First and foremost, thank you all for your patience. Without delving into too much personal detail, 2023 has been a rough year for this solo dev, and I'm very, very glad I'm finally able to put out a solid update for you guys. Here's what this new update contains:

Big Optimization Improvements

The game should run much more smoothly now, after weeks of work completely rewriting the way several systems in the game are handled to be better optimized. There are a couple specific cases where you may see a second or two of lag spike on high wave counts with a lot of path splits and a projectile-heavy run, but overall the lag improvements should be huge and you should be able to play a standard run without any sign of lag. This is an ongoing project so eventually even the occasional tiny moments of lag should be eliminated.

Balancing / Gameplay Adjustments

Because of some of these updates, when you start the game for the first time your skill tree will be reset and your spent crowns refunded, so make sure to have a look at the new skill tree options!

• You now keep all Crowns earned thus far into a run if you quit out of a run
  
• Tinkers spawn Automatons at a slower rate
  
• Automatons cannot be healed by healing auras
  
• Bugbears and Swamp Drakes (more about those below!) do 10x damage to automatons
  
• Bugbears are now unlocked by default
  
• The God King's HP regen rate has been nerfed
  
• Dragon Knights are now resistant to fire damage, instead of fully immune
  
• Hags are immune to the Wizard's freezing spell
  
• Holy Warrior speed and HP has been nerfed
  
• Cost scaling on card upgrades has been reduced
  
• Enemies that have a Poison effect on them receive reduced healing
  
• The reward gold offered by bosses goes up with boss difficulty

New Content / UI Updates

• The newly added Swamp Drake tower does an AOE blast on hit, then rolls down the lane applying Poison
  
• There is now a counter to show you how many times you've used the Altar, so you can track how buffed the Holy Warriors are
  
• The Junkmonger will now tell you clearly how much gold you'll get for selling a card
  
• Holding down Q will reload the spell automatically once the cooldown is over, allowing for rapidfire spellcasting
  
• Waves will now begin spawning at the outermost entrance, and will move closer and closer in, instead of every path entrance spawning enemies simultaneously

Bugfixes

• You should no longer die in the middle of using a potion
  
• You can no longer unlock the Goblin King achievement at random
  
• Fixed a bug where you could sometimes buy a card through the upgrade panel
  
• Fixed some bugs around enemy units facing the wrong direction
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes tower placement was fussy and you'd have to shake your mouse a few times before it would register a spot as a viable build location
  
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the Blinkbeast tower wouldn't fire correctly or would get "stuck"
  
• Fixed a bug where Automatons and Bosses could get stuck in certain intersections
  
• The Hag attack animation particles should now appear consistently when enemies are in range
  
• The game no longer offers you a potion as a starting boon if you have the Three Potion Start

Roadmap for Next Update / Known Issues

• New tower in development: the Hydra, a three-way fusion of the three types of dragon tower!
  
• Working on a mid-run save functionality, so that you can exit the game and return to a run later
  
• The addition of a map tile attachment point preview, so you can see and control which piece of road your new tile will connect to if there are multiple possibilities
  
• Further optimizations so that the game flows nicely at the 200 - 300 wave range
  
• Visual indication of which path ending is your longest road
  
• Add the ability to buy a potion to top up your health if you're currently sitting at 3 potions but have taken damage
  
• Known bug where for some players pushing escape when the menu is open doesn't close it again
  
• Known bug where rolling ammo from the Swamp Drake and Bugbear doesn't split equally between all possible paths on a Marketplace tile intersection
  
• Known bug where sometimes Hobgoblin towers enter a kind of "rail gun" mode where they fire nonstop
  
• Revisiting of the spells to make sure they're all balanced and working in a way that feels good
  
• Working on a super-secret major content update to add a whole new layer to the gameplay...!

Again, thank you so much for your patience and hopefully you'll pop the game open and give it a play to check out the changes for yourself. These optimization changes hopefully make the game run much more smoothly for everyone, and the balance changes and new Swamp Drake will hopefully make it more fun to play! Stay tuned for the next update, which will come with even more new content.

As always, if you encounter any bugs or have thoughts about better ways to balance the game, please leave a comment in the forums!

Fixed broken train tunnels on Level 5.

With only a few months remaining until the release, it's the perfect time to resurrect our Dev Diary series. After a much-needed one-week vacation following our previous crowdfunding campaign, we're back in full swing, ready to tackle the challenges ahead.

• We've sent the build to Valve for their final approval.
  
• I did a complete playthrough of Cyberpunk 2027.
  
• We've conducted interviews with several talented 2D artists to update our key art and in-game portraits.
  
• Questwriting is underway. That’s a lot of text and documentation.
  
• Adding new nextgen visual features to the engine.
  
• Adding more items like weapons and loot.
  
• New music tracks incoming!
  
• Looks like we have one more 3D modeler now. Good opportunity to make new land levels.

While we can't reveal everything we've accomplished over the past couple of weeks, we're excited to share a few enticing sneak peeks.


Our composer has been diligently working on completing the OST. Only six tracks remain to be composed, which will encompass national themes and music for Justice Island, also known as the City of Abandoned Ships.

Here's a work-in-progress French theme, offering a glimpse of what we're aiming for:
https://youtu.be/bRyuz-SA5o0
New music track (WIP): French Americas

Originally, we had planned to remix the legendary themes from the first Sea Dogs game, invoking a sense of warm nostalgia. However, we are now considering the possibility of creating entirely new compositions.

We have another track to share with you today, one of the new tavern themes. There's no better place for gambling, drinking, seduction, and shady activities than a tavern!

https://youtu.be/M1pU1y7gWvw
New music track: Party Like 1660


As mentioned previously, we faced challenges in our 3D department. However, the situation has improved, and we're excited to announce the addition of more land locations to the game. We've already added two new ones in the past two weeks. The video below showcases one of these locations, which will serve as an office for a smuggler specializing in heavy ship armaments.

https://youtu.be/dyaaLjUonTI
Wait a sec, how did he get those inside?

But that's not all. We really want to expand our jungle locations. The original set felt limited and somewhat repetitive, so we're considering not only adding more locations but also making them distinct and introducing additional gameplay mechanics.




This serves as a testament to how crowdfunding enhances game development. Initially, we only had a couple of new items planned for release, but now we've expanded our arsenal to include over ten unique weapons. Our goal is to make each new weapon stand out, providing players with fresh and exciting experiences. Some of these new weapons are downright unconventional but undeniably enjoyable.

Consider the customizable barrel musket: if muskets aren't your preference, simply remove the long barrel and stock to transform it into a stylish pistol.


True high-tech.

The Sclopetta grenade launcher is effective but requires both hands to operate. If you prefer wearing heavy armor and swinging a big axe or broadsword, this compact weapon might come in handy.


You are gonna need a lot of crafting materials for that special ammo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRWqzfbW7pw
And please, don’t forget to equip a powder tester!

Lastly, behold the sexiest pirate cutlass in the Caribbean.



That wraps up today's update. The next diary is scheduled in two weeks. Don't forget to add our game to your Steam wishlist and follow us for the latest updates. Join our Discord community; tonight, we're hosting a stream and a podcast!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2230980/

1. Main city elements
2. New levels

Belt Colony has got an update!

We have added a hibernation structure. This consists of a large underground circular tunnel that can be traversed in the hibernation pod. When accelerated to high speed, the pod travels around the structure, and the astronaut inside will be subjected to a 1 G artificial gravity due to the centripetal force. Being in a 1 G artificial gravity during the sleeping cycle helps the human body to recuperate, after being in zero gravity during day-time.



The reactor consumes refined deuterium and produces electricity. The reactor is a nice supplement to the solar panels in periods when there is a high demand for electrical power.



When we launched the game, we only had a single music track, which became a bit too repetitive. We now have 7 tracks that play in a loop. The tracks offer 18 minutes and 50 seconds of unique music. We plan to add more music.

We found and fixed issues. The list is as follows:

• Greenhouse made too much credits, which is reduced now
  
• Fixed bug in key bindings
  
• Fixed typos in conversations
  
• Fixed bug with random food and water consumption rate
  
• Fixed small gap upstairs in base
  
• Ship upgrade includes the landing pad now
  
• Station Upgrade 1 is now the second floor
  
• Reduced price of ship from 15K to 10K

The purpose of Early Access on Steam is to enable game developers, like us, to sell the game while it is being developed and to gather input/feedback from users. We would appreciate it, and it would help us, if users perhaps could give us input/feedback in the Community Hub on Steam... The feedback could be anything you like. Perhaps things you would like to see added, see less of, etc.. Perhaps also respond to other peoples posts to voice opinions, support them, etc.

Stay tuned. More improvements are coming. We hope to see you in the Asteroid Belt!

Greetings fellow gods,

Today is a great day! In celebration of reaching 7,000(!) wishlists, a critical milestone for any indie developer, and to thank you all for taking your time to hunt down bugs and provide great feedback, I've decided to release a major update for the demo and extend its duration until Early Access is available.

Today's update introduces a new skill - Thievery and a new accompanying settlement mechanic, the Crime System.

Thievery is a dagger-related skill primarily focused on utility and criminal activities. It will provide access to unique actions like pickpocketing, robbing, and passing through walls and obstacles, and it has bonuses to a new weapon property - Critical Hit, as well as some unique single-use recipes for usable items in combat. More details will be available in the upcoming Friday devlog, so join us on Discord to get notified when it goes public.

The Crime System is another new addition to the game, introducing bounties for taking someone's property or committing crimes. The bounty applies to the player characters only for now. It allows us to pay off our crimes in the Knowledge Screen's settlement entry to mitigate the aggressive behavior in the settlement we've caused.



Beware that some actions in certain cultures, like cutting down trees in the elven region, may be unforgivable, and the only acceptable outcome for the NPCs would be the character's death.

Criminal activities are marked with a red border around the action icon.

Additionally, the push action from Athletics was replaced with the throw action - it allows throwing heavy objects on the ground and dealing damage depending on the character's strength and weight of the thrown object. It's pretty fun to throw corpses or logs around.



Thank you all for your feedback and bug reports, and please continue to spread the word about the game as the EA release gets closer. Every wishlist counts and will help us reach a broader audience on release. I'll announce the EA release date in November.

Full changelog available below:

- New crime system with bounties placed on player characters for committing crimes. See the Crime tutorial entry for more details.
- Thievery skill.
- Athletics skill now provides access to Throw action, which allows throwing heavy objects at a distance depending on character strength and weight of the object. If the object goes into contact with an entity with health, it will damage it depending on the thrown object's velocity and the target's endurance.
- New weapon property - Critical Hit.
- The world history now continues to simulate during playthrough as days go by.
- Added Swap Weapons action under X (shift + x) hotkey by default.
- Added Rest action button above the ability bar.
- Added a tooltip to the craft button informing of missing tools.
- Added information to item tooltips about which skill will be trained on salvaging.

- Push action from Athletics has been removed.
- Improved graphics of a few tiles.
- The minimum damage on the successful basic attack is 1 instead of 0.
- Bandage now requires linen and herbs to craft, and it's regeneration rate increased by 50%.
- Family buying discount changed to 25%.
- Reduced base sell prices to 70% from 80%.
- Tools used in an alternative set of wielded items are used automatically, the same as if they were in a backpack.
- Sickle is now a Harvester instead of Cutter.
- Flax from Flax Plants will now be harvestable instead of gatherable.

- Fixed invalid skeleton archer portrait.
- Fixed an issue that caused elven tavern to sometimes not generate properly.
- Fixed missing light / extinguish action icon.
- When changing the resolution, the font sizes reset to default values for a new resolution.
- Fixed Sleep Until Dawn / Dusk tooltips in the action selection wheel.
- Fixed an issue that allowed traveling on the world map until starving, which resulted in a crash.
- Fixed trading more units than available.
- Fixed an issue that prevented going down the stairs while standing on top of them.
- Fixed an issue with roofs being set up improperly when starting the game.
- Fixed names in the Knowledge Screen going outside of the list bounds.
- Fixed crash on death.
- When choosing the sleep action on resting place, the character moves on top of it before sleeping.
- Fixed thorns not applying to crafted items from resources.
- Fixed selling prices to family members to be on par with other settlement families.
- Crafted resources, food, and usable items no longer accumulate value from resources used to make it.
- Fixed Scavenge hotkey in the inventory screen.
- Usable items no longer acquire statistics from resources used.
- Fixed the resource filter when selecting a slot in crafting to hide invalid resources properly.
- Fixed drinking milk to incorrectly reduce the liquid source value instead of consuming the stack.
- The quarterstaff recipe from Adventuring is now properly unlocked.
- Fixed an issue that caused history events to sometimes generate with invalid surnames.
- Shoot / Throw hotkey was removed from Keymap.
- Fixed an issue that caused a flickering recipe list when selecting a recipe on the building menu.
- Fixed an issue that caused the unintentional placing of the build object behind the recipe selection menu.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the character to walk to the stairs when attempting to jump down.
- Fixed an issue that caused AI actors to sometimes continue to move each other while in combat.
- Fixed an issue that caused the special location icon to sometimes revert to a question mark after completion.

1. The upper limit of skill level is adjusted to level 200
2. The maximum limit of Babel Tower is 10,000 floors.

Hello mercenaries! Ahead of next week's 1.0 launch on November 2, we wanted to give new and returning players a look at everything that has been added to The Iron Oath during our Early Access period.

We've made a lot of changes during Early Access - some that were planned in advance, and some that came about as a result of player feedback. We're thankful to each one of you that has joined us on the journey, and shared their experiences to help us improve the game! Here's a look back at the last year and a half:



And the more substantial changes from each update:

• Icebinder Class: The Icebinder class specializes in crowd control, with a wide range of abilities that allow him to summon ice pillars, freeze enemies, and support his allies through various means.
  
• Gear Enchantments: Over 80 enchantments that can be looted in dungeons and applied to equipment, granting stats and unique effects.
  
• Scourge Crisis: A special crisis event that occurs in the wake of the dragon's attack, including new quests, events and consequences for the player as they try to save a city from destruction.

• Leveling and attributes overhaul: A complete rework of character attributes and a new way to level up, which lets players more freely customize their characters any way they want
  
• Full ability upgrade trees: Introduced over 250 new upgrades to round out the rest of the ability upgrade trees for each class
  
• Combat rebalance: We increased party size to 5(from 4) and rebalanced abilities, enemies, status effects, and gear
  
• New enemies: Introduced over 30 new enemy variants into the game
  
• Enemy traits: Added over 50 traits that are applied to enemy Elites and Bosses, adding to combat variety
  
• UI Overhaul: We redesigned nearly every UI screen in the game to be more aesthetically pleasing and user friendly
  
• Codex: We added a Codex screen which lists details on all the enemies you've encountered. You can view an enemy's codex page during combat by right clicking them or their portrait

• Balladeer Class: The Balladeer fills the role of a pure support class. With many tunes strummed from their trusty lute, they have the ability to heal, cleanse, buff their allies, and debuff enemies.
  
• Dungeon Exploration Overhaul: A rework to how dungeon exploration is handled, giving more opportunities for risk vs reward. Dungeon Modifiers and Camping Incense were also rebalanced.
  
• New Dungeon Events and Event Types: We added many new dungeon events to interact with, resulting in a variety of outcomes that are both beneficial and harmful

• Named gear: Tougher bosses have a higher chance to drop Named gear. Named gear has increased stats and comes pre-loaded with randomized enchantments
  
• New quests and overworld events: Added 6 brand new quests and a handful of new overworld events

With 3 major updates, 2 large updates, and countless patches, the two of us are happy with what we've achieved so far. But development of course won't stop with 1.0 - we have many more ideas, with more stories to tell for the next year and hopefully beyond!


A reminder that the price of the game is increasing to $25 on launch day. So now is the best time to grab it!

If you're a returning player, your old saves will be compatible with the 1.0 build. However, with all the changes to the game, we highly recommend starting fresh for the best overall experience (especially if your save is from an early EA build). Due to the number of variables at play, we can't guarantee there won't be some oddities or small problems that occur with older saves.

When Early Access began, we had around 15 hours of unique content, with the first part of the main campaign being completable in around 10-12. For 1.0, we expect the average run of the main campaign will take most players 25-30 hours, with the whole game having around 40 hours of unique content (plus more new quests later in November!).

Stay tuned next week for the full 1.0 change log which we will be sharing on Wednesday before our Thursday launch! Until then, we hope you have a great weekend!

-Curious Panda Games

PATCH NOTES - v2023.10.28.0

PHYSICS
-Updated moving platforms to behave more consistently when the player is standing on or clinging to them
-Players should no longer get stuck in a platform moving up or down
-Added sliders for running, airborne, and grapple acceleration for testing

CAMERA
-Camera now rounds its position to the nearest integer to prevent some objects from "jittering"
-Camera now centers itself on the grapple point when player is grappling

PERFORMANCE
-Fixed a bug causing large numbers of surfaces to be created when transitioning between different sized rooms
-Ropes are now updated in a staggered manner, rather than all simultaneously
-Ropes are no longer drawn when outside of the camera view
-Minimum stable FPS changed to 120fps: if FPS dips below this, the game's speed will slow down to help prevent physics bugs
-Added a "Time Dilation" toggle to disable this

GRAPPLE
-Fixed a bug where player would sometimes instantly disconnect when grappling from the ground

CLING
-If player is clinging a wall and slipping downwards from momentum, they will no longer let go of the wall if they reach the bottom

EDITOR
-Can now use CTRL + X to cut selected assets

SHOPPING CART
-Added shopping cart
-Added shopping cart spawner
-Added shopping cart track

EGG
-Egg

• 🎮 Controller support has been added
  
• When setting up multiplayer and singleplayer matches, you can now choose which object you'd like to play with. Each object has its own unique physics

• For enhanced controller gameplay, a feature has been introduced to lock the character camera onto the ball. You can find this camera lock option in the settings. By default, the camera is unlocked, but you can toggle between these two options
  
• In singleplayer, players can view their trophies and identify which ones they are missing
  
• Automatic game progress and settings are now saved to the cloud
  
• New map snowfield