New Things

• ADDED NEW COMBAT SYSTEM UI
  We implemented the first pass of the combat system UI! It’s still very rough around the edges and requires several more polish passes to make it look nice, but the functionality is all there.

• ADDED 15 PROTOTYPE CHARACTERS
  Added 15 units for the coming test build. This roster covers most of the common effect categories and should give a good representation of the combat system.

• ADDED TEST CAMPAIGN
  We added our first campaign to the game. This is a series of battles you’ll have to overcome while building up your deck. Check out our gameplay preview to see how it works!

Changes

• CHANGED DEFAULT TARGETING RULES
  When a unit has no valid target in the adjacent lane, it will now always target the lane closest to it. We found this default interaction to be much more intuitive compared to the leader-based targeting, which restricted battle modes to elimination mode only.

• CHANGED GRID LAYOUT
  The battle grid is now asymmetrical to support the new targeting rules. We chose this particular slant as it emphasized the attacking side (left) and defending side (right) on its own, freeing up the blue and red color classifications.

• RECATEGORIZED ALL CHARACTER CLASSES
  We combined all existing classes into 4 distinct archetypes of offense, defense, disruption and support. This change stings as we loved the 8 original classes thematically, but the combat system simply doesn’t support enough viable characters and abilities for all of them in practice. And if we tried to force an even spread, we’d end up with an incredibly unhealthy meta, which is why we’re moving forward with a much more future proof classification.

• CHANGED BARRIER BEHAVIOR
  Barriers now always absorb 100% of applied damage, and all barriers have a fixed HP pool. This significantly streamlines the design space for barriers, but having to keep a mental note of multiple absorption rates and barrier capacities turned out to be overwhelming while playing.

Fixes

• FIXED EFFECT SPILLOVER
  All effects belonging to a skill are now properly contained, fixing an issue where a unit could apply the remaining effects of a skill to another target if the initial target became invalid during the execution of said skill

• FIXED LANCER LAG
  We optimized the effect queue when dealing with multi-target skills, fixing an issue where processing the lancer’s turn would take progressively over the course of a battle

• FIXED BATTLE START EFFECTS
  Battle start effects now trigger as soon as a unit is deployed on the grid, fixing an issue where battle start effects would be apply twice on the first turn

• FIXED UNIT REMOVAL
  Units now account for all ways they can die, fixing an issue where units that died from a damage over time effect were not properly removed from the grid

• FIXED CRITICAL POWER EFFECT INTERACTION
  Added the missing implement affecting effect duration, and the critical power modifier now properly influences the duration of the applied effect(s)