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Vapourware Spire of Sorcery - turn-based RPG where you play a party of runaway mages - abandoned in Early Access

Dr Skeleton

Arcane
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
811
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I think the game still might be good when/if it actually comes out, but it does look like they're not sure what they really wanted to do with it and change a lot of things on the fly. I haven't played it, but I sometimes check out some of their videos on youtube and it seems that they've been doing major overhauls of game's systems for some time now. Which is good if the game wasn't working well, but at some point they're going to have to release it and it might then turn out it's a short game with very little content because they threw out a large portion of their work each time they redesigned something.
 

Mordru

Educated
Patron
Joined
Feb 19, 2016
Messages
83
Location
Rock of Eternity
Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
I have high hopes for this game. The devs are trying different things to see what works in genre that is pretty undeveloped. They have a good discord and seem to really care about the game.
 

Mordru

Educated
Patron
Joined
Feb 19, 2016
Messages
83
Location
Rock of Eternity
Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Here's the devs responding on discord from a fan who was commenting on all the different approaches they had tried:

" I do agree with you that every version we had fleshed out, had its fun moments.

At the same time, a very basic problem of approach in 2018-2019 was the focus on theory and 'it's cool to make' rather than the focus on what the actual build is, and what is 'cool to play with'. And with this problem, it didn't matter what concept exactly we have pursued.

We've had a reboot of the approach a couple of months back, and I believe this time "the ship will sail". Some of the things are already back, e.g. death as a common fact and not an exception, as well as incurable injuries. Some things won't return at all, e.g. the skill system which was, to be honest, crappy since it wasn't aligned with the actual game events.

We now target to ship the updated build into SoS LEA on November 14th, and restart the regular updates."
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


We're back with the updated concept of Spire of Sorcery, and this time we're confident that we found what we were looking for!

Version 171 is now available on Steam under Limited Early Access, so you own the app, you can hit "UPDATE" on the general branch (no betas) and give it a try.

This video introduces the game's core mechanics from version 171 and onwards, and is meant to help you understand how to:

* assemble and cast spells
* collect and consume resources
* concoct alchemic potions
* change the stats and states of your characters
* explore the map and access discovery cards

Our team is now back to weekly update schedule of the game. The nearest updates:

Dec 18 – version 171 – RELEASED
Dec 23 – scheduled
Dec 30 – scheduled
Jan 07 – scheduled

Please join our community discussions on the game's Discord server, or on the official forum.

Stay safe, and we missed you all – much love from Vilnius! :-P
 

Dr Skeleton

Arcane
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
811
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Eh, at this rate in two months the cards will be gone and they will have a completely new underdeveloped system in place. Again. But yeah, the different kinds of magic, character backgrounds, talents, skills, healing, survival seem to be gone, and instead there's a digestive system stat?
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/3951311355469645859

Version 173 is now available

Version 173
is now available on Steam. The Spellbook has been completely re-written, there's a few new mechanics for how different tokens combine, and a bunch of events have been edited accordingly (the in-game encyclopaedia now works, too!).

Release notes are available here, as well as below.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

We also recorded a short video to go along with this update –

--- release notes v173 ---

CHANGES

We shipped the previous build just before the Christmas Day last week, and had 3 days during this week to do something meaningful – then test and ship the new build. We did our best. You will discover that version 173 provides quite a different playing experience.

SPELLBOOK IS NOW FULLY OPEN AT THE START OF THE CHAPTER

In versions 150-170, we played with the Spellbook fully open from day one of the campaign. It was enjoyable, but maybe a bit too easy (the deck composition was different back then). In 171 and 172, we transitioned to Spellbook that offered progression via finding "Books of Arcane Knowledge" in the Chests in Ruins. After playing like that, we feel like such progression created more hassle than fun, and so in this version we revert to having the Spellbook fully open from the beginning of the chapter.

We invite you to explore the whole Spellbook at the start of the game.

ALL SPELL FORMULAS HAVE CHANGED

The overall concept of how encounters are played is that you build spells from two angles: "what I want" and "what I can". In versions 171 and 172, the second part was lacking, since most spells were rather complex and "instant opportunities" presented themselves not as often as we wanted them to be available. We re-worked every spell in the Spellbook towards offering more combinations, and more immediate opportunities, depending on what's dealt in your characters's hands.

You will see that the hands of your mages now immediately present several opportunities of what kind of spell to assemble.

(!) KNOWN ISSUE: the spell that is suppose to remove Fear, is bugged a little. We’ll fix this with the next update

DESIGN AND LAYOUT OF SPELLBOOK

We didn't have the time to update the layout, this will happen in one of the January updates. It will change visually as well as functionally, since with so many spells we already feel the need to add 1) tabs 2) filtering (i.e. "I have "Heat", which spells I can build with it?" query).

TUTORIAL AND HELP SCREENS

Again, this is not something that we could have squeezed into these three (two and a half, to be real) days, but it's coming down the road. We hope you have discovered how to assemble spells, how to use elements from hand of one mage on formula of another mage, and especially the fact that you can at any time choose another formula from Spellbook and change the existing formula to it – the elements that fit the new formula, will remain in the new formula.

NEW EFFECTS OF TOKENS

We've expanded the ways that different tokens may combine, which in turn makes combinations of different simple spells more useful.

* Damage applied to target with Acid now converts 1 Acid into 1 extra Damage
* Fire applied to target with Acid now converts 1 Acid into 1 extra Fire
* Damage applied to target with Fear now adds 1 extra Fear
* Damage applied to target with Frost removes 1 Frost
* Flash applied to target with Frost now issues splash damage of 1 Blindness to left and to right

There are also changes in activation and conversion mechanics:

* 3 Acid accumulated on target no longer issue 1 Damage
* 3 Frost accumulated on target now issue 1 Paralysis per round, and Frost remains (in earlier version this removed 1 Frost)

You will see that with Fire and Damage converting Acid, Acid can now be used as a chain-reaction token.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA IS NOW AVAILABLE

We managed to bring back the Encyclopaedia, it is now available through –

* clicking right mouse button on any icon or name that has "magnifying glass" icon
* via in-game menu ("ESC")
* via main menu

There's still things to be improved (navigation: "next" and "previous", cross-linking, etc.), but already you have the whole thing in one place, and we're really happy that we managed to do this in this update.

Please note that all tokens have their own discovery cards in the Encyclopaedia, so you can read about their effects in one place.

A LOT OF EVENTS HAVE BEEN UPDATED

There were small and big changes, some related to new spells and some related to new token rules.

Here's the list of what has been updated:

* Gigglers no longer get ENRAGED! when retreating
* Gigglers no longer issue Infection tokens when DESTROYED
* Giggler Haunt now requires a bit more Fire for BURNED, and issues Bag of bones when this outcome is achieved
* Restless shadow no longer gets ENRAGED! when retreating
* Restless shadow needs a bit less Fire to retreat
* Barrow now releases 1-2 Frost when UNLOCKED or DESTROYED
* Barrow now provides 3-6 Ashes of the dead when BURNED
* Barrow now provides 3 alchemic substances for use in encounters as loot (was: 5)
* Barrow now provides 2-3 Bags of bones when UNLOCKED or DESTROYED
* Spitting demons now provide 1-2 Ashes of the dead when BURNED
* Spitting demons have changed their actions: now they have Wrathy spittle (1 Fire) and Caustic burp (2 Acid)
* The action of Spitting demons where they would exchange 1 Fatigue from target to 1 Protection is temporarily disabled
* Corpse now issues only 1 Infection when DESTROYED
* Corpse now requires not 3, but 6 Fire to be BURNED
* Loot from the corpse has changed (including this welcome change: you still get 1 equitable item even if you burn the corpse)
* Chest no longer can be BURNED
* Chest no longer provides high-impact alchemy as loot (i.e. what changes stats permanently)
* Chest now releases 0-1 Shadow and 0-1 Spitter when DESTROYED

ENCOUNTER EFFECTS HAVE BEEN UPDATED

The following EE have been updated:

* Emanation of Chaos now issues 2 Frost
* Breath of Chaos now issues 1 Flash, 1 Confusion
* Surge of Chaos now issues 1 Acid, 1 Fire
* Protective barrier now issues 1 Damage

MORE FOCUS ON CONCOCTING ALCHEMIC POTIONS

In version 172 we already increased the number of resources that you find on the map, and now we have removed more complex alchemy from loot in Ruins and Barrows. What this means is that you'll have to rely more on concocting the stuff on your own – and with recipes listed next to Alchemic Cauldron, this is not too difficult now.

Explore different combinations – you can permanently upgrade your characters with quite a few potions!

IMPROVEMENTS IN USER INTERFACE

You will see that we've rolled out a number of small improvements: changed the Alchemy/Backpack icon in travel mode, added "Death!" notification window, added "New season!" notification window, and so on. It's an on-going process of spotting gaps in the feedback loop, and fixing them. For example, now when you apply 4 Protection tokens (or a multitude of any other token), they are applied one by one and not as a bunch at once. Small things matter! We will continue on this with every version that we ship.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2020 has been difficult for many, both on the personal and on the professional fronts.

For our team specifically, this was also the year when we faced our biggest crisis yet, and we're relieved that we have managed to overcome it – getting back on track to bring this game to you, the players, and being able to return to the weekly updates that give us the closest possible connection with the community.

We're thankful for the opportunity to continue to make games, and we feel lucky to meet so many friends from different countries who have supported us throughout this year – such friendship, and warmth, are especially appreciated when the world is going through the crisis.

We hope that our games will continue to give you moments of fun and laughter in 2021, and we wish you all a happy and a healthy new year!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/2953765324038475974

Version 174 is now available

Version 174
is now available on Steam. It brings a lot of changes, including new creatures, new items, a new token and a new event, plus new algorithm for generating the map.

Release notes are available here, as well as below.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

And here's a short (10 min) video that highlights the changes in this version:

--- release notes v174 ---

CHANGES

This update is focused on giving players more control over encounters, while making encounters more diverse.

SAVES FROM EARLIER VERSIONS

Please do not use saved games from the earlier versions, because of the changes in content this is bound to result in glitches.

A DIFFERENT MAP

The rules of generating the world have been changed, you will find the new map to be quite different.

With one of the future updates, we're looking to give you more control over the parameters of how this chapter is built (e.g. min/max number of specific objects) so that you can customise the difficulty of your experience. We don't have a specific date for this feature at this time.

98d45bf58da38eabed5e3a67e3da39432819d6fa.jpg


RUINS ARE NOW A PROPER BIOME

It's been bothering us for some time that Ruins were a mix between an object and a biome. They are now, finally, a proper biome.

You will see the new visuals, and will encounter new multi-hex regions, related to Ruins.

Spitters are now no longer limited with just 1 hex for their moves.

7196ac713bd41f6196800b5689da07c505518524.jpg


ABANDONED PALACE IS IN

The map now has a new object, Abandoned palace, that has its own encounter design (and its own loot). This is the spawning point of Spitters: destroy it to stop their spawning.

dcb6fbbdb8524cc9ef77dd0a6fbef309ff57a7e3.jpg


A NEW TOKEN: RESTORATION

Related to Abandoned palace is the new token: Restoration.

In the coming updates, you will see it in another new event.

The token creates specific outcomes (such as in the event with the Palace) and as a general rule, absorbs token of Damage at the end of each encounter (i.e. Restoration + Damage won't click during the event, but will offset each other at the end of the event).

a9ea5a31f250b52db1db406e0d638962efbe77b7.jpg


THREE NEW SPELLS

Related to the Restoration token are 3 new spells in the Spellbook, yours to use.

Speaking of the Spellbook, we continue to work on its design, and in one of the upcoming updates will add filtering by element as well as easier navigation by specific sections.

c3e25da9a8d444d84ad857a47deef480f4a2f08c.jpg


HOTKEYS!

By the popular request:
  • "SPACE" in encounters now results in "NEXT ROUND"
  • "1", "2" and "3" in encounters open the corresponding Spellbooks of party members


FORMULA HIGHLIGHTS

Speaking about spellcasting interface, now when you click (or hover over) a specific element in the hand of a character, it will highlight the places in the currently open spell formulas where it may go – and dim down the rest of the formulas.

6eac6bd1bb015abc81a8bdb09eab1ccf500bfaea.jpg


SPITTERS RECEIVED ANIMATIONS

They lost their flame (which we haven't animated yet), but they got some moves. We continue working on the animations of all the creatures, it just takes some time to get things right.

NEW CREATURES

A big (huge) change for this week is the introduction of creature subtypes.

Where version 173 had 1 type of gigglers, version 174 now has 3 different creatures.

Where version 173 had 1 type of shadows, version 174 now has 3 different creatures.

Where version 173 had 1 type of spitters, version 174 now has 2 different creatures.

The goal of this is to add variety to the encounters.

Each subtype has their specific loot, and their special action (the other actions are taken with a certain probability, and the % of probability for each action is different for different sub-types).

Out of 8 creatures, 3 retain the visuals from the earlier version and the other 5 will get proper visuals over the course of the coming weeks. In the current build, you will see sketches that we've made as the first step on this path.

The discovery cards for groups are coming either with the hotfix or next week.

ad24ffe2ca0357289ef5c2c09347bc5d25815e0b.jpg


MIXED CREATURE PARTIES

All creature parties are now generated and spawned as mixed parties, within their own type.

70dd2da5f9a392a928cce5f6817cfd5289951c18.jpg


CHESTS AND CORPSES NOW VISIBLE ON THE MAP

Chests and corpses are now visible on the map, so you no longer have to guess what's inside of a specific event.

This is made possible because Ruins are now a proper biome.

In the future, we'll fix passive/active event triggers so that if you step over a chest, or skip turn there, you don't have to engage in an encounter – you will have a choice.

MAGIC NODE EVENT IS UPDATED

It required 4 Frost to activate, now it needs 12. Just to make it a tad more challenging.

FIVE NEW ALCHEMIC ITEMS

There are 5 new alchemic items in the game now. They already work, and will receive their proper visuals with one of the upcoming updates.

ALCHEMIC ITEMS ARE ALL RE-BALANCED

Almost every item has been re-balanced, and some changed recipes.

Overall the goal is to simplify and allow more intuitive understanding of their usability (esp. in regard to the IMMUNE effect).

UPDATED DISEASE

One disease was issuing Flash tokens, which caused splash Blindness when combined with Frost. We felt it was too much. This disease now is structured as having a chance to issue Blindness, not Flash.

FOG OF WAR HAS 3 LEVELS (SORT OF)

We're moving towards a fog of war that will have 3 different levels.

In the current build, you will see that this is the case already – visually.

In the next build, the information displayed in level 2 will also change – you will no longer have full visibility into what's happening there, you will only know the landscape in that area.

INCREASED SPEED IN ENCOUNTERS

Dealing elements and other actions in encounters are now a bit faster, to make the encounter more dynamic.

A FEW NEW INFO WINDOWS

The conversion of Fear into stress and Damage into Injuries is now better communicated at the end of encounters.

We also added an info window showing the loot lost when retreating.

There's still a few more info windows that are in the works. Our goal is to clearly communicate every change in character stats and effects, so that nothing goes unnoticed. It will take a couple more updates for this to happen.

1ea7f5deda2d7b3da3e5fe92ed604914384016d8.jpg


UPCOMING BUILD SCHEDULE

January 08 – version 174 + 174.hotfix
January 14 – version 175
January 21 – version 176

THE FOCUS OF THE UPCOMING UPDATES

There's a few things that we'll be working on, next:
  • We'll introduce "Alert" state of opposing parties, so that they won't jump into pursuit in the same day when they spot player party.
  • We'll add animations and visuals where these are currently lacking, and we'll bring more Discovery cards.
  • We'll update the Spellbook with filters and sections.
  • We'll work on additional notifications related to changes in characters, as this needs more feedback.
  • We'll work on making the flow of the encounter easier to understand: WHO does WHAT, which is currently in complex encounters can be hard to follow (Spitter issues Acid, another issues Acid with splash, then environment effect deals Fire, and Fire converts all that Acid – it can look like your character just got 5 Fire out of the blue, unless you followed the steps closely).


---

See you next week!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/4543536736086044962

Version 175 is now available

This week's update is the 5th update that we deployed in the last month, and we're very happy to be able to move at such a speed. Our overall plan is to finish Prologue and Chapter One, then release a public demo and transition into the general Early Access some time in late spring.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

Release notes are available here, as well as below –––>
SPELLBOOK HAS SECTIONS NOW!

Requested and delivered: Spellbook now has sections, which make it easier to navigate. The sections are not separate pages but just the spots in the book, to allow you to scroll up and down as you wish, in order to compare several spells from different groups at once (coming in future updates: filtering Spellbook by specific elements).

2741a4f47caa890d6f0c37ab9b503faa17d29941.jpg


MOVING ELEMENTS BETWEEN FORMULAS DOESN'T COST ACTION POINTS

In previous versions, moving element from one spell formula to another was considered an action. This now does not count towards character's actions (see example below).

c8940d02f01b931516cdaa9d7a3f26907b86c3ac.jpg


SUPPLIES FROM THE SPIRE

When you start the chapter, a chest with supplies from the Spire is now dropped within a few hexes from your party. It contains a randomised set of useful items that will help the party survive the first few encounters. The chest has no environment effects to protect it, and requires only 1 Dispel token to access it. In the future, the design of this chest with supplies will change (you can already read the lore in the discovery card, it mentions the looks and the back story). We think there could be more of such supplies dropped once in a while during the chapter, with one of the upcoming updates.

af35537e44bb99f934243c4c1a6386c8cbe80ee9.jpg


RESOURCES IN THE PARTY'S INVENTORY AT START

When you start the chapter, your party will now have some resources in its inventory already (9-12 items randomised between Cheerblossom, Bloodfroth and Stormium). These are meant to allow new players to experiment with concocting, and for experienced players to use them for basic restorative potions.

7d4377e8f05260b3f5ef3ef3f08dd5d502a837b1.jpg


WHEN PARTY RETREATS, IT RESTORES FULL MOVE POINTS

When you retreat, every party member gets 5 more days of stress and you give up any loot that has been accumulated in the encounter so far. But now you also restore full move points, and can get as far away as possible from the unwanted opponent! This change is meant to give retreating parties some head start from the pursuit.

CREATURE PARTIES GOT "ALERT" AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Previously, if you ran into a creature party, it would entice you and immediately try to pursue you. So coming head to head with aggressive parties in the fog of war wasn't pleasant. Now things work differently:
  • when creatures spot player party, they become "alert"
    in the alert state, they spend the day investigating the surroundings – they will move 1 hex towards intruder
  • if the intruder is spotted, creatures transition to "pursuit" and will attack in the next day
  • if the intruder is not spotted, creatures will go back to their idle behaviour

This small change makes a lot of difference for exploration of the world.

The illustration below shows the creature reacting to player party, getting alert, investigating by moving one hex towards the intruder and only then becoming aggressive.

297978fc2bfde53a0e5f3e2e0e43e3fc24c0ced2.jpg


'SUMMON OFFSPRING" IS NO LONGER AN ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT

"Summon children" used to generate creatures when their spawning point was attacked. We now transitioned this effect to post-encounter: if you destroy spawning point, it will issue an alert for every creature of the type spawned there, within 15 hexes. The parties that receive such call, will travel to its source to investigate – already in alert state, ready to attack player.


DESIGN CHANGES

There's a bunch of things that we adjusted here and there, we don't think it makes sense to run here a long list, but here's the major changes:
  • Spitters got updated move range and vision range, and can now (slowly but surely) crawl out of ruins;
  • Loot has been re-balanced between pretty much every event in the game, to make distribution more consistent – and thus make decisions about where to go and what to do more predictable;
  • Spitters, Shadows, Gigglers had their spawning probabilities updated, so you're bound to meet new mixes;
  • Spitters, Shadows, Gigglers had their attack probabilities updated, you will see more consistency between type of creature/ attack
  • "Smell of death" dealt 1 Fear to every target, now it deals 1 Fear to random target
  • Flash 2 and Flash 3 spells in the Spellbooks had their targets and effects updated


5c17d9ea01b2afad5fc3d5b0f8717607ed7d2b83.jpg


CREATURE PARTY NOW HAVE NUMERIC COUNTERS

Earlier, we used a dot-based system to indicate how many creatures are in the party. Now we (finally!) transitioned to showing the actual number right on the map, instead of all these dots (see below: it's 3 Shadows, not *** Shadows).

4bcbfb967aa40cab8bd09b0777c892fe2c19891d.jpg


ABANDONED PALACE GETS PROPER VISUALS

The sketch of Abandoned palace from version 174 is now replaced with the proper visual (next stop for our concept artist: new alchemic items, then creatures). As a reminder, you can 1) burn 2) destroy 3) restore the palace. In terms of inspiration, we were looking at the recent archaeological finds that deal with how much color was used in the ancient times; in short: a lot of rich colours were used!

36457cc2b248677b9523e779cb5017c6b541476f.jpg


RELATIVE SIZES OF CREATURES IN ENCOUNTERS GOT REBALANCED

We didn't have the time to re-balance them for version 174, but this is done now in version 175.


NEW DISCOVERY CARDS

Hex effects, environmental effects now have their own discovery cards. Overall, we'll keep expanding the information available via Discovery with every update.

db400fe1b48ccea3e11c5aedb9e369353ebfc235.jpg


UPDATED POTION VISUALS

The visuals of Dark pleasure, Dead man's tears and Throatburner have been updated (see below: ingredients and outcome).

10daadcb4d93ca12e712ada9e654f60addc21b0c.jpg


QUEST NOTIFICATIONS

Quest UI is still far from being perfect, we'll get to this in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we made progress with how new quests are introduced. Before: a quest window would fully open right in your face. Now: there's a "New quest" notification window which can be clicked away with "Ok" or used to open the quest with "Access the quest" button.

452b7a88aa6098eb577b6074c8cb895e78fd008e.jpg


QUEST ORIGINATOR IS NOW SHOWN IN THE QUEST WINDOW

We had a bit of a disconnect where the portrait of the entity issuing a quest for you wasn't really in the quest window. We addressed this by integrating the portrait into the actual window.

e56aec9faa976466b684002cf917a494f962e8c1.jpg


SOUND EFFECTS
  • New SFX for when player's turn starts in the travel mode
  • New SFX for when player's turn ends in the travel mode
  • New SFX for gaining Blindness token
  • New SFX for gaining Flash token
  • New SFX for losing Flash token
  • New SFX for when Flash tokens activate and convert into a Blindness token
  • New SFX for gaining Fatigue token
  • New SFX for when Infection tokens activate and issue a new disease
  • Several SFX received their new versions.


FIXES

A number of tooltips was edited to better reflect the actual mechanics.
A bug where multiple copies of the same potion could be concocted is fixed.
Auto-completion of necromancer's quest has been fixed.
Lots of other small issues were created and fixed in the course of this week =).


NEXT UPDATE

The next update is set for January 21, Thursday.

But if things turn out as they did this week and the last week, then it will be January 22, Friday.

God knows we try to wrap all the new content and features by Wednesday night, and have an early testing run on Thursday, ерут everyone just keeps bringing new things to be integrated – and so we slip towards Friday. If this continues to happen, we'll just have to live with weekly updates happening on Fridays =).
 

kreight

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These guys are from Lithuania not Russia FYI. I guess everyone who is living east of Germany is "russian" or a "slav" to you.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/3055097584344455196

Version 176 is now available
This week's update is already available (since the last night!) and changes the map as well as introduces more than 3 characters in the party, and a pre-encounter character selection screen. Additionally, small improvements across the UI, new sound effects and new illustrations, and the overall adjustment of creature behaviour, spawning and attack values.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

Release notes are available here, as well as below –––>
OVERVIEW

We managed to ship this week's update on Thursday, not on Friday, which we see as a positive sign. Now that we have a functional core of the game, the focus of the development has shifted towards preparing the game for the general Early Access release and here we need less stress and more planning. Keeping our eyes on the ball is more important than the force with which we kick it.

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UPDATED MAP

From a 50x50 map of Prologue in version 175, we now moved to 100x25. You start in the west and your destination is in the east.

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This is also reflected in the new quest description.

The magic node that must be activated in order to recall the party to the Spire is now seeded in the northeastern corner:

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The change reflects our desire to make Prologue more straightforward.

Certainly there will be chapters where the map will be circular, and where exploration happens in the free-form style. But for Prologue, we felt that a 360-degree freedom at start is a bit too much, and largely unnecessary.


YOU NOW START WITH 5 CHARACTERS, AND YOU CAN GET MORE CHARACTERS ALONG THE WAY

In the earlier versions, you always started with the 3 characters – and losing 1 of them meant a restart of the chapter.

We addressed this by two means: first of all, you now start with 5 characters.

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Additionally, you can get (or at least try to get) more characters from Anomalies.

Changed: instead of healing everyone, Anomalies now issue 1 additional party member.

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CHARACTER SELECTION PRIOR TO ENCOUNTER

As we finally got to play with more than 3 characters in player party, the time has come for a related feature: selection of characters prior to the encounter.

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  • You can start with 1, 2 or 3 characters (if you want to test yourself or limit exposure)
  • Character stats are shown as a tooltip when hovering over any portrait



PLAYER/OPPONENT INITIATIVE

During encounter, a round consists of Environment's turn, Opponent's turn and Player's turn. In previous versions, we always seeded as Environment – Opponent – Player. Now this depends on who attacked whom: when player initiates, their turn always precedes the opponent, and the other way around. What this means is that by attacking another party, you can now get the advantage of wiping some of the opponents right in the first round, before they have a chance to cause any harm to you.

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REFLECTION TOKEN CHANGED

In the earlier version, Reflection was meant to reflect one action rather than one token issued. This lead to some unexpected outcomes.
  • Changed: Reflection token now reflects one token (not action) issued to its owner, 1:1.
  • Changed: Reflection token now no longer reflects Protection tokens.

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  • Changed: Motherstone amulet now issues 3 Reflection tokens to its owner at the start of the encounter.

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BALANCING CHANGES
  • The chances of Damage received during the encounter to cause an Injury or destroy equipped item have increased. We'll see if a further increase is merited (currently: 7% and 2%).
  • Shadows (all types) got stronger attacks across the board, and lost small-chance attacks.
  • Gigglers (all types) got stronger attacks, and lost small-chance attacks.
  • Spitters now have increased vision range: up to 7, which means that their groups will see you before you see them. They, however, remain slow, and thus you have a plenty of chances to escape from them.
  • Shadows now have increased chance of being spawned in larger groups.
  • Spitters now have increased chance of being spawned in larger groups.
  • Gigglers now have increased chance of being spawned in mixed groups.
  • It is no longer possible to destroy Corpse with Cold tokens.
  • Barrow got a bit easier to unlock, but releases more Shadows.
  • Abandoned palace is now easier to restore.


NEW ILLUSTRATIONS
  • "Bloodplaster" now has its own illustration
  • "Twilight serum" now has its own illustration
  • "Fetid hisser" now has its own illustration


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CHARACTERS CAN NOW BE EXPELLED FROM THE PARTY

You don't really need it for now, but this will come handy once we implement the hunting/cooking/hunger mechanics.

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EXPLORED EVENTS DISAPPEAR / CHANGE ON THE MAP

It's been bothering everyone for a while, and now it's done:
  • Corpses, when destroyed, disappear from the map
  • Chests, when opened, disappear from the map
  • Barrows, when unlocked, are shown in a different (opened) state on the map
  • Giggler haunt, when destroyed, is shown in a different (destroyed) state on the map

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SOUND EFFECTS
  • We are now able to play ambient sounds during encounters.
  • Forest now has its own ambient sound.
  • Environmental effect 'Burning ground' now has its own ambient sound.
  • Environmental effect 'Cloud of smoke' now has its own ambient sound.
  • Environmental effect 'Hail' now has its own ambient sound.
  • When player gets a new item into their inventory, the game now plays appropriate sound.
  • Opening an Encyclopaedia now plays a sound.
  • When player initiates an encounter, it begins with a specific sound.
  • When opponents initiate an encounter, it begins with a specific sound.
  • When opposing creature progresses in preparing a multi-round action (0/2 -> 1/2), there is now a specific sound.


Every week we add more sound effects.

Sounds are a very important part of the player experience for us!


WHAT'S NEXT?

Update 177 will focus on cleaning up things (we have a number of minor bugs that we haven't chased yet). We're now working on the visual concept of user interface (it's getting a facelift, which takes time to conceptualise and then execute) and on creating an easier start of the Prologue (a number of small, helpful quests to explain the basics) – some of these things will ship in 177, and some in 178 and 179.

See you in a week!
 

Infinitron

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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/3050594619070450648

Version 177 is now available
This week's update is already available (we released on Thursday) and delivers a number of minor issues, including 3 new token mechanics, changes in loot and changes in map.

ゲームの日本語版はまだ完全に翻訳されていません。 ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。

游戏的简体中文版本尚未完全翻译。 很抱歉给您带来不便。

Release notes are available on the game's forum, as well as below –––>
CONCEPT

For this week, we split our dev team into three smaller groups (with some overlap). One helped prepare the upcoming Season Update on Gremlins, Inc.; another dived into the visual concepts on Spire of Sorcery that take a few weeks to complete (we're updating the whole user interface, and this needs a complex approach where everything is aligned; what you see right now in the game is functional but not beautiful); and the rest of us picked up on the Spire of Sorcery's tasks that were overdue from the earlier builds.

As a result, we've made good progress with preparing the UI updates that you will see shipped later, in versions 178-180. What we ship in this week's build is mostly smaller issues that harmonise different parts of the game.

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CHANGED – EQUIPMENT

Two changes:
  1. Earlier, equipment produced results (issued tokens) at the start of the player's turn in the encounter. This didn't work that well when player party got attacked – you would get damage first, in the opponent's turn, and only then your defensive equipment would kick in. We fixed that, and equipment now issues tokens at the start of the encounter, rather than player's turn.

  2. Equipped items now have a chance to be destroyed. When a character has an item equipped on them during the encounter, each Damage token accumulated by the character at the end of the encounter increases the chance that this item will be destroyed.


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CHANGED – DISEASES: DIARRHOEA

As a general rule, Injuries cannot be issued during the encounter while diseases can be issued whenever character's Immune system gets overwhelmed by Infection tokens. Because of this, Injuries can affect pretty much anything, but diseases cannot affect character stats used in the encounter (because otherwise we'll need to recalculate on the fly, which is confusing). One group of diseases – diarrhoea – used to affect stats in its severe form. We changed that, and it now affects only the Digestive system of the character, which is not used during encounters.

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FIXED – DISEASE PROGRESSION

Diseases progress from mild to moderate and to severe. Earlier, we had a bug where when a mild disease would be added to the character who already had the same disease in its severe state, the disease would reset to its mild form. This is no longer the case.


CHANGED – STACKED PARALYSIS

Originally, we had the idea that after each encounter where characters experienced Paralysis, a dice roll would determine if they receive an extra injury as a result. We now harmonise this by changing the rule as follows: (a) the dice roll happens every time a character experiences Paralysis; this of this as having a chance to get complications every time you're sick with flu – so that a character can get the extra problems right in the middle of the encounter (b) the result is not an injury, but a disease from the group "Shivers" (it rolls the dice for getting a Paralysis token at the start of every turn, the more advanced the disease – the higher the chance).

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CHANGED – PROLOGUE, MAP SIZE

In version 176, we transitioned to the direction map 100x25 for this chapter. After playing for a while, and observing others play and discuss their experience in the community, we decided to change the map to 75x25.


CHANGED – TOXICITY LEVELS HARMONISED

We reviewed the toxicity levels of every alchemic substance, and made some changes that make the items easier to grasp intuitively. For example, "bombs" such as "Oorl's pleasure" and "Fetid hisser" all have toxicity of 6; "medicine" such as "Bloodboiler" and "Dead man's tears" all have toxicity of 3; and special items that originate from toxic environments/look toxic, such as "Can of worms" and "Giggler skull", have toxicity of 5. Toxicity remains a factor in considering what to concoct – it just got a bit easier to navigate.

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CHANGED – FROST TOKENS, EFFECTS

Since a few weeks ago, 3 or more Frost issue 1 Paralysis. We wanted to up the ante for cases where characters or creatures receive even more Frost – for example, when they are stuck under the Hail for a long time. Now, 6 Frost issue 1 Damage (in addition to "Frost causes Paralysis" effect).

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CHANGED – ACID TOKENS, EFFECTS

Acid was one of the few tokens in the game that didn't have its own threat from accumulating too much of it. Several versions ago, it used to convert into Damage (3 Acid -> 1 Damage), but that went away once we added Fire+Acid and Damage+Acid combinations. So in situations where your characters are immune to Fire and face a party of Spitters... you could accumulate any number of Acid without any consequences. This changes with the current build:
  1. Now, 9 Acid -> 3 Poison. And Poison is not a joke, as it self-propagates with time.

  2. Now, after the encounter, each token of Acid on the character increases the chance of getting an injury from the group "Burns".


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NEW INJURY – "BURNS"

A new group of injuries is now in the game, "Burns". Progression:
  • Mild burn: 50% chance to get 1 Damage for each token of Fire received
  • Moderate burn: get 1 Damage for each token of Fire received
  • Severe burn: get 2 Damage for each token of Fire received


NEW – OPPONENTS ARE DRAFTED RANDOMLY IN 3+ PARTIES

If opposing party had creatures ABCDE, we used to draft ABC first, and then DE. Now we draft randomly, so you can get ADB or ECA or any other combination at the start of the encounter.


NEW – WHEN RETREATING, LOOT IS LEFT WITH THE OPPOSING PARTY

Earlier, when player party retreated, the loot accumulated in the encounter was lost. Now it remains with the opposing party. We still don't display such loot when you look up the party in the travel mode, though – this will come with one of the later updates.


NEW – CREATURES ARE SPAWNED TO NEARBY HEXES WHEN TARGET HEX IS OCCUPIED

Every creature party has a limit of how many creatures it may have, at most (e.g. 6). When a spawning point (such as Barrow) already has a creature party sitting on top of it, and this party is at the limit, we used not to spawn any more creatures since there wasn't anywhere to spawn them to. Now, spawning goes ahead – just to a nearby hex.


NEW – CHANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS IN EVENTS

Earlier, we designed events with certain probabilities in mind – such as, "Dead body has a 50% chance to have EE Smell of death" – and these probabilities rolled the dice when the event was launched. So you could re-enter the same event and get different environmental effects there. We finally transition to a system where the roll happens when the map is generated, and if a specific corpse generated with EE Smell of death, then it will always be like this, whenever you enter this particular event.

Accordingly, these events changed:
  • Dead body now has a 50% chance for EE Smell of death (was: 100%)
  • Barrow now has a 50% chance for EE Protective barrier (was: 100%)
  • Chest now has 50% chance of EE Protective barrier and on top of it, 50% chance of EE Enchanted protection.
  • Giggler haunt now has 30% chance for EE Poisonous environment, 20% for EE Smell of death and 50% for EE Contagious environment


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NEW, FIXED & GENERAL UPDATE – CHARACTER SELECTION PRIOR TO ENCOUNTER

When you select characters who will engage in the specific encounter, we have 2 small quality of life improvements:
  • double click on the character now sends that character to the first available slot
  • double click on the slot with a character assigned, now removes that character
  • tooltips for all environment effects shown in this screen now display properly

But in general, we plan to remove this screen in one of the next updates, because while prototyping the new user interface, we found a way of solving every action that this screen does, through other screens. And when we can get rid of an unnecessary part of the UI, we are always happy.

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SFX

A few more SFX arrived to the game:
  • Gain injury
  • Gain stress
  • "Victory" for when player party wins an encounter


WHAT'S NEXT?

Next week we still remain divided into the same three groups, however with more focus towards Spire of Sorcery, and we hope to ship at least one new feature that we prepared during the current week (personally, I hope this will be spell combos).
 

Infinitron

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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/3051721340896034979

Version 178: spell combos, morale boost, character potential
This week's update is already available and introduces a few cool features: spell combinations, morale boost and character potential, as well as the first sketches of the new user interface.

Release notes are available on the game's forum, as well as below –––>
CONCEPT

This week we focused on features that improve different parts of player experience: introducing combo spells, getting every character inspired when the party casts 3 spells in the first 3 rounds of the encounter, introducing character potential and bringing in the first few sketches of the new interface (we start with the travel mode).


ATTENTION: SAVED GAMES

Because we changed the way that we generate characters (see "character potential" below), saves from earlier builds are no longer compatible with version 178.


SPELL COMBINATIONS

A few weeks ago we had a vision of seeing one mage build up a fire spell, and another build up a frost spell, which then got combined into what looked like a first of water – and dealt damage. Since then, we've been waiting for the chance to add spell combinations into the game, and finally they are here!

You can see them in their own separate section it the Spellbook:

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Each combo spell requires 2 primary spells. Complete one, cast it on the other, and it gets transformed.

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Some of the combo spells offer new effects (such as removing damage or adding reflection tokens) while others are just a way to overcome the limitations of low memory (for example, "Water fist" needs two primary spells, each with just 2 elements, and issues a Damage token – which normally needs a spell that requires 3 elements).


"INSPIRED!" / MORALE BOOST

The mechanic of "Inspired!" (which removes Fatigue from the character) has been designed a few months ago, and originally came from the mechanics of relationships and charisma. While we still haven't shipped these two mechanics, the inspiration came handy for another situation: now when player party casts 3 spells in the first 3 rounds of an encounter, every party member gets "Inspired!" and loses 2 Fatigue.

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The feature is called "Morale boost" and is meant to allow you to use some extra concentration early on, knowing that you will be rewarded for your efforts if you succeed.

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At some point in the future, we think that individual characters can have their own little "perks" that, when satisfied, could lead to additional inspiration – someone is motivated when they use fire, someone is motivated when they kill opponents, and someone is motivated when, say, the party gets to use a bunch of alchemic substances during one battle. We'll see!


CHARACTER POTENTIAL

We used to generate characters as "roll a base value for each stat plus add a few traits that modify a particular stat". Character stats were also not limited by any cap, and could have been boosted until forever.

Version 178 introduces the new system:
  • each character is generated with their current stat values as a dice roll +/–2 of the base value

  • each character also has their "potential", i.e. how much the character can increase the specific stat
    the potential varies between 0 and +3 for each stat

  • the descriptions ("Weakling", "Amnesic", etc.) are now linked to the actual values (e.g. everyone with Memory 2 is described as "Amnesic")

  • the descriptions will come handy in the situations where you can choose one of several characters to join your party – you won't see full stats there, but you will see the top stat and the top potential stat there

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NB: this part of UI currently lacks tooltips, we hope to roll them in with tomorrow's hotfix.


UPDATED INTERFACE

While we still work on the concept of the new user interface, we already wanted to start introducing it into the game – because some things take a bit of time to playtest them. In this version, you will notice:

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  • Characters from player party are now shown on top of the screen. We're going to see if the size of the portraits is good enough, or should be adjusted. Each character now also has 3 icons underneath (Diseases, Injuries and Lasting effects; later, Curses will join the range) – they are not yet functional in 178, but with future updates will display the details of each active effect as a tooltip.

  • Icons for Concoction, Inventory and Travel Spellbook received their own device that unites them, in the left corner. The icons will change, but the placement is final.

  • Quest interface (top right corner) got an update, we'll keep developing its functionality (how to show several quests and the ones that are already available to be completed). In this build, we just wanted to map out the size and the placement of the device.

The actual images we used are just work in progress, of course. Below you can see a sketch of the updated Character Sheet, as a pointer to where we're moving with the update.

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GETTING READY FOR TRAVEL MAGIC

Spellbook now has an updated detailed tooltip (hover over the icon, then hit SHIFT): we're getting ready to introduce travel magic, which means that there will be actually two different Spellbooks once that happens: one for encounters, and one for use when traveling. The icons will change to reflect this. The Spellbook icon on the travel mode is now already disabled, with the tooltip explaining how it will work.


SOUND EFFECTS

Please welcome the new SFX:
  • there's now an effect now when element is dealt in character's hand
  • there's now an effect now when character gets a new disease
  • Wetlands biome now has an awesome ambient soundscape
  • Ruins biome now has an ambient soundscape that is no less awesome!


SMALLER CHANGES

Applying 3 or more Damage in one round in Ruins now creates environmental effect "Cloud of smoke" that lasts 1 round. The description of this effect comes to the game tomorrow, with the hotfix.

In version 177 we started to show on the left side of the encounter screen only the creatures that are waiting for their turn in the encounter queue, rather than everyone in the opposing party. Now this list has an icon, and a tooltip describing it.

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The tooltips for Inventory got updated to reflect the fact that you can only use a limited range of items during the encounter.

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The counter for multi-turn opponent actions got a facelift, and a tooltip.

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When one opponent attacks during the encounter, other creatures in the party are slightly faded to focus the attention on the attacker (but this needs adjustment as for now the change is not big enough to be obviously noticeable).

WHAT'S NEXT?

Next week we're going to continue improving the flow of the encounter (there are still many moments when it's easy to lose the track of what's happening and it's crucial that we address this!), we'll also start with the mockup of "game log" (we really need a place where we can see every action that happened in the game) as well as continue updating the interface. And it's time to bring in travel magic – though whether we can ship something already in the coming week, is hard to tell yet, since it's a pretty big mechanic that may need more time to implement. Somewhere in the list is also "Character Mulligan" – a way to choose characters at the start of the chapter.

Stay safe, stay healthy – and cast some spells!
 

Infinitron

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Joined
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/5824813360322359826

Version 179: diseases & injuries + victory against a stronger opponent
This week's update is already available and brings a re-worked system of diseases & injuries, as well as a few updates in user interface and game mechanics.

Release notes are available on the game's forum, as well as below –––>
CONCEPT

With version 179, we aimed to ship a few cool things, including the travel magic functionality, but most of them got moved to the next update because life got in a way ;). And so the scope of this week's update is a bit less ambitious: arriving today is the re-worked system of injuries and diseases, a few changes in how various game mechanics work, and a few visual updates for the user interface.


VICTORY AGAINST A STRONGER OPPONENT

For a few weeks now, this feature was stuck in the queue. But now it's finally in the game: when player party wins an encounter against a stronger opponent, every character present at the end of the encounter gets Euphoria (for 5 days).

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What does it mean, "a stronger opponent"?

This means that the number of creatures in the opposing party (on the screenshot above: 4) is larger than the number of player party members who participate in the event (here: 3).

With one of the future updates, we'll bring a possibility to "retire" a player party member during encounter, and draft a replacement from the rest of the team. Any such replacements will affect this counter, i.e. if I would draft 2 extra characters for this specific encounter, I would lose the mechanic.

And what is euphoria, you may ask?

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It's a lasting condition, like stress, which temporarily gives:
  • +2 to Courage
  • +2 to Endurance
  • +1 to Memory

The inspiration for this mechanics, just like with Stress, lies in the chemistry of primates, where a monkey that challenges another monkey wins the fight, it gets a hormone input that makes it braver and more alert; while a monkey that loses the fight, gets a hormone input that motivates it to stop fighting, and recover.


INJURIES & DISEASES: BOTH SYSTEMS GOT REWORKED

Some weeks ago, there was a comment in the community that the then-current diseases (diarrhoea, for example) sounded way too boring. Around the same time, we also posted a note internally that both diseases and injuries need to be reviewed for how they work. And finally this week, as we've been working on an updated character profile (which ship only next week, by the way), we hit the same issue from another angle: no matter how we tried, we couldn't explain, intuitively, that injuries self-heal while diseases get worse on their own.

It was a high time to rework both systems, and so now we have totally new sets in the game –

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Current groups of injuries:
  • Concussion
  • Dislocated shoulders
  • Ruptured lung
  • Fractured skull
  • Broken ribs
  • Acid burns
  • Gut trauma

Injuries come in 4 levels (minor, moderate, severe and permanent) and have static effects (loss of Memory, a chance to miss the target, and so on). The higher the severity of the injury, the more averse the effects. Every type of injury, except for permanent ones, gets easier in 10 days. And every injury can be removed by applying Bloodplaster.

Once you get an injury, its discovery card becomes available in the Encyclopaedia.

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Current groups of diseases:
  • Bloody tremors
  • Fear of light
  • Whispering voices
  • Blinding hallucinations
  • Demonic visions
  • Red strangler
  • Daytime nightmares

Like injuries, diseases come in 4 levels (minor, moderate, severe and chronic). Unlike injuries, diseases do not progress – they neither get worse, nor do they get better, until they are healed (use Foul drops). All of the diseases have dynamic effects, and all affect characters in the encounter mode.

Once you get a disease, its discovery card becomes available in the Encyclopaedia.

We hope that you find the updated systems a bit more intuitive!


"WRONG TARGET!" MECHANIC UPDATED

As we worked on the new sets of injuries, we felt it's time to update the "Wrong target!" mechanic: now it chooses a new random target, instead of the intended, on the same side as the original target. In other words, if you place Protection on one of your own mages, having "Wrong target!" will randomise the recipient – but won't send the spell to the opposing side, and vice versa.

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CONVERSION OF DAMAGE & FEAR UPDATED

Another "housecleaning" task that we solved this week is the update for the formulas of how Damage and Fear convert after the encounter.

Previously: each token that remained on the character, increased the chances (by about 5%) of getting an injury or a stress condition.

Now: we look at the proportion of each stat. So in the screenshot below, the lass has a 50% damaged Health, and it is this value – rather than the absolute number "3" – that will be used to determine, if she scores an injury (full disclosure: it's % of stat multiplied by 50%; thus here, she currently runs a 25% chance of scoring an injury).

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UPDATES IN THE TRAVEL MODE UI

A small update this week on the travel mode: the buttons for Alchemic cauldron, Party inventory and Travel Spellbooks got a facelift. This is a tiny change for you guys, but a bigger conceptual decision for us, as we finally settle on all similar buttons in the game being done in the same style of "painted glass that lights up".

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We also slightly updated the character panel, which is now a bit less ornate (the portraits retained their sizes from version 178):

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This is all a part of the preparation for being able to re-arrange the characters here, so that we can finally get rid of the pre-encounter drafting screen. It's progressing nicely in terms of visuals – you can see a bunch of test framing we tried on the game's Discord server – but we haven't been able to ship this feature with version 179. I have high hopes for version 180, though.


OPPONENTS NOW USE SPLASH DAMAGE WITH MORE IMPACT

Another small quality of life (or quality of death, in this case) improvement: now opponents who use attacks with splash damage, consider the position of their target, and will prefer to hit player party in the middle – or at least in a way that maximises the damage inflicted.

This makes multi-turn attacks more dangerous, obviously.

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CHARACTER NAMES ARE NOW SHOWN IN CHARACTER PROFILE

Certainly not groundbreaking, but pleasant nonetheless: character names have returned to the character profile. Next in the plan: the ability to edit these names (this is all connected to the Character Mulligan screen at the start of the campaign, which is still in the works; we want you to be able to both select the characters that you like the most, and then edit their names as you please).

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"THE LAST WISH OF THE DEPARTED" IS NO LONGER CONCOCTABLE

I know that a lot of you, myself included, loved this great potion, but we decided to remove it from the list of concoctable items because it was the only recipe that used 2 items of the same type. So for the moment, the only way to get "The last wish" is by looting the barrows. In the future, though, we may bring it back into the recipe book, when we add a few more resources that can be used as ingredients for the new formula.

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WHAT'S NEXT?

Next week, we're going to do our best to ship as many "long haul" features as we can.

While we don't have a definite release date set for the general Early Access version of the game, we're pretty eager to get there as soon as we can – which means that we need to focus on the big stuff, and let the small stuff take care of itself later on.

Travel magic, deck management, the Spire and its upgrades and sieges, and non-humans with the first boss battle – this are the exciting things that we're itching to complete! And once it's in the game, it will be finally the time to hit that PUBLISH button =).

Stay warm, and stay healthy out there!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1191500/view/3053974218521146156

Version 180: Books of Elements, Clothing & updates in user interface

This week's update is already available and brings Books of Elements (which allow deck management), clothing items and updated user interface.

Release notes are on the game's forum, as well as below –––>
CONCEPT

We've managed to do some quality work this week, as you will see in the release notes below! A new Character Profile, a way to manage the decks of your party members through the Books of Elements, equippable clothing items that change the visual appearance of party members, editable character names and a bunch of new sound effects are just the things that we shipped with today's build. There's more that will arrive with the next updates as we also did a lot of work on the issues that take longer to wrap. As always, though, we wish that we had double the time to do even more :).


UPDATED CHARACTER PROFILE

The updated Character Profile is what we want to whole game to look like!

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  • progress bar (including potential) of Memory
  • progress bar (including potential) of Digestive system
  • slots on the right side: clothing, equipment, books, consumable items

The empty area right below the Deck of Elements is already prepared for "blocked elements", which is the consequence of using travel magic – it's coming with one of the future updates.

Next on our concept artist's todo list: the updated window of Alchemic Cauldron and Recipe Book.


CHARACTER NAMES CAN NOW BE EDITED

Nothing fancy, but it's now way easier to keep track of your favourite party members!

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LASTING EFFECTS, INJURIES, DISEASES GOT AN UPLIFT

We continue to improve how we display such information, and the updated Character Profile is another step in that direction.

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BOOKS OF ELEMENTS ARE IN THE GAME

Books of Elements are in the game now, coming in three levels: uncommon, rare and very rare.

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These books contain 3, 5 and 7 elements (respectively), and you can swap one such element with one element from the deck of one of your party members. To start the process, drop the book into the Reading slot of any character.

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Books of Elements are available as loot from Abandoned Palace, where you get 3 random books per each event.

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CLOTHING IS IN THE GAME

There's now a dedicated Clothing slot in Character Profile, and it affects how the character looks (the outfits are currently missing hats, which will arrive with the next update; they were too big for the current frame =)).

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At the moment, there are 3 sets of clothing that are available as loot from Dead bodies – you must destroy the body with Damage, as if you burn it down with Fire then the clothing will turn to ashes.

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THE INVENTORY SCREENS GOT UPDATED

The inventory that opens in the travel mode has a new look, as well as the inventory that's a part of Character Profile. There are filters, too (they'll start working with one of the later updates).

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OPPONENTS NOW DISPLAY THEIR ATACKS MORE CLEARLY

There's still a long way to improving the encounter flow, but we're getting there!

Two new things: first, there's now a clear symbol above the opponent that is performing the action; second, there's now an indication of the exact action that the opponent will perform, next to its targets.

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NEW SOUND EFFECTS
  • Protection from poison (token) – token issued
  • Reflection (token) – activation
  • Blindness (token) – activation
  • New season: Broken moon
  • New season: Maiden moon
  • New season: Phantom moon
  • Start of the Prologue ("player party arrives")
  • Player party moves across forest
  • Player party moves across wetlands
  • Player party moves across ruins


WHAT'S NEXT?

We'll plan the week on Monday, as usual. On top of the list is the travel magic; the mechanics of hunting, fishing and gathering; improved encounter flow; and the updated Encyclopaedia (we'd like to split it into Rulebook and Encyclopaedia, moving out all the descriptions of game mechanics to a separate place). We'll probably choose one feature, and one user interface improvement, as the priority, and then go from there. How many weeks are left until we can progress to the general Early Access? Hard to say! It feels like we keep a really nice tempo, with no distractions, so step by step, we're sure to get there. See you next week!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


Dear friends: the game currently doesn't have an in-game tutorial yet, so we decided to record a brief tutorial that explains the core mechanics of the game (based on version 180):

* how to move around and explore in travel mode
* how to assemble and cast spells, as well as use alchemy, in encounter mode
* what are the different charter stats
* how to concoct and consume alchemy in travel mode
* how does Encyclopaedia work, what are diseases and injuries

We hope that this video helps those players who just discovered the game. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask here or on the Discord server!
 

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