Hi Everyone, This week I worked on a new gameplay element: Lore. Lore is actually a new currency/resource that our hero can accumulate from various objects or people. Reading books, meeting historians, listening bard songs give lore. Hero can also earn lore by discovering altars, statues and sarcophagi.
Lore will be used to purchase treasure maps, skill points and attribute points. There will be a new lore page within the journal to make these actions. You can also see here the titles of the books hero has read.
There will also be a new skill called lore mastery. Intelligence attribute and lore mastery skill will both govern the lore collecting process. It will be a lot easier to collect lore with higher lore mastery skill.
Another new game play element is the treasure map. Treasure maps will be purchased with lore points. The logic behind is that the hero finds lots of clues in the books, statues, songs etc. and connects them to find a long lost treasure. He may also get lucky and find treasure maps in various places while adventuring. Shady character may sell them too.
Treasure maps are items in the inventory which can be viewed by right clicking on them. They will show a somewhat vague drawing of the overworld map with a red mark indicating where the treasure is. This place will not be marked on the hero’s overworld map like quest locations. Hero will have to go near to it to make it visible and find the treasure.
I decided that the treasure map should be on an old paper with a hand drawn look. But since the map is procedurally generated, it became obvious that it is challenging to make it look like a person has drawn it. I tried some things and came up with this version which is still work in progress. I plan to add the settlements and may also increase the variety of the trees and mountains if it looks good.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. May the tides bring you triumph!
Update 27 - Part 2 Arrives! Hunter’s Reckoning
Hi everyone, This is a small update that adds more content to last week's update. As you know, last week we added lots of unique items but there was one kind of items missing: bows. Like other uniques, these bows are powerful items that scale to the level of the hero at the time they are found. You may find these unique bows at the boss rooms and iron chests.
Version 0.90.02 ADDITIONS
12 unique shortbows added.
CHANGES
Iron chests have 35% chance to contain a unique item instead of 25%.
FIXES
Fixed silver shortbows undead bane buff.
Fixed an issue about shortbow bleed damage. It was not working as intended.
Update 27 Arrives! Fang of the Thing that Lurks Beneath
Hi Everyone, We are ready with a new update with lots of new unique items making the game so much more rewarding. These are powerful items that can usually be found after the boss fights. Unique rings can also be found while fishing. A few of them are rewards at the Artisan's treasure vault. Save files are compatible with this update, but in order to see the new items in the treasure vault, starting a new game is required.
Some of these items have interesting effects like starting/stopping rain or giving the hero more chance to find a treasure while fishing. Some rings can even amplify talent stone damages.
A new weapon trait, "Undead Bane" added. Now all Silver weapons have this trait and they inflict 25% more damage to undeads.
"Scent of Beast" curse added. This may happen when the hero shapeshifts to bear or bat. Speechcraft decreases but intimidation increases. Hero also can not enter towns easily.
Remove Curse potion added.
CHANGES
Every dungeon's last room chest contains a unique item.
Iron chests have 25% chance to contain a unique item.
Sword in the stone incident drops a unique sword. There are more ghosts that protect sword in the stone.
Tomb at the mausoleum always has a unique item. There are more monsters that protect the tomb.
Trees drop loot bags. They used to drop only wood, but now drop different materials.
Changed some of the drop rates of certain ingredients so that the hero can make health and stamina potions more easily.
"Nigthmares" is a curse instead of a "Sanity loss".
Undeads are now immune to drain life.
There are crystals at the last room of lava dungeon for more loot.
Hyena encounters are more crowded now.
Improved the roll over card on melee damage and ranged damage on the character sheet. Now you can read fire, ice, poison, lightning and bleed damage on the cards.
Version 0.85.14
Hi everyone, Here is a small bugfix update.
Exiled Prince's starting weapon damage was miscalculated, making him really hard to play.
Sea serpent starsign poison bonus was not added correctly to the poison damage total.
Development News: Watcher of Things
Hi Everyone, This week I worked on unique items and some improvements here and there.
I made lootbags for trees. Before this, they were dropping only wood. With a loot bag, they can now drop all sorts of items: apple, butterfly, moss, moth larva, to name a few. Since trees may also spawn wood golems when cut, farming loot from trees has its own risks.
Few weeks earlier, I made a magic ring that starts rain. When hero wears it, it had 5% chance to strike the hero with lightning. We tested it for some time and it felt too powerful. Since rain enhances the damage of lightning spells, %5 chance of something bad happening seemed low. Now instead, when hero wears the ring, there is a 15% chance of strike by lightning.
I made some new unique rings that enhance elemental damages and attributes at the same time. My thought is that if the hero finds a ring that gives +4 fire damage and +4 intelligence, even he doesn't have any fire talent, he may buy a sword of fire to utilize this ring. What I wanted to achieve with these items is that the game suggests new and meaningful ways of building the character.
One of the the new amulets is Watcher of Things. This item enhances search stat which effects the quality of the items hero finds. It gives defense too. Another special power of this amulet is that enemies with stealth ability can not use their ability when hero wears this amulet.
With this update, every chest at the boss rooms will have a unique item. Some of them will also have a talent stone. So the game became a lot more rewarding.
A new addition is a negative major effect: Scent of the Beast. If hero shapeshifts into bear or bat too frequently, he may acquire "Scent of the Beast". This is a longer type of ongoing effect, practically a curse. Hero's speechcraft drops significantly and town guards don't let the hero in. They sense something is wrong with the hero. For this to work properly, I need to make a remove curse potion before the update.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. May the tides bring you triumph!
Development News: Rainbringer
Hi everyone, This week we worked on unique items. We added 16 unique accessories to the game for the next update. They are all powerful artifacts which scale to the level of the hero at the time they are found. But they are not all about giving stats, some of them have powers that no other item has.
"Rainbringer" is a curious ring. When hero equips it, it starts a rain that lasts for 2 days. Rainbringer works outdoors and it will be a valuable ring for heroes with lightning talent stones since lightning works better when it is raining. Rainbringer will be obtainable from the Artisan’s Guild treasure vault. So hero may acquire it by completing a few quests for them.
Another ring is for heroes with fire-based attacks. This ring’s name is “Seal of Drought”. As the name suggests, when the hero wears it, the rain stops. So the hero can freely use fireballs etc.
Another curious effect of this ring is that if the hero uses “Seal of Drought” too frequently, “famine” may start in one of the nearby towns.
Since these rings both alter the weather, there is a possibility that the hero may be struck by a lightning after equipping them.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. May the tides bring you triumph!
Version 0.85.12
Hi everyone, Here is another bugfix and changes update.
Adventurer's Guild was giving only one type of quest although there was five quest types.
Increased the probability of finding ingredients from the bushes needed for health and stamina potions.
Version 0.85.11
Hi everyone, Here is small bugfix and changes update.
Fixed a bug that occurs if the hero tries to craft potion or cook food immediately after fishing. Hero was moving at the background to the mouse direction.
Added an "Are you sure?" window after the player clicks the "retire hero" button. It was retiring without confirmation.
Version 0.85.09
Hi everyone, Here is small bugfix update.
FIXES
Some damage types were written wrong on the Talent Stone Cards although they were calculated correctly. For example it was written as fire damage instead of ice.
After upgrading meditation skill, the perk about elemental damages was not updated immediately on the talent stone info page.
Update 26 Arrives! The Hero and the Sea
Hi everyone, We are ready with a new update. This is a major one with new content and important changes. After lots of iterations and testing, we made the talent stones upgradable. When the hero uses them, they earn experience points and they can be upgraded up to 5 levels each. This change forced us to do some balancing changes because hero became significantly more powerful. Note that these balance changes are not final, so there may be new changes according to feedback.
Another new feature in this update is fishing activity. Hero can buy fishing baits from the lighthouse and try fishing while camping near water tiles at the overworld map. There are new dishes to be cooked with new catches. This is the first version of fishing. We hope to improve this activity with upcoming updates.
We also introduced unique items with this update. They are all rings for now and can be found while catching fishes. With this foundation, it will be easy to add other type of unique items in the near future.
Note that the older saves will not work with this update. The older version can be found under beta at the client.
Version 0.85.08 ADDITIONS
All talent stones earn experience points as hero uses them. Right clicking on a talent stone opens up a detailed info page.
Fishing activity added to the game. You can try to find a fishing spot through the camping menu. You have to camp near a water tile at the overworld. You can fish while sailing too.
3 different fishing spots added. Common, excellent and legendary fishing spots.
Fishing baits added: Insect meat, siren scale, earthworm, moth larva. They can be found with certain encounters or can be bought from the lighthouse. Adventurer’s Guild sells them too as essential items.
New dishes added: Fisherman's Soup, Grilled Yellowfin, Octopus Soup, Fish Stew
6 New Unique rings added. They can be found while fishing. They are powerful items which scale to the level of the hero at the time they are found.
New indicators added at the top of the overworld screen which show the activities hero can take while camping at that square. Fishing near a water tile or hunting at the forest tile etc.
CHANGES
We made several changes to the talent stones. They all become more powerful as they level up. Their stamina changes accordingly.
All sarcophaguses now drop a random talent stone, including the ones in the dungeons that the town lords send you.
Wilderness Survival skill perks changed to accommodate fishing.
Meditation skill perks give more elemental damage.
Enemies have become more challenging to balance the more powerful talent stones.
3 and 4 skull dungeons became harder, especially their champions.
Destroyed rocks may drop earthworms.
FIXES
On rare occasions, the message text at the top was written on the top of each other.
Towns with epidemic were giving normal price to excellent versions of the health potions.
