- Fixed a problem with certain seeds in dungeon level generation that caused a locked door to appear before players can toggle the switch that unlocks them.
- Fixed a problem with certain seeds in the Odd River Spur level.
- Fixed persistance of the bandit engineer at the Occupied Mine camp spot.
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, IndieOf Blades & Tails
Patch 0.17.3
Preview: World Expansion III
There's still plenty of work to be done until the next content update for Of Blades & Tails will be ready, but I figured it's about time to give you all an idea of what you can expect from world expansion part 3.
So in this post I want to show you impressions of new Barrend Land biome and how the Combat Arena will work!
The Barren Land
The update features a whole new region with a new biome.
It is also the home of the Boar Tribe, which have their settlement Murzork in the heart of the Barren Land. You can reach it by following the road from Levendell to the east.
(The final region layout is still subject to change.)
The Barren Land features a dried out, earthy soil, tall mushroom trees and clay-like rocks.
Unfortunately I can't show you screenhots of the new boar settlement yet, but it will feature a new architectural style that is somewhat inspired by orcish/barbarian housing.
However, the thing I can show you is a glimpse of what Murzork is widely known for...
The Combat Arena
As teased in one of the previous posts, the next update will feature an exciting combat arena and I can finally share a few more details with you now.
The Arena of Murzork will have 2 different events:
The Tournament
The tournament mode contains a finite number of stages, each stage will throw 3-5 waves of enemies at you and comes with special modifiers to the combat and the arena layout.
For example, one stage may be flooded and contain only little walkable areas, while you're being chased by flying enemies. Another stage could have a rule that you must end your turn next to an enemy or otherwise all enemies will get healed.
Things like that :)
(The arena level is still work in progress and not final, but with this you can get an idea of its size.)
You'll be able to leave the arena after each stage to receive your reward and prepare for the next stage.
This tournament will probably be also related to certain quests and the tribe story.
The Leaderboard Challenge
The combat arena will also feature online leaderboards in the challenge mode!
This mode is one "endless" wave attack. With each wave enemies get tougher and grow in number (with a limit of 8 enemies per wave).
By defeating enemies you can increase your arena score.
Defeating multiple enemies within a short amount of turns will also grant you score combo multipliers.
For example if you manage to defeat 2 enemies in max 3 turns, you'll get a x2 multiplier. If you manage to defeat more enemies you can keep the multiplier up or increase it even more!
Otherwise it will eventually drop back to x1.
The challenge mode will also have other surprises for you, that will pop up every X turns and make the following turns more thrilling ;)
Ultimately, your own defeat in the leaderboard challenge is inevitable! Once you're defeated, your final score will be submitted to the online leaderboard and you can see your global rank on a board outside of the arena.
It's worth noting that only your highest score will be displayed in the leaderboard and this score is saved by your username, not by your character. Of course you're free to participate with as many characters as you want.
I also managed to make this feature cross platform, so players from Steam, GOG and eventually consoles will be able to compete in one leaderboard.
It will also work independently of the difficulty mode you have chosen. The difficulty modifiers will all be normalized when you enter the arena in challenge mode, so there is no separation between difficulty modes necessary.
There might be more categories of leaderboards introduced in the future, but that's completely depending on its popularity.
I'm aware of the fact that many players will never see the challenge mode or participate, because it's meant to be an "end game" feature for high level characters.
However, for all the hardcore fans out there, I hope this will be a pleasant surprise!
Needless to say that I'm more than excited to see where some of you will take this :)
A few more thoughts regarding fake scores or playing with modified savegames:
Originally I wanted to introduce a validation for new savegames, so they can't be easily modified anymore and then used to achieve otherwise impossible scores in the challenge mode.
But that would have caused older savegames to be disqualified from the leaderboards, because figuring out programatically if a savegame was already edited turned out to be very hard and/or inaccurate!
This would also have excluded almost all of our current early access players and I didn't want that to happen.
So while the actual score submission is reasonably safe, the possibility that players just "tweak" their stats in the save file, is still an open concern.
To address that, the related savegame (with only your game data!) will be referenced when submitting leaderboard scores. With this information it will be possible to detect if unreasonable high scores in the leaderboard are legit or probably fake and therefore subject for deletion.
For now, I'm happy for anyone who joins the leaderboard challenge, fake or not! :D
But the possibility to investigate and curate the entries in the future is possible, making it hopefully a fair competition for all players.
TL;DR: Everyone can participate in the leaderboards and fake entries can be detected!
Update 0.18 when?
I need you to stay patient a little longer this time!
There's still the entire boar settlement to be set up, NPCs, quests and more surprises to be added.
Even though the leaderboards are already fully working, the remaining expansion content might still take another month or so.
I hope you're nevertheless happy with the things I introduced in this preview post and I would love to read your thoughts in the comments!
Until next time, take care everyone!
Felix
Patch 0.17.2
- Fixed a problem with certain seeds in dungeon level generation that caused a door to be blocked by a table.
Thanks for reporting this issue! :)
Patch 0.17.1
- Fixed a problem that prevented dragging over items from one inventory to another, such as in the trading or stash view.
Thanks for reporting this issue! :)
Update 0.17.0 - Illusion Magic, Unarmed Weapon, UI improvements, and more!
A new update is here that brings a new talent line, adds a weapon type that can be used with the Unarmed talent, improves certain UI elements and many other things.
Changelog v0.17.0
Illusion Magic
A new talent line "Illusion Magic" has been added.
The abilities of this talent require expertise, which can be bought at the wand (magic supplies) trader in Immerfurt.
(Please note that the sources for receiving this talent expertise might change during EA.)
- Blinding Light: Reduces sight range of all enemies within range to 1 tile.
- Spectral Copy: Creates a copy of yourself that taunts nearby enemies, but disappears again when hit.
- Charming Whisper: Allows you to charm any type of enemy, making them fight by your side for some time.
- Illusive Defense: Increases your dodge chance for any active ability of the Illusion Magic talent.
- Shadow Minion: Summons a shadow minion that fights by your side.
New Weapon: Knuckles
This new type of fist weapon can be used with the Unarmed talent, allowing "unarmed" players now to wield a weapon and gain access to related bonus stats. However, knuckles are limited to +1 physical damage, regardless of their item level.
New Arcane Magic Ability
A new perk has been added to the end of the Arcane Magic talent, which modifies the previous Mana Shield talent and make the absorbed damage being reflected to all nearby targets when the Mana Shield runs out.
The perk requires expertise, which can be bought at the wand (magic supplies) trader in Immerfurt.
Activation of Random Seeds
Each new playthrough will now use a random seed upon which many areas are generated.
Depending on the type of area you will see more or less differences to the original level generation that has been used since day 1.
Hand-made areas like the first quest dungeon or any settlements are not affected by the new seed. Most other dungeons and outdoor areas will have a new layout (once you start a new playthrough).
Existing savegames are not affected by this change.
UI & QoL improvements
- Improved positiong of various tooltips, especially in inventories.
They should not get in your way anymore now when you hover over items. - Added a subtle hover effect for items.
- Added more texture to certain UI elements.
- Added a display option to toggle between low and high quality visual effects.
This should improve performance on low end devices. - Giving better feedback for when tiles are blocking a tile selection for certain skills.
- Prevented an exploit that allowed upgrading/modifiying items that shouldn't get altered.
- Missing talents have been added to attribute descriptions.
- Updated several translations.
Balancing & Fixes
- Minor perk bonusses in the Unarmed talent line have been slightly adjusted.
- Prevented an exploit that allowed upgrading/modifiying items that shouldn't get altered.
- The wand trader in Immerfurt has expanded their stock and is now called "Magic Supplies Trader".
- Fixed a potential problem where the treasure spot of a treasure map could be covered by a rock.
- Fixed a bug that prevented modification of certain items.
- Fixed a bug with expertise traders not offering expertise after re-entering the level.
- Fixed a potential quest blocker for the inn delivery quest.
Savegame Compatibility
Savegames from version 0.16.x are compatible, but your ability points will be reset and you need to redistribute them again at the bonfire.
What's next
I think alternating between small updates and bigger world expansions works well. So the next one will most likely be World Expansion #3. In fact I already started working on some of the new contents.
It will introduce a new barren land biome, which is also home of the boar tribe.
Their combat arena is as famous as it is dangerous and will play a bigger role in the upcoming adventures :)
As usual, world expansions take their time, but I'll make sure to update you with a preview post as I go!
If you enjoy your time with Of Blades & Tails and the new contents, then please consider writing a short Steam review. It really helps the game to grow and reach more players :)
Until next time, take care everyone!
Felix
Update 0.16.0 - World Expansion II
This is the next big chapter for Of Blades & Tails, which adds a new region to the world, allows you to modify your equipment and offers a few surprises for the brave explorers.
Please refer to the last preview post to learn more about the new content and how the added mechanics work.
Changelog v0.16.0
Equipment Modifications
You can now extract item mods and reuse them on your preferred equipment.
Visit any crafting NPC like blacksmiths or carpenters to use this mechanic.
The whole process is also described in detail here.
Game World
- The game world has been expanded to the north.
- A new region has been added: Levendell - Home of the Deer Tribe
- Several new NPCs have been added.
- A new autumn-based forest biome has been added.
- New music tracks have been added.
- A new secret region has been added.
- A new puzzle mechanic has been added.
- Several new dungeons have been added.
- Several new types or variations of existing enemies have been added.
- New enemies now often have a perk, which can modify their behavior.
- New locations have been added: Wasp Hives
- New locations have been added: Marksman Camps
- The Abandoned Bonfire spot just north of the Haunted Forest has been replaced with a Deer Guard Camp.
Quests
- 2 quests have been added to Levendell.
- 1 quest has been added to the Deer Innkeeper south of the Haunted Forest.
Items & Equipment
- A new type of item has been added: Artifacts
Their occurance in the game is limited to only a few. The first one can now be found. - A legendary item has been added: Leggings of Beast Banishing
- A legendary item has been added: Wasp Stinger
- New lore about the human age has been added.
- A new Material category has been added to the inventory that is used for extracted item mods.
UI, Controls & Accessibility
- Improve inventory performance when new items are added.
- Quest rewards are now listed in the message log.
- A new icon on the enemy info tooltip (bottom right) will indicate if the enemy has a perk.
You can then see the perk details when inspecting the enemy. - A small arrow will now indicate better who is talking during a dialoque.
- A hint about the Shovel shortcut key has been added to the Treasure Hunt help section.
Achievements
3 achievements have been added:
- Modifier
- Catch me if you can
- Legacy of the Enchanter
Balancing and Fixes
- Crit and dodge chance both have been limited to max 75%.
- All gatherables in the fox village are now persisted permanently.
- Fixed an issue with setting paths in overview mode while the 'hold to move' option is enabled.
- Fixed a potential game lock in relation with game menu (ESC) and entity detail view.
- Fixed a rare situation where certain quest NPCs would not give all rewards.
- Fixed an issue with 0 travel cost if player has no stack of Bug Meat in inventory.
- Several smaller fixes.
- Improved several translations.
Community Translations
Our community added support for the the following languages:
- Chinese (simplified)
- Russian
Savegame Compatibility
Savegames from version 0.15.x are compatible.
What's next
I will most likely prepare another minor update next, which could contain a new talent line and some UI improvements. Nothing set in stone yet. I'll sort things out within the next week.
What's more certain is the content of World Expansion III: It will feature the home of the boar tribe and a thrilling combat arena! If my theories will work out as expected it might(!) even feature Steam Leaderboards... But I'm not able to promise yet... Just a wild idea (and another teaser) ;)
If you enjoy your time with Of Blades & Tails and the new contents, then please consider writing a short Steam review. It really helps the game to grow and reach more players :)
Until next time, take care everyone!
Felix
Preview: World Expansion II
Disclaimer up front: This preview post is going to be a short one :) At least compared to the others...
I'm still in the middle of content creation and can't show you all the things in detail. However, I figured it's about time to give you all a little insight on what I have planned for the next update 0.16!
Equipment Modifications
Even though Update 0.16 will be focused on adding new content, there will be also a new mechanic introduced: Modification of your equipment!
This means you'll be able to extract stats from equipment items and put them on another item.
Here's an example:
Let's say you're playing a Quarterstaff/Crossbow/Athletics build. You just defeated this creepy insect boss in that dungeon and the loot contains a heavy armor helmet, that has +Dexterity.
Well, +Dexterity is great, but heavy armor is not what you're looking for!
Thankfully, most crafting NPCs are now able to modify the stats on your equipment. So you take the heavy armor nonetheless and give it to the local blacksmith. They can extract the +Dexterity bonus, which will destroy the heavy armor, but you'll receive the +Dexterity modification as a new material in your inventory.
So you decide to do just that and then pick your beloved crossbow, which already has great stats, but you very much prefer an extra dexterity bonus instead of the +Combat Exp bonus that is on the crossbow right now. The blacksmith will gladly use your extracted +Dexterity material and replaces the +Combat Exp bonus with it. This replacement will cost you a small fee to the blacksmith, but your crossbow will be much more awesome now!
TL;DR: Here's a 1 min video that shows the new modification process :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz14XHK5rrk
There are also some restrictions:
- You can't modify Legendary items. They are somewhat unique and their stats are fixed.
- You can't add more stats to an item. You can only replace existing stats. The number of item stats is defined by the item's quality.
I'm really looking forward to this addition because it will hopefully make some unfortunate loot drops, much less unfortunate and gives you more freedom to tweak your build :)
Levendell and the Autumn Forests
The Home of the Deer Tribe and the surrounding areas will be the next stop on our Road through Early Access Valley.
It will feature a colorful, autumn-inspired biome and new music tracks!
It's also in extreme contrast to the dark and eerie Haunted Forest, so squint your eyes if you leave it heading north in the future! ;)
The village Levendell is almost ready, but there's still much work to be done when it comes to filling the new region with meaningful content.
So that's why I will just share these few impressions with you but can't dive deeper into any more details right now.
What else to expect?
What you can expect is of course more of the things that you'll probably already love about the game:
- New enemies with different traits
- New puzzle mechanics
- New secrets
- New locations
- New legendary items
- New side quests
The storyline quest will most likely not continue with this update. I would like to wait until all the world content is set up and in a good shape, before making the next steps here.
That was the original strategy anyway, so I hope you're okay with that. It just makes more sense for me to put it together once all the mechanics are in the game.
Official Wiki
You may be interested to know that our Discord community has already started working on an Of Blades & Tails Wiki!
It already includes a list of all legendary items and their locations, how to solve certain secrets and quests, and a few more things!
Wiki: https://of-blades-and-tails.fandom.com/wiki/
Everyone is welcome to jump in and add content! There are many things still missing, but I believe it's a very good starting point and can help players who want to experience 100% of the game or struggle with that one thing :)
Update 0.16 when?
Right now I'm expecting to release it mid May.
Plus I can already assure you that current savegames will be 100% compatible (as always so far ;)).
I hope you're happy with the things I introduced in this preview post, even though it was a short one. Would love to read your thoughts in the comments!
Until next time, take care everyone!
Felix
Patch 0.15.3
- Fixed an issue with water tiles in the "closed bridge" level that could cause the player to get stuck.
- Fixed an issue where player summons spawned globally instead of in the current level.
- Enforced regular font for turkish language since the default pixel font doesn't support all characters.
- Updated and fixed translation strings.
Patch 0.15.2
- Fixed potential visual issue with Reik during level transitions.
- Added missing translations for Turkish.
- Updated several other translations.
Patch 0.15.1
- Spawned enemy healing plants will (again) wait 1 turn before preparing their healing ability.
- Disabled exp gain for any spawned entities (enemy and allies).
- Fixed some localization issues.
- Fixed translator name in credits.