Generals!
OH BOY do we have an update for you!
After extensive testing with the team here at The Tea Division, gathering feedback and holding experiments with our AMAZING community, with a host of other contributing factors, we are releasing a momentous update, taking a solid step forward in both development and game evolution.
The last few months have certainly been hectic, with our preparation for PAX Aus 2025 and extensive game changes/additions, but the team is proud and excited to release this phenomenal update.
It's quite a list...so buckle up! The details are as follows:
A significant amount of work has gone into re-evaluating mechanics, Gold, Stats, and various other in-game elements, with an intention to make Actions more appealing by adding value and highlighting their effects, incentivising players to utilise their benefits.
Armor changes
Armor now has durability, where each point of Armor will grant 8 durability which depletes as it blocks damage. As Durability lowers, the effective Armor value will decrease. (Durability is restored at the Start of each Skirmish)
Poison changes
Every stack of Poison will continue to cause 1 damage per turn. However, application of successive stacks of Poison has a diminishing chance of application.
New Rarity
Uncommon rarity has been introduced, with some Units and Actions falling into this category, providing more variation into Unit/Action Squad generation. (The Uncommon rarity is denoted by the rarity highlighted in Green.)
Gold now increases at the Barracks over each Skirmish
Gold costs for Units and Actions have been reviewed/updated
High value VP Zones will not appear earlier to mitigate early game swings
Most permanent buffs and debuffs have been made asymmetrical, boosting or reducing either Attack or Health rather than both
New Zone Modifiers and tweaks to some existing ones
Extensive balancing for Actions and Units (including aspects such as Attack power, HP, Gold cost, cooldown, ability Charges, and other abilities)
HOT ADDITION: Purchasing certain (indicated) Actions at the Barracks will now keep players in the Barracks, enabling another purchase before their next Skirmish!
Some tweaks have been made to the Director, giving more focus/visibility to critical events/triggers that were potentially missed earlier
Unnecessary camera zoom/movement has been addressed, with the added feature of limiting the zoom capacity of the Director via the game settings
Tooltips have been revamped with the introduction of Keywords, streamlining player comprehension of the various abilities in the game.
Tooltips expand Keywords to give players full visibility on Unit and Action capabilities, giving players more agency over game choices and strategy
Notably, the Glossary has been updated, outlining Keyword descriptions across Units, Actions, Zone Modifiers, etc.
By popular demand, a Tutorial has been added to the game, and 'yours truly' has the honor of guiding players on their journey to being Generals. You can bet there's more to come on this, with prospective plans to iterate and extend the Tutorial content in the future
Notable: Extra Squad slot with the timer being reduced for Squad rerolls!
Possessed and Summon Units now have a fixed palette, reflected in the game log by the same color
This further clarifies their inability to retain Permanent buffs/debuffs
Art update for Actions and VFX for specific Units and Actions
Audio fade off rebalanced to be uniform regardless of map size
On screen hints can be disabled in options
Players waiting for MP game indicator (which can be disabled in the Options menu)
Replay fixes! (Old replays will be invalidated and fail to load…sorry!)
Crash and exception fixes
The team is ever grateful for the support from our fantastic community, and looking forward to continuing this journey.
Until next time, keep smiling and keep on skirmishing!
Cheers!
Tinbeard