Name | Tomb of Tyrants | ||
Developer | Jake Huhman | ||
Publisher | Jake Huhman | ||
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Release | 2015-06-25 | ||
Steam | 2,71€ 1,9£ 2,71$ / 66 % | ||
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Controls | Keyboard Mouse Full Controller Support | ||
Players online |  0  | ||
Steam Rating | Very Positive | ||
Steam store | |||
How long to Beat | |||
Main Story + Extras |  13 Hours  | ||
SteamSpy | |||
Peak CCU Yesterday |
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Owners |  20,000 .. 50,000 +/-   | ||
Players - Since release |   +/- | ||
Players - Last 2 weeks |   +/- | ||
Average playtime (forever) | 200 | ||
Average playtime (last 2 weeks) | 0 | ||
Median playtime (forever) | 216 | ||
Median playtime (last 2 weeks) | 0 | ||
Public Linux depots | ToT Linux Content [103.39 M] ToT Linux64 Content [100.92 M] |
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A single attack means less Codex clutter and slot positioning matters less than floor composition, which are both great things for more casual players. Multiple damage types per attack prevents this change from diluting the strategy by increasing the depth of floor composition. A lot of characters have received damage revisions, and you'll see a lot more non-physical damage, and ultimately more interesting combinations coming out of this. These changes required significant rework under the hood, and I have a few reservations about dropping that on everyone without more testing (there are also tutorial and help topic texts to update), so this is a beta release. Anyone can opt in to the beta by viewing ToT's preferences in their Steam library and checking out the "betas" tab. You will then automatically receive this and any future beta updates. Because this is a beta, I would love to hear your thoughts on these changes, and if you see anything that seems strange to you, please let me know! What's Next? Some of you may recall that I was working on a major beta release that never materialized last year; this update represents some of the changes that that build contained, and my goal is to gradually pull more of those features into the standard release in updates like this one. However, my development time remains very limited, and this update stretched into months, so I don't want to dive right back into another major set of changes. Instead, I'm planning to spend the next couple of months producing a few smaller updates with minor fixes, improvements, and content. Hopefully, bite-size updates will be more compatible with my current schedule. I'm afraid this changelog is highly abridged; individual changes were not closely tracked this time around--smaller updates may help with this, as well. I covered the key items, but I know there are additional changes and fixes, so I may amend this list if I recover further details. As always, thank you for your continued support and patience ːtotcordialː! Changelog Additions:
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First off: this isn't the beta you're looking for. Many of you have been patiently awaiting the big beta overhaul, and while this is a beta release, it is just the standard build with a couple of potentially volatile items that I need tested.
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First off: this isn't the beta you're looking for. Many of you have been patiently awaiting the big beta overhaul, and while this is a beta release, it is just the standard build with a couple of potentially volatile items that I need tested.
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I am sorry to say that I still do not have a beta release date in sight, but I feel I owe you all some insight into the changes you can expect when it arrives.
This post will be focusing on the first couple of points, but I want to make it clear that while some of this may sound like "dumbing down" the game, this beta is really about growing the game's scalability (and enjoyability) from casual to core. The aim is to achieve this by distilling the early game into fewer essential elements--so it is more approachable and well-defined--, and then ramp up the complexity and interplay of those elements through the unlocked content (increased minion synergy, advanced items, and layered late-game rules). Possibly the largest mechanical change going into the introductory beta release is the removal of the traditional inventory and refactoring of item functionality. In the beta, you will no longer have a ten-slot inventory of passive and usable items; instead, each resource will now have an assigned item--chosen before the game starts--, and these items will relate more directly to their associated resource. In conjunction, the current resource-specific matching bonuses are being removed. These are the effects inherent to each resource--like healing when matching Flesh--, which were introduced to give resource-matching a little more weight beyond buying things. At face value, these changes may sound alarming, but here's my reasoning: The game's inventory and item mechanics went through a lot of iterations before settling where they are today, but most items currently fall into one of two categories: static items that give you a bonus in exchange for an inventory slot, and usable items that you have to remember to click every so often. I suppose this system works fine, but neither of these options are really engaging; many of the usable items encourage immediate re-use over careful planning, and the passives are essentially a trade-off that keep you from having another usable. The matching bonuses were poorly explained and easily ignored; by design, they were rewarding even for players who did not pay attention to them, but that didn't make them feel relevant. Even if you did pay attention to them, it was easy to dismiss the resource effects you didn't care for. It was all about saving those Bone matches, right? The resource/item changes are designed to address these shortfalls, while maintaining the benefits of both mechanics. At the start of a game, you will be able to swap freely between any unlocked item (between games, the hoard area has been changed to offer options for this and banner selection), with each item retaining the level it was last at, so you can level each item across multiple games, then trade it out for a round without feeling punished for trying something new. Each item is now tied to its resource in a deliberate fashion, and currently, they fall into five basic categories (category names are, as any of this, subject to change): Artifacts, Contingencies, Potions, Conduits, and Modifiers. Most of the game's passive items are becoming Artifacts and Contingencies; these are passive categories, but with a minimum or maximum required resource threshold, respectively. For example, the holy damage reduction from the Helm only remains in effect so long as you maintain an indicated level of the Gear resource. On the other hand, the Punji contingency now offers a bonus trap on all trap floors whenever the Growth resource is low. The previously usable Potions now function similarly to the past matching bonuses; the item's effect is activated per every so many points of the target resource. The key difference is that partial progress toward the next activation carries between moves. For example, the new Lazarus Lotion requires (currently) 10 Bone to activate, resurrecting a minion for free; this is steeper than the old bone-matching bonus, but it can be activated across multiple matches. (If you are concerned about timing the larger quantity to coincide with the loss of a minion, check the miscellaneous updates below for a relevant change to resurrections). Conduits are similar to Potions, but offer a bigger bonus that require larger single matches to activate; progress does not carry across moves, and while a potion can be triggered multiple times in a single move, the conduit's effect is detonated once per move. When gathering a large quantity of Ruin, the Balding Bomb now detonates any remaining Ruin tiles (explosion size scaling with Bomb level), gathering neighboring tiles and building upon the current move's multiplier. Finally, we have Modifiers, which create different Hoard matching behaviors when grabbing tiles of the same color. The Magnet, for instance, will now cause all Scrap drags to have a range within which Gear matches with Scrap; the Gear will gain an orange Scrap background, but be collected as Gear--of course, the increased multiplier will also benefit any Scrap gathered. These items are generally the most experimental, but everything here is subject to change based on how the beta plays. So there are more types of items than before, but I've removed several forms of interaction (clicking usables, managing inventory items, selling items, etc.), and these new mechanics don't rely upon any new interactions. Aside from possibly some Modifiers, none of these effects strictly require player knowledge, either; they are bonuses that can simply occur through standard play, but the new model should reward strategy far more than before and allow players to better customize the mechanics to match their playstyle. The thresholds will also make it easier to balance passive items--I am aware that there are some rather OP items in the current release... This is the WIP Hoard with composite sample resource bars taken from multiple sessions--I thought you all may be able to chime in on your preferred layout for the min, max, and resource icons. The first six bars use a 30-pixel height to represent any maximum; notice how the 17 Growth appears higher than the 20 Gear. The last two resources use a different bar with a 1:1 pixel:unit height, where the total max possible is 40 but the meter's level is a truer representation of its value. I am leaning toward that sizing, but I'd like to have others weigh in. The entire Hoard frame and background should be receiving a facelift, as well, but I can't really work on styling things until these other decisions are settled. I would also love to hear your thoughts on which items should become the new default for each resource. I am thinking the four pillar Potions (Cordial, Quaff, Adamantiserum, and Magi-jack), a couple of Contingencies and a couple of Conduits, but I am not sure. Other things you may notice about this image: the rituals are missing and the moving tile queue is gone. The rituals were temporarily removed from this build, because I have been experimenting with reserving them for another mechanic; this is not likely to be in the initial beta release, so you can probably expect those to appear on the edges, as before. However, the moving tile queue that catches falling tiles and reserves cleared rows is out, because in this build, I have removed the clearance requirement for new floors. You'll be able to build any floor you can afford without clearing room, and there will instead be an overall space constraint that increases with the wave count (this rule will itself change later in the beta). There are a lot of other things going on, too; here are some of the other changes slated for the initial beta release:
And there are many other changes (and additions!) planned for this extended beta period. It is just going to take longer to get there than I had expected. Of course, throughout all of this, the standard release will remain the standard release. The beta is open to all, but requires an opt-in from the game's properties in your Steam library; you can actually opt-in right now to receive the beta branch as soon as it goes live, and it will replace the standard release in your library. Please let me know what you all think, either here in the comments, or over on the thread I've set up for more in-depth discussion. Thank you again for all of your ideas and patience ːtotcordialː ! |
I am sorry to say that I still do not have a beta release date in sight, but I feel I owe you all some insight into the changes you can expect when it arrives.
This post will be focusing on the first couple of points, but I want to make it clear that while some of this may sound like "dumbing down" the game, this beta is really about growing the game's scalability (and enjoyability) from casual to core. The aim is to achieve this by distilling the early game into fewer essential elements--so it is more approachable and well-defined--, and then ramp up the complexity and interplay of those elements through the unlocked content (increased minion synergy, advanced items, and layered late-game rules). Possibly the largest mechanical change going into the introductory beta release is the removal of the traditional inventory and refactoring of item functionality. In the beta, you will no longer have a ten-slot inventory of passive and usable items; instead, each resource will now have an assigned item--chosen before the game starts--, and these items will relate more directly to their associated resource. In conjunction, the current resource-specific matching bonuses are being removed. These are the effects inherent to each resource--like healing when matching Flesh--, which were introduced to give resource-matching a little more weight beyond buying things. At face value, these changes may sound alarming, but here's my reasoning: The game's inventory and item mechanics went through a lot of iterations before settling where they are today, but most items currently fall into one of two categories: static items that give you a bonus in exchange for an inventory slot, and usable items that you have to remember to click every so often. I suppose this system works fine, but neither of these options are really engaging; many of the usable items encourage immediate re-use over careful planning, and the passives are essentially a trade-off that keep you from having another usable. The matching bonuses were poorly explained and easily ignored; by design, they were rewarding even for players who did not pay attention to them, but that didn't make them feel relevant. Even if you did pay attention to them, it was easy to dismiss the resource effects you didn't care for. It was all about saving those Bone matches, right? The resource/item changes are designed to address these shortfalls, while maintaining the benefits of both mechanics. At the start of a game, you will be able to swap freely between any unlocked item (between games, the hoard area has been changed to offer options for this and banner selection), with each item retaining the level it was last at, so you can level each item across multiple games, then trade it out for a round without feeling punished for trying something new. Each item is now tied to its resource in a deliberate fashion, and currently, they fall into five basic categories (category names are, as any of this, subject to change): Artifacts, Contingencies, Potions, Conduits, and Modifiers. Most of the game's passive items are becoming Artifacts and Contingencies; these are passive categories, but with a minimum or maximum required resource threshold, respectively. For example, the holy damage reduction from the Helm only remains in effect so long as you maintain an indicated level of the Gear resource. On the other hand, the Punji contingency now offers a bonus trap on all trap floors whenever the Growth resource is low. The previously usable Potions now function similarly to the past matching bonuses; the item's effect is activated per every so many points of the target resource. The key difference is that partial progress toward the next activation carries between moves. For example, the new Lazarus Lotion requires (currently) 10 Bone to activate, resurrecting a minion for free; this is steeper than the old bone-matching bonus, but it can be activated across multiple matches. (If you are concerned about timing the larger quantity to coincide with the loss of a minion, check the miscellaneous updates below for a relevant change to resurrections). Conduits are similar to Potions, but offer a bigger bonus that require larger single matches to activate; progress does not carry across moves, and while a potion can be triggered multiple times in a single move, the conduit's effect is detonated once per move. When gathering a large quantity of Ruin, the Balding Bomb now detonates any remaining Ruin tiles (explosion size scaling with Bomb level), gathering neighboring tiles and building upon the current move's multiplier. Finally, we have Modifiers, which create different Hoard matching behaviors when grabbing tiles of the same color. The Magnet, for instance, will now cause all Scrap drags to have a range within which Gear matches with Scrap; the Gear will gain an orange Scrap background, but be collected as Gear--of course, the increased multiplier will also benefit any Scrap gathered. These items are generally the most experimental, but everything here is subject to change based on how the beta plays. So there are more types of items than before, but I've removed several forms of interaction (clicking usables, managing inventory items, selling items, etc.), and these new mechanics don't rely upon any new interactions. Aside from possibly some Modifiers, none of these effects strictly require player knowledge, either; they are bonuses that can simply occur through standard play, but the new model should reward strategy far more than before and allow players to better customize the mechanics to match their playstyle. The thresholds will also make it easier to balance passive items--I am aware that there are some rather OP items in the current release... This is the WIP Hoard with composite sample resource bars taken from multiple sessions--I thought you all may be able to chime in on your preferred layout for the min, max, and resource icons. The first six bars use a 30-pixel height to represent any maximum; notice how the 17 Growth appears higher than the 20 Gear. The last two resources use a different bar with a 1:1 pixel:unit height, where the total max possible is 40 but the meter's level is a truer representation of its value. I am leaning toward that sizing, but I'd like to have others weigh in. The entire Hoard frame and background should be receiving a facelift, as well, but I can't really work on styling things until these other decisions are settled. I would also love to hear your thoughts on which items should become the new default for each resource. I am thinking the four pillar Potions (Cordial, Quaff, Adamantiserum, and Magi-jack), a couple of Contingencies and a couple of Conduits, but I am not sure. Other things you may notice about this image: the rituals are missing and the moving tile queue is gone. The rituals were temporarily removed from this build, because I have been experimenting with reserving them for another mechanic; this is not likely to be in the initial beta release, so you can probably expect those to appear on the edges, as before. However, the moving tile queue that catches falling tiles and reserves cleared rows is out, because in this build, I have removed the clearance requirement for new floors. You'll be able to build any floor you can afford without clearing room, and there will instead be an overall space constraint that increases with the wave count (this rule will itself change later in the beta). There are a lot of other things going on, too; here are some of the other changes slated for the initial beta release:
And there are many other changes (and additions!) planned for this extended beta period. It is just going to take longer to get there than I had expected. Of course, throughout all of this, the standard release will remain the standard release. The beta is open to all, but requires an opt-in from the game's properties in your Steam library; you can actually opt-in right now to receive the beta branch as soon as it goes live, and it will replace the standard release in your library. Please let me know what you all think, either here in the comments, or over on the thread I've set up for more in-depth discussion. Thank you again for all of your ideas and patience :totcordial: ! |
It has been another busy couple of months--just not for Tomb of Tyrants, I'm afraid. But with my newborn finally settling into a sleep pattern and a major release wrapping up at work, I found a bit more time for Tomb than usual this week; hopefully that is a sign of things to come.
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It has been another busy couple of months--just not for Tomb of Tyrants, I'm afraid. But with my newborn finally settling into a sleep pattern and a major release wrapping up at work, I found a bit more time for Tomb than usual this week; hopefully that is a sign of things to come.
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I'm afraid all I got you was some fixes and minor gameplay changes, but that's because I'm still busy working on the next big beta release. In fact, some of those changes are the reason I needed to make this standard release.
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I'm afraid all I got you was some fixes and minor gameplay changes, but that's because I'm still busy working on the next big beta release. In fact, some of those changes are the reason I needed to make this standard release.
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If you had the Lode unlocked before, you will automatically have the now separate Vein prophecy unlocked. Many players have stated in the past that they hated having to choose between the Vein and the Lode, but mostly because the two were so similar and it was easy to choose the "wrong" one for their resource needs; I believe this change should help rectify this while also fulfilling my goal of giving every floor a unique minion (rather than both producing the Goblin Miner). As some of you may know from the community forums, streams, or direct conversations with me, I am preparing for another big opt-in beta period to try out some major changes and additions. Before I dive into that, I want to make sure that the current standard release is in a good place. To that end, I am re-organizing some of the floor/prophecy tree for consistency, making some UI and usability improvements, and working on general stability. While I continue with these things, I am also trying out some mechanical changes that are less volatile or inter-dependent than the big stuff I have planned. This update contains two such changes: traps can now trigger during combat and support abilities no longer take up a combat slot. The trap change means that traps can now harm minions (although minions will not trigger the traps), and allows you to have battles on trapped floors without losing the effects of the trap. The best use of this would be to place minions who are immune to that trap (either due to damage resistances or due to defense type) on that floor. The only downside is that you may have to babysit these floors a little more than a typical floor, because new minions will not come in to supplement those who perish there. The support change is even more significant: all support abilities are now in the "special" ability spot, and will always apply when a character is in combat, regardless of slot. Before, players had to make a trade-off between an extra attack or having a support role in their line-up, and I think the advantage of the support role wasn't always obvious compared to having an additional attack, somewhat discouraging this synergy. This is a non-trivial change, and I will need to gather more feedback on this, but I definitely think it will motivate players to build more effective bands of minions. Because it has been over a month since the last release and there are some significant underlying changes, I am especially concerned with stability in this update; please let me know (here, in the forums, via personal message, etc.) if you experience any issues at all! I know it's been a very slow summer for me and the game, but I am continuing to listen and work on improving it. I hope you'll all keep sharing your thoughts and suggestions on how things are going and where you'd like them to head. Thanks again for all of your support! ːtotcordialː [Edit: I forgot to mention, originally, that the game is currently on sale for its deepest discount to date. If you have, by any chance, owned the game for less than a couple of weeks and put in less than two hours (I think these are the limits), but feel like you would still enjoy it, you can request a refund and re-purchase at the lower price. Due to some changes in my personal life, it is unlikely that future discounts will be quite this low, so now is the time to abuse the system! ːtotfedoraː] Changelog Additions:
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If you had the Lode unlocked before, you will automatically have the now separate Vein prophecy unlocked. Many players have stated in the past that they hated having to choose between the Vein and the Lode, but mostly because the two were so similar and it was easy to choose the "wrong" one for their resource needs; I believe this change should help rectify this while also fulfilling my goal of giving every floor a unique minion (rather than both producing the Goblin Miner). As some of you may know from the community forums, streams, or direct conversations with me, I am preparing for another big opt-in beta period to try out some major changes and additions. Before I dive into that, I want to make sure that the current standard release is in a good place. To that end, I am re-organizing some of the floor/prophecy tree for consistency, making some UI and usability improvements, and working on general stability. While I continue with these things, I am also trying out some mechanical changes that are less volatile or inter-dependent than the big stuff I have planned. This update contains two such changes: traps can now trigger during combat and support abilities no longer take up a combat slot. The trap change means that traps can now harm minions (although minions will not trigger the traps), and allows you to have battles on trapped floors without losing the effects of the trap. The best use of this would be to place minions who are immune to that trap (either due to damage resistances or due to defense type) on that floor. The only downside is that you may have to babysit these floors a little more than a typical floor, because new minions will not come in to supplement those who perish there. The support change is even more significant: all support abilities are now in the "special" ability spot, and will always apply when a character is in combat, regardless of slot. Before, players had to make a trade-off between an extra attack or having a support role in their line-up, and I think the advantage of the support role wasn't always obvious compared to having an additional attack, somewhat discouraging this synergy. This is a non-trivial change, and I will need to gather more feedback on this, but I definitely think it will motivate players to build more effective bands of minions. Because it has been over a month since the last release and there are some significant underlying changes, I am especially concerned with stability in this update; please let me know (here, in the forums, via personal message, etc.) if you experience any issues at all! I know it's been a very slow summer for me and the game, but I am continuing to listen and work on improving it. I hope you'll all keep sharing your thoughts and suggestions on how things are going and where you'd like them to head. Thanks again for all of your support! :totcordial: [Edit: I forgot to mention, originally, that the game is currently on sale for its deepest discount to date. If you have, by any chance, owned the game for less than a couple of weeks and put in less than two hours (I think these are the limits), but feel like you would still enjoy it, you can request a refund and re-purchase at the lower price. Due to some changes in my personal life, it is unlikely that future discounts will be quite this low, so now is the time to abuse the system! :totfedora:] Changelog Additions:
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I have been doing a lot of traveling this month--and that will continue for the next couple of weeks--, but I still read all of your suggestions and bug reports, and this update represents an accumulation of responses.
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I have been doing a lot of traveling this month--and that will continue for the next couple of weeks--, but I still read all of your suggestions and bug reports, and this update represents an accumulation of responses.
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After five months of a split release favoring an opt-in beta branch, I am finally merging the releases, confirming all of the huge beta changes and additions that many of you have helped test and shape over those months. I am so thankful for all of your insight and reports that aided me in directing development over this time, and I look forward to working with all of you on similar major additions in the future.
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Tonight's update adds two of the most requested features to the beta release (you can opt in from the Betas tab in the game's Properties in your Steam Library), but *there are some caveats and areas where I'll need your help!
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This is the longest I've gone between updates, but it's not for lack of activity; I have been working hard on some experimental changes to the game's combat system, and I think I'm finally ready for your feedback.
The tutorial isn't the only thing that I'd like to be improve, though. Every character received a stat pass, mostly to revise abilities into those three categories, and will require balancing--and overall hero wave strength will undoubtedly need to be tweaked, too. I'm not completely sold on all of the UI changes, either, so please chime in! With your help, I expect the next couple updates will come much more quickly. If you haven't already opted in to beta updates and would like to try it out, you can do so on the Betas tab of the game's Properties in your Steam library. You shouldn't lose progress, and you can revert back to the standard release at any time (with perhaps a little weirdness in the initial load). Oh, and if you have a Steam controller, might I recommend checking out this thread; a wonderful community member is looking for feedback of their own =). There are a ton of other fixes and revisions in here (including a single-icon option that should aid color-blind players). As always, this is thanks to your reports and support! ːtotcordialː Changelog Additions:
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There isn't much else in this update, due to all of my changes going into the upcoming beta, but there are a few notes below for the quiet 2015.12.07 b-d patches. As always, thank you for all of your support and reports--merry Christmas! ːtotfedoraː Changelog Additions:
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I've made numerous saving-related fixes and improvements this week, and I'm feeling pretty good about it now; barring any disastrous bug reports in the next 24 hours, I'll probably push saving out to all players sometime this weekend. Thank you ːtotcordialː!
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