Alright, this is our first post-holiday update. It includes the Necrodome which went into beta before the holidays and the fixes and improvements we made last week.
The Necrodome is an endless challenge mode with highscores and leaderboards. You can fight against the enemies you've encountered in the biomes you've conquered. Currently two biomes are open Swamp and Forest.
You'll get the item required for Necrodome reconstruction through a quest or - if you're past that point in game - by talking to one of the Nobles in the Necropolis.
At the moment we're working on finailzing Part 3. If everything goes to plan, it might be in beta by the end of the week!
Here's the change log:
Changed the way affix multipliers are calculated, they no longer give exponential benefits.
Enemies don't target corpse candles (can still be hit with aoe etc)
The game no longer hangs when opening inventory while dying
Better progress info for Necrodome
Horde Info: added dismiss wounded and dismiss all of type buttons
New Music & more diverse music usage
Fixed quests not progressing with the Quest Item in the inventory
Arcane Firewall deals Fire damage now
Added a couple of item affixes
Allow worldmap travel from anywhere if tile cleared and veinpoint activated
Fixed Necrodome reward bug
Changed Necrodome survival achievement from time to waves killed
Enemies eventually aggro further in Necrodome
Blocked player getting stunned
Fixed book of horde compare bug
Added option to not pause and mute game when focus lost
Hiding unit house switch gamepad tooltips when only one house built
Blocked getting 'Party Pooper' and 'I Will Be Back' achievements in necrodome
Not increasing killed/raised/etc game stats in necrodome
Fixed some collider bugs in Necropolis
Fixed tower damage text spawn and adjusted all spawns a bit
Show summoner's affix effect on summon item's description
Unblocked some affix combos
Merchant UI tweak and shuffle when leveling up
Fixed gamepad tooltip overlapping on worldmap
Fixed typo in tutorial
Right/Left Hand -> Main/Off Hand
HUD draw tweaks
Reduced Mummies' damage
Reduced strength of thorns-rune
Freezing monoliths no longer deal constant damage
Freezing monoliths cause units to take additional cold damage from attacks
Runes affecting summoned temporary units as well
Fixed Beast Master spawning poultry in the woods
Hierophants targeting support units
Adjusted hierophant/bard targeting priority
Destroyed buildings throw loot forward
Added construction worker skeleton to current EA block
Improved some texts
mproved unit targeting AI
Fixed issues with units attacking obstacles
Fixed crashing issues
Soul Jars should no longer spawn at unreachable locations"
Crash bug fixes
Happy Holidays: Necrodome Now in Beta!
Version 0.8.2.13 is now in beta - it includes the first version of 💀Necrodome💀! A kind of beta holiday present to you all :) It's work in progress and there's much to be done still, but you should be able to compete on leaderboards already. However, please note that leaderboards will be reset from time to time as the mode develops.
Instructions on how to access the beta branch: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2065810/discussions/0/3720566578371791473/
At the moment the second noble in the city can open the Necrodome for you, so you need to reach that point in game. There may be a proper longer quest for the Necrodome reconstruction at some point too.
It will be interesting what kind of tactics and builds people come up with. There are probably some particular builds which work especially well in the dome. Try it and discuss on Discord or on the forums! Note that our activity will be probably quite low from 22nd Dec until 2nd Jan as we take a holiday break at 10tons.
The goal of the mode is to let players try a different kind of game mode with their horde. However, bear in mind this is not the main mode of Undead Horde 2 so it won't be expanded extensively. We hope to create a fun "test bench" mode for your current horde setup where you can test your build against infinite waves of living and get a high score based on that.
There are some other updates & fixes as well in the beta but we'll get back to those once we move this into default. You can see them in-game already.
As mentioned earlier, we'll be taking the next week off and we'll be back on 2nd Jan. This means during 22 Dec - 1 Jan our responses might be very delayed and there'll be no updates. We're also keeping the Necrodome in beta branch during the holidays as it might still have some bugs we'd like to zap out and we can't get back to that on full power until Jan 2nd.
May the holiday season fill your skull with magic, your ribcage with arcane fire, and your unlife with the clattering of icy bones!
Major Update #1 Opens Part 2 of Campaign
Great news: Part 2 is now open and roughly doubles the available content! That said there's a lot more to come: Parts 3 and 4 for the campaign, endless game mode Necrodome and a challenging NG+ after the completed campaign. Overall Undead Horde 2 will have a good bit more content than the predecessor. We'll also keep listening to community feedback to improve the game overall as we continue preparing Part 3 for opening.
Currently we're working on the Necrodome and we hope to release a beta version this week! Part 3 opening will most likely happen in early January after a short holiday break starting late next week.
Anyways, some highlights from Part 2:
New Units
Introducing the Mummy, the Bard, the Hierophant, the Wolf and the Scorpion.
New Areas
Venture into the Sands of Kook and deeper into the Elven Lands.
New Enemies
Face new enemies like the scorpions lurking in the caves below the desert.
And here's the detailed change list:
Opened up the second part of the campaign and related content
Added Skeleton Bard unit
Added some achievements
Reduced Necromancer starting hitpoints a bit
Restricted portal/veinpoint travel between biomes
Reduced Zombie HP
Increased Zombies' weakness to fire
Weakened Painless Death-talent
Improved Undying Horrors-talent
Fixed unit building upgrade description texts to match actual unit values
Updated skele unit descs
Added missing affix prefix
Town Hall upgrade prices increased
Added empty option to unit statue selector screen
Disabled monsterpedia until player has seen some more enemies
Renamed Frozen Obelisk to Freezing Monolith in quest desc
Fixed player unit type bug
Fixed rune quest getting stuck
Fixed quest item duplication bug
Fixed unit building UI bug
Fixed f1 reporter super-updating game
Fixed key names
Fixed Golas not turning toward target
Fixed profile delete buttons hiding with gamepad
Fixed active talents text draw overflow
Part 2 Now Open in Beta
Part 2 is now open in the beta branch! The Part 2 will take the player deeper into the Winterlands, into the Desert and then again further into the Elven Lands. There are a lot of new units to be unlocked and new enemy types to meet.
How to access beta branch: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2065810/discussions/0/3720566578371791473/
We'll be announcing this as a large update when it moves to default, but we'll keep it as "news" in this beta update. As at least 2.5% of players seem to play the beta branch, so we'll keep announcing when stuff moves into beta.
Here's the change list:
Opened up the second part of the campaign
Added Skeleton Bard unit
Added some achievements
Reduced Necromancer starting hitpoints a bit
Restricted portal/veinpoint travel between biomes
Reduced Zombie HP
Increased Zombies' weakness to fire
Weakened Painless Death-talent
Improved Undying Horrors-talent
Fixed unit building upgrade description texts to match actual unit values
Updated skele unit descs
Added missing affix prefix
Town Hall upgrade prices increased
Added empty option to unit statue selector screen
Disabled monsterpedia until player has seen some more enemies
Renamed Frozen Obelisk to Freezing Monolith in quest desc
Fixed player unit type bug
Fixed rune quest getting stuck
Fixed quest item duplication bug
Fixed unit building UI bug
Fixed f1 reporter super-updating game
Fixed key names
Fixed Golas not turning toward target
Fixed profile delete buttons hiding with gamepad
Fixed active talents text draw overflow"
We're hoping we could move part 2 to default branch later this week and maybe bring something new and exciting into beta. Stay tuned for updates!
Monday Update
We've now moved the first update into default branch so it'll be available for everyone without opting into beta branch. It included all kinds of fixes and changes mostly from community feedback - thanks for those! The details are here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2065810/view/3610228455162964350
We're currently testing the release candidate for Part 2 major update. Here's a list of some new achievements we just entered into Steamworks and they'll be available for completion in the update very soon. Stay tuned!
First Update - 0.7.14
Patch Notes
Our first focus was to do some immediate fixes according to player feedback. Some highllights include improved unit positioning and improved building targeting. We'll keep working on these further, but try these and keep us posted on what you think: The exact feedback helps us pinpoint how to change the unit AI to better respond to player expectations. Since it's Friday we'll enter weekend mode and might not be that active until Monday but keep the feedback coming - we'll get to it as soon as we can.
Here are the patch notes for the first update:
Units keep hitting spawning building if new hostile target is far enough
Added Avoidance priority for player units (Melee > Ranged > Support)
Added item names to merchant screen and updated gfx
Buffed Corpse Candle
Corpse Candles don't respond to go command
Fixed revive wheel responding to 5-key
Fixed item eot bugs
Updated stash gfx
Balanced summon scepters
Elven crystals no longer repair themselves
Fixed discord link
Updated heart item gfx
Added exit confirm dialog
Moved Crystal Mine entrance a bit
Added black backdrop to unknown talent icons
Adjusted pressureplate to not get overexposed when lit
Elven Fire Crystal is now fire-proof
Fixed dialogue not continuing if ctrl pressed
Fixed existing units not upgrading when upgrading unit building and exiting screen from a different unit building
Fixed unit building visual progress upgrade bug
Added possible kobold note removal to quest step
Warding barrier fx changes
Tweaked collectible pick/sell info floaters
Hinting Elven Sanctuary on enter level quest step
Added color-coding to Unit Building Upgrade info
Tweaked pre-restore Necropolis minimap, it looks less crowded now
Text tweaks
Minor level tweaks
What We're Working on
Part 2 Opening
As promised, we'll be moving quickly regarding new content, so this is already in private testing.
If you're really eager to test the next part in the closed test branch, DM "knotto" on 10tons discord channel #undeadhorde-2-general-chat (server is discord.gg/10tons). Please note answering might take a while outside office hours in local Finnish time. This is the most untested branch and for some parts basically work in progress, so backup your saves or use a different save slots. Only for the bravest!
Necrodome
Unlike Undead Horde, this game will have an endless challenge arena and it will be called Necrodome. We'll release the first version in the beta branch as soon as we can so. The you can always face off against endless waves of living while we work on opening the next area. The exact date is still open, but we hope to do that soon.
Here's a sneak peek from the level editor:
We hope to have it in testing in the near future as well.
What's Next
Check out the Early Access Roadmap: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2065810/partnerevents/preview/3390675458878439295
First Update - 0.7.14 (in BETA branch)
❗At the time of writing, this update is still in the beta branch. Beta branch builds have been tested by us, but to a limited extent. Read here on how to access the beta branch: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2065810/discussions/0/3720566578371791473/
Patch Notes
Our first focus was to do some immediate fixes according to player feedback. Some highllights include improved unit positioning and improved building targeting. We'll keep working on these further, but try these and keep us posted on what you think: The exact feedback helps us pinpoint how to change the unit AI to better respond to player expectations. Since it's Friday we'll enter weekend mode and might not be that active until Monday but keep the feedback coming - we'll get to it as soon as we can.
Here are the patch notes for the first update:
Units keep hitting spawning building if new hostile target is far enough
Added Avoidance priority for player units (Melee > Ranged > Support)
Added item names to merchant screen and updated gfx
Buffed Corpse Candle
Corpse Candles don't respond to go command
Fixed revive wheel responding to 5-key
Fixed item eot bugs
Updated stash gfx
Balanced summon scepters
Elven crystals no longer repair themselves
Fixed discord link
Updated heart item gfx
Added exit confirm dialog
Moved Crystal Mine entrance a bit
Added black backdrop to unknown talent icons
Adjusted pressureplate to not get overexposed when lit
Elven Fire Crystal is now fire-proof
Fixed dialogue not continuing if ctrl pressed
Fixed existing units not upgrading when upgrading unit building and exiting screen from a different unit building
Fixed unit building visual progress upgrade bug
Added possible kobold note removal to quest step
Warding barrier fx changes
Tweaked collectible pick/sell info floaters
Hinting Elven Sanctuary on enter level quest step
Added color-coding to Unit Building Upgrade info
Tweaked pre-restore Necropolis minimap, it looks less crowded now
Text tweaks
Minor level tweaks
What We're Working on
Part 2 Opening
As promised, we'll be moving quickly regarding new content, so this is already in private testing.
If you're really eager to test the next part in the closed test branch, DM "knotto" on 10tons discord channel #undeadhorde-2-general-chat (server is discord.gg/10tons). Please note answering might take a while outside office hours in local Finnish time. This is the most untested branch and for some parts basically work in progress, so backup your saves or use a different save slots. Only for the bravest!
Necrodome
Unlike Undead Horde, this game will have an endless challenge arena and it will be called Necrodome. We'll release the first version in the beta branch as soon as we can so. The you can always face off against endless waves of living while we work on opening the next area. The exact date is still open, but we hope to do that soon.
Here's a sneak peek from the level editor:
We hope to have it in testing in the near future as well.
What's Next
Check out the Early Access Roadmap: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2065810/partnerevents/preview/3390675458878439295
Undead Horde 2: Necropolis Launch Stream
We'll be playing the game for a couple of hours as we push the release button today. We'll also answer questions on the chat.
Undead Horde 2: Necropolis Now Available on Early Access
The Undead Horde (2) is marching in! The game is now available on Early Access with a hefty 20% launch discount. At this point there's only a Windows version, but a Mac version will be available at some point. Regarding Linux we think that Proton/Steamplay is mature enough so that we can rely on that for now.
We decided to make the launch discount substantial since we don't want to change the actual base price during the Early Access or after it. However, as the first players need to wait a while for the next piece of content to open, we felt it would be fair to give them a lower price since they're the first necromancers entering the world of Undead Horde 2: Necropolis.
That said, you won't have to wait too long for the new content. We'll try to release the first major update in a beta branch next week. We need to test it there for a while before moving it to default branch, but it'll be available for everyone through the beta branch in any case.
For more info on what's going to happen after the release, check out our roadmap: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2065810/view/3390675458878439295
Undead Horde 2: Necropolis EA Release Date
We have a date when the horde stats pouring into the lands of the living like in the gif above:
December 8th 2022!
In other words: A week from today. We've been first beta testing and then sending keys to streamers and influencers for nearly two months and now we're ready to enter the next phase. Thanks to all the testers and people who made videos, streamed and all that: It made the game a lot better and brought us a lot of visitors and wishlists.
And the development doesn't stop here: During the EA we're looking forward to get your feedback on the forums, on Discord and via the in-game reporting tool - and email works also!
Some Initial Early Access Release features:
3-5 hours of gameplay available now - and more opening up each major update.
Necropolis can be improved, rebuilt and managed
Eight unique player units available
Over a dozen enemy types to discover and vanquish
Countless items and secrets to be found
Explore the Necropolis, The Swamp, The Darklands and enter the Winterlands
If you want to know what happens after the Early Access release, check out the roadmap here.
