Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Tactical, Adventure, Indie
Tower of Time
Patch Notes Build: 0.5.1.559
Tower of Time is now different look and feel.
Finally, we are happy to release a major patch with a complete overhaul of graphics, among other things. The game is more atmospheric and realistic right now. The update is quite large: 1.2 GB
We also made several changes to UI, introduced new character stats (as critical damage and movement speed), added lots of new SFX and added new graphics options in Settings (required for our new look & feel)
Story: we also made significant changes to intro levels (for now) - all characters got their own biographies and we are in the process of re-writing the dialogues so it fits them. This will prepare a ground for new big thing we are working on - Party Alignment.
Important
When you play for the first time - please adjust your graphic settings such as brightness, saturation and contrast - so the game looks good on your monitor. Our new approach to graphics requires a one-time individual adjustment (for the best experience).
Patch details
New graphic look & feel
New UI for Character Screen and Inventory
New stats for characters and items
Gold treasures are now visible as separate objects
Added 1H or 2H indicator to weapons
Important items are visibly marked with light or effect
Added lots of new SFX or fixed existing ones
Fixed some enchantments
Introduction levels - updates to the story
We posted few screenshots below, showing some of the changes.
Thank you for playing Tower of Time. We appreciate your feedback and reviews.
Cheers,
KM
Screenshots
Teaser screenshots from Book Two and Upcoming Patch
Hello Everyone,
Book Two
We continue to work on Book Two content. Here are the first preview screenshots from the new locations. The look will be completely different, we will learn how advanced the Ancients' technology was.
Since our champions know very little of that, even something as simple as electric light can be a wondrous experience for them. Not to mention machines the size of a skyscraper.
Upcoming Patch
We are also planning to release a major patch - as of now the scheduled date is 9.10.
The patch will include, among other things:
<*> Major upgrade of graphics
<*> Few new combat modes
<*> New Inventory/Character Screen
Here are some screenshots what will change in the existing content.
We hope you will enjoy all those changes.
Cheers,
KM
Upcoming major changes to graphics
Hello,
As we continue to upgrade combat and work hard on Book Two, we also decided to upgrade our graphics - both in exploration and combat. Here are some examples of two battle maps:
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The new look is more realistic and atmospheric. How do you like those changes?
If you could review Tower of Time or share with us your suggestions for improvements, we would highly appreciate it. Thanks.
Cheers,
KM
Soundtrack - available for download as free DLC
Hello,
As you had requested, we have published a soundtrack for Tower of Time, available for free download as DLC (mp3 library)
After download, they are located in your main steam folder: (e.g.)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tower of Time\Tower of Time OST
It contains almost all music present in Book One, split into three categories:
City (C)
Exploration (E)
Fights (F)
Let us know which track do you like the most - so we can know what type of music you think fits the game and atmosphere the best. We are working on new pieces for next parts, so we would follow your suggestions.
Also, we would highly appreciate if you find few minutes to review the game. Thanks!
Cheers,
KM
Future Development Plans
Hello All,
We just want to share with you our development plans for the next six weeks, as there is a lot of new things planned. In addition to working on Book Two, we will focus on the following things:
Combat Modes
This will be a major area for our development. We plan to implement new combat modes, few examples include:
<*> True Ambush - where one or more of your champions are trapped in a destructible trap. Decide - take the time to free your champion or focus on the incoming enemies.
<*> Split - where your party will be positioned on the opposing sides of the combat map. Decide - join the forces quickly or slowly move your party, dealing with threats on the way, so they come together and can strengthen each other.
<*> Defend the Object - Enemies will target the object, focusing mostly on it. Defend it as best as you can, since if it will be destroyed, enemies will get a major buff to stats.
<*> Seek and destroy - reverse of the combat mechanics. Here, you do not defend your party, your goal is to seek the enemies and destroy their spawning points, else they overwhelm you later. Decide - go as a team to each place one by one, or split your forces and harass the enemy.
<*> Dark Events - deal with a variety of global effects, such as low or no mana regeneration or enemies regenerating health.
The main objective is to introduce the variety to combat and offer different tactical challenges.
Combat A.I.
Dumb A.I. is the major bane of most RPGs, in our honest opinion. For a long time now, we have been developing our own system to counter that. There are some basic behavior algorithms already implemented - the core of the system - but it is nothing spectacular yet. We plan to continuously expand this system with new algorithms and algorithm trees, that will increase tactical difficulty of combat encounters. It is a long process, for this system to work as intended - needs to be quite complicated, but we are committed to that. We will share some more details on the way towards a final release.
New Skills / New skill tree:
Here we plan to revamp the skills and make them more distinct for each champion. Some examples of the planned changes:
Increase number of skills for each champion to 8.
Introduce a real skill-tree, where leveling skills will also be dependent on champion level.
Introduce "movement" skills - especially for melee champions, such as Dash, Jump, Teleport.
Split the skills into Magic-based, Attribute-based and Item-based. Today, Mastery is the only attribute influencing skill power. We plan to diversify it, e.g. give Maeve some skills where damage/effect will depend on Weapon Damage or tying some of Kane's skills to his Armor.
Introduce new skills with different mechanics.
Other
Some other plans include:
Hotfix Build: 0.4.2.8731
Hello, last night we have released a small hotfix, addressing the following issues:
First of all, we added Book of Old vol. 3 - at the end of level 4.
Originally, it was meant to be located at the beginning of level 5, but we moved it as it sheds some light on the nature of the events that happened in the past - and should provide a good introduction to Book Two. (You also find out who Mr. P. was)
Other small fixes:
When you delete a save, there is a confirmation request now, so you do not accidentally delete a save game.
Fixed Ancient Crafting quest - you can collect the items necessary to complete it.
Fixed Report Issue popup, which was closing by itself when you pressed keys assigned to the exploration part of the game. So an official statement: previous difficulties were not intended as way to reduce the amount of feedback received :) --- please continue to swamp us with your suggestions for game improvements or reports about your issues. We are creating a game for you, not for ourselves.
Fixed a rare bug, which caused game freeze on level 2, next to Ancient Forge.
Added few interactions providing new information regarding the essences which are part of the Shade quest - it should be easier to locate them now.
Fixed some graphical elements.
Fixed support for high resolutions
In the coming days we also plan to share with you the information about our development plans for September - it will be mostly about combat: lots of improvements there, as well as new mechanics and skills.
Also, we are working on adding music tracks as a free downloadable content, as it had been requested by quite a few players.
Cheers,
KM
Linux Build is Released
After countless days and nights, we finally managed to release a stable Linux build.
Big thanks to all who helped us with testing it on various Linux distributions! We did not expect that it would be so time consuming, so Your help was invaluable.
Before you buy
Please see some disclaimers below:
<*> Build was tested on Ubuntu 17.04, Mint 18.2 and Debian 9 - those are the versions officially supported as of now. On clean installations of those systems the game is working as intended.
<*> We recommend to use NVIDIA 375 drivers, as newer drivers strangely can create occasional stuttering on some systems.
<*> In case you have problems playing cinematics - you need to install VLC package. However, on most systems it should not be required.
<*> Unity (our game engine) has some problems with full screen support on Linux sometimes. If that happens on some systems - you need to start the game with a command:
-screen-fullscreen 0
This issue will be resolved shortly.
If you encounter problems still, please send us an email to tot@evehor.com or join our discord server to let us know: https://discord.gg/swuxMSV
Thanks.
Cheers,
KM
Patch Notes Build: 0.4.0.8656
Patch Notes 0.4.0.8656
We are happy to release our third and the biggest patch yet - even if the list seems quite short.
This time it was less about bug-fixing and more about adding various "quality of life" features. There is also a major change to the end-game area.
The detailed patch notes follow:
Technical
Keybinding - ability to remap keys to your preference.
Advanced Graphical settings.
New videoplayer - cutscenes should no longer freeze occasionally.
21:9 ratio support.
'Save' with double-click option.
Gameplay
New end game area (Void sector) - completely redone, with new epic chain quest and with upgraded end game Boss.
Crystal transmute option - located somewhere on level 3.
Added cleave to all 2H Melee weapons as default.
Modified range of distance weapons and their stats, to further differentiate them - moving towards clear risk/reward ratio and support vs pure dps categories.
Changed some of the melee enemies, so they cannot be ignored so easily now.
Rakhem / Runelord - few changes to his skills and stats to improve his role as melee tank/dps or hybrid melee/mage class.
Upgrade cost for Artificer Hall is reduced, to take into account that at the moment it is a home to only one class.
Rakhem and Boron join the party at level 2, Whisper at level 3.
Blacksmith T2 blueprint is now moved earlier on Level 4.
Some various graphical fixes.
Small balancing changes to various skills - this time really minor changes.
Linux
We also managed to finally build a working Linux version, please see a separate announcement, if you are using Linux OS.
Thanks to all who contributed with the feedback to this patch. Also, big thanks to our growing discord community, always ready to throw new ideas at us and that helped us to get Linux build into a good shape.
If you encounter any issues, please send us an email to tot@evehor.com.
We are here for you 24/7.
Cheers,
KM
Upcoming Patch 22.08. A big one.
EDIT 21.08:
Apologies, but we'll not be able to release the patch tomorrow. No excuse really - we tried to push too many things at the same time and on top of that test and fix Linux build - and we simply overestimated our development capabilities. All is ready but we need to test it thoroughly as always, so the new date is Tuesday 29.08.
As a recompense for the wait - we will also add a highly requested feature to differentiate 2H weapons: cleave in cone area, as a basic weapon characteristics (for x% of main damage). It will stack with whirlwind enchant - this opens quite interesting new tactical options.
Hello,
An update on our development pipeline: The next patch will arrive around 22.08. That is a long time, but this is our biggest patch yet.
We had received MASSIVE feedback in the last two weeks. Thanks a lot for all that! Instead of splitting it into smaller chunks, we decided to put as much as possible into one big update - so we can test everything very thoroughly.
This time we are focusing almost entirely on the things requested by the players. Here is a short list of major things to come:
Technical
<*> Advanced graphic settings (you will be able to customize your graphic options, one by one).
<*> Full screen resolution / dual monitor support (no cursor movement).
<*> Keybindings - whether you play typical point-and-click RPGs or MOBA-style games, you will be able to customize everything as you like.
<*> Quicksave and double-click to Save.
<*> Small thing but incredibly useful for us - added crash dump files to our Report Issue Trello board.
<*> Various graphic optimization - loading times should be significantly shorter.
<*> Elimination of all gameplay bugs that we know of - including random memory leaks.
Gameplay
Void sector / Level 4 - major upgrade and epic conclusion to Book One of the story. If you decide to wake the Shade immediately, well, you are duly warned.
Various 'Quality of Life' features - e.g. DPS statistic already on inventory page, so you can quickly check combination of items.
Various small changes to combat mechanics - e.g. small differentiation of shooting range for range weapons; increased range for melee weapons, melee enemies behaving more as they should.
Crystal Transmute option - so you will be able to test all those powerful enchantments earlier, risking lack of crafting power once you discover Tier 2 Blacksmith upgrade (which will also come earlier).
Increased starting level for champions that join later.
Changing places for building blueprints.
Some more lore books/notes. Stronger personalities for characters
Level progress should now finally track % accurately.
Forgotten Dwarf
Poor Rakhem. He was trying his best, not well enough perhaps - but we honestly thought that being a Dwarf alone is enough to assure that he has a secure place in any adventure. We apparently were wrong, Boron being no. 2 choice for the front-line - so we are sending Rakhem to a special training camp for aspiring champions.
As we get closer to the patch date, we will share more details.
If there is anything missing that is particularly bothering you, please comment below and we will see if perhaps it overlaps with some other changes as well.
Thanks for the feedback, very positive comments overall and for such motivating reviews.
Cheers,
KM
Linux version
Hello Linux users,
We have progressed with the super annoying issue concerning cinematics (where an in-built player in Unity did not handle them well - they either did not play at all or froze randomly).
We have replaced the player and it all seems ok now on our Linux installations - however, it sometimes requires new codecs, depending on Linux version.
We are therefore looking for volunteers that use Linux, who would like to receive steam key and help us test it. The key can be used later for full game as well.
The reason for that is that we cannot simulate all Linux environments (we run out of available PCs in our studio) and we shall not release a version that just MIGHT NOT work well. That is a primary directive that we always try to follow - never release something half-done.
EDIT: thanks to all who submitted their specs and agreed to help us with the tests. We hope to have a date of Linux release very soon.
