Battle Realms: Zen Edition

We’re going to take this slow, make changes, gather feedback, and work together to find the right level for each clan that respects their spirit, play style, and, ultimately, make them more enjoyable to play in different scenarios. In this first pass, we’re adjusting just a few units to bring them inline closer to that vision. We appreciate your feedback and want to know from you how these, or other units, feel. Lotus Infested One The Lotus Clan is a clan fighting for its sense of self, its sense of humanity. The corruption dwells within them and, though training, techniques, and, honestly, some luck, they are able to control it and regain their humanity. Gameplay wise, units like the Diseased One, the Infested One, and the Unclean One, are going through that process. They’re losing their humanity as the corruption takes hold. Some of these units felt that they played too similarly. Based on some of the feedback, the Infested One was slow, tanky, and did a considerable amount of damage - a role that was also filled by the Diseased One. It didn’t feel like the Infested One had a role to play on the field. We’re making the following changes for the Infested One: • Increased blunt damage resistance from 25% to 35% • Decreased cutting damage resistance from 150% to 130% • Increased explosive damage resistance from 75% to 85% • Increased piercing damage resistance from 87.5% to 100% • Reduced Max Health from 360 to 320 • Increased damage from 18 to 20 • Increased recovery from 1 to 1.1 This makes the unit more vulnerable in many scenarios, rewarding players who stay on top of their Infested Ones, but making making them easier for your opponent to take down if you are distracted. Serpent Enforcer The Serpent Clan is a clan of bandits, raiders, and not always the fairest fighters in the Realms. They are struggling to survive in the aftermath and reward cunning, hit-and-run tactics, and distractions. Based on the feedback, the Enforcer was in a strange spot. It dealt a lot of damage, but couldn’t survive. Being the only melee blunt damage unit for the Serpent Clan means that this role can’t be filled effectively and you’re left with only one choice. We want to remedy that and give a bit more choice when facing different situations, so we’re making the following changes for the Serpent Enforcer: • Decreased blunt damage resistance from 150% to 130% • Increased cutting damage resistance from 50% to 60% • Decreased piercing damage resistance from 100% to 80% • Increased Max Health from 350 to 360 • Decreased damage from 20 to 18 Serpent Witch On the other hand we heard a lot about the Serpent Witch. Ideally, this unit fills a support role that can deal damage from range, moves fast, and rewards insightful gameplay and skill. We’re adjusting the following so the Serpent Witch feels more rewarding to field when you need a unit to lean into that “hit-and-run” gameplay and harass the front lines to distract your opponent. • Increased Max Health from 300 to 315 • Increased movement across Forest and Water by 10%, from 75% to 85% • Increased movement across all other terrain (Dirt, Grass, Mud, Rice, Rock, and Snow) by 15%, from 100% to 115% With the big pieces of balancing out of the way, it wouldn’t be a patch if we didn’t have some more updates to talk about! Gameplay • In the last mission, hordelings now spread across the entire map and will defend Nightvol when he spawns • Lotus heroes no longer take damage from their own shadow steeds • Zymeth has now improved his understanding and usage of his Battle Gear • The AI now uses heroes as regular units, if they are available • The AI can now use the 6th keep slot, if available (previously, this was a Dragon Clan exclusive) Campaign • Addressed several campaign triggers that could lead to rare bugs • Addressed a campaign trigger that was originally restricted to Kenji’s story and made it global Technical Fixes • Applied a fix to optimize detection of modifier keys and mouse inputs • Fixed color pickers in the WorldMaster/WorldEditor Achievement Fixes If you are still hunting achievements, this might be a good moment to click away and download the update. If you’re OK with knowing these fixes, read on! • Addressed a trigger that could fail during the Free the Prisoners achievement • Fixed an issue with Darkness Consumes so buildings were appropriately detected as destroyed by “The Dark” units • Addressed a condition that could block progression detection for the A Defenseless Prince achievement • Addressed how the game detects completion of the Essence of Wolf achievement • Adjusted the detection method for completion criteria of the Free of Corruption achievement • Fixed an issue related to the Soulmates achievement to fire more reliably