Tower Escape
v1.10.2 - Hotfix
v1.10.1 - More of That Jazz
First a note: saves created with previous versions will not be recognized in v1.10. If you want to finish a 1.9 save before updating, you can access the old version in the betas labeled "v1.9".
It's been about 2 weeks since release, and the feedback has been absolutely amazing! I've been reading every single review, playthrough video, discussion post, and discord message that I can, and furiously scribbling in my trusty notepad. I then burn those notes, say an incantation, and line after line of c# code starts to fill my screen. Or maybe I just drink a lot of coffee and start typing, it's hard to remember.
A number of balance issues have been addressed. The map generator has bene tweaked significantly to reduce run-ending bottlenecks. They can still happen, but should at least be only smaller portions of the amp rather than multiple screen-spanning hallways that have to be repeated each wave. In particular, the Lava and Maze levels will now have multiple possible paths to the exits instead of a single "solution" to the maze. A number of minions have been tweaked or changed significantly, especially in The Damned clan (who was widely considered to be the weakest at higher difficulties).
Most of all though, people asked for more. More gems, more relics, more minions. Your wish is my command, as they say, so let's start with the gems.
There are now 42 gems total, mostly expanding on the trade-off style of gems, where they buff one or more stats significantly at the expense of a debuff elsewhere, but also included are 7 new gems with unique special abilities. Jet and Amber will help you control aggro on your minions, and the 5 new Legendary gems can add brand new abilities to any minion.
You'll find 6 new relics, all of which are unlocked from the start and mostly fill in the common and uncommon tiers. Even more relics will be following soon.
For minions, we've added a 3rd combine tier to the common (2-star) minions, same as the basic (1-star) minions already have. This should really help get some extra mileage out of those minions you pick up at the start of the game, so they can be combined into something even more powerful rather than just getting shoved to the back or stuck next to a Vamp. I know that's not exactly *new* minions, but we're saving those for something special.
Our next content update will introduce a full new clan, The Exiled:
The clan is still a work in-progress, but they will be taking a new direction for the game, with offense-focused abilities. This will not be a full attack mode however, but rather a focus on reducing the capabilities of the tower guards.
Full change list:
- Replaced save/load function with a more robust system that should fix game locks and crashes
- Fix Avarice description wrapping
- Progress bars go all the way to end
- Starting clan selection tooltip is more clear
- Card names change when language changes
- Permadeath Coffin now adds Stitch
- Permadeath Lantern now adds Riff
- Permadeath Bub now adds Stitch
- Minion stat bonuses now show in the deck panel on win
- Fix Delay tooltip on spells, actually fix the win screen stat bonuses (and fix on lose screen too)
- Sort cards properly in new unlocks display
- Remove chips from chests in last 2 levels
- Show rarer cards slightly later
- Reduce base scores on easier difficulties but increase bonus scores for clean sweep and perfect survival
- Lock UI controls when the level/wave complete panel is shown
- Properly remove combine icons on store page after combining a card
- Show X/Y for minions survived
- Slightly reduce coin spawns on later levels
- Slightly reduce coin rewards in chests
- Specify "Small" shield in text for Infinity shield and Verve elixir
- Key bonus levels have even more keys
- Fix store errors
- Chest rewards always have at least 2 coins
- Show map on-screen for top levels if tips disabled
- Tweaked map gen for more distinct map types (crypt has more defined rooms, cave hos tiny chambers, maze has a horizontal bias, lava unchanged)
- Improved scroll buttons disabled visibility
- Buff doc & chomp
- More map get tweaks: lava now has open sides and maze has random wall sections punched through to create more options
- New Gems!
- Added Opals
- Rare & Legendary cards are more rare
- Adds new tier 3 minions for 2-stars
- Fixed issues with feathers and potions and sound
- Reduced duration of speed potions
- Doc gets Cultist's ability
- Cultist now spawns imps each level
- Scott now gives bonus coins each level
- Increased projectile speeds slightly
- Fixes a bug when starting a new game with advanced start after being scrolled down to the end of the minions page in a previous game
- Fixes Sentry and spells allowing negative delay
- Fixes an exploit with duping minions
- Kobold buff
- Remove advanced start free rerolls
- Buff enchiridion
- Add more resolution options
- New relics: Hero's Helm, Coward's Boots, Rancor Shield, Dried Clover, Shroom of Us, Lock Pendant.
- Bogle less ally healing
- Don't spawn items near entrance/exit
v1.9.8 - Hotfix
v1.9.7 - Hotfix
v1.9.6 - UI Tweaks
- Fixes locked store items remaining between games
- Fixes a UI issue on the map screen when playing multiple games in one session
- The Play Again button now returns you to the game settings page so you can switch clans or other settings
- The win and loss screens properly return to the summary when playing multiple games in one session, instead of staying on the tab you left at in the last game
v1.9.5 - Keep on Fighting 'til The End
For the less good, we're aware that some players are experiencing crashes either on loading save games or quitting the game. I spent the weekend refactoring our scene system which seemed to be the problem, but were still seeing intermittent issues. It may be related to the steam cloud saves functionality, so for now I've disabled steam cloud save sync. This is not a permanent change and I know a lot of players really like this feature, so we'll be bringing it back as soon as possible. For the moment though, our top priority is to prevent crash bugs first and foremost.
If anyone is still experiencing a crash or game freeze, one thing that has worked is verifying your game files in steam (right-click on the game in steam, go to Properties, Local Files, then click "Verify integrity of game files").
I've also included two small gameplay tweaks that should have positive effects. The ranges of archers and wizards have been reduced, especially in their upgraded versions, but the Wizard DPS has been increased. This significantly increases your opportunity to path around the Wizard's range and makes success in the game slightly more skill based. Second, the Onyx Chip has had its health and speed effects reduced, but the delay penalty has been removed. This might sound like a nerf, but for newer players the extra delay could often disrupt the minions pacing too significantly and the gem itself really ended up being a trap for new players.
Finally, thank you to all the players who have been making amazing suggestions in the discussion forums here as well as our Discord! Please keep them coming, and I'd especially like to hear if anyone is still encountering either a crash to desktop or a game lock/freeze (especially when loading a save or quitting the game), so I can continue to eliminate any lingering traces of this bug.
Sincerely,
Ben "SlightlyMadman"
v1.9.4 - 101 Hotfixes
- Fixes 101 Minions achievement sometimes not triggering
- Fixes an exploit on the minions screen
v1.9.3 - Zusätzliche Truhe
Additional changes as follows:
- Fix grub sprite position
- German language fixes
- Additional translation fixes
- Fix book not opening on game launch
- Dropped items snap to center of tiles between waves
- Max lever tower guards can now upgrade damage
- Fix issue with switching book pages while dragging a minion card
- Fate pendant is 4-star
- No more legendary cards in advanced start
- Fix bug with Lantern where it was giving both the regular and permadeath effects
Next Steps for New Content
As I have mentioned before, I plan to continue to support and add new content to the game, and I wanted to offer a small preview of what the first content update will include.
First and foremost will be new relics and gems. While there are over 50 relics in the game now, most of them are not unlocked until multiple playthroughs, and I recognize there isn't a lot of relic variety in the early game. To address this we'll be adding some new relics and especially increasing the number of relics available at the start.
New gems will go beyond simply boosting stats, but will actually give your minions special passives and abilities. These will allow for some really incredible synergies as you'll now be able to combo a minion with themselves via gems, instead of having to struggle to keep them in range of other minions.
Meta-progression is something that has become standard in many similar games, and I'm working on a few ideas about how to add it to Tower Escape as well. Most likely this will come in the form of being able to "spend" your points from previous games on boosts for your cards in all future runs. I'll reveal more details about how this works as we finalize the mechanism.
For a little bit further into the future, I have some extra surprises in store. Let's just say for now that it will include a new set of Charm, Pendant, and Ring icons.
Again, thank you everyone for making my first game launch an incredible experience! I'm happy to see so many enjoying the game and will continue to improve it and make it the best game it can be.
Sincerely,
Ben "SlightlyMadman" from Final Screw