h2]IWC Redesigns[/h2]

We have a lot of redesign changes, most engine-based, and some temporary in nature.

Acolyte of the Altar Cost:1 Morale:4 (CoVx1)
Character - Human
Exhaust: Kill another target friendly unit. If you do and Acolyte of the Altar is deployed, target Ability in your hand costs 1 less.
4/4

Previous iterations of Acolyte of the Altar reduced the cost of an ability card in the planning phase, something we are not supporting. Instead the cost reduction has been made permanent and stackable. Finally changing from sacrifice to Kill better enables some of the "Aristocrats" decks we have been seeing with Commanders like Nero now that Sacrifice and Kill have greater mechanical seperation.

Tygris, The Architect Cost:5 Morale:12 (GENx2)
Unique Character - Human
Exhaust: Create one of five Artificial Genesis Characters
3/7
Options:
2 Cost: Lil' Timmy Bot
3 Cost Unending Drone
4 Cost Genesis Construct
6 Cost Unmanned Aerial Destroyer
11 Cost Mecha Dragon

Tygris's creation minigame presented us with unique UI design problems, and so while we briefly considered a nested Wish system, in the end giving an option of 5 different classic Genesis cards gave a similiar variety of choices and actually buffed the card in some scenarios due to a greated array of abilities on offer.

Orion, Master Architect Cost:4 Morale:10 (GENx2)
Unique Character - Human
Exhaust: Transform target card in your graveyard into an X/X Artificial Character, where X is twice its cost. You may play that card from your graveyard next turn.
4/8

Orion now uses the "play cards from graveyard" technology due to X costing. We are aware that this somewhat nerfs the card, will be looking at some possible buffs in the future.

Nix, Justiciar of Dawn
Cost:7 Morale:8 (FDx3)
Unique Character - Human
Charge
When you deploy Nix, return up to three target characters to their controller's support zone.
10/10

Creating a "Pay X" system for a tiny handful of cards wasn't feasible so we have locked the cost but made the design slightly more efficient to offset the loss of flexibility. We will revisit this at a later date, so stay tuned.

Vasir, the Chained Prince Cost:7 Morale:12 (CoVx2)
Unique Character - Demon
Flying, Unstoppable
Vasir starts the game Chained, and cannot attack or block while Chained. If Vasir dies or is removed from the game, he is shuffled into your deck Unchained instead.
3, Exhaust: Vasir becomes 34% unchained. If he is 100% unchained, move him to the support zone.
18/18

Vasir's punishment effect unfortunately isn't compatible with the engine currently, so the card has been reworked as a durable finisher that can be slowly freed over time.

Voracious Goliath
Cost:10 Morale:15 (CoVx2)
Character - Demon
Unstoppable
When you deploy Voracious Goliath, you may Overcharge it any number of times. For each time you overcharged, your opponent sacrifices a random Character.
20/20

Sacrifice mid-resolution isn't something we are supporting mid-engine, so while random sacrifice will continue to be an exiles mechanic, we are making an exception for this design.

Alearem, The Fate Twister
Cost:4 Morale:7 (CoVx2)
Unique Character - Human
At the end of turn, if Alearem is deployed and your health or morale are less than 1. If Alearem has been deployed for exactly 3 turns, your health and morale are set to 100.
0/10

While the old Alearem design was a really fun callback to the Dune board game, having dedicated UI at the start of a game for the card wasn't feasible, so we have reworked it slightly to be a enters deployed trigger, meaning you only have to guess 3 turns ahead but also giving your opponent a bit more warning of what it coming.

Suffering Verorian
Cost:1 Morale:2 (EXx1)
Character - Human
Exile 2
Whenever you discard a card, if Suffering Verorian is in your hand or graveyard, it gains +1/+1. The bonuses from this effect are retained between zones.
3/3

With the greater reliance on discard synergies and the exile mechanic in the faction, we didn't want a card with an Exile 0 ability and also felt the previous design tread too closely to Demonic Disciple. So we have reworked the card as a synergy piece, it getting bigger as you discard other cards or itself.

Evellee, Mage Guild Recruiter Cost:5 Morale:12 (Factionless)
Unique Character - Human
Pay 1, Exhaust, remove target deployed Character you control from the game: Recruit a Character costing X+1, where X is that Character's cost.
5/10

Due to both textbox size and the need to create a "Pay X" system for a tiny handful of cards, Evellee has been streamlined to be an exciting and much more reliable "Birthing Pod" style ability.
We are aware some players might be disapointed by the removal of the other ability, but hope to see this enable a number of whacky and interesting decks. And, again, we will be revisiting this in the future.

Aleta, Immortal Traveller Cost:5 Morale:5 (Factionless)
Unique Character - Human
If Aleta is in the graveyard for 6 consecutive turns, she is raised to the Support Zone at the end of the turn.
1, Exhaust: Search your deck for target Unlimited card, that card is placed in your hand.
6/16

The previous design let you create any Unlimited Character, this proved to have UI challenges that were not worthwhile for a single card design, thus we have modified the card to Tutor Unlimited cards, but buffed it by allowing you to also get Unlimited Ability cards such as Time for Fun.


[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

• Defiant Hunter's buff is no longer persistent between zones
  
• Nemophilist Angel's overcharge ability now only gives 1 extra resource, but grants an additional 4 morale.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Fixed Activated abilities and Exile graveyard cards not correctly checking player resources, meaning you can create infinite resources.
  
• Fixed Secluded Constructor only buffing via base stats, not full stats
  
• Fixed Secluded Constructor targetting
  
• Factionless cards added to your deck no longer make it illegal
  
• Fixed profiles and titles being reset in the future
  
• Fixed Caretaker of the Young's activation ability exhausting for 2 turns, not 1.
  
• Fixed Humble not permanently removing activated abilities if the humbled card was reanimated or returned to hand.
  
• Fixed Altar of Binding being a location, not a type.
  
• Fixed Once was Clean losing haste.
  
• Fixed Humble not working correctly with Infect
  
• Fixed Defensive Perimeter exhausting for two turns.
  
• Fixed Wild Hunt not putting cards in graveyard if you hit no targets
  
• Fixed Enlightenator overcharging every turn.
  
• Fixed flame dawn centurion and other cards that count characters in a certain zone not counting themselves
  
• Fixed artist credits on several tokens
  
• Fixed some exile tokens having factionless frames
  
• Fixed some cards using alternate arts as their default art
  
• Fixed Astatoth's spritesheet shaking around due to misalignment
  
• Fixed commanders being able to be played while exhausted
  
• Fixed Overcharged Bot not using the overcharge mechanic
  
• Fixed an issue with some overcharge cards that allowed you to infinitly overcharge the same card.
  
• Fixed Siphon Structure and other cards that cared about resources remaining causing desyncs
  
• Fixed Activation effects that have multiple variable costs not working correctly
  
• Fixed redirecting damage to a card that was already dead
  
• Fixed floating targeting arrows if the target was killed for a multitargetting card
  
• Fixed hand targetting cards working on queued ability cards
  

Again, check out the INTRIGUE PRE-LAUNCH PAGE to register your email, and hear all about our Free to Play launch and Kickstarter launch.

Happy holidays everyone!

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