It is this time of the year when Knightczech developer spontaneously rolls out new update, so, here are the main changes you should know about. Enjoy!
And of course, if you encounter some new bugs or unnatural things, please let me know via comment section on this post or via my support mail. Thank you!
General (QoL features)
Settings
Adjusted camera zoom settings slider in Settings - Preferences tab. Added "+" and "-" symbols so players can see if they increased or decreased the camera zoom.
Settings button in main menu of the game recieved text description because apparently some players did not know where the settings button is located.
Novice difficulty changes
Both story mode and classic mode recieved more tweaking in terms of enemy spawns, trap activation and terrain adjustments. Every area of classic and story mode should be (once again) easier to complete when Novice game difficulty is enabled.
Some levels now include danger warnings. When you find the new danger warning, it is a sign that there is a trap waiting for you.
Information about automatically enabled double jump in Novice difficulty was added to tutorial notes.
So, if you are one of those players that found the game too difficult, now it is the time to try it out again. *wink* *wink*
Incomming projectile indicator
When enemies that shoots small types of projectiles (bees, flowers, small Darklands towers, Phantoms...) attack you, it will display a small red circle that indicates where the projectile was aimed. It can be useful especially when sound effects are turned off.
Enemy soldiers behaviour
Enemy soldiers from Darklands recieved some updates in terms of attack and movement. They are easier to overcome in Novice game difficulty, but are slightly harder to fight on Veteran difficulty from now on.
Attack delay
When Novice difficulty is enabled, soldiers will delay their initial attack by 1 or 2 seconds, so they are easier to kite and kill (they are more like a lambs now, haha).
On Veteran difficulty, soldiers will not delay their initial attack and will attack you right away as it was before this update.
Jump ability
Oh yes, you are no longer the only one who can jump.
Once the enemy soldiers encounter an obstacle during the chase, they will try to jump over it. That means they can jump on higher platforms or overcome small ruins from bricks.
That also means they will try to jump after you when you are on elavated surface above them. And, yeah, they can overcome the stairs now, too. :-)
This applies to most of the soldiers on battlefield. But sometimes you can encounter some lazy individuals that cannot (or do not want to) jump. So... keep your eyes open.
Story mode
Prolog UI
You can now go through initial prolog and skip chapter prologs by pressing Enter (Return) key on your keyboard. This also applies to initial message pop-up when you hop into first level of story mode.
Shop menu UI
Adjusted shop menu elements so items with longer text description can be displayed correctly.
Major update: Summer 2023
Hotfix for this update is out now. Shopkeeper bug in Story mode tutorial area was resolved
General (QoL features)
Camera zoom
Added new settings into preferences tab. Players can now adjust ingame camera zoom by maximum of +/- 20 percent.
Novice difficulty changes
Double jump is now always active in both classic and story mode while the novice setting is turned on
When you start new story mode journey, you can grab an upgraded helmet to gain bonus stats right away
Added new visual indicators at the start of the story mode for better navigation of new players
Added low stamina indication
Once you drain your stamina to critical values, new visual and sound indication will be set off to notify you. (Previously, it was harder to notice that player will run out of stamina which led to situations where player died without knowing what killed him.)
Cheat settings
I also added cheat settings which can provide a lot of fun in classic and story mode. Cheat settings are hidden but can be accessed by all players from somewhere in the main menu. Specific features are listed once you find the settings.
Story mode changes
Equipable items rework
Previously, there were items which could be equipped only when you had lower-graded item from its set currently equipped on you. In addition, when player equipped the better item, lower-graded item which was previously equipped by player was destroyed and could not be equipped again.
You can now equip items however you want - it does not matter if you have better or worse item already equipped.
Once you equip new item, old item will be added to your inventory if you have a free slot in it (which should be always since you will empty the slot by equipping new item before the old item is returned to your inventory).
Some equipable items now has new stats
For example helmets used to give bonus HP only, but will give you some extra stamina too now.
Some shields will give you more bonus HP but can lower your maximum stamina by few points.
Bugfixes
Previusly, when player found a chest with item, wanted to grab it, had similar (same) item already in inventory but inventory was full, said item would not stack to the inventory slot with the same item and disappeared instead. This game behaviour was resolved.
Previously, when player used the "take a look" feature in Story mode, he was still able to walk in some occassions which could cause unintended player deaths. This game behaviour was resolved.
Update 0.7.2
General changes:
"Skipping first sentence" bug fixed (again)
The bug where first sentence from dialogue was skipped after starting the dialogue with "Confirm" key instead of user iterface icon was (hopefully) fixed for good. This bug presisted through several updates although it seemed to be fixed in the past.
Story mode changes:
Added permanent death screen translation
The permanent death screen which indicates the end of the journey once the player dies too many times was properly translated to czech language (it was english only before).
Added more save slots
Previously, players were able to save their story mode progress to just one and only save slot (Once you saved the game your previous save was overridden).
The story mode save function now offers 3 save slots total - default save slot and 2 custom save slots. Players can save their progress to each of those 3 save slots via new UI section made for this.
Default save slot vs custom save slots
Keep in mind that default save slot can be overridden by game itself (When the end of chapter is reached the system automatically saves your progress to this save slot).
If you want to make a back up at the specific part of the story and you do not want to override it in near future, it is advised to use the custom save slots.
What happened with saved progress which was achieved before this update?
All your story mode progress was preserved, you will find it in the default save slot once you launch the updated version of the game. After the first launch you will see some of the values from your saved story will not be displayed correctly in the new UI section. This will go away once you save your progress in this new version of the game.
Update 0.7.0 & Price change
Important for everyone who wants to buy this game after 15th of January, 2023:
The game status will probably change from paid to free to play next month. The exact date of change is not determined yet, but everybody who still wants to buy this game should wait for couple of weeks. The game will be available for free in near future, so new purchases (dated after 15th of January) are not recommended.
Game changes:
After almost 6 months of no news... there is new set of changes which are now live in update 0.7.0:
New "novice" difficulty settings
Players can lower the difficulty now
If you feel like the game is too hard for you (which was intended behaviour before), you can switch to "Novice" adjustment in Preferences menu located on Home screen
Novice difficulty is now turned on by default for new players (so if the game seems too easy for you, go on and try it on the original "Veteran" difficulty and taste the hardcore side of the game)
Novice difficulty is applied to "Classic" and "Story" mode
What exactly is "Novice" difficulty?
You will encounter less enemies
Some major enemies will have lower amount of health
Terrain in some areas is changed so it is easier to overcome the obstacles
Some traps are deactivated
More collectible items like health stations and mana potions
You will find more gold and chests with loot in story mode
If you still find some parts of game too difficult even with "Novice" adjustment activated, you can let me know by commenting on this post.
Story mode "take a look" feature
Some bigger and not that much straightforward areas in story mode now has a "take a look" feature. You can come across a floating eye object. If you collect it, the game will show you 3 different areas in current level.
It can show you locations of some collectible resources, locations where you need to get to advance to another level or locations of difficult parts of current level which you normally could not see before you get there.
Other changes
Some texts in story mode were changed. This update also contains some minor bugfixes for things I did not have time to fix in previous updates (none of these problems were severe... some color and spacing changes, etc.)
Update 0.6.5
Update contains:
- minor fixes in czech translation of the dialogues in story mode - the bug which caused behaviour where first sentence of every optional dialogue was skipped after engaging the dialogue with "Confirm" key instead of dialog icon was resolved - added some UI elements to main menu of the game (which will be used in future - if there will be another updates) for changing (lowering) game difficulty
There are no new levels for classic or story mode in development at current time.
Knightczech: The beginning STREAM
Hello everyone!
I (FridolinSlehacka), developer of Knightczech: The beginning videogame, prepaired a livestream for people that might be interested in this game. This event was scheduled specially for Czech and Slovak Games week 2021 event.
Start of the stream is scheduled to November 16th, 17:00 (UTC+1)
If you have any questions that are related to the game or just want to chat with me about my work you can do it during this event.
If you do not have any questions and you are interested in gameplay only, you are at the right place too.
During this livestream I will show you some interesting game mechanics and levels, including latest updates of the game.
Update 0.6.4
General
→ some parts of user interface got polished
Collected items now display correct translation of description in inventory ui, shop menu ui and chest ui if the game language is set to "Czech".
Dialog can now be progressed by using the "confirm" keybinding which can be modified in options (Dialog could be progressed only by clicking on button by mouse input previously).
→ minor decorative objects added to the game
This is probably last update of the game for some time. Game was continuously updated since release (since October 14, 2020) and reached pretty much the final, polished state with some bonus content which was added to the game along with bugfixes and quality of life features in the past.
There is still lot of space for new content in form of new levels and challenges which could be added in the future if the game will get enough attention. For now, consider this version (0.6.4-public) as final update for 2021.
If you encouter a bug which breaks immersion of the game you can still contact me on my support mail and I will try to respond and fix the bug asap.
