So is anyone still playing this post-nerf? I’m curious as to the impact over time.
I have been, but I wasn’t far enough along for it to impact much.
It’s mostly annoying. Like Apothecaries weren’t especially good before, now they get a single heal without levels and upgrades? Wow, super exciting. As I advance it gets better as more options open up, but making the already somewhat annoying early game more annoying is… probably not a great idea.
And no sign of the Devs taking the complaints seriously and consider a revision of the patch? It’s always hard to judge how widespread fan dissatisfaction on something like this is and what sort of impact it will have. I’ve very dissatisfied, and the devs did notice when I posted my negative review, but my one voice is just that.
I’d be perfectly fine with them just rolling back the balance changes full stop, and then indicating they will do a future fix on the stun/AP issue for the highest difficulties (or both at once). But as it is they reduced the most fun stuff and that’s stopping me from giving the game another go.
Patch 4 today with some small fixes and a little reversion of the balancing from last patch.
Still no fix for the infinite construction bug so I have not played it since. They are aware of the bug but no timeline for a fix.
I have, and I find the changes not as bad as players say:
Stun has become almost unusable for me early on, but I could pull it out by casting stun biomancy on someone else then my interceptor, because he kills things too fast, and using a +stun on psybolt bolter and the justicar charge, but it ended up not being very efficient.
The poor apothecary jar been benched since, but now that I have a Paladin, maybe he’ll be able to do it.
My issue is that I’d rather have them cap the AP gains through execution than make it so unwieldly (you cannot stun early, and late game, because opponents will drop before getting stun, and you kind of have too after because opponents have too many HP otherwise).
I still don’t get why they nerfed the Apothecary, which was arguably the weakest of the starting classes. Maybe he can now team with the Paladin to stun buff him, but his issue is that he has no easy way to replenish willpower, and most of his tree does nothing.
Psilencers purgators are still good, but I benched the Psi cannon one, and didn’t miss him after he was gone for good in an event.
I launched this on a whim this morning, I picked it up from Fanatical a few days ago for $38 because every bit of footage I’ve seen (plus @ShivaX is into it and he’s a good barometer for games I’ll enjoy) is very cool. I really like the look. Though I was going to hold off until I got closer to my second Wrath of the Righteous play through wrapping up, I just hit Act 4 there and thought “this might be a good game to bounce back and forth between with” so we’ll see.
Anyway, I just wanted to stop by to talk about the incredible tutorial - I really was blown away by the visuals and sound design, but the gameplay seems really, really good so far. The combat and enemies in just the tutorial were interesting and fun. I am also one that normally turns action cams off completely, but on a whim I set them to “sometimes” and I really am glad I did - they hit really well when they trigger (I don’t think Always would be a good idea though). Great tutorial, cool set piece and a fun way to set up the campaign while quickly teaching the basics.
I also noticed there is a codex/rulebook in the game menu which I really appreciate, as well. I’m excited to dive into this over the weekend and see where it takes me.
I’ll be very interested to see what your arc of play is like. This is a game I really wanted to like but which didn’t click with me at first. I want to get back to it one day when it’s on sale and they’ve finished tweaking it.
Finished my campaign today (on Relentless difficulty).
It’s not usually my preference for games to balance a severely OP player team by throwing loads and loads of enemies at them, but it works well enough here. And it’s nice not to have the XCOM early game where one lucky shot can kill one of your soldiers.
The decreased number of dice rolls (crit chance and power activation are still rolls, and can be very significant) helps to bring the tactics to the fore. Acting against that, it’s still optimal to kill everything on the same turn it activates / spawns if you possibly can. Setting yourself up to do that, a lot of the battles become pretty easy and can feel samey. And then along comes a set-piece story mission and shakes things up significantly. Sometimes that can feel a bit cheap due to effectively changing the rules, but overall the set-pieces are a lot of fun. The final battle in particular is something to be experienced.
I have a number of quibbles with the game (some balance complaints, some irritating bugs, some things not explained particularly well). I’m definitely in the “it should be more difficult” camp, but if it poses interesting tactical questions, I don’t mind too much if there’s little risk of failure. If I play again, I’ll go up to top difficulty and remove all the pre-order / free bonus stuff.
Overall I’m pretty impressed and I’m glad it’s doing well for itself and its relatively small studio. (Full disclosure: received the game for free due to links to the publisher, but I don’t feel under any pressure to write positively about my experience.)
I like this so far. I got this after the balance changes, so I don’t know how the game used to play, but the rarity of the +AP special move seems fine. WH40K: Mechanicus made it too easy to optimize your soldiers into perpetual murder machines and it made the game boring.
Good point, I didn’t miss this at all.
Yeah. I gotta wonder why we’re still doing enemy pod management in 2022. The game has great quality of life features for this – showing you the location of every pod, reloading your weapons and actions after a wipe – but it feels so gamey. I hate leapfrogging my guys closer to a group so I’m in a good position if I accidentally trigger them.
If the developer’s intention is for us to have a series of small battles, why not automate away the crawling across the map? Give me a tactical overworld, reduce the number of rote actions I need to take.
Yeah, that’s something that Chimera Squad did really well.
I guess the real reasons are so you can accidentally trigger another pod when two battles are quite close together, and so the destructible terrain can potentially carry over sensibly from one pod to the next.
It does lead to a lot of gamey moments though.
I presume this is why enemies don’t immediately attack when discovered (it’s not like you have to be in cover for safety). I suppose it might be nice if you could move as a unit, but that would limit your ability to take multiple approaches before a battle starts.
Yeah, but the optimal position is always to have your guys 1 square outside of the line of sight, so they don’t have to waste actions moving up to the fight. Getting them there is busywork.
Like @rho21 said, Chimera Squad’s great about this. One fight is over, here’s your new fight, here are the places you can place your guys, go go go.
I want more Chimera Squad! That was a cool game.
Fairly substantial patch today. They un-nerfed the primary Apothecary healing ability, Battlefield Medicine, which is good. At least on reading the changes, it looks like some steps in a better direction. It’s only steps, maybe undoing 10% to 15% of the harm of the big nerf patch, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I’m curious as to impressions following this patch.
Leapfrogging makes sense though, as it is also how soldiers do sometimes progress.
Even after the balance patch, execution chains become a thing again late game, and the second half of the game is way too easy, even in legendary with some luck on the requisitionned items.
With the apothecary stun biomancy and the halberd of AoE force strike, my paladin can AoE stun most pods in two hits.
The pre-order hammer had also been unnerfed to its stun version, and you can find bolters that add stun.
I can destroy all pods in one turn, and the only the threats are the non willpower deeds.
The librarian mass teleport and AoE stun also help a lot on the action economy department.
They should let us select and move all as a unit or click to select and move individual units as needed. Also, let me tab over to a unit after I issue a move order, like I can in Xcom, so I don’t have to watch each character move into place one at a time, is one thing I miss.
They have done a great job patching up the initial issues. If you were waiting, now is probably a good time to jump in. I have about 60 hours in and probably 3/4 of the way. The story gets pretty good as the game goes on which I wasn’t expecting. I love tactics games, so I’m really enjoying this. Definitely missing a few QOL things that I would like to see, but overall still having fun with it.
If Jag says it’s good, it is probably time for me to pull the trigger on it!
There was one more patch, on June 15
Performance Improvements
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Optimisations have been made to some cinematics to increase FPS.
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Optimisations have been made to the Combat HUD and some enemy abilities, that will generally improve performance.
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Optimised cameras on the ship to help performance in some rooms, notably the Teleportarium, Barracks, Libris Malleus and Manufactorum.
Abilities & Stratagems
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Gate of Infinity is being used to make challenging missions into trivial encounters. This creates an issue around balancing missions and needs to be addressed to ensure the long term health of the game. To that end, we’ve made a slight cost adjustment to the Stratagem for all Grey Knights so that they will receive -1 AP upon use. This does not impact Gate of Infinity’s primary purpose of group mobility, but should make it less useful to over-simplify game challenges.
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Grey Knights using Crushing Charge (Justicar Ability) encountered issues when overcoming various terrain height differences. These have now been made much more forgiving, as well as the ability now also becoming immune to Autos.
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The Armour bonus provided by Defend Position (Paladin Ability) now consistently applies and remains until the end of the turn.
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Teleporting will now properly remove a Grey Knight from being under Suppressed fire.
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The tooltips for Teleport Swap and Arcane Weapons upgrades are now more clear on the ship.
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The Grey Knights’ ability panels will now properly update after using a Stratagem. In particular, this affected the Willpower Stratagems. Players will now immediately see that they can use their WP abilities again after using the Stratagem.
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Grey Knights currently affected by Arcane Weapons will now properly see targeting lines and damage predictions as normal.
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Adjusted the descriptions for Hammerhand and Astral Aim to display +100% Crit Chance instead of 100% Crit Chance. These abilities give an increase chance to crit, not a guarantee. Other factors, such as certain enemy defences, can lower the ability to crit even if these abilities are used.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Grey Knights who had Communed with the Fallen and had the Battle Prodigy or Devoted Practitioner Talents to get an incorrect number of Ability Points on level up. This will now affect future “level ups” but will not backdate to those previously affected.
Grey Knights
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If you acquire Garran Crowe with a full Barracks he will now have a portrait in the pop-up.
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Grey Knights will no longer animate running in place when interacting with Turrets. They will need to get their cardio from elsewhere.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Grey Knights to animate incorrectly after being grabbed by enemies and the game then being saved and loaded.
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Fixed an issue that could cause problems with the lettering customisation on Grey Knights wearing Mastercrafted Armour.
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Fixed an issue where players were unable to assign ability points to newly requisitioned Grey Knight from the Barracks.
Equipment
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Extractor Servo-Skulls will now properly work on large units.
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Promethean Spray will now properly explode all Plasma Batteries in its area. None are safe!
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The visual effects on Garran Crowe’s Black Blade of Antwyr is now consistent in and out of combat.
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When applying Endurance Biomancy with an Apothecarion Servo-Skull it will now properly apply the Purify effect.
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All Biomancy upgrades will now properly be applied when using an Apothecarion Servo-Skull.
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Scattershot will now properly target enemies that have broken cover.
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The Mastercrafted Psycannon Retribution will now properly play its visual effects when using Astral Aim.
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The proper visual and sound effects will now play when using Hammerhand with a Force Sword.
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Fixed an issue with the Apothecarion Servo-Skull that would make all Biomancies cost only 1WP instead of the normal amount.
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Fixed an issue where the Apothecarion Servo-Skull would not appear in the inventory when unlocked with Commune with the Fallen.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Servo-Skull range to be displayed incorrectly on the ship while wearing armour that increases Servo-Skull range.
Enemies
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Plague Marine AI has been improved when very far from Grey Knights.
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Plague Marine Hazard Spray targeting and behavior has been improved.
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Plague Marines will now appear in larger groups earlier in the game.
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A number of balance changes to Aeger the Benevolent have been implemented:
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Aeger’s Plague Flail damage increased to 7 (was 6)
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Aeger’s Plague Flail arc increased to 60 (was 45)
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Aeger’s Plague Flail has Afflict (Weakened, 100%, 2 Turns), (was Plagued (4 Turns))
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Rivers in Aeger fight now Afflict (Plagued, 100%, 2 Turns), (was Hobbled)
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Significant improvements made that will affect all AI movement decisions.
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Blightlord Champions will now properly cancel the actions of Grey Knights in Terminator armour that act or move within their defend area.
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After a Chaos Spawn’s Death Grip is disrupted, it will no longer steal a Grey Knight’s weapon.
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Groaned Poxwalkers summoned on Legendary difficulty will now properly have 2/2 health.
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Purify will now properly remove the Disable Ranged Weapons Affliction.
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Gnarlmaw Trees will no longer improperly knockback enemies when they shouldn’t.
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If Munificus gains too many statuses it will no longer overrun his status box in the Unit Info View screen.
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Eldar Turret healthbars will no longer stay on screen after being destroyed.
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Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock due to enemies trying to step out into unwalkable spaces.
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Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock when enemies were dying in the process of resisting a knockback.
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Fixed an issue that caused Malathian’s Summon Effigy ability to not correctly display its banner at the top of the screen.
Combat
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A new and substantial Combat HUD update has been added, which provides visual indicators as to which enemies and Grey Knights have Status Effects (i.e. Boons & Afflictions) active. This includes detailed icons with tooltips for the currently selected Grey Knight.
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Enemies will now appear on the same side as a Warp Portal when it is near a wall or barrier.
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Enemies will now also always appear near the Warp Portal they spawn from and not at the edge of the fog near the nearest Portal.
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The Glorious Deed “finish mission before x damage” will now properly count Bleed, Burning, and Plagued damage toward failing this deed.
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The Glorious Deed for “x kills” will now properly count the last kill made if it is also the last Bloomspawn needed for a Growing or Spreading Mission.
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Enemies in the fog will now properly take damage from AOE attacks that hit them.
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Overwatch will now work properly when enemies come through doorways or are forced into the Overwatch area. Overwatch will also now properly affect creatures that move/act in it if intervening terrain is destroyed.
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If an enemy has no valid body parts left to critical, players will no longer be taken into the Precision Targeting view to select a body part.
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Enemies that are not visible to the player (in fog) will no longer have a targeting line drawn to them.
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A few Growing maps were not properly scaling. The appropriate number of Lesser Bloomspawn will now spawn when a player encounters these maps in their campaign.
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A few statuses still had temporary or missing icons in some situations. These have been addressed.
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While mousing over HUD elements, players will no longer draw a movement path.
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If players plot a path through an aggroed enemy, that is in the fog, Grey Knights will no longer pass through them and will instead stop their movement next to the unit.
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Fixed issues with a few combat maps that could cause Grey Knights (usually wearing Terminator armour) to become stuck after teleporting.
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Fixed an issue that was causing Grey Knights not to count Bleed, Burning, and Plague damage when determining if they would be wounded after battle.
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Fixed an issue that could allow players to see some enemies that were spawned on the map during the intro cutscene.
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Fixed an issue that could cause enemies to become untargetable in specific locations during the Malathian fight.
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Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock if a player shot a bowl of fire directly into a wall.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Grey Knights to not properly appear during the second part of the Nexus mission.
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Fixed an issue where destroyed turrets could cause some saves to not properly load.
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Fixed an issue that could cause the mouse to be unable to move the camera after exiting Unit Info View.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Enemy tooltips to be blank for newly spawned enemies.
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Fixed an issue that could cause the Enemy Turn UI to stay on screen during the Player Turn.
The Baleful Edict
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An adjustment has been made to how maps are chosen to provide a greater variety in missions.
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Armoury of Titan Rewards will now favor weapons/armour of types that a player’s current Grey Knights are able to use (i.e. less likely to see Crozius when you don’t have a Chaplain).
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The Grandmaster Report was occasionally providing equipment players already had received, as rewards. Players will now always be provided with new equipment they don’t have.
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Ship movement arrows are now all uniform in size.
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The Travel button on the Planet Info screen will now always work.
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When selecting your team for the final battle, the dialog boxes will no longer be overlapped strangely when picking Grey Knights from the Barracks.
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If you defeat a Reaper, it will no longer remove missions of that strain type from your Star Map.
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Fixed a visual effect issue during the Cinematic: Research Complete.
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Fixed an issue that could cause the Grandmaster’s Report to lock if you Exterminatus has been used too many times. You can now use as many as you want but Vardan Kai will still be really mad.
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Fixed an issue that could cause Armoury rewards to display the incorrect rank of rewards when players have the insufficient Requisition.
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Fixed issues with missing or temp icons on the ship.
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Fixed display issues in the Manufactorum.
Events
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The Warp Storm Disturbance Event that offers the use of an Exterminatus will no longer use an armed Exterminatus if it is available.
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Events that are meant to Critically Wound or Wound a Grey Knight will now always properly Critically Wound or Wound that specific Grey Knight and never fail to apply the status.
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A weapon will no longer be left on the ground in the Barracks after the “A Paladin’s Quest” event.
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Fixed an issue that could cause a random Grey Knight to be affected by events in progress, if a save is loaded from several weeks before.
Game Menus
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Added Codex Entries for Suppressed and Overwatch.
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A New Update button has been added to the Main Menu to view new patch notes when there is an update.
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Keybinding controls to NumLock, PauseBreak, and ScrollLock will now properly display the keybind icon.
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Players will no longer be able to bring up the save/load menu when revealing new enemies.
Game Tutorials
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New Contextual Tutorials added for the first time encountering:
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Death Guard Ships
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Commune with the Fallen
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Swapping Grey Knights in the Teleportarium
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Added an additional visual callout for a movement step in the Kaedium Falls Tutorial.
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Added back some missing arrows during the Manufactorum Tutorial.
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Fixed an issue that could cause the Second Chance Seed Tutorial box to be cleared too quickly in some situations.
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Fixed an issue with the Loadout Tutorial using gamepad.
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Fixed an issue that would cause some Tutorial UI elements to overlap.
Audio
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Some Grey Knights and Enemies had missing or incorrect soundbites. These have been fixed.
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Apothecaries will no longer perform a soundbite when healing themselves.
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Castellan Crowe’s soundbites should now be at a similar volume level to that of the other Grey Knights.
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Blood river fire in the Kaedium Falls tutorial mission now sounds appropriately “flame-y”.
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Grenadier Cultist Timebombs now sound more like explosives.
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Bloodletter footstep sound effects have been improved.
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Grey Knights will no longer player the “take cover” sound effect while aiming Overwatch when in cover.
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Adjusted the sound mix for Phosphex Bomb Hazards as they were too loud.
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Adjusted the sound level of Erekhul’s flying sound effects.
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Fixed issues with sound and visual effects in a few cinematics and event holograms
Localization
- Fixed a a number of minor text and grammar issues in various languages.
but from that point onwards, it seems they forgot about the game. No new updates since that date.
What’s the final opinion on it, if any?
