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

[Fedora Master]

Sure would be nice to see some progress beyond the first act.

 

[Tyranicon]

I've never tried Stoneshard, so this isn't meant as anything other than a question.

Is there any point to buying this if you already own Battle Brothers?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I've never tried Stoneshard, so this isn't meant as anything other than a question.

Is there any point to buying this if you already own Battle Brothers?

This one has feet. And it's s roguelike where you start with a player character first.

 

[Peachcurl]

Yeah, this and battle brothers aren't really much alike.

 

[Teut Busnet]

I'm fairly confident in these guys tbh. The framework for everything (towns, combat, AI, crafting) is already there and in good shape so what they should be focusing on now is just content, content, content.

Thing is, the framework has been there since release and what they're focusing on is - not really clear to me. It's been 14 month now and

• The Grid-Inventory is still a mess, where an herb or a piece of paper takes up the same space as an axe
• There still is no character creation
• You still run between two small villages, doing the same contracs over and over to grind out better gear - so you can complete those contracts even easier
• There are still only two of eight(?) magical schools available
• etc.

This feels like MWO, where the main programmer(s) left and what remains are just people creating slightly advanced, official mods.

 

[Teut Busnet]

MWO

What's a MWO?

The world famous Mechwarrior Online.

Yeah, I probably shoud have clarified that.

 

[Tacgnol]

The lack of actual progress with this is kinda worrying, usually when you see devs spamming small pointless features it means they've run out of money/resource to get the main game finished and are trying to buy time.

Hopefully I'm wrong and they deliver, but I've been lowering my expectations with this one for a while.

 

[Harthwain]

There are still only two of eight(?) magical schools available

Stoneshard's wiki suggests 9.

Thing is, the framework has been there since release and what they're focusing on is - not really clear to me. It's been 14 month now and

[...]

This feels like MWO, where the main programmer(s) left and what remains are just people creating slightly advanced, official mods.

Sounds worrisome. Could they be aiming for 2022 release?

Spoiler

 

[Teut Busnet]

The lack of actual progress with this is kinda worrying, usually when you see devs spamming small pointless features it means they've run out of money/resource to get the main game finished and are trying to buy time.

Hopefully I'm wrong and they deliver, but I've been lowering my expectations with this one for a while.

And most of the 'Updates' seem to be about balancing. Which is weird, when half the skills are still missing.

If they really are out of money, that probably would be down to horrid mismanagement or excessive partying.

I don't have sales figures, but it has a lot more reviews (16.1k) than 'For the King' (13.9) or Battle Brothers (12.1), nevermind Gloomhaven, Othercide or Urtuk (all under 4k).

 

[Abu Antar]

I follow them on twitter. They are supposed to be working on a summer update that seems to be quite big. Can't judge until that time comes.

 

[Polanski]

I've never tried Stoneshard, so this isn't meant as anything other than a question.

Is there any point to buying this if you already own Battle Brothers?

There is little reason to buy any game ever again, if you already own Battle Brothers.

 

[Tyranicon]

Hmmm I might pick this up. Also, yeah gauging from the review count, they probably have enough money to continue dev unless there was some excessive spending somewhere.

Cocaine and hookers are expensive, to be fair.

 

[Fenix]

I clarified what I heard - they seems to move not on another new engine - but on new version of what they use now.

 

[Murk]

What makes this game special?

What I like about it:

Obvious: looks great, but also sounds great. Atmosphere is nice throughout. Right now EA is very limited in content, so unknown what the future areas will hold but the promise of much more content is integral to this since if it only doubles in size it wouldn't be enough. Plot/Story is very short/simple for now, but not bad at all.

Not so obvious: Different types of combat styles that can be pretty different from one another (using ranged weapons as a form of CC, using quantity of enemies to increase damage output, etc.); so far simple but enjoyable dungeon diving and systems (managing debuffs especially). Combat skills often give you new options in combat as opposed to just singular extra damage or very boring passive bonuses. Many combo together (not just the passive bonuses ala diablo 2, but in that they can be chained or one sets up for another to do more damage or apply more powerful status effects/debuffs/self-buffs).

Very subjective: the game just feels really good. This is a combination of the visuals and sound design (battle brothers got this down very well, simple animation + good sound = good sensory feedback when playing the game), the general flow and pace of gameplay both in and out of combat, and that you never really feel all that safe... but as many speedruns have shown, even at the very beginning, you have many tools available to you to be able to take on the final boss if you are willing to "outwit" it (even ignoring full on cheese/AI manipulation).

 

[Fedora Master]

What makes this game special?

Snorting fantasy cocaine to cure your post-dungeon-crawl depression.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Wayfinder]

I'm fairly confident in these guys tbh. The framework for everything (towns, combat, AI, crafting) is already there and in good shape so what they should be focusing on now is just content, content, content.

Thing is, the framework has been there since release and what they're focusing on is - not really clear to me. It's been 14 month now and

• The Grid-Inventory is still a mess, where an herb or a piece of paper takes up the same space as an axe
• There still is no character creation
• You still run between two small villages, doing the same contracs over and over to grind out better gear - so you can complete those contracts even easier
• There are still only two of eight(?) magical schools available
• etc.

This feels like MWO, where the main programmer(s) left and what remains are just people creating slightly advanced, official mods.

• Inventory is working as intended. Yes, they take the same space for the sake of balancing/encouraging meaningful looting. It's fine, we're not going to change that.
  
• Not a priority currently. Letting you name a character and choose 2 STR instead of 2 AGI won't add anything meaningful to the game until the supporting systems (like traits) are in place. And there are far more important features to focus on currently. It'll be added, but much later on. As much as I understand why it's a highly requested feature, preset characters currently do their job just fine.
  
• We're working on global map expansion currently. The update will arrive late summer and will feature much expanded global map, new points of interest, first major city & the caravan system.
  
• Won't touch magic until the supplementary systems and content are in place. No point in adding new magic since their late spells are designed for much higher level content that's currently present in-game.

I don't know why you expected all those B-priority features when all our roadmaps stated that they're, well, B-priority and not to be expected any time soon. Literally none of these were scheduled to arrive in 2020 except the global map stuff. Which was moved to 2021 due to the fact we're mostly working on combat improvements, new skills and new activities last year to keep the community engaged.

Also your line about updates being mostly about balancing is... not true. I'll just link our roadmap to list all new additions over the course of the past year.
Yes, they did include a fair amount of balance changes but that's because adding new stuff always requires some balance adjustments.

Overall, it's kinda funny: when you do balance changes people start complaining about wasting time on meaningless tweaks instead of working on a new stuff. And then when you add new stuff people complain about wasting time on adding new stuff instead of fixing what's there already. Lute everyone freaks out about is just a fun little thing that was made in our free time over the course of a whopping three days. Just imagine all the magic trees and new dungeons that could have been made instead, sigh.

Recent lack of updates is caused entirely by the fact the next patch is going to be really huge and requires many major time-consuming features that can't be reasonably separated, that's all. No need to speculate about us running out of money and game going abandonware, it's kinda tiresome at this point.

 

[Teut Busnet]

I'm fairly confident in these guys tbh. The framework for everything (towns, combat, AI, crafting) is already there and in good shape so what they should be focusing on now is just content, content, content.

Thing is, the framework has been there since release and what they're focusing on is - not really clear to me. It's been 14 month now and

• The Grid-Inventory is still a mess, where an herb or a piece of paper takes up the same space as an axe
• There still is no character creation
• You still run between two small villages, doing the same contracs over and over to grind out better gear - so you can complete those contracts even easier
• There are still only two of eight(?) magical schools available
• etc.

This feels like MWO, where the main programmer(s) left and what remains are just people creating slightly advanced, official mods.

• Inventory is working as intended. Yes, they take the same space for the sake of balancing/encouraging meaningful looting. It's fine, we're not going to change that.
  
• Not a priority currently. Letting you name a character and choose 2 STR instead of 2 AGI won't add anything meaningful to the game until the supporting systems (like traits) are in place. And there are far more important features to focus on currently. It'll be added, but much later on. As much as I understand why it's a highly requested feature, preset characters currently do their job just fine.
  
• We're working on global map expansion currently. The update will arrive late summer and will feature much expanded global map, new points of interest, first major city & the caravan system.
  
• Won't touch magic until the supplementary systems and content are in place. No point in adding new magic since their late spells are designed for much higher level content that's currently present in-game.

I don't know why you expected all those B-priority features when all our roadmaps stated that they're, well, B-priority and not to be expected any time soon. Literally none of these were scheduled to arrive in 2020 except the global map stuff. Which was moved to 2021 due to the fact we're mostly working on combat improvements, new skills and new activities last year to keep the community engaged.

Also your line about updates being mostly about balancing is... not true. I'll just link our roadmap to list all new additions over the course of the past year.
Yes, they did include a fair amount of balance changes but that's because adding new stuff always requires some balance adjustments.

Overall, it's kinda funny: when you do balance changes people start complaining about wasting time on meaningless tweaks instead of working on a new stuff. And then when you add new stuff people complain about wasting time on adding new stuff instead of fixing what's there already. Lute everyone freaks out about is just a fun little thing that was made in our free time over the course of a whopping three days. Just imagine all the magic trees and new dungeons that could have been made instead, sigh.

Recent lack of updates is caused entirely by the fact the next patch is going to be really huge and requires many major time-consuming features that can't be reasonably separated, that's all. No need to speculate about us running out of money and game going abandonware, it's kinda tiresome at this point.

What has changed in the 14 months the game is out? Is it not true that you still just walk between the same two small villages, doing fetch quests and grind for better gear to repeat the same contracts? What more did you give us to do?

That your 'A' priorities don't include a sensible inventory, Character creation or finishing the other half of the players' skills for more build variety seems weird to me.

I'm not writing the game off, but whatever progress was made, was not noticable when I checked it out again recently. And despite your 'sighing' and 'tiredness' I will say as much - after over a year in EA, I don't think that's unfair.

Good luck anyway.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

The roadmap should be front and center on the Steam/GoG forums and the homepage. Word of mouth is great and all, but with content updates so infrequent this is a half-assed way to sell a niche game with a shitty save system. For that matter, why not post the same Steam news updates over at the GoG forums? You forget you released over there, too?

 

[Background Character]

moar magic pl0x

 

[Bara]

why not post the same Steam news updates over at the GoG forums? You forget you released over there, too?

I've barley seen any devs ever use the gog forms and its the general consensus for a lot of games that if your trying to get in touch with the devs your better off going to the steam forms to let them know about gog issues.

 

[Tygrende]

No need to speculate about us running out of money and game going abandonware, it's kinda tiresome at this point.

Don't take it personally, I like the game quite a lot and hope you manage to implement everything on the roadmap and more. But we've seen devs run out of money and games going abandonware too many times. The unfortunate reality is that until this "biggest update yet" is out, you look exactly like each and every one of them at this point. The fact that you recently changed its release date from "Q2" to vague "late summer" doesn't do you any favors.

Old roadmap for those interested:

Spoiler

 

[Drowed]

Well, if the final version arrives faster than the Secret of Grindea full game, I am already satisfied.

 

[Pink Eye]

Well, if the final version arrives faster than the Secret of Grindea full game, I am already satisfied.

Holy shit. Another Secrets of Grindea fan?! In this board of all places?! Dude!

 

[Abu Antar]

Devlog: Crime System

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll tell you about the crime and punishment system, which will be added with the “City of Gold” update[i.imgur.com], planned for the end of this summer.

Initially, we didn’t plan to add this feature so soon, however the random encounters system that we’re currently working on requires killable NPCs and, subsequently, a punishment for killing them. Other crimes are just a logical continuation of this option. Let’s start with reviewing the general mechanics.

Crime Mechanics

Any unlawful action that you perform in front of a NPC is considered a crime. This includes:

• Disturbing the peace. Opening containers that don’t belong to you, setting traps in public locations, throwing items at NPCs, using certain abilities (such as spells) in public, trespassing, and so on.
  
• Breaking a lock. Attempting to pick or force open locked chests and doors.
  
• Theft. Taking items that don’t belong to you.
  
• Livestock slaughter. Killing animals that are considered more valuable (such as cows and horses) will result in a more severe punishment than killing cats and dogs.
  
• Assaulting an NPC. Delivering a first strike counts as an assault.
  
• Killing or knocking NPCs out. In case you decide to follow through with your assault.
  
• If you commit anything from this list (other than an assault or a murder) and don’t get caught in the process, this won’t count as a crime.

Spoiler

Punishment

Every crime has a number of consequences:

• Reputation loss. The amount lost depends on the severity of a crime. For instance, a murder can negate the Reputation gain from completing a few dozen contracts and will make the locals hate you.
  
  It’s worth mentioning that the Reputation loss also affects your standing with the entire Faction, even if to a lesser extent. Therefore, if you frequently get caught stealing in Osbrook, the rumors will reach Mannshire and Brynn, damaging your Reputation there as well.
  
  
• Becoming wanted. For the duration of being wanted, guards will try to fine or arrest you, and the local population will refuse to have any dealings with you, be it trading, giving contracts and tasks, or even talking. It’s also impossible to sleep and save your game in the settlements where you are a wanted person.
  
  You’ll also become wanted in other settlements of the Faction, not just the one where you commit a crime, so it might be a good idea to wait it out in a neutral location or, in the future, with another Faction.
  
  
• Receiving a fine and serving jail time. You can atone for your crimes by doing one of the following: pay a fine or go to jail. The amount you have to pay or the time you must serve depends on the severity of your crimes.

However, you can always refuse to cooperate, temporarily making the guards hostile. If you start losing a fight with them, you’ll be given another chance to surrender.

Jail

If you decide to save your money and go to jail instead of paying a fine, your sentence will depend on the amount and severity of your crimes - up to forty days. You’ll also experience it personally: all your items will be temporarily confiscated, and your character will be locked up in a cell. You’ll have access to a cot, which you can use to skip a day, and to a guard, which will bring you a daily plate of gruel and a chunk of bread to keep you from starving to death.

Spending time in jail will gradually increase your reputation up to Neutrality, reflecting your redemption. At the same time, the lack of practice will cause you to lose experience. However, you won’t lose much and you can’t regress in levels - you can only lose the experience accumulated towards your next level up.

Thievery

Most containers in the settlements will now belong to Factions, and any item that you take from them will be considered stolen.

It won’t be possible to sell “borrowed” goods to traders in the same location - you’ll have to either move to another settlement, find a fence, or just wait for things to calm down. The duration of search for stolen items depends on their value - for instance, a stolen bucket will quickly be forgotten, while a piece of jewelry will have people looking for it for a long time. The same logic also applies to the severity of fines.

Murdering NPCs

All NPCs outside of settlements will be killable - any patrol or a merchant that you encounter on the road can be murdered and looted for an immediate gain.

NPCs within the settlements will remain unkillable, since doing otherwise might potentially prevent the players from being able to progress. It would also require a huge amount of context-dependent dialogues, visual changes to the settlements, and so on. To sum it up, it wouldn’t be wise to spend so much resources on a feature that would be ignored by most players.

Although, it will still be possible to attack these NPCs - upon being brought down to 0% HP, they’ll become comatose, regaining their senses once their Health regenerates to a certain threshold. Doing so will count as a murder within the planned crime system. If you have the inclination, this will allow you to knock out village merchants and rob them of their crowns and a few items, but you won’t get to loot the entirety of their stock..

=========================================

That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!