Darkest greetings Underlord,

We’ve arrived at last to our next major iteration of War for the Overworld. Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire!

We’re extremely pleased with how the new features in this patch have turned out, and with the content offered by the free Crucible DLC there are a huge number of changes to consider. In terms of brand new features we don’t think we’ve ever brought something quite this significant to bear before!

No doubt you want to get stuck right in and you will be able to do so immediately via Steam! But if you want to find out more about the patch you can of course read our release post, or have a browse through the full release notes below.

Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire

New Game Mode: Crucible

As part of the free Crucible DLC we have introduced a brand new game mode which pits your skills against never-ending waves of ever more dangerous foes!

Endless Waves of Enemies

• With waves divided into sets of five, each set heralds its own diverse theme, but all are unified in the solitary goal of your destruction.
• Face off against devastating bosses in the final wave of each set – kill them quick enough and earn a reward!
• Up to 100 pre-determined waves will appear before you based on the selected challenge; if you somehow survive those you’ll be forced to face off against random sets of enemies.

Discover new realms on which to make your mark

• Six all-new Crucible levels have been added to the game, each of which has a unique layout and design to push your survival skills to breaking point.
• Each realm has a set of three lanes and in many cases each lane will have its own twist to make your defence that little bit tougher.

All-new survival mechanics make you step outside your comfort zone

• Each map has three sets of Goldstones, all new shrines that gift you gold for every second they remain intact. Naturally if your foes get their way that won’t be for long.
• Feel like turning up the heat? The Advanced challenge will push you to the brink and beyond, so demonstrate your mastery of the game in this mode.
• New challenges will be added at a later date.

Call upon three powerful Lifeline abilities

• While playing the Crucible mode you have access to three powerful abilities to help you last “just a few more rounds” in exchange for a modest sum of gold. But be warned: each cast increases the cost of the Lifeline exponentially.
• Apocalypse destroys all enemies, except for a few particularly strong examples, within a hair’s breadth of your Dungeon Core and Goldstones.
• Safeguard will protect your Goldstones from damage for a short while, giving you time to think.
• Need some time to breathe? Respite will delay the next wave so you can shore up your defences.

Make your mark and win fabulous prizes

• Each level and challenge combination features its own Steam leaderboard. Think you can take down the devs at their own game? Want to prove you’re the very best? Well now you can!
• New unlockable Worker skins are available to those stalwart Underlords that survive 25, 50, and 75 waves.

Mutators

Through our new mutators we’re going to be putting the power in your hands: tweak gameplay mechanics through dozens of intricate sliders or simply ban units or Aspects from the game entirely. The choice is yours!

• Mutators are now available in Skirmish, Sandbox, and Multiplayer modes.
• There are 28 Gameplay Mutators to adjust till your heart’s content, and more to come in future patches!
• You can define the availability of Aspects from the Veins of Evil – unlock them from the start for all players, or block them entirely.
• You can enable and disable unit spawning for each unit on an individual level.
• You can create custom mutator sets and save them, so you’ll never lose your favourite settings.
• Mutators can be applied via the Map Editor to define a set of “Map Defaults” which players can choose to play with when they play your map: great for those creators looking to make a specific challenge.

Community Translations

We always want to bring War for the Overworld to as many fans across the world as we can, but with the limited resources of an indie developer it is often difficult to justify the costs of localisation, especially this late into the game. Inspired by the efforts of some of our most dedicated community members, we’re giving players the opportunity to bring the game to their native language like never before.

• The game now supports the ability to upload translation files of the game’s text assets to the Steam Workshop. You’ll find these tools in the Extras menu.
• To make the translation process as easy as possible we’ve created a set of documentation and template files, and we’ve set up a forum where you can communicate with like-minded individuals or ask us questions directly.
• Players can then downloaded community translations from the Steam Workshop.

New Unit: Democorn

You may recall a certain April Fool’s joke we made a few years ago. Well now it’s your worst nightmare in the Crucible! The horrendously friendly Democorn can also be used in the Map Editor. It arrives with the following abilities:

• Basic Attack – Headbutt the target.
• Painbow – Fire a painful rainbow.
• Double Painbow – What does it mean?
• Horny Charge – Fly at the target like Pegasus possessed and deal massive damage.
• Friendship is Magic – Passively turn all nearby units that die into Baby Democorns. Because if the world needs anything, it’s more Democorns.
• Disco Inferno – Cause every nearby unit to stop what it’s doing and party like it’s 1999.

New Unit Variants

Reskinned units which use a combination of abilities taken from existing units, and which will soon be assaulting you in the Crucible. These units can also be used in the Map Editor.

Baby Democorn

• Baby version of the terrifying Democorn
• Does not possess the Disco Inferno, Double Painbow or Friendship is Magic abilities, but is just as fabulous

Babymoth

• A baby Behemoth
• Along with being adorable, the Babymoth is significantly less deadly, being weaker all round and not possessing the powerful passive damage aura or health regeneration of its grown-up form

Frosty Weaver

• An altered version of the Frost Weaver for use in custom maps and the Crucible
• Unlike the standard Frost Weaver this version will follow Rally flags and doesn’t melt down over time

Golden Weaver

• A demon from the Aetherial Rung of Gold, located somewhere between Phaestus and Kasita’s Home Realm
• Hits things hard; looks pretty; doesn’t do much else

Magma Weaver

• A demon which lives halfway between the Aetherial Rung of Fire and the Aetherial Rung of Ice, hence its liquid status
• Has a fiery aura that burns nearby enemies; also hits things hard

Screecher

• A mutant Bafu that navigates and hunts with sonar instead of smell
• Has a powerful screech attack that knocks enemies back

Restless Spirit

• Combat version of the Spirit which is literally big-headed
• Looks awesome and glows green
• Shoots necrotic bolts of death

Chunderoid

• A large Chunder whose father ate boulders for breakfast
• Bigger, better, and stronger than a normal Chunder, but much slower

Chilly Chunder

• An ice-cold Chunder whose father gorged on snowballs
• It will inspire others nearby to also chill out, slowing their movement and attack speeds

Chilli Chunder

• A flaming-hot Chunder whose father gorged on chilli peppers
• The Chilli Chunder has been imbued with flame, and a powerful flame breath ability
• It can also launch itself at enemies by igniting its own flatulence and flying through the air

Badass Flying Chunder

• A flying Chunder whose father gorged on Bafu
• Quite possibly the best unit in existence

Baron von Pukemuch

• King of the Chunders, and the strongest of them all
• The Baron also eats his gold, rather than depositing it in a Vault

Chunderling

• A baby Chunder
• Came second to the Babymoth in the “adorable dangerous demons” competition

Ember Lord

• A nutty pyromaniac and eponymous ruler of The Cult of the Ember Lord
• Along with the normal abilities of an Ember Demon, the Ember Lord will also set anything nearby on fire whilst summoning an endless stream of smaller Ember Demons

Pinkeye

• The oldest Oculus in existence
• She went blind a long time ago, but is still a deadly force to be reckoned with

Molten Skarg

• A resolute Skarg which went for a swim in a volcano and didn’t feel a thing

Terror

• This terrifying older brother of the Shadow is far more deadly despite its inability to turn invisible
• So-called because of its many-eyed, many-horned carapace

Arcane Chunder

• A magical Chunder whose father gorged on spellbooks, and/or Arcanists
• With skilled use of their stomach they are able to actually burp out magical incantations to bombard their foes

Angry Monk

• These monks have been forced to wear incredibly uncomfortable brown robes
• Would-be slayer of Vampires, if he wasn’t roaring drunk

Dwarven Arcanist

• The ranks of the Arcane Order are not only limited to humans
• These dwarves are adept at spell slinging, although their short stature makes aiming a tad difficult

Shambler

• An upwardly-mobile skeleton attempting to leave its dead-classness behind

Gameplay Changes

Units

Revenants (spawned by Archon & Well of Souls)

• Can now navigate around and through defences much better which should cause them to be more effective in defensive lines

Vampire

• Will now summon Restless Spirits instead of Revenants – ghostly spirits that shoot death beams

Defences

Well of Souls

• Will automatically spawn Revenants when full

Artefacts

Artefact of Assembly

• Now applies Defence Parts much faster and is guaranteed to complete all defences thanks to German engineering!

Level Changes

War for the Overworld

Level 6

• Increased the amount of time available for the player to complete the “Prison Architect” achievement
• Small adjustments to make the level slightly easier

Visual Changes

• Themed Templars, Sappers and Wardens have been added to the Empire Arcane Theme
• The Gargoyle energy beam is no longer absurdly bright
• Lightened the textures on the Stone Knight and his shell – he now “pops” a little more
• Bombards have been given a fresh coat of paint
• To prevent confusion with his brother the “Empire Worker”, the Sapper has removed his backpack, so they now look nothing alike
• Improved Mira Theme lighting
• Removed some overly bright lights from the Empire Prison
• Wraiths from the Uprising ritual now look visually distinct from Revenants which are spawned by the Archon and Well of Souls

UI Changes

• Completely rewrote the unit health shield subsystem – it should be a lot more stable now and work as intended
• You will now be alerted when units have been rallied for too long
• Unit shields will now show up for a short time after a unit has gained a level
• Three states are now available for unit shields: Always On, Always Off and Default – these can be cycled with Ctrl+Shift+S
• Tweaked a number of tooltips and other text assets for a better fit
• There is now a short delay when right-clicking the Core icon and it taking you to the Core’s location, after sacrificing a Worker via the icon
• Added the ability for Underlord Edition owners to open the Dungeoneer’s Guide to the Underworld via the Extras menu
• Disabled the “Translation Incomplete” message that would appear for French and German players – the translation has actually been complete since the third week of April… Oops…

Map Editor

• Made a number of small quality of life improvements to the Map Editor
• New Crucible units are placeable in the Map Editor, available under a new tab

Audio Changes

• Added a number of voice lines specific to Inhibitors

Multiplayer Changes

• Some internal improvements have been made as part of the Crucible DLC to make Multiplayer more stable

Performance Improvements

• Massive streamlining of all the textures in the game, reducing memory footprint by up to 400MB at no visual cost

Miscellaneous Changes

• Rally flags can no longer be placed inside a Prison or Arena

Bug Fixes

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that could occur when importing a map and changing the number of players

Units

• Fixed a notification that would appear claiming that a unit had no Lair when it was removed from the Arena due to a KO
• Flying units can no longer incorrectly pass through a raised Blade Lotus
• Fixed an issue where units turned into gold statues by Aureate Monoliths would continue moving if they were in collision range with another unit when they were converted

Defences

• Fixed an issue where Ramparted defences could not be sold
• Fixed an issue where units spawned from a Ramparted Well of Souls could not always escape the Rampart
• Enemy defence blueprints that have parts placed will no longer be invisible after loading a save game

Rooms

• Building a Vault under gold piles when your storage capacity is currently full will now correctly distribute gold into the new Vault tiles

Spells & Rituals

• Shockwave can no longer hit units through walls, through obstacles, or inside the Prison or Arena
• Fixed an exploit whereby possessing a minion and clicking very fast to work a Barracks prop would cause it to level very quickly
• Fixed an issue where certain VFX could be visible through walls while in Possession mode, in particular the Worker Rally flag VFX

Potions

• Fixed an issue with the Transmutation potion where it was not possible to drop the potion on a non-valid block, even if there were valid blocks in range

Environment

• Fixed an issue where ranged abilities could disappear when flying over a Chasm
• VFX for Inhibitors will no longer reappear after their destruction

Map Editor

• Temple Guards will no longer be spawned with 60 experience in the Map Editor
• Fixed an issue where the Sapper was displayed twice in the Map Editor
• Gold is now correctly removed from the minimap if removed using an Earth tile rather than the Remove Gold tool

Levels

• Fixed a number of of problems where conversations and narration would play at incorrect times in Heart of Gold Level 4
• Enemies no longer spawn from destroyed portals in Heart of Gold Level 3
• Fixed an incredibly rare scenario where a delay in loading a save game could cause loops in level scripts not retriggering properly
• The Overworld Gateway in Level 6 no longer starts at reduced health
• Fixed an issue where Underlord Marcus did not say his full line in Level 4
• The Inhibitor in Level 3 should now have the correct health value
• Fixed an issue where it could become impossible to finish Heart of Gold Level 4 after loading a save game

UI

• Fixed dozens of typos for the English language
• Fixed an issue whereby the game would not alert you if a unit had become unhappy or angry
• Fixed an issue where unit shields would not display correctly for certain defences
• Unit shields should no longer show for invisible targets after loading a saved game
• Units that are turned to a gold statue will no longer show in their Warband
• Fixed an issue where a certain UI message that appeared for deprecated languages would continuously appear after each Level if not correctly dismissed
• Severe crackdown on the right to congregate – as such units in the Peaceband will no longer appear as if they were in “Group 63”

Visual

• The Possession mode camera will no longer clip into the Spirit Worker

Multiplayer

• Fixed a hang that could occur in three-player matches when the match was started when only two players had the map

Audio

• Fixed some cases where 3D audio was incorrectly playing as 2D Audio
• Lava SFX are now correctly affected by volume control

 

Cheers!
– Brightrock Games Team

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