Fable Fortune News

Hello, Heroes!

Today is a big day, as Fable Fortune globally launches as a free-to-play game! It’s been quite journey over the last 7 months, we’ve come a long way, and working closely with you, the community, we feel like the game has improved immeasurably.

This is quite the update as well, we’re bringing you a sparkly new deck helper for anyone struggling with ideas for decks, or just needs a push in the right direction; Achievements; co-op voice chat for Xbox players; new cards; and a whole lot of events and special rewards to celebrate the game launching. Fairfax Castle will be making an appearance as a brand new location in the new Heroic Tales adventure, and will be coming to a PVP season soon.

In terms of balance changes, we’re looking to reduce the tempo swing a lot of low cost cards can achieve, by increasing their cost and therefore reducing how much more you can do on that same turn. In particular Sand and Temple are guilty here, having access to some very cheap, very efficient removal spells. A couple of Mythics are getting some love with this update as well and we look forward to seeing what players do with their newfound power.

For new players who may be unaware, whenever we make balance changes to non-Basic cards, you may salvage those cards for 100% of their crafting cost for 2 weeks after the changes.

[IMPORTANT NOTE:] The Starter Bundle may take some time to start behaving for users on all platforms. It should be priced at £9.99/$12.99/€11,49 but may not show up as available for purchase.
We expect this to be resolved by February 23rd at latest, sorry for the inconvenience!

As always, sound off in the comments to let us know what you think. And keep an eye out on http://www.fable-fortune.com, as well as our Facebook and Twitter for future updates. Our dev roadmap also has a list of upcoming features.

Happy chicken chasing!

- Gary “Cerith” Paskins, Game Designer (Mediatonic)

Hooray!

After 7 months of Early Access, Fable Fortune is ready to leave and make the jump to free-to-play, in our version 1.0 update! To celebrate, we’ve got a bunch of exciting events happening over the next couple of weeks! Here’s a rundown of what you can expect:

Many Happy Returns! Duration: Thursday 22nd February - Saturday 3rd March
Log in each day to receive a card pack!

Double XP Duration: Thursday 22nd February - Thursday 1st March
All players will receive double experience towards Hero levels for games played!

Wild Cards Duration: Friday 23rd February - Monday 26th February
A special celebration Co-Op Boss, available only during this limited time. This event has 6 brand new spells to be won - one per Hero. These cards will be added to regular card packs after the event finishes.

Rebel, Rebel Duration: Thursday 22nd February - Thursday 1st March
Log in at any time during this event to receive a brand new Epic card - Renegade Leader! Renegade Leader is also available in packs now.

Double Silver Duration: Friday 2nd March - Monday 5th March
We understand that as the Double XP event ends, you’ll be sad and wanting more - who wouldn’t? How does a long weekend of double Silver sound? For those who don’t know, Silver is the currency you can earn from battling and rewards to spend on card packs. So get playing, and get to busting open card packs!

That sure is one fancy Boot!

Introducing the Starter Bundle, the perfect bundle for you to start your collection! Purchase one of these beauties, and you’ll be getting a better deal than even Barter or Miracle could produce. The Starter Bundle will be available to all players, new or veteran, so be sure to claim the game’s first Fancy Trophy! Here’s what you will find inside:

• Fabled Jack of Blades card
  
• Fancy Trophy card: The Boot (exclusive to the Starter Bundle)
  
• 20 Card Packs (guarantees at least 2 Mythic cards, and at least 1 Fabled card - excluding the Jack of Blades card included in this bundle)
  

Stuck on ideas for decks? We’ve got you covered.

For many Fable fans, this may well be their first card game! Building a deck can be a daunting task, so we’ve rejigged the deck building screen to include a few deck lists for each Hero, to get you in the right direction for how to construct a deck and also how to play that deck. The list will point out any cards you are missing, and if you choose to proceed with that deck, you will start deck building with as many cards from the deck list as possible that you own.

Each Hero’s Basic Deck is also an option, for players who have been enjoying what they have been playing with to start with, but have identified some of the weaker cards and would like to replace them with some cards they might have opened in packs.

• This Looks Sweet! - Stuck on what deck to build? Pick a pre-built deck list and edit from there.
  
• But I Don’t Know What I’m Building Yet… - You will no longer be prompted to name your deck as you pick a Hero. You can still rename decks while building them, and viewing all of your decks.
  

A solid metric to silently judge your fellow Heroes by.

Achievements are now in the game for Xbox! You can now boast to your friends about how much of a higher achievement score you have than them and you should! The objectives will start being contributed towards once the game goes free to play so everyone will be starting from an even playing field.

• Achievement Unlocked: Achievements - Xbox players can gain Achievements.
  

“Hello, Crimson, do you copy?” “Not really, I’m more about dealing damage.”

In Co-Op battles when both players are using Xbox One, you and your partner can now talk to each other via in-game voice communication! The ping system is very helpful, but sometimes you just need to get across some actual words to your partner, to take your strategy game to the next level. Fear not! For those who would rather not use this feature, you can turn voice communications off globally from the Options menu.

• Talk It Over - Xbox One players can now communicate using the in-game voice chat. You can disable this in the Options menu.
  

Cards… Lots of cards.

Well now, this is exciting! We’ve got a bunch of new cards going straight into this update, and there are some familiar, powerful faces here. Let’s get right into it with the new Fabled cards:

• Theresa - 10g, 5/5, “All other units are 1/1s.”
  
• Jasper - 4g, 4/2, “Big Entrance: Create an ability for Jasper.”
  
• Hammer - 5g, 5/5, “After Hammer damages your opponent, give another friendly unit her Strength this turn.”
  
• Scythe - 5g, 10/10, “Big Entrance: Gain -1/-1 for each card in your hand.”
  
• Hobbe Mob - 6g, 0/8, “After you summon a Hobbe, add another random Hobbe to your hand and reduce this unit's Health by 1.”
  
• Captain Dread - 9g, 7/6, “Last Laugh: Set ALL players' maximum Gold to 15.”
  
• Puck - 2g, 1/1, “After you play a spell while this is in your hand or in play, gain +1/+1.”
  

As aforementioned, we’re also releasing 6 new spells through the bonus Boss this weekend - 1 for each Hero. Here they are:

• Alchemist: Pitcher of Ogre Slobber - 3g, “Give all friendly units on the board and in your hand +1/+1.”
  
• Gravedigger: Charge to Grave - 3g, “Transform your units into 1/1 Crumbling Corpses. They have Rush and die at the end of the turn.”
  
• Knight: Good As New - 2g, “Add a copy of each of your damaged units to your hand.”
  
• Merchant: Counterfeit Deal - 6g, “Summon a copy of a unit. Silence the original unit.”
  
• Prophet: Recharge - 2g, “Deal 1 damage to all units and heal your Hero for that much.”
  
• Shapeshifter: Track Prey - 2g, “Reduce the cost of Balverines in your hand by the number of damaged enemies.”
  

And finally, 2 new Neutral cards. Renegade Leader can be obtained for free by logging in during the first week of the Free-to-Play launch; Angry Protester is our first PVP Season reward. Starting now, each new PVP season we will be releasing a new Neutral card - these are easily attainable by playing against other players in PVP! Here are the cards:

• Renegade Leader - 2g, 2/3, “After any player plays a spell, deal 2 damage to their Hero.”
  
• Angry Protester - 2g, 2/3, “Units with 5 or more Health can't Guard the turn they are played.”
  

Temple & Norman are in for a truly grave adventure.

Join Temple as she works with her great-grandfather’s skull to recover a powerful tome which may have fallen into the wrong hands. With such power at stake, it is imperative that Temple and Norman find it; and absolutely not because Norman is hatching a nefarious plan to regain his fearsome powers again. Not at all. Shame on you for even thinking it. Honestly.

We’ve also updated the art of the Heroic Tales button!

• No More Bone-Idling - Play as Temple in Heroic Tales! (You can play Heroic Tales in any order.)
  

Logan’s very throne room becomes a battlefield!

Although Fairfax won’t be our PVP location for this month, you will be able to get a taste of our brand-new location in Heroic Tales, in the first battle of Temple’s story. We’ll make sure you get to play in this royal location soon, but for now, here are the quests and quest reward cards:

• Quest 1 - Play 3 units with a Big Entrance.
  
• Quest 2 - Play 2 non-damaging spells.
  
• Quest 3 - Spend 12/18/24 Gold on non-Neutral cards and powers.
  

• Quest Reward 1: Grand Opening - 12g, “Fill your with board 1/1 Barmaids. Cost decreases by 1 at the start of your turn.”
  
• Quest Reward 2: Seize Them! - 3g, “Deal 1 damage to an enemy unit not in Guard. It gains Guard.”
  
• Quest Reward 3: For Better or Worse - 2g, “Heal a character for 5 or deal 5 damage.”
  

Hm, upgrades.

This is a big update all around, and although a lot of that is visible in the game itself, there’s been a lot of under-the-hood improvements too. We’ve had an engine update and there’s been big performance improvements across all platforms. Players should see an increase in overall stability relating to any hard crashes or freezing.

• Strong Foundations - Lots of stability and general game engine improvements.
  

Ooooh… aahhhh!

This slipped through the patch notes last update, so we’re bringing it to light here! We’ve added a bunch of new sound effects and music to the game (notably on the end of battle results), so now you can hum along with the victory or defeat tune after every battle.

We’ve also added some new VFX to spells and abilities, as well as going back over some older units and updating their VFX to better match their ability.

• Fanfare - A different tune will play depending on the outcome of your battle.
  
• Eye Candy - Added new VFX for various cards and updated the VFX for some older units and spells.
  

Aaand I’m outta cards.

Decks now correctly visually update as players draw cards from their deck. There is a minor visual error with this when the player draws their very last card, which is that the deck will still show one card remaining until the start of their next turn, at which point it will disappear. We will try to correct this problem soon!

• Counting Cards - Decks now visually display how far through both players are.
  

+1

Necroblast is arguably one of the best removal spells in the game - for 2 gold you can deal up to 5 damage. We’re increasing its cost to be more in line with other removal spells that deal a similar amount of damage.

Card changes:

• Necroblast - Gold cost increased from 2 to 3.
  

Walk it off, mate.

Knight had a small theme of caring about units with 1 Strength, and although this works nicely with Peasants, Self-Defence Training was not a very strong card to be pairing with 1 Strength units. Along with their upcoming new spell, Good As New, we're giving the newer, beefier Knight units a new tool to play with, with both cards caring about having damaged units.

Card changes:

• Self-Defence Training - Redesigned to: 3g, "Give your damaged units Deflect."
  

Increased Gold costs go directly towards the cause.

Sand has some extremely high tempo plays in the first couple of turns, with Blaze of Glory giving you the opportunity to favourably trade and fully heal a unit, being able to then remove that unit becomes a seemingly insurmountable feat. Smite the Cynic was undercosted at only 1 gold - the permanent Strength reduction is incredibly strong, and similarly to Blaze of Glory, allows for some extremely efficient trades to be made. Sand will now have to invest a little more Gold into these efficient trades.

Card changes:

• Blaze of Glory - Gold cost increased from 2 to 3.
  
• Smite the Cynic - Gold cost increased from 1 to 2.
  

Nerfs? *Howls in despair*

Howl of Despair is a fantastic tool for slowing down your opponent, however, following that up with a strong unit or 2 with your remaining 7 gold can feel like you just took an extra turn. We’re tuning its cost up by 1 gold, which should keep its utility, while increasing its drawback ever so slightly. On the plus side, while Oakfield is the location you’re playing in, Crimson now has another spell that counts towards the “Play Spells that cost 4 or more” quest!

Card changes:

• Howl of Despair - Gold cost increased from 3 to 4.
  

Go big or go home.

There’s a couple of things to talk about here. Let’s start with the Mythics being buffed. Corrupted Spellblade can now target any unit, as opposed to only Hollow Men, which should make it a much more appealing option for a wider array of decks; Earth Troll is bringing all the 7s, by now being a 7g 7/7, and its ability now deals a whopping 5 damage if you meet the requirement.

Frightblade Stalker is a card that sees a lot of play in many decks, able to provide a huge tempo swing. While we think the card is a cool tech option, it’s currently just a bit too accessible and finds its way into most decks. We’re increasing its Gold cost by 1, so now you may have to consider a bit more carefully whether or not your deck needs the effect.

Cullis Master has, for a while, been a problematic card for us. It’s a very cheap card and can provide you the ability to cycle powerful Big Entrance effects again and again, which can be incredibly frustrating to play against. We decided it was a bigger problem when we found ourselves asking “Yeah, but what about when paired with Cullis Master?” for a lot of Big Entrance effects we designed. In the end we decided the problem lay with Cullis Master, and we didn’t want a single card to hold us back from making cool, new Big Entrance effects. He has the same ability, but is now a 4g 4/4, meaning a much larger chunk of your turn has to be dedicated to pulling off Big Entrance-Cullis Master combos.

Card changes:

• Corrupted Spellblade - Can now target any friendly unit, not only Hollow Men.
  
• Cullis Master - Now costs 4 Gold, has 4 Strength and 4 Health, changed from 2 gold, 2 Strength, 3 Health.
  
• Earth Troll - Gold cost reduced from 8 to 7. Now deals 5 damage if you control a unit with 7 or more Strength, up from 3 damage.
  
• Frightblade Stalker - Gold cost increased from 6 to 7.
  

Not so fast, Temple.

A while ago, on the Graveyard location, we lowered the number of units with Last Laugh quest requirement from 3 to 2, with the thought-process of encouraging more quest-tailored decks. Shortly after this change, we redesigned quite a lot of cards, and introduced some very cheap Last Laugh units. Coupled with Temple’s Cemetery Bannerman unit and general Hollow Men synergy, this pushed her a little over the edge in terms of being able to complete quests, easily completing a quest on the first, second and third turns. This resulted in some extremely early Morality 2 and 3 situations, allowing access to some of the most powerful cards in the game a little too early.

We were cautious to change it, and wanted to see how people might grow to deal with it, because the concept of a “Morality”-focused deck is a really cool concept. However, after seeing the flood of Temple decks whenever the Graveyard rolled around, we’ve decided to up the requirements of the quest. We anticipate that the deck will still be strong, but no longer as explosively fast as it was.

• More Laughter, Please - The Sorcerer’s Apprentices quest now requires 3 Last Laugh units to be played at all levels, up from 2.
  

• Fixed an issue found with some cards with Invest that could not be played when you had 6 units in play.
  
• Fixed some hitboxes on buttons when switching resolutions.
  
• Loading into a game should no longer cause the crash that some users were experiencing.
  
• Lots of bugs surrounding friend invites have been fixed. Many of these were hard to experience, but overall everything should be a lot smoother.
  
• Lots of general stability fixes.
  
• Many small fixes and optimisations too trivial to list.
  
• Muting Emotes now mutes Unit Emotes as well.
  
• Peasants summoned by the Knight’s Evil Power no longer count towards quests that did not include units being summoned.
  
• Players should now correctly be able to bring up your Hero’s emotes while your focus is on an enemy unit using a controller.
  
• Rosewight Cager should no longer be able to cause a restart error when played specifically in Heroic Tales.
  
• Units with race tags (Bandit, Hobbe, etc.) now correctly count towards the “Help on the Farm” quest on Oakfield.
  

• Within the first few hours of release, the £9.99/$12.99/€11,49 priced Starter Pack may not display correctly or be initially purchasable on some platforms. This should be fully resolved on or before Friday February 23rd.
  
• After players enter the Hero League, finishing or conceding a Training game will superfluously display medals gaining or losing - this is a purely visual bug and does not affect your Hero League medals.
  
• Cancelling a friend invite while viewing Daily Bounties may cause Bounties to disappear. This is a purely visual bug, your Bounties are still there! They should return upon either closing and reopening the Bounties screen, or restarting the game.
  
• Navigating between cards in your hand with a controller during Quest Selection or Quest Resolution can sometimes cause some cards to be unselectable during that phase. Moving out of this phase corrects this issue.
  
• Players may see 2 lots of the same resolution when picking a resolution. They all work fine, so pick the one that feels the most right!
  
• Spire Commandant sometimes may not display how much damage it deals to one player. This is a purely visual bug, however, we appreciate how frustrating this may be to play against and will be looking into a solution soon.
  
• Your ally’s stat changes to cards in their hand (Gold cost, Strength and Health) may not be updating correctly.
  
• There is a 21st League incorrectly displaying prior to entering the Hero League. This League is a purely visual display error and is not accessible, nor does it have any rewards (despite saying it might!).