Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Indie, Arcade
Tooth and Tail
Patch 1.5.1: Hard Times for the Little Guys
The Distillery Brothers aka "Squirrels" have probably been the most reliable unit type in Multiplayer for a long time. Especially when defending on top of their own warrens, Squirrels often defeated even superior armies. Their safety is now going to be compromised by reducing the tankiness of cheap warrens and generally making mid-game units (tier 2) more of a threat to the small ones.
Also in this patch:
fine-tuning of random map generation,
changes to the ranked point system,
and a couple of smaller convenience fixes/impovements (mostly in the UI and menues).
Ranked
Unlike the the Squirrels, new players on Ranked should have an easier time in the future: Previously, players on the top of the ladder risked to lose a lot of points against low level players. This was meant as a benefit to new players, but also made players at higher ranks play somewhat merciless if they wanted to protect their points. From now on, point gains/losses will be rather low for matches with big rank differences, so the higher-ups can relax and take a more playful approach (e.g. using crazy/random decks), thus letting newer players have more fun, and learn to take their chances.
For Windows users: If you tab out of the game while queueing on ranked, the minimized game's icon will now start flashing as soon as you find a match. (Not yet possible on Linux & Mac, sorry!)
Discord & Linux/Mac
Discord Matchboard entries now also get reported from Linux & Mac. Discord rich presence is now working on Linux (is already working on Mac and Windows PCs).
Menus
"Random" map type option is back in unranked/offline lobbies.
Replays of games played on new Editor maps are working now (Workshop maps have already been working). In order to make existing Editor maps compatible with the replay function, just load and save it, again, or open the map's XML file and change Random to Editor. The second trick also works on existing replays.
Steam users can now be subscribed to an unlimited amount of Workshop maps. (Old limit: 50.)
Fixed english ingame description (lore) for Drill Sergeant Volkov and some trait info.
Small convenience improvements and fixes in menus.
Map Generation
Bases generally offer more warren spaces, especially on maps with a lot of water. They can also have more organic-looking surroundings, from now on.
Improved map fairness calculation: Distances between spawn bases and expansions should be more equal. Especially pocket expansions count as a massive advantage in fairness calculation, now.
Slighty increased minimum distance of cabins from spawn Gristmills.
Multiplayer Balance Changes
Squirrel - needs to stand still for a total of 0.25s in order to shoot, so poking and retreating becomes more viable against Squirrels, and they become slightly less efficient in large numbers. To be precise: 0.1s cast time (from 0s), 0.9s cooldown (from 1s), 0.15s movement cooldown (from 0s).
Toad - small buffs to make them more useful, again, especially when microed deep into the enemy army: 9 HP (from 7 HP), 4x structure crit (from 6x) in whole aoe (has been from center tile only), 0.1s fuse time (from 0.25s), +3 damage on their actual target (from 0).
Pigeon - range 3 (from 4), duration 1s (from 2s), cooldown 1s (from 2s), will only stack 3 heals per tier (additional heals will increase only duration; pigs count as t2, mice as t1). Prevents some rare/weird behavior, e.g. 15 HP/s on a single Squirrel, while the Badger slowly dies.
All t2 units (Ferret, Falcon, Skunk, Chameleon, Snake) - will push away units of lower tiers when rallied on top of them. This makes micro management of t2 much more reliable.
Skunk - 30 HP (from 28 HP), gas duration 6s (from 5s).
Boar - 4x Crit against structures (from 6x Crit).
Fox - 22 damage per shot (from 20 damage), 0.4s cast time (from 0.2s), 0.2s root time (from 0.4s), makes better control possible.
Barbed Wire - 4 DPS (from 2 DPS, both to enemies and to itself), especially makes melee units less efficient against wire.
Balloon - 6 aggro range (from 8 aggro range), reverting a change from last patch that sometimes resulted in strange behavior (not shooting at enemies when it could). Will shoot Commanders normally, again.
Tier 1 Warren - 36 HP (from 50 HP).
Tier 3 Warren - 64 HP (from 50 HP).
Community News
Many thanks to the whole community for the preparation of this patch, providing data, testing features and balance changes etc. Thank you also for continuously organizing events, participating in them and/or streaming the game! We've recently had an amazing series of battles, called the "12 Duels Challenge", with more than 30 participants, streamed in 16 Episodes. Our weekly Pocketbot Cups are now taking place three times each Monday, and we're about to see a small 2v2 tournament becoming yet another frequent event each Tuesday. On 15th September we'll see the next big event: A "New VS Old" Tournament, which will show us who are the best players of all times. Streamed on: https://www.twitch.tv/wittypun7 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1854500956
At least two big mods are in the making, also introducing new units and structures - and we intend to add Steam Workshop support for customizations like that in future patches.
Old vs New Tournament
In celebration of Tooth And Tail's 2nd anniversary, players from the early days of the game will fight against those who joined the War for Meat more recently.
Organized by Big Pimpintosh and BlooCoon, Sunday, September 15th, 16:00 UTC (12pm EST)
Streamed on: https://www.twitch.tv/wittypun7 https://www.twitch.tv/rabbitking78 https://www.twitch.tv/radioprozix https://www.twitch.tv/magnusio https://www.twitch.tv/toothandtailtv https://www.twitch.tv/strawberryspeedruns https://www.twitch.tv/zeno_akoop https://www.twitch.tv/chipfromouterspace
Patch 1.5: Season 3 (plus an Eel)
While Andy has shifted his daily focus to streaming development of Pocketwatch's next game (Monday-Friday on the Pocketwatch twitch channel), Tooth and Tail shall live on! EELuminatus (you might have seen him playing with Lizards or advertising his mods) will be working on Tooth and Tail patches from now on. A new season has begun…
Ladder Reset
Some players started to feel lonely on the top of the ranked ladder, some wanted to experience the thrill of fighting their way up, again - so we put everyone back to the bottom. Happy climbing!
If the ladder reset hits you just before you managed to complete the ranked achievements: No worries! We just happened to add alternative ways to get them…
Alternative Ways to Obtain Multiplayer Achievements
Some achievements required players to win (lots of) ranked games, which could make them very hard to get. Now there are alternative ways to unlock these achievements, all possible in unranked and offline matches against 1-2 CPU opponents.
Agitator: Win a 1v1 against a medium CPU.
Rabble Rouser: Win a 1v1 against a medium CPU.
Militant: Win a 1v1 against a hard CPU.
Firebrand: Win a 2v1 against two medium CPUs.
Hero of the Hungry: Win a 2v1 against two hard CPUs.
The Great Provider: Win a 2v1 against two brutal CPUs.
Fury of the Feast: Win a 2v1 against two ruthless CPUs.
Deadbones: Win a 1v1 against a ruthless CPU in less than 5 minutes.
(You can only get these achievements on generated maps, not on editor/workshop maps!)
Multiplayer Balance Changes
As a result of mods made and tested by the community, a couple of multiplayer balance changes is coming with this patch. Probably the most important changes in a nutshell are: Toads, Moles and Landmines get nerfed; Chameleons, Boar and Drumfire Cannon get buffed; Snake poison wears off outside territory, but slows down enemies while it lasts.
Now, here are all the juicy details:
Daze - Only slows down movement (slowed down the whole simulation, including attack speed, before). This change makes mines less crippling in fights.
Focus Fire - Can be used for a structure (group), e.g. for letting only your Balloons focus the incoming Badger (not the pigeons) or making your Drumfire Cannon shoot directly at the opponents’ Mill (not the Pigs).
Mole - 2 DPS, 3x crit (from 3 DPS, 2x crit), same power against structures, less against units.
Toad - 7 HP, 3 damage, 6x crit (from 8 HP, 4 damage, 4x crit); structure crit only affects one tile, in the center of the explosion (applied crit to all structures in the aoe, before); aggro 3 tiles from own position (has been 2 tiles from rally point). They lose some of their power, but now they go after Lizards even if they are unattended.
Chameleon - 36 HP (from 30 HP); 0.25s stealth entry time (from 0.5s)
Snake - poison is cured 5s after last attack regardless of territory (used to be cured only inside own territory and lasted forever outside territory); poison slows down movement (Daze)
Boar - 6x damage against structures (from 2x damage against structures)
Badger - 60 HP (from 65 HP)
Fox - 24 HP (from 25 HP)
Barbed Wire - slows down movement speed by 80% (from 75%)
Landmine - 4 HP (from 8 HP); 3s Daze duration (from 2s Daze duration), but only slows down movement, not attack speed
Balloon - does not target Commander if enemy units are nearby (within a radius of 8 tiles)
Artillery - 28 DPS (from 20 DPS)
Tournament: TnTTV’s Premium 2v2 Spectacular
The community had a blast with the last 2v2 ("Bizarre") Tournament, and the next one is happening this weekend!
Date: March 9th, 2019 1:00 PM EST
Organized by: PremiumBow426 and Delthius
Streamed on: https://www.twitch.tv/toothandtailtv
Challonge (signup, teams etc.): https://challonge.com/tournaments/signup/0WoGcpNH67
Featuring old and new players, random and custom maps, and meat for the victors!
Come and watch or, if you want to join, hurry and ask on the Discord server!
(https://discord.gg/6TwVBdS)
Curious what Pocketwatch is making next? Come see an early development stream of our top-down Action RPG.
Andy Schatz, creator of Monaco and Tooth and Tail, is streaming development of Pocketwatch's next game over on the Pocketwatch Twitch channel. Code-named Bowhead, it's a top-down open world Action RPG with some Monaco-esque visibility and stealth.
Save some room after your holiday meals, you'll need it for all the meat in this patch! Sweeping balance changes, as designed and requested by the community -- including Moles that are built from warrens (instead of individually) and Landmines that apply a Daze effect. The Level Editor is now live and custom maps are playable online and offline. And new multiplayer features like Neutral Cabins guarding the campfires and healing water for those nasty multiplayer burns. Incoming!
Editor
The Level editor we used to create the Story Mode hubs is now available for making multiplayer maps! Custom maps can be played online via Steam Workshop (Steam only) or offline (all platforms except PS4).
Build the balanced map you've always dreamed of and say goodbye to the whims of RNGesus!
Gameplay
Massive changes to some core design incoming! High level players have long complained about Campfires creating too much imbalance and reducing player choice. So we made them into cabins that have a neutral defender that must be killed before claiming!
Campfires are now Cabins
When I originally designed the campfires, this is always what I intended for them to be: civilian pigs holed up in cabins out in the wilderness that you kill and cook on a spit. The cabin resident has a gun that shoots once per second for 3 damage. Once the cabin is destroyed, you must still spend 60 food to light the campfire. Campfires can be extinguished and re-lit just as before.
Change your Deck size
You can now battle with up to 9 unit types, or as few as 1! Try out vs battles with the original 3 units we designed the game around: squirrel, ferret, and bullet hive.
Also:
Water heals in multiplayer - 1 HP per second, even outside territory.
Super Random Decks - Random decks now choose 1 tier 1 unit and then fill the remaining slots with entirely random selections.
Balance Changes
Some sweeping changes to unit balance, as researched and tested by our community! Aside from the headline Mole and Landmine changes, one subtle but interesting change is that short range units now also have a slightly shorter aggro range, preventing them from getting pulled and sniped quite so easily.
Mole- Now spawns from a single tile warren, which can be built anywhere. Up to 3 moles can spawn from the warren, like any other Tier 1 unit. Mole Warren has 25 HP. Mole now has 14 HP, 3 DMG, 6 DMG to structures (was 21/2/5). Aggro range is 3 (was 4).
Lizard- 8 HP (was 7). Aggro range of 3 (was 4)
Squirrel- 0 second cast time, 1 second cooldown (was 0.25, 0.75). Removed movement freeze (was 0.25 seconds)
Toad- 8 HP, 3 DMG to all affected units, 12 DMG to structures (was 7HP, 12 DMG to target, 3 DMG to AOE, no structure crit). Aggro range of 3 (was 4)
Chameleon- 8 DMG/32 HP (was 6/40). Stealth Entry/Exit time is now 0.5/0 seconds (was 0.25/0.25). Aggro range of 2 (was 4)
Skunk- 32 HP (was 29)
Snake- 0 second movement freeze after attacking (was 0.25)
Boar- 110 HP (was 100)
Fox- 20 DMG per shot (was 24)
Balloon- 14 DMG/20 HP (was 15/30). Visibility of 12 tiles (was 10). Fires every 2 seconds (was 3)
Landmine- 8 HP, 18 Single target DMG, 2 DMG AOE (was 5 HP, 12 AOE DMG). Explosion radius 2 tiles (was 1.75). Activation time is 0.25 seconds (was 0.4) Applies a 1 second daze to all affected units that reduces attack/movement speed to 60%.
One Year Anniversary Today! Also, I had a kid, sorry for the silence :)
Hi friends! Today marks the one year anniversary of Tooth and Tail's launch! A heartfelt thank you from me and the rest of the crew to all of our amazing, passionate fans.
(artwork by the amazing Glorious AyyFB)
To celebrate, Mishi and Delthius are hosting a one year anniversary tournament TODAY at 3PM Pacific on Mishi's twitch channel. I'll be entering for the first time, and I'm expecting to get crushed! I'm super rusty... because...
...my second daughter was born two weeks ago, so I've been away from work for a little while. I'm just EASING back into things now, but just to let you all know, I'm working on improving our modding tools. Have some patience as my schedule is still a touch spotty, but I should start streaming some of my work again soon on the Pocketwatch Twitch channel.
Don't forget to drop by the tournament, and follow us on twitch for more development news! I'm working on a new game too!
TnT is almost a year old, and members of the community (TheGentleman and Delthius) have plotted a celebratory tournament! 🎂
It is organized via Discord: http://www.discord.gg/Pocketwatch - in order to sign up, enter the Discord channel, head over to #tournaments, and give the pinned announcement there a thumbs up!
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2018, 6pm EST / Midnight CEST
Format: 1v1, Open bracket, randomized/shuffled seed, single elimination, Bo3 with Bo5 finals (pocketbot cup format)
Caster: Delthius, streaming at https://www.twitch.tv/toothandtailtv
Brackets/Challonge link: https://challonge.com/fr/koqj4icp
Patch 1.3.0: Story Mode Standard Seeds & Leaderboards
HUGE Story Mode patch -- we've now got a Standard, non-random campaign and leaderboards! Players can choose to play Standard, Random, or with a Custom Seed.
When playing Standard, you can compete on leaderboards for time and score! Rank on the leaderboard is determined by your time in hundredths of seconds, plus the total food value lost over the course of the mission, minus your net worth at the end of the mission. Scores where your final net worth exceeds the total food value lost are displayed with a "+" before them. Leaderboards didn't make it to the PS4 build this patch, sorry!
If Story Mode isn't what floats your boat, there's also some balance changes and a major revision to map generation. Have fun!
Balance Changes
Squirrel - 0.25 second movement freeze after shooting (was 0.4)
Toad - 7 HP (was 8). Primary and AOE damage is now centered on closest tile when targeting 2x2 structures
Chameleon - 40 HP (was 38)
Snake 28 HP (was 30)
Falcon - 1.2 seconds of firing, 0.8 second cooldown (was 1.5 seconds and 0.5 seconds)
Owl - 40 HP (was 50), no longer stop moving over enemies
Barbed Wire can now hit stealthed Chameleons
Landmines can now hit stealthed Chameleons
Structures no longer heal if they are not in your territory
Territory now symmetrical on all sides of mills and fires, resulting in larger territory
New Features
Story Mode Standard and Random Seeds.
Standard Story Leaderboards
Map generation now adds ramps around spawn to prevent high ground within 3 tiles of spawn farms
Map generation now takes water into account when assessing fairness
Map generation now compares natural expansion distances when assessing fairness
Map generation changed to create more organic shapes around bases instead of fortress-like topography
Map fairness variables added to map generation xmls
Single Player Balance updated to current multiplayer stats
Bug Fixes
Story Mode - Meat will no longer spawn inside rocks
Repeating sound bug fixed
Patch 1.2.1: Calm Before the Storm
With a big patch in the rearview and a couple of big patches on the horizon, it was time for a small balance patch with a few quality of life improvements and bug fixes.
Balance Changes
Gristmill starting health reduced to 7.5 HP (was 22.5). Added a 1 second sell timer
Campfires must now be stood upon to build them. This allows you to build moles and landmines next to them without having to build them.
Unit collision radius reduced to 0.4 tile radius (was 0.5) - this was done to improve retreating -- units in the rear don't get pushed back quite so much. You may notice units will tend to bunch up a little more!
Squirrel - 0.4 second movement freeze after shooting (was 0.25), 0.25 second cast time, 0.75 second cooldown (was 0 second cast, 1 second cooldown)
Mole - 21 HP (was 20)
Chameleon - 38 HP (was 36)
Falcon - 16 HP (was 15)
Snake - 30 HP (was 28)
Balloon - 3 second reload, 15 damage per shot (was 2 second reload, 14 damage per shot)
New Features
Streamer Mode option removes the button hints from the bottom of the screen while spectating or watching replays, and hides the match progress bar behind the match time
Holding the analog stick in a direction during menu navigation will scroll more quickly
Bug Fixes
Targeting highlight in 2v2 fixed
Increased frequency of stormy and hail weather types in multiplayer
Discord Rich Presence fixed on Mac
Decreased VRAM usage
Looping campfire/machine gun sound after match end fixed
(artwork by the amazing Glorious AyyFB)
