Hey all, it's been a little while. This patch took longer than I hoped for what was done for it. Added Power Saving Mode which I'll detail below. Long story short, I programmed my game logic to run every frame which is apparently not ideal for a lot of things, so it took me a ton of work and testing to implement Power Saving Mode haha. I hope at least someone finds it useful.
New Items - All Epic / Purple Tier
Yin: Permanently gain 2 stacks of Focus (stacks with Yang), +1.5 Speed, +10 Base Damage.
Yang: Permanently gain 2 stacks of Focus (stacks with Yin), +5% Dodge, +3% Chance to Crit.
Serenity: +5% Dodge Chance for each Buff on this unit. +20 Focus.
Leading Blow: Normal Attacks grant one stack of Bide (+50% Damage on Next Attack). Normal Attacks can't miss.
In New Game+, all bosses now have enhanced versions of their unique ring drives, some of which will have new and unique abilities. They will drop them as rewards in place of their old ones.
Gameplay / Item Changes
Bonus stats that were automatically awarded (not the default 5 you get to allocate manually) for each level reduced by 50% after level 40.
Effortless Aim now gives a flat FP reduction instead of a percentage based one. Effortless Aim will now reduce Base FP costs by 5 in addition to the current bonuses.
Overwhelm now gives +20 Base Damage instead of +1 Speed.
New Features / Quality of Life Requests
Power Saving Mode has been added and can be toggled in game settings. It will cap FPS at 30 and all animations will be sped up to compensate for the lower frame rate. Use this setting to conserve battery power.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where the combat menu would not automatically appear for manually controlled wolf units after avalanche happens.
Fixed a bug where the combat menu would not automatically appear for manually controlled wolf units after triggering Overdrive.
Fixed graphical issues on Chapter 21 if the enemy was at the top side of the map.
Fixed a bug that allowed you to throw certain units you were not supposed to be able to.
Fixed a bug where the World Map dialogue after Chapter 10 would not trigger in certain cases.
Fixed a display issue on the intro for Chapter 23.
Fixed a display and some times soft lock bug with countering certain attacks on fast mode.
Fixed a bug on Chapter 15 where destroying Crates would sometimes leave a weird effect on the ground.
Fixed a graphical issue when using Echo Stance Level 4 on Fast Mode.
Fixed a display bug on Chapter 20 that would sometimes occur if you brought an Assassin with you as your guest.
As always, if you find any issues or would like to see something added into the game, don't hesitate to let me know! Thanks, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the game.
Patch 1.01 - New Game+
Hey all! A bit more content in this patch. The main addition is the New Game+ mode which you can read about below as well as the normal bug fixes and some requested changes.
The discord server is still brand new, but if you would like to chat with others about the game, consider joining: https://discord.gg/JrYbrhBE
New Game+
After completing the game, instead of just unlocking the stage selector, the final game save will put you into New Game+. Starting from a New Game+ save will have the following changes:
You will start from the beginning at Chapter 1 but will retain all of your levels, supplies, Ring Drives, and any recruited allies.
Wolf dialogue will now be readable for more story context.
Assassins, Berserkers, and Snipers will now be recruitable.
Enemies will gain a number of advantages over you. They will always have a full set of Ring Drives, the Ring Drive quality will be higher than normal, and all Boss Ring Drives will be added to the item pool. Enemies will have a level advantage over you based on the number of times you have cleared the game. For example, if you clear the game 10 times, in the next cycle, they will be at minimum, 10 levels higher than your party.
The number of times you have cleared the game will appear on your save file.
I plan to add additional post / end game activities, this is just something small for now.
Gameplay / Balance Changes
Enemies will now be limited to 4 traits maximum.
Chapter 1, Chapter 13, and Chapter 23 will now have all units scale properly relative to the party's level.
Your party will now have a maximum level of 70 which is just a couple levels higher than needed to max out all of your skills. Balance gets wonky at really high levels and there isn't any benefit to leveling up after maxing out all of your skills.
You can now dismiss wolves from your party, but they will be sad.
New Features / Quality of Life Requests
Stage Selector / Replaying beaten stages can now be enabled immediately in the Difficulty Settings or when you start a new game. I know this is something a lot of you have been asking about and I was looking at incorporating it into the base game but I came to the conclusion that there were too many issues with doing so. From both a story narrative standpoint to a game balancing standpoint, I did not think it fits in cleanly. However, I understand if people would find the game more enjoyable by being able to do so. So, it is there if you want to enable it, but it is not something I consider part of the base experience and is not on by default.
Mid-battle cutscene on Chapter 16 can now be skipped.
Final cutscene can now be skipped.
Removed tutorial dialogue from Chapter 1 if you've already beaten it on current save file.
Added an option to show seconds on the in game clock and save files. This can be toggled in the game settings.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug in Chapter 8 where the Battlemaster would start the fight in passive mode if no enemies were in range.
Fixed a bug on Chapter 25 where Combat Analytics was not being properly affected by the Negotiator / Disperse.
Fixed a bug when loading a save file where newly recruited wolves would end up duplicated in the roster.
Fixed a bug where the on screen Menu button would display during some cutscenes.
Fixed a bug on Chapter 1 relating to the tutorial if the enemy happens to go first from increased Speed modifiers.
Fixed an issue where you could accidentally toggle game modes when not hovering over the game mode option and clicking a mouse button.
Fixed a bug where the combat menu would not automatically reappear when triggering level 4 Gut Smash on a manually controlled wolf unit.
As always, if you find any issues or would like to see something added into the game, don't hesitate to let me know! Thanks, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the game.
Patch 1.00c
More bug fixes. I feel bad about this one on Chapter 25, sorry to those of you who encountered that one.
Bug Fixes
Chapter 25 had an issue where the constructs were somehow getting killed outright instead of going into reconstitution mode. I haven't actually figured what is causing it yet, but I've fixed it so that the after battle cutscene should no longer crash or graphically glitch out and freeze.
Updated chapter 22 and 24's objective text to be more accurate
Fixed various typos that users pointed out
Item Changes
The Kinetic Transformer now only recovers a maximum of 30 AT per attack so feel free to go ham on The Ambassador without fearing him taking multiple turns in a row
New Features / QoL Requests
You can now delete your save files. Default is F1 on Keyboard and Option / Select on the controller. You can change it in key bindings.
Patch 1.00b
Just another small patch to clean up some of the nastier bugs that have been reported.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug with Neural Link where you could act when you are not supposed to be able to if you were quick enough. This would lead to all sorts of nasty issues.
Fixed a graphical display issue on Stage 16 when a unit is on the top corner of the map
Fixed a soft lock on Stage 20 that can occur when breaking down doors using AOE skills
Fixed a bug where if you hit the escape key during the stage victory sequence at just the right time, it would create a skip cutscene dialogue box that would restart the stage
New Features / QoL Requests
Added status icons to status descriptions in the party menu to help better identify them in combat
Added a skull icon to denote elite wolves and boss units to better identify which wolves are not recruitable. Tutorial text updated to explain as much.
That's all for now. Hoping to move on to some of the larger QoL requests next patch. Thanks again everyone for your feedback and issue reports!
Patch 1.00a
Thanks everyone for providing feedback and letting me know about any bugs you encounter! I wanted to get a quick patch out for a couple of the more serious bugs as well as a couple QOL features some of you have been asking for.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a crash when attempting to load a save file while in the middle of choosing a wait direction
Fixed a crash on stage 22 related to the party banter on the world map
Fixed a soft lock on stage 16 that could occur if a unit falls in battle twice
New Features / QoL Requests
Added an option to display Tile Height during combat, it can be toggled On / Off in the settings menu
Added a pause menu button during combat for mouse users so that you do not have to hit escape on the keyboard to open it
The turn order list will now highlight units that you hover over with your mouse so that you do not have to click on them to check their turn order
Added an option to display a unit's primary health bar (HP or FP) on the turn order list, it can be toggled On / Off in the settings menu
Please continue to provide any feedback or let me know of any bugs you find. Thank you for your patience as I deal with any issues that come up and I hope you continue to enjoy the game!
Available Now!
Far Away From Home is now officially released! Thanks everyone who has helped out with feedback or given me words of encouragement! I hope everyone enjoys playing Far Away From Home!
Far Away From Home - Last Q&A
Hey everyone! Going to be on for one more Q&A to answer any questions anyone might have! I've gotten a lot of good feedback and requests so keep it coming!
For anyone who is interested, here are some of the most asked questions and answers:
Will there be a fast mode? - Yes! I already have something implemented and testing, just not in the demo.
Can the map be rotated? - I'm hoping to have that in come launch, that is what I am working on right now.
Customizable UI options? - Hoping to get some of your requests in for launch as well. Items on my list include changing UI color, UI transparency, dialogue speed, disabling text shadows, text size, disable auto centering when clicking on tiles.
Far Away From Home Q&A #2
Back again and I'll be hanging around in chat and answering any questions that anyone might have on stream!
Far Away From Home is a story-driven tactical RPG. After a mysterious turn of events during a scientific unveiling gone awry, Simon and his allies initially think themselves lost. However, after a hostile encounter with strange creatures, they soon learn that their predicament is much more dire.
Far Away From Home Q&A
I'll be hanging around in chat and answering any questions that anyone might have on stream!
Far Away From Home is a story-driven tactical RPG. After a mysterious turn of events during a scientific unveiling gone awry, Simon and his allies initially think themselves lost. However, after a hostile encounter with strange creatures, they soon learn that their predicament is much more dire.
Devlog #1
Hey all, these changes aren't in the demo yet, but I just wanted to let you know about some of the stuff I've been working on and feedback that I've incorporated into the game since last update. I am considering all feedback, so if you've got anything at all that you'd like to see improved, feel free to let me know!
Change Log
Difficulty Sliders If you want more pain (or less), there will be difficulty sliders to modify certain aspects of the game. I'm hoping to have something more complex later on, but for now, I've added in some simple options to scale battle difficulty.
Click and Drag Map Movement Using the middle mouse button, you can now look around the map more easily then clicking on tiles to move the camera.
Better Tile / Unit Visibility I know there are some issues with being able to see units and tiles when they go behind terrain in some cases, it should be easier to see where everything is now. This is something I continually am trying to improve.
Unit Highlighting in Turn List To better figure out and plan what you want to do, if you hover over a unit in the turn list with the mouse, it will highlight on the map, which unit it corresponds to. Clicking on the unit will also move your cursor to that unit.
Enemy Balancing Reduced damage on all enemy units slightly. Rangers and Marksmen had their starting FP slightly lowered.
End of Turn Wait Direction A couple people were asking about this and I initially didn't allow it for strategical reasons, but I also didn't feel too strongly about it either way and am always up for making changes if people simply find it more enjoyable.
You can now choose your unit facing direction at the end of every turn, whether you explicitly waited or performed an action.
You will still only get wait related bonuses if you explicitly chose to wait.
Claster Riposte Claster can counter attack all enemies at all distances now at skill levels 1 - 3. There were comments that it felt bad against ranged enemies.
