Return of Shadow New Years Update news

Return of Shadow in 2016

It's a new year, yes it is.
What's to come for 2016 though.

2015 Round up

2015 was a pretty productive year even with my extended break from modding with 3 new factions being released within the year the most yet.
We're now up to 9 factions and past the halfway point.
Rivendell was released after a long delay due to my "retirement" but I came back bearing gifts.
Making an impromptu and early release was the Fiefdoms faction jumping the queue to become the 8th faction.
Finally right before Christmas Erebor was released this faction being the one I was most excited for since I never released Erebor with the old Lone Wolf Mod and a huge amount of work has gone into the faction and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

2016

When I returned from retirement I did so under the thought that I could up and leave at any time and there'd be no commitments this has been hugely liberating for me it allows me to step away from modding when I get burnt out. I'll continue this for 2016 as counter intuitive as it seems this seems to be the best way for me to work going forward netting me the best results.
Thankfully a lot of the groundwork has been in place for a while for a lot of the mod so I can pick up a faction and complete a lot easier now like I've done with Erebor and Fiefdoms.

I have a couple goals in mind for this year I want to release at least 2 factions but more can happen depending on how things go.
The first faction on the list is still the Strongholds faction which is at about the same point the Dunland faction was when I announced it and I'm starting to focus on it now.
I have 2 factions in mind for the possible 11th faction both at about the same point in development but I'll reveal that at a later time.

Beta 0.27

The next release for Return of Shadow will be Beta 0.27 which will be another patch type release fixing bugs and the like as I work towards Beta 0.3 and the Strongholds faction.

Erebor is getting some more work especially the heroes.

Gloin is being reworked swapping out his 2 leaderships for 1 double purpose one.
Losing Stonefeet and Elder leaderships he gains the new Purser Leadership that gives units resources on kills and increases production rates of nearby Mines making Gloin a valuable tool in making Erebor a power resource faction.
He also starts out with a new ranged attack Axe Assault which function like a weaker and faster version of Axe Throw.
Gloin, Bifur and Bofur are now also affected by Heraldic Armour and its effects changed.
Heroes still gain an armour and health upgrade but their spell recharge and spell damage have been decreased a bit but the "Bane upgrade

Since I usually like to have a secondary focus for each patch I've decided to let you guys choose the next faction I'll focus on.
This faction will be given a thorough seeing to fixing as many bugs as possible, rebalancing, updating art and generally improving the faction with new abilities and features.

Head on over to the forums to cast your vote and in 3 days I'll post a topic looking for feedback for that faction.

Vote here