Astatos update for 28 January 2022

To the Crown Mages,

A new update to Astatos is here! Due to some of the system-level changes introduced in this update all players will need to download the new version to continue playing.

With this update we added new story content to Chapter 1, a new game mechanic has been introduced into Trials, and several quality of life fixes have been implemented. Along with these changes we have focused on revising our codebase, fixing bugs in Trials, and otherwise improving the stability of the game.

With this patch out of the way we will start to work on the following for future updates.

• [Short Term] Improve the gameplay experience during Trials, particularly with a goal to improve game-length issues with only “Base Gods and Heroes” equipped.
• [Short Term] Continue to work on bugs, Hero balancing, and quality of life changes.
• [Long Term] Continue to work on offline Trials and AI matches, including an interactive tutorial.
• [Long Term] Revise Chapter 1 of the story with new character sprites and new scenes.
• [Long Term] Implement Chapter 2 of the story along with single player Trial gameplay.

For more details about the new features and detailed changelog of changes implemented with Astatos v0.2, please read on below.

• From the team at Studio Klondike

New Story Content

Seven new scenes are available in the Interlude menu. These scenes take place and unlock throughout Chapter 1 of the story. Scenes are available for the following characters: Sulpicius, Cerkles, Makari-Hari, Zermes, Mukaki, Herclaus, Reece.

Note: Some Interlude scenes will only become available after seeing previous corresponding Interlude scenes in "Ab Initio”.

New Features

Hero Ability Cooldown: After using a Hero Ability, that Hero will go into Cooldown for 1 Round. During the Cooldown you will be unable to activate that Hero and use their Ability. During a Cooldown you can still give Energy to your own, and your opponent’s Heroes. If a Hero flips sides, their Cooldown will be reset immediately. Heroes with Passive Abilities don’t have an Ability Cooldown.

By introducing the Hero Ability Cooldown we hope to increase variety in matches and open up new avenues for strategic planning by preventing players from repeatedly using the same Hero. We’ll be monitoring feedback to this change and making other changes as appropriate.

Befriend Your Opponents: You can now send friend requests to other players on the victory screen. If both players send a friend request, the request will automatically be accepted.

Copy Room Code: Clicking the Room Code in the Lobby will now copy it directly to your clipboard.

Reward Point Exchange: Once you obtain enough Reward Points for the Monthly Reward, the Reward Point Exchange will become available. This allows you to exchange extra Reward Points for Monera.

Skip Mode: The Skip function allows you to quickly advance through dialogue in Story scenes. By default, you can only skip scenes that you have seen and completed before on any one of your Save Slots.

You can enable Skip by holding down the [s] key.

Note: Due to changes in the story save file format, some scenes will not be considered as “seen” until you view them again with the v0.2 version of the game.

Auto Advance: The Auto function allows you to advance dialogue automatically in Story scenes. The speed that dialogue advances can be changed in the settings menu.

You can toggle Auto by pressing the [a] key.

Changelog

Story Content

• Seven new scenes are available in the Interlude menu for Chapter 1.

Story Features

• A Skip function has been added to skip previously seen dialogue during story scenes.
• An Auto function has been added to automatically advance dialogue during story scenes.

Game Features

• The Reward Point Exchange has been added to the Rewards menu.
• You can now add the Room Code to the clipboard by clicking on it.
• You can now send friend requests on the victory screen.
• The Hero Ability Cooldown has been added as a new mechanic during Trials.
• New Features in this update have been added to the User Manual.

Trial Fixes

• [System] The way Cards are drawn and discarded has been consolidated and revised to be more reliable, improving the stability of any action or Hero Ability related to Cards.
• [System] Players are no longer able to receive more than the maximum of 20 Cards in their hand.
• [System] Card element trackers on the player icons have had several desync issues resolved and show now be accurate in displaying what elements that player currently has in their hand.
• [System] Hitting End Turn at 0 seconds left in the timer during the Trial Stage or the Hero Stage had the chance that both the end-turn button and the timer would try to send data to the server at the same time. This would result in the game proceeding incorrectly.
• [System] Under circumstances where the game becomes desynchronised between players, each player could decide a different side goes first in the Hero Stage. This is no longer possible even under similar circumstances.
• [Hero] Gaining a Spell Card using Sulpicius’ Passive Ability did not trigger Aristotle’s Passive Ability.
• [Hero] Gaining a Spell Card during Zermes’ Ability while Aristotle’s Passive Ability is active can no longer result in errors.
• [Hero] Under some circumstances, Zermes would appear to make incorrect comparisons between Cards.
• [Hero] Sulpicius, Gaios, and Mukaki’s Passive Abilities would remain partially active after being un-summoned by Nikos leading to incorrect behaviour or soft-locks.
• [Hero] Gaios would break when his Passive Ability is activated after the second turn in the Hero Stage, resulting in cards not being discarded properly if you chose to do so.
• [Hero] Under some circumstances Gaios could ask you to convert Cards to Energy twice in a row if no Heroes are activated during a given turn. Gaios will now only ask a second time if Heroes are activated during the Hero Stage.
• [Hero] You can no longer submit more Energy than you have to the wager during Alkaios’ Hero Ability.
• [Takeover Hero] The text “Flipping Sides” could be displayed instead of “Gaining/Losing Influence” during the activation of Drusus’ Ability.
• [Conquest Hero] The card distribution screen after Aklaios’ Ability could fail to load and soft-lock the Trial.
• [Conquest Hero] If Drusus and another Hero were activated in the same turn on Mukaki's side, there was a chance that no players would remain on Mukaki's side at the end of Drusus' Ability. In this case the next Hero would incorrectly activate their Ability and soft-lock the match.
• [Conquest Hero] If Mukaki’s Hero Ability was used in the first turn it would prevent the next Hero activated by Makari-Hari’s side from flipping a Seal.
• [Conquest Trial] With precise timing you could submit a card in a 0.5 second period after the Trial Stage had completed, failing the Trial Stage, but also receiving 1 Energy for passing the Trial Stage afterwards
• [Conquest Trial] Varius would only let you select yourself rather than all the players on your side when distributing Energy as the Consul.
• [Traditional & Simplified Chinese] Timaio’s Ability description in Takeover Trials did not properly reflect his Ability.

Interface Fixes

• When loading into the Main Menu for the first time, occasionally multiple copies of the welcome text would be displayed at the same time.
• The next and previous topic buttons would not appear in the User Manual.
• The Friends menu now has sound effects.
• New sound effects have been added to the Story Chapter Menu.
• You can no longer open multiple instances of the Lobby UI by spamming the Host Room or Quick Play buttons in the Trial Menu.
• Resolved an issue where the Summon Hero button would appear partially transparent.
• Yes/No question interfaces during a Trial would sometimes show the Hero Card as if that Hero was on the wrong side.
• Opening the Hero Summon menu then scrolling to the end of the list would lock the right/left button when you close and re-open the list.
• When you first login, your Reward Points would appear to not be affected by the daily reset.
• Saving your deck in the Deck Customisation menu and swapping decks would make it appear as though your other decks were not saved. As this was only a display issue, all decks are saved correctly on the server.
• Fixed an issue where level-up reward Monera could be displayed as a separate item on the Victory screen if you had already reached your daily Monera cap.
• Equipped Hero Skins are now displayed when the Winning Hero appears on the Victory screen.

Lobby Fixes

• When the Room Owner leaves a hosted room, the new Room Owner will now correctly be transferred the room controls and be able to invite players or start the game.
• You can now invite multiple players at a time to join a Room. Previously you would have to close and re-open the friends list to invite another player.

Story Fixes

• Resolved an issue that prevented Interlude scenes from advancing correctly. Some additional dialogue will now be visible when visiting the Interlude for the first few times.
• [English] Fixed various typos in Story Mode.
• [Traditional & Simplified Chinese] The font has been expanded to include characters that were previously missing.

Keep Updated

To keep up to date on upcoming changes and bug fixes to the game, be sure to join our [Discord](www.discord.gg/Nekojishi)! There you can find an up-to-date list of known issues and fixes in progress.