Next patch now coming Nov 22!

Hello Defiers! We hope you’ve been having a beautiful autumn November! In our last article, we told you our next patch would be coming November 27, but we’re officially ahead of schedule! The next patch, focused on combat and AI improvements, will instead be coming November 22nd (this Friday, pog)! This allows you all to play the updates more during your Thanksgiving break AND allows us more time to work with players to clean-up any surprise bugs before the holidays.

We're coming to OTK Winter Expo!

Plus! We can happily share we will be featured at the OTK Winter Expo this December 4th! We have been saving news about our roadmap as part of our participation in this event, so you’ll see more information about that go live at the same time. It should be a fun day for us, and we hope you tune in! As for now, here’s some MORE behind the scenes previews of the changes you’ll see this weekend when you return to the Crossroads!

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1. Game Art:

Ore Polish

The Crossroads are richer than ever! The next patch will populate the islands with more resources nodes, and many ore assets have been polished after an art and audio pass. With these changes, the resources will be easier to identify and distinguish from each other. Check out these visuals of the new Copper ore mesh and texture from our environment artist. It will definitely be time to update the fandom wiki map on the 22nd!

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2. Animation:

Downward Strike

Last update, we showed you some work-in-progress polish on glide movements! We’ve also recently implemented an update to Hardfall. Using your weapon while gliding has always triggered Hardfall, but now the animation includes an appropriate weapon attack, so the move has been renamed to “Downward Strike!” A sword coming down at you at a 100mph? I wouldn’t want to be a Gorgon, personally.

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3. Design:

New Lootables

Wouldn’t you believe it, the Gods' followers are eating like kings! Come end of this week, enemies may drop strong consumables, coming in two varieties: Spiced and Infused. They sprinkled God-dust on them, or something like that. For the time being, you will be unable to craft these specialty foods, but you’ll definitely want to keep them in handy for those tougher fights as they’ll boost your stats up to twice as much as your regular cooked foods.‍
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4. AI Improvements:

Boar Charge

There’s an assortment of AI improvements currently being tested for the upcoming patch across all existing enemies. A highlight amongst them that I’ve enjoyed is the new boar charge which makes them a much more troublesome and engaging enemy to combat with! Catch me trying to get a boar to headbutt me clear off a cliff. I’ll return with confirmation soon.

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5. Bug Fixed:

Stamina Regen Bug

Players (including myself) had been running into a strange bug where gliding into the water would lock your stamina, making it unable to regenerate. We’ll say your figurative wings were getting wet. Forever. But the QA boys were able to isolate the instance, and it will be on the list of fixes for the coming patch. You may return to your river-diving festivities immediately.

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6. Bug of the Month:

Balloon Rocks

Every positive addition to the game can open us up to a new host of problems. The good news is sometimes the problems are fun. Sometimes they’re a little whimsical, a little silly. For instance, BALLOON ROCKS! In another realm, this is the law of the land, as dictated by Gaia.

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Bonus:

Desert Amble

Did you enjoy the cackles last month? Here’s another sneak peak of the new enemy ambling in the desert. Have you guessed what it is yet? This gif is really mysterious, right? You can’t tell what it is at all. Warning in advance of Friday…you may be jump-scared by these guys. There have been incidents… We’re excited for you guys to experience it yourself soon!

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Lastly, thank you to everyone who responded to our poll last month. Between Steam and Discord, more foundational pieces and new functional buildables were nearly tied for first with 19% & 18% of voters, and new storage & shelving a close third at 16%! We'll be keeping that information in mind as we work on more buildables. That’s all for today! We’ll be back Friday with the full patch notes and greater details on specific features! Until then, cheers and long live the Defiance!