FreeHolder
FreeHolder Alpha 8
2.28.2020
Combat Updated and Upgraded
I'm pleased to announce that the large number of upgrades and changes to battle have been completed. I'm so pleased, in fact, that I am announcing that we are now in alpha 8. It's all pretty arbitrary, but I think it's appropriate. A battle tutorial will be forthcoming soon, probably after an update or two, but thankfully for the curious, I have implemented a vastly improved statistics screen when looking at battle gear with new icons that, when moused over, will actually explain what the statistic or property is, and what it does. No more trying to guess what all those text lists of properties mean. I'll actually tell you. The only catch is, this info is currently only available on the equipment select screen right before combat. A lot of different status displays are due for an eventual overhaul, but I don't want to redo everything right now, since that will entail more art and design, and in any case if you want to use the gear you'll have to go to combat anyway. It's not ideal, but once you learn what the statistics mean, you'll know what you're looking at in the crafting or resources ledgers.
As a result, and also due to my various improvements to the mechanics, combat itself is a little more transparent and hence more fun and less frustrating. I'm sure there's many more tweaks and improvements to be made over time, but the core of it is now less esoteric. Gone are mysterious "glancing hits" that somehow inflict bleeding or poison despite not actually causing damage. You either miss, or hit for some amount of damage, determined by how high your roll is. And if you do not hit, the game will tell you whether it was because the opponent dodged, parried, blocked with a shield, or whether their armor prevented the hit. This will actually help you strategize how to deal with them in the future.
By my estimation, it's a lot better. But please try it out for yourselves and give me that oh-so-appreciated feedback.
Bugfixes
Combat Fixes
-Bare hands will no longer become an equippable item in your armory :D
-2 handed melee weapons preventing you from using shields is now correctly working
-Poison accessories now add poison to your weapon properties as intended
-When equipped with a main ranged weapon and no alternate weapon, bare hands are automatically used as alt weapon
-Ammunition is now removed from your quiver or pouch when fired as intended
-Throwing weapons also deplete their ammunition when used as intended
-Bows no longer disappear from existence after leaving combat
-Saved gear profiles no longer occasionally disappear or reappear when equipping various characters
-Profiles now properly clear and make equipment available when changing positions and character in battle prep
Changes
Status Screen Changes
-Revised and greatly improved interface that explains battle gear statistics and properties on mouseover
Combat Changes
-Removed glancing hits entirely - you now either miss or hit for 1, 2, or 3 damage based on your roll
-Parry system overhauled to use penalized competing attack roll, with weapons of similar weight determining if it is allowed
-Combat text now explains whether a missed attack was caused by dodging, shield, armor, or parrying
-Rend, pierce, and other roll-affecting abilities always take effect when rolling attacks
-Bleed, daze, and poison now always take effect on successful hits
-Daze now reduces initiative, and at high levels, removes reaction attacks. It no longer removes turns
-Bleed now works incrementally. Bleed counter increases cumulatively and at certain levels inflicts damage
-Besides lowering rolls, high levels of poison also have a chance to cause the victim to miss a turn
Further Delays...Upgrades, Upgrades
So on the one hand, the work has spiraled a bit and I'm working on many more pieces and elements than I had originally intended. On the other, the whole battle engine itself needed a serious tune-up and some upgrades eventually before 1.0, and frankly before the mid-game implementation, and now that I've decided to fix one thing about it, I can't help it. I've got to upgrade the whole thing.
So yes, this means a cleaner, meaner, more comprehensible and dare I say FUN battle system is forthcoming. The only downside is it is taking me some serious time. So I must again ask for your patience while I keep working on this thing. A few more days will most likely be enough, then I can get back to doing some quicker bug fixing updates, along with a tightening up of the weather and disease mechanics.
Thanks everyone!
A Slight Delay
In service of fixing up the battle system and making it comprehensible I have been working on an improved battle gear status screen that displays everything compactly and will offer an explanation for every property the gear has on mouseover. I had to make a couple dozen new icons for this purpose. This will remove the necessity for detailed explanations elsewhere, including the impending tutorial.
I will either have a smaller update out on Sunday or, depending on the momentum I get, a larger one on Monday. I apologize for the delays but I am refreshed and looking forward to getting the old cleaned up, and improved, and the brand new implemented over the next few months! Thanks as always for your patience.
Chris
FreeHolder Alpha 7 Hotfix 12
2.15.2020
Mini Fix
I did not get as much done at the end of the week as I would have liked. My wife is traveling for work and the baby and I are going with her, so I've had a lot of logistical preparation and housework to take care of to get ready. The good news is, that once we get there, I'll have my computer with me and, aside from watching my daughter, I should have a pretty decent amount of time to finish up what I'd hoped to achieve for this weekend, and then some. Expect another update on Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week, containing not only a plethora of battle fixes and tweaks but some tightening up of weather, fatigue and disease mechanics to accompany the clothing reworking. For this fix, I've simply addressed a couple of the most recent bug reports, and fixed that battle status effect thing I talked about two fixes ago. The fix was only temporary and not the more elaborate thing I intended because I've decided to redesign status effects more than I originally thought. This is in the interest of enhanced simplicity and strategy. I will elaborate below in dev notes for those that are interested. I think I will place dev notes at the BOTTOM of updates from now on so bugs will be a little easier to see. I'd love for everyone to read them but it's not necessary. But hey, if you're buying the alpha of a game I assume you might be interested in seeing how the design evolves, and your input is extremely helpful here.
Thanks as always, for your patience.
Note on Level 3 Buildings Such as Advanced Smithy
Any level 3 upgraded buildings most likely DO NOT have enough mechanics implemented to make it worth upgrading to at this point. For the Advanced Smithy, for example, there are a few items but the full range has not been implemented. I apparently did implement iron smelting and mining, but I do not have all of the iron recipes implemented nor the special iron Journeyman Smith recipes for the Warrior. Those are coming up fairly soon, but I don't have an exact idea of when yet. You may wish to avoid messing with level 3 buildings until all the aspects are implemented. I'd like to get it all done at once, but it's time consuming and I sometimes add a partial feature with the intention of finishing it, but then I get distracted by bugfixing. Not a great system, I know. I'll try to avoid that as much as I can in the future.
Bugfixes
Crafting Fixes
-Hide Armor now recognizes hides in inventory and is craftable in crafting ledger
-Advanced smithy now no longer disables previous smithy crafting recipes when built
Save Fixes
-Mines now load correctly when loading saved games
Battle Fixes
-Sling now using stones as default ammo
-Status effect rolls can now no longer cause the game to softlock
Developer Notes
Status Effects
In the past (and right now), all status effects in combat such as piercing, bleeding, would or would not take effect based on a roll. Just because your sword had (Bleed 2) did not mean that you always inflicted bleed with each hit. The same even went for piercing weapons or poisoned weapons.
In retrospect, I believe that this has a negative impact on strategy. FreeHolder battles are designed to be short and intense, and not drawn out, and if you take a weapon with bleed, I want it to be effective every time you land a hit, not just sometimes. Otherwise the inherent unpredictability nullifies some of the strategic value. I think you see what I mean. That piercing weapon should pierce every time it hits, as hitting in itself is hard enough.
Therefore, in the next update, all of the status effects that had to be rolled for will now simply work on hitting. Bleed will add to a bleed counter EVERY time you hit, and the amount of bleed counter will determine how quickly life is lost. You hit more, they bleed more, and they lose life faster. Dazing will lower initiative more and more as you pile it on, and even start costing reaction attacks. Whereas piercing weapons will ALWAYS negate some armor, rending weapons will ALWAYS negate some parry and shield, and the parry stat will ALWAYS add to your parry rolls, although the mechanics for those rolls themselves will change since I think parrying is too easy and unrealistic right now. I tire of bandits parrying axe hits with their daggers. Preposterous. I'll be adding a weight system for weapons to address that. I want battle, unlike the regular game mechanics, to be fairly transparent so you can strategize properly and really feel as if your tactics are having an observable effect on your success in battle. So expect a thorough explanation, and also a battle tutorial in the not terribly distant future.
So rather than reworking status rolls, I'm removing the rolling mechanics in favor of static cumulative effects that build up over time. It adds strategic predictability, something desperately needed in the intentionally difficult combat. That's why I decided not to redo the status rolls, because they're going to be completely obsolete after another update.
Cheers!
FreeHolder Alpha 7 Hotfix 11
2.12.2020
Mid-Week Update!
Hi all! I've been cranking away at getting flax and linen implemented and have just been so excited to get it to you that I thought I would put it out today. There are a large number of related balance changes, a few small farming tweaks, and a handful of bugs that have been removed as well, but I thought that I would dedicate this hotfix to introducing this new element. I'm getting back to fixing the battle glitches after this, but releasing all of that stuff in one giant blast would be too much text to read. Better to split it up. I might start calling this alpha 8 next time. 12 updates is probably enough to merit that, eh?
Flax and Linen
I'm pleased to say that I have fully implemented growing flax and weaving linen in this new fix. It has a few idiosyncracies. First, flax cannot be eaten. That's not why you're growing it. You're growing it for those sweet, sweet flax threads. And because you are doing this, there are several things you must be aware of.
First, you must NOT let the flax overgrow. Unlike food crops, the flax threads are at their best during a certain window and if they miss it you will receive LESS viable flax as a result. The "+" icon is instead a "-" when you overgrow to indicate this. Obviously, sometimes it's unavoidable, but know you will get less from your harvest when this happens.
Second, flax is traditionally "retted," which I guess is an olde tyme pronunciation of "rotted," where you simply lay out the cut flax in the field and let mother nature rot away the useless inner core of the plants, leaving the husks which can then be threshed all to hell to produce threads. This takes a month. So, the traditional 2-action cost of harvesting is actually split in the case of flax. You must first "cut flax," which costs a single action. Speedreaper DOES apply to this, so it will cost 0 instead of 1 if you have that skill or its upgrade. Then, you must wait a month. The water and growth displays will disappear on the flax, and the text "retting" will appear under it. Then next month and thereafter, the text will say "collect," and you may spend one action to collect the retted flax, after which you can sell it for...not that much, or spin it into linen at the Spinnery which of course you must build.
While the flax is retting, it obviously will not suffer from drought damage or lack of watering. Storms can still cause you to lose some of the flax, though. The fallow timer of the land will also replenish while the flax is just laying there, so if you need to collect it later for some reason you will not be holding back the soil from regenerating.
As for linen, it takes WAY more flax to create linen than wool to create cloth. Ratios are 2:1 as opposed to wool's, 1:1. There are many reasons for this, none of which are particularly important. And yes, for now anyway, wool cloth will simply be referred to as "cloth" as it has been whereas cloth from flax will be called "linen." Linen has a similar icon but the fabric looks coarsely textured. It's easy enough to tell apart. Sorry if this is confusing. They are both cloth, after all. I think "woolen cloth" lacks simplicity. But let me know.
As a result of these changes, I've redone a bunch of clothing, added some more, removed some others, and just generally made substantial readjustments to weather resist statistics on this stuff, to better reflect the actual fabric properties of wool vs linen. I've nixed silk clothing for now because it didn't do anything and was supposed to use bolts of silk anyway, which you can't make yet. I think. It'll be back when I get some of the later-game systems in place.
Also, as I mentioned, Cloth Armor, and its upgrade the Heavy Gambeson (historically inaccurate. Spoiler Alert: It won't be the last time) is now an option, but you WILL be needing the Tailor and Master Clothier skills on a Rancher to unlock crafting those particular items. Everyone else will just have to get by with the new lowest-tier Hide armor and all the old standbys.
Enjoy!
Oh, and be warned. If you have an old save with obsolete clothing items, I cannot guarantee glitches won't occur if you mess with them.
Changes
Skill Changes
-Substantially increased cash refund given for Gardener's Threshing skills and Designated Seed from resident skill
Farming Changes
-Lowered cost to plant all crops
Equipment Changes
!!Warning!! People using saves with obsoleted clothing may experience glitches.
-Substantially changed weather resist statistics and reorganized crafting dependencies of domestic clothing
-"Insulation" property has been removed, now firewood need reduction occurs 1 per every 2 levels of cold resistance, up to -2 max
-"Breezecatcher" property has been removed
-Removed obsolete Armorcloth Mantle (replaced with cloth armors)
-Removed Embroidered Coat and Splendid Vestments (temporarily, pending readjustments)
-Added Linen Frock, Stitched Coat, Knit Mantle
-Heavy Furs is now outer layer, Druid Garb is now inner layer
-"Cooling Wear" is now "Cooling Tunic"
-Mendicant Shroud now requires linen and only 2 lavender and 2 ginseng to craft
Battle Gear Changes
-Added Hide Armor, Cloth Armor (from Tailoring skill), Heavy Gambeson (from Master Clother skill)
-Improved toughness of Leather Armor, Studded Leather, and Scalemail
Bugfixes
Skill Fixes
-Cash refund on wheat and beans now given for Threshing and upgraded skills Splicing and Grafting as intended
Tile Fixes
-Fixed bug where barbed spear from sodden lockbox would not appear in tool inventory
Crafting Fixes
-Fixed glitch where crafting items would sometimes not consume resources(!)
Processing Fixes
-Resource conversion ratios now show proper and updated numbers, including bonus conversion due to skills
Upcoming Features
(! = Major feature)
Battle stability and functionality fixes
-----alpha 8------------------
(!)Steam Achievements(!)
Dark Gadgetry for Agent (requires addition/reworking of Use Items)
Muse's Song skill for Guildmaster (requires addition of art objects)
Journeyman Smith for Warrior (requires additional items and iron)
More battle gear (battlecapes, battlepack, sling pouches and special ammo)
-----alpha 9 (tentative)--------
More advanced classes and class skills
Remove studio action
Second factorium size upgrade
FreeHolder Alpha 7 Hotfix 10
2.8.2020
Battle Bugfixes
I decided the combat system needed some bugfixing on this round, and made some headway into making it stable and reliable, and hence playable and, hopefully, fun. I did a lot of playtesting and I think the basic mechanics that run it are still pretty good, though adjusting the difficulty a bit may be in order. Once the whole thing is truly operational, I'm hoping you all can put in some time on it and give me some much needed feedback. Though I have a bit of a knack for these things, I will be unlikely to balance it properly without your help and input.
Dev Note 1: Status Effects in Combat
One thing I will be changing about combat, but not for this fix because it will require some more work, and I wanted a fix out today, is a recoding of the mechanics of how weapons inflict status ailments such as bleeding, poison, piercing, and so forth. My previous conception of how it should function has been somewhat obsoleted by new developments in the mechanics of the battle system. Furthermore, it was limited to inflicting one status ailment at a time, due to my design conception of ailments being rolled from a "special die" and I think we would all like to see the occasional time where you manage to pierce, bleed, and poison someone all in one attack. I surely know I would. The old mechanic can also rarely cause the game to glitch out and freeze, so rest assured it's pretty much next on my list of things to fix.
Dev Note 2: Patrol, Combat XP, Training Warriors
I also want to make combat more approachable for people who do not choose the Warrior straightaway but would rather train up Kaius or Lydia. The "patrol" mechanics that allows you to gain combat XP but sometimes results in combats and sometimes not is a little clunky and I think we can do better. For example, I was planning to add a "training yard" improvement at some point to the Factorium where players could train up combat XP in safety without the extreme risk of battling without proper gear or skills. I'll probably do this soon in line with making combat more integrated and unglitched. If this is implemented then patrols can always trigger a combat, although who you fight might be a little bit more randomized as a result. We can instead call it "Raid Bandit Camp" or something. Much less vague.
Dev Note 3: Improve Existing Armors, Add Lower-Tier Armors
Last note in line with making combat more approachable: it is a bit of a tall order to expect people to start crafting leather to get their very first armor, an armor which also, given the work it takes to make, is perhaps not as effective as it should be. So I think I will be improving all existing armors and adding a lower tier of hide armor that can be made straightaway. Is it great? No. Is it way better than nothing? Yes. Leather armor (and all better armors) will be improved to compensate for the extra effort and infrastructure it takes to craft.
Dev Note 4: Flax and Linen
Also, cloth armor was really a thing, actually a major thing, even back in Greco-Roman times, as I learned only recently. Multi-layered cloth armor, reaching its peak in the medieval gambeson, is actually fairly effective against most weapons, even arrows, much cheaper to make than other armors, and uses the same principles essentially as modern kevlar armor. However, this was not made from woolen cloth, but generally linen, grown from flax. It is late coming, but I have always wanted to add flax as a crop you can grow and process into linen cloth. This is very much in line with historical practices at the time. Wool cloth will be used for high-end, fancy clothing, and be worth considerably more than linen cloth, which will be used for work clothing such as cooling wear, cloth armor, and equipment like sacks and so forth. Adding flax and its associated mechanics will also take some time, but I should be able to get it in by the next hotfix. Flax will have some slightly different mechanics than food crops, but I will explicitly tell you what they are so there is no confusion when you begin to test it out.
Thanks, as always, for your patience and support.
Tutorials
-Added villa tutorial
Bugfixes
Battle Fixes
-Fixed a bug where many different combat menu choices would not disappear properly when selected
-Fixed a bug where custom battle gear profiles would not load their name correctly, or empty correctly
-Fixed a bug where player combat skills would not be properly loaded when starting combat
-Fixed a bug where using Comet Strike would disable reaction attacks until a different action is selected
-Fixed a bug where special attacks would not consume reaction attacks, or be disabled by a lack of them
Changes
-Changed all references to "fall" to "autumn"
-Changed age for purchased mature animals to 3 years old
Upcoming Features
(! = Major feature)
(!)Steam Achievements(!)
Dark Gadgetry for Agent (requires addition/reworking of Use Items)
Muse's Song skill for Guildmaster (requires addition of art objects)
Journeyman Smith for Warrior (requires additional items and iron)
More battle gear (battlecapes, battlepack, sling pouches and special ammo)
-----alpha 8 (tentative)--------
More advanced classes and class skills
Remove studio action
Second factorium size upgrade
FreeHolder Steam Alpha 7 Hotfix 9
2.2.2020
Bonus Hotfix!
I managed to get some extra time this weekend and did a number of quick fixes to the code that I figured I could simply post up today. Every bit gets us that much closer to 1.0. Enjoy!
Bugfixes
Action Fixes
-Fixed a bug where hunting wolves got progressively EASIER rather than harder with lower predator density
Building Fixes
-Fixed a bug where Country Cookhouse's extra culina use would be removed upon loading game
Character Fixes
-Fixed a bug where character sprites would not change on class up unless game was reloaded
Ledger Fixes
-Equipment choice icons now properly disappear when closing ledger, switching gear categories, or changing sections
-Character class innate (passive) skills now are also shown in ledger display, as intended
-Contract submission list is now properly destroyed when closing black market ledger
Menu Fixes
-Section menu now properly closes when clicking Buy Animal and Influence when prompt appears
Tile Fixes
-Lake survey bonus "Abandoned Boat" no longer occasionally prevents tile reveal
Tool Fixes
-Fixed glitch where tools would sometimes not apply their bonuses to actions despite being used
-Watering rig now gives free watering action once per turn as intended
Upcoming Features
(! = Major feature)
(!)Steam Achievements(!)
Dark Gadgetry for Agent (requires addition/reworking of Use Items)
Muse's Song skill for Guildmaster (requires addition of art objects)
Journeyman Smith for Warrior (requires additional items and iron)
More battle gear (battlecapes, battlepack, sling pouches and special ammo)
-----alpha 8 (tentative)--------
More advanced classes and class skills
Remove studio action
Second factorium size upgrade
FreeHolder Steam Alpha 7 Hotfix 8
1.31.2020
New Tutorials
Finally, a small collection of tutorials have been added to the game, with more to come. The question mark button in the upper left now opens a book with several sections outlining some of the early information you'll need to start playing right away, including some specific advice on making it through your first year. These tutorials will be added to extensively. While they won't have the completeness or detail of a large wiki, at least there will be some in-game resources for new players to familiarize themselves on a basic level with the mechanics and necessities of the game.
Keep in mind, as FreeHolder is a true roguelike (by our own estimation, admittedly, but it is our core design concern), it is important for there to be a certain level of obfuscation between the player and the specific game mechanics, so: A) the player must learn by trial, error, and experimentation, rather than simply consulting a large manual with all the answers in it and B) the game more closely mimics the risks and rewards of real life, as one never knows precisely what the outcomes of one's actions will be, though with experience and skill one can more accurately predict said outcomes.
So while we will eventually want to have a tutorial "covering" just about every aspect of FreeHolder, the coverage will be an explanation of HOW to interact with a mechanic, as opposed to a detailed explanation OF the mechanic. We hardly want to rob you of the novelty and exploration that makes roguelike games so fun and replayable. We want you to know HOW to play the game, but as for what to actually DO? That's up to you, the player. As it should be.
Bugfixes
Button Fixes
-Save button can no longer be clicked at inappropriate times such as during actions
-Tips/tutorial button can also no longer be clicked at inappropriate times
Action Fixes
-Sodden lockbox now properly gives tool rewards
-Game will no longer softlock when attempting actions on sapling plots
Crafting Fixes
-Crafting recipes now properly recognize various equipment types as prerequisites and consumes them
Skill Fixes
-Mastercraft now properly retains the tool durability bonus from lower-tier skill Toolsmithing
Upcoming Features
(! = Major feature)
(!)Steam Achievements(!)
Dark Gadgetry for Agent (requires addition/reworking of Use Items)
Muse's Song skill for Guildmaster (requires addition of art objects)
Journeyman Smith for Warrior (requires additional items and iron)
More battle gear (battlecapes, battlepack, sling pouches and special ammo)
-----alpha 8 (tentative)--------
More advanced classes and class skills
Remove studio action
Second factorium size upgrade
Tutorials Update Tomorrow or Saturday
I will discuss this more in the patch notes, but there is a certain necessary level of cloaking between the game mechanics and the player in a true roguelike, as discovering, experimenting, and theorizing how best to go about playing WITHOUT access to the hard data is a) more roguelike and b) more like real life. (Which is not to say that roguelikes are life-like, but they DO try to capture certain aspects of it that are absent in other genres). Otherwise a game becomes an exercise in min/maxing which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve with FreeHolder: to have as many different VIABLE playing styles as possible.
Depending on how many more bugs I can squish, I will probably update either late tomorrow or early on Saturday. Thanks for your patience and support.
Chris
FreeHolder Steam Alpha 7 Hotfix 7
1.25.2020
Fixes, Fixes, Fixes...
I'm getting rid of as many longstanding bugs as I possibly can, and really solidifying and glitch-proofing the core Survival Mode experience, before I push on for the many planned updates and reworking of the midgame, Campaign Mode stuff. I suspect it will probably be two or three more hotfixes and a few weeks before I can actually do this, but I will keep updating and keep you all in the loop of when I'm rounding the corner and getting ready to actually add new features. Please keep posting your bugs on the bug fixes forum; your help is crucial in getting this game to be as good as it should be. Thank you all!
Bugfixes
Action Fixes
-Fixed Influence action bug where received Greatcloak would not appear in battle gear inventory
Fabrica Fixes
-Artisan with Careful Planning can now properly upgrade the basic smithy to an advanced smithy
-Advanced smithy now appears with proper icon in ring menu
Black Market Fixes
-Smuggle now gives 2 XP instead of 1
-Action menu no longer remains on screen after successful smuggle attempt
-Combat items bought in the black market now properly appear in battle equip menu
-Melee weapons and tools can now properly be submitted for black market contracts
Battle Fixes
-Fixed bug where you could not attack with bare hands
Taverna Fixes
-Orator will no longer be able to teach the same character Rhetoric repeatedly
-Tavern now saves, loads and dismisses visitors properly
Town Fixes
-Quartermaster's warehouse bonus now functions properly; Elder Guildsman was giving it previously
Feeding Fixes
-Food will no longer perish and cooked food will not degrade during subzero weather
Upcoming Features
(! = Major feature)
(!)Steam Achievements(!)
Dark Gadgetry for Agent (requires addition/reworking of Use Items)
Muse's Song skill for Guildmaster (requires addition of art objects)
Journeyman Smith for Warrior (requires additional items and iron)
More battle gear (battlecapes, battlepack, sling pouches and special ammo)
-----alpha 8 (tentative)--------
More advanced classes and class skills
Remove studio action
Second factorium size upgrade