French localization, the ability to reveal cloaked enemies, and a ladder reset - these are the headliners of this patch. We also threw some small balance tweaks in the mix, mainly to make poking and siege strategies stronger, and added a few minor fixes and features (Fog of War on the Minimap and first steps towards Custom Mission support).
Season 5
All ranked points have been reset to zero, again, season 5 has started!
Eight players managed to get beyond 1000 points, this season:
Congrats to Arilou, Gent, James, Imari, QQ, Melvinfro, Jakobi, and mocaccino!
Multiplayer Balance/Gameplay Changes
- Commander: After standing still for a short time, any other team's cloaked units and structures in a 3x3 area around the commander will be forced to uncloak for 1s. (Rallying allowed, burrowing resets the timer.) Visualization as seen in the GIF is off by default, but can be turned on in other options.
- Toad: Moves at the same speed on all kinds of terrain; still slowed down by Barbed Wire, Daze etc.
- Pigeon: 4 tiles range (from 3).
- Ferret: 6 DPS (from 5 DPS), 6 tiles vision range (from 5 tiles).
- Chameleon: 32 HP (from 34 HP).
- Badger: Rev up in 5s (from 6s) and rev down in 3s (from 2s).
- Wolf: Buffs units for 10s (from 12s).
- Fox: 12 DPS (from 11 DPS), 25 HP (from 24 HP), 6 tiles vision range (from 5 tiles).
- Barbed Wire: 16 HP (from 18 HP).
- Landmine: Gets triggered at 1 tile distance, again (from 0 tiles = same tile), 16 damage against a single target (from 18), including 2 damage in a 3x3 area (unchanged).
- Machinegun: 28 HP (from 24 HP).
- Artillery: 6 tiles vision range (from 5 tiles).
- Lower max. amount of water on Old Mother Township maps.
Localization
Thanks to The Gentleman, we can add another language to the game: French localization is now available!
Some players also notified me that the game partially handled keyboard inputs in a strange way: Despite using the correct localization in the menus, the game assumed a QWERTY layout as soon as you started playing. That issue is fixed, now. However, you might have to rebind your keys in case you are using an AZERTY layout (for example) with the original key mapping (WASD for movement).
Graphics Options
You can now make the Fog of War visible on your Minimap. It is disabled by default, but you can turn it on in the Graphics Options, where you'll see a checkbox "Fog of War on the Minimap".
Some systems have been heavily slowed down when certain lighting options (especially bloom) were active, allowing them to play only on low quality graphics. These lighting options will from now on only be active in high and ultra settings, so if they caused you any trouble, you can enjoy the lighting and shadows of the medium settings, instead of having to choose low quality.
Fixes
Fragile Wire on Custom Maps: Barbed Wire placed next to decor assigned to a different faction* took way too much damage when touched. Only happened on custom maps, should be fixed, now.
*) Faction-aligned decor is mostly useless, anyway, will no longer occur on new custom maps.
Some (rare) crashes should be fixed, too - just keep telling me if something bad happens!
Modding Features
A couple of new possibilities for modding have been added:
- units can be spawned from bullets (yes, the Toad thrower is now possible)
- added amphibious trait: unit moves at the same speed on all types of terrain
- added revealed status effect: forces units to uncloak and stay uncloaked while it lasts
- build and production time of one tier can now actually differ
- mods can now be loaded automatically for a map (currently needs XML editing in the map file)
- spells (like air strikes) no longer get picked randomly/by CPUs, which didn't know how to handle them, so you can include these in your mods, now
I also started working on Custom Mission support (i.e. Maps with briefings, mods, unit restrictions, fixed teams/spawn positions, starting food...). It's still work in progress, but a first example map using some of these features can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2108645070
(Not saying the decks are balanced, though - this is just a test & demonstration.)
More such maps and features will be added. Tell me if there are any specific special rules and objectives you would like to see in Custom Missions in the future, and I'll see what I can do!
Community News
We've had a couple of events since the last update, first of all the TnT Championship 2020.1 - a league with three divisions (beginner, intermediate, premier) and over 50 participants. Well played, everyone!
Since the Championship has been casted by different streamers over several weeks, we do not have a complete collection of all the matches, but here are most of the (near) final games.
There will probably be a second installment of the Championship in autumn.
We also had a continuation of Gent's famous series of tournaments with special rules, this time:
The 21 Clues!
All participants could gather and exchange information that helped them pick their targets in four challenges: smuggling contraband (Longcoats), raiding meat hoarders (Commonfolk), catching the assassin (KSR) or preparing the perfect feast, by cooking an enemy with a special "recipe" (Civilized). After catching the assassin and raiding the most meat, Arilou won over the three other finalists: Melvinfro, Mishi (best cooking), and Cyanide Trick (best smuggling).
The finals have been casted by Delthius and JetEriksen on ToothAndTailTV.
Delthius also recently celebrated the 100th Episode of his replay casting show The Feast (on ToothAndTailTV, as well) with a wacky tournament, that allowed only Fox, Turret and Artillery Cannon in each player's deck - and the winner of this crazy format was: The Gentleman!
Our most recent tournament, the 2v2's Bizarre Adventure, took place last Saturday. Each team consisted of one experienced and one learning player, and the experienced player had to play with one of several pre-defined "bad decks", so they had to rely on their learning team mate.
The almost 5h tournament has been casted by Delthius, with lots of otherwise rare genius strategies and hilarious moments.
Congrats to Wyld kin and Big Pimpintosh for winning this 4th season of the 2v2's Bizarre Adventure!
The next tournament is going to be Vyeshal Kyawlnez, a 1v1 tournament played on custom maps. It will start the coming weekend, June 27th, and this time you can pick your own dates for playing the matches (one per week).
For more information, signup etc., join the Vyeshal Kyawlnez Discord server!
The approved maps for the tournament can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1597066158
Salut et bonne bataille !
EELuminatus