Monthly Archives: May 2017

Robot Entertainment has this week released patch 2.1 for Orcs Must Die! Unchained. This patch brings a number of balance changes and fixes along with some new features including the fan requested Premium Shoppe for new content once traps have reached tier 7. Here is the low-down on some of the changes:

Premium Shoppe

This is a new store in the dashboard targeted specifically to high level players who have reached tier 7 on their trap upgrades. These dedicated players in the past would have been receiving duplicates in chests of potentially cards that were already at tier 7. This wasn’t very fun so now these duplicate cards will be rewarding players with gibs. These gibs can then be exchanged for cool things in the new Premium Shoppe, such as rare cards and special vanity items.

Sabotage – more cards, map and rank changes

More cards are now available in Sabotage for more multiplayer mayhem. These include:

• Ability Disable Spell: disables a random enemy hero’s abilities.
• Drain Unchained Spell: drain the enemy teams’ Unchained meters over time.
• Crogon Hatchlings: summons a large army of small crogon hatchlings that spit health-draining and slowing poison at heroes that can stack up to 8x.

The “Falling Folly” map is also now in the pool of maps that can be played in Sabotage.

One thing to note about Sabotage is that after your game is updated your Sabotage rank will not be shown in the game. This is because the ranking system has been adjusted and players will need to play 5 placement games for the rank to appear again. Your previous Sabotage progress will be considered in the adjusted rank following the placement matches.

New mercenary

The Gnoll Breeder is the newest mercenary to be added to the game. This fearful merc releases smaller “teacup” gnolls onto the battlefield who like their older counterparts target heroes on the map. Players will want to take out the Gnoll Breader quickly to stop the map filling up with more and more teacup gnolls!

Delve into the patch notes

For more details on this weeks update you can take a look at the full patch notes below. The  full patch notes include the details of individual hero changes as well.

https://forums.orcsmustdie.com/discussion/13064/patch-2-1-premium-shoppe

We have some sad news about some staff changes taking place at Robot Entertainment following the release of Orcs Must Die! Unchained. Speaking on the ‘Orcs After Dark’ twitch stream this week, Community Manager, Laura “Harmonia” Barrett commented that several staff are sadly leaving the studio following lay-offs that are taking place. Readers may be aware that in the gaming industry lay-offs sometimes happen after games are released.

Typically as games are being finalised there is a big push and need for resources to get a game out the door and then when a game does go live a studio may find itself with a larger workforce and needing to distribute those resources onto other projects which may be in early stages. Kotaku has an informative article on this topic. It is unfortunate that Robot Entertainment finds itself in a similar position of a scenario that is all too common in the gaming industry, the post-ship downsize. Robot is a smaller independent studio and no doubt managing striking these balances is incredibly difficult.

Speaking to REF, the studio commented:

Over the recent years, we have staffed Robot Entertainment to focus almost exclusively on Orcs Must Die! Unchained. After a tremendous effort from the entire studio, last month we launched the PC version. We are incredibly proud of it and are really excited about our plans to support the game, along with the upcoming PlayStation4 version, with new content and improvements. However, our studio demands are different now than they were during the core development of the game, and today we made the difficult decision to let go of 16 full-time employees and six contractors in order to better fit our current direction. These employees are our friends and we are doing all that we can to support them in their future endeavors.

 

SixOkay is among those leaving

It is with sadness that REF can report that one staff member affected includes Justin Korthof, Marketing Manager – aka SixOkay. Justin who has worked for the studio for around seven years following the announcement of Age of Empires Online, has spent the majority of his time at the studio as Community Manager and has been the main bot talking and engaging with the community and fans directly throughout those years. Justin’s hard work and dedication during that time has fostered a great relationship between the studio and its fans. Fans will miss him greatly on the forums and on Twitch streams. We have no doubt though that his legendary reputation and legacy will take him to big places in the future and we will keep an eye on where the future takes him.

Laura “Harmonia” Barrett will continue to support the community moving forwards as Community Manager. Robot will continue to engage with the community and its fans. Twitch streams such as Insider Access and Orcs After Dark will continue.

K2D2 is also departing

Other staff members include Kirst Kahler, aka K2D2, Associate Producer (localization) who previously worked on all the OMDU lore was a popular face on the twitch streams and Mitchell Waudbaurer, aka MitchellW, customer service is also departing. Mitchell was often found around the forums helping players with technical issues. Winter will continue to provide support for players. All staff affected will be sorely missed.

The studio moves forward with the continued development of OMDU and Hero Academy 2. Expect to see news on both these soon. This week is another episode of Insider Access with Shade that will cover the patch notes for the upcoming update. Be there!