Open test of new gameplay features: Tactical retreat, “comeback” after defeat and other updates
TACTICAL RETREAT
Iratus has leaned many lessons from his original defeat – for a repeat would only end with him spending another millennium imprisoned in his tomb, and who knows how much time this world still has? Because of this, the necromancer has learned to approach battles more cautiously, understanding when best to regroup.
We are implementing a system of Tactical retreat by changing the function of the “Abandon Battle” UI element in the top right corner of the screen. It will be replaced by “Tactical Retreat”.
What does this mean for you? Previously, exiting combat meant losing your combat squad for good. Now Iratus has the option to save his minions from pointless destruction. After pressing the new “Tactical Retreat” button and confirming your decision, all minions will receive the “Retreat” icon. At the start of their next turn, they will leave combat and the player will be booted back to his previous position on the map. Remember that any damage minions received from battle will persist.
COMEBACK
Proper resource management is the key quality of any successful necromancer. Even fallen minions can be scavenged for parts!
From now on, if your combat squad is fully wiped out, Iratus has the ability to scavenge a few parts and items left over from the bodies of his minions. Naturally it isn’t possible to scavenge everything back, combat is, after all, risky business but you will not leave empty handed either.
We once again want to remind our players: this feature will only provide parts if your squad has been fully wiped out.
SCOUTING
It can be rather disheartening to painstakingly assemble a stress damage squad only to then encounter a bunch Golems. Naturally, Iratus wants to avoid such unpleasant surprises, which is why we added a scouting system to provide players with information regarding the challenges they might face as they ascend to the surface. Players will now be able to see the composition of enemy forces on neighboring spaces.
CRASH PROTECTION
Unfortunately, some of our players encountered problems with game stability, or hardware problems that lead to them losing their battle groups. We decided to provide all of you with a little bit of insurance: now if the game ends unexpectedly you will be able to resume from the start of the last battle without any negative consequences!
“GOOD ALWAYS WINS” HAS BEEN REWORKED
Improving balance means not only tweaking the abilities of minions and enemies, it is also modifying the economic and tactical aspects of the game. Iratus: Lord of the Dead is a hardcore tactical RPG for people who love taking their time to decide on the most optimal combat and economic paths in any situation. This will not change.
We have reworked “GOOD ALWAYS WINS”. Now you won’t be winning because of lucky circumstance, but a sharp tactical and strategic mind will sooner or later lead you to triumph! We have reviewed all stats and economic values to make every decision you make an important one.
We are inviting our most hardcore players to join the testing group and tell us about your impressions!
BALANCE TWEAKS
We are continuing to work to improve the economy of the game. In the beta test you will find the following changes. NB! These values can be changed by the time version 158 enters public access.
• Global changes
- Weaker elite enemies on the first floor on difficulty level More Pain!
- Weaker elite enemies on the second floor on difficulty level Cakewalk and More Pain!
- Fully revamped the balance and economy on difficulty level Good Always Winds.
- Increased the rewards for killing elite enemies and bosses on all difficulty levels.
- The ”Steadfast” status has been removed from the game.
- Slightly improved the accuracy of Iratus’s minions.
• Blood Phantasm
- Chains of Anger, Moaning Chains: Damage increased from 60% -> 90%
- Chains of Fury: Damage increased from 80% -> 120%
- Hate Eternal, Wrath Eternal, Torment Eternal: Damage increased from 40/20% -> 60/30%
- Mark of Retribution, Aura of Retribution: Damage increased from с 10-20 -> 15-25
- Mark of Vengeance: Damage increased from 15-30 -> 20-30
- Phantasmal Assault, Phantasmal Carnage: Damage increased from 75% -> 100%
- Phantasmal Blitz: Damage increased from 100% -> 150%
• Bride of Iratus
- Baseline attack increased from 22-27 -> 24-29
- Flames of Love, Flames of Eternal Love: Damage increased from 50/25% -> 60/30%
- Flames of Passionate Love: Damage increased from 60/30% -> 70/35%
• Dark Knight
- Dark Offering: Bonus Wrath increased from 12 -> 24
• Fallen Dhampir
- Baseline Attack increased from 15-17 -> 16-18
- Baseline Dread reduced from 13-15 -> 14-16
- Aim for The Vein, Aim for The Heart, Aim for The Soul: Damage increased from 80% -> 100%
• Ghoul
- Baseline Attack increased from 20-26 -> 22-28
- Butcher, Crimson Feast: Damage increased from 100% -> 115%
- Restrained Slaughter: Damage increased from 125% -> 140%
- Savage Instincts, Savage Cunning: Bonus damage increased from 10% -> 20%
- Predatory Instincts: Bonus damage increased from 15% -> 30%
• Head Hunter
- Dual Slash, Vorpal Slash: Damage increased from 60% -> 70%
- Dual Cruelty: Damage increased from 50% -> 70%
- Seething Wrath, Sundering Wrath, Intimidating Rage: Can now target any position.
• Lich
- Sacrifice: Vigor restored reduced from 40 -> 30
- Cannon Fodder: Vigor restored reduced from 50 -> 40
- Toxic Cloud, Plague Cloud, Corrosive Cloud: Damage reduced from 100% -> 80%
- Rain of Fire, Armageddon, Bedlam: Wrath cost reduced fom 45 -> 30
- Reanimate, Dark Resurrection: Wrath cost reduced from 80 -> 65
- Cheap Bodies: Wrath cost reduced from 60 -> 50
• Lost Soul
- Inspire Heroics, Doomed to Heroism, Hero-Mania: Now moves the target one position forward.
• Shade
- Voidclaws: Damage increased from 70/35% -> 80/40%
• Skeleton
- Baseline Attack increased from 18-20 -> 19-21
- Baseline Dread increased from 18-20 -> 19-21
- Baseline Luck increased from 5 -> 9
- Shield Banger, Creepy Clank, Dismissive Banger: Damage reduced from 120% -> 100%
• Vampire
- Hysteria, Berserk, Rage: Can now only be used from the 4th and 3rd positions.
• Wraith
- Terrorwave, Echoing Terror, Panic Blast: Damage reduced from 65% -> 50%
• Zombie
- Baseline Dread reduced from 15-18 -> 13-16
- Volley, Accurate Volley, Grand Volley: Damage over time increased from 80% -> 100%
- Igniting Mixture, Smoke Bomb: Baseline damage reduced from 40% -> 20%
- Igniting Mixture, Smoke Bomb: Damage over time increased 50% -> 100%
- Fiery Explosive: Baseline damage reduced from 40% -> 20%
- Fiery Explosive: Damage over time increased 25% -> 60%
- Trench Loading: Bonus damage increased from 20% -> 50%
• Sleep (Weird Mandolin artefact)
- Mana cost increased from 60 -> 75
- Duration reduced from 2 -> 1 turns
• Frenzied Howling
- Bonus to dread reduced from 6 -> 4
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HOW TO JOIN THE TESTING PROCESS
Open Steam and in your library right click Iratus: Lord of the Dead. You will need to mouse over to the Properties function.
Open the BETAS tab and enter the key YmV0YU5vd0hlcmU, then select CHECK CODE.
In the drop down menu choose the branch [iratus-beta.158 -], then close the window.
Wait until Steam has finished downloading the newest version of Iratus: Lord of the Dead and be among the first to try out the new features!
One of the main goals of open testing – to determine your reactions to the new features. Has the play experience gotten more comfortable? What details would you like to see added next? Anything we should try to fix? Write all your thoughts in our Discord. We read every message: https://discord.gg/QPE2Mzr
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We would like to once again thank all our players for participating in this project! Your thumbs up and positive replies give us the energy we need to move forwards while the suggestions you leave for us is invaluable feedback that we can use to improve the game and allows us to know when we are moving in the right direction.
Thank you for being with us!
