Hey Warlocks!

We’re happy to be back with a fresh entry of our weekly update and take another step on our road to Chapter 2!

As day by day we are getting a lot of precious feedback from the Chapter 2 demo and we’re getting ready for the playtest of its bigger chunk, we would like to talk a bit more about the brand new progression system.

We introduced the Wargression system in one of our previous updates but since this is a pretty big departure from Palmer's chapter - we want to give you a better look at what you can expect when it comes to choosing your progression path in the game. In today’s entry we are diving into the areas influenced by Wargression and pointing out the benefits that can come from various improvements for Urd, as well as her arsenal.

Let’s get right to it!

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To emphasize Urd’s personality and gameplay style, her offensive upgrades will show you the true meaning of “high risk and high reward” gameplay. As she embarks on her quest of revenge, you will be able to see that this theme is also reflected in some of the upgrades.

Common knowledge says wounded animals can be quite dangerous. And same goes for our red headed avenger. And you will be able to experience it in the game by following this category of upgrades.

Choosing perks such as “Aggressor”, “Anger Management”, “Sadist”, “Berserk” or “Super Combo” will give you benefits when your health points are below a certain level, your combo meter is draining or - simply - when you get hit.

The names of each of those upgrades should also give you an idea of what hides behind them.

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While wandering through the sinister locations of the brutalist west you can find yourselves cornered. Fortunately there is a suit of Urd’s abilities - and ones you can further level them up no less - that allow her to pose a threat in that situation. To paraphrase the animalistic metaphor - cornered Urd is as dangerous as a wounded one. Her set of defensive upgrades is designed in a way where she is protected from incoming danger but can also bite back and give the demons a nasty, and lethal surprise.

The first set of defensive perks relates to the classic meaning of this category. With “Defence Boost”, “Fortification”, or “Stabilizer” you can increase Urd’s armor and health points or even slow down the drain of your life essence.

On the other hand (and here’s a biting back part) you can choose upgrades that will let you also damage enemies. Pick up the “Spiked Armor” upgrade and see monsters attacking the fiery magician get wounded or start bleeding profusely.

Another tool in Urd's vast arsenal is the "Reflective Armor" - useful when facing trigger happy foes to reflect their projectiles back their way.

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As the system contains over 80 different upgrades, spanned across 13 different categories, each allowing between 1 and 5 upgrade levels - it’s important to have some degree of control over your progression path.

This is where the luck upgrades come in handy. These will increase your chances of rolling the perks that will be more suited to your gameplay style.

Thanks to a “Specialist” you can choose a certain category of upgrades and be sure that you will get at least one perk of a given type on rerolls. “Bargain Hunter” will give you an additional reroll and upgrade option at each upgrade selection. With “Lucky Bastard” you will receive a rare opportunity to buy two upgrades on one go!

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Just a friendly reminder - there's less than 24 hours to apply for the Chapter 2 playtest, where anyone who applies on our Discord will have a chance to play through all of the 12 levels of Chapter 2 and experience everything we’ve been building up until this point.

So, without further ado - Project Warlock II: Chapter 2 playtest will begin tomorrow (Friday) at 19:00 CEST / 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT. It’s expected to run until Monday 23:59 CEST / 2PM PDT / 5PM EDT.

How to sign up for Chapter 2 Playtests?

Just join our Discord server and head to the “Playtest Club” channel for more information - it’s the second channel on the list.

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That’s all for today’s update revealing more details about the progression system in Chapter 2. However, this is just one part of our Wargression Deep Dive as next week we will be sharing new bits of info about upgrades for weapons, magic and poison.

Please remember as well about the Chapter 2 demo which is available on Steam all the time. New feedback is always appreciated ;)

Till next time!

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Visit Retrovibe Publisher Page

A dark shadow hangs over the realm as we add our 11th character to Yomi 2, Menelker, the Deathstrike Dragon! He’s the canonically most powerful fighter of the bunch, but also the one most likely to do what others won’t in order to win a fight. His tactics often feel “unfair” as a general theme; his innate ability Bleeding Wounds forces the opponent to discard cards at random whenever he lands his powerful special attacks, and the ability to destroy cards in the opponent’s discard pile, preventing them from Exchanging for them or using Power Up/other abilities to retrieve them.

First, let’s talk about the strangest move in Menelker’s arsenal, his 3-meter Super move, Deathstrike Dragon;



Deathstrike Dragon is Menelker’s “Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique”, in a sense. If you’re able to land this attack (which shouldn’t be too tough; it’s an 11 Speed Attack and you can even Dodge into it!), then the entire game warps from a normal Yomi battle to a race against the clock where Blocking becomes incredibly dangerous for the victim over time.

To defeat it, your opponent must drain Menelker’s small health pool (70, the lowest in the game), but to do that they’re going to need cards in hand, Super meter to land their most powerful moves, and some key combat wins.

That’s where the Bleeding Wounds passive comes into play for Menelker.



Landing these powerful special attacks (either as Combat cards, Dodge follow-ups, or within Combos) forces your opponent to randomly discard cards in hand. This will stifle their ability to mount a reasonable offense against you and you’ll be able to drain out the clock much more effectively. Maybe you can even catch their Burst!

Shadowblast Nova, Menelker’s “reversal” attack, is notably powerful in that it knocks the opponent down on hit. When the clock is ticking and this move lands, not only will you advance the doomsday clock by one tick, but the Knockdown advantage means you’re much more likely the also win the next combat reveal!

Menelker’s last disruption tactic is his ability card, Into Oblivion;



This Ability has the potential to remove key Supers from the game (like Midori’s Dragon Form) and make it difficult for the opponent to fight back against the ticking clock. This can be used as part of a general gameplan of winning the fight the normal way (which Menelker definitely has the high damage and combo potential to do) or the “forbidden” way through Deathstrike Dragon.

Whatever way you choose, Menelker is a character for those ruthless folks who are willing to do whatever it takes to win. In his world, there are only predators and prey; which one will you be?

Come hang with us on Discord and let us know what you think of Menelker! What Gems are you interested in trying on him, and how do you think he fares against the rest of the cast?

You can also check out the official patch notes here.

After a long break, I want to make a small update.
Due to political issues, it was not possible to continue development of the game.

• Sound and visual effects have been improved, more time is devoted to sound effects, the sound of war becomes more voluminous and realistic.
  
• The technology tree has been translated into English and French
  
• Resource icons have been added to the descriptions of buildings
  
• In the sandbox you can now place soldiers on fortifications

Campaign for PMCs in development

Thanks to all those who support by purchasing and adding to the wishlist. Peace to you!

fixed bugs

:wave: New patch coming along, check out the change-list! :eyes:

**Fixes**
* Bow Arrow now fits in hand for observers correctly.
* Melee weapons hit now plays correct sound when hitting wood.
* Influence chest improvements, fixed potential bugs that can crash client.

**Game Changes**
* Increased footsteps volume.
* Increased night time speed.

**Optimizations**
* General null ref error fixes and some common errors from analytics.
* Optimized the DecayManager, should give better server performance.
* Optimized LOD for harvestable rocks.
* Optimized hair & clothes physics, disable when sleeping.
* Minor optimizations done to Dungeon's LOD.
* Minor optimizations done to Goblin Camp.

Many other improvements were made but are too minor to be listed. If you want to have a look, you can check it out here on discord.


The above changes, should translate in FPS improvement on Client & Server side.

See you in the next update! :he_dwarf_old_astonished:

Due to some unforeseen complications, we will be temporarily disabling the demo while we work on sorting out the issues. We should be able to get it back up and running soon. But until then - stay tuned for more updates.

- The Polearm Team

October 11th, 2023 PATCH NOTES
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NEW CHARACTER

Menelker is now available to play! He's a brutal fighter and the strongest martial artist in the realm. His Deathstrike super puts a countdown timer on the victim and they die at the end of that countdown no matter how many hit points they have!

Career Mode

Career mode gets a big boost here with better UI for story content, new AI opponents, and new quests, and new unlockable tournaments with special rules.

--A second venue is now open in career mode: Golf Dragons. Lots of new opponents.

--The quest system has been revisited and has better looking UI. Both locations (Lou's Card Shop and Golf Dragons) have this new quest UI.

--The social media feed in the game has new UI. Now, the tweets from various AI opponents appear in a less obtrusive way. They appear automatically when the opponents have something to say, they scroll up when needed, they disappear automatically over time. You can still get to a history of these messages (Triangle button on a PlayStation controller) if you miss them. Because the tweets no longer require you to press a button to dismiss them, you can now navigate the various things to do at each venue while the tweets are appearing.

--Fixed a bug that caused too many tweets to appear at once. Before, it was common to have about twice as many tweets appear than were intended.

--At the Event Hall, you start with the ability to enter 4 different wacky-rules tournaments (that's not new in this patch). Now, you can unlock a 5th and 6th tournament, each with new and different wacky rules, by winning the tournament at Lou's Card Shop and the one at Golf Dragons.

--When you place in tournaments at any location other than the Event Hall, you win trophies. When you place at tournaments in the Event Hall, you win medals. You can now see these trophies and medals at the "Your Room" location in career mode.

UI Improvements

--Added "Strike" and "Projectile" labels on the third page of Quick Rules, when we first introduce their symbols.

--Valerie's Rainbow Disc (Super 2) now has a red glow around the card when you try to use it as a non-opener. This is to hint to you that it's a bad idea because you won't get its special effect.

--In Combo Practice mode: You can now drag your hand cards to the discard or deck icons. This lets you quickly discard them or put them at the bottom of the deck. The dragged card shrinks down when you hover over the discard or deck icons, to hint that you can now do that.

--When you use Undo during a combo, the focus will go to the just-undone combo card (that returned to hand), instead of going to whichever leftmost legal hand card you have.

--When Arc Shot makes Dragonheart safe on block, the game now announces that after the combat reveal, rather than just before.

--Clarified the wording on Lum Bomb's icon tooltip. Instead of saying "You can still play Z or Super #1 without penalty", the tooltip now says "This Bomb's owner can still play Z or Super #1 without penalty".

Bug Fixes

--Lum's Bomb now correctly allows pumping the opener, even if it stops the rest of the combo.

--When Lum's bomb explodes, it now correctly uses the bomb explosion sound, rather than using a sound from the opponent's opener.

--Hand cards no longer vibrate when you place the mouse cursor at the bottom of the game window.

--After a rematch, the first turn's openers no longer sometimes show up with incorrect green buffs or red nerfs from the past game.

--As a spectator, you can no longer drag hand cards to the table to "play" them. (This has no real effect on the game being watched, but it was confusing.)

--As a spectator, mouse-clicking on the blue [Done] button will no longer play the associated sound (since you can't meaningfully click it as a spectator).

--As a spectator, pressing the Esc key while there's a gameplay-back command possible on screen (ex: Undo during combos, backing out of the Exchange phase) will now bring up the pause menu instead of doing nothing at all. (It would try to play the "Back" command, and fail because you're a spectator.)

--Slightly tweaked the trajectory of the opponent's power-up fetched card, so that it stays fully on screen during its travel towards the hand icon, instead of having its right edge go slightly off-screen during travel.

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You should see significantly less usage of RAM, which should reduce crashes and increase FPS.

Our testers previously averaged 16GB+ RAM after just a few hours of gameplay. This number would continuously grow the longer you played, sometimes ballooning up to 30GB+ in particularly long play sessions.

Now, the same testers report a fluctuating amount of 7-9GB RAM usage, where memory will go up/down based on how heavy the areas are.



We will continue to probe for memory leaks and cut down on the amount of required RAM in general.

- FPS and memory optimization
- Bugfixes
- Gameplay balance
- New content (only after all 3 are resolved)

• Added Mildred Murkwater to the swamp, who will grant you a special melee attribute

• Fixed a major memory leak that occurred whenever you attacked or picked up an item
  
• Fixed a major memory leak that occurred whenever a character spawned in
  
• Fixed several minor sources of memory leaks
  
• Some floating bits of memory are now cleared as you play, instead of letting it build up indefinitely
  
• Compressed more textures to reduce starting memory size
  
• Optimized water code to not require as much CPU usage
  
• Optimized Snowville and Zena's Stronghold

• Changed "weapon too weak" text to specify requiring a tool to make things clearer
  
• Prologue tutorial has fewer locked items so the player can experiment with controls in a safer environment
  
• Added quest markers and better descriptions to more quests
  
• Reworked and fixed desert heirloom quest
  
• When enemies are staggered, they now travel 0.5x the distance in their stunned animation
  
• Reworked several attack combos to have better stagger animations, to prevent the player from feeling like combat is too slippery
  
• Reworked several attack combos to have less weird rotation behavior when up close to the target
  
• Added a 3rd color of yellow to item HP bars to better communicate when an item is about to break, which will occur when HP is between 30% and 70%
  
  
• Added more item descriptions
  
• Fixed some NPC attack combos stunlocking the player for too long
  
• Rebalanced outlaws faction (no more brutes with electric batons)
  
• Moved red electric baton weapon to tier 3 police instead
  
• Added fallbacks to acquire North Star Component recipes if you somehow lost them by talking to the original quest giver
  
• Attacking animals and hostile enemies (cultists) should no longer grant you a police bounty
  
• All Ronin wear Ronin Hat instead of some wearing the Bamboo Hat to make completing the quest easier
  
• Adjusted more loot tables for containers and treasure

• Changed block sounds
  
• Changed aiming down sight sound
  
• Tweaked shopkeeping UI SFX, including sale milestone, success SFX, and customer queue SFX
  
• Reduced some cases of audio overlapping
  
• Bellcoat should now make noises when hit
  
• Changed teleport SFX
  
• Added better music transitions in the prologue tutorial
  
• Balanced level up SFX
  
• Balanced Pop Pop's first cutscene music
  
• Added sounds to Quest Journal entries
  
• Updated splash screen and title menu music
  
• Reduced armor SFX levels
  
• Reduced Geiger Counter levels and removed radiation reverb because they were too loud
  
• Balanced page flip noise in ESC menu
  
• Fixed general combat music not looping
  
• Changed turret fire sound
  
• Balanced music levels in Zena's Stronghold

• Fixed an issue where customers wouldn't see displays unless it was replaced in a save file
  
• Customers should properly open doors when necessary
  
• Fixed customer teleporting into using needs items (for example toilets)
  
• Fixed customer teleporting out of the shop after a sale
  
• Fixed several customer AI pathing issues
  
• Fixed customer not fulfilling their needs if there is no waiting queue
  
• Fixed issue where employees weren't working if the player wasn't around
  
• Fixed several issues with employee UI
  
• Customer should now walk around and fulfill their needs if they can't find a cash register, instead of waving around doing nothing
  
• Fixed scenario where a client placed floor tile type wouldn't load properly
  
• Employee sales now contribute to money making achievement

• Fixed several non progression issues with Bellstalker maze (gate not opening, etc.)
  
• Fixed item HP bars not being masked when scrolling through containers
  
  
• Fixed several quest issues by synchronizing global variables to clients
  
• Fixed non progression issue in Lili Hunt's questline
  
• Fixed several crafting bugs that would allow the player to infinitely craft in some scenarios
  
• Fixed clicking on crafting not adding proper ingredient amounts
  
• Fixed character textures being too compressed
  
• Fixed ESC menu showing Steam name instead of character name
  
• Fixed XP count being different in the ESC menu and tab menu
  
• Fixed potential networking issue with Bellstalker maze
  
• Potential fix to Ambrosia where she plays the wrong dialogue
  
• Fixed Kazai Village Outskirts spawner not working
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with AI movement
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with turrets
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with the dialogue system
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with player controller system
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with employee system
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with save component
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with footstep FX
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with consumables
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with item placing system
  
• Fixed potential disconnect with in game settings
  
• Fixed shift clicking not stacking items as expected
  
• Fixed Gold Gloves not giving correct attributes
  
• Fixed stack overflow with crafting system in an edge case
  
• Fixed Elite Shotgunner Outlaw being naked
  
• Fixed Aimee at the winery being invisible/naked for clients
  
• Fixed crafting "repeat" button not being synced between host/client
  
• Fixed Snowville ice cave being inaccessible due to invisible collider
  
• Fixed issue where sometimes enemies wouldn't spawn in the open world due to an exception with AI visibility system
  
• Fixed missing stairs at New Bedstone lighthouse
  
• Fixed New Bedstone lighthouse door not being unlocked properly
  
• Fixed Police AI not behaving properly sometimes (being stuck, not despawning, not attacking, not fining), but there is still another case we're looking into
  
• Fixed Winery typo and quest issues
  
• Fixed Calendar and Clock items turning into Shepherd Cores sometimes
  
• Fixed New Bedstone clothing shopkeeper being naked
  
• Fixed Castle Floor and Concrete Floor being cubes
  
• Fixed Barry's Bazaar armor shopkeeper not spawning
  
• Fixed issue where clients can't see Barry's Bazaar shopkeepers
  
• Fixed being unable to scroll down Quest Journal and its sensitivity being too low
  
• Fixed several holes in Snowville Mines
  
• Fixed client being unable to ignite Explosive Barrels by shooting them
  
• Fixed building UI not disappearing for client in a rare case
  
• Fixed Barry's Bazaar NPC shopkeeper not working after unload and load
  
• Fixed being unable to talk to golf course restaurant owner
  
• Fixed potential case where client wouldn't apply bleed and poison attributes
  
• Fixed client mastery XP not loading
  
• Fixed non-floor building pieces cutting navmeshes when they shouldn't be
  
• Fixed collider and interactable for Stone Chest armor and starting Shopkeeping Apron
  
• Fixed glowing mushrooms not spawning properly in Apex Forest
  
• Fixed issue where hitting an armored enemy didn't aggro them
  
• Fixed floating totem in tutorial
  
• Updated nav mesh for Pop Pop's house to be more accurate
  
• Fixed another case that prevented Shop Specialties to save
  
• Fixed runes being broken near swamp and lighthouse
  
• Fixed terrain seam between Apex Forest and Canyon
  
• Fixed Pop Pop's memorial not showing up on the hillside
  
• Fixed shop floor text overflowing weirdly
  
• Fixed more cases of item IDs regenerating when they shouldn't in the level

The time has come! Whilst I've still got plenty more in the tank, the time feels right to leave early access. The recent feedback has been really encouraging, and I'm extremely grateful for everyone who has played a helping hand on the journey. I'll save the long thank you for the end of this post, but first here's the release content!

I've been asked for them a lot, and as an ex-achievement hunter myself I've been keen to add these since day one! The only reason I haven't added them before is because then I wouldn't be able to take them away. So, with the release I've added over 40 achievements. They range from obtaining specific species, through to completing various collections, and a handful of secret ones for some special interactions. For those of you who have already sunk a fair bit of time into your save, don't worry - I've added a 'Check my achievements' option to the systems tab of the menu. I'll leave it there for a couple of months, but clicking this should run through your save file and unlock achievements for you.


Once you expand your ranch to the field, you'll notice an old shrine to the south. Once you gain access to this, you can make essence offerings to the fae, who in turn will cause different circumstances for the next game day. In example, you might want to ensure the next day is a rainy day, or you might want to boost your chances of mining rarer gems. Most essences have a unique effect, and Henry can help decipher them for you.


What greater way to spend a summer's day could there be, than to play football with jackalopes! Join the town and play for a new trophy.


See out the year with the rest of the town atop a cliff, and make a wish for the coming year.


As spring starts, animals migrate towards the sun. Join your fellow Autumnsfolk as they watch the Aurochs migrate past the forest.


House pets need some recognition too! All the different pets of Autumn will head into town for a contest!

Since the seasonal music update I've also added a whole load of smaller items, most of which have been released for a while, here's the highlights.
- New key art, hope you like it!
- A few more music tracks.
- A new scene and way of understanding the player reviews
- New weathers: Light and Heavy snow
- Another Sphinx maze
- Over a hundred new dialogue additions
- Quality of life additions
-- Different tutorial types now share the same inputs
-- Barn and coop feed stores now give you 'change' when you fill them using the bulk items
-- The Brynja races now gives an item prize instead of karma
-- You now gain the first level of Animal knowledge when first encountering a new species

And of course, I've closed off a whole host of issues over the months too. Far too many to list, but two that unfortunately affected a lot of players:
- Crashes when reading certain library books for new animal knowledge
- Beehives weren't working on the field, they are now!

And with that, I'll wrap this post up. For anyone who didn't catch the early posts, I'm a solo dev who works on this before and after work. It's changed a lot through development, but the core ideas of Tales of Autumn were in my head for years, and I finally got it started as a project to do with my daughter. She quickly left me to start designing her own games, but has been my primary QA since! I've been overwhelmed with positivity from players since launching - whether its your patience whilst I've been fixing bugs, or your willingness to share ideas on what is or isn't working, I'm just so grateful. Thank you.

Life's been pretty hectic this year, so I wanted to set myself some goals for putting the game to full release. This does not mark Tales of Autumn as complete. I still have a lot of content ideas, all to be added as free updates, and as long as someone's playing then I'll keep the content coming.

Scott

Hello Pinball Fans,

We are here to bring you some updates and fixes in Pinball FX. Check them out!

- South Park™ Pinball is now available
- Portrait Mode - Manual Camera Settings will now save properly
- My Tables - Badges will not show up on un-owned tables after the update
- Williams™ Pinball Volume 7 Now Available
- PC - Nvidia Reflex is now added to the game to enhance performance
- Profile - Profile picture will now properly show up on Steam

Have fun and play pinball!