Greetings loyal Underlords!

A few days ago we gave you some insight into the balance changes that will be making their way to you in the next patch! But you’d be remiss if you think that balance is all that Patch 1.2 is about, indeed there’s plenty more coming and today we thought we’d share a little more of the exciting features you can expect to see!

So read on Underlords and fulfill your destiny!

 

Quality of Life Changes

Over the months we’ve received plenty of great suggestions on how to improve the feel of the game for you. With Patch 1.2 we’ve made a number of quality of life changes which should hopefully fulfill a few of your desires!

Game Speed Adjustment

The ability to adjust the Speed of the game as desired has seen regular support since release. Players have often called for either increasing the speed or decreasing it to play the game as they wish. Unfortunately until now it’s not been possible for us to adjust the game-speed without huge swathes of the game being adversely affected.

Alongside patch 1.2 we’ve made some under-the-hood changes and it’s now possible to adjust the game speed via the options menu. With this features you can decrease or increase game speed by up to 50% resulting in a much more fevered or relaxed pace as you desire.

We’re hoping that this change will help to deliver that more relaxed experience that many players have been looking for when progressing through the campaign.

Of course for technical and balance reasons this option is disabled in multiplayer but may be added in the future as a mutator.

Titan & Hero Visibility

Titans are the epitome of every sin you’ve invested into the veins of evil, the grand finalé and reward for all your triumphs, they’re the embodiment of your will on this realm and we felt that to represent that they needed an extra way to stand out in the jumble of unit shields.

To this end we’ve given all Titans and Empire Heroes a brand new set of unit shields beyond their standard double-tiered health shields. Now when you see a titan or one of the goodly heroes of the Empire there’s no chance you’ll mistake them!

 

Tooltip Adjustment

After our tooltip rework in patch 1.1 we’ve been receiving feedback that the new info panel can take up too much space when all the information is displayed. In our previous patch we added a 1 second delay before the tooltip appears but we wanted to go a step further.

As such you can now adjust several settings related to the information panel via the gameplay options menu, adjusting the delay before a tooltip appears or turning it off altogether. You can also switch to a cut down version of the tooltips which will take up significantly less space.

 

Warbands in Possession

We’re also adding the ability to create a personal warband in possession mode. With this feature you can make your own units follow you into battle by adding them into your warband while in possession.

This gives you as a player the unique opportunity to lead the charge yourself as any of your favourite minions and feel the bones of fallen enemies crumble under your feet. No longer will you need to break the immersion by leaving possession and rallying your servants to you!

 

Unlockables Changes

We’re making some small changes to how a few of the unlockable pieces of content are made available to you. We’ve always wanted players to feel encouraged towards earning extra cosmetic content in the game but until now there’s been no good way to show how this content is unlocked to the player. The changes we’re making in patch 1.2 will help players set goals to unlock their extra themes and skins!

 

Worker Skins

We’re introducing another level of customisation for you to make yourselves stand out in your Skirmish and Multiplayer games. Worker skins will enable you to replace your workers with ones from a different theme or from a select group of non-theme workers.

For now we’re adding one new worker skin, which you can see below, you’ll also be allowed to mix and match your Dungeon theme with worker skins but in the future you can expect a few more!

Changed Unlockable Requirements

With the Worker skins being introduced we’re going to tweak the award criteria for a few themes, here are the new award requirements:

• Rhaskos’ theme & worker skin – Complete the War for the Overworld campaign
• Korvek’s theme & worker skin – Beat all AIs personalities in Skirmish on master difficulty
• Mira’s theme & worker skin – Earn all bonus achievements in the campaign mode
• Sovereign Theme & worker skin – Available to all players who own the Underlord Edition
• Kickstarter Theme & Worker skin – Available to all players who own the Kickstarter Edition
• Founder’s Theme & Worker skin – Available to all players who own the Founder’s Edition
• Evil Arcane Theme – Available to all players who purchased a Physical Edition or bought during Early Access
• Blazing Worker Skin – Earn all timed achievements in the campaign mode

New Unlockable Interface

Keeping track of all these unlockables will be quite a challenge so we’ve added a new interface to the main menu where you can check the status of your various unlocks. We’re still working on it but here’s a quick preview of how this new interface looks!

 

New Assets

There are a handful of sexy new assets going into the game with this patch to replace some of the less interesting assets in the game. This includes new shrines, bosses, barracks props and a better holding animation for the hand.

We’ve assembled a small Imgur album for you, so head on over if you’d like to check the new assets out!

 

New Skirmish & Multiplayer Maps

Although the map editor is now being worked on and will be making it’s way to you within the next few months, we know that you’re eager to explore and conquer some new maps, by yourself or with friends.

With this in mind our QA team has dedicated some extra time this month to design a few new skirmish & multiplayer levels for you, we hope that these will help tide you over until the map editor is in the hands of the community!

Let’s take a look at the three new maps included in this release:

 

Magma Chamber – 2 Player – 53×53

The great mountain stirs, smoke bellows to the surface, the god of fire is angered and his ancient rumblings desire sacrifice. Perhaps the soul of a rival Underlord will suffice?

Care is the name of the game here with no way to reach your opponent than via the lava pools you’ll be caught in a desperate tug of war over a small set of natural bridges. Underminers will open up more options for each player, pathing the way to the research shrines or open areas of lava where you can place your stone bridges for a surprise attack!

Just be careful not to slip in.

 

Styx – 2 Player – 46×46

You’ll want to be quick in this prime piece of real-estate. The river of the dead and the damned is situated in picturesque hades and is deeply rewarding for any Underlords who would live there.

With a cramped area to build and three small crossings space is at a premium here, strike out soon and claim the Artefacts from the centre of the map before your adversary does. Be sure to watch your flanks, although the lava will protect you for a short time when the stone bridge is available there will be no sanctuary!

Styx makes room for fast paced play and the lava will suit defensive players as much as it will those who simply wish to see their rival choking on his own blood.

 

Hunting Grounds – 4 Player – 79×57

It’s Underlord season at the hunting grounds and you’ve been invited to participate. Become the hunter and branch out quickly to destroy your foes before they destroy you.

This relatively small 4 player map pits you in tight confines, winding abyss separating you from your enemies but it won’t be long until paths are opened and the fight begins. Gold is especially prevalent on this map and with the lack of any shrines it’s going to be necessary to grab it early or risk starving yourself of this precious resource.

It’s the center where the focus will no doubt be placed, with the largest vein of gold seen in any multiplayer map, he who controls that will find themselves at a significant advantage. But beware the warrens to your side as a strike could easily come from one of your rivals while you claim the center!

 

That covers everything we have to share about Patch 1.2 today, the patch itself will be releasing next week and we can’t wait to hear your feedback!

Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter! Our first one, also due next week, will have an exclusive teaser of what you can expect in Patch 1.3!

 

Until next time Underlords,

– WFTO Team

 

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