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Stoneshard
Asid:
Future Plans + 0.5.8.6 Patch Changelog
Wed, 29 April 2020
Hello everyone!
We have some important news for you today. First of all, the 0.5.8.6 patch has been released, bringing new content and some major fixes. The full changelog can be found at the bottom of this post.
Now that the entirety of the “Trollslayer” content has been added to the game, we’d like to share our updated development plan as well as some info about our future goals.
As many of you could have noticed, the current content is limited by the first 7-10 levels - characters outgrow most dungeons and enemies upon reaching this threshold. We are well aware of this problem, however adding high level content is meaningless until we resolve two important issues.
Ideally we’d like different enemy factions to have distinct behaviour patterns. Right now the enemies only differ in their stats and skills, as they share a single template for their actions. To fix this we plan to dedicate a few months to fully rework our AI system and some of the associated systems.
The same can be said about dungeons - right now they are generated based on shared parameters. The only two things which set them apart at the moment are graphical assets and enemy rosters. We, however, would like to make the dungeon crawling process in our game much more memorable than clearing out similar room after room. That’s why we plan to work on a new dungeon generation algorithm along with the AI rework.
Both of these tasks are fairly difficult and time-consuming, and both of them require extensive testing. That’s why we can’t give you the exact date this time - we’ll have to work on these elements until we are completely satisfied with the results. For now the approximate date for the updated AI and updated dungeon generation (and any associated content as well as some additional features) is summer 2020.
To keep you from getting bored during these few months, we plan to release a series of minor updates over the course of this summer to introduce some additional content such as new weapon types and new skill trees. The first update is planned for the beginning of May - it will add crossbows, polearms, and, perhaps, something extra to the game. Follow our devlogs and announcements for additional information!
Thanks for staying in touch!
0.5.8.6 - CHANGELOG
CONTENT
• 17 items - new maces and axes, as well as a unique necklace and a new headpiece.
• 7 one-time requests which will allow you to earn a quick coin, improve your standing with the denizens of Osbrook and Mannshire, and receive a small bonus from certain characters.
• 2 new Proselyte minibosses: Matriarch and Abomination.
• Added 7 new dialogues for Osbrook and Mannshire villagers.
• Verren’s unique ring is now available for all players, not just to those who subscribed to our newsletter. Talk to Verren at the start of the game to receive it.
BALANCE
• Reduced the base Vision range (13 > 11).
• [Daggers]: “Coup de Grace”: added a base 0.5% bonus to Armor Penetration for each missing percentage of the target’s health.
• [Ranged Weapons]: “Long-Distance Shot” now grants +[50 > 30]% bonus Range.
• [Ancient Troll]: The troll now uses “Troll Regeneration” not only upon reaching a certain Health threshold, but also upon receiving a certain number (or some particularly prolonged) of debuffs.
• [Ancient Troll] Increased the troll’s resistance to Nature Damage (50% > 75%) as well as Stun Resistance (80 > 100%).
• Completing “Troll Hunt” now grants a significant boost to reputation with Mannshire.
• Changed the following rewards for “Troll Hunt”: staff, axe, helmet, mace, greatsword. Gryphon sallet in the signal tower has been replaced with a common sallet.
• New items can now be found in graves (including 4 uniques).
• Skeleton resistances have been changed: Slashing Damage: [20% > 15%], Piercing Damage [33% > 25%], Crushing Damage: [-15% > -10%].
• Changed loot for certain points of interest.
• Minor changes to some weapon and armor stats.
• Temporally removed Vision range from enchantment effects. It’ll be brought back once the enchantment system is reworked.
CHANGES AND STABILITY
• [Axes]: “Ferocity” no longer grants its bonuses until you learn it.
• [Combat Mastery] “Offensive tactic”: fixed the missing bonus to counter chance.
• [Combat mastery] “Right on Target”: removed the bonus to Armor Penetration which was added to it by mistake..
• [Combat Mastery]: “Right on Target]: the bonus for free offhand is no longer granted when using staffs and bows.
• [Combat Mastery]: “Right on Target”: the bonus for free offhand is no longer granted twice upon loading a save.
• [Athletics]: the Energy cost for “Dash” now correctly takes adjacent enemies into account.
• [Ancient Troll]: Added new visual effects for the trolls’ AoE Abilities.
• Fixed the bug which prevented Proselyte Hierarch and Proselyte Chosen from spawning in the Catacombs.
• Fixed the possibility of dazing and stunning an enemy at the same time.
• Fixed “Fire Barrage” and its bizarre affinity for hitting dungeon doors.
• Fixed the exploit with selling items via Shift shortcut for twice their actual price.
• Mindwort now properly removes the effect of being drunk, as stated in its description. The same thing applies to ginger root.
• Fixed the issue with “Deadly Trick” which prevented the fog of war from being removed after switching places with an enemy.
• Fixed the debuff for dual wielding which could occasionally disappear upon reloading a save.
• Removed the possibility of equipping a shovel together with cursed items.
• When stunning a dazed target, the applied stun now has bonus duration based on the initial daze.
• Fixed the bug which caused contracts to grant doubled reward when they were generated for a second time.
• Fixed the backpack-related crash.
• Fixed the stun from runic boulder destruction, which could occur when it wasn’t supposed to.
• The troll now destroys runic boulders by moving over them.
• Changed the condition for passive pain reduction. Physical debuffs such as being “Wet” no longer prevent pain from decreasing.
• Fixed the issue with Catacomb rooms, which caused chests to occasionally block passage to shelves.
• Fixed the bug which allowed learning potions’ effects without identifying said potions first.
• Fixed numerous typos and mistakes across all localizations.
• Updated log messages for picking and dropping items.
• The visual effects of daze and stun are now correctly displayed above the troll’s head.
Asid:
Changelog 0.5.8.8
Sat, 9 May 2020
- Removed “War Cry” ability from Proselyte Chosen
- Vineyard roadcart loot no longer respawns after loading the game.
- Fixed buff animation sometimes causing crashes.
- Fixed incorrect capitalization of item names.
- Fixed numerous typos.
- Fixed incorrect usage of “Adrenaline Rush” by enemies
- Fixed fleaworts not properly spawning in the world.
- Added a special icon for permadeath mode saves.
- Fixed barrels rotating after being struck by greatsword crits
- Added collisions for closed ruined bastions.
- It now continues to rain in special PoI locations.
- Abbey should no longer reset after leaving it.
- Fixed birds SFX.
- Fixed Life Drain and Energy Drain incorrectly working in some situations.
- Fixed some problems with turning in contract items.
Asid:
Devlog: Crossbows & Quivers
Sun, 17 May 2020
Hello everyone!
In today’s devlog we’ll tell you about multiple new features meant to make ranged combat more varied.
Let’s start with the main addition - crossbows. As you may have already noticed, some existing enemies are armed with crossbows, however those aren’t available to player characters and function essentially just like bows. This situation will change with the release of the Bolt Thrower update, which will become available on June 2-3.
Crossbows are now a separate type of weaponry. Just like in reality, they are much easier to learn than bows, so they have less significant penalty to their accuracy. They also have higher damage and armor penetration, which is achieved at the expense of their rate of fire - crossbows require a turn to reload between each shot. Just like bows, crossbows make use of the Ranged Weapons skill tree, it won’t be altered in this regard.
We’ve also introduced certain changes to bow and crossbow mechanics. Both these weapon types now occupy both hands with an option of placing arrows or quivers in the offhand, but not other weapons. Quivers are meant to make ammo management easier, as they can fit 2-4 stacks of arrows.
Additionally, they allow to quickly swap between different arrow and bolt types through the context menu. As a side note, crossbow bolts use their own quivers, since they occupy one less slot than arrows.
And finally - arrow types. There are now three arrow and bolt types in the game: leaf-shaped, broadhead, and bodkin.
• Leaf-shaped arrows are the default ammo type. They don’t have any special modifiers, offering standard damage and range values.
• Broadhead arrows were historically used mostly for hunting. They are heavier and wider, making them more damaging to both enemy health and their body parts. As a trade-off, they struggle with piercing armor. Their accuracy and range are also lower.
• Bodkin arrows are fairly light, so they have higher range. They are also good at penetrating armor and provide better accuracy, but are less effective against unarmored flesh than other arrow types.
In the future we also plan to implement additional arrowhead types to further improve bolts and arrows variety. Still, fantasy style explosive, ice, or magic arrows aren’t planned, as they fit poorly with the game’s setting. With the introduction of alchemy, there will also be an option to poison arrowheads, but it’s way too soon to talk about it.
That’s all for now. Until next time!
Asid:
Devlog: Spears, Dual Wielding & A New Playable Character
Sun, 31 May 2020
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
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.
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
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.
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
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!
Asid:
0.5.9.0 «Bolt Thrower» - Changelog
Tue, 2 June 2020
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.
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