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Or don’t and skip down to read the patch notes.
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As a turn-based virtual board game, Battle Squares offers a unique hybrid between a multiplayer RPG and a classic board game. While the marriage between these two genres creates for an overall unique feel, some unfortunate side effects of this hybrid include gameplay that is sometimes too slow and not always as engaging as it should be. This is a problem that has been brewing for a while, and there might not be a quick fix for it, but this patch seeks to kill unnecessary player downtime and get players interacting in new and different ways. The last patch set the game on the right direction to rework some of its more flat elements and allow the game to be more competitive on every level, and this patch aims to double down on those goals.
So what’s the larger goal for this patch? To address these points:
- Allow for more interactions with board elements.
- Allow for more interactions between players. (ESPECIALLY when it’s not your turn).
And how will we address these things?
Read on friends, read on.
BATTLE:
Following the combat update, the following adjustments have been made.
LESS EXHAUSTING – Choosing to “Pursue” an enemy in combat now only costs 1 energy if the opponent is exhausted.
I SEE YOU – Battling a player results in them becoming observed.
BOARD:
GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE – Shop Squares have been redesigned.
Landing on a “Shop” square will now trigger an auction for all players.
AUCTIONS: During an auction, 3-8 items will be placed on sale (Depending on the number of players in the game). All players may bid on these items for 30 seconds, placing bids in increments of 5 AP. Items sold this way have a starting bid of 50% of their cost. After 24 seconds, each item will be sold to the player with the highest bid on that item.
But what about the store coupon? What about the old item shop?
- Landing on an omni square and choosing to visit the item shop will trigger the item shop as normal. (Without an auction).
- Using the store coupon will trigger its effect as normal.
- The regular item shop now only displays 7 items. (Down from 14).
Further adjustments to court squares:
BENCH TRIAL – Courts will now start hearing cases after round 5, but attempting to sue a player before round 10 will result in 40% less AP.
The changes to blue plus squares back in patch 0.2.2 were a start to increasing interaction with static board elements. This change seeks to include other players in the AP generating process and allow everyone to have a say in how much AP a player gets to keep for themselves.
PLUS SQUARES – Plus squares grant AP the same way, however all other players now can play a role.
- When a person lands on a plus square, all other players can now press space repeatedly to increase the pot share.
- The Pot share is the amount of the generated AP that will go toward the pot instead of the player who landed on the plus square.
As a result of this change, the base AP generated by blue squares has been increased by 60% at all stages.
SPOOKY SHUTOUT – If a player is haunted and lands on a plus square, they no longer can pretend to generate AP.
GET EX(ED) – “Red X” Squares have been removed!
Red X squares brought dread and sadness wherever they went, and offered little in the way of adding interesting options for players once they landed on it. It was basically a “Time out” square and punished players for having a bad roll.
The newest addition to battle squares takes a slightly different approach. Read on below for details.
NEW SQUARE TYPE: Hex Square
Upon landing on this square, a player’s next roll becomes a hexed roll.
Hexed rolls do not move the player forward. Instead, they activate an effect on a random enemy based on the roll value.
Possible Effects:
- (2-5) — The target enemy takes 20 damage.
- (6-8) — The target enemy loses all energy.
- (9-11) — The target enemy becomes haunted for a turn.
- (12) — Both players take 30 damage. The target enemy’s next roll also becomes a hexed roll.
REROLL SQUARES
Re-roll squares have also received some changes:
NOT SO FAST – Upon re-rolling, a player now only receives 50% of the normal bonus AP. This applies to all forms of re-rolling, not just blue re-roll squares.
RED RE-ROLL – Red re-roll squares no longer move the player backwards. Instead, the game will choose a random opponent to roll for the turn player. Bonus AP for re-rolling goes to the pot instead, not the turn player.
HOSPITAL SQUARES
Slight change.
TO HEAL OR NOT TO HEAL – Upon landing on a hospital square, a player has the option to heal to full health or permanently gain +5 max HP. If already at max HP, a player will automatically gain +5 max HP. (Unchanged).
GENERAL:
The last patch sought to bring new meaning to movement around the game board. We continue along this goal to make rolling integrate into battle further, so read on.
ENERGY LEVELS – An energy indicator has been added to the player box. This indicator does not display a player’s exact energy value, but instead it displays status text equal to their approximate energy percentage.
- Invigorated — 85%-100% energy.
- Normal — 70-85% energy.
- Sluggish — 50-70% energy.
- Tired — 35-50% energy.
- Weakened — 10%-35% energy.
- Exhausted — Less than 10% energy.
NO FLOAT – Added an in-game option to disable the floating square effect.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug where attacks would sometimes cost too much energy to perform in combat.
Fixed an issue where a player disconnecting from the game could cause desyncs.
Optimization done to improve game performance significantly.
Visual fidelity improved to make in-game textures render better.