It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and to celebrate it we’re rolling out the Christmas Update!
Christmas Event
First up is the Christmas event. Just like with the Halloweenwith Halloween update we’ve prepared a special in-game event, where you can get a new artefact, spawning Christmas trees on every map! Build a castle close to them or station some units underneath and they’ll be presented with a powerful buff.
It also looks like Santa’s sleigh had a little accident with orx archers — dropping presents and christmas decorations everywhere!
Neutral Buildings and Aura Vaults
Even with new map decorations from previous update, we felt like the maps can be made even more interesting. So we’ve added Neutral Buildings and Aura Vaults! They randomly generate on each map and provide useful buffs to units and castles in their vicinity. Reach them by building nearby and reap the bonuses they provide.
Along with these buildings we’re introducing a quality of life change allowing you to build on the tiles adjacent to vaults — so when you reach them you don’t need to reach around and get a good chunk of Kingdom with the buildings.
Enhanced Action Log
Information is crucial in ORX, and previously action log just wasn’t showing enough of it. Now it not only displays messages about more actions taken by both player and the orx, but also allows scrolling to see older actions!
We’re always working on making ORX more clear and accessible, so you might expect even more QoL changes like this in the future.
Full Changelog
New Content
Christmas event — decorations for the Main Menu and maps, Christmas Tree event and Christmas themed artefact.
Side buildings — new neutral buildings, which grant bonuses upon unlocking them by building nearby.
Gameplay
Upon reaching and unlocking a Vault or a side building, neutral tiles adjacent to them will be unlocked too
Selected cards will be deselected after pressing Esc
Upon the mission start the effects of the ORX Commanders will be shown via special cards rather than a small buff icon
Improved action logging — now a lot more actions are shown in the log and it’s possible to scroll through them to see the older ones
Reworked the card pool for card choices from another faction.
General Performance
Switching shader animator for sprite animator
Implemented a Screen Indicator Controller
Improvements to the animation system
Improvements to memory allocations and fixes for memory leaks tied to it
Implemented AutoMapper
Fixes
Fixed cannon balls and trebuchet projectiles staying for too long after hitting a target
Fixed the description for Memory of the Fallen buff tooltip
Fixed the Abdandon run\Restart buttons staying visible after abandoning a run and immediately pressing ESC during the transition
Fixed Esc Menu covering the Abandon Run confirmation window and softlocking the game
Fixed Settings menus staying open when opened while loading into a mission
Fixed the cursor staying as a magnifying glass when going back to the main menu
Fixed wrong display order for the Memory of the Fallen sprite
Fixed Sharpshooters and Snipers guilds having wrong icons in castle descriptions
Fixed the dawn sometimes failing to start after defeating a wave
Fixed a rare crash occuring after pressing Restart
Fixed the animation for orx from Curse of Doom sometimes being extremely slow
Fixed the game showing descriptions for locked curses when highlighted
Fixed the info window not opening for units buffed by Shadow Amulet
Fixed the issue of red crosses appearing on already placed roads after you remove the infinite road cards and use up all the road cards with charges.
Fixed the cards in Campaign Results screen sometimes appearing as if they’re behind a dimming filter
Fixed the Deathgrow effect appearing twice upon triggering
News From Northen Planes
The work on 3rd playable faction — Boreal Nomads, — continues! This time we have a very first faction building to show. Inspired by scandinavian and slavic architecture, it perfectly conveys the mix of cultures between the giants and the humans.
Like any other faction, Boreal Nomads have to have economy cards. Stepping away from farms and orchards, we’ve decided that the nation of northerners will have Pastures as their main source of income.
From the gameplay side of things we’ve started iterating on main mechanics of the faction — fortification formations and hero management. This part is the most complex and time consuming, so at the moment we don’t have actual footage to share — but rest assured, we will create a dedicated devlog about Boreal Nomads once we feel happy with implementations!
Merry Christmas From Johnbell
Finally, we wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This year was very busy for us with ORX releasing in Early Access and all the updates we’ve added so far. We’re very thankful for the feedback we’ve received — we couldn’t make it this far without you!
Of course, ORX has a lot more updates coming up next year, and we’re committed to make the game the best it can be. Thank you for deciding to support ORX in Early Acces and may the new year bring only happiness and warmth to your life! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Don't forget to follow us on Social Media for both the news and silly memes! We also invite everyone to join our cozy Discord, where we hold weekly community events and streams.
Experimental Branch v0.9.7 — Christmas Update
Greetings, orx slayers!
Christmas Update is finally available on Experimental Branch! Do note that we will update the game with multiple balance changes in the upcoming days, so the Patch Notes are incomplete for now.
Nontheless, here's the list of changes!
New Content
Christmas event — decorations for the Main Menu and maps, Christmas Tree event and Christmas themed artefact.
Side buildings — new neutral buildings, which grant bonuses upon unlocking them by building nearby.
Gameplay
Upon reaching and unlocking a Vault or a side building, neutral tiles adjacent to them will be unlocked too
Selected cards will be deselected after pressing Esc
Upon the mission start the effects of the ORX Commanders will be shown via special cards rather than a small buff icon
Improved action logging — now a lot more actions are shown in the log and it’s possible to scroll through them to see the older ones
Reworked the card pool for card choices from another faction.
General Performance
Switching shader animator for sprite animator
Implemented a Screen Indicator Controller
Improvements to the animation system
Improvements to memory allocations and fixes for memory leaks tied to it
Implemented AutoMapper
Fixes
Fixed cannon balls and trebuchet projectiles staying for too long after hitting a target
Fixed the description for Memory of the Fallen buff tooltip
Fixed the Abdandon run\Restart buttons staying visible after abandoning a run and immediately pressing ESC during the transition
Fixed Esc Menu covering the Abandon Run confirmation window and softlocking the game
Fixed Settings menus staying open when opened while loading into a mission
Fixed the cursor staying as a magnifying glass when going back to the main menu
Fixed wrong display order for the Memory of the Fallen sprite
Fixed Sharpshooters and Snipers guilds having wrong icons in castle descriptions
Fixed the dawn sometimes failing to start after defeating a wave
Fixed a rare crash occuring after pressing Restart
Fixed the animation for orx from Curse of Doom sometimes being extremely slow
Fixed the game showing descriptions for locked curses when highlighted
Fixed the info window not opening for units buffed by Shadow Amulet
Fixed the issue of red crosses appearing on already placed roads after you remove the infinite road cards and use up all the road cards with charges.
Fixed the cards in Campaign Results screen sometimes appearing as if they’re behind a dimming filter
Fixed the Deathgrow effect appearing twice upon triggering
Let us know what you think of the changes and the new additions in Steam Discussions!
Fixed a bug tied to Giga ORX, causing the game to freeze in multiple instances
Fixed card charges having wrong placement during card previews in events
Fixed roads dissapearing upon completion in Act 4
Leaderboards and Optimization Update + New Faction Tease
Greetings, orx slayers!
Newest patch is already here — bringing Global and Friends Leaderboards, new map visuals and multiple performance optimizations! Included in this post is also a small teaser for the next Faction!
Breathing Life Into Maps
Map generation in ORX just got more interesting! We've sprinkled a multitude of decorations onto neutral tiles — to make maps look more alive and interesting.
And the best part? Decorations may sometimes stay on the tile even after you build a road through it!
Leaderboards
You finally have a place to brag your high score in ORX — Global and Friends Leaderboards are a big part this update!
But to have Leaderboards also means scoring player's performance! As such we've also included scoring and ranking system for Campaign Results screen. See if you can beat the developers at their own game!
Full Changelog
New Additions
Added Global and Friends Leaderboards — show the world that you're the King of your castle and the greatest ORX slayer!
Added score system and ranking to Campaign Results screen
Gameplay Changes:
New, level 4 ability added to Death Knight — after reaching this level he'll be able to resurrect a dead ORX with 30% chance.
Graphics:
New visuals and decorations added for the Desert Barrens biome
Updated visuals of all roads and optimized the textures
Added numerous decorations for neutral tiles
Changed the card back for Neutral Cards rewards
Performance:
Render optimizations for player's interface, cards, neutral tiles, forests, castles and castle elements
Texture atlases and render optimizations for roads, landscape, shadows and UI elements
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with "flying" ORX, where they would hover some distance above the ground
Fixed effects of "Interest Rate" card disappearing at dusk, even though they should persist until dawn
Fixed roads sometimes rendering on top of structures
Fixed rendering order for some structures
Fixed incorrect artefact description formatting during previews
The Northern Wind Starts to Blow
You might've noticed an unfamiliar figure in the Leaderboards gif above. Well, we just couldn't keep it to ourselves and wanted to share a bit of information on upcoming 3rd faction of ORX with you!
Coming from the Northern Lands, Boreal Nomads represent an unlikely alliance between the men and the giants. After the Runic Wars some of the Empire's citizens just couldn't accept the new ways of Rune Guardians — and so they went into exile. Settling in the Northern Lands, the nomads found out that these icy planes were already inhabited by a race of giants called Boreals. After years of bloody conflicts, the two races finally decided to unite under one banner — and founded the nation of Boreal Nomads.
Gameplay-wise Boreal Nomads will expand on existing mechanics of ORX, while playing completely different compared to the existing two factions. We will most definitely share an in-depth look at their gameplay later, but for now we can just say that it's... Unique.
Boreal Nomads are actually separated in terms of gameplay — with members of each race playing to their strengths. Nomads are great strategists and architects, so they build structures and, most importantly, fortifications. Types and especially formations of fortifications will produce different outcomes and effects. And towering Boreals utilize their natural talents and size to essentially serve as their nation's Heroes. The interaction between Nomads and Boreals is what makes their core gameplay — you will send Heroes to collect "Blessings", upgrade their equipment and build fortifications to survive the ORX.
Boreal Nomads are going to appear on Experimental Branch sooner than you might expect — so stay tuned for the upcoming updates!
Don't forget to follow us on Social Media for both the news and silly memes! We also invite everyone to join our cozy Discord, where we hold weekly community events and streams. We also have a very special Card Collecting Game on our server, featuring amazing art from the main artist behind ORX — we're already working on adding dueling to this game, so it's a good idea to start collecting cards now!
Experimental Branch Update v 0.9.6
Gameplay Changes:
New, level 4 ability added to Death Knight — after reaching this level he'll be able to resurrect a dead orx with 30% chance.
Graphics:
New visuals and decorations added for the Desert biome
Updated visuals for all roads and optimized the textures
Added numerous decorations for neutral tiles
Changed the visuals for Neutral Cards rewards
Performance:
Render optimizations for player's interface, cards, forests, castles and castle elements
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with "flying" orx, where they would hover above the ground
Fixed effects of "Interest Rate" card disappearing at dusk, even though they should persist until dawn
Fixed roads sometimes rendering on top of structures
v0.9.5.3
Bug fixes
Fixed game crash caused by damage from Poison Tower being redirected from orx to Death Knight
Fixed game freeze when merging a new castle with another one containing Voidwalkers Guild
Graphics
Improved texture resolution for ORX Commanders
ORX — 'Day of Doom' Halloween Event
Greetings, orx slayers!
With Halloween right around the corner, it's time we've announced some themed content for ORX! Get into the game until November 8th and experience the Day of Doom!
Now, in the world of ORX there is no such event as Halloween per se, but they do have an ancient tradition surrounding Day of Doom! It's roots reach to days immemorial, a time even before orx, a celebration of inevitable end, which — like a plumpy pumpkin that's about to rot, — gives life to new creations. During celebrations you greet people with a phrase "Bloom or Doom!", and answer by showering others with flowers — to ward off sickness and bad luck. Those who never follow this custom are at risk of being struck by all sorts of divine (and other) calamities, turning them into compost for the new, kinder life to bloom.
Bloom or Doom!
So, what awaits you in the game then? Well, you don't have to start giving flowers to orx, that's for sure.
Awaiting you along the treacherous path of ORX campaign is the new Random event! In it you will encounter an unusual dancing orx, who will offer you to pick one of three random masks. One of the mask provides a buff to everything, while another one does the same, but for orx. And the 3rd one is, well, just a mask — but a very festive one! Try your luck and see which one will you get!
Following the Halloween theme you can also expect festive decorations appear in the game: pumpkin carvings in the Main menu and lots (and we mean lots) of pumpkins sprouting on the map!
This might be it for Halloween events, but not for ORX! The 'Day of Doom' event is a part of a bigger patch, called 'Tornado of Souls', which includes all the new stuff, improvements and fixes from the Experimental Branch! Here's a sneak peek at what you can expect:
Introduction of ORX Commanders — these are new breed of orx, which show up in missions and provide buffs to fellow orx or debuffs for the player. Thread carefully as they grow in power the more you encounter the same commander!
Ascensions system — spice up your campaign with special modifiers!
Major Dune Reavers balance update — also enabling Tier 3 card upgrades for the faction!
New cards for Rune Guardians — explore new ways to play this faction with cards like Voidwalker Bastion and Pooling!
Major animation optimization — we've reworked the animation system, which should improve the game's performance!
And more!
Check out the Steam post about 'Tornado of Souls' to learn more! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1071140/view/3365904302140583845
That's it for Today! See you in the next Steam update! Don't forget to follow us on Social Media for the newest updates and silly memes! We also invite everyone to join our cozy Discord, where we hold weekly community events and streams. We also have a very special Card Collecting Game on our server, featuring amazing art from the main artist behind ORX — we're already working on adding dueling to this game, so it's a good idea to start collecting cards now!
ORX — Tornado of Souls Update
Greetings, Kings and Queens!
The newest ORX update is finally here! Aptly named 'Tornado of Souls' the update brings: ORX Commanders, Ascensions system, Halloween event, New cards, balancing and much more!
ORX Commanders
The orx are forever changing — growing in strength and numbers. ORX Commanders are a new breed of orx, which show up in missions and provide buffs to others and debuffs for the player. They also can grow in power — encountering the same ORX Commander back to back will unlock new abilities for him. So plan your campaign carefully! Of course, such a menace can not be unleashed on unsuspecting players right away. So if you've only began playing ORX — no worries, you have to unlock ORX Commanders by progressing through the game before you can encounter them.
Ascensions
If you followed our Roadmap, you know that Ascensions were planned a bit further in the future. However, while working on Hard Mode we've decided that Ascensions fit this role better — so we've combined the two into the new system!
In essence, Ascensions are difficulty modifiers — providing you with a way to tailor the difficulty of the game to your liking. Right now there are only two ascensions available and they only impact the difficulty of the game — but in the future this system will be expanded more, receiving new ascension types and affecting your final score or maybe even faction XP earn rates!
New Cards
We’ve added a number of faction and neutral cards focused around indirect buffs and making more playstyles viable. For example, with cards like Voidwalker Guild and Memory of The Fallen you can now play Rune Guardians in a completely new way focused around units!
Dune Reavers Balancing
We've made a big balance pass for Dune Reavers — taking a look at their cards, units and building stats and economy. Now the marauders of the sands should play better than ever and confidently stand against the orx! *The Barracks now actually posses two charges!
Previously we’ve added more upgrade tiers for the Rune Guardians faction. This time we’re adding an extra tier to Dune Reaver cards! This change will also affect the costs and power of numerous cards.
Full Patch Notes
Halloween 'Day of Doom' updates:
The game will automatically switch to Pumpkin decorations in main menus and in game
Added special Random Event which grants special artifacts — available to all players that launch a new campaign during Halloween
3 special Halloween-themed artifacts — beware, not all of them are good!
New additions:
Introduction of ORX Commanders — Death Knight and Illusionist
Introduction of Ascensions system — spice up your campaign with 1st iteration of special modifiers.
New cards for Rune Guardians — explore new ways to play this faction with cards like Voidwalker Bastion and Pooling.
Major Dune Reavers balance update
Tier 3 cards upgrades for Dune Reavers
General optimization:
New animation processing system — now the game utilizes texture atlases instead of frame-by-frame animations.
Under the hood improvements for Shader Animator system
Fog rendering optimization
Automatic lowering of graphic settings for low-end PCs
Changes to logic behind spawning and target selection for arrows
Optimisations to unit turning when changing direction during moving or attacking
Other minor under the hood performance improvements
Graphics:
The king in the Main Menu now dynamically switches to represent the faction you're currently playing or played last.
Spawn points for orx now have a unique animation which plays during the night
UI and UX
Added a tooltip when hovering over buttons with weather types during Weather Random Event selection
Fixed the position of Skip button on the Vault Rewards screen
Faction Menu now show a progress bar towards next level for the selected faction
Fixed Orchard zone highlighting not disappearing sometimes during card drafting
Adjusted maximum font size for card types
Centered card types when there is no icon present
Choosing Reset All option in Settings now keeps the settings intact
When placing a tile at risk of getting blocked, Confirm button will be colored red
Fixed previous enchant icons missing from card preview when upgrading an already enchanted card
Bug fixes:
Numerous card description fixes for English version of the game
Fixed an issue where sometimes the game would freeze on Loading screen during Dune Reavers campaign
Fixed the extra vault from Magic Mancer providing Rune Guardian cards when playing as Dune Ravers
Fixed orx attacking with their backs turned towards the target
Fixed campaign not starting after a version rollback
And on that note we conclude our update — see you in the next one!
Don't forget to follow us on Social Media for the newest updates and silly memes! We also invite everyone to join our cozy Discord, where we hold weekly community events and streams. We also have a very special Card Collecting Game on our server, featuring amazing art from the main artist behind ORX — we're already working on adding dueling to this game, so it's a good idea to start collecting cards now!
ORX Experimental Branch Update v 0.9.5.1
Halloween 'Day of Doom' updates:
The game will automatically switch to Pumpkin decorations in main menus and in game
Added special Random Event which grants special artifacts — available to all players that launch a new campaign during Halloween
3 special Halloween-themed artifacts — beware, not all of them are good!
General optimization:
New animation processing system — now the game utilizes texture atlases instead of frame-by-frame animations.
Under the hood improvements for Shader Animator system
Fog rendering optimization
Automatic lowering of graphic settings for low-end PCs
Graphics:
The king in the Main Menu now dynamically switches to represent the faction you're currently playing or played last.
New additions:
Introduction of ORX Commanders — these are new breed of orx, which show up in missions and provide buffs to fellow orx and debuffs for the player. Unlock them by playing the game.
Introduction of Ascensions system — spice up your campaign with 1st iteration of special modifiers.
New cards for Rune Guardians — explore new ways to play this faction with cards like Voidwalker Bastion and Pooling.
Major Dune Reavers balance update
Tier 3 cards upgrades for Dune Reavers
Bug fixes:
Numerous card description fixes for English version of the game
Fixed an issue where sometimes the game would freeze on Loading screen during Dune Reavers campaign
Fixed the extra vault from Magic Mancer providing Rune Guardian cards when playing as Dune Ravers
ORX Experimental Branch Update v 0.9.4
Graphics
Spawn points for orx now have a unique animation which plays during the night
General fixes and Optimizations
Experimental Branch now has it’s own save path in registry
Changes to logic behind spawning and target selection for arrows
Optimisations to unit turning when changing direction during moving or attacking
Other minor under the hood performance improvements
Fixed orx attacking with their backs turned towards the target
Fixed campaign not starting after a version rollback
UI and UX
Added a tooltip when hovering over buttons with weather types during Weather Random Event selection
Fixed the position of Skip button on the Vault Rewards screen
Faction Menu now show a progress bar towards next level for the selected faction
Fixed Orchard zone highlighting not disappearing sometimes during card drafting
Adjusted maximum font size for card types
Centered card types when there is no icon present
Choosing Reset All option in Settings now keeps the settings intact
When placing a tile at risk of getting blocked, Confirm button will be colored red
Fixed previous enchant icons missing from card preview when upgrading an already enchanted card
