Hello all, I hope you are having a good time. Recently we have been frequently patching all games in the series and it's a good moment to list all changes. Those are substantial chances, therefore please keep reading.

• We upgraded to the more recent Java 17 (previously we embedded Java 10 with our games). That gave us access to many new features and optimisations. In our tests, the game engine is working around 40% faster.
  
  
• Complete attack types are displayed in the lower part of the screen. Our items system often results in layered effects for an attack, for example, a strike could be Fire- and Cold-based (at the same time), could be causing a Stun and also reducing Defence. With this version we display all effects a given attack has.
  
  
• Open World battles feature a Retreat option where you can abandon battle for a small gold penalty. This feature was requested quite long ago, but we finally got to it.
  
  
• Fog and Slippery are new battle conditions to be found in Swamps and Winter levels respectively. Fog is reducing the range of projectile-based attacks and spells, Slippery occasionally causes units to slip and lose an action.
  
  
• Disease was refactored significantly and now infected units will happily spread it around. This is a part of tactics coming in new games in the series.
  
  
• Polymorph spells and skills are also moving effects to and from morphed units. For example, poisoned Dryad changing into Bear will carry over the poisoned status.
  
  
• Lamp of Blood (in Krill) campaign is working as a pre-battle action (to be used during Deploy Turn). We hope to add more skills like that which allow players to modify the battlefield before battle.
  
  
• A few new detector-like skills were added, for example Scan for Guardians. The AI is also more efficient with the use of Invisibility.
  
  
• Angela received a secret (and very powerful!) weapon. It's hidden in her campaign - who will find it first?

As always, any feedback is welcome!
If there are bugs or issues (especially after Java update), please post them on forums in the bugs-section.

Take care,
Les

The first-day hotfix patch is just released, please update your game to get the better experience. We've tried to fix and adjust something for you to run your game smoother, we'll have more hotfix patches after. Let's check details below:

Fixed:

• Fixed the blurry arts due to TAA, temporarily removed thermal distortion
  
• Fixed some controller support
  
• Fixed incorrect position of Logan posters
  
• Fixed the issue of incorrect interaction of the Salvage Contract order
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause the UI to fail to open
  
• Fixed incorrect behaviors of Grace and the camera issue in the quest of Once More Into the Breach
  
• Fixed the First Day quest can't progress correctly
  
• Fixed the movement issue of the Yakmel, Captain, Banjo, and some other NPCs.
  
• Fixed the incorrect position of interaction with the murals in the Church in some old savegames
  
• Fixed the border issue of tutorials' window
  
• Fixed the wrong actions of the gathering
  
• Fixed an issue where the buttons on the Knowledge UI may cause errors
  
• Fixed the problem of switching between Chinese and English posters in newspapers
  
• Fixed the issue that donated items don't have correct descriptions
  
• Fixed the Mi-an's speed in the quest of Welcome to Sandrock
  
• Fixed some frozen audios
  
• Fixed the lights issue of the Cityhall
  
• Fixed some collision issues in The Breach
  
• Fixed some missing railings below the Church
  
• Fixed the missing mirrors in Pablo's barbershop
  
• Fixed the issue of the missing model in the quest of Operation: Flowergate
  
• Fixed collision issue in Doctor. Qi's home
  
• Fixed the setting issue of swinging the weapon

Added:

• Added the guide marker on the 11th floor of the mining dungeon

Adjusted & Optimized:

• Adjusted the production list so that secondary material can show off
  
• Adjusted some scripts to avoid mismatching of NPC's mouth
  
• Adjusted the table where Ri-an and Dan-bi eat at the Blue Moon Saloon to avoid story conflicts
  
• Changed the text display of resetting furniture's colors
  
• Optimized the pathfinding and its data
  
• Reduced instances of NPCs saying goodbye

Thanks for all your support, if you have any bug reports, here are places you can report to us:
Report a Problem Steam subforum
Email qa@pathea.net
Join our Discord

1. GPU High usage problem is fixed. Performance is optimized. Now, resources are being used wisely.
2. Character Selection animations are improved.
3. Enemy AI Bugs are fixed.
4. Weapon system is improved. Now, our weapons are not being broken easily.
5. Much better Sound FX and Environment Sound Effects.
6. Objectives UI is placed in Inventory Tab now.
7. Steam Achievements are improved.
8. Enemy Spawn and Inventory Spawn Systems are reconfigured. Now, they are more logical.
9. Livecam breaking animations are added into Jumpscares. Jumpscares are added into Dream Scenes.
10. Horror and Adrenalin factors are increased in the game!
11. Inverted Y Axis Bug is fixed.

The final level had a glitch related to achievements. Which has been fixed.

This month's update adds one often-requested setting, makes tweaks to improve a few features, and fixes some bugs.

- Under Settings, you can now choose from four different table surfaces: the normal light wood, dark wood, and black and white surfaces. You can choose a table color that contrasts with the puzzle pieces or just makes your eyes more comfortable.

- Pieces can now be dragged while you're in selection mode. You no longer need to switch in and out of selection mode to move several groups of pieces around.

- Fixed a bug that would cause the sorting arrow to pop up sometimes when not wanted, while moving pieces.

- Fixes issues to prevent pieces from occasionally disappearing or becoming stuck and unmovable.

- A few other small usability fixes.

In the first “Making of” we talked about some interesting curiosities about the development of Frail Hearts and the events that happened to us. In this new Making of we want to give you some more curiosities about our adventure as video game developers.



Let's start from the beginning, from before the pandemic and the lockdowns. As we didn't have a fixed location, we met in bars to develop Frail Hearts together. Our studio was the bar table that became the meeting room with up to ten people together to decide the next steps of the development. This unusual thing made people around us curious about what we were doing.

Sometimes someone would murmur wondering what we were doing. The most curious understood that we were developing a video game and watched us work on what is now a video game that is now very close to being released. Three years have passed since those moments and we look to the past with happiness seeing where we have arrived today.



Looking at what brought us together to create this story we have our study backgrounds. Many of us, Kristian, Sebastiano, David and others who contributed, studied in the same art academy even though we didn't all study in the same class. Some of us have studied Concept Art, while others have studied Comics. Only after completing our studies the whole team was complete and the development began!


As already mentioned in the "Making of", the Kickstarter campaign was a rollercoaster of emotions. There were moments worthy of the best Hollywood movie.

One day our advertising account on Facebook was banned for no reason and the support did not help us. We found ourselves having to change the lineup to solve the problem, with determination we managed to solve everything in a few days. Another hair-pulling moment was a few days before the end of the campaign, as usually near the end of the campaign some backers do change their minds and cancel their support. As much as we were aware of this, seeing some supporters walk away made us cold sweat as we were only a few percentage points to reach 100%. But the last few days have reserved enormous satisfactions with many people who have given their support making us reach the goal.

Also, seeing our most expensive perks being purchased has thrilled us, our super backers as well as having contributed a lot with their support have been involved in the development of their personal characters, Duke, Vudix and the monster Rebis. This experience taught us a lot and it was a lot of fun!



Also during the Kickstarter campaign we had our first media experiences, some Italian streamers invited us to talk about our game, communicating live and in a podcast was a new experience that taught us a lot.

A total surprise was to see that a YouTube channel had shown our Demo in a video that exceeded 70,000 views and 170 comments. Numbers that still leave us speechless, if we consider that we were still at the beginning of the Kickstarter campaign, the amazement is more than justified. We never imagined there could be this interest in our newly born indie project.



And now, after months of development, with other lockdowns and endless difficulties, we are getting closer and closer to release.

We invite you to continue to follow us on Steam and on social networks to keep up to date on the latest news and the release date of Frail Hearts - Versicorae Domlion.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1412890/Frail_Hearts_Versicorae_Domlion/
Frail Hearts on Twitter
Frail Hearts on Instagram
Frail Hearts on Facebook
Frail Hearts on Reddit
Frail Hearts on Discord

V 0.0.4.5

• You will now run across Cyber Bots while exploring. Cyber Bots are small devices that are (initially)hostile to both the player and enemies. You can use them to your advantage since they will attack enemies if the enemy is within range.
  
  Cyber Bots may be found when disturbing trash cans, boxes, shrubbery and sometimes in wishing wells. There are new perks that will help you manage them as well as a device you can find and hack to turn them all to your side.
  
  
• New Hoverboard Perk: “Bot Smasher”. When on your hoverboard you can ram through Cyber Bots to destroy them.
  
  
• New Thrown Perk: “Engineer”. Your grenades create Cyber Bots on explosion. The more stack the more Cyber Bots created.
  
  
• New Body Perk: “Armor”. Mitigate damage from enemies. Up to two stacks.
  
  
• New Body Perk: “Hacked Bots”. Cyber bots are hacked by default and only attack enemies.
  
  
• New console you can find and hack to turn Cyber Bots to your side for that particular map.
  
  
• Dropped health drinks now come in two varieties, plus 25 hp and the more rare plus 50 hp.
  
  
• As with the health drinks, dropped batteries now come in two varieties, plus 25 battery and the more rare plus 50 battery.
  
  
• The Body Perk ”Player Barrier” now works after reloading the game.
  
  
• Attacks from hoverboarding enemies and the shock wave attack from the giant mechs in sector four have increased on easy mode.
  
  
• Ui icons for the cryo and fire shot body perks are now the correct icons.

This time we went after five annoyances:

• We fixed a case where you couldn't change vsync or windowed mode without also changing resolution
  
• The scroll speed of the screen resolution dropdown was too high
  
• Dice thrown by other players would judder rather than come to a complete stop
  
• Master volume is now a percentage
  
• Fix the fps settings, so they are now applied correctly

It's very easy for small things to fall by the wayside with all the big features that need writing, so getting a handful of these fixed feels good.

Ciao

Dear community,
When creating maps a lot of emphases is placed on the wildlife surrounding your future city. Terrain and rivers can guide you to places where your settlement will begin, but it is nature that will provide some of the most necessary resources. Plants and trees are crucial sources of building materials as well as a source of heat for your citizens during the cold winter months.

We introduced a huge variety of shapes and colours to create a diverse environment. This allows you as a player to seek locations that not only will have a vast amount of resources but also will look aesthetically pleasing.

Here is a set of foliage you can find on the map.

Bushes and grass.

These cover the vast majority of the map. We are working on the possibility of finding small patches of gorgeous flowers hidden in the tall grass.

Deciduous trees.


There are two tree types in this category: birch and oak. They change their appearance drastically with shifting seasons. This creates a more colourful look to the game and may even remind players to prepare for the upcoming winter.

Conifers.


Dense spruce and pine forests spread over mountainous areas. They are a fantastic source of wood for the citizens. These are evergreen and will always stand out in the winter months.

Colourful trees.


Peach trees and magnolia yulan bring life and colour to the environment. They are some of the most beautiful plants you can find in the wild on the map.

Domesticated plants.

We introduced plants to diversify buildings. We want to show the sophisticated details and gardening available to the upper classes of the citizens.

Bamboo forests.

There used to be a little exploit, which gave your city almost infinite amounts of wood. Even though this has been fixed since bamboo forests are still a viable wood source.

The plant variety presented in this devblog encompasses only a selected group available on one of the maps. We’re constantly working on new elements of the environment and creating new variants of the already existing plants. If you have any suggestions of what regional variants of trees or bushes we should add, don’t forget you can message us on our discord server or comment here.

Until next time,
The Devs