Heroes of Issachar
Dev Update 12/21/16
I've made some changes to the overall game cycle based on the community feedback and my own observations. There are some major changes, like the way assault missions work, and then some minor tweaks. One of the big changes is that I'm going back to building in a single province, rather than every single one the player liberates. It just makes more sense to get invested into your one main city, rather than have many cities to manage and presumably repeat many of the same steps in each. Once things are in better shape I'll do more of a reveal, but with the new cycle we're headed faster than ever towards the finish line.
The next big update I'll do will be to post the new assault mission setup in the Developer's Edition, and let that ferment for a while while we discuss the changes as a community. Once we all feel good about that, I'll move that over to the base edition and keep adding to the other parts of the game.
Michael
v1.55 - Brimley!
v1.55 is live - the major addition is that Brimley is now available for play in all versions of the game. There is a link at the main menu to jump straight into a game.
Brimley is the game of choice in Issachar - a dice game played head to head using a set of dice ranging from d4 to d100.
The other fixes are tweaks to Rapid Shot and Focused Shot. You can now collect enough Black Lotus in the Argent Coast to purchase Rapid Shot for use on Tranask Island.
Most of my time is being spent on getting the open world survival mode ready. So far the base map is created and a test dungeon is working. Currently, walking straight across the longest part of the map would take 4 real world hours, which is a pretty big map I think. For now though, I'm focused on a very small section of it to get that working really well.
More updates to come when I've got them!
v1.54.3 - Developer's Edition update
Brimley is the game of choice in the land of Issachar. A version of this was in a build a long while back, but it has been updated and as far as I can tell, it is running very smoothly. This version's UI isn't prettied up yet, and there are a few aesthetic tweaks I intend to make (mostly with the opponent's dice). So give it a go and let me know what you think!
A fix in this version is the sky and clouds in Argent Coast. I think it's looking pretty sweet now. There are still some sorting order issues, so I'm working on those.
Adds:
Brimley (Dev Edition)
Fixes:
Sky in Argent Coast
Texture resolutions increased for some objects
v1.54.2
v.1.54.1 - Black Lotus, Stygian...The Best!
This update goes is a few different directions, but it mostly centers around player abilities. Here’s a quick explanation:
You, the player, have both Skills and Abilities (these descriptions are subject to change, since they’re generic and can be ambiguous). Skills are passive, like how many heroes you can lead into battle; Abilities are active, like Focused Shot, Bullettime, Levitation, etc. At the moment, only Focused Shot is officially in play (bullettime is there as a freebie, but won’t be much longer). Up until now, you start with Focused Shot. This update changes that.
Adds:
-Black Lotus (commodity to buy abilities)
-Ability Store (Suprice the Dealer, found in the Citadel)
-Ability menu edits found in Kingdom view (aka World Map view)
-More bad guys to Argent Coast
-Fixes:
-Water shader sorting order
-Citadel map view fixed (was too far zoomed)
So now when you start a new game, you’ll want to find the Black Lotus flower in the Citadel (not hard to find), then find Suprice (also not hard, he’s outside in the village) and buy Focused Shot. You’ll then need to make the ability active when you go to the world map (Under the “Player” Tab) and before you go into Argent.
So, since I’m into the abilities, I’m gonna knock out another one – Rapid shot (for 5 seconds, 10x fire rate, no stamina cost. Feedback on this has been universally, “awesome”). After that, we’ll see what strikes my fancy…I’ve got another friendly unit I’ve been dying to add, so maybe that one. Key remapping is also on the list, but I’m looking at adding controller support at the same time which makes it a bigger slice.
With the first official Early Access week in the books – let me just say, it was an awesome week ☺ For those of you who hopped on board, thank you! The response has been great. Some old friends revisited the game after some time away, and I met some more fantastic folks who are really excited about the game and made some new friends in the process. Chatting with you all is the best part of this whole ride for me, so don’t be shy about pinging me! Talk to you soon,
-Michael
v.1.54 - New Navigation System
Also added is a province map view. Press "M" to bring it up/close it. This is a very rough draft - right now the only icon that displays is the player. I'll be adding more icons to that map view over the next few weeks. Once the icons are set, I'll add fast travel to (hopefully) round off the big map view.
From here, there are a few directions I'm contemplating at the moment - I prototyped the place where the player can purchase new abilities, so I might knock that out and add a new ability for the player (a rapid fire, no stamina cost, frenzy of crossbow bolts). I also want to get survival mode in your hands as soon as possible, but that's a much larger job. Or I could do something else if it's pressing - let me know in the comments!
-Michael
v.1.53.2d
v.1.53.2c
Hero Wizard to Showdown
Bridges to Argent Coast
Polish:
Menu for Showdown
Fixes:
Turns off projectors that were displaying in Argent
v1.53.2 Update
Menu to opening scene
Options menu - Invert Y, Mouse look sensitivity
Button to map view to return to Citadel
Fixes:
Popup Help close on Esc
Heroes of Issachar, Early Access Has Begun!
I'm looking forward to getting everyone's feedback so we can start gameplanning how to get the game to its full potential. I want to hear anything and everything - what you love, what you hate, what's broken - so I can make sure the game continues to grow and move in the right direction.
Thanks again!
Michael