The v1.4.8 patch has gone live. You can find the release notes below.
NPCs
Introduced new Ice Caller minibosses. These are a specialized human mage type which casts frost based magical attacks. This includes slowing attacks which will reduce your movement. They can also blink, which will not only relocate them, but boost their damage for a period of time afterwards. They can easily be identified by their light blue robes.
There is a new NPC mage miniboss type: Fire Bringer. These human spell casters are similar to the Ice Callers, except their abilities are fire based. They can not warp, but have more offensive minded abilities, including reactives and proximity damage. They can be easily identified by their red robes.
Werewolves and Scraggly Werewolves are now more dangerous when flanking their opponents, gaining a damage bonus in those situation.
Made some adjustments to the reactive fireball attacks on Minibosses. The mini-boss variation will now spawn less projectiles and will randomly choose which directions are chosen. We also toned down the damage on these attacks.
Skeleton Captains can now backstab.
Scenarios
Adjusted the spawners in the majority of scenarios. This was done to both add in the new NPC minibosses, but also to adjust the miniboss distribution. Allowing some minibosses to cross over into different themes, wherever it made sense. It will for example, be much more common to get an Orc boss on an orc map. But it is also possible to get a Gorgon, Troll, or Mage from time to time.
Sounds
Added new NPC pain, death, and taunt sounds.
Miscellaneous
Localization Updates.
Fixed an issue with the liches ice blast attack. It erroneously had a tiny effect radius.
The Hopebringer: Price Reduction and Week in Review
In addition to the usual weekly report, we have another bit of news this week. The Hopebringer has had its priced reduced to an every day price of just $4.99. Our focus moving forward will be on getting the game out of early access, and preparing a demo for the game.
As has been the traditional to date, here is a summary of the updates that made it into the live game this week:
Dungeons and Scenarios
Added additional ground clutter to the following scenarios: Retrieve the Artifact, Destroy Their Supplies, Defeat the War Leader, Rescue, Seal the Rift, and War Plans.
Terrain optimizations were made to the Destroying their Supplies and Defeating the War Leader scenarios.
Graphics
Bone material optimizations.
NPCs
Introduced a new NPC ability: Backstab. This ability will only be available if an NPC is behind a player or a companion, but will deal a large amount of damage in those situations.
Certain NPCs can now enter into stealth mode, preventing you from seeing them unless you close within a certain distance. When an NPC enters or exits stealth mode their body will disappear in a puff of smoke.
Introduced new Orc Assassin NPCs. These are the first rogue NPCs in the game. these NPCs can stay in stealth mode until they are near the player. They can use the new NPC backstab ability which can deal large amounts of damage from behind. In addition to this they have special abilities which can ignore armor. They can also dodge to reposition, and in general will deal more damage, while being able to absorb less damage than an Orc Grunt. They have a new outfit with a hood to make them easy to identify.
Added new human Rogues NPCs. These are very similar to the Orc Assassins. With the ability to backstab, ignore armor, and stealth. They feature improved defense at the expense of critical damage, in comparison to the orc variation. An easy way to recognize rogues are by the darker clothing and bloodied masks.
Sound Effects
Fixed a bug that was causing some barbarians to use orc pain sound effects.
Miscellaneous
Localization updates.
v1.4.7 Build Notes
Introduced a new NPC ability: Backstab. This ability will only be available if an NPC is behind a player or a companion, but will deal a large amount of damage in those situations.
Certain NPCs can now enter into stealth mode, preventing you from seeing them unless you close within a certain distance. When an NPC enters or exits stealth mode their body will disappear in a puff of smoke.
Introduced new Orc Assassin NPCs. These are the first rogue NPCs in the game. these NPCs can stay in stealth mode until they are near the player. They can use the new NPC backstab ability which can deal large amounts of damage from behind. In addition to this they have special abilities which can ignore armor. They can also dodge to reposition, and in general will deal more damage, while being able to absorb less damage than an Orc Grunt. They have a new outfit with a hood to make them easy to identify.
Added new human Rogues NPCs. These are very similar to the Orc Assassins. With the ability to backstab, ignore armor, and stealth. They feature improved defense at the expense of critical damage, in comparison to the orc variation. An easy way to recognize rogues are by the darker clothing and bloodied masks.
Fixed a bug that was causing some barbarians to use orc pain sound effects.
v1.4.6 Build Notes
Added a new Berserker (Warrior) skill: Reckless Rage. This skill is unlocked at level 15, if you have previously unlocked the Overpower ability. It will instantly decrease your health by 25%, in order to boost your power instantly, and grant a temporary boost to your damage for the next 10 seconds. Additional ranks increase the amount of the damage bonus, while additional ranks of the Overpower skill will increase the amount of power restored.
Added additional ground clutter to the following scenarios: Retrieve the Artifact, Destroy Their Supplies, Defeat the War Leader, Rescue, Seal the Rift, and War Plans.
Terrain optimizations were made to the Destroying their Supplies and Defeating the War Leader scenarios.
Bone material optimizations.
Localization updates.
Early Access: Week 8 Progress Report
With week 8 behind us, we are closing in on two months of Early Access. In this update we take a look back at the progress that was made this week.
Dungeons and Scenarios
Introduced floor saw traps. These traps will move from side to side and need to be timed to pass through without taking damage. These will typically spawn in doorways or hallways, and can come in a single or multiple saw configurations. Their speeds and positions are also randomized.
Added floor saw traps to the following scenarios: Retrieve the War Plans, Rescue, and Retrieve the Artifact.
Added new bosses as options in the Showdown scenario.
Items and Loot
Fixed a bug that could temporarily remove your armor visuals in some rare circumstances.
NPCs
Liches have been added to the game. They are powerful undead spell casters.
Texture optimizations to some NPC types, allowing for more efficient texture memory usage.
Added additional spells to NPC spell casters.
Fixed a bug that was preventing Reapers from playing their death particles.
Skills and Abilities
Added a new Berserker (Warrior) skill: Reckless Rage. This skill is unlocked at level 15, if you have previously unlocked the Overpower ability. It will instantly decrease your health by 25%, in order to boost your power instantly, and grant a temporary boost to your damage for the next 10 seconds. Additional ranks increase the amount of the damage bonus, while additional ranks of the Overpower skill will increase the amount of power restored.
Miscellaneous
Opacity masks can now be virtual textured, saving additional texture memory.
Pet post-teleport grounding improvements.
v1.4.5 Build Notes
Introduced floor saw traps. These traps will move from sidt to side and need to be timed to pass through without taking damage. These will typically spawn in doorways or hallways, and can come in a single or multiple saw configurations. Their speeds and positions are also randomized.
Added floor saw traps to the following scenarios: Retrieve the War Plans, Rescue, and Retrieve the Artifact.
Added new random bosses options in the Showdown scenario.
v1.4.4 Build Notes
Liches have been added to the game. They are powerful undead spell casters.
Texture optimizations to some NPC types, allowing for more efficient texture memory usage.
Opacity masks can now be virtual textured, saving additional texture memory.
Added additional spells to NPC spell casters.
Pet post-teleport grounding improvements.
Fixed a bug that could temporarily remove your armor visuals in some rare circumstances.
Fixed a bug that was preventing Reapers from playing their death particles.
Early Access: Week 7 Progress Report
With our seventh week of Early Access behind us, we take a look back at the changes that took place in patches over the past week.
Dungeons and Scenarios
There is now a small chance that a miniboss can spawn from any regular NPC spawner in most scenarios. There is a lower percentage chance in entry level scenarios.
Made some adjustments to the spawners in the Raiding Camp scenario.
Fixed a problem with the stone gate not registering in some rare cases in the Raiding Camp scenario.
Items and Loot
Introduced new specialty items. These have generated effects like most magic items, but in this case they are geared towards specific customization sets.
Introduced new higher end magical cloth based equipment for mages, who were lagging behind heavier armor types in terms of variety.
Spellcasting NPCs now have an increased chance of dropping mage themed loot.
Added new and improved icons to each of the glove types in game.
Improved chest loot diversity.
NPCS
Introduced new Gorgon enemies. These will spawn as minibosses or bosses once players have obtained sufficient level. While not quite able to turn your party into stone, they can paralyze you temporarily, if you gaze at them at the wrong time. They also shoot long range, venomous arrows. The boss variation also has additional special abilities. They are especially resistant to poison, but vulnerable to heat and cold.
Introduced a new NPC type. Reapers are a form of skeletal melee minibosses, who wield heavy scythes. Reaper attacks deal heavy damage. They are vulnerable to blunt weapons, and resistant to poison. They can blink positions to escape players.
NPCs can now increase the ratio of certain special abilities in relation to others.
Increased the maximum level limits on some bosses and minibosses
Skills and Abilities
Introduced a new Protector (Cleric) ability: Circle of Warding. This creates a warding circle in the area that you cast the ability. Until it dissipates, it will knock back incoming enemies who venture near it. This can be very useful in scenarios like the Protect the Artifact scenario, or near doorways, to buy you time in a busy encounter. The distance launched is doubled if the target is currently Off Balance. It can be trained at level 20, and requires you to have trained the Ward skill to unlock it. Additional skill ranks increase the radius of the effect.
Fixed a bug where some control effects would fail to apply if they occurred during a hit reaction.
Sounds
Sound effect networking improvements.
Skeleton Captains no longer have orc death sounds.
Miscellaneous
Localization improvements.
Pet post-teleport grounding improvements.
v1.4.3 Build Notes
Introduced a new NPC type. Reapers are a form of skeletal melee minibosses, who wield heavy scythes. Reaper attacks deal heavy damage. They are vulnerable to blunt weapons, and resistant to poison. They can blink positions to escape players.
Increased the maximum level limits on some bosses and minibosses
Made some adjustments to the spawners in the Raiding Camp scenario.
Skeleton Captains no longer have orc death sounds.
Fixed a problem with the stone gate not registering in some rare cases in the Raiding Camp scenario.
v1.4.2 Build Notes
Introduced a new Protector (Cleric) ability: Circle of Warding. This creates a warding circle in the area that you cast the ability. Until it dissipates, it will knock back incoming enemies who venture near it. This can be very useful in scenarios like the Protect the Artifact scenario, or near doorways, to buy you time in a busy encounter. The distance launched is doubled if the target is currently Off Balance. It can be trained at level 20, and requires you to have trained the Ward skill to unlock it. Additional skill ranks increase the radius of the effect.
Introduced new specialty items. These have generated effects like most magic items, but in this case they are geared towards specific customization sets.
Introduced new higher end magical cloth based equipment for mages, who were lagging behind heavier armor types in terms of variety.
Spellcasting NPCs now have an increased chance of dropping mage themed loot.
Added new and improved icons to each of the glove types in game.
