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Following up on the update pushed out roughly 2 weeks ago, this patch looks to smooth out some rough spots and overall bring some sets closer to expectation. These updates should make Wind and Earth Signature pieces significantly more valuable and thus worth guarding.
Before diving into the notes for this patch, I'd like to outline a few of the changes coming in the next patch and then more detail into what is coming for the larger August update.
First, the next immediate patch:
Changes to the client connection structure which will allow the server to be placed into maintenance mode, a more segmented login process, and a number of other changes to accommodate smoother updates in the future.
Changes to match disconnect logic, giving PvP matches a grace period before auto-forfeiting, automatically storing PvE match data for optional recover or forfeiture, among other Quality of Life enhancements.
Player and match statistics and metrics.
Second, some of the changes being worked on for August:
Introduction of item drops and match rewards.
Computer opponent enhancements and optimizations.
Basic piece animations.
The Elestone System
Introducing a way to add variation to each match and provide a means of customizing the difficulty of play.
Lastly, the notes for today.
Made a change in move validity calculations such that pieces which are dormant do not gain the effects of the untargetable status.
Water
Tidesage Oseptes
Aura
Friendly pieces in range 2 of this piece have a 33% chance to resist dormant or exhausted status.
Wind
Kumogolem
Fortify
For each friendly piece in range 2, if possible, consume 3 counters and a 'Slipstream' effect in range 2 to activate that piece's 'Capture' effect.
Samal, the Sky's Rage:
Advance
New Effect Consume all friendly slipstream effects in range 2 to claim that many tiles on the board randomly.
Fixed several issues causing this effect to not work as intended. Namely:
The duration of the effect counter status has been fixed to ensure status removal on turn end.
Fixed an issue affecting the targeting of status adjustment.
Razor Winds
Hold
Fixed an issue where the Slipstream effect generating by this effect was not lasting an additional turn while Samal is on the board.
Earth
What Lies Below
Formation
Destroy a nearby enemy piece and if you do claim 3 tiles nearby randomly If there is a nearby enemy piece, destroy that piece and the next piece in formation; then claim 4 tiles in range 4 and set this piece dormant for 2 turns.
Eye of Abjar
Breaker
Removed Effect If there are no other pieces in range 2 excluding the destroying piece, destroy that piece and claim 4 nearby tiles randomly.
New Effect Grant all of your pieces in range 2 that have at least 1 effect counter 1 additional counter.
Fixed an issue where adjusting of target piece statuses was failing.
Hold
Effect now correctly searching in range 2 instead of nearby / range 1.
Kir of the Red Sand:
Aura
Removed Effect All other friendly pieces in formation of 4 or larger are untargetable.
On-Start
New Effect If this piece is in a formation of 4 or larger, claim 5 tiles on the board randomly.
On-End
New Effect If this piece is not in a formation with any other pieces, claim 2 tiles on the board randomly.
Now correctly triggering when piece is in formation size 0 instead of 1.
Added support for overriding spawn duration of tile effects.
Now correctly claiming 2 tiles instead of 3.
Added support for "has_counters" effect target filter.
Now clearing targetPiece when used.
Removing pieces from formation list in effect parameters when destroyed.
Fixed bad function referencing.
Debugging issue with has_nearby_claimable filter.
Several safety nets for bad data.
Cleaned up dead code in effectTakeAction.
Added support for effect Action unmark_in_range.
Standardized playerID resolution in effectValue.
Added support for effect value search tile_effects.
Removed vestigial test file.
Removed support for formation_untargetable status.
Added support for "nextFormation" target.
Fixed an issue where filters for capture and slipstream effects were not correctly being checked.
Fixed an issue where piece effect unmark_in_range was not correctly passing the playerID.
Fixed an issue where some keywords were not displaying in hover tooltips.
More changes are still underway. The set records and ELO calculations have been delayed as the entire stat / metric system is reworked. This may still arrive ahead of the August release but is still tentative.
Patch 0.2.0 is now live and available for testing. The core highlight of this set is the release of twenty (20) new pieces, five per element set, now available for play. In addition to new normal and ultimate pieces, players will now have the ability to test the new Signature pieces in the Full game mode.
Before getting into the long list of changes for this update, a few notes regarding current versus future plans for some systems and changes to the development cycle and process.
Development Cycle / Update Cadence
The exhaustive and overwhelming heft of the Set Completion Update has been significant and it has delayed updates for an entirely unreasonable amount of time. This kind of delay is not something that was intended but it became a constant "kick the can" situation while pursuing feature releases.
To correct this and ensure that some update gets out on a timely basis, updates are scheduled to be released on the 15th of the month every other month, with intermittent hotfix patches in-between.
This update was slightly delayed for 2 reasons:
[olist]A bug which was preventing signature pieces from being spawned in PvP matches.
The main game server needed to be entirely refreshed and reconfigured. This was a one-time process and should mean future updates are significantly faster.
A "back-burner" task is to finalize the automation process for the deployment of the client and server. Currently client building is fairly well automated with only minimal manual intervention needed for pushing to the default branch. Server deployment is in need of some work but is continuing to improve now that a private test environment has been established.
Moving forward, expect some form of update on a bi-monthly basis, roughly on the 15th of:
June -> August -> October -> December -> February -> April
Matchmaking
The current release includes a breakout by piece availability (Core, Extended, Full play sets). Players who are in one tier are ineligible to queue into players in other tiers. The reason for the separated queues was to isolate pieces, namely signature, such that players without a signature piece would not be facing a player with one. My intention is that new systems will replace this temporary restriction when/if signature pieces are made baseline. Previously it was intended to be a progression towards unlocking signature pieces however this idea has been set aside for the time being. There are a few alternative routes I want to consider exploring before committing to.
As of the release of this update, matchmaking set records and ELO calculations are disabled. These features are expected to be turned back on prior to the August update.
Feedback
One (slightly undocumented) feature in the update is the addition of a Feedback menu. By pressing (F1) in game, a feedback form will be submitted which includes a variety of categories. The only requirement is a minimum of 15 characters. Feedback collected this way is stored anonymously and not shared.
Patch Notes
With that out of the way, below is a list of changes in the game. Many of the updates were excluded as they are exclusively server runtime related and focus more on how matches and game logic are handled.
General Updates
Added 5 new pieces per element:
Fire: Everburning Sapling; Unstable Spark; Magmasage Vathyra; Ot, the Everburning
Water: Drop of Living Water; Primal Spirit: Hswartaai; Tidesage Oseptes; Cyy, Water Incarnate
Wind: Zephy Zontanemos; Polarized Twister; Kumogolem; Samal, the Sky's Rage
Earth: Eye of Abjar; Guardian of Raktaluka; Sandsage Muki; Kir of the Red Sand
Piece selection is now performed on the Play menu screen.
Piece selection is now locked while queued for match.
Piece selection process has been streamlined. Instead of selecting a piece and clicking a button to select / deselect it, simply left or right click on a piece to select or deselect it respectively.
The Computer opponent has been lobotomized. Currently, it is making entirely random moves. Once set records and ELO tracking is implemented, computer matches will operate on independent values. There are plans to introduce player-influenced difficulty scaling to a newly redesigned AI opponent in an upcoming game mode for PvE.
Replays have been temporarily disabled.
There is a known issue with trying to reconnect to a PvP match after disconnecting. This will be addressed in an update either with or before the August update.
Matchmaking
Matchmaking is now split into tiers:
Core - The original 5 pieces which constitutes the minimum pieces for play.
Extended - An additional set of 5 pieces to be used with the core set.
Full - Adds the new Signature piece type.
Matchmaking ELO ranges are now available. These limit the skill range gap between you and your opponents.
Matchmaking brackets are baseline implemented but not fully enabled. These brackets will, in the future, be tied to specific competitive leagues for PvP matches.
Gameplay
Added a Piece Status menu to show statuses of selected pieces on the board.
The Player Status menu is under work and should be released with or before the August update.
Pieces which fortify are now affected by the status Fatigue_Fortify, preventing them from using their fortify effect again.
Fire
Wildfire
Capture: Spawn a Kindling 2-3 tiles away randomly. This effect can capture enemy pieces.
Water
The "Flow" effect has been reworked. The new effect activation criteria is dependent on the type of flow effect:
Full: The player spends mana while at max mana.
New: The player spends all their remaining mana.
Eclipse: The player takes a piece action which costs no mana.
Surge
[strike]Advance[/strike] Flow: Nearby friendly pieces go dormant for 2 turns. For each, claim two tiles nearby randomly.
Undertow
Flow (Full): If this piece is near an enemy piece and a non-exhausted friendly piece, destroy the enemy piece and claim 2 nearby tiles. Exhaust the allied piece for 1 turn. This piece goes dormant for 2 turns.
Wrath of the Drowned
Fortify: Awaken all nearby friendly pieces. [strike]Consumes 1 effect counter to refund 1 mana.[/strike] This piece can fortify for the cost of 1 counter instead of mana.
Shimmering Tide
[strike]Advance: If this piece claims a tile, refund the mana cost of moving.[/strike]
OnPlay: This piece costs no mana to move if it will claim a tile only if it can move otherwise.
[strike]Hold[/strike] Flow: This piece's move size is increased by 1 [strike]next turn[/strike] for its next move.
Wind
Previously, Upending Torrent and Supercell were not working as intended. Instead of the previous behavior of claiming only tiles near the pieces, they now correctly claim tiles inside their respective ranges.
Earth
Reworded the text for Living Stone for clarity.
Moving forward, patch notes will likely be more detailed as the majority of work done in this update was back-end server runtime changes. These changes were extremely time consuming however with the foundation set, a number of game play, reward and progression, and personalization updates are ready to be developed on.
Please feel free to provide any and all feedback in order to help improve the next release on August 15th.
As the New Year is starting, a few quality of life changes are getting pushed into the production environment as work on the Set Completion Update continues. Changes
A few small changes being made as the Set Completion Update is being finalized.
With the Steam release now in full swing and over 4,500 lifetime licenses issued, the email login option is being, at the very least temporarily disabled. The hope is that the automatic Steam login will just bring you into the game when launched. If not, please click the Steam button to initiate the login. If you're having issues with the login please feel free to get in touch in whatever way is most convenient. Thank you all for the support and I look forward to continuing to improve Elementyle over the coming months as we near the end of Alpha testing.
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