And now, I present v2.5.0 - the Balance update. If you read my update log after v2.4, you might notice a slight change of plans. Originally, I envisioned a quick balance update named v2.4.2 - but a lot of the balance changes needed to be more fundamental than just number changes, and together with some important community suggestions turned into new features / quality of life improvements, this balance update turned into a major update instead. This also means that I still have incomplete features in the works for the future - artifacts rework, alternate heroes rework, battlefield rework - and these are going to be part of the future v2.6 update instead. Now I can also prove what I’ve said previously: Game updates won’t be locked behind paying for DLC. I am continuing to support both the base game and the DLC side by side. At times, it might make it tough to do things such as balancing, but such is life; I’ll try my best. I want to highlight some of the “balance changes” which actually turned into reworks, as well as some of the community suggestions that were added to the game. First, a skill which never saw the love it deserved: Diplomacy. For a long time, there’s been complaints about being offered units you couldn’t afford - and this should be easier now that you can choose one of three settings for how much bribing you’ll do with your diplomacy. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//40741272/544f6eecd8e89729c65e98858464d8e2f190c488.png[/img] Using the lowest bribe setting - the hand shake - will give fewer units, but with a better cost efficiency - and conversely, using the highest bribe setting will give more units, but at a big extra cost. Combined with the ability to choose WHICH of the enemy units to hire using diplomacy, this should make the skill more interactive, as well as, of course, stronger. For a faction skill such as Taming or Hunting, it’s tough to make changes to make the skills more appealing without nerfing the faction. Hunting has been too strong, while Taming has been too weak - and both skills were super conditional on actually being able to find the hidden beasts. To this end, the skills have been changed to make it easier to trigger, but with the payout being smaller - especially for hunting. Instead of only working for hidden beasts, the skills now work for any neutral battles which have beasts in them. This is especially important for Taming, with the skill even triggering during battle, giving you units as you take out your opponents. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//40741272/78786ee825169ab13a06751d051db65f35030ec8.png[/img] One of the additions I’m quite happy with is the new combat results page. There have been a lot of suggestions for a long time for you to be able to get a better insight into how useful your units actually are during combat. Now, after combat, you can see in greater detail exactly how much damage each unit type dealt and how much damage they’ve soaked. So far, the results have been rather interesting. In the above screenshot, we can see that in this battle, Halberdiers dealt the most damage from the player side, while the range units of the opponent were the most important for them. This screen might see adjustments and improvements over time - maybe some more stats would be useful - but I’m happy with how simple but impactful this extra information is in trying to figure out the best strategies. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//40741272/94409f96d0e211554a597083ecd73e9b7dc32d81.png[/img] Another new addition is the ability to trade resources and artifacts to your allies in hotseat co-op games. I’m not sure how common this playstyle is, but it’s nice to add some long-suggested features for the people who do play this way. It’s very tough to cater to all playstyles - impossible, even - but I’m doing my best to add the most impactful changes, to improve the game for all over time. Oh, also some more modding features, improvements to the MODS menu, and the ability to browse curseforge mods directly from within the game. If the mod is set up correctly on the curseforge page, users will be able to one-click-install-and-load a mod from within the game. Here’s the link to the curseforge page where users should be able to submit mods: [url=https://www.curseforge.com/heros-hour]Heros Hour Mods - CurseForge[/url] I think that’s about it. For May specifically, there’s also a limited time deal to get some unique Hero’s Hour merch: A very cute and high quality plushie of a great Tide hero. You can find that here: [url=https://www.makeship.com/products/tal-anak-plush]Tal Anak Plush | Makeship[/url]. Anyway, as soon as I am sure v2.5 is stable, I’ll get back to working on v2.6, another update to continue improving the game. See you then!