Seedborne Soldiers News

[p]Nextfest is on! This patch is mostly bug-fixing and tidying stuff up as we expect more eyes on the game. We do have one rockin’ new Trinket, and a new intro animation to combat rounds which makes the game feel smoother. We’re almost ready to for Early Access![/p][p][/p][p]New trinket - A Rock. Gain a Rock unit who can’t move or attack. It doesn’t count toward your team size limit and its level matches the current Map.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Updates:[/h3]

• [p]-Units- Wallace nerfed. On-hit damage from spell halved; Defense and Magic Def debuffs from spell lowered.[/p]
• [p]-Items- Unearthed Crossbow nerfed. No longer grants user on-hit damage; now grants 5% Attack Spd instead. Its Initiative is unchanged.[/p]

[h3]More Updates:[/h3]

• [p]“Entering combat” intro animation added. Also added a fade when entering non-combat tiles.[/p]
• [p]Copy-edited and spellchecked all text in the game. Many typos fixxed (sic)[/p]
• [p]During combat overtime, magic damage now increases, instead of the Magic stat. This is to prevent healing and shielding abilities which scale off Magic from increasing during overtime.[/p]
• [p]Bombs now light up on hover[/p]
• [p]You can now right-click to close the inspect panel (the info thing that opens on the left when you right-click on stuff)[/p]

• [p]Uma’s Irrigate Mind now correctly has a limited shield duration[/p]
• [p]Dancing Lancer’s Divinity Breaker no longer deals double damage[/p]
• [p]Astrid no longer has the visual bug where her model becomes invisible[/p]
• [p]Damage numbers no longer show while toggled to the map view[/p]
• [p]The overloaded team size warning no longer shows while toggled to the map view[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where units could be slowed to a negative movespeed and behave weirdly[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug causing healing and shielding to not be properly reduced during combat overtime (this is separate from the update to overtime behavior listed above)[/p]

[p]Early Access release is next. We made it…
[/p][p]Check our “Early Access” section on the store page for a list of stuff that we plan to add between our EA launch and our full release. As always, please hit us up with questions or feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]Good luck out there![/p][p][/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p]

[h3]Divine Trait Rework[/h3][p]Previously, the Divine Trait only granted Lifelink and Magic Lifelink (the “heal from damage” abilities) to your team. This meant that it didn’t work well as a “vertical’ strategy (ie, a strategy which incentivizes drafting many units with the same Trait). This was ok, but not ideal. The bigger problem with the design was that many of the Divine units (Claira, Phaisy) were not damage-dealers, and therefore did not work well with their own Trait.
[/p][p]For these reasons, Divine has been reworked. Tiers II and higher now reward the player for team healing, an incentive which previously didn’t exist in our game. Get as many Divine units as you can, take anything that heals, and watch the damage roll in! 
[/p]

• [p]Divine Tier I (unchanged): +15% Lifelink / Magic Lifelink[/p]
• [p]Divine Tier II: Whenever your team heals for 750 HP, Smite a random enemy, dealing them 350 Holy damage and 175 to surrounding enemies.[/p]
• [p]Divine Tier III: Smite damage: 500 to primary target / 250 to secondary targets[/p]
• [p]Divine Tier IV: Smite radius increased to 3. Smite damage: 999 / 500 / 250
  [/p]

[p]Individual units have also been updated to fit the new Divine Trait. These changes are listed below in “More Updates.”[/p][p][/p][p]Some Divine units like Flaxen Maiden and Astreumnull are unchanged, even though they aren’t healers.[/p][p][/p][h3]Martyr Trait Rework[/h3][p]Martyr was another Trait that didn’t really work well as a vertical strategy. Several of the Martyr units summon additional units on-death (Samantha, Faceless), but these summons previously did not benefit from the Martyr strength increase. Additionally, too much of the power of the Trait was tied to Cosmia’s ability to multiply on-death effects, which made getting that one unit result in more on-death effects, and subsequently more strength buffs, than adding 3 or 4 other Martyrs to your team.[/p][p][/p][p]Martyr has been reworked so that Tiers II and higher grant additional on-death triggers; Cosmia now only grants one additional on-death trigger per combat. Additionally, the Martyr strength bonus now affects all player units equally, including units summoned after a previous on-death effect occurred.[/p]

• [p]Martyr Tier I (unchanged): On-death triggers make your team 2% stronger.[/p]
• [p]Martyr Tier II: On-death effects trigger an additional time[/p]
• [p]Martyr Tier III: On-death effects trigger an additional time[/p]
• [p]Martyr Tier IV: On-death effects trigger an additional time
  [/p]

[h3]Drag and Drop[/h3][p]Units and items now all interact with the mouse in the same way. You can left-click on them to pick them up, and then left-click again to drop them, or, you can drag and drop them by holding and releasing the left mouse button.
[/p][p]Also, the hex tiles on the board are easier to click.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Updates:[/h3]

• [p]-Units- Gregor reworked to better synergize with Divine. New spell: Brightbashing. Gain an on-hit buff which heals a random ally and lasts for 3 / 4 / 5 seconds. Injured allies are targeted first.[/p]
• [p]-Units- False God reworked to better synergize with Divine. Her spell now damages enemies and heals allies that it touches, but sends out only 1 wave instead of 3.[/p]
• [p]-Units- Washing Machine buffed: Descend percent HP damage: 50% -> 70%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Cosmia nerfed: Abyssal Knowledge buff no longer stacks[/p]
• [p]-Units- Elyggdrien nerfed: Defense and Magic Def from spell: 25 / 50 / 90 -> 20 / 30 / 40[/p]
• [p]-Units- Phaisy nerfed: Initiative shield amount halved[/p]
• [p]-Units- Claira nerfed: healing from Spell lowered[/p]
• [p]-Units- Fog of Rejuvenation nerfed: healing from Effect lowered[/p]
• [p]-Units- Wooroonook nerfed: on-hit damage and healing from Spell lowered[/p]
• [p]-Units- Servant of Heaven nerfed: MP cost: 100 -> 150[/p]
• [p]-Traits- Earthen Tier I nerfed: HP / 3s: 25 -> 20[/p]
• [p]-Items- Ancient Jawbone (Trinket) reworked. Now gives your team a +10 Attack buff and a 200 HP heal when your first unit dies each combat[/p]
• [p]-Items- Starsign Dagger (Greater Equipment) nerfed: Healing bonus: 50% -> 35%[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- A Bubblefly has been removed from the following Map 3 enemy groups:[/p]
  • [p]3-1 Hill-Like Growth group[/p]
  • [p]3-3 Hill-Like Growth group[/p]
  • [p]3-4 Infested Mound group
    [/p]

[h3]More Updates:[/h3]

• [p]Text for inactive buffs in Trait tooltips is now greyed out[/p]
• [p]The title screen has been updated[/p]
• [p]The “title cards” at the beginning of each map have been removed
  [/p]

• [p]Unttvert’s spell now correctly grants an on-hit buff to the summoned soldier[/p]
• [p]Fixed more bugs causing crashes related to loading the game while the tutorial is unfinished[/p]

[p]We are excited to be participating in Steam Nextfest, October 13-20! After that, it’s Early Access time.[/p][p][/p][p]From here on out, we’ll be focusing on filling out the remaining content in the game (Ruins, Trinkets, post-run progression, etc), as well as UI updates.[/p][p][/p][p]Calling all Summoners![/p][p]We need your help to continue developing the game and delivering the single-player auto battler experience that we’ve dreamed up. Support us by wishlisting the game, joining our Discord, and giving us feedback. If you like the game, tell your friends. [/p][p] [/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p]

[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]