Upcoming Campaign Changes
While a number of folks continue with new Incursion maps, new gear, and the Mystic, another strike team continues to work with me on overhauling the existing campaign, game structure, and experience into something much smarter and more cohesive. This will affect all players, but mostly brand new and returning players. If you have heroes that have not hit 50 and beaten the campaign or geared well enough to enter Nightmare I, you’ll definitely want to check this out. These changes are slated to release at the same time as the Mystic (tentatively slated for late September) so it’s not far off.

Overview of Campaign Changes
Here’s a brief overview. Look for much more visuals from the team soon here, on social media, and on our Devstreams:

• All maps (18 in total) are in a new order and interconnected by an overarching story thread. It all starts with the intro video and ends with your climactic defeat of the Har… er… main bad guy.

• Story elements appear on both map-specific loading screens and in-game videos at key moments. We added a continue button to the map specific loading screens so you have a chance to check them out.

• The campaign takes you from 1-50. Yep, 50!

• The new campaign gears you for Nightmare I by the time you’re done. Finish the campaign and you’re a walking wave of destruction ready to get into much harder content right away.

• You can play through the campaign in 9-10 hours if you don’t lose and rush through everything. We’ve found most folks play through in around 16 hours or so, by doing extra activities such as meticulously upgrading four heroes along the way, enchanting, testing, goofing around with pets, etc.

• We have unlocked all NPC shops in the Heroes’ Marketplace at Level 1. Enchanting, Pets, Relics, Blacksmith, have at thee.

• Many minor things that the game used to lock out by an arbitrary level is gone and ready for you from the moment you start.

• A super brief starter quest points brand new players to the War Table, explains the Hero Deck, multiple heroes, how to unlock them, how to earn Defender Medals then sends you on your first chapter of the story. Brief, to the point, get playing.

• The flow of first install to playing is much cooler, cleaner, and faster. We’re cleaning up the Create Hero UI so you can jump to heroes faster and improving the flows.

• Over the course of the campaign, you need to win each map before you can play the next. We do this with a self-contained quest so you never have to go back to town! If you already beat campaign, nothing is gated.

• We’ve added a NEXT MAP button to every map in the campaign and in defense mode so you can keep playing. All the maps have the same story-driven order.

• We’ve adjusted the warm-up timers and end game timers. Warmup is immediate and controlled by you now. End game timers are gone, so you can collect loot, gear up, and take your time before you go to your next map. We felt that having to go back to town all the time killed fun and momentum. We use the “G” up type mechanic here at better spots to promote smoother play on your terms.

• When you win maps in the campaign, you get Defender Medals and gems! By the time you win that 18th map, you’ll easily have about 5,000 Defender Medals to give you a boost before you jump into Nightmare I, work on heroes, or horde them for future goodies.

• Freeplay and Endgame are gone! Campaign prepares you for Nightmare I. /flex

• The Campaign rewards much better gear drops, and at key chapters, tailored gear.

• We’ve remapped the old quest chain so if you were midstream in that or sub 50 previously, we put you in a great spot to go forward. Since we’re leveling you faster and you’re earning gear that is much more powerful sooner, we place you in a spot based on your iPWR so you can keep making progression.

• Enemy introductions fit the new progression of the story.

• Pacing is snappier and more meaningful. Many maps have less waves and almost all have more boss-style climaxes.

• Maps are harder, and we offer two difficulties for the campaign to choose from (Normal and Hard) which you can jump back and forth on with no penalty.

• The game’s tutorial is freestanding and accessible off the main menu. We’re adding some V.O. here and there for personality for now. We have grander plans for an in-game strategy guide, but for now, this allows you to access the tutorial when you feel like it.

• We’re redesigning the Main Menu with much more visual punch and a better flow for both console and PC (Continue Campaign, Go to Town, Go to Private Tavern, updates on the game, videos, social media, and all kinds of smart stuff). I’ll let visuals speak for themselves, so stay tuned!

• The Game Browser has a better linear flow for campaign, as each map is part of a 6-chapter story; we present each chapter in a linear sequence so you can get a feel for where you are in the bigger picture.

• We’ve expanded the Create Game section with more room for game messages, images, cleaner flow, and less iPWR monkey business in your face. Less clicks to get playing for sure.

• If you’ve previously finished the campaign on your account, you can still go back and play the campaign maps in any order you want to gear up which is actually pretty fun now that everything is connected better feeling more like a single-player RPG journey with meaning.

• You can of course play the entire campaign with friends in multiplayer.

• I could not convince the art team to make a DD2 style UT 99 Flak Cannon. Will keep working on them.

As we said earlier this year, making solid strides towards finishing the game is on point here. The content and changes we have planned through the rest of the year are even more compelling. Dynamic difficulty and enemy scaling, scaling for number of players, a huge range of difficulty to challenge players forever, hero specific gear, leaderboards, and tons more. Keep tuned in for more on the next Incursion, the Mystic hero, and the Campaign changes!

In other news, this week is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We’re working on finalizing our next content update. From the PS4 side of things, we’re working on adding split-screen support to gameplay options as well as other improvements to controller configuration. On the live team side, we’re following up on a number of issues including: lag during matches, loading times on PS4, and adding Loot V2 support to all the new heroes. Next week should see a patch coming out that solves some of the issues with the Lavamancer release and the first round of controller updates.

Upcoming Campaign Changes
While a number of folks continue with new Incursion maps, new gear, and the Mystic, another strike team continues to work with me on overhauling the existing campaign, game structure, and experience into something much smarter and more cohesive. This will affect all players, but mostly brand new and returning players. If you have heroes that have not hit 50 and beaten the campaign or geared well enough to enter Nightmare I, you’ll definitely want to check this out. These changes are slated to release at the same time as the Mystic (tentatively slated for late September) so it’s not far off.

Overview of Campaign Changes
Here’s a brief overview. Look for much more visuals from the team soon here, on social media, and on our Devstreams:

• All maps (18 in total) are in a new order and interconnected by an overarching story thread. It all starts with the intro video and ends with your climactic defeat of the Har… er… main bad guy.

• Story elements appear on both map-specific loading screens and in-game videos at key moments. We added a continue button to the map specific loading screens so you have a chance to check them out.

• The campaign takes you from 1-50. Yep, 50!

• The new campaign gears you for Nightmare I by the time you’re done. Finish the campaign and you’re a walking wave of destruction ready to get into much harder content right away.

• You can play through the campaign in 9-10 hours if you don’t lose and rush through everything. We’ve found most folks play through in around 16 hours or so, by doing extra activities such as meticulously upgrading four heroes along the way, enchanting, testing, goofing around with pets, etc.

• We have unlocked all NPC shops in the Heroes’ Marketplace at Level 1. Enchanting, Pets, Relics, Blacksmith, have at thee.

• Many minor things that the game used to lock out by an arbitrary level is gone and ready for you from the moment you start.

• A super brief starter quest points brand new players to the War Table, explains the Hero Deck, multiple heroes, how to unlock them, how to earn Defender Medals then sends you on your first chapter of the story. Brief, to the point, get playing.

• The flow of first install to playing is much cooler, cleaner, and faster. We’re cleaning up the Create Hero UI so you can jump to heroes faster and improving the flows.

• Over the course of the campaign, you need to win each map before you can play the next. We do this with a self-contained quest so you never have to go back to town! If you already beat campaign, nothing is gated.

• We’ve added a NEXT MAP button to every map in the campaign and in defense mode so you can keep playing. All the maps have the same story-driven order.

• We’ve adjusted the warm-up timers and end game timers. Warmup is immediate and controlled by you now. End game timers are gone, so you can collect loot, gear up, and take your time before you go to your next map. We felt that having to go back to town all the time killed fun and momentum. We use the “G” up type mechanic here at better spots to promote smoother play on your terms.

• When you win maps in the campaign, you get Defender Medals and gems! By the time you win that 18th map, you’ll easily have about 5,000 Defender Medals to give you a boost before you jump into Nightmare I, work on heroes, or horde them for future goodies.

• Freeplay and Endgame are gone! Campaign prepares you for Nightmare I. /flex

• The Campaign rewards much better gear drops, and at key chapters, tailored gear.

• We’ve remapped the old quest chain so if you were midstream in that or sub 50 previously, we put you in a great spot to go forward. Since we’re leveling you faster and you’re earning gear that is much more powerful sooner, we place you in a spot based on your iPWR so you can keep making progression.

• Enemy introductions fit the new progression of the story.

• Pacing is snappier and more meaningful. Many maps have less waves and almost all have more boss-style climaxes.

• Maps are harder, and we offer two difficulties for the campaign to choose from (Normal and Hard) which you can jump back and forth on with no penalty.

• The game’s tutorial is freestanding and accessible off the main menu. We’re adding some V.O. here and there for personality for now. We have grander plans for an in-game strategy guide, but for now, this allows you to access the tutorial when you feel like it.

• We’re redesigning the Main Menu with much more visual punch and a better flow for both console and PC (Continue Campaign, Go to Town, Go to Private Tavern, updates on the game, videos, social media, and all kinds of smart stuff). I’ll let visuals speak for themselves, so stay tuned!

• The Game Browser has a better linear flow for campaign, as each map is part of a 6-chapter story; we present each chapter in a linear sequence so you can get a feel for where you are in the bigger picture.

• We’ve expanded the Create Game section with more room for game messages, images, cleaner flow, and less iPWR monkey business in your face. Less clicks to get playing for sure.

• If you’ve previously finished the campaign on your account, you can still go back and play the campaign maps in any order you want to gear up which is actually pretty fun now that everything is connected better feeling more like a single-player RPG journey with meaning.

• You can of course play the entire campaign with friends in multiplayer.

• I could not convince the art team to make a DD2 style UT 99 Flak Cannon. Will keep working on them.

As we said earlier this year, making solid strides towards finishing the game is on point here. The content and changes we have planned through the rest of the year are even more compelling. Dynamic difficulty and enemy scaling, scaling for number of players, a huge range of difficulty to challenge players forever, hero specific gear, leaderboards, and tons more. Keep tuned in for more on the next Incursion, the Mystic hero, and the Campaign changes!

In other news, this week is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We’re working on finalizing our next content update. From the PS4 side of things, we’re working on adding split-screen support to gameplay options as well as other improvements to controller configuration. On the live team side, we’re following up on a number of issues including: lag during matches, loading times on PS4, and adding Loot V2 support to all the new heroes. Next week should see a patch coming out that solves some of the issues with the Lavamancer release and the first round of controller updates.

This morning, iamisom came in with pep in his step and a glimmer in his eye. We all knew something was different. Something big was about to happen. Suddenly, Isom’s mouth opened. Our heart rates went up. Dogs started meowing. Cats started barking. Team Instinct, somehow, now ruled every gym in town. Was this the darkest timeline?

Time and space itself waited with bated breath.

And then, when it seemed like the very fabric of the universe couldn’t take the silence… Isom spoke:

“The plan:

1. Ask 'Who wants us to start the 3x Medal weekend early?'
   
2. Listen.
   
3. Do what they tell us.
   
4. Profit.”

And so, we did. And you responded. And we did what you said to do. And it is done.

3x Medal Weekend starts NOW, folks.

Thank you, Isom. He’s not the hero we deserve, but he is the hero we got. Anyway, here's what we're working on this week.

By day I am working with our awesome team on two upcoming new heroes. The Mystic is up next, and she is looking rather slithery. I’m helping direct John and Mel with their animations to make sure we capture her feel, and I’m working with the programmers as her abilities and towers start to come online. By day, heroess; by night, other things… I’m basically Batman I think:

• Enemy Redesign: I am working on getting the enemy redesign in. Yao is programming their functionality, and I’m going over our new campaign and rebuilding the schedules. So far Gates, Market, and Greystone are done.

• Passives: We’ve talked at length about some of the plans we have for a new and improved passive system. I’m first making an index on all the passives we have in game and categorizing them under: to be cut, to be improved, to be left alone. The ones that are cut will be removed from the game. This is mostly to remove superfluous passives that are not fun. To be improved is a category for passives that are theoretically cool, but in practice are rather boring. As an example, the gold gain passives can use some love. To be left alone is a category for passives that are doing just fine.

• Hero Balance: I’m working with the programmers to try and figure out a way to make balancing our game an easier task. The workflow to go in and balance a tower for example is rather inefficient and a lot of time is wasted and mistakes can happen because our process is not ideal. I’m trying to organize our data in a more intuitive way so that designers can at a glance figure out the specific problems with the balance, identify, and solve easily. Anyone and their mother can tell you something like “Tower X is OVER POWERED!” or “Ability Y is useless no one EVER uses it” -- figuring out why that is and how it should be solved to not introduce more problems is the tricky bit. This is a multi-step process that involves a lot of math, and a lot of talking with the community team to figure out the perception of balance.

This week I've been doing some visual changes to the Crumbled Bulwark level that should be released soon, which includes finalizing the visual pass and doing a collision pass. Check it out:



After missing last week and getting deleted from the Dev Log like I don’t even exist [Ed. Note: Suck it, Tim], we successfully shipped the Lavamancer update this week and have been tracking the issues with it since then. Our next update is pretty beefy, so I’m trying to bundle all of our fixes into that so we can remove the overhead of hotfixing and focus on making the campaign revamp as low impact on client stability and performance as we can. That being said, if something game breaking crops up, expect a fix.

In other news, we’re working on some updates to the controller that should alleviate a long standing concern with the controller layout, adding look sensitivity, and adding dead zone configurations to the options menu. We also will potentially be adding Loot V2 support for all the new heroes (fingers crossed), a DPS number only mode for tavern dummies, and making it where kicked players will no longer be able to rejoin the sessions they were kicked from (hasta la vista griefers).

Now that the Crumbled Bulwark has had its makeover, it’s time to start the engines on adding in the gameplay and Incursion.The map now has more character and connection to the world, and the Incursion will reflect that as well.

Post Lavamancer release, I've spent some time going through and fixing older issues from the past few milestones. Nothing absolutely game changing, but fixing and finalizing things on the backend so it better works with our workflow going forward.

Also working on getting all our content sorted so it lives in the correct place and is easy to find for our other developers. Our cooked game has numerous references to test packages in our content directory, which should be living in better locations.

Then there is the collisions issue that is forever ongoing. Since our characters can now double jump and fly, we've had to revise the way in which we build both collisions and geometry to support things from these views. Forest Crossroads is a good example of why it’s important to properly block your render meshes:



(The red geo should cover the cliff faces. It doesn't do that 100%.) This will be a side project of mine for the next few milestones at least.

Finally working on lighting issues for the new map. Working on separating the player-only space from the lane space using lighting.

This morning, iamisom came in with pep in his step and a glimmer in his eye. We all knew something was different. Something big was about to happen. Suddenly, Isom’s mouth opened. Our heart rates went up. Dogs started meowing. Cats started barking. Team Instinct, somehow, now ruled every gym in town. Was this the darkest timeline?

Time and space itself waited with bated breath.

And then, when it seemed like the very fabric of the universe couldn’t take the silence… Isom spoke:

“The plan:

1. Ask 'Who wants us to start the 3x Medal weekend early?'
   
2. Listen.
   
3. Do what they tell us.
   
4. Profit.”

And so, we did. And you responded. And we did what you said to do. And it is done.

3x Medal Weekend starts NOW, folks.

Thank you, Isom. He’s not the hero we deserve, but he is the hero we got. Anyway, here's what we're working on this week.

By day I am working with our awesome team on two upcoming new heroes. The Mystic is up next, and she is looking rather slithery. I’m helping direct John and Mel with their animations to make sure we capture her feel, and I’m working with the programmers as her abilities and towers start to come online. By day, heroess; by night, other things… I’m basically Batman I think:

• Enemy Redesign: I am working on getting the enemy redesign in. Yao is programming their functionality, and I’m going over our new campaign and rebuilding the schedules. So far Gates, Market, and Greystone are done.

• Passives: We’ve talked at length about some of the plans we have for a new and improved passive system. I’m first making an index on all the passives we have in game and categorizing them under: to be cut, to be improved, to be left alone. The ones that are cut will be removed from the game. This is mostly to remove superfluous passives that are not fun. To be improved is a category for passives that are theoretically cool, but in practice are rather boring. As an example, the gold gain passives can use some love. To be left alone is a category for passives that are doing just fine.

• Hero Balance: I’m working with the programmers to try and figure out a way to make balancing our game an easier task. The workflow to go in and balance a tower for example is rather inefficient and a lot of time is wasted and mistakes can happen because our process is not ideal. I’m trying to organize our data in a more intuitive way so that designers can at a glance figure out the specific problems with the balance, identify, and solve easily. Anyone and their mother can tell you something like “Tower X is OVER POWERED!” or “Ability Y is useless no one EVER uses it” -- figuring out why that is and how it should be solved to not introduce more problems is the tricky bit. This is a multi-step process that involves a lot of math, and a lot of talking with the community team to figure out the perception of balance.

This week I've been doing some visual changes to the Crumbled Bulwark level that should be released soon, which includes finalizing the visual pass and doing a collision pass. Check it out:



After missing last week and getting deleted from the Dev Log like I don’t even exist [Ed. Note: Suck it, Tim], we successfully shipped the Lavamancer update this week and have been tracking the issues with it since then. Our next update is pretty beefy, so I’m trying to bundle all of our fixes into that so we can remove the overhead of hotfixing and focus on making the campaign revamp as low impact on client stability and performance as we can. That being said, if something game breaking crops up, expect a fix.

In other news, we’re working on some updates to the controller that should alleviate a long standing concern with the controller layout, adding look sensitivity, and adding dead zone configurations to the options menu. We also will potentially be adding Loot V2 support for all the new heroes (fingers crossed), a DPS number only mode for tavern dummies, and making it where kicked players will no longer be able to rejoin the sessions they were kicked from (hasta la vista griefers).

Now that the Crumbled Bulwark has had its makeover, it’s time to start the engines on adding in the gameplay and Incursion.The map now has more character and connection to the world, and the Incursion will reflect that as well.

Post Lavamancer release, I've spent some time going through and fixing older issues from the past few milestones. Nothing absolutely game changing, but fixing and finalizing things on the backend so it better works with our workflow going forward.

Also working on getting all our content sorted so it lives in the correct place and is easy to find for our other developers. Our cooked game has numerous references to test packages in our content directory, which should be living in better locations.

Then there is the collisions issue that is forever ongoing. Since our characters can now double jump and fly, we've had to revise the way in which we build both collisions and geometry to support things from these views. Forest Crossroads is a good example of why it’s important to properly block your render meshes:



(The red geo should cover the cliff faces. It doesn't do that 100%.) This will be a side project of mine for the next few milestones at least.

Finally working on lighting issues for the new map. Working on separating the player-only space from the lane space using lighting.

The Herald of Embermount update is out now! With this update comes our newest hero, the Lavamancer! Check him out in the release trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MboV7EzVu30
Here are the patch notes:

• New Hero: The Lavamancer
  
  • Utilizing his Molten Power and the ability to quickly traverse the earth, the Lavamancer wields the power of magma and fire. With new abilities and towers, the Lavamancer is ready to rumble!
    
  • For more information, see his full ability/defense reveal trailer.
    
  • The Embermount Bundle includes the Molten Juggernaut costume.
• Daily Mission Cooldown Timer
  
  • Added a timer to show you when daily missions will reset.
• New Coalescing Combat Text Option
  
  • Optimized combat text to reduce the spam and make your DPS more readable.
    
    • Damage types should now coalesce together.
      
    • i.e. Fire damage groups with fire damage, physical damage with physical, etc.
  • Crits should still be highlighted individually from other damage numbers and have increased size. The size might be too large. We'll tweak it based on your feedback.
    
  • If you still want to see individual damage numbers, you can either fire at a slower pace, or turn off coalescing damage numbers in the Options Menu.
• Added the Betsy Egg to the Defender Medal Store
  
  • You can now buy the Betsy Egg for 10,000 Defender Medals.
• Lockbox Update
  
  • Lockboxes do not drop duplicate items anymore.
    
  • If you have everything unlocked from a lockbox, a message will appear letting you know that when you try to reopen it.
• Other
  
  • Life Leech can now spawn on Guns, Canisters and Lava Arms.
    
  • Changed some inspect tooltips to show relevant stats now. For instance: The Skeletal Orc and Colossus now show DPS.
    
  • Moved Alpha watermark to just the Main Menu so that it won't get in the way of gameplay or clutter the screen.

• Flamethrower and Flameburst Towers
  
  • Extra Flame Damage Skill Sphere now has a 20% chance to hit for 100% extra damage.
    
  • Flameburst Tower Defense Power ratio increased from 3.5 to 4.1
    
  • Flamethrower Tower Defense Power ratio increased from 0.625 to 0.7
    
  • The overall result of these changes is that the Flameburst and the Flamethrower deal more damage.
• Other Changes
  
  • Black Arrow passive scales between 21% and 30% instead of 2.1% and 3.0%.
    
  • Karma Vortex passive can now roll up to 60%.
    
  • Fixed Frostbite Towers re-fire rate to work as intended. They were firing much faster than they were supposed to be. Maybe they were just excited.

• Fixed some Inventory and Escape Menu memory leaks.
  
• Fixed the "Game Is Already Running" launcher bug that prevented some players from playing.
  
• Fixed an issue when you would re-bind the E key for tower placement. Now you can move AND it will work with EV node placement.
  
• Fixed the Spectral Knights increasing the attack speed stat instead of stunning towers. Improved the tooltip’s communication of this effect.
  
• Fixed an issue where tooltips would stick around visually if you had a controller enabled but were still using mouse and keyboard.
  
• Fixed an issue where you had to press E or I twice to open the Inventory screen.
  
• Fixed the enemy health numbers not respecting the choice within the Options menu.
  
• Fixed the Thorns spheres.
  
• Fixed the Molten Citadel map icon.
  
• Fixed the Demon Lord sticking around after winning or losing the Molten Citadel Incursion.
  
• Fixed the dialogue text staying on screen for the duration of the Buried Bastille Incursion.
  
• Fixed tooltips not refreshing on Hero Swap and Level Up.
  
• Fixed the intro cinematic that plays on Ramparts Siege map.
  
• Fixed some Incursions showing up as “Defense” maps on the Pause screen.
  
• Fixed Sticky Grenades and Concussive Shots not damaging the Harbinger.
  
• Fixed a grammar error with the Proton Charge Deflect skill sphere. We change “it” to “its.” Gamechanger.
  
• Fixed the Power Surge Incursion Combat Phase timer craziness that was going on with multiple players pressing G or not pressing G.
  
• Fixed the Skeletal Archers description in the Create Hero screen.
  
• Fixed the issue where pressing Esc while sniping with a Gun Witch and changing weapons would break the Gun Witch.
  
• A fix for inspected defenses not showing stats on the tooltip pop-up.
  
• Earthshatter towers no longer appear to fire twice.
  
• Fixed victory chests bloom levels so they will stop glowing at supernova levels.
  
• Fixed an Abyss Lord tome that dropped as “Default Tome.”
  
• Removed all default weapons from being able to drop as a regular item.
  
• Fixed the Character Stat screen to stop displaying decimals so that numbers stop overlappying each other.
  
• Players can now browse the What’s New screen with a controller.
  
• Fixed some overlapping HUD text issues when using a controller.

The Herald of Embermount update is out now! With this update comes our newest hero, the Lavamancer! Check him out in the release trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MboV7EzVu30
Here are the patch notes:

• New Hero: The Lavamancer
  
  • Utilizing his Molten Power and the ability to quickly traverse the earth, the Lavamancer wields the power of magma and fire. With new abilities and towers, the Lavamancer is ready to rumble!
    
  • For more information, see his full ability/defense reveal trailer.
    
  • The Embermount Bundle includes the Molten Juggernaut costume.
• Daily Mission Cooldown Timer
  
  • Added a timer to show you when daily missions will reset.
• New Coalescing Combat Text Option
  
  • Optimized combat text to reduce the spam and make your DPS more readable.
    
    • Damage types should now coalesce together.
      
    • i.e. Fire damage groups with fire damage, physical damage with physical, etc.
  • Crits should still be highlighted individually from other damage numbers and have increased size. The size might be too large. We'll tweak it based on your feedback.
    
  • If you still want to see individual damage numbers, you can either fire at a slower pace, or turn off coalescing damage numbers in the Options Menu.
• Added the Betsy Egg to the Defender Medal Store
  
  • You can now buy the Betsy Egg for 10,000 Defender Medals.
• Lockbox Update
  
  • Lockboxes do not drop duplicate items anymore.
    
  • If you have everything unlocked from a lockbox, a message will appear letting you know that when you try to reopen it.
• Other
  
  • Life Leech can now spawn on Guns, Canisters and Lava Arms.
    
  • Changed some inspect tooltips to show relevant stats now. For instance: The Skeletal Orc and Colossus now show DPS.
    
  • Moved Alpha watermark to just the Main Menu so that it won't get in the way of gameplay or clutter the screen.

• Flamethrower and Flameburst Towers
  
  • Extra Flame Damage Skill Sphere now has a 20% chance to hit for 100% extra damage.
    
  • Flameburst Tower Defense Power ratio increased from 3.5 to 4.1
    
  • Flamethrower Tower Defense Power ratio increased from 0.625 to 0.7
    
  • The overall result of these changes is that the Flameburst and the Flamethrower deal more damage.
• Other Changes
  
  • Black Arrow passive scales between 21% and 30% instead of 2.1% and 3.0%.
    
  • Karma Vortex passive can now roll up to 60%.
    
  • Fixed Frostbite Towers re-fire rate to work as intended. They were firing much faster than they were supposed to be. Maybe they were just excited.

• Fixed some Inventory and Escape Menu memory leaks.
  
• Fixed the "Game Is Already Running" launcher bug that prevented some players from playing.
  
• Fixed an issue when you would re-bind the E key for tower placement. Now you can move AND it will work with EV node placement.
  
• Fixed the Spectral Knights increasing the attack speed stat instead of stunning towers. Improved the tooltip’s communication of this effect.
  
• Fixed an issue where tooltips would stick around visually if you had a controller enabled but were still using mouse and keyboard.
  
• Fixed an issue where you had to press E or I twice to open the Inventory screen.
  
• Fixed the enemy health numbers not respecting the choice within the Options menu.
  
• Fixed the Thorns spheres.
  
• Fixed the Molten Citadel map icon.
  
• Fixed the Demon Lord sticking around after winning or losing the Molten Citadel Incursion.
  
• Fixed the dialogue text staying on screen for the duration of the Buried Bastille Incursion.
  
• Fixed tooltips not refreshing on Hero Swap and Level Up.
  
• Fixed the intro cinematic that plays on Ramparts Siege map.
  
• Fixed some Incursions showing up as “Defense” maps on the Pause screen.
  
• Fixed Sticky Grenades and Concussive Shots not damaging the Harbinger.
  
• Fixed a grammar error with the Proton Charge Deflect skill sphere. We change “it” to “its.” Gamechanger.
  
• Fixed the Power Surge Incursion Combat Phase timer craziness that was going on with multiple players pressing G or not pressing G.
  
• Fixed the Skeletal Archers description in the Create Hero screen.
  
• Fixed the issue where pressing Esc while sniping with a Gun Witch and changing weapons would break the Gun Witch.
  
• A fix for inspected defenses not showing stats on the tooltip pop-up.
  
• Earthshatter towers no longer appear to fire twice.
  
• Fixed victory chests bloom levels so they will stop glowing at supernova levels.
  
• Fixed an Abyss Lord tome that dropped as “Default Tome.”
  
• Removed all default weapons from being able to drop as a regular item.
  
• Fixed the Character Stat screen to stop displaying decimals so that numbers stop overlappying each other.
  
• Players can now browse the What’s New screen with a controller.
  
• Fixed some overlapping HUD text issues when using a controller.

Here are the notes for Patch 14.5!

• Sky Dragon’s Fury
  
  • We fixed this weapon doing one damage. It wasn’t cool, so we told it to stop.
• Medium Sphere
  
  • Experience Bonus Sphere fixed
• Large Spheres
  
  • Bewitching Hour Sphere fixed
    
  • Boost Blockade Health Sphere fixed
    
  • Charge Primary Sphere fixed
    
  • Crane Stance Sphere fixed
    
  • Dragon Stance Sphere fixed
    
  • Empowering Calm Sphere fixed
    
  • Extra Flame Damage Sphere fixed
    
  • Fire for Effect Sphere fixed
    
  • Fight Me Not Sphere fixed
    
  • Lightning Damage Sphere fixed
    
  • Long Range Sphere fixed
    
  • Powerful Spears Sphere fixed
    
  • Shiny Spokes Sphere fixed
    
  • Spiders Kiss Sphere fixed
    
  • Steam Powered Sphere fixed

Excited for the Lavamancer? He's coming on Tuesday! (Are we still doing phrasing?) Check out his official trailer below for more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WqDkQ0s-M

Here are the notes for Patch 14.5!

• Sky Dragon’s Fury
  
  • We fixed this weapon doing one damage. It wasn’t cool, so we told it to stop.
• Medium Sphere
  
  • Experience Bonus Sphere fixed
• Large Spheres
  
  • Bewitching Hour Sphere fixed
    
  • Boost Blockade Health Sphere fixed
    
  • Charge Primary Sphere fixed
    
  • Crane Stance Sphere fixed
    
  • Dragon Stance Sphere fixed
    
  • Empowering Calm Sphere fixed
    
  • Extra Flame Damage Sphere fixed
    
  • Fire for Effect Sphere fixed
    
  • Fight Me Not Sphere fixed
    
  • Lightning Damage Sphere fixed
    
  • Long Range Sphere fixed
    
  • Powerful Spears Sphere fixed
    
  • Shiny Spokes Sphere fixed
    
  • Spiders Kiss Sphere fixed
    
  • Steam Powered Sphere fixed

Excited for the Lavamancer? He's coming on Tuesday! (Are we still doing phrasing?) Check out his official trailer below for more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WqDkQ0s-M

You’re gonna lava the Herald of Embermount update when it erupts August 16th! This update contains our first truly flaming hero - the Lavamancer. Lavamancer enjoys long walks on volcanic ash, magma puppies, and using his transformable magma arm to simultaneously wound his enemies while cauterizing their wound! He’s a sweet sweet man, really. If you haven’t already, meet the Lavamancer in his official trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WqDkQ0s-M
Want to see the Lavamancer in action? Tune into our Devstream this Friday at 5PM EDT! We're also giving away his costume to several lucky viewers!

The Herald of Embermount update also heralds (see what we did there?) an option to display massive amounts of damage in a more streamlined way. With this option turned on, you’ll be able to see more of the beautiful world of Etheria as you hashtag rek AF (or whatever you kids are hashtaggin these days). See the handy GIF (that’s GIF with a hard G) below for an example!



Here’s what we’re working on this week:

The Lavamancer is nearly complete. There are a few concerns we’re running some tests on, but otherwise he is ready to rumble. I am now out of the engine and back in documents. Working with the Mystic team as they start building her assets and animating them. The Lavamancer looks fantastic. The team did a wonderful job bringing that volcano to life. We hope you enjoy using him.

We're giving more love to the Crumbled Bulwark level. Visuals are turning into the right direction now! Only true defenders without fear will see the light on this dark place…



We are still redoing the visuals of the Crumbled Bulwark level. At this point, it has even become more dark and gloomy...the perfect place to feature a new enemy, a really dangerous one.

The Demon Cache has been found! Congrats on hitting the books and getting some extra loots!

As for the next map, Crumbled Bulwark. The level design team was rather unhappy with the original theme that was done on this map. It lacked the character and depth that we want to push forward with our levels. So we decided to give Crumbled Bulwark a makeover. (Keep in mind the gameplay layout will remain unchanged.) This visual update will give the map more character as well as some of the updates will allow for a much more robust Incursion that we have planned for this map.

Wrapping up the last of the extended Lavamancer VFX work for the milestone. Had some time to modify my workflow in a way that allowed me to capture more gifs.

Oil Geyser Attack/Eruption



New Right charge click VFX


Currently Listening To: Bonobo - Nothing Owed (live version)

Finalizing the Lavamancer means that I have been full swing on our next hero, The Mystic! I am extremely excited for this character, and hopefully you will be too. Here is some of what I have been up too.





Keep an eye out for this lady in the future. She will be joining our cast of heroes soon!

You’re gonna lava the Herald of Embermount update when it erupts August 16th! This update contains our first truly flaming hero - the Lavamancer. Lavamancer enjoys long walks on volcanic ash, magma puppies, and using his transformable magma arm to simultaneously wound his enemies while cauterizing their wound! He’s a sweet sweet man, really. If you haven’t already, meet the Lavamancer in his official trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WqDkQ0s-M
Want to see the Lavamancer in action? Tune into our Devstream this Friday at 5PM EDT! We're also giving away his costume to several lucky viewers!

The Herald of Embermount update also heralds (see what we did there?) an option to display massive amounts of damage in a more streamlined way. With this option turned on, you’ll be able to see more of the beautiful world of Etheria as you hashtag rek AF (or whatever you kids are hashtaggin these days). See the handy GIF (that’s GIF with a hard G) below for an example!



Here’s what we’re working on this week:

The Lavamancer is nearly complete. There are a few concerns we’re running some tests on, but otherwise he is ready to rumble. I am now out of the engine and back in documents. Working with the Mystic team as they start building her assets and animating them. The Lavamancer looks fantastic. The team did a wonderful job bringing that volcano to life. We hope you enjoy using him.

We're giving more love to the Crumbled Bulwark level. Visuals are turning into the right direction now! Only true defenders without fear will see the light on this dark place…



We are still redoing the visuals of the Crumbled Bulwark level. At this point, it has even become more dark and gloomy...the perfect place to feature a new enemy, a really dangerous one.

The Demon Cache has been found! Congrats on hitting the books and getting some extra loots!

As for the next map, Crumbled Bulwark. The level design team was rather unhappy with the original theme that was done on this map. It lacked the character and depth that we want to push forward with our levels. So we decided to give Crumbled Bulwark a makeover. (Keep in mind the gameplay layout will remain unchanged.) This visual update will give the map more character as well as some of the updates will allow for a much more robust Incursion that we have planned for this map.

Wrapping up the last of the extended Lavamancer VFX work for the milestone. Had some time to modify my workflow in a way that allowed me to capture more gifs.

Oil Geyser Attack/Eruption



New Right charge click VFX


Currently Listening To: Bonobo - Nothing Owed (live version)

Finalizing the Lavamancer means that I have been full swing on our next hero, The Mystic! I am extremely excited for this character, and hopefully you will be too. Here is some of what I have been up too.





Keep an eye out for this lady in the future. She will be joining our cast of heroes soon!