New shards of the once magnificent Ancient Valley soared into the skies. These are relatively safe areas, providing shelter to mighty oaks, berry bushes and tranquil bubbles, with the Cursed inhabiting separated ruins.
This update brings you eight new islands. Among them you will find two islands with the Skull Hunter and the Smoldering Warlock. Our seasoned players should already know that these powerful Cursed keep hold on the "keys" to the portal in the Cradles of Keepers.
As it has been told before, magical currents shuffle the islands in every new world. This may either bring your encounters with the old friends closer, or make you work harder to reach them.
Skill Tree Update
Spirit of Defenders branch has received new abilities, passive characteristics and two experimental spells.
The Order of Defenders will retain its unique right to change the skill tree of their Spirit at any moment without getting the approval from other Orders.
New Building UI
Each and every architect needs effective instruments. We're constantly improving the building system and this time decided to put some work on the UI. It now takes up much less space, and hopefully became much more convenient.
Tales of NPCs
Arkana's inhabitants know much. One should listen closely to their tales, as they may contain key information for discovering new interesting places and events.
DLSS
Good news for those who own NVidea graphics cards with DLSS technology. Frozen Flame now supports it! You can enable it in the video settings.
Other Changes
Gameplay
- Increased the number of branches gained from trees; - Increased the drop rate of masks from the Cursed; - Destroying Cursed camps' ventings now rewards you with branches; - Furious Grunt's HP increased to 500; - Added new resource to rivers and lakes: "Fish"; - New recipe: "Cooked fish"; - Character now receives different slowing effects depending on their armour type; - Reworked bow attacks; - Monsters no longer consume players' Flame; - You can now pack different kinds of stations; - Added privacy settings to the stations; - Friends can now build within their commin territory; - Ressurection Plinth can now be activated by friends; - The funcionality of the Sentinel of Chronos and the Resurrection Plinth has been separated. Sentinel now protects the territory from others' buildings, and the latter now acts as a resurrection point; - Changed the starting amount of Flame; - Increased the amount of Flame consumed by the "Hawk" ability; - Crystals no longer grant Flame on use; - Players are no longer rewarded with Flame for gathering and cooking; - Campfires are now fueled with branches; - Increased the patrolling and the agression zone for monsters; - Wooden crates and the building hammer are now crafted on the workbench; - Monsters now can consume each others' Flame; - Added new building modules: roofs and quarter walls; - Sleeping now regenerates HP; - All-around weapon reballancing;
Map
- Increased the number of berry bushes in the Cradle of Keepers; - Increased the number of creatures in the Cradle of Keepers; - Visually updated the area on the Cradle of Keepers "backyard"; - Increased the distance between stones in the colder zone of the Cradle of Keepers;
UI
- Cooked dishes' effects now can be seen in their descriptions; - Weapon mastery now can be seen in weapons' desctiptions; - Updated HP and Stability bars fro all creatures; - Updated hints UI; - Updated the control scheme; - Minor visual changes to station interaction's widgets;
Sounds
- Adden new deathrattle sound to monsters; - Added sword power attack sound;. - Added sounds to the Ability Tree; - Added sound notification when you gather enough Flame to use the "Hawk"; - Updated weapons sounds;. - Added sounds to interactions with various stations;
Other
- Changed the description for the Workbench and Crystals; - Renamed Sacred Flame into Frozen Flame; - Updated sword idle and attack animations; - Fixed the animation for standing near heat sources; - Updated jump animation; - Updated the bare fists jumping attack; - Improved the "Hawk" animation; - Added new visual effect to station placement; - Added the visual transition from objects to the landscape; - Improved the visuals for the frozen part of the Cradle of Keepers;
Fixes
- Visibility of haircuts with different helmets; - Building modules by pressing the "build" button in module choice menu; - Twitching animation while bleeding; - Sudden zoom in/zoom out in customization menu; - Crouching while jumping; - Getting stuck in objects after using "Hawk" to land on them; - You can no longer shoot while crouched; - Weapons no longer disappear after rapid toggling of the "Hawk"; - Weapons no longer disappear after attempting to attack with no stamina; - Camera is now fixed while using bow; - Attack hints no longer show in station placement menu; - Visual change to Flame under 10 and above 90; - Broken stella in the dungeon; - Various landscape issues; - Battle music not ending after skipping the Prologue; - You can no longer equip items while asleep; - Fixed fountain materials.
Stream with Developers | 22.10.2021 | 2 PM EST
October 22nd, 2 PM EST Come and join us! Feel free to ask any questions - we'll answer them as best as we can ;)
Update 0.22: Brave New World
The second CBT stage is now officially over. We want to thank all the participants for your feedback and endless support. When we were working out in which direction the game should be developed, we relied heavily on your comments and wishes. Thanks to you we have embarked onto the path of radical changes without a hint of doubt or fear! And we hope you will enjoy this path as much as we do.
And now it's time for a little surprise - we're launching FF0.22 straight after FF.019! And no, we haven't lost count: past two updates were purely internal and were dedicated to testing the new changes. With all that said, let's reveal what we have in store for you!
Magic of Dragons
The world of Arkana is saturated with magic. It echoes through every aspect of life, every blade of grass, every creature, taking form of the Flame. When a being ceases to live, its accumulated Flame materializes for other beings to consume. Beware - such act makes every creature stronger and more dangerous! Even the most harmless boar will transform into a dangerous foe if given enough Flame to absorb.
A long time ago, mighty dragons, keepers of the secret to the control over the magic of Flame, shared that knowledge with the humanity. And even now this knowledge permeates keenly in humanity's minds. Use that knowledge to accumulate Flame and use it to charge your attacks or channel flight.
Future updates will expand the choice of magical abilities.
Floating Islands
Once a beautiful world, now soaked in blood and corruption, shattered into pieces and soared to the skies. The surface underneath that used to be a home for Arkana's inhabitants, turned into a lifeless frozen wasteland.
Magical currents flow differently in every world, carrying shattered pieces of the world to various locations, making every new adventure unpredictable and full of surprises. Stories of every world develop in their own way - some will be similar, others will be very different. Everything depends on the magical currents of every unique world.
Choose your Path
Our old character progression system has sunk into oblivion. Now players pick their path through the Ability Tree. All skills and abilities correspond to one of the four Spirits. By combining the boons of these Spirits you can create a truly flexible classes.
Currently only the Spirit of Defenders is available.
Combat System
We've implemented numerous changes to every aspect of combat: from the visual effects and animations all the way to the weapon balance. But, as they say: "One look is worth a thousand words."
Prologue
We have adapted the Prologue, making it more clear for the new players. Now it serves as a basic tutorial section.
Update 0.19: The glory of PvP awaits
Main Changes
There is only one thing we say to PvP: “Today”
"Curse you!" - says in the world of Arcana to unscrupulous players, so that they can then fight them in a glorious battle. But, we must warn you, aggressive actions will not go unpunished - whoever kills a cursed player will become cursed themselves. Such is the price of ruthless bloodshed in the world of dragons.
But where does the curse originate? Cursed zones lay scattered around the world, some we’ve mentioned before like the infected forests in the northern part of the Ancient Valley, others you’ll discover on your own. Before you choose to become cursed, you’ll want to weigh your strengths. Becoming cursed is a heavy burden, you’ll become an outcast until the curse subsides. When cursed other players will be able to attack you without impunity as will the Sentinels of Chronos. You’ll need to find other ways to protect your shelter and treasures from other players.
Becoming cursed is not without its benefits though and they’ll be revealed in a future update.
The extinguished portal of Ancient Valley
At one time from each location of the Arcana, it was possible to instantly get to the Cave of Chronos through a network of portals. Now they are all extinguished, but new ones are emerging.
You may have come across the portal inCradle of the Keepers early in your adventures. The next one awaits to be discovered somewhere in the Ancient Valley.
Jump, Dive, and Dodge with Ease
We’ve heard your feedback about controls. You’ll no longer need to frantically switch between “battle modes”. Gone are the times of jumping on a ledge and dodge toggling on because of a monster nearby, or jumping when you needed to dodge.
New Default control settings: Space - Jump, Alt - Dodge.
Gameplay
Changing the architecture of the camps of the cursed.
Balance the loss of bones from monsters.
Map
Updating the visual of the cursed zone of the Ancient Valley.
Updating the world map.
UI
Updated the icons of the Ability Tree.
Added notifications about the inability to prepare dishes for which recipes are not provided (for example, you can not fry salt).
Added descriptions of items during repair on the craft table.
Sounds
Updated the sounds of the elite cursed in the dungeon.
Other
Removed all Flame Core from the mystical cubes.
Updated the control scheme in the prompts to the current one.
Fixes
Adjustments to problems related to the landscape.
Correction of the obelisk model that requires bringing offerings.
Fixed the visual effect for Smelter.
We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!
World of Arkana already had majestic and dangerous dragons. Only one piece of puzzle was missing to make it an adventurers' heaven - dark dungeons. But adventurers can finally rejoyce, knowing that Arkana now has all: both dungeons and dragons!
Our first dungeon is located in Cradle of Keepers, not far from the central portal. It's quite dark inside, and one can easily stumble upon a rock or a very angry skeleton warrior, so be sure to grab some torches along the way.
Every self-respecting dungeon should contain a valuable treasure guarded by a powerful monster, and our dungeon is no different!
Ability Tree Visual Update
Updated visuals for the background and branches of the Ability Tree. Ability Tree visuals are still WIP, with our next goal being implementation of new ability icons.
Building Updates
Completely overhauled the style of straw modules, and introduced two new roof types. Players can now also build a special portal that will act as their respawn point.
New Male Haircuts
Character customization now has several new stylish male haircuts.
Health recovery
The recipe book now has a new entry - "Powdered Herbs". Prepare some for your travels to have easy access to instant health recovery.
Other Changes
Gameplay
Cooking now rewards players with Flame.
Decreased the difficulty of Elite monster encounters.
Increased the difficulty of Ancient Valley encounters.
Reworked the "Chain Lightning" functionality.
Decreased Titans' characteristics.
Map
Three new challenges in the Ancient Valley with one new type - musical challenge.
Updated the skybox in Cave of Chronos.
Changed the visuals for challenges that demand item sacrifices.
The starting teleport is now set to "default" for new players.
UI
Introduced the "Drop Stack" button to the inventory UI.
"Hotkeys" can no longer be pressed by mouse.
Changed the building mode reticle.
Sounds
Updated Mystic Cube sounds.
Updated non-combat spell sounds.
Other
Increased torch durability.
Added a new visual effect for cooking on a bonfire.
Fixed the glow of mushrooms and wildberries. Now they are more easily found at night.
Fixed the water walking visual effect.
Fixes
Missing world textures.
"Interaction" with an anvil near the Blacksmith.
Ability to cast curses on yourself.
Recipes inserting wrong ingredients of the same type, cooking the wrong dish.
Spells targeting dead creatures.
Summoning building UI by choosing empty quick-slot.
"Destruction" of a box not playing sound or animation.
Casting spells from the afterlife.
"Underground monsters" aggroed by players running above no longer block players' movement.
Greatswords only damaging creatures behind the player.
Barrels' collision. They are now properly impassable.
We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!
⚔️ Grab your swords & your axes. Let's get ready for tomorrow on Steam!
"Stream with Developers" 📅 July 2 🕐 1 PM EST
✅ Share new and upcoming updates ✅ Answer all your questions!
Update 0.17: Cursed Lands of the Ancient Valley
Main Changes
Ancient Valley
We continue filling the Ancient Valley with multitudes of precious resources, interesting places, challenges and secrets. This time we also added more Cursed camps, and made their dwellers stronger.
If you venture deeper into the Ancient Valley, you will notice that once beautiful forests now succumbed to the curse: their trees' needles became crimson, and trunks - overgrown with swollen purple boils. The air reeks of corruption and despair. Travelers should beware not only of the degrading atmosphere, but also of the land's cursed guardians.
Meet the Ghosts
Ghosts of Arkana's past denizens hount the Ancient Valley's abandonned houses. And, truth be told, hospitality isn't their strong suit. But don't give up on looting the houses just yet - their new owners only appear at night, and don't present any threat during the day. Just keep in mind the time you have till the sun sets.
Mystical Cubes
There've been reports of mystical cubes appearing all over the Ancient Valley. Noone has managed to pinpoint when and where they appear, so noone can predict their placement just yet. All that is known is that they always emmit a golden beam up to the sky, making them quite easy to find.
Skill Tree
Picking your Ancestry in the Skill Tree is an important step in your character's development, as it unlocks one of the five skill paths, with their unique advantages in attributes and abilities.
E.g, a character with Rogue Ancestry will be able to throw spears with great accuracy, while one with Warrior Ancesty will be able to perform a special attack with Greataxes.
In this Update you'll also find new skill paths for Exlorer and Artisan Ancestries.
Even More Spells
We've introduced three new spells to the game: "Stone Skin" will reduce the damage you take, "Slowness" will, unsurprisingly, slow down your enemies, while "Chain Lightning" will damage several opponents. In addition, you can now target your allies with non-damaging spells!
Barrier of Chronos
The magic barrier that protects players in the Cradle of Keepers is now completely impassible. Yup, that's it.
Recipes' Effects Clarity
Until now to learn which effects the dish would give you on consumption you had to, well, eat it. Now you can view all the dishes' effects in their desctiptions, to have more understanding of how much and which kind of food you need to bring to your journey.
Experimental Changes
Here's the first batch of experimental batches, fate of which depends on your feedback:
Fall damage reduced by 50%.
Added animation to indicate that the fall will result in damage.
Nights became brighter.
Cooked food now restores HP.
We highly appreciate your opinions. Please make us know if you like these changes, or should they be adjusted later on.
Other Changes
Gameplay
Teleport is now assigned to the fourth quick-slot by default.
Challenges' text can now be re-read.
Titans gained a ranged attack.
Increased the time period during which you can claim rewards in Elite Cursed camps.
Increased the aggro range of Titans.
Reduced the difficulty of Cursed Chieftains' camps in Cradle of Keepers.
Map
Visual improvements to Ancient Valley's waterfall.
Visual improvements to Skull Hunter's camp in Cradle of Keepers.
Reduced the number and increased the distance between boars in their spawn areas.
UI
You can now assign any usable items to quick-slots.
Reworked the blood effects appearing when player suffers damage.
Unknown recipes are now hidden during cooking.
Added markings to Cooking Book recipes that you can't currently prepare.
Updated spells' reticle.
Sounds
Fixed cooking sounds.
Added new sound for learning cooking recipe.
Other
New visual effects and animations for teleportation and viewing crafting recipes.
Visual fixes for the "Ice Spike" spell.
Fixes for Prologue level design.
Fixes
You will no longer hear other players opening chests that you've already opened.
Titan shouldn't disappear anymore.
Changed colour of water splashes for "Water Walking" spell.
Smoldering Warlock's AoE attack now properly applies damage.
We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!
"The cutest creature of Arkana" according to twenty adventurers who explored the Ancient Valley's pine forests, and "the most unpredictable creature of Arkana" according to the only survivor out of those adventurers. Those facts alone were enough to include it in the name of this update. It's simply suprerbaa, isn't it?
Titans
Once upon a time, people used Flame to create giant machines for their protection - the Titans. But now, like many other creations in Arkana, they have fallen to the Curse.
To put one of them down you'll need to cooperate with other players and think through your tactics.
Titans' behavior and loot drops are WIP, but now you can actually kill them.
Updated Ancient Valley
Astrologers proclaim month of the Ancient Valley. The number of challenges, hidden chests and stellas has increased. There are now more Cursed camps, for those of you who like to smack their swords against wooden masks.
New Combat Spells
The department of magic has sent us several magic staffs with new combat spells. We hurried to include them in the game to give our beta-testers an opportunity to experience the might of ice and fire. You can craft the regular "Fireball" staff. The more advanced staff with "Ice Spike" and "Heal" can be received from the Smoldering Warlock - he probably won't concent to this, but we're sure you'll figure it out.
Introduced changes didn't only affect the spells, but also how the staffs are used in combat. You can now properly aim your attacks, flinging spells where they are most needed.
Other Changes
Gameplay
Added new recipes: "Baked Apple", "Fruit Cake", "Fried Vegetables".
Reduced the weight of "Exploration"-type items to "0".
Building unprotected by the Sentinel of Chronos will slowly decay over time.
Changes to progression balance from Tier 0 to Tier 1.
Map
Reworked the ruins of Skull Hunter in Cradle of Keepers.
Introduced visual improvements to portals in Cave of Chronos.
Removed the wood stumps that used to summon Pestilent Boars from the Ancient Valley.
Updated the world map.
UI
Added module names to the building menu.
Improved the cooking UI and recipes.
Added the visual representation of magic books' durability.
Improved spell UI.
Sounds
Skull Hunter's shots.
"Light Sphere" spell.
Rebalanced the music and sounds in Cave of Chronos.
Magic Staff attack sounds.
Other
Introduced visual effects to water walking.
Changed the "Meat Soup" recipe icon.
Changed "Water Walking" and "Light Sphere" icons.
Visual improvements to character spell-casting animations.
Fixes
Lack of certain buildings' materials on the map.
Incorrect lanscape textures.
Magic book equipment sound.
Skeleton behaviour.
Prologue Ice Elemetal behaviour.
Skull Hunter behaviour.
Known Issues
Russian language isn't fully supported yet.
We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!
We want to start this changelog by telling a story of the players, who lived...
You might have noticed, that the world of Arkana is filled with magic. It permeates through all: the landscape, its inhabitants and ancient artifacts. And now you have a chance to take control over it, all you need to do is to find magical items.
Two spell books have been hidden on the Cradle of Keepers. With their help you'll be able to walk on water, enhance your speed, create spheres of light and.. jump really high. Just take care of your knees, alright? You don't want to repeat the fate of a "Falling Wizard", do you?
What else is there to know?
The pages of these books contain countless ages of Arkana's history, and they can be easily worn out if used too frequently. Not to worry, though - there's nothing you can't fix on a good old workbench.
You can also simply lose your books. But your pal Bonehead got you covered and extended his stock. He might even have some books, if you suddenly find yours missing.
Note: this is the first glance on the future of magic in our game; it will see more changes and improvements in later updates!
Book of Recipes
Every master chef deserves to be immortalized in history! And with our new book of cooked recipes it's now possible. You can access it by opening the second tab of the cooking menu.
It'll make cooking known dishes much easier. Just press the recipe you want to cook and it'll automatically add all the needed ingredients. Bon Appetit!
Ancient Valley
Ancient Valley is the first step to the long and treaturous way to the Citadel of the Frozen Flame.
It's much more dangerous than Cradle of Keepers, but still hospitable enough for semi-comfortable life:
Plentiful natural resources for your building and developing needs, and many ruins and abandoned houses to explore.
At night the roads are overrun by dangerous skeletal revenants, making night travels quite unsafe.
New challenges for your marksmanship, speed and attention.
The Portal to Ancient Valley can be opened from the Cave of Chronos.
Note: It's been a long time since we last visited the Ancient Valley, and the game changed a lot since then. We're still working on this location, and its final gameplay and quallity will be much different from those seen in the first stage of CBT.
Players' Names in Dreamside Launcher
We fixed the issue causing your PC name being displayed as your in-game name. Now it's properly showing your Xsolla ID.
If you wrongly assigned your E-mail as your ID during your registration and would like to change it for another nickname, please message us at support@frozen-flame.com or our Discord channel.
Other Changes
Gameplay
Sentinel of Chronos now protects structures from any player attacks [don't forget to activate it].
Added a repair tool for building structures [available in modules menu].
Different weapons now inflict different damage to modules as intended.
Increased the lighting distance for torches.
Fixed creatures' behaviour in Ancient Valley.
Map
Added new flame pedestals to Cradle of Keepers' starting area.
Visual improvements to Cave of Chronos.
UI
New icons for ingredient types.
General character UI fixes, including hints.
Increased the size of scrolling bar in inventory.
Improved gamepad navigation for cooking UI.
Sounds
Updated waterfall sounds.
Fixed crystal consumption sounds.
Other
Visual improvements for face structures and textures.
You can no longer build in the Cave of Chronos.
Titans of Ancient Valley are temporarily invulnurable.
Removed quests from Ancient Valley.
Titan Hights and Swamps are blocked off by deadly weather conditions.
Disabled alpinism for now.
Fixes
Technical
Fixed dodge roll stamina consumption.
Fixed Ancient Valley waterfall.
Fixed Frozen Cursed spawn animation in Prologue.
Bugs
Character no longer enters a combat stance in customisation menu.
Challenges completed in Cradle of Keepers now appear on the map.
Fixed lighting for some monsters.
Idols now properly display a glowing sigil.
Sword and Shield combination now does reasonable damage.
Boars no longer lay their sounds on top of each other.
Ingredients' special effects now correctly apply to dishes.
Known issues
Russian language isn't fully supported yet.
We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!
