Protectors of the Light,

Cloak & Arms - the latest update to Age of Darkness: Final Stand has arrived!

The "Cloak & Arms" Update introduces the Order Knight - a powerful new melee unit, and previously playable only in the campaign - to Survival, offering players a versatile, mid-to-late game siege support unit, and brand new ways to defend their keep from the forces of the Veil.

Additionally, the update brings major balance changes to the Rogue unit to improve overall effectiveness and accessibility, significant buffs to fishing ports to improve food and gold generation, and better customisation options for both Survival and Campaign game modes.

Cloak & Arms aims to to improve Survival gameplay and offer new and unique playstyles for both new and veteran Age of Darkness: Final Stand players.

Key improvements and a list of full patch notes can be found below.

Cloaks & Arms will introduce the Order Knight to Survival for The Order. Our intent with these guys was to create an offensive, late-game melee unit. Whilst not as tanky as the Sentinel, Order Knights have that sweet, sweet damage that their defensive cousins lack. We wanted to bring in a unit that could change up how players would approach dealing with nightmares and late-game waves, and create interesting choices between investing in high-tier static defences or a moderately mobile army of deadly knights, ready to cut their enemies down to size. Our hope is that players will use this unit to find new and exciting ways to tackle late-game Death Nights.

We've been aware of the Rogue sitting in a strange spot in the Rebellion roster for a while. They had high damage but were very fragile, resulting in players generally avoiding them in favour of Hunters or Pikeman. We've looked to increase the Rogue's health, to allow them that greater staying power they sorely lacked. Changes to their recruitment costs and requirements have also meant that players are now able to access more rogues earlier and in greater numbers.

As a result, their damage has been decreased, however we feel that this has been balanced out by the increase in health and the sheer amount of Rogues that can be brought to the fore now. These changes can lead players to create interesting mid-game builds and new synergies between Rebellion units and their heroes.

Fishing Ports are receiving some general buffs to their function, as we found that they were under-performing. They sat in a weird zone of back-up gold generation and mediocre food supplier. We've endeavoured to resolve this through several ways: increasing the radius of the port's food gathering range to encompass a larger area, increasing the amount of food gained per tile within that range (allowing them to rival farms in terms of gains), increasing the amount of gold received in each Crate, and upping the total building cap from 4 to 5. Combined, this takes some pressure off having to manage farm placement and allows for greater focus on defences, industry or expansion.

Previously, unit stats were shared across game modes. We have now split stat customizability across game modes, making adjustments that impact Survival only without affecting the pacing of Campaign. This change also supports our ongoing multiplayer tuning and balancing efforts.

Check out the full patch notes below:

• Added split constants across game modes. Allowing differences in Stats across Units, Heroes, Buildings etc across Campaign and Survival with Multiplayer in the future.
  
• Added the Order Knight to The Order Faction in Survival with the Refined Workshop build requirement.
  
• Removed Emboldening from the Volatist Faction in Survival.
  
• Named Map Seeds are now displayed as the name entered in the in-game menu and end of round victory screen.

Heroes

• Increased Cyrus’ Violent Volley Unlockable Level from 5 to 6.
  
• Increased Cyrus’ Base Veteran Experience Level Requirements from 476/1097/2308/3988/5563/7412/9795/12541/16573 to 476/1097/2308/3988/5563/8153/10775/13795/18230.
  
• Increased Merek’s Base Veteran Experience Level Requirements from 498/1272/2510/4765/7005/9605/12961/16911/22800 to 450/1145/2259/4287/7005/9605/12961/16911/22800.

With Hero experience, note that Veteran is our base metric and with each higher or lower difficulty adjusted by 20%.

• Forgiving is 40% less.
  
• Easy is 20% less.
  
• Horrific is 20% more.
  
• Nightmare is 40% more.

Rogue

• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Food Cost from 1 to 0.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Gold Cost from 325 to 230.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Stone Cost from 10 to 2.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Wood Cost from 15 to 13.
  
• Increased the Rogue’s Health from 70 to 120.
  
• Increased the Rogue’s Movement Speed from 1.4 to 1.5.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Shred Damage from 10 to 5.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Kill Gold Steal from 5 to 3.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Build Time from 30 seconds to 20.
  
• Reduced the Rogue’s Production Cost from 1 to 0.

Other Units

• Increased the Soldier’s Health from 125 to 150.
  
• Increased the Pikemen’s Production Gold Cost from 175 to 200.
  
• Reduced the Sentinel’s Research Cost from 850 Gold to 500.

Buildings

• Increased the Gate’s Health from 500/1500/3000 to 750/1500/4500.
  
• Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Shred Damage from 30 to 45.
  
• Increased the Grand Bellow Tower’s Damage Over Time from 4 to 6.
  
• Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Shred Damage from 30 to 45.
  
• Increased the Grand Ballista Tower’s Armour from 35 to 50.
  
• Increased the Fishing Port’s Fishing Net Gold Earned from 100 to 150.
  
• Increased the Fishing Port’s Food Yield from 0.25 per Tile to 0.35.
  
• Increased the Fishing Port’s Max Build Count from 4 to 5.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when move or formation commanding off the map’s edge.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when attacking a Dark Crystal prior to Triggering.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur after completing the Final Stand with Malice Mayhem enabled.
  
• Fixed an issue where the custom Map Seed entered did not match the in-game Menu Seed nor the end of round victory screen Map Seed.

• There is a known issue that could occur when alt-tabbing, the Alt key can lock causing unexpected behaviour which requires pressing the Alt key a second time to return to original state.
  
• There is a known issue where during a Death Night if Nightmares encounter a blockade over a period of time Nightmare stacking could occur.
  
• Observed an issue where during a Death Night where Nightmares are stacked, Target Priority may lose functionality.
  
• Observed an issue where Aurelia’s Crimson Lightning has performance issues when cast in a high-density enemy area.
  
• Observed issues with our pathfinding system on local unit avoidance and fog avoidance.
  
• There is a known issue that could occur when alt tabbing the alt can can simulate being held down. To remove this bug simply press alt when resuming gameplay.
  
• Observed an issue where the Final Fight in Mission 10 music loop stops playing.
  
• Observe issues with the Catapult and Spitter landing VFX not aligned to the Z axis.
  
• There is a known issue with the ability system where on a low occurrence triggered Hero abilities may go on cooldown without casting.
  
• There is a known issue that could occur when casting a spell ability it may not go where the desired location was cast.

Where possible please ensure all drivers are updated to ensure the best and smoothest performance.

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We greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to let us know about these bugs and crashes you’ve encountered. If you come across any bugs or crashes in the future, please report them to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server[discord.gg] in the ‘player-support’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.

Till next time Protectors of the Light…

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Age of Darkness: Final Stand