We are very excited to confirm that the upcoming release of 1.0 and co-op Multiplayer is coming this winter, announced via a new Launch Teaser Trailer featured today as part of the PC Gaming Show.
It has been an incredible journey throughout Early Access, and we want to thank you, the AOD community, for all your support throughout development. The game has received an abundance of new content over the past several years, including the Campaign Mode with its gripping story and 10 fully voiced chapters; factions with The Order, Rebellion & Volatists; new Heroes in the form of Aelis, Aurelia, Cyrus, Merek & Vizargo; new Units, Hardships, Blessings and Malices; and a huge range of Quality of Life improvements and balance changes.
Crucially, this has all been in lead up to what has always been a fundamental part of our vision for AOD - a cooperative Multiplayer mode. We have recently focused on playtesting with our active Discord community members and appreciate all the feedback to date, which has helped ensure we can deliver an amazing experience at launch.
And now, it is almost time. Whether it’s defending against Elite Nightmares, scouting for treasures across different points of interest, sharing Blessings, trading resources, or enduring brutal Death Nights with multiple crystals bursting at once, we cannot wait for everyone to enjoy what we have been cooking. Be sure to head over to the Steam page and official AOD channels to keep up to date with all announcements; and don’t forget to join our Discord to participate in any future Multiplayer playtests.
We will have more to share in the very near future, so stay tuned for exciting updates. You do not want to miss out!
Till next time, Protectors of the Light…
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Have a question about the game? We have a handy FAQ we’ve posted on the Steam forums that you can view. If your question hasn’t been answered there, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with questions here, on the forums and our Discord server. Speaking of which, you can also chat with our team and ask them questions on our official Discord server here!
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – v0.12.2 Update – Out Now!
Protectors of the Light,
We’re happy to share the latest update to Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Malice Mayhem!
The “Malice Mayhem” update introduces a range of new Blessings, Hardships and Malices to alter your next battle, providing new strategic pathways or create obstacles to overcome in your quest for survival.
To help any new players entering the Veil for the first time - Blessings, Hardships and Malices can play a big part when coming up against a tidal wave of Nightmares. So how do they work, and what is new in v0.12.2?
Blessings
Blessing are an upgrade acquired after surviving a Death Night. Choose 1 of 3 random Blessings to support your run, feeding into your strategy and gaining a new advantage. They can range from improving construction and increasing XP gained by Heroes, to buffs for units holding the line against the hordes of Nightmares. Blessings are cumulative and can be stacked, so don’t worry about losing a blessing when selecting a new one.
New Blessings:
Blood of my Enemy - When an enemy is slain, gain a chance to spawn burst of Healing. Provides a great synergy with melee only, supporting replayability if players want to invest more in army instead of buildings.
Change of Heart - Buildings destroyed by Nightmares have a chance to turn nearby Nightmares into allies for a short period of time. An opportunity to use Crushers against themselves (Partly taking advantage of the tech from controllable Nightmares during Mission 08 in the Campaign and bringing that to Survival).
Way of the Blade - Melee units gain Damage, Shred, Armour and HP, however their production cost is increased. An awesome way to provide player an opportunities to strength their melee strategy.
New Blessing available in v0.12.2
Hardships
Hardships are a difficulty modifier, providing custom options at the start of Survival to make a game more challenging and unique. These Hardships can range from never gaining a Blessing after surviving a Death Night, to losing the game the moment your Hero is killed. Additionally, each Hardship will increase the final score players receive when completing a game of Survival.
New Hardships:
Grim Command - Based on the Death Night and your level of difficulty, you may encounter one or more Elite Nightmares during your defence.
Veil Bond - Acquire a second Hero from the same faction and enjoy using the abilities of both Faction Heroes! This can cause your late game to become weaker and increase the level of difficulty when paired with the hardship of keeping your Hero alive. Also in Multiplayer once released, if both players have both of their Faction Heroes there could be 4 Heroes on the map at any given point.
Permanent Empire - No longer having the ability to sell your building could add some friction when building out your base, causing a higher sense of agency and future planninfg when decision making on base expansion.
The Hardship “Grim Comman” can cause Elite Nightmares to join the fight
Malices
Malices add some unpredictability to the start of each death night, providing a negative effect forcing you to adapt and react to challenges. Their purpose is to improve the attacking Nightmare hordes and disadvantage the player during these events. Each affects the game in different ways, whether in granting Nightmares damage upgrades against buildings, crippling resource income, or gradually removing the XP progress for player units. Defeating a Death Night will normally remove a Malice.
New Malices:
Necro Nightmare - Slain units within your army have a chance to turn against you. Coming back to life temporarily.
Fear Burns - Horror is now more... horrifying! Units will lose health over time when they are Horrified, adding an interesting layer of complexity and difficulty when horrified.
They are Many - Villager-occupied buildings have a chance to spawn nightmares when they’re destroyed, elevating the pressure of leaving Farms & Resource Gathering building alone as it may cause additional pester waves.
New Hardship “Veil Bond” - Players can acquire a second Hero from the same faction
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Known Issues
There is a known issue that could occur when alt-tabbing, the Alt key can lock causing unexpected behaviour which requires pressing the Alt key a second time to return to original state.
There is a known issue where during a Death Night if Nightmares encounter a blockade over a period of time Nightmare stacking could occur.
Observed an issue where during a Death Night where Nightmares are stacked, Target Priority may lose functionality.
Observed an issue where Aurelia’s Crimson Lightning has performance issues when cast in a high-density enemy area.
Observed issues with our pathfinding system on local unit avoidance and fog avoidance.
There is a known issue that could occur when alt tabbing the alt can can simulate being held down. To remove this bug simply press alt when resuming gameplay.
Observed an issue where the Final Fight in Mission 10 music loop stops playing.
Observe issues with the Catapult and Spitter landing VFX not aligned to the Z axis.
There is a known issue with the ability system where on a low occurrence triggered Hero abilities may go on cooldown without casting.
There is a known issue that could occur when casting a spell ability it may not go where the desired location was cast.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Have a question about the game? We have a handy FAQ we’ve posted on the Steam forums that you can view. If your question hasn’t been answered there, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with questions here, on the forums and our official Discord server!
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Multiplayer Progress Update
Protectors of the Light,
We've got some exciting updates.
Firstly, we're thrilled to announce that "Malice Mayhem" - the next content update for Age of Darkness: Final Stand will be arriving in August! The update will focus on changes to the way players engage with Blessings, Malices, and Hardships. We’ll be sharing more details on this soon!
We're also ready to share some exciting details on the substantial development progress we’ve made for multiplayer in Age of Darkness: Final Stand. The team have been hard at work since we last checked in, so thought it would be a good time to share how things are going!
Multiplayer Lobby System
We introduced a Steam-integrated lobby system, enabling players to invite friends, join lobbies, and start co-op matches. This includes Steam networking support, friend invites via the Steam Overlay, and a streamlined game start process. Players can now select their characters in the lobby before starting a match, setting the stage for a more engaging multiplayer experience. Additionally, we further refined the lockstep networking system, which ensures synchronized events and simulations for smoother gameplay.
Stability and Map Generation
Stabilizing the game’s core mechanics and map generation was a core focus. The new map generation system utilises pre generated map textures based on seeds that will allow for more efficient map generation when playing multiplayer matches, this further ensures a consistent and crash-free experience. We also integrated pre-generated maps into the multiplayer flow and added support for map seed transmission over the network, ensuring all players start with the same map.
Significant refactoring of the game mode framework has brought us closer to our target architecture, with improved support for multiplayer flow, lockstep synchronization, and simulation initialization events. These changes provide a more robust foundation for future development and enhance the overall stability of the game.
Features & Enhancements
Our efforts also extended to gameplay feature stabilization and enhancements. We worked on shared vision functionality and tested various gameplay mechanics such as nights, triage tents, and keeps. These updates are pivotal in creating a cohesive and enjoyable multiplayer experience, laying the groundwork for future enhancements and more complex gameplay scenarios.
While we’ve encountered a few bugs and issues along the way, these updates are a huge leap towards delivering a fully functional and enjoyable multiplayer experience in Age of Darkness: Final Stand. Age of Darkness: Final Stand is also now 33% off during the Steam Tower Defense Fest, running until August 5th. Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to dive into "Malice Mayhem" in August!
Till next time…
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Have a question about the game? We have a handy FAQ we’ve posted on the Steam forums that you can view. If your question hasn’t been answered there, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with questions here, on the forums and our Discord server. Speaking of which, you can also chat with our team and ask them questions on our official Discord server here!
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – v0.12.1 Update – Out Now!
Protectors of the Light,
Cloak & Arms - the latest update to Age of Darkness: Final Stand has arrived!
The "Cloak & Arms" Update introduces the Order Knight - a powerful new melee unit, and previously playable only in the campaign - to Survival, offering players a versatile, mid-to-late game siege support unit, and brand new ways to defend their keep from the forces of the Veil.
Additionally, the update brings major balance changes to the Rogue unit to improve overall effectiveness and accessibility, significant buffs to fishing ports to improve food and gold generation, and better customisation options for both Survival and Campaign game modes.
Cloak & Arms aims to to improve Survival gameplay and offer new and unique playstyles for both new and veteran Age of Darkness: Final Stand players.
Key improvements and a list of full patch notes can be found below.
ORDER KNIGHT
Cloaks & Arms will introduce the Order Knight to Survival for The Order. Our intent with these guys was to create an offensive, late-game melee unit. Whilst not as tanky as the Sentinel, Order Knights have that sweet, sweet damage that their defensive cousins lack. We wanted to bring in a unit that could change up how players would approach dealing with nightmares and late-game waves, and create interesting choices between investing in high-tier static defences or a moderately mobile army of deadly knights, ready to cut their enemies down to size. Our hope is that players will use this unit to find new and exciting ways to tackle late-game Death Nights.
ROGUE UPDATE
We've been aware of the Rogue sitting in a strange spot in the Rebellion roster for a while. They had high damage but were very fragile, resulting in players generally avoiding them in favour of Hunters or Pikeman. We've looked to increase the Rogue's health, to allow them that greater staying power they sorely lacked. Changes to their recruitment costs and requirements have also meant that players are now able to access more rogues earlier and in greater numbers.
As a result, their damage has been decreased, however we feel that this has been balanced out by the increase in health and the sheer amount of Rogues that can be brought to the fore now. These changes can lead players to create interesting mid-game builds and new synergies between Rebellion units and their heroes.
FISHING PORTS
Fishing Ports are receiving some general buffs to their function, as we found that they were under-performing. They sat in a weird zone of back-up gold generation and mediocre food supplier. We've endeavoured to resolve this through several ways: increasing the radius of the port's food gathering range to encompass a larger area, increasing the amount of food gained per tile within that range (allowing them to rival farms in terms of gains), increasing the amount of gold received in each Crate, and upping the total building cap from 4 to 5. Combined, this takes some pressure off having to manage farm placement and allows for greater focus on defences, industry or expansion.
SPLIT STATS
Previously, unit stats were shared across game modes. We have now split stat customizability across game modes, making adjustments that impact Survival only without affecting the pacing of Campaign. This change also supports our ongoing multiplayer tuning and balancing efforts.
Check out the full patch notes below:
Release Notes
Features & Changes
Added split constants across game modes. Allowing differences in Stats across Units, Heroes, Buildings etc across Campaign and Survival with Multiplayer in the future.
Added the Order Knight to The Order Faction in Survival with the Refined Workshop build requirement.
Removed Emboldening from the Volatist Faction in Survival.
Named Map Seeds are now displayed as the name entered in the in-game menu and end of round victory screen.
Balance Changes
Heroes
Increased Cyrus’ Violent Volley Unlockable Level from 5 to 6.
Increased Cyrus’ Base Veteran Experience Level Requirements from 476/1097/2308/3988/5563/7412/9795/12541/16573 to 476/1097/2308/3988/5563/8153/10775/13795/18230.
Increased Merek’s Base Veteran Experience Level Requirements from 498/1272/2510/4765/7005/9605/12961/16911/22800 to 450/1145/2259/4287/7005/9605/12961/16911/22800.
With Hero experience, note that Veteran is our base metric and with each higher or lower difficulty adjusted by 20%.
Forgiving is 40% less.
Easy is 20% less.
Horrific is 20% more.
Nightmare is 40% more.
Rogue
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Food Cost from 1 to 0.
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Gold Cost from 325 to 230.
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Stone Cost from 10 to 2.
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Wood Cost from 15 to 13.
Increased the Rogue’s Health from 70 to 120.
Increased the Rogue’s Movement Speed from 1.4 to 1.5.
Reduced the Rogue’s Shred Damage from 10 to 5.
Reduced the Rogue’s Kill Gold Steal from 5 to 3.
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Build Time from 30 seconds to 20.
Reduced the Rogue’s Production Cost from 1 to 0.
Other Units
Increased the Soldier’s Health from 125 to 150.
Increased the Pikemen’s Production Gold Cost from 175 to 200.
Reduced the Sentinel’s Research Cost from 850 Gold to 500.
Buildings
Increased the Gate’s Health from 500/1500/3000 to 750/1500/4500.
Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Shred Damage from 30 to 45.
Increased the Grand Bellow Tower’s Damage Over Time from 4 to 6.
Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Shred Damage from 30 to 45.
Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Armour from 35 to 50.
Increased the Fishing Port’s Fishing Net Gold Earned from 100 to 150.
Increased the Fishing Port’s Food Yield from 0.25 per Tile to 0.35.
Increased the Fishing Port’s Max Build Count from 4 to 5.
Fixes
Fixed a crash that could occur when move or formation commanding off the map’s edge.
Fixed a crash that could occur when attacking a Dark Crystal prior to Triggering.
Fixed a crash that could occur after completing the Final Stand with Malice Mayhem enabled.
Fixed an issue where the custom Map Seed entered did not match the in-game Menu Seed nor the end of round victory screen Map Seed.
Known Issues
There is a known issue that could occur when alt-tabbing, the Alt key can lock causing unexpected behaviour which requires pressing the Alt key a second time to return to original state.
There is a known issue where during a Death Night if Nightmares encounter a blockade over a period of time Nightmare stacking could occur.
Observed an issue where during a Death Night where Nightmares are stacked, Target Priority may lose functionality.
Observed an issue where Aurelia’s Crimson Lightning has performance issues when cast in a high-density enemy area.
Observed issues with our pathfinding system on local unit avoidance and fog avoidance.
There is a known issue that could occur when alt tabbing the alt can can simulate being held down. To remove this bug simply press alt when resuming gameplay.
Observed an issue where the Final Fight in Mission 10 music loop stops playing.
Observe issues with the Catapult and Spitter landing VFX not aligned to the Z axis.
There is a known issue with the ability system where on a low occurrence triggered Hero abilities may go on cooldown without casting.
There is a known issue that could occur when casting a spell ability it may not go where the desired location was cast.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Multiplayer Progress Update
Protectors of the Light,
Our team is hard at work on multiplayer, and we want to keep the AoD community in the loop as we make progress. Throughout the year, we'll be sharing regular updates to give you a peek behind the scenes as we head towards the big 1.0 release.
But first, some exciting news! Our next update, v0.12.1 Cloak & Arms, is dropping on July 9th, 2024. This update will introduce the Order Knight and bring several balance changes. We'll share the full details and patch notes when it's live.
Multiplayer Update
The multiplayer team has made huge strides in improving the determinism of the Age of Darkness code base. This means that every code path returns the same result regardless of hardware or play through time. This is vital for the type of networking we have selected. Right now, about 85% of the code base is deterministic, and is tested and proved constantly with tests such as:
Starting Multiplayer Sessions - Create/Destroy
System/Table Checksums
Map Generation Tests
Ability Firing
Pathfinding
And many more...
These tests help us ensure everything runs smoothly, paving the way for an awesome multiplayer experience.
Map Generation
We've updated the Map Generation code to make sure map creation in multiplayer is consistent on both the client and host machines. This way, all resources, water, trees etc will be identical for both players for a consistent and synchronous co-op experience.
Multiplayer UI and Lobby
We're also working on the lobby and invite systems. Some key features include:
Sending invites through the Steam Overlay (in-game invites)
Receiving invites from the Steam Overlay
Asynchronous character selection
Match start once both players are ready
These enhancements are crucial for delivering a solid multiplayer experience in Age Of Darkness.
Till next time, Protectors of the Light…
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – v0.12.0 Update – Out Now!
Protectors of the Light,
We are excited to release the latest update to Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Seeds of Darkness. (v0.12.0).
Seeds of Darkness is one of three Survival focussed content updates planned over the coming months, with future updates focusing on balance changes, introducing the Order Knight to Survival mode, and new Blessings, Hardships, and Malices. Please check out the key improvements and a list of full patch notes below.
Map Seeds
The introduction of Map Seeds allows players to generate and regenerate specific maps using unique identifiers. Players can generate their own custom game, and replay an identical map with a different faction or hero. The map seed code also allows players to share their unique code with friends, in order to play through an identical map and settings. (Important to note - the corrupted crystal location changes every run).
We will also introduce a weekly seed that everyone can play and compete against others in the community! If you like a challenge, we’ll be running competitions within Discord via a custom map seed, so keep your eyes peeled for the challenges as we have a stack of prizes to giveaway.
Achievements
Seeds of Darkness also bring Achievements to the world of Erodar for the first time. We've added a variety of challenges across different levels to test your skills and reward your accomplishments. A couple of our favourites include:
Veil Champion I - Kill an Elite Nightmare in a game of Survival
Here Comes the Money - Collect 4,500,000 Gold
Nightmare King - Beat Survival on Nightmare difficulty
Lash Out - Destroy all Dark Crystals early in a game of Survival
Accessibility
Age of Darkness: Final Stand now offers enhanced accessibility, with new features including colour blind modes, warnings for destructive actions, increased customisable to difficulty settings, options to disable camera shake, disable Survival camera hijacking, as well as the ability to choose text colours for subtitles and dialogue, catering to a wider range of players' needs and preferences.
These additions aim to make the Age of Darkness: Final Stand experience more inclusive, accommodating, and customisable for all of our players, including those with diverse abilities and preferences.
We are always looking for opportunities to help players dive deeper into the world of Erodar. Seeds of Darkness includes an update to the World Map, allowing players to uncover more about the lore and history of Erodar as they progress through each Mission location in our Campaign.
You can check out the full patch notes below:
Release Notes
Features
Map Seeds
Custom Map Seeds
Weekly Map Seeds
Achievements
73 Achievements
World Map Locations
11 World Map Locations Lore
Animation Update
Hector
Archer
Accessibilities
Colour Blind Modes
Mass Building Sell Confirmation
Split Custom Difficulties
Disable Camera Shake
Disable Camera Transitions in Survival (During Death Nights and Final Stand)
Disable Edge Camera Panning
Text Colour Choice for Subtitles and Dialogue
Update Weaken to be a percentage reduction instead of on/off - now 70%
Repair now replenishes Armour on Buildings
Crashes
Fixed a low occurring crash when pressing the respawn Hero button.
Fixed a crash that could occur when placing Light Towers to uncover the Veil during the Final Stand.
Fixed a crash that occurred when using formation commends off the side of the map.
Fixed a crash that occurred when closing or exiting the game.
Fixed a few edge case issues that caused crashes when accessing out of bounds memory
Performance Improvements
Improved the performance during Death Nights and Final Stand
Improved performance while in the Build Planning mode
Fixed an issue that caused performance issues when placing multiple buildings at once.
Fixes & Changes
Fixed an issue where the Hero would be teleported through environmental terrain after being revived.
Fixed an issue that caused the momentum and speed of units to be slower when giving move commands in quick succession.
Fixed an issue where Edwins Flame Shield ability played the incorrect animation track when activating the ability.
Fixed an issue where Edwins crackfire VFX could display on auto attacks or other ability casts.
Fixed an issue where the default hotkey T now opens the Skill Tree instead of the Resource & Villagers panel.
Fixed an issue where the Grand Bellow Tower triggered its attack on enemies outside of its attack range.
Fixed an issue where Cyrus’ abilities did not have any range spell indicators.
Fixed an issue where the Dark Crystals would not display their Health bar on mouseover.
Known Issues
There is a known issue that could occur when alt-tabbing, the Alt key can lock causing unexpected behaviour which requires pressing the Alt key a second time to return to original state.
There is a known issue where during a Death Night if Nightmares encounter a blockade over a period of time Nightmare stacking could occur
Observe an issue where Aurelia’s Crimson Lightning has performance issues when cast in a high-density enemy area.
Observed issues with our pathfinding system on local unit avoidance and fog avoidance.
There is a known issue that could occur when alt tabbing the alt can can simulate being held down. To remove this bug simply press alt when resuming gameplay.
Observed an issue where the Final Fight in Mission 10 music loop stops playing.
Observe issues with the Catapult and Spitter landing VFX not aligned to the Z axis.
There is a known issue with the ability system where on a low occurrence triggered Hero abilities may go on cooldown without casting.
There is a known issue that could occur when casting a spell ability it may not go where the desired location was cast.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the our Discord server in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Roadmap Reveal & Multiplayer Update
Protectors of the Light,
Firstly, the team would like to extend a massive thank you to all of our players for your patience over the past few months. We’ve been hard at work on the development of Age of Darkness: Final Stand, including new single player content, and our long awaited Multiplayer update.
Today, we are excited to share the future Roadmap for Age of Darkness: Final Stand, and reveal the final stages of our journey through Early Access and our path to Multiplayer and our full 1.0 release.
Over the coming months, we will be releasing three new content updates, with a core focus on addressing known issues and bugs, and bringing new single player, Survival focussed content to the world of Erodar. These will include upcoming balance changes, introducing the Order Knight to Survival mode, and new Blessings, Hardships, and Malices.
Our first new update - Seeds of Darkness - will be released next week (Tuesday 7 May, 10am AEST | Monday 6 May, 5pm PDT | Tuesday 7 May, 2am CEST) click here for your local time zone, featuring Map Seeds, Achievements, World Map updates, animation updates, and new accessibility options for our players, alongside several bug fixes and balance changes. We’ll be sharing the full release notes next week, and kicking off a new era of Community Challenges around the new custom Map Seeds! We can’t wait to hear your feedback!
MULTIPLAYER
We have remained committed to delivering on our vision for Age of Darkness: Final Stand - a vision that has always included a co-op Survival mode. We’re pleased to say that development is progressing well - and while this has been a humbling and challenging experience along the way - we’re massively excited to share that Multiplayer is currently planned to launch, alongside our full 1.0 release, this coming Winter (or Summer, if you’re from the Southern Hemisphere like us).
Early Multiplayer Gameplay | Development In-Progress
We understand that you, our players, and our valued Age of Darkness: Final Stand community will be key to helping steer us through this process. With that in mind, our goal is to share the first Multiplayer Beta this Fall.
We’ll aim to share exact dates for both our Multiplayer Beta, and the end of Early Access as we get closer to both launches.
We are incredibly excited for the future of Age of Darkness: Final Stand, and looking forward to sharing more updates around our Multiplayer development, and road to 1.0 in the coming weeks and months. Importantly, we’re excited to continue on this new chapter of our development journey with you - our players.
First and foremost, we’d like to thank our community for your patience, and apologize for the relative silence over the last few months. While development on Age of Darkness: Final Stand has continued, there have been some major changes on our side which we have been working through to get communications with you - our players - back on track!
On that note, we have some exciting news to share with you regarding our next chapter, and the future of Age of Darkness: Final Stand.
After initiating discussions with Team17 earlier this year, we have reacquired the full publishing rights for Age of Darkness: Final Stand. This will allow us to steer all future development for the game, and to keep the dialogue open directly with our players. It has also meant we’ve needed to bring additional internal community teams across the game, which has taken some time. You may have already seen some new faces in Discord. We want our community to know that we’re here, we’re listening, and we are committed to ensuring regular communication with you moving forward.
We are excited to realize our vision for Age of Darkness: Final Stand, and have some additional updates to share later this week around our future content roadmap, multiplayer development, and our path to 1.0 and the end of Early Access. The first of these updates - ‘Seeds of Darkness’ - will be coming next week, and we can’t wait to share more details around this with you soon, and to continue on this new chapter together with you, our valued community.
We will also be hosting a live Q&A with the development team in Discord later this week to discuss the new roadmap, multiplayer, and everything Age of Darkness: Final Stand. Stay tuned for more details on this!
We want to express our gratitude to Team17 for their support throughout the development process. Their partnership was invaluable in helping us bring Age of Darkness: Final Stand into Early Access, and we are truly thankful for the opportunity to have worked with them.
Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely, The Age of Darkness: Final Stand Team
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Update v0.11.4
Protectors of the Light,
Following the launch of Exile’s Return last month, our latest patch addresses several performance and technical issues that have impacted some players.
Thank you to our passionate community for all of the reports and feedback we have received. This is truly invaluable in helping us to continue to improve the Age of Darkness: Final Stand experience for all of our players.
As always please continue to report bugs or issues to our Player Support channel on our Discord, as we’re constantly monitoring these channels.
Check out the full patch notes below:
Release Notes
Crashes
Fixed a crash related to pathfinding that could occur across the Campaign Missions.
Fixed a crash in Mission 10 related to placing buildings within a units path.
Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting the World Map in Campaign.
Performance Improvements
Improved the performance during Survival Death Night Crystal explosion.
Improved the performance during the Final Stand Cutscene moment.
Improved the performance when loading the game for the first time.
Fixes & Changes
SURVIVAL AND CAMPAIGN
Fixed an issue where F1 could select Garrisoned Units
Fixed an issue where in certain situations the player can instantly transport Garrisoned ranged units from one tower to another tower in the map.
Fixed an issue when about to cast a Heros ability you could click on buildings to cancel, leaving the spell indicator on.
Fixed an issue where fire damage over time did not go through Armour and was reduced by 70%.
Fixed an issue where Targetting Closest within the Target Prioritization system was not working as intended.
Fixed an issue where when Alt-tabbing during gameplay could result in the Alt key from locking. Causing unit selection, move commands and many minor issues to behave unexpectedly.
CAMPAIGN
Fixed an issue in the World Map where the Music would play inconsistently
Mission 4
Fixed an issue where the opening cutscene was de-synced causing stuttering and poor quality.
Fixed an issue where players had to skip a cutscene in order to progress.
Mission 7
Fixed an issue where an enemy Tower could attack units further than the Tower’s attack range.
Fixed an issue where the final cutscene SFX was not playing as intended.
Mission 8
Fixed an issue where with pathfinding that caused Nightmares to not put pressure from the left side of the map.
Fixed an issue where Nightmares would get stuck within Trade Bazaars across the map.
Fixed an issue where collision was missing near the ‘Slay the Commander’ objective.
Mission 10
Fixed an issue where the Crusher’s Roar VFX momentarily appeared in the incorrect direction.
Fixed an issue with volume balancing across the Mission.
Known Issues
Using old saves in the new update will cause various unintended gameplay behaviour.
Observed an issue where some player may lose their campaign progression.
In a rare occasion Heroes may auto-attack with a fire FX.
Pressing ‘-’ will display a ping mouse cursor and requires a second press to de-activate.
Enemy units in campaign won’t agro onto attacking Ballista or Below Towers.
In survival Death Night music may not always play.
Have observed performance hitches in Mission 6 when a Hero’s ability is cast for the first time.
In survival collision is missing on the Dark Crystals.
Throughout Campaign, save/loading can cause objective makers to behave unintentionally.
Some UI Prompts remain untranslated across all languages.
Impaler projectiles don’t shred the Armour off enemy buildings across Campaign.
Building a Lumber Yard won’t highlight trees within its radius.
In some cases Heroes and Units can get stuck on terrain set dressing during Campaign Missions.
Merek’s Halberd Hurricane can miss in some cases when used in a group of Nightmares.
Buildings may display construction VFX when the camera focuses on them while navigating throughout the map.
Player can see all objective locations early on the Mini-Map in Mission 9.
Player may be able to incorrectly path through the enemy’s gates in Campaign.
Minimap objective pings in Campaign are not always persisting in some Missions.
In some missions background music may not play correctly or at all.
Character Models can stand and clip with the Character Pedestal on the World Map.
In Mission 5 the player will see incorrect Objective Information on the Mission Success screen.
Dialogue Barks may be playing multiple times within Campaign Missions.
Save Loading throughout the campaign may cause issues with Progression triggers for that mission.
There are some issues with Cutscenes missing characters during Mission 9.
Cutscenes may play twice when skipped in certain situations.
In some cases Units will get stuck running on the spot when trying to reach unreachable terrain.
Cinematic Subtitle Timing is not matching to Cinematic Audio for Dunstock, Storm Eye and the Final Cinematic.
Player can see objective locations early on the Mini-Map in Mission 9.
In some cases the player will see missing Audio across cutscenes throughout the Campaign.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Exile’s Return – Out Now!
Protectors of the Light,
Following a successful Beta period, Exile’s Return is now available for all Age of Darkness: Final Stand owners.
https://youtu.be/6NdCbbWQW8c
Get Ready!
Exile’s Return includes:
Act III of the Campaign, encompassing the final three missions, a unique boss fight and a new cinematic
A new Survival hero, Aurelia
Various updates and fixes including:
Formations
Performance and Pathfinding improvements
Spanish localization
3D Hero Select Screens
Thank You
On behalf of the entire Age of Darkness: Final Stand, we’d like to thank all of our players who took part in the Exile’s Return Beta. Your feedback through this period has been invaluable in helping us to deliver the polish and quality experience that our players expect. We’re excited for all of our players to experience the Campaign finale - and can’t wait to hear your stories!
You can find the full patch notes for the Exile’s Return update here
As always, we’d love to hear all of your feedback around the Exile’s Return update. Please continue to share your thoughts with us, and report any issues you might encounter in the player support channel on our Discord, as we’re constantly monitoring those channels.
