Darkest greetings Underlord,

After several months of silence the hearty bellow of maniacal laughter can be heard once more echoing through the Aether. It’s time to unleash Patch 1.6 and more importantly the My Pet Dungeon DLC!

We’re extremely pleased with this patch as it goes a long way towards cleaning up many loose ends as we move towards our final major update. Thanks to your support over the past two years we’ve been able to truly deliver something great and more than anything we’ve been able to develop and build upon parts of the game we never thought we’d have the resources to refine.

We just want to offer a sincere thanks and say that right now you’re able to play the fruits of our labours on Steam with Patch 1.6, as well as two levels of the new My Pet Dungeon DLC, free to all our fans! We hope you enjoy them! If you want to get a briefer overview of everything that’s happening with this patch check out the release post itself.

Patch 1.6: Creature Comforts

New Game Mode: My Pet Dungeon

Patch 1.6 has released alongside our latest DLC for War for the Overworld, My Pet Dungeon, a whole new game mode dedicated to construction, exploration and discovery. Take the game at your own pace and build the dungeon of your dreams!

The DLC is priced at £5.59 / $7.99 / €7.99 but the first two levels are free to everyone so please give them a go and if you enjoy them help support our development by grabbing a copy of My Pet Dungeon on the Steam Store.

BUILD THE DUNGEONS OF YOUR DREAMS

• Eight-level sandbox-style campaign designed exclusively for My Pet Dungeon, with a more relaxed pacing than the main game. Reach the target score to advance to the next level, go after the bonus objectives, or simply revel in the dungeons of your dreams. (Two levels are available for free.)

 

TOY WITH YOUR FOES

• Grab heroes, set their strength, then drop them anywhere in the map via the new Toybox room. Summon single or indefinite waves of enemies with the new wave spawning controls to put your dungeon through its paces.

 

WIELD GOD MODE

• Complete My Pet Dungeon to unlock God Mode: reshape the levels or spawn units from thin air – all in real time! What kind of ludicrous scenarios can you create?

 

EXPLORE AND UNLOCK

• New terrain awaits you: rock-solid Obsidian which can only be destroyed by exploding Brimstone; new snowy terrain with icy versions of existing tiles to complement this chilled-out new mode. Do well and you’ll also unlock three classic and newly-refined Empire Dungeon Themes!

New Water, Waterfalls & Water Chasm

The Water in War for the Overworld has existed in the game in its current form since our our earliest public betas; we’ve decided it’s long past time for an overhaul. You can witness the results in this preview post. Otherwise read on!

 

• Water has been given a visual overhaul and has been completely refreshed with new textures, shaders and materials
• Water Chasms are now placeable – these are functionally identical to existing Chasms except they’re overflowing with water
• Waterfalls can now be placed too!

Possession Improvements

Possession has long been on the list of things we’d wanted to improve when we found the time. With the focus of Patch 1.6 shifting to fixing up some neglected areas of the game, we’re pleased to say we’ve been able to make Possession much better!

New Unit Vision Filters

A huge community request for Possession was to diversify how each unit sees the world in order to realise a more immersive experience. We’ve had great fun playing around with these and each of them helps to demonstrate how different beings perceive the cavernous dungeons beneath Kairos. You can view our full preview post here.

• Nearly every unit in the game has received new visual filters while in Possession Mode
  • These filters can be toggled in the Options menu if you find them distracting or uncomfortable

 

Possession Door Changes

The Possession Door was originally introduced in Patch 1.1 and featured very limited functionality to prevent passage unless a unit was possessed. We’ve completely revisited this special defence and given it a whole host of additional useful features.

• Possession Doors can now be toggled to lock players into Possession when they pass through the door
  • If the player is “Possession Locked” they can recall their unit by pressing the spacebar twice; this will allow them to escape a Possession-Locked area
  • Locking will end if the door is destroyed or if the player passes back through the door
• Possession Doors can now obscure an area with permanent Fog of War that cannot be revealed in RTS view – only in Possession view can this area be explored
  • When the door is destroyed this area will be revealed
• Has a brand-new texture to represent its unique nature

General Improvements

• Ocular implants installed in all units: Possession vision radius has been improved as a result
• Improved Possession vision fog to reduce visible pop-in of tiles at edge of vision radius
• Units are no longer prematurely culled when they are possessed, ensuring all animations play correctly
• Realigned the camera position on many units to prevent clipping
• It is now possible to walk while in Possession by holding the F key
• VFX added to possessed units to aid identification in Multiplayer
• You will now smoothly slide around large objects such as Dungeon Cores, rather than getting stuck

 

Gameplay Changes

• Possessing a unit now provides it with a buff while it is under player control
  • 50% increased speed
  • 25% increased damage
  • 25% resistance to all damage
  • 100% increased experience gain
• It is now possible to interact with many different props and defences too while in Possession; for example triggering Underminers is a key component of many Possession areas in My Pet Dungeon

UX Improvements

• Units should now always highlight correctly when the Possession crosshair hovers over them
• Landing a hit or heal on a target will now provide appropriate feedback with an additional flash
• Working a prop should cause the prop to flash blue momentarily
• Melee attacks are now prevented if there is no target present
• Mining a Fortified Wall that belongs to you in Possession will now stop your Workers from repairing that wall while you work it

Gameplay Changes

We wanted to both improve the clarity of events in the dungeon and combat whilst also slowing the pacing of the game down; as such many of the changes in this update are focussed on giving the game a more structured, thoughtful and less hasty pace.

We expect to continue tweaking this over the next few updates based on your feedback so please let us know if you like the changes.

General Changes

• Hunger and Tavern need depletion rate reduced by 50%
• Sleep need depletion rate reduced by 75%
• All unit XP requirements to level up increased by 100% (200% of previous)
• All potions’ brew time increased to 90 seconds (up from 45)
• Defence Part cost increased to 5000 (up from 3000)
• Earth digging speed of worker units reduced by 20%
• Fortified Wall prop efficiency cap increased to 250% (up from 150%)
• Prop efficiency gained per Fortified Wall increased to 22.5% (up from 8.5%)
• Payday wages increased by 25%

 

Unit Combat Behaviour

Units have received several improvements to their combat behaviour to make combat and the actions of individual units clearer.

 

• Ranged units will now backpedal in order to reposition themselves; they are much less likely to turn their backs on foes now
• Fleeing units will now run from combat at their absolute maximum movement speed
• While under the effect of a Rally flag units will now attempt to stay in combat much longer even if their needs are not being fulfilled

 

Units

Workers

• Movement speed reduced to 7 whilst running and 6 whilst walking (down from 10 and 7 respectively)

Spirit Worker

• Movement speed reduced to 10 whilst running and 7 whilst walking (down from 16 and 7 respectively)

Ghoul

• Pre-placed Ghouls can now convert to a player’s faction upon discovery

Augre

• Basic Attack damage increased to 160 (up from 80)
• Ground Slam damage increased to 160 (up from 80)
• Quake damage increased to 230 (up from 115)

 

Rooms

Tavern

• Gold income reduced by 50%

Torture Chamber

• Torture speed reduced by 50%

Garrison

• Buff duration increased to 300 seconds (up from 240)

Defences

Possession Door (Map Editor Only)

• Possession Doors can now be configured to lock the player into Possession when they pass through in a possessed unit – see right-click context menu for options
• It is now possible to use Possession Doors to prevent areas of the map from being revealed – see right-click context menu for options

 

Spells

Recall

• A unit may now take 5% of its max health in damage before the recall is cancelled

Impasse

• Can now be placed within the radius of other Impasse flags

Worker Rally

• Can now be placed within the radius of other Worker Rally flags

Annex

• Now deals 200 tile damage instead of destroying tiles outright
• Cost increased to 75 (up from 50)
• Gold blocks that are targeted by Annex will drop their gold into a pile inside the tile; once the tile is destroyed the gold will be revealed

 

Rituals

Armageddon

• Channeling cost increased to 7000 (up from 4600)

Assembly

• Channeling cost increased to 7000 (up from 4600)

Avarice

• Channeling cost increased to 3000 (up from 2000)

Besiege

• Channeling cost increased to 1000 (up from 850)

Construction

• Channeling cost decreased to 3000 (down from 3100)

Fortify

• Channeling cost increased to 1000 (up from 550)

Kenos

• Channeling cost decreased to 7000 (down from 7500)

Overload

• Channeling cost increased to 500 (up from 450)

Prospector

• Channeling cost increased to 500 (up from 115)

Revelation

• Channeling cost increased to 4000 (up from 1350)

Shifting Bond

• Channeling cost decreased to 25000 (down from 32500)

Uprising

• Channeling cost increased to 3000 (up from 2350)

Vampire

• Channeling cost increased to 500 (up from 150)

Level Changes

• A number of levels have had their speed run Achievement time requirements loosened:
  • 1 – Awakening
  • 2 – Welcome to Kairos
  • 3 – The Breach
  • 4 – Shades of Grey
  • 5 – The Rear Guard
  • 6 – Behind Enemy Lines
  • 7 – Heart Attack
  • 8 – Desecration
  • 10 – The Kenos
  • 13 – Equilibrium

War for the Overworld

Level 1

• Fixed a small error which could occur in Level 1

Level 2

• Removed a point in the script where user input would be locked if they had not taken a specific action

Level 3

• Added an optional objective to construct more defences whilst preparing for Lord O’Theland’s attack
• Opened up some of the terrain on this level to give you more space to build your Dungeon

Level 4

• Lowered the level of some of Underlord Marcus’ units which were massively overleveled

Level 5

• There are now fewer rooms in Rhaskos’ dungeon by default
• Increased difficulty of this level slightly to bring it in line with the difficulty curve

Level 8

• Level difficulty has been reduced by giving the Necromancers a major buff

Level 9

• Slightly reduced the difficulty of the waves

Level 10

• Attacking enemy waves are now easier and use the correct unit theme

Level 12

• Reduced the overall difficulty of the AI Underlords on this level; each Underlord will now wait a prescribed amount of time before beginning their attack
• Draven is now able to use Underminers

Custom Levels

• Custom levels which contain both an Empire Inhibitor and enemy Dungeon Cores will no longer end while either remains alive, as opposed to ending immediately when one objective is fulfilled

Visual Changes

• Vault Gold Piles have received a complete facelift at all levels of capacity
• Many objects in the game have received a visual overhaul to increase their visual clarity
• Removed some defunct Ghoul textures to prevent darkened Ghouls from spawning
• Improved the visual effect applied to rotting corpses; it should now be clearer when a unit is dead as opposed to unconscious
• Projectile impact VFX should now always play when a projectile hits a wall, no matter how close or how far a unit is from the wall
• Updated the Barracks floor texture to reduce aliasing
• The Shadow has received some tweaks to its darkness cloud so it’s more visible
• Improved some shaders to correct desaturation issues on a number of textures
• The Kickstarter theme Dungeon Core has received a visual update
• The Korvek theme Dungeon Core should now be mildly brighter
• Rats now have a special death VFX
• Blood tiles have received a visual overhaul
• Brightened the Natural Bridge
• Many units have received visual upgrades which help improve visibility
• Default Underlord’s Hand has received a visual facelift, or manicure if you prefer
• Brightened Magnanimous (Phaestus) Dungeon Theme slightly
• Added some additional geometry to the Overworld Gateway
• Glacial Walls that are broken will now use snow block breaking VFX
• Fixed a texture glitch on the Underworld Gateway
• Natural Bridges now look more natural
• Improved the torture VFX
• Improved the VFX on the Founders theme Dungeon Core

 

UI Changes

• Increased the visibility of the Underlord’s Hand; in particular the point of interaction should now be clearer
• Units now have real-time feedback on need loss and gain via the use of floating emoticons
• Placing or selling objects which have a gold cost such as rooms and defences now provides floating feedback
• Unit Panel will now dynamically scale when the player owns many unit types – each portrait will take up less width allowing more unit types to be displayed at any one time
• Support added for OS Hardware Cursor in place of the Underlord’s Hand – you can find this in the Gameplay Options
• Unit shields will now flash when a unit is fleeing combat
• Archive prop progress indicator moved higher to accommodate Artefact research
• Floating text will now appear when a room is built or sold displaying the gold spent or gained
• Changed the layout of Worker Rally and added a new frame to assist interaction
• Game clock moved slightly to not overlap with new UI elements
• When saving the game your typing prompt will now already be present in the text box, allowing you to immediately type the name of the save
• Adjusted the colour of Rocky Earth on the minimap

 

Map Editor

• A “Level Ticker” is now present when placing units, allowing you to select their Level before placing them
• Selecting the Dirt or Sacred Earth tiles will automatically apply the terrain faction
• Placing Claimed Tiles with the terrain faction selected will now place Dirt tiles
• Name and Description fields are now greyed out when publishing a map locally as it is not possible to change these values
• The sell tool is now available in the Map Editor and can be used to sell rooms

 

AI Improvements

• Underlord AI is now mutator aware and will not give up on its build order if it cannot place a room
• Workers will now generate jobs to collect Artefacts or loose gold no matter where it is on the map, provided it has been discovered
• Fixed some pathfinding faults which could cause units to get stuck on corners – in particular on Dungeon Cores

 

Audio Changes

• Added a cooldown between some of Mendechaus’ lines to prevent them being played extremely regularly – in particular mana and gold lines
• Additional alerts have been added for units becoming tired
• Added alerts for when Neutral Crucible units are discovered (used in My Pet Dungeon)

 

Crucible

• Leaderboards reset to coincide with the significant balance changes in this patch

 

Performance Improvements

• Adjusted culling to improve performance on the main menu

 

Community Translation

• Voice lines that play on the main menu now have subtitles and translation keys (including “Welcome” and “Map downloaded” lines)
• Faction names are now translated and have translation keys
• All faction names in fixed levels (Campaign, Crucible) are now translated
• All AI personalities now have translation keys

 

Mutators

• Setting the default map mutators on official Skirmish maps will now match the default values as defined in the Map Editor

 

Miscellaneous Changes

• Minor stability improvements
• It is now possible to Autosave the game with up to five saves in your history; you can configure this option via the Gameplay Options
• It is now possible to quicksave and quickload by using the F5 and F9 hotkeys respectively
• Camera culling tweaked – it is now possible to zoom out and tilt the camera fully without the terrain becoming culled, resulting in further vision range in RTS mode and the Map Editor

 

Bug Fixes

Crashes

• Fixed a crash related to the Prison in the Map Editor

Crucible

• Artefacts can no longer spawn and become stuck on Gateways
• Fixed an issue where the wave count at the end of the match would not reflect the correct final wave
• Goldstone ownership is now correctly consistent on all Crucible levels

Units

• Vampire “Summon Restless Spirit” ability can now be used in Possession as intended
• Removed the defunct “Charge” ability button from Juggernaut in Possession
• Ranged units are now unable to perform friendly fire on the Dungeon Core
• Piggies can once again be possessed without the camera becoming lost in the void
• Corrected some of the Chilly Chunder’s abilities to correctly be passive effects
• Heelys removed from the church wardrobes; Priestess’ can no longer cast while moving
• Corrected a bug which prevented the Bard and Saffire from firing baguettes
• Possessed Workers will no longer become stuck in an animation/sfx loop if the player quickly cycles between mining and fortifying
• Neutral units will now always ignore their needs and as such will not become upset or angry
• Possessed Workers can no longer claim the tile a door is placed upon

Defences

• Invulnerable Flood Gates (Level 8 special) will no longer have health shields
• Fixed an issue where the Bone Chiller passive was not correctly slowing units in its radius of effect

Constructs

• Fixed a bug that caused the Underminer to deal immense damage, destroying walls instantly

Rooms

• Cleaned up collision box on Dungeon Core to prevent units from becoming stuck on corners

Spells & Rituals

• Using the Possession spell on a unit just as that unit dies will no longer cause the camera to become unresponsive
• Fixed Rally flag bounding box so it’s easier to select in the dungeon
• Fixed an issue where casting the Forge spell in quick succession could adversely increase its cost
• Fixed an issue where your camera or controls would behave unusually when possessing animals

Potions

• Fixed an issue where the effect of the Wormhole potion would not render

Environment

• Research Shrines will no longer be treated by Workers as an Archive Lectern

Map Editor

• Gold Piles can no longer be picked up in the Map Editor
• Fixed an issue where pressing Escape unpauses/pauses the game but does not remove the menu, after opening the pause menu in the Map Editor only
• Ember Rifts will not create Ember Demons after a mirror tool is used
• Player 1’s units will now correctly have visible unit shields
• Fixed a bug where Claimed Tiles could not be placed on Claimed Tiles owned by another player
• Removed defunct “R” type Stone Bridge
• Fixed a bug where the pause menu would no longer be accessible after opening the options menu in the Map Editor
• Mandalf and the Duke have now been replaced with their Crucible counterparts who behave properly
• Doors locked in the Map Editor will now properly remain locked

Levels

• The barrier on War for the Overworld Level 13 will now correctly return if a save game was made while the barrier was down
• The Hand of Kira on War for the Overworld Level 8 should now be attackable throughout the combat rather than only when she is the last unit standing
• Fixed a missing wall in the Barracks on Level 13 of the War for the Overworld campaign
• Fixed an issue where the camera could continue rotating after a cutscene played in Level 13 of the War for the Overworld campaign
• Lucius’ death on Level 13 is now more reliably detected
• Fixed an issue where changing the Underlord’s Hand could result in a sequence break if it occurred during a cutscene
• Fixed an issue where Snowedunder would be available in Sandbox when it should only have been available in Crucible mode
• Fixed an issue where the player was able to cause a sequence break on War for the Overworld Level 6
• Saving and loading on Level 4 of the Heart of Gold campaign will no longer cause all but the last Inhibitor to respawn
• Slain Underlords in Level 12 of the War for the Overworld campaign will no longer continue to comment on events

AI

• Fixed a creature AI bug where ranged units would engage defences at melee range
• Fixed a creature AI bug where happy units would not fight rebelling units
• Labour laws revised: Empire prisoners can no longer be used as slave labour in your rooms by dropping them in to work

UI

• User input is now correctly locked while transitioning into and out of Possession
• Fixed an issue where the cancel highlight on Worker Rally would not show
• Unit attraction controls on Gateways should no longer prevent UI input
• Fixed an issue where attempting to drop a potion on an invalid target would cause the effect radius marker to disappear
• It is no longer possible to slap units through the UI
• Long custom map descriptions in Skirmish and Sandbox modes will now scroll instead of moving the box off the screen, trapping the player forever in description hell!
• Fixed an issue where the unit attraction controls for Gateways would not appear if the player controlled both Underworld and Overworld Gateways, as well as a Spirit Chamber
• Fixed a number of typos and mismatched lines that would show up as subtitles for various random narrator lines
• Fixed an issue where the interaction point of the Underlord’s Handwas incorrectly positioned, making the selection of some elements difficult
• Golden statues created by an Aureate Monolith should no longer display their unit shield under certain conditions
• Notification for the death of Magma Weavers is now correct

Mutators

• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to save a new mutator preset after deleting one

Visual

• Gnarling and Warden “Blade Spin” VFX retimed to match animation
• Chunder “Chunder Thunder” VFX retimed to match animation
• Juggernaut “Shockwave” VFX retimed to match animation
• Warden “Flense” VFX retimed to match animation
• The dungeon ceiling will no longer be rendered during the transition to Possession
• Fixed an issue where the dungeon ceiling would not show if it was culled by the engine at the start
• Fixed an issue with lack of head bobbing on the Vanguard (Possession Mode)
• Flying units which have been slain should now correctly fall to the floor
• Ghouls should once again shatter into pieces when killed under all conditions
• Fixed animation issue when attacking in Possession as the Duke or Juggernaut
• Fixed a visual issue where the Barracks floor was not using the correct transparency
• Fixed ceiling not present in Crypt Water tilesets
• Fixed an issue with the Sanctuary floor not using the correct transparency
• Removed some lights on the main menu which were causing some unusual visual artefacts
• Fixed an issue where it was possible for the Underlord’s Hand to be lit by the hand light
• Neutral Shrines will now correctly have a ceiling while in Possession Mode
• Magnanimous (Phaestus) theme will now use the correct Stone Bridge texture
• Fixed a small visual issue with Chasm tiling
• Ramparts will no longer explode with gold chunks when they die
• Fixed a visual issue with Rocky Earth
• Empire Garrisons now correctly use a visually distinct VFX
• Fixed a visual bug where the Blood in the Sanctuary room appeared with large gaps between it
• The Bafu will no longer sleep hovering in the air
• Fixed an issue where a blinking (teleporting) Worker would cause a VFX to speed off across the map

Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue where the client could receive a notification that the host had left the match, even after the client had returned to the main menu
• Clients can now correctly make use of the alternate Impasse mode
• Fixed an issue where the Rally flag dismiss icon could be invisible for clients in multiplayer
• Clients in multiplayer will now correctly see the Eternal’s health shield placed upon the Core of a player who owns an Eternal

Audio

• Mendechaus will no longer repeat “Artefact activated” and “Minions under attack” lines per event
• Fixed a number of broken audio links and reinserted missing audio

Miscellaneous

• Removed defunct resolutions that are not supported by WFTO (800×600 and below)
• Fixed a particular shader issue that could result in a number of issues on Intel Iris cards
• When the credits have finished playing you will now immediately be returned to the main menu as intended

 

Cheers,

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums

Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!