Here at Handelabra Games we've been busy on a few projects - Sentinels Season 2 content and One Deck Dungeon being the highlights. But we found time to make a number of improvements to Sentinels, and a significant bug fix update is now being made available on all platforms. The Learn to Play edition of Sentinels has also been updated.
This update contains dozens of bug fixes and small improvements, most notably:
- Reduced the on-disk size of the core game by up to 50% (depending on platform) with a new compression system
- Fixed various interactions between Guise, the Argent Adept, and the Naturalist
- Xtreme Prime Wardens Tempest's power would not work properly in some situations
- Darken the Sky, Prison Break, and other similar cards could get into an infinite loop
- Fixed a bug causing multiplayer desynchronization related to Ra: Setting Sun
- Performance issues with Drawn to the Flame and some other cards have been addressed
- Damage preview glitches with Imbued Fire have been fixed
- On Windows, the minimum OS required is now Windows Vista SP1+, and DirectX 10 support is required
Those first two items deserve some more details, so here they are!
Reduced Core Game Size
With an update to the underlying game engine (Unity) we are now able to use some additional forms of compression to reduce the file size of the core game. The graphical assets (and there are a lot of those, including card images, character portraits, environment backgrounds, and more) are now using high quality "Crunch" compression on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. The entire game build is now also using a LZ4HC compression format for further reductions on all platforms. It all adds up to about 50% reduction on Windows/MacOS/Linux, 40% on Android, and 20% on iOS.
Crunch compression on iOS requires OpenGL ES 3. Since we still support iPad 2, iPhone 4S, and other older devices, it's not available to us just yet. But in the future (sometime after Season 2 is complete) we plan to move forward to require OpenGL ES 3 and make the improvements available on iOS.
We will be applying Crunch compression to expansion pack downloads on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android in the future, so the size reduction will eventually apply to them too.
Guise: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Don't get us wrong, we love Guise. He's an icon of heroism that we all strive to live up to. But underneath that cuddly exterior, he's complicated. Version 2.5.11 includes a change that affects how Guise interacts with the Argent Adept and the Naturalist (and will also factor in to the Celestial Tribunal's Representative of Earth in the future).
Now, when a hero uses text on a card in another play area, there is no implicit replacement of hero names in that text. The effect occurs as written. This is a change from the previous behaviour.
Example situation: Suppose Guise has played Uh Yeah, I'm That Guy! and high-fived the Argent Adept, who has Scherzo of Frost and Flame in play.
- If Guise activates the perform text on the Argent Adept's Scherzo of Frost and Flame card, then the Argent Adept deals the damage.
- If Guise activates the perform text on Uh Yeah, I'm That Guy! (which is copying Scherzo of Frost and Flame), then Guise deals the damage.
- If the Argent Adept activates the perform text on his own Scherzo of Frost and Flame card, then the Argent Adept deals the damage.
- If the Argent Adept activates the perform text on Guise's Uh Yeah, I'm That Guy! (which is copying Scherzo of Frost and Flame), then Guise deals the damage.
Clear as mud? We hope so! We will be updating the Fireside Chats forum thread soon with this clarification and various others that have come up since the last time.