Patch 1.05 is here, the largest content update to date! Bringing with it several new gameplay modes, new achievements, a new dungeon, and a new runestone, plus many improvements to existing systems
New Gameplay Modes
When starting a new game, you will now be prompted with one of four possible gameplay modes:
Normal Mode : The original Darkspar play mode, a longplay mode that takes about 100-300 hours to complete.
Semi-Turbo Mode: The same as Normal except that much of the build and research trees are skipped. Estimated 30-70 hours to complete.
Turbo Mode : A greatly accelerated gameplay mode where you earn 5x the normal amount of experience and resources, you start deep in the build and research trees, and the time required for build, research, and population growth has been greatly reduced. Estimated 5-20 hours to complete.
New Game Plus : Start a new game using the characters from an old save. Monsters gain 25 levels. Monster level cap is now 145. Runestones and artifacts are more powerful. There is an additional dungeon after you defeat Vix. You must defeat Vix in Normal or Semi-Turbo mode before you can access New Game Plus mode.
The Turbo and New Game Plus modes each have new achievements associated with them.
Game Randomization
To enhance replay value and provide a unique challenge, there are now a total of five optional randomization settings which can be enabled when creating a new game.
The following things can be randomized: Combat zone locations, Monster Locations, Rune locations, Artifact locations, and Monster Stats. If Monster Stat randomization is enabled, each monster has a chance either to have normal stats, up to 25% reduced stats versus normal, or up to 25% increased stats versus normal. The stat randomization is set at the start of the game and is the same for every monster of that same name for the entire playthrough (it is not set per encounter).
There is an achievement for completing the game in any mode with all of the randomization settings enabled.
New Category of Achievements: Rare
Added a new category of achievements "Rare". These achievements are "account wide" (across all of your saves). Most are related to the new game modes.
Crafting Revamp
We took a long look at crafting and decided it was more tedious than it needed to be. As a result, all crafting is now instantaneous. Additionally, crafting has all been relocated to one Crafting screen, which can be accessed from the lower-right menu.
Alerts Redone
Alerts have been redone and are now much more informative.
Other Improvements
Rare crashes related to the unused Gamepad functionality of Renpy should be reduced or eliminated
Fixed an issue where a rune drop and XP might rarely be awarded more than once after a kill
The "choose zone" screen now tells you whether there are any artifacts left to be found in each gathering zone
You can now hover over runestones in the Monsterpedia to see what the runestone does
The Artifact menu has been relocated to the lower right, to be more consistent with the Runestone menu
The champion interface has been simplified and the buttons made bigger.
Character portrait can now be changed under the Crafting menu
Doubled the effect that Surge has on build timers
Added an Artifacts and Runestones page to Game Stats in the lower right. These screens will tell you which specific places to go for the remaining artifacts and runestones you are missing. (very useful in Random mode)
Clicking in slightly the wrong spot in the Artifact menu no longer closes that menu
Offhand weapons and quivers no longer incorrectly show a item level (these items cannot be upgraded so should not show a level)
Patch 1.04e, minor aesthetic tweaks
A few minor aesthetic changes in this patch
Resource tooltip position adjusted slightly
Game statistics screen now has buttons inside the border and not outside (this was the last holdout as far as buttons being outside the border so now they should all be inside the border)
Removed total build time from game stats as it is incorrect now since build times are no longer static
Monsterpedia moved back to center of screen (was slightly off-center in 1.04)
State of the game, plus upcoming content teasers
Darkspar at two weeks
Darkspar is two weeks old! Thanks to everyone who played the game and a special thank you to those who have managed to get 100% completion. We didn't expect the game to get the level of attention that it did and we are certainly flattered and are doing our best to address the issues some players had with the game at launch
In case you missed it
Since release there have been four content updates which have implemented:
Removal of the pauses which happened during alerts
Menus no longer pause the game
GUI adjusted to make the buttons on the right more easy to find
More tooltips added to make the UI easier to interpret
A basic tutorial added to the first few actions in the new game
Quests to provide optional objectives and clarify how to complete the castle
Leveling curve of the early game adjusted
Combat rounds take 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds (adjustable in settings)
Demo version released containing the first 30 levels of content
New mechanics added: Settlement Level and Surge, both of which speed up gameplay
A more traditional Continue option added to the main menu to continue where you left off
We are still seeking feedback
At this point we feel like we have addressed a lot of the things people had cited as issues with the 1.0 release but if you have anything to add please let us know!
What to expect in the future
On the development horizon
1.05 : Another incremental update. The big feature we are looking at here is additional game modes and/or difficulty settings, as well as a randomized mode. This will make Darkspar even more accessible for people who don't want a super grindy game, and also provide for unique challenges for experienced players to pursue on a replay. We are looking at adding maybe one more final dungeon in this update if it seems practical. New achievements will also be added to account for the new game modes (Conqueror of Darkspar wil be unaffected). Timeframe: Within 2 weeks
??? : More incremental updates possible depending on feedback
1.10: Darkspar Chapter 2. The first big content update. What is certain about 1.1 at this point in development is that there will be two new skill trees: Druid and Monk. There will be new Dungeons, Runestones, and Artifacts. The level cap will be raised to 110. The crafting system will be redone and inventory and commerce will appear in the world of Darkspar. The story takes place in one of three new settlements you can choose. The update will feature a campaign based progression system where objectives advance the story instead of build timers. Timeframe: Sometime before summer
We need a few more reviews ...
If you enjoyed Darkspar and would like to support the game please consider leaving a Steam review. We are two short of the crucial 10 review mark which will make the game show up in the algorithm more.
Thank you
Thank you for playing and for making this a great experience
Patch 1.04d, bugfixes
1. Fixed another instance where loading a pre- 1.04 save might sometimes crash the game 2. Fixed an issue that was preventing the Victory rune drop from being written to the game log window
Patch 1.04c bugfix for line 5529 crash on load
Fixed a bug introduced in 1.04 that would cause the game to cash if you loaded a save that had offline combat progress
Patch 1.04b settlement level 70 bugfix
Fixed an issue where the 15k Surge cap did not automatically assert itself after hitting Settlement Level 70
Patch 1.04a, some 1.04 balance adjustments (more frequent Surges)
A few balance changes to make Surge a little better
Default surge duration increased from 3 to 5 minutes
XP required to trigger a surge is now capped at 20k instead of 30k (15k if you have the level 70 milestone)
Exploration actions now produce 25 settlement XP instead of 20
Surge now doubles research speed in addition to it's other effects
Patch 1.04, "Surge" events and Settlement Level! Plus many other changes
Content patch 1.04 is here, the most comprehensive update released to date! With it come several changes and new mechanics
New resource: Settlement XP and Settlement Level
Performing actions will now grant Settlement XP, which represents the combined resources of your settlement and it's champions.
As you gain Settlement XP, you will raise your Settlement Level, which will in turn provides bonuses, all of which are designed to gradually increase the speed of the game. Gathering, Exploration, Combat, and Building will all speed up as you level your settlement.
New mechanic: Surge
By collecting Settlement XP, your champions will periodically become infused with the energy of Darkspar and go into a frenzied state. During a Surge event, which lasts for a few minutes, the speed of all actions is doubled, and you gain 50% increased combat damage. Build speed also increases during a Surge and if you activate a surge after having built the castle, this resets the castle cooldown, allowing you to build upgrades more quickly.
Speed of the early game
A number of changes have been made to the leveling curve to allow players to get deeper into Darkspar more quickly. The overall amount of XP to hit 99 is about the same as before but the speed of the initial few levels is much faster. Due to this the level cap on the demo will be raised to level 30 (demo to be updated soon)
Other improvements and requested features
Decreased the HP of common monsters in the two starting zones
Reduced the amount of XP needed for the first 10 combat levels
Added a level up animation to make it more obvious when a champion has leveled up a skill
Added tooltips to the top panel of the screen (including resources)
Amount of resources required for some early buildings has been reduced
Changed the borders for most menus to hopefully make the text buttons on the right more easy to find
The requirement to recruit a second champion is now to reach Settlement Level 5, and to recruit the third champion to reach Settlement Level 10 (both of which will only take a few minutes)
Patch 1.03bb fixes (runestones, and game log redo)
Couple of small fixes: 1. The previous fix in 1.03a for the runestone achievement issue itself had an issue in it which was fixed in 1.03b 2. Continuing to work on the "value too large to convert to short" issue which is affecting some systems. We think we have narrowed it down to the game log so we redid the way the game log is drawn. If you are having this particular error even after 1.03bb please send a save file to darkspargame@gmail.com
Patch 1.03a runestone achievement bugfix
Added an additional check for runestone counts to handle rare occasions where an achievement might not be granted
