Another massive update of Hearthlands has been released! Here's the list of some of the new stuff:

Note: savegames from older versions of Hearthlands are incompatible with 0.6.0.


- Quarry, coal mine, iron mine and gold mine

Those buildings provide you with additional sources of stone, coal, iron ore and gold accordingly and do not require the resource to be present on the map. However, they are quite slow, expensive and require "Mining" technology to be researched at a certain level.




- "Mining" and "Statecraft" technologies

"Mining" has been explained above and "Statecraft" increases the "Improve relations" bonus (see below). Also "Bluff" technology has been fixed (now it actually works).


- Watch tower and watchman

Each watch tower can train (automatically) one watchman who will protect the surrounding area from hostile creatures. Although watchmen aren't very strong and you can't control them directly, they are a good way to have some protection early on, which doesn't require special resources. If watchman dies, a new one is trained after a while. Watchmen have "Monster Hunter" ability which increased the damage they do to monsters.




- Sewers and boggers

As the city grows more and more sewers will appear around it. Sewers will periodically spawn little monsters called boggers who will hunt down your subjects but won't attack buildings. Make sure to have guard tower, watch tower or barracks nearby to protect against them.




- Goblins, goblin villages and goblin thieves

Goblin villages can be generated on the local map. They are neutral at the start, but if you attack one of their buildings the whole village becomes hostile. Also goblin villages may spawn thieves who will try to snatch some resources from one of your storage yards. Killing a goblin thief won't trigger the aggression. Other types of goblins include goblin warriors, goblin crossbowmen and goblin wolfriders.




- Trolls and troll's lairs

Troll's lairs can be generated on the local map. Trolls are powerful monsters with higher rate of regeneration.




- Warlock and warlock's tower

Warlock's tower can be generated on the local map. Warlocks are neural but will become hostile if you attack the tower. Warlocks aren't very strong but rely on their special abilities: Magic Missile (ranged attack, does splash damage) and Blink (if attacked, warlock will teleport randomly within a certain radius, making him harder to kill in melee).




- Graveyards can now be destroyed

If you attack a graveyard it becomes "active" and starts to spawn skeletons. However, now it can be destroyed for some loot.


- More skeletons

Apart from normal skeletons, there are skeleton archers, skeleton riders (use giant spiders as mounts) and skeleton reaper, who is a unique boss-like character.




- Dragon

A very powerful unique creature with a devastating Fireball attack (ranged, does splash damage), who may pay you a visit if you've got a lot of money.




- Treasure

Certain characters and buildings now drop loot when destroyed. Goblin thieves drop the items they've stolen, burglars drop the money and powerful creatures like trolls and warlocks drop items that either give you money (a treasure chest), XP (a knight's grail), fame (a sword in stone), magic points (a magical sphere) or lore points (an ancient book). Treasure needs to be picked up by a squad unit. Some treasure is generated on the local map at the start and most of NPC buildings drop some.




- Special locations

Apart from rival cities there are three new possible locations on the world map: goblin stronghold, dragon's lair and evil fortress. All three of them can be conquered and destroyed and all three of them can launch an invasion on you. Goblins will only attack if you've attacked a goblin village, dragon works alone and undead army is lead by a skeleton reaper.




- More new game settings

New game settings screen has been changed a bit and now shows the overall difficulty of the setup. You can toggle plague, thieves and burglars, sewers, elementals, special locations, NPCs (all, neutral only or none) and scarce resources.




- Biomes

Each culture now has a "biome" associated with it, which defines how the local map looks and what it has. Birch trees, cypress trees and blue pine trees have been added.




- Improve relations

You can now spend fame to temporarily increase relations with a rival. The closer your relations are to a zero, the higher is the gain.


- Loans

You can now take loans from rivals (as long as their opinion of you isn't negative) with a certain interest rate (depends on the opinion).




- Other notable things

Plague can be ended if pharmacist delivers one (full) load of medicine to an infected house.

There's no restriction for construction near hostile units any more, with the exception for invaders.

Barracks and watch towers show training progress. Also training units is now slower.

Burglas can now be killed by watchmen, squad units or guard towers and drop a treasure chest (if they've stolen something).


Thank you for your support!

Another massive update of Hearthlands has been released! Here's the list of some of the new stuff:

Note: savegames from older versions of Hearthlands are incompatible with 0.6.0.


- Quarry, coal mine, iron mine and gold mine

Those buildings provide you with additional sources of stone, coal, iron ore and gold accordingly and do not require the resource to be present on the map. However, they are quite slow, expensive and require "Mining" technology to be researched at a certain level.




- "Mining" and "Statecraft" technologies

"Mining" has been explained above and "Statecraft" increases the "Improve relations" bonus (see below). Also "Bluff" technology has been fixed (now it actually works).


- Watch tower and watchman

Each watch tower can train (automatically) one watchman who will protect the surrounding area from hostile creatures. Although watchmen aren't very strong and you can't control them directly, they are a good way to have some protection early on, which doesn't require special resources. If watchman dies, a new one is trained after a while. Watchmen have "Monster Hunter" ability which increased the damage they do to monsters.




- Sewers and boggers

As the city grows more and more sewers will appear around it. Sewers will periodically spawn little monsters called boggers who will hunt down your subjects but won't attack buildings. Make sure to have guard tower, watch tower or barracks nearby to protect against them.




- Goblins, goblin villages and goblin thieves

Goblin villages can be generated on the local map. They are neutral at the start, but if you attack one of their buildings the whole village becomes hostile. Also goblin villages may spawn thieves who will try to snatch some resources from one of your storage yards. Killing a goblin thief won't trigger the aggression. Other types of goblins include goblin warriors, goblin crossbowmen and goblin wolfriders.




- Trolls and troll's lairs

Troll's lairs can be generated on the local map. Trolls are powerful monsters with higher rate of regeneration.




- Warlock and warlock's tower

Warlock's tower can be generated on the local map. Warlocks are neural but will become hostile if you attack the tower. Warlocks aren't very strong but rely on their special abilities: Magic Missile (ranged attack, does splash damage) and Blink (if attacked, warlock will teleport randomly within a certain radius, making him harder to kill in melee).




- Graveyards can now be destroyed

If you attack a graveyard it becomes "active" and starts to spawn skeletons. However, now it can be destroyed for some loot.


- More skeletons

Apart from normal skeletons, there are skeleton archers, skeleton riders (use giant spiders as mounts) and skeleton reaper, who is a unique boss-like character.




- Dragon

A very powerful unique creature with a devastating Fireball attack (ranged, does splash damage), who may pay you a visit if you've got a lot of money.




- Treasure

Certain characters and buildings now drop loot when destroyed. Goblin thieves drop the items they've stolen, burglars drop the money and powerful creatures like trolls and warlocks drop items that either give you money (a treasure chest), XP (a knight's grail), fame (a sword in stone), magic points (a magical sphere) or lore points (an ancient book). Treasure needs to be picked up by a squad unit. Some treasure is generated on the local map at the start and most of NPC buildings drop some.




- Special locations

Apart from rival cities there are three new possible locations on the world map: goblin stronghold, dragon's lair and evil fortress. All three of them can be conquered and destroyed and all three of them can launch an invasion on you. Goblins will only attack if you've attacked a goblin village, dragon works alone and undead army is lead by a skeleton reaper.




- More new game settings

New game settings screen has been changed a bit and now shows the overall difficulty of the setup. You can toggle plague, thieves and burglars, sewers, elementals, special locations, NPCs (all, neutral only or none) and scarce resources.




- Biomes

Each culture now has a "biome" associated with it, which defines how the local map looks and what it has. Birch trees, cypress trees and blue pine trees have been added.




- Improve relations

You can now spend fame to temporarily increase relations with a rival. The closer your relations are to a zero, the higher is the gain.


- Loans

You can now take loans from rivals (as long as their opinion of you isn't negative) with a certain interest rate (depends on the opinion).




- Other notable things

Plague can be ended if pharmacist delivers one (full) load of medicine to an infected house.

There's no restriction for construction near hostile units any more, with the exception for invaders.

Barracks and watch towers show training progress. Also training units is now slower.

Burglas can now be killed by watchmen, squad units or guard towers and drop a treasure chest (if they've stolen something).


Thank you for your support!

• Added Healing Fountain at entrance to Hearth cave.
  
• Implemented load or go to title screen options in game over scene.
  
• Added clearer instructions in Greencliff Forest

Major:

• Fixed item menu actions.
  
• Swinging shovel at guards or Fluffy crashes game.
  
• Talking to leon before sleeping disables transfer.

Minor:

• Soldiers at camp spawning on screen.
  
• Exits at camp buggy.
  
• Left Click not working in menu.
  
• Re-entering Thrain's shop crashes you.
  
• Switch in Cell Block 4 is buggy.
  
• Impassable people in Hearth Village.
  
• Buying and Selling signs mixed up in shop.
  
• Guards Movements and collision redone.

• Added Healing Fountain at entrance to Hearth cave.
  
• Implemented load or go to title screen options in game over scene.
  
• Added clearer instructions in Greencliff Forest

Major:

• Fixed item menu actions.
  
• Swinging shovel at guards or Fluffy crashes game.
  
• Talking to leon before sleeping disables transfer.

Minor:

• Soldiers at camp spawning on screen.
  
• Exits at camp buggy.
  
• Left Click not working in menu.
  
• Re-entering Thrain's shop crashes you.
  
• Switch in Cell Block 4 is buggy.
  
• Impassable people in Hearth Village.
  
• Buying and Selling signs mixed up in shop.
  
• Guards Movements and collision redone.

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here's what we have for you in this week's Update of the Avatar: Etceter Crag Mines, Are You Ready for some Gustball!, Envyco Gaming: R18 Deck Building Tutorial, Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 18 Postmortem, World Builder/Level Designer and VFX Artist Job Openings, In-game Community Weekend Events, and More!


In preparation for Release 19, Scottie Jones has been crafting the Etceter Crag Mines with Rick Holtrop contributing gameplay elements. Here's a bit of the story of those mines:


Long ago, when Etceter was nothing more than a collection of prospector shacks and tents hugging the coast of the Bay of Storms at the mouth of the Barren River, the Etceter Crag Mines were being dug deep into the nearby mountainous hills known as the Crags. At first the miners were sure their fortunes were made. The deeper they dug, the richer the veins of gold ore seemed to be.



When they came upon the underground pool with its fresh mineral waterfall and the subterranean river to the sea, they saw this as an incomparable blessing! Now they could easily trade gold directly with the passing ships plying the ocean-routes back toward their home, without even bothering to leave their lucrative mines.



But the stories say they became too greedy, and they braved the trembling depths of the world too deeply. Perhaps the view of distant volcanic islands should have warned them of the dangers they were about to unearth. After a horrifying tragedy the mine was abandoned, with terrible tales of holes opened up into Hell itself, and fiery demons emerging to slay all in their path. The lower levels of the mine were supposedly sealed in an enormous cave-in, with barely half the terrified miners emerging to tell the tale.




These days, only bandits and brigands make use of the upper levels of the abandoned mines, and even they refuse to delve too deep.




Those who have the guts to speak with them will hear tales of rumbling deep within the earth, whispering voices, and the hideous spectres of the dead haunting the deeper recesses of the dark tunnels. Of course, these may merely be stories they tell to insure that the curious stay clear. Perhaps there are still golden treasures to be found deep within the rocky bowels of the mountains





With the launch of PaxLair in Release 17 last month, community member Bambino orchestrated a rather unique event entitled "Gustball". As described by Bambino in his initial Release 17 Events forum post:

The essence of Gustball: Two teams are pitted against each other in sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a “Gustball” (an avatar named "The Ball") around the field and into your opponent’s goal; the team that scores the most goals within two halves wins the match. In the event of a tie, the game is extended and the very next goal decides the winner. Each half will last 10 minutes. Teams will either wear a white cloak or green cloak, depending on what team they are on. The Gustball will wear a red cloak.

Here is a screenshot shared on the forums by Soleidad of that first Gustball event held in the PaxLair Arena Basement:



The whole notion of using an avatar as "The Ball" was hilarious! Great fun was had by all and this turned into a very popular recurring event. Congratulations, and many thanks, to Bambino for dreaming up such a unique sporting event!

Players started brainstorming ideas for what could make the event even more fun, and more integrated into SotA. Lots of great ideas where shared and one that we decided we could squeeze into Release 19 was an actual Gustball (relieving an avatar from having to play the role of "The Ball"):




Check out the rest of Update #128 at www.shroudoftheavatar.com

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here's what we have for you in this week's Update of the Avatar: Etceter Crag Mines, Are You Ready for some Gustball!, Envyco Gaming: R18 Deck Building Tutorial, Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 18 Postmortem, World Builder/Level Designer and VFX Artist Job Openings, In-game Community Weekend Events, and More!


In preparation for Release 19, Scottie Jones has been crafting the Etceter Crag Mines with Rick Holtrop contributing gameplay elements. Here's a bit of the story of those mines:


Long ago, when Etceter was nothing more than a collection of prospector shacks and tents hugging the coast of the Bay of Storms at the mouth of the Barren River, the Etceter Crag Mines were being dug deep into the nearby mountainous hills known as the Crags. At first the miners were sure their fortunes were made. The deeper they dug, the richer the veins of gold ore seemed to be.



When they came upon the underground pool with its fresh mineral waterfall and the subterranean river to the sea, they saw this as an incomparable blessing! Now they could easily trade gold directly with the passing ships plying the ocean-routes back toward their home, without even bothering to leave their lucrative mines.



But the stories say they became too greedy, and they braved the trembling depths of the world too deeply. Perhaps the view of distant volcanic islands should have warned them of the dangers they were about to unearth. After a horrifying tragedy the mine was abandoned, with terrible tales of holes opened up into Hell itself, and fiery demons emerging to slay all in their path. The lower levels of the mine were supposedly sealed in an enormous cave-in, with barely half the terrified miners emerging to tell the tale.




These days, only bandits and brigands make use of the upper levels of the abandoned mines, and even they refuse to delve too deep.




Those who have the guts to speak with them will hear tales of rumbling deep within the earth, whispering voices, and the hideous spectres of the dead haunting the deeper recesses of the dark tunnels. Of course, these may merely be stories they tell to insure that the curious stay clear. Perhaps there are still golden treasures to be found deep within the rocky bowels of the mountains





With the launch of PaxLair in Release 17 last month, community member Bambino orchestrated a rather unique event entitled "Gustball". As described by Bambino in his initial Release 17 Events forum post:

The essence of Gustball: Two teams are pitted against each other in sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a “Gustball” (an avatar named "The Ball") around the field and into your opponent’s goal; the team that scores the most goals within two halves wins the match. In the event of a tie, the game is extended and the very next goal decides the winner. Each half will last 10 minutes. Teams will either wear a white cloak or green cloak, depending on what team they are on. The Gustball will wear a red cloak.

Here is a screenshot shared on the forums by Soleidad of that first Gustball event held in the PaxLair Arena Basement:



The whole notion of using an avatar as "The Ball" was hilarious! Great fun was had by all and this turned into a very popular recurring event. Congratulations, and many thanks, to Bambino for dreaming up such a unique sporting event!

Players started brainstorming ideas for what could make the event even more fun, and more integrated into SotA. Lots of great ideas where shared and one that we decided we could squeeze into Release 19 was an actual Gustball (relieving an avatar from having to play the role of "The Ball"):




Check out the rest of Update #128 at www.shroudoftheavatar.com

My wife's birthday was last weekend, and I wanted to add something special for her, but we've been out of town for the last couple of weeks, so it's been difficult to find the time to add new stuff. Now we're back, so here's some stuff that totally isn't Harry Potter.

There are two prophecies here: one pack of three Warthogs School of Spellcraft and Sorcery characters (a Human Student, a Human Professor, and a Half-Giant Gamekeeper) and one pack of four school banners (Glyph Indoor, Craven Maw, Muffle Gruff, and Wither Sin).

Also included are the usual assortment of fixes and minor changes (like an option to disable the warning klaxon).

Additions:

• Human Student (Shadow immunity, electric attack that reduces melee damage)
  
• Human Professor (improved ward and increased electric damage)
  
• Half-Giant Gamekeeper (melee with minor electric damage and a crossbow ranged attack)
  
• Glyph Indoor banner (increase health of all minions by 1)
  
• Craven Maw banner (all relic cooldowns reduced by 5 seconds)
  
• Muffle Gruff banner (increased artifact drop rate)
  
• Wither Sin banner (all potion cooldowns reduced by 5 seconds)
  
• Added option to disable the warning klaxon

Changes:

• Scared heroes now move a little faster than usual, so they look a little more panicked
  
• Surface monument now lists "Tyrants toppled" instead of total waves completed (I thought the huge total waves monument would be fun, but it just looked ridiculous =P)
  
• Character/floor buttons no longer move around while you are poised to click one, causing you to accidentally purchase the wrong thing
  
• Completely disabled controller support (it was already broken, so leaving what was left was kind of misleading--I'll return to this after the next few features are done)
  
• Reduced background darkness on floors with pitched battles, allowing you to see background characters a little better
  
• Giant spiders now deal partial poison damage in addition to some melee

Fixes:

• Banners unlocked count was off by one in the menu
  
• Banner previews in the codex now use the banners' default colors
  
• Some tall character previews in the codex were cutting off heads
  
• Fixed a consistency issue with debuff abilities
  
• The message log had a higher mouse priority than the codex
  
• Resource cap increases on floor labels were the wrong color
  
• Item indicator on minimap was lower than expected on large floors

My wife's birthday was last weekend, and I wanted to add something special for her, but we've been out of town for the last couple of weeks, so it's been difficult to find the time to add new stuff. Now we're back, so here's some stuff that totally isn't Harry Potter.

There are two prophecies here: one pack of three Warthogs School of Spellcraft and Sorcery characters (a Human Student, a Human Professor, and a Half-Giant Gamekeeper) and one pack of four school banners (Glyph Indoor, Craven Maw, Muffle Gruff, and Wither Sin).

Also included are the usual assortment of fixes and minor changes (like an option to disable the warning klaxon).

Additions:

• Human Student (Shadow immunity, electric attack that reduces melee damage)
  
• Human Professor (improved ward and increased electric damage)
  
• Half-Giant Gamekeeper (melee with minor electric damage and a crossbow ranged attack)
  
• Glyph Indoor banner (increase health of all minions by 1)
  
• Craven Maw banner (all relic cooldowns reduced by 5 seconds)
  
• Muffle Gruff banner (increased artifact drop rate)
  
• Wither Sin banner (all potion cooldowns reduced by 5 seconds)
  
• Added option to disable the warning klaxon

Changes:

• Scared heroes now move a little faster than usual, so they look a little more panicked
  
• Surface monument now lists "Tyrants toppled" instead of total waves completed (I thought the huge total waves monument would be fun, but it just looked ridiculous =P)
  
• Character/floor buttons no longer move around while you are poised to click one, causing you to accidentally purchase the wrong thing
  
• Completely disabled controller support (it was already broken, so leaving what was left was kind of misleading--I'll return to this after the next few features are done)
  
• Reduced background darkness on floors with pitched battles, allowing you to see background characters a little better
  
• Giant spiders now deal partial poison damage in addition to some melee

Fixes:

• Banners unlocked count was off by one in the menu
  
• Banner previews in the codex now use the banners' default colors
  
• Some tall character previews in the codex were cutting off heads
  
• Fixed a consistency issue with debuff abilities
  
• The message log had a higher mouse priority than the codex
  
• Resource cap increases on floor labels were the wrong color
  
• Item indicator on minimap was lower than expected on large floors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lFeZ81QcMo
[Download Ship]

Twin Heavy Laser Arrays
Sealed Repair Bay
Automated Defenses
Repair Bot Fleet

The MRC-20 Scavenger is a versatile carrier with firepower. It can protect and repair ships in its primary bay, and wields a slow tracking, but powerful armament of heavy lasers and naval cannons.

Class: Mastermind
Author: Dani212

*Save ship PNG files to your Gimbal/Hangar folder for use in game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lFeZ81QcMo
[Download Ship]

Twin Heavy Laser Arrays
Sealed Repair Bay
Automated Defenses
Repair Bot Fleet

The MRC-20 Scavenger is a versatile carrier with firepower. It can protect and repair ships in its primary bay, and wields a slow tracking, but powerful armament of heavy lasers and naval cannons.

Class: Mastermind
Author: Dani212

*Save ship PNG files to your Gimbal/Hangar folder for use in game.