Alpha 4.3 - Close the Gates

The Build the Castle update for Castle Constructor has just been released. The main features for this update are the new linear campaign, deck building, a new tutorial, and an updated tech tree. This was a pretty big update and it brings the game much closer to ready for its early access release. The campaign is just a start, no story and only the first 5 levels available for now, but this will be built on in the next couple updates. The deck building is the main feature of this update and is a big change from before. In previous versions of the game you had no access to the deck (which is used to create the 3 pack options after each wave). You had to use all the card tokens every time. Now the player can build their own deck with control over which tokens and how many of them they want in their deck. For now there aren't many tokens to choose between at the start but as development continues more tokens will be added to the base set. You also unlock new ones as you beat levels in the campaign

There are plenty of changes and big fixes as well so if you are interested then check out the full changelog below.

New Features:

• Linear Campaign: Earn stars from each level by beating enough waves. Total stars earned will grant new tokens to use for deckbuilding and stars can also be spent in the tech tree. New campaign map and 5 levels currently available with more to come in future updates. Story is still being worked on.
• Deck Building: On the campaign map the player can now access the deck building screen. On it they can select which tokens they want to use in their deck when playing a level. Tokens have been adjusted and split into three levels, Basic, Advanced, and Special. The player can have a limited number of copies of each token and a limited number of each level of token in their deck. New tokens are earned by collecting stars in the campaign.
• New tutorial: Removed the old tutorial and added a new optional level to the campaign. This level has an enhanced and expanded tutorial that walks you through how to play the game.

Changes:

• More Waves: adjusted the game to allow each level to have a different number of waves.  Currently the demo only contains levels going up to 6 waves. Early access release will have levels going up to around 10. With this the wave display has also been updated. Flags are now all facing the same direction and after 5 waves the wave number will be indicated by changing how each flag looks. Additionally the in level pause menu now displays the current and total number of waves.
• Starting a wave now clears any selected card.
• The card info panel now remains up while a card is selected rather than only showing while the cursor is over a card.
• Enemies now get new weapons when they enter the map instead of using the one they already had. This increases weapon variety in a game.
• New ground colors. Levels can now have their own unique set of ground colors. (Some levels are still a work in progress)
• Adjusted the tech tree. Removed token unlocks and replaced them with more improvements. Techs are now purchased with stars instead of resources. Added a reset techs button to allow you to reclaim your spent stars and try different techs.
• Stone Mason now effects a 1 tile radius around it. Range can be increased back up to 2 by purchasing one of the techs.
• Some cards can now be upgraded by techs. The Flaming Arrows tech now changes Volley cards into Fire Volley cards which cause the keep to shoot fire arrows instead of regular ones. The Arrow Slits tech changes Stone Walls into Arrow Slits giving them a different look and allowing them to shoot at nearby enemies.
• Machicolations now wont drop stones on a side if there is not a block worth of height between it and the ground. This is shown by having a flat side instead of the machicolation sticking out of the wall.
• Changed Archer - Battlement adjacency look. When a battlement and archer are directly adjacent it will no longer have steps going down to a door as it was hard to see and just made things look messy.
• Updated the main menu. Castles have been changed as has button placement. Moving between islands is now smoother (Web version instantly jumps between islands and should see no change) 

Balance:

• Adjusted the difficulty of the game. In previous versions the difficulty was based on how many levels you had already played. Now each level has a set difficulty. Overall difficulty has also been slightly reduced and the curve has been flattened a bit.
• The required spacing between enemies while climbing has been reduced. This allows enemies to climb closer together and thus reduces time enemies have to wait at the base of a tower.
• Siege Tower ramps are now wider and allow 2 enemies to cross at a time, making it faster and easier for enemies to get onto your walls from the siege towers.

Fixes:

• Siege towers will no longer get stuck on the Cheval de Frise.
• Fixed game still slowly running in the background after losing.
• Fixed Ballistae shooting well outside of their indicated range.
• Fixed enemies knocked down by a Ballista bolt not standing at their end positions but instead returning to their original positions before they were thrown back.
• Alchemist now uses its unique placement sfx rather than the default stone wall placement sfx.
• Fixed Turret and Machicolations descriptions.
• Enemies should no longer fall through the siege tower when the siege tower reaches the walls.
• Fixed an issue where the side of an Archer could show as wood instead of stone.
• Fixed enemies sometimes holding their weapons upside down.
• Fixed issue when two blocks being destroyed at about the same time could leave blocks floating in the air.
• Fixed some UI scaling issues.
• Fixed setting volume sliders to max causing some audio distortions.
• Fixed the roadmap display being out of alignment.