Hey folks! Another big update today (several-version bump!) with a lot of cool new features for the demo! Check out the deets below:

New Features

• Combat phase has been rewritten.
  • Units that fight in melee range share a connected stage.
  • Units that fight at range each stand on separate platforms.
  • Units that are within combat range walk onto the stage, while units out of range appear standing in place.
  • Units take a step forward to attack at range, and two steps in melee, then return to their original position.
  • New star and dust particle effects.
  • Pushed unit stats to the corners.
  • The stage beneath each unit samples the average colour of the tile they are standing on.
  • Health bar windows and damage windows enter the screen independently instead of as a whole unit.
  • Rewrote the whole combat logic under the hood to use sequenced events instead of hacky frame-tracking flag nonsense.
    
• Added new rotary menu for the action menu and some former carousel menus.
  
  
  • Unit Skills submenu has been removed and all unit skills promoted to the primary level of the action menu. This may be reassessed in the future.
• New Map Added: Crypt of the Sun King (NOVICE).
• When hovering over various tiles containing an entity during the Unit Select or Map Survey phases, a help window will appear at the bottom of the screen describing that entity.
• Randomized name generation during Drafting now pulls from distinct lists for each unit class instead of a shared pool to be more thematic.
• Added ability to skip to next BGM song during a match in the Pause menu.
• Added prompt to try the tutorial when a player tries to start a New Game for the first time.
• Achievements can now be viewed during a match via the in-game pause menu.
• New BGM Ceremony added.
• New BGM Eastern Desert added.

Balance Changes

• Vampire Slumber command skill removed.
• Vampire Shadow Step command skill added. This action acts like Spirit Step, but allows you to jump to enemies as a free action. This means you can jump to an enemy to chain into other actions, such as using Drain after you Donate to an ally.
• Sorceress Aeromancy: Headwind skill removed.
• Sorceress Aethermancy: Transfer skill added. This allows a Sorceress to transfer negative status effects applied to allies and move them to herself instead. This adds another source of counter-play to status effects and gives Sorceress better team utility at range.
• Necromancer LCK reduced to 0 from 1.
• Overall balancing of Skulls From the Skull Throne adjusted to be more beginner-friendly. Recommended experience level reduced to NOVICE from INTERMEDIATE.
• Necromancer RET buffed back to 3. Reducing both RET and LCK was overkill.
• Villager now has the Shove skill.

Quality of Life Changes

• Cavalier and Bard units are now available to play in the demo from the start to give new players slightly more variety at the jump.
• Achievement requirements for Vampire and Sorceress have been changed.
• AI should stand in place less often when roaming, chasing and fleeing.

Bugfixes

• Fixed bug where Fencers second action after Exert + Fade Strike showed the attack preview based on where he started instead of where he is.
• Action tiles are no longer highlighted for Gate doors that cant be interacted with.
• Made map filter names more consistent with descriptive names and fixed map unlocks accordingly where affected.
• Fixed sequence break/softlock in Vital intelligence map involving coordinating a Mage and Lancer to make a door impossible to open by the Sol army.
• A crash involving opening the Unit Skills submenu with a VIP unit can no longer occur since that submenu no longer exists.
• Fixed a bug in Rendezvous objectives where an army concedes and the game does not end.

Misc

• Updated lilypad sprites and added frog sprite to Vital Intelligence map. Shuffled some tiles and added disarmable traps to Vital Intelligence map.