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Darkest Dungeon II

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
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://www.darkestdungeon.com/news/darkest-dungeon-ii-0-11-30461-experimental-patch-notes/

Darkest Dungeon II - 0.11.30461 - Experimental Patch Notes

Hello Protégés,
Today we have released the Torch and Trophy update to Darkest Dungeon II via the EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH, which is an opt-in installation of the game.

(See instructions below.)

We use the Experimental Branch to test out higher risk updates that could benefit from hands-on testing in a live environment. Torch and Trophy is destined for the main game branch, but we wish to use the Experimental branch to ensure that everything works properly. We’ve done internal testing, but sometimes there is no substitute for a larger test pool, in order to find all the gremlins.

Torch and Trophy includes some interesting new features as well as numerous adjustments, improvements, and fixes. For a full list, see the patch notes below. This update will remain on the experimental branch throughout the holidays. We expect to push it to the main branch in the first week or two of the New Year. If you’re the type that likes to live on the edge--we encourage you to check it out, and let us know what you think!

Red Hook will be closed during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The team worked exceptionally hard this year, and many are already enjoying some well-deserved time off. Consequently, there won’t be any more updates or hotfixes until the New Year. When we return full of egg nog and energy, we’ll get crackin’ once more!

As our first order of business in January, you can expect a communication regarding the high-level roadmap for Darkest Dungeon II. While we have internal content and development priorities, we wanted to hold off on locking ourselves into a plan until the community had had a chance to play and feed back on the game. Rest assured, we are looking to add all sorts of content - biomes, monsters, heroes, etc - and are taking a hard look at some of the existing pain-points in the game, including Affinity/Relationships, run variety, trinkets and more.

In the meantime, we hope you have the opportunity to curl up with some sugarplums and gingerbread, and most importantly: hurl some more heroes towards the Mountain.

Thank you for accompanying us on this journey,

--Red Hook Studios
INSTRUCTIONS TO ACCESS EXPERIMENTAL

  1. Go to your Library

  2. Filter to show All games

  3. Search for Darkest Dungeon II
    Download the one that says "Darkest Dungeon II - Experimental".

  4. When downloaded it will look like the one on the left in the image below.
image_35.png


If you already have Experimental Branch, you may need to verify the game. Version should be: 0.11.30461

0.11.30461 - Torch and Trophy
PLAYER PROFILES
Before we get to the main new features we added for gameplay, we also wanted to add the ability for players to have multiple profiles on their machines. Now when you boot up the game for the first time, you will be asked to create a profile by entering a name, selecting what language you want to play in, as well as taking a moment to opt-in to our data collection, before you hit the main menu.

If you already have a profile and have been playing since release, no worries! We will convert your existing profile and save to the new structure and you can keep on going where you left off.

Want a friend or roommate to try the game out, but don’t want them to tank your run? You can now have up to 10 profiles on a single install of the game, each with their own runs.

IN GAME PATCH NOTES
We’ve added in-game patch notes! From now on, all patches, hot-fixes, and updates will have their contents documented in the client for the duration of early access. The feature is still in its nascent stages but we hope to continue to add small quality of life improvements to help us better communicate the changes that happen to Darkest Dungeon II throughout it’s life in early access.

To start you can see an icon next to the change notes and know that this change or fix came as a result of actioning some of the amazing feedback we’ve been able to collect on our Discord, web boards, or our in-game feedback tool!

So thank you for contributing and each time you see that icon know that your input has helped us in our path to making Darkest Dungeon II the game we want it to be.

TROPHY SYSTEM / MOUNTAIN ENTRY
Starting with this patch, you must mount a TROPHY on your Stagecoach in order to enter the Mountain. TROPHIES can only be obtained by slaying a Region Boss. Remember that Region Bosses live in LAIRS.

To help you hunt down the bosses, all LAIRS will now be scouted by default, which means they’ll always be revealed on the map.

The choice of whether to attempt to slay a boss early in the expedition or later on is up to you. But you must successfully slay at least one boss in order to tackle the Mountain and win the run.

Each boss has two different trophies that they can drop. These trophies can dramatically affect your heroes or the Stagecoach. We won’t spoil them here!

What happens if you don’t have a Trophy when you reach the Mountain?

First of all, if you enter the last region before the Mountain and you don’t yet have a Trophy, you’ll be given a pop up warning that you need to kill the boss in that region.

But if you don’t kill that boss and approach the final Inn before the Mountain, your expedition will conclude and you’ll be shown the run over screen. Rest assured that all Hope earned will be accrued to your profile, as normal.

NEW LOCATION TYPE: THE OASIS
At the Oasis, you can pay Relics in order to relieve Stress from one hero. This provides another weapon to combat stress and keep your affinities trending in the happy direction!

STAGECOACH LIVERY (SKINS)
Ride out in style! As you advance your player profile, you will unlock new Stagecoach skins. You can toggle your livery by clicking a button on the Stagecoach Status screen.

THE INFERNAL FLAME
Darkest Dungeon 1 has a long tradition of “Dark Runs”, which is the name for when players actively snuff out their torch on purpose in order to elevate the challenge of the game.

Enter: the Infernal Flame. This stagecoach upgrade unlocks at Profile Level 20. Once unlocked, it will show up in the Academic’s Cache in the Valley each time you start a new Expedition. If you choose to mount this as a stagecoach upgrade, the Flame will be pegged at 1 for the rest of the run and can never fluctuate. This will increase the difficulty substantially. On the plus side, you can never run out and therefore can never be ambushed by Cultists from behind. If you mount the Infernal Flame, you probably should not bother with Assist Encounters at all.

Be warned: once you mount the Infernal Flame, you cannot remove it during that expedition!

Character Skills, Items, etc.:
Combat (General)
  • Fixed an issue with stacking Buff/Debuff values (e.g. Clotting Powders and Ounce of Prevention) not displaying correctly on mouseover

  • Fixed an issue where Taunt Tokens were incorrectly consumed by Riposte
    • Fixed an issue with some resistance penalties (Stun, Move, Debuff) not being correctly calculated during a Crit
Combat Items
  • Pouch of Lye will clear corpses on a miss
Heroes (General)
  • Chance for a critical hit to heal 1 Stress has been raised to 50% from 25%

  • Stunned Heroes that lose their turn will now receive a +40% Stun Resist bonus until the start of their next turn

  • Fixed an issue with some Combat Items incorrectly consuming Crit Tokens, such as Pouch of Lye and Chalk Dust; Combat Items that deal no damage but apply a DOT/Stun/Debuff will still consume Crit as they benefit from the 20% resistance penetration granted by a critical hit
Grave Robber
  • Grave Robber's Dead of Night will now clear corpse on a miss but will only provide the additional bonuses on hit
Hellion
  • Wicked Hack/Wicked Hack+ damage slightly increased to better reflect her role as a damager

  • Wicked Hack+ now applies a non-resistable 75% healing debuff to a target with Combo

  • Iron Swan/Iron Swan+ damage slightly increased to better reflect her role as a damager

  • Iron Swan+ now applies Combo
Highwayman
  • Tracking Shot will now prevent the target from gaining Dodge/Dodge+ Tokens for 2 turns

  • Fixed an issue where Highway Robbery was not reporting the number of Tokens (2) that it destroys
Man-at-Arms
  • Crush damage slightly reduced to better reflect his role as a defender
Occultist
  • Malediction/Malediction+ now applies DOTs when the target is damaged rather than hit; non-damaging attacks will not trigger the effect but DOT ticks will

  • Malediction DOT damage increased to 2 points

  • Malediction+ now also reduces the target's Bleed/Blight/Burn resistance values by 20%
    • Wyrd Reconstruction & Wyrd Reconstruction+ have been reworked
      • Base Crit value was removed from the Skill as this impacted both the Bleed's duration and chance to resist

      • The Skill no longer uses Crit tokens; these also negatively impacted the Bleed as above

      • The Skill still has a 5% (10% on upgrade) chance to critically heal as it did before; this is not reflected on the tooltip and is a known issue

      • Critical heal bonus raised to +100% from +50%

      • The Skill now has a +100% chance to critically heal when consuming 2 Unchecked Power
Plague Doctor
  • Magnesium Rain will now clear corpses on a miss, similarly to the Leper's Purge
Monsters (General)
  • Fixed an issue causing certain monster attacks (e.g. the Hatchetman's Finishing Blow) to fail to respect Taunt Tokens

  • Fixed an issue with Hard mashes potentially spawning in early Biomes
Fanatics
  • Ignited Flayer's Searing Lunge now correctly applies Burn to target
Lost Battalion
  • Minimum damage of many Skills has been adjusted, resulting in slightly higher average damage values across the faction
Swine
  • Fixed an issue where Wilbur's Shattering Squeal was sometimes not AoE

  • Wilbur is now guaranteed to use Obliterate Body when he has a valid target for it
Diseases
  • Fixed an issue with the Brittle Bones penalty not displaying on the Conditions tab


Hero Shrine / Backstory Adjustments:
HWY Chap 1:

  • Rock throw no longer does any damage
  • Hwy dmg increased
HWY Chap 2:

  • Changed stagecoach buffing logic

  • Stagecoach buffs now 2 instead of 1 per enemy

  • Move skill removed
Leper Chap 2:

  • Advisor stab does more damage

  • Stress rebalancing

  • Whispered plots won't trigger when only 1 advisor is left
Occ Chap 3:

  • Ignore heals more now
Gameplay:
  • Friendly Skills should no longer consume CRIT tokens when they are not supposed too.

  • Trinket awarding and unlocking: Reduced trinket award rates due to "awash in trinkets" feedback. This should also help strengthen the trinket buying mechanic.

  • Also revised trinket unlock levels to spread them out a bit more and also to ensure that there are no profile levels where NOTHING unlocks. Finally, moved Class trinket unlocks to ensure that they are always AFTER the Class itself unlocks, to stop the teasing.

  • Ghoul is no longer missing its corpse occasionally.

  • Fixed an issue with Inn Items that have a chance for +/- affinity, only giving negative if the relationship was at max positive.

  • Fixed an issue with Act Outs not triggering a Meltdown correctly if the stress was created on Turn start.

  • Stagecoach upgrade slots: they now unlock with profile level. A brand new profile will only have access to 1 upgrade slot.

  • Progression tuning: stretched out lower levels a bit more because some first runs were unlocking too many levels at once.

  • Pricing adjustments to Faction trinkets because for the same power they were half as pricey as non-faction Epics.

  • Fix to cultist story scouting buff from Lute and Dagger Inn so it actually scouts Cultist Territories

  • Lairs are now auto-scouted (part of the new trophy feature)

  • Removed ambush chance from mountain biome.

  • Interface

  • The minimap and character sheet can now be opened in the story screen by either right clicking on their portraits or using the hotkey “C” or “M” respectively.

  • The minimap is now toggleable in the store and hospital.

  • Added Biome Progress Label to show how far in your run you are.

  • Quirk flavor text is now italicized.

  • Biome Progress, and Leagues to Inn UI elements are now hidden at the Mountain.

  • Correctly using the plural of leagues when you have 0 leagues remaining.

  • Reformatted DoT tooltips when it has a chance to apply or not.

  • Fixed an issue with Hero route preference UI remaining active in Valley after a run abandon.

  • Hidden Tokens should no longer appear briefly in combat.

  • Fixed an issue with the target indicator link sometimes appearing in the wrong spot.

  • CURED pop text should no longer play when locking quirks at the hospital.

  • Fixed an issue with the Destroy Token effects tooltip to now show how many of them will be destroyed.

  • ESC key should now work to close all UI elements and tabs across the game.

  • Story Glyphs now correctly show losing Stress as good (gold) and gaining it as bad (blue).

  • Fixed a softlock issue when selecting cinematic replay and confession at the same time.

  • Various UI fixes
Other / Miscellaneous
  • Added more Hero Barks and edited/revised many of the existing ones.

  • Various typos fixed and language edits for added clarity.

  • Changing your language should now happen immediately and no longer require a restart.

  • Fixed an error related to attempting to apply start round effects to a dead/dying actor.

  • Added monitor number to selection dropdown text to differentiate identical monitors.

  • Dungeon dialog scrolling should feel better.

  • Fixed a visual issue with Hellion’s “If It Bleeds” making it difficult to see the enemy.

  • Updated the art assets for The Academic’s Study node.

  • Softlock fix for Man at Arms 2nd Hero Story combat.

  • Fixed an issue with new quirks replacing and not respecting locked quirks.

  • Various Animation and Visual Effects improvements and fixes.

  • Various cleaning up around animation states for Hero Act Outs

  • Performance optimizations across the game, particularly around the character sheet and relationship test screens.

  • Fix stagecoach ink trail VFX positioning

  • Fixed an issue with the character outline when viewing the model in the Alt Token View.

  • Jumbo Trunk item art has been found and implemented.
Audio
  • Add driving music bookmarking support. The music will now continue where it left off, rather than restarting. Get ready to enjoy all 25 minutes.

  • Fix return-from-valley-combat narration playing in game results after defeating the mountain boss.

  • Fix missing tooltip SFX for mastery point in driving UI biome goal reward.

  • Fix missing tooltip SFX on combat mutator and actor health bars.

  • Don't allow stagecoach upgrade screen close SFX spam while closing.

  • Fix some minor missing SFXs.

  • Fix enemy dying from DoT being counted by narration as a suicide.

  • Fix boss battle narration condition so it plays on the first fight.

  • The DoT narration should no longer play a second time if they have that DoT already.

  • Fix for DoT narration playing for Heal Over Time effects.

  • Fixed the Typewriter SFX for all bark cases (driving, combat, story choice, etc.)..
The Academic Speaks!
  • A variety of new narrator lines have been added, with an emphasis on situational combat triggers

  • We will continue to add more over the course of Early Access!

https://www.darkestdungeon.com/news/darkest-dungeon-ii-community-roadmap/

Darkest Dungeon II Community Roadmap

Greetings Protégés,
Today we are pleased to share our community roadmap for our path to 1.0. We look forward to the work ahead and are ready to kick things off with our first update in mid-Feburary 2022.



As always, we will be reviewing logs & feedback to inform our balancing decisions moving forward - we encourage you to share your thoughts with us on our official Discord. We’re thrilled to have you along for the ride!



--Red Hook Studios
 

Gradenmayer

Learned
Joined
Jul 21, 2019
Messages
612
The 1.0 version of DD1 had 15 different heroes.
But it had 7 skills (here it's 12), no skill effect modifiers (only number boosts) and way less animations per hero. Also no sidestories for them.
It's way harder to make them now, so we are getting less of them (even then it's still 12).
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
Looks like they have barely any work done. Wonder what they've been doing for several years. Maybe they pissed off their pair of amazing programmers who made the first game from scratch in like 18 months.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,867
or 3D games are harder to make

Definitely more of a resource/manpower drain than their last game. The production quality from what I've seen is very good, but not sure why they decided to go 3D with their existing style... which is perfect for 2D.
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
4,011
or 3D games are harder to make

Definitely more of a resource/manpower drain than their last game. The production quality from what I've seen is very good, but not sure why they decided to go 3D with their existing style... which is perfect for 2D.

I'd actually guess this isn't more of a resource/manpower drain. Spine is what they used to animate character in the last game, and Spine can take hours to rig and do the animations with. I'd guess they wanted more animation this time around, and this is actually faster to use than Spine is.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,867
or 3D games are harder to make

Definitely more of a resource/manpower drain than their last game. The production quality from what I've seen is very good, but not sure why they decided to go 3D with their existing style... which is perfect for 2D.

I'd actually guess this isn't more of a resource/manpower drain. Spine is what they used to animate character in the last game, and Spine can take hours to rig and do the animations with. I'd guess they wanted more animation this time around, and this is actually faster to use than Spine is.

I haven't seem much of this game yet, but there appears to be way more art assets than the last game. Spine is also very easy to use (and possibly automate) if you have an experienced animator. No idea what they're using for this game.

Also no idea how they divvy up the workload between team members, so I'm just spitballing here. But if they used their previous engine and art style, I'm sure it would've saved time.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
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://www.darkestdungeon.com/news/plague-doctor-hero-paths/

Darkest Dungeon II: Plague Doctor Hero Paths

Hero Paths
With the Beasts and Burdens update, we introduced randomized specializations to heroes at the Crossroads, called Hero Paths.

Some paths are available for all heroes: Wanderers appear as a default and confer no special bonuses. Apprentices have 1 of their skills already mastered. Rarest of all, Masters will have every skill upgraded already. Additionally, there are two paths per class that are unique to that hero type. Paths are persistent, passive buffs/debuffs that encourage different playstyles and party comps.

Going forward, each week we will talk about the Hero Paths that are unique to each Hero, starting with…

The Plague Doctor.
"What is a physician if not a student of decay?"
surgeonoralchemist.png

Surgeon or Alchemist?
The Surgeon Path grants the Plague Doctor increased health and specialization in melee, bleeding and healing. This gives her the opportunity to be in the front, doing a good amount of damage while still being a useful healer.

The Surgeon Path’s HP boost makes the Plague Doctor better suited to the front ranks than usual. Positioning her in Rank 2 grants her access to her enhanced Incision and Indiscriminate Science, Cause of Death, and a couple of utility Skills for the rare occasion she isn’t cutting her way to victory. This also frees up the back row Ranks that she would normally occupy herself, allowing for some unusual party compositions.

The increased damage on Incision makes it an ideal direct damage attack that still leaves a lasting DOT if the target survives. With the right boosts to damage or a CRIT, the Mastered version can fell a lot of smaller monsters in a single hit. Pair her with a Rank 1 Hellion for a solid one-two punch of melee damage and Bleed that can quickly wear down hefty targets or set them up for an explosive Cause of Death.


Did You Know: The melee damage bonus also applies to her Relationship attacks!

While the boost to healing makes Battlefield Medicine a little bit better, it really shines when applied to Indiscriminate Science. Consider pairing her with the Man-at-Arms. Using Defender on a Hero at Death’s Door not only protects them but also allows all of those Guard Tokens – along with the Weak Tokens from Death’s Door – to be consumed by Indiscriminate Science for a potent heal!

When choosing Trinkets for the Surgeon Path, you can get a lot of bang for your buck out of simpler trinkets such as Greater Gnarly Knuckles and Greater Hale Draught, further amplifying Incision’s damage while bolstering the Plague Doctor’s survivability with additional HP. If you like to gamble with your relationships, the Grim Mask provides a huge boost to melee damage.

plg-surgeon-trinkets.png


If your Plague Doctor is doing her stabbing from the Rank 3, you can more safely dedicate both Trinket slots to enhancing damage.

If healing is her primary party role as a Surgeon, Trinkets that improve Speed and Stun RES will help keep her ready to go when the need arises.

alchemist.png


The Alchemist Path focuses the Plague Doctor on toxicity, buffing her Blight and increasing resistances and making her more a more well rounded support unit. Add a Blight trinket, such as the Corrupting Cleaver, and she’s unstoppable.

The bonus to CRIT on this path is no slouch. Landing a CRIT with a Blight Skill not only ignores an extra 20% of the enemy’s RES but also increases the duration of the Blight by an additional 2 rounds. A Mastered Noxious Blast CRIT can potentially be followed by a 30 point Cause of Death! Unfortunately, the low HP of the Alchemist Path makes her ill-suited to survival in the Rank 2 position required for Cause of Death but a good Man-at-Arms or a Taunting Hellion can potentially keep her safe. You’ll have to weigh the risk/reward carefully.

Alternatively, remaining in the back ranks and hurling Noxious Blast and Plague Grenades with abandon can quickly overwhelm monsters who lack extremely high Blight RES to counter the Path’s bonuses.

While the Alchemist Path does result in low HP, the RES bonuses go an extremely long way towards protecting the Plague Doctor from DOT damage. Ounce of Prevention can easily max out those resistances for several rounds, leaving her with little to fear but direct damage itself.

The Greater Hale Draught trinket can be useful on this path; its HP bonus is calculated from the Plague Doctor’s base HP rather than the Path’s reduced value. The Trinket consequently offsets a large portion of the penalty.

If the Path’s inherent penalty to enemy Blight RES isn’t enough for you, Trinkets such as the Corrupted Bile Gland or Corrupting Cleaver will eliminate almost any chance of the Blight being resisted. For fans of Plague Grenade, Trinkets like the Sparkleball, Disarming Dagger, and Staggering Striker have a chance to apply their effects to each target individually, letting you stack some additional negative Tokens on monsters while inflicting all that Blight.

Of course, you could always try pairing the Galvanizing Goblet with the Befuddling Sundial if you really want to boost survivability without sacrificing your offense!
plg-alchemist-trinkets.png


Community Impression
We asked you on Discord and social media which path you preferred, and the results of the experiment were… decidedly inconclusive!

“I’ll take either. Then put her to good, efficient use.”
@OldManSethus

“She's amazing either way, but I love that Surgeon path and the idea of paths in general, it adds so much to the game!”
@dearHadrian

“Surgeon, helps me cope with no Vestal”
@ur_boi_is_here

“Alchemist with a blight trinket is so good. Just blight anything. What's a blight resist?!”
@Britishbrat

“Incision value is usually cooler cause its not used that often and the Surgeon path makes PD more of a cool mix between melee and healing”
- DaYellaJ (Discord)

“Surgeon's melee dmg is great but most beneficial is +HP. This also can make hp heal more bc current heal amount is based on hp ratio.”
-Karyuen (Discord)

“Alchemist is more universal but Surgeon is still great!”
-ShuffleFM (Discord)

We would love to hear your thoughts on the Plague Doctor’s paths, how it’s changed your playstyle, what trinkets you use, and any suggestions you may have. The best way of providing feedback is to join our Discord server where we have a dedicated feedback channel.

To join our Discord server follow the link below:
discord.gg/darkestdungeon
 

Angelo85

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
1,569
Location
Deutschland
Usually the Epic Exclusive deal is for 1 year. Darkest Dungeon 2 got added as far as I can see on October 26th last year. So Steam release will be October this year at the earliest. Perhaps a Halloween drop?
 

Gradenmayer

Learned
Joined
Jul 21, 2019
Messages
612
Usually the Epic Exclusive deal is for 1 year. Darkest Dungeon 2 got added as far as I can see on October 26th last year. So Steam release will be October this year at the earliest. Perhaps a Halloween drop?
It will drop to steam on full release, like Hades.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Usually the Epic Exclusive deal is for 1 year. Darkest Dungeon 2 got added as far as I can see on October 26th last year. So Steam release will be October this year at the earliest. Perhaps a Halloween drop?
just pirate it, uncle Tim already paid for your copy
 

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