Knights,

Our latest update for King Arthur: Knight's Tale is out now! It includes the first iteration of the optional PvP mode - unlocked thanks to our Kickstarter backers as a stretch goal - a slightly redesigned Camelot management, a rebalanced Act 1 and many, many additions, changes and fixes. Be sure to check the detailed patch notes below.

We've also released the third installment of our dev diary series, this time focusing on what's beyond the main story campaign and the tale of Sir Mordred and King Arthur. This means PvP, the Endgame and a sneak peek at the Seasonal features. So a lot of great new footage!

Patch v0.1.0 

New features

PVP

• The first iteration of the PvP is here! A new 'Multiplayer' section has been added to the Main Menu. Clicking on the tab will display the Match list where you can search for a PVP match or create one yourself. Besides, you can also invite your friend directly from your Steam Friends list to have a good clash
• There are 4 pre-made parties and any of them can be picked but there is also a draft option which allows both players to choose 4 Heroes from the PvP Hero pool.  All Heroes possess higher tier skills which are not yet available in the story campaign due to the level limitation
• The PvP Hero pool introduces new Heroes of the Arthurian legends whose appearance are yet to be seen in the campaign
• You can choose from 3 layouts:
  • Catacombs
  • Forest
  • Maze
• Setting a 60 seconds or 120 seconds long turn limit is optional if you are in for a decisive, quick fight. Whether you play a Ranked match or not is up to your choice as well
• A small chat window has been added where you can discuss the terms with your challenger

New role of the Enchanted Tower

• Instead of removing Curses from Heroes, the Tower will serve as a Relic shop from now on. You will be able to salvage Relic items and in exchange you will be provided Relic Dust which can be turned in for rare, special Relic items
• These Relics will have higher Base stats and stronger enchants compared to the ones acquired from missions, however, all of them will have a level requirement as well. Some items can even grant you active skills. Overall, they will be much more build or Hero-specific items
• Similarly to the Merchant, the supply of the Relic shop will refresh after a few missions' time
• In order to obtain an item from the shop you will need to salvage around 5-6 looted Relic items

Building Titles

• Heroes under your banner can be promoted to be masters of a given building in Camelot. Doing so will grant you a permanent bonus until you remove the Hero. Some Heroes will be more suited to take up the role due to their special Traits so make sure you exploit this advantage.
• Characters granted with a Building Title will be disqualified to hold on to any other Court Title

Misc

• The Adventure Map and Camelot got a shiny graphical rework
• New battle and exploration music tracks have been added
• The Tutorials section can now be accessed from the Exit menu as well by clicking on the Journal tab
• For players who prefer to have a static (non-rotating) minimap, there is a gameplay setting now to lock it
• Navigating on the Adventure Map became easier now as you can use the scroll wheel to zoom out for a better overview on the whole map
• Clicking on the 'Finish mission' tab will now open a confirmation window if there is still a found but unopened chest in that mission
• The Overwatch ability received a hotkey, 'O'
• Added a Free Targeting Preview option which shows the targeting preview for ranged attacks after movement even if the Hero doesn't have enough Action Points to attack after making the move. The preview can be activated with the 'F' hotkey
• Already existing hotkeys have been added under the Controls tab related to movement and rotation
• A keybind reset option has been added under the Controls tab
• The Exit menu can now be opened with the ESC too during Deploy mode
• From now on, the value of Armour Breaking will be displayed in percentage under the Battle Stats
• The descriptions of existing skills and item enchants have been reviewed. Various grammatical errors have been removed, the descriptions are more consistent and more comprehensible now. Several game terminology received color coding and icons
• The Heroes' positions in the party formation can now be changed by dragging their portraits above or below other Heroes. A new Tutorial has also been added to explain the newest mechanism
• The received Injuries will be listed on the Mission result window from now on
• From now on, you can select a Hero in the portrait section too with skills which can be applied onto party members
• Several skills' value scale with the level of the Hero now. The changes are reflected in the corresponding skills' descriptions as well
• From now on, the Hide skill of the Vanguard will be disabled if there is no other Hero visible for the enemy units to target
• A new debuff "Blind" has been added: The target has an 80% chance to miss their attacks. Physical Resistance decreases this penalty.
• A new Injury "Double Vision" has been added: 25% miss chance for the injured Hero
• A new Injury "Suffocation" has been added: Healing potions cannot be used by the injured Hero
• A new Injury "Blindness" has been added: the Injured Hero loses 1 AP after every turn in combat. Maximum 50% of the total Action Points can be lost in a single encounter
• A new Trait 'Defender of the Bridge' has been granted to both Sir Balin and Sir Balan
• By unlocking a Hero on the Morality chart a new mission will appear in which we will be able to recruit the unlocked Hero
• From now on, if an active skill applies a debuff, the debuff's description is displayed in the skill's tooltip as well
• From now on, a Hero's orientation cannot be altered if they are afflicted by a stun debuff
• Inflicting a knockdown on an already knocked down enemy will knockback the unit
• If a unit has at least 50% resistance against knockdown, they will get only knocked back
• From now on, if multiple buffs of the same type have been applied to a Hero/unit, the duration of the longest one's effect is displayed
• After falling into reanimation state, all buffs and debuffs will drop drown from Lost enemy units
• The overwatched area has been increased for Melee Heroes and enemy units take the overwatched areas into account now before they make their move
• Now overwatch is triggered whenever a unit starts moving, not when arriving onto a grid or casting a spell which was the previous behavior
• The purchasable items' prices at the Merchant vary to a certain degree now as items with more valuable enchants will cost more
• If a third, allied party is present in combat and has skills which can buff our Heroes, they will apply those buffs on the characters now
• From now on, if a third party is involved in a fight, they can also trigger dormant Lost units, not just our Heroes
• When an Encounter begins the minimap now zooms in and displays only the Battle Arena
• From now on, more missions can appear on the same POI
• From now on, events can also appear on a POI and the decision of the outcome can be postponed, they no longer require your immediate attention
• Every icon on the minimap received a tooltip
• The Arcanist's curses have been renamed to hexes
• The Champion's Rage skill received a buff icon
• The new mission notifications will now pop up only if we leave Camelot
• Controller: several changes and improvements

Balance

Vitality, HP and Armour Breaking

• Heroes no longer have base HP, only Armour or enchants/skills/building upgrades can grant them HP now. With the removal of the base HP, all Heroes' Vitality was increased
  • Developer comment: According to the previous mechanism if a Hero lost all its HP, they were in big trouble and stronger enemy units could easily inflict a devastating blow on them. Now, the HP serves as a thin defensive layer while Vitality is a bigger life pool that cannot be one-shot and the player is not forced into a dire situation right away. As a consequence of these changes, the role of the Armour got more important and Ranged Heroes cannot move as recklessly as before either which made the Melee-Ranged meta more balanced
• The values of Armour Breaking have been halved proportionately for both the various weapons of our Heroes and for the enemy units too. As a result, there will be less HP loss for our Heroes but the enemies' defenses became more sturdy as well

New and reworked building upgrades

• All buildings in Camelot received new upgrade options or had some of their existing ones reworked and their relation network has been changed as well to provide a better progression
• Building resource costs were removed for various upgrades but consequently their gold cost was increased. Additionally, some upgrades' gold cost was removed and replaced by Morality points
  
  
  • The Round Table
    • The Court Titles upgrade has been renamed to Famous Titles: Court Titles grant +1 Loyalty
      
      
  • Cathedral
    • New: Tough Body: Every current and prospective Hero gains +1 Injury Token
    • New: Liquid Power: Using Potions cost no AP during encounters
    • The Herbalist upgrade now prolongs the effects of potions by 1 round during encounters
    • Regain Vitality has been renamed to Life Elixir: the upgrade now heals a portion of your Hero's Vitality upon treating their injuries
      
      
  • Hospice
    • New: Apprentice Herbalist: +2 permanent Vitality for every current and prospective Hero
    • New: Master Herbalist: it grants +4 permanent Vitality for every current and prospective Hero
    • New: Regain Vitality: Heroes returning from mission heal 5% Vitality
      
      
  • Merchant
    • New: Armoursmith: Every current and prospective Hero gets an extra Armour
    • New: Master Blacksmith: Every current and prospective Hero gets an additional extra Armour
      
      
  • Training Ground
    • The Training Ground received a new function: from now on Heroes can reset their skill points in exchange for gold. The process will take one mission's time and the Heroes cannot be taken into missions until then
    • New: Basic Physical Training: +2 permanent HP for every current and prospective Hero
    • New: Advanced Physical Training: +4 permanent HP for every current and prospective Hero
      
      
  • Enchanted Tower
    • New: Conjurer: scroll effects last +1 round during encounters
    • New: Newcomer Vendors: increases the number of items in the offer after the next restock
    • New: Caravan: the offer the Relic shop refreshes more frequently
    • The Magic Circles upgrade now resets the cost of Action Points (AP) of all Scrolls to zero
    • The Ancient Method upgrade now increases the gained Relic Dust by 10% from Sacrificed items

New/rebalanced Hero and enemy skills

• All existing Heroes had some of their skills replaced with new ones or their number of abilities increased in order to make the characters more unique and balanced
• The Sage's Inspire skill now costs 3 Action Points (AP) instead of 4 and the effect immediately takes place, not in the next turn
• The Sage's Bless skill now only grants melee damage but its value has been changed to 40% instead of 30%
• The Arcanist's Piercing Bolt mastery now applies 10% Armour Breaking to the Force Bolt active skill instead of 50%
• The Champion's Power Attack skill causes 15% Armour Breaking now instead of 30%
• Reduced the damage output of Sir Ector's Fire Blast skill from 100% to 70%
• Lady Dindraine's Fire Arrow skill deals 70% Weapon Damage instead of 50%
• The skills of the Knight of Midnight will reset now once the 2nd cutscene starts and his Ignition skill was improved to make the final battle of the 1st Act more challenging
• Various enemy units' skills were reviewed and rebalanced

Reworked Injury system

• From now on, Heroes will suffer injuries based on the amount of Vitality they lost. Every Hero's Vitality have been split into five levels and whenever they suffer a hit that drops their Vitality below a level, they will be inflicted an injury
• Injuries have been divided into two categories, light and severe ones. Heroes can suffer only light injuries at first but if they lose a bigger portion of their Vitality, they can receive light and severe injuries as well
  • Developer comment: The previous mechanism of the Injury system was less ideal as Heroes were injured based on how many hits they suffered so even weaker enemy units who barely caused any damage could inflict injuries on them repeatedly

Leveling & itemization

• Slightly rebalanced the obtainable XP from missions:
  • Developer comment: Due to the changes below, playing lower level missions with lower lever Heroes pays off more now than effortlessly running through the quests with higher level Heroes who gain less experience. As a result, most of your Heroes will be more or less on the same level and you can rotate them in between more difficult missions. Putting only a few but strong Heroes in one basket and only weak ones in the other will make things more difficult for you in the long run.

• All items were reviewed, weaker Relic items were upgraded while Common items were rebalanced to not have especially powerful enchants on them
• Several new, interesting enchants were added
• The damage range of the weapons depend on their rarity now:
  • Common weapons: They have a wider damage range
  • Uncommon weapons: They have a smaller damage range and a third of these weapons have a static damage
  • Relic weapons: Almost all of these weapons have static damage with a few exceptions
  • Developer comment: The bigger the damage range of a given weapon the more unreliable it is which makes thinking ahead in the battle more difficult. 

Reworked the Vanguard's Hide ability

• Getting into Hidden state will no longer be free. It will cost the character 2 Action Points (AP)
• Manually disabling the ability will not be possible, Heroes can get out of it by using an active skill or if their position is revealed by an enemy unit
• On the other hand, moving in hidden state will no longer cost you double amount of Action Points (AP). Moreover, the Vanguard will receive the Surprise bonus when they get into Hidden state, not in their next turn
• A warning icon will be displayed now on those tiles where your position can be potentially revealed by the enemy

Removed Curse system

• The Curse system has been entirely scrapped. Curses and Curse tokens got removed, however, "Weakness", "Wither" and "Suffocation" have all been added to the Injuries list. In events, Heroes can suffer only injuries now. The Banshee will no longer cast a curse on our Heroes upon death either.
  • Developer comment: The Injury and Curse systems were mechanically similar since both inflicted permanent effects and differed only thematically. As a result we felt that one of them was redundant and it's better to stick to one system only.

Misc

• Reviewed and improved all available maps both performance-wise and encounter-wise
• Removed the level limitation of the Training Ground for those Heroes who got enlisted for free training
• If a Hero's Morality is different from yours, the Hero's Loyalty will decrease by 2 points now instead of 1
• The number of Health Potions on the player is taken into account now and the less potions they have the more they can acquire from loot. Consequently, the more Health Potions they accumulated the less chance they have for looting such potions. The changes are applied to the stocks of the Merchant too
• From now on, Lost enemy units will stand up from reanimation state one round earlier
• Ranged units do not get damage penalty now if an enemy unit standing within their melee range is stunned or frozen
• Stunned Heroes' orientation cannot be changed until the Stun debuff is active
• The description of Sir Pelleas' Taunt skill has been specified
• The description of the Champion's Power Attack has been specified
• The Extra Tribute Decree now grants 2000 gold instead of 1000
• The Forced Labour Decree now grants 500 building resources instead of 1000 and its gold cost is 2000
• The Purse of Gold Decree now grants +1 Loyalty to every Hero and +1 extra Loyalty to those Heroes whose Loyalty are in the negative
• From now on, bleeding enemy units suffer damage after every step taken
• The unlocked Barracks and Archery Range upgrades of the Training Ground as well as the Archive upgrade of the Enchanted Tower provided the extra skill points to your Heroes only if a mission was completed first. They grant the skill points instantly now
• Drinking a Healing potion will now cleanse all debuffs from the Hero
• Physical Resistance has been renamed to Constitution. Constitution reduces the effectiveness of Physical Crowd Control Effects
• Mental Resistance has been renamed to Willpower. Willpower reduces the effectiveness of Magical Crowd Control Effects

Debuffs

Below you can find more details about the existing debuffs:

General

Applying the same debuff more than one time on any enemy won't make the Debuff stack but its effect will be prolonged. Attack spells will apply debuff on the target only if the enemy unit loses either HP or Vitality. If it loses Armour, the Debuff will not be applied. Non-attack spells, however, can apply debuff regardless of the circumstances. Debuffs always drop drown at the end of the target's turn with the exception of Knockdown.

• Bleeding:
  • Damage over time (DoT). Bleeding targets suffer 10% weapon damage at the start of their turn, each time they move two tiles, and after every action they take. There is no resistance against Bleeding and Armour cannot block it either.
• Burning: 
  • Damage over time (DoT). Burning targets suffer 20% weapon damage at the start of their turn. There is no resistance against burning and Armour cannot block it either.
• Poison:
  • Damage over time (DoT). Poisoned targets suffer 10% weapon damage at the start of their turn and they deal 20% less damage until the effect lasts. There is no resistance against Poison and Armour cannot block it either.
• Vulnerability:
  • The target suffers + X% additional damage against every attack. There is no resistance against vulnerability.
• Knockback:
  • The target gets knocked back one tile (unless there is an obstacle behind).
• Knockdown:
  • The target gets knocked down. Standing up at the start of its turn will cost 50% of its Action Points (AP). Physical Resistance decreases this penalty. For example, having 20% Physical Resistance will make the target lose only 40% of its AP.
• Stun:
  • The target is completely incapacitated during a Stun. Depending on the skill, Mental or Physical Resistance mitigates this effect. For example, if the target has 25% resistance against Stun and gets affected by the debuff for 2 turns, it will remain immobile for one turn and will start with only half of its AP in its next turn.
• Shock:
  • At the start of their turn, Unarmoured targets lose 25% of their Action Points (AP), Armoured targets lose 50% of their AP. Depending on the skill, Mental or Physical Resistance mitigates this effect by reducing the amount of AP lost.
• Freeze: 
  • Frozen targets are rooted in place. Mental Resistance mitigates this effect. For example, if the target has 25% resistance against Freeze and gets affected for 2 turns, it will remain immobile for one turn and will start with only half of its AP in its next turn.
• Chill:
  • The target loses 33% of its Action Points (AP). Mental Resistance mitigates this effect by reducing the amount of AP lost.
• Slow:
  • Every tile covered costs double Action Points (AP). Depending on the skill, Mental or Physical Resistance mitigates this effect by decreasing movement costs.
• Blind:
  • The target has an 80% chance to miss with attacks. Physical Resistance decreases this penalty.
• Weakness:
  • The target deals 33% less damage. Physical Resistance mitigates this penalty.
• Silence:
  • The target becomes unable to use skills except the basic attack but movement is not restricted.

Fixed bugs

• Fixed various mission-related crash issues
• Fixed a crash issue which appeared if one switched from Very Low to Low in the Shadow setting
• Fixed the performance problem in the Whispering Cove and the Old Monastery missions
• Fixed an issue where sometimes your party could leave the borders of the maps during exploration
• Sir Tristan could use his Hide ability in the Whispering Cove mission despite this skill wasn't unlocked for him by default. This has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where dialogues were repeated if one chose to attack a neutral or hostile enemy group on certain maps
• Fixed various issues related to the battle formation
• On rare occasions, Lost units could remain standing and hit the Hero even after they died. They should have fallen into reanimation state at that point. This has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where Lady Dindraine did not attack sometimes after appearing for the first time in the Kingstone mission
• Fixed an issue where the Heroes' portraits were not displayed in the Formation section in certain cases
• The "Cancel" button of the Enabling Controller Support option received a correction: it clearly indicates now that you finalize the changes with it
• It is no longer possible to inspect, reserve AP or use the Hide ability while you are targeting an enemy unit with an active skill
• The 'Show In-game Subtitles' button did not work. This has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where the positions of hidden enemy units could be seen on the minimap. The tiles which they were overwatching were also displayed which also got corrected
• Fixed an issue where upon using the time acceleration feature the moving Heroes could sometimes change their orientation automatically after they arrived to the chosen tile
• Fixed various typos and made several descriptions more comprehensible
• Fixed an issue where Sir Balin could install traps through higher objects, like walls
• Some Tutorials could not be seen under the Tutorial section as the window was not scrollable. This has been fixed
• If a Hero's amount of Vitality was low and only a Trinket item kept them alive, then it was not possible to swap the Trinket with another one. This has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where knocking back a knocked down enemy made the unit stand up and fall again
• Fixed an issue where if a Hero had lots of Action Points (AP), the displayed APs could not fit into the frames of the Hero portrait
• Knocked down enemy units cannot stand up now until they are stunned
• Fixed an issue where the camera shifted too quickly from one enemy unit to another at the start of certain encounters
• Corrected the description of one of the rewards earned from the Unsettling Visitor event
• Controller: Fixed an issue where the tooltips of the Heroes in the Hero list were missing if one played with the controller
• Controller: Fixed an issue where changing the resolution was not possible with the controller
• The positions of our Heroes were switched sometimes automatically when we triggered an encounter which had a Deploy mode. Now the Heroes will remain in the same position where they entered into the combat area