You've been waiting for it, so there it is: the Perks Update!! Right now, it's only available in the Beta Branch,
To find more information about the upcoming updates of The Last Spell, we wrote a blogpost last month detailing everything! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1105670/view/3142950121387743033
So, from today, you can try the "Perks Update" in the Beta Branch and give us your feedback in our Discord Server!
Perks Update
tl;dr
Perk system rework – Each Hero has a different perk tree.
New and reworked perks – 75 perks are now in the game, mixing new and previous ones.
Better information on perks – More details about perks before and after unlocking them on a Hero.
New HUD elements – Statuses and unlocked perks are now displayed above the Hero's skill bar.
Opportunistic and Isolated rework – Renamed as “Opportunism” and “Isolation” respectively, they are now applied on every attack and the corresponding skill effects have been reworked.
Traps rework – Traps can now be repaired in exchange for materials.
Perks System rework
Each Hero will be given a different perk tree, increasing the diversity in builds.
Perks are now divided into thematic collections, presented as columns of 5 perks (1 for each Tier). The content of these columns is determined during the Hero’s generation, involving randomness:
Some specific collections are not always present.
Main collections are always there, but behind the scenes they have several possible perks for each Tier, so the result will be different between Heroes.
However, as before, the only condition for being able to unlock a perk is to have access to its tier. It is not at all mandatory to unlock the previous perk of a column to get access to the next one. We actually wish for the opposite, resulting in a broader experience with many fun combinations!
New and reworked perks
Many perks previously featured in the game have either been reworked, tweaked or removed. Feel free to revisit the perks you think you already know!
This update also marks the creation of a lot of new perks, there currently are 75 perks in the game while there used to be 40.
New mechanics have been created for this occasion, we will let you discover them on your own...
Better information on perks
In the perk tooltip, you can now view the real, dynamic value of the granted bonuses. This comes in handy if you want to have a clear idea of what a perk actually provides before and after you unlock it.
Perks providing a skill also show a preview of the one your Hero will get to add to their kit.
New HUD elements
Above the skill bar, perks are now visible, which allows you to have a clear view of your hero's build at all times. This new display also provides other features: conditional activation, highlighting when using a skill, dynamic bonus value, decremental counter, range on hover...
We also used this opportunity to display the current statuses of the selected unit. This is shown on both heroes and enemies.
Opportunistic and Isolated rework
“Opportunistic” and “Isolated” are now applied on all attacks. They have been renamed as “Opportunism” and “Isolation” respectively and are now using a base-100 value (default: 100%) just like Damage and Critical Power.
Whenever your Hero's Opportunism or Isolation value is above 100%, they get bonus damage when the conditions are met, no matter what attack they use.
The corresponding skill effects (which were previously mandatory for a skill to benefit from those damage bonuses) are now referred to as “Opportunism Multiplier” and “Isolation Multiplier” and work just as advertised: the corresponding attribute's value is multiplied for this attack.
For example, if my Hero has 110% Opportunism and their skill has an Opportunism Multiplier x2, then during the attack the Opportunism attribute will be considered to have a value of 220%.
Traps rework
Traps can now be repaired in exchange for materials.
Also, traps cost a few materials more than before but do not disappear anymore when they are depleted. This way they can be repaired at a lower cost rather than having to rebuild new ones.
QoL/Balancing and more!
Changed some attributes’ boundaries (mostly some « max » going up).
Increased bonuses of healing received in level ups and items.
Added some information about the ongoing run in the main menu (elapsed time, city, apocalypse level).
Optimizations.
Replaced all alterations with a duration of “99 turns” with an infinite duration.
Bug Fix: turbo mode mode will not interfere with the run duration anymore.
Which feedback to give us?
Although we won't ask specific questions for this open beta, here are what we'd love to read when you try the beta!
General Feedback about the Update (the Perks, and the visualisation QoL of the perks)
What builds did you use and/or did you find the most useful/cool?
Don't forget to come to our our Discord Server to tell us your feedback and opinions about the Perks Update!
How to play the Beta Branch:
This thread is a tutorial on how to switch branch to access different/older versions of the game. This can be useful if you want to give a try to the beta or if an update makes your save obsolete and you want to finish your run before going on the new update. To access the open beta, you need to change the branch on Steam. However, before you change branch, we VERY STRONGLY advise you to put your saves somewhere safe! Even though they’ll be in different folders, you’re never too careful with saves! So, before you do anything, you should get your save folders %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Save and copy them on your desktop if you want!
Go to your game library on Steam
Right click on The Last Spell
Click on “Properties”
Go to the “Betas” tab
Now you can select the update you want to go with the dropdown
Select “open_beta"
If you want to switch back to the latest version, you have to click on “None” in the dropdown
Can I use my current save in the beta branch? Yes! The game will consider the branch as an update so you can definitely use your current saves. However, you won’t be able to go back to the previous branch with those saves! For example, if you have a save in the 0.93.1.3 version, and decide to use the save in the 0.94.0.1 version, then you won’t be able to go back to the 0.93.1.3 version with those saves. So, we strongly advise you to create a backup copy of your current save files if you decide to go to the Beta Branch. Reminder: You can find your save files in %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Save
How can I give feedback? For the beta branch, please only give us your feedback in our Discord Server, in the "TLS-Beta-Branch" channels. Please don’t write your feedback in the other channels, otherwise it will be quite difficult for us to differentiate the “beta feedback” and the “normal feedback”.
I’ve found a bug! To make sure our devs fix the right version, please only report your bugs in our Discord Server, in the "TLS-Beta-Branch"for the beta branch with as much info as you can: When reporting a bug or an issue, please don't forget to join the Output log: To get the logs - Search the file in your explorer by copying this: %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Logs - Ideally, make an archive (.zip, .rar, etc.) with the 3 logs MAJOR, NORMAL and DETAILED. If it's not possible, just send us the DETAILED.
Important news about the "Perks Update" and the "Maps Update"
Hello warriors!
We hope you're okay and that you're enjoying the latest update in The Last Spell! If you missed it, you can find it here:
As you may know from the current roadmap, we're working hard on the next update, called "Perks Update". This update is quite ambitious, since we're going to make a HUGE rework of the perks system, so this will be game-changer for a lot of players!
Also, reworking the perks system was one of the most requested feedback we got since the beginning of Early-Access. This is why we've decided that we're going to need to have this feature in the beta branch for several weeks, because we want to have as many feedback as possible before it launches in the official branch.
On the other hand, one part of the team has already started to work on the "Maps Update". Since the beginning of early-access, The Last Spell has been considered a "Hard game". However, as more and more people started to play, we realized that The Last Spell was very hard for new players. For example, we considered the "Lakeburg" map as some sort of tutorial, but most players are going to lose their first game after 3 or 4 nights. This is far from ideal, hence why we wanted to provide new players with a special tutorial that comes before Lakeburg.
We also know that this is exactly the kind of issue that needs to be addressed during early-access. Without going into too much details, the "Maps Update" will bring two maps to the early part of the game, before the players try Lakeburg for the first time. Consequently, the "Maps Update" will be essential for new players, but the hardened players that already have sunk dozens (and more!) hours into the game will probably find it less interesting. However, fear not! We will definitely add some more challenging stuff (including maps!) into the game in upcoming updates. 😉
Therefore, we've made an important decision regarding the next updates:
Updates Roadmap
The "Perks Update" will first be released in the beta branch in February, and all the players that choose to play in the beta branch will be able to try the new Perks System.
This update will stay in the "Beta Branch" so players can give us their feedback and we can iterate on it
We will release the "Perks Update" and the "Maps Update" on the same day in the "Official Branch" in March.
So yeah, this is a small change from what was planned before, but in the end, it doesn't change much things for our players! We hope you'll like
Patch 0.94.1.1
Hello warriors!
Happy New Year 2022! We hope your holidays went well! As for us, we're back to work to bring you even more of those very anticipated updates that we all know you like! ;)
This first update is NOT one of the "Three parts" major update that started with the enemies update. Let's see what this update is bringing you this time!
0.94.1.1 Update
Features
New elite enemies: Boomer, Accursed, Hunter, Runner and Dodger
New skill effect: Immunity -> Removes and prevents further applications of specified negative alterations (Stun, Poison, Debuff or all) for a given duration
Bug Fix
Fix bug on line of sight calculation causing the blocker to be an invalid target at minimal range sometimes
Fix softlock on boomer when they explode and kill a Hopper located in the mist
Fix visual bugs on wound display
Fix Twisted wounds not working as intented
Fix save corruption when quitting the game while having a ballista selected
Fix on the lifetime stat "health lost" that was always equal to 0 (causing a meta upgrade to be impossible to activate)
Balancing
Elite enemies
Increased Health for all elite enemies by 20-30%
Increased Armor for all elite enemies by 40-50%
Wound threshold
The goal of this balancing is to harmonize all the base wound thresholds (reminder: "base" because thresholds evolve with the enemy's health progression).
Clawer
W1= 80%
W2= 30% -> 40%
Runner
W1= 50% -> 60%
Armored
W1= 60% -> 90%
W2= 30% -> 50%
Dodger
W1= 80%
W2= 30% -> 40%
Blocker
W1= 80%
W2= 30% -> 40%
Splitter
W1= 75% -> 70%
W2= 45% -> 30%
Archer
W1= 70% -> 80%
W2= 40%
Winged
W1 = 70% -> 90%
W2= 20% -> 50%
Hopper
W1= 50% -> 90%
W2= N/A -> 50%
Hunter
W1= 70% -> 80%
W2= 20% -> 40%
Lancer
W1= 65% -> 80%
W2= 30% -> 40%
Crawler
W1= 50% -> 90%
W2= N/A -> 50%
Ripper
W1= N/A -> 70%
W2= N/A -> 30%
Boomer
W1= 60%
W2= 15% -> 20%
Guardian
W1= 60% -> 80%
W2= 30% -> 40%
Bulky
W1= 75% -> 60%
W2= 25% -> 20%
Twisted
W1= 80% -> 70%
W2= 40% -> 30%
Enemies Balancing
Hopper
Wounds
W1 = Can’t use Spit Acid -> -1Move
W2 = N/A -> Can’t use Spit Acid
Attributes
Move = 5-7 -> 4-6
Hunter
Quickshot (skill)
DMG = 18-23 -> 15-20
Range = 3-4 -> 2-3
New skill effect : Debuff(-10 Block 2 Turns)
Wounds
W1 = -20% DMG ; +15% Crit Power -> -15% DMG ; +25% Crit Power
W2 = -30% DMG ; +15% Crit Power -> -15% DMG ; +25% Crit Power
Doesn't cast imperatively his skill "Magic burst" if there is no one to target after gaining a "Charge"
Will use his skill "Command" more often (cooldown = 3 -> 2)
Need less minimum target to use his skill "Command" (min = 5 -> 2)
Channel Spell (skill)
New skills effects : Buff(+50% Resistance 1 Turn) and Immunity(All Negative 1 Turn)
Magic Burst (skill)
Range = 1-1 -> 2-5
New skills effects : No Dodge and No Block
Don't forget to update your game!
Patch 0.94.0.8
Hello warriors!
A new hotfix for The Last Spell is available!
Fix elite enemies always having the isolated bonus even if they were near some adjacent enemies
Fix of the "Potion of Cleansing" not being affected by the perk "Potion throw"
The skill "Pillar of Light" can not debuff the skills' caster anymore
Fix of the bonus use from the perk "Overload" that was lost after a night
Don't forget to update your game! :)
Enemies Update - Deep Dive
Hi Warriors! We hope you’re doing great! The holidays are almost upon us! As for us, we’re probably going to eat way too much, and play lots of games ^.^ But we were not planning to go before one last update before the end of the year. The open beta players are already familiar with the content of this update, since we released it last week in the beta branch.
Today, Benjamin and Victor (who joined the team just last month, and who’s been doing an amazing job at it!! <3) will take over this blogpost to deep dive in the “Enemies Update” that we’ve just released publicly today! If you want to read the full changelog, you can click here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1105670/view/3142946404923883200
First of all, Victor will talk about the new enemies and the wound system revamp that were introduced in this update;
New Enemies
Our main objective while designing the new enemies for this update was to diversify combat strategies and decision-making in battle, and encourage the player to stray away from the common “kill the enemies closest to the magic circle” approach. That is why all new enemies will make you want to focus them in specific situations, so be prepared for some tough decisions !
Blocker: This enemy is called the Blocker for two reasons: they have a high Block stat, but also block your line of sight.
Since we have a basic enemy for almost every defensive stat, we knew we wanted to make an enemy whose primary stat was Block. While their block stat is fairly low in the first nights, it can become a serious threat later on, especially against weapons like the one-handed crossbow. Blocking line of sight is something we knew we wanted to expand to enemies other than the Guardians, and the Blocker fit the bill perfectly. Line of Sight block creates an interesting dynamic for ranged weapons: having to choose between eliminating the enemy blocking your attack or repositioning yourself, which is usually only present with melee weapons. This should make gameplay on some of the first nights a bit more varied, even for veteran players.
Hunter: This enemy has long distance, line of sight ignoring, high damage attacks, and will try to focus backline heroes as much as possible. As a counterpart, they’re one of two new enemies to use the “Charge” mechanic, so this dangerous attack will take two turns to complete.
Our goal with this enemy was to create a danger to ranged heroes sitting in watchtowers. However, since their large range makes them very dangerous to backline heroes, they can easily surprise and punish the player. The Charge mechanic is meant to alleviate that, giving the player a few turns to deal with the threat. Having an enemy focus on heroes can be troublesome, but keep in mind that it also makes them less focused on the town and the magic circle, so I hope this change of focus will feel refreshing.
Hopper: The Hopper is the first enemy that can inflict poison to the Heroes. It’s a mechanic we wanted to try out, and potentially expand on in future updates. Additionally, they can buff their allies Resistance stat, as an action during their turn, or when they’re killed.
The poison is not very strong, but since it ignores defenses it can quickly take a good chunk of health from a Hero with a low health pool. Since we are still trying the mechanic out, and that it can rapidly inflict damage to any hero, we kept the poison damage fairly low, so it acts mainly as chip damage. We didn’t want the enemy to just stack additional poison on the heroes every turn, so they alternate between spitting poison and backing away to buff their allies. While the buff is rather low, it can quickly stack up to a noticeable amount, especially since the same buff is cast all around them when they are killed. In this regard, Hoppers are pretty much the opposite of Boomers. Finding the best moment or course of action to kill them without buffing too many other enemies should make for some interesting - and sometimes tough - strategic decision making.
Twisted: This fallen mage is a late game enemy that you will, for the time being, only encounter in Glenwald. They can buff the move speed of multiple other enemies at once, and, like the Hunter, have a charged attack that can be incredibly dangerous.
This enemy looks terrifying and cruel, thanks to the work of the artists on the team, so we needed him to act accordingly. As a mage, he needed a variety of spells, so we decided on him having a buff, an area of effect attack and a single target attack. Making the AoE of the buff and the charged AoE attack work well was a big challenge for the devs, but the mages are now more clever than ever thanks to them.
With their buff, the Twisted will send their allies - or, more precisely, what they consider their underlings - to the frontlines, distracting the Heroes while they prepare their devastating magic attack. This charged AoE magic attack is strong, but since it is a charged ability, players will have some time to anticipate it. To reinforce the cruel personality of the Twisted, we allowed him to hit allies with this attack, so he will not hesitate to hurt other enemies if it allows him to land this attack on a hero. Scary!
The Twisted is meant to be on the same power level as the Bulky. While they don’t have nearly as much health and block, they have high damage and a high Resistance stat. For now, we decided on having the Bulky be the “strong late game enemy” of Lakeburg, while the Twisted fits this role in Glenwald. However, this is bound to change as we don’t want to make too much content that is exclusive to very advanced players.
Wounds System revamp
The main reason why we wanted to revamp the wound system was that the old one was very disparate : having a wound effect common to all enemies was very difficult to balance correctly, as any stat change can be crucial on certain enemies, but also completely useless on others. Additionally, changing the system to have custom wound effects for each enemy brings a lot of very interesting design possibilities, which we tried to explore as much as possible. The main objective of the revamp was to create unique and diverse approaches to dealing with each enemy: Depending on the enemy and on the situation, it may be better to eliminate them, or leave them wounded… The choice is up to you ! However, we didn’t want to burden the player with having to learn the wounds of all enemies. To keep things light and manageable early on, common enemies also have the most common and simple wounds. Rarer enemies have more specific wounds, and so on. For example, all basic enemies have similar wounds to before, losing movement and panic when wounded, but now also lose some of their main stat.
More advanced enemies have more complex wounds. A good example of this is the Boomer, who gains +30% Damage when wounded. It may seem like a buff, since they will deal more damage to you and your buildings… but it can also help you deal more damage to the enemies surrounding the Boomer ! We hope you will find diverse and interesting strategies using these new wound effects.
There’s one last part to the wound revamp, and this one also affects heroes. Wound thresholds are not fixed anymore, and scale depending on the unit’s Max Health. For enemies, it allowed us to place wound thresholds at specific parts of the health bar, or even make enemies that only have one wound threshold. For heroes, it means that the more health they have, the harder it is for them to get wounded. Visually, you will easily notice that the wound thresholds of a high Max Health hero are closer to the left of the HP bar than the thresholds of a low Max Health hero.
And now, I’ll pass the baton to Benjamin, who especially worked on the Elite enemies and the many QoL changes that we did for this update!
Elite Enemies
Commander, we’ve detected new mutations of enemies coming from the mist and it’s NOT looking good… Fun fact about elite enemies, we had an early concept for the Elite Lancer from our beloved artistic director Jacques since very early in the development of the game. At the time we were very excited about this idea of having a more powerful version of enemies but then the reality of game dev production hit us, and we had to delay this feature to this day (game dev can be frustrating sometimes).
Early concept for the Lancer Elite
When we decided to implement this feature in the game, the first thing we did was to find all our intentions. After discussing, we agreed with the fact that in The Last Spell, enemies have a short lifetime, and it lacks a feeling of “mini boss” in the wave since all enemies are numerous. So elite enemies had to fill this void. Also, for replicability we wanted something procedural to help us create some crazy/memorable moments.
Obviously, we took a lot of inspiration from hack n slash and rogue lite games since both genres generally have elite enemies with a lot of procedural elements.
To create the feel of “mini boss” we basically increase a lot the health and armor attribute of the enemy. This increase extends the enemies lifetime on the battlefield and sometimes will force the players to think if he really needs to kill this enemy in one turn. This feeling is also reinforced thanks to the awesome visuals for these enemies. It was (and it still is) a hard challenge to reimagine all enemies in a gory/extreme version of themself and I can’t wait to see your reactions when you will discover your favorite enemy (or your nemesis) in their elite version!
For the procedural part, we’ve came up with what we called “affix for enemies”. When an elite enemy spawn on the map, he will have a random affix. An affix for enemies is a gameplay effect that will affect the enemy’s dangers. For now, there are 6 different affixes implemented and some of them have parameters, so it creates a lot of variety (you can read all the affix effects in the changelog). You can expect some wild combination like a crawler that plays 2 turns, a lancer with a great bonus in Armor, a clawer that generates light fog around him or a lumberjack regenerating 30% of his health every turn.
Elite enemies are now a part of wave composition and will appear at specific days in both Lakeburg and Glenwald, but we have some ideas for the future to create a risk&reward system like in other roguelike where you choose to fight more powerful foes in exchange for more rewards.
QoL
New update also means a new batch of quality-of-life improvement to make the game smoother and more enjoyable to play. Again, thank you all for your suggestions, most of the new QoL comes from your suggestions so feel free to share your ideas, we are very attentive to all of them!
Speed up the game One of the most asked QoL is here: you can now accelerate the hero and enemy turn during the night phase
We also added some cool options to customize how you want to accelerate the game!
And that’s not all, we heard you about the night report being a little annoying after hours of gameplay so you can now skip all the animations thanks to a button in the panel
Enemies poison
My favorite QoL for this update: the upcoming poison damage for the turn are now displayed directly in the health gauge of the unit and we added new feedback that shows when an enemy will die from poison on his turn.
Camera For this update, Maxence, one of the developers from the team, had ideas to improve the camera for the enemy turn. Now there should be no enemies acting off screen and the camera movements are smarter, accelerating the turn. Also, magic circle attacks are now in first position in the turn so you will no longer have to wait until the end of enemy turn to see the game over.
What’s next
As we mentioned in a previous news, we’ve changed our way of working and the schedule for releases. Basically this means that a part of the team is already working on the next update for some week and I’m happy to share with you a sneak peek of our perk update :)
In this futur update you can expect a rework of the perk system and new perks for the tree!
Aand that’s it for today! Finally, we wanted to say how thankful we are to each and everyone of you for this year. The reception of The Last Spell has been absolutely amazing, we definitely didn’t expect so many players to like our game x) We also know that the game is not perfect (we read all your comments, the positive AND negative ones!), and every day we work to make it better :) Happy holidays to all of you, and we hope you’ll love what we’re preparing for next year! <3
We're very happy to finally release the latest update for The Last Spell! The update is called "Enemies Update", and as you might have guessed, this update will bring new enemies, among new features and changes! Our Game Designers Benjamin and Victor wrote a deep dive for this update that you can read here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1105670/view/3142946404930752623
So, here's the full changelog!
Changelog: 0.94.0.7 "Enemies Update"
TLDR
New enemies: Blocker, Hopper, Hunter and Twisted
Elite enemies system: An elite is a boosted version of the normal enemy with a random gameplay modifier
Rework of the wounds system
Addition of a turbo mode
Modding: now players can add their own font into the game
New Features
New enemies
4 new enemies: Blocker, Hopper, Hunter and Twisted
Elite enemies system
An elite is a boosted version of the normal enemy with a random gameplay modifier. For now, we have implemented 6 modifiers:
Aura: Gives a buff to all enemies within a range of 2 Reinforced: Increases an attribute permanently Mirror Shield: Returns a flat amount of damage to the Hero attacking this enemy Misty: Generates thin mist in a radius of 3 tiles around the enemy Energetic: At the end of the enemy turn, this enemy will play an extra movement and attack phase Regenerative: Regenerates a percentage of Health every turn
They appear at certain days in both Lakeburg and Glenwald
For now, not all enemies have an elite version but the goal is to have all of them
Rework of the wound system
Wounds thresholds and effects are now custom for each enemy type
New wounds effects were added (wound that blocks the use a certain skill, wound that reduces an attributed to zero… )
Wounds thresholds now scale with the max Health of the unit. The more max Health a unit have, the more difficult it will be to wound them
Addition of a display for wounds in the HUD of enemies and heroes
Items
Community SuggestionWhen Health, Mana, Armor, Action points or Move points maximum value changes, the current value changes from the exact same offset (whether it’s from equipping an item, obtaining a new perk…) Example: a Hero has 90/110Health, and a new armor gives him +20HP. Upon equipping the new armor, the hero will have 110/130Health instead of 90/130.
New item: “Potion of Cleansing”, this potion will remove all your negative alterations
Heroes
Community SuggestionAddition of an option in the character sheet to dismiss the hero
Community SuggestionAddition of an option in the character sheet to hide hero’s helmet
Misc
Addition of a reroll button in the shop to refresh all the content in exchange of some gold
New option in the main menu to rewatch the intro scene (you can also now skip the intro with the escape key)
Health regen is now taken into account in the grade of the night report panel.
Modding
Addition of a new modding system to import custom fonts to support more language
Qol
Community SuggestionAddition of a “turbo mode” available during the night phase to accelerate both heroes and enemies turns (configurable in the option panel)
Community SuggestionAnimation from the night report panel can now be skipped with a button
Community SuggestionNew shortcut for heroes’ selection (by default mapped to F1, F2, F3…)
Community SuggestionUpcoming poison damage for the turn are now displayed directly in the health gauge of the unit and new feedback shows when an enemy will die from poison on his turn
Rework of the enemies turn's staging: enemies should no longer act off screen and the camera movements are smarter, accelerating the turn
Saves are now stored by steam user (allowing to play with multiples steam account on the same computer)
Optimization of the game
Balancing
Enemies Splitter:
Added new skill single target to target heroes
Reduced the damage of the skill shred
Accursed:
Replaced the skill “Curse” with a new skill “Magic Exhaustion”: drain 3 mana from the target
Waves
Reduced slightly the number of enemies in waves with elite enemies
Items
Added a new skill on the “Holy Ring” trinket: “Cleanse” 3 mana cost, 0-5 range, will remove all negative alterations from the target
Aaaaand that's all for today's update! Don't forget to update your game!
As we release the new update, we'll be hosting a stream to show you the new update and answer all your questions! This time, Victor and Benjamin, game designers on The Last Spell, will be playing the game! :)
We hope you're okay! :) We have some news about the next update for The Last Spell!
The update will be released on December 13th. That's right, in just a few days! For the occasion, we'll organize a launch stream with Benjamin and Victor, game designers on the game!
Thanks to our amazing beta testers (Thank you, you're the best! <3), we fixed some very nasty bugs. So, on December 13th, the "Enemies Update" will officially be available in the official branch!
Reminder: this next update will be part of our "End of 2021/Early 2022" batch of updates! (More info here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1105670/view/3104662546553323256)
Beta Branch opening
Hello warriors ! We hope you’re doing great ! It’s finally winter here in France, so it’s officially the season of hot chocolate and plaids! But don’t worry, snow and cold won’t keep uu from bringing you the next updates for the game…
Beta Branch opening!
As you know, The Last Spell is a very complex game to make. Anytime we make a small change in the systems or the balancing, there are about 1 million parameters that are impacted, and a possible introduction of some new (and unexpected!) bugs. This is why we’ve now decided to officially open the “Beta Branch” for The Last Spell!
This branch is mostly aimed at players who really want to help us make the game. Obviously, this will allow you to try the changes and new features before other players, but we can’t promise you this will be an optimal/bug-free experience.
FAQ
What is the “Beta Branch” for The Last Spell? The Beta Branch is a version of The Last Spell containing features that are still being tested. If you want to help us develop the game, you can access it on Steam. Be cautious though! The builds that will be in this branch haven’t been 100% tested, so there may (will) be bugs and other issues. This build is not made to be played "as an official one", like the standard branch. We’re creating this branch for players who really want to help us with the development of the game! They will be able to try the newest features that we’re developing. Thanks to this branch, this will ensure our next patches are as bug-free as possible.
However, once again, if you want to play a stable version, we strongly advise you to stay in the Main Branch!
How to access this branch? To access the open beta, you need to change the branch on Steam. **However, before you make the change, we VERY STRONGLY advise you to put your saves somewhere safe! Even though they’ll be in different folders, you’re never too careful with saves!** So, before you do anything, you should get your save folders %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Save and copy them on your desktop if you want! Now, you can change branch and try the beta one!
Go to your game library on Steam
Right click on The Last Spell
Click on “Properties”
Go to the “BETAS” tab
Select “open_beta
Can I use my current save in the beta branch? Yes! The game will consider the branch as an update so you can definitely use your current saves. However, you won’t be able to go back to the previous branch with those saves! For example, if you have a save in the 0.93.1.3 version, and decide to use the save in the 0.94.0.0 version, then you won’t be able to go back to the 0.93.1.3 version with those saves. So, we strongly advise you to create a backup copy of your current save files if you decide to go to the Beta Branch. Reminder: You can find your save files in %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Save
How can I give feedback? For the beta branch, please only give us your feedback in our Discord Server, in the "TLS-Beta-Branch" channels. Please don’t write your feedback in the other channels, otherwise it will be quite difficult for us to differentiate the “beta feedback” and the “normal feedback”.
I’ve found a bug! To make sure our devs fix the right version, please only report your bugs in our Discord Server, in the "TLS-Beta-Branch"for the beta branch with as much info as you can: When reporting a bug or an issue, please don't forget to join the Output log: To get the logs - Search the file in your explorer by copying this: %Appdata%/../LocalLow/Ishtar Games/The Last Spell/Logs - Ideally, make an archive (.zip, .rar, etc.) with the 3 logs MAJOR, NORMAL and DETAILED. If it's not possible, just send us the DETAILED.
And now, let's dive in to the very first update available for the beta branch!
Update 0.94.0.0 changelog (Experimental Branch)
New Features
New enemies
4 new enemies: Blocker, Hopper, Hunter and Twisted
Elite enemies system
An elite is a boosted version of the normal enemy with a random gameplay modifier. For now, we have implemented 6 modifiers:
Aura: Gives a buff to all enemies within a range of 2 Reinforced: Increases an attribute permanently Mirror Shield: Returns a flat amount of damage to the Hero attacking this enemy Misty: Generates thin mist in a radius of 3 tiles around the enemy Energetic: At the end of the enemy turn, this enemy will play an extra movement and attack phase Regenerative: Regenerates a percentage of Health every turn
They appear at certain days in both Lakeburg and Glenwald
For now, not all enemies have an elite version but the goal is to have all of them
Rework of the wound system
Wounds thresholds and effects are now custom for each enemy type
New wounds effects were added (wound that blocks the use a certain skill, wound that reduces an attributed to zero… )
Wounds thresholds now scale with the max Health of the unit. The more max Health a unit have, the more difficult it will be to wound them
Addition of a display for wounds in the HUD of enemies and heroes
Items
When Health, Mana, Armor, Action points or Move points maximum value changes, the current value changes from the exact same offset (whether it’s from equipping an item, obtaining a new perk…) Example: a Hero has 90/110Health, and a new armor gives him +20HP. Upon equipping the new armor, the hero will have 110/130Health instead of 90/130.
New item: “Potion of Cleansing”, this potion will remove all your negative alterations
Heroes
Addition of an option in the character sheet to dismiss the hero
Addition of an option in the character sheet to hide hero’s helmet
Misc
Addition of a reroll button in the shop to refresh all the content in exchange of some gold
New option in the main menu to rewatch the intro scene (you can also now skip the intro with the escape key)
Modding
Addition of a new modding system to import custom fonts to support more language
Qol
Addition of a “turbo mode” available during the night phase to accelerate both heroes and enemies turns (configurable in the option panel)
Animation from the night report panel can now be skipped with a button
New shortcut for heroes’ selection (by default mapped to F1, F2, F3…)
Upcoming poison damage for the turn are now displayed directly in the health gauge of the unit and new feedback shows when an enemy will die from poison on his turn
Rework of the enemies turn's staging: enemies should no longer act off screen and the camera movements are smarter, accelerating the turn
Saves are now stored by steam user (allowing to play with multiples steam account on the same computer)
Optimization of the game
Balancing
Enemies Splitter:
Added new skill single target to target heroes
Reduced the damage of the skill shred
Accursed:
Replaced the skill “Curse” with a new skill “Magic Exhaustion”: drain 3 mana from the target
Waves
Reduced slightly the number of enemies in waves with elite enemies
Items
Added a new skill on the “Holy Ring” trinket: “Cleanse” 3 mana cost, 0-5 range, will remove all negative alterations from the target
Steam Awards Nomination - Best Game You Suck At
Hello warriors!
We hope you're alright! The team is putting the last touches on the next update that should be available "very soon"! We're also slowly getting ready for the holidays, some people in our team are already full-on "Mariah Carey-Christmas mode". We're not hearing "All I want for Christmas is you" in the studio yet, but it's a matter of days now...
Anyway! You might have seen that since yesterday, you can vote for the Steam Awards! If you liked the game this year, it would mean the world to us to see The Last Spell nominated in the "Best Game You Suck at" category!
Obviously, if you want to vote for the game in another category (like the "Best Soundtrack Award"!) we'd be super happy as well!
