Tower Song v1.1 - The Take Control Patch

Hello, Tower runners! It's time for our first major update, addressing balance, user experience and performance issues, plus a host of bug fixes big and small! Read on for more details.

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Major Changes

Control Improvements

Selection functionality is now more intuitive.
Swapping party members, selecting party members in menus, and scrolling through quest logs now behave more consistently in terms of left/right buttons. If you customized your keybindings, you may want to double-check your settings to avoid confusion with the new functionality.

Kiran Balance Updates

Several major updates to Kiran's abilities.
Kiran's ability names now share consistent naming conventions to indicate if they are Physical- or Magic-based abilities. Additionally, his Dying Light ability (now called Manaheart Blade) is much cheaper to cast, and his Foothold mod has been reworked to give Kiran an MP floor of 15, rather than giving him a one-time MP boost at the start of battle. These changes make Kiran slightly more intuitive to use, and give more value to more of his mods.

Campaign Improvements

Several quality of life adjustments to the campaign.
New one-way shortcuts, flames that die when their allies are killed, and a few visual enhancements are just the beginning of improvements we've made to the campaign. Overall, we continue to seek ways to make the campaign smoother for players to experience!

New Save UI

New look and syntax for save files.
The save menu has a new look, which prevents the muddled text from appearing once players got to higher numbers of save slots. In general, it's easier to read, and the save file naming convention makes it more clear which campaign you're in and where.

Equipment

• Elementalist items now cost an additional 100 Dust to craft but can now be reforged back to base materials

Characters

Akeno

• Akeno's skills have been re-sorted in the skill menu such that there is a clear distinction between the skills that build SP and cost SP.
• Mudquake, Mudwall, and Stonewall have been given new icons for better clarity.
• Hard Water reworked: Cleanse all negative states from an ally. If Akeno has Water Spirit, the ally will also receive Blessed Armor. Grant Akeno Water Spirit if he does not already have it.

Ezoan

• A new icon has been added for Ezoan's Technomancer battle command window option.

Kiran

• Several skills have had their names changed to better clarify whether it is a Magic attack or a Physical attack.
• Dying Light renamed to Manaheart Blade; now a Tier 4 mod that replaces Manasoul Blade; MP cost reduced to 15.
• Foothold reworked as a Tier 3 mod: When Kiran casts a spell, his remaining MP will never go below 15
• Indomitable: Now a Tier 4 Skill and a free action
• Mana Strike renamed to Manasoul Blade
• Soulblade renamed to Knight's Strike
• Spell Breaker renamed to Mana Break
• Steel Hurricane: Renamed to Hurricane Strike, and is now a Tier 2 mod that does not replace Mana Storm

Tali

• Tier 1-3 Wand MP penalties reduced. This also ensures Tali can cast Volatile Spray with a full MP bar at Level 3, even when using the wand.

Prologue

• Intro Encounter: Difficulty slightly increased.
• Main Hall Encounter: Difficulty moderately increased.
• Errant Flame: Now automatically destroyed when its allies are defeated; no longer uses Heat Sink on overheated allies.

Chapter 1

• Guhar: Improved overworld map scene
• Emerald Woods: Improved miniboss scene and removed a log from the player's natural path

Chapter 2

• Excavation Site: Mine cart no longer defies physics to make an initial right turn; improved level design
• Shipping: Improved level design

Chapter 3

• Vistham entrances are now more intuitively presented for mouse players

Chapter 4

• The Armin Range entrances are now more intuitively presented for mouse players
• The Armin Range is bypassable on the overworld once Chapter 4 is complete
• Sandwyrm: Will now use Devour even if the stomach is killed.
• Chapter Boss: Phalanx Formation will now target 2 random allies instead of all allies

Chapter 6

• Players can now unlock a one-way shortcut after solving the Bridge crystal puzzle
• Akeno now steps into the empty basin during the Creche pool scene, making it clear the drained pools are traversable.
• Improved the pacing and dialogue clarity of several Fire Tower cut-scenes.
• Implemented a sprite to represent the Tower Song impeding Kiran's progress in the Echo
• When returning to the Fire Tower, Kiran now starts closer to the Echo entrance
• Removed one Source-Linked Flame from the optional encounter in the Fire Tower Source Distribution room.
• Forge Golems: Damage and health increased; Discharge Arsenal and Inferno renamed to better communicate what they do
• Final Boss: Damage and magic increased; Eternal Forge can no longer be evaded; Vision of Contrition's cooldown has been reduced

Side Quests

• Lharif's Doom: The game now autosaves before you approach the boss
• Lharif's Doom: Elemental chambers are now drawn with more distinct flooring

UI/UX

• Adjusted some of the behaviors for selecting characters in the menu, swapping party members, and scrolling up and down in the quest log to better standardize the experience across keyboard and controller players. Note: It is recommended for players to reset their bindings to default or re-bind their desired keys again to ensure consistent and most up-to-date behavior given the internal changes.
• Save file UI has a slightly new look, showing more save slots at once, and with slightly more descriptive names. This also addresses a bug where save slots would render incorrectly if the current save slot was in the double-digits. Older saves may still render incorrectly, but as you continue play, over time it should look correct. To trigger the updated naming convention, simply interact with a campfire. Note that as a result of this change, background images are no longer shown in save slots.
• New animation effects for taunting an enemy and taunting multiple enemies have been chosen for better performance.
• Animations on status effect applications/removal will no longer play if the Battle State Animations option is set to "Off" in the Graphics options
• The Party Swap tutorial now makes it clear you can leave the Fire Tower and describes how swapping works if you do
• The Reforging tutorial now has an icon
• The text display formatting for skill costs have been standardized

Credits

• Icon artist credits for A-Ravlik and Rexard are now attributed to Olekzandr Zahorulko
• Icon artist credits for lightUP is now attributed to Juliano Ferreria de Lima

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Windows taskbar icon for the game was not displaying properly
• Fixed an issue where Porphry's item description was shown for Tali's item
• Fixed a bug where the incorrect icon showed for Ezoan's Techlance and Exosuit states.
• Fixed a bug where Kiran's Spell Breaker's potential max damage was improperly calculated.
• Rings of Greater and Supreme Protection now grant the advertised defense
• Party members will no longer play conversations early in Fort Elledis
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash if Solace used Flanking Fire on a enemy who taunts the party
• Prologue: Certain enemies during the final boss are no longer untargetable with the mouse
• Prologue: Fixed an issue where duplicate dialogue plays when fighting gargoyles on the Turbine
• Prologue: Fixed an issue where players couldn't re-enter the Qadam Market from the town map
• Chapter 1: Fixed an issue where Ezoan would speak to a clone when manipulating his first exosuit
• Kido Highway: Ezoan no longer references a non-existent hat on Hudson's head
• Fixed a bug where a slowdown would happen during a conversation between Hudson and Kiran in Chapter 3
• Fixed a bug where Twin Strikes was not resisted by Blessed Armor
• Solace's portrait now appears if chatting with her in Chapter 5 somewhere other than the Fire Tower entrance
• Barrels in indoor maps now have more intuitive collision with the player
• Armin Range: Rearranged pot that blocked player movement in an unnatural way
• Militia Kitchen: Moved crate that created an invisible barrier
• Qadam: Kiran no longer has knowledge about the Naudillon village if the player has yet to speak to the Naudillons
• Lharif's Doom: The foyer broom no longer clips the player's head
• Lharif's Doom: Removed a ghostly crystal that had improper collision
• Lharif's Doom: Removed a pillow that was getting punctured by the spike floor. Quite unseemly.
• Lharif's Doom: Kiran no longer drops a spoiler. Rude!
• Lharif's Doom: Fixed some punctuation errors in the journal entries.
• Lharif's Doom: The player now appears when Solace is addressing them after solving the second room.
• Lharif's Doom: Players can no longer walk through an active door in the Earth chamber.
• Lharif's Doom: Doors no longer collide with player after disappearing
• Fire Tower: Solace is no longer missing from party followers when first entering the Tower
• Fire Tower: Taking the lift to Tower Control can no longer place players inside of a crystal
• Fire Tower: Kiran can no longer go missing if he's in the Echo when control swaps back to him after defeating the Ond Doula
• Fire Tower: Fixed an issue where the game could enter an improper state if fighting skipped Prologue battles with Kiran
• Fire Tower: Solace no longer drops a spoiler. Gees, girl!
• Fire Tower: Removed miss-timed music cue from final party cut-scene
• Fire Tower: Fixed an issue where you could get Hudson and Fred to join during the final battle by changing loadout