Beta 1.3 - Soldier Improvements

Castle Constructor Beta 1.3 has been released. We decided to split the big pre campaign update into two parts and this is the first. This half focused more on the new units we wanted to add including javelins, Champions, and the new Dark Plate armor. See below for more info on each of those. In addition we added some more visual distinction between different unit types and improved some of the animations. In the next update (1.4) we will be focusing more on improvements to the blocks as well as possibly some siege units.

For more details on everything added, changed, and fixed please see the full changelog below.

New Features:

• New block, Javelin. Similar to an archer but it throws javelins that can knock down units. In addition rather than its range increasing as it is build higher the range moves out from the block, both the range and the min range growing with the height. Place it down low to target nearby tiles and place it higher up to target tiles that are further out.
• New enemy - Javelins. Throws javelins just like the block but at your own units.
• New enemy - Champions. Carrying a two handed weapon this unit excels in melee, knocking their opponents further away and dealing more damage than normal soldiers.
• New armor level for enemies - Dark Plate. With even more health than normal plate armor these enemies are quite resilient and can be hard to take down without some lucky shots, crossbows that can pierce their armor, or concentrated fire to wear them down.
• Ice terrain. Works like marsh tiles but with different visuals for use in snowy levels. Swamp Passage has been changed to Icy Passage and a new level has been added, Frozen River.
• Updated the Creative mode wave builder. It now shows an image of each enemy in the wave and has a new layout with different tabs for Melee soldiers, Ranged Soldiers, Siege units, and randomizing that direction.
• Improved soldier visuals. Added some new visual flair to units to make them more distinct. All ranged units now have a colorful shoulder cover to distinguish them from melee units. Longbows have their own helmet design with slightly more health. Crossbows get a better helmet as well. The new champions get a colorful cape. And the new Javelins get a metal cap.
• Improved shooting animations. Ranged units now have a ready state that they will move to when they have a target in range. They will then go from that state to the new shooting animation and then return to the ready state until they no longer have a target to shoot at. It looks better and it allows units to shoot a bit faster since they can stay in the ready state instead of fully lowering their bows after each shot.

Changes:

• Added a new weather effect (Blowing Sand) to some levels.
• Changed how keep height is handled. Rather than trying to keep the keep above adjacent blocks it now tries to stay level with them. Instead of raising when there are three adjacent blocks level with it now it will raise when there are three adjacent blocks higher than it.
• Adjusted the enemy spawn to have them facing the proper direction instead of having to turn after being spawned.
• Removed the Moat block as we weren't happy with it. It didn't feel particularly useful or worth getting.
• Changed the selected tab color to have selected tab lit and other tabs darkened per player feedback.
• Slightly increased the health of tower shields (~20%).
• The time enemies have to reach your keep before the wave automatically ends will now slowly increase along with the wave number to help account for complex castles taking longer to traverse.
• Adjusted formations of ranged units to not break if the enemies have a target to shoot at. Basically it just keeps them firing as a group instead of individually when right in front of a block.
• Adjusted 'knockdown resistance' to decrease by a percentage of its value instead of a flat amount. It also decreases faster now.
• Changed the Barracks block to be a bit cheaper but only spawn one defender per wave.
• Changed the Archery Range and Barracks blocks so that they can no longer be placed adjacent to another Archery Range or Barracks rather than only preventing placement above or below.
• Added more information to the info panel for the Archery Range and Barracks block about how they prioritize where to send their soldiers.

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused enemies to just stand in place.
• Fixed an issue that could result in enemies seeming to be invisible. Enemies that had fallen off the map would sometimes maintain their visible position when respawning which led to them not being visible and intangible.
• Fixed an issue that was degrading performance. The prioritized list of enemies to shoot at was being updated every time it was requested instead of being limited to updating twice a second. Should be most noticeable with large castles.
• Fixed an issue where Archery Range and Barrack blocks were improperly updating formation pathfinding, thus leading to formation being unable to find a path to the keep or taking incredibly roundabout paths.
• Fixed an issue where blocks could end up continuing to shoot at units that fell off the map for a few seconds even though they were already dead.
• Fixed a minor issue that could occur during the tutorial level.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Bartizan tech to not apply immediately.
• Fixed the Guild upgrade giving the Talus effect instead.
• Fixed knockdown resistance not being cleared when respawning.
• Fixed some minor issues when soldiers tried to pass between the top of a block and an adjacent ground tile.
• The Alchemist block fire is now disabled on sides against a wall to prevent clipping.
• Fixed an issue where Siege units would not break when killed and enemies were set to clear Instantly or Every Wave.