Today's update includes the addition of some ambient animals to add some life to the HammerHelm world!
As you explore the island you will occasionally see rabbits running from one bush to another and birds flying out of trees.
This build also includes:
Increased the base monster run speed for most enemies.
Dungeon monster spawners will now give out a small XP reward in addition to the XP gained from completing the quest.
The skills UI now displays the maximum number of skill points (36).
Fixed a bug that could cause the Orc Boss to get in a bad state if he hit you with his charge attack while you were jumping.
Fixed a collision issue with the Boss Hut's stairs so you no longer need to jump to get inside.
I'm also starting to work on a few new townspeople quests (the ones that add an objects to a townsperson home) - more on that later!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.16 - Birch Trees and Fixes
Today's update adds the orange and red birch trees as buildable structures!
This build also includes a couple of fixes.
Fixed a bug that caused Inventory to stop working after finishing the Orc Quest. I was never able to reproduce this myself but I think I found the cause.
Also fixed a bug that could cause the music manager to play the Haunted Mansion music rather than the regular world music after completing the Orc Quest.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.15 - Town UI Updates
Today's build includes updates to the build menu and the townspeople UI.
The build menu has been updated so that all buildings have mouse over text. All mouse over UI include the name of the building and it's purpose. The text for shops will also list the shopkeeper if one is assigned to it.
The Townspeople Manager has been updated to make it more clear that you can toggle between the townspeople information and the daily resources information. I also cleaned up a few small issues with controller support and the Townspeople menu.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.14 - Orbit Camera
Today's build includes the ability to rotate the camera around your character and some balance changes for combat.
To rotate the camera, simply hold down left-alt and move the mouse. Letting go of alt will snap the camera back to it's original position.
This mode is mostly meant for taking screenshots rather than something you'd use in combat, but it's certainly been a long time coming to get this in!
This update also includes some balancing for monsters based on the previous combat update. Mostly increasing their hit points by a small amount.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.13 - Sort By Job
Today's build is a much requested addition to the townspeople manager UI - Sort By Job!
You can use the toggle in the top section of the Townspeople Manager to switch between sorting in the order NPCs joined your town (default) or by their job. This sort can also be updated after pressing the Rename NPC button or the Swap Jobs buttons.
I'm keeping this update to only this change as it actually required a pretty big change to the Townspeople Manager and I wanted to test it before releasing it without anything else taking away focus.
I'll likely also add Sort By Name in addition to some more features for the Townspeople Manager in the near future as well!
Build 1.7.12 - Resource Updates
Today's build includes some changes and fixes to some of the resources in the town.
Fixed a bug that caused Dwarves to not use your existing stock of beer if you didn't have a Brewery.
Increased the amount of starting beer for a new town.
Fixed a bug that caused the "I ate raw vegetables" mood debuff to fail to be removed after a Dwarf ate a meal.
Changed the timing for cooks making meals and Dwarves eating meals to be offset by a small amount. This allows you to see the meals increment before the Dwarves eat. Prior to this the meals would get cooked but then a split second later the Dwarves would eat which looked like your cook wasn't doing anything.
The starting potions you get from the prologue will now correctly stack with newly crafted potions.
Fixed placing rugs so they don't appear under the floor in your home.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.11 - Weapon Imbuing
Today's build includes the new weapon imbuing system!
Weapon effects occur once per fight and have an increased chance to occur with each successful, uninterrupted hit. This means if you use your regular attack three times in a row, there is a very good chance it will happen early in a fight. Dodging, blocking or performing any other action that stops your attack will reset this chance.
Weapon effects can only happen once per fight. A fight is defined as battling the monsters associated with a spawner. If you run far enough a way to cause a spawner to reset its monsters, your weapon effect can occur again if you fight those monsters again.
Weapon Effects
Flame weapons deal a damage over time effect for about 5 seconds. Fire elementals are immune to this.
Frost weapons slow down the monster, both movement and attack speeds for a short period of time. Ice elementals are immune to this.
Acid makes the monster vulnerable and makes its attacks do less damage. This effect remains for the entire fight. Earth, Stone, Obsidian, and Meteorite elementals are immune to this.
Drain weapons steal a percentage of a monsters hit points to heal you. This effect only occurs if you are below 75% health, that way it is never wasted. Skeletons and Zombies are immune to this.
Monster spellcasters are also immune to weapon effects.
I decided not to add monster healing to the system as it felt confusing during a fight. I also simplified things a bit by not adding the concept of stacking gems. I might revisit that in the future though.
Finding Gems In addition, the chance to get a imbue gem has been greatly increased. About twice as likely at lower levels and 4 times as likely at higher levels. Note this means at higher levels you might get more gems than you need so I'm going to be designing other uses for these gems in the future.
This build also includes a couple of other updates. The Metalworker Shop's floor has been lowered so the Metalworker's feet no longer disappear into it. I also made some improvements to the delete building and the swap jobs systems to ensure NPCs and their houses and job buildings don't get out of sorts. This is actually a pretty big chance to the system but you shouldn't notice anything different.
Would love to hear what you all think of the new imbuing and weapons effects once you had a chance to check it out!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
In Development - Updated Imbue System
I'm working on an update to the weapon gem imbuing system and the effects that each gem has. I'd love to get your thoughts on the design before I get too far with it!
Some rules for the new system.
The better the weapon the more times it can be imbued. Copper, Iron, and Jade only once and increasing after that with Blood Stone up to four times.
Each additional gem adds to the weapon's effectiveness (see below).
The imbue effect has a chance to occur while you are doing your normal attacks. This chance increases with each successful regular attack hit. Other than the drain effect (see below) the effect will be more likely to happen early in a fight if you hit with all three regular attacks in a row.
A weapon will only release it's imbue effect once per fight. A fight being defined as the monsters related to a specific monster spawner.
Once imbued all additional imbues must be of the same type.
The tinker will be able to remove a weapon's imbue should you decide to change it.
A masterwork weapon will have a slightly higher benefit from the imbue.
The loot system for Imbue Gems will be updated to make finding them more predictable and less reliant solely on random chance.
Imbued Weapons will have the following effects:
Flame - Adds a fireball to the monster that explodes after a few seconds and damages nearby monsters. Fire elementals will be immune to this effect and may even be healed by it! Additional imbues add more damage.
Frost - Slows down the monster for a period of time. Ice elementals will be immune to this effect and may even be healed by it! Additional imbues make the slow effect last longer.
Acid - Adds a damage over time to the monster. This is similar to the current effect. Stone and Earth elementals will be immune to this effect. Additional imbues make the damage higher and the effect last longer.
Draining - Gives back a portion of the damage dealt to a monster. Undead creatures will be immune to this effect. Additional imbues give you a higher percentage of the damage back as health. Since an effect only occurs once per fight, this effect will only occur if you need it so it isn't wasted if you are at or near 100% health.
Optional Idea Each imbued weapon has a set number of charges each time they are imbued with the same type of gem. Higher tier weapons can hold more charges. So a Jade weapon might hold 15 total charges while a Blood Stone weapon can hold 30. Each gem adds 5 charges. In this scenario, gems would become more common than they currently are and you'd need to recharge your weapon with the gems. Masterwork weapons would also be able to hold more charges.
Other Stuff I'm also working on a bunch of other smaller things for near-term updates, including but not limited to:
Give some XP for monsters spawners in dungeons and caves.
Update Town Manager UI to allow you to set a marker for a specific NPC.
Better Town Manager UI sorting.
Ability to add a Quest marker to find a building.
Auto-stack potions into your quick bar if that potion is already in a quick slot.
An update to storehouses to allow you to upgrade them and potentially need to place fewer. Still working out the design for this.
Pop-up text for other buildings other than houses.
Add red and orange birch trees as options for the town.
Bug fixes and optimizations,
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.10 - Quick Control Update
Tonight's build is a small update to a couple of controls based on feedback and a UI fix.
Attempting to block will no longer pull you out of performing a power attack. While you can block to interrupt a normal attack, there is no reason to try to block when using a power attack since you are immune to damage while performing it. Since doing this would stop the power attack (often by accident) without any need to do so, I removed this from the controls.
Decreased the delay between keyboard taps for the double-tap rolling based on feedback. The previous delay would result in unwanted rolls too often.
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Inventory UI to fail to close after interacting with furniture in your home.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna jon@hammerhelm.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco
Build 1.7.9 - Give a Dog a Bone
Today's update is a new quest, Give a Dog a Bone - a quest requested by the HammerHelm community!
This quest is fairly simple and mostly meant to give you another opportunity to go into a dungeon. Dungeons are the best sources of gold as you not only get the gold from the treasure chest, but you also get more from the crates. I want to add one more dungeon related quest as well.
This quest is not repeatable although it could be if you all would like it to be. It unlocks once you have placed a Champion's Home and completed the Orc Quest.
This update also has an adjustment to reduce the volume of the sounds for the fountain and apiaries and an addition to the controller mapping UI to allow you to ensure your connected controller is recognized by the game.
