Today marks a grand day. The day of building! We have finished our Board Builder mode and through another free update are providing it to you all. You will now be able to create a board to do battle on against the AI or against a friend. Let me provide a breakdown of the board builder.
1. Choosing your environment and board size. Environment determines the starting ground tiles and some other smaller factors that aren't too important. Ground tiles essentially come in two groupings, outside and indoor, its easy to tell what type of tiles you'll have access to within a few moments of trying out the board builder. From this screen you can also Load a previous board you've worked on as well as ALL the other boards in game and customize them how you want. Import allows you to import a board from someone else, more on that later.
2. Here shows two different starting board sizes. You can also go much smaller than these as well. One thing I like to do is make a large board and then cut it up into smaller areas.
3. Here is a board I've customized a bit, adding in different ground tiles, high ground and spawn points. A board MUST have at least 5 Red and 5 Blue spawn points.
4. After you're happy with the board and want to try it in action you have multiple ways of testing it. Either with a friend, against the AI, or pitting the AI against itself.
5. I wasn't too happy with how the board played so I decided to edit it a bit and cut out some of the tiles. As I mentioned earlier you can use the remove tile option to add gaps in your boards.
6. Once you upload it you are given a code which you can share out and others can play on your board against AI or edit it themselves.
Note: When playing with friends only the host of the game needs to have the board downloaded to play a match against each other.
We hope you all have fun with board builder. We'll be off to GDC next week and plan on being super busy! I'll keep an eye out for feedback.
Lastly if you haven't yet please leave a review! Thank you!
Bonus board for inspiration
Patch Notes
Balance Changes Alchemist Blinding Potion Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Alchemist Quickness Potion Cooldown removed. Alchemist Sticky Mixture Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Accuracy increased from 88% to 96%. Archer Barrage Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Archer Snipe Accuracy increased from 60% to 76%. Assassin Bag 'em and Tag 'em Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Brawler Throat Chop Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Medic Heal Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Medic Panicked Shout Cooldown reduced from 4 to 2. Medic Phase Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Mercenary Shield Toss Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Rougarou Basic Attack Damage increased from 3 to 4. Rougarou Bite Damage increased from 2 to 4 and Accuracy increased from 88% to 96%. Rougarou Kidnap Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Damage increased from 3 to 5. Thief Shiny Stab Accuracy increased from 76% to 88%. Warrior Bear Hug Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Damage increased from 1 to 2. Warrior Basic Attack Accuracy increased from 76% to 88%. Warrior Head Bash Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Warrior Shield Up Cooldown increased from 2 to 3. Wizard Fire Blast Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Injuries now only occur at the end of battles and only have a 25% chance to occur when below 50% health.
Fixes
Fix for rare soft lock caused by Speaker using Shockwaves in an invalid direction. Fix for targeting Ricochet and backing out removing Taunt early. The Archer has been politely asked to respect the Taunt in the future.
Board Builder Patch and Balance Changes
Additions Board Builder!
Balance Changes Alchemist Blinding Potion Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Alchemist Quickness Potion Cooldown removed. Alchemist Sticky Mixture Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Accuracy increased from 88% to 96%. Archer Barrage Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Archer Snipe Accuracy increased from 60% to 76%. Assassin Bag 'em and Tag 'em Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Brawler Throat Chop Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Medic Heal Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Medic Panicked Shout Cooldown reduced from 4 to 2. Medic Phase Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Mercenary Shield Toss Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3. Rougarou Basic Attack Damage increased from 3 to 4. Rougarou Bite Damage increased from 2 to 4 and Accuracy increased from 88% to 96%. Rougarou Kidnap Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Damage increased from 3 to 5. Thief Shiny Stab Accuracy increased from 76% to 88%. Warrior Bear Hug Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Damage increased from 1 to 2. Warrior Basic Attack Accuracy increased from 76% to 88%. Warrior Head Bash Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Warrior Shield Up Cooldown increased from 2 to 3. Wizard Fire Blast Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Injuries now only occur at the end of battles and only have a 25% chance to occur when below 50% health.
Fixes Fix for rare soft lock caused by Speaker using Shockwaves in an invalid direction. Fix for targeting Ricochet and backing out removing Taunt early. The Archer has been politely asked to respect the Taunt in the future.
Winter Update available now! Patch Notes inside.
December Patch Notes
Additions
Traits! Each of the seven main playable characters now have two traits, which grant the character with a powerful passive effect, which can be selected in place of one of the current six abilities before battle, giving an even larger array of options to pick and mix from.
Thief, Pirate and Mercenary, the three unlockable characters in Adventure Mode, now feature a full range of eight abilities and traits to select from and each now have an innate trait. AI controlled Thieves, Pirates and Mercenaries in other modes also have access to the new innate traits and some of these new abilities so be on the look out!
Adventure Stat Points! A whole new Stat Point system has been added into your Adventures, allowing you to upgrade the Health, Movement, Speed and Accuracy of each of your party members using points earned from battling. Each party member also comes with their own stat-affecting Attitude which is revealed upon their recruitment to your team.
Grand Effects! Now that you've invested your hard earned Stat Points into a character, you can boost them even further by selecting from one of three available Grand Effects, which gains the character with an additional passive bonus in battle. With over 20 Grand Effects available between the ten playable classes the passive possibilities just keep growing.
Adventure Battle Changes! Gone are the old randomly selected battle boards, with each of the 30 possible battle locations instead now having their own unique board to battle upon.
New items! Six new items are now available in Adventure Taverns, providing players with new ways to deal damage and heal allies in battle and instantly earn Stat Points early. Players with existing Adventure runs will be able to find these new items in taverns in their next Adventure run.
Fast Mode! A new Fast Mode toggle is available in the Options menu, which when enabled will double the speed of all movement and action animations in offline battles.
Story Battle Changes! We've listened to your feedback and gone are the endless waves of Thieves, Pirates and Swords. All 24 Story battles have been reviewed and the vast majority updated with different enemies and/or different rules around how many characters you can select and which characters can be selected.
Changes The unlock requirements for the Adventure and Tactician modes have been removed, meaning the two modes are now available to play from when you first start the game. All Tactician battles are also now available from the start of the game. The unlock requirements for the unlockable Adventure characters have been updated: Thief now unlocks after completing Story Act 1. Pirate now unlocks after completing Story Act 2. Mercenary now unlocks after completing Story Act 3. Character movement speed has been increased. Maximum placeable characters in Adventure battles is now capped at 4 instead of 5. Online Quick Play is now exclusively 3v3. The Alchemist's Blinding Potion will now cause the target's next Basic Attack to miss. The Alchemist's Quickness Potion now increases the target's next movement by 2 instead of 1. The Archer's High Jump is now a Trait, allowing them to move up and down two levels whenever moving without needing to use an ability to do so. The Medic's Mend Wound now heals for up to 3 instead of 2. The Medic's Healing Aura now healing for up to 2 instead of 1. The Wizard's Fireball now deals up to 3 damage to the target instead of 4. The Wizard's Flame Lance now deals up to 3 damage to the target instead of 4. Existing items in Adventure have been repriced: Bolt items now cost 2 instead of 3. Vision items now cost 2 instead of 3. Sword items now cost 1 instead of 3. Watch items now cost 2 instead of 3. Bats now spawn less often in Caves.
UI In Adventure mode party member actions are now viewable directly from the icon on the side bar. Action damage is now always accurate for the character currently being targeted. Character selection styling has been updated to make it clearer which characters are already placed.
Fixes Battle animations should now function as intended when the game is running at low FPS. (<10 FPS) Quickness Potion description updated to more accurately describe what it does. Fix for action stats not displaying sometimes in the action selection menu. Fix for background music disappearing for the client after a second battle in an Online Custom Game session was started. Fix for the auto-save start-up text going off screen in some resolutions in some languages. Fix for gamepad/keyboard directional input sometimes being incorrect after rotating the board. Fix for not being able to back out of the Well Read menu.
As always, if you have any thoughts about these additions and changes or come across any bugs, be sure to use the F8 key to directly send us feedback. It helps us greatly in directing where we should focus our efforts next and ensuring any bugs get fixed as soon as possible.
If you enjoy this update please leave a review!
I wanted to let you all know as well we will be taking a few weeks off to spend time with friends and loved ones for the rest of the year. We will be back in early January. See you all in 2023!
-Matt
Stat Points and Grand Effects!
Hello!
We have been hard at work on the Winter Update coming December 6th!
I wanted to share with you all some screenshots of the WIP for our Stat Points and Grand Effects for Adventure Mode
The above image shows off investing stat points into a character. Players will be able to invest however they like into those 4 stats, however only 3 SP can be invested. The fourth has to be used to unlock a Grand Effect
Grand Effects can influence gold, skills, movement, even if enemies are more likely to retreat! Each character has 3 Grand Effects to choose from, but you won't know which 3 until you invest those 3 SP. If a character is killed they lose all SP invested into them :(. But fear not, we are adding in items as well that can be used to gain SP and each Adventure will start with 1 SP available to be spent!
Next week we will be making more additions to Adventure Mode, Story Mode and General Gameplay all in preparation for December 6th!
Thanks everyone!
- Matt
Friday Update (Winter Update Content)
I wanted to take today to detail more about our Winter Update due for release December 6th. We have updates coming for Story, Adventure and Overall gameplay.
Adventure Mode Adventure Mode will see the biggest update with the ability to assign stat points into your characters. These can be assigned to either HP, Speed, Movement or Accuracy. After you’ve put 3 stat points into a character you can use a 4th to unlock a Grand Effect, these are random bonuses that can enhance a character or provide an overall bonus to your adventure run. Example GE’s - General GE, this character is no longer limited to how often they can change terrain height - General Ge, kills with this character grant gold - Assassin specific GE, Bag em and Tag em always grants the extra movement capability. This is just the tip of the iceberg for what else is coming to Adventure Mode this update.
WIP of Stat Point UI
Story Mode
Let me start by saying we have heard your feedback. Story Mode became a slog fighting the same enemies over and over. You’re right. To fix this we have gone through each and every fight, adjusting the enemies you are fighting, limiting how many characters you can use, even preventing some characters usage. We don’t want you to just roll through the game with the same set of characters and this really hammers home the need for a strategic plan.
General Updates
Traits We announced traits a while ago, they are passive effects that are always active on your character. I wanted to share more traits with you. (Names and effects still in testing) Traits are used in every game mode.
Warrior - Unstoppable – The Warrior cannot be affected by Sticky Mixture or Bear Hug or Knockbacks - Insulting – Taunt now deals 3 damage in addition to its other effect
Medic - Hard Slaps – The Medics Basic Attack now deals 3 damage. - Ultra-Cleanse – Cleanse now also heals the Medic for +5 HP.
Archer - Insurance – After missing a Basic Attack or Ability the next Basic Attack will have 100% chance to critical. - Close Range – The Archer can target characters in her vicinity.
Wizard - Glass Cannon – The Wizard gains +2 movement range but max HP is reduced by -2. - Friendly Flames – The Wizards spells no longer also damage teammates.
Brawler - Problem Solver – When all abilities are on cooldown Basic Attack damage is increased by +1. - Pit Fighter – When 2 enemies are in the Brawlers vicinity gain +1 on all abilities.
Assassin - Thrill Seeker – The Assassins speed becomes 8. - Expanded Prey – The Assassins Scumbag Trait now applies to Alchemists, Archers, Thieves and Pirates as well.
Alchemist - Newtons Findings – Alchemist Stone bonus now provides +3 to the next ability. - Armoured Jacket – The Alchemist gains +4 max HP.
Traits aren’t limited to just these classes, Thieves, Pirates and Mercs are receiving traits as well as brand new abilities to fight you with but also be used by you in Adventure Mode!
I will have more to share in next Fridays update (balance notes, new items, new boards)! If you enjoy the game now I promise yull love it even more December 6th and if you’re on the fence about the game, keep your eyes on us, I promise you won’t want to miss what’s next.
Time to save the Kingdom
Hello everyone,
The day has finally arrived it is launch day and with it the excitement of getting the game out to you all. So many of you all have contributed to the game in one way or another through the use of the in-game feedback system, this would not have been possible without you so please pat yourselves on the back because you are also part of this game.
Seriously, I can't get over how amazing a lot of you all have been. If you can, please leave a steam review, they are so important to the health of a game.
What started as just a board game a few years ago has transitioned into a game that has taken some risks with bucking trends and trying to do something new in the genre. While it may be tough to see at first we promise that if you stick with the game we have so much more to offer and provide. All of us here at Labrador Studios are committed to the development of new content and making the experience even better over time.
Over the next few days as you play please send in your feedback, let us know what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see more of. This is your game as much as it is ours, let us know your thoughts, we can better serve you all with more information. Use the in game feedback system or post on the forums or even shoot us a message in Discord. Any way works for us.
To show our dedication we have created a content road map with the first update coming this winter in December.
TLDR: - I love you all - Leave a steam review please - New content on the way - Voice your opinion to us - Please like and share this update
We wanted to give you a full list of all the changes going live on release (October 28th) as well as what content is coming next. If this looks great to you please share it with friends!
Release Patch Notes
Additions
Act 3 of Story Mode added!
Online Multiplayer Cross-Play added! Play against random foes from around the world via Steam, Nintendo Switch Online or Xbox Live.
Cross-play for Online Custom Games, which will allow you to face off against your friends regardless of what platform you're playing on, will be added in a future update.
Four new boards added for Skirmish and Multiplayer, with the old "Peaks" board retired.
Gameplay
Panicked Shout no longer affects characters diagonal to the Medic.
Abilities where characters jump forward (Superman Punch, Rush etc) can now target characters on the same height level when the Heavy Feet debuff is active.
Fix for Charged Draw still working with the Bear Hug debuff on the Archer.
Fix for Phase buff also preventing Basic Attacks being used against the Medic.
Fix for Fireball AOE not staying within 1 height difference of the main target.
Fix for Ricochet and Healing Aura retaining targeting information if the action wasn't completed before the player ran out of time for their turn.
Fix for characters which should be killed due to Share Pain damage from multi-hit attacks not dying if there was a miss before the killing blow.
Fix for using a Basic Attack removing the Crotch Kick debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fixes for some abilities not removing the Crotch Kick debuff after being used (Steam only as of writing).
UI
All in-game text now localized into German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. (Brazilian Portuguese coming soon)
Additional support for characters from languages not included in the game added.
The currently selected character in pre-battle character selection is now outlined on the board.
Fixes for character selection and placement in Local Multiplayer.
Speech bubble positioning and sizing improved.
Health bars for non-involved characters now fade away during action animations.
Damage text now stacks horizontally rather than floating upwards from the character.
Damage effect sprites updated to be more visible.
Fix for damage numbers/sprites being hidden by other gameplay UI.
Ability stats are now displayed when swapping abilities in the Adventure tavern.
Fix for the loading text on the initial splash screen always displaying in English.
Fix for Chinese and Japanese language options sometimes appearing blank within the Options menu.
Fix for the Adventure tavern introduction message being displayed twice.
Fix for the feedback window not opening if the feedback button was pressed while the sent confirmation was being displayed.
Fix for the glowing effect used in the Tutorial not disappearing if it was restarted.
Fix for speech bubble character name not updating when changing language (Steam only as of writing).
Various formatting fixes.
AI
AI thinking time halved!
Various AI logical fixes to ensure its decisions are as close to the best legal decision as possible.
AI logic has been improved to always use an action when one is available.
Fix to ensure the AI doesn't use an action to apply a duff/debuff if the target character already has that buff/debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fix for the AI sometimes cheating when they had the Bear Hug debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fix for possible AI soft lock if the player ended their turn incredibly quickly.
Fix for the Rougarou AI using Kidnap and then hiding up a tree to avoid being killed (yes, really, this happened).
Controls
Controller vibration added.
Vibration strength is set to 100% by default and can be lowered/turned off in the Options menu.
When using mouse/touchscreen the board cursor is no longer restricted to selectable tiles during movement.
The board cursor is no longer restricted to selectable tiles when an action/item target is being selected.
Flame Wave targeting updated to be easier to use.
Water and obstacle (trees/pillars etc) tiles can now be selected with the board cursor.
Various UI navigation fixes.
Fixes
Various online multiplayer fixes.
Flame Wave animation no longer sometimes clips through the floor.
Fixes for shadows being displayed incorrectly during some attack animations.
Fix for Adventure Map movement and loading still running when the Pause menu was open.
Various visual FX layering improvements.
Various sound effect fixes.
Misc
Initial load time greatly reduced.
Loading time between the Main Menu/Adventure Map and gameplay greatly reduced.
Performance improvements which should result in a better/more steady framerate throughout, especially during gameplay.
Two Wolves removed from "Open Field (Variant)" in Tactician Mode.
In Adventure Mode injuries now have a 20% chance of occurring when taking damage to/while below half health, rather than always occurring when going below half health.
Selected abilities for a character are now stored in all modes (apart from Local Multiplayer) and carry over as the default selected abilities where applicable.
The save file location on MacOS has been changed, meaning that Steam Cloud now works.
Note: Any existing cloud saves from other platforms will be used over existing Mac save files in the old location, but those existing save files will not be deleted and will be used if Mac was the only platform played on.
Resolution settings now included on MacOS.
What's Next
Now that we’ve seen what release day will bring let’s look at our first update post launch. We are aiming to have this out late November, early December.
Traits Before we get to far into these, I want to provide some definitions that can help sort everything out. Innate Ability / Trait – This is the ability or trait that classes have no matter what. For example, the Medics Cleanse is an Innate Ability and the Archers Eagle Eye is an Innate Trait. Before we just called these passive abilities but that wording won’t work for what we are going to be adding into the game, especially with new characters on the way. Have to click to use it = Ability Always active = Trait Simple! We will be adding in 2 traits to all characters in our update. Let’s have a look at some:
(Alchemist) Newtons Findings – Increases the bonus from Alchemist Stone to +3
(Wizard) Friendly Flames – The Wizards AOE fire attacks no longer deal damage to teammates.
(Assassin) Thrill Seeker – Increases the Assassins speed to 8. This means he’ll be the first character to move, he’ll be even faster than the Archer on the turn order.
(Medic) Hard Slaps – The Medics basic attack increased to 3 damage.
As you can see Traits can really change a character. Traits will be added to the pool that players choose from when customizing a character before a battle. All characters will be receiving 2 additional traits in the update. This means it's possible for a character to have their Innate and 2 Abilities and 2 Traits or Innate and 4 abilities etc.
Example of Trait / Ability Selection
Board Builder (BB) Board Builder will allow players to create their own boards and upload them to a server. You would then be given a code which you can give to anyone and they can access and download the board for play!
Players will be able to customize the following
Spawn Points
High Ground
Obstacles (Line of Sight Pillars / Trees etc)
Board Sizes (Boards can reach sizes of 15x15 tiles! Verticality can be increased passed High Ground 2 as well)
Water
Empty Tiles
Theme
Board Items (Flowers / Grass etc)
Example Boards
Another exciting aspect of BB is in the future it will allow you to create encounters, allowing you to essentially make Tactician Mode fights and share them! I can’t wait to see what you all create with this system.
Ranked Online Ranked Online will allow players to compete in matches in 3v3 or 5v5 settings and move upwards in our rating system. We are planning on resetting ranks every so often. We will share the specifics of how ranks are calculated in a coming update as well as share the images of each rank!
New Classes on the way I wanted to share the names of the new classes which will start to be added in to the game next year. Their details will be revealed further around the start of next year.
Bard
Berserker
Paladin
Trapper
Siren
Owlcaster
Aether Knight
Geomancer
Necrolass
That was a lot of info, congrats to those of you who managed to finish it. I hope you all are looking forward to full release as much as we are. We have so much content planned and can't wait to get it out there. Thanks again for going on this journey with us and supporting a small studio in our first game. We promise to keep updating, providing content, and not let you down.
-Matt
Full Release on October 28th!
Hello Everyone!!
Big news today. We are announcing today we are leaving Early Access and fully releasing on October 28th! That is in just two weeks! This release will come with a major patch that will be detailed fully tomorrow. (Bug fixes, Gameplay tweeks, Act 3, New boards, Oh my!)
I want you to know that this has been an incredible journey with so many ups and downs along the road. Being able to make this game has been a dream come true. Thank you all for helping make it possible. The past few months we have been lucky to travel to a few game conventions and share the game in person and see your reactions live and the smiles on your faces as you fight your friends in tactical combat, Ill never forget those experiences.
Now that we've got the sappy stuff out of the way let me tell you what's next.
Following release we have a stream of content we're hard at work on currently. First up is a major game update that brings Ranked Online, Board Builder and Traits in December. These modes and Traits will be shown off and explained in the coming days.
Thank you again so much. I've got tons to share and can't wait to do so.
Matt
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 2564
Gameplay
Tile textures have been updated to provide more clarity.
Battle music has been replaced with one track for regular battles and one for boss battles.
A Thief has been removed from the first two Story Mode battles.
Houses have been removed from Story Mode battles.
Enemies have been removed from the "Save the Medic" Tactician Mode battles.
The Thief, Pirate and Mercenary Bosses now all have 25 max health by default and the Rougarou now has 30 max health by default.
Misc
Complete refactor! We've combed through the entire codebase and assets and managed to streamline everything a fair amount. As a result a bunch of minor gameplay and UI bugs have been fixed, the AI runs a bit faster than before and build sizes are now 20% smaller!
Note: We've also readded the prompt for our feedback system at the bottom of the screen. If you encounter any bugs or want to leave us some feedback, be sure to press F8 and leave us a message!
Achievements have been added! The game now contains 27 achievements to unlock, of which 19 are currently available, with the last 8 becoming available upon the release of Act 3 of Story Mode.
Note: If you've met the criteria for unlocking any of the achievements already they will unlock in the main menu upon opening the game, except for the achievement for completing a run of Adventure Mode, which will require you to go into Adventure Mode itself.
Mode locks - Adventure and Tactician mode are now unlocked by completing Act 1 and Act 2 of Story Mode respectively, though if you have any progress in either mode they will remain unlocked for now.
The secret characters for Adventure Mode are now also unlockable by playing Story Mode and Tactician Mode.
Support for Steam on-screen keyboard functionality when in Big Picture/on Steam Deck added.
Note: Some new text is currently only available in English in this build. This text will be updated in all languages as soon as possible.
Publisher and Console Release!
Today we are proud to announce that Gravity Games Arise has come on as the publisher for Live by the Sword: Tactics. They will be helping us to deliver the best possible game to you all. Because of this amazing news I wanted to share with you some more announcements I hope blow you guys away.
News
Live by the Sword: Tactics will be releasing on Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Xbox! We are extremely proud to have our game on these platforms and have worked very hard to make this become reality. With this being the first game that many of us have worked on it is a dream come true.
We will be exiting Early Access in Q3 of this year. We will exit Early Access with our 1.0 patch, this will also be the day we will release consoles. Working towards a simultaneous release is a daunting task but we feel we are up to it. We will announce the exact date in the future.
We are making a digital booklet for the game, you can view a rough draft of it here https://heyzine.com/flip-book/e5b7cc16e0.html
Post release DLC is in the works. We are working on 9 additional classes for the game. The sneak peek of these classes can be seen here https://twitter.com/LabradorStudio/status/1535665631722348544
And if you haven't seen our new trailer check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW8kxyWdfUc
Speaking of post release content, I wanted to let you all know that board builder and ranked online mode will be releasing in a post release patch. If we find the time, I promise we will include them for launch. We will be keeping in the feedback system, even after console and the 1.0 release, it has been crucial in the development of the game and it provides you all with a direct avenue straight to the development team.
I hope all this news has made you excited. If you would like, I can do an AMA with you all to discuss the development of the game as well as any questions you have for post release content. Just comment below if you have a question and I will answer them all in a big fancy AMA document.
