A Druid's Duel
Update 1055 Released!
Current games should be unaffected after updating. If you're in a game that was previously broken it will unlikely be recoverable. Cancel/Conceded it and try a new one after updating.
Update 1054 Live!
Changes in the game include:
The Leaderboard is now visible within the Play Online screen. It shows the top 10 players. The Player Portal will show you 20.
3 new 2 Player maps have been added to both local and Online multiplayer. As always, playing them in Tournament Mode will be the most balanced play.
A number of bugs with Steam Achievements have been addressed.
Thank you for playing!
Kris
Server Changes and Update This Week
Heads up that the server will be down for a short time sometime in the next few days. This is due to a major server move in order to offer better performance and monitoring of games.
An update to the game will also be released which will include a bunch of bug fixes and several new 2 player maps.
I'll post again here when the changeover is in progress and again when finished.
Thanks!
Kris
Update 1053 Released
Campaign Fixes
- End game screen now directs to Main Menu and is 16:9
- End game screen now shows on replays of that level
- Replaying Season end levels will now replay the Season Stone Award
- Fixed bug that would show an empty announcement box after completing a
level - Campaign difficulty now correctly saves the new setting
Achievements Fixed
- End game/Lord of the Realms Achievement
- Shell-shocker
- Welcome Back
- Way of the Wolf
- 20k Mana Achievement (entire Mana-counter stat is fixed)
- Overconfident Achievement has been removed
Other Things
- Changed the open/close Chat Window keyboard shortcut to Cmd/Ctrl + G
- Adjusted MP map Vaulted Wood to de-escalate turn 2
As always, let me know if you run into anything unexpected.
Thanks!
Kris
Hotfix 1051: First Turn Bonus Adjustment
This is being discussed here.
2nd Player gets a bonus based on 1st Player's end-turn mana strength, not counting Relic or Fairy bonuses. The Mana Strength box shows this change live so you don't have to worry about the math, but here is how it works:
P2 Mana = P1 Mana / 2, with 10 as a minimum.
If P1 Mana is 10+, P2 gets the above +5.
So on Little Islands, commonly P1 ends with 18. 18/2 = 9, so P2 gets a bonus of 10 as the minimum.
If P1 were to somehow gain more land to end with 20, 20/2 = 10. P2 would get 15.
On A Druid's Duel, P2 will likely get much more if P1 gathers a lot of land, which is what usually happens.
This adds an extra dimension in that if you are P1, you can, to some degree, control how much P2 gets as a bonus based on the land you grab.
More 2 Player maps are in the works and as I design them, this may be refined more. This provides me a lot of flexibility to adjust and gives a sliding scale based on actual player action instead of trying to plan for all possible scenarios on all maps.
Update 105 Released!
It's finally here! The major updated you've been asking for and helping shape is complete and ready for you :) This is a huge undertaking and there are a lot of things added and addressed across the entire app so bear with me (heh) as I break them all down for you.
You can also join me tomorrow to try out the changes and line up some games!
Now, on to the changes...
Game Options
- Widescreen (16:9 and 16:10) are now the supported formats. 4:3 is gone.
- Added Audio options for setting music and sfx volume. This setting is retained between sessions and across any game modes.
Campaign Changes
- Campaigns can now be individually cleared and the AI difficulty setting can be changed before a session. Simply go to the Campaign screen from the Main Menu and select a new difficulty. Up is harder, Down is easier.
- Back-tracking in Campaigns has been removed. You now always have the option to play any board discovered at the "edges" of your progress.
- Some Boss Battles got re-vamped maps to make them beatable.
Online Multiplayer Changes
Your requests have been heard! I've incorporated a number of big changes into Update 105 for improving online play. I've incorporated more help text and explanations throughout the Play Online screens to help you out.
Your current Aura and Trisk scores are now shown on the My Profile screen. Leaderboard will be moved in-game as well, but is not in quite yet.
Dash Duels
Dash Duels provides a way to complete a 2 player game in one sitting. This is enforced by disallowing a player to leave the game once started. Leaving will forfeit the game, which is an expectation not set by normal games.
Dash Duels have a 2-minute turn limit set automatically to help keep it moving.
Starting a Dash Duel does not count against your game limit as it can only exist during one play session. Once started, the other player has three minutes to join the game for it to begin, otherwise it is canceled (or can be canceled by the starting player).
Tournament Mode
Any online game (including Dash Duels) can now be optionally played in Tournament Mode. This mode eliminates the automatically spawned set of three Fairies found in standard mode and in the Campaign. Fairies are still spawned when an Obstacle is destroyed.
Tournament Mode also changes how the turn time limit works. If you are playing with a turn time limit, restarting your turn will NOT reset the clock, so think hard before using all your time in trying different options out!
Live Chat
- Added a main lobby chat available in the Main Menu if you are logged in to the game server.
- Added in-game chat for all online games. This chat will show you when a player restarts their turn and if they leave the game. For normal games this can be pretty helpful so you don't wait for them to move.
- Chat is not available in Campaign games, though that may change, based on your feedback.
- Chat uses your Player Portal username, not your SteamID (for now).
There of course are also a number of bugs fixed and small things added here and there. Credits is now two distinct pages to make it easier to actually read and the help text font has been changed to be more readable.
A visual tour of these things is available on Facebook as well.
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. I feel this update brings A Druid's Duel up to where it ought to be in terms of features and polish. There is more to come, of course, so if your request didn't make it in, please keep asking!
Kris
Update 105 Lands May 1st
I would love to get some live games played over the weekend to knock out any lingering bugs and gather any feedback. I'll post again after the update and schedule an event for some live games!
Meanwhile, See the features of tomorrow's major update to A Druid's Duel told through pictures. (Facebook)
Server Hotfix 0.4
This fixes issues related to online games only. Namely, it fixed a bug where the next player was incorrectly determined in some cases, which breaks the auto-concession clean up script. It would also show the wrong next player stars in your game list.
This in turn resulted in games behaving oddly, such as prematurely ending upon a player retiring from a game or trying to retire a previously retired player.
Please comment if you run into anything you think may be related. It should not affect active games unless they were already broken.
April Update and Tournament Moved
First up, The Battle for Beltaine tournament has been rescheduled. There were not enough participants and I am rethinking the format. There are a number of things coming up in the next major update that will affect competitive play anyway so I would prefer to hold a tourney with these features. Tentative new date is May 17.
April Update
The big update coming down the pike is starting to come together. While generally sticking to the previous description, I am packing a ton of things into it. Updates 2 and 3 have been combined into a single major update.
Already completed are:
- Ability to clear and change the difficulty of each Campaign in progress.
- Tournament Mode added to Multiplayer games. This mode removes the automatic 3 fairy spawn for 2 player games. It also changes the turn time limit to not reset if you restart your turn in this mode. This mode is not final, but something like these options will make it in. See the excellent discussion about it here.
- Widescreen mode (16:9 ratio) fullscreen and windowed.
- Volume settings for music and sound effects.
- Back-tracking in Campaigns has been removed.
- Some Campaign maps have been updated, specifically Boss battles that were largely impossible to beat on Elder (hardest) difficulty).
- Turn notices are now dismissible with a click of the mouse.
- Keybindings have been added for spawning units.
- Fairies now have a shadow when over land, making it easier to see what space they are on.
- Mana Strength info simplified for 2 player games.
The features specifically for online play are not finalized yet as I experiment with various solutions to facilitating "live" play. More details to come in the next couple weeks.
That's it for now :)
Thanks!
Kris
Tournament: The Battle for Beltaine
Celebrate the end of Winter by dominating the soggy bog-lands of Beltaine! Show other Druids you're the master by taking part in this free and open tournament!
Battle for Beltaine Registration and Information
Prizes
- The 4 finalists will receive 100 Aura points and 20 additional Trisks on their account. This is in addition to any they earn during tournament gameplay.
- The Champion will also receive A Druid's Duel T-shirt, shipped free in the US!