Fairtravel Battle is back, better than ever!

Hello everyone, how have you been?

As you may know, I had to cancel Fairtravel Battle back in 2021 due to personal issues, but in the end I couldn't accept the way it ended, so I put those in the past and I'm back with a massive update!

In fact, this update is coming out the same day as Fairtravel's 6th anniversary. I've previously posted announcements on each birthday but I was actually wrong about the date, as I've started working on Fairtravel on July 22nd rather than September 24th, which was when I posted my first devlog.

Finally, I'm again working alone on this game, with the exception of commissioning art every now and then. I think speaking in first person will work better from now on.

What's New

This update remakes a large portion of the game. Here's the condensed change list:

• Remade base set with 135 cards with an improved card frame design
• Removed classes and introduced brand new unique resource system
• Redesigned mechanics
• Added new 4-player Raid game mode, where you can play as a raider or a raid boss
• Steam P2P Networking alongside improved multiplayer
• Many UX improvements, bug fixes
• Much more!

Brand new 135-card base set and improved card frame design

I was unhappy with the current state of the game (in fact, it was a major reason to return to it). Although the game was functional, it had a lot of bugs, the cards felt ugly and blurry to look at, and there were a lot of issues overall.

As a result, I decided to redesign the base set, but I also felt that I'd need too many cards to make it work (there used to be almost 300 cards in the latest version before this).

As part of the personal reasons that caused me to quit, I wanted the work on the new set to be doable for a single person.

As a result, I removed the classes/factions that were in the game, and I thought of making something with maximum deckbuilding potential: Don't get things stuck to a specific class or faction, so that players can do a lot with a small amount of cards.

I tried 60 cards, but it felt too limited in deckbuilding potential. I could have simplified the game by removing card types, but I thought it was going to impact the game negatively. Over time, the amount of cards grew to 135, and so far has stayed more or less that amount.

Here's some of the cards in the game:

Overall I think the cards feel and look much better now.

Classes are out, new resource system is in

As I mentioned just now, due to development capacity I ended up deciding to cut out classes, but I needed a way to give meaningful deckbuilding to the game.

As a result, I designed a new unique resource system that is at the same time familiar, yet refreshing.

If you've ever played a certain trading card game, one of the most frustrating parts of that game is needing lands to have colored mana.

Lands usually use up ~40% of a deck, and drawing too much or too little is a problem that regularly happens. It can keep you from playing the game, which is quite unfun.

Fairtravel uses an essence system, which is similar to colors, but rather than using lands, any card can be returned to the bottom of the deck to increase your maximum mana and pick an essence to level up.

What this means is, you can use as many different essences as you want, but cards will require a specific set and amount of essences to be played, alongside mana to play those cards.

Unlike typical color-based systems though, there's no colored mana in Fairtravel: Instead, essences are never spent, you can only gain them and they're like a level requirement in an RPG.

In simpler terms, let's say you have 4 mana and 1 passion (red color) essence, and you have 4 cards that each cost 1 red mana.

In typical games, you'd only be able to play one of these, because you only have one passion, but in Fairtravel you could play all four, because that color isn't spent.

I think this significantly improves the game and reduces friction with each match, but Invite you all to give it a try and share feedback!

Redesigned Mechanics

Several mechanics in Fairtravel have been changed considerably:

• Equipment are now generally called Artifacts since they might not be specifically character equipment
• Permanent Abilities are now called Enchantments, as I felt that the original name felt too clunky.
• Abilities are now called Spells, for the same reasons as Permanent Abilities.
• Standard Heroes no longer have effects, and are more or less just a skin.
• The Set and Quest zones now have a limit of 8 cards. If you want to play another (set zone), you can choose an existing card there to destroy to place the new one.
• Fields are limited to 6 follower cards, and if you need to play another you can choose an existing card there to destroy to place the new one.
• Soaring is now called Flying and has a different effect: A flying card can't be attacked or defended against by non-Flying cards.
• Tactician has been changed to be active while you control non-tactician followers. Meaning the best way to get rid of a tactician is getting rid of their underlings first.
• Drawing from an empty deck causes an instant defeat for that player. This was changed to make the matches more compact.
• Duel and Raid Decks are now 50 cards (down from 60) and Sealed/Draft decks are now 30 cards (down from 40).
• Weapons no longer have a swing cost.

I believe these changes improve the game experience overall, and I'd love to hear what you think!

New 4-player raid mode where you can be a raider or a raid boss

Part of the future plans for Fairtravel is to have more ways of playing than just dueling, and one of the biggest steps is adding the new Raid mode.

This raid mode currently only has one scenario, the Red Dragon boss. This boss has three phases and a custom deck.

For modes such as raid mode, you can add CPU partners, so you don't have to have a big group just to try it!

Steam P2P Networking and improved multiplayer

Part of the work done in this update includes a new work-in-progress steam peer-to-peer networking system.

This means that, using Steam, you'll be able to connect to other players without needing the official game server.

So, if the game servers happen to be discontinued for some reason, you'll be able to keep playing together, be it on Steam, your own server hosting using the Lan multiplayer feature, or playing offline. That's something very important to me: I want to ensure this game outlasts its support.

Additionally, game performance and multiplayer networking has been vastly improved: You should have much less problems than before, with almost no desyncs if at all.

And much much more!

Seriously, so much has changed since 2021 it's crazy. According to my source control service (which is where I keep track of what changes in the game's code), the code for this version specifically had over 730 commits (sets of changes, usually multiple files), which is a huge amount of work for someone working solo.

Many, many bugs were fixed, user experiences were improved quite a lot, a lot of frustration points were also taken care of, and overall the game feels great! If you tried it before and weren't happy with it, please give it another chance, it might change your mind!

What's coming next?

There's a lot of changes happening in the future.

For one thing, I've been getting a trickle of new card arts custom-made for Fairtravel, and over the coming months most of the card arts will be replaced as a result, making the game look so much better. (You can see some examples in the earlier sections of this post)

There's also a lack of polish, animations, sounds, effects, that I want to fix.

I want to add more content for players to enjoy as well, and I hope to bring something truly wonderful for you guys!

The game won't be released on Steam just yet, but you can still play it through the Steam Playtest in between. There's a lot of challenges ahead, but I'll do my best to make a great game for you!

I want to take this time to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I wouldn't be able to go this far without you. And I truly hope that the future stays bright for Fairtravel Battle!

Thank you for reading this lengthy post, I know it was a lot, and I hope you have fun above all else!