Stoneshard

[Asid]

0.7.0.0 “City of Gold” is out!
Thu, 18 November 2021



MAIN ADDITIONS

- Global Map and Rumor System

The size of the game’s world has grown almost 10 times - from 17x10 tiles to 40x40. You’ll be able to track your journey across it with a new global map menu that will also feature a character marker.

In your travels you’ll have a chance to encounter many Points of Interest, including monster dens and a handful of new unique locations.

- Brynn

The first major city will open its gates before you. It consists of four separate districts, each with their own vibe and special traders.

- Saving on Exit

Your progress is now saved automatically upon exiting the game. However, these saves are deleted upon loading, so in case of your character’s death, you’ll be brought to the latest “hard” save made by sleeping.

- Rumor System

Instead of being marked on the map from the get-go, Points of Interests are now discovered by learning rumors about them. You’ll be able to learn gossip and news from certain characters - some of it will end up leading you to an interesting location.

- Crime System

Theft, assault, and disturbing order within settlements is now a punishable offense. The punishment includes fines, jail time, and being executed on the spot.

- Bodies of Water

The game’s world will now feature rivers, allowing you to fill a waterskin in the wild or just take a dip.

- Changes to Combat

- Protection values from different items no longer stack, instead affecting only the body parts they are actually equipped on.
- Fumbled attacks now have their Stun, Daze, Knockback, Immobilization, and Bleed Chance set to zero.
- Dodge Chance now turns successful melee attacks into fumbles, and fumbles - into misses.
- Block Chance received an additional sub-system: successful blocking now costs some Block Power, which takes time to recover.
- Changes to the Accuracy formula: Accuracy and Dodge Chance now have two separate rolls, but their extreme values (Accuracy over 100% and Dodge Chance below 0%) will still have an effect on each other.

- Improved Leveling and Trainers

- Decreased Stat Point gain per level to 1. Main Attributes cap at 30 points.
- Attributes grant larger bonuses to a smaller number of stats.
- Each 5 points invested into an Attribute grant a special bonus to three additional stats.
- Reworked the structure of every Ability Tree: each of them received more starting paths. Unlocking powerful spells and skills will now require you to first learn all the abilities connected to them.
- Abilities now have Attribute requirements as an alternative way of unlocking them.
- You can now learn the first tier of Ability Trees from trainers - for the right price.

- Artefacts

These are powerful relics of the past that possess unique properties - some of them require activation, while others grant their boon directly from your inventory.

You’ll have a chance to acquire them from distant dungeons - particularly dangerous locations, situated far from the settlements.

- New Enemies

Encounter three new enemy types: Crawlers, Harpies, and Deathstinger Swarms.

- New Throwables

Three new bombs: Nistrian Flame Flask, Spider Blood Flask, and Deathstinger Jar.

- Playable Lute

Recreate your favourite songs!

- 41 Steam Achievement

Will you be able to earn them all?

AND ALSO

- A special quest in the beginning of the game.
- Reworked dungeon progression.
- Most dungeons won’t have a fixed difficulty level - it can shift back and forth during subsequent repopulations.
- Added special distant dungeons: there are no roads or contracts leading to them. They have the most dangerous enemies and the most valuable loot.

MECHANICS

- Rebalanced most passives and some active abilities.
- Rebalanced all Injuries and Conditions.
- Being Knocked into an occupied tile now applies Daze instead of Stun.
- Fixed and rebalanced Durability - it now functions as intended.
- Bows now have an Accuracy penalty when shooting at targets within 1 or 2 tiles.
- Ranged weapons receive Accuracy penalty for shooting at distant targets: -2% Accuracy for each tile beyond half the maximum Range.
- “Sudden Lunge” and “Seize the Initiative” have an increased Range when used with a spear.
- “Seize the Initiative” now properly works with bows and crossbows, using the Range of an equipped weapon.
- Each firebolt from “Fire Barrage” now has a separate chance to hit.
- “Petrification” will now remove Bleeding.
- “Ensnarement” and “Immobilization” will either decrease Dodge Chance by 25% or set it to zero, whichever is more impactful.
- Tweaked caps of many secondary stats.
- Abilities’ hovers now properly display the Attributes that modify them.
- Increased damage from Knockback.
- Decreased the chance for curses to trigger their effect.
- Shouting now generates less noise.
- “Stun” will also grant Stun Resistance to reduce the possibility of stunlocks.
- “Wetness” now has stacks, the number of which depends on the duration of the effect.
- Dungeons will take twice as long to repopulate.

ENEMIES

- Birds can now be hunted.
- Rebalanced the Troll: decreased its Resistances and increased its Max Health. The Troll also gets weaker when low on Energy.
- The Restless received higher Bleed Resistance.
- Archers can now drop their melee weapons on death.
- Rebalanced the chance of enemy spawns - it now depends on the nearby dungeons, hunting grounds, and the hidden wilderness factor.

ECONOMY

- Rebalanced prices for most items.
- Increased the amount of valuables inside NPCs' homes.
- Rebalanced the price of arrows and bolts.
- Rebalanced money and reputation rewards for completing contracts.
- Tweaked reputation values.
- Rebalanced merchants’ stock.
- You can now request a starting weapon from the sergeant in Osbrook.
- Added 2 Catacomb and 3 Brynn-specific contracts.
- Changed rewards for completing tasks.
- Reduced the Mannshire scribe’s stock.
- Changes to the Troll quest: it can now be accessed only after reaching level 10.

ITEMS

- Added lots of new dishes.
- Added new items.
- Increased the base chance of triggering “Battle Rage” with Henbane.
- Antitoxin no longer completely removes Aftermaths from drugs, now only reducing them by half.
- Mindwort no longer completely removes Drunkenness, only decreasing its duration by a few turns.
- Increased the spawn chance for herbs.
- Added spoiled milk.

OTHER CHANGES

- Added pop-up speech lines for casting spells.
- Ability trees now have hovers with a short list of their strengths and effects.
- Numerous changes to in-game texts: item descriptions, characters’ bio, contents of treatises, etc.
- You no longer need to earn entrance to the Mannshire castle.

[Asid]

Hotfix 0.7.0.14 – Grocery Shop and Bakery
Mon, 29 November 2021



THIS UPDATE IS SAVE COMPATIBLE!

MAIN CHANGES

- Added two shops to Brynn along with their own NPCs: Fat Yann’s Grocery Shop
and the Bakery
. You can find them in the Old Towers quarter (northeastern part of the city).
- Added a few secondary NPCs to Brynn.
- Added Long Bread
, Kipfel
, and a few other dishes.
- Hunting Grounds
have been fully implemented. You can find them in the previously empty Points of Interest.
- Dungeons can now properly change their level
upon respawning, growing more or less difficult in the process.
- It’s now possible to skip the Prologue
even if it hasn't been completed yet.




OTHER

- Increased the radius for rumors by 20% (NPCs can now give hints about more distant Points of Interest).
- Fixed the bug with the missing rumors for Camps and Hunting Grounds.
- Fixed the bug causing the character to skip a turn when performing a counter while dual-wielding.
- Fixed the bug with the missing chests in distant dungeons.
- Fixed the issue causing impassable tiles to be generated in secret rooms and in some doorways.
- Fixed the Prologue hints not working as intended.
- Fixed “Rune of Cycle” not working as intended.
- Enemies should no longer attack the obstacles that they can simply walk around.
- Enemies will no longer use charge abilities against targets in deep water.
- Guards will no longer follow the character into deep water.
- Fixed the inability to trade with a vegetable vendor in Brynn.
- Fixed the Mannshire carpenter’s dialogue.
- Fixed the issue preventing the character from using abilities after being affected by skills that put them on cooldown.
- Fixed the issue causing the text from other translations to appear in some localizations.
- Enemies can no longer spawn on impassable terrain on map tiles next to mountains.
- NPCs at the vineyard are now assigned to the correct settlement.
- Raised the cap for Magic Power to 250%.
- Reduced damage from Burning by 10%.
- Added a new sprite for Bread: it now occupies two inventory tiles.
- Certain items (such as nails and coal) were moved from the “Junk” category to “Valuables”.

[Asid]

Hotfix 0.7.0.16 - Custom Map Markers & More Fast Travel Destinations
Mon, 6 December 2021



THIS UPDATE IS SAVE-COMPATIBLE

MAIN CHANGES

- Verren can now give you a ride to some additional destinations: the Ralph & Sons Inn, the Rotten Willow Tavern and the Oaken Barrel Brewery. You’ll need to discover these places first though.
- Added an option to place markers on the global map.
- It’s now possible to use a waterskin to pour water over yourself or surrounding tiles. This feature can be used to extinguish flames and reduce the duration of Burning.



BALANCE

- Traveling with Verren now skips time in the same manner as does sleeping in a tavern: it will increase Hunger and Thirst, improve Bodypart Condition, although it won’t grant Vigor or improve Morale and Sanity. The amount of skipped time depends on the travelled distance.
- The composition of ambushes and random brigand groups is now more diverse.
- Block Power now scales with Strength rather than the character’s level. Starting Block Power was reduced.
- Tweaked Pyromancy spells’ damage in accordance with the updated armor system.
- Rebalanced secret rooms: their loot now scales with a dungeon’s level. Overall they’ll provide you with much more money and valuables. High tier unique items no longer spawn in low level dungeons’ secret rooms.
- Rebalanced Hunger and Thirst: reduced Hunger and Thirst gain from traversing tiles, skipping a turn, and attacking. Increased Hunger and Thirst gain from the Rest mode and casting spells. Reduced Thirst gain from shouting.
- Reduced items’ Durability loss from Wetness by 25%.
- All characters start the game with Peasant Shoes instead of Travelling Shoes.
- The Hazzun Celestial Sphere no longer grants the effects of Elusiveness and Vigor.
- Reduced the chance to ruin a pelt with Slashing Damage (slightly), Piercing Damage (significantly), and Crushing Damage (significantly).
- Reduced the influence of the wilderness factor on enemy and animals’ spawn rates: very low wilderness will no longer result in completely empty tiles.
- The duration of Burning can now be reduced by skipping a turn (the same mechanic as with freeing yourself from Ensnarement).
- The speed of reducing the duration of Ensnarement by skipping a turn is now also affected by Agility.

FIXES

- Removed the possibility of finding additional copies of already acquired artifacts.
- Fixed the error in the fog of war calculations that sometimes allowed revealing tiles through walls upon entering a dungeon.
- Fixed the incorrect trajectory for chopped heads.
- Fixed the combination of Saiga Horns and Lentil Soup appearing in containers more often than it should.
- Fixed “Seize the Initiative” always hitting its target when used with a ranged weapon.
- Fixed “Endurance Training” not triggering under certain circumstances.
- Removed the possibility of selling unidentified and cursed items to regular traders. Cursed items can still be sold to a certain NPC that was added in one of the previous hotfixes.
- Fixed enemies abandoning the chase quicker than expected.
- Increased the number of turns required for transitioning from the Territorial state to Hostile.
- Fixed incorrect formatting of the pawnbroker's opening line.
- Fixed Magic Resistance affecting Rending Resistance.
- Traders should no longer move around while you trade with them.
- Removed the possibility of repeating the dialogue about the brewery with Odar, preventing repeated Reputation loss from choosing certain lines.
- The dog at the mill no longer complains about the weather or tells you to move out of the way.
- Birds will now fly away if you miss a shot at them.
- Fixed some containers in houses not having an owner.
- Fixed the crash caused by opening a new container without closing the previous one.
- Fixed the possibility of moving around while sleeping.
- Fixed Two-Handed Swords’ treatises unlocking incorrect passives.

[Asid]

Hotfixes 0.7.0.18-0.7.0.22 - Changelog
Tue, December 21, 2021


- Curbed the inflation to reduce the amount of gold purses required for purchasing and maintaining high level gear.
- Rebalanced weapons’ Durability - most weapons will now require less frequent repairs.
- Reduced the amount of food dropped in Bandit dungeons.
- The money reward for killing the Troll is now the same as declared in the dialogue.
- The Royal Ranger Gambeson is now a unique item - its stats were adjusted accordingly.
- Starting enemies’ stats were tweaked to better work with balance changes to weapons’ damage.
- The map marker for the “Head to Brynn” quest is now placed on the correct map tile.
- Increased Reputation gain from bringing occult items to l’Owcrey.
- Increased the influence of Reputation on NPCs’ selling prices (-5%/-10%/15% > -10%/-15%/-20%).
- The power difference between low and high level Necromancers is now more apparent.
- Returned lockpicks to the Osbrook blacksmith’s stock.
- The Brynn merchant now sells gold purses.
- Fixed the bug causing higher level minibosses to spawn in low level Undead and Proselyte dungeons.
- Fixed “Crimson Gift” being applied to all enemy types in distant dungeons rather than just Proselytes.
- When performing a task for the Osbrook blacksmith, you can now also bring him Home-Made Swords.
- Fixed destroyed crates not dropping loot.
- Fixed the buying and selling prices for Barrels of Beer - trading in them is now profitable.
- Fixed the bug allowing Barrels of Beer to be bought for cheap and then sold at a higher price to the same character.
- Fixed the bug granting additional Crushing Damage to shield-wielding enemies’ attacks.
- Fixed the bug allowing to indefinitely stack Magic Power with “Baptism by Fire”.
- Fixed the bug causing minions in Necromancer rooms to spawn multiple times.
- Fixed some Brynn craftsmen not being able to repair equipment.
- Fixed the Mannshire milk trader’s missing stock.
- Fixed Forest Vipers' overly high spawn rates.
- Fixed the crash caused by Harpies’ passive.
- Fixed the crash caused by certain Brynn NPCs.
- Fixed “Precision” not working as intended.
- Fixed the bug causing you to lose all money when bribing the carpenter in Osbrook.

[Asid]

Devlog: Survival
Fri, 28 January 2022



Hello everyone!

Over the last couple months, we’ve received a lot of feedback and justified criticism about drastically increased travel times and long distances between Points of Interest.

We’d like to assure you that the current version of the global map is far from final. In addition to obvious tweaks to distances between locations, which will happen in the next major update along with the saves wipe, we also plan to implement a number of systems and mechanics focused on making the open world exploration less time-consuming and tedious. One of these additions is the Survival tree that will soon be introduced to the game.

The main purpose of this ability tree is to help your character weather the hardships of mercenary life, giving them a better chance of surviving the wilderness without a sizable stash of supplies. It’s worth mentioning that over the course of development Survival and Medicine ability trees were merged together, allowing us to remove unnecessary fluff and fully focus on the synergy between some of their skills.

Let’s start with the ability tree’s overall structure. It consists of 6 active and 5 passive skills:



Survival skills are acquired in the usual manner - first, you need to unlock them by finding a corresponding treatise or improving relevant Attributes, then you purchase whatever you need with Ability Points. There is a caveat though: the first tier of Survival is unlocked for every character by default.

On top of that, Survival skills have much lower Attribute requirements than other ability trees: in order to unlock the second tier, you’ll only need to invest 3 Stat Points into relevant Attributes, and the third tier becomes available right after you spend 5 SP.

Active Abilities

    “Skinning”
    was moved to the Survival tree where it belongs, and you’ll need to spend an Ability Point before you can use it. At the same time, we greatly increased the price of most pelts, making hunting so much more profitable.

    With the exception of these tweaks, the skill remains the same - the chance to harvest a pelt still relies on the damage type you kill a creature with.



    “Campfire”
    allows you to start a fire at any suitable location. To do so, you’ll need four sticks - a new item that is aplenty in the woods. This campfire has the same functionality as the ones you find when exploring the world: it can be used for cooking, drying your clothes, and to empower some of the ability tree’s skills.

    The campfires you make only exist for a limited amount of time: they go out after 6 in-game hours.
    It’s the only skill in the ability tree that doesn’t need to be purchased with Ability Points - all characters start with “Campfire” already learned.



    “Make a Halt”
    allows you to combine a pelt, a length of rope, and some straw to craft a new single-use consumable - a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags give you an option to sleep and save your progress in suitable locations far enough from dungeons, settlements, and points of interest.

    Sleeping this way is rather uncomfortable and doesn’t provide the benefits of resting in an actual bed: you’ll suffer a penalty to Health Restoration, won’t replenish Morale and Sanity, and won’t receive the Vigor effect. Additionally, there’s always a distinct possibility of being ambushed by brigands or wild animals that can stumble onto you while you're asleep…

    Investing into this skill is completely optional, and it is possible to purchase sleeping bags from some traders. Still, being able to craft them yourself will save you money and inventory space - it’s fairly easy to find the required items while exploring, and the materials themselves don’t take as much space as an actual sleeping bag.



    “Cauterize Wounds”
    is great for emergencies: this skill allows you to instantly stop all Bleedings, suffering some Pain and slightly damaging affected body parts in the process. Using this skill will also temporarily increase your Bleed Resistance. This bonus becomes stronger and has a longer duration if there’s a lit campfire nearby.



    “First Aid''
    teaches your character the procedures necessary to set a dislocated limb or clean a wound without outside help. This skill stabilizes all your Injuries, but raises Pain and reduces Morale.
    If there’s a lit campfire nearby, this skill slightly improves the condition of Injured body parts.



    “Will to Survive”
    replenishes a small amount of Health and removes all physical and mental debuffs. This skill also affects persistent Conditions (effects caused by Hunger, Thirst, Pain, Injuries, etc), removing them for 10 turns.

    If there’s a lit campfire nearby, using this skill additionally replenishes some Health for every removed negative effect.



Passive Abilities



    “Pathfinder”
    improves the “Examine Surroundings” basic skill, granting it new functionality.
    Firstly, when used on the surface, it allows you to spot tracks left by beasts and other enemy types, making it much easier to locate them on the map tile.

    Secondly, “Examine Surrounding” lets your character to closely listen to what’s happening around them, displaying hidden creatures as question marks in a large radius. This skill works in dungeons as well, allowing you to better prepare for dangers that lurk behind closed doors.

    And finally, “Pathfinder” greatly increases your character’s passive chance to hear nearby creatures.

    Passive bonus:
    +1 Vision

    “Huntmaster”
    significantly improves the chance to successfully harvest a pelt. In addition to this bonus, it allows your character to extract rare ingredients that can later be sold at a high price (in the future they will have alchemical uses). Right now there are three rare ingredients: Bear Fat, Crawler Eyes, and Harpy Stomachs.

    “Huntmaster” also grants your attacks +15% Weapon Damage and 10% Crit Chance when fighting beasts. As a side note, the Ancient Troll counts as a beast.

    Passive bonus:
    +3% Accuracy

    “Adaptability”
    is a skill for those who want to shrug off anything that life throws at them. It passively improves the rate at which you recover from Pain and Intoxication, decreases the duration of Poisonings, Bad Trips, and Drug Aftermaths, while also removing Restoration penalties when using a sleeping bag. Other than that, “Adaptability” improves your Morale when resting near lit campfires.

    Passive bonus:
    +10% Fortitude and 10% Intoxication Resistance

    “Austerity”
    makes your character less reliant on food and water, raising the thresholds for negative Conditions caused by Hunger, Thirst, and Pain by 10% (these Conditions will activate only upon reaching 35% / 60% / 85% thresholds rather than 25% / 50% / 75% ).

    This skill also decreases Hunger and Thirst gain by 20% and makes resting near campfires more beneficial, granting Healing Efficiency and restoring Sanity.

    Passive bonus:
    +15% Pain Resistance

    “Ever Vigilant”
    is perhaps the most “combat-oriented” skill of the Survival tree. Once learned, it lowers the Accuracy of enemy attacks by 5% and halves their Crit Chance (this is particularly useful when hunting bears).

    It also halves the chance of ambush when using a sleeping bag, doubles the chance of evading a trap instead of activating it, and reduces the Vision penalty while in the Rest Mode.

    Passive bonus:
    +5% Dodge Chance



==========

That’s all for now. As mentioned above, the Survival tree will be added with the next intermediate patch, so you’ll soon have a chance to test it out for yourself!

[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

[Asid]

Hotfix 0.8.0.18 - Changelog
Sun, 20 November 2022



FIXES

- Fixed the NPC in the Order’s Prison not appearing on some saves.
- Fixed the inability to interact with the Boulder Circle on some saves even after performing all the prerequisite actions.
- Fixed Deathstinger Swarms having 100% Piercing Resistance.
- Fixed tier 4 Electromancy and Magic Mastery treatises spawning only in one specific distant dungeon.
- Fixed “Piercing Shot” not benefiting from “Taking Aim”.
- Fixed magic missiles being affected by the same close range Accuracy penalty as bows.
- Fixed Agility not affecting Backfire Chance.
- Dirwin’s unique trait should now work as intended.
- Fixed Anmarraks not spawning in distant Catacombs.
- Fixed “Keep Them Coming” instantly removing the effect of “Mighty Swing” granted for killing enemies.
- Fixed the incorrect loot in some secret rooms. Increased the amount of loot spawning in secret rooms’ chests and sarcophaguses. Added guaranteed loot to certain secret rooms.
- Fixed the incorrect loot in the Catacombs’ containers. Church-themed valuables should now appear more frequently.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers and Electromancers dropping incorrect treatises.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by using “Chain Lightning” in certain circumstances.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by Harpies’ “Peck”.
- Fixed the crash caused by moving to another location while under the effects of “Will to Survive”.
- Fixed “Will to Survive” checking for incorrect conditions.
- Fixed “Recharge” granting its bonuses before it’s actually learned.
- Fixed “Pathfinder” granting its bonuses before it’s actually learned.
- Fixed the duration and stacks of “Maneuver” not adding up as intended.
- Fixed “Offensive Tactic” being able to indefinitely stack Crit Efficiency.
- Fixed the incorrect duration of the Damage Taken debuff applied to the Ancient Troll upon interrupting its “Troll Regeneration”.
- Fixed “Coordinated Advance” reapplying its bonuses each time the character enters the same location, potentially resulting in enemies receiving a massive damage boost.
- Fixed the effect of “No Retreat” not being removed when moving to a different tile.
- Fixed the possibility of stacking the effect of “Taking Aim” with “Precision”.
- Fixed “War Cry” receiving bonuses for every object and piece of furniture within its area of effect. Fixed the ability’s missing damage.
- Fixed the glitches occurring with the Servant in the Golden Grain when she delivers breakfast.
- Fixed the Tanat's Skull raising Fumble Chance instead of lowering it.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by purchasing rumors from the Fence.
- Fixed some of the Restless being able to feel pain.
- Fixed Rotten Boiled Eggs’ incorrect sprite.
- Fixed the inability to eat or cook Harpy Eggs.
- Fixed some treatises granting incorrect amounts of XP when read.
- Fixed some high tier Geomancy spells having incorrect Attribute requirements.
- Fixed the incorrect price of renting a room in the Rotten Willow when attempting to pay for it on the second floor of the tavern.
- Fixed the inability to reduce the duration of “Ensnarement” by skipping a turn when it’s applied by Crawlers.
- Fixed the bug allowing extreme Intoxication to drop Immunity below zero (which then prevented it from being raised).
- Fixed the inability to swap between loadouts while interacting with a Backpack or the Caravan Storage.
- Fixed the bug which, upon loading a save, spawned incorrect loot in graves.
- Fixed the possibility of placing a Backpack inside another Backpack.
- Fixed the missing “rotten” state of Gray Crabs.
- Fixed enemies not having a cap on their Weapon Damage and Damage Taken.
- Fixed issues with the barrels in the Rotten Willow.
- Fixed issues with abandoned carts’ generation.
- Fixed issues with some of the Restless’ shadows.
- Fixed various visual bugs in Brynn.
- Fixed the sprite of one of the Craftsmen in the Guild Quarter repeatedly flickering as he attempted to enter the building.
- Fixed Brynn guards being able to sometimes step inside walls.
- Incense now counts as a Valuable.

BALANCE

- Numerous tweaks to various items’ stats*.
- Reduced most weapons’ Armor Penetration - this change affects enemies as well*.
- Reduced most weapons’ penalty to Skills Energy Cost*.
- Rather than being an universal stat, Bleed Resistance from armor now works as it was originally supposed to, providing its benefits only to specific body parts.
- Added Bleed Resistance to most pieces of armor*.
- Certain stats are now less impacted by the Dual-Wielding penalty.
- Magehunters now spawn in higher tier dungeons.
- Magehunters no longer have access to “Against the Odds” and “Seize the Initiative”.
- Added new abilities to some Proselytes.
- Increased the amount of loot in distant dungeons’ boss chests.
- Reduced the effectiveness of most Staff passives.
- Rebalanced One-Handed Axes passive abilities.
- Rebalanced Two-Handed Axes passive abilities.
- Tweaked Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces abilities to smoothen the difference in their impact and efficiency.
- Reduced the minimal possible value of Block Power Recovery to 1% (from 5%).
- Fixed the overly high chance of “Petrification” to apply its effects. As a baseline, a character with unmodified stats will need a buff from three runic boulders to raise the Petrification chance to 100%. This chance can now be decreased by the target’s Magic Resistance. Also increased the spell’s Damage over time and its Cooldown, but decreased its Energy Cost.
- Numerous tweaks to the AI’s usage of abilities.
- Casting spells now increases Backfire Damage by 30% instead of 20%.
- Tweaked the effects of some enchantments and curses.
- Perception now has 50% higher impact when passively discovering secret rooms.
- Changed the loot-generating algorithm for distant dungeons' boss chests: rather than performing two separate 35% rolls to spawn a Unique and an Artifact, chests will have 50% chance to spawn a Unique. If this roll fails, you'll be guaranteed to find an Artifact instead.

* - these changes won’t affect already saved items.

UI & UX

- “Maneuver” now correctly grants the bonuses listed in its hover.
- Removed the mention of a non-existing Aftermath from Stardust’s hover.
- “No Mercy” now correctly grants the bonuses listed in its hover.
- Updated the hover of “Claw Swipe” - it now has a description of the skill’s hidden mechanic.
- When interacting with a Lute, the “Use” line in its context menu will now appear as “Play”.
- Rather than recover Reputation incrementally with each day spent in jail, you’ll now instantly receive the full amount once you’re done serving your sentence.
- Learning “Austerity” now changes the debuff thresholds listed in the hovers of Thirst, Hunger, and Intoxication.
- The Hostess in the Close Harbor should now have her role correctly displayed.
- Fixed the “Mindwort” dialogue option being displayed incorrectly during “From the Cradle to the Grave” quest.
- Made some improvements to the camera edge panning option.
- The Turkish localization is now up to date.

[Asid]

[Asid]

Devlog: Settlement Outskirts & New Bags
Thu, 30 March 2023




Hello everyone!

The last couple of months our team has been working on lots of new content: the long-awaited Caravan, the previously highlighted rework of the Dungeon Generator, and dungeon and settlement modifiers that will be a part of the upcoming Contract System rework - speaking of which, today we’d like to elaborate on some of its elements, namely Outskirts locations.

Outskirts are a new type of Points of Interest that will be introduced to the game with the next major update, “Rags to Riches”. Located a few tiles away from settlements, they still act as their continuation of sorts

Their main purpose is to add more variety to the basic contract loop and facilitate early game exploration. Most Outskirts will usually offer you the following things:

    A spot to save your progress.
    Access to one or more traders and craftsmen who will sell vital consumables, fix your gear, etc.
    A chance to interact with new NPCs who can offer you contracts or give rewards for their completion.





It’s fair to say that granting alternative access to contracts and rewards is perhaps the Outskirts’ most important function. After “Rags to Riches”, village Elders won’t be the only ones in the contract business, the following three new NPC types - Officials, Captains, and Couriers - will be able to participate as well.

Their main difference from Elders lies in the rewards they will offer:

- Captains
won’t pay as much, instead providing extra Reputation with settlements you complete contracts for.
- Officials
will split the Reputation boost between all settlements of their faction (for instance, completing Osbrook contracts will slightly improve your standing with both Brynn and Mannshire).
- Couriers
won’t actually hand out quests, instead giving rewards for completing contracts that require you retrieving certain items. Bringing those directly to a Courier will earn you extra gold.

Additionally, contract rewards can be received from any of these NPCs regardless of your initial quest giver, thus breaking the routine of walking the same roads over and over again. So instead of having to stick to the “settlement-dungeon-settlement” route, you’ll be able to receive a contract in a village, clear out its dungeon, get your reward in a nearby Outskirt, grab a new contract there, sell your loot and replenish supplies (optionally), then head straight to the next dungeon.



All Outskirts can be roughly split between these three categories:

- Military Camps and Outposts
. This is where you’ll find Captains and, most likely, someone to fix your gear and sell you medicine and ammunition.
- Trade Posts and Production Sites
. Their main role is selling special goods that can be transported to other settlements via the Caravan and sold at a profit. An example of such a site would be the Osbrook Mill or the Mannshire Winery, which many of you are already familiar with. This is where you may also encounter Officials, who are tasked with overseeing the production.
- Homesteads and Roadside Inns
. These locations will offer a hearty meal, a place to catch some shut-eye, and a chance to meet a Courier, should the need arise.

To better illustrate the system, here are some of the new Outskirts:

Osbrook - Roadside Tower




Not wanting to be caught off guard if the Council suddenly breaches the truce, the Magistrate took it upon themselves to restore the web of outposts and signal towers that now covers the entirety of the Brynn March.


Osbrook - Drunken Woodsman Inn




The Drunken Woodsman is a safe haven for any hunter whose trade brings them close to Osbrook.


Mannshire - New Orchard




The war gave the best cidery in Aldor little time to react: its previous owners couldn’t save neither themselves nor the flourishing gardens, taking the ancient recipe of their specialty beverage to the grave. But not all hope is lost: the new proprietors of the New Orchard are determined to do everything in their power to restore this place to its former glory.


Mannshire - Southern Outpost




This encampment was originally established by Duke di Berro during his brazen counterattack against the Council army. It’s not nearly as large as it used to be, but it still plays an important role in bringing order to the Magistrate-controlled lands.


It’s worth mentioning that the existence of Brynn contracts and dungeons is only temporary (in the future there’ll be an entirely new way of gaining city Reputation), so it won’t have Outskirts in the gameplay sense of the word. At the same time, you can expect a certain other location to receive its share of Outskirts POIs…

New Backpacks

Let’s move onto the next addition planned for “Rags to Riches” - a wide selection of new bags and their overall rework.

Right now the game features just one backpack type that offers as many slots as it occupies in the inventory - this was done to prevent exploits associated with carrying multiple backpacks.

In “Rags to Riches”, all bags and backpacks will become much more capacious. As a tradeoff, you’ll have to equip them first before storing any items, and they’ll have to be emptied before you can place them in the inventory. These combined tweaks allowed us to create a bunch of new backpack configurations:



Medium Backpack
grew in capacity and received sizable side pouches.



Small Backpack
isn’t particularly roomy, but it’ll be much easier to obtain than other bag types.



Field Surgeon Bandolier
- a solid choice for anyone who wants to carry lots of meds and other consumables.



Herbalist Satchel
allows you to not really worry about precious inventory space while transporting large amounts of potion flasks and other vessels or gathering important herbs.



Hunting Backpack
is meant to easily fit a few pelts and can be used to comfortably carry a bedroll.


Treasure Seeker Backpack
will greatly improve your carrying capacity, although its bulky frame will do no favors to your agility and finesse.

On top of all that, it will also be possible to store single cell treasure items in common Purses.

And finally, here’s a teaser for the much-anticipated Armor ability tree that we’re currently working on as well:



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

That’s all for now. Until next time!

[Asid]

Devlog: Armored Combat and the Equipment III Update Announcement
Tue, 2 May 2023




Hello everyone!
In today’s devlog we’ll take a look at the new ability tree - the long awaited Armored Combat. We also have a surprise announcement to make.

Initially, we planned to add Armored Combat with the next major update, “Rags to Riches”. But since there’s still a lot of work to be done, and it’ll be a while before “Rags to Riches” is released, we decided to make this one ability tree a part of the previously unannounced Equipment Update III, which will introduce many new pieces of armor for mages and hybrid builds.

On top of all that, Equipment III will feature various tweaks to half the existing abilities. There was a lot of negative feedback regarding Ranged Weapons, Warfare (former Combat Mastery), and Shields, so these ability trees in particular were changed the most. There’ll also be certain QoL improvements, such as reworked skill hovers and a better system for skills classification. The exact details will be revealed in the patch notes.



We aim to release the Equipment Update III on May 16th. Please take note that this interim update won’t feature new bags, reworked Dungeons, the Caravan, and everything else that was explicitly presented as a part of “Rags to Riches”. The exact date for the latter will be announced a short time before its release. Another thing worth mentioning: the Equipment Update III will be compatible with your current save files.

Now let’s move onto the new ability tree. Armored Combat consists of 8 skills, spread evenly between actives and passives.



While conceptualizing Armored Combat, one of our goals was to make it useful to all armor types, both heavy and light.

As a result, its skills are designed to dynamically change depending on the equipped armor. This mechanic bears some resemblance to the one used by Shields, although the differences between armor types’ effects are significantly more noticeable.

Light armor adds bonus Dodge Chance to the skills’ effects or otherwise improves the effectiveness of evasion. It also allows using Armored Combat skills more frequently.
The main drawback of heavy armor is its hefty penalties to Max Energy, so its changes to the ability tree’s skills are focused on counteracting them in one manner or another.
Medium armor offers a compromise between Energy efficiency and Protection. For the most part, it doesn’t require any bonuses to be effective, and wearing it usually won’t modify Armored Combat skills in any way.


Read On: https://steamcommunity.com/games/625960/announcements/detail/3685676362465959270

[Asid]

0.8.2.3 Content Patch - Changelog
Fri, 15 September 2023



MAIN CHANGES

- Added 9 new enemy types
: Accursed Ghast, Ancient Ghast, Putrid Restless Soldier (2H Axe, 2H Mace, and Halberd variants), Wraith Monk, Wraith Cleric, Wraith Squire, Wraith Sergeant, Wraith Templar, and Wraith Commander.
- Added 5 high level minibosses
. Undead: Ritualist, Revenant Commander and Wraithbinder. Proselytes: Brander and Juggernaut.
- Added 12 new enemy abilities
.
- Added paper maps
. Using them creates an outline of a specified area on your global map. Paper maps can be purchased from elders and governors (additional maps become available after you reach Benevolence with their settlement) or found as random loot in Mannshire and Brynn dungeons.
- Added a new artifact
: Barbados the Lame’s Atlas of Aldor. Just like other artifacts, it has a chance to appear in distant dungeons.
- Added a Statistics tab
(can be accessed through the Journal menu).
- Refactored the passive abilities
exclusive to the player character, which made it possible to assign them to enemies.
- Fully reworked the enemies’ Will to Fight mechanic
. The new version basically works as a gauge that can be affected one way or another through a series of random checks. And once a creature’s Will to Fight drops to 0%, it is guaranteed to start fleeing.

The list of conditions and situations that can potentially affect a creature’s Will to Fight:

    The creature is high on Health (gradually restores the creature’s Will to Fight depending on its current amount of Health).
    The opponent is low on Health.
    The opponent is Injured, Bleeding, in Pain, or affected by certain other negative effects.
    There’s an ally within Vision (increases Will to Fight depending on the ally’s level).
    The creature is low on Health.
    There’s a significant level difference between the creature and the opponent.
    The level of the character’s equipment is much higher than the creature’s level.
    The creature is Injured, Bleeding, in Pain, or affected by certain other negative effects.
    The creature loses Health due to the opponent’s attacks and abilities.
    Allies receive Injuries within Vision.
    Allies start fleeing within Vision.
    Allies die within Vision (the impact depends on an ally’s level and whether their death was a result of a critical strike or miracle-casted spell.


GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE

- Rebalanced most enemies to maintain their power on roughly the same level as it had been before they gained access to additional passive abilities.
- Rebalanced the Experience gain from killing most enemy types - high level enemies (and minibosses in particular) will now yield significantly more XP.
- Changed or updated the following enemy abilities: “Curse of Decay” (former “Curse”), “Curse of Agony” (former “Curse of Weakness”), “Desecration” (former “Bolt of Darkness”), “Unholy Blessing”, “Lesser Ritual of Resurrection” (former “Resurrection”), “Blasphemous Sigil” (former “Sigil of Darkness”), “Spectral Haunting” (former “Dispersal”), “Soul Sacrifice”, “Grave Chill”, “Sacrificial Blood”, “Mark of the Feast”, “Draining Sigil” (former “Vampiric Rune”), “Blood Scent”, “Neverending Torment”, “Taste for Flesh”, “Swarm”, “Loud Barking”.
- Changed the special effect of Unholy Damage: [chance to apply “Curse” > Health Replenishment].
- Changed the special effect of Sacred Damage [Health Replenishment > Energy Replenishment].
Added a new Reputation perk, “Specialty Goods”, which makes additional paper maps available for sale.
- “Deadly Tail”: swapped the chance to apply “Sacrificial Blood” with a chance to apply “Mark of the Feast”.
- “Net Throw”, “Bone Throw”, “Web Spit”, “Blood Spit” now use the missile mechanic, giving them a chance to miss their target.
- Made it possible to block and dodge Girruds’ skills.
- Updated the Stealing Mechanic: NPCs should no longer be able to detect you through walls.
- The Casket with St Wald’s Relics now grants immunity to an additional effect, “Curse of Agony”.

UI AND QOL

- Rewrote enemy abilities’ hovers in accordance with the Equipment Update III standards. Added a dynamic display of scaleable stats to enemy abilities’ hovers (their relevant Accuracy and Damage Dealt, for example).
- You’ll now be able to see enemies’ Will to Fight while inspecting them.
- When inspecting enemies, their abilities will be displayed in a predetermined order rather than randomly.
- The Character Menu and Journal tabs will now retain the position of their sliders when reopened.
- Improved the Global Map optimization.

FIXES

- Fixed the bug causing different enemy types to use the same basic Health Restoration value.
- Fixed some AoEs having dead zones.
- Fixed the inconsistent display of certain AoEs and ability trajectories for different character’s positions in relation to the target.
- Fixed the bug preventing negative Dodge Chance from increasing the Accuracy of incoming attacks.
- Fixed the bug which allowed Pain to exceed Pain Limit.
- Fixed the Anmarrak being able to use “Wide Swipe” while its Tentacle Hand is actively participating in combat.
- Fixed Harpies and some other enemies using incorrect animations after recovering from “Petrification”.
- Fixed “Lion Leap” granting the Manticore an unlisted Dodge Chance bonus.
- Fixed the incorrect interaction between the dual weapons’ Damage and “Residual Charge”.
- Fixed Immobilization, Stun, and other similar effects not being able to interrupt Charge skills.
- Fixed the incorrect description of one of the Brynn Reputation perks, “Better Gear”.
- Fixed “Cleaving Strike” granting an incorrect bonus to Counter Chance.
- Fixed the potential softlock caused by missed “Distracting Shot”.
- Fixed “Onslaught” having its Cooldown reduced by an incorrect number of turns after failing to knock the target back.
- Fixed “Mutilating Lunge” having its Cooldown reduced by an incorrect number of turns after failing to cause an Injury.
- Fixed the buggy interaction between “Courage” and counters.
- Fixed “From the Shadows” applying its debuff even after missing the target.
- Fixed the incorrect duration of “Endurance Training” bonuses.
- Fixed the incorrect duration of “Startling Volley” effects.
- Fixed the combination of “Mighty Kick” and “Push the Falling” not prolonging some of the debuffs it’s supposed to.
- Fixed the Codex of the Triple Hand Order granting its bonuses even when the Undead or Proselytes die without the player’s direct participation.
- Fixed the disappearance of certain effect animations after moving to another location.
- Fixed the “Knockback” pop-up hint.
- New sprites for some items.
- New visuals for some Necromancy-themed abilities.