Patch Notes for 0.5.144

Fixes

• Enemies can no longer use melee attacks while out of range of their target
  
• Lightning attacks will no longer critically strike wet targets (they only receive +50% damage)
  
• The Dreadknight's Pull of the Void ability now has a tooltip describing its effects (adjacent targets are Rooted)
  
• When zooming in on characters at the edge of the map, the camera will no longer glitch out trying to center them
  
• The Pyromania buff now expires properly
  
• Skeleton bone piles can no longer be feared
  
• The correct playtime is now displayed on files that have over 60 hours
  
• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when a House Skirmisher began combat on a certain tile in the marsh environment
  
• Duplicate quests will no longer spawn at the same time in cities
  
• If a character somehow gets onto an invalid hex at the start or end of their turn, they will be teleported to the nearest valid hex
  
• Certain quests were completing when entering the wrong city - this should hopefully be resolved now
  

Additions & Changes

• The turn order is now visible during the deployment phase
  
• You can now hold Tab to display all hexes on the field during deployment and combat
  
• Ultra wide support has been added
  
• Retina display support added for Mac
  
• You can now see the blue 'pips' that represent ability charges while camping, and also in the level up screen
  
• The Pyrolancer's Fuelled by Fire passive ability now has a status icon to indicate how much of a buff they are receiving
  
• Changed the goal for the Eradicate Voidspawn quest so it triggers a mission complete after beating the boss, instead of needing to clear every battle in the dungeon
  
• Completing a quest objective now adds 240 days to its expiration time, giving you plenty of time to return to your employer
  
• Added an option to disable screen shake effects
  
• The bottom edge of some combat areas are now treated like a wall, allowing you to push targets into it and trigger bonus damage
  
• You can now change your company's name in the history section of the management menu
  
• The price of resources (Wood, Iron, etc) have been changed across the board and are now more valuable
  
• Added a new Cloth resource, exported by the city of Athirton
  
• Adjusted the durability and cost of most gear in preparation for the upcoming repair mechanic
  

Balance

• Increased the Defense (+3) and Evasion (+2) stats of the Tower Shield
  
• Increased the fire terrain duration from the Pyrolancer's Wildfire ability to 8 turns (from 5)
  
• The Wildfire upgrades for duration now increase it by 2 (from 1)
  
• Changed the weighting of the 'Disorganized' time modifier so it can no longer trigger early on in a dungeon
  

Patch Notes for 0.5.143

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could occur when loading a save while the dialogue event window was open
  
• Fixed a soft lock that could occur when the Huntress performed an Attack of Opportunity
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur if you managed to get in a state where a character had fewer abilities equipped than required
  
• Certain conditions will no longer be removed when a target is knocked back (this was commonly seen with the Crippling Force stun upgrade)
  
• Temporarily disabled the falling rock hazards as they are causing a rare soft lock (will re-enable this in one of the upcoming patches)
  
• Characters generated above level 1 were sometimes not spending all of their ability points, resulting in them having less than they should (this has been fixed retroactively, so you may notice that some of your characters have points to spend)
  
• Shortcut number keys now work on the contract renewal screen
  
• Fixed an issue where the 'Barkeep's Husband' quest would not complete (if you currently have this issue, you should now be able to turn it in)
  
• Retroactively fixed a rare issue where the Path of Vengeance quests for Westmire or Redlands weren't being added to your active quest list
  

Patch Notes for 0.5.141

Fixes

• The damage from Burns now increases based on the number of stacks applied
  
• You can no longer cycle through temporary allies when viewing character sheets within party select (there was a crash you could trigger during the final fight of the prologue by doing this)
  
• Dismissing characters from the company will now update the UI to accurately reflect the current number of active units
  
• Dismissing characters from the company will now properly pay them the coin required to do so
  
• Available contracts in a city will no longer change upon leaving and re-entering the city, or saving and loading
  
• When an enemy is rooted, they will no longer pass on their turn if they have a viable target to attack
  
• The Huntress' Overwatch upgrade that increases its range to 3 is now working as intended
  
• Fixed a bug where if the Huntress killed an enemy with Overwatch, the next 2 enemies would take their turn at the same time
  
• If the target of the Guardian's Judgment ability dies, the channel will be aborted
  
• The number of stacks for the Guardian's Radiance passive is now properly displayed on the status icon
  
• When exiting a dungeon, the dungeon details tooltip will no longer get stuck on screen if you happened to be mousing over it as the overworld loaded
  
• Spectral Weepers will no longer fear their own allies
  
• The control maps for Wait and Guard are now shown correctly in the Options menu
  
• You can now open the escape menu in areas you previously could not (during AI turns in combat, and during dialogue events)
  
• The Charion Behemoth's death animation is now visible
  
• Channel length now updates properly in the ability's tooltip when upgraded (note: the initial channel length of some abilities is still off - this is being investigated)
  
• Can now enable debug settings by setting the value for DebugEnabled to True in the config file
  
• Skeletons that are summoned by necromancers will not be able to act until the next round of combat
  
• The point cost of incenses are now displayed in the company upgrades screen
  
• The Resuscitate upgrade for Healing Trance now works properly (previously it would only restore bleedout points if the target was knocked down)
  
• Re-enabled the Dreadknight's Pull of The Void ability
  
• The House Skirmisher should now deploy their Spearwall ability a bit more intelligently (The Skirmisher's AI still needs some fine tuning though)
  
• Fixed a scripting error that displayed a character's name as "0" during the introduction of the 'Direct Action' quest
  
• You can now target Sleeping allies with a Basic Attack in order to wake them up
  
• Certain Noble quests will no longer crash upon accepting them
  
• When loading a save file, the encumbered icon will no longer display unless you are actually encumbered
  
• Potentially fixed a crash that could occur when a player character died with certain buffs/debuffs applied to them
  
• Fixed a potential crash when channeling certain abilities
  
• The Risen Bonecrusher's Shield Bash attack will no longer Stun the target if they evade it
  
• After Waiting with a character, you will no longer be able to Wait a second time in the same round (doing so previously would forfeit their turn)
  
• The Stormcaller's Rainfall ability no longer applies multiple instances of wet terrain on a single cell
  
• Fixed a soft lock that could occur if all party members died except for one who was charmed
  
• The damage previews for Skewer, Sweeping Spear, and Holy Barrage now work
  
• The Wet debuff has been altered to do 50% bonus damage, instead of a forced critical (there still is an issue where units that run through wet terrain are not given the debuff)
  
• When using the Huntress' Hone and Overwatch abilities, you are now required to target the Huntress in order to use them (no more misclicks!)
  
• Potentially fixed an issue where characters of the same class could have different base Speed values
  
• Fixed an issue where a character who was 'Waiting' as the previous fight ended would incorrectly start the next fight at the back of the turn order
  

Additions and Changes

• When starting a new campaign, you can now choose to skip the entire prologue, giving you immediate freedom of where to go
  
• Added a large font option for dialogue
  
• Holding spacebar will now quickly skip through all dialogue, only pausing when there are multiple dialogue choices available
  
• You can now close the dungeon provisions window by hitting the same key used to open it
  
• Added a new company upgrade called Draft Horses which increases your available storage space
  
• Your storage space now defaults to a capacity of 25, with all items contributing to it regardless of their type (previously it was based on whether or not you were encumbered in a single category)
  
• Added a Scouting Report to the party select screen, displaying which enemies you can potentially face (currently this only works for dungeons, not overworld encounters)
  
• You can now see the environment/tileset during the party select screen
  
• During the party select screen, you can now view the character sheet for people that are already assigned to the party without having to first remove them (hover their portrait to bring up the button)
  
• A skull will now display over an enemy's health bar to indicate if the attack will be a killing blow (in addition to the red glow we previously had)
  
• Enemy groupings are now more varied with a few other enemies mixed in (where it makes sense to do so)
  

Balance

• The frequency of overworld encounters has been reduced, but have been made more difficult (more enemies)
  
• Removed the temporary immunity that was applied to your characters when they were repeatedly afflicted with the same status effect
  
• The Stormcaller's Wind Surge ability now cleanses all negative conditions (instead of only a few specific ones)
  
• The Stormcaller's Rainfall now heals for a small amount over time (in addition to its previous effects)
  
• The Pugilist's 'Mind, Body and Soul' ability now heals for a small amount (in addition to its previous effects)
  
• The Valkyrie's Skewer has had its damage reduced from 135% to 125% (based on Power)
  
• The Valkyrie's Sweeping Spear has been buffed from 100% to 135%
  
• The Huntress' True Sight ability no longer requires line of sight to the target and has infinite range
  
• The Pyrolancer's Return To Cinder ability now does damage equal to 60% of Power, increased from 20%
  
• The damage of the Pyrolancer's Infernal Pillar ability has been reduced to 150% of Power, down from 175%
  
• The damage shield granted by the Guardian's Safeguard ability is now 50% more
  

Patch Notes for 0.5.140

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where a "Point of Interest" wasn't interactable on the overworld because the quest was already marked as ready for turn in
  
• The debuff from Decay (which temporarily reduces max health) is now correctly removed at the end of each combat encounter
  
• Your character's health value now always shows on their portraits (previously only showed when they had taken damage)
  
• Return to Cinder's "Failsafe" upgrade now works correctly (if an ally walks on it, it will no longer end their turn)
  
• Fixed an issue where a character could temporarily disappear when placing them at the bottom of the deployment area
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause a crash after exiting a combat encounter (it seemed to happen most often during the "Scourge Hunt" contract)
  
• The contract "A Blacksmiths Request" will now give you the correct coin reward upon completion
  
• The Inspirational Leader trait now works properly (Morale will be boosted based on positions after the deployment phase)
  
• The tooltip for the Cannibal trait has been updated to properly reflect how it works
  
• During the prologue, you can no longer dismiss characters from your company if you have less than 4 in your roster
  
• The Nullbeast Prime will now be visible during his death animation
  
• Fixed an issue where the Pugilist would start with 1 less Speed than intended
  
• Greatly extended the expiration time of most main campaign quests
  
• You will now be warned twice when a campaign quest is approaching its expiry date (at 180 days and again at 90 days remaining)
  
• Fixed an issue where the camera would be stuck for a moment when entering the deployment phase
  
• Fixed a few spelling mistakes
  

Balance

• Necromancer enemies start with fewer Soul Stacks, which is required for them to use Raise the Dead. The cooldown on Raise the Dead has also been increased
  
• Injuries will no longer occur when critically hit, so long as the character has over 50% health prior to taking damage (an injury may still occur if an enemy uses an attack that hits multiple times)
  

Patch Notes for 0.5.139

Fixes

• Characters dying while traveling over a floor pit hazard will no longer potentially lead to a softlock
  
• Fixed a softlock that could occur if the Bounty Hunter was killed while his stun grenade was active (the lock occurred in the next battle)
  
• Enemies will no longer be stuck behind trees in the snow tileset (in the Northern Hold)
  
• Cursor screen lock will no longer be locked to the game window if you are in windowed mode or have "Require Screen Focus" set to off
  
• Fixed an issue where the Bounty Hunter's companions would still attack you after you successfully bribed him
  
• You can now discard all items types (excluding Quest Items) from the 'Company Storage' window (Right click an item icon to discard it)
  
• Potential fix for dungeons loading in with no events. This one seems to mainly be caused by entering dungeons for quests that are already completed (we'll continue to investigate this one)
  
• Corrected a tooltip for injuries to indicate they need to be in the infirmary in order to heal
  

Balance

• Reduced the salary costs of your mercenaries on Warlord difficulty, as it was proving to be too harsh
  

Fixes from previous patches

• Potential fix for Spectral Soulpiercers getting stuck in walls when using their Impaling Rush ability
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when fighting the Wealdere enemies
  
• Temporarily disabled some enemy abilities that were sometimes causing softlocks until they can be properly investigated and fixed (the Dreadknight's 'Pull of the Void', Assassin's 'Way of the Blade', and Blighted Hulk's 'Stampede')
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur after defending the city of Andilon if all the cities in the Northern Hold were rebelling
  
• Potential fix for a crash that could occur when fighting against Spectral Reapers (where his Culling Blades would never finish their attack)
  
• Fixed a few spelling mistakes!
  

Upcoming Changes

• We will be adding an option when starting a new campaign to skip to the end of the 'Andilon Prologue', immediately giving you freedom of where to go.
  
• We will also be adding in a way to repair equipment by making use of the resources you accumulate while adventuring (scrap, wood, and the like)
  

Roadmap

Join the Discord

Roadmap

Trailer

Dungeon Exploration and Time Meter

• On the Battle-Hardened difficulty, time modifiers are now applied after 16 time units, increased from 12. The value will also now change depending on your difficulty setting (including the new 'Warlord' difficulty!)
  
• Camping no longer costs time, and instead resets the time meter to 0, allowing you to deploy it strategically in order to minimize the number of time modifiers you accrue
  
• Added a new time modifier that can occur called Reprieve. Your party can breathe a sigh of relief, because nothing harmful will occur!
  
• Added a legend for dungeon event icons which you can toggle by pressing 'tab'
  
• Added a few more "Loot" events in dungeons
  

Abilities, Stats, Leveling Up

• Level 1 characters now start with 2 abilities. The remaining 4 are unlocked at levels 3, 5, 7, and 10. This was always an intended change, and it gives a much better sense of progression with your characters
  
• You can now spend coin in the ability tree to reset it and refund the ability points
  
• The tooltips for attributes, stats, and abilities have been greatly improved
  
• Attributes have been renamed to better reflect what they do
  
• When spending attribute points in the level-up screen, you can now see which stats will be increased, and by how much
  
• Many visual improvements to the level-up screen so it's a bit more informative and intuitive
  
• The Stormcaller's Cyclone ability has been overhauled, and now functions more as an escape ability
  
• All abilities now begin with 3 charges. Some previously had too many, some had too few. We'll be keeping an eye on these values early in EA
  

Combat

• Combat environments have been visited by an interior decorator, adding many props and lighting elements (where appropriate)
  
• More layout variations for every combat environment
  
• Flanking or Staggering a target now gives you a 100% chance to hit with a basic attack
  
• You can now hover a character and hold tab to see their stat panel without having to mouseover their portrait. We've also improved the hitbox around portraits, so it is easier to see the tooltips for status effects
  
• Using channeled abilities now show a preview of where it will occur in the turn order
  
• Charges from channeled abilities will not be consumed until the channel completes
  
• Channels can now be interrupted by Stun, Charm, Silence, Fear, Sleep, Freeze and Push/Pull effects
  
• When targeting an enemy, the chance to hit and defense stats are now displayed under the target's Health bar in the top-middle of the screen
  
• When targeting an enemy, the small health bar over their head will change to reflect how much damage your selected attack will do
  
• Injuries in combat will no longer occur when characters have relatively high health (>50%~)
  
• When enemies channel an area of effect ability, a warning icon will show on the cells that will be hit, giving you a chance to react accordingly
  
• Adjusted the difficulty curve of the first two dungeons (doing a better job of easing new players in). Beyond that, the difficulty for each setting remains mostly unchanged (aside from balance tweaks to individual units)
  
• Fixed some edge cases where Line of Sight wasn't being properly calculated
  

Economy and Cities

• Coin prices are now displayed on items in city Marketplaces
  
• The tooltips for items now show two coin values: The first is its true value under normal circumstances. The second is what the item can be bought/sold for in the current city. This will help you determine when it's a good time to sell or buy items
  
• Resources available in the Marketplace now match the city's export(s), allowing you to buy low and sell high in other cities that are in need of that resource
  
• Potential recruits at the Inn are no longer dismissed when you exit the negotiation window, allowing you to come back to them if you change your mind
  
• Coin and Renown rewards have been adjusted, providing a greater benefit for completing high difficulty missions
  
• The amount of scrap you receive when a piece of gear breaks has been adjusted (you now get more in general. Heavy armors in particular weren't giving you enough for their cost)
  
• Costs of provisions have been tweaked
  
• A new 'Stimulant' provision has been added. Using it will restore 1 charge to each ability, at the cost of 1 Bleedout point
  
• Added brief lore and histories for noble Houses and cities within the city entrance popup - we'll be expanding on the lore that is surfaced to the player as we progress throughout EA (there is quite a lot!)
  

UI

• Reworded the tutorial popups to be more concise, and added video clips to better illustrate the mechanics. The bleedout tutorial now properly triggers as well
  
• In the gear screen, you can now hover a piece of gear to compare its stats to what a character currently has equipped (colored numbers indicate if the stat will be increased or decreased)
  
• You can now also click the camping control hint (during dungeon exploration) in order to make camp
  
• Added a speed toggle (with 3 settings) on the overworld UI to make traveling visually faster
  
• You can now left click (or hit space) during dialogue in order to spit out one line at a time (with a pause in between). You can resume the auto scroll feature by pressing E. You can also now scroll up properly while the text is auto scrolling.
  
• The placeholder item icons have all been replaced with finalized art (well over 100 new icons!) Here's a peak at a few:
  
  
• Added an option to submit a bug report (or feedback) from the pause menu
  
• Added tooltips and hotkey hints to many UI elements that were missing them
  

Management

• After completing a dungeon or overworld fight, your party's Health, Morale, and Ability Charge values return to full. Injuries are also stabilized.
  
• Due to the above change, the Fatigued status now debuffs characters, reducing their Power, XP earned, and Morale. While they can still be used in the Fatigued state, they will not be as effective as a well-rested character.
  
• Armor values have been tweaked (overall a buff). Heavy armors in particular are much more effective at mitigating damage, justifying their high penalties to the Movement and Speed stats
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed many issues that caused combat to occasionally hang
  
• Fixed issues where hang-ups would occur during the event/dialogue panel
  
• Many more bug fixes, but those two were the most frequent we saw!
  

Release Time and Price

Demo

Early Access Roadmap

Mod Support

Discord

Kickstarter Backers

The Final Countdown!

The time has finally come! We are thrilled to announce The Iron Oath will be releasing into Early Access on April 19th!

Why Early Access?

• Improved descriptions for ability tooltips: Many of our tooltips were not finalized and admittedly quite rough. We've re-written many of them, and they should now be more clear.
  
• Level 1 characters now begin with 2 abilities from their class: We had always intended for it to work this way, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. As a character levels up, they will gain access to the other 4 abilities for their class (levels 3,5,7 and 10). This will give the player a better sense of progression with their mercenaries, making their deaths much more meaningful as well.
  
  
  
  
• Changed the way 'Ability Charges' are displayed: As you can see above, we've changed the way we display an ability's remaining charges. It's a bit more intuitive this way, and a little easier to see compared to the number that used to be displayed there.
  
  
• Channeled abilities previewed in the turn order: When hovering or selecting a channeled ability, you will now see an indicator in the turn order that lets you know where the ability will finish channeling. Hopefully this clears up any confusion about how channeling works!
  
  
  
  
• Channeled ability danger zones: Some channeled abilities that targeted multiple cells could be hard to keep track of or anticipate if you weren't already aware of what the ability did. Channeled abilities from enemies will now show which cells will be affected, using the same graphic that currently indicates 'danger' from environmental hazards like falling rocks.
  
  
  
  
• Tweaked the Stormcaller's Cyclone ability: We felt this ability was extremely situational, and its outcome too unpredictable. It now functions as more of an escape ability that allows the Stormcaller to "ride the lightning" (sorry I couldn't resist!) to the target cell. Any targets along the path are pushed aside, and you're now able to control which side they get pushed to.
  
• Other minor ability tweaks: We won't list them all, but a few other abilities have been slightly tweaked (some nerfs, some buffs, some bugfixes). The Pyrolancer's Wildfire now spreads instantly across 3 cells (instead of staggered over multiple turns), and the Huntress' Overwatch ability can now hit up to 2 targets before the channel breaks.
  
• Changes to Flanking: In addition to Flanked targets receiving more damage, they are now unable to Evade. This makes flanking more important when trying to finish off enemies with basic attacks (an important tactic to conserve charges), and gives the player more strategic control over Evasion RNG.
  
• Damage Previews on Healthbars: When targeting enemies, you can now get a better idea of how much damage they will take. You won't need to do math to see if a killing blow will occur :)
  
  
  
  
• Bug fixes!: The majority of bugs that were reported here and on our Discord have been fixed on our end - thank you all for your reports! Quick note that these changes are not live in the demo build (as it's a bit complicated to go back and update), though we may try to push one update before release.