News Liste Dark Envoy

New Features / Highlights

• Reduced Jankiness in combat - slower turning animation, better blend, better acceleration animation, for both enemies and players. We tried to find the optimum balance between fluid visuals and responsiveness. Since we got massive negative reviews due to jankiness, we’d appreciate your continued feedback on this matter.
• Major game rebalance aimed towards a more tactical, refined and engaging combat system.
See Gameplay and Balance for details.
• Greatly improved animation quality and pacing in select cutscenes, mostly across Act 1. More cutscene polish incoming in the future updates!
• New feature: Challenge Arena, where players can tackle unique encounters that do not scale to their party level. As you level up, new challenges will become available on Challenge Boards placed in cities.
• New feature: Training Room - a special location that allows players to test their builds and equipment in-between quests. To reach it, go to your airship and click on the doors to go under the deck.
• Random dungeons have been upgraded and reworked with more changes and improvements on the way! See Gameplay and Balance for details.
• Specialization skill trees can now be previewed before the player chooses a specialization.
• A Respec Merchant was added to Free Phoenicia, allowing players to change the specializations (but not base classes) of their main characters and companions.
• Enemy Skill Names are now displayed above their casting bars (by default in Tactical Mode only, can be changed in the Settings).
• Enemies will now gain new skills and skill variants in the later parts of the game (at level 6 and 12).
• Lighting on levels and in cinematics was adjusted for a darker, more mature tone and atmosphere.

Gameplay and balance

Main Balance Changes

• The primary goal of this rebalance was to slow down the combat and make it more tactical, as well as make mid and end game more interesting, by adding new skill to enemies depending on their level.
• Number of enemies is generally reduced significantly, but they are individually stronger
• Number of reinforcement encounters is reduced / and number of units in reinforcement combats is lowered
• Threat (Aggro mechanic) now works more reliably. Taunt skills take the highest threat from all allied units and transfer it to the tank.
• Critical Damage is now applied after mitigation from all sources (before it increased base damage, making it scale crazy)
• Damage Reflect is simplified - if you hit an enemy for 50 damage and it has 50% Damage Reflect for Weapons, you get back 25 damage, not mitigated.
• Boss Tenacity system was reworked. The bosses are no longer immune to all hard CC effects by default. Instead, the maximum duration of a hard CC (stun, knockdown, freeze, etc.) effect on a Boss unit is 3s., after which they gain a 10s immunity for all hard CCs.

Player skills

• Warrior: Mana Siphon passive ability will no longer remain active after resetting the skilltree
• Warrior: Frenzy passive ability will now apply correctly.
• Guardian: Shield Master passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Guardian will no longer gain absurdly high Tenacity values at higher levels.
• Blademaster: Draw Blood passive skill will now apply to all melee weapons (previously was incorrectly limited to 1-h weapons)
• Blademaster: Restorative Cuts passive skill will now apply to all instances of Bleed being applied on enemies, not only the ones applied by the user.
• Assassin: Toxic Renewal passive skill will now trigger on attacks inflicted on the enemy's Magic Shield. Previously it only worked upon dealing damage to the enemy's HP.
• Assassin: Dark Sacrifice passive skill will now correctly lower the user's HP.
• Ranger: In Cover passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Ranger: Amplify Poison passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Ranger: Skill Sprint passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Gunslinger: Cheat Death passive skill will now block excess damage and save the user from a killing blow, making it much more likely to trigger.
• Sharpshooter: Steady Hands passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Sharpshooter: Bunker Buster skill has been reworked - it is now an AoE that causes a chain reaction with covers caught in its explode radius.
• Sharpshooter: Scouting Drone skill gained explosive charges that it drops along the way in addition to its previous Marking effect.
• Sharpshooter: Deadly Shot skill and its variants have been reworked into a powerful single-target ability that scales with target's missing HP.
• Sharpshooter: Execution skill and its variants have been reworked into a unique ability that targets a single unit but bounces off to as many enemies as possible within a given radius. It is now much more spectacular and its effectiveness is on par with other classes' ultimate abilities.
• Engineer: Increased Range passive skill will no longer incorrectly apply to 1-handed weapons upon item swap.
• Engineer: Strong Criticals passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Engineer: Armor Transference passive skill is now limited to 3 stacks (previously non-stacking).
• Engineer: Integrated Circuits passive skill will now apply correctly
• Constructor: Mechanical Synergy passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Inquisitor: Apostle passive skill will no longer clear Invisibility
• Adept: Barrier skill Magic Shield value was reduced slightly and duration set to 20 seconds across all levels.
• Adept: Skillpower Boost passive skill will now apply correctly.
• Elementalist: Immolate skill now has a maximum cap for Damage scaling with enemy’s Max HP but it ignores enemy Armor.
• Elementalist: Corrosive Magic will now apply correctly.
• Combat Medic: Combat Medic’s healing abilities can now “overheal” - a portion of the heal value that exceeds target’s max HP is transferred to Magic Shield, as denoted in skill descriptions.
• Combat Medic: Mana Virus is now applied to X enemies in a cone (depending on skill level), making it easier to reliably hit multiple enemy units.
• Combat Medic: Dedication passive skill is now limited to 3 stacks (previously non-stacking).
• Combat Medic: Self-preservation passive skill is now limited to 3 stacks (previously non-stacking).
• Combat Medic: Healing Crystal will no longer use up its HP trying to heal fully healed characters outside of battle
• Summoner: Arcane Backup passive skill is now limited to 3 stacks (previously unlimited).
• Summoner: Arcane Scavenger passive skill is now limited to 3 stacks (previously unlimited).

Attributes: Total Attribute overhaul:

• Starting attributes are now at 1 and they provide no bonuses and no penalties.
• Initial number of attribute points is 9.
• Attributes between 1-10 provide standard bonus per point for some stats,
• Attributes between 11-20 provide higher bonus per point,
• Attributes between 21-25 the highest bonus per stat.
• You can no longer max 3.5 attributes, but they provide better bonuses.
• You can no longer max 1 attribute at level 1, as it was destroying the fun
• Might - now also increase Weight Limit. Max Weapon Damage 60% → 75%
• Speed - Max Attack Speed 60% → 75%. Cooldown Reduction bonus 40%-->30%, Movement Speed nodes 30% → 20%
• Endurance - increased max Health bonus 200 HP → 500 HP
• Mastery - HP and Mana Regeneration scale progressively better at 1-10, 11-20, 21-25.
• MAJOR CHANGE: if you continue the playthrough - you will notice reduction of available Attribute Points, but stats will remain roughly the same, as we removed “penalty” range 1-5 but also reduced starting attributes from 30 to 9.

Enchantments

• Grit - Health % changed 3%-->4%, Tenacity% 6%-->4%
• Shard Armor - Armor to damage ratio 0.25 → 0.20
• Abnormal Growth - Health% changed 5%-->3%
• Inner Magic - Mana% changed 4%-->3%
• Electric Armor - radius increased from 2m → 3m
• Envoy Light Seal - attribute bonus 25%-->20%
• Glass Cannon (Armor) - Critical Damage 100%-->50%

Equipment

• Increased Melee weapon damage across all tiers. They are now roughly 20% stronger than ranged and magic weapons.
• Balanced 1H vs 2H weapons across all item types. 1H weapons are generally 25% stronger for Low Armor enemies and 25% weaker for High Armor enemies.
• All melee 2H weapons now have Cleave. Polearms have the highest Cleave damage
• Increased Armor on items - slightly for Light, more for Medium, considerably more for Heavy, as late game High Armor tanks did not perform their role well enough, especially on higher difficulties:
• Before: Armor was not a worthy mitigation source, Dodge/Block and Elemental Resistances trumped it.
• Now: Heavy Armor offers roughly 60% (for weakest units) to 40% (for strongest units) mitigation throughout the entire game, if augmented with Armor+% items). With reduced Dodge cap and Block cap – Armor is now the main reliable source for damage mitigation.
• Scale of the changes at the end game, fully buffed: max Armor 400 → 1000.
• Increased Armor Strip and Resistance Strip scaling for higher item tiers, so they are useful mid and end game and worth investing into.
• Increased usefulness of Shields (offhand items) - higher armor and much higher shield - so Sword+Board is more viable for full tank builds. Also, added Reflect Damage from Weapons and/or Reflect Damage from Skills as base shield damage to compensate for dps loss and reward players who play active tank (i.e. get Aggro from the enemies)
• Heavy Armor - reduced weight by 1

• Reduced: critical damage, dodge chance, cooldown reduction, skillpower - especially on higher item tiers and higher research tiers
• Increased: max health, armor penetration, armor strip, max armor%, max shield% - especially on higher item tiers and higher research tiers

• Crafting level 1: 1 / 2 / 2 (green / blue / purple)
• Crafting level: 2: 1 / 2 / 2
• Crafting level 3: 1 / 2 / 3
• Crafting level 4: 2 / 3 / 2
• Loot: 1 / 2 / 3
• Merchant: 2 / 3 / 3

Random dungeons overhaul

• Random dungeons are now slightly smaller but grant the same amount of resources and items and are packed with more enemies to make them feel more condensed and action-packed
• New minibosses were introduced for the Bandits, Spiders, League and Empire families and now have a chance to spawn on random dungeons. More minibosses coming soon!
• There is a higher chance to encounter random gameplay events like an Ancient Vault or the newly introduced Heart of the Manaless
• Random dungeons can now generate in 3 additional biomes: Mines and extra variants of Swamps and Ancient Ruins
• Players can now complete 2 random dungeons between quests (previously they could do only one)
• Researching the Scouting II upgrade now allows players to see the main guaranteed reward on each random dungeon. This reward will always spawn on the final segment of the dungeon.

Difficulty Settings

• Difficulty settings now also include Enemy Skillpower setting. Still, non-telegraphed skills should never one-shot a moderately geared dps-focused character. However, they can one shot glass cannon characters, as before.
• Reduced Health for higher difficulties - no more bullet sponges, but might require debuffs for health regen or armor penetration / armor strip
• Reduced Weapon Damage for higher difficulties - no more one-shotting full, high armor tanks
• Enemies cast skills more often at higher difficulties
• Hard - Health/Weapon Damage: 30% + 3% per level
• Hard - Skillpower bonus +25%,
• Hard - Cooldown Reduction -20%
• Hard - Higher mana
• Insane - Health/Weapon Damage: 60% + 5% per level,
• Insane - Skillpower bonus +50%,
• Insane - Cooldown Reduction -30%
• Insane - Higher mana

Misc Balance changes

• Enemy Attack Speed was standardized:
• Type A (*) enemies - very fast attack speed (0.7 - 0.5), low effectiveness vs high Armor
• Type B (**) enemies - fast attack speed (0.5)
• Type C (***) enemies - medium attack speed (0.4)
• Type D (****) enemies - slow attack speed (0.3), high effectiveness vs high Armor
• Exception: enemies with Prism weapons which have 0.25 attack speed
• Removed Magic Shield for type A, B enemies, 25% shield for C, 40% for D - for increased visual clarity of enemy types.
• Reduced Enemy Weapon damage scaling for higher levels (so they don’t 1x or 2x shot a full, high Armor tank)
• Balanced Enemy Skill Damage overall, so skills roughly equal to 2-6 times the weapon attack of the enemy, depending on skill type (e.g. utility skill, small aoe with debuff, large aoe damage focused, single target nuke, etc..). Reduced number of telegraphed skills to reduce visual chaos, however, telegraphed skills are more powerful now.
• Fear - movement speed gain reduced from 100% to 25%
• Daze - no longer adds movement speed
• Bleed - reduced damage by approx 30%
• Movement Speed bonuses are reduced across items and skills.
• Movement Speed - explore speed slightly reduced, combat speed slightly reduced - in our attempt to slow down combat / make it more tactical.

• Warrior - starting weight 40→45 (so full Imperial Heavy Armor → not over-encumbered)
• Ranger - starting weight 35→40
• Engineer starting Mana reduced from 85->80
• Adept starting Mana reduced from 100->90

• Weight Tier: Heavy - Movement Speed -15% → -10%
• Weight Tier: Medium - Movement Speed 10% → 5%
• Weight Tier: Light - Movement Speed 25% → 10%

• Assassin, Gunslinger, Combat Medic - Movement Speed 0.2 m/s → 0.1 m/s
• Summoner - Cooldown Reduction 0.2% → 0.1%

Stat Caps

• Cooldown Reduction - 50%
• Elemental Resistance - 80%
• Tenacity - 80%
• Critical Damage - 300%
• Dodge - 50%
• Block - 50%

Other Gameplay changes

• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused characters to have their skillbars permanently locked upon using Shield Bash (Shield weapon skill).
• Added 2 new variants of hackable turrets environment - Krannite Earth Shaker and Elven Fire Spire.
• Prancer spider unit was switched to a frost based enemy to add greater variance to the Spiders family.
• Fixed incorrect level scaling on several enemy skills.
• Critical Strikes will now correctly apply for ranged weapons with Explode.
• Fixed various AI score calculation issues causing enemies to rarely use certain skills.
• Fixed an issue that caused the damage fountain not to appear for several damage over time effects.
• Minimap reveal range was reduced, to match fog of war range.
• Fixed janky movement animations (interrupted every few moments) on melee enemies chasing running player units.
• Many improvements for enemy & player AI skills casting.
• Autonomous characters can now cast draw skills and will attempt to avoid enemy AoEs and other dangerous areas.
• The new Heart of the Manaless gameplay event was added in the Breaking and Entering quest.

Animations and Cutscenes

• Improved facial animations and emotions blending - Malakai and Kaela will now have much prettier and more natural smiles!
• Smoothed-out gesture transitions.
• Toned down the characters’ overly dramatic expressions.
• Improved camera angles, lighting, depth of field, lip sync and pacing in act 1 cutscenes
• Improved Kaela’s idle animation.
• Adjusted Malakai's hand poses for better posture.
• Fixed an issue causing character eyeballs to occasionally glitch on head movement.
• Updated all of Benedict's gestures for a more coherent presentation.
• Corrected an issue that may have caused Elven characters’ models to not animate correctly.
• Toned down bandit dialogue animations .
• Fixed ragdoll animations on the Krannite Iron Shepard unit.
• Smoother transitions from fadeout during cutscenes.
• Dead units will no longer disappear during a cutscene they died in. The wounded League Soldier should no longer dissolve into thin air while the protagonists are talking about him.

Textures and vfx

• Upgraded, more discernible unit models for Krannite, Elemental, Hybrid and Revenant units, as well as Rat Den environmental hazard - for improved visibility in combat.
• Improved VFX on the Gauntlet weapon projectiles.
• Improved blood VFX on units’ death and on hit.
• Hybrid spore aura fading was fixed.
• Bandit Maniac’s Whirl skill vfx was slightly enlarged to match the actual range of the skill.
• Combat Medic’s Healing Crystal aura was enlarged to match its actual range.
• Final Boss’s unique barrier was improved graphically to be more distinct from other protective effects.
• Titan’s rocket projectile starting points were improved to no longer appear from thin air.
• Elementalist’s Immolate ability got a visual upgrade to make it more visible during battle.
• Theran’s underground movement was smoothed and improved visually
• Theran’s fossilize effect will no longer visually apply to covers and other elements of environment
• Numerous other improvements to lighting, environment assets and level vfx.
• Weapon trails will no longer occasionally show up outside of actual attack animations.
• Added fade out effects to destroyed physics props, fixed some minor issues with destructible props.

UI and Technical

• Visually improved class selection tab during character creation.
• Skill selection radial menu now displays skill descriptions.
• Enchanting recipes unlocked through research are now displayed on the research tooltip with descriptions.
• Unit Popups now refresh dynamically and reflect all changes without the need to close them and open again.
• Improved UI feedback when a player unit is “caged”, (e.g. afflicted by the Freeze status)
• Background screens in the player menu were replaced with new, cleaner versions.
• Fixed issues causing the game to occasionally freeze or stutter when displaying the unit information popup.
• Fixed game crashes and unusual behavior when an unsupported controller is connected; now game should yield proper info
• Fixed an issue that prohibited multiple overhead dialogues and messages (such as points of interest) to appear at the same time.
• Added ellipsis (...) in places where text doesn’t fit player menu’s layout; fixed some cases with overflowing texts in large UI and language versions.
• Fixed an issue causing certain cutscenes to glitch when opening the game menu (i.g. by pressing Esc) during a fadeout
• Fixed certain notifications and buttons displaying in the wrong language.
• Reorganized and reordered unit stats in player menu and unit popup
• Fixed the priority of damage fountains and gamepad cursor; now they are shown above FX effects, unit outlines and fog of war
• Fixed an issue that may have caused the player to be unable to load a save after a lengthy combat session.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused skill markers to cover units instead of being displayed underneath them.
• AI New setting: Pathfinding avoids danger - forcing player units to avoid any dangerous areas like AoE when receiving orders during battle. Turned Off by default.
• Eliminated multiple issues with custom input settings causing the game to become uncontrollable. Conflicting input settings will now display a corresponding message.
• Fixed some cases of the end-level summaries being inaccurate (e.g. not including summoned units damage in the total DPS of the summoner)
• Fixed several exceptions that could have occurred on reassigning skills in the skill tree and cause passive skills to work incorrectly.
• Save/Load filter buttons have been upgraded visually.

Audio

• Major improvement of ambient environment sounds in most in-game locations.
• Overall polish of cutscene sounds and mixing.
• Added and improved custom sound events for various interactable elements, such as keycards, terminals, documents, puzzles, doors, vines, cages, mushrooms… and more!
• Added sound to tactical environment elements and their effects, including: bear traps, spider ambushes and poisonous plants
• Unified and balanced enemy spawn marker sfx.
• Fixed an issue with enviro 3D sounds occasionally disappearing.

CO-OP:

• Client will now properly see “a new party member has joined” popup
• Fixed support for global skills and their usage on client side Note: recall skill is only usable by the host
• Fixed double units appearing on client side in some cutscenes
• Fixed auto attacks not being looped when used by client making it seem that client side attacks are not registering
• Improved synchronization of covers between players
• Fixed an issue causing some units on client’s side to be spawned with a wrong model
• Fixed recall areas not being removed on client side
• Added a handshake check of the game version to ensure both players have the same build when trying to connect. Note: from now on you won’t be able to connect if the players’ game versions differ!
• Fixed mana/cooldown desync occasionally causing abilities to not trigger correctly.
• Fixed objective state synchronization of gameplay events
• Fixed mana sync issues on the client

Performance

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• Multiple fixes regarding memory leaks as well as memory utilization will be coming in the next hotfix, as those are still being tested for regression