I have an update today for the beta branch that should improve the sluggishness the game experienced when bringing in rosters for Gamble/Training/Coliseum mode. The largest change was a deep overhaul to how passive abilities are re-applied when the game state changes. The game system is now more intelligent with when it should/shouldn't recalculate/re-render a minion. Given that, I will be testing/monitoring passive abilities closely, as those are the most likely area for issues. Enjoy the faster Coliseum runs!
Bug Fixes:
-Various errors with Buildings have been corrected, due to the passive ability system refactor. -Banner Reward visual inconsistencies have been corrected
Bug Fixes
Bug Fixes
#603 With Secret Tunnel and Bloody Whetstone, moving a minion in and out of the first slot gives it Sneaky/Ranged permanently. #604 On beta branch, when a unit dies the animation shows its HP always pop up back to 2 HP then the unit dies. Beta: dragons fire was showing up in combats over the top of one of the enemies units in New PVP mode Enemy's Song of malice was triggering for player's minions. Bug: a defender would take multiple poison checks in a single turn if it was the only remaining unit.
Beta Update: New game mode map!
Continuing with some Halloween treats, I'm testing a new game mode on Beta. Check out the Kingdom map (more on this in a future patch), and head over to the Colosseum to try a run battling against other necromantic rosters (made by other players!) in place of the usual enemies. This mode is still very early in development, but I wanted to get some initial feedback on it from the beta branch players!
Bug Fixes
-Banner visuals in inventory were wrong -Don't know if it's a bug or intended, but I have no relics/artifacts/buildings that would make my Horrors related to my Blights and Reapers. -only affects shop if its faction.player
October Patch - Major Content Update
Happy October! This month there's a lot to cover, as we are bringing all the beta changes into the main branch, just in time for Spooky Season! Let's get to it!
Necroforager Redesign
Was: Whenever you sacrifice a minion, a minion one level higher to the shop. Now: Recycling triggers summon abilities. Summoning triggers recycle abilities.
Embrace the cycle of life and undeath with this rework to the necroforager. I wanted to preserve her interaction with recycling minions, but take her in a direction when she feels like she has unique builds accessible only to her. There are a lot of minions and spells that pop off when you get to double dip summoning and recycling. Grow-tastic!
New Minions
6 New minions have been added, and numerous minions have been reworked or rebalanced.
New Spells
11 new spells have been added, and a number have been reworked or rebalanced.
Area Rewards: Relics, Banners, Buildings and Rituals
Relics have been completely redesigned to be more of a game-changing build-around, rather than a small power spike.
Banners have updated visuals, and appear after completing the Castle. Buildings have been redesigned, and there's now 21 different buildings in the game. I won't list them all here, but go check them out in game or in the beta patch notes linked below.
Buildings have been redesigned, and provide bonuses based on minions in storage. They appear after completing the Throne Room and the Siege.
Rituals have been removed.
Additional Area 5 Enemy
He sees what you're doing and disapproves.
Activities and Storage
Gamble and Train now use rosters of real players! Storage Slots are no longer obtainable through the 3x3 activity grid, and instead can be purchased once per area from the Skull Shop alongside minions.
Gameplay Updates
Poison now affects minions that don't attack (defenders and 0 attack minions).
Defenders and 0 attack minions will now attack the necromancer if there no minion left.
Beta Patch: Skip Combat and Bug Fixes
You can now skip to the end of combat using the skip button. This should hopefully relieve the pain of Ranged v Defender gambles.
Bug Fixes: -#596 Sticky's death in combat alongside Birth from Blood will prompt you to choose a shop minion to discard, resulting in a softlock. -Data issue was causing only a subset of the building choices to roll, rather than all possible options. -Beta Progression file issue has been resolved
Beta Change: Real Rosters in Gamble and Train!
Happy October! This month has some treats in store for Throne of Bone, as it's a necromancer's favorite time of year! The first is a tricked out update to Gamble and Train!
Gamble and Train now use rosters from real players!
Rosters from beta playtesters have been recorded and are now being used to populate the lineups seen in Gamble and Train.
Additionally, the Attack & Health Reward granted from Train increases linearly each area (+1/+1 after the Crypt, +2/+2 after the Castle, etc).
Content Changes
Torrent of Souls Was: Summoned: Add my Attack and Health to another friendly minion permanently. Now: Summoned: Give another minion +1/+1 permanently for every minion Related to it.
This change is to curtail the exponential growth of Dreadknight + Torrent of Souls + Shadow Mentor. Dreadknight + Torrent is still a powerful combination (especially since Dreadknight is effective at having a Related army), but this change to linear growth seems healthier for overall gameplay. As Torrent is the newer minion, and has more knobs to adjust, they are getting the change over Shadow Mentor. But he's on my watch list!
Beta Patch: Some buffs and nerfs
Some adjustments after the last content drop:
The Ooze Was: Recycled: Fill your empty battlefield and bench slots with random minions. Now: Summoned, Dies, or Recycled: Summon a random lesser level minion.
Wand of the Dead Was: If a friendly Skeleton or Zombie attacks, you choose its target. Now: Your Skeletons and Zombie get +3 attack, and you choose targets for their attacks.
Ashen Warpaints Was: Warriors and Shaman are Related. Now: Double the Attack and Health granted by Warrior and Shaman abilities.
Darkstar Pendant Was: ALL minions have -1 Attack. Now: Your frontline minions get +5 Health and gain Defender.
Bugs:
#579 The new Shielded icon doesn't disappear when the shield is broken. #583 the hearts description still has it's old description even though that's no longer the case Idol summoned by Emperor is no longer transformed by Stitchcraft Stein's ability was not buffed by Mirror Advisor 584 not sure if a bug or intended: necroforager and interchangeable parts do not combo3.
Big Beta update
This will likely be the last shipment of beta content before it makes it way to the main branch! We have a bunch of new spells, new buildings, changes to the Necroforager, and more!
Beta Access
If you're interested in checking out the beta changes, they are available to all. Simply right-click the game in you steam library, go to Properties, and use the beta code throneofbeta.
Content Changes
Necroforager Redesign
Was: Whenever you sacrifice a minion, a minion one level higher to the shop. Now: Recycling triggers summon abilities. Summoning triggers recycle abilities.
Embrace the cycle of life and undeath with this rework to the necroforager. I wanted to preserve her interaction with recycling minions, but take her in a direction when she feels like she has unique builds accessible only to her. There are a lot of minions and spells that pop off when you get to double dip summoning and recycling. Grow-tastic!
Buildings
Buildings have been redesigned, and there's now 21 different building rewards in the game. I won't list them all here, but go check em out in game!
New Spells
I've added 8 new Level 4 spells, 6 new Level 5 spells , and one new level 2 spell.
Spell Changes
Deathcycle, Overmind, and Dark Syzygy are now Relics rewards obtained after the Crypt. Their art and name will change in a future build.
Level 2 Spells
Steal the Soul Was: Level 3 Now: Level 2
Reassemble Was: Whenever you reroll, give a random minion in the shop +2/+1 permanently. Now: Whenever your shop rolls, give a random minion in the shop +2/+1 permanently.
Interchangeable Parts Was: Whenever you sacrifice a minion, give a random Related minion +1/+1 permanently. Now: Whenever you sacrifice a minion, give a Related minion +2/+1 permanently.
Exalt Was: Combat Start: Give a minion +1/+1 this combat for every Related neighbor. Its Related neighbors gain +1/+1 and Defender this combat. Now: Combat Start: Give a minion +1/+1 this combat for every Related minion.
Level 3
Tomb Plating Was: Level 2, Whenever you reroll, give a random unshielded minion in the shop a Shield permanently. Now: Level 3, Whenever your shop rolls, give a random unshielded minion in the shop a Shield permanently.
Relic Changes
As stated, Deathcycle, Overmind, and Dark Syzygy are now relics. Additionally, two building abilities are now available on relics.
Organ Grinder Your first recycle fully refunds. (formerly of 'Fungal Garden')
Mirror Advisor Double your support abilities.(formerly of 'Apprentice's Quarters')
Rituals Removed
Rituals have been removed. I wasn't happy with their impact on the game (costing skulls in the last few turns, forgetting to activate, etc). Surviving the Siege now gives a choice of 3 more buildings, rather than a choice of 3 rituals. Reaching Collection Level 3 with a necromancer unlocks their signature level 5 spell, instead of their signature ritual.
Gameplay Changes
The 'lost combat' Heart loss experimental change that was on beta has been reverted. Players are now back to losing hearts equal to the remaining enemies.
Beta Change: One more minion and some minor improvements
New Minion
"Torrent of Souls" Level 4 (5 cost), 2/2 Spirit Feral On Summon: Add my Attack and Health to another friendly minion permanently.
Minor Fleshsmith Update
Minions experimentally perfected by the Fleshsmith now take the highest Attack and Health of the two minions, rather than using the 'target' minion (or in some buggy cases, randomly deciding which stats were kept)
Logging Improvements
With the growing complexity of the game, I've needed to make some improvements to the information in logs. Additionally, I've included a button in the options menu to open the directory of where the logs are, for ease of sharing in the discord.
On Hearts and Difficulty
Thank you for providing feedback on the heart-loss rework in the Discord, I am still weighing the pros/cons of this adjustment, so keep the conversation going! Understanding player sentiment really helps!
Bug Fixes:
Perfected Possessor was actually giving 4x its stats, rather than double. This has be resolved.
#562 slime mold mages do not benefit from related minions summoned through necroooze
In the beta test, if the doll is the last unit killed the game freezes
Beta Changes: Content updates and a rework to hearts
Thanks for all those providing feedback on the beta changes. I am hoping to have these ready for the main branch by end of August!
Gameplay Change
Trying out a change to hearts in combats where you minions are defeated. Was: Each remaining non-defender enemy minion caused the necromancer to lose a heart. Now: The necromancer loses one heart for failing to clear a combat room, and all hearts if they are unable to clear the Final Boss.
New Minion:
"Gatekeeper" Level 4 Horror Steward (5 skull cost) 5/5 Defender Support: Other friendly minions with Defender or Support get +5/+5.
Content Changes
Cursed Doll Was: Defender. Dies: Give a friendly minion +2 Attack permanently, then summon a copy of me to the enemy's side. Now: Dies: Give a friendly minion and enemy each +2 Attack permanently.
Necrooze -> The Ooze Was: Summoned or Sacrificed: Fill your empty battlefield and bench slots with random minions. Now: Sacrificed: Fill your empty battlefield and bench slots with random minions.
Energy Echoer Was: Whenever a neighboring Related minion's ability triggers for the first time each combat, this copies it. Now: Whenever a neighboring Related minion's ability triggers for the first time each combat, trigger it again.
There's been a lot of confusion (and bugs!) due to Energy Echoer copying the ability for herself, rather than copying the ability and preserving the original source. (ig: dealing damage based on its own health when copying Nether Warden). I'm exploring this simplification, with an understanding that it changes the outcome of some interactions from what used to happen.
Virulent Zombie Was: Level 3 (4 cost) 4/2 Whenever an enemy takes Magic or Poison damage, I gain that much Health this combat. Now: Level 3 (4 cost) 4/4 Whenever an enemy takes Magic or Poison damage, I gain +2 Health this combat.
The day has come. It hurts to change what has been an exciting moment for a lot of new players, but I think this character needs to be nerfed in order for more strategies to be viable and interesting.
Bug fixes
#533 if you hover over the top right corner outside of the shop this will pop up #544 Extra coffin buy tokens ares stacking in the UI if you don't buy them, until a significant portion of the screen is them. It should just show 2/2 left to buy or whatever on the one token. Bug: Managed to get an integer overflow by having -1 attack on shadow mentor. The Possessor was a 5/32 before this. #548 A shielded minion behind a shielded Rampart being attacked by an Elite Archer results in no shields lost. Unsure if the rear shield is necessary. #543 BETA: Old bones was not buffing minions on combat start. (Old Bones was only giving +1+1 not +2+2) #554 golden disciple of destruction only applies poison once per attack #553 Ready BoneSaw bonus from perfected minions was reset after going to a sparring #558 beta: pickled brain seems to be resetting it's count during every Rest section
Cannot Repro: These aren't necessarily not bugs, but I am unable to reproduce what was reported, so I am looking for more information #535 if you level up mid combat via deadwood summoning will o wisps into the fight and abomination attack the boss it will softlock the game #541 after previous best and losing, you often (always?) will not get credit for beating that curse level #560 energy echoers do not work at all in rival fight
