Public Test Branch (0.5.208a)

Hey everyone!

We have just pushed a patch to the Public Test Branch that introduces many changes to combat. Originally, we were planning to release all of this together with our next major update, but decided it would be best to introduce some of the changes sooner.

To opt in: Go to your Steam Library, right click The Iron Oath and select Properties. From there, go to the Betas tab and select "Public test branch" from the drop down menu.

You can use your current save on the test branch, but you will need to first copy over the file. Navigate to: "C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\LocalLow\Curious Panda Games\The Iron Oath", and copy your save file from the "saves" folder into the "testBranch_saves" folder.

Before diving into the notes, we'd really appreciate you taking a moment to leave us a Steam review if you haven't yet. The feedback is important, and it also helps with our visibility on Steam!



[h2]New Additions[/h2]

• Environmental hazards (such as falling rocks, and others to be added) now show in the turn order
  
• Incoming enemy reinforcements are now shown in the turn order
  
• Added an option to disable zooming effects (such as critical hits and events in dungeons)
  
• Added colored hexes to display the movement and maximum attack range of units, visible by mousing over their portraits, or by holding tab over their sprite
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Replaced the Silence condition with Weaken, which halves the target's Power stat for the duration. We felt that playing around Silence wasn't very enjoyable, and often left you no choice but to sit there and use basic attack. This change gives you more strategic options while still penalizing your damage output.
  
• With Silence removed, the Nullbeast's Deadzone terrain now applies Weaken to any allied or enemy occupants (excluding the Nullbeast)
  
• Characters cannot be critically hit when Guarding
  
• Characters cannot perform a critical hit when Staggered
  
• Characters cannot perform an Attack of Opportunity when Staggered
  
• Damage from the Bleed and Burn conditions now inflict true damage (ignoring Defense)
  
• Movement abilities are now disabled when Rooted
  
• Antidotes now also provide a temporary immunity to negative conditions, lasting for 3 rounds
  
• Abilities that cleanse negative conditions now also provide a temporary immunity (length varies on the ability)
  
• Increased the damage from being pushed into terrain obstacles. In an upcoming patch the amount of damage dealt will vary depending on the object (e.g. more when pushed into spikes)
  
• Changed the look of the deployment zone hexes so they are more noticeable
  
• Re-enabled the falling rock hazard in certain environments. Previously these had a rare chance to cause a soft lock if 2 were spawned on the same tile. This should hopefully be resolved now.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where the Risen Arbalist would target an environmental object incorrectly which could lead to a softlock
  
• Crescent Wave's Sunder Armor upgrade previously had the effect showing as a buff to the target, but has now been corrected to display as a debuff
  
• Fixed a visual bug where a destroyed city would not appear destroyed after saving and loading
  

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We plan to push this patch to the live branch within the next week or two, depending on how stable it is. In the meantime, we'd appreciate the extra help in testing!

We also wanted to give an update on the timeline for the 'Friends and Foes' update. We don't yet have a specific date, but we're currently expecting it to be finished in early Fall. As a refresher, that update is focused on the following aspects:

• Overhauling the Attributes and Leveling system
  
• Tweaking a few underpowered abilities
  
• Rebalancing and adding the remaining ability upgrades for every class
  
• Rebalancing and adding new enemy variants
  
• Improving combat as a whole
  

Still lots to do on our end, but we're excited with how it's shaping up! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Curious Panda Games