Preview of Hotfix 1.02 and Roadmap of What's to Come!

[Taylor Bair]

Hello all! We've heard your feedback and are already in the works on Hotfix 1.02. Find below some of the expected changes/fixes/and QoL items planned for 1.02 and beyond.

Hotfix 1.02 Preview (not exhaustive list)
QoL
- Steam Cloud Saves
- Additional information on Turn Order Info Screen for delayed skills (target of skill being used)

Balance Tweaks
- Money earned per mission lowered
- Buffing evasion bonuses from certain equipment
- Nerfing Ranger (as a general consensus is Rangers are overpowered compared to other classes)
- Increasing battle difficulty late game

Art
- More expressive flinch animations for all classes/monsters/uniques
- More expressive attack animations for certain classes

Bug Fixes
- Enemy attack names should properly display now during battle
- Steam Deck fix for certain Troop Management screens being cut off on the right hand side

Hotfix 1.03 and Beyond (items that require additional QA support)
- Non-Pixel font support
- Core class skill tree access after promotion
- Simplified Chinese language support
- Additional Balance (nerfs/buffs) to classes/skills
- Loading Screen/Time improvements
- Displaying health above units in the Turn Order Info Screen
- Additional camera improvements at start of fights (establishing shots to show enemy positions)

And this list continues to grow as we gather feedback, so much appreciated to everyone for tossing up ideas and filling out bug reports!

[DesLife]

If I may suggest some balance ideas :

- Nerf Inquisitors. Having a 100% silence spell that also does 40-60% hp at a good range is too broken in a game where most of the lategame ennemies cast delayed spells. That spell alone invalidates the entire lategame.
They also have a very powerful melee skill that also stuns at 50% chance. Unless you don't know what you're doing, stun is basically a death sentence. That plus the natural tankiness (HP + evasion ) of the class makes it too strong.

- Make the negative effects matter. The game gives you some tools to inflict them (Ranger/Warmancer on top of my head) and some other to take advantage of them (Warmancer), yet they don't matter at all. Why would my Warmancer bother with additional burn chance or inflincting shock when his spells two shot everything in sight ?

- Hit Chance could very well not exist that I wouldn't notice a difference. I whiffed ONE time in my entire playthrough and it was a 80% chance hit in the final chapter with a blind character lmao. The direction the units are facing have no incidence when every hit is between 90 and 100%. Why implementing a feature that theoretically does something but changes nothing in practice ?

With all due respect, the game is in a broken state and feels barely like a tactical, partly because of the balance issues that invalidates the very few tactical elements it offers.
Good luck fixing it, but it will need a lot more than one patch.

[Taylor Bair]

I'll take all these done for additional balance fixes! Thanks DesLife!

[Taylor Bair]

Following up that nerfs to those mentioned Inquisitor skills are in the works and will be in hotfix 1.02 (and we've already got some fixes to the Hit Chance incoming in 1.02, but looking at how to expand those more!)

[Alexandra Lorular]

Additional camera improvements at start of fights (establishing shots to show enemy positions)

these are useful up until the unit moves...at which point you run into problems again, the only proper solution is a full rotating 3d camera...

[Haglitm]

Originally posted by DesLife:

If I may suggest some balance ideas :

- Nerf Inquisitors. Having a 100% silence spell that also does 40-60% hp at a good range is too broken in a game where most of the lategame ennemies cast delayed spells. That spell alone invalidates the entire lategame.
They also have a very powerful melee skill that also stuns at 50% chance. Unless you don't know what you're doing, stun is basically a death sentence. That plus the natural tankiness (HP + evasion ) of the class makes it too strong.

- Make the negative effects matter. The game gives you some tools to inflict them (Ranger/Warmancer on top of my head) and some other to take advantage of them (Warmancer), yet they don't matter at all. Why would my Warmancer bother with additional burn chance or inflincting shock when his spells two shot everything in sight ?

- Hit Chance could very well not exist that I wouldn't notice a difference. I whiffed ONE time in my entire playthrough and it was a 80% chance hit in the final chapter with a blind character lmao. The direction the units are facing have no incidence when every hit is between 90 and 100%. Why implementing a feature that theoretically does something but changes nothing in practice ?

With all due respect, the game is in a broken state and feels barely like a tactical, partly because of the balance issues that invalidates the very few tactical elements it offers.
Good luck fixing it, but it will need a lot more than one patch.

I'll be honest, I don't think that Inquisitor needs a nerf. I think it's fine. I think what's wrong is that Ronin isn't very good. Status effects actually doing their job isn't broken. It makes the spell good. If you remove the status effect part of it, then it just becomes a damaging spell, which is not great. As doing something with Ranger like Dousing Arrow + A lightning spell is crazy damage too, and if you nerf everything like that, you'll end up with a situation where a new meta forms every time you nerf. It's better to buff everything to be equally useful in this case, so then you can see what's truly messed up about the damage values.

Of which, I think people are too squishy all around.

[Kritty]

Originally posted by Alexandra Moldovia:

Additional camera improvements at start of fights (establishing shots to show enemy positions)

these are useful up until the unit moves...at which point you run into problems again, the only proper solution is a full rotating 3d camera...

The maps are only 2D, so a 3D rotating camera isn't an option, much less a solution.

[Emperor[1G]]

Originally posted by Kritty:

Originally posted by Alexandra Moldovia:

Additional camera improvements at start of fights (establishing shots to show enemy positions)

these are useful up until the unit moves...at which point you run into problems again, the only proper solution is a full rotating 3d camera...

The maps are only 2D, so a 3D rotating camera isn't an option, much less a solution.

was literally about to post this when i read it. that camera rotation, adjustment and angles weren't ever invisioned or planned for is very concerning. other than a complete engine rework/overhaul i dont know how this gets changed so that it works properly like other tacticals.

[DesLife]

Originally posted by Haglitm:

Originally posted by DesLife:

If I may suggest some balance ideas :

- Nerf Inquisitors. Having a 100% silence spell that also does 40-60% hp at a good range is too broken in a game where most of the lategame ennemies cast delayed spells. That spell alone invalidates the entire lategame.
They also have a very powerful melee skill that also stuns at 50% chance. Unless you don't know what you're doing, stun is basically a death sentence. That plus the natural tankiness (HP + evasion ) of the class makes it too strong.

- Make the negative effects matter. The game gives you some tools to inflict them (Ranger/Warmancer on top of my head) and some other to take advantage of them (Warmancer), yet they don't matter at all. Why would my Warmancer bother with additional burn chance or inflincting shock when his spells two shot everything in sight ?

- Hit Chance could very well not exist that I wouldn't notice a difference. I whiffed ONE time in my entire playthrough and it was a 80% chance hit in the final chapter with a blind character lmao. The direction the units are facing have no incidence when every hit is between 90 and 100%. Why implementing a feature that theoretically does something but changes nothing in practice ?

With all due respect, the game is in a broken state and feels barely like a tactical, partly because of the balance issues that invalidates the very few tactical elements it offers.
Good luck fixing it, but it will need a lot more than one patch.

I'll be honest, I don't think that Inquisitor needs a nerf. I think it's fine. I think what's wrong is that Ronin isn't very good. Status effects actually doing their job isn't broken. It makes the spell good. If you remove the status effect part of it, then it just becomes a damaging spell, which is not great. As doing something with Ranger like Dousing Arrow + A lightning spell is crazy damage too, and if you nerf everything like that, you'll end up with a situation where a new meta forms every time you nerf. It's better to buff everything to be equally useful in this case, so then you can see what's truly messed up about the damage values.

Of which, I think people are too squishy all around.

I didn't say to remove the silence effect entirely. Inquisitors are supposed to be mage killers after all and their spells need to reflect that. My ideas were more in the line of slightly reducing the chance or inflincting the silence at 100% only at melee range.

In any case, I agree that units are too squishy and it's maybe one of the biggest issues balance wise, if not the biggest. Everything dies in two hits, including the final bosses (and that's on the hardest difficulty) so that must be addressed before targeting any single class imo. With more tanky units, utility classes and effects like noxious and burn will have more room to shine, the players would have more room to experiment and the balance team would have a more clear picture of what to do balance wise.

[Haglitm]

Originally posted by DesLife:

Originally posted by Haglitm:

I'll be honest, I don't think that Inquisitor needs a nerf. I think it's fine. I think what's wrong is that Ronin isn't very good. Status effects actually doing their job isn't broken. It makes the spell good. If you remove the status effect part of it, then it just becomes a damaging spell, which is not great. As doing something with Ranger like Dousing Arrow + A lightning spell is crazy damage too, and if you nerf everything like that, you'll end up with a situation where a new meta forms every time you nerf. It's better to buff everything to be equally useful in this case, so then you can see what's truly messed up about the damage values.

Of which, I think people are too squishy all around.

I didn't say to remove the silence effect entirely. Inquisitors are supposed to be mage killers after all and their spells need to reflect that. My ideas were more in the line of slightly reducing the chance or inflincting the silence at 100% only at melee range.

In any case, I agree that units are too squishy and it's maybe one of the biggest issues balance wise, if not the biggest. Everything dies in two hits, including the final bosses (and that's on the hardest difficulty) so that must be addressed before targeting any single class imo. With more tanky units, utility classes and effects like noxious and burn will have more room to shine, the players would have more room to experiment and the balance team would have a more clear picture of what to do balance wise.

In any case, I agree that units are too squishy and it's maybe one of the biggest issues balance wise, if not the biggest. Everything dies in two hits, including the final bosses (and that's on the hardest difficulty) so that must be addressed before targeting any single class imo. With more tanky units, utility classes and effects like noxious and burn will have more room to shine, the players would have more room to experiment and the balance team would have a more clear picture of what to do balance wise. [/quote]
Here's the thing though, it's the fact that the main thing it does is silence. The damage is icing on the cake. If you're adding a dynamic like making it less accurate as you're further away? Yeah, that could definitely work. But there needs to be a way to 100% silence. One of the big problems with other tactical games is that when status effects like that can miss, it starts becoming a "how accurate is it in comparison to just killing them?" It's better for it to be more accurate for silence and less damaging, as I think the game's biggest issue aside from the lack of terrain mattering is how high damage is in general.

I agree. Especially because there are some cool concepts like the traps and the like, but they take too much effort and don't have enough payoff for being slick with them.

[Alexandra Lorular]

Originally posted by Kritty:

Originally posted by Alexandra Moldovia:

Additional camera improvements at start of fights (establishing shots to show enemy positions)

these are useful up until the unit moves...at which point you run into problems again, the only proper solution is a full rotating 3d camera...

The maps are only 2D, so a 3D rotating camera isn't an option, much less a solution.

That's my point, that should of never passed the drawing board stage. The flaw is engine level deep and unfixable as a result. 3d Camera and maps should of been Mandatory. Eh, doesn't bother me, I've given up on the game precisely because it is unable to fix such a basic core feature problem.

[Alexandra Lorular]

Originally posted by Emperor1G:

Originally posted by Kritty:

The maps are only 2D, so a 3D rotating camera isn't an option, much less a solution.

was literally about to post this when i read it. that camera rotation, adjustment and angles weren't ever invisioned or planned for is very concerning. other than a complete engine rework/overhaul i dont know how this gets changed so that it works properly like other tacticals.

It doesn't get changed or fixed is what their saying, it Can't. They thought they'ed be able to get away designing a game without the feature. IF it matters to you as much as it did me, I'd refund if you can. Because as far as I can tell, Kitty just admitted to it being Not Fixable.

If you can live with it, I hope you find enjoyment in the game. But I could not.

[Emperor[1G]]

Originally posted by Alexandra Moldovia:

Originally posted by Emperor1G:

was literally about to post this when i read it. that camera rotation, adjustment and angles weren't ever invisioned or planned for is very concerning. other than a complete engine rework/overhaul i dont know how this gets changed so that it works properly like other tacticals.

It doesn't get changed or fixed is what their saying, it Can't. They thought they'ed be able to get away designing a game without the feature. IF it matters to you as much as it did me, I'd refund if you can. Because as far as I can tell, Kitty just admitted to it being Not Fixable.

If you can live with it, I hope you find enjoyment in the game. But I could not.

as a Kickstarter backer I don;t think refunding is an option for me. I did stop by brothers and my clanmates from wasting their money though

[Alexandra Lorular]

Aw damn sorry to hear that.

[TheBlackJasonguard]

The game was never intended to have 3D rotation because the maps are 2D hand-drawn maps. The idea that this 'breaks' the game is laughable at best: Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Underrail, Disco Elysium (iirc, at least in the original, not sure about the Director's Cut), Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, to name a few, are all isometric games with non-rotatable cameras. It was stated, in the Kickstarter, that this would be a 2D Isometric game - if you don't know what 2D and 'Isometric' mean, then you should probably have looked those up before you supported it on KS. The only way that this would be a 'deal breaker' or a 'surprise letdown' is if you were expecting a game that advertised itself as 2D to be 3D instead, which is more consumer error than anything else.

That being said, there *are* a few clarity issues in this game that are completely unrelated to the rotational ability of the camera and are significantly more related to a lack of clarity when it comes to: outlining allies, enemies, and player units; default camera zoom levels showing adequate scope of the level prior to zooming in; status symbol and other icon clarity, which have all been mentioned in the discord and, to the best of my knowledge, are being worked on.

Tip for everyone Kickstarting or buying video games (or any media): try to understand what the vision and planning was/is for a video game before you go out and support it, and then complain that it doesn't do something it never claimed it would do. Final Fantasy Tactics (which far too many people expected this to be), is a *3D* Isometric Tactical RPG that uses *2D* character sprites. This is a 2D Isometric Tactical RPG that uses 2D character sprites. This is also the reason for there not being adequate line of sight or obstacle recognition (see: the exact same engine limitations as Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark).

[BraveChicken]

Shooting through terrain/walls.