Patch 0.3.0: the heroes fight in the arena

Patch 0.3.0 puts the heroes in the arena. They now stand in every fight and act out the cards you play. The update also brings Gifts for Labour runs, a new start to every Day and Night, and runs you can share with friends.

In this update

• New: The Heroes Fight in the Arena
• New: Gifts for Labour Runs
• A New Start to Every Day and Night
• Share and Watch Runs
• Cards and Rules
• Interface
• Bug Fixes

New: The Heroes Fight in the Arena

All four heroes now stand in every fight and act out the cards you play, with their own blades, bows, shields and spells.

These hero animations are a first pass. All of them will be refined a lot more throughout development.

• Odysseus fights with quick and heavy sword strikes, fire and frost blades, and bow shots. He calls in siege boulders with a gesture.
• Atalanta fights with a dagger in each hand. Attack 3 or more is a twin cut that strikes twice. She ducks and blinks aside to block, and takes the bow off her back for ranged shots.
• Medea snaps her fingers and summons one spinning sword for each point of Attack, in steel, fire or ice, and every sword lands its own hit. Ranged cards send arrows or icicles, Ranged Fire is a fireball, and Block raises a magic shield.
• Aeneas fights with his round shield: punches, a shield bash for ice, and the shield thrown like a discus for Ranged. Siege is a stamp that bursts the ground under the enemy.
• Spells burn with living flame while you hold them. Fireball, Poseidon's trident and Whirlwind leave the hero's hand.
• Heroes draw and stow their weapons between plays. Playing cards quickly skips the change without losing a hit.
• Arrows reach the enemy exactly when their hit sound plays, and sword, fire and ice hits sound on the frame they land.
• Played cards burn away more briskly.
• Every hero celebrates as soon as the last enemy hits the ground.

New: Gifts for Labour Runs

Labour runs now give Gifts: 1 at Labour IV, 2 at Labour VIII and 3 at Labour XII. You pick them after you see the map. Each Gift flies to where it lives, and each can be undone.

• Athena's Wisdom adds 1 of 3 Feats to your deck.
• Old Comrades starts you with 1 of 3 Companions.
• Mentor's Counsel shows a third Skill, from another hero, at every Skill pick.
• Thetis' Gift gives +1 Armour.
• Circe's Herbs heals every Wound in your hand, once.
• Hestia's Hearth keeps Boons until the end of your next turn.
• Iris' Promise makes one Favour show your colour every round.

A New Start to Every Day and Night

• Every new Day and Night now shows the Favours the way the first day does: big named stars in the middle that fly to their seats.
• Then the Market turns over in front of you, one row at a time: Feats, Companions, Spells. The cards that leave turn face down and sink away, the new ones drop in, and you press Continue for the next row.
• Space or Enter also continues, and Esc skips it all. On a bot's turn it moves on by itself.

Share and Watch Runs

• Share run, in the game menu or on the leaderboards after a run, saves the run as a file on your Desktop.
• Your friend opens it with Watch a run file on the Leaderboards, or drops it on the game window, and watches it play. Nothing from a watched run is saved or scored.
• Replays have Pause, Continue, a 1×, 2× and 4× speed button and Back to Menu at the top right.
• A bug report file opens the same way.

Cards and Rules

• Spend the Excess and Make It Serve now only take a Boon of the colour you pick. They no longer spend a Blessing, and a gold Boon no longer stands in.
• Skills you don't pick now leave the game. At a level-up Skill pick, the ones you don't take no longer go back into your pile.
• No healing or readying Companions during a fight. You can no longer heal a Wound from your hand mid-fight, or play a card that only heals or readies. Cards with Heal or Ready now say "You cannot ... during a fight".

Interface

• New Gameplay setting: Hero panel always open. It keeps the hero panel at the top left open, with your EXP and Zeus' Law, instead of folding it to the portrait.
• When ruins reward you with a Companion, each choice is now its full card, the same as in the Market, so you can read what it does before you pick.
• The level-up Skill pick now fits long Skill text instead of cutting it off.

Bug Fixes

• During a level-up, clicking the edge of the End Turn button or of Rest could undo your last move. Now only the Undo key does.
• Keyboard play: the arrow keys stopped working when the button they were on went away, for example when a popup closed. They now move on to the next button.
• When a level opens a new Companion slot, the reward now flies to the slot itself instead of landing just to its left.
• Agamemnon's portrait now has the same shape as the other Companions'.
• The main menu no longer loads the fight screen while the game starts, so the menu appears sooner.