Dec 2, 2023

The Iron Oath - sennin

Hey everyone!

We've just pushed a big update onto the public test branch. We're still playtesting and tweaking a few things regarding balance, but it's nearly ready and we wanted to give you a chance to test it out and give feedback if you'd like!

To opt in to the test branch: Go to your Steam Library, right click The Iron Oath and select Properties. From there, go to the Betas tab and select "Public test branch" from the drop down menu.

You can use your current save on the test branch, but you will need to first copy over the file. Navigate to: "C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\LocalLow\Curious Panda Games\The Iron Oath", and copy your save file from the "saves" folder into the "testBranch_saves" folder.

Aside from bug fixes, the three main things we addressed with this patch are the early game experience, the economy, and combat balance. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these changes.

Early Game Progression

We've made some significant changes based on player feedback about the early game experience. Characters now begin with 3 abilities instead of 2, and receive a few more ability upgrade points in the early levels than they previously did. We're hoping that with more tools and combos at their disposal, these changes will help players get into the game a little easier (as the early game could be a bit slow going with only 2 abilities and limited charges).

Additionally, meaningful loot is now guaranteed from every combat (beginning after the tutorial), making it easier to gear up your company through combat instead of having to purchase the bulk of your equipment from markets in the early-mid game. You'll still end up buying a few pieces here and there to fill in the gaps, but we feel these changes make combat more rewarding and progression feel more natural.

We plan to make a few more tweaks to the tutorial and prologue in the future to improve the experience a little more, but for now we're happy with these changes.

Economy Tweaks

We've also made some changes to the game's economy, as it was too easy to stockpile coin and players had little use for it. Now that gear or enchants drop from every combat, coin rewards from quests have been lowered across the board, and the cost of repairing gear with coin has increased.

Instead of selling all the wood, iron, cloth, and scrap you come across, you'll now want to hang on to them to repair your gear, as it is generally far more cost effective (with the exception of a perfect storm of city events). Gear durability also wears out at a faster rate, so you'll be needing to make repairs a bit more often, making company upgrades like Forging far more worthwhile. Overall, we found that repairs were often not needed in the early-mid game, as you would typically acquire new and better gear before ever needing to repair your older stuff.

We didn't want to go too overboard on the economy just yet, so you'll likely still find yourself with a bit of excess coin eventually. We're planning to add some more meaningful and rewarding gold sinks in the future to give you something to spend your hard-earned coin on!

Combat Balance

Lastly, we've made a few changes to combat aimed at making late game encounters a bit more difficult, and to address player feedback about reinforcements. While we don't want to get rid of the mechanic entirely, we do understand that it can be a bit tedious at times with 2 or sometimes 3 extra waves of reinforcements commonly being added to the fight and slowing things down.

To remedy this, we've added Veteran enemies to the game which bridges the gap between normal and Elite enemies. This allows us to make encounters more difficult without having to add extra units to accomplish that. We've also increased the number of up front enemies in overworld encounters, so they won't be spread out so much via reinforcements, and you'll have more opportunities to use your AoE abilities on larger groups of enemies. Overall, there will be far less reinforcements than before, and they'll typically all come in one single wave if there are any.

Patch Notes 1.0.012a (Public Test Branch)

New

Added Veteran enemy types to bridge the gap between normal enemies and Elites (Veterans have a bronze flair on their HP bar and portrait). They have slightly increased Health, Defense and Power (values subject to change), but they do not possess traits like Elites
The party selection screen now displays the jobs of your selected characters under their portraits
Added a visual indicator of the path you will take when moving during dungeon exploration
Added a Company Upgrade that allows you to assign Jobs from anywhere in the overworld
Added an option to disable the screen flash effects that occur when killing a boss (Settings > Other > Strobing Effects)

Combat Changes

Made some adjustments so 4 and 5 skull encounters should be a bit more challenging. Previously we felt that the difficulty tended to peak in 3 skull encounters and gradually fell off after that as you got more powerful (especially 5 skull). We're still playtesting this and likely will make a few more adjustments
If an encounter is set to have reinforcements, Elite enemies will now be spread out a bit more, with approximately 2/3 appearing up front, and the rest coming as reinforcements (previously all elites would appear up front)
With the addition of Veteran enemies there will now be fewer reinforcements on average (for the most part they'll all come in a single wave, with a few exceptions)
Adjusted overworld encounters so they have a few more enemies up front compared to the average dungeon fight
Lowered the Health multiplier for Elite enemies (2x -> 1.75x) but increased their Power multiplier (1.5x -> 1.65x) to compensate for it
Bosses can no longer spawn as Elites, and their stats now scale based on the skull difficulty of the encounter
Fire Terrain now persists for 2 Rounds by default
Replaced one of the Wildfire duration upgrades with a new upgrade called Flamewalker, which grants the Pyrolancer immunity to all fire terrain effects (the effect is always active)
Bandages now restore 1 Bleedout point in addition to its other effects
Optimized enemy AI a bit more so they should act faster on average
Sped up character movement across the board to help speed up the flow of combat
Helping up an adjacent downed ally now has a sound effect
Slightly lowered the Defense of Wealderes and adjusted their point values so they won't be as numerous (they were a little undervalued relative to their strength)
Wealderes are no longer immune to Root
Slightly increased the Health of Brightmanes
When using an ability that has no remaining charges, your defense and damage shields are now ignored (it will always do 40% of your max health regardless of any status effects)

Other Changes

Level 1 characters now start with 3 abilities instead of 2
The 4th, 5th, and 6th abilities are unlocked at levels 4, 7, 10
Frontloaded Ability Points a little bit more (they alternate between 2 and 1 each level until level 10, and then grant 1 per level from 11-20)
Adjusted the XP required to level up from 20-40 so it's not so easy to hit the cap
The first job a character is assigned is free, but switching Jobs afterwards now costs 500 coin (reduced by the Retraining company upgrade)
Slightly adjusted the coin value of the following equipment: Coat of Plates, Buckler, Nurren Round Shield, Boar Spear, Pike, Winged Spear, Shortsword, Tyroscene Scimitar, Longbow, Mirian Composite Bow, Iron Cestus, Adept's Wand, Engraved Wand, Ceremonial Staff
Lowered the Falchion's critical chance and increased its accuracy (and damage slightly) so it's more in line with other swords
Rebalanced the costs of repairing gear so using resources is generally more cost effective than spending coin: Using coin to repair in cities is now roughly 2x as costly as using a primary resource (Iron, Wood, etc) to repair something (it previously was around 1.5x the cost)
Gear now takes more durability damage from use (taking damage for armor and shields, and dealing damage for weapons). We felt that durability and repairs played too small of a role, especially in the early-mid game, as you would usually find new gear before ever needing to repair
Increased the drop rate of scrap (to help with repairs)
Every combat is now guaranteed to drop at least one piece of gear or enchantment scroll
Gear that drops from enemies has less durability (20-50%) so it's not as lucrative to sell
Increased the odds of receiving Named Gear from bosses that are 2 Skull+
Coin rewards from quests have been lowered across the board (guaranteed drops from combats help to offset the loss a bit)
Lowered the coin value of some enchantment scrolls
Increased the default capacity of your storage/inventory and increased the effectiveness of the Draft Horse company upgrades
Using Tools in dungeons now consumes the provision (so you'll likely need to bring more than one!)
Reduced the XP granted from the generic 'Knowledge' events found in dungeons
Adjusted the XP received from higher difficulty encounters, but lowered the XP bonuses from the Training Dummies upgrade from 20/35/50% to 10/20/30%
The tooltip for Death Terrain now displays the damage it inflicts
Enemy traits and combat conditions are now sorted by alphabetical order in the Codex
Set the difficulty level for the Dark Deeds unique quest chain at 4 Skulls (it should only be completable once now, but let us know if it continues to show up multiple times!)
Patrol quests now only spawn 1 combat (instead of 2)
Tweaked the Thieves' Den quest so it's not as difficult and gives a better indication that it contains multiple fights
The Savage and Cannibal traits should now appear more often on characters
Buffed the 'Scroll of Leeching' enchantment to heal for 66% of damage done with basic attacks (instead of 25%)

Combat Fixes

Stun and Freeze can no longer be overwritten by Taunt, Sleep, Charm, Fear (these latter 4 still overwrite each other as intended)
Charmed units will now move and attack their allies properly instead of sometimes passing their turn
Fixed a bug where Charmed and Feared enemies could sometimes move a lot further than they should be able to (or even teleport in some cases)
Fixed a bug where channels would get interrupted by Fear, Sleep, Taunt, Charm, Freeze, Stun even if the target had conditional immunity
Fixed some logic around buff durations and channels. Previously if you had a buff and used a channeled ability, the buff duration would tick down once when the channel started, and again when the channel finished. Buff durations will now only go down once when the channel completes.
If you have the Smart Arc upgrade for Arc Lightning, your allies' sprites will no longer be highlighted in red indicating friendly fire
The Pyrolancer's Fuelled by Fire passive now updates more often with the correct number of stacks
Fixed an exploit where having conditional immunity made you immune to taking damage when using an ability that had no charges left
Fixed a bug where Skewer was incorrectly doing 25% less damage to the second target
Fixed an issue where a Rooted character could not help up an adjacent downed ally
Fixed an issue where if you moved, undid the move, then moved again very quickly which resulted in you getting hit and downed by an Attack of Opportunity, you could still move the downed character
The Encore upgrade for the Balladeer's Renewing Melody ability now works properly
Fixed an issue where Cleansing Light's Twin Pillars upgrade wouldn't let you select the same target twice
Fixed an issue where using Rainfall would also clear Burn conditions on units that weren't targeted
Grievous Wounds will no longer be applied to a target that has conditional immunity
Fixed a softlock that was related to abilities and other mechanics that reflect damage
Fixed several softlocks that occurred from Attack of Opportunities
Fixed a softlock that could occur when getting knocked down from an Attack of Opportunity
Fixed an issue where a softlock could occur if multiple taunted units acted in a row
Fixed an issue where turns were sometimes being skipped after a taunted unit attacked
Nullbeasts can no longer use Deadzone Surge if they're Rooted
Bannerman and Hornblowers will no longer buff each other endlessly and should now prioritize other units
Units that run through Fire Terrain spawned from Wildfire now properly suffer Burn
Blighted Hulks should no longer be able to charge and get stuck in a charging animation for a few seconds if they hit a trap while charging
Ice Terrain and Water Terrain now lasts 3 rounds (previously was incorrectly lasting forever)
Fixed an unintentional interaction where Death Terrain would get cleared by Water Terrain when it was applied on top of Ice Terrain
Fixed the Risen Scourge's Boneyard ability so it no longer spawns in potentially problematic spots (such as on top of wood planks) which could cause various issues (like making the hole traversable once the object was destroyed)
The Conjurer is no longer able to perform Attacks of Opportunity
Fixed a bug where the enemy cap for individual units wasn't always working (ie. it was possible for 2 Anguished demons to spawn in a 1 Skull dungeon, but there now won't be more than 1 in that case)
A horn sound no longer plays when Dire Hoarwulfs use their Pack Hunt ability
Fixed an issue where some battles could spawn with unusable cells
Fixed a bug with "ghost" enemies in the final boss fight
Fixed a few bugs where you could pull Torin out of the sky when he was channeling his Death from Above ability (either by interrupting him with Blinding Light's interrupt upgrade or by removing his immunity buff and then cc'ing him)

UI Fixes

Fixed a bug that was making Serenade, Ice Wall, Cyclone, Frozen Tomb and Rainfall show a damage value in the tooltip and a damage preview when hovering an enemy (now only shows now if you get a damage upgrade for them)
Arctic Armor, Guardian Angel, and Safeguard now displays the proper damage shield value in the ability tooltip (and takes Mending into account)
Wildfire now shows a damage value in the tooltip and a damage preview on enemies when you have the Firestarter upgrade
Fixed a bug where falling rock hazards were incorrectly being included in the 'total reinforcements remaining' number next to the turn order
The Morale tooltip (when hovering the Morale bar on a character's portrait) now updates to show the correct value
Fixed an issue where the ability tooltips could be formatted incorrectly when moving quickly between them
The save/load window when playing on Ironman is now properly sized
Fixed an issue where the Deathlord and Conjurer didn't have their Soul Fragments displayed at the start of combat, making it appear as though their first attacks were generating more stacks than they should
Fixed an issue where sometimes the dungeon marker for a completed dungeon would still show up on the overworld map
Fixed an issue where sometimes the system menu icons (in the bottom left corner) would be visible during combat
You can no longer change characters in roster management screens without the correct number of abilities equipped, preventing an issue where people could get into combat without the correct number of abilities
Fixed a bug where ally NPCs could show up in the camping UI and could be taught abilities (which would usually cause softlocks when used)
Fixed an issue where the exit dungeon UI element would sometimes pop in multiple times upon completing a quest objective
Updated some text that still mentioned the campaign length being 25 years instead of 30

Other Fixes

Fixed dungeon exploration pathfinding so it always tries to take the shortest route (if you still find yourself going down an undesirable path, you can hit Esc to stop moving)
Fixed the Scroll of Armor Penetration enchantment so it now correctly ignores 15% of the target's Defense (ie. If you attack a target that has 30 Defense, it is treated like they have 15)
Fixed a number of stat-based enchantments that weren't working (Speed, Evasion, etc)
Fixed a dialogue issue where sometimes the incorrect speaker would be chosen (particularly when it involved someone with a certain job acting and speaking)
Icebinders should now show up in the Northern Hold more often
Updated a few more Trait conflicts so they won't be applied to the same character (not retroactive)
Fixed an issue where the 'Crisis Averted' achievement for defending a city during the Scourge Crisis wasn't being given in some case (the fix is retroactive and should now be given when you load in)
Fixed a softlock that could occur from a certain quest during the Scourge Crisis in rare situations
Fixed an issue where if you won the Scourge Crisis and then loaded an autosave afterward before turning the quest in, the crisis would still be active with no way to interact with it
Fixed an issue where sometimes after finishing combat and completing your dungeon objective, you would be unable to move the camera
Fixed an issue where sometimes legendary items would become duplicated (any duped items will be retroactively removed)
Fixed an issue where some dungeons could spawn as a 'Long' dungeon (which no longer exists)
Fixed the 'Exhaustion' dungeon modifier so it properly reduces available ability charges by 1
Named Gear will no longer drop with 2 of the exact same enchantments
Fixed an issue so melee Named weapons won't come with an enchantment that increases the range of ranged basic attacks
Fixed an issue where some quests (such as A Blacksmith's Request) were issuing a random tier reward instead of something tied to the quest's difficulty
If tutorial tips are disabled you will no longer hear a sound effect as if it was still being shown
Fixed a rare issue where if you had a softlock and then loaded a save, some weird things could still occur
Fixed various typos and grammatical errors

Notes

Given the size of this update, we weren't able to get around to adding new content just yet like we wanted to, but we're still on track to add it in mid-December
The remainder of the Vanguard/Wealden quest line will be available once this patch goes live on the main branch

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As always, thank you for your feedback and support! Have a great weekend!

-Curious Panda Games