Welcome to Update #14! We're hard at work on Episode 3, and we've had a lot of little updates over the past few weeks, so this one will look smaller than our usual monthly update, but we had a feature that folks have been asking for and we wanted to deliver!
Episode 1 Combat Arena Save is here! Every time you defeat a boss wave, a Destiny Marker will appear at the north end of the arena and you can save your progress! But use it or lose it, because it'll disappear when you start the next wave.
As per normal Destiny Markers, it will also resurrect dead players, so no more sitting there waiting forever while the rest of your party fights on. If they can manage to make it through the next boss wave without you, you'll get to jump back into the game.
Now, this makes things easier than they were previously, so to adjust for that, we no longer scale waves down based on the number of remaining living players. Rather, if your party of 3 is down by 1, enemies will still spawn as if there's 3 of you! So polish those Volleys and Fireballs, because your dead teammate is counting on you!
Some of the other notable changes are as follows:
Significant art asset optimization for Episode 2: The Safehold. This level should run at 2 - 3 times more FPS for most machines.
Baryson's Healing Strike will now heal and apply the heal over time to all allies within the area of effect, regardless of enemy positioning.
Bloated Vessels in Episode 2 now explode on death every time, even if the game setting Show Blood is inactive.
Thanks to folks for participating in our Crafting Contest challenge! We had some really good entries, and we'll talk about some of our favourite runner-ups. However, the winner of the contest is Oleg Trylis' Potion of Mastery!
For X rounds your AoE abilities do not damage your allies.
With this potion players who want to have that cool moment of "WAHAHAHAHAHA YOU SILLY MORTALS YOU PLAYED RIGHT INTO MY TRAP!!!" *proceeds with fireballing 12 enemies that surround his tank* get their chance to shine, and IMO this is why most players of wizards play wizards in computer games.
Readability is one of the cornerstones of item design. It's easy to understand what this item is going to do and even easier to see its effects in action: the ability to break one of our core rules for a brief period of time. Players can use it to create moments of tactical teamwork.... or tactical trolling.
So congratulations Oleg Trylis! Your name will be added to the credits when we implement this item in-game.
Some really close runner-ups that we'd like to mention, in no particular order:
Noodle's Ring of Ser Bravidan
"The ring of a reclusive warrior whose only true love was his love of battle. To rid himself of all distractions while perfecting his skill in battle, Ser Bravidan magically imbued his ring to make him undesirable in the eyes of others" - Prevents the wearer from becoming engaged.
This one has great lore to go with why the item does what it does, and the effect is interesting!
Darlkaman's Muzhori Dust
+4 Force for 5 rounds. -2 Acc for 10 rounds after.
Also, if possible, it might be fun to invert the movement pathing mechanic while the 'hangover' is in effect.
Up-front benefits in the gamble that combat will be over before the "hangover" kicks in can be an interesting decision to make.
VictoriaDaru's Aurorean Shard
A fragment of sky, or so the ancients said, that endows the protection of light.
Give the target an additional action next next turn and +25% resistance to radiant damage for 60 rounds.
Being able to give another character an extra turn--especially for characters that don't generally get them--is pretty powerful and could lead to some fun combos. Also, we loved the artwork VictoriaDaru put together for these. The overall aesthetic felt very deliberate and well-thought out.
Thanks to all who gave us their entries, and look out for the Potion of Mastery, coming soon!
Update #13 - Episode 2: Whispers in the Catacombs
Eon Altar: Episode 2 - Whispers in the Catacombs is now out for your playing pleasure!
Episode 2 contains two new sessions: Together We Fall and The Safehold, as well as an entirely new combat arena--The Cultist Rising.
Cultists, ghosts, Soulless and Bloodguard all vie for your party's attention and lives. Can you solve the ancient mysteries that took place in the catacombs hundreds of years ago? Will you perish along the way? Or will Baryson finally get his comeuppance? Let us know how the search for the Eon Altar and the chase for Guild Lord Davian continues for your parties!
Update #13 also comes with a few new features! Not just new content, but new and updated systems are in place, including:
Quest Arrows! Can't find the banner in The Portal Obstinate? Well, worry no longer! You can now by going to your quest log and "equipping" the quest the same way you do gear, and voila, there'll be arrows on the screen pointing to your objective. Just note that not every journey can be a straight line!
Similarly, now during combat if you or an enemy falls off screen, there'll be arrows on screen showing you the direction of said enemy. No more wondering why you're still in combat with an enemy off-screen!
Loot Sparkles! Now you can tell what kind of resource you'll get from a loot containter by the colour of the sparkles. Yellow for precious, green for remnants, and white for common. No longer will you have to struggle to remember was it this loot pile that dropped from the bloodguard after the combat arena wave is over!
Some of the other notable changes are as follows:
AoE previews are no longer experimental; AoE previews should no longer overlap poorly with walls and objects. Press and hold to get a preview of where your attack will land!
Significant art asset optimization in The Portal Obstinate.
All characters now have extra armour tree purchases to make for stat boosts.
Edit: As a reminder and thank you to our Early Access backers who're coming back, we upgraded you to the Season's Pass for helping us get to where we are today so you'll automatically get Episode 2. Enjoy!
October 6th - Episode 2: Whispers in the Catacombs
This is it! The next episode we've all been waiting for, Whispers in the Catacombs, will be out October 6th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihnbjczf57E
Just under a week from today, continue your adventures in Episode 2. With over 3 hours of new story, you'll continue to banter with your friends in dialogue, progress your characters further, and fight as a well-oiled, tactical machine.
Spoiler Alert for those who haven't completed Episode 1: The Siege of Tarnum has been broken: the remaining sellsword forces are scattered and their commander defeated. Having dealt with the Wolf of Yriel, your commitment to the Brotherhood of Keepers has been fulfilled. However, your victory is short lived. Cultists wielding the chaotic forces of their shattered god are waking the dead beneath Tarnum, twisting their forms and warping their minds into madness.
The Brotherhood of Keepers is in shambles and cannot offer any aid against the ever growing ranks of the undead. It falls to you and your group to descend the depths and put an end to the cultist's profane rituals before the living are overwhelmed.
We're also including the new Cultist Rising combat arena for even more tactical fun: The Zaquentists have been busy corrupting Destiny Markers to summon a creature of unfathomable power. The clock is ticking--can you stop them and cleanse the gate before it is too late, or will you be forced to face off against a creature of nightmare to save yourselves?
So order the pizza, soda, and/or beer, hop on the couch with your friends, and get ready for a deep, dark, dungeon crawl!
Crafting Contest Closing Sept. 30th, 11:59 PM PST
Our community challenge crafting contest is closing when September ends--and no, we're not Greenday, we've been awake this whole month.
Tweet us with the hashtag #EONALTARCC, Facebook message us, or even comment here with the piece of gear you would like to get in the game, and if we pick your idea as the winner, we'll implement it and put your name in the credits!
It can be a consumable, or an equippable. Provide a buff, an attack, or another effect that you'd like. Want some guidance? Consider each character's kit of abilities, what would complement their kit? Or perhaps, what might be a good generic consumable item. Want to know what's in the game already? Check out MaxLimitz' FAQ here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/180555-eon-altar/faqs/73581
The sky's the limit! Just let us know by 11:59 PM PST, September 30th, 2016 and we'll consider your awesome design!
Update #12 - Traps and Area of Effect Previews
Howdy folks! Welcome to Update #12!
We've been super busy between PAX and getting Episode 2 ready for release, but we definitely have some changes that we can bring to you immediately instead of forcing you to wait a few more weeks.
One of the major things we weren't quite happy with were skills and traps, so we've overhauled our trap system!
Now for environmental traps such as falling rocks, or crossbow traps, if you make your Scouting or Shrouding checks, you can actually see the trap area now. On top of that, many taps can be disarmed now (if you noticed them) via Thievery or Scholar checks, depending on the trap. And as per before, you can shrug the effects of a trap off with a good Acrobatics, Stamina, or Shrouding check.
You can see some of these new traps in action in The Portal Obstinate and The Wolf of Yriel, and in the upcoming Episode 2 content.
We've also heard you loud and clear about how frustrating Area of Effect attacks can be without a proper way to see where it will affect, so we've added the ability to preview your AoE attacks!
This is currently listed as an experimental feature, and can be turned on in your settings menu by enabling "Experimental AoE Preview". Once enabled, just press and hold an available AoE power and the preview will appear on the main screen. Of course, nothing prevents you from still just eyeballing it and "accidentally" clipping your friend with a warning fireball.
Some of the other notable changes are as follows:
Steam saves will now have a user ID associated with the save, preventing saves from one user being seen by another user on the same machine in the game. Note that this won't affect existing saves; however, if another save occurs on a given file, the ID will be added and the file will be inaccessible in-game via other users.
Enemies should no longer be able to shout through walls. This should make combats with complex terrain such as The Prologue Ramparts play much better (rather than an endless stream of enemies).
Further optimizations around enemy and dead body performance.
Tooltips added for Free actions and for Ranged attacks. Free actions do not consume an action in combat; Ranged attacks do 75% of Force in damage (note, this is not a nerf, this is merely a tooltip update; ranged attacks always did only 75% of total Force in damage).
Our first in a series we call Community Challenges is about to go down. It's simple and straight forward, because we don't have time for rules.
1. Design a consumable or equippable item worthy of our heroes.
2. Yeah, that's really all there is to it.
Oh, if you could do this by Sept 30th, 2016 please? We have deadlines and that is when we will close submissions.
So have fun with it and get creative! We don't care if you draw out your design in single serve ketchup packets or if you get super fancy with Power Point presentations, just deliver the goods so we don't have to work so hard.
The winner will work with our design team to implement the item in game and also be listed in our game credits. Which is a pretty cool portfolio addition if you're so inclined.
Eon Altar - Episode 2: Whispers in the Catacombs, Coming Soon!
Much Excite! Eon Altar - Episode 2: Whispers in the Catacombs will be coming soon to Steam (free for Season 1 subscribers). More news soon!
https://youtu.be/zuL6KJofHUs
(edit)
October 6th Release - Because PAX happened to us and we are moving at the speed of crayon.
Dev Confessionals and Update #11
Hey folks! Another month means another update. We're hard at work making Episode 2, so this patch won't be quite as hefty as some of our other patches, but there's still some improvements for you to enjoy!
Before we jump into the update notes, we've put together a little thing we like to call "Dev Confessionals". A small video blog about the trials, tribulations, and victories of indie dev. It's the first of what should be a series, but take a look and let us know what you want to hear more about!
https://youtu.be/ctHjCNxaWV0
For Update #11, one of the biggest changes is most healing/buff items are now "quick actions"; that is, they don't chew your turn when used in combat. Quaff a vial of Copperweed and teleport away, or use that Whetstone before Double Slicing your way to victory! This should make solo play easier, as well as take some of the pressure off usually wanting Baryson for heals.
Along with that change, we've lowered the difficulty in The Prologue some. Especially solo, The Prologue was excessively deadly. Once you get some of your powers, the later levels are definitely okay playing by yourself, but The Prologue was definitely too hard. We're still looking at ideas on making solo play a little easier, but hopefully we've taken the pressure off here and it allows folks to play without getting wiped over and over again.
We've also made a few balance changes. Shasek, for example, now has Double Slice as a 5-energy power instead of an upgrade to Slice as it was too powerful as a farmer power (but you get it way earlier now!), and Baryson's Healing Strike's Heal Over Time component has a nerf to it at higher ranks because health bars were yoyo-ing way too hard.
Note for cases where powers have been removed or positions changed, when you load your save file you will get a refund of resources spent prior to the patch if the ability is unable to be unlocked in its new position.
Some of the other notable changes are as follows:
When enemies die, they now darken and no longer can be seen by Xray effect. Should be clearer when they are dead.
Follow Ally should now suppress during dialogue, camera moments, cinematics, or performing minor actions like picking up loot, rather than cancel.
Shasek's move marker is now a lighter orange to help differentiate it from Marcus' movement marker in low light environs.
As gamers, there are moments created in co-op that become great memories and long term (never ending) jokes shared between friends. It's like a secret only we understand.
We've highlighted a moment we are still laughing about a week later. The jokes have been endless and a source of stress relief in our studio Slack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONeJiIhd4-Y
So help us continue the parade of humor and caption this short video. We will choose a winner on Monday. One winner from each social channel will recieve a code to play Eon Altar. So enter on our Facebook, Twitter and Steam accounts for 3 chances to win!
Just drop your caption in the comment section below.
Thank you for your continued support and friendship.
