Forum > Games Discussion
Stoneshard
Asid:
Patch 0.7.0.24 - Year Two Anniversary (Survival Skill Tree)
Sun, 6 February 2022
- Added the Survival tree
- it comes with 10 new abilities
.
- Added a new consumable item: a Bedroll
. Bedrolls allow creating single-use sleeping spots outside of dungeons, offering an additional opportunity to save your progress.
- Added new gear:
Pot Helmet, Visored Pot Helmet, War Hat, Baron Sabatons, Levy Bow, Curved Bow, Brotherhood of Ouroboros' Shield (unique), Shield of the Truth's Eternal Sun (unique).
- Added new abilities
to some animals:
Howl, Pack Sense, Dying Rage, Ramming Charge.
- Reworked loot generation rules
for containers. Loot generation now occurs when the world or locations are first generated instead of each time you open containers, removing the possibility of rerolling their contents.
- Tweaked sleep effects in different locations:
Tavern: 100% Restoration effectiveness, replenishes Psyche, grants Vigor.
Bedroll: 50% Restoration effectiveness (100% with “Make a Halt” skill), doesn’t replenish Psyche, doesn’t grant Vigor.
Camp: 50% Restoration effectiveness (100% with “Make a Halt” skill), doesn’t replenish Psyche, doesn’t grant Vigor.
Leprosarium: 100% Restoration effectiveness, damages Psyche, doesn’t grant Vigor.
The Watchtower Tavern (Brynn): 125% Psyche replenishment.
- Discovering new locations now grants 100 XP.
- Hands Efficiency can now exceed 100% when using a two-handed weapon.
- Picking up an item that doesn’t belong to you while being observed by an NPC will summon a dialogue with an option to either return said item to its owner without any repercussions or to keep it to yourself, which will count as a crime.
- Removed the basic Intoxication decay. Instead, Intoxication is reduced by expending Immunity.
- Immunity over 100% will now gradually decrease down to the 100% threshold.
- General resistances are now properly factored into locational resistances and are displayed correctly in the character’s menu.
- New effect type: Lingering. Lingering effects don't count as Physical, Mental, or Magical.
- The Osbrook’s sergeant now provides arrows or bolts when asked for a bow or a crossbow respectively.
- Increased the base price for most pelts.
- Reduced the spawn chance for leeches. Leeches can no longer spawn in sea water.
- Map tiles with rivers can now spawn wild ducks.
- Added willow trees to river banks.
- It’s now possible to gather sticks in the woods and use them to start fires.
- Made it possible to catch butterflies.
- Added new achievements.
- Improved optimization.
Asid:
Devlog: The Current State of Affairs
Fri, 25 March 2022
Hello everyone!
Today we’d like to tell you about the circumstances affecting our studio and the future development of Stoneshard. It’s been almost a month since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and it had a rather negative impact on the lives of our team. Let’s start with the most important part.
A significant portion of our team (our game designer, one of the coders, the promo artist) are Ukrainian citizens. The war caught everyone off guard: while some managed to quickly leave the war zone, others got stuck or simply didn’t want to abandon their homes. Right now these team members are in relative safety, but there are still issues with accessing the Internet and setting up a proper work space. There also wasn’t enough time to backup everything, so we lost some assets, although it shouldn’t set the development back too much.
Other than that, there are financial problems: as many of you already know, Steam no longer makes transactions with Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarus banks. Naturally, it affected our team as well, preventing us from receiving income from Steam. At the moment, we still have enough resources, but if we don't find a solution to this issue, we won’t have enough money to continue outsourcing the specialists who’ve been helping us with the game - this might noticeably slow down the rate of updates, even if temporarily.
As for the Russian members of our team, most of them are currently busy with moving to other countries, which will require some time. However, the overall situation is more or less stable, and we most definitely won’t stop working on the game. For now everyone contributes as much as the circumstances allow, but once the most pressing issues are resolved, we’ll continue developing Stoneshard’s at the usual pace.
Now let’s talk about more distant plans. Before the war, we already began working on an interim content update that was supposed to add interiors to key buildings on the Mint Square in Brynn. After that, we wanted to implement some of the long-planned city quests, and then - to start working on the next major update, “Rags to riches”, which was meant to introduce random encounters, a functioning Caravan, tweaks to contracts and the economy, and more.
The Mint Square interim update is already partially complete, so it will be released relatively soon. The rest of the original plan will have to be readjusted - we’ll make sure to share the details and post an updated roadmap once everything is said and done. All we can say for now is that some features will likely be added in a different order and that major updates might end up divided into smaller ones.
And finally, some teasers:
In conclusion, we’d like to say that your support and sympathy are extremely important to us right now. We love and appreciate our community, and we hope that this sentiment is mutual. Stay safe!
Asid:
Devlog: Current Progress
Fri, 20 May 2022
Hello everyone!
It’s been a while since our last devlog, so we’d like to share some details about what we’ve been working on.
In the previous entry we mentioned a plan to release an interim patch with the Mint Square’s missing interiors and NPCs. There’s been some adjustments since then: first of all, we decided to add new content not only to the Mint Square but also to the Docks.
Secondly, there were some tweaks to the timeline, so these additions will be a part of the next major update, which we haven’t yet chosen a name for. This update will also include some of the features that were originally planned for Rags to Riches and Wizard’s Fate. Here’s a list of things we’re working on right now:
- Next stage of the main quest
- it will wrap up the introduction sequence and will prepare players for the sandbox part of the game. After that, the main story will be put on hold until we finish implementing all the remaining mechanics and content.
- New magic school, Electromancy
, that has potential to deal high damage while offering some decent crowd control.
- New utility tree, Magic Mastery
- a worthwhile addition to any magic-focused build.
- Fatigue System
and supplementary magic mechanics
that will require mages to be more thoughtful about positioning and the way they spend their resources (including financial ones).
- Second tier of Proselytes
: ten new dangerous enemies that come with roughly 20 new active and passive abilities.
- Several carefully designed Points of Interest, each of them boasting its own backstory.
- Caravan stop
, which will provide you with a place to save your progress and store your items. As for global map traveling, we plan to add this functionality in one of the subsequent major updates.
- Folios, a new type of valuable loot that will give you an opportunity to learn more about the game’s world as well as gain some experience points.
- New content for the Mint Square
(the Cathedral, the University, a bank, a printing house, the Golden Grain Inn, Azure Thread Tradehouse) and the Docks
(the Alchemical Emporium of Curious Goods, a dockside store, the Close Harbor Tavern, and a bathhouse) that we already mentioned.
- Something cool and unexpected
that will be revealed alongside the announcement of the update’s release date.
The ongoing war still causes certain financial and organizational issues, so we can’t guarantee that everything mentioned in this devlog will be a part of the next major update, but we’ll do our best to make it happen nonetheless. We’ll tell you more details about the new additions in future devlogs, so stay tuned and follow the news!
The update’s release date will be revealed in a separate announcement once we complete the bulk of the work on new content. And after the update is out, we’ll also revise our Development Roadmap and publish an up-to-date version.
That’s all for now. Until next time!
Asid:
Devlog: Fatigue and Magic System
Sat, 9 July 2022
Hello everyone!
We’d like to begin today’s devlog by making an important announcement. The upcoming major update, titled as “Forgotten Lore”, will be released this year on August 5th.
It will include the following:
• The long-awaited surprise that we promised some time ago - a new boss
! Similarly to the Ancient Troll hunt, this quest can be acquired in a location of questionable repute after you reach a high enough level.
• A new quest, “Gwynnel’s Answers”, which will conclude the opening sequence of the main story and send you off to explore the open world.
A quick reminder - for the time being, this quest will be the end of the main questline. We plan to focus on the overarching plot only after we finish implementing the necessary systems and mechanics.
• New magic school, Electromancy, which will allow you to master dangerous and unpredictable lightning spells.
• New utility tree - Magic Mastery. We’ll tell you more about it in the next devlog.
• Several new points of interest.
• A large portion of the remaining Brynn buildings: the printing house, the House of the Azure Thread, the Bank of Brynn, the Golden Grain Inn, the Cathedral, the University, the Close Harbor Tavern, the Alchemical Emporium of Curious Goods, and a dockside store.
• New enemies: 13 new types of Proselytes(including two minibosses), as well as Gulonsand Young Trolls.
• New mechanic: Fatigue. More details below.
• New magic mechanic, Backfire, and a few additional magic stats. More details below.
• New loot type:
Folios
. These texts provide information on various aspects of the game’s lore. Reading them also grants some Experience.
• Caravan Stop
that can be used for resting and storing your items. Caravan travels will be added in subsequent major updates.
• New biome, seashore.
• New items.
As you may see, one of the largest Stoneshard updates is almost upon us. To ease the wait, we’d like to share more details about two new systems that will be added in “Forgotten Lore” - Fatigue and Backfire.
FATIGUE
Fatigue is one of the few remaining survival mechanics that we plan to implement. It has a number of important gameplay functions:
• Create an additional layer of planning and character management.
• Increase the importance of sleeping (right now it’s only used for saving the game).
• Boost the value of certain consumables such as stimulants and exquisite foods.
Read on: https://steamcommunity.com/games/625960/announcements/detail/3352382812588459185
Asid:
Devlog: Magic Mastery
Tue, 26 July 2022
Hello everyone!
In today’s devlog, we’ll tell you more about the second ability tree, Magic Mastery, which will be a part of the next major update - “Forgotten Lore”, to be released on August 5th.
Magic Mastery is designed to be a highly impactful support tree, useful to any mage build. As a result, its abilities are mostly focused on two things: increasing the effectiveness and safety of your own spells and countering enemy magic.
To better understand our design choices, we highly recommend you to check out the previous devlog - it contains important details about the upcoming changes to the Magic System.
OVERALL STRUCTURE
Magic Mastery consists of 12 abilities: 6 actives and 6 passives. The ability tree can be roughly divided into two paths: the left one mostly targets pure mage builds, while the abilities on the right have a lot to offer to hybrid characters.
Active Abilities
Seal of Finesse
Activates an effect that lowers Fumble and Backfire Chances, reduces Cooldowns Duration, and speeds up the decay of Backfire Damage. When used, this spell also vents a large amount of already existing Backfire Damage.
The Seal works similarly to Weaponry stances: the number of the effect’s stacks increases with every passing turn, but decreases when your character moves to another tile.
Seal of Power
Activates an effect that grants major bonuses to Magic Power, Weapon Damage and a bit of Bonus Range. But that’s not all: whenever your character uses a specialized spell, the effect transforms into the Seal of a corresponding Magic School with its own unique bonuses and has its duration slightly prolonged.
For instance, Seal of Pyromancy grants Pyromancy Power, a fiery enchantment for your weapons, and a boost to Crit and Miracle Chances. In addition to Electromantic Power and Shock Damage on strike, Seal of Electromancy reduces Backfire and Fumble Chances. Seal of Geomancy comes with a bonus to Geomantic Power and Block Chance as well as faster Backfire Damage decay and lower Damage Taken.
Seal of Insight
This Seal reveals a few places of power in a small area around the caster. When the character occupies an empowered tile, they gain Magic Power, Miracle Chance, Energy Restoration and have their Spells’ Energy Cost reduced. The effect persists as long as the character remains in place, growing in power with each passing turn and getting weaker with each cast spell.
This means that if you plan to cast a lot of spells within a short period of time, it might be a good idea to make use of places of power along with Seal of Finesse. This tactic comes with a price though - you’ll have to sacrifice your mobility for it to work.
Seal of Cleansing
This spell allows you to remove all magical and physical effects, both positive and negative ones, from the main target and everyone adjacent to it. Additionally, the spell extinguishes burning tiles, clears puddles of acid, unholy blood, and magma, and also removes runes and other magical entities. Each removed effect or object replenishes a small amount of energy to the caster and reduces their active Cooldowns.
If the caster targets themselves with the Seal or is affected by its AoE, they gain Miracle Chance and reduced Damage Taken for each removed positive effect and are applied with reduced damage Resistances for each removed negative effect.
Using the Seal on magical creatures, such as the Undead and Wraiths, temporarily increases the damage they receive.
Seal of Reflection
This powerful defensive buff not only increases your character’s Resistances to all types of damage but also reflects* half the damage received from melee attacks. And most importantly, while under the effect of the Seal, all spells aimed at your character will be redirected to a random target within Vision (if there is one).
* - there were some tweaks to the Damage Reflection mechanic: the damage will now be reflected before Protection or Resistances are applied, which greatly increases the effectiveness of this stat.
Seal of Shackles
The ultimate Magic Mastery spell applies a powerful Seal that significantly reduces the target’s Energy Restoration and increases its Skills’ Energy Cost, Cooldowns Duration, and Fumble Chance.
While under the effect of the Seal, enemies can’t use spells, and each ability that comes off cooldown will burn their Energy (scaling with its Energy Cost) and deal Arcane Damage for the same amount.
Passive Abilities
Precise Movements
Investing Ability Points into specialized Magic Schools reduces Backfire Chance of their spells.
Remaining on the same tile gradually lowers Backfire Chance.
Dissipation
Each point of received Magic or Nature Damage replenishes one point of Energy and grants a small stacking bonus to Magic and Nature Resistances.
Body and Spirit
Spellcasting generates 20% less Fatigue. By 20% reduces Sanity loss from Backfired spells.
Lingering Incantations
Increases the duration of all magical effects - this includes Areas of Effect created by magic, such as magma or ball lightning.
Thaumaturgy
Grants all spells a bonus to Miracle Chance and Miracle Power. Performing a Miracle provides a stacking reduction to Backfire Chance and Backfire Damage.
Arcane Lore
Grants a small bonus to Magic Power for each learned magical ability*, including Magic Mastery actives and passives.
* - In the current version of the game, this effect exists as Jonna’s starting trait. It will be changed in “Forgotten Lore”: Jonna will receive Magic Power for reading magical treatises, and each learned magical ability will permanently increase her Experience Gain. This is the first of many changes to the preset characters’ starting traits that will arrive with the fully fledged Trait System and Character Creator.
============================
That’s all for now: we hope you liked these new abilities and will soon make them a part of your newly created characters’ builds. Make sure to follow the news, it won’t be long until the update is released!
Game
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page