Four weeks left until we release Elemental War and we're perfectly in time.
Highlights
With update 0.9.17 we added some improvements to help with understanding what certain UI elements mean. We also added full controller support for the map editor and a lot of achievements.
Achievements
We now have a total of 58 achievements in the game with 7 more to come as we add the remaining quests. We have different types of achievements as you can see in the achievement list. The green ones are those that are hard to unlock. Blue ones are for the score ranks. The red ones are the achievements you get when you complete a quest and the purple ones for "tutorial" achievements that are easy to unlock just by playing/trying out basic stuff.
We hope you have fun with all of them and happy achievement hunting.
Editor
The editor got some improvements and now also has full controller support. That means Elemental War in total now has full controller support. If you still find some issues or something isn't easy enough to use, please contact us.
Full changelog
Enhancements:
added label to drawing board for quest 'Knowledge acquired at school, refreshed'
added tooltip for hidden achievements so it's clear they are hidden
added notification sound when player joins lobby
added controller support to Editor
none Steam users now can also download maps
added path preview to challenge
total score used for score rank now is displayed in tooltip as well
added a lot of new achievements
Fixes:
playing singleplayer challenges works again properly
tried a fix for black minimap on Linux
reduced amount of network messages in Clash Mode
fixed error happening sometimes when starting a second game during a session that could cause game start to break
changing target/status type with multi selection now shows the correct icon
opening the settings from the ingame menu is faster now
fixed tooltip of target change button changing back to previous one when selecting it
field marker for Net and Moral Boost skill are removed now when effect is applied
fixed controller cursor being below multiplayer info screen in-game
What's next?
In the next four weeks we will focus on testing, bug fixing, optimization and marketing.
Besides that we want to add the remaining 7 quests. They are basically written down, but need to be reviewed and implemented.
We're also going to add more monster sounds and also add and improve some of the existing sounds.
In the meantime you can watch our "Dev Play" of the Classic Mode of Elemental War:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRgHWAvRuDU
If you have any balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War 0.9.16
Full release is coming closer and closer and we're still in the process of improving Elemental War!
Highlights
With update 0.9.16 everything in-game can be used with controller now. Besides that we added menu music and the possibility to play multiplayer even without a Clockwork account.
Controller Support
With 0.9.16 it is possible now to play every game mode also with controller. This works pretty good. There is just one problem in combination with Steam that we'll have to figure out.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer got two improvements. First we added some tutorial infos there. This should help to understand what to do when playing the Clash Mode.
The other thing is that we added the possibility to play Clash Mode now also without a Clockwork account. That way we remove a barrier for newcomers, even though players without an account won't get experience points and can't buy skills and so will run into problems in the long term.
Full changelog
Enhancements:
added menu music
added tutorial infos for multiplayer
improved highlighting of disabled skills when selecting them via controller
improved portal tutorial part
improved ingame controller support
it's possible to speed up to 10 times
added rich presence for Steam
added more monster sounds
slightly improved performance
multiplayer now can also be played without a Clockwork account
Fixes:
Ok button for camera tooltip now is always properly displayed after fullfilling all conditions
disabled tutorials for multiplayer
Transform tower now can transform monsters again
leaderboard overlay now can be shown with controller using LB
leaderboard now can be opened with controller
disconnect message now isn't displayed anymore when game was already finished
fixed controller navigation in level select menu
fixed small bug that could happen while building Root Nexus
Root Nexus now gets weaker again when building many of them
fixed some rare script errors
fixed conflict of quest for "Arcane Shield Generator" and tutorials
fixed error when finishing a game while monsters with Hydra ability are on the map
Volcano projectile collision now has a sound
fixed info boxes in main menu that could overwrite each other
fixed another problem loading a save from Class Mode
smoke of Smoke tower isn't highlighted anymore
fixed bug in multiplayer that could cause the level to be loaded twice
fixed bug that caused item to disappear when dragging it to the wrong position
fixed bug that caused game to hang up when trying to play an alliance challenge
tooltips now are always properly removed when using controller
tower utilization is displayed again in info screen
fixed alliance invitations label being empty
What's next?
The next version is going to also provide controller support for the map editor so we have full controller support then.
There are also more graphical improvements planned and ways to make certain things clearer by adding better tooltips or other labels.
We're also going to add some more achievements soon, but we don't know yet if this will happen in 0.9.17 or 0.9.18.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War 0.9.15
Just 8 weeks left until our full release on July 19th! And we're still busy polishing the game.
Highlights
In update 0.9.15 controller support got big improvements and there have been some more quality of life additions, bugfixes and performance improvements.
Controller Support
If you're using a controller, you're now able again to use everything in the main menu again. Well, everything except the leaderboards which will come in 0.9.16. All other menus worked in our tests. We didn't test ingame stuff again yet, this will be part of 0.9.16 and maybe 0.9.17 if it's as much work as the main menu.
If you have a controller, feel free to test around a little either in the menus or ingame and share your results with us.
Quality of Life
On the QoL side we added different things. There were feature requests to add the tower kills to the info screen and damage indicators above the monsters. Both features are now part of Elemental War. The damage indicators though have to be enabled in the Game settings as they're optional.
Besides that it's now possible to start the editor from the game and vice versa. In the game there's an entry in the main menu. In the editor you now have the "Test map" option which will start the game.
Tutorials
We removed the tutorials back in 0.9.13 as we weren't really happy with them. Now we integrated parts of the old tutorial into your first game(s). This also affects players that already played the old tutorials or inbetween. You'll get some basic informations how some of the stuff works. We'll check what else might be worth to be explained and add more infos in the next updates.
If you have ideas what shall be explained or you don't know how to do something, feel free to share your experiences.
Full changelog
Enhancements:
added an easteregg
tower kills now are shown in tower info screen
when a player leaves a multiplayer game, all other players now get a notification
when getting kicked from a multiplayer game due to a timeout player now gets notified
added optional damage indicators
added some statistics for Kartridge
on Discord you can see now some infos when playing Elemental War
game now can be started from editor to test a map
editor now can be started from the game main menu
added Credits page
added some more monster sounds
it's possible to see some first tooltips easily now using controller
integrated some tutorial infos in the normal game flow
Fixes:
performance improvements
during restart of a map loading screen is shown again
fixed some rare errors in different code locations
alliance names with tag in the name now are visible in the flag tooltip in the leaderboards
fixed bug with Shadow Golem when corresponding Ritual Site was sold/upgraded
rotation of spheres in multiplayer for team 2 should be correct now
Stun attack effect looks better now
fixed several issues when shutting down the game
fixed several controller bugs in main menu
closing and re-opening on screen keyboard properly deselects last used button
fixed bug that caused all UI elements on Mac to be invisible when using an own shader
weird random bug when starting a game should be fixed now
rank tooltips won't be shown anymore fore empty slots
joining alliance works again
rank for Classic Mode in alliance overview now is displayed correctly
join alliance button now visible in help menu
What's next?
0.9.16 will further improve controller usage and add the missing leaderboards in the main menu and start to improve the ingame controls. Besides that we'll further improve the performance and of course fix all bugs you report or we find in the meantime.
And in case you have other QoL features you're missing or anything else, share it with us and we'll see if it's feasible for us.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War 0.9.14
Good news: We now have a final release date! On July 19th we'll leave Early Access.
Highlights
With update 0.9.14 the multiplayer leaves beta stage, we introduced an alliance challenge for Clash mode and improved performance.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer is officially out of beta now. If you still find bugs we'll of course fix them and also improve things when we find things to improve. We also added our new multiplayer trailer to the Steam page. You can also check a full multiplayer match on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dO6ojzfPqk
For this update the multiplayer also got an alliance challenge. This means you can create challenges for the multiplayer and fight against other alliances to increase your alliance rank. With the modifiers you can also affect the multiplayer matches and make it pretty hard for your opponents.
Also the remaining icons for the multiplayer skills are in now and they're really awesome!
Performance
On the performance side we could improve some things.
In the main menu VSync now is always enabled. That's good to reduce CPU and GPU usage and on Laptops to increase battery service life.
Ingame, especially in the endgame (higher waves reached) performance is way better now. There was a bug that caused the gold drop notificators to be updated even though not visible. Also the healthbars above the monsters got updated too often, so that's also no problem anymore.
For players using low and medium shader quality I also fixed some materials that still made use of higher quality shaders, so this will slightly improve performance when you're GPU bound and certain monsters are on the map.
Another optimization in this update are the reduced loading times. In general the first 20% of the loading bar already are loaded in the main menu now. Additionally, for multiplayer games the second 20% of the loading bar are preloaded in the lobby. Those are for the level you're going to play in the multiplayer match, so that's already known in the lobby.
Full changelog
Enhancements:
in the main menu now always VSync is enabled to save GPU and CPU power
improved layout of monster element tooltip
added alliance challenge for multiplayer
added remaining icons for the multiplayer skills
Balancing:
the high ranks in leaderboard (medals) now are easier or at all reachable
elemental level 4 in Clash mode is stronger now
Fixes:
fixed error teleporting monster when no teleport effect is available
fixed game hanging when too many Tornados have been built
own towers can't be blocked anymore by Block skill in multiplayer
Cheat 1 skill now respawns elements properly at the beginning of the path after they reached the end portal
Cheat 1 skill now decreases lives by 3 as normal elementals would do
Transformer limitation now counts per player in multiplayer
it's possible now to build more than 5 Transformers without it loosing its ability
fixed tower highlighting after upgrade
fixed bug that caused Forest Spirit to produce too many lives in multiplayer
fixed bug in multiplayer that caused effect not to appear at clients when Forest Spirit produces a bonus life
added missing label in inventory
improved hover color of inventory button
removed condition of a quest that required the tutorial to be finished
version number in main menu now is always on top of everything else
improved presentation of learned and learnable skills
grass at tower position now is removed properly in multiplayer
Level tower now also gets its bonus in multiplayer
fixed bug when pressing shortcut for Spawner in singleplayer
added some missing click sounds
alliance button now is only enabled when in main menu
grass and trees now aren't part of minimap anymore because it was kinda ugly
exiting game with FPS display being active now shouldn't cause display bug anymore
slightly reduced network traffic
increased loading speed when starting first game
reduced CPU usage
fixed bug when using controller
fixed bug that caused player to get way too many XP in multiplayer
connection being closed too early so result isn't synced to everybody
fixed compatibility issue between Windows and Mac (maybe also Linux) lobby
lobby list now is properly updated when amount is reduced
Mud tower now works with bonus speed
when alliance is closed score now is removed from Leaderboard
reduced loading time in multiplayer
fixed bug that could cause the game to hang up for certain tooltips (especially in alliance menu)
leaving multiplayer doesn't create a savegame anymore
removed "Restart" button in multiplayer
fixed display errors in main menu using UHD resolution
fixed wrong text in score statistics in leaderboard for Hero Mode
sound of Gulp and Spike aren't played directly when built anymore
fixed several small errors
alliance flags now are hidden when switching page in leaderboard
fixed bug when cancelling spawn in multiplayer
fixed some monster materials to improve GPU performance on low and medium shader quality
increased timeout in multiplayer
Transform tower can't transform monsters with 0 HP anymore
What's next?
We got some new feedback during this milestone and will add some of it with the 0.9.15 release. This contains a damage indicator above monsters. So when a tower hits a monsters you'll see the dealt damage like you see the dropped gold. This feature will be disableable if you don't want to use it. Furthermore the kill count of the towers will be visible in the tower info screen.
Besides these feature requests we'll focus on more performance improvements, both for CPU and GPU, and also start testing and fixing controller support.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War 0.9.13 Hotfix 1
After testing a little more yesterday and capturing ingame footage for the new multiplayer trailer we found some bugs that we thought might be worth a patch out of the usual order as we found two freezes ingame and some balancing problems caused by the not properly working Cheat 1 skill.
Here is the changelog:
Fixes:
fixed error teleporting monster when no teleport effect is available
fixed game hanging when too many Tornados have been built
own towers can't be blocked anymore by Block skill in multiplayer
Cheat 1 skill now respawns elements properly at the beginning of the path after they reached the end portal
Cheat 1 skill now decreases lives by 3 as normal elementals would do
Transformer limitation now counts per player in multiplayer
it's possible now to build more than 5 Transformers without it loosing its ability
fixed tower highlighting after upgrade
fixed bug that caused Forest Spirit to produce too many lives in multiplayer
fixed bug in multiplayer that caused effect not to appear at clients when Forest Spirit produces a bonus life
added missing label in inventory
improved hover color of inventory button
removed condition of a quest that required the tutorial to be finished
version number in main menu now is always on top of everything else
improved presentation of learned and learnable skills
grass at tower position now is removed properly in multiplayer
Level tower now also gets its bonus in multiplayer
fixed bug when pressing shortcut for Spawner in singleplayer
Elemental War 0.9.13
We're already six months in Early Access and now we have the biggest update for you so far that brings you multiplayer!
Hightlights
It's finally time for us to release the multiplayer. Besides that we reset the leaderboards due to the balancing changes in the past six months and added some other stuff.
Multiplayer
We did it and finally released our multiplayer. You can now play against other players. Every team can send monsters to defeat the enemy and has to build towers at the same time to defend the own teams portal(s). The multiplayer works with all official maps including random maps and also every mod. There are also three new maps that were created directly for the multiplayer but are also available in singleplayer.
By playing the multiplayer you will gain experience points to raise your level which then allows you to buy skills to personalize your tactics.
If you don't find an opponent, join our Discord to find active players. And if nobody can join your server, make sure Elemental War has a rule to pass through your firewall.
Important note: the multiplayer is considered a beta feature with this release, so it still might contain a few bug even though we had no problems testing with up to four players.
Map Editor
In the map editor a bug was fixed that prevented T crossings to work properly. Furthermore the user feedback was improved by adding some sounds and highlights.
Leaderboards
The leaderboards have been reset for version 0.9.13, so you get a new chance to raise to the top. This also removes the previous top scores that only were possible by using some exploits that have been fixed in the meantime.
Additionally the score calculation was slightly changed. The time bonus isn't part of the score anymore as its influence was too low before and there is almost no chance to get some significant boost of it in higher difficulties. The influence of gold was also changes to reduce the impact of gold exploits if still possible. Therefore lower gold values now give more points. A change that happened in one of the previous updates was that the value of towers now also affects the gold score.
Full changelog
Enhancements:
multiplayer is now available
added highlighting and sounds in editor
added statistic for multiplayer victories
removed tutorials
unlocked three new maps for singleplayer
added help page for alliances and challenges
reset leaderboards
Balancing:
cooldown of Gulp tower increases way slower than before
cooldown of Money tower increases way slower than before
reduced impact of gold on highscore
removed time bonus from highscore as impact was almost 0
elementals aren't healed anymore by Healer ability
Fixes:
UI of editor now is blocked while publishing a map isn't finished
transformed monsters now can't have more HP than monster before transformation anymore
fixed wrong path detection in editor when there were two tiles directly next to start portal
monsters don't move sidewards anymore until the first curve when start portal isn't at the edge
fixed T crossings for single paths in editor
fixed rare bug loading savegame of Hero Mode
alliance flag now is displayed again when returning from sub menu
correct emblem and pattern now is selected in edit alliance menu
What's next?
At this point we added almost everything we wanted to add. So we're moving towards the end of our Early Access period. That means that we'll now focus mainly on optimization.
For optimization we'll try to reduce memory usage, used CPU and GPU and also the network traffic in multiplayer.
As we want to try to also release on consoles we'll further improve the controller support.
There will also be some features that will come in the next weeks like an alliance challenge for the multiplayer and some more quests for Hero Mode.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord. You can also reach out there when you are looking for an opponent in multiplayer.
Elemental War 0.9.12
Here we go with another update. This is the last update before we finally release our multiplayer mode, so stay tuned!
Highlights
The mutliplayer seems stable so far and the editor and maps got some new features to allow even more creativity. And there are already 5 maps in the Workshop! Here are the details:
Maps and Editor
Besides the two changes we made for the Editor update between the usual updates we also have some new stuff for 0.9.12.
The first thing is that the editor now also supports T and X crossings for single paths. So now you can create all kind of maps that are supported by Elemental War.
Then we also removed the limitation that portals have to be at the edges of the map. So now you can place portals wherever you want. This allows even more creativity. Together with the update I'll release two maps already using this feature, so you can have a look on them.
And last but not least the new Island setting introduced for the multiplayer and which could already be used in the editor now can be played when playing random maps. We also added the setting attribute and event for Hero Mode.
Multiplayer
As mentioned above the multiplayer seems to be stable. The last fixes all have been just small fixes here and there, the critical main part is done. We'll invest two more weeks into testing and fine tuning before we make some soft launch as I like to call it. That's kind of an open beta. In four weeks there'll be the final release. Of course we'll still add bugfixes afterwards in case bugs are occuring.
Full changelog:
Enhancements:
Important keys for editor usage are now directly displayed in the editor
maps now can contain portals that aren't located at the edges
added hint that publishing map was successful
added event and attribute for Island setting in Hero Mode
random maps now can have Island setting
editor now supports T and X crossings for single paths
Balancing:
cooldown of teleporters increases way slower than before
Fixes:
highscores for Mods now are always displayed correctly
disabled chat for singleplayer
preview image for Workshop works properly now with multiple paths
fixed error when removing mods again
inventory button now is greyed out when disabled
removed mouse slices on shutdown
fixed bug when loading savegame of Classic Mode
while input field or dropdown is active, tile rotation/switching in editor now is disabled
fixed condition for "Invulnerable" achievement
What's next?
Yeah, what can I tell you here what I haven't sad before. We'll test and fine tune the multiplayer in the upcoming two weeks, so you'll get the best experience possible.
Together with the multiplayer update we'll also reset the highscores. As the singleplayer balancing seems fine besides smaller adjustments here and there we think it's the perfect time to make the reset. This will finally remove some scores that used former exploits to reach really, really high scores that aren't reachable anymore.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War Editor Update
With the last update we introduced our map editor to create own maps. We already received feedback and have a small update today to fix a bug and make usage easier to understand. So happy map making with this update, let the Workshop grow!
Changelog:
usage hints (keys for tile control) are displayed in the editor now, so it's not necessary anymore to read the manual before
preview for Steamworks now can also display multiple paths, not just the first one
Elemental War 0.9.11
Already end of March and we have a big release for you even though the changelog looks different!
Highlights
The multiplayer made good progress as well as the map editor. Here are more details.
Map Editor
This week we have a first release of the map editor for you. It can do almost everything Elemental War supports. The only limitation is that you can't use T and X crossings yet for single paths. It's no problem when different paths cross each other.
The maps can be uploaded to our server and Steamworks and then are available for everybody. You can see a first quick map I created already in the Workshop. Here is the Manual for the editor.
Multiplayer
Again big progress on the multiplayer. All skills are implemented now even though some haven't been tested yet. There are also three new maps now that can played in multiplayer and have been created with the new map editor. And of course a lot of bug have been fixed and other stuff has been optimized.
Full changelog:
Enhancements:
Map editor is now available
Fixes:
fixed unhandled exceptions
fixed neutral cultures being presented in UI, but not being possible to use
fixed several bugs that caused player to not get gold in Hero Mode when monsters die through abilities and items
probably fixed highscore display error in slot machine
What's next?
The next update will again focus on multiplayer functionality. We need to add some functionality to highlight some events, e.g. players that already clicked "Ready" in the lobby or which tower belongs which player.
The map editor will get support for T and X crossings and some minor improvements like button highlighting. We hope to also get feedback for the editor and of course some maps.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
Elemental War 0.9.10
Another two weeks have passed with a lot of progress on the multiplayer. Here are this version's highlights.
Highlights:
Multiplayer is still on ongoing thing that will take some more weeks to be ready for release and also the editor didn't make it into this update, but we have at least an update on their state.
Balancing
This update contains some changes for two of the towers I personally tried to avoid most of the time because they were useless/too risky.
One is the Windrunner. It's ability wasn't really helpful as the rest of the tower was just very average. Now the tower has way more damage, but a shorter range. So now it makes more sense to move it to another place to help there if some monsters cause trouble.
The other one is the Hourglass tower. There was a bug that caused the negative effect being positive. That's fixed now. Also the chance to get the negative effect (for the player) is slightly reduced now. It's still a little tricky on Level 1, but feels better now.
Map Editor
The map editor and Workshop didn't make it into 0.9.10, but we think it won't be a problem to get them into 0.9.11. The editor is almost done, it's basically saving of maps that's missing and without even a previous version doesn't make sense.
Multiplayer
Again a lot of time was spent for the multiplayer and we have really great progress there. The basic synchronisation is finished and seems to be stable. Also on gameplay and balancing side a lot has already been fixed and improved. As the multiplayer will contain some progression system so you're able to specialize your style a little we're in the progress of adding skills to the game. While none of them are working yet, we decided to already give you the chance to have a look on them (text-wise, graphics aren't done yet). So in the Profile there is a new sub menu called "Progress" and in there you can see all skills you'll be able to unlock.
Full changelog:
Enhancements:
achievements now can be seen in the profile
progression system now is visible in profile
it's possible now to also add multiple towers on the same shortcut
Balancing:
improved chances of Hourglass tower, so the chances for negative effects are smaller
increased damage of Hourglass tower
significantly increased damage of Windrunner, but reduced range a little instead
Fixes:
coming back from highscore menu to level select menu now shows the correct score
fixed a compatibility error with savegames
fixed another bug when loading a savegame from Classic Mode
fixed bug after loading savegame that caused player to not being able to upgrade/sell towers anymore
fixed bug where alliance flags have been overriden so always the same has been displayed
fixed bug when sending feedback from the main menu
making older ability of Hourglass tower now really reduces the HP
it's not possible anymore to try to equip a fourth item to towers
mods are displayed correctly again
What's next?
Of course in the next week we'll make more progress in the multiplayer. It's basically finished, but we need error handling, optimizations and even the map for the new mode isn't done yet. Also all the skills you'll be able to unlock have to be implemented, synchronized and tested.
Besides the multiplayer we'll also finish the editor. As mentioned in the Highlights only a few things are missing. The biggest part is the saving of the map or better the translation from the UI presentation to the map format. Afterwards we want to add some validation steps. But that's basically it.
If you have any other ideas, whishes, balancing concerns or bugs, please let us know, either as comment, in the discussions, via the Feedback functionality ingame or on Discord.
