Very honored to be selected amongst such strong RPGs coming out this year. Should be a busy year for RPG fans, wonderful list.
PC Gamer guide:
http://www.pcgamer.com/best-pc-games-2015/#page-5
Serpent in the Staglands
Listed on the definitive PC Gamers "Guide to the games of 2015"!
Very honored to be selected amongst such strong RPGs coming out this year. Should be a busy year for RPG fans, wonderful list.
PC Gamer guide:
http://www.pcgamer.com/best-pc-games-2015/#page-5
KS update 16: Bronze age journals, new beta patch!
Update:
Kickstarter Update
(video in link with some more info on the books!)
Hail Backers!
We wanted to give you a quick update on the latest patch for beta testers, and some info on the physical journal reward tier.
JOURNALS
Yesterday we got 2 beautiful hides from a tannery to make the journal covers from and they are fantastic.
We still have a bit of copy for the journal to write as we finish up content for the game, but it should be a wonderful guide and adventuring companion. The digital version will have some specific changes and omissions (medium aside), but will have similar content. We’re receiving the great paper we're printing on, threading, sealing wax and insignia needed for the seal soon as well, and will get some pictures up when we do! The end product will be an authentic leather journal suitable for some bronze age adventuring, with some blank note pages for yourself (for those puzzles that are more easily sketched out than written in the in-game journal).
There are a finite number of these based on the amount of covers we were able to cut, and it looks like we’ll have 25 extra from the initial cuts.
Since the Kickstarter a lot of folks have asked about the physical rewards being purchasable, and since discarding the idea of a regular purchasable book we knew they were going to be limited so haven’t mentioned redistribution until now. We’d like to give away a couple of these to some outstanding folks who have generously supported us throughout this crazy year of development, maybe do a public raffle for some, and plan on having the remaining be purchasable.
If you’d like to reserve one shoot us an email — we’ll just do this first come first serve, and shipping will be included. We’ll post an update on twitter/the website when, or if, we run out.
In the interests of our prior backers: if you have backed at a reward less than $75 up to this point through Kickstarter or Paypal, the cost will be $75 minus your current donation amount. We’ll notify you closer to the release and link you to the payment area. If anyone wants one that currently does not have a pre-order, we'll put up an option on our website down the road if we have remaining copies.
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PATCH
** Patching system seems to be having some issues, and we'll just send out another email this (hopefully) last time. Will be starting builds shortly for reindeer distribution. **
For those who have beta access, or maybe haven’t played since some of the earlier builds, we encourage you to download the newest patch and take a look. We’ve tackled the majority of the UI functionally, added lots of small polish items, and have finally implemented the prime NPC database, which completely rebalances the combat difficulty. This is what we’ve been using to test later game scenarios and individual enemies, and thought it would be a good time to introduce it into the beta and have you all test what the actual game difficulty was designed to be. I’d go into the details, but it would probably be best just played. If you were quick saving a lot before due to bugs, we’d advise you do so now instead for the amped up difficulty across the board, especially during the early areas you're testing. Wildlife, acolytes, and even chicken goblins can 1-hit-kill an unarmored character if the rng god wills it.
We also have a list-inspection of items on the ground near characters. A few folks mentioned wanted to toggle a menu or backpack for looting bodies, so we’ve added this UI element by pressing TAB:
Both this and normal ground-pick up also now have the closest character pick up the item. Unless you are in a combat-tense situation and are looting, all the characters share the same inventory pack so we thought grabbing the closest character to fetch it was a nice convenience. The sparkle effect on an item now also displays over all environmental art and has a text description when hovering, so you can see it even if obscured (or can run around holding TAB like in Diablo and vacuum things up as you come across them).
Another note on the NPC database was their drop rules were updated. Everyone that has something equipped will drop it if killed (or have it available for magical pickpocketing), with some marginal room for breaking and not dropping for light randomization. A spell also has the ability to make them drop their equipped weapon, so later on you can use that to your advantage for largely disabling a singular threat. With the increase in drops, we also took a pass at adjusting the economy to keep things tight on supplies, though will likely need tweaking.
Lastly, as mentioned in a previous update, the skill point allocation now distributes HP per point, with the graph indicated below:
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Starting base: 20 HP
Base per level increase: 4 HP
Strength: +4 HP
Dexterity: +3 HP
Perception: +3 HP
Occult: +2 HP
Intelligence +1 HP
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*Spells like Foul Creep or items/curses that drain your stats (permanently or temporarily) do not affect their original HP boost, however there are specific spells and curses that can.
Thanks again everyone for all the support since the Kickstarter campaign, and the testers for continuing to plunge into these stages of development. We’ll be back next year with more info and more content for testing.
Merry Christmas from Whalenought!
Joe & Hannah
Update 15: Tis the Season – for itemization, late game balance, and the Steam page!
Here’s a short teaser trailer we’ve put together previewing some new locations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vD6RHbijRI
Housekeeping
We’ve completed the three heaviest series of maps for the game, which include the most intensive puzzles, quests and art content. We're now finishing up with remaining locations and beginning the mass balance testing. Having developed the main early, mid and end game content we’re very happy with the 3 main variety of puzzle types in the game and their functions:
*Character skills
Example: using polymorphing spells to enter small doors, shields to protect party from insta-killing traps, or an aptitude to grease your way out of a tricky situation
*Player & Character exploration
Example: Acquiring documents that you can read, the player piecing together where to go, and the character reacting to having that document and talking to select people. Writing your own found clues in your journal for puzzles and culprits of events is a fun way of making puzzles easier to get invested in, and can lead to an entertaining surprises. The player is the most enjoyably unreliable narrator we can help create.
*Player intuition
Example: Players figuring out how basic language/number systems work with Native machines. Linguistics and other Aptitudes can help sometimes with knowing what runes represent, but don’t give a book on how they work in context.
The places you go at the mid and end tier of the game are full of Indiana Jones inspired dungeon traps and intricate machines set up by natives and wizards to throw your brain against. We think you'll love the variety throughout.
BETA 2.0 and release schedule
This week we’ll be sending out an updated v.2 of the beta to some awesome rpg-centric youtubers who hopefully can take some time for a stroll through the lovely Vol peninsula and get some more notice of the game, so be on the lookout for that!
As for releasing the game when it’s done, we’re now up on Steam with a Coming Soon page (and will include the soundtrack there as well, which is awesome). We’ll be sending the Beta 2.0 version to GOG for evaluation later this week. As we get closer to release, we’ll provide the details on getting codes for either distributor to everyone, or how to get it DRM-free otherwise from us directly. Thanks everyone who voted for us Steam Greenlight and spread the word!
Late game balance implementation
Upcoming beta 1.5 implements a balance patch for the low-level game. This is resulting in a need for more tactics for your party in the way of coordinating pre-buffs, offensive and defensive skills to overcome enemies (they pack a punch), while continuing to minimize the micro-manging required with pausing frequently. As always we’re designing with the strengths of real-time in mind, which we think is pausing infrequently while issuing macro orders to your party, and have their skills working automatically and together. We’ve had good responses for it thus far, and are continuing to design the same for late game, albeit with much more challenging enemies, potent buffs to hack around, and larger groups. The five coven witches random encounter in the wilderness will look like a tea party later on.
One of the biggest threats to your party, with some ailment exceptions, are skirmishes. With a low level spell caster in your group you can heal your entire party with some time, so the skirmishes, especially later on are fast and hard hitting with a pretty massive RNG-god pulling the strings. The other macro-element of the game working against you is town supplies. Aside from being completely wiped out and losing their potential sellable goods, merchants have a finite number of resources to sell you. Scavenging the settler’s ruins, bandits, and natives will ultimately become your main source of equipment, save the traveling merchants and small-town fletchers you happen across.
The real interesting thing we’re starting to test is how these late level skills can all stack and work together simultaneously. Having enemies with particular stats, defense, and damage dealing skills and spells is one thing, but knowing how a party of 5 with up to 15 skill points worth of skills and spells can augment each other is just as important. There’s a lot of defensive shields and hard-blocks of certain attacks (complete missile, spells, and melee resistances), as well as area effects and ailments to deter even the most powerful party. We’re getting as creative as possible to counter the strategic designs that players can come up with while using such a loose system.
Itemization
Most of your character’s power comes from your skills and stats, but that doesn’t mean your equipped items are worthless. While there is a range of weapons that have different damage potentials based on their craftsmanship and materials, there are also some exquisite and magical items of power buried throughout the game.
Important items in the game are finite, and unique and rare items are even more difficult to get your grubby, perhaps even pickpocketing, hands on. Bespoke armorers that work with fine bronze, or particularly exotic materials you can bring them, are going to net the best armor in the game. The Staglands settlers are poor, most with little possessions besides the warm furs and tweeds on their back, and these armorers are rare and only work with certain materials, some with only certain statured people. Finding both is part of getting your characters the best equipped as possible, if that’s how you’d want to use your resources and time.
Looking at release:
For the next few months we’ll be to polishing, bug testing and implementing the remainder of the content, as well as implementing the high grade skill/spell beta area for late-game combat tests.
We’re very excited not to have had to cut any maps or content that we originally had planned in April, managed to get some of our personal add-on-features implemented, and are not too far off our proposed timeline. Our designated time for testing won’t be fruitless, we’ll be able to devote a lot of time to making sure everything is smooth, balanced, and as polished as possible for the launch, and we have some brilliant testers helping figure out obscure bugs in the systems. Their efforts thus far have been a fantastic contribution to the polish of the game, and their feedback has been terrific. The priests in Lumen Forten toast to the lot of them for their efforts in making sure the game is what you all backed.
Happy holidays everyone, don’t let the Shroomers down your roof.
Joe & Hannah