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[CG] LAWLTA

Chromatic Games
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Blog Entries posted by [CG] LAWLTA

  1. [CG] LAWLTA
    Greetings Defenders,
    We’ve been hard at work since our latest update and we’re ready to share some of what you can expect to see in our next update! We wanted to take a step back and focus on some more player-centric changes, and we’ve got a pretty hefty list of things we’re accomplishing. There’s still a lot of work for us to do, and while we’re not ready to show anything off yet, it’s the perfect time to talk about some of the things you can expect to see coming to Dungeon Defenders II!
    Shard Acquisition
    Shards are such an integral part to Dungeon Defenders II when it comes to empowering your towers with great strength to take out the waves of enemies constantly thrown at you. Currently there is a lot of RNG regarding which shards you get, and to help cut down the randomness, farming lower tiered content is the easiest way to go.
    We don’t want that. We want you playing content you find engaging, while being able to acquire the Shards you want. The exact details cannot be spilled out here, but we’re working on concrete ways to get the specific Shards you want.
    Chaos VIII Shards
    They’ve been gone for a while, and the game has changed quite a bit since they were removed. We have taken a pass at them so that they fit into the current game and are something you want to get. You’ll be able to get them after a certain point in Onslaught, similar to when you start receiving Chaos VIII Ampoules.
    New Weapons
    There’s a lot of epic weapons that we’re going to be making available, some that have been available previously, and some you've never seen before. Players love to make their characters look unique, and while costumes, flairs, and accessories help accomplish this, weapons also play a big part in making your heroes look awesome!
    Elemental Addition
    We know a lot of you really enjoyed harnessing the powers of the elements, and we promised to add to this system. In the next update, Poison Mods will be added. While we’re not talking interactions yet, we wanted to let you know that we’re expanding on the list of powers you can combo to break apart your enemies!
    Other Greatness
    There’s still a decent amount to talk about, and we promise to get word out on things as soon as we can. This next month is going to be a crazy ride for all of our Defenders and we cannot wait to share with you what our 2019 is going to look like! We'll be doing at least one other update over the next month, and then go through our usual release of dev streams and previews. We’re wanting to really take our time with everything we're conjuring up and give attention to a lot of things that we believe you’ll enjoy.
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team

  2. [CG] LAWLTA
    Greetings Defenders and Happy Holidays!

    I hope everyone has been enjoying our most recent update, Drakenfrost! It was definitely a new experiment into how we deliver content, and I can’t wait to see all the feedback about it. How did you feel about our recent release of the Drakenlord? Let us know your thoughts in this thread!
    I didn’t come here entirely for feedback… I may have an ulterior motive… to deliver some tremendous news!
    I have recently been promoted to Creative Director on the Dungeon Defenders team!
    I’ll be leading the direction of Dungeon Defenders into the future with the help of our amazing team!
    We’re going to make the changes that you, our Defenders, want to see. We’ll also be able to make even more exciting new content and features for Dungeon Defenders II than we ever have before.
    But what does this mean for the players?
    Well let’s recap a little bit. I started as a community member, Caster’s Guild streamer, and Dungeon Defenders player. My tenure at Trendy started off with an internship that grew into an Associate Producer position, where I was eventually able to mold and shape some of our most recent updates - for example Protean Shift, Isle of Dread, and the Drakenfrost update.  
    Josh comes into all of this with deep knowledge of the original Dungeon Defenders title, the aspects of it that players enjoyed, and is a master of the technical arts.  
    Our primary goal and focus is to build upon recent successes through continuing to evolve DD2 into the game we all know it can and should be.
    So what are some of the things we’re thinking about?
    We’re looking at our pain points:
    We’ve been improving Ancient Power since its release and we know that everyone is still not as stoked about it as we were hoping.  In 2019 we will continue to iterate and expand upon this feature until it hits the mark we’re all hoping for.
    We also know there are some Inventory pain points that players have with stacking Shards, amount of free space, and clunky navigation. We’ve already made significant improvements to finding Mods and sorting your inventory, but we’re always looking at doing more to make it easier and easier.


    In the near future:
    We’re looking at expanding our elemental combo system. The goals for this are to add intuitive and interesting combinations between damage types, setting you up for some mad alchemy with new and beefier elemental interactions (what if poison exploded when hit with fire damage?).  Elemental interactions entered Dungeon Defenders II before our Free-to-Play launch and while our old plans to expand upon them have grown dusty on the shelf, I have never forgotten how excited they made me about the potential for DD2. We want to rekindle that excitement and realize this feature’s potential.

    We’re also looking at acquisition methods for all of your loot and rewards in the game. We know people are looking for specific Shards, 10/10 Qualibean™ MODS, crafting materials, re-roll items...basically all the things. Our new Lead Designer (Mark Telfer) has made appeasing you his primary goal in life and loot acquisition is where he’s decided to start. Much like with recent changes to MOD roll and drop rates, your feedback will be essential to this process — so keep reaching out and letting us know your thoughts.

    In the slightly farther future:
    We’re looking at creating a better “purpose for play.” Some people call this a “chase” in a game. We know some people enjoy getting to high floors of Onslaught, and some enjoy getting fully kitted out with Chaos VIII gear, Gilded Shards, all Ancient Powers, etc. but we also know that we can do even better than that.
    We want our players to have a more meaningful reason for getting all the new loot and levels in our progression systems. One avenue we’ve been playing with is an “ultimate boss” style encounter. The Lost Eternia Shard DLC packs proved the concept for the franchise, and we are currently exploring ways we can hit that emotional high-point in the contemporary DD2 format.  Modern MMO’s and RPG’s have taken big strides when it comes to designing boss fights and we’re looking to mirror their modern, elegant style.
    There’s also an ongoing conversation about adding additional ways to acquire heroes and premium currency via gameplay. We really want to make sure that all our players are feeling adequately rewarded for playing our game. We’re going take a look at what our Gem purchases and pricings are like, and evaluate ways that we can make these more “player-first.”
    We’re here to make a dope experience for you, and we’re going to double-down on that as our direction moving forward.  (My first act as Creative Director was to declare “we’re going to make dope s***” as the new modus operandi.)

    Real Talk:
    We have a small, but dedicated team working on delivering Dungeon Defenders to everyone in the best way that we know how. We’re people (just like you!) making a free to play game, so there will always be monetization and occasionally we’ll make some mistakes with features.  Additionally, change does not always occur at the speed at which you wish it would. We have processes for improving, but they remain what they are — a process. That being said, our ultimate goal is always to make a game that you guys want to play, and to continue to experiment with finding new and interesting content and release methods.

    Do not forget that each and every one of you are an essential part of DD2 now and the shape of what it becomes in the future. Continue to give us all your feedback, opinions, and ideas using the appropriate methods.
    We’ll do our best to fix bugs, add content, and provide new features to the game as we keep developing in 2019.
    Join me, and the entire team, in making Dungeon Defenders II, and all our future Dungeon Defenders games, into the best games they can possibly be.
    Sincerely,
    Colin “Elandrian” Fisher and the entire Dungeon Defenders II Team.
  3. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS

    We’ve shown two maps in the past two weeks coming in Episode 1, and now we’re excited to present… ANOTHER MAP! Wait, sorry, we read that wrong, it was supposed to say A NEW DDA CHARACTER. Wow, that’s actually way cooler. Let’s get into it!
    New Hero - The Warden

    As hinted at in our April Fools Day “update”, we misspelled the hero name as The Andrew (an anagram for Warden, what a coincidence). A guardian of the forest that was banished to the realm our heroes find ourselves in, The Warden joins our roster to help push back the evils that stand in your way!
    In our surveys and roadmap voting, the Dryad from Dungeon Defenders II was one of the most requested heroes. The Warden is her spiritual successor, using the powers of the forest to take down any foe that approaches. Let’s dive into the abilities and defenses for this guardian of the grove.
    Attacks and Abilities
    Developer Note: All of these things are subject to change in regards to balance, functionality, and visuals.
    Weapon of Choice: Polearm

    Primary Attack: The Warden swings her mighty polearm like a scythe clearing a field, destroying foes that stand before you in melee range.
    Secondary Attack - Sprout: The Warden calls forth a sprout that erupts from the ground, dealing low AoE damage to nearby enemies, shooting a seed a short distance away.
    Normal Form: Picking up the seed instantly regenerates 15% of the Warden’s mana. Wrath Form: The seed grants increased damage and movement speed for 5 seconds. Ability 1 - Mushroom Circle: Beckons forth a burst of mushrooms from the desired location.
    Normal Form: Mushrooms heal allies within the circle, while slowing enemy movement speed and reducing attack rate. Wrath Form: Enemies take damage while within the circle. After 10 seconds, the mushroom circle erupts, dealing damage and stunning all enemies within the circle. Ability 2 - Wrath Form: Calls upon the power of the forest causing the Warden to surge with energy.
    Wrath Form increases the strength of all The Warden's abilities and defenses while active, regardless of range. Defenses

    Roots of Purity- Defense 1: Summons a blockade that can take a beating from enemies. Blesses the ground with the Zone of Purity around the roots that allows the Warden’s other defenses to be constructed. The Zone of Purity restores 1% HP per second to any hero within its coverage.
    Mana Cost: 20 Build Mana Defense Units: 1 DU Wrath Form: The Zone of Purity becomes the Zone of Wrath, dealing damage over time to enemies within its boundaries, while also slightly reducing enemy damage.
      Wisp Den - Defense 2: Opens a portal, pulling through three wisps that focus down enemies within its range, always prioritizing high-threat targets.
    Mana Cost: 50 Build Mana Defense Units: 4 DU Wrath Form: Wisps become enraged, attacking enemies at a much faster rate.
      Beaming Blossom - Defense 3: Grows a flower that collects solar energy that then goes crazy towards enemies within its range, shooting a continuous beam of pure solar energy that deals high damage before needing to gather more energy.
    Mana Cost: 70 Build Mana Defense Units: 5 DU Wrath Form: The beam becomes magically empowered, piercing through enemies.
      Shroomy Pit - Defense 4: A pit appears that spawns a Shroomy, a brave mushroom warrior of the forest. Shroomies don’t have a lot going on in their heads, and as a result they do two things. Idly stand still, and as they spot an enemy, charge legs first (they’re a bit off-balance) and explode into enemies, dealing damage in a large area.

    Mana Cost: 40 Build Mana Defense Units: 5 DU Wrath Form: Shroomies enter their own Wrath Form, applying a damage over time effect to enemies hit by their explosion.
      Sludge Launcher - Defense 5: Vines and logs are infused together, pulling in toxins from the ground, shooting out giant globs that explode on contact, dealing a large amount of damage to the first enemy hit and heavily coat them in sludge, lightly covering nearby enemies in sludge, slightly slowing them.
    Mana Cost: 80 Build Mana Defense Units: 7 DU Wrath Form: If the Warden attacks heavily sludge-covered enemies, they can be stunned for 1.5 seconds.
      We’ve discussed on stream quite a bit, which if you haven’t been watching you should join us on Fridays at 3:00 PM ET, the new maps and heroes we are adding to DDA. The goal is to bring back fan favorites, while also bringing in brand new additions. We’ve also got a lot of fantastic never used characters in our vault that we’ll be using as a foundation and reworking to give them new life as they make their way into DDA. The Warden is further proof we’re looking at adding in the things you, our GLORIOUS DEFENDERS, want to see in future DDA updates.

    What’s Next
    We’re going to be streaming The Warden THIS WEEK on April 23rd at 3:00 PM ET over on Twitch, showing off all of her nature-infused power. If you’re not able to make the stream, we post our VODs and a condensed version of the new info in a “Just the Beans” edit the following week on YouTube.
    We’re also going to continue doing weekly reveals until Episode 1 is out in the wild, so there’s a lot to look forward to. With all of this going on, we’re still continuing our Nintendo Switch and PlayStation development. The console development takes the efforts of specific individuals, so while we’re showing off all the episodic content we’re working on, rest assured that we’re still diligently working on getting DDA onto the remaining promised consoles.
    Social Defenders
    To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Twitch Forums For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  4. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,

    Every day we inch closer to releasing a lot of the awesome hard work that many of us here at Chromatic have been focused on in order to get some great content out to you all. That also means we inch closer to revealing a new part of Episode 1. Oh wait, that’s today! Let’s get into it.
    New Weapons - The Woodland Set
    What would a new update be without new weapons? These aren’t all of the new weapons you’ll be seeing in Episode 1, but they are pretty friggin’ awesome! They are themed around the first two maps, being more focused on a living forest.

    Bonus, there’s one in 3D. You’ll have to wait for the episode to release in order to see the rest!

    Maybe they have something to do with our next hero? Nah, probably not. They’re just cool runic weapons from the woods, don’t need to think about it past that at all.
    New Map - The Outpost
    As previously mentioned, we’re focusing on remaking some of our previous maps with some changes to gameplay, while bringing in a brand new map as the boss map of the episode. The Outpost is following that formula. The Outpost is a remake of the Drakenfrost Resort map from Dungeon Defenders II, a map that not many people have had the opportunity to explore and defend. It hangs on a cliff, overlooking where you’ve previously come from, and acted as a barracks of sorts to keep soldiers of Etheria stationed outside of town, with a giant belltower to warn of incoming threats.

    One of the things we wanted to do with these maps in this act is have a seasonal shift as you play through them. You’ll notice a dramatic shift and change in the season and tone as you progress onwards and fight the enemies that await.

     
    These maps are some of our favorites visually, and there’s still some you haven’t seen. There’s so much you haven’t seen yet… Maybe we’ll shake that up next week a bit. Maybe. Probably. Just look out early next week for some B E A N S. That’s the “What’s Next Section”. Watch, we’ll put all of that there.
    What’s Next
    These maps are some of our favorites visually, and there’s still some you haven’t seen. There’s so much you haven’t seen yet… Maybe we’ll shake that up next week a bit. Maybe. Probably. Just look out early next week for some B E A N S. See, we did it. This is a callback to the previous paragraph. Something about these forests is driving us a little crazy.
    Social Defenders
    To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  5. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    We’ve been talking a lot about what’s to come in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened future, teasing at various bits here and there, and by making this sentence even longer, we’re still teasing more just putting off the inevitable of what’s coming your way.
    Real quick, let’s talk about how Ramsters came to exist. Hamster and ram? That doesn’t even make any sense! Oh wait, you probably wanted to talk about the first thing. Okay, time to talk about the first thing. Let’s get into it.
    Episodes
    Now what the heck are Episodes? Well in short, they’re our FREE major content updates, but MCU was already taken (you may have heard of it), so Episodes it is! We covered the “in short”, so now it’s time to describe the “in long”.
    An Episode continues the story of our heroes adventure but it also does a lot of other things, specifically they ADD A LOT OF NEW CONTENT.  But what is “content”, where does it come from, and does it truly exist? To answer in reverse order, yes it exists, we make it, and that first one is too philosophical, and we’re sure you want to get right to the good stuff.So let’s talk about what you can expect.
    New Maps
    In each episode of Dungeon Defenders Awakened you’ll be receiving four new maps that increase in difficulty off the base campaign. We’re following a formula for the new maps where we provide a brand new map as well as recreate three fan favorite maps. Maybe we’re going to show off the first one later on in this post (spoiler: we are).
    New Enemy
    With each episode, there will be a new enemy that comes into the fray. The new enemy will be similar to the nightmare enemies, bringing in new mechanics that you’ll need to thwart in order to achieve victory.
    New Boss
    The last map of each episode contains a brand spankin’ new boss. These are similar to the previous bosses, requiring more active hero combat to take them down. They will be thematic to the content that we’re releasing, as well provide unique and thematic loot.
    New Heroes
    Yes, that’s correct, PLURAL. Each episode contains two heroes, with one hero being a throwback to a previous hero, and the other being a completely brand new hero. These heroes are meant to stand on their own and feel wholly unique from one another.
    New Gear
    We’ll be providing a slew of new gear that continues to follow previous item progression. There’s also a ton of fun stuff we’ll be adding (that we’ll get into in the coming weeks), that we’ll continue to build off of. Stay tuned for more info!
    New Features
    This is going to be super nebulous, but there’s a lot of stuff we’re looking to add that really makes your journeys in Etheria a lot more exciting. More to hunt, more to do, more to conquer, more more more more more!
    Quality of Life, Overhauls, and Polish
    We’re going to be addressing a lot of systems in the game that were put into a “good enough” state for our release, and getting them into a “great enough” state, if that’s a thing. For our first episode, this means overhauling the inventory and item tooltips (which we’ll be showing off in the coming weeks).
    Bug Fixes, Balance, Etc.
    This is the stuff you normally see in patches, but of course it’ll be included in our Episodes as well. We’ll continue to get out patches to address these things.
    Supporter Packs
    With each episode, we will be offering a supporter pack that players can purchase. These things offer cosmetic only items that apply to weapons and accessory slots. Since the episodes are free, we’re offering this as players have asked us for additional ways to support our development, and we thought this would be the most fair way to do so.
    Episode 1
    We’re going to be showing off pieces of the episode over time, and what better time than right after explaining what’s in an episode?! How about a piece of the first episode? Sounds like a good idea to us, so without further ado, here is the first map of Episode 1: The Mill.
    The Mill

    The Mill is the first stop the heroes make upon leaving the castle to continue their journey. They enter a bright and vibrant forest that used to be used to provide lumber and materials for building the castle and nearby towns. Though it seems calm and peaceful, an army of enemies awaits to prevent our heroes from pushing onward with their journey.

     
    If you squint REALLY hard you’ll notice that this map is a remake of a fan favorite, and highly requested map, Mistymire. We made a couple of changes to make building defenses feel better, as well as modified some lanes to make things play out more smoothly. During the last wave, this map will also introduce our new enemy for the Episode. We’re wanting to make sure that as you play through the maps of each episode, you’re introduced to a new enemy over time while taking on potentially new mechanics depending on your game mode.
    What’s Next?
    We’re going to continue to reveal more and more about Episode 1 over time, with the goal of revealing something new at the end of the week, every week. If we run into any issues, we’ll let you know, but everything is coming together, so it’s time to start showing off some of our hard work. We hope you enjoy it!
    Social Defenders
    To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  6. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,

    We’re bringing you some news of a game that you may not have seen us post in a little while about. That game is… DUNGEON DEFENDERS II.  That’s right, we’ve got some development going on for DD2 that we’re excited to share with you. Some of the stuff you’ll see in the short term, some stuff in the long term, and along the way we’ll be getting your input to help us out.  Let’s get into it!
    Content
    First things first, the Etherian Polar Vortex has ended and you’ll soon have access to a snowless Tavern and Town Hub. Now you may be asking “WHAT ABOUT THE GIFTING TREE!?!?!?!”. Well never fear, we’re adding in a new feller — enter: Ol’ Peepers.


    Ol’ Peepers is a gracious old kook who will grant players a daily login gift. We’ll go into more of what his gift contains, as it’s been adjusted to be more focused on gameplay with some cosmetic pieces here and there.
    Player Friendly Pricing
    We’re introducing a slew of bundles for players looking to support DD2 through the shop, and we’re experimenting with bundles that are focused on being very fair to you, our GLORIOUS Defenders. This means hero bundles, costume bundles, and even a new tower skin bundle that has tower skins new to the next update!
    Balance
    We’ve taken a nice pass to get some buffs going to really focus on the gameplay. Some things that were rate capped due to animations? NO MORE! Oh, and give a hearty “welcome back” to the shocking revelations (now named Stunning Revelations) and water mod combo, now with 100% more balance but 1000% more fun than it currently is. Also something about pets getting buffed, who knows... maybe it's a rumor, probably not.
    FEEDBACK
    Last but not least, we want to hear about what your favorite things are and what your thoughts are. Fill out this survey to let us know and really help us in future development, and by completing the survey be entered for a chance to win a FREE costume of your choice. Retweet the survey (link here) for an additional chance to win!
    Bug Fixes
    A TON of them, including a lot of fixes for exploits and unintended bugaboos that have plagued the heroes of Etheria. Nothing to write about just quite yet, but we got out the swatter and squished a ton of those lousy bugs.
    On The Horizon
    There’s a lot of stuff that we want to do, and as mentioned, your feedback will be more helpful. We’re wanting to add all sorts of new challenges, maps, shards, mods, characters, and more for you to overcome, explore, and master respectively (some of those words could be mixed and matched and still make sense).

    Social Defenders
    To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  7. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    A new day, a new chance to talk about everything going on in hallowed halls of Chromatic Games. We’re still working from home, so some halls might be dusty or cluttered, but hallowed nonetheless. There’s a ton of exciting news for us to talk about regarding all of our work (some of it is meh, but who cares, it’s news anyways). Let’s get into it!
    Dungeon Defenders: Awakened
    It’s no secret that a lot of you are hungry for all the new things that we’re going to be doing. Internally, we discussed showing these things over time, to not only keep anticipation up for what’s to come, but to also make sure things were in a ready state to share so that it avoids frustration if the systems change to something else (things other studios do to avoid player frustration). We’re throwing that OUT THE WINDOW and we’re going to discuss the next episode of DDA in its entirety. Slap on your helmet, it’s going to get wild.
    Episode 1:  Swampy Jim’s Revenge
    Previously, Mistymire was a really adored map due to the scenery being very familiar with that of northern Florida (where we are based). We thought “what if we went DEEPER into the swamp” and did just that.
    New Map - Sludge Swamp

    Sludge Swamp is our new map. The entire map submerges all your characters and defenses in swamp and slows movement of both players and enemies, but it comes with a ton of elemental effects. For instance, due to methane leaks, any fire damage deals a larger explosion, that applies friendly fire. Electric damage stuns both players and enemies within an unknown vicinity. Poison damage can cause a sinkhole. It might be hard to see where traps are placed, but we felt that it was worth it for these awesome elemental effects.
    New Enemy - The Banjolier
    This enemy is an etherian who has been corrupted by the Swamp’s fumes and no longer recognizes humanity. Instead they only know of what they came into the Swamp with, most of them for some reason being banjos. The Banjolier begins to play his banjo, enraging enemies around him with how poorly he plays (he never took lessons). Please do not interrupt the Banjolier’s song, as he will ignore you and become even more enraged. The best way to deal with him is to give him the new “Swamp Pop” popsicle bait that is hidden throughout the map, and he will go on his merry way.
    New Boss - Swampy Jim

    Sludge Swamp is actually the sovereign territory of Swampy Jim. His lineage is that of royalty from Etheria’s past, but they moved out into the swamp for tasty fish and haven’t looked back since. Swampy Jim is very territorial and is going to be standing his ground to push out the Defenders from passing through into other lands, to break free of the realm they are stuck in. Swampy Jim drives a fan boat powered by a gator, named Roberta, that spins its tail fast to propel the boat. He flies by, trying to hit you with his pitchfork, “Delores Jr.”, to make you go on and git. We’re currently working with a certain voice actor (fans of Rick and Morty might know him) to get the VO to be the best you’ve seen with your own eyes. Some people might claim it’s the Scavenger from DD2, but it’s not. That character has a hole in his left shoe, not right which is the trademark to Swampy Jim.
    New Hero - Wall Eweeji
    We know that blockades fall off, so we decided to make a new hero that has incredibly strong blockades that you would be a fool not to use. Enter Wall Eweeji, a witch doctor/etherian plumber wearing purple that builds every type of wall you could think of:  blockade that doesn’t deal damage, blockade that deals damage, the big two. His abilities are focused on being able to run quickly specifically to defenses to repair them. Mama mia that’s a lot of fun!
    New Hero - The Andrew
    There’s a lot of war going on in Etheria, so we wanted a hero that was focused more on peace, love, and flower power. We have a local hippie in town named Andrew, and so we made a hero kind of based around him. Flowers that fight for you, roots that trip up your opponents, and something to do with mushrooms blowing up or blowing your mind? We weren’t sure what he meant by that last one, but we’re keeping our rating, so it won’t be too crazy.
    New Feature - Taxes

    A lot of people have wanted additional reasons for gold, and given that April is here, and that a lot of educational institutions don’t include proper finance education, we figured why not gamify it and help teach people about taxes. Now when you upgrade your items, you will have to pay the Etherian Tax, which is roughly 15%. This allows us to introduce a new feature, that addresses a problem players have outlined, while also being educational. Awesome!
    New Currency - Chromie Coins

    Now, we’re trying to stay as hip as we can with bleeding edge tech, and thus we invented Chromie Coins. Chromie Coins are a new crypto currency that you can earn by running DD:A all day and night, even when not playing, to mine for Chromie Coins. Chromie Coins can then be used to upgrade your gear and bypass the new Taxes feature. How do Chromie Coins work you may be asking? They just do. Onto the next paragraph!
    New Game Mode - Auto Partier
    Some of the gaming trends that have popped up through the past couple years have been autobattlers and party games. We mix Tower Defense and ARPG, so we thought, why not mix those as well. Introducing Auto Partier, a revolutionary game mode that lets you pick your character to complete various platforming and detective puzzles, and then it plays for you! We’ve built over 100 levels that the game gets to play for you. It’s an experimental feature, so please give us a ton of feedback. One thing that we will not be changing is that you can use Chromie Coins to increase your chances of winning, as it feeds the AI that plays for you.
    New Gear - Backpacks

    We’re potentially teaming up with JanSport to introduce a new slot in the form of Backpacks. It’s not only a cosmetic slot that lets you choose between 3 backpacks that have your hero’s name embroidered on them (using the new Embroidicon technology in UE 4.25), it also adds an additional 5 spaces to your inventory. You can also acquire the deluxe backpack through DLC that DOUBLES your inventory space. Now that’s a deal!
    New Company - Monochromatic Games

    Imagine all your favorite Dungeon Defenders games, but in black and white, with audio that is described on title cards, going back to the golden era of game making. Well Monochromatic Games has you covered. Coming in a summer, you’ll be able to use circular slice and then have a title card say “AHHHHHH” *swoosh noises*, the way games were meant to be made.
    There’s probably more coming, but we forgot about it, so for now let’s just assume that’s all there is. Wow, cool.
    Bug Fixes
    There aren’t anymore, we actually got them all with the last update, and any reports moving forward will flag you as a hacker/cheater.
    Dungeon Defenders II
    We’ve decided that we’re going to sell Dungeon Defenders II to the team that makes the Persona franchise dance games. Dancing with the Defenders is what they’ve outlined their project to be, and we’re onboard. Sorry, this means no more DD2 development.

    That said we will be adding defender packs that you can purchase through ebay only that give you all new cosmetics that you might be able to use in Dancing with the Defenders! Now that’s epic.
    Social Defenders
    We have social media and you can follow it. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Musically, Myspace, Friendster, Stickam, MSNMessenger OR AOL Instant Messenger (not both),  and also certain newspapers. Follow us for a chance to win!
    As always thank you for your support and time, we feed them to the support lord and time lord respectively. They hunger, but soon, the day of determination will be upon us.
    Smooches,
    Chrome Games
  8. [CG] LAWLTA
    Greetings Defenders,
    Protean Shift Patch 3.2 is now live on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One! We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. We’re addressing requests that players have wanted both for a while now and recently with the Protean Shift expansion. Let’s get into it!
    Multiplayer Bonuses
    Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. Previously, when playing in multiplayer settings, enemies became stronger, but did not offer any additional rewards for the harder challenge. This is a pain point that you as a community have voiced to us for a long time, and with gear in a much better spot, we now have a way to reward the increased difficulty!
    Previously, when playing in multiplayer sessions, enemies gained additional health without offering any increased rewards. Now when teaming up with fellow Defenders, you now gain additional Gear from Victory Chests. You may be asking, “how much?”, and the answer is A LOT. Here’s the breakdown you can expect to see when playing with multiple Defenders:
    One Defender:  Remains the same.
    Two Defenders:  +125% additional Gear drops!
    Three Defenders:  +275% additional Gear drops!
    Four Defenders:  +425% additional Gear drops!
    When playing solo, the Escape/Options menu shows:


    When in a group of two:

    This pattern increases the more Defenders in your session. To have our bases covered, Gear is specifically armor, weapons, and relics. These additional pieces of gear offer players multiple opportunities on finding perfect stats and Mods while taking on stronger enemies. This means you have more gear to use or sell, boosting Defender strength and our player economy substantially. As a result, we’ve slightly tweaked sell prices to vendors. With the increased loot drops, you’ll be making on average the same amount of gold when selling to vendors. However, we maintained previous minimum Player Shop sell value of items to offset this. You’re now provided more opportunities to sell more gear between one another to obtain greater mountains of wealth than ever before!
    We were able to get these changes out now to provide a feature the community highly requested thanks to the feedback we received via a survey many of you participated in. One concern that several Defenders brought up was in regard to party control and functionality. These will be coming in our next Update among a slew of new features not too far from now. We’ll touch on some additional changes later on in these notes!
    Material Vault
    In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.

    Enter the Material Vault! It’s a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material and access to materials saved in your Material Vault regardless of where you are. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, or move some Mods around, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly without pulling the materials out! When doing anything that requires crafting materials, Inventory Materials are used first before using crafting materials in your Materials Vault.
    What’s Coming?

    In our last Check-In post, we outlined some short, medium, and long term goals. In our next update, here’s a sneak peek as to what you can expect to see:
    Onslaught floors are always one map floors.
    Extra rewards as you climb through Onslaught.
    Improvements to Ancient Power
    Increased party control and functionality
    And…. A NEW BOSS, WEAPONS, MAPS, AND MUCH MUCH MORE!
    As development continues, we’re going to be providing opportunities to test this content and earn “Tester Only” rewards, such as Betsy White, a true friend and confidant to any Defender.
    Bug Fixes
    Improved enemy spawn and pathing logic so enemies getting stuck in spawns will now have a better chance of finding their way out of the spawner.
    Fixed additional cases where Berserker Orcs would get around blockades and walls.
    Fixed an issue in Player Shops that caused a visual duplication while moving items.
    Fixed an issue with Abyss Stone and Abyss Fountain giving an incorrect error message when there’s not enough mana available to use them.
    Updated Shard Dust description to explain how it’s acquired.
    Fixed a bug where the Jackpot shard increases gold reward upon wave completion.
    Fixed an issue with comparison tooltips remaining when closing the Vault UI.
    Fixed the text size of “LIST IT!” on 4k resolutions.
    Fixed an issue with Gilded Colossal Fissure Shards receiving a negative increase.
    Fixed an issue with Campaign Boot tinkering requiring an Iron Hammer.
    Fixed an issue with Chaos V Boot upgrades requiring weapon crafting materials.
    Fixed an issue with buy back items going to the wrong location in the inventory.
    Fixed an issue where items claimed at the Scavenger while the inventory is full would look like it had been claimed but was still in the Scavenger.
    Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!
    For Etheria,
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  9. [CG] LAWLTA
    Greetings Defenders,



    We’re getting closer and closer to the next Dungeon Defenders II update! Our focus is on taking big strides to make this update as player-centric as possible, with even more player-centric changes coming out in future updates. Currently we’re working on Dungeon Defenders II and Dungeon Defenders: Awakened (check out the Kickstarter here), so we’ve been super busy and working at 385% (real metric). We have a lot to go, and this intro is long enough, so let’s get into it!
    Shard Vendor
    We’ve seen so much feedback on Shards for so long, and we’re able to now do something that makes it easier to receive them and farm for them however you want. Our primary goal was trying to get the vendor into an easily navigable menu while easily seeing as many shards as possible. Here’s what you can expect to see:

    We went through a lot of ways to figure out how to make them easy to get. We looked into shard dust, but then you’re still limited to farming a specific chaos tier to actually be able to earn a specific shard. We looked into ways of converting shard dust into different versions, but the ability to make that easy to do was very messy and hard to use (very frustrating), created a ton of technical difficulties for us, and ended up requiring more inventory management. Eventually we ended up landing on making them purchasable with Defender Medals. We currently have an RPG test going (contact dani.moore@chromatic.games if you want to join the test, are 18 or older, and can sign an NDA) testing this specific feature, but we do not have a specific price set yet. Going with Defender Medals allowed us a way to provide players a concrete way to earn them in multiple ways. If you want to farm a specific tier, you can still do that to maybe increase your chances a little more; but if you want to keep progressing while playing engaging content or just do dailies, you are now able to do those things while working towards a specific reward.
    Oh, and one last thing. This badboy has search functionality in it as well. It’s pretty dope.
    Chaos VIII Shards
    We’re bringing back Chaos VIII Shards. These are a slew of shards that will be obtainable through higher floors of Onslaught (similar to Chaos VIII Ampuoles). Because we want these shards to feel special and rewarding, they will not be purchasable with the launch of the Shard Vendor, but will be making a debut at a later date. We have some veteran Defenders who have held onto these for a long time, and the majority of these Shards are going to be re-enabled. There are two Shards that we are removing as they cause either tech issues (making mobs get stuck, lowering performance, etc). They are Harbinger’s Exile and Elemental Chaos. We’ll have a comprehensive list of these Shards with the update notes.
    New Mod — Poison Mod!
    We’re keeping good to our word and adding in Poison damage! There are certain towers that have Poison damage, and there is a Poison Damage Chip as well that can be applied to weapons. There may be a new weapon or two that comes with it by default…
    Also what would elemental damage be without any kind of combo? We’re currently adding our first Poison interaction. This one is pretty awesome. Combining poisoned enemies with earth damage now petrifies them. It’s like turning your enemies into a work of art.
    New Weapons
    We’re adding a slew of new weapons that you can earn while playing through Onslaught. At various tiers within Onslaught, you have a chance to receive an additional treasure that contains a random new weapon from that tier. Some of these weapons a few Defenders have seen before, but we’ve got a ton of new weapons that players have never seen, here’s one:

    There’s a lot more info on these drops and when you get them (you do get guaranteed drops), but we’ll have more information on these new weapons in our update notes.

    Campaign Gating
    Currently we’re working on changing up some of our campaign progression. This is to focus on letting Defenders play together as soon as possible. Our focus is to make this process feel as good as it can be. With what we’re able to do here, this could affect different areas in the game for future updates.
    More!
    There’s more coming as well, but this is a sneak peek, so we can’t talk about everything. We’ve been hard at work, so give us a little longer and we’ll get a quality update for you, our GLORIOUS Defenders!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!

    For Etheria!

    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  10. [CG] LAWLTA
    Greetings Defenders,
    We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. There’s more coming in our next update, but there’s also more coming next week with Protean Shift Patch 3.2!
    There are some nice quality of life features that are coming with next week’s patch, let’s get into it!
    Multiplayer Incentives
    Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. When playing together, enemies get stronger, but there’s not any increased reward for that increased risk. Well not anymore! We have been testing and looking for ways to reward players without trivializing content. With this patch, when grouping with other Defenders, you will receive additional gear from the victory chest. This scales per player added to the session, meaning the more Defenders you play with, the more gear you receive. The more gear you receive, the higher the chance at getting perfect mods!
    Material Vault
    In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.
    Enter the Material Vault! The Material Vault is a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material, and you will be able to automatically use them when interacting with items. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly!
    On the Horizon
    There’s a giant “wave” of stuff coming to Etheria in our next update that is sure to knock your socks off. Related to multiplayer incentives, we’re going to be providing Defenders greater control over the parties they start, something many of you have asked for is on it’s way. We can’t get into a ton of the stuff coming just yet, but give Elandrian’s Check-In a visit to get an idea for what’s coming!
    Bug Fixes and Optimizations
    As always, we’re going to be squishing a lot of bugs, increasing performance, and increasing stability. Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!
    For Etheria,
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  11. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    Beta has been out for a few weeks now, and what a ride it has been! As a studio, it is incredibly exhilarating to have a ton of the hard work that we’ve been hammering away at as a studio out into the wild. Between watching streams and youtube videos; discussions on the forums, Twitter, Facebook, Steam, and Discord; the plethora of feedback that’s been provided; and just playing the games ourselves with friends and family, it’s been an incredibly awesome experience. So let’s start with Beta in general!
    Beta, What is it Good For — Absolutely A Lot
    Our Beta launch was something that we were incredibly happy with. When putting something as complex as a game out into the wild has developers putting on a helmet, and strapping down everything, for the potential chaos that can come with a Beta that just aren’t able to be tested in an internal environment. We launched with relatively low issues: gameplay was working at a very high degree with little bug issues; crashes were low and easy to identify; lanes performed with little issues, and our testers computers didn’t burst into flames (that was a super huge one). We were able to address crashes and tweak some things to improve the Beta experience pretty quickly, releasing four patches in a very short amount of time — SIX DAYS!
    Betas over time have taken a turn in the industry to have a large range in what that actually entail. Our version of Beta was the original approach, that is getting a functional build that is very representative of the final experience regarding the core gameplay loot: build, defend, fight, and get sweet loot. A lot of things performed correctly, and the gameplay, for a Beta, could not have been better for us! That said, we have received a lot of the feedback, and are still parsing through a lot of it. Things like UI art, character visuals/faces, Survival scaling, hero and tower balance, and more are on our radar. There’s a lot of feedback that we’re getting that was anticipated, so we’ve had plans to address these things for the most part. We received a ton of feedback regarding UI visuals, and we are going to be making sure to give it that Dungeon Defenders feel. What was in the Beta was focused on functionality, to ensure we didn’t waste any work making art that could lead to wasted work. Needless to say, there’s a lot of improvements that we’re going to be making, and your feedback has been incredibly helpful to validate our plans moving forward!

    Pre-order and Backing
    We’ve had multiple ways that Defenders have been able to get Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Starting with Kickstarter, which then transferred to BackerKit, and finally ending on our current store. There were bumps along the way, many we are still sorting through (note: if you preordered through Kickstarter and BackerKit, with any issues, please reach out to preorder@chromatic.games, DO NOT if you purchased through our current store, that should be done through support@xsolla.com). These three phases were part of our total plan, but the bumps were a very large learning process and we are working diligently to make sure we provide everything we can to our supporters.
    One of the things that we’re going to be doing is sending out beta keys to our BackerKit supporters who purchased the $25 copy of the game. The store outlined what was included, but there was some confusing messaging going out about the BackerKit store. Our higher paying backers have had access to the Beta for a while, giving them exclusive access, and now we want to open it up to show our appreciation for your support, and also to make up for any confusing messaging that may have been sent.
    We’re also offering more rewards through our newest storefront. We don’t want to exclude people who backed early from these rewards, so we’re going to be doing our best to be as inclusive as possible:
    First, anyone who purchased through BackerKit will be moved over to our current storefront in the coming weeks. We'll let you know when this change is made. This means that you’ll get what’s at the $40 tier, but also have the option to upgrade to a higher tier if you want to, instead of having to purchase an entirely new copy.
      Second, anyone who backed on Kickstarter at or above the purchase tiers on the new storefront will receive the rewards included in the new packs. For example, did you purchase the $75 tier on Kickstarter? You’ll receive everything included in the Prestigious pack, the costumes, titles, everything! Our goal is to make sure that when you’re purchasing Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, you feel good about the purchase, and that you’re getting awesome rewards with an awesome game. You guys help make the game, and we want to make sure you know you’re valued.

    Beta Late Than Neva
    We’re sorry for that pun. It’s terrible, but it had to be said. With preordering and getting beta keys, the vast majority got out, but there were some keys that weren’t properly transferred over, surveys were submitted late, etc., that lead to people not receiving their keys on time. One thing we’re going to do is extend the Beta into January. Here’s why:
    You have provided a ton of feedback and we want to increase the window so that every nook and cranny is covered. We want Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to be the best game it can be, and a lot of the feedback you’ve provided has been instrumental in making sure that’s the destination we reach.
      We’re opening the beta to the $25 purchases, and some people didn’t receive their keys on time, or are still in process (please reach out to preorder@chromatic.games if you haven’t already), we want to make sure that players have enough time to experience the beta and provide their feedback. These two reasons alone make it very important for us to keep with our goals of being inclusive to all Defenders, and making the best game possible. We want and encourage you to continue to provide feedback. Maybe later this month, there maybe an update, maybe that expands on some stuff, and maybe fixes some issues you've reported, maybe probably maybe. As for January, we’re currently discussing adding more for players to experience, with there being a reflection of change via the feedback all of you have provided.

    MORE FEEDBACK
    Another thing that should be in your inboxes in the coming week is a survey to those who have taken part of the Beta. While digging through all the feedback you’ve provided, we also want to get general sentiments and feedback about as many facets of the game as possible. To that end, to make sure we’re doing the best we can, we’re going to send out a curated survey for our Beta players. By completing the entire survey, we’ll be drawing 10 WINNERS to receive our Prestigious pack, giving you another copy to use for another platform, give to a friend to join you on your adventures in Etheria, or whatever you want!

    New Stuff
    Dungeon Defenders: Awakened isn’t just some simple port or remake. We’re adding a lot of content, and have some big plans for future content. People have seen some of the new rewards from the Beta, but we wanted to give you a quick sneak peek at some of the awesome weapons and pets that are coming your way:
    New Weapons — Tech Rewards

    With new rewards coming in, we want them to feel awesome. We also want them to feel awesome for ALL heroes. This is the Squire’s sword that you’ll be able to hunt down, alongside getting weapons for the Huntress, Apprentice, and Monk that are part of the future tech-based set.
    New Pets

    We have familiar pets coming back that many Defenders love, but we also have new pets to be earned. Currently called the Etherial Ancient, they are just one of the new pets that’ll help boost your character and pack a punch when fighting enemies.
     
    FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
    We've added an FAQ section to help address questions for current and returning Defenders. We'll be updating this overtime as more questions come in!
     
    What’s Next?
    We’re going to keep polishing systems and working. There’s a ton of feedback we’re actively working through, and are going to keep up to really make the game for our GLORIOUS Defenders. Keep throwing feedback our way, and know that even if you don’t get a response, it has been seen and that we’ll do our best to address it.
    When it comes to communication, as we’ve acknowledged, have not been the best. We’re working on a few initiatives internally to help bridge the gap between our community and development. We’ve also been working through bringing on a full-time Community Manager, working with some fantastic candidates. Current plans have our new Community Manager joining Chromatic Games in January, and we can’t wait for you to meet her!
    Chromatic Games is going to continue to work on doing things to the best of our ability. There have been bumps along the way, and while they can be frustrating, we want to thank you for sticking through it with us, as we grow into this new studio and are able to make awesome games for YOU! <3

    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team thanks you for trying to destroy the Beta. We’re grateful for all the tremendous feedback we’ve received so far (and more to come), and want to thank you for joining us on this journey!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
     
  12. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS!
    October flew by, and November is here, which means we’ve got a slew of new things to show off and talk about! The Dungeon Defenders: Awakened PC beta is coming this month, with news on when it’s being released very soon. We’re currently working with our excellent PR partners on getting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened in front of as many Defenders as possible, so bare with us as we prepare to make this beta an explosive success!
    While we’ve been working incredibly hard, today we want to show off the Huntress’s traps, some of the new gorgeous UIs, never before seen maps, and an update as to how as a studio we’ve been working on the game. Without further ado, let’s get into it!
    Huntress Traps
    We wanted to make sure that the Huntress’s traps conveyed that they were put together by an elf, using materials that are available to a being from the woodlands. There’s a lot of VFX and power that we’re going to be adding to these traps, but for now we’re going to show you what you’ll see as your creating a literal minefield for the hordes that are coming!
    Poison Gas Trap


    Proximity Mine Trap


    Inferno Trap


    Darkness Trap


    Etherial Spike Trap

     
    User Interface Facelift
    One thing that we promised with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened was providing a cleaner User Interface, something that is definitely wanting when playing the original Dungeon Defenders. Our approach is to make things read well so that you’re able to discern the information you want, get your gear and character setup the way you want fast and efficiently, so you’re back in the fray and doing what you do best — defending Etheria!
    The inventory in Dungeon Defenders has always been a big part of the gameplay, and we’ve made it look aesthetically pleasing, while also providing a ton of functionality. We’ll start off with showing the item box:

    One thing you’ll notice is that there are Nintendo Switch inputs at the bottom. One of the biggest goals we had with the UIs for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, was to make sure that it played well with a gamepad first. If it plays well with gamepad, then we can easily make it play well with mouse and keyboard.
    You’ll also notice that there is a filter tab in the top right. This filter is going to allow players to filter gear with multiple options! Filtering is something that players have wanted for a while, and we’re bringing it in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Here’s a tentative list of what you can expect to be able to filter by:
     
    Quality (Common, uncommon, rare, epic, etc.)
    Equipment (Weapons, Helmets, Chests, Gloves, Boots, Pets, Brooches, Masks, Bracers, and Shields)
    Armor Type (Leather, Mail, Chain, etc.)
    and More!
    Another important aspect of the game is being able to inspect a piece of equipment that you’ve received, compare it with a piece that you’ve got equipped, and decide if it’s an upgrade or not. Those were our goals with gear tooltips and comparison:


    When making these tooltips, we made sure that we included the “worst case” scenario for when you receive an item. By that, we focused on what the absolute biggest an item tooltip would be, and this is the result. There’s a ton of information that we need to convey, and so we made sure to push things to their absolute limits in order to provide a clean and easy to read UI. It’s worth mentioning that the white circles and squares are where our icons are going to be going to represent each stat (they’re currently made, just need some slight adjustments).
    We also are adjusting the names of stats so that they are able to be understood. These images are work-in-progress still, but these names are something we’ll be looking for feedback throughout our beta process. 
    All of it together, here’s what you can expect to see when playing solo:

    There’s still some iteration we’re going to be making (and currently are), but we’re very proud of where the UI currently is and can’t wait for you to be able to use it to its full potential!
    There are a couple things that aren’t being shown here, but we want to give context to:
    Abilities:  This will be where a hero’s abilities and towers are explained.
    Runes:  This is the level up stat allocation area. Your stat updates are reflected in the character stats pane.
    Character stats: This is currently getting polished , but will appear where the current item tooltip is in the above screenshot.
    A lot of these pieces are coming together for beta. They have functionally been in our test builds as engineer art.
    New Map? New Map!
    Half of the maps in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened campaign have never been played before, and they help bring an all new epic feel! Two of our new maps are desert based maps, the ruins of a civilization that has long been gone. One of those maps, is tentatively called “Tornado Valley”, opening up to a giant ruined city:






    The next map is a follow up to Tornado Valley, that we’re tentatively calling “Tornado Lowlands”. That’s most definitely a developer name, as there’s nothing low about this map. Be careful not to fall:
     






    Studio Work
    As a studio, we are churning through a ton of work. Recently our communication has not been as frequent as we’ve wanted and we’re progressing towards making it better. We’re currently expanding our workforce to help with this, but also are going to be working with our partners, including a PR firm, that will be getting updates and information out across our social channels, and into the hands of various game news outlet to really help Dungeon Defenders: Awakened blow up!
    There are multiple goals that we have with Beta. First is to deliver on a promise to our backers, we want to be good on our word and you deserve to see what your support has created. Second, you’ll be providing really value feedback, both in terms of gameplay, but also from the metrics that we’ll be reading on the back end. Last, it’s a great milestone for us to achieve that really helps bring the game together and empower us as a studio to keep working hard.
    After the beta, we are going to continue work on the game, up to the release in February. This means polishing systems, balancing gameplay, fixing bugs, and a lot more. The amount and quality of work that we’ve done in such a short time (a little over 8 months) is something that we’re incredibly proud of, and we use that pride to push us in these remaining months. What you’ll see in the beta does not mean it is final, and there’s going to be a ton of time put into making DD:A the best it can be!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team is having a blast working on DD:A, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on it. Stay tuned for more info!

    For Etheria!

    Chromatic Games
     
  13. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    It’s time. It’s FINALLY time. Oh good golly gosh, it’s finally time… BETA IS HERE! Today we launched the Beta, getting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened into the hands of Etheria’s brave Defenders. There’s so much to cover, that we’re not going to cover it all. We want you to discover all the beta has to offer on your own. Let’s get into it!
     


    Beta Release
    The current Beta is available to our Kickstarter Backers first. This is a promise that we made during our Kickstarter, and are going to make sure to uphold. Kickstarter Backers currently have advanced Beta access. On Friday, November 22nd, we are going to open up the Beta to everyone who has purchased the $40+ preorder packages.
    Beta is currently scheduled to run for roughly three weeks! Starting on November 22nd and ending on 13th, this gives us a great window to gather feedback and be able to make necessary changes before launching in February.
    Progress and data from the Beta does NOT carry over to the release of the game. Beta is used as a testing ground to make sure that the game is in the best possible state. Keeping data from Beta (ha, it rhymes) can cause major issues when updating to the release version.
    If you did not receive a Beta key, and are a Kickstarter Backer, make sure you have filled out the surveys that were sent to your registered Kickstarter E-mails from "Backerkit". If that survey is not filled out, then the Beta key is not sent.
    All pre-order and Kickstarter Backer keys have been sent out. If you are missing keys, please write to preorder@chromatic.games, using the e-mail you used for Kickstarter and/or BackerKit.
    Remaining pre-orders will be handled through our new store located here. If you run into any issues getting a key ordering from this store, contact support the new support here (suppot@xsolla.com) or using the link on the receipt of your purchase.
    Streaming and Content Creation
    During the Beta, you are free to stream, make videos, or whatever content you want. We want Defenders to enjoy and share as much as they want when it comes to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!
     
    What’s Missing?
    There’s a lot to cover what’s in a game. Patch notes usually say what’s new, but with so much of the game being new, we’re going to let you explore the game. Instead, we're going to outline what may not be in the Beta that we are currently polishing and iterating on to get in for release (we may be missing some things from this list as well):
    Tactical Map
    This is currently in a functional state. We’re going to be updating the map images, and make sure it’s a lot prettier come release.
    Challenge Maps
    We’re currently wanting to make sure that balance feels good across the map in general. Challenge Maps are coming your way on release!
    Maps
    There are a total of 15 maps in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Not included in the Beta is Act II, Act III, and the Bonus Maps. Act I is the big focus for our beta test, helping us set the foundation so the rest of the maps bring the right amount of challenge.
    Difficulty
    Nightmare and Massacre are not going to be included in the Beta. We don’t want people beating all the hardest content during testing. Gotta have something scary hard for you to master on release!
    Enemies
    With Nightmare not in the beta, Sharken, Djinn, Spiders, and Goblin Copter will not be spawning in a lane near you.
    Weapons
    All of our weapons are not in the game. We have a pool of roughly 5 different weapons per hero to simulate the amount of weapons you would see during your playthrough of Act I on release. Weapon random colorization is also not reflected in the beta build, but will be implemented for release.
    HUD
    We’re going to be adding various improvements to the HUD. Currently we have it setup for beta to be functional. There’s a ton of work that we’ve done not in the Beta, but expect improvements on launch.
    Armor
    Currently we have placeholder armor models in. The final models are currently getting a last pass and will be sparkling and shining on release.
    Set Bonuses
    Set bonuses are working but may not currently be showing up correctly.
    Split Screen
    We’re testing base functionality currently, so split screen is not available during the Beta.
    Spawn Immunity
    Enemies are immune up until a certain point in spawn doors. Indicators are not included in Beta, but will be here on release.
    Social
    We’re wanting to make sure that getting your friends into a match is as easy as possible, give hosts control over their sessions, and showing who’s in your party. These are currently not in the beta, and can be expected on release.
    Hardcore
    Currently not in Beta, coming on release. 
    Twitch Integration
    Currently being developed, it will not be in the Beta.
    Game Modes
    In the Beta we have Campaign and Survival. Other game modes are coming on release.

    Pets
    There are a total of four pets that are available during the Beta. On release, there will be much more!

    Elemental Weapons
    Some weapon elemental affinity visuals may be disabled, as we’re making sure performance comes first. Your weapons will be shooting flames and electricity during release.
    Kickstarter Rewards
    Kickstarter rewards, such as exclusive skins and portraits, are not available during the beta.

    Currency
    Mana from the original Dungeon Defenders is being split into three different categories. Currently in the game is ability and defense mana. Ability mana regenertaes over time, and Defense mana is gained from defeating enemies and completing waves. Currency in the form of gold is what will persist outside of maps, being used for trading between players and upgrading items.

    Trading
    Trading is currently not enabled during the Beta.

    Upgrading
    With currency not in the Beta version, you are unable to upgrade items.

    Boss Fights
    Boss fights are coming with release. These are big epic moments that we want to make sure are special for release.

    Cross Saves
    The beta is only available on PC, so Cross Save functionality is not part of the beta.

    Tavern
    Currently you are unable to build defenses in the Tavern. As such, there are not any training dummies for you to beat up.

    Defender Forge
    We’re testing for functionality currently with our Inventory and Hero Deck systems. The Defender Forge makes its glorious arrival on launch.
    New User Experience
    This is something we’ve spent quite a bit of time on, and are going to refine. It is important for new Defenders to understand how to protect the world of Etheria, but it will be available on release.

    Tower Inspection
    A step up from what was offered in Dungeon Defenders II, tower inspection shows you the most pertinent information for your currently placed tower. This is currently disabled, and will be available at release.

    Tower View
    Another feature brought over from Dungeon Defenders II, where you are able to hold a button/key and see what the range of your defenses are. This is currently disabled, and will be available at release.

    Gamepad Support
    This is disabled for the Beta currently. We’re actively polishing the gamepad experience and did not want to provide it in an unpolished state.

    Hero Customization
    During the beta, the heroes will not be able to be customized in regards to color changing and costumes.

    Auto Equip
    This is a feature we are providing for Defenders who don’t understand the item system right away. This will come during release.

    Level Requirements
    During beta, there are no level requirements for gear. What you get is what you can use. Since we’re not having trading, we wanted to make sure getting gear was as fun as possible for testing.
    Mana Chests
    Mana chests are gone-gone-gone. Keep an eye out for end-of-wave loot chests.
    Options Menu
    The options menu is currently in a beta state and does not reflect every option that will be available upon full release.
    Cinematics
    The in-game cinematics are not part of the Beta.
    Known Issues
    A lot. It's beta, so there's a ton we're still working on. Music not playing correctly, audio playing from different parts of the map instead of where you are, UIs not working properly. There's a ton, but we're knocking them out super quick. Be sure to leave feedback in the DD:A Beta Discussion Forum.
    Next Steps
    We’re going to be monitoring gameplay and feedback that all of you provide. While polishing and finishing remaining systems for our February launch, we’re also going to be scouring feedback to make sure that we get the game into the best state possible. Nothing in the Beta is guaranteed to be final, and is going to be scrutinized heavily.
    From now until release, we’re going to keep churning away to make sure DD:A is the best it can be!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team cannot wait to see you tear apart the Beta. We’re excited for release in February and thank you for joining us on this journey!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  14. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS!
    We’re almost at the end of September, which means there’s a little over a month away from the Dungeon Defenders: Awakened PC Beta! The team has been putting in tons of time to really make sure the beta is a great experience, while also polishing up a lot of areas that won’t be seen until release. Starting next month, we’ll begin ramping up displaying a lot of the hard work that’s been going on in the world of Etheria.
    As we’re working on that, we didn’t want to leave you without anything for September, so while this will be one of our shorter updates, we do have some awesome things to show off. We have a big post processing and shader effect that is still being tweaked, and the following pieces are still works in progress, but without further ado, let’s get into it!
    Squire Towers
    We previously showed the concept for these bad boys, now it’s time to see them in-game!
    Spike Blockade



    Bouncer Blockade


     
    Harpoon Tower



    Bowling Ball Tower



     
    Slice n' Dice Blockade


     
    These towers not only look fantastic but are incredibly fun to defend with. There’s another set of towers that we’re putting the finishing touches on in regards to animation, so we’ll show off the concepts for now. Get ready, the Apprentice Towers are coming at ya!
    Apprentice Towers
    Arcane Barrier

     
    Magic Missile Tower

    Flameburst Tower

    Lightning Tower

    Deadly Striker Tower

     
    Our goal was to make sure that the towers are very discernable from one another, something that was harder to do previously. We cannot wait for you to see their 3D beauty, we’re just giving it some finishing touches before doing so.
    These are things you’ve seen before. How about we look at something that’s NEVER been seen before? Maybe a map?  Maybe a new map in Act 1? Actually yeah, that sounds pretty good. Let’s do that!
     
    NEW MAP: Lava Mines
    This map is one of the new campaign maps coming in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened! It’s a ton of fun to play, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and most of all — LAVA!





     
    What’s Next?
    We’re still working our hardest to ensure the Beta coming in November is going to be the best first step at letting you, our valiant Defenders, take on Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. There’s a ton of info we’re excited to gain, where we can make the game better, and most of all — LET YOU PLAY! There’s a ton still left to do, but it’ll all be worth it.
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team is having a blast working on DD:A, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on it. Stay tuned for more info!

    For Etheria!

    Chromatic Games
     
  15. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,

    Now that we’re a week out from our PAX return, we’re ready to share a lot of information about Dungeon Defenders: Awakened and what you can expect. There’s a lot to talk about, and based off the title of STEAM EARLY ACCESS, you probably already have a ton of questions. Let’s get into it!

    Steam Early Access
    Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is going to be available for Steam Early Access on February 21, 2020 (just in case you thought it was February 2021). This is something we’re incredibly excited for and hope that you are too! There’s a lot of reasoning that went into this, so we’re going to break it down because we want to be as transparent as possible to you, our GLORIOUS Defenders.

    We previously mentioned that we would be avoiding Early Access, but we feel this is the best route to deliver on our promise that we’re working very hard, while being able to also deliver something tangible to you by the extended deadline we provided. Our continued goal is to be as transparent as possible and have our fans tied to our development for years to come.

    Feedback
    We received A LOT of feedback. We put out a survey to our testers at the end of last year/early this year, and the turnout was insane. The thousands of results outlined what all of you thought about our game. In fact, for how rough the Beta was, we were ecstatic by the results:


     
    In total, it’s less than 10% of the most diehard hardcore Dungeon Defenders fans were not happy with the Beta. In terms of testing a game… that’s a home run! We knew that we were doing a lot of things good, but based on the feedback provided, we know we can do better than good and produce great work.
    The feedback outlined a lot of what people enjoyed about the game so far, and also some of the holes we had to fill. We went through and outlined everything we could make better based off the feedback from the survey, forums, and feedback provided through zendesk. It was a lot, and we’re not devs who shy away from a lot of hard work. Some of the feedback we’ve received made it into the PAX build and had an incredibly positive reception, showing that our approach to focusing on pushing from good to great is the best approach for not only us as a studio, but to all of our incredibly loyal community.

    Studio Work
    We’ve been working at a pretty high capacity to make sure things get out on time. We could have made a February launch for both PC and Nintendo Switch, but based on the feedback we received, it would have felt like 80~90% of the game you expected. This created a lot of internal conflict, because the people who work here at Chromatic are incredibly talented individuals who have done such a great job in such a short amount of time (we’re coming up on only 1 year of development), and we hold ourselves to a higher standard because 100% of what’s in the game is a reflection of our work.

    When we received the feedback, we knew that if we weren’t feeling the game was at 100%, then we couldn’t be dishonest and release it saying it was 100% ready. We want gameplay to feel polished and smooth, we want everything to look amazing and crisp, we want the systems to be seamless for people to use, and we want it to be a Dungeon Defenders game that our players are proud to support for years to come. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible, which leads us into what our Early Access schedule looks like.

    Why Early Access?
    Going into Early Access on Steam allows us to get where the game is at into the hands of our players on PC. By doing so, we’re able to iterate quickly, getting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened into that 100% state as soon as possible. We are still going to be honoring our Nintendo Switch exclusive deal with Nintendo, with our PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases coming in Q3 2020.
    That said, this Early Access is not going to be like other games, or like Dungeon Defenders II. The Early Access period is going to be incredibly short, because we’re really spending this time to polish up the game and meet your expectations. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is going to be fully released during Q2 on PC and Nintendo Switch. We want Early Access to be as short as possible so that we can get Dungeon Defenders: Awakened out to all of you as the best version of the game.
    A lot of the polish we’re doing is to systems and gameplay, those are a bit harder to show off or discuss, but they encompass enemies spawning, how much loot drops, what kind of loot drops, enemy difficulty, enemy AI, and more across the entirety of the game. 
    One of the things we can show is the visual changes to some portions of our feedback. One thing that was shown off at PAX (and is still being iterated on) was the changes to the HUD:


    The feedback from the survey was overwhelmingly positive:



    That’s 4.5% that were dissatisfied, which when it comes to feedback, it's a slam dunk equivalent to (Space Jam spoiler alert) Michael Jordan slam dunking with his long arm at the end of Space Jam on the Monstars to score the two points needed to save the world: 

    As a result, we’re going to continue to use this time to polish up UIs in a similar fashion to how the HUD was polished. We’re excited to get these updates out to you in Early Access, and will be continuing iteration through Early Access based on feedback. As we speak, the UI has received even more polish than what’s shown here.
    Another change that we made was to the Huntress and Monk. We had seen through written feedback that people were not happy with their visuals, so we made some changes and presented them in the survey. People were happy with the direction we were going, but weren’t sold all the way. Something we weren’t able to get in the PAX build was our next iteration on the Huntress and Monk:

     


    You can see the progression we made over time, the first being the version we released into Beta, the second being a first pass presented in the survey, and the last being an updated version based on the feedback we got.
    These images felt to us a lot closer to Dungeon Defenders, while bringing them graphically up to 2020. We’re going to continue to get feedback on these as well, but we’re really happy with where they are at currently.

    Roadmap
    Releasing into Early Access isn’t only going to be setting the game live in its early state and then providing the finished product months later. Instead, we’re going to be updating it over time, adding in features as they become polished and in a state we’re happy with. Thus, THE ROADMAP IS BORN! 



    As a studio, this is what we are sticking to as a studio. Should anything change, we are going to make sure that we keep all of you updated as soon as possible. We want this road map to serve as a look into where our focus is and as a promise for what we’ll deliver.

    Beta Closing
    We’ve already implemented a ton of Beta feedback and are currently working through more. As a result, we’re going to be bringing the Beta to an end on Sunday, February 2nd at 11:59PM. We were very happy with the amount of people that we got in and the amount of feedback provided. If you had fun in the Beta, it’s only the surface of what’s in store for you on Early Access and our full release! Early Access is less than a month away.

    What’s Next?
    We’re going to keep working. As shown in the Roadmap, we’ve got some ground to cover still. We want to keep updates coming and to further enhance our transparency and direct communication with our community. After Early Access launches, we plan on having updates showcasing the work that has been done, introducing you to members of the team, and giving you a look at the work it took to make Dungeon Defenders: Awakened.

    Chromatic Weekend Wind Down, Dev Streams, and more are going to be coming as we continue development. We’re very excited for everything coming out and are excited that all of you are along for the ride!

    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team thanks you for your support. We’re working to make Chromatic Games a studio that is able to create games current and future that our Defenders are sure to enjoy, because our games are made for YOU!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

  16. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS!
    The day is finally upon us, Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is OUT NOW on Steam Early Access. This is a huge day for us as a studio, as it’s our first launch of a product out into the masses; it’s a huge step for Dungeon Defenders returning to its roots; and it’s a huge accomplishment thanks to your support, to get something this amazing out WITHIN A YEAR! With that said, you what we do, we get into it — let’s get into it!

    Steam Early Access
    This is time for us to deliver on our promise of having a release in February. This period is pivotal for us to get the game into the Defenders of Etheria’s hands and go crazy throughout the entire game. We used the 10,000+ pieces of feedback we received from our Beta, and used it to help mold the game into this Early Access state. There’s still work we’re polishing, but the state the game is in, we’re comfortable and proud to present it to you. We’ll go over a couple pieces of info we’ve gone over before, as well as discuss what to expect in this Early Access release.
    If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, we’re on Steam right now. Click here to visit our Steam page!
    Roadmap
    Releasing into Early Access isn’t only going to be setting the game live in its early state and then providing the finished product months later. Instead, we’re going to be updating it over time, adding in features as they become polished and in a state we’re happy with. Thus, THE ROADMAP IS BORN!

    As a studio, this is what we are sticking to as a studio. Should anything change, we are going to make sure that we keep all of you updated as soon as possible. We want this road map to serve as a look into where our focus is and as a promise for what we’ll deliver.
    Why Early Access?
    Going into Early Access on Steam allows us to get where the game is at into the hands of our players on PC. By doing so, we’re able to iterate quickly, getting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened into that 100% state as soon as possible, something we’re unable to do on consoles as fast as we want to iterate. We are still going to be honoring our Nintendo Switch exclusive deal with Nintendo, with our PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases coming in Q3 2020.
    That said, this Early Access is not going to be like other games, or like Dungeon Defenders II. The Early Access period is going to be incredibly short, because we’re really spending this time to polish up the game and meet your expectations. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is going to be fully released during Q2 on PC and Nintendo Switch. We want Early Access to be as short as possible so that we can get Dungeon Defenders: Awakened out to all of you as the best version of the game.
     

    Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
    This will give us a chance to make sure that the game is balanced, being easy or hard in the appropriate parts of the game; animations and art assets are looking great and working properly; working out any kinks when it comes to playing with others; making sure our network tech properly connects you to others and also properly saves your gear; and of course testing our flags, checks, and reactions from our anti-hack systems on a much larger scale.
    What’s In Early Access?
    Shown in the Roadmap above outlines what is going to be coming to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, and briefly goes over what is already in. We’ll blow it apart a bit more here!
    Every heroic adventure starts in a really deep well, right?
    Campaign
    The Campaign is the progressive order maps are presented in, and on the full release will include story elements and bosses scattered throughout to help you understand what exactly is going on in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. In the Steam Early Access release, Campaign includes all 12 maps part of the whole campaign:
    Deeper Well
    Ancient Mines
    Lava Mines
    Alchemical Labs
    Tornado Valley
    Tornado Highlands
    Ramparts
    Throne Room
    Arcane Library
    Royal Gardens
    The Promenade
    The Summit
    These maps are in a great state, but we are still open to feedback as you play through these maps, so please throw it our way through the in-game link seen on the Escape screen.
    Alchemical Labs, Throne Room, and The Summit do not currently have their bosses implemented. As covered in the Roadmap, the Demon Lord arrives in March, the Goblin Mech charges in during April, with the Ancient Dragon approaching in the full release.
    Difficulty
    On this release, you have access to:
    Easy
    Medium
    Hard
    Insane
    We’ve tested these extensively, and the progression through the campaign feels incredibly good. Our goal is to let people provide extensive feedback on these difficulties before we throw you into the terror that is Nightmare in March, which is going to push Defenders to take on some substantially harder enemies.  It doesn’t stop there though, as upon release you’ll have to survive the newest difficulty — Massacre. Both of these difficulties provide new enemies that only brave Defenders will be able to cull!

    Survival
    Making its triumphant return, the Survival game mode is going to be available on all difficulties and all maps provided in Early Access. Each map rewards a unique pet to join you in your adventures, while also boosting your hero in some way. There’s a lot to master through all 12 maps, we hope you’re able to survive!
    While playing through Survival in Early Access, we are going to continue to optimize the maps to accommodate all the enemies that you are going to be fighting. As noted on our Road Map, there is going to be continuous updates to the game, and this include performance optimizations. If you run into frame drops or crashes, report them in feedback, as that’ll help us polish things up. For Defenders looking for a true challenge, try playing on Insane Survival Summit on very old hardware getting 1 FPS, outside in the rain, while taming lions (please don’t do this, this part is just jokes, play it normal and safely please).
    Pets
    There’s a lot of pets that are going to be in Steam Early Access that were not in Beta. Some pets are straight forward, boosting your stats and slapping enemies, however we brought back some revamped fan favorites *cough*Genie*cough*, and also some new pets that have never been seen before. We made sure that you have a wide variety of pets to use, trying to apply a variety of play styles to fit certain pets. There are even more coming past this, but we’re sure you’ll quickly grow to love all of these companions (the Ramster is so dang cute!).
    Gear
    There’s a TON of gear to earn. Going back to our roots, we wanted people to get excited for gear to hunt. Itemization feedback has been tremendous, and so we used words from Defenders old and new to curate some awesome pieces to hunt for. We brought back a lot of the systems that made Dungeon Defenders gear great to hunt. Gear rolls any and all stats that are on your hero, making it exciting to receive that one perfect piece that has all the defensive stats for your Tower Builder spec'd heroes, or well-rounded gear for any Defender who prefers a Jack of All Trades play style! Another exciting return is that weapons and pets are randomly colorized, providing unique looks to the loot you receive. White and Gold is one of the rarest combos you’ll find, so good luck!

    Gear continues to get stronger as you progress through the game of course, with each difficulty providing new pieces to empower your heroes and defenses to new heights! While climbing also make sure to keep an eye on what armor you’re equipping, as gear sets are back in the game.
    Accessories
    Through your journeys, you’ll also be receiving accessories that visually change the look of your character. This was not something part of Dungeon Defenders original release, but they are so fun to acquire and add a great level of visual customization that we couldn’t just not do them! Masks, Bracers, Brooches, and Shields (Squire Only) are some of the pieces you’ll receive that you can uncover to add another layer to empowering your character.
    Cursed Gear No More!
    One thing you will notice that is different from Dungeon Defenders is that there is no longer any cursed gear. This was something a vast majority felt very strong as a detractor from the game, and made getting gear feel like a potential punishment if it had the one stat you wanted, but diminished others.
    Tools of the Trade
    There’s a lot of tools we wanted to provide to the players. One of them was an updated Tactical Map (tac map for short). There’s a ton of upgrades we made to this feature, trying to provide as much visual clarity on what’s going on and where. There’s also brand new additions, such as in the options menu, you can now select filters for the tac map to show specific upgrades and items that you’re looking for, making it easy to survey the land quickly and go get your items before continuing on.

    There’s also a lot of the HUD and UI improvements. There are seriously too many to include here, and as noted on the Roadmap, there are more coming! Comparing items in your inventory, providing clearer definitions for upgrades, revamped stat names, and so much more.
    Towers are also part of the UI improvements. You can now interact with your towers to see how they are performing and what their stats are. Even a deep layer, towers show you the important stats that matter based on what they do. This means seeing what’s important in how a Spiked Blockade performed is different than seeing how an Ensnare Aura performed. We can’t wait to hear your feedback on these features and make any improvements possible!
    Kickstarter, BackerKit, and Preorder Rewards
    Rewards are planned for our full 1.0 release. While we have already chipped away at getting these made, today is our final deadline for our backers to submit what they’d like. We recently got a ton of requests back from our initial surveying to people in appropriate tiers, so now we just need to get to work on them. Some of these things are absolutely beautiful, others are horrifying, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
    Early Access Note
    We have an Early Access FAQ that we’ve put together. If some of your questions weren’t answered here, please give it a look and hopefully they are answered!
    There’s some stuff that we are not covering in this post, but there is a ton to discover in this game. Some of it is intended, some of it may be bugaboos that need to be squashed, and some of it may be as Bob Ross put it: happy little accidents. This is a game that we’re proud to present as a culmination of developer work and extensive community feedback. We truly feel this is a game made for our GLORIOUS Defenders, and we hope you feel the same. We want to thank you for joining us on this journey so far, and we can’t wait to continue on and hope you’ll be there by our side.
    What’s Next?
    We’re going to keep working. As shown in the Roadmap, we’ve got some ground to cover still. We want to keep updates coming and to further enhance our transparency and direct communication with our community. We plan on having updates showcasing the work that has been done, continue introducing you to members of the team, and giving you a look at the work it took to make Dungeon Defenders: Awakened.
    Chromatic Weekend Wind Down, Dev Streams, and more are going to be coming as we continue development. We’re very excited for everything coming out and are excited that all of you are along for the ride!
    Next week some of our team is going to be at PAX East, Booth #12074, right next to the Nintendo booth! If you’re going to be there, stop by to play, chat with the devs, and maybe leave with some sweet sweet swag! We had a crazy turn out at PAX South, loved hanging out with our glorious Defenders and the new Etherian recruits we picked up, and would love for PAX East to be Chromatic Games At PAX II: Revenge of the Hangout Boogaloo the Game, the Movie, the Game Returns.
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team thanks you for your support. We’re working to make Chromatic Games a studio that is able to create games current and future that our Defenders are sure to enjoy, because our games are made for YOU!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  17. [CG] LAWLTA
    Ahoy Defenders!
    Patch 4.1 has docked in Etherian ports and is now live on all platforms. This patch is focused on providing some nice change to perfect Mod drop rates, improving the visibility of Mod quality, polishing Mob pathing, and more. Get your eye patch and parrot ready, let’s set sail into some notes!
    Perfect Mod Drops
    This is something that we received a lot of feedback on and are working on in multiple phases. The first phase is in this patch allowed us to do calculations on changing the drop rates specifically. Previously we expected players to see a perfect Mod of any kind within less than nine hours of active gameplay (active gameplay being time spent efficiently and quickly completing maps, not just with the game open). After hearing feedback, we sent out a survey that gave a lot of good information. Our testing and simulations validated the feedback and our feeling was that there was more to add to this system. This first phase looks to increase the drop rate so on average you see a perfect Mod in less than four hours of active gameplay on average (which matches up with 31% of people surveyed asking for 1-5 hours, and 40% asking for 5-10 hours). This average is based around solo play, so multiplayer sessions may much shorter averages. When talking about averages there are going to be outliers, but for the short term this is the best fix we felt comfortable putting out.
    The second phase of this is a lot more complex and requires a lot of work and discovery on our end, and it should be coming with our next update. We are working diligently to get rid of any outliers that cause players to feel as if they haven’t seen one in over 50 hours of active gameplay. Alongside that we also hear the desire to target farm Mods, and while it’s not something we’re going to provide outright, we are looking into way(s) to ease this quite a bit. We’re going to touch more on this as we get closer to our next big update (which isn’t too far away)!
    Mod Quality Visuals
    Players have requested that we make it easier to understand where your Mod quality ranges on a scale of 1 to 10, especially if you’re colorblind. Now there will be a number that reflects the quality nestled gently on top of the “Qualibean™.”

    We’ve heard additional feedback on Mods regarding sorting and distinguishing perfect quality and are currently looking into ways to make this better.
    Mob Pathing
    We’re continuously finding ways to make our game experience as smooth as possible. Stuck enemies and those that go off their intended path are no fun to deal with, and they certainly are a challenge for us to ensure they work correctly. We changed A LOT of their behaviors and fixed a lot of stuck/pathing issues in this patch with some new logic. We’re going to keep a close eye on these changes to make sure they work correctly, and if there’s more work to be done we promise we’ll be hammering away it.
    Replay From Wave
    This was a feature added in with Isle of Dread that a lot of players have enjoyed. We ran into an initial technical challenge that did not allow this feature to work well on Lost Temple. Replay From Wave was released and since we set to work on getting it to work on Lost Temple. After testing it, we’re now able to get Replay From Wave to work on this map — including Omega Waves.
    Prestigious Weapons
    When Isle of Dread was released, players had the opportunity to earn a Prestigious weapon every 10 floor of Onslaught before floor 100, and every 20 floors after floor 100. With how the update was applied, it required people to overcome previous highest floors to receive these rewards. It didn’t feel great to have players reclimb to take part in this new system.
    With this patch, we were able to get this working. As a bonus, all players as of this patch are able to go complete every floor a Prestigious Weapon drops and receive one. For example, if yesterday you completed Floor 60 and received a Prestigious Weapon, you are now able to not only complete Floor 60 to receive another one, floor 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 can be completed again and you’ll receive another Prestigious Weapon for each!
    Bug Fixes
    Fixed an issue with the Abyss Lord’s Colossus not consistently attacking enemies in lane.
    Fixed an issue with Earthshatter Tower not attacking Vanguard Gorbstock, Vanguards (shield goblins), Ranged Ogres, and Cannon Ogres.
    Fixed an issue with Anti-melee Servo not working with Angry Nimbus.
    Fixed an issue with the Harpy Tower functioning without a World Tree.
    Fixed an issue with some towers where their Inspect DPS was not calculating Crit Damage and Crit Chance.
    Fixed an issue with Angry Nimbus shocking enemies without the Dryad in Corrupt Form.
    Fixed an issue with parties being disbanded upon transitioning.
    Fixed an issue with towers affected by Boost Aura losing their yellow VFX when upgraded.
    Multiplayer bonuses now work properly in Incursions and Onslaught.
    Fixed an issue with EV2 getting stuck in the Proton Charge firing animation while moving.
    Pet eggs can no longer rot in player shops.
    Fixed an issue with Power Transfer showing a negative value.
    A hard gold cap has been set at ~2,300,000,000 gold.
    Made adjustments to the Mastery tab on the World Map to improve Mastery
    Ranged Ogres no longer shoot into the sky when hit by Starfall. As a result the Ranged Ogre Space Association has been disbanded.
    Chaos VI Jacked Sparrow and Plunderer’s Paradise now correctly drop C6 shards.
    Now able to quick match for any region in the Expeditions tab of the World Map.
    Lavamancer’s submerge travel SFX now play correctly.
    Adjusted how jumps are handled slightly for smoother gameplay.
    Fixed an issue on Xbox where players attempted to join maps that no longer existed.
    Fixed an issue where Defender Pack pets and redeem code pets were starting with 5/10 affection. You gotta earn their love!
    Adjusted the Game Browser UI elements on controller that appeared out of place.
    Fixed an issue with Replay From Wave where Dryad Defenses would still work without the World Tree.
    Fixed an issue where the Rain of Oil shard stopped functioning if you swapped to another hero then back to the Abyss Lord.
    Fixed Vanguard Gorbstock’s minimap icon. It was too tiny.
    Fixed an issue with Replay From Wave where Weapon manufacture weapons could not be set.
    The Shackled Mod no longer applies to Lady Orcs, only triggers on Dark Assassins now.
    Fixed a Gem Well timing issue.
    Fixed an issue where players were unable to back out of the War Table if they expanded regions on the World Map.
    Adjusted the Floor 30 and 38 Onslaught Flair rewards listing.
    Fixed some War Table issues showing Chaos 4 and 5 enemies incorrectly.
    Updated the Lightning Grenade Pet Ability description.
    Made it so Player 2 in splitscreen is not able to be kicked while in a party where the leader isn’t Player 1 or 2 of the splitscreen group.
    Fixed an issue where loading into hard versions of the campaign was causing 5001 errors.
    The Forbidden Worshipper’s Mask was too small. We made it bigger. What’s the Forbidden Worshipper’s Mask? Secrets.
    Changed the title screen to have “Play Now” only for new, returning, and freshly installed players to reduce confusion.
    Fixed an issue with consecutive win bonuses were not carrying over correctly between games.
    Fixed a couple issues with splitscreen players not able to be invited to parties.
    Have adjusted Dryad Towers targeting AI slightly. Continuing to investigate this.
    Fixed an issue with Tenacity not preventing EMP Kobold tower stuns on certain towers.
    Added a potential fix for Green Mana not being properly distributed if the Warm Up phase is skipped before all players load in.
    Added a lock icon for locked War Table regions.
    Fixed an issue with hitting “Yes” on Replay From Wave breaking if done while a Core destruction cutscene played.
    Fixed an issue with towers refreshing properly when a play who disconnects rejoins.
    Fixed an issue for players who play at 4k resolution with the Option Menu going off-screen.
    Fixed a visual issue when rerolling Defender Packs without enough medals.
    The Favorable Wind Mod now correctly shows the stacks icon.
    Added Mastery Star info to the Region and Difficulty drop downs.
    Fixed an issue where the Player Shop UI wasn’t closing automatically when build phase starts.
    Mastery stars were removed from filtering in the Advanced View.
    Fixed an issue with items updating properly for returning players.
    Changed a the Tinkering load screen to correctly show the Gobsplosion Mod info.
    Fixed an issue with SFX not playing properly for buyback.
    A lot of you submit bug reports constantly, and we make sure to squash as many of them as we can. As with any expansion, there are a lot of fixes coming your way. Please continue to submit them to our bug site, your help is invaluable to knocking out some of the pesky issues that appear.

    Known Issues
    Tabbing when matchmaking on world map before the UI updates can matchmake into an unintended game mode.
    On splitscreen some NPC shops some UI elements come through the window. The shop is still the focus and works correctly, just visually not perfect.
    Replay from Wave on Lost Temple sometimes keeps a broken core model.
    Replay from Wave on Lost Temple is not maintaining the correct lanes/mutators.
    Social Defenders
    There’s a lot of people playing Dungeon Defenders II, and a lot of them gather on our social hubs. When it comes to finding other players, figuring out how to conquer a specific challenge, or just wanting to get to know others in the community, or getting the latest DD2 news, you can’t go wrong with our social platforms:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    We’re getting the finishing touches on this patch and cannot wait to share it with you all.
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  18. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    Today our “SUMMONING THE DEMON LORD” Update went live on Steam Early Access. This Update opens up a TON of content. The first Challenge Maps in Act I are available to conquer, the Demon Lord himself has been summoned, and Nightmare difficulty is now available. It’s a lot of content — let’s get into it!
    Nightmare Difficulty
    The top difficulty in the original Dungeon Defenders makes its triumphant return. While it is not the hardest content coming to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, it definitely packs quite a punch. Enemies have more health, hit harder, and provide better rewards. That’s not all though — Nightmare brings four additional enemies into the fray, each with their own new mechanics to push all that Insane gear you’ve been farming to the limit. In DD:A we introduce these enemies in a more digestible fashion, so you can learn their mechanics one at a time, before having to face them all as you progress through the rest of Campaign and Survival.
    Spiders

    Coming out of every dark nook and cranny, spiders come to disrupt carefully placed defenses. These web slingers have a knack for dropping behind your defenses, causing havoc by weakening players and towers. Watch out, here comes a spider web!
    Abilities Can spawn in unconventional locations, sometimes behind choke points or typical building locale. Shoot webs that if they hit towers greatly slow their attack rate and weaken their damage. If they hit your hero, you are no longer able to use abilities and your movement and attack speed are greatly reduced, while greatly increasing the damage you take.
      Strategies Look to build defenses to protect defenses that are dealing with frontline enemies. Using your damage-dealing focused hero, quickly burst them down before they start launching webs. Sharken

    These land walking sharks pack quite a punch! Proving that they didn’t skip leg day, the moment they are in range of a tower, they begin to charge up before bolting forward, knocking any tower they encounter to the wayside. These foes don’t stop there — should anyone get within melee range of them, they’ll burst you down with incredibly powerful swinging giant crab claws.
    Abilities Charged dash that knocks Towers away. Incredibly powerful melee attacks.
      Strategies Interrupt their dash as they are still charging it. Auras and traps help make quick work of these foes. Use ranged attacks to avoid their deadly flurry. Djinn

    The Djinn giveth to their ally, and taketh away from you. Able to channel their magical energy into a nearby ally through their hands, they are able to greatly increase all stats to their friend left uninterrupted. However, their powers don’t stop there. Using a powerful gaze, they can phase a focused tower out of existence should they be left alone. Your wish is not your command!
    Abilities Channeled cast that buffs all stats of a targeted enemy. Channeled cast that destroys towers. Heavy damage to heroes. Strategies Dealing enough damage to a Djinn interrupts their casting, preventing them from buffing their allies, or destroying your towers. Goblin Copter

    Look, in the sky! It’s a megachicken! It’s a propeller cat! NO, it’s a Goblin Copter! Using some crafty goblin engineering, the Goblin Copter is a mechanical miracle that is able to not only make goblins airborne, but also carry an Ogre with them. They are able to break through defenses by distracting towers using bright flares they shoot to continue their journey. After dropping Ogres, they shoot homing rockets that deal high damage to players and towers alike.
    Abilities Carry Ogres through the battlefield to specific locations. Shoot flares to distract towers from hitting them. After dropping off their Ogre, they shoot twin homing rockets that deal high damage to heroes and towers. Ogres are immune to damage while carried. When destroyed, Goblin Copters crash to the ground, dealing incredibly high damage.  
    Strategies Focus the Goblin Copter before it drops its Ogre. If over a pit, the Ogre will fall to its demise, and you will not be hit by the crashing explosion. If the Ogre falls to the ground, it will have ⅓ of its original HP. Long range Harpoon or Deadly Striker Towers make quick work of these enemies, if they’re able to hit them. These enemies are sure to shake up some surefire strategies that worked through previous difficulties. To relieve some of the punishment that these crooked cooks dish out, we’ve created a digestible way to encounter these foes throughout your adventures in Campaign. The enemies first appear in the following maps:
    Spiders in Deeper Well (Nightmare) Sharken in Ancient Mines (Nightmare) Djinn in Lava Mines (Nightmare) Goblin Copter in Tornado Valley (Nightmare) As you progress, you will encounter more of these enemies in each map. Going from Campaign to Survival will not be as kind, with enemies coming at you in full force as soon as Deeper Well. Not all Nightmare enemies can spawn in every map, but when they do, it’s something that’ll haunt you in your sleep. 
    After conquering the enemies that Nightmare throws at you, you’ll be rewarded with even stronger gear than before. These pieces of gear are going to first come in the form of Mythical gear, and then as you progress and claim even greater gear, Transcendent gear shall be yours! 
    Arise, Demon Lord!

    The Demon Lord has been summoned to provide the first boss battle in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. This pillar of calamity is brought into our realm in the Alchemical Labs through a combination of alchemy, science, and dark magic. After braving five waves of enemies, you will have 30 seconds before this demonic monstrosity bursts from his lava-bound chamber. Though his power is immense, there may be some tools that brought him into this world that can help send him back!
    Hardcore Mode
    Are you a bad enough dude and think you’ve got what it takes to fight some of the hardest enemies without taking a knee? Then Hardcore is right up your alley! Enabling this option for any map you go into provides great rewards with a great risk. During Hardcore, should your heroes hp bar reach zero, you will not respawn until the combat phase is over, either from your towers carrying you to victory, or from your crystal core exploding in defeat. Another twist of the knife, if you should die, all the build mana you previously had drops to zero. There’s definitely strength in numbers, so team up to help shoulder the burden!
    Note: Hardcore is an option you’ll find during map select on the right side of the screen.
    Act I Challenge Maps
    The first of many to come, these challenge maps are an introduction into some fun content that takes maps you know and love, and adds a different spin on them.
    Deeper Well: No Towers Allowed
    In this challenge map, your Defense Unit amount is set to zero and you are unable to build defenses. You’ll need to bring your best damage dealing hero to deal with all the enemies that are gunning for your crystal core!
    Alchemical Labs:  Raining Goblins
    It’s raining gobs, hallelujah it’s raining gobs! Just like the title says, goblins come raining from the sky! Goblins continue to spawn throughout the entire map from the sky, enough to blot out the sun. You have to weather the storm, slaying all that fall upon you.
    Bonus Map — Magus Quarters

    A fan favorite is returning! The Magus Quarters is a hotbed of activity, quite literally. After completing Act I, you now unlock this map for additional challenges, loot, and even a new pet. There’s more coming to this map, during the 1.0 release Magus Quarters will also provide a challenge map — The Warping Core!
    Balance
    Heroes
    Apprentice
    Manabomb Adjusted it’s scaling so that late game it is MUCH more powerful should you put points into the ability. Flameburst Tower Now has proper fall off damage. Lightning Tower Damage has been GREATLY increased. Is able to add new targets at the end of its chain. Remakes the chain lightning if an enemy in the chain dies. Deadly Striker Tower Improved the targeting functionality. Monk
    Hero Boost Was boosting too much, and has been reduced. Tower Boost Lowered the overall scaling of this ability. Squire
    Slice N Dice Tower Damage has been GREATLY increased.  
    Gear
    Accessories
    Stats
    Overall accessories have had their scaling reduced to 25% of their previous values. Armor added to shields. Upgrade Levels
    Updated upgrade levels for all pets, accessories, and weapons.  
    Pets
    Pet Rock
    Movement speed decreased to 50% of the hero’s movement speed, down from 75%. Decreased the total amount of stats given. Propeller Cat
    Lowered the additional power this flying feline was giving. Sell Price
    Many pets have had their sell price adjusted. Melee Pets
    Attack range increased to 400 from 300. Ranged Pets
    Attack range increased to 700 from 400. Upgrades
    The amount a pet’s damage can be upgraded has been GREATLY increased.  
    Enemies
    Ogre
    Snot toss now has proper fall off damage. Effects of the Ensnare Aura are reduced towards the Ogre. General Changes
    There’s a new Intro cinematic that plays when the game loads, as well as before Deeper Well on Campaign. Check it out! After defeating the Demon Lord, a cinematic plays as you progress into Act II! Added Offline Play support. New visuals in Alchemical Labs, including some nefarious weapons floating with a protective barrier. Added a Lock/Unlock All action On Keyboard it is:  Ctrl+L Gamepad: Hold X (face button left) Or click it! Added a “Click to Sell” feature You can now sell items by holding the “S” key and clicking on items (if the item is unlocked) Added a slew of gamepad and keyboard features in the inventory. Gamepad Improvements Can now scroll the stat panel with the right joystick. Hitting left and right now switches pages. Hitting right shoulder buttons switches you from heroes to defenses on the Hero Stats panel. Added support for Map Select and Game Mode Select Trap chaining has been added to the Huntress. Traps of the same type that overlap with one another will now set off a chain reaction should one activate. Ballista in The Ramparts is active and can be interacted with. It fires a shot, but it can’t hit anything. Just a cool little thing. Magus Quarters has now been added to Map Select!  
    Bug Fixes
    Fixed a crash when connecting to a session. Fixed a crash involving the inventory while trying to matchmake or join a friend. Fixed a data loss issue related to joining a friend or matchmaking taking too long. Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to swap heroes while matchmaking. Fixed a crash involving opening the inventory. Fixed a crash if a Host had the escape menu open, and a client joined, the host would crash. Fixed a crash that occurred based on rare states of your heroes. Fixed a crash when a client creates a hero through the inventory during a multiplayer session. Fixed an issue with the tower repair cast bar not matching the actual repair time. Removed a pesky hidden flag that was outdated on The Promenade. Added functionality for “unreadying” to reset the timer to infinite (if applicable). Adjusted currency to 64 bit values (it’s a 4,000,000,000%+ increase). Optimized content within Tornado Valley for increased performance. Optimized content within Tornado Highlands for increased performance. Optimized content within The Throne Room for increased performance. Optimized content within The Arcane Library for increased performance. Optimized all skeletal meshes for Heroes to increase performance. Optimized how the Dark Elf Mage heals. Optimized Dark Elf Archer model. Optimized content on Lava Mines for increased performance. Fixed an issue that allowed a player to be buffed with an infinite duration Hero Boost. Fixed an issue with Escape Menu buttons not being clickable. Fixed an issue with Huntress weapons not having correct fall off damage. Fixed an issue with pet projectiles not having correct fall off damage. Optimized how enemy weapons are handled after defeating them, increasing performance. Several tutorial tweaks. Fixed the Lightning Tower beam VFX so that it properly follows enemies. Improved Monk run animation. Adjusted Inventory frames to always be active (no more fading) Squire’s heal and lose animations received small updates. Fixed verbiage used during the tutorial to be more in line with the narration. Fixed a scaling issue with scrolling combat text font. Corrected how lighting affected the anvil in the Tavern. Fixed an issue where if everyone unreadies, the timer (if applicable) gets set back to infinity until a player readies up. Updated a lot of training dummy functionality, including how damage is calculated and presented. Improved cloud backup saves. Fixed an issue when locking an item that locked the item selected and also the item the mouse cursor was over. Fixed Apprentice falling animation to be less choppy on ledges. Fixed Squire falling animation to be less choppy on ledges. Fixed an issue where players would see weird spawning events when other players opened their inventory. Fixed a gamepad issue when closing filters or damage numbers pop up. Fixed an issue where the hero preview would not load with a weapon. Added support for toggling privacy settings when creating a session. Fixed an issue with the Slice n Dice tower’s SFX looping improperly. Fixed sounds playing before animation on Defense Radial Menu. Adjusted radial menu animations to be snappier. Adjusted keybindings on various radial menus. Adjusted the radial bar menu visuals to be cleaner. Fixed Hero Boost and Tower Boost descriptions in the Hero Info Panel. Fixed an issue with the timer not going away when entering Combat Phase. Fixed an issue where item inspection only worked on the left side of the inventory. Removed the ability to close the Inventory filter UI with right shoulder buttons on gamepad. Fixed an issue with the HUD not disappearing when restarting a map. Fixed an issue where the filter UI could be opened while a context menu was open. Fixed an issue with the Spiked Blockade attack SFX was not playing. Fixed an issue with the Lightning Tower attack SFX was not playing. Fixed an issue with the SFX not playing when Heal finished. Fixed a lot of music related issues. Fixed an issue with the game starting fullscreen and ignoring resolution settings. Fixed various issues with gamepad usage on the Escape Menu. Fixed an issue where the Lightning Tower SFX was not stopping after being destroyed. Fixed an issue where combat music would play over victory fanfare. Fixed an issue where confirmation popups were not using the correct text. Fixed an issue when swapping heroes in the inventory, resulting in incorrect camera placement. Fixed an issue with the Summary Screen moving the player to the next map, regardless of win or loss. Fixed an issue with the Ogre’s swing hitting players.  
    Known Issues
    Item tiers will change currently through upgrades going into Nightmare gear. This is currently a visible change, and is not reflective of the final way tiers will be displayed. Melee pet damage and ranged pet damage are not scaling correctly in Nightmare. All other difficulties will scale pet damage correctly. Public games sometimes do not show up in the session browser. If you click OK on a loot filter change and click back on options the UI won't close unless you hit the esc key. If you create a hero with empty hero slots sometimes you'll just see the hero and the background. This can be bypassed by hitting the “I” key or escape depending. Some accessories may change into another accessory, specifically the Sapphire Brooch, Mining Bracer, and Crusader Shield may become Monocles. Very high item level gear may not show a quality tier. What’s Next?
    Our release is not too far away, so we’re going to keep plugging away to get the remaining content all polished up and ready for you to conquer. While our schedule has become tight due to the effects of COVID-19 (becoming fully remote, internet outages making remote work hard, and so many other fun hurdles), we’re still doing everything we can to get this game out to you as soon as possible. To make this easier, please, should you run into any bugs during this update, report them to us through the in-game escape menu. We’re working as quick and hard as we can, but with the vast numbers you provide, we’re able to get issues surfaced faster, leading to quick turnaround and fixes. 
    Also a big shout out to our Etherian Cavalry, they were a big help in surfacing some gaps for us and overall providing a better experience going into this update!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:
    Discord
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Instagram
    Twitch
    Forums
    Keep an eye out for more info!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  19. [CG] LAWLTA
    The Heroes of Etheria have arrived at Drakenfrost Keep and explored its grounds. Throughout their exploration they unlocked a hidden chamber shrouded in runes around a mage who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep an ancient evil at bay. The seal has been broken, and the Drakenlord lives again! Held at bay for many years, kept alive only by fables, this menacing evil seeks to take back his keep, raise a dragon army, and set out to conquer the lands of Etheria. It is up to you, Defender, to send this juggernaut back to the underworld.
    Greeting Defenders,
    We unleashed a beast in Patch 4.3, which is now out on ALL platforms! The Drakenlord has come to terrorize the citizens of Etheria, we took a pass at some additional Mod Reroll quality of life, bug fixes, and more. Let’s get into it!
    The Drakenlord

    Soaring through the skies of Etheria, the Drakenlord is trying to take back his domain, Drakenfrost Keep. He’s a new boss type that will require you to create unique strategies to take him down, unlike any other boss you’ve fought so far! With his arrival, he may appear in other maps as well. He is now ready to fight you in Expeditions!
    Drakenfrost Keep is also now a map that appears in Onslaught. Starting at Floor 39, Drakenfrost Keep appears every 10 floors as a capstone floor (similar to The Lost Temple). This means at Floors 34, 44, 54, 64, etc., you have to defend the Lost Temple, and on Floors 39, 49, 59, 69, etc., you conquer Drakenfrost Keep.
    The Drakenlord provides new rewards every week! There are a slew of new weapons AND Mods for you to obtain by slaying him and protecting Etheria.
    A costume for the Squire is now available on the Emporium, where you can BECOME the Drakenlord. We’re excited to see how you handle what he has in store for you, and the great rewards that await you.
    Mod Reroll
    We’ve been all about adding Mod quality of life changes, and here’s another one. Previously we doubled 10/10 drop chances, then last week we ensured that you run into a 10/10 after actively playing for ~10 hours, AND we added a new Mod Reroll material (that can be stored in the Material Vault).
    A lot of people have enjoyed these adds, but we thought we’d take it a step further. Mod Rerolls allow you to target specific Mods into becoming 10/10. Some players target farm lower tiers to try and get better luck on a 10/10 dropping for a specific lower Mod (*cough* Tenacity *cough*). We want you all playing content you find engaging, so now Mod Rerolls after a while will guarantee a 10/10 roll. The amount of time is greatly impacted by the ability to buy this material from other players. This change means you can keep climbing or playing content you want, and are guaranteed to eventually get a 10/10 of the Mod you want.
    Diminishing Returns
    There were a few issues with Diminishing Returns upon release. Most of these problems were related to towers/abilities that could apply a stun more than once a second (i.e. Weapon Manufacturer and Protons). These towers were causing a large spike in diminishing returns that was not intended. On top of that, because of the fast attack rate the drop off of diminishing returns was halted.
    Three major issues caused this, Stuns reapplying themselves and adjusting their initial duration each time. This caused initial stuns to a lot last less than intended, which was fixed in today’s update. Second, all Crowd Controls (CC) were adding to the same tenacity pool instead of separated by type (for instance, stuns and slows). This was causing a much higher overall tenacity than expected, which was also fixed in today’s update. The final issue, which we are still working on, is related to how the tenacity fall off is calculated. This is causing some enemies that start at a higher base tenacity when playing with four players to have enemies be nearly immune to CC after their first stun. This is not intended and we are actively looking into a fix to allow players to use theirs stuns as intended.
    Communities
    This is a feature that we are testing on PC/Steam. There’s a lot of information that we’re going to be gathering with this specific feature, so we want to communicate that there may be times where it’s not working correctly, and it may require game restarts to get it functioning correctly, but will not affect your gameplay specifically.
    Communities provide a way for you to gather with up to 30 like-minded Defenders and talk across games and lobbies, invite to party, and more! You can be in up to 5 communities at any time, and are able to create communities whenever you want. Here are some of the functionalities that Communities offer:
    Give them a unique name (don’t worry, the name filter is working)
    Give them a three or four letter acronym of your choice.
    By using “/c1”, “/c2”, “/c3”, “/c4”, and “/c5” you can quickly chat in each of your communities. (You can also use /<insert acronym here> to chat with them as well).
    Invite players to join your parties in the Town or Private Tavern.
    Use different ranks (Owner, Officer, and then regular members).
    Invite and recommend users to join a Community.
    There’s a lot more functionality and we’re looking at ways to add more and improve the current setups. We’re looking forward to your constructive feedback and will be doing everything we can to make these Communities great.
    Hero Changes
    Abyss Lord
    Towers
    Skeletal Orc
    The DU cost is now 30, was previously 35.
    Dryad
    Towers
    World Tree
    The DU cost is now 20, was previously 25.
    Lavamancer
    Towers
    Fissure of Embermount
    The overlap is now 35% of the max range, was previously 50% (for reference, flame aura overlap is 50%).
    Squire
    Towers
    Training Dummy
    The DU cost is now 20, was previously 25.
    Bug Fixes
    Fixed an issue where a small group of player’s pets had invalid stats tied to them.
    Fixed an issue where Boom chips were functioning incorrectly.
    Fixed an issue for PS4 users getting kicked to the main menu, and having to restart the game to continue.
    Fixed an issue with inspecting items on the ground while playing splitscreen for PS4 and Xbox.
    Fixed an issue when inspecting defenses, it showed the stats of other defenses.
    Adjusted billboard focus size to make them easier to read.
    Destructive Pylon and Destruction interaction match the Destructive Pylon tooltip and no longer stack.
    Fixed an issue when going through incursions and getting put against Malthius.
    Updated drenching strikes to be affected by electrocute for the correct duration
    Fixed an issue with pathing in lanes that had translucent objects.
    Fixed an issue where water chip was sometimes not drenching enemies.
    Adjusted Vampiric Empowerment to show the correct stat boost on the individual tower inspect screen in the inventory.
    Fixed an issue where restarting Drakenfrost Keep produced one less core alive.
    The Haunting Shard now shoots ghosts on secondary attacks.
    Fixed an issue with Ogres teleporting on the far east lane of The Lost Temple.
    Fixed an issue with non-leader members of a party get a bad error message when matchmaking.
    Changed the schedules on Drakenfrost Keep on Chaos VI and VII in Expeditions.
    Boom mods should now work on everything they’re equipped to.
    Fixed a framerate drop on Xbox when interacting with enemy schedule billboard.
    Fixed an issue on PS4 where the menu level music played during the video intro.
    Fixed an issue on comparing/inspecting items in the inventory if they are not equippable for the current selected hero.
    Removed an Auto Sort checkbox on the Tinkering UI.
    Tweaked the VFX for the Accumulator Servo to show the AoE effect.
    Fixed an issue on Sacrificial Warden adventure when using a controller/gamepad.
    Fixed an issue for a very small subset of users that caused an issue when coming back from a long break that had them temporarily stuck on Greystone Plaza.
    Adjusted how Diminishing Return buffs were calculated with different types of debuffs.
    Adjusted the difficulty of Forest Crossroads, Liferoot Forest, and Betsy during the campaign to be easier.
    Added elemental effects to weapons dropped during the New User Experience.
    Adjusted the pickup radius for Primary Reroll and Mod Reroll materials.
    Fixed an issue on gamepads/controllers with focus while rerolling Mods/Primary stats.
    Known Issues
    Some sources of fire damage from Shards/Mods are not lighting torches correctly on Drakenfrost Keep.
    If you are not able to use Communities, restart the game to get back into them.
    Consecutive Win Bonus and Replay From Wave can fail, currently getting a fix ready.
    Replaying from Wave on Drakenfrost Keep and winning can result in not receiving the special Frost weapons.
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  20. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,

    We’ve been hard at work trying to get our first patch out to you all that has some additional goodies. We’re looking to make good on our word, providing our early supporters with some rewards and options to look stylish as well as play with newer Defenders much easier. Let’s just get right into it!
    New Content and Features For Early Supporters
    Shadow Costumes
    Shadow Costumes have been added for anyone who purchased Dungeon Defenders: Awakened before the 1.0 launch. We will be handing them out automatically in the next few days.
    Legacy Transfer Tool
    We’ve added a Legacy to Play transfer tool. This tool has a one time use that replaces your Play data (heroes, gear, and progression) with a modified version of your Legacy data (heroes, gear, and progression). This is what happens when you use this tool:
    Delete any characters and gear obtained through Play. Transfer your Legacy characters and gear to Play. Reset all Legacy gear upgrades. Refund the gold spent on upgrades to a bank cap of 300 Billion. Apply 1.0 balanced max upgrade levels on your gear. Disable further play on Legacy. We initially announced this tool would be available to players for a week, but have since decided to provide it up until our next big update that brings Massacre Survival and some other unannounced goodies. We’ll be getting a roadmap out for our updates and general plans as part of our continued transparency efforts, but this should extend the period for this tool by several weeks, giving Legacy players plenty of time to get their saves over. This is only available to those with Legacy profiles.
    Updates
    Chicken Soccer Mini-game added to VIP Tavern. Players now Auto-Reject Hacker Join requests, and must be manually disabled via the options menu. Spawn Protection System added so you cannot be killed immediately upon respawning. Bosses in Massacre drop unique weapons. Let the hunt begin! Tavern visuals updated slightly. Keybinding improvements which include the ability to bind Shift and Alt to any action. Hover descriptions on the various selections located on the main menu. Balance
    Demon Lord fireball projectile speed reduced on lower difficulties. Glitterhelm Ogres spawn timers adjusted so they don't take a minute to spawn after the last enemy spawns.\ Bug Fixes
    Fixed most cases when you sell all as a client with a large number of items in the inventory you would be kicked. Fixed an issue causing the hero deck to open up when using the letter H in the chat box. Fixed an issue where start from wave 15 is locked instead of wave 14. Fixed some collision issues on Endless Spires. Fixed an issue where Lava Mines Pure Strategy is missing its mana drops during waves. Fixed an issue where pets don't face forward on 3 maps. Fixed a missing string table under the block category. Fixed an issue where the Redeem Code would always be successful as it was telling you that it was successful in running the redeem code code. Fixed an issue where Trophies can not be seen by clients. Fixed an issue where Darkness traps are failing to remove the visuals of elemental buff an enemy has, the trap itself is working as intended though. Fixed an issue where the Demon Lord gets stuck while flying. Fixed an issue where enemies were getting stuck in the air in the Alchemical Labs challenge. Fixed an issue where you can't scroll to the last option in the Gameplay Tab in the Options UI. Fixed an issue where VFX are turning off and on randomly in lower graphical settings. Fixed an issue where Mixed Mode maps don't display how to unlock. Fixed an issue where campaign pets can drop with no quality on Massacre. Fixed an issue where Enemies are spawning in the larger part of Lava Mines on lower difficulties. Fixed an issue where shooting the Blacksmith makes him fall under the ground for clients. Fixed an issue where some achievements were being granted when they shouldn't be. Fixed an issue where the Chicken didn't want to attack Training Dummies. Fixed some locations where Localization would break the value fields. Fixed an issue where enemies are spawning outside Arcane Library and getting stuck there. Fixed an issue where Glitterhelm Wave 6 Campaign Massacre doesn't have a build timer. Fixed an issue where a last wave award notification would be stuck on screen during the next build phase. Fixed an issue where certain enemies were spawning on Tornado Highlands Pure Strategy that shouldn't be on Nightmare difficulty. Fixed an issue where enemies are leaving their lanes on Royal Gardens. Fixed an issue where the Squire Level-Up sound would be played twice. Fixed an issue where Ping icons would be scaling up to high. Fixed some very inaccurate translations, big translation patch coming up later. Fixed an issue where map progression wasn't unlocking if you beat the map with a friend even though it showed you completed the map. Fixed an issue where attack speed comparison was incorrect for weapons under 1.0 attack speed. Fixed the Siren missing on Royal Gardens and Glitterhelm billboards. Fixed the Siren appearing on billboards she shouldn't be on. Fixed an issue where Skeletons can exist until the end of the universe. Fixed a spot in Glitterhelm where players could get stuck behind a crystal. Fixed it where Players could get out of Glitterhelm map's intended playable area and specific places only the huntress could reach. Fixed an issue where clients would still have the red effect for low health despite being healed back to full until they take damage again. Fixed an issue where Towers can be built in the ceiling in Glitterhelm. Fixed performance issues appearing while viewing the hero in the UI on lower quality settings. Fixed a spot where the Huntress could get outside of the Ramparts map. Fixed an issue where in multiplayer after losing a map there's an award with no text and 0 that sticks on the screen. Fixed an issue where Goblin Copters don't spawn in their correct ordered spawn sequence. Fixed an issue where a Massacre weapon was dropping from the Demon Lord on Insane difficulty that wasn’t intended. Fixed a specific crash for clients trying to use a disabled ability in Challenge mode that were disabled outside of cooldown. Fixed a specific crash for the host while a client was in the hero customization screen. Fixed a specific crash for when clients timeout from the host. Fixed a specific crash for the client if they equip gear shortly before the host returns to the tavern. Fixed multiple rare but random crashes. Known Issues
    If you go into Legacy first before using the Transfer Tool, you may need to restart DD:A before the Transfer Tool will work properly. Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums Keep an eye out for more info!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  21. [CG] LAWLTA
    A red spaceship has arrived in Etheria!  Dragonfall guards have questioned a small robot that says his name is “Protobot.” After a brief examination, Protobot hands a mysterious letter to the guards. Let’s open it and see what it says:

    Greetings Defenders!
    I thought everyone could benefit from one of my more recent discoveries that I’ve made in my research, my new Shrink-o-matizing technology!  It really was just a simple matter of combining a crystal core with the matter quantizing array. This allows all sorts of items and materials to be stored at a much smaller size than before! This is only one of the many new item transmorphications that I plan on making.
    I do hope that Protobot is in good health and did not damage anything upon his arrival. He’s had some slight malfunctions in his navigational subroutines recently, but his Shrink-o-matizer is in perfect condition! You can trust your items to be protected and stored properly upon the Vault Ship.
    I can’t wait to arrive in Dragonfall to share all of my latest research with all of you. I simply was held up making some last minute adjustments to my latest creation, the Robo-witch Prime!  Or was it Mecha-witch? Gunda-witch? Don’t worry, I’ll figure out what I’m calling it and head right over! I can’t wait to share all my latest findings with everyone! The Old Ones won’t know what hit them!
    Sincerely,
    Professor Sebastian Proteus

    Patch 2.4 crash landed into the Dragonfall Marketplace today and is now live! This patch brings a highly requested feature in the form of a shiny spaceship — The Sky City Bank! With the bank’s arrival come some tremendous improvements to load times, optimizations, and bug fixes. Let’s get into it!
    Sky City Bank


    The Sky City Bank is now available! This futuristic bank is located directly behind the Emporium in Town, or next to the training dummies in your Private Tavern. The bank is used to store items that you want to hold onto, but don’t necessarily need on your journeys throughout Etheria.
    For starters, every player gets at least one Bank Vault for free right when they login. This means if you only have the default inventory space, you now have that same default inventory space AND a Bank Vault upon logging in!
    For people that purchased the old Inventory Packs or the Bag Booster Pack are going to notice a shift in their inventory. Bags obtained through those packs that go over eight Inventory Bags become Bank Vaults with this patch. Previously it confused players when they saw other players with ten or eleven bags, when they could only have eight. Because of this, we are standardizing inventory bags.
    The change looks like this:

    Pre-Patch 2.4
    8-11 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags
    0 Bank Vaults

    Post-Patch 2.4
    8 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags
    12 Bank Vaults
    FREE Sky City Bundle


    To celebrate the Sky City Bank’s arrival, we are offering a FREE bundle that you can redeem from the in-game shop for 0 Gems. This bundle awards:
    One additional Bank Vault!
    Shutter Shades Flair!
    By redeeming the free bundle, you are able to start off Patch 2.4 with at least two free Bank Vaults! This bundle is available for two weeks, so grab it while it’s here!
    Stack Splitting
    This patch brings the ability to split stackable items into different stacks and amounts. For instance, if there’s a stack of 99 pet food in your inventory, you can now break it down into two or more stacks of whatever size you choose. Want to keep some items on you, but store the rest of the stack in the bank? Now you can do that! Stacks on stacks on stacks.

    Transfer All
    Now that the Sky City Bank is open for business, moving items quickly to the bank is a must. You can now move an entire bag full of items with one button press. The “Transfer All” button moves all non-locked items in the bag you currently have selected into the Bank Vault that you have selected. You can move Locked Items as well, they are just done individually. “Transfer All” also automatically stacks any stackable items so you don’t have to!
    Load Time Improvements
    Patch 2.4 contains an emphasis on inventories. Our Lead Programmer looked into ways our inventories could be better to really add some “oomph” to this patch. After investigating how profiles saved, loaded, and handled inventories, we made a lot of improvements when loading into any part of the game! Some players are going to notice drastic load time decreases, while others may notice slightly quicker loads.
    General Changes
    Pets
    When at the Hatchery, eggs can be hatched directly. No more drag and dropping or incubating!


    Visuals
    Tower Inspect UI updated for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (PC already has this).
    Zapper Kobold Flier now has a red outline.
    Made Lavamancer Weapon drops larger, something hot now looks cooler.
    Mana Node received some visual improvements.
    Slight tweaks to some of the Barbarian’s Accessories.
    Minor adjustments to the Barbarian’s whirlwind.
    Blacksmith’s shop no longer has a confirmation pop-up for purchases.
    War Table Cybork info now includes that they disable nodes.
    Bug reporting page received updated buttons.

    Audio
    New audio cue for Wave Complete!
    Betsy fight sequence in Dragonfall Bazaar received updated sound cues.
    Added and improved on Berserker Orcs during the Glitterhelm matinee.
    Hero Changes
    Dryad
    Corrupt Form
    When building a tower in Corrupt Form, towers now gain the Corrupt benefits when placed.
    Slime Pit Tower
    No longer slow enemies that are immune to slow. Berserker orcs aren’t afraid of slimes!
    Huntress

    Shards
    Explosive Poison
    The shard is now working correctly, spreading poison if a poisoned enemy dies.
    Shards
    Inspiration
    Can no longer be equipped to the Abyss Lord or EV2
    Bug Fixes
    Fixed an issue where EV2’s Proton Charge could produce higher than intended damage while gaining zero heat.
    Fixed an issue with the Barbarian’s Leap preventing resource decay.
    Fixed an issue where the Flamethrower Tower’s VFX did not get larger when defense range was increased.
    Fixed an issue where Auto-Equip Relics did not work on the first press.
    Fixed an issue where Chaos 3 Shard Packs were not on the Emporium.
    Fixed an issue when comparing equipment on the Squire.
    Fixed an issue where the Barbarian could get out of bounds in The Throne Room.
    Fixed an issue where the Sub-Cores are on the incorrect sides in The Throne Room.
    Adjusted the Dryad Starfall resource cost so it no longer overlaps.
    Fixed an issue that allowed parties to play the tutorial maps (we are looking into letting parties into these maps down the road).
    Fixed an issue that caused an infinite loading screen. Please let us know if you experience them after this update.
    Removed the ability to auto-equip when in the Portal.
    Fixed a bug where multiple towers could be placed simultaneously. May look into adding a stable version of this down the road.
    Fixed an issue where several weapons were not consistently dropping in the world without their vfx visible.
    Fixed an issue where the Lavamancer VFX would appear on some maps when using the Barbarian Leap.
    Fixed an issue where the champion crowns were not properly rotated on hero cards.
    Updated an issue where golden eggs would show up as a regular egg in several places.
    Fixed an issue where purchasing the last item in the list from the Blacksmith or Relic Hunter shop using a controller causes the list to lose focus.
    Fixed an issue where several items in the blacksmith shop were displaying improperly.
    Fixed an issue where item comparison was not working for equipped items.
    Removed references to the shards being equipped on the sell all message.
    Equippable is now spelled correctly in the shard folder when you have no shards available for the gear slot. Stay in school kids.
    Removed a reference to the old pet bag when trying to hatch an egg with a full inventory.
    Fixed a visual issue where a large number of shards displayed the current upgrade level is in the wrong location on the tooltip.
    Quest Complete pop-up will now say Daily Mission completed when completing a Daily Mission.
    Attempting to equip a shard to an invalid tower slot throws either unknown error, or no error. Now has a valid error string.
    Fixed an issue on XB1 where sub-core icons were not being removed after losing a sub-core.
    The Sky City Bank is the first arrival for something much larger coming to Etheria. Over the next couple months we are going to be actively discussing the new features coming with our next expansive update. For more information sources as we post updates, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (doing so also gets you the Pirate Monk and Academy Apprentice skins for free):
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    We’re still tinkering away to get some gigantic changes to Dungeon Defenders II that we think you’re really going to enjoy. More information coming soon!
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  22. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS!
    Our next update, the Defender-Centric Update, is upon us! This update contains a whole lot of love to a lot of foundational systems within Dungeon Defenders II. These changes are based off of feedback many of you have provided, and as Chromatic, we wanted to really give our GLORIOUS Defenders something that demonstrated how much we value our community. Without further ado, let's get into it!
    SHARD SHOP
    Shards are such an integral part to Dungeon Defenders II when it comes to empowering your heroes with great strength to take out the waves of enemies constantly thrown at you. Currently there is a lot of RNG regarding which shards you get, and to help cut down the randomness, farming lower tiered content is the easiest way to go.
    We don’t want that. We want you playing content you find engaging, while being able to acquire the Shards you want. With this update, you can! We're adding in the Shard Shop, a service that the Gran Ma'ster now offers. Visiting her allows you to purchase Shards directly from her, from Campaign to Chaos VII. There is also search functionality so you can search for the Shard you want and cut down the hunt!
    CHAOS VIII SHARDS
    Chaos VIII Shards are a new tier of shard, that some of you may have snagged before. We went through and found a way to make these shards feel like a good reward for climbing higher Onslaught, and have them compete with similar Shards. You can get them after a certain point in Onslaught, similar to when you start receiving Chaos VIII Ampoules.
    MATERIAL CONVERSION
    We want players enjoying Ancient Power as much as they can, and our big goal was making sure that Defenders could play content they found engaging, while working towards a specific goal. Enter Material Conversion. Material Conversion allows you to take a Pristine quality material and convert it to the same type of material of a lower quality. This makes it so that if you are climbing Onslaught, or playing higher Chaos, you're always gaining usable materials to acquire Ancient Power.
    That's not all though! As you play Chaos VII and above, you can take your Chaos VII Ampoules and convert them into CHAOS VIII AMPOULES! We want players upgrading and getting Chaos VIII gear, so this is a step towards making that process feel good and not entirely beholden to RNG.
    NEW WEAPONS
    One thing that we love is the ability to customize the heroes in Dungeon Defenders II. Weapons are part of the epic-ness (or silliness) that can really show off your own personal taste. This update provides over 30 NEW Weapons that are currently unobtainable. These weapons are gained by climbing through different tiers of Onslaught. The higher you go, the more epic the weapons become! There's a ton to hunt down, and if you happen to get the same weapon repeatedly, no worries — you can trade it to your friends!
    NEW ELEMENTAL DAMAGE — POISON!
    Poison Mods in the form of Chips are coming with this update. Poison can be applied to weapons to give them an additional damage over time effect. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! If earth damage is dealt to a poisoned enemy, they now become PETRIFIED, freezing them in place, turning them to stone, and causing their fellow enemies to attack them
    SOCIAL DEFENDERS
    To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Discord
    Twitch
    The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  23. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    As you're aware, we’ve got a lot of work going on currently, and today we want to talk about a more serious subject and what we’re currently doing. We’re just going to jump right into it.
    COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease) Response
    As this virus has spread and became recognized as a pandemic, it is important that we do our part as a studio in helping reduce the spread and effects. Last week and towards the end of the previous week, we began efforts to become an entirely remote studio. The greater part of this week, and continuing on, we’re still working out the kinks and making sure everyone is able to continue working, adapt meetings, and more. Outside of doing our part to stave off the virus, our goal is to make sure that our employees are safe, healthy, and set up to work as comfortably as possible.
    We’re still continuing to hit our intended milestones. The Etherian Cavalry received their first round of testing this weekend, tearing apart Nightmare to help us polish and address any large issues before releasing our March Update “Summoning the Demon Lord”. Having to mobilize our entire studio has definitely eaten up a fair amount of time, but we’re currently on track to still hit our milestones as outlined on our roadmap. If this should change, we will be sure to let you, our GLORIOUS Defenders know about it. We want to get this game out to you in the best state as soon as possible, but when it comes down to it, we will not sacrifice the safety and health of our employees to do so. We’re people just like you, there are things that are out of our control that we have to adapt and overcome to the best of our ability. We appreciate your support and understanding in the coming months.
    Please make sure to do your part in helping out throughout these tough times. If you are unaware of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), or have any questions, please visit the CDC’s Coronavirus Page for more information on symptoms and how to help prevent the spread. Stay safe out there!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums Keep an eye out for more info!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
  24. [CG] LAWLTA
    




    Greetings Defenders

    Today we announce the next chapter of Dungeon Defenders II, the Power of the Ancients Expansion, releasing next month! Within our Expansion are some legendary additions to the game:
    Onslaught, our new game mode that is your main focus of progression.
    Ancient Power, our new character progression that allows you to push the limits as defenders and increase your strength.
    The Lost Temple, our new HUGE map that changes its layout every time you attempt to conquer it.
    Defender Packs, a new way to unlock unique flair, costumes, and pets.
    And much more!
    We are going to be revealing more Power of the Ancients info soon, and talking about Power of the Ancients on our Devstream this Friday at 3PM EST! To give insight into what we’ve been working on, we’re having some of our epic developers chime into the work they’ve put into Power of the Ancients, experiences throughout our development process, as well as what we’re most hyped about! Let’s get started:

    Alec Saare, Community Manager (Lawlta)
    For those of you who don’t know me from our different social platforms, I’m Community Coordinator turned Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders II. My focus has been taking all the feedback that you, our courageous, strong, glorious community, have provided to help make sure that Power of the Ancients is a behemoth of an expansion that you all want to conquer. This means taking your feedback and wants, meeting with designers, discussing the things that defenders enjoy, molding our new content to the things you enjoy, and then testing the beastly content that is created. You’re in for a wild ride!
    Onslaught provides something for everyone to enjoy, from those who have just completed campaign, to the grizzled veterans of Chaos Trials 7. The progression feels so incredibly solid and polished. You steadily get gear and shards that are improvements as you progress. Trials now drop MORE gear and shards than before, making them more rewarding for taking on harder enemies sooner than you would in Onslaught. You can choose to progress through Trials to unlock Onslaught floors, or through Onslaught floors to unlock Trials, which just feels great having the option to go between the two and still progress. On top of this you also can increase your Ancient Power (a new form of character progression), which just offers a slew of benefits and choices that provide meaningful character advancement.
    Besides putting time into our new expansion, I’m constantly working on ways to make our community a better place to be. I’ll be rolling out some new initiatives to make our social spaces an even better place to interact with one another; give our streamers a single banner to fly under, transparent requirements, maybe even some incentives; and everything I can to spotlight the greatness that is the Dungeon Defenders II community. There’s more to come soon!

    Colin Fisher, Associate Producer (Elandrian)
    FINALLY.  I’ve probably been teasing most of our players for too long about our new “end-game mode” and “update” that we’re working on, but now I can finally talk about it!  Huzzah!  It’s not just a “game expanding update” anymore… It’s an expansion.
    I remember a day, where I was just a baby armchair developer, playing the old version of Onslaught, wishing for checkpoints and some sort of save system that would keep my progress.  Whelp, I wish I could say those were the “good ol’ days”, but this new version of that game mode is far beyond anything I could have expected.
    We’ve taken several pain points of gameplay that players have been experiencing and kicked them to the curb!  Facing off against the same enemies every map and the build never changes? CURBED. Tired of smart loot being weird? CURBED. Wanted more things to do in the game, but Trials was the only option? CURBED?  (DISCLAIMER: Trials is still an option, but we tried to make Onslaught a better option. I mostly just wanted to use the “kicking to the curb” analogy but it may not have been the right choice.  The aforementioned “CURBED” features still exist in the game in the Trials game mode, we’re just building future content in a better way.)
    To give a really quick “Elandrian’s TL;DR” set of bullet points about this expansion:
    Onslaught is a brand new game mode that completely changes our end game progression and is nothing like the previous version of Onslaught.
    Onslaught features new loot progression that makes sense.  Higher Floor Number = Higher Loot Stat Numbers.
    Onslaught features enemies and modifiers that will make your defense different each time.
    Onslaught will save which floors you were able to beat, you can then immediately play the next floor in your progression.
    Ancient Power is a way to do a limited reset on your account but keep progressing over time.
    The new map is unreal.  You’ll have different lanes and cores each time you load in.
    We’ll go over the specifics about each feature in future Devstreams and posts, so make sure to stay tuned for more specifics! You could also probably join our Remote Playtesting Group, sign an NDA, and check out the new content early, but I’m sure Dani will mention that below!

    John Muscarella, Lead Animator (Muskie4242)
    Howdy defenders.  It’s been a while.  
    This milestone the animation team has been pretty focused on some very ambitious cinematics to announce our awesome release. Hope you enjoyed them. As well as an in-game event piece that you end game players will be seeing very soon...
    There is a lot more to come, but until then, please enjoy one of my favorite cosmetic flairs we’ve been working on over here.


    Creepy right? Almost like it’s going to reach out and grab you…

    Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead ([[25251,users]])

    Our testing teams have been hard at working getting Onslaught up and going, and we’re ready to expand testing to our Remote Playtesting Group to get our community feedback and gut checks before we push for release.
    Our playtesters are great folks and have helped make our releases better. If you want to get early access to Onslaught in exchange for giving us feedback and helping us iron out issues before release, we want you! 

    If you are 18 or over (sorry you need to sign our NDA so we can’t bend on this rule) and wish to help (PC only help for now, sorry console bros!), email me dani.moore(at)trendyent.com and let me know. We’re hoping to start testing this week, so you’ll want to be there when we do!

    Steven Collins, Level Designer (Esorath)
    Holy frick, this map was a challenge and a half. This isn’t your grandpappy’s old Dungeon Defenders II level.
    Since there are so many different possibilities that can happen in this game mode, I wanted to be really intentional with everything this map has to offer. We ran through scenarios and tests as to what combinations of the different Onslaught elements could appear and made sure that these combinations came together in a meaningful manner.
    When the lanes open and cores are different each time, you get to have a different experience with different core and lane combinations. These two things working alongside the enemy modifiers make this one of the top experiences for Dungeon Defenders II.


    Mark Telfer, Technical Designer (TrendyMark)
    Hey Defenders!
    I can’t tell you how fun it has been to watch all of you play Mastery each week, and I am incredibly grateful for the positive feedback you’ve given me. I’m still hard at work revamping the loot generation system (it’s going to make sense, dammit) and designing out some new and exciting things coming in the future. I can’t wait to see the final weeks of Mastery and to watch you guys conquer Onslaught and beyond!
    Love,
    Mark


    Zack Smith, 3D Artist 
    My first thought when looking at the concepts for the Onslaught expansion was, “whoa! I get to create these amazing concepts in 3D?!” I was very excited to create a variety of the 3D models and textures for the Onslaught Expansion. I enjoyed creating a wide range of assets ranging from a dragon to a tiling floor texture. The goal was to create a look that was mysterious, fun, and vibrant with bold colors.


    Jose Villegas, Technical Designer (TrendyJose)
    Hey Everyone!
    My name Jose and I’m a Technical Designer here at Trendy. Over the past couple of milestones, I have been working as the designer for the new Onslaught game mode. It has been a long and tiring endeavor, but we are so happy to finally have reached the point where you can see what we made for you.
    Let me go over a few points to give you insight on our expectations for Onslaught and the immediate future of DD2. For this I need to go back to the somewhat-distant past of March 2017 and the release of Trials. While we enjoyed what Trials provided to the game, as a recurring game mode, it was evident that we needed a true end game with a longer life, and clearer progression.
    This led us into thinking about how to create a new game mode that will keep you engaged with exciting content and challenges, regardless of how much time you put into the game. Onslaught, at its core, is just that: an ever-increasing challenge that will grow alongside the player, for as long as they want.
    The main obstacle in front of us to achieve this goal was how to ensure a satisfying replayable experience. The immediate answer for us was the enemy selection, and how to mix them effectively. So far, every game mode in DD2 has run the same enemy types in each lane whenever you load into a map. However, for Onslaught, each lane will have different enemies coming through them. For example, one lane may have Cyborks and the other one may have Vanguard Goblins. That means that the same build will not work in every situation, and you will have to react independently to each lane. We gave each schedule of enemies a distinctive name, which you can use to strategize and share your best builds online on how to counter them.
    As a secondary way to achieve replayability, we are bringing back enemy Mutators with full force. In the past, Mutators are modifiers that have been used to affect the performance of a given lane. A few months ago, I asked people in the forums to give me ideas for exciting new Mutators, and they did not disappoint. I’m pleased to say we have made roughly 35 new Mutators, all of them impacting gameplay in many ways. None of them are going to be boring flat number increases, but our goal was to provide you with fun challenges to overcome. In fact, some Mutators act as double-edge swords for the enemies by making them stronger in some way, but weaker in another.
    Finally, the best example of Onslaught’s replayability lies in the new map we made for it: The Lost Temple. The Lost Temple is the biggest DD2 map yet, with 30 lanes and 10 cores! Of course, these are not going to be all open at the same time, but different lane/core combinations will be selected each time you play it.
    Alongside replayability, our priority from Design was to help clarify the game’s gear progression. For this we are dividing Onslaught into Floors that will guide players in an upwards ladder of power progression and enemy difficulty increase. No longer will you have to worry about whether or not you should be playing a given Chaos difficulty to progress effectively, you now can just simply play the next floor in Onslaught and you will know you are on the right track.
    My job was to design, balance, and work on the implementation of all the systems that I have talked about in this log. Anyway, I think I wrote way too much already. I don’t use twitter, but you can reach me on the official Discord. I hope you will enjoy all the exciting content we are preparing for you in the expansion =).

    More Info Soon
    We'll be talking more about Power of the Ancients over the next few weeks. To make sure you get the most up-to-date information, check out our social media platforms:
    Facebook Twitter Discord Also visit our Devstream this Friday at 3PM EST on Twitch, where we'll be showing off some Power of the Ancients goodness.
    As always, we are incredibly grateful for the support that you, our glorious community, provide us. Get ready to dive deep into Onslaught, it’s going to be here before you know it!
    For Etheria!
    The Dungeon Defenders II Team
  25. [CG] LAWLTA
    DEFENDERS,
    We’re giving an update on where we are currently with the SUMMONING THE DEMON LORD update, bringing the Demon Lord boss fight, as well as the much anticipated Nightmare difficulty! There’s been a lot of hard work put into this build, and we want to give you a timeline on when you can expect this update. Let’s get into it!
    Feedback
    As many of you know, we recently launched the Etherian Cavalry as the testing group for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Some of these players are some of the most hardcore in the community, with some people being slightly more casual to help give us a broader understanding of how all our hardwork lands with a variety of players.
    We received some really great feedback from our first round of testing, and as a result are adding in some things to help smooth out the experience. For example:
    In Dungeon Defenders (2011), all of the Nightmare enemies spawned on the first level, without offering an explanation as to what they did.  In DD:A, after tremendous feedback from our testers, we’re going to be altering that a bit and introducing enemies one by one, while also providing in-game explanations for what the enemies are, and some tips on how to play against them. There’s a slew of improvements and changes that we’re bringing into this patch as a result of their feedback so that it’s the best experience for everyone. There’s a lot more than this coming in this update, just too much to list here.
    Release
    “WHEN ARE WE GETTING THIS PATCH!?” Our original plan was to have it out today, but currently we want to spend a couple more days to polish it up, as we added quite a bit based on the feedback you provided. We’re planning on having this update be available on Thursday, April 2nd. We’ll provide more specifics on the time as it is ready.  We’ll be watching if there are any issues you all run into and addressing them as soon as possible.
    As previously outlined in our COVID-19 post, a large chunk of time has been taken out of our tight development cycle due to converting the studio into a fully remote workplace, as well as making sure our employees are able to stay healthy and safe. This is unfortunately one of those areas that is getting affected by our efforts to put the safety of our studio first. Trying to get this update out during such a tumultuous time was a challenge for us, and while we are going to be a couple days late, we’re very proud of what we are able to accomplish and can’t wait for you to get your hands on it!
    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:
    Discord Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch Forums Keep an eye out for more info!To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
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