Age of Fear 2: The Chaos Lord GOLD News

Hello all, I hope you are having a good time. Recently we have been frequently patching all games in the series and it's a good moment to list all changes. Those are substantial chances, therefore please keep reading.

• We upgraded to the more recent Java 17 (previously we embedded Java 10 with our games). That gave us access to many new features and optimisations. In our tests, the game engine is working around 40% faster.
  
  
• Complete attack types are displayed in the lower part of the screen. Our items system often results in layered effects for an attack, for example, a strike could be Fire- and Cold-based (at the same time), could be causing a Stun and also reducing Defence. With this version we display all effects a given attack has.
  
  
• Open World battles feature a Retreat option where you can abandon battle for a small gold penalty. This feature was requested quite long ago, but we finally got to it.
  
  
• Fog and Slippery are new battle conditions to be found in Swamps and Winter levels respectively. Fog is reducing the range of projectile-based attacks and spells, Slippery occasionally causes units to slip and lose an action.
  
  
• Disease was refactored significantly and now infected units will happily spread it around. This is a part of tactics coming in new games in the series.
  
  
• Polymorph spells and skills are also moving effects to and from morphed units. For example, poisoned Dryad changing into Bear will carry over the poisoned status.
  
  
• Lamp of Blood (in Krill) campaign is working as a pre-battle action (to be used during Deploy Turn). We hope to add more skills like that which allow players to modify the battlefield before battle.
  
  
• A few new detector-like skills were added, for example Scan for Guardians. The AI is also more efficient with the use of Invisibility.
  
  
• Angela received a secret (and very powerful!) weapon. It's hidden in her campaign - who will find it first?
  

As always, any feedback is welcome!
If there are bugs or issues (especially after Java update), please post them on forums in the bugs-section.

Take care,
Les

Hi all! Over the last few weeks we have deployed a few new features and other patches, and it's time now to produce a meaningful change log (I am sorry for not being up-to-date with those!).

• Pushing units around it the major mechanics we introduced about two weeks ago. Many explosive spells will now move units a bit, just enough to make space for your units to squeeze between and reach those vulnerable shooters and mages. Several units also received Pushing attacks due to their size, e.g. Ogres, Troll Throwers, etc. A few existing skills like Shield Bash or Power Attack are also moving enemy units upon hit.
  
  
• Knights have now a more effective Greater Charge upgrade where their charges cause more damage (and obviously push enemy units out of the way!). The Charge ability can be disabled for one turn, for example when you want to engage a spellcaster in melee (and block him from using spells).
  
  
• We have introduced enemy heroes as mini-bosses in campaigns and random battles. So far a few enemy units were considered special thorough campaigns, but those were just like ordinary units with names (and more chatty!). We have upgraded those to hero status (which gives them a few extra Hit Points and several resistances) to give that extra challenge to players.
  
  
• A dozen new resource items were added, e.g. Fire Opal, Black Gold, Moonstone, etc.
  

We are also working on several other features, mostly related to Ratmen faction and stealth mechanics; however, those will be available in our new game in the series first.

As usual - please let us know if you spot any bugs. Also, any feedback is welcome!

Take care, Les

Hi all, we have just patched our games again, this time with a number of additional units, improved skills and enhanced traits system. We continue to work on new faction (Ratmen) and also on its unique Stealth mechanics.

First of all - new units:

• Cerberus is a new fast-attacker for Chaos Demons. Just like Wolves, it can be upgraded to a hit-and-run unit, however Cerberus also deals extra Fire damage.
  
• Elder is yet another upgrade for floating Evil Eyes from Chaos Demons faction. We have packed it with anti-magic skills, therefore all spellcasters beware!
  
• Crabman joins the Sea People as a durable blocker with Power Strike ability. It's definitely a nice addition to your line of Sea Divers.
  
• Cows also join the ranks of all monsters and beasts. Just like fearsome Pigs and Chickens, those slow land cruisers can completely decimate all grass around.
  

Then we also upgraded some existing boys with new skills:

• Bard has its own unique skill Ballad which adds experience points to units not participating in a battle.
  
• Polymorph spells were added with a cooldown which triggers after the unit comes back to its original shape.
  

Also, thanks to conversation with Stagz we refactored the traits system a bit to make it more playable, i.e. traits can be removed with Mutagen potion and the game also clearly displays the number of traits a unit can learn. Everyone is invited to our discussions:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/431700/discussions/0/3186865924601088525/

Take care,
Les & AOF Team

I think everyone knows what's going on in Ukraine at the moment. Ukraine was attacked by its neighbouring country with an overwhelming military power.

There is no place for tanks and artillery strikes on civilians in the 21st century. I don't know the details of the problems there; however, there is absolutely no excuse for such brutality like it's taking place now. Those differences should be resolved at negotiating table instead of invading the whole country and then threating the whole world with nukes.

The Age of Fear team is completely anti-war and against any violence. However, we want to make people more aware what's going on. You will be surprised how much disinformation is around - please use real news channels to see what's going on.

As such, we substantially lowered the prices for the Age of Fear series for anyone in Ukraine (this is not a promotion - I would give away our games for free, but Steam doesn't have an option to make games free for just one region).


Take care,
AOF Team

(this is the statement of our values and original message was edited because a few people felt differently. we also removed links to news because, as someone rightly pointed, they might be biased.)

Edit: there were many comments since we published this post. For all people who still think Ukraine 'deserved' such brutality, I think you should watch this: https://youtu.be/YqUYpEjcEHk

Hi all, the last couple of weeks were busy as we were finalising the Ambush feature for the Age of Fear series. This is the part of wider Stealth mechanics and will be ready for the next game in the series.
To accommodate new logic, we had to refactor huge amounts of code and, among other things, we managed to cross a few things from our todo list, i.e. enhancements to traits system, deploy-turn actions and random generation of maps.

Let's start with the traits system. The common request was to give an option to remove unwanted traits - to address that we expanded the Mutagen potion functionality and, while it is still accelerating traits, it can be also used to remove them (from the Skills menu in the Recruitment screen). The Mutagen potion is also classified as a rare item now, therefore it should be more common as a loot in battles.

We have added a new class of actions which can be executed during Deploy Turn, e.g. Sea Witch can now invoke Rain or Wind, and Juggernaut Golem can invoke Earthquake. However, those skills come with a twist - instead of a mild battle disturbance, the much more nastly version can be invoked! For example, calling an Earthquake can result in a Volcano eruption! This logic will be extended in future patches.

A logic responsible for random objects placements was improved and more fair use of objects was introduced, e.g. previously there were almost three Crates spawn per battle, now it's only one and a bit, and barrels, anvils, tables, etc. are created instead.

This is quite a sizable patch and I hope everything works fine.
As usual - all feedback is welcome.

Take care,
Les & AOF Team