We've been making update posts on our social media, and every once in a while we'll compile them into batches for Steam so we're not clogging up people's news feeds.
Note: all visuals before and during the beta period are works in progress, as polishing is usually the last step to do.
First, let’s talk about the World Map and time limit. In Astral Throne, each encounter had its own turn limit on top of the overworld’s combat encounter limit. You could move freely on the World Map but could only fight 4 battles before moving on.
In Astral Throne II, traversing the World Map is largely the same, but the time limits have been merged: there is now one mega-turn-limit that lasts the entire Act. It’s generous, but it ticks down every round that passes in any combat encounter. You can choose to play many maps quickly, or a few maps slowly, it’s up to you. Maps now also permanently disappear after completion, but shops and their inventories persist.
As the limit ticks down, a shrinking ring wipes encounters off the map, so take care with your routing!
If you’re in a map when the ring passes over it, don’t worry, it won’t hurt, but it will block experience gain and reduce the quality of the items you loot, so it’s probably best to hurry to the next encounter anyways.
As mentioned before, the change in art style really opens the door for more animations, allowing us to really exaggerate stuff like crits. Here's a few as a preview:
One of the main forms of meta-progression in Astral Throne II will be developing the relationships between your teammates over the course of your runs. If two units are deployed together and they are compatible, you’ll grow their bond. Do this enough and you’ll be able to view conversations between them back at camp. Some can even become romantic, if you so choose.
If you want to see these updates as they come, join our Discord!
And if you want to be notified of our Beta release in the upcoming months, Wishlist the game!