Armello News

For the next week, complete Multiplayer games for a chance to find a glorious set of the round Solar Dice. You can find multiple sets of these dice, so collect multiple sets and share the love with your pals.

START: Tomorrow, Tuesday 25th of June, 6:00pm Pacific Time
END: Next Week, Tuesday 2nd of July PT.
HOW: Play Multiplayer Games (Public or Private are both fine) on Steam.
DROP CHANCE: 10% per your first three drops a day. If you receive
a chest after playing a game, it's a valid game that had a chance to yield a Solar Dice.


If you have any questions please feel free to let 'em fly. Have fun, good luck and may the dice roll in your favour.

EDIT: This event has been extended by a week. ENJOY!

Welcome to the patch notes for this here big ol’ patch, v2.0.2. We have some fixes, general improvements and some balance adjustments. Check below for annotations surrounding each and every balance change we’ve implemented.

Check it out, spread the word and have fun. Please hit us up if you have any questions and please let us know how you go!

• Several localisation improvements, integrated from community feedback since 2.0!
  (Specifically most of the improvements were directed at Traditional Chinese with 1450 strings updated, Korean second with 540 strings updated)
  
• Show notification when Bounty is upgraded (previously only appears for new bounties).
  
• Players in a disconnected state have had their turn timers halved.
  
• "I am waiting" automatic message has been capped to once per turn.
  
• Quest selection sequence has been made a little faster.
  
• New pages have been implemented to the Game Guide for Clan Grounds, Hero Mastery and Reconnection.
  
• Implemented a notification on launch to players that don't meet Armello's minimum requirements.

• AI takeover now works as intended!
  (If you still experience issues with this, please send bug reports through as we've improved the logging and reporting around this too)
  
• Fixed an issue where quest outcomes were displaying incorrectly (showing a success when you'd failed and vice versa).
  
• Fixed an issue where private lobbies may not progress if players were attempting to use DLC heroes they don't own (DLC sharing).
  
• "Find Parties" toggle once again correctly works as intended.
  
• The King's victory-specific death animations are once again functioning as intended.

• If a player doesn't select a hero in hero select, the game can sometimes hang in an NMA state.
  
• Plague Bearers incorrectly grants Prestige rather than spending it.

⭐ = Mechanical change, rather than numerical.

Trickery Deck
The Trickery Deck has some really interesting mechanics and evocative cards, but compared to the Spell and Item decks the cards you draw are generally too situational. We want to push the Trickery deck into a place where cards are more reliably beneficial to the player and therefore on average stronger, whilst bolstering the deck's mechanical identity. The Trickery Deck should feel like a more viable choice when drawing cards, and these tweaks are a nice nudge in the right direction.

Hoodwinked
Hoodwinked is a powerful card that has some really interesting fringe combinations with things like Rot and Card Stealing. More of these should encourage versatile, clever plays.

• Quantity up to 2 (from 1)

Mercenaries
Mercenaries' effect is quite similar to other cards and the Trickery Deck is quite large as it is. It can be safely reduced in quantity.

• Quantity down to 3 (from 4)

⭐Merry Thieves
Merry Thieves is thematically amazing, but has felt underwhelming when you can't guarantee personal gain. We feel this new effect acts as a more reliable, staple gold stealing card for the trickery deck.

• New Target: (Play on) Any Tile (was Settlement, Forest)
  
• New Effect: Steal 3 Gold and give 1 gold to the poorest Hero
  (Was: Steal 2 Gold and give it to the poorest hero)

Disguise
Stealth is a fairly iconic element of the Trickery Deck and this is the only card that grants it, thus let there be more.

• Quantity up to 2 (from 1)

Reprieve
Reprieve is a bread-and-butter function of the Trickery deck, but is a card that suffers too much from having a Prestige cost. As Bounty Manipulation is part of the core Trickery Identity, it should be a regular tool that doesn’t feel punishing to use.

• Cost changed to 2 Gold (from 1 Prestige)

⭐Bounty
Since the Bounty system overhaul, the Bounty card's effect always felt lacking as it didn't have the capacity to upgrade a preexisting Bounty. Now it does.

• New effect: Places Bounty on Target, or Upgrades existing Bounty.
  (Was: Places a Bounty on Target)

Expendables
We want expendables to be expendable, but currently they are TOO expendable.

• Quantity down to 3 (from 5)

Emissary
Nice Settlement, it would be a shame if someone took it. This card feels like it should be a staple of the Trickery Deck but we're also sensitive to its strength and feel. Let's see how two copies goes.

• Quantity up to 2 (from 1)

⭐Stone Wards
This card will hopefully feel a little more whelming. It's a powerful change, but there is only a few in the deck so it should feel rewarding to find.

• Stone Wards can now target occupied Settlements and resolve as if the inhabitant had entered a Stone Circle.

Devious Ruse
4 is simply 2 many.

• Quantity down to 3 (from 4)

Arson
With Arson, we really wanted players to know that burning down a Forest in Armello is a truly heinous act (I guess the same applies to real human life too), and we told that story by giving this card a really high Prestige cost. Unfortunately history has shown that Prestige cost cards are hard to play in general, so this change felt necessary.

• Cost down to 1 Prestige (from 2)

⭐Crooks
Trickery cards have a built-in tile condition that feels relatively uncontrollable. The old version of Crooks has a different effect based on whether or not your target has Gold to steal, and this ultimately felt out of your control. The old effect is also quite similar to Hidden Trap AND Mercenaries, so it felt like a good opportunity for a revamp. The new version of this card has a conditional effect, but with Scout as a trigger, hopefully it feels more interactive and controllable. Also, please welcome some mythical SCOUT SYNERGY!!!

• New Effect: -2 Gold, if target is Scouted they retreat.
  (Was: -2 Gold. If target can't pay, -1 Health and -1 Action Point)

Plague Bearers
Sending the sick and diseased to infect your enemies is apparently something that happened in history, which is a pretty messed up thing in human Earth history AND ALSO a messed up thing in non-human Armello history! By changing the cost to Prestige, we lean into the dishonour of it all rather than it being an action that corrupts. This also cleans the Trickery Deck of all traces of Rot-costs in the process. Neat.

• Cost changed to 1 Prestige (from 1 Rot)

⭐Pick Pockets
Did someone say Scout synergy? Similarly to Crooks, Pick Pockets has been reworked.

• New Effect: Steal 2 Gold, if target is Scouted, Steal 1 Equipped Item.
  (Was: Steal 2 Gold. If target can't pay, Steal 1 Equipped Item.)

⭐Slanderous Toads
Slanderous Toads is a little convoluted and we wanted to clean it up, simplify the effect and make it more reliable. Hope you dig it.

• New Effect: -2 Prestige. If target is the Prestige Leader, Steal the Prestige instead.
  (Was: -1 Prestige per Claimed Settlement (Clan Grounds included).)

The most chosen Amulets are naturally the simple, stat amulets. You start with them unlocked, they provide a verifiable bonus that your enemies OR the sweet devil RNG can't mess with. We're comfortable with this, but we really want the others to feel like a valid choice either for fun, or to attend to something that you might consider un-fun. First thing is first, Harmonise and Decay.

⭐Harmonise
This Amulet doesn't see a lot of play and hopefully this adjustment nudges it in the right direction.

• Effect Change: While not Corrupt, in Battle all Rot Symbols in your hand change to Wyld symbols.
  (Was: While not Corrupt, in Battle, all Rot Cards in your hand change to Sun symbol.)

⭐Decay
Now we get to say "pick the Decay Amulet" when someone tweets at us saying "I'm Corrupted and my quest is in a Stone Circle".

• Effect Change: Heal 2 Health for each Rot gained, limit Corruption Stone Circle damage to 3.
  (Was Heal 2 Health for each Rot gained, and lose 1 Health for each Rot lost.)

Some clans have a really good spread of Signet use like Wolves and Bandits for example, but the Bear Clan specifically seems to have a bit of an issue in terms of choice, so we have focused our efforts accordingly, whilst sharing the love a little. We really want players to feel torn when making this choice, and we want players to have fun experimenting with different kits. Enjoy!

⭐Aquamarine (Bear)
Armello is about keeping your options open, which makes signets that "turn off" feel quite bad.

• New Effect: In Battle and Perils at night, +1 Moon.
  (Was:+1 Moon and +1 Explode Pool while you have 3 Rot or less.)

⭐Taaffeite (Bear)
Bears typically have large Spirit, which makes Explode Pool rarely beneficial. This is actually why we feel comfortable with this new effect which seems quite bonkers from a distance, but Spirit is the stat that probably suffers the most from diminishing returns. Fear Ghor.

• New Effect: +1 Shield and +1 Spirit in Forests
  (Was: +1 Shield and +2 Explode Pool in Forests)

⭐Amber (Bear)
Exploding dice are fun. We're juicing Amber up with one.

• New Effect: Burning Sun and Moon Cards in Battle is always a Hit, first one Explodes.
  (Was: Burning Sun and Moon Cards in Battle is always considered a Hit.)

⭐Sunstone (Rabbit)
If the Bear Clan gets a treat, so should the Rabbit Clan. This Signet was similar in function, and use rate to Aquamarine so we're nudging it in the same direction.

• New Effect: In Battle and Perils at day, +1 Sun.
  (Was: In Battle and Perils, +1 Sun result while you have 3 Gold or more.)

⭐Obsidian (Rat)
This new effect is a little more complicated, but tells a great story. Scout has had value issues, but hopefully with the Trickery Card changes and this little buff - this choice feels valid.

• New Effect: Gain Scout on all your claimed Settlements and any Creature that claims one from you until the end of your next turn.
  (Was: Gain Scout on all your claimed Settlements.)

⭐Chrysocolla (Wolf)
Do you smell blood? Now you can not only see the weak, but hunt the weak.

• New Effect: Grants scout on, and +1 Sword in combat against heroes with 3 Health or less
  (Was: Grants scout on heroes with 3 Health or less)

Hey y’all,

For those that don't know me, I'm Woody, executive producer on Armello.

First off, we recognise that v2.0 and its immediate support has been a little rough, and made worse by our lack of communication, especially towards future plans for Armello. I’m here today to fill you in on some of the whys for that, and to update you all on where Armello is heading for the year, and beyond. This’ll be a lengthy post, because I want to address as much as I can.

Growing Pains

Working in production at LoG, I’ve seen our ability to operate as a games-as-a-service studio grow and evolve all the way from early access to v2.0. I’m truly proud of what we’ve achieved and stand behind our GaaS development cycles and methodology. That said, recently we haven’t met the high standards we hold ourselves to.

As you may know, we've had a second project in the building for quite some time now and we are hiring and expanding. Going from a single project to a multi-project studio is one of the toughest challenges you can undertake in videogame development. Your production methodology, your company structure, even your project accounting, needs to change. However, for all our successes in scaling the studio, actually finding and hiring the right people for this exciting next phase of LoG’s history has proven the single most difficult challenge.

(In case you're interested, https://careers.leagueofgeeks.com/ )

This has left us in a situation where for the last 6-9 months we have been under-resourced across both projects. For the new project, that’s not as critical as it’s still years away from release. However for Armello, that’s a live game requiring ongoing support, so when we feel the strain of a lack of resources, unfortunately you feel it too.

Compounding that for Armello, we’ve also had a couple of critical Armello team members leave to pursue personal projects - they're gonna do great things!

So if you’re wondering why we’ve been slower than our usual selves to fix particular issues or provide more context as to what’s happening here in the studio; that’s why.


The upside to all this is that we do have a very dedicated team here at the studio making Armello the best it can be, and we have a bunch of rad stuff in the pipeline. Our goal is and has always been for us to deliver the best content we can, in a healthy and sustainable way for our developers. GaaS production is a marathon, not a sprint, so when the options are crunch our team and work longer hours or delay releases and support - we’ll always choose the latter. It’s always proven better in the long term, for our studio, our team, our games, and of course, for you, our players.

Hiring the right talent for our studio is always our highest priority, because it’s the team at LoG that makes amazing things for you. We really do appreciate you bearing with us whilst we weather the growing pains.

So what do we have in the pipeline…?



After the immediate release support for v2.0, due to resourcing issues mentioned the team moved onto our next (and really exciting if I may say so) major DLC. However, we hear you loud and clear; currently Armello is not at the standard you expect from us or the high standards we set ourselves, so we’ve pivoted from the new DLC (now due for release later this year) and instead will be dedicating the next few months towards addressing the bug fixes and significant Quality of Life (QoL) improvements you’re all asking for. We’ve also got a balance patch that primarily attends to the Trickery Deck. The first of these patches is coming within the next 2 weeks.

Here are just some of the things we plan on hitting over the next weeks and months:

• Ensure AI takeover is working as intended, and make it feel less invasive for remaining players.
  
• Ensure Quest outcomes function correctly and speed up the process a little bit.
  
• Clarify the implications of “Offline Mode”, better communicating that Hero XP and chest drops become unavailable in this mode.
  
• Party Widget improvements designed to make the flow of entering a multiplayer game and grouping with friends more seamless and intuitive.
  
• Fix up an issue preventing players from progressing from a private lobby to a game.

Mobile

As many of you know, we launched Armello on iOS in early 2018 and Android a little later. The decision to come to mobile was one made very early on in the Kickstarter phase, before it had even been released on Steam. As we moved through development we became skeptical that a game like Armello was the right fit for the platform (without severely compromising the game’s direction and integrity). Regardless, we honoured our Kickstarter promise and released the iOS and Android versions.

We’re proud of the iOS and Android version of Armello, but unfortunately it wasn’t as commercially successful as we had hoped. Due to this, and also the unavoidable fact that Mobile versions require a large amount of custom UI and content adaptation, a bittersweet announcement we’re making today is that mobile versions of Armello will not receive any major updates. This means v2.0 and any future content we develop will not be coming to mobile. That said, Armello and its mobile multiplayer services are here to stay. It’s free and always there if you ever find yourself looking to play some Armello while you’re out and about (or even introduce a friend to the game). Also content that exists already, such as dice collections, will continue to cycle as planned.

Growing as a studio means leaning into our strengths and focusing on where we want to leave our mark on this medium, and as such, larger scale experiences (likely on computers and consoles) is where our efforts will be placed for the foreseeable future.

Nintendo Switch

The Switch build has been… troublesome for us. Armello is such a great fit for the platform but there are severe low-level crash issues that are impacting our players in a serious way that we haven’t been able to crack. This issue seems to evade Nintendo’s crash reporting system and certification process, many of our internal QA processes and procedures, including automation.

In no way does this mean we’re not doing everything we can to fix this. We’re in discussions with several different Switch experts as well as Nintendo, and are using all relevant resources to get this solved ASAP.



We’re going to bring the DLC pack and wrap up all of Armello’s improvements including v2.0 into a hefty console update for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. These take a lot of time, and it’s entirely possible that these might be our final console updates.

Beyond the slated improvements to Armello and planned DLC, we're looking to really engage and continue our conversation with you, the community.


Thank you!

The videogame industry is a rapidly changing beast, the way we play, make and exist around games has changed so much even in the four years since our little indie studio launched a game called Armello. "Games as a service" barely existed as a concept back then for indie games, and now it's almost an expected part of a game’s life cycle.

We'll continue to be a studio that cares about our team and our community alike.

We will continue to be a studio that listens to you, and learns from our mistakes - we know we've made them - as we realise acknowledging and growing from them is what matters most.

We will also continue to develop games in a healthy and sustainable way. This will mean we can't deliver on your every wish and things will take longer than expected from time to time. However, what we can do is communicate more with you when these times arise - and we will.

We love Armello just as much as you do, and we want to see it remain as glorious, as beautiful and as magical as it can be. We wouldn’t have been able to get Armello to where it is now without your support, so on behalf of everyone here at LoG, I want to thank you, our community, for all your ongoing support.


Cheers,

Howdy!

You may or may not have noticed that the Wyld's Dawn Dice Event is LIVE! With it comes Double Drops after games too. So get in there, hook up the colourful Wyld's Dawn dice and a bunch of others in the process.

It's worth noting that these are rare dice, so you’re not guaranteed a drop. You can find multiple sets though, so be sure to hand them out to your pals or put 'em on the marketplace if you find them.

ALSO, Armello is on sale. The base game is 50% off and all of the DLC is 30% off, so if that's up your alley get on into it.








Any questions, please hit me up!

Winter is leaving our lands and with the Sun rising higher every day, the Wyld’s Dawn is here! Young pups across Armello are being presented with the Wyld’s Dawn Dice that are created by skilled laboured paws for this special holiday.

During this holiday, you will have a small chance of receiving a Wyld’s Dawn Dice after completing Public Multiplayer games. These are rare dice, so you’re not guaranteed a drop.

To celebrate, there will be DOUBLE drops activated, meaning DOUBLE the regular loot!

Start: April 29th, 10:00 am Pacific Time

End: May 6th, 10:00 am Pacific Time

Game mode: Steam; Public and Private Multiplayer




Lisy