v0.8 First Look Dev Livestream - Age of Darkness: Final Stand
Protectors of the Light,
Take your first look at v0.8 with members of our Dev team! They’ll be giving you a preview of next week's release on our Twitch channel on Monday, August 1 at 1:30pm AEST (Sunday, July 31 8:30pm PDT).
Come check out the new content, ask our team questions, and help protect the Light! Remember, if you can’t make the stream, you’ll still be able to catch up with the VoD after.
As always, if you come across any bugs or crashes, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
As Edwin Everard rose through the ranks of The Order, he never imagined he would come face-to-face with the full force of the Veil's Nightmares. Adept as he was with the blade, he saw himself as a peacekeeper - not one to lead the charge into battle.
Edwin swore an oath, however, and he takes that oath seriously - more so than many others of his rank, and perhaps even more than the Bishop he reports to.
Edwin was blessed with a curious power few seem to possess; the talented Knight can conjure dancing flames that bend to his will, yet do not consume him. A lesser man would have let these embers guide him to power and wealth, but Edwin serves a higher purpose.
He has seen what hides in the shadows. He has seen the Order cast aside its singular purpose in favour of petty politics. He believes they are unprepared for what they must face. Now Edwin believes that, if he does not uphold his oath, humanity is lost.
He may be right.
Coming in v0.8.0
Edwin Ultimate Ability - Flame Shield
Edwin engulfs himself in a flaming shield that blocks damage and harms nearby attackers, exploding when it is destroyed or expires.
Edwin's Flame Shield ability
Some eagle eyes also noticed a new ability for Aelis in our behind-the-scenes look into how we find our voice actors.
Aelis Passive Ability - Royal Decree
Aelis survives a fatal blow by sacrificing a Loyal Guard, healing her to a set percentage of her health bar. While not on cooldown, Aelis condemns enemies she hits, causing them to take additional damage from all sources.
Aelis sacrificing a Loyal Guard
Aelis condemning enemies
Stay tuned for more v0.8.0 updates next week!
As always, 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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
Come take a behind the scenes look at how our audio team finds the perfect voice and gets it into game. To take a peek behind the curtain we have Chris O’Neill, PlaySide Studios’ Audio Lead and Rhiannon Moushall, voice for Aelis Syren.
How do you know what voice a character should have?
Chris: Honestly, with a whole batch of directed questions. We start with a lot of internal brainstorming about the character and their individual traits. What do we know about their past? Their motivations? Their day to day mannerisms and behaviours, or their cultural and societal structures/circumstances?
From there, we explore some preliminary script ideas and have a chat with the art department. What has been envisioned so far in terms of concept art and ideas?
An earlier version of Aelis Syren
Aelis' sculpt
We will then work with our casting coordinator to help refine our direction and casting packet. Kevin is phenomenal at coming up with solid references for characters, accents and pivotal scenes to use as a compass in helping us narrow down our field. He consolidates all the information we have into a neat little bundle and puts the job listing out into the ether. Within a week or so, a swarm of talented auditions is narrowed down into a top 5-10.
We then listen through internally to narrow down any of our favourite auditions, and then favourite takes therein. Sometimes the same person does an okay job at a specific speed or emotion, but delivers perfectly when it comes to an entirely different one (perhaps the angrier, grittier line, for instance).
Once we have a couple of final contenders, the test lines get put into the game for context checking. This makes all the difference, and usually shines a light on the best candidate far quicker than during audio-only assessments. It’s very regular that we think we know exactly which audition best fits, only to have that blown out of the water when tested in context!
Why was Rhiannon the right fit?
She had a fantastic tone and range. The accent was consistent, regal and intelligent, but not to the point of being obnoxious. But honestly? What really sold it for me was when she absolutely let rip in her audition. The rage and pure gravel in her voice made my jaw drop, and was followed by a loud cry of “OH MY GOD” at my desk, without even realising I was doing either.
Now we have the wonderful Rhiannon, voice of Aelis, to tell us a little about her experience and journey with voice acting.
Rhiannon: I was a stage actor and then the pandemic hit, so I was more unemployed than usual. I was privileged and fortunate enough to have some savings and a partner with a steady income, so I took 2020 to invest in the training and equipment I would need to become a full-time voice actor. I started out doing serial comedies with my friends at The Penny Peepshow Podcast, and then in 2021 I just went for it with all my strength. I’ve been pulling it off ever since and inadvertently discovered it was my dream job!
As a voice actress how do you get yourself in the zone for different characters?
I start by reading the brief and/or their background, soaking in the key characteristics – hunting for all those juicy adjectives – and if there’s character art, that’s a huge bonus! Then, with those words and images at the forefront of my mind, I read through the lines and play with those characteristics within the context given. I’m a deeply empathetic person (often, to a fault) so this comes quite easily to me. I only read the lines through once or twice before getting in the booth and recording them out loud. My best work usually happens in the first couple of reads, because that spontaneity and ‘gut reaction’ to scenarios is easiest to create when the words are genuinely coming out of my mouth for the first time.
What kind of characters do you like to voice?
ALL OF THEM! I like the sweet, idealistic princess; the bloodthirsty queen; the beleaguered ship’s captain; the rambunctious little boy; the decrepit crone; the materialistic valley girl; the loyal soldier; the snivelling coward; the world-weary detective; the well-meaning murderer… I’ve had the pleasure of voicing a wild range of characters, and I hope I continue to get those opportunities.
What's it like having to switch emotions for different voice lines?
It depends on the role. If I’m playing a larger role in the context of a scene, the build of emotions is usually gradual and quite natural. If I’m playing a smaller part that has less lines through which to react, I have to do the non-verbal acting behind the scenes – I run that character’s thought process between the lines to ensure that even though their emotional state has changed, the listener can understand ‘why’. Sometimes I get lines out of order, in which case I rely heavily on the context and do my best to be present in that moment. However, emotional whiplash is almost always part of the process. Aelis was a series of one-liners, so with the help of the wonderful directors Kevin and Chris, we concocted scenarios that would give the lines palpable intent. Hopefully, that came across!
That's all for today! Thanks for reading, and let us know what you think. What else would you like to see from the team?
If you're heading to TwitchCon in Amsterdam this weekend, make sure to check out Age of Darkness: Final Stand at the Team17 booth!
As always, 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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
Thanks for all your recent feedback both on Steam as well as on Discord. We had such a great response to our May survey that we’d love to get more thoughts from the community.
We’re keen to use your responses to help inform our decisions as we continue the development of Age of Darkness: Final Stand. This survey will remain open until the morning of Tuesday, July 19 (AEST).
As always, 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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
Join AoD Game Designers Nick and Mario for a Q&A session as they play Age of Darkness on our Twitch channel on Monday, July 4 at 1:30pm AEST (Sunday, July 3 8:30pm PDT).
If you have a burning question about Game Design, or just want to upvote other suggested questions, join our Discord server and ask away in our #question-and-answer channel. And remember, if you can’t make the stream, you’ll still be able to catch up with the VoD after.
Be sure to let us know which dev role you’d love a Q&A with next!
‘Til next time.
As always, 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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Content Update v0.7.1
Dear Protectors of the Light,
We appreciate your loyalty and devotion to fighting off the Veil while we continue to make improvements to the world of Age of Darkness.
The Watchtower continues to be an integral Building for those who need assistance finding their way in the Darkness. Between Death Nights, the Watchtower will indicate the straight-line direction of the next closest unrevealed Point of Interest, regardless of distance.
Along with this new feature, we have focused on bug fixing and Quality of Life improvements. The most notable being improvements to collision to prevent Nightmares stacking on top of each other during Death Nights. We have also fixed resourcing issues with Farms, Unit stats, troublesome Tier 1 Nightmares appearing in every Death Night along with addressing notable crashes and save / load issues.
For those who are scared of the dark, let the Watchtower guide you and put you on the right path. Stay alert and keep a watchful eye out, this update may be light but there are many exciting things happening behind the scenes that we will be announcing soon…
As always please continue to report bugs to our Steam forums or in the bug reporting channel on our Discord, as we’re constantly monitoring those channels.
Check out the full patch notes below:
Release Notes
Improvements
The Watchtower points to unrevealed Points of Interest.
Additional Changes
Improvements to collision to fix Nightmares stacking during Death Nights.
Watchtower Radius changes colour if overlapping with another Watchtower.
Balancing
Changed the Arbalest attack time from 5.8s to 5.3s to reflect v0.6.2 stats.
Changed the Arbalest Range from 5.5 to 6 to reflect v0.6.2 stats.
Changed Sentinel Gold and Iron costs to reflect v0.6.2 costs.
Reduced the Archer range to 3 to reflect v0.6.2 stats.
Changed Fire Sconce Wood cost from 30 to 50.
Changed Grand Ballista Tower Iron cost from 70 to 75.
Changed the resource value of the Farm from 0.28 to 0.31 per tile.
Changed the resource value of the Refined Farm from 0.49 to 0.60
Changed the gold upkeep for the Farm from 20 to 16.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that would occur when pressing Q+W simultaneously within the build menu.
Fixed a crash that would occur when selecting Farms.
Fixes & Changes
Fixed an issue where the Hero is respawning at The Keep when dying within Triage Tent radius.
Fixed an issue where the first arrow fired by an Archer is a fire arrow regardless of the Skill being purchased.
Fixed an issue where Archers would disappear if a garrisoned Tower was sold.
Fixed an issue where Farms were providing the incorrect amount of food per tile.
Fixed an issue where food resources decrease incorrectly when building a House in a Farms radius.
Fixed an issue where Tier 1 Nightmares appear in every Death Night
Fixed an issue where the Triage Tent UI doesn't display the required villagers needed
Fixed an issue where the emboldened FX would appear on Buildings being constructed.
Fixed an issue where Buildings appear darker after construction.
Fixed an issue where the Day / Night Timer was incorrect after loading a save file.
Fixed an issue where Resource progress bars do not increase after loading a save file.
Fixed an issue where the Trade Bazaar resource stockpile increases when the game is paused.
Fixed an issue where the Death Music begins playing at the start of the Death Night countdown.
Known Issues
A fix for these issues will come in a future update.
Units may have difficulty pathing around Buildings.
On some occasions Spitters may not move or respond to player units. [
} Vizargo’s Veiled Coil ability can sometimes linger on the ground.
Aelis’ Queen’s Rage ability can sometimes linger on the ground and on units.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
---
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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
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.
Since the release of v0.7.0 you’ve noted some changes to Age of Darkness that weren’t listed in the patch notes. Thank you for your reports both on Steam and in our Discord server, and a special thanks to Catbert7 for their comprehensive post on the forums. You can find our full list of changes below.
We mentioned in our v0.7.0 Content Update that we’d added in Multiplayer code that may cause some issues. While it’s all under one game, we’re working on 3 different game modes at once - Survival, Multiplayer and Campaign - and in some cases we’ll want to have the values differ across these modes (although not always). When compiling our release build for v0.7.0, it appears we ran into some merge issues. These changed values have come through from testing other game modes and previous balance data. After looking into other changes raised by the community, for example movespeed showing as 1.6 instead of 1.7, we’ve noted a UI display issue on our ‘to fix’ list. These values have not changed in the backend, but are currently rounding incorrectly in the UI.
We’ll be releasing a patch soon (not before the coming weekend - you’ve got time to finish your saves!) that will fix a lot of these unexpected changes, as well as adding the Point of Interest update for the Watchtower that we spoke of in the Watchtower blog.
For future releases, we’ll be putting in more checks around our branching and merging system, both manually and automated.
As always, if you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please continue to report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Content Update v0.7.0
Dear Protectors of the Light,
No longer will you need to fear every Death Night expecting it to be your last, cowering behind your defences and awaiting to see where the Nightmares will come from, only for them to choose the path less travelled and sneak past you to decimate your Keep.
The Light has bestowed upon each Faction the Watchtower building, to ensure you are prepared for each Death Night. This building shows the direction from which the ravenous horde will come from. Within its large radius a path will appear to give you an indication of where to place your defences, there is a limit of 2 structures that can be built, so place them wisely.
With each new and exciting addition to Age of Darkness, previous save files may not always be compatible with each update, with this in mind we have added in Save Game Error Handling. If a save file is not compatible with the latest update, an error message will clearly appear on the file.
We are aware that there may be some bugs hiding in the darkness that we might not have found and fixed. This is because we are preparing for something exciting that you have all been waiting for.. Multiplayer! As we have been hard at work on it, there has been some code added in to support Multiplayer that may cause some unforeseen problems.
While the Nightmare corruption is taking more of a toll on the land, the further out you venture the Veil continues to poison all that is good in the world. Keep your villagers safe and continue to prepare your loyal armed forces for what is to come, may there be many victories on your horizon!
As always please continue to report bugs to our Steam forums or in the bug reporting channel on our Discord, as we’re constantly monitoring those channels.
Check out the full patch notes below:
Release Notes
Improvements
New Building: Watchtower
New Feature: Visible Land Corruption
New Feature: Save Game Error Handling
Localisation for New Features
Additional Changes
Lightning tutorial panel triggers once the Death Night fog rolls in.
Updated Point of Interest art indicative of reward tiers.
Updated ‘Attack Speed’ to ‘Attack Time’ on Unit hoverboxes to better reflect the stat.
UI added to Training Hall to show it has been boosted by the Trade Bazaar.
Updated the Keep description.
Triage Tent moved to the ‘Other’ category in the Resources Panel.
Autosaves box will automatically be ticked when loading in a save.
Added text highlighting to Vizargo and Aelis’ descriptions.
UI Improvements on Custom difficulty screen to stop text overlapping in Non-English languages.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that would occur when Aelis remains the only one that can be selected with F2.
Fixes & Changes
Fixed an issue where Nightmares would not roam during the night.
Fixed an issue where players could not animation-cancel Pikemen.
Fixed an issue where Queen's Rage can't be cast using the hotkey after loading in a save.
Fixed an issue where Units would play the wrong animations after loading in a save.
Fixed an issue where the Hero doesn't move after loading in a save after upgrading on Forgiving and Horrific difficulties.
Fixed an issue where Units would lose their Faction modifiers after loading in a save.
Fixed an issue where Buildings would be built with the wrong banner after loading in a save.
Fixed an issue where having all Units in groups except for the Hero, will display the Hero as an enemy when they are selected with F2.
Fixed an issue where a Unit could get stuck after being ejected from a tower.
Fixed an issue where a Training Hall being constructed would charge gold for a Unit if it’s in a control group with a built Training Hall that is training a Unit.
Fixed an issue where moving the camera using the Mini-Map will highlight the Buildings AOE that is behind the Mini-Map.
Fixed an issue where a green circle would appear on the Mini-Map after loading in a save file.
Fixed an issue where Burster’s VFX trails were observable in unlit areas.
Fixed an issue where construction dust VFX would appear around buildings when loading in a save.
Fixed an issue where fire VFX would stay on screen after using fire arrows.
Fixed an issue where the yellow Rally Point line from Training Hall would appear under the food crops.
Fixed an issue where wounded Nightmares would have flickering health bars above them.
Fixed an issue where the Building Units icon above the Training Hall stays after all Units have finished training.
Fixed an issue where the scroll buttons would disappear if 2 or more Buildings of the same type are in a control group.
Fixed an issue where ‘Point of Interest Captured’ text would stay on screen after capturing a POI.
Fixed an issue when cancelling a Hero Ability, the action grid slot would stay highlighted.
Fixed an issue where stone and iron resources were showing the incorrect value after selling a quarry.
Fixed an issue where the incorrect voice line will play on completion of Workshop Research advancements.
Fixed an issue where using the hotkey to remove villagers from a selected Resource Building would remove it from a random Building.
Fixed an issue where the game would not display on a third monitor.
Fixed an issue where the Heroes statistics panel would not scale correctly on a 1280x960 resolution setting.
Fixed an issue where 'Nightmare Fuel’ would overlap with the UI on the Blessings pop up in Polish.
Fixed an issue where the Crystal Scout Blessing icon overlaps the name in Polish.
Fixed an issue where the Motivated Layman Blessing text overlaps the icon in Polish and German.
Fixed an issue where ‘Press desired input’ Text is overlapping with the UI in French.
Fixed an issue where ‘Select Faction’ on the Hero select screen is not localised in non-English languages.
Fixed an issue where the Hardship description would overlap the UI bounds in German.
Known Issues
A fix for these issues will come in a future update.
On some occasions the first arrow fired by an archer will appear as a Fire Arrow despite the player not having Fire Arrows unlocked.
On some occasions Spitters may not move or respond to player units. [
} Vizargo’s Veiled Coil ability can sometimes linger on the ground.
Aelis’ Queen’s Rage ability can sometimes linger on the ground and on units.
Glowing Nightmares can stack on a Death Night.
Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.
--- 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 ‘bug-reporting’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool. Till next time Protectors of the Light… AoD Social Links:
As you explore the coming update, you’ll see that the terrain gets more and more grim the farther from the Keep you travel. You may be asking yourself what purpose this serves! Well, for starters, it looks phenomenal. But it also currently delineates where Nightmares get more difficult, Points of Interest get more rewarding, and resources get more abundant. While we’ve always had these different tiers of terrain, it was previously not visible to the player. Now you know exactly when you can expect to start encountering tougher foes and that all-important Iron.
That’s what it does right now, but we are also looking at what it might do in the future. Internally we’re discussing lots of different effects the different terrain types could have on gameplay. Some things may impact the economy (such as less food from farms on poor land) and some things may directly impact how you navigate the terrain (such as areas that deal damage to units that get too close).
Nothing is set in stone yet, and we want to ensure that whatever we add makes mechanical sense within the game as well as within the world of Age of Darkness.
We’re also assessing the feasibility of creating entirely new environments, and different rulesets for those environments (and even for different PARTS of those environments). But all of this is likely to be a ways down the track.
In the meantime, enjoy the sights.
As always, 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 ‘bug-reporting’ 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 Discord server.
