As always, new cards are automatically added to your collection.

[u]We do not make any money from releasing new cards[/u].

We do it because it is what ensures the game remains awesome.

Our recent content release will give our players 24 new cards to work with, and it will also explain how and why we decide to release new cards. Let\'s take a quick tour of the new tools in your arsenal.

This content patch is like a miniature expansion set, fully focused on providing more tools for \"swarm\" strategies to fully express their brutality. We already had some support, but a quick dive into the deck builder left some of us wanting more tools, especially in the early game where swarm decks should be able to press their advantage fully.

The most versatile tools added are these one-sided buffs. They\'re cheap and they add up fast. Select the one(s) that play best with your keywords, such as the ATK buffs on Twinstrike Units, DEF buffs on Riposte Units. For maximum flexibility, check out the two \"Modal\" cards at the bottom. These \"select an option\" cards typically cost a bit more mana but fuse two cards into one. Pick the side that fits the situation best!

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/f28bd137110019f0954bde053b6030f8d03f83be.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/dcc64bf5b9f68fbbd40616e13741961820d01cba.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/cbbb0059a0a9515aff23cb985fd92104adff9d7f.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/97c2f65b18b42c24cec5a9184d52fd8a98c667b8.png\"][/img]

Thank you to everyone who wishlisted and bought Manacaster during Launch Week! It\'s been so encouraging to see our wish list count increasing after launch, which means that you, the players, understand what we built, and why. Many of you have communicated to us that you\'re waiting to see the game evolve during Early Access, so today\'s [u]gigantic[/u] patch notes represent our first step towards showing you Manacaster\'s evolution.

[u]Warning: Wall of Text Ahead.[/u]

As we detailed in our launch announcement, Early Access games should be considered \"buggy until proven otherwise\", and I am proud to announce our prediction was correct! Manacaster indeed has bugs! In all seriousness, [u]we really appreciate all the bug reports[/u], even the ones that turned out to be \"user error\". Even those tiny reports provide a lot of information for us to fine-tune our user interface.

The quantity of bugs was not particularly large, nor were they particularly severe. Few, if any, were game-breaking. This is consistent with our expectations that we set before launch, and we\'re glad to say that the level of bugginess is quite manageable. Most of the things detailed in these patch notes are actually feature additions, upgrades, or slight quality of life adjustments ( which we believe are as important as bugs )

Depending on when you\'re reading this, our first major post-launch patch may already be live ( 3.2.3 ) on the main server. We\'ll post detailed patch notes as usual, so provided below is a summary of the most important changes.

NOTE: Many of these changes can be previewed on our PTR ( playtest realm ) before going \"live\". If you want playtest realm access, please join Discord and we\'ll set you up!

[u]Combined Patch Summary: 3.2.2/.3/.4[/u]\n

We have combined three patches into a single patch to the \"live\" game. If you are on the playtest servers, you will have seen each of these patches deployed individually for stability testing. If you are on the live game, this will be represented as one patch download.

Major Fixes & Resolutions

AI Opponent making bad choices: \"Bad choices\" might be an understatement! Some games the AI Opponent just declined to play any Units until turn 5. Other games, it buffed a useless Unit and the skipped a valid attack. [u]We found a bug in the deployment logic that was making the AI confused[/u] as to when it should deploy \"Cannot Block\" Units, along with some other adjustments to make it more aware of the need to play a tight, mana-efficient early game. *Note: the AI Opponent is still under development. Please see the \"known issues\" section at the end of this report to understand its current state.

Select Attackers Interface improperly color-coded: The \"Skip Combat\" button was showing as green, incorrectly encouraging players to Skip Combat. The \"Select Attackers\" controls now contain 3 buttons, each of which change color and text based on the situation. This should form a much more literate interface that makes it clear at each decision point what the player is able to do, and the colors should help indicate the magnitude of their decision.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/56a16cef0eb2e5514883fe76d4f53a28bcbe2257.png\"][/img]

Feature Requests Fulfilled

Adventure Mode Features: There were many requests related to Adventure Mode and we have a separate section for that below.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/26992d1f62376528b2ed1f48161f15f49d7ab27f.png\"][/img]

Detailed Tooltips: Cards in all modes now have more detailed hover tooltips that explain the keywords. Advanced players can disable these tooltips in their settings.

Combat Was Too Slow: We increased the speed of combat animations by around 33%, which includes \"Fast Mode\". Players will notice a much more natural flow through the game. Please continue providing feedback on this because player comfort is extremely important to us. Tooltips have been added and updated accordingly. We also fixed an oversight where \"fast mode\" was not being applied equally across the turn cycle.

Incomplete Deck Warning: Multiple players became confused after making a deck and trying to play with it, only to discover \"something\" wasn\'t right. We added a \"YOUR DECK IS NOT FINISHED AND HERE IS WHY\" banner in bright red letters to ensure that you always know what\'s missing. Thanks to everyone who reported this concern!\n\nMystery of the Missing Decks? No mystery here, just the game automatically hiding decks that wouldn\'t be legal to play with. Unfortunately, this led to mass reporting of \"missing decks\", which simply turned out to be a case of poor communication in our UI. The fix was simple; we added a * before the deck\'s name on the list to indicate it\'s missing cards.

More Stats in-Game: The card detail that pops up on hover now has much more information for curious or data-oriented players. This is optional and can be toggled in your settings.

Explain \"burning\" a card in draft: Players were not always aware of why \"burn\" exists in draft, nor how to use it. We\'ve added a tooltip to the \"burn\" button that will give players the info they need. As a reminder, you get ONE burn per draft, and it allows you to remove a card from the draft and take a random card instead. Tactically, you want to use this when you don\'t have a good card to pick but you want to deny a card to your opponent. In this case, you can punish your opponent and gain a potentially better card at the same time.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/48bd12f39f2f70df638c41b5c6937a6f229e22bf.png\"][/img]

Adventure Mode Adjustments

Full Progression Mode Enabled: As promised in our launch announcement, the Adventure Mode progression model was disabled while we stress tested the system. Now that things are working as desired, we\'ve enabled the progression system again. A detailed explanation of this will be the focus of an upcoming article.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/4216d4f71a9ac230e3e92a6cb6e8987e290046ea.png\"][/img]

Adventure Mode Shop: You didn\'t think we\'d leave you hanging on this, did you? We love the smell of commerce in the morning. You can access this shop from within your Inventory screen by clicking the SHOP button or clicking on your GOLD balance. Reminder: Gold in Manacaster is purely an in-game currency used within Adventure Mode and for cosmetics. There is no way to gain gold other than winning games.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/f852d7b2046a226cedc2a6628dbcb0c71329a319.png\"][/img]Nodes Have Special Powers Now. As promised, Adventure Mode nodes will have extra abilities beyond \"having more life\". They can currently now gain powers that fundamentally change how you\'ll play the encounter. For example, your opponent\'s units with Focus might now gain 2 defense ( not 2 attack ) each time they deploy an Action card. This would be very bad news for you against certain decks!

Nodes\' Special Powers Affect Loot. Defeat your enemies and absorb their powers! After each win, you\'ll get to pick one reward Equip Item from among the equipment of the node you just defeated, plus one random card.

Re-Roll an Item with Gold: When re-rolling 3 items of the same rarity, you can instead re-roll 2 of the same rarity and pay some amount of gold. This amount is currently set to 50 gold for Common items, but we\'ll adjust it according to what players tell us feels right. The costs to re-roll higher rarity tiers will be accordingly higher.

Re-Rolling got buffed. The first round of playtesting showed that the re-rolling costs were too severe. Previously, you could use 2 of the same item ( which remains true ) or 4 of the same item rarity to re-roll ( which has been reduced to 3 of the same rarity ). This should let players have a lot more fun re rolling things they don\'t need right that moment without a lot of sunk cost and regret.

Seriously, re-rolling got buffed. Previously, re-rolling gave a 5% chance to upgrade the rarity tier of the output item, but we found that was a bit too low. We wanted this to serve as a means of \"guaranteed progression\" so we\'ve increased that rate to 10%. You now have a 89% chance to get an item of the same quality level as your inputs, a 10% chance to get an upgrade, and a 1% chance to get a double upgrade.

Re-Rolling and getting the same item sucks. A check has been put in place to ensure that you will not get any of the items you put in. Re-rolling and getting the same item really sucked!

Equip Items no longer stack. This was simply an oversight on our part, as players will almost never hold duplicate equip items. Re-rolling items is now much more intuitive and clear about what you have and what you need. This does not affect items that \"should\" stack like reagents and consumables! Inventory will now feel more familiar and in-line with other games.

\n

Tiny Tweaks & Bugfixes

[u]The following issues have been addressed:[/u]

Adjusted the icon and the color of the \"Life Gain/Loss\" notification.

\nRe-Roll screen now has an intuitive exit button in addition to its \"toggle\" button.

Small style adjustments to scrolling combat text.

Fixed bug where permanent stat changes were carrying over between games! Yikes.

Enemy AI names should seem slightly more flavorful :)

Deck Invalid check incorrectly calling the Human as an AI.

Incorrect deployment notification after skipped combat identified and patched.

Top-down camera not re-adjusting to foucs on the loot chest after a game/match.

Fixed some text wrapping and scaling issues, including the rulebook, which was fragmented on some screen dimensions.

Unit DEF showing as lower-than-normal in some situations with permanent debuffs.

Units with MUST ATTACK were being de-selected in combat when clicking \"clear all attackers\".

A bug potentially exposing one card in the opponent\'s deck at the start of the game.

Match Log moved from the Help panel to Stats panel.

Adventure Mode Item Store now has more filters to help you search more quickly and accurately.

Upcoming Feature Unlocks

As we detailed in our pre-launch announcement, a few features are currently disabled ( although they may be enabled by the time you are reading this ). These are all scheduled to be unlocked very soon, but need to be evaluated on the Playtest server before deployed widely to players.

Adventure Mode Enemy Builds Its Own Decks: The current array of decks in Adventure Mode is quite limited, and our deck generation system will allow it to instead make a new deck every time you challenge a node. This system is experimental, so we\'d love your feedback on it as we develop.

Three-Color Adventure Node Expansion: The current Adventure Mode map has 6 Elemental nodes, 9 Hybrid nodes, and 9 duplicate Hybrid nodes of a higher difficulty level. When the \"enemy builds its own deck\" innovation goes live, we will convert the duplicate Hybrid nodes into three-color nodes, and add 11 more three-color nodes. ( There are 20 unique combinations of three-element groups, hence the 11+9 ). These 20 Hybrid nodes will all be at least \"Level 2\" nodes, more than doubling the size of the current \"endgame\" of the campaign.

Boss Nodes: We have intentionally left these unbuilt because we\'d like to see how players enjoy the regular nodes and the more difficult nodes. We have a lot of good ideas for Boss Nodes ( mostly including legendary equipment that\'ll make your life miserable! ) but we\'re going to deploy them slowly so we can evaluate which are the most fun, most challenging, and most replayable.

Mana Selection Screen Too Cluttered: We have three types of Mana cards, but that doesn\'t mean we won\'t add more. The current \"three rows\" approach isn\'t going to scale once we add another type of Mana card, so we\'ve switched this to a tab-based layout to match the rest of the deck editor. This applies to both the Constructed deckbuilder accessible from the home screen, and to the post-draft deckbuilder.

\n Known & Ongoing Issues

What fun would a patch note be without new bugs to introduce? Actually that would be wonderful, but there are still a few issues that are being evaluated.

AI Opponent not making intelligent buff stacks: The AI is failing to recognize one-turn-kill ( OTK ) opportunities because it\'s not understanding the right way to evaluate buff-stacking. We think we know why, and we\'re working on fixing it. If you want to help us test the AI\'s decision-making, please join Discord and we\'ll get you into the Playtest.

AI Opponent misunderstanding certain board states, resulting in self-destructive behavior.

Version 0.3.1.5 pre-launch build,

New Features:,

• RPG Mode: unlocked preview mode now available. No progression yet.,

  [/*]

• Inventory item skills/abilities now active during RPG mode matches.,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• Player life gain/loss notification coloring changed to green/red.,

  [/*]

• Level 2 nodes start the boss at 25 / 30 life.,

  [/*]

• RPG mode matches draw a deck based on the node elements for the AI player.,

  [/*]

• Gold reset for existing profiles and enabed.

  [/*]

[dynamiclink href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/3262610/Manacaster/\"][/dynamiclink]So it\'s launch week, and you\'re looking at that big \"BUY NOW\" button and that juicy 20% discount ( valid thru September 10th! ) and you notice, \"hey, this game is in Early Access, does that mean it\'s not really ready?\" The answer depends on the game and the studio, but our team considers Early Access to be as important as a full Version One launch. This means our core gameplay loop and the supporting gameplay loops around it need to be robust, mostly bug-free, and they need to represent a significant amount of the \"Manacaster Experience\".

Below, we\'re going to explain what you\'ll be able to do right away, and what\'s still in the pipeline for release post-Early Access launch. In short, you can expect a very deep and robust game that\'s got some roughness around the edges, but it\'s solid where it matters most.

Let\'s start with the thing for which Early Access is somewhat notorious; there will be bugs. There will be hotfixes, usually same-day. Use the in-game bug report button and you can expect a patch within 24 hours or less. This is typical of Early Access games, especially strategy games that require perfect enforcement of the rulebook. We\'ve QA tested as many interactions as reasonably possible, but there will always be corner cases in a game of this depth. We ask you to be patient with bugs you encounter and to report them immediately.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/cafdde55c1591f0e071f5ec1cda03513b25c11bd.png\"][/img]

The same should be considered true for UI/UX issues. We rely on your feedback to understand when something feels janky, confusing, or incomplete. Just like bugs, use the in game report to share your thoughts. We have a dedicated pipeline for integrating player feedback into the game and you can typically expect improvements to come along frequently.

\nWith those two expectations set, lets move on to the fun stuff; what you\'ll be able to do immediately upon Early Access launch.

[u]What\'s Ready Now[/u]

\nAlmost Every PVP & PV-AI Game Mode:

• Battle a random human opponent with constructed decks.

  [/*]

• Draft against a human opponent or AI

  [/*]

• Send a duel request to a specific player.

  [/*]

• Fight against our AI and pick their deck if you want.

  [/*]

• Play best-of-3 matches or single-game matches.

  [/*]

• Build, edit, and save decks.

  [/*]

• Collect Equipment Items and Gold in all game modes.

  \n[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/31940335bd18e2825ffaa8f75647e4b7811959a6.png\"][/img]

  [/*]

Explore the RPG Mode Map [u]but be aware[/u]:

• All nodes temporarily unlocked. Attack high level nodes at your own risk!

  [/*]

• Only a subset of Equipment Items are enabled ( for your own sanity and ours both ).

  [/*]

• RPG-Mode-Only cards & effects like the 17-mana Kaiju have not been added yet!\n

  [/*]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45489811/a3973f2e3bf4629d795e7e60d2308958752b334d.png\"][/img]

\n[u]What\'s Coming Soon[/u]

\nUnlock RPG Equipment Items with Gold: This will be added soon after launch ( and may already be implemented depending on when you\'re reading this ) and will be available as a new tab in the Deck Builder. Note: \"gold\" is only an in-game currency and can only be gotten by winning games. There is no way to spend real money to get Manacaster gold or items. You just have to win games.

\nRanked ( ELO-like ) Mode: This will remain disabled until we reach a certain quantity of players and we are confident that bugs will not undermine competitive play.\n

Proper Map Progression for RPG Mode: We\'ll have the full map unlocked for around 7 days while we let players goof around and get themselves killed on high level nodes. After that, we\'ll lock down the nodes and enable the path-based progression system.

Hardcore RPG Mode: This will likely be added at the same time as we finish the progression system for the RPG Map. In typical RPG Mode, you only \"lose\" when you die for a 6th time ( you get to spawn once per elemental node, and there are only 6 ). In hardcore mode, one game loss and its OVAH. Good luck clearing 24 nodes without losing a single game!

\n[u]What\'s Coming Later[/u]

Tournaments: For the same reasons as we have deprioritized ELO-like mode, in-game tournament support will be added \"later\". If the player base grows to a strong competitive ecosystem, we\'ll fast-track this into the top priority bracket.

3D Mode: Many have asked, and we do have this in our roadmap as a clear \"next step\". This includes 3D models of the cards\' characters and a 3D lobby-world. This is something we\'ll tackle once we are confident that players actually want it.\n\n\n

Version 0.3.1.4,

Known Issues:,

• This is an in-progress patch to push critical combat fixes.

  [/*]

• RPG mode is partially exposed, do not use it as it is not finished and will cause untested bugs.,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• RPG mode map reworked to draw lines and monitor completion differently.,

  [/*]

• Unblocked attacker fireball vfx size 5x increased.,

  [/*]

• Statistics moved back to main menu.,

  [/*]

• Settings menu adjusted.,

  [/*]

• Rulebook button removed from main menu.,

  [/*]

• Esc behaviors added for the statistics panel, learn to play pop out.,

  [/*]

• Reagent rewards disabled for now.,

  [/*]

• Gold re-enabled and rewards set up based on match type.,

  [/*]

• Gear items updated, profile inventories reset.,

  [/*]

• Tutorial panel positioning improvements, some text changes.,

  [/*]

Bug Fixes:,

• Blocked combat resolving before unblocked causing on dies triggers to execute mid resolve incorrectly.,

  [/*]

• Broken if check preventing riposte checks in combat situations with no cards scheduled for C1 or C2.,

  [/*]

• Tutorial attacker selection ground vfx not enabling.

  [/*]

Version 0.3.1.3,

Tutorial has now been adjusted to the new UI and is once again enabled.

New Features:,

• Toggle between official deck or your deck selection for pve/pvp constructed deck selection.,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• Tutorial match adjustments to the new Match UI.,

  [/*]

• Draft mode adjusted to 9 cards per round.,

  [/*]

• Missing hover effects / tooltips in the main menu top bar added.,

  [/*]

• Deckbuilder style updates.,

  [/*]

• Public and draft decks browsers redesigned to match main deck builder better.,

  [/*]

• New profiles no longer start with all the official decks added but instead have these as selectable options in deck selection and start with a blank new deck.,

  [/*]

• Buttons on loading screen adjusted to match stylings.,

  [/*]

• Exit confirm window added preventing game from insta closes on exit clicks.,

  [/*]

• Learn to play panel returned with read rulebook / start tutorial options.,

  [/*]

Bug Fixes:,

• Card back selection images not setting on start.,

  [/*]

• Clicking settings or pressing esc does not open esc menu on general settings tab.

  [/*]

Version 0.3.1.2 Hotfixes,

Known Issues:,

• Tutorial is currently disabled pending ongoing reconstruction to match the new UI changes.,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• Top bar on main menu fixed to have centered buttons.,

  [/*]

• Logo replaced to the new one on loading screens, main menu.,

  [/*]

• Escape key presses now close open windows when relevant instead of always toggling the settings menu.,

  [/*]

• Top bar no longer shows hover button image if the button reflects the active open tab/page.,

  [/*]

• Optimizations and clean up of combat resolution.,

  [/*]

• Unblocked attacker combat positions adjusted with some more spacing to look less clumped up.,

  [/*]

Bug Fixes:,

• Chat messages getting sent with invalid date making them not show up in the chat.,

  [/*]

• Too strict engagements check preventing unblocked attackers from attacking in certain scenarios.,

  [/*]

• Deckbuilder modal filter not working.,

  [/*]

• Incorrect scaling for public decks browser and draft decks browser.

  [/*]

Version 0.3.1.1,

Known Issues:,

• Tutorial is currently disabled pending ongoing reconstruction to match the new UI changes.,

  [/*]

• Deckbuilder update is in progress and will fully come in next update, currently the modal filter is missing as there is a bug in the new toggle button version of it.,

  [/*]

New Features:,

• Toggable Mana Curve graph added to the deck builder.,

  [/*]

• Unblocked attacker combat attack effect added, this is a fireball flying from the card to the opp cards preview / hand,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• Combat II checks improved to properly skip when no blocked or unblocked engagements are left.,

  [/*]

• Settings menu buttons color adjustments.,

  [/*]

• Deck builder mana panel adjustments and style fixes.,

  [/*]

• RPG Mode splash image replaced with darkened one.,

  [/*]

• Constructed/Draft mode selection box images replaced.,

  [/*]

• Filter panel returns to deck builder.,

  [/*]

• Parry interactions renamed from absorbed back to parried.,

  [/*]

• Player engagement/activity logs reduced to only display LP and card draw related announcements.,

  [/*]

• Combat fog color adjusted for this build to see if its better and to make determination on what direction to go with it.,

  [/*]

• Match end window leave button changes color based on availability.,

  [/*]

• More speed adjustments to try to optimize flow of matches.,

  [/*]

• Adjusted AI attacker selection to have artificial thinking time to prevent instant hop into combat.,

  [/*]

Bug Fixes:,

• Discard pile collider fix to make top card hoverable again.,

  [/*]

• Patch notes window not working, now properly part of the settings menu as intended.,

  [/*]

• Mana curve 9+ value incorrectly calculated.,

  [/*]

• Active stage defense image incorrectly displaying when out of combat.,

  [/*]

• Discard window closing with X not toggling the button color back.,

  [/*]

• Precombat resolve counter not correctly taking ambush/twinstrike into account.

  [/*]

Version 0.3.1.0,

Known Issues:,

• Tutorial is currently disabled pending ongoing reconstruction to match the new UI changes.,

  [/*]

• Patch notes window not working, pending move to the settings menu similar to rulebook, noticed this after compiles were done so will be fixed in next patch.,

  [/*]

New Features:,

• F8 to open feedback/bugreport form.,

  [/*]

• New notifications for stage changes, turn changes, player actions during matches.,

  [/*]

• Cloud layer obscuring the table while combat engages cards float above it during resolves.,

  [/*]

• Transition screen when entering matches.,

  [/*]

• Attacker selection ground effect.,

  [/*]

• Small toggleable match log panel added to the main match interface.,

  [/*]

Improvements:,

• UI revamp for main menu.,

  [/*]

• UI revamp for Match UI.,

  [/*]

• Improvements for Deck Builder (still in progress this is a temp update).,

  [/*]

• Restructuring of board layout (still in progress partially but getting there).,

  [/*]

• Mana deploy for hy/tribrids now are decided to be tapped or untap predeploy similar to other card deploys.,

  [/*]

• Attacker selections are now made on the actual cards on the board by clicking them rather then a separate UI (the same will come for target selections on triggers/actions in next update),

  [/*]

• Adjustments to match flow speed to account for notifications and other visual effects.,

  [/*]

• Welcome / new player / learn to play window revamp.,

  [/*]

• Stats hiding on cards not engages in combat.,

  [/*]

• Card deploy window layout improved.,

  [/*]

• Mana payment coloring on deployment window.,

  [/*]

• + button on mana panel now toggles hand similar to the show/hide mana button rather then always open the mana hand.,

  [/*]

• Debug scrolling text repositioned for both players.,

  [/*]

• Draft window layout redesigned to allow for more varying screen sizing (in progress still to increase card amounts per round and improve visuals),

  [/*]

• Main menu tooltips on the main battlefield boxes added.,

  [/*]

• Rulebook is not a page in the settings menu this allows it to be opened anywhere, anytime.,

  [/*]

• New additional attacker selection markings.,

  [/*]

• Draftmode window improvements.,

  [/*]

• Adjustments to match flow to improve the notification popups and overall flow of combat and deployment.,

  [/*]

• AI player thinking time added to have less instant decision making.,

  [/*]

Bug Fixes:,

• Deck builder saving issues.,

  [/*]

• Draft decks not automatically loaded on first opening the draft decks browser.,

  [/*]

• Feedback / bug report form fields not selectable.,

  [/*]

• Incorrect combat floor assignment in match manager prefab.,

  [/*]

• HP labels pushing overflow below making it exceed its boundaries.,

  [/*]

• Mana panel on the deckbuilder scaling incorrectly.,

  [/*]

• Combat I showing twice when both unblocked and blocked attackers exist.,

  [/*]

• All panels in the match UI adjusted to properly scale and resize for various screen sizes.,

  [/*]

• LP on blocker selection screen not updating.,

  [/*]

• Start card selection status label not updating correctly.,

  [/*]

• Rulebook will now behave as a tab on the main menu (if settings menu is not open).,

  [/*]

• Crucial error in card selection assignments during draft mode.,

  [/*]

• Draft mode full view card browser scaling issues.

  [/*]

What's New

• Item Rerolling
  Don't like your gear? Reroll it. Simple as that.

  [/*]

• Fast Mode Toggle
  Skip the animations when you're grinding. Combat resolves instantly while preserving all tactical decisions.

  [list]

• Available in PvE and PvP duels

  [/*]

• Challenger decides in PvP matches

  [/*]

Improvements

Tutorial Polish

• Better UI scaling across different screen sizes

  [/*]

• Clearer text and context throughout

  [/*]

• Hybrid mana examples updated for easier learning

  [/*]

Match Flow Upgrades

• Cards move faster during resolution (speed adjusts based on fast mode)

  [/*]

• "Round Won" screen now displays while opponent makes decisions

  [/*]

• End phase button works correctly on first press (no more double-clicking)

  [/*]

Combat Consistency
Various under-the-hood fixes to make combat resolution more predictable and smooth.

Bug Fixes

Fixed the annoying stuff:

• Wrong player getting asked to choose next round starter

  [/*]

• Server crashes when match winner leaves early

  [/*]

• Winner icons showing incorrectly for opponent

  [/*]

• Duel challenges breaking with invalid targets

  [/*]

• Inventory reroll item tooltip issues

  [/*]

Next up: More tweaks based on your feedback, and continued quality-of-life improvements.

Having issues? Drop them in the Steam forums or our Discord. We track everything and deploy fixes fast.

New Features

• Visual combat resolve revamped.

  [/*]

• During best of 3 the loser of the round will now get to pick who goes first next round.

  [/*]

• Surrender rounds when not in one-game

  [/*]

Improvements

• Check renamed to Pass, End Deploy renamed to End Phase.

  [/*]

• Naming/wording improvements for various notifications and match UI elements.

  [/*]

• Discard windows order in hierachy adjusted to make them appear on top of all non notification/tutorial elements.

  [/*]

• (Tutorial Match) Various UI improvements and fixes for scaling and to match the highlighted element(s)

  [/*]

• Tutorial revamped and updated to new script.

  [/*]

• Welcome panel for first time players recreated in UI toolkit and can now be reopened from the bottom bar.

  [/*]

• Parry reset between phases removed.

  [/*]

• Parry shield effect added that takes hits and breaks when cap reached.

  [/*]

• Mulligan window resized to fit under the top header, this moved the keeping x cards .. text now a seperate floating box in the bottom right corner.

  [/*]

• Tutorial mulligan2 panel adjusted for the new mulligan window size.

  [/*]

• Attacker and Blocker selection windows resized, structured, positioned to not block the header and to fully hide again apart for the button.

  [/*]

Bug Fixes

• Card ID being shown in life gain notifications.

  [/*]

• Top bar deck/discard/hand amount label blocking the tooltip hover.

  [/*]

• Incoming Attackers list not clearing on match reset -> this leads to the next match starting with blocker selection window open with any remaining incoming attackers.

  [/*]

• Mana available indicator for opponent reading the player mana availability instead of opp.

  [/*]

• (Tutorial match) Next panel after loyal gatewarden deploy prematurely flashing visible after the deploy.

  [/*]

• Unequipping items causing a disconnect when server tries to add inventory interaction log due to a wrong reference.

  [/*]

• Adventure mode map icons targetable while not in adventure mode.

  [/*]

• Active deck for constructed mode validating the wrong drop down selections during match accept.

  [/*]

• Multi target Or actions labels missing.

  [/*]

• Music audio setting not matching master after system change (appearently master does not include music here somehow).

  [/*]

• Unblocked cards without alert and with twinstrike tapping after ambush step.

  [/*]

• Disconnects not showing the correct screen after disabling the main UI.

  [/*]

• Heavy damage moving on while attackers are dead -> needs more testing.

  [/*]

[h1]
[/h1]

• New effect for buffs.

  [/*]

• Random common item rewards for match winners.

  [/*]

• Reagent loot with 50% drop chance at match wins.

  [/*]

• RPG Mode map added (not usuable yet, for display and preview).

  [/*]

• Updates to map and line drawing based on user progress for RPG mode, map is now fully functional.

  [/*]

• Tooltips for matchUI check/end deploy button.

  [/*]

• Statistics UI rebuilt.

  [/*]

• Demo UI rebuilt.

  [/*]

• Demo queues and modes adjusted.

  [/*]

• Tooltips for missing old tooltip triggers replaced with the new tooltip system.

  [/*]

• More UI updates and fixes.

  [/*]

• Draft mode color background for indication of maindeck selections being correct so hopefully people notice they need to drop 6 cards to the bench to proceed.

  [/*]

• Set background music to the tutorial track while in tutorial mode.

  [/*]

• Card tapping sound rained in have a cap to reduce the mass tap sound spam at turn changes.

  [/*]

• New item cards for loot drops.

  [/*]

• Some tutorial text / visuals improvements.

  [/*]

• Tutorial UI fully rebuild, scaled, positioned to correctly scale to aspect ratios.

  [/*]

• Tutorial text improvements.

  [/*]

• Tutorial card interactions locked to requiring highlight.

  [/*]

• Inventory and Equipment tooltips and UI improved.

  [/*]

• All card selection prompts (start cards, blockers, attackers, trigger selections, damage division) are now reinforced during the tutorial to ensure all proper selections are made to progress.

  [/*]

• Rulebook/Patch notes indexing now focuses headers top rather then bottom.

  [/*]

• Improved (serverside) logging for inventory interactions.

  [/*]

• Tooltip positioning.

  [/*]

• Battleground/Adventure UI not persisting through tab changes on main menu.

  [/*]

• Various UI related issues.

  [/*]

• SFX for action impact missing.

  [/*]

• Queue buttons using wrong deck selection to validify decks.

  [/*]

• Notifications not showing up due to recent changes.

  [/*]

• Patchnotes button on loading screen not reacting.

  [/*]

• Tutorial panel actionTurnResolve not resetting after tutorial / on new tutorial start.

  [/*]

• Bug form multi line fields not escapable.

  [/*]

• Tutorial match auto deployed mana disappearing.

  [/*]

• Chat message by enter sending empty text.

  [/*]

• Not clicking a button before turn resolve completes makes a panel never hide in tutorial match.

  [/*]

• Previous UI panel becoming visible again by pressing the hide mana button when not intended during tutorial mode.

  [/*]

• Audio system causing issues on initialization creating bugs anything audio related.

  [/*]

• Match Audio playing the same clip for any fx play.

  [/*]

[h1]### New Features:
[/h1]
- Tutorial match, this is a guided 4 turn experience to learn the basics of the game.

- Full card view for after draft selections of bench/maindeck.

- Sorting and type filter for card view on draft interface.

- New rulebook and patch notes interfaces.

- Action card impact effect.


[h1]### Improvements:
[/h1]
- UI (mostly text) during tutorial match.

- Rulebook now changeable in admin interface.

- / rounds count added to the draft interface.

- Revenge added into the precombat calculations for blocker selection display.

- Large amount of adjustments to match and match tutorial UI to address scaling and sizing issues on different aspect ratio.

- Tooltips added to the new main menu UI.

- Duel feature returns.

- Decks are now only send as ID to the server on match entrance instead of the full deck.

- Heavy and card clear adjusted to also happen after ambush phase.

- More ui parts shifted to ui elements.

- Tooltips reworked to use UI elements.

- UI prep for Demo version to match the new main menu flows.

- Chat window redone in ui elements.

- Action card discards after impacts for any cards that died from effects delayed by 2 seconds to
ensure visual impact and to see what happens before card discards.

- Game server now running on new beefier hardware.


[h1]### Known Issues:
[/h1]
- Bug report panel going behind some (ugui) UI elements.

- Main menu in process of switching away from UGUI, current the duel feature is still missing, this will come with the next update.



[h1]### Bugs Fixed
[/h1]
- Rapid/Rally labels on card kw tags.

- MatchUI not resetting when leaving tutorial match.

- Critical issue in turn switch resolvement breaking match flow.

- UI cards incorrectly displaying attack when counting riposte.

- Next round during best of 3 starting with last rounds loser.

- Overtime deduction being added instead of deducted fixes.

- In queue incorrectly true flagged on game start preventing UI interaction.

- (Serverside) Three game and one game queues mixed around for draft mode pvp.

- PVP draft mode toggle not bound to correct field sometimes.

- Draftmode timer mana submissions stopping wrong timer when player 2 submits.

- Timers adjusted to add the time spent past limit during draft to the opponents round time for match.

- Main menu buttons not clickable after leaving a match.

- Draftmode timer issues.

- Deck selections on main menu not being used.

- Allowing challenge/duel start when no opponent is selected.

- Settings menu exit button not working.

[h1]New Features
[/h1]
Modal card filter added to deckbuilder.

20 new cards.

Account Inventory added.

Equipment system fully working.

4 modal cards added.


[h1]Improvements
[/h1]
Transport stability fixes and other network related improvements.

Riposte adjusted to cap to total incoming attack power rather then highest incoming attack power.

New decks now need to be given a name when creating.

Adjustment to main menu to see if it fixes the best-of-three against AI with invalid deck issue.

Damage splitting for blockers now done before the phase it is about to engage in, meaning we can reassign damage after ambush/twinstrike.

AI player improvements.

Deckbuilder serverside interactions logging.

3 action card fixes.

[h1]Bug Fixes
[/h1]
Serverside steam heartbeat causing latency and relay issues.

DeckBuilder serverside cache issues.

DeckBuilder deck cloning issues.

Issues as a result of the partial combat rewrite to allow phase based damage assignment.

Draftmode mana panel buttons not resetting on match end/ new match.

63 new cards were added to Manacaster today, bringing the base set to nearly 800 cards! New players might be thinking "my God man, 800 cards, how will I know them all at first sight!?"

Don'tcha worry. Because of how Manacaster is designed, if we make a card for one Element, we have to make it for all 6 elements. If we make a card for one Hybrid, we have to make it for all 9 hybrid elements! And if we make a Neutral card, we have to make every version of that card possible. ( see: Jab, 1 mana = 2 damage up to Thundershock, 12 mana = 13 damage.

With that said, lets get to the new hotness!

Scavengers

Battlemages

Obliterators

Mono-Element

Hybrid-Element

Board Sweepers

Single-Target Damage

Until one sits down to design a game, it's difficult to see how game mechanics are taken for granted by game designers. From a player's perspective, it's nearly impossible to differentiate between a "best practice" and an "outdated practice".

Anyone attempting to design a new game needs to be aware of the greater design patterns across the industry. Below is a list of common patterns that we intentionally removed from the design space of our strategy-and-tactics card game.

Manacaster is built on the premise of extremely precise, mathematical game balance, augmented by AI tools that can simulate millions of games. As one might imagine, the frameworks underlying the math include a large number of restrictions about what "can and can't be".

Technically speaking, these are our design assertions against which we test all newly-created Manacaster cards. Speaking plainly, these are the "major sins" of our design space. They are not to be violated, full stop. In other words, a card will fail a balance check and be rejected by the "system" if one of our designers tries to do it.

This may sound strict to some game designers, but we consider this a cornerstone of Game Engineering. Games, after all, are a self-contained system that produces a dynamic and repeatable outcome when given the correct inputs. What else to call such a thing, but an engine?

So, with that premise set, here is a rather large list of mechanics you might see in other games, but you'll never find in Manacaster. Most of these mechanics were in the game at some point, but have since been removed, much to the delight of our beta testers :)



[h1]>> Direct-to-Player Damage
[/h1]
Assertion: Players should only lose life due to enemy Units dealing combat damage.

Reasoning: Our early research showed that a large % of the fun in card games ( for example, Hearthstone, Magic, Pokemon, and YuGiOh ) was related to "creature combat". In other words, its fun to smash monsters with your friends.

Result: Games don't end out of nowhere due to a random damage spell topdecked. Board stalls don't develop due to `onDies(damageOpp)` triggered abilities sitting on both sides. Combo Kills are generally simple as "count to 20" and require little-to-no explanation.



[h1]>> "Hard" Removal
[/h1]
Assertion: A Unit can only be killed by having its DEF reduced to 0, or receiving damage equal to its DEF in a single turn.

Reasoning: Hard removal circumvents the balance system because it does not take into account the size of the target; it just dies outright. Before we added this restriction, Units costing more than 5 mana were basically useless.

Result: No spells exist that 'destroy a Unit" or "destroy all Units". Players are rewarded for investing in their Units with permanent and temporary buffs. High-cost Units like the Titans, Kaiju, and Avatars become immensely valuable finishers ( instead of unplayable crap ). The best way to take down a Titan is generally with a series of cunning double-blocks and combat tricks, but a cheeky 12 mana Terminus also does a great job.



[h1]>> Forced Discard
[/h1]
Assertion: A player cannot force another player to discard a card from their hand.

Reasoning: Forcing the opponent to discard cards from their hand reduces interactivity, which is a big no-no in our world. For every sicko* that loves discard-decks, there are 10 normal people who don't like playing against them.

Result: Players are rewarded for sculpting a strong and versatile opening hand, being confident that half of their cards won't mysteriously vanish for no reason. Cards that allow self-discard, such as Psychic Strike or Quick Pivot, become powerful tools instead of unplayable liabilities.

*You know who you are....



[h1]>> Counter-Spells
[/h1]
Assertion: No card should be able to nullify another card in the process of being played.

Reasoning: First, our game's timing system has no concept of a "pending" spell, or a "stack", when it comes to casting spells*. There would exist no time frame in which another player could "interrupt". Second, counterspells are just another form of hard removal.

Result: Generally more interactivity. No color bias towards any given element because "it has access to counterspells" or "it has access to direct damage", etc.

*Note that triggers can form a stack if they all pop at once. Actions, however, resolve immediately upon being cast.



[h1]>> Resource RNG
[/h1]
Assertion: A player should have full control over the type and sequence of resource cards they deploy.

Reasoning: One of the most frustrating feelings in a game is when you "just don't draw the mana you need". One player getting choked or flooded on resources ruins the game for both players and reduces overall interactivity.

Result: The resource system in Manacaster is built around a 12-card secondary deck containing ONLY mana cards. Each turn, you must play one of your choice. The result is that players have more agency over their in-game fate, able to live and die by their choices without "mana screw" to blame.



[h1]>> Searching Your Deck
[/h1]
Assertion: Players cannot look at any deck for any reason at any time during the game.

Reasoning: Searching your deck, or your opponent's takes a lot of extra time, especially in tabletop where shuffling is required thereafter. Top players will use this chance to make tiny adjustments to their mental math, meaning that Manacaster will require some memory component at the highest level ( which is not a good feature ).

Result: Decks sizes are small enough that proper deck construction allows remarkable consistency across games. Players do not need to remember anything except the rules of the game.



[h1]>> Looking at Other Players' Hands
[/h1]
Assertion: Players should not see each other's hands.

Reasoning: For the same reason we prohibit searching decks ( avoiding memory games ), we don't allow looking at the opponent's hand. If we permitted this, memory would become a vital component at the top level of play.

Result: Manacaster remains a game which rewards diligent study and good strategy, not the ability to remember large quantities of small information. Almost everything needed to make an informed gameplay decision is made available by the current gamestate.



[h1]>> Activated Abilities
[/h1]
Assertion: Units should not have any "special abilities" such as tapping to deal damage or paying mana to draw cards.

Reasoning: We wanted to keep the division between Units and Actions as crystal-clear as possible. "Units that act like Actions" was a thing we intentionally avoided. Units exist to live, battle, and die, not pretend to be magical spells.

Result: Interacting with Units and Actions feel very different, in the complementary way we anticipated they would. Units that provide recurring effects do so by means of triggered abilities such as "at the start of your turn" and "when this Unit dies". Actions have an immediate impact on the game state and can swing entire games in a moment.



[h1]>> Mana Ramp
[/h1]
Assertion: Players gain exactly 1 mana each turn, to a maximum of 12.

Reasoning: Mana "ramp" often leads to strategies that attempt to scale up faster than a typical deck. These decks often deploy enormous Units on early turns by sacrificing cards, creatures, or life points as a form of all-in strategy. In the absence of hard removal and counterspells, the only natural counter to "ramp into biggie" is "also ramp into biggie", creating a degenerate metagame condition.

Result: Decks are rewarded for deploying Units on a tight mana curve, making full usage of their mana each turn, and grinding out attritional advantage over the turns. Fewer "let me explain my combo to you while you pack up your cards and go home, loser" moments.



[h1]>> Raising the Dead
[/h1]
Assertion: The discard pile is a one-way street.

Reasoning: By avoiding interaction with the discard pile, the player's working memory is relieved of a small burden. Recurring or reviving a card breaks the rule of "one of a card per deck" by allowing the same card to be played twice.

Result: Nothing. That's the point. You don't miss it. You don't notice it. You just keep playing and what's gone is gone. A perfect example of "addition by subtraction".



[h1]>> Mass Team Pump
[/h1]
Assertion: Anything which affects multiple Units must either specify the exact quantity, or it must affect ALL Units equally.

Reasoning: Quite simply, we got sick of games ending because Player A had more Units and gave them all +5/+5. It's fun the first time. It's boring for both winner and loser after a dozen "pancake wins". Mathematically, it broke the game's core principle of "everything has a proportional cost".

Result: When you get killed, you generally get killed with dignity by a big scary monster or a legitimate enemy horde. Mass removal spells remain crucial, but are not strictly mandatory as they were when mass team pump was around.

This affects _ALL_ Units, and you will generally see Units are about 1 stat point bigger on average.

Must Attack got a further buff such that they are now 2 stat points bigger than before.

We also brought back Cannot Block as a credible alternative to Must Attack, since some decks prefer to avoid the risk of mandatory combat. This ability is similar ( but slightly less ) in point value to Must Attack.

These balance changes also opened up a large design space for over 100 new Units, many of which fill existing "holes" that players have been feeling during draft and deckbuilding.

These new Units are _not_ in this balance patch. We anticipate we can begin releasing the new Units in about one week, and with over 100 to work with, we think that will last quite a long while :)

As always, balance is subject to change as we inspect the math and the gameplay logs. Manacaster's game balance is handled by a "point balance" algorithm that ensures all cards properly represent an equal sum of Costs and Benefits.

Keep on 'casting!

-- Admins