Grim Nights News

Alright, so here are the patch notches for 1.2. (This one will ruin your old saves, so, as always: I'm really sorry and I hope you have turned of auto-updates if you want to finish your game before updating.)

New features:
* AutoSave, every morning at 05.
* Autowork: workers are at least a little smarter and can find the same type of work horisontally when they are done.
* Rain can be allowed or disallowed, since it cause lag for some people.
* F also works for finding idle units.
* Quick keys for selecting CTRL-groups don't always zoom to units, you need to tap twice for that, which allows for better troop managing.
* Pressing 'Delete' will kill single units.
* More interesting/fun/stupid trivia. Instead of "A decent guy", no-perk-villager have random generated trivia. So you can read this before killing them.

* Legendary units! Each defeated boss will spawn a new legendary villagers, with stats like 300% more damage or +6 when chopping wood and such. Also, if you choose 'Beginner Mode' you will start with one legendary villager. When you defeat the last boss you will get two new one, which should help you rebuild your village if you wish to continue.
(These legendary units will arrive no matter your population cap or food storage)

Bug fixes and minor stuff:
* Removed a mayor exploit where you could multi-mine with one unit.
* Working units should no longer be selected when searching for idles.
* Chests should no longer cause crashes.
* The first boss Mergle, is now easier, less hp and less damage. (A lot of people complained, so I have done my best to listen)
* Fixed a bug where workers could repair buildings forever and give them insane amounts of hp.
* Some other tiny thing that I can't remember, sorry, I have to start logging all my minor fixes.

Also: Today I'm releasing this patch and the new DLC, so I am rather nervous. I always get the feeling that I have made a huge blunder somewhere in the code. Now, there has been a lot of beta testing, way more than usual, so that calms me down a little bit, but anyways: I will be in a sort of stand-by-mode for the next days, very ready to jump in if a mayor problem exists. I really dont think there is one, but just in case.

Last but not least: that issue with some people starting the game with a strange sprite-sheet issue and not be able to play: I am really sorry but I still haven't been able to find out exactly what is causing this and I don't have the solution. If you have this problem, the best solution might be asking for a steam refund, I really feel bad if you are still waiting for me to fix this problem.

//Best wishes, Mattias

Hello again! As some of you might have noticed the DLC will be released on Friday. Jolly good times! I really hope you will enjoy it.

The DLC has some new features which are being beta tested right now. So far they seem to working just fine. (And these will of course be added to the original game when the DLC is released, or a little earlier.)

* Auto saving. The game automatically saves every day at 5 in the morning.
This save can't be overwritten be accident. People have asked for this and I have done me best to listen.

* Autowork! I've managed to make at least a half-decent version to minimize micro managing. Workers can now search for similar work horisontally and nearby. If an iron ore deposit (for example) is depleted, the miner will check after iron ore nearby and auto-target and start mining it. Will work for building and clearing rubble as well.

* Toggle Rain ON/OFF. In game raining has been known to cause performance drops for some people so there is now an option to completely turn off rain.

* Single workers can be killed with Delete.

* Finding groups with CTRL + Number, won't always center your screen on those units. It will if you already have other units select, meaning you can double tap relevant number and zoom, or just press once to only-select.

* You can find idle workers with F also.

Some of these are minor addition, but I still thought they were worth mentioning. They will all be added to the original game in the next patch, which will be released on friday, or maybe earlier. The autowork-function I believe will be very handy in the original game.

The patch (for the original game) will mess up your old saves. So, once again, many apologies! However, I really think it will be worth it, since it will fix many bugs and improve the gameplay.

Best wishes//Mattias

PS: The DLC will also be difficult. You have been warned.

Hello! Just wanted give you some news about what's coming and wish everyone the best possible christmas/holidays/whatever you wish to celebrate!

The work on the DLC is going just fine. It takes longer than I expected but I'm still confident it will be ready for a release in February. Hopefully beta-testing will start in late January. Maybe I've written this before, but no harm in writting it again I suppose:

The DLC will be Elves vs Demons. and it will feature:

* All new units, portraits and buildings.
* All new enemies and bosses.
* New maps.
* Less focus on mining and more focus on building strategic defenses.
* Mage units (many people have asked for this and there will be plenty of it.)
* Really powerful and expensive magic skills. A big part of the game will be
managing your mana-resource and using it wisely in your defenses.
* New soundtrack, still songs from the one and only Vindsvept, whose music is in the original game.
* Some different god other than Mogha (I have some ideas but haven't really settled on one yet)

In total it will be a similar but still rather different game, maybe more like a sequel than a DLC. And I'm really trying not to make a cheap re-skin, so I am focusing a lot on making it a familiar but still new experience.

Anyways: Once again a huge thanks to everyone who has bought the game, all the support I have recieved and all the bugs you have reported. I'm working the best I can on improving the game, but sometimes things move a bit slow, especially when you are only one person, so thanks for patience =)

Happy holidays everyone! I will be visiting friends and family and taking a fews days.

Oh, and yes, the game is on Steams Winter Sale, so if you want to share it and/or give it to someone as a gift, please do =) It's only 2 dollars at the moment and I hope you think it is worth it!

Best wishes//Mattias

Hello, this is a bit messy, but please read the whole message!

So, you can access version 1.1.2 which has fixed the bugs listed below. However, in this version you will not be able to use your old saves. For this reason, you will have to access this latest version as a Beta. Right click on your game in Steam -> Properties -> Beta versions, and "testing - 1.1.2" should be in your list. No password required.

Please note that this patch only fixes a few bugs and those NOT provide new content so if you feel done with game, then perhaps there is no need at all trying out this version. I mainly give you this option so there is an accessable version with less bugs and exploits.

You can switch back any time you please to access your old saves, if you so wish.

Fixes:

* Elite barracks showing the wrong iron amount required.
* Infinite roof-animals on the starting house.
* Villagers will not "auto-gather" dead rabbits unless they are standing still and have no other task/target.
* When you use ctrl-groups to select a worker, the buildings buttons will appear, no need to re-select.
* The zoom-to-new-villager-that-just-arrived, will move the screen to the left side of the map where the villager arrive, instead of the tavern that summoned the villagers.
* Sulfur pop-up showing the wrong number of gained sulfur.
* Dread knights will now attack buildings and move smarter once up on terraces, making end game more difficult.
* House-frames/foundations counts to the houseCap, so you cant exploit to get higher population than intended.
* You can't give a unit a the potion-boost and also extract sulfur via the gunpowder mil at the same time.
* Wooden Spikes are repaired faster.
* Also (I forgot to mention this earlier, sorry) loot/items will move towards your units when they are close enough, so mainly sulfur will not be stuck on tower edges,

I am once again very sorry that this patch also messes with your old saves. This is my biggest problem at this moment - the save-system I use is very unreliable. I have not found a solution to this yet, but for the moment I will let you know when patches are avaliable and using this method I mean to give you a semi-smooth way to choose when/if you will start a new in the latest version.

Other news - I am working on a DLC, which I think might be ready in february. I'm thinking I will use beta-testers for this DLC, to make it as functional, fun and bug free as possible when released. I will let you know more later on if anyone is interested in beta-testing =)

Best wishes// Mattias

Okay, I found out what was causing the lag and this hot fix should fix this. Once again: I am suuuper sorry about this. And thanks everyone for sending me info and helping me locate the problem. Perhaps developers should be very professional and calm but man... I hope this was the last mayor bug.

The new version should say "Version 1.1.1" at the bottom of the main menu.

Anyways here is what the problem was about:
Buildings, mines and some terrain add themselves to the minimap - a small icon that just sits there and has a minimal amount of code in it. They are of course only meant to be added ONCE. On the map "Piney Valley" that platform/Hill added itself 60 times per second, so no wonder that caused a lag rather rapidly. And of course I can't blame anyone for this except myself - missplace one line of code and that's what you get.

One more sad news: If you have a saved game on the map "Piney Valley" and the lag was bad when you saved, the lag will still be there when you load that game, so you will have to start a new on that map. However, since the lag was monstrous, you will hopefully only lose half a in-game-days progress, since it was almost impossible to play under those horrid conditions created by yours truly.

I also found one more memory leak-thing which actually has been there since the release: When a single unit was selected, the same problem was actually occuring with the "Kill Unit"-button. This problem fixed itself once you deselected that unit and all the buttons were removed, but I imagined this still caused lag and frustration for some people. So sorry about that as well.


Of course I have fixed these to issues and thank you for your patience. I'm still gonna be in ready-to-hot-fix-mode, and I still hope that this won't be necessary.


Best wishes//Mattias