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

[Fedora Master]

By March they'll have added three new sprites for bushes and 2 new armor icons

 

[normie]

By March they'll have added three new sprites for bushes and 2 new armor icons

but they will be beautiful

 

[rusty_shackleford]

By March they'll have added three new sprites for bushes and 2 new armor icons

and a handful of berries from the bush will fill up your entire inventory

 

[normie]

Update 0.8.0.14 - Changelog + Roadmap

NEW CONTENT

Spoiler

• Special improvements to some of the Points of Interest added with the Forgotten Lore update: the Boulder Circle and the Order’s Prison.
• Added a task to the Mannshire Priest (may require starting a new game to access).
• 6 new types of mid tier Restless.
• 10 new types of high tier Brigands.
• 3 new abilities that come with them.
• 4 new helmets and 2 more Heater Shield variants.
• 5 new boots
• New folio.
• New unique spear.
• New unique bow.
• Added unique abilities to Gulons.
• Added eggs to harpy nests.
• Added rumors for new Points of Interest.

FIXES

Spoiler

• Just as promised in the dialogue, guests of the Golden Grain Inn can now expect to be served breakfast.
• “Vow of the Feat” no longer grants its bonuses when enemies are not within Vision.
• Fixed the crash caused by triggering the Manticore’s dialogue if the character dies on the same turn.
• Fixed Skeletons being able to feel pain.
• Fixed the damage cap of “Wounding Spearhead”.
• Fixed “One at a Time!” not granting Block Power Recovery.
• Fixed “No Retreat” continuously granting its bonuses even after moving to other tiles.
• Fixed enemies being able to enter walls with “Maneuver”.
• Fixed “Blade Maintenance” granting its bonuses to all weapon types rather than just swords.
• Fixed willows and shrubs occasionally spawning in the middle of some roads.
• Fixed some achievements not working as intended: “Drink and Be Merry” and “Theory and Praxis”.
• Fixed the possibility of reflecting “Tempest” with “Seal of Reflection”.
• Fixed the possibility of reflecting “Seal of Reflection” with “Seal of Reflection”.
• Fixed the possibility of starting campfires on tiles within the reach of tides.
• Fixed the issue causing items in the inventory to overlap when using the auto sort button.
• Fixed some unique shields missing a sprite when dropped on the ground.
• Fixed the bug causing NPCs to be overly inaccurate when using missile abilities such as “Fire Barrage”.
• The food items that spawn on the surface and inside buildings will now stay fresh rather than rot away
• Fixed Mancatchers and Beastslayers spawning additional Dogs each time a save file is loaded.
• Fixed Catacomb pedestals spawning additional treatises when reentering the location.
• Fixed some Brynn NPCs missing a description.
• The effects of the Heraldic Note is now properly listed in the Reputation log.
• Fixed Yagrams’ Rage not accumulating as intended.
• “Determination” will no longer attack enemies who are already adjacent.
• Fixed “Respite” replenishing 4 times more Energy than it’s supposed to.
• Fixed the Brynn Cheese Trader’s incorrect greeting line.
• Fixed some of the Golden Grain NPCs' incorrect greeting lines.
• Fixed some Proselytes displaying an incorrect death animation when killed with critical damage.
• Fixed the endless stacking of “Concussion”.
• Fixed the Smithing Bailiff being able to sell his stock in broad daylight.
• Fixed two handed swords not applying Stagger with their skills, this time for sure.
• Fixed Bran the Trapper losing his stock in certain scenarios.
• Fixed the incorrect contents of the hidden stash at the Watermill.
• Fixed rings not affecting the character’s stats when equipped together with an identical ring.
• Fixed Vipers spawning in pairs.
• Fixed the possibility of going through the Burial Cave door while it plays its closing animation.
• Fixed the chicken coop at the Ransacked Homestead continuously spawning new eggs.
• Fixed capes not granting bonuses to certain stats.
• Fixed the incorrect journal description of the final stage of “Gathering the Caravan”.
• The state of secret rooms is now properly saved between sessions.

BALANCE

Spoiler

• Increased the base Accuracy of thrown items.
• Added new Pyromancy spells to Brigand sorcerers.
• “Cauterize Wounds” can now remove the effect of “Gaping Wound”.
• Added a damage cap to “Forceful Slam”.
• Changed the mechanic of “Not this Time”.
• “Leg Sweep” now has a chance to Stagger the targets it fails to Immobilize.
• “Mighty Kick” now always has a chance to Stagger.
• Changed the mechanic of “Armor Crusher”.
• Nerfed “Opportune Moment”.
• Rather than always hitting all targets in its path, “Piercing Shot” now has its chance to hit calculated individually for each affected target.
• Changed the mechanic of “FInal Push”.
• Added defensive bonuses to “Fight to the Death”.
• Added extra bonuses to “Moment of Weakness”, allowing maces to better synergize with other weapon types.
• Changed the abilities available to Proselyte Matriarchs.
• Fixed Ol’ Tott’s prices.
• Reduced Hunger gain from the Curse of Voracity.

UX

Spoiler

• In order to make exploration easier and more streamlined, Points of Interest will now be marked on the global map upon entering map tiles adjacent to them.
• Added a new camera setting: edge panning.

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Spoiler

We also updated our Roadmap, the details are below.

Just like the last few major updates, the next one, “Rags to Riches”, will focus primarily on systemic changes, adding a number of new mechanics and improving upon the existing ones. We plan to release it next year: among other things, the update will feature the long-awaited Caravan system, revamped contracts, better dungeon generation, and tweaks to the economy.

After that, there’ll be “Venom in the Waters”, which will introduce another biome to the game, a new boss, a new magic school, and a whole new dungeon type (along with its own enemy faction).

 

[Abu Antar]

Devlog: Dungeon Generation

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since the last devlog, so we’re here to tell you about the current state of affairs and our plans for the near future.

Let’s just say the workflow has been less than ideal - the Ukrainian part of our team experiences blackouts and disrupted internet access due to the constant shelling of the country’s infrastructure, and the part of the team that formerly resided in Russia needs time to adjust in a new place. Nevertheless, we’re still determined to continue working on Stoneshard.

The main focus right now is on the next major update, “Rags to Riches”, which will both introduce and expand upon a number of key gameplay systems, namely the Caravan, the dungeon generator, and the economy.

Unfortunately, we’re in no position to announce even approximate release dates, definitely not within the next few months. But it doesn’t mean there won’t be any new content until then - we plan to release a few small patches, mostly focusing on fixing bugs, implementing some long-awaited QoL improvements, tweaking the existing ability trees, and fleshing out certain minor mechanics that we kept on the back burner. This approach will keep the game from getting stale while simultaneously giving us an opportunity to clear the accumulated backlog and resolve some technical issues.

For instance, in the near future we’ll release a hotfix that will improve the Drunkenness mechanic and add a few hundred new speech lines - both for the main character and the enemies - to cover a much larger number of scenarios.

Now back to Rags to Riches and the progress we’ve made so far. Many of you may remember that the dungeon generator was already reworked in the “Way Forward” update. But even though the result was much better than the original iteration, the last couple of years brought us enough experience and feedback to realize that we can do better. After all, dungeon-delving is one of the most prominent mechanics in the game, so any improvements to it will serve the betterment of the experience in general.

The dungeon generation rework is meant to achieve the following:

• Move away from the boring and predictable dungeon structure that consists almost entirely of small rooms separated by doors.
• Get rid of single-tile doors and hallways, as they promote the repetitive tactics of funneling enemies into the same choke points over and over again. New rooms will have a more engaging design, giving you more reasons to reposition and interact with the surroundings.
• Add more distinguishing features to each dungeon type: the Bastion should differ from the Crypts - and the Crypts from the Catacombs - not only in terms of decorations but also their overall layout.
• Make dungeons and room structure more logical and believable: upon entering a room, you should be able to get a basic idea about its function.
• Make dungeons’ visuals consistent with their difficulty and loot quality: high level dungeons will boast richer decor and additional room types that you won’t be able to encounter early in the game.
• Add dungeon modifiers that will shake up the established routine and make you adjust your usual preparations - we’ll share more details in future devlogs.
• Change enemy spawns to make fights more fair and interesting.

While our game designers are busy conceptualizing the Contracts rework (and all the new mechanics that come along with it), our artist and level designers are working on gradually transitioning the Crypts to the new generation ruleset - of all the dungeon types, it needed a facelift the most. For now, here’s some of the results:

The next step is to use the Crypts as a testing ground for the entirety of the reworked system, which includes new contacts, modifiers, and certain other additions - after that, we’ll make the necessary adjustments and apply it to the remaining dungeon types as well. That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!

 

[Sacibengala]

If there wasn't any war, this game would already be released by now?

 

[Jrpgfan]

If there wasn't any war, this game would already be released by now?

Not really. Progress has been slow since day 1.

Now they just have an excuse.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I'd forgive them for this, because what they had released so far is very good and there is enough stuff to do. I haven't killed the troll yet.

 

[Curratum]

I mean, it's only been five years since the kickstarter, what's the rush anyway!

 

[Fedora Master]

I'd forgive them for this, because what they had released so far is very good and there is enough stuff to do. I haven't killed the troll yet.

Not really. The game makes a good first impression but there are many faults in the basic game loop.

 

[Tweed]

I forgot I bought this. Is this a game yet?

 

[Harthwain]

I forgot I bought this. Is this a game yet?

But what is a game? It does have combat - does that count?

 

[normie]

Hotfix 0.8.0.20 - Changelog

MAIN CHANGES

- Reworked the Drunkenness mechanic:

- Drunkenness was split into 4 stacks with varying changes to stats: 1 and 2 stacks of the effect are mostly beneficial, while 3 and 4 are largely detrimental.
- The number of stacks depends on the effect’s duration and is tied to specific thresholds (1x / 120x / 240x / 300x ). Stacks can only go up: once a threshold is achieved, they will remain until the effect’s duration completely runs out.
- Apart from changing the character’s stats, Drunkenness also has special modifiers that manifest with each added stack. 2 stacks of Drunkenness can cause Confusion, 3 stacks - Vomiting, and 4 stacks introduce a chance to fall Asleep. These chances change dynamically depending on the number of stacks and the effect’s remaining duration.
- Vomiting while asleep deals significant damage to your character and can potentially be lethal.
- The intensity of visual effects now changes depending on the effect’s number of stacks. The distortions and wobbling will be barely noticeable while affected by 1 stack and will reach the levels of old Drunkenness by the time you achieve 4 stacks.
- The duration of Drunkenness gained from drinking alcohol is governed by several factors. High Hunger will increase the duration, while high Vitality and Intoxication Resistance will do the opposite.
- At the end of its duration, Drunkenness with 3 or 4 stacks will transform into Hangover.
- Unlike other types of Aftermath, Hangover allows you to drink alcohol without triggering Bad Trip, offering an opportunity to partially negate the debuff.
- Elven Citruses, Mindwort, Ginger Roots, and Antitoxin can be used to gradually reduce the duration of Drunkenness.

- Added ~400 new speech lines for the player character (including unique lines for each preset option), the Brigands, and the Undead. The list of conditions that can trigger speech lines was greatly expanded as well.
- Added more options to display settings: fullscreen, bordered, windowed.

Spoiler

GAMEPLAY & BALANCE

- Offensive skills’ bonuses to Accuracy and/or Fumble Chance are no longer individual. Instead, there’s now a universal bonus of +10% Accuracy and -5% Fumble Chance. Leveling “Right on Target” will improve it directly.
- Increased stat gains from Strength.
(for each achieved threshold): [+5% > +7.5%] Weapon Damage, [+10% > +15%] Armor Damage, [+10% > +15%] Crit Efficiency
(for each SP invested): [+2.5% > +3%] Bodypart Damage)
- Reduced the base Block Power and Block Power coefficients for most weapons.
- Changed the order of condition checks for Distant Dungeons' boss chests (if all possible Artifacts are already found, these chests are now guaranteed to spawn a unique item).
- If an ability is modified by Bonus Range or a specialized Magic School’s Power, it will now be listed in its hover.
- Standardized the way Bonus Range interacts with spells. Increased the number of spells affected by it.
- Reduced the base Range of some Pyromancy spells.
- Rather than working within the entirety of the caster’s Vision Range, Geomancy spells now have their own Range stat, just like all other Magic Schools.
- Increased the durability of Runic Boulders (boosting the damage dealt to anyone Knocked back into them), but greatly reduced their Resistances, making them much more vulnerable to attacks.
- Moving to another location will now automatically skip a turn, giving enemies a free action.
- Significantly reduced the passive Pain decay [-0.2 per turn if all conditions are met > -0.05 per turn / -0.5 per turn if the current Pain is higher than Pain Threshold > -0.25 per turn]
- Tweaked the stat scaling of Mace skills (some of the skills’ effects now favor Strength over Agility).
- Significantly reduced Leechworms’ Accuracy and increased their Fumble Chance.
- Bad Trip will no longer increase Intoxication.
- Reduced the durability of sarcophaguses. Knocking enemies against them should no longer deal obscene amounts of damage.
- Increased the impact of active debuffs on the Rest Mode’s restorative effects.
- Bloodletting Lancets now use a different mechanic.
- Generic Brynn merchants no longer sell treatises.

FIXES

- Fixed the exploit allowing to dupe items with the Caravan Storage.
- Fixed the Bloodletting Lancet not displaying in the character's hands when equipped.
- When inspecting enemies, the displayed Resistances to individual Damage types will no longer duplicate the numbers gained from the Resistances to broad Damage categories. This change should noticeably reduce the size of enemies’ hovers and improve their readability.
- Fixed Backfire Damage not having 100% Armor Penetration, which was allowing to completely negate it with some armor.
- Fixed an issue that made it impossible to reduce the base Backfire Chance of spells.
- Fixed the upper threshold of Backfire Damage being displayed as 100% instead of 200%.
- Fixed the bug with Stone Spikes’ durability that was causing enemies to receive minuscule amounts of damage when Knocked back into them.
- Fixed Crit Efficiency not being split between hands in the Character menu while dual-wielding.
- Fixed the loot generation bug that was causing contract chest in high level dungeons to provide insufficient rewards.
- Fixed Pyromancy spells granting excessive bonus to Pyromantic Power when learned [2.5% > 2%].
- Fixed “Deadly Trick” increasing its user’s Crit Chance upon activation.
- Fixed “Unstoppable” replenishing Energy for 20% of the character’s Max Health instead of Max Energy.
- Fixed “Earthquake” burning a static amount of Energy instead of the listed percentage.
- Added a cap to Energy Burn applied by “Earthquake”. The effect scales with Willpower.
- Fixed “Cauterize Wounds” increasing the duration of its effect with each stopped Bleeding rather than boosting the effect’s power.
- Fixed enemies being able to use “Maneuver” to traverse 2 tiles in 1 turn.
- Fixed the Ancient Troll taking multiple instances of damage from “Piercing Shot”.
- Fixed “Whirlwind” being able to move nests and hives.
- Fixed “Determination” being able to hit charging enemies multiple times per turn (by Knocking them back over and over again).
- Fixed Martyrs’ “Blessed in Death” granting its bonuses to the character instead of the Proselytes.
- “Offensive Tactic” should now correctly improve the character’s Accuracy when they miss with a ranged weapon.
- Fixed “Peck” being able to apply Blindness upon hitting any body part, not just the target’s head.
- Fixed “Berserk Tradition” not granting Dodge Chance for each degree of Injury affecting the character (this includes stabilized Injuries as well).
- Fixed the hover of “War Cry” displaying a technical tag instead of the debuff chance.
- Fixed “War Cry” granting 1 less turn of “Battle Rage” than mentioned in its hover.
- Fixed the hover of “War Cry” not mentioning Willpower as a relevant attribute.
- Fixed “War Cry” using an incorrect area of effect.
- Fixed “Keep Them Coming” not granting the effect of “Mighty Swing” when killing enemies with the ability tree’s skills and critical hits simultaneously.
- Fixed ranged enemies being able to use “Seize the Initiative” from a distance without actually taking a shot.
- Fixed the bug that prevented the use of abilities while Frozen Stiff.
- Skipping time by sleeping will no longer take the Rest Mode’s bonuses into account.
- Fixed the issue with the display of stats in the Character menu when using the Rest Mode.
- Fixed Brigand Paymasters not being able to attack the character under certain circumstances.
- Possibly fixed the crash caused by moving to a different location if a Brigand Geomancer summons a Runic Boulder on the same turn.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers being able to use Runic Boulders outside of their Vision Range.
- Fixed the Blessed Aquamanile healing damaged body parts for a smaller amount than mentioned in its hover.
- Fixed Paregoric not granting immunity to Coughing when it’s applied by Harpies’ “Unbearable Stench”.
- Fixed the crash caused by the Manticore’s “Lion Leap”.
- Fixed the bug with the“Gwynnel’s Answers” quest that could potentially result in the disappearance of the hidden lever.
- Fixed Brynn Guards using incorrect speech lines.
- Fixed Leechworms and certain other animals being able to use speech lines.
- Ahruz from the Prologue is now correctly listed as an elf rather than a human.
- Fixed the outdated hover of “Curse”.
- Fixed the outdated hover of “Baleful Scream”.
- Fixed the collision issues affecting the second floor of the Brynn Bank and the cart in the Plague Village.
- Fixed the layering issue with the Brynn Banker's sprite.
- Fixed the Guard Helmet not displaying correctly when worn by Arna.
- Fixed certain vessels’ sprites not displaying correctly in the inventory and when dropped on the floor.
- Fixed the incorrect sprite of the tier IV Ranged Weapons treatise.
- Fixed the issue with the Throwing Net’s visuals when used on Young Trolls.
- Fixed “Sleep” darkening the screen on top of the already existing visual effect.

 

[Fedora Master]

Love to see it. BIG FUCKING UPDATE WE REWORKED DRUNKENNESS.

 

[Sacibengala]

Love to see it. BIG FUCKING UPDATE WE REWORKED DRUNKENNESS.

maybe drunk you can at least see your character the way you want it to be.

 

[Takamori]

I keep checking the notifications in this thread with the hope they will finally announce the character creation release date.

 

[Salvo]

Main fault I see with the release schedule is that they rework something, then add something new, then go back and rework that something AGAIN because the patch shifted things around

They're obsessed with having the game balanced at all stages but they have reworked stats like 5 times at this point

Should release all the content and THEN make sure it's balanced, although im no dev so who knows

 

[Sacibengala]

so who knows

At this point, maybe neither them.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Main fault I see with the release schedule is that they rework something, then add something new, then go back and rework that something AGAIN because the patch shifted things around

They're obsessed with having the game balanced at all stages but they have reworked stats like 5 times at this point

Should release all the content and THEN make sure it's balanced, although im no dev so who knows

I suspect this is happening to disguise how little progress is actually made. Juggling around some numbers is not getting in the way of finishing the talent trees or whatever.

When the guy who programmed MWO for piranha games left, they had trouble changing/adding anything to the game. I heard likewise happened with Cyanide and their 'Cycling Manager'. Both didn't mind, as long as they could still sell mech-packs / an almost unchanged yearly version fiddling around with minor maechanics and some spin.

Wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened here.

 

[whydoibother]

By March they'll have added three new sprites for bushes and 2 new armor icons

T-theres t-time. T-they m-might add them.....

 

[PapaPetro]

What's a word for that describes something that isn't Vaporware but is eternally strung along in Early Access, drip fed with trite updates?

 

[whydoibother]

What's a word for that describes something that isn't Vaporware but is eternally strung along in Early Access, drip fed with trite updates?

Star Citizen.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

What's a word for that describes something that isn't Vaporware but is eternally strung along in Early Access, drip fed with trite updates?

Still vaporware. Other terms are only needed as a cope for the gullible, particularly if they got shafted for money.

 

[PapaPetro]

Other terms are only needed as a cope for the gullible

They've got different flavors of copium now, just like with vaping.

 

[Aemar]

Hotfix 0.8.0.20 - Changelog


MAIN CHANGES

- Reworked the Drunkenness mechanic:

Number one priority according to the devs' native game backers.