King Arthur: Knight’s Tale – December 2021 Early Access Update Live

With NeocoreGames’ King Arthur: Knight’s Tale scheduled to leave early access on February 15, 2022, we get this here early access update introducing an optional PvP mode, rebalancing a lot of things, and overhauling some of the existing systems. Check out this developer diary to learn more about this stuff:

And while the link above has the complete patch notes, this earlier Kickstarter update offers a decent summary of the bigger changes:

Knights,

December’s here, and with it soon we’ll have a new Early Access patch. And oh boy it’s an exciting one! We’re not only adding the optional PvP mode to the game, but new items, graphical enhancements and game changing balance and difficulty updates will be a huge part of this update.

We’ll soon announce the release date of the patch, as well as post the detailed patch notes – and MOST DEFINITELY will play some (absolutely, totally fair and definitely not scripted to oneshot you if you come even close to winning kind of) PvP with you folks -, but till then, let’s see what to expect from the update on its single player side.

Camelot upgrades – All the buildings in Camelot – well, except the Crypt – will get new upgrades that are more in-line with our characters’ progression. Their costs changed drastically as well, so say goodbye to their resource costs in many cases. For instance, you can now respec your heroes at the Training Ground – Heroes can now reset their skill points for 300 gold pieces and it’ll take one mission’s time.

Enchanted Tower changes – As mentioned in our previous post, curses will be, for the most part, removed, thus the Enchanted Tower will need to undergo a bit of renovation. It is now functioning as a Relic shop, where you can get new items, scrolls or sacrifice ones you won’t need.

Vitality and HP changes – Now this is a big one. Our heroes’ Vitality was increased, while their base HP was removed. Only a thin layer of HP remains if your heroes have the appropriate enchants, items, skills or building upgrades. The reason for this change was to make the ranged-melee meta more balanced, and to make Vitality a bigger life-belt, which cannot be one-hit that easily. This also means that Armour got a lot more important and ranged heroes won’t be able to move as recklessly as before.

Adventure Map – The adventure map got a shiny rework.

Skill balance changes – While new skills will be added, some existing ones got rebalanced as well. Just to name a few, Lady Dindraine’s Fire Arrow deals 70% weapon damage instead of 50%, while Sir Ector’s Fire Blast skill got nerfed a bit, down from 100% to 70%. The Sage’s Inspire skill now costs 3 Action Points instead of 4, and the effect immediately takes place. But we can mention the Champion class’ Power Attack skill, which causes 15% Armour Breaking instead of 30%. And so on, the full list will be in our detailed patch notes.

A stronger Knight of Midnight – Many of you gave us feedback (and we’re really glad that you did, thank you!) that the Act 1 boss was a bit easy, at least on easier difficulties. Let’s just say, some of his mechanics got a revamp and the fight is now a lot more challenging. Sir Yvain and his crossbow skills won’t be enough this time.

Reworked Hide ability for the Vanguard – The unique Hide ability was another feature, which got a lot of feedback. So we changed a thing or two: Getting into hidden state will no longer be free, it’ll cost 2 Action Points, but in return moving in hidden state will no longer cost double amount of Action Points. Moreover, the Vanguard will receive the Surprise bonus when they get into hidden state, and not in the turn followed by it. Manually disabling the hidden state ability won’t be possible, our heroes can only get out of it by using an active skill or if their position is revealed by an enemy unit. So, as you can see, a lot of changes here.

Itemization – We reviewed all the items currently in the game, and some weaker Relics got an upgrade, while Common items with really powerful enchants on them got a nerf. The damage range of the weapons now all depend on their rarity, so Common weapons will have a really wide range, and as you move up on the rarity table, this range will get thinner and thinner. Besides that you’ll see several new, pretty interesting enchants added as well.

Very Hard difficulty – If you had issues completing Act 1 in Very Hard mode, that is completely fine. It was OP as hell, so in this patch we buffed the effects of the campfires a bit.

Oh and a really good one for the end: Drinking a Healing potion will now remove all debuffs as well.

Of course this is not everything, only some of the notable ones. Our main patch notes – coming very soon – will have the complete list of changes.

Just to remind you folks, we’ve redesigned our website a few days ago, and launched a newsletter with it too. Kickstarter backers and those who sign up to it, will receive an exclusive cosmetic IVORY DEFENDER skin for Sir Mordred upon the full release.

So again, thank you all for the support, we’ll be back soon with more info and with a release date for our December patch.

Avalon awaits!