Liangyun is located in southwest, full of miasma and rattans. The ancients used special techniques to weave lightweight and durable rattan armour. This armour is good at defending against melee weapons but vulnerable to fire attacks. The rattan armour unit has existed for a long time since the Southgale Archon been established in Liangyun.
2. History
The magistrate of Southgale Archon was very temperamental, inflicting severe punishment to soldiers and taking pleasure in numerous wars. Fifteen years ago, the rattan armour unit leader broke the magistrate’s order of fighting against Farmount Cavern after consideration about the terrible residents’ livelihood and unit condition. There were five parts in rattan armour unit: Rattan swordsmen, Repeater crossbowmen, Rattan pikemen, viper bowmen and mounted crossbow cavalry. In order to pursue peace with the Farmount Cavern, the magistrate was forced to dissolve the rattan armour units, kill main unit leaders and send his son Yenbo as a hostage.
Five years later, Yenbo escaped from the Farmount Cavern. The magistrate temporarily rallied rattan armour unit with 5,000 soldiers to help his son get back home. The rattan armour unit met Yenbo in Warrior plateau. An escort unit were organized to send Yenbo home and others got ready to fight against 30,000 enemies. Rattan swordsmen hold the shortsword & shield to defend at the frontline. Repeater crossbowmen deployed their crossbow to keep enemies away. Rattan pikemen and viper bowmen used poison lance and arrow to produce huge damage. There were only 2,000 rattan armour soldiers left on the battlefield after several hours. Then the mounted crossbow cavalry engaged in the battle and defeated a great number of enemies. At last, remaining units burnt their rattan armours and died with all enemies. The blaze was lasting for the whole night.
Finally Yenbo safely arrived. The escort unit and other soldiers once served in the rattan armour unit agreed to hide in deep mountains because they already fulfilled their loyalty to the magistrate but would never forget his betrayal. Rattan armour unit has disappeared…
Ten years later, Liangyun Governor took hundreds of Yenbo’s family as hostage forcing the magistrate to conquer Maoyang. Given that desperate situation, the magistrate decided to ask rattan armour unit for help by sacrificing himself as a sincere apology. In few months, rattan armour units with 100,000 soldiers got back to the battlefield, following Yenbo to conquer Zaifu and desert fortress in Maoyang, which called “Blazing Rattan Armour”
3. Unit Tree
Rattan armour: high piercing and slashing defence,quicker move, lightweight and durable, absorb higher damage from fire attack
4. Rattan Armour Units:
1). Rattan swordsmen:
Trained by Guerilla tactics and good at melee fight. The rattan armour can reduce the damage by arrows. This unit has better defence to light weapons with longer charge distance and quicker move but vulnerable to fire attacks. Formation: scatter formation/ schiltron/ column Skill: charge Size: 32 Leadership: 130
2). Rattan pikemen
Recruited from Bozhou, this unit used poison lance to reduce enemy’s attack speed and damage. The rattan armour had huge advantage during melee fight. This unit has been specially trained to form up defending the Calvary. Formation: scatter formation Size: 28 Leadership: 115
3). Viper bowmen
Their arrows are tipped with poison that can reduce enemy’s attack speed and produce higher damage. The arrow itself produce lower armour penetration and damage. But this unit often get panic and freak out due to the fear of fire attack. Formation: scatter formation/ bull horns Skill: focused fire Size: 32 Leadership: 195
4). Repeater crossbowmen
This unit are wearing lightweight rattan armour, which have better piercing and slashing defence. They have to load several arrows for 3s-5s then shoot them all at a time, producing high explosive damage. They are vulnerable to fire attacks, bad at melee fight and very effective for enemies with light armour. Formation：scatter formation/ Three ranks Skill: Attack Area Size: 28 Leadership: 180
5). Mounted crossbow cavalry
This unit is very effective during both melee and ranged fight. Their crossbow has lower armour penetration, more effective when fighting against light armour unit. During melee fight, their sword has higher armour penetration and damage. This unit is specially trained to use focus fire in V-formation and ambush in Arrowhead formation. Formation: scatter formation/ V-formation Skills: focus fire/ charge Size：21 Leadership: 350
Let’s talk a bit about how the game will be played. A disclaimer first: everything I will say in these blogpost are subject to change! We are still quite early in the development, and since we are just copying some other game’s gameplay, there is a lot of “doing and throwing away” happening, even in the later stages of development.
During the night, you have to defend against hordes of monsters. Defend your heroes AND your city. Since there are lots of enemies, we thought about some mechanism to avoid turns being too long and boring. You play all your characters during your turn, without turn order or limitation (you can move a character a bit, play another one, and come back to the first character). After that ALL the enemies play at the same time. We made a clever algorithm that calculates all their movements and attacks as a group, and make them play all at once. For the player, there is little downtime.
All enemies attack at the same time!
For now, you don’t lose the control of the camera during the enemies turns, so it’s really quick and smooth, but we may change that a bit later if we start adding enemies with really specific behaviors that we want to focus on. That’s something we will have to playtest, but we already have solutions either ways (maybe free cam can still work and add to the feel of the game…)
Once you’ve defeated all the enemies, the night ends. Your characters get XP and you may level them up, and then comes the day phase.
Day Phase
We changed quite a bit how the day phase plays since the beginning of development. The intentions are that the player has time to build new buildings, defenses and equipment, and that there is some sense of choice.
Right now, the day phase is divided into 2 turns: the actual day when all the management happens, and the end of day phase.
During the day phase, you can move freely around the map!
During the day turn, you build and buy new things, in a “god mode” way. But you can also play your characters: although they have unlimited moves during the day, they still have their Action Points (more about that on a next blog post). You can use these AP to do various things with the buildings you have, for example heal a character, or help the blacksmith forge new weapons…
Since you have a limited pool of AP for the day, you’ll have to optimize your choices. But don’t be afraid, most buildings have a passive effect that will trigger even if you didn’t “use” them.
Deployment phase is the last calm moment before things get ugly again Then you end the turn and go to the “end of the day” phase, where 2 things happen:
the passive effects of the production buildings activate: for example, the blacksmith will produce a new weapon, that you can equip.
you can place your heroes where you want them to be for the coming night, and make some last adjustments (for example, equip this cool new weapon that just got produced)
And then, another night, another fight.
A new night begins…
And now?
That’s the core loop of the game. Now it’s our job to make this loop interesting until the end with new buildings to make, a lot of new weapons to compare and equip, new enemies, new heroes, etc…
I didn’t talk about the “meta” loop (that is to say, what happens between two runs). For now it’s not integrated into the game, and it won’t be until very late in development, but we want to have a strong meta game so that the game will be fun to play and replay again and again.
I didn’t talk either about the end of the game. For now, our plans are quite simple: after X days, you encounter a boss-fight, and after X boss-fights you win the game. That should be the main way to play the game, but we are already thinking about an endless mode… we know that if the game is as deep as we imagine, people will want to play without limits. It shouldn’t be too hard to design such an endless mode, but we’ll have to think about it as early as we can so that it doesn’t become a nightmare to make because of design decisions.
That’s it for now! Don’t hesitate to comment on these blog post, either here or on our Discord server!
Have you got what it takes to beat a dev? We’re playing Sniper Elite 4 multiplayer tonight at 6pm UK time! Join us for the chance to play against the devs!
Yet another patch with which we are working towards a stable patch release. Not far off now!
We appreciate any and all bug reports and feedback your testing will generate.
Known Issues/Caveats
Networking relays are still nonfunctional. We will have to address further-reaching changes to the network protocol for the upcoming console release. Any related fixes and features, such as better NAT traversal, have been postponed for now.
Polish and Czech charsets cannot render or type some characters.
Old campaign database files written with patch 8187 or earlier cannot be read, as the underlying format has changed.
Looping Music (such as battle tracks) can occasionally crash the game.
Features
A new toolset build has been added. See the Toolset section below for details.
New console command: cfg <key> [value] to change config values.
A new keybind has been added that allows toggling Keyholing.
Configuration keys to set min-height (from ground level), min-radius (percentage of screen), and max-radius (also percentage of screen) for keyholing have been added. These are available through the Debug UI and by editing settings.tml.
A configuration key that allows toggling keyholing alongside tooltip (TAB, by default) has been added. It is available through the Debug UI and by editing settings.tml.
DM Creator Palettes can now contain plain CExoString entries in addition to STRREFs. Strictly speaking, this was possible before (node name was DELETE_ME); we’ve renamed that node to - surprise - “NAME” to make it prettier. This is especially useful for tileset authors.
Module compatibility has been bumped to 1.79 due to the added script commands and the above itp change.
Fixes
[Windows] The game does not crash anymore when wiggling the window. If you are curious - this was a result of Windows queueing up “window moved” messages while you held on to the window and then dumping them onto NWN all at once; overrunning a bounded queue before the game had a chance to clear it out. Other platfoms did not exhibit this behaviour.
[Windows] We fixed the dedicated server always autosaving even when it was disabled via the UI. To disable autosaving, set interval to 0; same as before. We fixed the config option ui.floating-text-feedback being conflated with ui.party.invite-popup.enabled.
We fixed campaign progress being reset to an earlier state when replaying and finishing previously-completed modules.
The console command `nwsyncdl` has been raised from the dead.
A nullptr deref in the expression parser of TestStringAgainstPattern has been fixed. It triggered when trying to match empty groups following a token (i.e. “hello()”).
We fixed a crash when unloading compiled skinmesh models.
We fixed a crash when loading uncompiled skinmesh models that had invalid array lengths for the bone array.
The uncompiled model parser now skips empty lines. This will NOT fix invalid array lengths. Models that have invalid array lengths in any definition will still behave erratically and/or not animate and/or just be broken, but at least it won’t crash anymore.
We fixed a memleak in loading tile walkmeshes.
We fixed a memleak in internal string handling.
Toolset
This toolset release brings it in line with patch version 1.5.0.2 as seen in the Beta Toolset release thread.
Toolset: Features
Added support for visual transforms The new options are available in Adjust Location dialog You can use Ctrl+Mousewheel to quickly scale objects Visual transforms currently only work on creatures, items, doors and non-static placeables
Added support for opening multiple areas in tabs Tabs are disabled by default. To enable them, go to Toolset settings -> Area editor -> Open areas in tabs, then restart the Toolset. To close a tab, right-click on the tab and choose 'Close' in the context menu.
Inventory editor improvements - added key bindings Move selection with arrow keys Set Infinite flag with 'I' key Delete items with 'Delete' key After deleting, it now switches to the next item in the list
Significantly optimized Build Module and Update Instances, as well as some minor operations like expanding an area that is not currently open
Toolset: Fixes
The Toolset is now built using a newer version of the C++ compiler. We have fixed most of the bugs caused by this change, but there might be a few regressions. If you see any issues that did not exist in the Toolset shipped with 1.78, please help us fix them by reporting them to us.
Additional fixes for "sqrt domain" errors on fancymapped content
Fixed reputation editing in Faction Editor
Fixed renaming areas in the main area list
The Toolset now properly saves Z translation when it's the only transform defined
Fixed access violation when dragging equipped items to trash
Fix toolbar icons becoming disabled when double clicking on objects in the area list
Fixed Unicode issues in Creature properties dialog
Fixed Z translations not saving
Fixed undo issues when using tabs
Fixed fog rendering when using tabs
Fixed Unicode issues in Token Selector dialog
Visual transforms are now reset when static flag is set on a placeable
Fixed tab order for rotation fields in Adjust Location dialog
Fixed "sqrt domain" errors on some fancymapped content
Fixed Update Instances dialog layout
A memory leak that was observed when switching between areas has finally been fixed
Test Module now correctly passes -userdirectory to the game when launching it
---- Thank you so much playing Love Esquire! We're continuously improving the game for better experience! Please look forward to our next patch! (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
IT'S HERE! The Modding Update is live for Descenders!
This is one of the biggest updates ever for Descenders, and we're so excited that it's finally ready! It includes:
- Mod downloads! Boot the game up and you'll find a new MODS option, where you can download levels other people have made (and find details on uploading your own!)
- Mt. Rosie! A gigantic new map to explore, 4km x 4km in size, hand-crafted for your entertainment. Take some friends out on the slopes!
- Bikeout! It's the classic Wipeout game show, but on bikes! Try to survive until the end (if you can)
We know we said Steam Workshop originally, but since we've been exploring options and found if we used the mod.io system then it would make a TON more sense, as it allows PC players on Steam to also play with PC gamepass folks! We're sorry to have changed plans on you, but we wanted a system that would work for everyone in the end!
If you're up for learning how to make levels of your very own, or looking for some collaborators, head to the DISCORD, where we've got some channels up and running for budding track builders!
We're deploying a small, quick hotfix to address two issues we were able to solve today: inability of the launcher to display incompatible mods, and an economy bug related to artisan jobs and consumer goods.
Given that it's early yet and some may not have seen the original changes in 2.4.0, I'll repost those. Please note that due to a human error, namely this producer managing to transcribe fixes from the wrong dev branch in to the patch notes (!), a few of the listed changes in 2.4.0 are not actually present in the build. In the interest of getting the hotfix to you all with maximum speed, those will come in a future update when they can be properly merged and tested. I'll put them in the notes for reference, but crossed out.
################################################################# ######################### VERSION 2.4.1 ########################## #################################################################
################### # General ###################
* Added Launcher v2 * Updated all factions titans with panning light meshes. Updated vfx for ether drake’s wing attack (muzzle, projectile, hit effect) * Caravaneer ship & station vfx update * Added "/mute <user name>" and "/unmute <user name>" chat commands * Cloud saving support added on GoG and Paradoxplaza versions of the game
################### # Balance ###################
* Hunter-Seeker Drone jobs now have a preference for pops who would actually be good at it * The Pop Growth Reduction for Bio-Trophies now actually reduces their growth rate. Driven Assimilators now apply their organic growth penalty as a multiplier the same way as Rogue Servitors do, and is now also 50% * Defensive Platforms placed on Outposts now provide 2 points of Piracy Suppression for their system. The Great Game tradition from the Supremacy tree now also reduces the cost to build Defensive Platforms by 33%
################### # UI ###################
* Shift+clicking on ship count in the Fleet Manager now adds ships up to the nearest unit of ten, using ctrl fills up to the template max size * Fixed improperly displayed text in the name of Galatron wars * Protection war name list no longer includes machine uprising and war in heaven * Removed unnecessary decimal precision in lacking resources tooltips * Added some tooltips to the planet screen: close button, decisions, tab buttons, garrison and armies, planetary features * Added a notification when one empire guarantees the independence of another * Added a defense army icon to the Stronghold and Fortress buildings to help visually identify their effect, and updated the garrison tooltip * Fixed a cut off display of the clearing cost for ruined arcology blockers * Fixed incorrectly reversed "they get" and "we get" information showed in commercial pacts
################### # AI ###################
* The AI will now look at several Edicts and try to enact one of them, whilst still remembering the one they want the most and save towards enacting that * AI will now wait at least a year before attempting to propose the same diplomacy deal to the same target * Fixed AI not building enough defense platforms * Automated building now checks that upkeep cost is covered by income
* Improved performance by reducing the number of string copies in modifiers * Parallelized some planet functions * Optimized calculations done in frame rendering * Bunch of caching and optimizations to planet job calculations * Fixed a slowdown when viewing the slave market
* Fixed an incorrect scripted trigger which could sometimes result in the deletion of research labs when upgraded * Fixed literally unplayable "the the" typo in ancrel.23.desc * Fixed empires that have outlawed slavery not emancipating slaves on planets they conquer * Fixed a possible crash when a planet has no pops * Fixed an instant repair exploit when you dismantle a starbase module while it's under attack * Fixed a bug that could cause rivalry declarations and closed borders enacted by you to make you instead the target of those things from the other empire * Removed an exploit where when transferring, merging, and transferring ships again while paused, one could cheekily cause them to become invisible and untargetable in combat * Fixed an overflow bug with relative empire power calculations * Removed incorrect ability to completely depopulate primitive planets with raiding bombardment stance * Fixed nonfunctional modifiers to colony ship build cost * Fixed a potential crash in AI when evaluating market values * Odd Factories no longer sometimes block pops from getting purged, because you monsters should be free to purge whatever you want
Please note that save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed. If you have an important 2.3.3 game going, please roll back to that version before trying to load the save in 2.4.1.
Instructions on how to keep playing on older versions here.
You can also use this method to opt in to the stellaris_test branch on Steam, which is necessary for multiplayer cross play between Steam and the other stores we are available on. If you have a 2.3.3 crossplay game going on, that version is present on Steam on the crossplay_rollback branch.
Thanks for your feedback and issue reports. We'll keep at it but I wanted to get this to you as soon as possible before the weekend. We'll get the MIA fixes in as soon as we can.
If you want to comment on or read this post on our forums, go here.
Today, I have some bad news for MacOS users. If you already own the game, it's not that bad, so please read this carefully
So, first of all, Steam and Apple are dropping the support for 32 bit applications in MacOS 10.15. You can read more about that here That's not that big of a deal, since the MacOS version of the game is already compiled to a 64-bit application since the last few updates.
Now the big problem: Beginning with MacOS version 10.14.5, all developers have to create a developer id and get a certificate for each version of the game. Otherwise users will not be able to execute the game on MacOs 10.14.5+ In addition to that, the developer needs a MacOS device to get the certificate and to do additional steps for each update of the game. This certification process costs money. Especially for small games with just a few MacOS users and many updates, this is just too expensive and slows down the update speed. If you want to learn more about the problems, you can find a good article about that here
What's going to happen now! You will no longer be able to buy the game via steam if you are on MacOS. If you already own the game, you can still play it, if your MacOS version is below 10.14.5. I will also continue to update the game for MacOS. So if you do not update your MacOS version to a version above 10.14.5, nothing will change for you. Unfortunatelly if you do so, your OS will not let you start the game.
It's kind of sad that apple is closing their platform for non apple developers and indie developers in general, but I will try to handle this situation as fair as possible for people that already own the game. Maybe apple will change that in the future, but for now that's the situation and I'm sorry if this affects you in any way!
