Welcome to the first part of our preview video series on the upcoming ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC. To kick things off, Jan will take you on a quick tour through the extended world map, the town screen of the city states, the Gladiators origin and the arena feature.



The ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC will release on August 13th for the price of $14,99 or your regional equivalent. You can already wishlist it on Steam by following the link below.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361280/Battle_Brothers__Blazing_Deserts/

Polishing the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC continues as we take a look at another potpourri of smaller additions and quality of life improvements coming with the release on August 13. You can already wishlist the DLC here. Let’s take a look!

A new and entirely optional way to play your campaign is with a map that is unexplored in the beginning, save for your immediate surroundings. You’ll have to discover the lay of the land and uncover every settlement yourself, as everything is hidden by thick fog covering the map at the start.



If you’re into exploration, this could make for an interesting and fresh campaign. It’s only recommended for experienced players that know what they’re doing, however, as exploring the map as you go adds some difficulty to keeping your men alive and well, and contracts may send you to settlements that you’ve never been to and that you have to find first.

As you probably know by now, the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC adds several new types of terrain. But if you’ve ever wondered from afar what terrain a particular enemy camp sits on, fret no more. The game will now tell you in the tooltip of camps what terrain your men would be fighting on, without having to first engage the camp. That’s even more important as the combination of terrain and fortifications is about to change the dynamic of battles thanks to objects like palisades making it onto combat maps!



Events are the spice of life, and the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC adds plenty of new ones both for your travels south and the interaction between characters. Observe a fire juggler in the city states, discuss astronomy with southern scholars, find cultists of Davkul doing something sinister in the desert, and have your men get sunburn. All events are illustrated with new art like that below.



Can’t do a new DLC without new achievements! A total of (currently) 12 new achievements to unlock await the completionists of you, as you can challenge yourself with defeating powerful new opponents, doing trick shots with a Handgonne, winning arena bouts, and more. Can you guess what other achievements there are based on the icons?



As with our previous DLCs, we’re again also offering a Supporter Edition for those of you who want to support us above and beyond in working on Battle Brothers. As a thank you, you’ll be given a special player banner that appropriately reflects the wealth, craftsmanship and culture of the south and its people!



You can wishlist the Blazing Deserts Supporter Edition on here.

The first stage of the test is over. Both the community feedback and the data that we have received during the tests show no significant benefits of Khabarovsk in comparison with the Singapore location. With that in mind, we're moving to the next step of the test, and to the next location: Hong-Kong.

Please note: the transfer will happen on July 16, at 9:00 AM GMT (5:00 PM Beijing, 6:00 PM Tokyo), and will last approximately 3-4 hours.

During this time, only the Amsterdam server cluster will be available!

All your in-game stats, profiles, inventory items and so on, stays intact during and after the transfer. Additionally, the Amsterdam server cluster will remain available during the transfer, so you can continue playing there if you so wish. Once the transfer is done, both European and Asian server clusters will become available as usual.

We will be testing the new cluster for up to 2 weeks after the move: again by gathering player feedback as well as running our own tests on how the change affects lags and connectivity for different players.

______




ːmaliceː Official Discord
ːmaliceː Twitter (game updates)



ːsummer_magicː Official Discord
ːsummer_magicː Twitter (game updates)

With the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC releasing on August 13 (wishlist it right here), we’ve now entered the final leg of development. We’re currently ironing out all the bugs and balancing issues, and we’ll be able to show you actual gameplay in motion before release. For now, let’s take a look at a new human faction that we only mentioned in passing so far. Read on!

The southern deserts are dominated by mighty city states that impose their will on the surrounding lands. Outside their gates lies barren wasteland that is home to another people, called the Nomads. They’re a proud and free people that reject the strict and sometimes oppressive city state laws, their harsh criminal system and their corruption. But by doing so, they also reject the many achievements of the city states, which, for all their flaws, are also a place where knowledge and science have displaced superstition, where there is stability and order, and where there is food and water aplenty.



Nomads travel the barren desert from one source of water to the next, hunting and scavenging, and living the freedom that they chose. Faced with surviving in this harsh environment, many nomads turn to banditry. It’s not all of them, of course, but as a mercenary in this world it’s who you’ll be dealing with most of the time. Nomads have a roster of their own, roughly similar to that of northern brigands, but with their own equipment and a unique skill.



Home in the desert and experienced in desert warfare, nomads use the environment to their advantage. Quite literally, in that they may throw sand in the faces of their opponents, inflicting the new ‘Distracted’ status effect. A distracted target will inflict less damage and have less initiative for a single turn.

Nomad Cutthroats and Nomad Outlaws are roughly equivalent to Brigand Thugs and Brigand Raiders. They tend to have less armor than their northern cousins in crime, but are more evasive, and their cultural pride affords them a slightly higher resolve and thus makes them slightly harder to break.



Wearing traditional nomad armor fashioned from leather and hemp, they’re armed with commonly available southern weapons like saifs, scimitars and spears, but they also make use of whips in battle and use the nomad mace not found elsewhere.

Nomad Slingers and Nomad Archers are roughly equivalent to Brigand Poachers and Brigand Marksmen. Slingers are armed with nomad slings, a different variant of the regular staff sling, while archers use the composite bow. This bow has lower range than regular bows, but performs better against armor, putting it in between regular bows and crossbows on the spectrum.



Larger congregations of nomads are led by a Nomad Leader, roughly equivalent to a Brigand Leader, and may also be supported by higher tier specialists. The Desert Stalker is a master of using bows and killing from afar, the Nomad Executioner is a heavily armed and armored individual that likes to solve disputes by slugging it out with two-handed weapons, and the Desert Devil is a bladedancer of sorts, a whirlwind on the battlefield wielding a shamshir or a swordlance. He’s not quite as skilled in a duel as a Swordmaster, but makes up this fact by being considerably more agile and less vulnerable to getting peppered with arrows. Naturally, all of these characters may also appear as champions with named gear if you own the Warriors of the North DLC.

Dear community:

As we mentioned in the recent Summer Update, we are exploring the possibility to improve connection of our Asia-based servers. Some players (mostly from mainland China and from a few regions of Japan) may currently experience lags when playing on the Singapore server.

Our next step is the following: on July 7, the Asian server cluster will be moved from Singapore to Khabarovsk. According to our server partner and to our preliminary tests, the new location may result in better connectivity for users from China as well as for users from Japan.

Please note: the transfer will happen on July 7, at 11:59 AM GMT (7:59 PM Beijing, 8:59 PM Tokyo), and will last approximately 6-8 hours.

During this time, the Singapore server cluster will be unavailable!

All your in-game stats, profiles, inventory items and so on, stays intact during and after the transfer. Additionally, the Amsterdam server cluster will remain available during the transfer, so you can continue playing there if you so wish. Once the transfer is done, both European and Asian server clusters will become available as usual.

We will be testing the new cluster for up to 2 weeks after the move: gathering player feedback as well as running our own tests on how the change affects lags and connectivity for different players. After that, we' will make the decision on whether we relocate the Asian server cluster to Khabarovsk permanently, or we need more tests in alternative locations (Hong-Kong and Tokyo are other possibilities).

We apologize for the inconvenience to those who will be affected by the move during July 7, and we hope that even if your own player experience is great right now on the Singapore server, you will understand our effort to improve the experience of players who are currently experiencing there lags from time to time.

Together, we can find the location that will make most of our players happier. Thank you!

______




ːmaliceː Official Discord
ːmaliceː Twitter (game updates)



ːsummer_magicː Official Discord
ːsummer_magicː Twitter (game updates)

The largest and most ambitious DLC for Battle Brothers yet is almost ready. We’re happy to announce that the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC for Battle Brothers will be released on August 13th for the price of $14.99 or your regional equivalent. You can already find and wishlist it right here.



The artwork above can also be downloaded as a wallpaper here.

The 'Blazing Deserts' DLC for Battle Brothers expands the game with new lands of burning deserts and lush oases to the south. Visit independent city states, fight in the arena, face desert raiders and southern beasts in battle. Wear new gear inspired by Arabian and Persian cultures of the medieval ages, employ alchemical contraptions and primitive firearms, and forge your own path when the fires of religious turmoil threaten to engulf the world in a new late game crisis.

• New Lands - Visit new lands to the south with independent city-states that have their own lore, equipment and services, as well as entirely new character backgrounds to recruit.
  
• Retinue - Hire non-combat followers for your retinue to customize your campaign experience to fit your playstyle. Hire a drill sergeant to train your men. Never lose shields again with a blacksmith that can repair gear no matter how damaged. Buy carts for additional inventory space.
  
• Arena - Fight in front of cheering spectators to earn coin, experience and unique rewards as an alternative to mercenary work.
  
• New Crisis - Survive a new late game crisis that tests the mettle of your company in the fires of religious turmoil.
  
• New Opponents - Face new factions of city state soldiers and desert raiders, complete with their own gear and unique mechanics. Hunt down and get hunted by desert beasts.
  
• New Origins - Play using one of three new southern-themed origins, each with special rules that shape your campaign into a different experience from beginning to end.
  
• New Banners and Gear - Dress in style with a collection of new banners, shields, helmets and armors inspired by Arabic and Persian culture. Use new weapons, alchemical contraptions and primitive firearms.
  
• Legendary Location - Visit a new legendary location and fight a new boss in a quest that leads to a legendary reward.
  
• New Location Environments - Fight amidst southern ruins and nomad tents on the tactical combat map, in addition to graveyards and encampments by brigands, orcs and goblins that come with a free update to the base game.
  
• New Contracts and Events - Earn your stay in the south by taking on new contracts. Immerse yourself in leading a mercenary company with even more illustrated events.
  
• New Music - Several new music tracks set the mood on your adventures.
  
• New Achievements - Challenge yourself with new achievements.

Please note: You'll be able to continue your current campaign with the DLC, but you won't have access to all of the new content until you start a new campaign. Starting a new campaign is very much recommended.

ːcardsː players: 4
ːscoreː victory condition: 30 points
ːcursecardː Chaos Cards: allowed
ːhealth_powerupː Character Abilities: allowed
ːtelegramː Impending Misfortune: visible
ːcheatdiceː Characters: from random set
ːRatsClockː Timer: normal
ːLocationː Field: Clockwork town

Special rules

No.

Tournament points (place in session/points gained):

1. +150 tournament points
   
2. +45 tournament points
   
3. 15 tournament points
   
4. 0 tournament points

ːcardsː players: 2
ːscoreː victory condition: 35 points
ːcursecardː Chaos Cards: allowed
ːhealth_powerupː Character Abilities: allowed
ːtelegramː Impending Misfortune: hidden
ːcheatdiceː Characters: random
ːRatsClockː Timer: normal
ːLocationː Field: Clockwork town

Special rules

Changes in the deck:

-1 The Accelerator
-1 An Award Ceremony
-1 A Compromising Document
-1 False Testimony
-1 A Fraudulent Transaction
-1 Judgement day
-1 An Honest Exchange

Tournament points (place in session/points gained):

1. +60 tournament points
   
2. 0 tournament points

Sessions that count towards the tournament: ːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinːːbh2coinː (8)

For each win, players receive additional points that depend on the strength of the opponents over whom they have won. Important: your tournament points will continue to increase with the increase in the tournament score of your past opponents, over whom you prevailed – even if you already have reached the limit of sessions for the tournament. What this means is that the tournament is never over for you as long as your previously conquered opponents continue to play, and win.

During this tournament, regular rating points will be frozen for all the players. Your tournament sessions will NOT affect your regular rating.

Players get tournament points for the first 8 sessions played in the tournament on each of the servers. Any subsequent sessions won't give any tournament points, and won't increase the number of defeated opponents who give additional points. Nonetheless, victories of all opponents who were defeated in the first 8 sessions will affect your final tournament rating.


Awarded: Top 10 players on each of the servers. In addition to the main prize fund, every player who finishes all 8 tournament sessions receives a special bonus player icon “Facepalm” (only if it has not been received before)!

Place / Prize –

1. ːHoly_Grailetː 5, ːsunnyemoː 7, Bomb-o-mat, A Contraband Box of Goods x 3
   
2. ːHoly_Grailetː 4, ːsunnyemoː 7 A Contraband Box of Goods x 2
   
3. ːHoly_Grailetː 4, ːsunnyemoː 6 A Contraband Box of Goods
   
4. ːHoly_Grailetː 3, ːsunnyemoː 6
   
5. ːHoly_Grailetː 3, ːsunnyemoː 6
   
6. ːHoly_Grailetː 3, ːsunnyemoː 6
   
7. ːHoly_Grailetː 2, ːsunnyemoː 5
   
8. ːHoly_Grailetː 2, ːsunnyemoː 4
   
9. ːHoly_Grailetː 1, ːsunnyemoː 3
   
10. ːHoly_Grailetː 1, ːsunnyemoː 3

ːHoly_Grailetː = Tournament Chest (limited, tournaments only)
ːsunnyemoː = Summer Chest (limited, Summer Season only)

In the case when at the end of the tournament two or more players will have equal number of tournament points, they will share the same (highest) place and get the same rewards. However, the award list will not be extended, and we will still award only the top 10 players on each server.


Q. Where do Tournament Chests drop?
A. Only in tournament sessions, which are available via Multiplayer Lobby.

Q. If I've finished all my tournament sessions, can I get more tournament chests?
A. Yes, as long as you will keep playing tournament sessions.

Q. Are the tournament items limited to this tournament only, or to tournaments in general?
A. The tournament items are available via tournament chests, which drop during every official tournament in the game.

Q. Is there a full list of tournament items available via tournament chests?
A. Yes, please see below:

• Message – No need to thank me. (uncommon)
  
• Message – Nothing personal. (uncommon)
  
• Emoticon – Winner (uncommon)
  
• Emoticon – Thief (uncommon)
  
• Lobby icon – Darbl fon Murblenton (rare)
  
• Player profile – Trophy shelf (rare)
  
• Main menu background – The Champion (rare)
  
• Governor frame – The Governor of Governors (contraband)
  
• Blueprint – Blueprint: "The Ruffian" (contraband)
  
• Special item – Bomb-o-mat (contraband)
  
• Token trail – Champion's trail (illegal)

• Participants: 1,604 unique players participated in the tournament.
  
  
• Involvement: 312 players completed 8 or more sessions. 146 players received the "Facepalm" lobby icon for completing all 8 tournament sessions for the first time. 554 players completed more than half (5+) of their sessions.
  
  
• Sessions played: 2,253 tournament sessions were played in the course of the tournament.
  
  
• Average lenght of sessions: Amsterdam (4 players, 30 points) – 51 minutes / 49 rounds. Singapore: (2 players, 35 points) – 25 minutes / 58 rounds.
  
  
• Bans: 4 protests have been investigated and 7 players banned for the breach of the Fair Play Rules during this tournament.
  
  
• Tournament chests: 3,394 tournament chests were distributed during the tournament (overall, including non-tournament sessions, 6,223 chests were distributed to players in this period).

1,194 participants

01. 千反田爱瑠 (1308) – 8 sessions, 8 victories. ːfirstplaceː ːHoly_Grailetː x5, ːsunnyemoː x7, Bomb-o-mat, A Contraband Box of Goods x3
02. АРТёМ.spb.ru (1215) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː 4, ːsunnyemoː 7, A Contraband Box of Goods x2
03. hoshino408 (1092) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x4, ːsunnyemoː x6, A Contraband Box of Goods
04. nikron (1083) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
05. 暗影 (1077) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
05. Гойко Митич (1077) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
05. Fairkater (1077) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
05. youlai_abub (1077) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
09. Ukey (993) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3
09. BruceVonBoss (993) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3

410 participants

01. winter1703 (702) – 8 sessions, 8 victories. ːfirstplaceː ːHoly_Grailetː x5, ːsunnyemoː x7, Bomb-o-mat, A Contraband Box of Goods x 3
02. Standard of Ur (666) – 8 sessions, 8 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x4, ːsunnyemoː x7, A Contraband Box of Goods x 2
03. АРТёМ.spb.ru (642) – 8 sessions, 8 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x4, ːsunnyemoː x6, A Contraband Box of Goods
04. ryuusan-san (588) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
05. kinako (576) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
06. hosiimo (570) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
07. U.M.R (522) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x2, ːsunnyemoː x5
07. Peterish (522) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x2, ːsunnyemoː x5
09. Deum (516) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3
10. not the robot you're looking for (510) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3
10. MasteR. (510) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3

ːHoly_Grailetː = Tournament Chest (limited, tournaments only)
ːsunnyemoː = Summer Chest (limited, Summer Season only)

* the number of sessions played shows only the sessions that were played while they had impact on the overall tournament score of that player.

** if two or more players have equal number of tournament points, they share the same (highest) place and get the same rewards.

We congratulate the winners and wish good luck to everyone in future events! Thank you for being such an awesome community! ːvotesː

______




ːmaliceː Official Discord
ːmaliceː Twitter (game updates)



ːsummer_magicː Official Discord
ːsummer_magicː Twitter (game updates)

Things are coming together, and we’ll announce a release date for the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC in next week’s devblog! In the meantime we expand on a feature that many of you have asked us for more details on: The Arena. To arms!

While northerners will duel for honor, southerners do so for the entertainment of the masses, and not always willingly. Arena fights are to the death, or at the very least incapacitation, and in front of crowds that cheer for the most gruesome manner in which lives are dispatched. It is a different way to earn money with advantages and disadvantages over mercenary contracts. The arena is a building found in the city states, and entering it you start an arena contract.



Unlike with mercenary contracts, in arena matches you’re limited to fight with just three men of your choice against various opponents. Also unlike mercenary contracts, you’ll know exactly which and how many opponents you’re about to face - a certain number of beasts, slaves, captured desert raiders or professional gladiators, for example. If the upcoming arena match is not to your liking, you can simply wait until the next day and the next arena match. There’s no lengthy travelling involved, nor ambushes along the road, and you’re paid well for quick battles - but only if you win. If you’re looking for a quickstart into the gladiator lifestyle, the ‘Gladiators’ origin is a good pick.



Once you accept to fight in the arena, you’re given arena collars to equip up to three men of your choice with that are to partake in the match. Because an arena collar is worn in the accessory slot, this also means that you can’t take wardogs into the arena with you - you’ll have to do the fighting yourself!



Arena bouts are fought on a smaller map than regular battles and in front of cheering spectators. Your every move is commented with cheers and boos; missed that attack with a 95% chance to hit? People will gasp alongside you. Killed that beast with one swift stroke? People will cheer and applaud. Flee from your opponents? People will boo, because they paid for a match to the death and expect you to die proper bloody. Unlike with mercenary contracts, you can’t retreat once a battle has started and you won’t be able to loot your victims after the battle has ended. But if your men survive long enough, fighting in the arena will earn them unique traits as they climb the ranks from pit fighter to veteran of the arena. Traits that aid them both inside and outside of the arena.



Every fifth arena match is a special one; you’ll face harder opposition than usual in front of particularly important spectators that crave entertainment most thrilling, but you’ll also earn a piece of rare gladiator equipment not otherwise available in the game if you manage to win. Because of the perils of the gladiator profession, hiring a Surgeon for your retinue of non-combat followers may be a good investment to ensure that your men survive after a lost bout to entertain the crowd another day.

The big Summer Update for Gremlins, Inc. is here, and as usual it brings new content and features – as well as fixes and re-balancing changes.

But before we jump into the details of the update, we wanted to share this information:

ːmaliceː At the end of 2019, we changed our server cluster in Singapore. A couple of months later, we discovered certain connectivity issues with the new server, and we did our best to fix them.

We are aware that these efforts weren't entirely successful and some players, mostly from mainland China and certain regions of Japan, still might experience lags when they play the game on the Singapore server.

We've spent the last 3 months trying dozens of options for addressing this issue, and we have no intention to leave it "as is" – we will continue working on a solution.

In the near future, we will be testing other geographical locations to see if moving the server from Singapore to another city could improve player experience in Asia.

ːhypnoheartː We are thankful for your patience and appreciate your understanding, and we hope to find the solution that will improve the experience of those players who currently may still experience lags.

– and now to the changes that this update brings to the game:



Before: When a new season begins, the rating of all players resets without the possibility to see any previous results (personal or overall).

After: The results of all previous monthly seasons (starting from January 2019, when the very first one was played) are now available in the game. The ultimate ladder now shows not only the results of the current season, but also the results of the previous seasons as well.

Reason: the ability to check your (or overall) previous results not only is very convenient, but also shows the names of the players who were the most successful in the game in the past seasons.





Before: When a player creates a lobby for a custom multiplayer session, anyone can join it. When someone joins but you don't want to play with them, you can kick them out of your lobby. However, nothing prevents them from re-joining again immediately.

After: If you kick someone out of your lobby, they won't be able to come back. The restriction only works for this particular lobby and applies for as long as the lobby exists. Just be careful – if you kick someone out by mistake, in order for them to join your session again, you will have to create a new lobby.

Reason: Such behaviour can be used to harass or annoy players in the multiplayer lobby, and we would like to protect them from such experiences.



Some changes are invisible, such as optimisation of the server code. Some changes take a long time, such as looking for the alternative to the Singapore server cluster that would provide faster connection to players from Japan and from China. But some changes are much more obvious, such as new cards that arrive to the game with every major update!




Location: The Bank
Cost: Free
Type: Normal
Movement points: 3
Get: -10 income, -ːmaliceː5.
Number of these cards in the default deck: 1

"A charitable donation: the means of securing a discount for future bribes” – from the gremlin vocabulary.


Reason: the idea of a card that allows using income as a resource that can be spent on something else (in this case: malice reduction) was in our heads for quite some time and now it makes its way into the game.





Location: The Casino
Cost: Free
Type: Secret
Movement points: 4
Get: +ːmaliceː2
Number of these cards in the default deck: 1

Special rule:

Look at 6 new cards. You can swap any of them with any cards on your hand. You can play another Casino card in this turn.

All cards in this deck are different, no matter from which side you look at them.


Reason: we want to "boost" the Casino a bit more with a card that can be played in multiple ways: just for hand management; as a part of a prepared combo where you already have 2 Casino cards when you visit the location; or as a part of a lucky combo in which you find your second Casino card at the top of the deck.



As you may know, when we developed Gremlins, Inc. in 2013-2015, we put little thought into tools and architecture that would allow us to quickly mod the game. Later, we were busy adding major features and game content. And only this year we finally put serious thought and effort into making the game really moddable.

The first part of the moddability project is done by now: our own team is able to quickly modify every card in the deck, in addition to the composition of the deck itself. This finally (finally!) allows us to listen to the community feedback and quickly implement changes that make the most sense every month, together with the change of the ranked session rules.

We start with re-balancing of 17 cards. The changes are described below in detail. These changes are based on the data of how the cards are used in the game across more than 60,000 recent sessions, as well as on the community feedback and discussions on the game's forums and its Discord server.

We would also like to express our gratitude to our Pillars of Community players, whose feedback and recommendations were extremely helpful during the process of re-balancing.





Reason: we want to weaken the impact of this card and to make it more useful for movement. At the same time, the card is now cheaper.





Reason: we want to make this card a bit more effective, since in its current state it doesn't see as much play as we would like it to have.





Reason: we want to make moving with this card less punishing. The card, while very useful in some circumstances, has a very situational effect. In its current state it often becomes a burden that players have no reason to play, but also don't want to use to move because of the cost. We'd like to change that.





Reason: to reduce the number of situations where this card is played completely unexpectedly. Considering how impactful this card is, it shouldn't happen for free, and completely "out of the blue".





Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card. Without the extra turn, it still produces a significant outcome.





Reason: we want to make the card a bit more punishing for those who play it, as it currently gets a lot of play despite its criminal status and a relatively high cost of 3 votes.





Reason: we want to adjust the deck that grew much bigger with all the recent updates, and at this point contains many more cards that can be played at the Plant during one session.





Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card as it gets a lot of play. As more cards have been added to the game that give additional votes, this card can take a little nerf that would make it less popular.





Reason: we want to make this card more efficient as it isn't played as often as we'd like it to be played.





Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card, which is currently so high that players almost always keep it on hand in order to get the money – despite its criminal status. Initially, we wanted to reduce the outcome of the card by $100 but after receiving players' feedback we decided to start with $50 instead.





Reason: we want to make this card more attractive for being used to move. Initially it was done through its movement buff but after additional consideration the card was changed in a different way.





Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card, and to slightly increase the punishment for playing it for action – because in its current state this is one of the most played cards in the game.





Reason: we want to make it easier for players to get rid of this card from their hand, so this would happen more often and the card wouldn't be kept on hand until played for action.





Reason: we want to make it easier for players to get rid of this card from their hand, so this would happen more often and the card wouldn't be kept on hand until played for action.





Reason: we want to to reduce the impact of this card, which is so strong already that even the complete removal of the bonus probably won't change its popularity too much. But we decided to start with the reduction of the bonus first, and to see if a further nerf is needed.





Reason: we want to make this card a bit more popular, and have it played more often.





Reason: we want to give this card a slightly negative effect to compensate for the fact that the player also receives a free score point.




Before: Ranked sessions are open to everyone for as long as they can launch the game and don't have a ban for a Fair Play Rules violation.

After: In order to participate in ranked sessions, you also have to own the game on your own Steam account.

Reason: free access to the game during free weekends or with the Steam Family Sharing feature is nice, but there are major downsides to it:

1) some of these players don't have any reason to care about the result of a session and often leave it early or purposefully ruin it for the opponents. While we allow the freedom of behaviour in ranked sessions, it doesn't mean that we don't want to reduce the number of such cases. And those who care about the result, often do so for a wrong reason, which brings the second downside;

2) free access can be easily exploited in pursuit of dishonest goals. Players who are banned from the ranked mode for the violation of Fair Play Rules can create a new account and be back in ranked sessions literally in minutes, which doesn't help improving other players' experience at all. This also opens up a lot of possibilities for team play where the same two players use multiple accounts to avoid restrictions of matchmaking.

Therefore, we made the decision to limit what is available to the users who don't own the game. They are more than welcome to play against bots or play custom sessions with anyone they want – no limits applied there.



Before: when you roll a die with the standard dice-roller, the final number can be predicted by the look at the initial value, and the lever animation is quite jerky.

After: the final number won't be known until the dice-roller stops, and the lever animation is now smoother than before.

Reason: both changes are made with regard to the feedback that we have received after the Spring update.


Before: the contrast, brightness, and saturation of some of the cards were not in line with the others.

After: the contrast, brightness, and saturation of all cards are brought to the same level.

Reason: after years of development and adding multiple new cards with new and unique illustrations, we have noticed that their coloring became less consistent. It wasn't awful but it was noticeable enough for us to decide that it is time to give all cards an overhaul in order to reduce the inconsistency.

• Fixed an issue: if the special rule “A Box of Secrets” is used during a session with bots, some cards would disappear from the deck in the course of the session. This was an absolutely bizarre issue that existed for a very long time and was discovered only recently, but now it's not the case anymore.
  
  
• Fixed a rare issue: if a player experiences heavy lags, it is possible that for the opponents their movement on the board would appear chaotic and absolutely impossible. This happened due to sync issues caused by lags and delays between the player's client and the server, and is now fixed.
  
  
• Fixed an issue: If the last Jail event was declined, the timer stays on the screen until it ends or until the next turn of that player begins. It's not the case anymore and the timer will disappear as soon as the action is completed.

ːsteampunkːːsteampunkːːsteampunkː


Thanks for sticking with us, and for being a part of this game's wonderful community!

We wish you lots of fun with the updated game, and we promise to continue working on improvements and new content throughout 2020 and beyond. We are now back to having 2 members of our development team working full-time on Gremlins, Inc., and we expect to surprise you with more cool stuff in the coming months.