Greetings Captains!

We are so happy to have you all with us as we are no longer in early access! It has been such a long road, but, hard work and perseverance got us to where we are today.

One thing we'd like to remind everyone who wants to play multiplayer with their friends is: make sure that you don't have steam in offline mode! Your progress along with everything you unlock and matchmaking is done through the steam servers.

This team of two developers would like to thank everyone that has supported us to get this far and we hope to see more of you enjoy the wonderful world of Hendrika!

• Troops will no longer give up if the wagon just passed the bridge in the third mission
  
• Commanders will always come protect your altar if troops are dead
  
• Recalling a control group twice will move you over to the group
  
• You may now set placed units in control groups as well
  
• Control groups now have indicators on the HUD to show you how many you have in that group
  
• The hotkey for 'Go To Commander' was renamed to 'Go To Spawn Area' and will now cycle you through all your available Preparation Areas
  
• Selling a placed unit will now refund you all the leadership for the equipped items as well
  
• Placed units now have a new option next to sell, auto group assignment. Clicking the button will automatically set the unit to that control group as soon as it spawns

• Fixed a bug with spirit possession. Particle no longer stays around after the effect expires and the units no longer run back to base after recovering
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented anyone who was not hosting from upgrading their items
  
• Fixed a bug with clients not being able to hear audio at the start of a game
  
• Fixed a rare instance where the host client would crash at the start of a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed a visual glitch that would tell you an item was maxed when reaching meta 10, instead of meta 11
  
• Fixed a bug which would not allow a host to kick a bot once they set it
  
• Mission 3 will now properly save your progress after you complete it
  
• Fixed a problem with team colors not showing up properly on clients during an online game

How many here have finished chapter 1? What are your thoughts on it?

Greetings Captains!

We're gearing up for release and can't wait to see what you all think of Shadow Heroes once it's out. This past week has been pretty intense for all of us here at Allied Games as we are putting together the finishing touches on Chapter 1 of the story.

Without further ado, we are introducing the story cutscenes done with VO work as intended from the beginning. Armas and Konraad are looking forward to regale you with their exploits in Hendrika!

• New story cutscenes now implemented, complete with voice overs
  
• New codex category for help, you can quickly reference all game mechanics in there
  
• New lobby update, host can set bots or closed seats
  
• Game fonts have been updated with custom fonts, no longer default ones
  
• Mission 3 level of difficulty now scales based off of your set difficulty
  
• Mili's radiant blast got balanced to no longer one shot every commander on the field
  
• New background music for campaign menu
  
• All error messages now go to player chat log

• Mission 3 erroneously started before the conversation was over, it has now been fixed
  
• AI Teammates can no longer equip your units
  
• Quick match will no longer require you to restart the game in order to find more games after playing a game
  
• Fixed a bug where clients would not need to spend money on items, they got them for free
  
• Cannons were erroneously present in Mission 3, they have been removed
  
• Navigation area has been re-done on all levels, units should no longer get stuck

What do you guys think of the new cutscenes along with the VO work?

Greetings Captains!

With last week's unit balance we decided to greatly improve the first two story missions. Split between them is all the knowledge you need in order to be a very successful Shadow Hero!

Next week we will be updating the Codex with a whole new help section. All game mechanics learned throughout the missions will be available in there for you to review.

• New Exorcist textures and unwrap, he also got a new hair and skin shader
  
• Minimap now has a north indicator
  
• Unit Groups now have bindable hotkeys
  
• Default skill hotkeys now changed from numbers to be alt+numbers
  
• Spawn areas got a visual improvement so you can see the edges from every angle
  
• Active and Passive items are now split up into their own groups in the Inventory
  
• You can now equip multiple placed units at the same time as long as their equipment matches, shift+click on a placed unit to add it to the list
  
• You can upgrade multiple placed units at the same time as long as they are in the list and have the same equipment
  
• Tabbing through a group of units now splits them up based off of equipped items
  
• Updated the second mission with a full set of instructions to get you through the tutorial
  
• First mission now displays how many units are coming at you in the next wave

• Removed old hints from loading screen and replaced them with new ones
  
• Unit stats at the bottom will no longer hide on resolutions smaller than 1280x720
  
• Various minor bug fixes

What do you guys think of the updated mission 2?

Greetings Captains!

Balancing is a huge part of game development. This week we took a long hard look at every unit and gave them each the attention they deserved. We believe this new set of changes has made battles a lot more enjoyable for all!

With this balance came a great deal of new features and improvements that will also help with the quality of life while playing the game.

• You can now group mass selections of units by pressing Ctrl + 1 (or any number between 1 - 0)
  
• You can recall a mass unit selection by pressing the appropriate number key
  
• First story mission was updated to have a more streamlined teaching process
  
• Archangel max health reduced from 240 to 160
  
• Archangel radiant light damage reduced from 300 to 50
  
• Chanter max health reduced from 80 to 40
  
• Chanter invocation buff defense reduced from 2 to 1
  
• Cherub max health reduced from 150 to 60
  
• Cherub max damage reduced from 3 to 1
  
• Demigod min damage reduced from 30 to 25
  
• Demigod max damage reduced from 40 to 30
  
• Demigod no longer gets 50% damage boost from being hit, instead it now gains 25%
  
• Exorcist max health reduced from 90 to 60
  
• Hunter defense reduced from 2 to 0
  
• Hunter max health reduced from 100 to 45
  
• Martyr min damage increased from 7 to 9
  
• Martyr max damage increased from 9 to 11
  
• Martyr max health reduced from 175 to 100
  
• Paladin min damage reduced from 12 to 8
  
• Paladin max damage reduced from 15 to 10
  
• Paladin max health reduced from 145 to 100
  
• Spirit min damage increased from 3 to 4
  
• Spirit max damage increased from 5 to 7
  
• Placing units now snap inside the placeable areas
  
• Placeable spawn areas now make the unit templates face the proper direction
  
• Missions 1 through 3 no longer have placeholder images on the campaign map

• Fixed a bug where the next wave timer was blocking input when trying to place units through it
  
• Fixed a bug with the codex cutting off on some resolutions
  
• Fixed a bug with passive items not taking up the proper space in the actions panel
  
• Fixed a camera problem which would make it stuck in some angles after being rotated
  
• Fixed a problem with cannons targeting being rotated on the ground

What do you think of the unit balance now? Which one is your favorite?

Greetings Captains!

At long last team battles have finally made an appearance. Multiplayer matches can now be played with up to 6 players. Each side is able to have up to 150 units on the field for battles, allowing for up to 150vs150.

Several improvements have been made on the backend which should help with load times as well as some of the units not being able to move. If you find any problem areas, please report them using the in-game bug submission form.

• Selecting multiple units and pressing the hotkey for their active items will now trigger all active items of that type in that slot for that particular unit type
  
• Modified the waypoint navigation system for units, this should result in less units being stuck without having a place to go to
  
• Units in onslaught mode will sell for full price instead of half price like they do in other game modes
  
• Multiplayer is now available for up to 6 players with Team vs Team
  
• In multiplayer games, the maximum number of units on the field is still 300, but it will be split across all players. For example if you have a 2v2 match, each player can have 75 units on the field. However, if you have a 2v1, the solo player will have 150 while the 2 get 75 each

• Fixed an issue with ranged units using incorrect values for targeting, they will once more properly shoot from their full distance
  
• Fixed a problem with victory screen being displayed incorrectly when more than 2 players were in a multiplayer match
  
• Fixed an issue where some of the old assets had an invalid engine version which caused a slowdown when booting the game up
  
• Cherubs no longer heal units who are at full health
  
• Couple of back-end minor fixes

What are your thoughts on the multiplayer battles?

Greetings Captains!

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for is upon us. We have modified the way the AI system works to drastically reduce game thread calls. This means the glorious 300 unit battles will perform much better.

If you happen to run into any problems, please make sure to make an ingame bug report or post it on the discussion boards. While we do test our builds before giving them out to you guys, it's hard to account for every possible action our players take :)

• Mission 2 in the story has had the enemy troops limited to sending out a maximum of 5 chanters and 5 cherubs per wave
  
• Updated some of the system messages during the multiplayer lobby setup to give hosts a better idea of the status of the lobby
  
• Quick buy will now allow you to trigger the selected template unit Move function
  
• Quick sell now allows you to sell a selected template unit
  
• Various minor improvements

• Multiplayer has been fixed to show the commander select screen at the start of game
  
• Multiplayer units will now properly accept placement in their respective zones
  
• Altar explosions now show for clients during multiplayer games
  
• Players on separate teams no longer have the ability to use the opponent's team altar to summon a commander
  
• Unit equipment has been fixed for multiplayer, a client will be able to equip their units with their unlocked items
  
• Status effects are properly being shown to all connected clients
  
• Auras properly trigger and change during multiplayer games for clients
  
• Onslaught modes now properly show the unit selection when you have a unit selected
  
• Fixed in-game chat system, it will no longer disappear for no reason without the ability to get it to come back
  
• Go to commander hotkey is now fixed for Commanders game mode

How many units were you able to get fighting each other? Show us your massive battles!

Greetings Captains!

After lots of tinkering under the hood we managed to increase efficiency with units being drawn on the minimap, while at the same time boosting the AI's ability to calculate enemies in range. This performance increase is only the first of many to come.

• Selecting a unit will now show you which unit is selected on the field, green is friendly, red is enemy while yellow is neutral
  
• You can right click and drag on the campaign map in order to see more of New Hendrika
  
• Points of interest on the map now have a glow around them when the mission is in that area
  
• Improved the first mission with pings on the minimap for points of interest, like the location of the east, west and south gates during the first 3 tasks
  
• During the first mission, you will no longer be allowed to start wave 2 and 3 unless you have completed the tasks as they show up
  
• Second mission now has a minimap ping for the bridge conversation
  
• Added more AI optimizations in an attempt to make the game smoother with a lot of units on the field
  
• Optimized minimap points, this was accounting for some of the lag when presented with lots of units
  
• Optimized the spawning of units to take into consideration units on the field after every units that gets spawned, making sure only 150 exist on the field for each team

• Fixed the spawn area in the second mission to no longer allow you to spawn exorcists in trees, you should not be allowed to decorate trees :p
  
• Fixed a problem with tooltips getting stuck on screen if you clicked and dragged a unit button on the HUD
  
• Removed a tooltip which was no longer in use on the top of the HUD, this was sometimes getting stuck on screen for no reason
  
• Fixed some of the navigation problems with the navmesh, units should once again be able to go around buildings and edges much easier
  
• Reduced the particle count on the exorcists attack animation

Out of everything we've featured so far, what has been your favorite?

Greetings Captains!

This week was mainly dedicated to improvements and polishing. We've still got a ways to go before everything is complete, but we're getting there!

We also reached a decision to migrate to the latest unreal engine version in order to improve optimizations!

• If units go behind obstacles, you will be able to see their silhouette through objects
  
• Wagon in the third mission is now easier to select
  
• Units in timed assault now have equipment set to them
  
• Made improvements to first mission to show where the east, south and west gates are during the first tasks
  
• Chanter invocation area of effect has been made slightly more transparent to be able to see units better
  
• Campaign Map is now complete with proper points of interest
  
• Updated the Game Engine to the latest Unreal Engine 4.13
  
• Various additional optimizations

• Fixed a bug with codex journal entries, they were playing behind the codex and were being hidden by it
  
• In-game conversations will no longer stack if another one is already playing
  
• Cannons now display their ability in the HUD again, this was un-intentionally removed
  
• Loading story progress from steam now works properly
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to upgrade an item for free if it was locked
  
• Fixed a problem with cherubs killing altars instead of healing them
  
• Fixed units going through solid objects, they aren't incorporeal after all :p
  
• Fixed a grammar mistake during the second mission dialog
  
• Story mission 2 and 3 now allow you to Surrender properly

What do you think of our updated map? What about chapter 1 of the story?

Greetings Captains!

After a very long week, filled with fun times and *grumbling* horses ... the final part of chapter 1 is available for you guys to play through. Stop the Free Spell terrorists from trying to escape to the neighboring country of Aylmar Reborn! Failure to do so will not bode well for Faircrown in the future. There is still work to be done on this mission, but this is a first look at it.

We will also be working on improvements for all of chapter 1. That will include improvements to conversations and instructions during the levels. We want to make sure our captains are fully prepared for all that Hendrika will throw in their path.

• New story mission available, prevent Free Spell from escaping Faircrown and crossing the border into Aylmar
  
• Story mission selection arrows have now been brightened up on the campaign map
  
• Units will no longer spawn in battle if your side has over 150 of them already on the field (does not affect Onslaught, only Assault and Commanders)
  
• Conversations have been upgraded to display the text one word at a time instead of all at once
  
• Units mentioned during a conversation will be shown in purple
  
• Improved the conversation for the first story mission to include better hints on how to place units

• Vengeance buff no longer stacks, dealing more damage than previously intended
  
• Ranged units will no longer try getting into melee range while attacking
  
• Commanders will no longer use skills on dead units
  
• Corrected a problem that set your highest completed mission incorrectly in game
  
• Spawning units message no longer cuts out on the HUD
  
• Fixed two action buttons not returning to normal if you selected a template unit then decided to purchase a unit
  
• Several back-end fixes

How did you guys like the third story mission? What do you guys think about the Timed Assault game mode? Anything you would change?