2018-05-08
Update 19 is now out of beta and available to everbody.

The latest update brings a new hero, the Gnome Mage. He is a master of earth, fire and ice spells, many of them being AoE spells that can bring the pain to clumped up enemies.

Germans can now enjoy the game in their native language.

Minor balance changes to adjust the difficulty have been made. We also squashed some bugs.

2017-02-23

Gameplay Change

• New animation for assassin's shadowstep skill.
  
• Casters will now use buffs more frequently.

Balance Changes

• Warrior's "Hamstring" cooldown reduced to 2 (down from 4), energy reduced to 3 (down from 5).

Bug Fixes

• Warrior's "Cyclone" now does more damage at higher levels.
  
• Can no longer put the same character into Sanctuary multiple times.
  
• Fixed description of Goblin Shaman's "Weapon of Fury".
  
• Potion after-effects can no longer be canceled.
  
• Dwarf King's "Counter Blow" no longer states that it requires the attacker not having moved this turn.
  
• Fixed a bug that cause characters to be moved to the wrong position in the roster when dragging them to other places.
  
• Ninja no longer shows a standard ranged attack icon at the start of a fight.

Thanks for playing The Storm Guard!

The focus of this update is on bug fixes and balance changes. As new features can always introduce new bugs, we now entered a consolidation phase where we're ironing out the last bugs and making small balance changes to get ready for release.

2016-07-13

Gameplay Changes

• Defeating the demon rewards equipment and a statue of lore that reduces costs in the training hall by 33%.

Balance Changes

• Higher level missions reward more gold.
  
• Higher rated monsters reward more gold.
  
• Levitation causes melee attacks to miss 90% of times (down from 100%).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented statues from being rewarded.
  
• Fixed a bug that made the wrong dragon form to appear during the end game fight.
  
• Fixed a bug that accidentally used two scrolls of recovery.
  
• Delete sig les in ironman mode.
  
• Fixed "Ork Traders" event.
  
• Fixed bug that allowed upgrading skills beyond their maximum level.
  
• Dwarven Slayer now shows weapon base damage in character details panel.
  
• Show level-up dialog when leveling up after consuming a scroll of XP.

Update #13 introduced a reputation system. Your decisions during the random events will have an impact on your reputation with a certain race. As a consequence, recruits and skills for heroes of that race will become cheaper or more expensive. This means some of your decisions have a lasting impact on how you relate to the rest of the world. For example, if a group of elves is chased by undead and you choose not to help them, then this is not exactly going to help your reputation with the elves. OTOH, if you help members of certain race then they will be grateful (and give you a discount). It's not always possible to keep a good reputation with all races, as sometimes you will need to choose (e.g. when dwarves and elves are having a fight and you side with one of them, then the other race will not approve). Overall, it's a funny new mechanic that gives a bit more meaning to your decisions. Reputation caps at 25, i.e. at 25% discount/penalty.

This reputation mechanic was the last feature I was planning to implement and I really need to release this baby soon. Thanks for everybody who contributed. If there's still any issues, please let me know.

2016-06-30

Gameplay Changes

• All heroes now come in two appearances so you have an easier time distinguishing two heroes of the same class [released prematurely on last update]. Now you can switch between the two appearances in the tavern/mission board by right-clicking the character and selecting the desired appearance.
  
• Introduced new reputation system. Your actions will now have an impact on your reputation with other races. A good reputation will reduce the cost of recruiting or training a hero of a certain race, while a bad reputation has the opposite effect.

Balance Changes

• Dwarven Champion's Overbearing Smash was moved from advanced to basic so he has a basic adrenaline skill.
  
• Dwarven Knight's Deadly Riposte was scaling up a bit too much.
  
• Dwarven Slayer has a toughness passive reducing constitution loss.
  
• Steward task durations reduced by 1 day (except cooking).
  
• Dwarven Priest's "Inspiration" no longer requires an action point.

Bug Fixes

• Dwarven Slayer starting skills now choose from whole skill set. Also, he always gets utter berserk (which is now a basic skill).
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented characters from finishing their steward tasks, getting new missions or new recruits after coming back from a mission.
  
• Fixed a problem with ballistas not turning or reloading properly.
  
• Fixed dwarven slayer's earrings which accidentally provided a lot of armor.

Update #12 brings a new playable hero, the dwarven slayer. He's got not energy but his skills cost a percentage of his current health. Furthermore, he gets stronger the less health he's got left. So, you will want to keep him low, but not too low.

We're already in June and I'm getting the game ready for public release. Therefore, the focus will now be on finding and ironing out any remaining bugs and getting everything ready. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated. If you enjoy the game, please also give it a thumbs up. Thanks.

2016-06-19

Gameplay Changes

• New playable hero: the dwarven slayer. He has no energy resource but his skills cost a percentage of his current health. The lower his health, the more damage he does. He is a crazy guy who forgoes armor for more damage.
  
• New option to speed up attack animations by factor 5.
  
• Archer animations generally sped up.
  
• Refund 75% of the equipment cost for fallen team members (only if you win the battle).
  
• Added voiceover introductions for new neutral creatures (humans, dwarves).
  
• New Credits song: "The Fires of the Storm Guard".
  
• Mobility potions grant immunity to knockdown.
  
• Can now sell potions in town.
  
• Can now rearrange characters on roster via drag & drop.

Balance Changes

• Some AI skills that cause burning now have slightly lower duration.
  
• Level boundaries for level 5+ lowered. Thus, characters level faster in the late game.
  
• For normal games with missions costing stamina, tax income increased to 500 (up from 250). This should give players a wee-bit more gold to equip and train multiple heroes.
  
• Burning now does damage equivalent to 20% of max hp (down from 25%). AoE burning was a bit too good.
  
• Goblin Assassin's "Dagger Fury" does +20 damage (down from +25).
  
• Statues provide better benefits.
  
• Weapon penetrations scale with character levels. That way, penetration is not that bad early on but will get gradually better (as armor gets thicker).
  
• Troll and Warchief's high end skills moved back one level. They were too good in the mid game.
  
• Dodging no longer takes distance into account.
  
• Lowered chance of Portal, Crypt or Camp missions to show up to 10% (down from 15%). Chance of Occupied Village and Invasion both reduced to 15 (down from 20).
  
• Scrolls of XP now give 250XP (up from 100).

Bug Fixes

• "Bring Supplies" steward mission only granted 1 gold per level instead of 25. Fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to freeze when a character currently turning around to defend against a blow was killed/knocked down.

The Dwarven Slayer forgoes armor and sacrifices health for additional damage.

Update 11 is now live fixing several critical bugs and introducing a few more changes. Here's the complete changelog:

2016-05-31

Gameplay Changes

• Save files now require a unique name. This allows overwriting save files having the same name. File names are scoped to the town name, i.e. two different towns (=games) can have the same name.
  
• Town names must now be unique.
  
• Implemented "Ironman Mode" that only keeps the last autosave. That way, saves are permanent (and so are deaths).
  
• Can now scroll when moving mouse over the edges of the screen.

Balance Changes

• Some AI skills that cause burning now have slightly lower duration.

Bug Fixes

• Panning while holding the left mouse button is now less jerky.
  
• Fixed a problem with the "Orks attacking Undead" event.
  
• Fixed a bug causing black knight's slice & dice to freeze the game.
  
• Fixed a bug that causing a reviving zombie to freeze the game.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented combat from ending when the party was wiped.
  
• Ninja attack range will only show when a ranged skill is selected.