Original Post by the Creator of ADOM: Thomas Biskup himself:

1. Our short-term goal was to create a new audience for a sequel to ADOM by addressing a more mainstream audience (people who regularly play RPGs but are not really into roguelikes). We felt that this move was an absolute necessity to be able to sustain the development of a modern graphical game worthy of a 21st century audience. Doing so requires higher investments compared to building a simpler pure ASCII based game. We always had the vision to prove that even a complex game of the nature of ADOM is mainstream-capable and can provide exciting new venues to players accustomed to such more classical RPG games out there.
   
2. Our long-term goal (and this mirrors in the name prefix “Ultimate” we chose) was to build a much deeper ADOM that surpasses the original in every aspect: More stories, more complex story lines, more character options, more skills, more spells, more items, an extensive surface world and so on and so forth.

• Melee
  
• Magic
  
• Overall balance, stability, performance and pacing

• We want to continue developing Ultimate ADOM for an infinite amount of time if this is sustainable by any means.
  
• We want to release a lot more content updates addressing all dimensions of the game the old community craves and loves.

So once more the brief summary:

• We cater to two audiences: more mainstream gamers and the classical community that helped make ADOM great.
  
• The more mainstream community now gets their full production release in August.
  
• We acknowledge, that there is still content to come and we want to assure that we will support the game post release as much as possible, but this will also be tied to how well the game performs financially after release.
  
• The next two milestones are a “bug & performance release in July” and the “magic update & combat fine-tuning release” (with some cool yet unannounced surprises) for the August production release. We changed our priorities here due to your very clear feedback, which we absolutely agree with!
  
• We probably should have spent a lot more time communicating this two-part vision in a clearer way. Sorry for being confusing or not transparent enough. But sitting in our rabbit hole for some reason we failed to notice this.

The Early Access of Ultimate ADOM both Standard- and Save The World Edition are each 25% off during Steam's Summer Sale!

You want even more ADOM?

But this is just the beginning!

Full Changelog version 0.9.0 - Ultimate ADOM Early Access Combat Update

Community feedback-based additions and changes!

• Powerful monsters may now carry Treasure Troves with them.
  
  • Defeating them and looting these troves will offer you a choice of mighty items, and also offer you the chance to sacrifice gathered gold for a new random selection of items!
  
  
• All combat skill trees have been completely streamlined, allowing you a choice of fighting style instead of locking you into certain weapons.
  
  • The old combat skill system forced you early on into specializing on certain weapon types. Therefore, the old skill system has been replaced with 140 new skills, offering a longer and more interesting progression.
  
  
• In general, combat has been spiced up a lot by making it much more challenging:
  
  • Being swarmed by enemies makes it more likely to be hit the more enemies attack you in the same turn. This applies for both ranged and melee combat.
    
  • Wielding multiple weapons now comes with a price and requires skill investment to be effective.
    
  • If you (or your enemy) deal at least 10 points of damage with a melee attack, they will cause a minimum of 1 point of damage even if your Protection Value is higher. This allows you to whittle down even heavily armored enemies - and it makes charging into a swarm of monsters more dangerous while wearing heavy plate.
    
  • Critical hits from both player characters and monsters are slightly rarer now.
    
  • A high chance of hitting something also increases the chance to bypass an enemy’s armor, too.
    
  • Armor can now be damaged or even destroyed by armor-penetrating hits. Make sure to carry a spare pair of pants with you, if you rely on such things!
    
  • Area spell damage has been slightly toned down again. While still being an excellent choice and playstyle, room-filling spells are no longer the answer to everything you might be encountering.
  
  
• The way player characters heal has been changed.
  
  • You will regenerate more slowly while crawling the dungeon, thus making hunting for regeneration flux points, healing potions or food more tense.
    
  • At the same, time, healing while resting will become faster, the longer you remain undisturbed, making the search for rare and undisturbed spots more important.
    
  • Finally, healing potions are now more common, and every adventurer starts with one.
  
  
• Achievements have been added to the game! 50 very different challenges await you.
  
• While creating a custom character, the powers of races, classes and professions now are explained with much more detail.

New Content

• Four new pesky monsters plague the early dungeon levels.
  
• Tons of new prefixes and suffixes, which effectively are adding millions of new items to the game:
  
  • Added 18 shield prefixes and 13 shield suffixes for a total of more than 40,000 new shields that can be found.
    
  • Added 13 ranged weapon prefixes and 14 ranged weapon suffixes, a couple of million new ranged weapons that can be found.
    
  • Added 6 more armor prefixes and 2 more armor suffixes.
    
  • Added 2 more body wear suffixes.
    
  • Added 2 more melee weapon prefixes.
    
  • Affix-based powers have been boosted to make them more exciting. A weapon of orc-slaying now finally means actually slaying orcs while wielding it!
  
  
• Powerful items have a special marker with different colors now, indicating their power level: blue, yellow and purple indicate that a weapon is powerful, mighty and epic respectively.
  
• The format of the highscore file was updated to improve performance.
  
  • Important notice: Unfortunately, this means that your old highscores will be gone after the update. Make sure to take a screenshot of your old highscores for bragging rights!
  
  
• We also changed the format of some other configuration files, so you may get some prompts again in the main menu (that you already answered before) and you also might need to reconfigure the statistics configuration again (if you changed it).
  
• You can now earn 5 Steam trading cards.

Various bug fixes and improvements:

• Auto-exploration has been redesigned and should now be much smarter and less prone to unexpected results.
  
• Orcs and trolls now also have level-based benefits, like the other player races.
  
• Wizards now receive the first four levels of literacy for free. Those starting scrolls are no longer dead paper weight!
  
• The duration and severity of poison has been adjusted.
  
• Dangerous monsters and similar challenges no longer should be generated directly adjacent to stairways, giving you a greater chance to bypass them without getting pummeled.
  
• The dungeon no longer sports any dead ends.
  
• Melee archery now works as intended.
  
• Summoning monsters no longer causes a huge performance hit.
  
• Summoned monsters now behave less like companions and more like the ravenous horde of beings they are supposed to be.
  
• Harvesting buttons now only are offered if you really can harvest items.
  
• Many items that had no effect have been removed and will no longer spawn. All armors, bracers, cloaks, gauntlets, gloves, footwear items, headgear items, necklaces, amulets, shields and tools you find have a use.
  
• This includes bandages: Using them now provides some healing and stops bleeding.
  
• We removed the eyewear slot.
  
• Will o’wisps now actually can attack.
  
• Troll Assassins will no longer start naked.
  
• Many minor bug fixes.
  
  • Too many and too little to list here in detail.

Development-Roadmap

New content:

• Two new languages!
  
  • You can now play the game in French and Spanish (the latter in both a South American and a European variant).
  
  
• Brannalbin himself has intervened and deemed magic in general too weak. As a result, all spells are now much more powerful.
  
• A major new game mechanic: Possession.
  
  • Become a frog, a dragon, a worm, a rat, an ogre, a hill giant or anything else that crawls, sneaks, runs or slithers through the Caverns of Chaos. If you find the magical means to do so.
  
  
• Possibly related to the previous point, the enigmatic Temple Of The Frog is no longer empty.
  
• Dark Elves emerge from the Deependark to test their skills and prowess against the terrors of the Caverns of Chaos.
  
  • Dark Elves have access to a very special skill tree available only to them for now.
  
  
• Originally the class was meant to be introduced much later, but as Dark Elves share a natural affinity for such things, you can now play as an Assassin and skulk in the darkness, expertly wielding poisons and the very shadows themselves as weapons.
  
• Magical Wands have been implemented!
  
  • You can find 22 different, fully functioning wands in the dungeons below. Enjoy experimenting with them!
  
  
• Several new skill trees make their appearance, including the first “secret” skill - skills that will only unlock when you meet a certain prerequisite of other skills.
  
  • Because this is the first of them and not terribly secret yet, you will unlock Assassination only after spending points in the Stealth skill.
    
  • Arachnomancy (15 skills and 10 spells) will allow the summoning of spiders and is only available to Dark Elves for now.
    
  • Assassination (14 skills) will greatly increase the damage dealt while sneaking, among other things.
  • Poisoning (11 skills) is the first foray into alchemy, creating poisonous concoctions and improving their efficency.
    
  • Finally, you can now become a deadly warrior wielding whips (with 23 skills), if that is your thing. We are not judging.
  
  
• Some monsters have become slightly smarter and now band together, patrolling the dungeon and hunt for adventurers.
  
• 11 new monster types have been added.
  

Bug Fixes:

• Potions often didn’t work quite as intended. They should do that now, no matter if you coat your weapon, pour them out on the floor or actually drink them.
  
• Giant spiders now actually work.
  
• A ton of minor bug fixes.

Exclusive Developer Livestream

About Ultimate ADOM

Check out the Ultimate ADOM - Caverns of Chaos Early Access trailer:

The upcoming Early Access Update Includes:

• New Race: Dark Elves — Clawing their way up from the Deependark, these brave cave-warriors are ready to throw their might at all the slithering terrors from the Caverns of Chaos. They also have access to an entirely unique skill tree available only to their race!
  
• New Class: The Assassin — Why fight a monstrous beast of the deep head-on? The new Assassin class utilizes slick and deadly poisons to slay from the dark, and can even use the very shadows themselves as wicked weapons to whittle their enemies down
  
• New Mechanic: Possession — Step into the shoes — or lack thereof — of the various creepy-crawlies and monsters that lurk in the Caverns of Chaos. Become a a frog, a dragon, a worm, a rat, an ogre, a hill giant and more to take your beast-breaking badassery to whole new levels of creativity
  
• Updates and Fixes — Along with a host of bug fixes and improvements, Ultimate ADOM - Caverns of Chaos now features Spanish (European and South American) and French localizations
  

Developed by Team ADOM and published by Assemble Entertainment, Ultimate ADOM - Caverns of Chaos is now available on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam Early Access.

New content:

• In the depths of the Caverns of Chaos (around dungeon level 11), a new unhallowed place has opened up: The Halls of the Dead contain more monsters, more loot and a lot more dangers.
  
• Hill Orcs and Gnolls join the fray. Dangerous and experienced warriors and scouts, they will make the best use of weapons lying around.
  
• Rune plates can now be read, as can tombstones. Beware of what you might find though.

Graphics & UI:

• Changes in level illumination will now shine a new light on certain levels.
  
• You can now open the pause menu to save the game even when only playing with a mouse. There’s no need to reach towards the keyboard anymore, if that is the mode you prefer playing in.

Improvements:

• Enemies and allies are much more persistent in chasing you across different dungeon levels. No more escaping up the stairs for some quick healing!
  
• Weapon stats are no longer confused by the fact they’re equipped, on the ground or in the backpack. They will always display modified statistics now, making it much easier to evaluate the power of weapons you find.
  
• Cannibalism is now taken into account. And a bad thing.
  
• Characters now start out with more equipment to deal with the growing challenges.
  
• Chaos goo once more advances slightly faster after it was slowed a lot in the previous patch. It resists balancing, as is only proper. Let us know if you think we nailed it now!
  
• Each buffing spell can now only be cast, if it is not active on you.
  
• Minor changes to the tutorial based on player feedback.
  
• Monsters will no longer spawn just in front of you.

Bug Fixes:

• Items on the ground will now finally show the correct PV and DV values.
  
• Stairs and tunnels will no longer accidentally be destroyed by chaos goo.
  
• Added more translations.
  
• Weapon made from eternium now display statistics correctly.
  
• Monster tooltips now take many more things into account when it comes to calculating likelihoods of hitting and damaging them.
  
• Large hammers are now two-handed weapons as originally intended. Graft more arms if your Troll Chaosknight still wants to wield a shield!
  
• Sometimes, a randomly spawned monster would cause a crash. This should no longer be the case.
  
• Displacer beasts are now slightly less mysterious, and will display their stats in their tooltip.
  
• Various minor bug fixes and stability enhancements, sometimes too smalle and overall too many to list them in detail.

Improvements:

• We have made massive stability improvements.
  
  • Most error logs should be a thing of the past from now on.
  
  
• Based on your feedback, we have slightly slowed the inevitable crawling of ChAoS.
  
  • It is still dangerous to remain, but it should no longer be quite as deadly.
  
  
• If you try to close the main window while a game is running, you can now either select to create a save game and quit, or simply continuing to play the game.
  
• Corruptions are now clearly labeled as 'minor', 'major', or 'ultimate' corruptions.
  
• Some corruptions did not explain in detail, what they actually did - they will now provide more elaborate explanations.
  
• Tooltips have been updated to provide more information of special abilities from various items, skills and corruptions.
  
• Eating corpses has become more fun. Several new effects have been added.
  
• Non-English-speakers rejoice! There have been many improvements to German and Simplified Chinese localizations. Additionally, we have also started laying the foundations for French and Spanish translations, which will be heading to the game very soon.
  
• We have reworked the way we collect data and error logs.
  You can now easily opt in or opt out of the data collection during gameplay, which is also the reason why we need to ask you for the permission once again, when you start the game.

Bug reporting:

• Bugs are now sent to us automagically, if you agree to this in the previously mentioned opting in-process.
  We still want and value your feedback on everything else, so please keep them coming!
  https://www.ultimate-adom.com/bugs

The Early Access of Ultimate ADOM both Standard and 'Save The World' Edition are each 20% off during the Assemble Publisher Sale!

You want even more ADOM?

But this is just the beginning!

New game settings:

• You can now modify the way you want to play the game! Toggling these will result in an unbalanced game experience and thus not generate a highscore entry. Also, please note that this is a highly experimental feature and will not receive the same attention as the default game, because we need to finish work on the core features first before we can fine-tune alternative game modes.
  
• Diagonal Movement
  
• Permadeath
  
• German and Simplified Chinese made it into the game already, with more languages coming soon! With real grammar support, getting better with every release (correct multi-lingual grammar is a real challenge when you have complex procedurally generated content).

New content:

• 70 corruptions (minor, major, ultimate) now are part of the game and will alter both your gaming experience and your character forever. Grow wings or prehensile tails, wrestle enemies with your tentacles, sweat maggots, summon chaos imps, breath lighting or acid… ChAoS hath no boundaries! Note that nearly all monsters can receive most of these corruptions, too. So the more corrupted the overall dungeon gets, the more likely you are to encounter weird new (and more powerful) monsters that have been altered by corruptions and try to utilize them to their advantage!
  
• But beware - too much corruption comes at a prize only those of strong personality can suffer! The higher your charisma, the more corruptions you can sustain… before turning you into an unfortunate blob of raw ChAoS!

Input handling:

• Gamepad support is now disabled by default because it could create some weird inputs when other devices like joysticks were plugged in. If you wish to play with a controller, you have to enable gamepad support first.

Performance:

• Dying now is much faster (for both yourself and the monsters you slay, if they carry a large amount of items).
  
• Map and monster generation is now less memory intensive and should be much faster.
  
• Spawning monsters no longer should have a serious impact on performance.

Important changes:

• The key to activate camera rotation was changed from “alt/ctrl” to the “shift” keys. We decided to change these to prevent conflicts with key combinations used by the operating system (e.g. alt+tab on Windows). Please let us know if you want to be able to remap these keys!
  
• Summoning has been balanced and although it now is less realistic (for a given value of realism) it hopefully is more fun to fight summoners.
  
• Spawning has been reduced in the big room and Lake Gloom.

Bug fixes:

• A few remaining grafting bugs have been fixed. Grafted bodyparts now should work under all circumstances and in all combinations.
  
• Multiple monster attacks now work. Beware of things that bite and claw!
  
• Pouring potions on the floor once again works.
  
• The tutorial no longer starts with the Mad Minstrel introduction. His madness will now only affect the foolish brave, starting with him as a patron.
  
• Items now are immune to various effects such as poisoning and bleeding.
  
• Starting with points invested in the blunt weapon skill tree no longer provides excessive equipment.
  
• Artifacts will no longer be generated more than once for each type.
  
• Oil spilled from burning braziers now continues to burn properly again.
  
• Inferno and poison cloud spells no longer crash the system when getting into contact.
  
• Artifacts are now true artifacts - indestructible and loaded with other goodies. Of course, enemies will make use of them too.
  
• In some cases, average damage, damage ranges and hit probabilities were incorrectly calculated in tooltips. This has been fixed.
  
• You can no longer sneak attack with spells.
  
• Fixed various missing monster stat definitions.
  
• Bracers that did not work will no longer be generated.
  
• Potions of gain attributes now work (and are slightly stronger).
  
• Tooltip caching problems have been fixed. This means all stat tooltips should update immediately.
  
• Hive monsters no longer will accidentally enter tunnel entrances. Neither will summoned monsters.
  
• A rare bug leading into a crash, when entering the worm tunnels, has been fixed.
  
• Randomly generated artifacts will now actually apply the indicated stat bonuses.
  
• And many more smaller, most likely less noticeable bugs, too many and too small to list them all, have been tackled and fixed.

Get the Ultimate ADOM Early Access, both Standard- and Save The World Edition are currently 20% off:

Additionally, get the original ADOM for whooping 35% off: