Imagine you could dive into the mind of anyone you know – what would you see through their eyes? Would the world be different? Could you walk a mile in their shoes? Now you can answer these questions and more via the vastly-improved Possession spell! Assume the identity of one of your minions and see the world in a whole new way. Literally.
Possession is a really cool feature very much unique to this genre, and one that we’ve always wanted to do much more with. The scope for the feature is incredible, and there are many ways we could explore the mechanics behind it.
Sadly for the longest time this feature has gone neglected, barely seeing changes since release except some minor improvements all the way back in Patch 1.1. But in Patch 1.6 we’re revisiting it, and breathing some new immersive life into this unique first-person view.
Angry Augres see the world in red.
Unfortunately we’re not going to be able to take it all the way into a huge game changer, but we’re definitely making some significant improvements.
Unbelievable Sights, Indescribable Feelings
One of the Possession features most heavily requested by our valued community is a much more immersive experience – they want to truly feel like they’re seeing the world through the eyes of their minions, and what unique twists that would put on their perceptions.
Well we’re not one to duck away from a challenge! We’ve spent weeks meticulously reviewing and redesigning each creature’s vision – you can see the results for yourself:
Crackpot vision is quite the experience – comparable only to ingesting Whaleshrooms
This has been a really fun experience for us. We love the way these new effects breathe much more personality into the creatures; whether that be the frosted-over vision of the Frost Weaver, the insectoid perceptions of the Skarg, the scent-enhanced Bafu, or just the helmeted Juggernaut, these simple tricks have really brought Possession to life! (And you thought VR was nauseating.)
Insect-o-vision courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Skarg
Beyond the Eyes – User Experience Improvements
There’s more than just fancy new vision though – we’ve also made improvements to the Possession experience, mostly focussed on providing better feedback in response to your actions.
For example, upon making an attack you’ll see additional feedback on the action, as well as witnessing a satisfying flash upon landing a blow on your adversary. Similarly, performing a heal on an ally will also deliver a flash to show that your spell has hit home.
Flashing has never been so much fun
We’ve also overhauled the balance of the spell itself, so if you’ve ever wanted to be the general leading from the front then look no further! Possession now provides a buff to the creature you’re controlling, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage taken, whilst also granting bonus experience.
Choose your Door
We’re also giving the much overlooked Possession Door a quick makeover with some swanky new textures as well as a couple of new features.
You shall not pass! Unless you’re an ethereal consciousness possessing a lesser being
For those of you who don’t know the Possession Door is a special door placeable in the Map Editor which only allows possessed units to pass. This lets the map creator develop special Possession-only areas.
In addition to that function the Possession Door can now lock a player into Possession until they die or pass through another Possession Door, further enhancing the door’s use as a special gameplay modifier.
Even more exciting is the ability for these doors to now denote an area that cannot be seen from RTS Mode, meaning the only way to see what lies beyond is to jump down the rabbit hole yourself. We’re going to be using these new features to great effect in My Pet Dungeon and we expect map makers to find some creative uses for them as well.
What’ve they got in there, the Chunder King?
That about covers our second preview, but there’s still more to come! Drop by on Tuesday to get your next whiff of appetising content, coming as part of Patch 1.6 and the My Pet Dungeon DLC!
Imagine you could dive into the mind of anyone you know – what would you see through their eyes? Would the world be different? Could you walk a mile in their shoes? Now you can answer these questions and more via the vastly-improved Possession spell! Assume the identity of one of your minions and see the world in a whole new way. Literally.
Possession is a really cool feature very much unique to this genre, and one that we’ve always wanted to do much more with. The scope for the feature is incredible, and there are many ways we could explore the mechanics behind it.
Sadly for the longest time this feature has gone neglected, barely seeing changes since release except some minor improvements all the way back in Patch 1.1. But in Patch 1.6 we’re revisiting it, and breathing some new immersive life into this unique first-person view.
Angry Augres see the world in red.
Unfortunately we’re not going to be able to take it all the way into a huge game changer, but we’re definitely making some significant improvements.
Unbelievable Sights, Indescribable Feelings
One of the Possession features most heavily requested by our valued community is a much more immersive experience – they want to truly feel like they’re seeing the world through the eyes of their minions, and what unique twists that would put on their perceptions.
Well we’re not one to duck away from a challenge! We’ve spent weeks meticulously reviewing and redesigning each creature’s vision – you can see the results for yourself:
Crackpot vision is quite the experience – comparable only to ingesting Whaleshrooms
This has been a really fun experience for us. We love the way these new effects breathe much more personality into the creatures; whether that be the frosted-over vision of the Frost Weaver, the insectoid perceptions of the Skarg, the scent-enhanced Bafu, or just the helmeted Juggernaut, these simple tricks have really brought Possession to life! (And you thought VR was nauseating.)
Insect-o-vision courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Skarg
Beyond the Eyes – User Experience Improvements
There’s more than just fancy new vision though – we’ve also made improvements to the Possession experience, mostly focussed on providing better feedback in response to your actions.
For example, upon making an attack you’ll see additional feedback on the action, as well as witnessing a satisfying flash upon landing a blow on your adversary. Similarly, performing a heal on an ally will also deliver a flash to show that your spell has hit home.
Flashing has never been so much fun
We’ve also overhauled the balance of the spell itself, so if you’ve ever wanted to be the general leading from the front then look no further! Possession now provides a buff to the creature you’re controlling, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage taken, whilst also granting bonus experience.
Choose your Door
We’re also giving the much overlooked Possession Door a quick makeover with some swanky new textures as well as a couple of new features.
You shall not pass! Unless you’re an ethereal consciousness possessing a lesser being
For those of you who don’t know the Possession Door is a special door placeable in the Map Editor which only allows possessed units to pass. This lets the map creator develop special Possession-only areas.
In addition to that function the Possession Door can now lock a player into Possession until they die or pass through another Possession Door, further enhancing the door’s use as a special gameplay modifier.
Even more exciting is the ability for these doors to now denote an area that cannot be seen from RTS Mode, meaning the only way to see what lies beyond is to jump down the rabbit hole yourself. We’re going to be using these new features to great effect in My Pet Dungeon and we expect map makers to find some creative uses for them as well.
What’ve they got in there, the Chunder King?
That about covers our second preview, but there’s still more to come! Drop by on Tuesday to get your next whiff of appetising content, coming as part of Patch 1.6 and the My Pet Dungeon DLC!
The drums of war are beating in the distance, something stirs in the darkness and the realm of Kairos knows not what approaches from the swirling mass of the Aether. But before the grandest of schemes can be realised there is time for reflection, for a brief escape from the machinations of the mad god.
In this moment of calm there is no better time to engage in an Underlord’s most favoured activities - building dungeons and toying with mortals, friend and foe alike! To that end we’d like to introduce My Pet Dungeon!
Alongside Patch 1.6 we’ll be releasing a new paid DLC by the name of My Pet Dungeon, something diehard Dungeon Management fans will no doubt recognise and one of the things that has long been requested by our community.
Like the Crucible this DLC will include an all-new game mode, but this time focussed on building and exploring in an enhanced sandbox format. Think something similar to the Home Realm but on steroids and with a whole new batch of toys to play with!
We know you’ve always wanted your own petting zoo
We’re designing an all-new 8-mission sandbox campaign where each level encourages you to build and explore to your Core’s content, at a more relaxed pace than seen in other modes. Your goal will be to simply score a number of points through building and managing your dungeon, slaying enemies and completing various bonus objectives, to progress to the next level.
Here’s a nearly-complete rundown of all the features. We’ve excluded one or two though - we have to keep something for the coming weeks!
New My Pet Dungeon Campaign - 8 Levels geared towards exploration, construction and discovery
Unique Scoring System - Build your dungeon and earn points to progress to the next level
Bonus Objectives - Each level features bonus objectives which award extra points in return for completing tasks, such as levelling up your units
Room Unlock System - Rooms in these levels unlock sequentially, freeing your research up for other Aspects and pacing your exploration and expansion
Toybox - A special room that appears only in My Pet Dungeon levels and allows you to pick up and drop enemy units directly into your dungeon
Wave Spawning - Spawn waves of enemy units at a combat Level of your choosing via new controls, to test out your creations
Three Unlockable Themes - Three classic Empire Dungeon Themes finally unlockable
Two Unannounced Features - Check back Next Tuesday & Friday for more!
Most importantly: although this is paid DLC we’re aiming for a very competitive price point the same as the Heart of Gold expansion (£5.59, $7.99, €7.99). What’s more, we’ll be giving away the first two levels entirely for free so you can try before you buy, as a continuing thank you to all our fans.
Now that the big announcement is out of the way we’d like to take a moment to discuss our direction with this next major update to WFTO.
The Philosophy of My Pet Dungeon & Patch 1.6
When we announced changes to our original plans for Patch 1.6 we were expecting some backlash, since the second expansion and the Skirmish AI update were now coming later in 2017 or even early 2018. We were pleasantly surprised and emboldened by your response with many of you saying you’re happy to see even more going into the game than originally planned.
The success of Patch 1.5 and Crucible has given us an opportunity to work on some things that both we and many of our fans have always wanted to see in the game, but that we didn’t have the time to develop before.
My Pet Dungeon is a mode that has been requested by the community since the earliest days of WFTO’s development, being a much loved feature in one of our biggest inspirations: Dungeon Keeper 2. We felt that with the extra time available to us we now had the perfect opportunity to slot this in. We’re intending it to be a mode where the player can kick back and relax - after all Crucible was quite intense, and with the AI update we expect Expansion 2 will also be pretty hectic. Think of this as the calm before the storm.
With that said My Pet Dungeon is certainly not being developed in isolation. There’s a veritable horde of extra features, optimisations and improvements that permeate the foundations of Patch 1.6, which again we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to do.
Moreover all the work we’re putting in will help ensure that the final update and expansion, now known as Patch 2.0, will be the most complete experience of WFTO possible.
New Terrain: Obsidian
Obsidian is a new kind of terrain coming in Patch 1.6, which looks strikingly like Impenetrable Rock. In truth it is extremely hard volcanic rock which can only be destroyed by detonating nearby Brimstone. This means we can use it to create one-way passages, since the player can only approach the Obsidian from the Brimstone side - we’ll be making full use of this in My Pet Dungeon.
Obsidian will also be placeable via the Map Editor, so you can enrich your own creations!
More obstinate than Brimstone? That’s Obsidian!
We look forward to sharing more on Patch 1.6 with you over the next two weeks before its release on the 3rd of April! And we can’t wait to start sharing the really exciting things that are coming after that. But too much of a good thing, Underlord!
The drums of war are beating in the distance, something stirs in the darkness and the realm of Kairos knows not what approaches from the swirling mass of the Aether. But before the grandest of schemes can be realised there is time for reflection, for a brief escape from the machinations of the mad god.
In this moment of calm there is no better time to engage in an Underlord’s most favoured activities - building dungeons and toying with mortals, friend and foe alike! To that end we’d like to introduce My Pet Dungeon!
Alongside Patch 1.6 we’ll be releasing a new paid DLC by the name of My Pet Dungeon, something diehard Dungeon Management fans will no doubt recognise and one of the things that has long been requested by our community.
Like the Crucible this DLC will include an all-new game mode, but this time focussed on building and exploring in an enhanced sandbox format. Think something similar to the Home Realm but on steroids and with a whole new batch of toys to play with!
We know you’ve always wanted your own petting zoo
We’re designing an all-new 8-mission sandbox campaign where each level encourages you to build and explore to your Core’s content, at a more relaxed pace than seen in other modes. Your goal will be to simply score a number of points through building and managing your dungeon, slaying enemies and completing various bonus objectives, to progress to the next level.
Here’s a nearly-complete rundown of all the features. We’ve excluded one or two though - we have to keep something for the coming weeks!
New My Pet Dungeon Campaign - 8 Levels geared towards exploration, construction and discovery
Unique Scoring System - Build your dungeon and earn points to progress to the next level
Bonus Objectives - Each level features bonus objectives which award extra points in return for completing tasks, such as levelling up your units
Room Unlock System - Rooms in these levels unlock sequentially, freeing your research up for other Aspects and pacing your exploration and expansion
Toybox - A special room that appears only in My Pet Dungeon levels and allows you to pick up and drop enemy units directly into your dungeon
Wave Spawning - Spawn waves of enemy units at a combat Level of your choosing via new controls, to test out your creations
Three Unlockable Themes - Three classic Empire Dungeon Themes finally unlockable
Two Unannounced Features - Check back Next Tuesday & Friday for more!
Most importantly: although this is paid DLC we’re aiming for a very competitive price point the same as the Heart of Gold expansion (£5.59, $7.99, €7.99). What’s more, we’ll be giving away the first two levels entirely for free so you can try before you buy, as a continuing thank you to all our fans.
Now that the big announcement is out of the way we’d like to take a moment to discuss our direction with this next major update to WFTO.
The Philosophy of My Pet Dungeon & Patch 1.6
When we announced changes to our original plans for Patch 1.6 we were expecting some backlash, since the second expansion and the Skirmish AI update were now coming later in 2017 or even early 2018. We were pleasantly surprised and emboldened by your response with many of you saying you’re happy to see even more going into the game than originally planned.
The success of Patch 1.5 and Crucible has given us an opportunity to work on some things that both we and many of our fans have always wanted to see in the game, but that we didn’t have the time to develop before.
My Pet Dungeon is a mode that has been requested by the community since the earliest days of WFTO’s development, being a much loved feature in one of our biggest inspirations: Dungeon Keeper 2. We felt that with the extra time available to us we now had the perfect opportunity to slot this in. We’re intending it to be a mode where the player can kick back and relax - after all Crucible was quite intense, and with the AI update we expect Expansion 2 will also be pretty hectic. Think of this as the calm before the storm.
With that said My Pet Dungeon is certainly not being developed in isolation. There’s a veritable horde of extra features, optimisations and improvements that permeate the foundations of Patch 1.6, which again we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to do.
Moreover all the work we’re putting in will help ensure that the final update and expansion, now known as Patch 2.0, will be the most complete experience of WFTO possible.
New Terrain: Obsidian
Obsidian is a new kind of terrain coming in Patch 1.6, which looks strikingly like Impenetrable Rock. In truth it is extremely hard volcanic rock which can only be destroyed by detonating nearby Brimstone. This means we can use it to create one-way passages, since the player can only approach the Obsidian from the Brimstone side - we’ll be making full use of this in My Pet Dungeon.
Obsidian will also be placeable via the Map Editor, so you can enrich your own creations!
More obstinate than Brimstone? That’s Obsidian!
We look forward to sharing more on Patch 1.6 with you over the next two weeks before its release on the 3rd of April! And we can’t wait to start sharing the really exciting things that are coming after that. But too much of a good thing, Underlord!
The eternal work continues unabated within the foundries at Brightrock Games! The hammering of steel and the sound of arcane machines can be heard beyond the doors as our Augres and Cultists mould the shape of things to come.
Speaking of which, in addition to unleashing Patch 1.5.2 on you today we’re also announcing a change to our previously revealed plans for War for the Overworld. So pull up a pew and let’s delve into the changes both present and future!
The Future of WFTO
In November, slightly before the release of Patch 1.5, we announced our plans for the endgame of WFTO. We also gave you a timeline for our final expansion, as well as the next and final major patch.
As we’ve often said in the past the nature of videogame development is fluid - circumstances change and so inevitably plans change. We’re happy to say that, thanks in part to the success of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible, we’re looking to develop more content over 2017 than originally intended.
This changes our original timeline in the following ways:
New content will be introduced throughout the year, including an all-new oft-requested game mode in the first half of the year
The next expansion is no longer releasing in Q1-Q2 but much later in the year, or even early next year - overall quality will be higher
The Skirmish AI update will now release before the next expansion
Much more content overall will be produced for WFTO than originally intended; we’re working on a few features we always wanted to do but couldn’t fit in before. Unfortunately we’re not quite ready to share all the details with you yet - as always we want to ensure we’re confident in all the new features before we start building hopes. But we will certainly be sharing more news with you in the coming months.
Upcoming Crucible Leaderboard Reset
Since the Crucible launched we’ve seen a number of you asking if we plan to reset the leaderboards in the event that exploits are discovered, or clear cheating is occurring on the board. This is an issue we’ve been considering for some time and not one with an easy answer.
For the most part we’re happy with a number of strategies that are seeing use in Crucible mode and we’re pleased to witness some neglected Aspects supporting these strategies. In a few cases we’ve seen some clever use of game mechanics that even we did not expect and we’re usually happy to let these continue.
However in some cases there are times where an Aspect can be used to completely break the mode, such as the “Prison and Arena” exploit fixed in this patch. These are issues we want to address as soon as possible to help maintain the balance and intended play of the Crucible.
We have decided not to reset the leaderboard for this patch as we don’t wish to have legitimate scores removed due to a small number of exploitative scores. However we are planning a leaderboard reset in the future, namely with Patch 1.6. This patch is likely to see some major balance changes that will ultimately change how the game is played and how effective some strategies are. To maintain a fair playing field on the leaderboard we plan to reset it at this time due to the scope of the incoming changes. We may also reset the leaderboard to coincide with other major patches with balance changes.
Patch 1.5.2 Release Notes
Gameplay Changes
Potions
Quick Freeze
Now creates a patch of frost when it expires, preventing further Quick Freeze potions from being used in that area for a short time
Level Changes
War for the Overworld
Level 3
Improved the robustness of several scripts in this level to prevent players from becoming stuck at certain objectives, specifically placing the first Blade Lotus
Heart of Gold
Level 4
Small improvements to the ending sequence, making it easier to trigger the final cutscene
UI Changes
Players will now be informed if their Steam Cloud storage is full when attempting to save games or maps - in the event that Steam Cloud storage is full the process will complete locally
Map Editor Changes
Added an edit button to the Finished maps menu which will open the selected map in the editor
Crucible Changes
Improvements to the Earthquake feature’s detection of path blocking via Prison and Arena tiles, which should address a serious exploit
AI Improvements
Fixed a rare case where units would endlessly run into a closed enemy door without attacking it
Made a number of improvements to Worker AI to prevent them looping in and out of combat if they have no specific tasks to perform
Cultists are now able to attack doors
Threat map now immediately updates when a defence is built and takes into account the DPS of a defence
Visual Improvements
Performed a pass on and added new VFX for a number of Survival units
Miscellaneous Changes
Improvements to corrupt save handling so that the loading process fails more gracefully, preventing an issue where it would be impossible to load other levels after attempting to load a corrupted save file
Bug Fixes
Units
The Duke and Sir Roussimoff should now correctly receive their wages
Necromancers will no longer try to raise Ghouls from destroyed Empire gateways, preventing an endless loop of abject failure
Possessed Matriarchs can now move as intended after using their Crusade ability
Map Editor
Crucible maps can no longer be imported as they are not supported by the Map Editor
Fixed an issue where importing a map and reducing the number of factions on it would cause issues at publishing
Fixed an issue where the Artefact of Sin was not placeable in the Map Editor
Levels
Fixed an issue where pre-placed props on Level 12 were rotated 90 degrees into the ground
The vault door in Heart of Gold Level 4 can no longer be destroyed by normal units
Fixed an issue in Level 10 where revealing the Inhibitor on the west side of the map could cause all units on the west side to engage your forces immediately
Fixed a long-standing issue in Level 5 where some units could be assigned an Empire patrol path which would appear on their tooltips as “activity: other”
UI
Fixed a localisation error where the Spanish and Polish translations for community translation advice were switched
Minor text corrections for some Possession ability tooltips
Changing the visibility state of unit shields via the hotkey will now correctly reflect the state change in the menu
Increased the height of the unit shields for Wooden Doors and Portcullises for increased visibility
Visual
Fixed a long-standing visual issue where some tile tops would have visible seams between tiles
Artefacts will no longer show a box highlighted beneath them when hovered with the Hand of Evil
Fixed an issue with the walk animation of the Duke
Fixed the highlighting issues with the Kasita theme Dungeon Core
Fixed an issue where the Fog of War could become incorrectly revealed on specific maps
Fixed an issue with the torture corruption VFX that caused it too look incredibly garish
Small corrections to the Arcane Chunder Nova ability animation and VFX
Multiplayer
Map names will correctly update for clients searching for a game in the lobby if the map is changed by the host after the client started searching for a game
Fixed an issue where clients could not load a multiplayer game immediately after playing a Crucible match
Multiplayer lobbies will once again correctly close if the host disconnects Closing a slot that contains a hard AI will now correctly be reflected on clients’ screens
That’s all for now Underlord - keep your eyes peeled for more announcements in the coming months!
The eternal work continues unabated within the foundries at Brightrock Games! The hammering of steel and the sound of arcane machines can be heard beyond the doors as our Augres and Cultists mould the shape of things to come.
Speaking of which, in addition to unleashing Patch 1.5.2 on you today we’re also announcing a change to our previously revealed plans for War for the Overworld. So pull up a pew and let’s delve into the changes both present and future!
The Future of WFTO
In November, slightly before the release of Patch 1.5, we announced our plans for the endgame of WFTO. We also gave you a timeline for our final expansion, as well as the next and final major patch.
As we’ve often said in the past the nature of videogame development is fluid - circumstances change and so inevitably plans change. We’re happy to say that, thanks in part to the success of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible, we’re looking to develop more content over 2017 than originally intended.
This changes our original timeline in the following ways:
New content will be introduced throughout the year, including an all-new oft-requested game mode in the first half of the year
The next expansion is no longer releasing in Q1-Q2 but much later in the year, or even early next year - overall quality will be higher
The Skirmish AI update will now release before the next expansion
Much more content overall will be produced for WFTO than originally intended; we’re working on a few features we always wanted to do but couldn’t fit in before. Unfortunately we’re not quite ready to share all the details with you yet - as always we want to ensure we’re confident in all the new features before we start building hopes. But we will certainly be sharing more news with you in the coming months.
Upcoming Crucible Leaderboard Reset
Since the Crucible launched we’ve seen a number of you asking if we plan to reset the leaderboards in the event that exploits are discovered, or clear cheating is occurring on the board. This is an issue we’ve been considering for some time and not one with an easy answer.
For the most part we’re happy with a number of strategies that are seeing use in Crucible mode and we’re pleased to witness some neglected Aspects supporting these strategies. In a few cases we’ve seen some clever use of game mechanics that even we did not expect and we’re usually happy to let these continue.
However in some cases there are times where an Aspect can be used to completely break the mode, such as the “Prison and Arena” exploit fixed in this patch. These are issues we want to address as soon as possible to help maintain the balance and intended play of the Crucible.
We have decided not to reset the leaderboard for this patch as we don’t wish to have legitimate scores removed due to a small number of exploitative scores. However we are planning a leaderboard reset in the future, namely with Patch 1.6. This patch is likely to see some major balance changes that will ultimately change how the game is played and how effective some strategies are. To maintain a fair playing field on the leaderboard we plan to reset it at this time due to the scope of the incoming changes. We may also reset the leaderboard to coincide with other major patches with balance changes.
Patch 1.5.2 Release Notes
Gameplay Changes
Potions
Quick Freeze
Now creates a patch of frost when it expires, preventing further Quick Freeze potions from being used in that area for a short time
Level Changes
War for the Overworld
Level 3
Improved the robustness of several scripts in this level to prevent players from becoming stuck at certain objectives, specifically placing the first Blade Lotus
Heart of Gold
Level 4
Small improvements to the ending sequence, making it easier to trigger the final cutscene
UI Changes
Players will now be informed if their Steam Cloud storage is full when attempting to save games or maps - in the event that Steam Cloud storage is full the process will complete locally
Map Editor Changes
Added an edit button to the Finished maps menu which will open the selected map in the editor
Crucible Changes
Improvements to the Earthquake feature’s detection of path blocking via Prison and Arena tiles, which should address a serious exploit
AI Improvements
Fixed a rare case where units would endlessly run into a closed enemy door without attacking it
Made a number of improvements to Worker AI to prevent them looping in and out of combat if they have no specific tasks to perform
Cultists are now able to attack doors
Threat map now immediately updates when a defence is built and takes into account the DPS of a defence
Visual Improvements
Performed a pass on and added new VFX for a number of Survival units
Miscellaneous Changes
Improvements to corrupt save handling so that the loading process fails more gracefully, preventing an issue where it would be impossible to load other levels after attempting to load a corrupted save file
Bug Fixes
Units
The Duke and Sir Roussimoff should now correctly receive their wages
Necromancers will no longer try to raise Ghouls from destroyed Empire gateways, preventing an endless loop of abject failure
Possessed Matriarchs can now move as intended after using their Crusade ability
Map Editor
Crucible maps can no longer be imported as they are not supported by the Map Editor
Fixed an issue where importing a map and reducing the number of factions on it would cause issues at publishing
Fixed an issue where the Artefact of Sin was not placeable in the Map Editor
Levels
Fixed an issue where pre-placed props on Level 12 were rotated 90 degrees into the ground
The vault door in Heart of Gold Level 4 can no longer be destroyed by normal units
Fixed an issue in Level 10 where revealing the Inhibitor on the west side of the map could cause all units on the west side to engage your forces immediately
Fixed a long-standing issue in Level 5 where some units could be assigned an Empire patrol path which would appear on their tooltips as “activity: other”
UI
Fixed a localisation error where the Spanish and Polish translations for community translation advice were switched
Minor text corrections for some Possession ability tooltips
Changing the visibility state of unit shields via the hotkey will now correctly reflect the state change in the menu
Increased the height of the unit shields for Wooden Doors and Portcullises for increased visibility
Visual
Fixed a long-standing visual issue where some tile tops would have visible seams between tiles
Artefacts will no longer show a box highlighted beneath them when hovered with the Hand of Evil
Fixed an issue with the walk animation of the Duke
Fixed the highlighting issues with the Kasita theme Dungeon Core
Fixed an issue where the Fog of War could become incorrectly revealed on specific maps
Fixed an issue with the torture corruption VFX that caused it too look incredibly garish
Small corrections to the Arcane Chunder Nova ability animation and VFX
Multiplayer
Map names will correctly update for clients searching for a game in the lobby if the map is changed by the host after the client started searching for a game
Fixed an issue where clients could not load a multiplayer game immediately after playing a Crucible match
Multiplayer lobbies will once again correctly close if the host disconnects Closing a slot that contains a hard AI will now correctly be reflected on clients’ screens
That’s all for now Underlord - keep your eyes peeled for more announcements in the coming months!
As we step out of the darkest times that will forever be remembered as the year 2016 we look forward to the bright future that is 2017. We’re already hard at work on our new year’s resolutions to bring you even more quality content for War for the Overworld and hopefully to make great strides on our next title.
We’re pleased to say that the release of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible DLC has gone down incredibly well and we’re looking forward to what your response will be to the exciting new content we have planned! We can’t share any details yet but as soon as we can we’ll be posting up a storm, so keep your eyes peeled.
DRM-Free Build Update coming soon and GOG
What we can share however is that we have just unleashed Patch 1.5.1, and with it we’re finally updating the DRM-Free build to include all the wonderful content that we’ve added since Heart of Gold (with the same usual restrictions). You'll be able to get your grubby mitts on it next week!
Even the Crucible is stopping by, so if you can’t stand those pesky DRM services at the very least you’ll be getting some mass slaughter in Mendechaus’ terrifying Crucible challenge.
We also have some cautiously good news for those interested in a GOG release. We’ve been talking with the chaps over at GOG.com and we’re hoping to potentially release a “complete” edition after all upcoming features are done. More on that as it develops.
Patch 1.5.1 Release Notes
Anyway, we’re sure you’re eager to hear what’s changed in Patch 1.5.1. Feature-wise we’re a little light on the ground but that’s because we’re hard at work on much bigger things for WFTO. We’re sure you’ll certainly appreciate all the fixes and minor changes we’ve made though!
Gameplay Changes
Units
Workers
Can now collect items from unclaimed ground
Environment
Artefact of Sin
Now grants the user 1 Sin (down from 3)
Artefact of Greater Sin (New)
Grants the user 3 Sins
Community Translation
Added a number of missing translation keys including map names and descriptions for Skirmish and Sandbox modes
Map Editor
Disabled “quadrant pivot” mirror tools on non-square maps as they do not work
Crucible
Gateways are now numbered in a more intuitive manner
Mutators
Mutator mode in the lobby is now coloured based on its state:
Mode Default - White
Map Default - Yellow
Custom - Orange
Veins of Evil
Unavailable Aspects now grant access to the next tier of Aspects as if they had been researched, to prevent players becoming trapped in the Veins
UI
Increased text size in some areas of the UI such as the debrief screen and Achievements menu
Added a message when changing maps with custom mutators, warning that they won’t carry over to the new map unless saved as a preset
Bug Fixes
Crashes
Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a custom map
Fixed a number of exceptions that could lead to very rare crashes
Units
Dwarven Arcanists no longer punch books to learn their secrets (but Arcane Chunders still learn via cranial impact)
Fixed an issue where the Kasita and Silver Kasita Workers had incorrect Possession camera positions
The Democorn now has fancy ability icons as intended
Extremely powerful units such as Titans will no longer live even after their owner has died
Defences
Blueprints for Midas Doors will correctly take damage rather than draining your gold reserves
Blueprints for Glacial Doors will no longer create Permafrost blocks upon receiving their first construction part
It is no longer possible to attack blueprints with no parts by rallying units on top of them
Rooms
Fixed a collision issue in the Slaughterpen that would cause Workers to get stuck
Environment
Workers will no longer bring an infinite number of Artefacts to Research Shrines under certain conditions
Improved the selection box for loose gold and gold stored in the Vault
Crucible
Fixed an issue where the “Goldstone under attack” alert could play before the first wave starts
Large versions of units will now be tortured at the correct height on the Torture Rack
Fixed an issue where the wave’s survived on the final scoreboard would not match the in-game value (this did not affect the leaderboard)
Achievements will now show as earned immediately on the debrief screen if they have recently been earned
Map Editor
Corrected an issue where importing a map and increasing the number of factions would cause all faction-owned objects to be deleted
Claimed tiles of the same faction can now once again replace room tiles
Fixed an issue where changing the owner of a Titan in the Map Editor context menu would cause the original owner’s Titans to be locked in the
Veins of Evil upon game start
Fixed an issue where holding the Escape key on the Public menu would cause the menu to exit and the game to appear frozen
Baby Democorns will no longer die over time in the Map Editor
Levels
Fixed an issue on Level 5 of the WFTO Campaign where saving and loading before converting Rhaskos’ Core would cause the Sanctuary reveal cutscene to trigger without revealing the Sanctuary
Fixed an issue in Level 3 of Heart of Gold whereby continuously clicking the forge at 1,000,000 gold before you are told to would cause an infinite number of Colossi to spawn, rendering the level incompletable
WFTO Level 7 should now complete under all circumstances Fixed an issue where the Dungeon Core was damaged from the start of some Campaign levels
Several improvements to Underlord voice lines in Level 12
Fixed the Artefacts of Sin in Campaign mode to ensure they grant only one Sin
Fixed an issue in the Home Realm where gold piles would spontaneously appear at the Empire gateway
Fixed the “This is my time” voice line from Rhaskos in Level 7 being played at the wrong time. Get it right Rhaskos!
UI
Fixed an issue where loading a game could cause the creature UI to disappear at certain UI scaling options
The “My Score” tab on the Crucible leaderboard can now correctly display rankings higher than the player’s
The “Replay” button on the narration window on the summary screen now reads as “Repeat Narration” for the sake of clarity
Objectives are now correctly visible in non-campaign modes
Fixed a number of areas where text would overlap in certain languages
Fixed an issue where selection would not complete if the cursor moved over the UI
Fixed an issue with the debrief screen scrollbars which would appear in some languages
Visual
Fixed a bug where the placement colour for rooms could remain on the floor after releasing the mouse when the player does not have enough gold
Fixed an issue where highlighting Blood tiles would cause them to permanently change colour
Silver Kasita Theme now uses the correct ceiling
Fixed a small visual fault with the Spirit Chamber podium
Parts of the Perception Shrine should no longer be visible through the Fog of War
Corrected the ceiling height for Lava Chasms
Research VFX should correctly play on pre-placed Archive lecterns
Fixed some visual artefacts which would occur when Mandalf was on screen
Fixed a number of issues where tiles would appear incorrectly rotated in some pre-placed rooms
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where units could spontaneously start “dancing” at a player’s Core
Made some improvements to try and ensure the client always receives a map debrief screen when the host leaves
Improvements to downloading maps on the client
Audio
Corrected some errant voice-over in Crucible
Mutators
Mutator changes should now always be correctly applied when changing tabs on the mutator menu
Miscellaneous
Restarting a Skirmish level will now once again maintain your settings such as player colour, theme, etc.
Fixed a number of unit names so they display properly
Corrected a number of translation keys on code side
That’s all for now Underlord, but keep your baleful eyes peeled because there’s more news coming soon!
As we step out of the darkest times that will forever be remembered as the year 2016 we look forward to the bright future that is 2017. We’re already hard at work on our new year’s resolutions to bring you even more quality content for War for the Overworld and hopefully to make great strides on our next title.
We’re pleased to say that the release of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible DLC has gone down incredibly well and we’re looking forward to what your response will be to the exciting new content we have planned! We can’t share any details yet but as soon as we can we’ll be posting up a storm, so keep your eyes peeled.
DRM-Free Build Update coming soon and GOG
What we can share however is that we have just unleashed Patch 1.5.1, and with it we’re finally updating the DRM-Free build to include all the wonderful content that we’ve added since Heart of Gold (with the same usual restrictions). You'll be able to get your grubby mitts on it next week!
Even the Crucible is stopping by, so if you can’t stand those pesky DRM services at the very least you’ll be getting some mass slaughter in Mendechaus’ terrifying Crucible challenge.
We also have some cautiously good news for those interested in a GOG release. We’ve been talking with the chaps over at GOG.com and we’re hoping to potentially release a “complete” edition after all upcoming features are done. More on that as it develops.
Patch 1.5.1 Release Notes
Anyway, we’re sure you’re eager to hear what’s changed in Patch 1.5.1. Feature-wise we’re a little light on the ground but that’s because we’re hard at work on much bigger things for WFTO. We’re sure you’ll certainly appreciate all the fixes and minor changes we’ve made though!
Gameplay Changes
Units
Workers
Can now collect items from unclaimed ground
Environment
Artefact of Sin
Now grants the user 1 Sin (down from 3)
Artefact of Greater Sin (New)
Grants the user 3 Sins
Community Translation
Added a number of missing translation keys including map names and descriptions for Skirmish and Sandbox modes
Map Editor
Disabled “quadrant pivot” mirror tools on non-square maps as they do not work
Crucible
Gateways are now numbered in a more intuitive manner
Mutators
Mutator mode in the lobby is now coloured based on its state:
Mode Default - White
Map Default - Yellow
Custom - Orange
Veins of Evil
Unavailable Aspects now grant access to the next tier of Aspects as if they had been researched, to prevent players becoming trapped in the Veins
UI
Increased text size in some areas of the UI such as the debrief screen and Achievements menu
Added a message when changing maps with custom mutators, warning that they won’t carry over to the new map unless saved as a preset
Bug Fixes
Crashes
Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a custom map
Fixed a number of exceptions that could lead to very rare crashes
Units
Dwarven Arcanists no longer punch books to learn their secrets (but Arcane Chunders still learn via cranial impact)
Fixed an issue where the Kasita and Silver Kasita Workers had incorrect Possession camera positions
The Democorn now has fancy ability icons as intended
Extremely powerful units such as Titans will no longer live even after their owner has died
Defences
Blueprints for Midas Doors will correctly take damage rather than draining your gold reserves
Blueprints for Glacial Doors will no longer create Permafrost blocks upon receiving their first construction part
It is no longer possible to attack blueprints with no parts by rallying units on top of them
Rooms
Fixed a collision issue in the Slaughterpen that would cause Workers to get stuck
Environment
Workers will no longer bring an infinite number of Artefacts to Research Shrines under certain conditions
Improved the selection box for loose gold and gold stored in the Vault
Crucible
Fixed an issue where the “Goldstone under attack” alert could play before the first wave starts
Large versions of units will now be tortured at the correct height on the Torture Rack
Fixed an issue where the wave’s survived on the final scoreboard would not match the in-game value (this did not affect the leaderboard)
Achievements will now show as earned immediately on the debrief screen if they have recently been earned
Map Editor
Corrected an issue where importing a map and increasing the number of factions would cause all faction-owned objects to be deleted
Claimed tiles of the same faction can now once again replace room tiles
Fixed an issue where changing the owner of a Titan in the Map Editor context menu would cause the original owner’s Titans to be locked in the
Veins of Evil upon game start
Fixed an issue where holding the Escape key on the Public menu would cause the menu to exit and the game to appear frozen
Baby Democorns will no longer die over time in the Map Editor
Levels
Fixed an issue on Level 5 of the WFTO Campaign where saving and loading before converting Rhaskos’ Core would cause the Sanctuary reveal cutscene to trigger without revealing the Sanctuary
Fixed an issue in Level 3 of Heart of Gold whereby continuously clicking the forge at 1,000,000 gold before you are told to would cause an infinite number of Colossi to spawn, rendering the level incompletable
WFTO Level 7 should now complete under all circumstances Fixed an issue where the Dungeon Core was damaged from the start of some Campaign levels
Several improvements to Underlord voice lines in Level 12
Fixed the Artefacts of Sin in Campaign mode to ensure they grant only one Sin
Fixed an issue in the Home Realm where gold piles would spontaneously appear at the Empire gateway
Fixed the “This is my time” voice line from Rhaskos in Level 7 being played at the wrong time. Get it right Rhaskos!
UI
Fixed an issue where loading a game could cause the creature UI to disappear at certain UI scaling options
The “My Score” tab on the Crucible leaderboard can now correctly display rankings higher than the player’s
The “Replay” button on the narration window on the summary screen now reads as “Repeat Narration” for the sake of clarity
Objectives are now correctly visible in non-campaign modes
Fixed a number of areas where text would overlap in certain languages
Fixed an issue where selection would not complete if the cursor moved over the UI
Fixed an issue with the debrief screen scrollbars which would appear in some languages
Visual
Fixed a bug where the placement colour for rooms could remain on the floor after releasing the mouse when the player does not have enough gold
Fixed an issue where highlighting Blood tiles would cause them to permanently change colour
Silver Kasita Theme now uses the correct ceiling
Fixed a small visual fault with the Spirit Chamber podium
Parts of the Perception Shrine should no longer be visible through the Fog of War
Corrected the ceiling height for Lava Chasms
Research VFX should correctly play on pre-placed Archive lecterns
Fixed some visual artefacts which would occur when Mandalf was on screen
Fixed a number of issues where tiles would appear incorrectly rotated in some pre-placed rooms
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where units could spontaneously start “dancing” at a player’s Core
Made some improvements to try and ensure the client always receives a map debrief screen when the host leaves
Improvements to downloading maps on the client
Audio
Corrected some errant voice-over in Crucible
Mutators
Mutator changes should now always be correctly applied when changing tabs on the mutator menu
Miscellaneous
Restarting a Skirmish level will now once again maintain your settings such as player colour, theme, etc.
Fixed a number of unit names so they display properly
Corrected a number of translation keys on code side
That’s all for now Underlord, but keep your baleful eyes peeled because there’s more news coming soon!
It’s that time of year once more when the peasants of the Empire are tucked up all cosy and nice in their warm, safe houses, preparing great feasts while their offsprings eagerly await the daring charity of a rather portly home invader. What overbearing joy…
They can enjoy it while it lasts, for soon the plan will come to fruition and their homes will be invaded by a somewhat less charitable bunch. Not even their goodly Emperor Uther will be able to protect them from the oncoming apocalypse. But first there are preparations to be made, and I have special plans for loyal minions such as yourself. For now though you should enjoy this brief reprieve.
Season’s Greetings from Brightrock
While we’re at it something arrived for you through the swirling snow of the Aether, a sort of message as it were, from a team of Engineers claiming to know you personally. Does “Brightrock Games” ring a bell?
It seems they’re starting their own holidays now and will be back to work in the new year. They sent you a card as well – oh, how delightful!
This one again? I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or an insult!
I trust you’re not being too lenient on them Underlord? Charity is not a virtue you are meant to possess. In any case it seems they’ve not left without doing some work: they mention something about working on hotfixes, whatever that means, right up until their closure today. Here, they sent a list of everything they’ve achieved since their last message.
Patch 1.5 Hotfixes F6-F14 (December 14th to 21st)
Crucible
Added player high score to the Leaderboard section on Lobby and
Summary screen at all times
Rejigged the order some VO lines play in
If a Boss Kill artefact cannot be picked up normally it will instead spawn at the Dungeon Core
Added a map ping when a Goldstone is being attacked
Community Translation
It is now possible to add a custom image as the workshop image to a Community Translation file
Made the way community translation works more flexible. This should not affect existing translations
Improved translation parser’s tolerance to empty lines, which can occur when manually editing CSV files
Crucible map names & descriptions now have translation keys
UI Changes
Replaced Sapper Icon on Map Editor Mutators Menu with Crackpot
Introduced some updated unit portraits for a number of units
Crucible Available” arrow now has a kickass fade in
Bug Fixes
Crucible
Leaderboard now correctly shows 10 players instead of 9
Fixed an issue where your camera could become locked if you played two Crucible levels in a row
Unlockable worker skins are no longer unnlocked until you unlock them… Sorry 😉
Fixed an issue where Respite would not correctly add extra time to the wave timer
Fixed a bug where the “Earthquake” line would play constantly if the player had used replacement earth in a specific manner
Fixed an issue where the display of number of waves cleared could be corrupted (no effect on leaderboards)
Worker skins from this mode now correctly animate when mining
Community Translation
Fixed an issue where a community translation that was missing a key would report an our of range message
Fallback to primary language should always work in the event of a missing key/error
Fixed an incorrect translation key for the Crackpot Flash-Bang ability
Fixed an issue where the message “Please fix errors” would show even after a successful publish with no errors occurring
Levels
Fixed an issue where Level 7 could not be finished if the player did not research the Arena and Garrison before completing the objectives
Fixed an issue where Aetna would continue to spout drivel even after dying, thank the gods
Fixed an issue where the ending to Level 13 could freeze after killing Lucius
Added additional safeguards to try and ensure levels end even if a script issue occur
Units
Mandalf the Maroon has had his abilities re-hooked to the correct descriptions
Rats can now be imprisoned once more!
Units that are turned into a golden statues should no longer count towards population
Spells
It is no longer possible to attack and damage invulnerable objects via possession
Potions
Spirit workers spawned by the Spirit Worker potion will now correctly lose health
Mutators
Fixed an exception that could occur when loading mutator sets
Fixed an Issue where mutators would not correctly apply to clients in multiplayer
Map Editor
Removed a placeholder, faulty Overworld Gateway from the map editor
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where Dungeon Cores would not take damage or be destroyed
UI
Fixed an issue where the Crucible Announce arrow would break in Russian and Spanish languages
Shaboozey Achievement now finally has its icon in game
Removed the deprecated Survival Save/Load section from the Save/Load UI
Fixed an issue where UI Text would not scale correctly, which is very important for some localized languages
Removed the unused “Load” button from the Crucible Prototype
Fixed an issue where the save menu would not open in Skirmish
Fixed mutator tooltips not showing after switching tabs
Added a missing translation key for the “Fade” Ability
Fixed a wrong translation key appearing on one of the Mutator confirm dialogs
Fixed a number of typos & missing text
Fixed an issue where the Mutators window would appear empty when reopened
Misc
Fixed some Nullrefs and exceptions which could cause issues in various places
Fixed a few errors in the German translation of the game
That about concludes our business today, Underlord. I look forward to seeing you soon.
It’s that time of year once more when the peasants of the Empire are tucked up all cosy and nice in their warm, safe houses, preparing great feasts while their offsprings eagerly await the daring charity of a rather portly home invader. What overbearing joy…
They can enjoy it while it lasts, for soon the plan will come to fruition and their homes will be invaded by a somewhat less charitable bunch. Not even their goodly Emperor Uther will be able to protect them from the oncoming apocalypse. But first there are preparations to be made, and I have special plans for loyal minions such as yourself. For now though you should enjoy this brief reprieve.
Season’s Greetings from Brightrock
While we’re at it something arrived for you through the swirling snow of the Aether, a sort of message as it were, from a team of Engineers claiming to know you personally. Does “Brightrock Games” ring a bell?
It seems they’re starting their own holidays now and will be back to work in the new year. They sent you a card as well – oh, how delightful!
This one again? I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or an insult!
I trust you’re not being too lenient on them Underlord? Charity is not a virtue you are meant to possess. In any case it seems they’ve not left without doing some work: they mention something about working on hotfixes, whatever that means, right up until their closure today. Here, they sent a list of everything they’ve achieved since their last message.
Patch 1.5 Hotfixes F6-F14 (December 14th to 21st)
Crucible
Added player high score to the Leaderboard section on Lobby and
Summary screen at all times
Rejigged the order some VO lines play in
If a Boss Kill artefact cannot be picked up normally it will instead spawn at the Dungeon Core
Added a map ping when a Goldstone is being attacked
Community Translation
It is now possible to add a custom image as the workshop image to a Community Translation file
Made the way community translation works more flexible. This should not affect existing translations
Improved translation parser’s tolerance to empty lines, which can occur when manually editing CSV files
Crucible map names & descriptions now have translation keys
UI Changes
Replaced Sapper Icon on Map Editor Mutators Menu with Crackpot
Introduced some updated unit portraits for a number of units
Crucible Available” arrow now has a kickass fade in
Bug Fixes
Crucible
Leaderboard now correctly shows 10 players instead of 9
Fixed an issue where your camera could become locked if you played two Crucible levels in a row
Unlockable worker skins are no longer unnlocked until you unlock them… Sorry 😉
Fixed an issue where Respite would not correctly add extra time to the wave timer
Fixed a bug where the “Earthquake” line would play constantly if the player had used replacement earth in a specific manner
Fixed an issue where the display of number of waves cleared could be corrupted (no effect on leaderboards)
Worker skins from this mode now correctly animate when mining
Community Translation
Fixed an issue where a community translation that was missing a key would report an our of range message
Fallback to primary language should always work in the event of a missing key/error
Fixed an incorrect translation key for the Crackpot Flash-Bang ability
Fixed an issue where the message “Please fix errors” would show even after a successful publish with no errors occurring
Levels
Fixed an issue where Level 7 could not be finished if the player did not research the Arena and Garrison before completing the objectives
Fixed an issue where Aetna would continue to spout drivel even after dying, thank the gods
Fixed an issue where the ending to Level 13 could freeze after killing Lucius
Added additional safeguards to try and ensure levels end even if a script issue occur
Units
Mandalf the Maroon has had his abilities re-hooked to the correct descriptions
Rats can now be imprisoned once more!
Units that are turned into a golden statues should no longer count towards population
Spells
It is no longer possible to attack and damage invulnerable objects via possession
Potions
Spirit workers spawned by the Spirit Worker potion will now correctly lose health
Mutators
Fixed an exception that could occur when loading mutator sets
Fixed an Issue where mutators would not correctly apply to clients in multiplayer
Map Editor
Removed a placeholder, faulty Overworld Gateway from the map editor
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where Dungeon Cores would not take damage or be destroyed
UI
Fixed an issue where the Crucible Announce arrow would break in Russian and Spanish languages
Shaboozey Achievement now finally has its icon in game
Removed the deprecated Survival Save/Load section from the Save/Load UI
Fixed an issue where UI Text would not scale correctly, which is very important for some localized languages
Removed the unused “Load” button from the Crucible Prototype
Fixed an issue where the save menu would not open in Skirmish
Fixed mutator tooltips not showing after switching tabs
Added a missing translation key for the “Fade” Ability
Fixed a wrong translation key appearing on one of the Mutator confirm dialogs
Fixed a number of typos & missing text
Fixed an issue where the Mutators window would appear empty when reopened
Misc
Fixed some Nullrefs and exceptions which could cause issues in various places
Fixed a few errors in the German translation of the game
That about concludes our business today, Underlord. I look forward to seeing you soon.