Seedborne Soldiers News

[h3]Limited Demo[/h3][p]Our demo now ends after Map 1. The full game will be available in Early Access in just over a month! We will continue to make gameplay updates leading up to our EA release, so stay tuned.[/p][p][/p][p]Future updates (balance changes, etc) will affect both the demo and the full version of the game.[/p][h3]More updates:[/h3]

• [p]Bench and board tiles are a bit easier to click on[/p]
• [p]“Splash screen” added during loading when you first boot up the game[/p]
• [p]On the map screen, if you’ve selected a tile so that its rewards are showing on the right, you can hover over that tile’s icon above the rewards to see info about that tile.[/p]
• [p]On the post-combat screen, the text for losses now changes according to the severity of the loss[/p]
• [p]Auto-attack projectile speed increased for most units[/p]
• [p]The manual is no longer available via the settings menu (RIP)[/p]

• [p]The blue “loss flag” icon no longer shows up on completed non-combat rounds[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when loading the game while the tutorial was in a partially completed state[/p]

[p]We’ve got a few things cooking for our next update. The Divine and Martyr Traits are pretty bad right now, so we’re redesigning them. Martyr will have built-in on-death doubling (like Cosmia’s spell currently does), as well as having its strength buff affect summons. Divine will become a “healing matters” Trait that converts healing into damage. Both of these reworks will add new viable team compositions to the game, each of which should play pretty differently from any existing strategy.[/p][p][/p][p]We’re also working on a UX pass of all drag and drop mouse interactions. Moving units and items around should feel nicer with the launch of our next patch.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, we’ve just begun working on a pseudo-wiki which will serve as a compendium website with info on all the units and items in the game. (It’s not a true wiki because we’re not opening it to user-editing at launch, but it will look like a wiki). This should make theorycrafting more fun and easy, especially for players who are already used to doing that in TfT.[/p][p] [/p][p]Until next time![/p][p] [/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]As we prepare for our Early Access release around the end of October, we’re going to limit the free demo so that it ends after Map 1. This will happen by the end of the week. [/p][p][/p][p]While we don’t have an exact date for the full game to become available again via Early Access, it will happen after our participation in Steam Nextfest, which is October 13-20. It could be a week or two after the final day of Nextfest. 
[/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

[h3]UI Updates[/h3][p]Damage numbers were barely visible before, and the HP / MP UI was very basic placeholder. This has all been reworked and looks much better![/p][p][/p][p]MP bars now flash whenever units cast spells to make spellcasts clearer. Additionally, the bars are segmented (like the HP bars) to help players quickly identify units with small or large MP costs.[/p][p][/p][h3]Map 3 Balance[/h3][p]Normal enemy encounters have been too difficult on Map 3 for a while; a variety of changes this patch address that, as well as some related issues.
[/p][p]Additionally, in order to make Map 3 more interesting, there are now 5 possible enemy encounters per each difficulty level; this is up from 3 groups per difficulty level previously. (Maps 1 and 2 continue to use 3 groups per difficulty level; Map 3 is longer and thus warrants some distinct behavior). Also, the existing groups have been redone. Most notably, the Surrelior Soothsayer and Vicilicar Painseeker (the beam-shooters) no longer appear in the same group before difficulty level 3 encounters.[/p][p][/p][p]Changes to specific enemies are listed below.[/p][h3]Balance updates:[/h3]

• [p]-Units- Astrid has been reworked AGAIN; her On-hit damage no longer scales with her shield to reduce redundancy with Faithful Memory. Instead, she gains more passive On-hit damage each time she casts. This is almost definitely the last time she’ll be reworked. She’s perfect now.[/p]
• [p]-Units- Claira buffed; MP cost: 90 -> 80; Starting MP 20 -> 30[/p]
• [p]-Units- Amalldean buffed; now grants 70% movespeed in addition to the previous Attack Spd value[/p]
• [p]-Units- Mahadeva nerfed; heal amount down[/p]
• [p]-Units- Kalbarri nerfed; MP cost: 140 -> 160; Stone Circle stun duration: 2 / 3 / 4 -> 2 / 2.5 / 3[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Cerberus has been reworked:[/p]
  • [p]No longer damage multiple enemies per attack; no longer deals bonus damage if only 1 enemy is in range[/p]
  • [p]Attack damage down[/p]
  • [p]Now launches fireballs at the two most distant targets on each attack[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Echo Panic and her Ice Clone nerfed:[/p]
  • [p]Spell damage down slightly on both[/p]
  • [p]Echo Panic max MP: 80 -> 90[/p]
  • [p]Ice Clone HP: 512 -> 256[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Surrelior Soothsayer and Vicilicar Painseeker nerfed; beam damage: 480 -> 416[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Calmness Doser nerfed; stun duration per level: 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 -> 2 / 2.5 / 3[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Demon Soldier nerfed; stun duration per level: 3 / 4 / 5 -> 2.5 / 2.75 / 3[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Mother Statue nerfed; Silence duration now 3 seconds at all levels (previously lv2 Mother Statue had a 4s silence)[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Hill-Like Growth buffed; MP cost: 80 -> 70[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Brutalist buffed; shield amount doubled (but it was so tiny before)[/p]
• [p]-Items- Focus Bomb buffed; now also grants massive movespeed to your team for a couple seconds[/p]
• [p]-Items- Bulwark of rising Tides nerfed; Percent of Max HP converted to shield: 15% -> 10%[/p]
• [p]-Items- Faithful Memory nerfed; On-hit percent of shield damage: 40% -> 20%[/p]
• [p]-Items- Hellfire Insignia nerfed; On-death Crit: 35 -> 10, On-death Attack Spd: 15 -> 10[/p]
• [p]-Items- Jade Dreamblade nerfed; Attack Spd: 40% -> 30%[/p]
• [p]-General- Tier V crops are a bit rarer[/p]
• [p]-General- Map 1 Miniboss always drops a Trinket[/p]

[h3]More updates:[/h3]

• [p]The arenas on all maps now change subtly with enemy difficulty; there are two variants per map for non boss enemies, plus a third for each boss[/p]
• [p]Hover-over tooltips on units now show their archetype, range, and MP (in addition to the unit's proper name, which changes with level)[/p]
• [p]The Recycle Portal has been redone; it’s now animated and 3D instead of a static 2D image[/p]
• [p]The out-of-the-box intro has been revised to have less text so new players aren’t overwhelmed. (They’ll still be overwhelmed, but hopefully not by this text specifically).[/p]
• [p]Most models now have a 2nd auto-attack animation (but they’re not that different)[/p]
• [p]Ranged attackers now properly fire their projectiles from their bows, guns, hands, etc[/p]
• [p]If you view your team between fights, you’ll see that they’re no longer hovering in the air; they now stand on a solid slab of stone.[/p]
• [p]Various SFX tweaks, including “light-elemental” damage[/p]
• [p]Various VFX tweaks, including:[/p]
  • [p]Vulkathuna spell skybox art[/p]
  • [p]Light tier 2 and 3 AoE shockwaves[/p]
  • [p]Soulsteed graft (“Turn your soul into a horse”)[/p]
  • [p]“Psychic beams” to represent attacks from melee units with increased range. For example, if a guy with an axe gets his range boosted somehow, and he’s swinging his axe at thin air to damage his distant target, the axe now shoots a beam at the target to represent the damage.[/p]

• [p]Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause a crash when leveling up an equipped unit[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where Anemone Tree would stop casting for the rest of the fight after getting stunned[/p]
• [p]Color-changing effects on models are less likely to cause flickering[/p]
• [p]Tiers 2 and 3 of the Light Trait now work as intended[/p]
• [p]Mantle of Servitude now works as intended[/p]
• [p]Washing Machine’s Descend now works as intended[/p]

[p]I’ll probably make a second post about this, but in the meantime, here’s this:
[/p][p]We want to go into Early Access around the end of October (no specific date for that yet). At that point, we’ll start charging for our game; right now, the whole thing is available for free. So, we’ll need to limit the demo to only a portion of the content (probably just Map 1) before the EA release.  [/p][p]We’re also polishing things up and fixing bugs along the way.
[/p][p]I know—new content like Trinkets and Ruins are the most exciting updates, but the brunt of those will be implemented after EA (see the “Early Access” section on our store page for a list of stuff that we want to do between EA and the full release). Of course, we may get bored of bug-fixing and put in some new content here and there…
[/p][p]Stay tuned for more updates. Good luck on your runs.
[/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

[h3]New Bosses[/h3][p]Six new bosses have been added! Now, you have a chance to face one of three bosses at the end of each Map.[/p][p][/p][p]The following bosses have been added:[/p][p]Map 1:[/p]

• [p]Galvinaut the Engineer - Can a utopia be created through more perfect engineering? This guy says yes.[/p]
• [p]Slush-shaper Hurik - A farmer corrupted with newfound summoning power! Hey, he’s kind of like you.[/p]

[p]Map 2:[/p]

• [p]Florya, Blooming Vengeance - She spins and slices. Melee teams beware.[/p]
• [p]Vasunthygg, Ocean King - Gallenthygg’s old, crazy dad. He hits the whole board with AoE magic damage, so be prepared![/p]

[p]Map 3:[/p]

• [p]Kalinekrion the Wretch - He kills units from left to right; adjust accordingly.[/p]
• [p]Comrade Kurt* - Break through the barriers and charge the enemy sniper. Or don’t; I’m not your dad.[/p]

[p]*Visual effects on these enemies are placeholder.[/p][p]Further changes to boss mechanics are described below in the “Updates” section.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sound Effects[/h3][p]The game now has sound effects for most things. You can control them via the Settings menu. We hope you enjoy the beautiful cacophony of a late-game teamfight and the satisfying squelch of picking a unit from a Crop.
[/p][p]NOTE: A small number of sounds that are launching this patch will be updated or replaced in the next patch with ones that we like better.[/p][p][/p][h3]Items[/h3]

• [p]-New Trinket- Magic Rockets: Whenever one of your units casts a spell, that unit deals 60 Magic damage to a random enemy.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]UI[/h3][p]All of our main UI has been updated! Check out the following UI updates:[/p]

• [p]Colorful new Crops, with unique frames for each tier of unit[/p]
• [p]Glow animations to indicate when to click on stuff[/p]
• [p]View-switching icons in the top-bar (previously, these were text buttons in the bottom right)[/p]
• [p]Inventory bag with empty / non-empty states[/p]
• [p]Team portraits updated with traits and real-time damage meters
  [/p]

[p]It’s looking and feeling like a real game now.
[/p][p]Please excuse our un-updated Steam store page which still shows the old UI. It’ll get updated. Don’t worry about it.[/p][p][/p][h3]Boss mechanics[/h3][p]Previously, when you faced a boss and lost, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen over the next few attempts. If you dealt 40% of a boss’s HP, you’d probably deal 40% the next time, and then win easily on the 3rd attempt. Or, you’d realize that you didn’t have enough health to whittle down the enemy over the course of a few attempts, and you’d be screwed.[/p][p][/p][p]The boss mechanics have been updated so that the outcome feels less predictable. Now, when you lose to a boss, you get a team size upgrade. This is the upgrade you would previously have gotten after killing the boss (or, in the case of the last boss, a net-new upgrade). Can you utilize that extra unit to swing the fight in your favor?
[/p][p]Additionally, boss enemies that survive an attempt heal for 75% of their missing HP, and also, they’ll deal more damage if they beat you (a flat 40 each time they win). You can beat a boss on the first attempt with a strong team, but if you lose, you’ll have to utilize your team size upgrade to try to win on the next attempt (unless you’re very healthy, in which case you can make a third attempt). With this change, we’ve introduced tension during boss fights that was missing before, without resorting to making them one-attempt encounters and sacrificing their grandeur. [/p][p]Summary:[/p]

• [p]Bosses now deal a flat 40 damage to the player each time they win[/p]
• [p]Surviving boss enemies heal for 75% of their missing HP after each attempt[/p]
• [p]The player gets a team size upgrade after the first attempt[/p]
• [p]Boss stats have been rebalanced for this new system[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Visual Effects[/h3][p]We’re continuing to add visual effects to the game to make it feel more alive and to add clarity to combat. Now, every spell and effect has some associated visual, with no placeholder visuals remaining. We will continue to add to and refine what we have, but the majority is in. We hope you enjoy the explosions![/p][p]Non-exhaustive list of things that now have visual effects:[/p]

• [p]Spells[/p]
• [p]Effects[/p]
• [p]Units taking damage[/p]
• [p]Attack projectiles[/p]
• [p]Buffs / debuffs[/p]
• [p]Bombs and other consumables[/p]
• [p]Traits[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Skies[/h3][p]The sky backgrounds for all Maps are now updated with gorgeous new art! Check out the motion of the ocean (and sky) in a style that more closely matches the retro aesthetic of our combat arenas. [/p][p](We also have one more coming for Vulkathuna’s spellcast next patch!)[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance updates:[/h3]

• [p]-Traits- Slayer buffed: Cleave and bounce bonus damage doubled at all tiers[/p]
• [p]-Traits- Light nerfed at lower tiers:[/p]
  • [p]Tier 1 on-hit: 50 -> 40[/p]
  • [p]Tier 2 Primary on-hit: 100 -> 60; AoE on-hit: 50 -> 30[/p]
  • [p]Tier 3 unchanged[/p]
• [p]-Traits- Cleric bonus amplification nerfed at higher tiers:[/p]
  • [p]Tiers 1 and 2 unchanged[/p]
  • [p]Tier 3: 90 -> 80% [/p]
  • [p]Tier 4: 150% -> 120%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Astrid has been reworked. [/p]
  • [p]Spell: Now shields self for the same amount each cast instead of shielding for each enemy hit.[/p]
  • [p]Effect: Now deals bonus damage on-hit based on her current shield value instead of bonus damage every time she crits.[/p]
• [p]-Units- Moranbah can no longer target herself with her spell; this prevents wonky stall-out situations from occurring[/p]
• [p]-Units- Mildred Moon buffed; now stuns enemies for 1s when her glyph appears[/p]
• [p]-Units- Everett buffed; now stuns enemies for 0.75s when his glyph appears[/p]
• [p]-Units- Freja buffed; now slows Enraptured enemies by 50%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Fyiernan buffed with a new passive; now gains 18 / 20 / 30 bonus Attack depending on level[/p]
• [p]-Units- Vessian buffed; spell no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Abomination buffed; spell no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Servant of Heaven nerfed and buffed; spell heals for less, but no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Lobellia buffed; MP cost: 150 -> 120[/p]
• [p]-Units- Kincaid buffed; MP cost: 150 -> 120[/p]
• [p]-Units- Ganton nerfed; flat damage reduction halved at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Plutarch nerfed; spell damage and scaling down[/p]
• [p]-Units- Jorintht nerfed; damage from passive down by about 40%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Anatye nerfed; base Attack down at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Vleeli nerfed; initiative grants 5 less MP cost reduction at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Terra nerfed; shield amount down; MP cost: 90 -> 110[/p]
• [p]-Units- Phaisy nerfed; spell grants less Attack and Defense at levels 2 and 3 and MP cost 80 -> 90[/p]
• [p]-Units- Ixis nerfed; MP cost: 80 -> 90[/p]
• [p]-Units- Daniel nerfed; base Attack down at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Dancing Lancer nerfed; spell damage slightly lowered[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Cerberus nerfed; bonus damage down and group positioning adjusted[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Curse Jar nerfed; stun duration down[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Anemone Tree buffed; max HP up and summon damage increased[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Heshinger and Lilylittle buffed; max HP up[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Hellcore Armorguard buffed; damage from effect and healing from spell up[/p]
• [p]-Items- Winged Sandals nerfed; Reap MP: 10 -> 5[/p]

[p][/p][h3]More updates:[/h3]

• [p]The arena is now visible underfoot in between rounds[/p]
• [p]Bomb textures updated[/p]
• [p]You can now view map information during combat, or any other time, by clicking the map icon in the top bar (previously, you could view the map, but you couldn’t always see info about other revealed tiles on the map)[/p]
• [p]The volume sliders in the settings menu now adjust the volume linearly[/p]
• [p]You can now right-click a map tile to view its rewards before selecting it as a destination. If you want more info about rewards on the map, try right-clicking before left-clicking.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Thorbok’s Clear Shot no longer sometimes causes the game to hang[/p]
• [p]Kagakusha’s Cruel Experiment no longer sometimes causes the game to hang[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash caused by certain boss enemies with pairing mechanics[/p]
• [p]The Victory and Game Over music is now correctly controlled by the master volume setting[/p]
• [p]Ilm’s allies (the red units) units are now correctly vulnerable to all player spells and abilities[/p]
• [p]World-Ending Flood now properly resumes normal spellcasting behavior after failing to cast while crowd controlled[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where some units who pair could re-pair during combat[/p]
• [p]Mirani’s summon(s) can no longer do stuff while dead[/p]
• [p]Uma’s Effect now correctly only works while she’s in combat[/p]

[p][/p][p]We need to make a trailer soon, so we’re looking to polish up the remaining bits of placeholder UI, which include the HP/MP bars above units and the damage numbers that appear in combat. We also have a slight revamp to the out-of-the-box experience in the works.
[/p][p]After that, we’ll enter a phase of polishing, balancing, and bug-fixing as we prepare for our Early Access release before the end of the year! [/p][p][/p][p]It’s been a long road, and there’s still a long way to go, but damn, we’re pretty far along at this point. As always, please share any feedback about the game on Steam Community or on Discord. We want to hear your thoughts.
[/p][p]-Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

With this release, we’ve accomplished a huge milestone—all placeholder character art has been replaced with final art! This goes for both 2D portraits and 3D models. Big props to our two amazing artists. Our game has been looking better every week internally, and we’re finally able to share this with players.

In addition to the characters, we’re also working on building out a robust set of visual effects for spells, as well as everything else in 3D space that requires particles to fly around. With this patch, we’ve introduced 54 new battlefield visual effects out of a total planned 106 (give or take a few).

Still, our game has a ways to go before being visually finalized. Remaining placeholder stuff includes the “skyboxes,” much of the UI, and finally, and the “story” scenes (intro, game over, and ending). We will address these in upcoming patches, so stay tuned, and hit us up with feedback in the meantime.

[h2]Balance changes:[/h2]

• Units - Phaisy MP cost reduced by 10; other Earthen units’ MP costs increased by 10 (Terra, Toadstaff, Elyggdrien, and Ixis)
  
• Enemies - Vicilicar Painseeker and Surrelior Soothsayer nerfed (beam damage and HP down)
  
• Loot - Phaisy’s Favor appears less frequently as a reward (around half as often)

[h2]Battlefield visuals:[/h2]
The biggest update here is a change to the camera angle which brings the game in line with other auto battlers and makes units easier to click on.

There are too many individual additions to list; they include things like explosions, shockwaves, glowing particles, and tile effects. Watch for more color and more visual splendor on the battlefield.

Note: A small number of net new visual effects are placeholder and will be replaced with the next patch. These include the Extremely Dense Beast’s Earthquake, Eleanor’s Diplomatic Immunity, Wooroonook’s Prayer for Rain, and more.

[h2]Model updates:[/h2]

• Daniel
  
• Death
  
• Seramanju
  
• Hyacinth
  
• Mahadeva
  
• Freja
  
• Astreumnull
  
• Forbidden
  
• Sieforen
  
• Washing Machine

[h2]Portrait updates:[/h2]

• Absalom
  
• Eleanor
  
• Elyggdrien
  
• Everett
  
• Fog of Rejuvenation
  
• Ganton
  
• Immithonth
  
• Jasper
  
• Jondar
  
• Kincaid
  
• Lobellia
  
• Lorelei
  
• Perth
  
• Samantha
  
• Suul
  
• Unttvert
  
• Unceasing Rain
  
• Varra
  
• Vizreaper
  
• Wallerant
  
• World-Ending Flood

[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
Expect new bosses soon. The boss at the end of each map should be randomly picked from a pool of three; this means the total number of bosses in the game will increase from three to nine.

UX/UI updates are still a huge focus for us; while we didn’t get any into this release, we are working hard on features that make the game clearer and more satisfying, both in and out of combat. Many elements of the UI are still placeholder and must be updated with final versions.

Also, sound effects.

Until next time!