Songs of Conquest News

Hello everyone!

We've just updated the game with a bigger update. It's been on the Public Test Realm for a while now where we ironed out a bunch of bugs, but now it's ready for everyone!

[h2]Notable fixes and additions[/h2]

• Added difficulty levels normal and hard to From the Ashes campaign
  
• Added the ability to control the hostiles in battle when your opponent attacks them in multiplayer as an experimental feature.
  
• Added Chinese (Traditional) as a choosable language
  
• Added Korean as a choosable language in options
  

[h3]Simultaneous Turns in multiplayer as an experimental feature[/h3]

• All humans play at the same time and the AI players each have their own turn after the humans are done
  
• If one player enters battle, the other non-battling players will not be able to move or interact until the battle is over (this is because of a technical limitation that we want to remove in the future). However, the “locked” players can still purchase buildings, buy troops etc
  

[h3]New map settings when setting up a game[/h3]

• Force quick battles (disables manual battles) - Always or against neutral team only
  
• Disable random events
  

[h2]Gameplay changes[/h2]

• Scarred Brutes Hp increased to 70 (was 65) Price increased to 1000 gold and 1 ancient amber (was 900 gold and 1 ancient amber)
  
• Stoutheart shall Stand ability now also grants 10% spell damage reduction
  
• Fear no Foe ability now also grants 5% spell damage reduction
  
• Defend changed from granting 30 defense to 25 defense and 25% spell damage reduction
  
• Protect now also grants 25% spell damage reduction
  
• Made sure you can build town walls and still exit the town in map Valley Low
  
• Moved a pouch of gold in Death to Diplomacy (so it can be picked up)
  
• Skill pools re-worked
  
• Levy bonus increased to 40%/80% (was 30%/60% )
  
• Increase ballista damage to 25-35 for all factions (was 20-30) (Baryas ballista previously did less damage than the other factions, this was wrong)
  
• Change the amount of beacons needed to 70% of available, rounded up to win (was 60%)
  
• Increase Wielder cost to 3000 gold (was 2500)
  

[h3]Change how disbanding wielders work:[/h3]

• All artifacts carried by the wielder are dropped on the ground
  
• All troops are destroyed
  
• Wielder is then “killed”, as if it just lost a battle
  
• Can be revived later as per normal rules for defeated wielders
  

[h3]Spell changes:[/h3]

• Earth block tier 2 now spawns 1 block at 30 hp, tier 3 spawns 2 earth blocks at 30 hp
  
• Protection now also grants spell damage reduction
  
• Rally now also grants spell damage reduction
  
• Psychic Spears damage changed to 15/25/35 and cost raised to 5 (was 10/20/30 and costing 4)
  
• Ice bolt t1 damage increased to 30 (was 25)
  
• Rupture damage increased to 50/100/150 and cost was reduced to 6+6 (was 40/80/120 costing 7+7)
  
• Breath of the Phoenix damage increased to 50/90/130 (was 40/70/100)
  
• Insect swarms damage lowered to 5/10/15 (was 6/12/18)
  
• Boiling blood’s damage changed to 10/15/20 (was 8/16/24)
  
• Arcane storm’s damage changed to 30/50/70 and cost to 16 (was 25/50/75)
  
• Invigorate’s cost changed to 4/4 (was 5/5)
  

[h3]Added trait “Magic Resistance”[/h3]

• Grants the troop 50% resistance to magic-based damage.
  
• Added to the following troops: Crawler, Adult Crawler, Brute, Scarred Brute, Scavenged Bones, Blessed Bones
  

[h2]Gameplay bug fixes[/h2]

• Fix bug where, after using the Barya Pipers’ song ability, the next active troop might not be the one with the highest initiative
  
• Fix Essence Burst skill giving the essence income one extra time at the start of the second battle round. It now applies only once, as intended
  
• Fix scenario where the enemy team would receive multiple “momentum” buffs when a troop with multiple damage dealing effects (for example Poison) on it died
  
• Fix not receiving troops when buying troops for town defense that have max stack size increased by research
  
• Fix artifacts becoming unequipped on wielders transferred between campaign levels
  
• Fix issue where you could press Q to pick up objects even if it was guarded by hostiles without fighting them
  
• Fixed issue where you could not cast spells sometimes
  
• Fix a problem where sometimes troops would get an extra essence from Occupy rewards instead of the Wielder
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Spellbook: Visual update to clarify spell tiers
  
• Spellbook: Only show spells that are available based on Wielder’s essence in Adventure mode. Tooltip now shows approximation of first battle round spell will be available to cast
  
• Don’t list starting troops for wielders that have died and can be revived
  
• Show the numbers involved when showing the “Offense versus Defense” damage multiplier in extend attack previews
  
• Stop towns from changing name when razed or converted
  
• Fix descriptions of the “Backstabber”, “Helpless”, “Persistent” and “Venomous” troop traits
  
• Add ping notification to minimap when hostile wielder enters visible area
  
• Select correct build site size when switching tabs in build menu
  
• Allow build menu on not your turn by pressing build hotkey (X if default settings)
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Fix bug where AI could get stuck in endless loop by claimable map entities being partially covered by enemies’ zone of control
  

[h2]Map Editor[/h2]

• Fix NullReferenceException when trying to load a map that was corrupt when entering the map editor.
  

[h2]Multiplayer[/h2]
[h3]Lobby/online games list improvements[/h3]

• Option to choose random faction for teams
  
• Continuously update list of online games in selected region (“Refresh” button is gone)
  
• Fix always showing zero as the number of connected players
  
• List games that are currently in progress
  
• Prevent players from joining online games when they are running different versions
  

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• Change default sorting in community maps section to “updated” instead of “popular”
  
• Change the order of the statistics graphs regarding resources to correspond with the adventure ui
  
• Update gets turn VFX
  

[h2]Known issues[/h2]

• If your internet connection is slow/choppy, you might experience disconnects (especially in sim-turns). We are working on solutions on how to fix this
  
• In rare cases, the game starts to leak memory until you restart the game. This is being investigated and will be solved in the future.
  

Hello friends! We are happy to be back with a huge development update. This time we are doing a traditional written blog post, just to make sure that it can be translated to all the various languages the game is available in.

Team Lavapotion, at our offices (and elsewhere), celebrating the start of the Early Access period!

First and foremost, the whole team wants to send out a big thank you to our players! Your comments, ideas and feedback means the world to us. We have received so many cool suggestions and just general support. Keep in mind, we already spent over five years developing this game and we are planning to spend a few more to get it just right! To finally have a community to share the game with is just an awesome privilege for our small team.

With that said, it’s now finally time to look forward to what the future holds for Songs of Conquest and you players!

Please click the image for a better view of the roadmap. You can also find it on www.songsofconquest.com/roadmap

We have tried to listen to the whole community and strike a balance between features that cater to both multiplayer and singleplayer experiences. Simultaneous turns is a huge addition that is currently released on the Public Test Realm. So you can jump right in and try it out at this moment, but don’t expect it to be perfect, just yet! The same goes for difficulty options in the campaigns, which is something many of you wanted! Normal is a little bit easier than before and Hard is a bit tougher.

The random map generator is something many have asked for, to give the game more longevity, and we have heard you all. That is why we are placing it high on our prioritization list. The same goes for more campaigns, so you’ll get one for each of the four factions!

A lot has happened in the last five years. This is how the adventure map used to look five years ago, and how it looks right now!

There is lots more good stuff to come. First and foremost, the AI will continue to be worked on during the full Early Access period and beyond. It is at the core of the singleplayer experience and it is super important for us to keep improving it. The same of course goes for general quality of life improvements, bug fixing and optimization.

New factions are also highly requested, and something we've always thought about adding more of. But they are very time-consuming to produce. We want to do it, and we will do it, but we don’t know when.

Keep in mind that the roadmap is a living document. We will always need to weigh in new ideas and general improvements to every planned feature, but this is how our plan looks right now. We will always strive to create the best game possible at each given moment.

The combat screen has also undergone a lot of iterations in the last five years. Makes you wonder how it will look after a few more years in development!

Thanks to the success of the Early Access launch we are also expanding and looking for more team members. If you want to work with us as either Community Manager or Lead Artist, check out the job postings on www.lavapotion.com/jobs.

And finally, thank you to everyone who has decided to take this journey together with us. Please know that the whole team is pretty much going on vacation during July (the Swedish summer is short but sweet!) and we won’t be communicating or developing new features. We’ll be back in action early to mid August, so that’s when you should expect to see updates again!

This song is best sung together!

/Team Lavapotion

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[h2]Lots of great news this week![/h2]

[h3]We are soon, either tomorrow or on Thursday, releasing the roadmap for the Early Access period.[/h3]

➜ To celebrate it, Songs of Conquest is now on a 25% discount! 🥳
➜ Tell your friends there is no reason to wait anymore! ❤️

https://store.steampowered.com/app/867210/Songs_of_Conquest/

Last but not least: Sim turns just got released on the Public Test Realm! Please test the system and let us know what you think.

/Team Lavapotion ❤

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[h2]Sim turns and more![/h2]
We just finished a development sprint and here are the highlights from the sprint review! Of course many many more things happened, but these are the most important ones in our opinion. Check out the video and leave a comment if there is anything you want to ask or suggest!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For anyone not having the time to watch the video, here a quick overview:

• We're hiring (Community Manager, Lead Artist). If you're interested, please visit our website for more info!
  
• The roadmap will be revealed next week!

What we were working on:

• Balance (troop stats, minor spell changes, more troops with magic resistance, etc)
  
• Campaigns will have difficulty modes! "Normal" & "Hard" for now; "Easy" & "Very Hard" will maybe added later down the road.
  
• New 4-player Skirmish map "Good Neighbours"
  
• Added option to start with a random faction.
  
• Added option to disable random events.
  
• Lobbies should now be correctly displayed in the lobby browser.
  
• Sim turns will hopefully be added to Public Test Realm soon! Host can switch between normal and sim turns.
  
• Some Ui improvements (e.g. frames added to spells for more visible differentiation) and additions (e.g. buttons to switch between normal and sim turns).
  
• In MP, when another player is fighting against neutral units, you might randomly get the chance to take control of the neutral units.
  

These changes will soon be available, some of them only on Public Test Realm - Stay tuned for updates!

Remember, next week will be exciting as we are getting ready to share our roadmap!

/Magnus

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[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added difficulty levels Normal and Hard to Song of Stoutheart campaign (Easy and Very hard will be added later and difficulties to Rise of Ashes will be added)
  
• Added ability to replay a Quick battle in Manual battle if you didn’t like the results
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Fix being able to end up with having both a two-handed artifact and an off-hand artifact equipped at once by replacing a two-handed artifact in the backpack with an equipped main-hand artifact
  
• Fix sometimes not being able to remove artifact increasing the Command stat even though the wielder has enough Command without it
  
• Fix issue where you could only donate one less troop than max size allowed, even if you had enough troops on the giving wielder
  
• Fix artificers mines using wielder level as multiplier instead of stack size
  
• Q can be used to fast walk
  
• Fix the mass move button not handling stack size research correctly
  
• Shaman Tents upgrade changed to 5 stone, 5 Ancient Amber and 5 Glimmerweave (Was 4 stone, 3 Ancient Amber and 3 Glimmerweave.)
  
• Chelun Sanctuary’s upgrade changed to 5 stone, 3 Ancient Amber and 3 Celestial Ore (Was 5 stone, 3 Ancient Amber and 2 Celestial Ore)
  
• Smoldering Cave’s final upgrade change to 30 Ancient Amber and 20 Glimmerweave (Was 30 Ancient Amber, 20 Celestial Ore and 20 Glimmerweave)
  
• Remove Coral as a recruitable undead wielder from Song of Stoutheart mission 3
  
• Fix Shrine of Aurelia, this effect no longer stacks and now adds 5 initiative instead of 10
  

[h3]Troop changes:[/h3]

• Toxicologists initiative raised to 12 (was 11)
  
• Bane: Initiaitve raised to 16 (was 15), max damage lowered to 8 (was 9), price adjusted to 350 gold and 1 Celestial Ore (was 350 gold)
  
• Aurelian Scholars initiative lowered to 9 (was 21)
  
• Necromancers initiaitve lowered to 10 (was 23)
  
• Blessed Bones price changed to 1400 gold (was 1200 and 1 Glimmerweave)
  
• Dire Dreaths max damage lowered to 6 (was 7)
  
• Hellbreaths max damage raised to 24 (was 20)
  
• Hellroars damage range raised to 26-32 (was 25-30)
  
• Storm Guards damage lowered to 3-5 (was 4-6) and cost lowered to 200 (was 220)
  
• Sage’s hp lowered to 14 (was 15) and cost raised to 340 (was 320)
  
• The cost to evolve dragons into Elder Dragons lowered to 900 gold and 3 ancient amber (was 600 gold and 5 ancient amber)
  
• The cost of Bandit was raised to 360 gold (was 350 gold)
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Prevent research from erroneously being shown as having been bought when quickly switching between tabs in the research menu
  
• Show town/settlement names in troop overview menu
  
• When clicking town/settlement names in building/troop overview menus the camera will move to that town/settlement
  
• Spells: Added Tier label at top of each Essence type column to clarify tier and related skill
  
• Spells (Adventure specific): Only shows spell as active if Wielder has Essence of that type
  
• Spells (Battle specific): Spells in Quickbar is not sorted first by Tier and then by Cost – when using auto-populate
  
• Spells: Overall face-lift on tier-based spell frames
  
• Add check to see that input is valid online game code to “Join With Game Code” popup
  
• Stop the “town chooser” menu on the Rally Point screen from listing the town that the Rally Point is constructed in, as well as any towns (or settlements) that are being occupied, razed or converted
  
• Fix issue in pre-battle menu where it was possible to end up with multiple troops on the same hex when moving them around
  
• Prevent the UI from being toggled on and off while writing in chat or bug reporting window
  
• Show a troop’s Attacks stat in tooltip when it is more (or less) than 1
  
• Fix bug that could erroneously show a troop ability as being activated when the troop was just making multiple attacks
  
• Better wait screen when entering battle in multiplayer mode
  
• Show active troop while targeting spells
  
• Add tooltip with hotkey to battle spellbook button
  
• Fix bug where random event menu showed up on top of “minimenu”
  
• Fix issue when calculating scouting level for tooltip on entity that had zero blocking points
  
• Fix issue where pressing ALT with the “enemy joining” menu open could cause error
  
• Redesign of the “Hostiles want to join” menu to prevent confusion and misscliks
  
• Updated some grid/path colors in Battle to increase readability for players with deuteranopia color blindness
  
• Small improvements to the log in Battle
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Fix bug in analyzing regions with wielders stored in towns/settlements (could lead to never-ending AI turn)
  
• Fix nullpointer issue when looking at claimable towns/settlements
  
• Fix endless AI loop that could happen when an AI wielder was trying to repair a pillaged building that was inside an enemy wielder’s zone of control
  
• Fix AI wielders moving towards map entities to interact with them even though they are inside enemy wielder’s zone of control
  
• Fix AI wielders moving in to attack player’s commanders but then deciding to do other things once they reach them
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Fix troop that was missing sounds
  
• Fix issue with Oathbound Legionnaire footsteps
  

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• Fixed crash/freeze when a team was defeated (e.g. defeating 2 out of 3 players on four corners)
  
• Made it clearer when you lost against the enemy on a beacon map what actually happened
  
• Renamed skills related to magic and essence; added suffix “Magic” e.g “Order Magic, “Chaos Magic”, etc (only in English right now, translations will be added)
  
• Renamed modifiers that are related to essence; added suffix “essence”. e.g “Order essence”, “Chaos essence”, etc (only in English right now, translations will be added)
  
• Fix exception that could happen when losing a battle and dropping two duplicate trinkets at the same time