The second update this year and of course it includes again a lot of fixes and improvements.

Highlights:

As currently the focus is on integrating multiplayer, the singleplayer won't get so many new features. But of course you'll still get some new stuff with every update. So here are the highlights for this update.

New Quests

Hero Mode got two new quests to unlock new powerful items that will help you to defeat the monsters. Furthermore version 0.9.6 contains a fix for a bug that prevented an already implemented quest to start. So in total you can play three new quests now.

Monster Sounds

Did you ever play Elemental War and thought it would be nice if you could also hear the monsters? Well, 0.9.6 introduces monster sounds. Not every monster has a sound yet, but there already are a lot with sound and in my opinion it's a really nice addition.

Balancing

This time there were just small adjustments for the balancing, 0.9.7 will do more on this end. The biggest change is that Death tower is weaker now. Pre 0.9.6 he could even one-hit monsters in the end game. Now it's damage is limited to 2000000. That's still enough to one-hit until around wave 50, but it's not the best tower in endgame anymore. Also its damage bonus will only take effect when the target has <= 50% of its HP.

Multiplayer

Well, you can't play it yet, but of course we made some progress with multiplayer too. Besides a meeting regarding what kind of mode we start with first we now are able to start a game on all clients at once with the same map. Still a lot to do though.

Full changelog:

Enhancements:

• added hint when reaching 100000 gold because at this point you won't get interest anymore
• gold display of monsters now fades out in a nice way
• added icons for Gas Bubble, Ghostlight and Frozen Treasure
• added new quests
• added sounds for some monsters
• added icon for special event message
• added icons for the modifiers

Balancing:

• skeleton spawned in Graveyard environment is weaker now
• increased time until an elemental spawns in Survival Mode (2 minutes => 3 minutes)
• weakened Death tower (instant kill => 2000000 damage)
• Death tower now can only use its bonus when target has less than 50% of its HP

Fixes:

• it's not possible anymore to interact with the game while ingame menu is opened
• if the target of the griffon is killed while he's already sinking and he can't find another target he doesn't fly into the ground anymore
• mole tunnel tower destruction now also takes place when game is paused
• when a hovered monster dies the info screen above it will be disabled now
• reduced bloom effect of Resurrection particle
• Joker doesn't fly anymore after position change
• small performance improvements when showing a lot of earned gold
• fixed script bug in Desert environment in Hero Mode
• fixed memory leak in Desert environment in Hero Mode
• attack speed and monster speed should also be translated correctly from number to text when it's really close to the next threshold
• accepting a challenge now directly enables the button to buy a modifier
• while quitting the game news aren't displayed anymore
• fixed corrupt shader with Hide and Fossilize
• clicking on "Play Challenge" now also visually updates the map game configuration
• when clicking on an item to equip it on a tower the next item on this slot is no longer highlighted
• it's easier to solve quest Fastening Technique now (requires just 100 monsters at once instead of 200)
• moving item to a slot moves it now really to that slot and not always to slot 0
• fixed saving/loading of game in Hero Mode when quest is active
• Ghostlight in swamp can't be sacrificed by Sacrificer anymore
• quest description now is below dialogs
• in case Earthquake tower is blocked while the block reaches the top it stays visible now
• quest 'Risky Trip' now can be received
• calling first wave in Survival mode now works again
• when a tower was selected when finishing a game the next game works now correctly
• target mode button is hidden now when ability of Rainbow tower is activated

What's next?

The multiplayer will get basic synchronisation including towers and monsters. Therefor we have to get rid off some random events. This might be a lot of work, but I think I can do it in two weeks besides the other stuff. For singleplayer we'll get more quests, some UI improvements, balancing, (hopefully) LOD as mentioned two weeks ago and first achievements. We hope you enjoy the new update and are looking forward to get your feedback, either here in the discussions or in our Discord at https://discord.gg/bwnuXq9.