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KickStarter Stoneshard - open world roguelike RPG - now available on Early Access

Harthwain

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Inventory management comes down to did i bring enough food water otherwise non existent.
Limited inventory means you can't take and sell everything (which will become important in the full game). It also means you can't abuse "wait to heal" mechanic, if you do not have enough food and water to justify lingering in one spot. On top of that it's important to have healing items, just in case. You don't want to get crippled or bleed to death.

The combat mechanics are very basic approach every encounter the same.
Combat style changes depending on what you invest your skill points in and what weapons you have.

Played Jupiter hell it is a lot better game. Funny how fantasy shit sells so well.
Maybe you just missed *something*? If anything, Jupiter Hell seems like a much simpler game by comparison.
 

jungl

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Maybe you just missed *something*? If anything, Jupiter Hell seems like a much simpler game by comparison.

Stoneshard atm is the easiest traditional roguelike I played. Jupiter hell has optional branches and has more moments that stop and make you think.

The most thinking you'll do in stoneshard is putting a point or two in your con and grabbing rings that let you recover faster to bypass the games stupid long resting healing pain intoxication system.
 

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://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/05/26/stoneshard-early-access-review/

Stoneshard early access review
Rogue rogue rogue your boat

90


Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which Steve Hogarty explores the wilds of early access. This week, he’s being pulverised by trolls and torn to shreds by wolves in challenging roguelike Stoneshard.

Like any decent professional videogames journalist, I have spent the last ten years devaluing the term “roguelike” through overuse. Anything where a goblin politely waits for you to take your turn? Roguelike. Anything where a big slime can permanently murder you? You better believe that’s a roguelike. We would walk down the street with wheelbarrows full of roguelike. We burned piles of it just to keep warm. We introduced the word “roguelite” as a form of quantitative easing, but it failed to curb spiralling rogueflation. So now, faced with Stoneshard – a roguelike that’s really, very, incredibly, actually like Rogue – I’m left reaching for useful adjectives.

Stoneshard is a top-down, tile-based dungeon crawler in which time only moves when you do. It’s as if Superhot and chess stole Diablo’s car to go on a road trip to Durham. It’s like NetHack and Dungeons of Dredmor held hands and stared lovingly into one another’s eyes as they walked into the ocean. You are an adventurer in a richly detailed, open ended fantasy world piled high with quests, magic, monsters and loot, whose main superpower is the ability to – between any two footsteps – go make a tofurkey sandwich in the real world while your gracious opponents remain patiently frozen in time.

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To mitigate this ability to pore over each tiny decision, Stoneshard is also blindingly difficult. Combat is driven by a detailed injury simulation in which individual limbs can be broken, wounds can bleed, and head trauma can leave you seeing things that aren’t there. Snapped bones have to be treated with splints and open gashes wrapped in bandages. And even if you’re able to remedy the immediate damage to your soft wet body, all of this evisceration leaves an indelible mark on your mental health, ratcheting up an entirely separate pain meter that must also be kept in check.

Booze can dull the pain, as can a hit from a bong full of ether, but both of those treatments increase your intoxication levels. If you’re drunk you become clumsy, or worse, you might vomit or pass out, which sends your thirst and hunger bars flying. So you might take a whiff of a special herb to sharpen your senses and sober up, which usually brings all of your various health meters back into alignment. The only victim of this repeated process of scrapping and healing is your fragile sanity meter, which is difficult to keep topped up and quietly erodes with the generalised trauma of being an adventurer.

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There’s a tendency among some indie developers to believe that all detail is good detail. Outdoor survival sim Scum, for example, keeps a running total of how many teeth you’ve got at any given moment, on the off chance that knowing how many molars are still inside your skull might somehow enhance your enjoyment of the game. But here in Stoneshard, all of this fine bodily detail really does improve combat. Breaking an arm is just rare enough to not be irritating. The risk of sustaining an injury you might not be equipped to deal with means you can’t charge into a fight with the unearned confidence of somebody who can simply wait 50 turns in a quiet corner of the dungeon for a health bar to replenish.

This attention to detail is lavished on a bunch of other systems, and learning which aspects of it you can safely ignore is the only way to make sense of Stoneshard’s often turgid hover-text. Some weapon and buff descriptions read like mortgage terms and conditions. This is an RPG in which your pyromancy is less effective in the rain, because wet enemies have a 50% resistance to fire magic. Food is especially riddled with stat boosts and penalties, some of which conspire against the integrity of your guts. You can go foraging in the woods for mushrooms, eat them all at once and go utterly haywire near a bush, vomiting uncontrollably before eventually dying in a drug-induced stupor as your wretched body attempts to turn itself inside out.

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Every NPC in the game follows a daily routine, sleeping in their beds and showing up to work at market stalls. At one point I backtracked along a forest path where I had earlier murdered some bandits, to find birds picking the flesh from their rotting corpses. Occasionally your character will say something encouraging to themselves, giving you an optimism buff that lasts for a short while. This is a richly textured world filled with interesting little surprises. I remember imagining what NetHack would be like if you could sack off your quest for the amulet, stroll out of the dungeon and explore the world above ground. Stoneshard feels eerily close to what my tiny brain had conjured up.

What’s sorely missing from this early access version is all of the bigger picture stuff. Entire chunks of the game are still missing, enough to make it tough to recommend at this stage. The main plot abruptly vanishes into thin air, and what story there is stumbles over every fantasy RPG trope you could think of. The difficulty level is all over the place too, bound up by a punishing save game system that can wipe out hours of hard-won progress at the whim of a random encounter with a hidden spike trap or an overpowered archmage leaping out from behind a bookshelf.

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Stoneshard is a true roguelike in its unwavering insistence that each death feel significant – adding the ability to save the game at all seems to have been a concession – but in its current form the game’s semi-permadeath solution feels like a codge. Repeatedly trotting back to a tavern to bank your progress feels in opposition to the spirit of the game, a ritual that soon becomes an unavoidable chore, like having to take out the bins or wash your hands before you head out on a quest.

Hey, I don’t have any better ideas – if I did I’d be sipping Moet and laughing with all of the other incredibly wealthy indie devs aboard the big indie dev blimp – but the rapid pace at which giant, content-heavy updates are landing gives me confidence that a healthy balance will be found, one that accommodates the temperaments of every kind of player. Stoneshard already feels like a classic RPG in the making, an ambitious project with vast potential, a seemingly endless capacity to add depth and detail to its already intricate world simulation, and a uniquely roguelikey roguelike.
 

normie

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Devlog: Spears, Dual Wielding & A New Playable Character
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Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll give you a quick overview of some major additions of the “Bolt Thrower” content update, which will be released in just a couple more days - on June 2.

In the previous devlog we’ve already introduced crossbows. Now it’s time for the second new weapon type:

SPEARS

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Spears are two handed weapons. They have fairly average base damage, but they compensate for it with high Armor Penetration and Accuracy. Other than the spears themselves, this skill tree also includes halberds. At the moment they deal two damage types at the same time, Piercing and Slashing, but in the future we’ll probably expand on this mechanic.

While other weapon skill trees focus on dealing damage or mobility, the spears are best explained with a single word – “control”. One of their main mechanics is Immobilization. Offensive spear Skills have 2 tiles reach, so immobilization allows you to keep your opponent at a relatively safe distance, weakening them with precise strikes as they try to approach.

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Active Abilities

  • Nail Down – a strike to the legs. If the enemy is adjacent, deals bonus damage with a chance to Knock them back. If they are a tile away, deals bonus Bodypart Damage with a chance to Immobilize.
  • Impaling Lunge hits two tiles in a line with extra Bodypart Damage, Armor Penetration, and Bleed Chance. If the affected target is Immobilized, these bonuses are doubled.
  • Maneuver moves you to an adjacent tile, decreasing Active Cooldowns for spear Skills by 1 for each enemy within an area. After that grants an effect which decreases Damage Taken and increases Block and Crit Chances. This effect gets extra stacks to its strength for each Cooldown it reduces.
  • Pikeman’s Stance is a stance-based Skill which gradually raises Knockback, Immobilization, and Bleed chances, while also granting bonus Damage. It’s worth mentioning that stance mechanics were changed – more details in the patch notes on June 2.
  • Determination delivers a free hit with extra Bleed Chance to each enemy who steps on an adjacent tile during next turn.

Passive Abilities

  • Stay Back! – when enemies step on adjacent tiles, they receive a penalty to Piercing Resistance for 1 turn. This passive also gives you a chance to trigger Impaling Lunge on basic attacks.
  • Precise Hits grants bonus Immobilization Chance to your strikes. Attacks against Immobilized targets have bonus Accuracy, Bodypart Damage, and Bleed Chance.
  • One at a Time! – grants bonus Damage and Block Power for each adjacent enemy.
  • No Retreat – staying put on the same tile grants a stacking bonus to Block and Crit Chances, as well as reduces Cooldowns Duration. Moving to a different tile resets the bonus.
  • Wounding Spearhead – spear crits deal extra Damage based on the target’s current Health. The higher it is, the higher the Damage.

DUAL WIELDING

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Another new skill tree being added with the Bolt Thrower update, it’s meant to fully develop dual-wielding playstyle. The skill tree’s main mechanic is Hands Efficiency. It acts as a resource of sorts: certain Skills and circumstances temporarily increase it, while others – decrease. This makes the gameplay as a berserker more strategic, since you’ll need to skillfully juggle your abilities to maintain high damage output.

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Active Abilities

  • Flurry of Blows delivers two dual attacks with decreased Hands Efficiency.
  • Enough for Everyone performs a strike which marks the enemy with a special effect - each time you attack a different target, you’ll deliver a strike to the marked enemy as well. Each instance of this effect increases Hands Efficiency.
  • Deflect is a powerful defensive Skill. For 1 turn it raises your Block Chance to 100% and grants extra Block Power, but reduces Hands Efficiency for the next 2 turns as a trade-off.
  • Concentration is a stance-based Skill which gradually raises Hands Efficiency, Accuracy, while lowering Fumble Chance.
  • Whirlwind delivers a strike to an enemy, switches places with them, and then does the same maneuver with another adjacent target until there are no nearby enemies who didn’t take a hit. Each Whirlwind strike slightly decreases Hands Efficiency, so it’s best used when this stat is high enough.

Passive abilities

  • Berserk Tradition grants bonus Hands Efficiency, Dodge and Crit Chances, as well as Crit Efficiency for each armor slot which doesn’t grant you Protection (with the exception of belts, jewelry, and cloaks).
  • Dying Fervor greatly boosts Hands Efficiency when your Health drops below 50%.
  • More Blood! – this passive instantly replenishes “Flurry of Blows” Cooldown if it manages to kill its target, while also increasing Hands Efficiency for a few turns.
  • Unstoppable – if an enemy affected with “Enough for Everyone” dies, this effect is transferred to a random nearby target.
  • Dual Wielding Training – Skill usage grants bonus Hands Efficiency for the next turn. Doubles the bonus if both equipped weapons are of the same type. Additionally, using weapon Skills also performs an off-hand attack.

NEW CHARACTER

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We’ve added a fifth playable character to the game – Velmir, who hails from distant Skadia.

"In Skadia the most grievous offences must be paid for in blood. When Velmir learned about his brother's treacherous murder at the hands of a man named Dražan, he abandoned his life as a seafaring merchant without hesitation to personally make sure the justice is served.

For a few years Velmir had been tracking the murderer, who at first went into hiding in Skadia, then fled to foreign lands. Eventually, the chase had brought them both to Aldor. Dražan surrounded himself with bodyguards and attempted to lie low in one of the cities, but Velmir managed to hunt him down nevertheless. The bodyguards just delayed the inevitable - the reprisal was swift and violent.

Once the blood feud had been settled, Velmir realized that his life was now void of purpose - after everything which had transpired, returning to his old trade wasn't an option, nor did he actually want to. After long consideration, he decided to stay in Aldor and became a bounty hunter, so that he could continue following trails and bringing vengeance over and over again."


Velmir’s unique trait is “To Each Their Own”: when Velmir is attacked, he gains bonus Accuracy, while the attacker is applied with extra Damage Taken for the next few turns.

Velmir’s starting Affinities are Maces, Spears, Ranged Weapons, Athletics and Combat Mastery, making his early build paths quite varied.

=======

That’s it for now – the rest of the changes will be detailed in the patch notes to the update.
See you in a couple days!
 
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normie

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0.5.9.0 «Bolt Thrower» - Changelog
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Hello everyone!

The 0.5.9.0 “Bolt Thrower” content update has been released! The complete list of changes can be seen below:

MAIN ADDITIONS

- New playable character: Velmir. A hardened revenger hailing from distant Skadia, he begins the game with Affinities for Spears, Ranged Weapons, Maces, Athletics, and Combat mastery.

- New weapon type: Spears – 24 new items.

Spears offer average Damage, but have high Accuracy and Armor Penetration, and their skills have a 2 tile Range.

- New weapon type: Crossbows – 17 new items.

Crossbows deal high Damage, do well against armor, and are much more accurate than bows, but they require to be reloaded after each shot.

- Arrowhead variation: ammunition is now split into 3 types with their own special properties: leaf-shaped, broadhead, and bodkin.

- New bag type: Quivers – there are 8 of them, 4 for arrows, 4 for bolts. They are equipped in the weapon slot and can store 2 to 4 stacks of ammunition.

- New ability tree: Spears – 10 new skills.

Immobilize enemies from afar, run them through with impaling lunges, receive defensive bonuses as you retreat, and deliver strikes to your foes as they approach.

- New ability tree: Dual Wielding – 10 new skills.

Deliver devastating flurries of blows, fight entire groups head-on, deflect incoming attacks, and cut through the enemy lines in a whirlwind of steel.

New fauna: Hedgehogs and squirrels. Hunt them down for their new type of meat or precious squirrel pelts.

- New flora: Rhubarb and nettle. Don’t forget to wear gloves.

- Tweaks to ranged combat. Enemy and props sizes now correctly influence your shots’ Accuracy. If you want to improve your chances of hitting your foe, make sure there is nothing between you and the target.

Bows and crossbows are now considered a two-handed weapon with an option to equip appropriate ammo or a quiver in the second weapon slot.

BALANCE

- New critical weapon effects: It may not be evident at first, but different weapon types have different crit effects. This mechanic has been there for quite a while, gradually becoming outdated. As a result, it has been reworked:

  • Swords: 100% chance to apply Bleed for 5-8 turns
  • Axes: +50% Bodypart Damage
  • Maces: 100% chance to Daze for 2-4 turns
  • Daggers: +220% Critical Damage against unaware targets. Burn 10% of the target’s Max Energy
  • Greatswords: cleave through 3 tiles. 125% chance to apply Bleeding for 6-10 turns.
  • Staffs: cleave through 3 tiles. Replenish 10% Max energy.
  • Spears: +100% Immobilization Chance
  • Bows: +100% Immobilization Chance
  • Crossbows: +100% Knockback Chance

- REWORKED - Stance-based skills. Old stances functioned rather strangely: their duration and stack count were way too easy to ramp up and sustain throughout a fight, and it was entirely up to chance whether you lose said effect stacks or not.

Changes:
  • Reduced the max number of stacks from 6 to 4.
  • You gain 1 stack each time you use other skills from the stance’s ability tree.
  • Basic attacks with an appropriate weapon decrease the number of stacks by 1, but prolong the effect’s duration by 1 turn.

These changes are meant to make stances more tactical: they can no longer be activated at the start of a fight and then completely forgotten till the end of it – the new system requires balancing between maintaining stance duration and stacks, which are spent on empowering your attacks.

- Reduced the amount of reputation needed to reach Amity and Respect (by 25%)

- Rebalanced hunger and thirst gain.

- Changed some equipment and weapon stats.

- Spear-wielding enemies no longer have placeholder skills from other ability trees, and have been assigned Spear skills.

- Ancient Troll now drops his pelt and tusks on death.

- Added a new stat: Immobilization Chance.

- Stun Resistance was renamed into Control Resistance and is now also used for resisting Confusion.

- Knockback Resistance was renamed into Move Resistance and is now also used for resisting Immobilization

- [Dual Wielding] Equipping dual weapons now also grants +15% Cooldowns Duration and +7.5% Fumble Chance.

- [Dirwin] His starting Dirk was replaced with a Short Dagger.

- [Dirwin] Maces Affinity was swapped for Staffs Affinity

- [Arna] Her trait now grants [-7.5% > -5%] Abilities Energy Cost and Cooldowns Duration, as well as [-4% > -3%] Damage Taken for each enemy within Vision.

- [Jorgrim] Maces Affinity was swapped for Dual Wielding

- [Greatswords] Feint Swing: removed the penalty to Damage. Removed the bonus to Accuracy (it wasn’t really useful, as the skill already drops the target’s Dodge Chance to 0). Feint Swing now grants extra Damage, while also lowering Fumble Chance.

- REWORKED - [Greatswords] Parry: now grants Block Chance and Block Power for 1 turn. Counterattacks now trigger on every received attack. Each strike you block reduces this skill’s Cooldown by 1.

- REWORKED - [Greatswords] Feast of Steel is now a stance-based skill. It decreases Fumble Chance, improves Accuracy and Crit Efficiency, while also guaranteeing each 3rd attack to Crit.

- [Ranged Weapons]: Taking Aim grants +[50 > 75]% Accuracy for the next turn. The bonus to Damage now scales with Perception.

- REWORKED: [Ranged Weapons] Precision: hitting a target after using “Taking Aim” grants “Exceptional Accuracy” for 2 turns.

- [Combat Mastery] Seize the Initiative – changed the max number of stacks from 4 to 6. Removed duration – the effect persists until the target affected by “Initiative Loss” either dies or leaves your Vision. Receiving “Initiative Loss” removes the effect of “Seized Initiative” and vice versa.

- [Combat Mastery] Setup] - bonus Accuracy and Damage you gain after skipping a turn persist for [1 > 2] turns and can now stack.

- [Combat Mastery] Stance Training: if “Defensive Tactic” is active, stance-based skills start with 3 stacks on activation. If “Offensive Tactic” is active, using applicable skills additionally grants +1 stack to stance effects.

- [Athletics] Mighty Kick: upon landing a kick, reduce the enemy’s Control and Move Resistances for the next turn.

FIXES

- The state of fog of war is now being properly preserved, so it no longer conceals previously visited locations.

- Changed the bug which caused huge Crit damage with bows.

- Just as it’s stated in stat description, blocking arrows and bolts now requires an equipped shield. This rule also applies to enemies.

- Removed the ability to shoot through dungeon walls and surface structures.

- Fast travel between villages now takes some in-game time and changes your character’s stats just like sleeping would.

- “Blessing” effect received a 1200 turns duration cap.

- Fixed Vivifying Essence not burning Energy on use.

- Fixed the use rule for fleawort.

- Fixed the softlock occurring while removing a piece of equipment when both the inventory and a container are full.

- The drunkard’s wife in Mannshire no longer flies around.

- Fixed context menu when lockpicking a container.

- Numerous fixes across all localizations.

- Torso condition now correctly displays its influence on Max Health.

- Fixed a number of mistakes in abilities’ formulas, as some of them didn’t work as they were supposed to.

- Optimized rendering

- Destroyed Unholy Altars no longer leave a lighting source behind.

- Wraiths no longer spray blood when hit.

- Effects no longer flicker on medium settings

- Fixed Ancient Troll being able to attack during regeneration.

- Many actions are now being properly logged.


VISUALS

- Improvements to lighting system. It now takes objects’ relative position into consideration

- Made some tweaks to shaders

- Changed Jorgrim’s portrait.

0.5.9.1 + 0.5.9.2 Changelog
0.5.9.1

- Numerous text typos and mistakes fixed.
- Removed skill energy penalties for shields as they already have flat Energy/Energy Restoration penalties.
- Increased carpenters’ stocks.
- Decreased NPC restock time by 30%.
- Morsel can be cooked now.
- Parry should counterattack every enemy attack except melee skills (melee skills not triggering counterattacks is a known issue, we’re investigating)
- Fixed outdated energy cost for some abilities (mostly stances)
- Returned broadhead arrows test damage to its intended value.
- Tailor now sells low-level shirts, gloves and boots.
- Added a spear and a crossbow to Osbrook barracks weaponstands.
- Fixed open doors using closed doors' collisions.
- Fixed inventory-related crashes.

0.5.9.2

- Fixed invisible buff-related crash.
- Fixed range calculation.
- Fixed counterattacks not triggering on receiving melee skills.
- Fixed innkeeper post-quest discount exploit.
- Reduced weapon switch delay after location transitions.
- Fixed not being able to attack objects via context menu.
- Fixed 100% weapon drop caused by Deafening Roar.
- Fixed indefinite healing caused by Fleawort.
- Minor tweaks to Daze/Immobilization durations from the corresponding stat procs.
- Fixed Immobilization and Stun buffing Dodge Chance, if it was already negative.

0.5.9.3 Changelog
- Added an option to unload crossbows.
- Reduced quivers’ capacity.
- Reduced the penalty to Hands Efficiency after using Whirlwind. It also doesn’t last for 2 turns now.
- Fixed long-distance counterattacks..
- Fixed Petrification not granting Geomancy Power.
- Added visual stack indicator to applicable buff icons.
- Fixed grave collision after digging them up.
- Fixed “Enough for Everyone” causing crashes.
- Shooting distance in attack mode is now correctly calculated after switching between ammo types with different range.
- Fixed the bug with the character becoming invisible in the location with the troll.
- Parry now properly counters all received attacks.
- Fixed dead zones of “Impaling Lunge”.
- Fixed enemies not becoming hostile upon receiving Immobilization.
- Fixed bolt tooltips showing wrong values.
- Hail of Blows can no longer knock enemies back with its first 2 strikes.
- New visuals for magma puddles.
- Fixed to the audio.
- Various text fixes.
 

normie

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Devlog: Progress Update
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Hello everyone!

In this devlog we’d like to share our progress on the “Way Forward” update. It will be released in the end of summer or in the beginning of autumn and will be the largest and the most complex update we’ve delivered so far - it will include a massive rework of the AI and dungeon generation.

The large amount of time required to develop this update is linked to a significant number of systems, closely connected to the rework. Even if these systems will only be fully implemented at a later date, they already require a proper foundation which we have to lay down. Additionally, AI rework itself requires lots of testing and tweaking, so it’s hard to predict the exact amount of time needed to achieve acceptable results.

However, this rework is essential to finally start adding not just quantity to the game, but also quality. It will allow us to experiment with the behaviour of different enemy factions, add new enemy types, and introduce unique abilities to the existing enemies. With any luck, some of the new enemy types will be added with the “Way Forward” update.

At the moment the basic structure of our new AI is still being conceptualized and prototyped, but we can already share the list of targets we plan to reach:

  • Create a more complex ecosystem. This will include the manual tweaking of the relations between different animal types instead of crudely splitting them depending on their ration. We plan to add some specific behaviour patterns as well. For instance, deer will flee from loud noises (instead of running towards them), carnivores will be territorial (which will allow avoiding their aggression if you make a timely retreat from their territory). There will also be a herd/pack simulation added among other things.

    5dc7c9ea15b35a296a3da1f4d324f28fb6d26034.png

    A concept scheme for the reworked relations between different animal types

  • Improve pathfinding and positioning. In the current version of the game mobs simply follow the shortest route to their enemy. We’d like to give them an ability to walk around traps and dangerous AoE zones when it’s possible, avoid tiles with solid objects behind them if the player makes an active use of Knockback, and keep their distance when using magic or ranged weaponry.
  • Add a more context-dependent system for using abilities instead of the existing system, which is based on chance and just one or two conditions per action.
  • Grant enemies some additional options: retreat or swap positions in certain situations, call allies for help, properly react to arrow fire and spells, correctly prioritize targets.
  • Introduce a more transparent awareness system, which will become a basis for the upcoming stealth system.
  • Rework the NPC system, which will allow adding random NPC encounters to the game, making the exploration much more varied.

The variety aspect also pertains to the dungeon generation rework. The existing dungeons are nothing more than a few dozen square rooms, connected with a web of hallways. We are currently working on adding lots of unique rooms to the dungeon generator, removing the mandatory hallways in certain situations, as well as trying out different approaches for generating different dungeon types.

Once we achieve all this, we’ll be able to start introducing new dungeon types to the game, populating them with new enemies (the product of the reworked AI), which in turn means the beginning of the long-awaited expansion of the game’s world.

We’ve already finished working on the prototype for the updated dungeon generation. We are pleased with the result, so it’s currently being added to the game. Still, it will take quite a while to fully flesh the system out, so for now here are some concepts for the new rooms which we plan to add to the game:

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That’s all for now, thank you for your attention.
See you in a few weeks!
 
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Here's hoping they really deliver on that AI rework, especially on the positioning part as the last time I played this, the average enemy mage would be a 1 INT buffon who would run up to me and usually cast a spell pointblank, sometimes even after first trying to bludgeon me with their fairy twig of nodamage.
 

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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
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0.5.9.6 - Equipment Update
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Hello everyone!

The work on changes to the AI and dungeon generation is well underway, and we'll soon publish a devlog with some details on our progress. In the meantime, here’s a small interim patch to keep you from getting bored - it expands the roster of available equipment and brings a number of fixes and improvements.

New Items:

  • 2 new daggers: Commoner’s Dagger and Elven Stiletto
  • 5 new axes: Exquisite Tabar, Heavy Aldorian Axe, Aldwynnian Axe, Gilded Axe, and Lordly Axe
  • 1 new mace: Elven Flail
  • 4 new chest pieces: Dwarven Armor, Light Brigandine, Elven Brigandine, and Skadian Yushman
  • 8 new helmets: Barbute (4 variants) and Cervelliere (4 variants)
  • 3 new pieces of footwear: Town Shoes, Duelist Boots, and Splint Boots
  • 3 new mage sets (mantle + cowl): Cryomancer, Electromancer, and Chronomancer
  • 4 new amulets: Gold Medallion, Jibean Pendant, Amber Amulet, Lazurite Amulet
  • 1 new cape: Jousting Cloak


Miscellaneous:

  • Traders can now sell many items which were previously excluded from their stock.
  • Added log messages for critical shots.
  • Added a warning about the progress not being saved on exit when leaving the game.
  • Reduced the effectiveness of roasted mushrooms.
  • Numerous fixes across all localizations.
  • Fixed the item dupe exploit with some of the containers in Osbrook.
  • Fixed the incorrect block power calculation.
  • Fixed the incorrect durability loss when blocking attacks.
  • Fixed the collision between a cell and a door in Mannshire prison.
  • Fixed visual effects displaying above enemies while they are in the fog of war.
  • Mobs no longer display speech messages while they are petrified, stunned, or asleep.
  • Added new equipment sounds.
  • Fixed the incorrect “Blood Oath” log message.
  • Fixed pathfinding when clicking on a NPC to start a dialogue.
  • Fixed the fleawort usage with an open backpack.
  • Fixed the possibility of dropping items on the ground when dragging them outside of the trade menu.
  • The fog of war is now being properly calculated when using “Onslaught”.
  • Fixed the possibility of decapitating targets by using “Mighty Kick” and other non-weapon skills.
  • Fixed the possibility of reloading while stunned.
  • Fixed the absence of psionic damage on items.
 

normie

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Insert Title Here
Devlog: New Dungeon Generation & Enemies
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Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since our last devlog, but we are finally ready to tell you about many new additions which we’ve been working on. Over the next few devlogs we’ll detail most of the new content introduced by the “Way Forward” update, which will be released on September 24th. For now let’s begin with new enemies and reworked dungeon generation.

Overall System

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The dungeon generation algorithm was rebuilt from the ground up in order to avoid the annoyance of persistent generation bugs. Now the game is capable of creating much more sophisticated and complex structures, as well as fine-tune dungeons based on many parameters. This will come in handy when we begin expanding the global map and improving the dungeon respawning system.

New Rooms

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New dungeons will welcome you with a large variety of unique templates - other than the usual square rooms, dungeons will also contain rooms of uncommon forms and sizes. Twisted corridors, decorated halls, roomy passageways, collapsed walls - you’ll be able to encounter all of this and more while exploring crypts, catacombs, and bastions. This addition brought significant variety into tactical situations created by the game.

In the future we plan to further develop this concept by adding even more new rooms, including rooms with puzzles, special traps, and so on.
Secret Rooms

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The dungeon generator can now create long-forgotten treasure rooms, the entrances to which are initially concealed from your character. Those aren’t easy to find, but the result is well worth the effort - observant characters will be rewarded with sizable loot and unique items.

In order to discover a secret passageway, you’ll have to make use of your Perception attribute - the higher it is, the higher the chance to notice that there’s something funny about that particular wall... You can also use the “Examine Surroundings” ability, which is now able to spot more than just traps.

Boss Rooms

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Dungeon bosses are no longer cooped in tiny closets with a chest in the middle. Now they’ll be encountered in special rooms with enough space for maneuver and more valuable loot. For instance, necromancers can be encountered in special tombs, where they conduct their unholy rituals, or next to altar circles.

Skeleton Variety

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The Undead faction received reinforcements. The skeletons, not unlike the existing bandits, will have different variants based on their dungeon difficulty. In the beginning of the game your opposition will consist of skeletons in rags, but in more dangerous dungeons you’ll have to fight well-armored and well-armed foes.

The skeletons fight with ultimate determination. Even in the most unfair fights they will hold their ground and never retreat.

Ghasts

Necromancy is a heavy burden. Upon acquiring the forbidden knowledge, weak-willed warlocks often quickly lose their sanity. Once the madness settles in, they transform into ghasts - a macabre shell of their former self, guided by a deranged obsession with death in all its forms.

Necromancers often turn ghasts into their servants, using them as commanders of sorts for their undead army - while skeletons and restless keep enemies busy, ghasts use their spells to support and direct them in combat.

The Restless Dead

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The restless are favored by beginner necromancers, since it’s much easier to resurrect a fresh corpse rather than time-yellowed old bones. Due to their relatively recent death, the restless’ consciousness is much less fragmented, so it takes considerably less energy from a warlock to sustain them.

However, the restless’ most significant advantage is their incredible resilience. It’s not easy to kill something which is already dead, as rotting flesh, sustained with dark magic, is capable of surviving even the most grievous wounds. Thanks to their passive ability “Abominable Vitality”, each time a restless receives a killing blow, they have a chance to avoid death, losing a body part and completely replenishing their health in the process.

In order to ultimately put a restless in the ground, you’ll have to either bring their health down to zero a few times or deliver as many heavy injuries as possible.

That’s all for now. Until next time!
 

normie

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Insert Title Here
Devlog: Reworked Bastion & Rangers AI Tweaks
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Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll share more details on the dungeon rework and the Bastion (brigand dungeon) in particular. We’ll also touch upon some aspects of the reworked AI.

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Of all the dungeon types, the Bastion received the largest amount of changes, allowing it to better match its name. The Bastion’s layout is dominated by spacious halls, complex structures, and wide corridors cluttered with junk.

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There’re also some changes to hostage rescue contracts. Hostages can no longer be found in the same room as bosses, instead being held in a dedicated cell which needs to be located first. To open the cell you’ll need a special key, for which you’ll have to fight a dungeon’s boss.

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Other than that, the Bastion now has more interactive elements: occasionally you’ll find water barrels, which can be used to refill your waterskin or quench thirst directly. You’ll also be able to raid a dungeon’s pantry and then cook looted meat and vegetables in its kitchen.

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=======

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Regarding the AI, let’s start with archers - their behaviour was drastically reworked. They’ll try to stay as far from their target as possible during combat. Hiding behind a bush to lure them to a nearby tile is now a much less effective tactic, as they will attempt to keep their distance even while searching for targets outside of their Vision.

Archers will also try to maintain their distance when dealing with approaching enemies, performing a timely retreat when possible. If an enemy is right on top of them, or they run out of ammunition, they’ll draw a melee weapon and defend themselves with it.

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Speaking about retreating - most enemies will try to run away if things turn sour. There are many conditions influencing their decision-making, but the most important one is low Health. Once enemies take enough punishment, they’ll begin accessing their situation on a per-turn basis. The amount of injuries and debuffs, their Energy, allies getting murdered and decapitated - all of it will decide whether your enemy will turn tail and run or fight till the bitter end. It’s also worth mentioning that strong and well-equipped foes are less likely to flee.

That’s all for now. A quick reminder - the update will be released in just 4 days, on September 24th. The remaining details on new content will be listed prior to the patch release.

Until next time!
 

normie

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Insert Title Here
0.6.0.0 "Way Forward" is Live!
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MAJOR ADDITIONS

- Complete rework of the dungeon generator.
Bastions, Catacombs, and Crypts now have a new generation algorithm and numerous new room templates.

- Basic AI was completely reworked

There are still ways to go, and we still need to perform many tweaks to make things work exactly as planned, but even with just this update the following features will be introduced to the AI:

- New decision-making system. Instead of relying on RNG when choosing which Ability to use, enemies now use a weight system - each Ability gained a number of specific conditions which either increase or decrease its weight depending on the situation. Enemies will use Abilities with the highest weight at any given time.

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- New pathfinding system. Pathfinding was rebuilt from the ground up - the shortest way to a mob’s target is now modified by numerous conditions. Enemies will attempt to avoid traps, wait out AoE effects, stay away from locations where they can be easily knocked into walls, and more.

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- Enemies learned to trade places when fighting in corridors and tight spaces. Enemies who prefer to fight in melee will try to swap out archers, retreating enemies will attempt to swap with those who can still fight, and those who have high Health - with those who are about to die.

- Archers and mages prefer to keep their distance and retreat when approached by enemies, wearing them down with arrows and spells.

- Mobs now use a new system to decide which targets to prioritize, trying to focus on the highest threat.

- Archers’ ammunition is now limited. They also learned to swap to melee weapon when they run out of ammo or when their enemy finally manages to catch up.

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- Most aggressive animals will first try to intimidate your character and only attack if you don’t leave their territory within a number of turns. Different animals have their intimidation phase set at different duration - wolves, for example, will attack almost immediately.

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- Some enemies might decide to retreat in case the fight is going badly for them, attempting to leave the location. The chance to trigger a retreat is influenced by many factors: low Health, allies’ death, whether they have injuries or debuffs.

- The ecosystem is now much more in-depth. Boars and moose will hold their ground and defend against the player and predators, foxes will hunt rabbits, and deer will run away the moment they hear the player approaching.

- Added secret rooms which can only be discovered by highly perceptive characters. Rich loot awaits inside!

- 100+ new containers and decorations across all dungeons.

- New enemy skills: mancatchers gained “Net Throw” and “Sic!”, dogs gained “Loud Barking” and “Grab ‘Em!”, wraiths learned “Grave Chill” and “Dissipation”, ghouls gained “Bone Throw”, ghasts and necromancers - “Death Touch” and “Soul Sacrifice”.

- 25 new undead enemy types: two lineups of high-level skeletons, a lineup of restless dead, as well as ghasts - undead mages, wielding special spells.

- Certain changes to hostage rescue contracts: from now on abducted NPCs will be held in designated cells, requiring you to find a key before you can rescue them.

- Added acorns and burnet.

VISUALS & SOUND

- New culling system.
- Reworked light rendering.
- New fog of war rendering system.
- Updated steppes.
- Added fireflies.
- Visual updates to the Prologue rooms.
- Added four new music tracks, including two battle themes.

BALANCE

- Balance changes to most undead enemies.
- Increased the Abomination’s Health, but decreased its base damage.
- Most enemies gained a larger line of sight.
- “Taking Aim”: reduced Accuracy bonus (+75% > +50%).
- Removed unique items from graves and added them to secret rooms.
- Ravens now generate noise when they take off.
- Mannshire crypth has its danger level increased.

FIXES & UX

- Reworked turn and priority system for various actions.
- Made significant improvements to enemies following the player between zones.
- Added hotkeys for switching between hotbars.
- Fixed sudden Health and Energy replenishment when entering an already visited location.
- Brigands gained new phrases when retreating. The phrases upon getting injured are now tied to specific body parts instead of just triggering a generic response.
- Added lots of log messages.
- Fixed flickering stack numbers on stances’ buff icons.
- Removed the possibility of preemptively destroying the statues in the Prologue before the fight even begins.

RAISING THE PRICE

Way Forward is an important structural update, after the release of which we can finally move onto expanding the map. In the next major update, which is planned for the winter of 2020-2021, we will add the first major city, its surrounding area, and lots of accompanying content. Before that we also plan to release a few interim updates to add the remaining weapon skill trees and more.

Because of this, the base price for the game will be increased by 30% in all regions. If you wish to purchase the game at a lower price, now might be the best time for it!

That’s all for now.
Have fun playing!
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

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I'm very into cock and ball torture
Such an amazing game, so incredibly unfinished. Played 5 hours and decided I will wait until 1.0.
 
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I have mixed feelings about early access. On the one hand it has allowed a lot of games to be made that would not have otherwise existed, but as a consumer I think it's a terrible deal. It's paying to be a beta tester. Fuck that, that shit should be free. You're helping with development by playtesting and making bug reports and in return you are playing the pre-release game for free. That's fair. Kickstarter is even worse. You take all the risk of an investment, only instead of an ongoing ROI you maybe get the product which may or may not bear any resemblance to the developers' original vision. Cool, but I can buy the product anyway after you release it? If you want startup money give me shares in your company! What's worse is your decision to invest is generally based on very little information from a person with an idea that is not very developed at all. They may or may not have the drive, organisation and technical ability to bring this idea to fruition and it will almost certainly shrink in scale from what you were initially promised as reality sets in for them. Or it may go the other route and bloat and become vaporware.

This thread was made 3 years ago and the game still has not been "released." Anyone who bought it 3 years ago will be sick of it by now. Even if they do return to the game once it is "released" (a misnomer given the game has already been released prior to being finished) they won't get the same enjoyment as if they came fresh to the game when it was completed.

But like I said it facilitates a lot of creativity so I guess I don't want it to go away. I'm happy to play what games are completed this way, I just low key think the people who actually buy early access/fund kickstarters are idiots. I feel the same about preorders. What's the advantage to you as a consumer over just buying the finished game after reading a review or two? To me the only way an intelligent person could spend their money this way is if they see it as patronage, money freely given to support the artist without expectation of any return, and any product received as an unexpected bonus. If you treat it as purchasing a product you are an ass hat and deserve to be waiting three years to play your game.
The only time I have ever bought 'early access' is when I am certain the game will be completed (or as certain as I can be, I have not purchased this game yet, but I do think it will be finished)-- but then I never play the game until its released. I might play it for like 30 minutes or something, but that is all, and its for the reason you said, it will simply ruin the game for me. But I don't mind giving them some early money and also purchasing the game at a big discount if the game maker is trustworthy and I am very certain they will finish the game.
 
Last edited:

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I enjoyed playing stone shard. Development progress seems solid. I wouldn't say it's too easy; it's easy until it isn't (like most roguelikes). I'm hoping the story and missions get a lot of focus and expansion in coming patches
 

Skdursh

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I think the game is fantastic and progressing in the right direction. I bought the game when it was first released to Early Access and haven't ever regretted it.
 

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