We know that you’ve been waiting for the final ritual that will alleviate “Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones” like the sunken city of R’lyeh rising from the depths of the oceans.
This blackest event will occur on the 19th of this month. At the time of the accursed Yuletide festival, you, the owners of Stygian, will be downloading the brand new Patch 1.1. Before discussing more about what will be fixed and improved with this event of celestial importance, we have some announcements to make.
Be warned! Only your latestAutosave and Story Save slots will be preserved by the new save system which enables Character Profiles and manual saving functionality. You better get prepared!
For the sake of stability and general balancing, we have removedSpell Enhancements from the upcoming build. The final scope of the game was making the enhanced spells either overpowered or unachievable. We also wanted to eliminate the bugs connected to the system. We will consider the re-implementation of the system again in the future.
The following achievements will become obsolete with the release of 1.1 Update:
Spell Doctor
Surgeon
Martyr
Without further ado, here’s a list of New Features and Major Overhauls that will be present in 1.1:
A Tutorial System that explains all the core and subsidiary systems of the game.
Considerably increased Combat Speed
Character Profiles
Manual Saving and Quick Saving
Combat Hit Probability Indicator to screen your to hit chance in battle scenarios
Along with hundreds of Bug Fixes and Improvements including issues encountered in problematic areas such as Blasted Street, Ward 10, a variety of crashes, situations carried in between different save files, Panic State malfunctions, Light and Darkness mechanics, Rest and Crafting Mechanics, Perk and Item functionality and much more!
As you can see, we haven’t been resting. Instead, we’ve prayed to the Old Ones, day and night in all the forgotten, old tongues and cried out for a better, smoother Stygian experience. We also worked. Really hard…
Until we meet again in a desolate corner of the doomed Arkham on 19th of December.
Team Cultic
Vote for Stygian in Steam Awards!
Greetings brethren,
It’s this time of the year when Steam once again organizes the annual Steam Awards where you can vote for your favorite games in multitude of categories.
A lot of great games came out this year, that deserve your vote and attention but if you consider Stygian to be one of those for its story and world, please consider nominating it in Outstanding Story-Rich Game category (or any other available category that you see fit). We do not shy away from the issues that were troubling the game at launch and some that are present event now (which we are working tirelessly to get rid of as we updated you in our last devlog) might have hampered your enjoyment of the story and the world + the competition is very hard as there are a lot of great and recognizable titles however every bit of potential visibility helps to introduce the game to new people who may also open their mind to Stygian, visit the city of Arkham and try not to lose their minds...
What Have These Cultic Folks Been Doing So Far?
Greetings Brethren,
The blackest of rituals are taking place inside the Cultic office these days!
True to our word, we’ve been busy working on the game non-stop for the last month.
Here is a list of the features that have been completed for the phase of testing:
1. Manual Saving
2. A Character Profile System that enables you to store your save files separately for each of your unfortunate PCs
3. A Combat Probability Indicator that helps you see how likely you’ll be able to succeed an attack on an enemy
4. A Tutorial System that helps you with all the core mechanics of the game
And here are some of the impactful fixes and changes that we have made on the game:
The left click quick looting of the enemy corpses have been removed, solving a good number of movement related ux problems
A considerable number of Blasted Street issues have been fixed
A considerable number of crashes and freezes have been solved
And over 40 other big and small fixes that improved the overall stability
We are very excited to see you join this much improved experience BUT we have learned our lesson. This time we won’t make haste.
After we are finished working on all the remaining fixes of the issues which we’ve been collecting from you since release, we’ll start testing and confirming each fix with professional assistance before releasing one or more extensive patches, so that we can present you the most stable and polished Stygian experience.
We know that we have mentioned a series of fixes for November, but for the good of the project and the community, we need to use all the time we have for further quality assurance.
We’d like to thank you in advance for your patience and for the endless support you’ve been giving to this project.
Until we meet again in one of the forsaken alleys of our doomed Arkham.
Team Cultic
Halloween sale - 15 % OFF!
Greetings our cult brethren,
for the annual season of scares and for some people pumpkins, we have a little promo for you!
Stygian is currently 15 % OFF for the duration of the Halloween Sale. It's a perfect opporunity to get a little mad while witnessing the decay of what's left of humanity...
The stars are right once again and we indeed have some good news for you!
We wanted to update you on the state of fixes and improvements planned for the Stygian. As you know we have been collecting all the feedback coming from you and would like to share the road map that has been drawn in the light of your feedback.
Here is a list of fixes and improvements that we will work on in the following period:
The fixing of an array of critical bugs that you've been reporting since launch
A new save system with the save anywhere and Character Profile function so the player would be able to switch between different characters
A tutorial system which would show the player the ropes on the first encounters with each of the more complex systems of the game such as combat, rest activities, hunger etc.
A chance to hit indicator that would show the players how likely they can hit their designated targets
The disabling of companion skills except combat and crafting related ones
The disabling of the combat loot system that creates movement difficulties for the players Various tweaks on the balancing of the game
We will test the systems and fixes internally before releasing the patches so unless something very pressing happens, the patches will start coming out at the beginning of next month.
We will contact all our players whose requests would have been met with the new versions and notify them about the progress.
We are planning to have another and a more extended fix period following this one. You will be updated.
Thanks a lot for all your feedback and comments brethren.
This morbid story is far from over.
Team Cultic
The Game's Ending and Future
Greetings brethren!
We'd like to answer the burning questions that you've been asking about the ending of the game.
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones ends with the sacrifice that your player character has to make in order to return to Miskatonic University in their search for the dreaded book called Necronomicon. Opening up new possibilities for the continuation of its story.
During the development of Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, we had to make a tough decision: hurry the finale and exclude some of the best content we worked on or complete the game on a cliffhanger, giving later parts of the saga the attention they truly deserve in future installments. It was the only way for Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones to see the sunlight (or shall we say moonlight) and eventually become the complete story we envisioned.
So we created Reign of the Old Ones as a beginning of a longer saga. Although Reign of the Old Ones is a complete game in itself, it does not conclude Stygian's full narrative cycle as we expressed in the update we published right before the release.
We'd love to see this story continued in the future and have already begun concepting and designing on what will follow Reign of the Old Ones. We are more than ready to jump on board for the next part of the Stygian saga if that is what the stars foretell.
For now, we have a clear mission: Fixing the issues that some of you have been encountering and adding some of the features you've been asking for to make Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones a better game.
We'd like to thank everyone for their feedback and constructive comments. We'd also like to tell to the folks whom we’ve unintentionally frustrated, that we will be working on the game and will keep you updated on the issuesthat you have shared.
Until we meet again in the lightless corridors of this data vault once again.
Team Cultic
FAQ: Mysteries of Stygian Explained
Greetings cult brethren! You can find the answers to the majority of the questions you’ve been asking in the discussions and in your reviews for the last few days. You got more questions? Please write them down below this announcement!
PS: Using your own blood would help but is not obligatory.
How does the Radial Menu work?
If you’d like to see what skill usages and interactions are available on an environment item, simply right click on it.
If you’d like to perform a combat ability, use a quick item, cast a quick spell etc. simply right click on the character you are commanding at the time.
How does the Hunger system work?
A unit of rations is automatically consumed at certain intervals of game time. This counter gets paused while you are in the tab menu, in dialogue or in combat.
Only the canned food remaining in Arkham and all the canned food that you find or buy throughout your journey will be exchanged into the common resource identified as “rations”, which is displayed in your inventory as a resource. It is possible to buy canned food from most of the vendors of the game and they are being replenished in time.
If you enter a state of hunger, you get notified through the notification panel above the screen and if do not get nourished for a period of time following that, the hunger state gets more and more severe until the death of the character by a state of HP damage over time.
There is no hunger gauge in the game so it may be a good idea to have a couple of extra rations with you. Some companions like Nameless Soldier do not need to consume rations. Whenever a ration is consumed, the game indicates that through the log on the lower right and with a sound effect resembling a chewing action.
How does the Exhaustion system work?
At each particular interval of game time your characters get a state of exhaustion. Only by resting at a campsite (camping supplies needed) or resting at the Old Eel House are you able to recover from Exhaustion.
A campsite is located in Main Street near the walls of Miskatonic next to the hobos while another one is located in French Hill next to the abandoned house to the Southwest corner of the hub. Others will be discovered by you throughout the journey.
Resting is completely safe in the Old Eel House while the same cannot be said about outdoor areas. There is a good chance that your rest may be interrupted by an ambush even in the Downtown area so using rest activities such as “Keep Watch” and “Scout” may come in handy to get prepared.
If you enter a state of exhaustion, you get notified through the notification panel above the screen and if you do not rest for a period of time following that, the exhaustion state gets heavier and heavier until the character goes insane by a state of Sanity damage over time.
There is no exhaustion gauge in the game so it may be a good idea to have a couple of camping supplies with you.
How does the Sanity System work?
Situations like witnessing horrible events, casting occult spells, encountering supernatural creatures, staying in a dark area for too long, all result in Sanity losses.
If your Sanity drops below a certain level in combat there is a good chance that you are going to develop a panic state. Your character loses control and acts contrarily to your orders in a panic state, causing situations like dropping your gun to the ground while you command to attack.
If your sanity drops below a certain level in exploration, the chance for your character to develop a mental condition rises. The mental condition your character develops is determined according to the actions your character has performed until that time. If the character has killed a couple of NPC’s in cold blood throughout the game, there is a good chance that you will develop Psychopathy or if you have chosen more cautious and inquisitive choices in dialogues, your chances of developing Paranoia gets higher.
Resting, progressing quests, using drugs and alcohol, having sex, roleplaying your belief system correctly by choosing the right dialogue options, all replenish your lost sanity.
The sanity that you gain through roleplaying can exceed your maximum sanity.
If you reach 0 sanity in combat it is game over.
You can not drop below 1 sanity in exploration but whenever you reach that threshold, you gain a state called “At the Mouth of Madness” which makes you accumulate ANGST for a period of time until the effect is over.
But what is this ANGST?
It is some kind of a black experience that you accumulate through enduring painful and disgraceful situations, running away from combat scenarios, witnessing an inhumane act with a Humanistic character etc. Whenever you level up in ANGST you have to choose a Defect which can be defined as a negative perk.
What are those Mental Conditions? How Do They Work?
Each mental condition has its own merits and flaws:
Mania Increases Action Points but gives the character a small chance to lose control and attack the nearest enemy unit in combat.
Paranoia Increases Reaction but gives the character a small chance to attack an ally in combat.
Schizophrenia Increases Mental Resistance but gives the character a small chance to enter a catatonic state and lose a combat round.
Psychopathy Increases Critical Success Chance but gives the character a small chance to lose a certain amount of Sanity after killing a foe.
Each mental condition is also represented in the game by their own visual effects. The effect gets stronger in accordance with the degree of your decreasing Sanity. If you are disturbed by the effect, it may be a good idea to use some drugs, or rest to decrease the effects of Madness.
Lastly, a system called “Voices of Madness” enter into play for characters with mental conditions. Some of the regular dialogue lines gets substituted with VOM lines according to the mental state of the character. It is up to you to follow them or not.
There is no curing madness in Stygian.
How does Spellcasting Work?
Only the spells/rituals you have prepared by adding them to your quick spells can be cast in combat and exploration.
You can cast spells through the radial menu by right clicking on your character.
For casting “Tongue of the Dead” on the corpses that you encounter, you can right click on them to view if the spell is available.
In order to learn spells, you have to find or buy manuscripts and then study them through Occult Research rest activity while resting. Only characters with the Occult skill can research Manuscripts and Artifacts.
Casting each and every spell costs sanity and sometimes other resources and components. You can learn all those in detail by clicking on the question mark icon near the spell headlines found in your Grimoire.
How do I make a Progression Escape?
Whenever you deal enough damage to an enemy group that would enable you to break some of the resistance, blue hexes appear on the battlefield, and if you can reach those hexes by moving to them and press the escape button (found at the bottom right corner of the screen), you get out from the combat, thereby gaining the same amount of XP as you’d get by winning the battle and progressing the story, since the worn enemy won’t be following you from that point on.
What good can my companions be to me besides Combat?
They can perform the rest activities that their skills allow. For example Nameless Soldier can be very effective in the “Keep Watch” rest activity while you get to allocate your precious rest points on research or other activities. They can research spells, protect the party, make scientific discoveries and a variety of actions in the form of Rest Activities.
With the 1.0.3 patch they are also able to perform crafting which adds a lot of diversity to the actions they can commit. We always wanted the companions to perform skill checks as well but for the welfare of other systems, we had to cancel that feature.
Also they can be your friends. And in a world which has lost all hope, that may help.
How does Stealth Work?
While in stealth, the game checks your character’s Stealth score for the whole party. If you get too close to a hostile character, you will be spotted no matter what score your character has in Stealth. Some enemies will be patrolling, while some will be able to smell you and change position accordingly. So always try to maintain a safe distance. If you can pass through a danger zone by stealth, you will be awarded with XP.
You can bypass 90% of the main quest battles in the game with the help of Stealth skill so if you are not the combative type, that may be a good skill choice in which to allocate some points.
What the Hell! Am I an Addict Now?
Yes, you are. Your tolerance against it is directly affected by your Will value. After using the substance to which you are addicted, everything will go as usual for a while until Withdrawal (which is a negative state) kicks in. If you are in withdrawal, do not use the substance, since the negative state will get stronger until you use the substance you’re addicted to. If you can endure the state of Withdrawal without using the substance for a time period (which is determined by your Will again) you will be cured from addiction.
Artifacts
Each artifact in Stygian has a Power and a Malediction. The artifacts that you buy from vendors come with their Powers unlocked. Both the Powers and Maledictions of the artifacts you will find in Arkham and Beyond will come locked. You can discover the power of artifacts by either making Isidore decipher them or by studying them with Occult Research (studied either by you or your companions). The malediction of an artifact cannot be discovered through deciphering so you’ll need your or your companions’ faculties to learn them.
Beware! An artifact’s power and malediction takes effect the moment you equip them, whether you unlocked them or not.
How Does Scientific and Medical Research work?
You can study the items that you find in the world in an attempt to discover new blueprints or formulas that would enable the crafting of wondrous devices and concoctions with the help of Scientific Research and Medical Research rest activities. With each rest, you will progress towards a certain discovery until the research bar is full. By research, you can discover new solutions to your old and nightmarish problems.
What the !!**/!! with the Save System!?
There will be a manual save function in the upcoming patch. Ouch! That one hurt!
Until we meet again to unveil more mysteries beyond the stars!
Team Cultic
Update 1.0.4. is NOW OUT!
Greetings Brethren!
We just released another patch which fixes a problem with companions not following you from Old Eel attic, which appeared due to yesterday's update.
It also fixes localization issues for Spanish and Chinese localization, and it fixes Brand of Shame (and kiss the Ground) attacks freezing AI for Cultist Fedayeens when the attack is a miss.
Sorry for not being super active in the forums. We are focusing 100 % on the patches, to fix the problems reported by you guys. We swear, that we will make it up to you :) Also expect a Stream tomorrow where we will talk about the state of the game and its future. I bet you also have tons of questions :)
Until we meet again!
First update is NOW OUT - 1.0.3!
Greetings to you all!
It has been an incredibly wild ride, these four days... We have listened, analyzed and discussed a LOT. We have been humbled by your outstanding interest but also learned a lot of lessons and still do in the process. We are collecting tons of feedback provided by you, which is extremely helpful as it allows us to improve the game.
We'd like to announce that we have released our very first patch, which will solve some major issues such as resolution issues on Mac computers, companions not being able to craft, a common and nasty reload (R hotkey) bug and others. You will find the complete list of the fixes at the end of this message.
We will also be releasing another update tomorrow and have plans for more coming in the upcoming days. Including improving Spanish and Chinese localization!
We have started working on a 'save anywhere' feature which will be accompanied by the familiar autosave and story save slots. It will arrive in the future patches when we're done testing it.
We will work on speeding up the combat but some blockers that you have addressed are our top priority at the moment.
We know that some of you really enjoy the veil of mystery on some of the game's mechanics but for our other players we'll pretty soon have a game guide that teaches about some of our systems in depth.
One last thing, ladies and gentlemen: Stygian is a labor of love for us and it is priceless to see that you feel so strong about our game. Rest assured that we want you to live this experience as deep and as immersive as it could get, as it was the fundamental idea all along. Of course, during our testing process we have identified plenty of bugs and issues that we were able to solve before the release, but the game’s complexity and the number of variables in place make it difficult for an indie team to process them all but we've also never had thousands of curious players reporting all of these to us before.
Now we do.
And we will work on them.
And we will do our bests to carry this game as close to your expectations as it can get.
Until we meet again in one of the forgotten alleys of our doomed Arkham.
Team Cultic
Changelog v1.0.3:
Changes:
Credits video
Improvements:
Improve inventory active handset sync after combat
Companions can also perform crafting now
Fixes:
Fix combat logs that are appearing on Desktop.
MacOS Retina resolution issues
Fix dropdown does not read display resolutions in settings
Winston and Wilkins spawned in the attic even they are killed
Character Creator summary screen placeholder text removed
Chinese Look-At pop-up display time fixed
Fix tough characters’ throwable issue
Fix dead enemies being looted after combat ends
Isidore's challenge UI must be inactivated if TheBankOfLunatics is active
Fix reload shortcut “R” not working / blocking the game
Sonia Greene Carter intro dialogue 2 token
Grimoire HP Cost Display Issue
Blood Circle wrong spell cost description (numeric)
If an equipped item is not present in inventory, causes soft lock after trading
Outsider Cutscene Issue In Old Eel Attic
EDIT: For the people who can not venture forth with their starting companions (Werner for Aristocrat and Winston the hound for Explorer), we'll have another patch tomorrow that will solve the issue completely along with a good number of issues with the Chinese and Spanish localizations.
Pro Tips - A How to Survive Arkham Guide
The right mouse button is your best friend. It opens a radial menu with all abilities and skills applicable to the chosen object or character. It can be used both in and out of combat. Make sure to right-click all objects you find curious.
Choosing your PC’s Belief System is a big decision. It’s an important gameplay mechanic. Make sure to choose the one you are actually going to roleplay most of the time. Don’t make everything harder for yourself by roleplaying a materialist with a humanistic PC.
Make sure to avoid fighting if possible. Combat is the main source of ANGST points. ANGST points are like negative experience points. The more of them you get, the more defect and traumatized your PC will become.
You don’t have to kill everybody in order to win struggles and progress forward. The longer you fight the better chances you will get an open window for a Progressive Escape. If you see blue cells on a battlefield, rush to them and press the escape button. You will win the fight and keep all the loot you’ve salvaged.
All quests and challenges in Stygian can be solved by at least four approaches: direct, cunning, intellectual and costly. Be attentive because almost any character builds, especially non-combat one, can solve most of the challenges without either fighting or spending money.
Every character class has three skills which can be maxed out. We recommend spending most of your skill points on them for the better RPG experience.
Science, Medicine, Survival skills have separate crafting branches. We recommend using all advantages from crafting if your character class allows it.
You can’t complete Stygian and not to go nuts a couple of times. Drug issues, alcoholism, mental disorders - all of this is a part of the game. It is also a part of your PC which can even make him or her even stronger. Don’t be afraid and bravely walk into the abyss.
Skills checks usually involve both skills and attributes. There is no point putting skill points into Subterfuge if your character has low Agility.
Take a closer look at possibilities which resting gives to you and your companions. For example, studying new spells, scientific research and artifacts deciphering are available only when your party is resting.
Always hide your identity before directly opposing the Mob. Wear a mask. Like a swimming mask or a burglar mask. A gas mask will do too.
A lantern is the best way to save your sanity in darkness. Make sure you have it and a kerosene supply before exploring the warehouse.
Try to keep your sanity level above 50% to lower risks of acquiring a mental condition. Some classes have unique companions from the start. Try out the Explorer to get our favourite dog companion!
You will find all kinds of dark essences during your journey. Make sure to use them in order to upgrade yours or your companion's spells in grimoire.
Russian version here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1874672027
