- Important! This game release is not compatible with the save games of the earlier releases (r58 and older)!
- If earlier save files are detected, they are moved into "(game folder)\Backup_r58\Save". When you start the updated game, a menu will open where you can launch older releases of the game and finish those runs.
- If you had an unfinished extended game going on where you plan to utilize previously ascended characters, you can continue that with the older release.
- Check the "Skip this menu until a new release is out" checkbox if you don't want to see the menu anymore until a new release is out.
- You can also manually run the older version of the game from the "Backup_r58" folder, but close any other running version of the game first.
- Older game release backups that don't have any unfinished save games are removed after a month.
- If you launch an old game release from the menu, and the game doesn't seem to react to keyboard presses,
it might be that the game window just isn't active. So click somewhere on the game screen with the mouse, and you should be ok. - Troubleshooting forum thread here.
- If earlier save files are detected, they are moved into "(game folder)\Backup_r58\Save". When you start the updated game, a menu will open where you can launch older releases of the game and finish those runs.
- Some new options during character creation:
- Spirited Learner is a talent that can be chosen only on the 1st experience level and only during ability adjustment. It costs 1 talent point.
- You might not be the smartest but you sure are spirited. You learn new things by hard work and sheer determination. With this talent, Spirit-ability is used for skill and talent point progression instead of Mind. Note that even with this talent, Magic- and Search -skills still retain Mind as their key ability, and all spell talents have a Mind requirement. Mind of at least 6 is needed to be able to read.
- You might not be the smartest but you sure are spirited. You learn new things by hard work and sheer determination. With this talent, Spirit-ability is used for skill and talent point progression instead of Mind. Note that even with this talent, Magic- and Search -skills still retain Mind as their key ability, and all spell talents have a Mind requirement. Mind of at least 6 is needed to be able to read.
- When using the point buy -system for ability scores, you can trade 5 points for 1 talent.
- Spirited Learner is a talent that can be chosen only on the 1st experience level and only during ability adjustment. It costs 1 talent point.
- New talent: Bloodlust.
- When you kill a creature with a melee or a ranged attack, your Stamina gets restored by 10% of your max Stamina, and you gain a temporary 1d4 point boost to your Body-ability for 11-20 rounds. The ability effect does not stack with other temporary ability effects. Half-orcs get this for free.
- When you kill a creature with a melee or a ranged attack, your Stamina gets restored by 10% of your max Stamina, and you gain a temporary 1d4 point boost to your Body-ability for 11-20 rounds. The ability effect does not stack with other temporary ability effects. Half-orcs get this for free.
- New talent: Holy Warrior.
- Spiritual upbringing enables you to channel holiness to attacks against evil-aligned creatures. 1 point of holy-damage is added to melee and ranged attacks. The damage is increased to 1d2 once you reach experience level 12 and your adjusted Spirit-ability is at least 16. Only evil-aligned creatures are affected. Holy damage is doubled against most undead creatures. Stacks with holy damage from weapons and from temporary effects.
- Spiritual upbringing enables you to channel holiness to attacks against evil-aligned creatures. 1 point of holy-damage is added to melee and ranged attacks. The damage is increased to 1d2 once you reach experience level 12 and your adjusted Spirit-ability is at least 16. Only evil-aligned creatures are affected. Holy damage is doubled against most undead creatures. Stacks with holy damage from weapons and from temporary effects.
- New talent: One with Darkness.
- You have an extraordinary knack to be fully functional in complete darkness. You gain darkvision of 8 tiles, +3 to Stealth-checks when trying to remain unseen in darkness, +5 to perception checks to detect creatures in darkness, +5 to attack rolls against creatures that don't see you (stacks with the normal +10 bonus, also a bonus to score critical hits). When you score a critical hit, you do 25% extra damage (stacks with the base 50% extra from critical hits and extras from other sources). Can only be taken on the 1st experience level.
- You have an extraordinary knack to be fully functional in complete darkness. You gain darkvision of 8 tiles, +3 to Stealth-checks when trying to remain unseen in darkness, +5 to perception checks to detect creatures in darkness, +5 to attack rolls against creatures that don't see you (stacks with the normal +10 bonus, also a bonus to score critical hits). When you score a critical hit, you do 25% extra damage (stacks with the base 50% extra from critical hits and extras from other sources). Can only be taken on the 1st experience level.
- New talent: Veil of Darkness.
- When activated, you emit a burst of darkness which extinguishes seen lightsources within 15 tile radius. Environment lightsources (torches, braziers, etc.) and lightsources carried by creatures are affected. Creatures whose lightsources are extinguished won't be able to relight them for a small duration (10-15 rounds).
- When activated, you emit a burst of darkness which extinguishes seen lightsources within 15 tile radius. Environment lightsources (torches, braziers, etc.) and lightsources carried by creatures are affected. Creatures whose lightsources are extinguished won't be able to relight them for a small duration (10-15 rounds).
- Melee Elemental Damage / Ranged Elemental Damage talents: These now scale with experience level.
- Stonesense talent: You'll get +1 to Search-checks when trying to detect secret doors, +2 to Search-checks when trying to detect living statues. Recruitable rogue saints (living statues) are stronger when you have this talent.
- Changes to the companion list on the upper right corner:
- Shows max 20 companions.
- Added keys for commanding companions 10-20 individually.
- Some of the commanding keys have changed!
- INS or F11 toggles the list.
- CTRL + INS or CTRL + F11 toggles the viewing of expendable companions (constructs, animated, summoned, charmed).
- CTRL + number to command companions 1-10, CTRL + F1-F10 to command companions 11-20.
- DEL or NUMPAD_0 to command all companions.
- CTRL + DEL or CTRL + NUMPAD_0 to command all expendable companions (constructs, animated, summoned, charmed).
- You can use mouse wheel up / down to hide / show the list.
- Shows max 20 companions.
- Rogue saints are no longer counted as real recruits, they're grouped with golems as "constructs".
- Companion options:
- On the second page of a companion's character sheet are some options to control more of the companion's behavior. Currently just one: you can set an option that a companion won't animate or summon creatures.
- On the second page of a companion's character sheet are some options to control more of the companion's behavior. Currently just one: you can set an option that a companion won't animate or summon creatures.
- New item: Orb of Nullifying.
- This orb creates a nullifying field that removes a group of resistances from all creatures on the dungeon level for the duration of the effect. The nullifying affects randomly either physical (blunt, pierce, slash) or elemental (fire / cold / lightning / acid) resistances. Only one nullifying field can be active at a time.
- This orb creates a nullifying field that removes a group of resistances from all creatures on the dungeon level for the duration of the effect. The nullifying affects randomly either physical (blunt, pierce, slash) or elemental (fire / cold / lightning / acid) resistances. Only one nullifying field can be active at a time.
- Some changes and clarifications to critical hits:
- A critical hit does 50% more damage. Affects all damage element types (physical, cold, fire, etc.).
- Improved Melee Criticals and Improved Ranged Criticals talents add an extra 25%.
- One with Darkness talent adds an extra 25% if the defender can not see the attacker.
- If the defender is sleeping, critical hits do 100% extra damage, but this does not stack with above modifiers.
- A critical hit does 50% more damage. Affects all damage element types (physical, cold, fire, etc.).
- Some changes and clarifications to stealth:
- If the defender can not see the attacker, the attacker gets a +10 attack bonus. One with Darkness talent adds an extra +5.
- If the defender is sleeping, the attack roll for melee attacks is an automatic 20, ranged attacks get a +10 attack bonus.
- After an attack made from a neighboring tile, an unseen attacker is always marked visible to the defender. For attacks made from distant tiles, a Search vs Stealth skill check is made to determine if an unseen attacker is seen. A spotted creature can move to a new position to try to gain stealth again.
- If the defender can not see the attacker, the attacker gets a +10 attack bonus. One with Darkness talent adds an extra +5.
- Added some new mouse commands to the inventory screen: changing between companions, switch between equipment / inventory etc. These can be activated by left / right clicking the inventory list title bars. See tooltips for more info.
- Creatures flash in blue when they heal themselves.
- Good and neutral aligned creatures get 99 holy-resistance, making damage output in the log more consistent to other element types. Previously the holy-element was simply zeroed if the defending creature was not evil.
- Fixed an inconsistency in logged damage calculations that occured when a creature died, so that the damage element calculations make sense. Previously you could see something like "...and kill it! (Blunt: 1 = 4 - res 1)". Now you'll see "(Blunt: 1 = 2 - res 1)"
- Fixed a bug where the autosave wasn't deleted when the game was won. (thanks to Lights for mentioning)
- Keybindings have changed. This release should automatically reset them to the defaults, but if it doesn't, do so from the keybindings menu.
- The command "Toggle low health warning" in the WASD-keys -preset now defaults to CTRL+H. Previous CTRL+W was in conflict with "continuous walk to north".
- Added 44 new Steam achievements for a total of 64. (thanks to ZeroAffex and Lights for ideas!)
- Tutorial and PDF manual updated. PDF manual now has descriptions of all talents.
- Small changes to sound effects.
- The leaderboard has been reset. The old leaderboard is here: http://wins.zorbus.net/r58/.
Zorbus
Update notes for release 59
Update notes for release 58.4
- The game now autosaves before going to a different dungeon level and after each level up. Autosave is deleted when the game is saved normally. Hopefully this will help players who suffer from power outages.
- Autoexplore (to remaining hostile creatures) no longer autopilots to friendly animals if you have the Animal Friend talent or an item that grants it. (thanks to Grey Lensman for mentioning)
Update notes for release 58.3
- The teleporter to Carillo should now always be generated in an area that has enough connections to other areas of the map.
- What could happen is that the teleporter was in small group of areas that were connected to the rest of the map through a single secret door, and if you used some item (Carillo Express Card, for example) that teleported you to the teleporter, you could end up stuck in that area if you could not detect the secret door (and had no items to boost your Search-skill). (thanks to Vulpy for providing a save file)
- What could happen is that the teleporter was in small group of areas that were connected to the rest of the map through a single secret door, and if you used some item (Carillo Express Card, for example) that teleported you to the teleporter, you could end up stuck in that area if you could not detect the secret door (and had no items to boost your Search-skill). (thanks to Vulpy for providing a save file)
- Fixed yet another bug in autoexplore. (thanks to Vulpy for providing a save file)
- Several players have reported that Steam thinks that the game is running although the game process has ended.
- Moved the call to SteamAPI_Shutdown as the last thing that the game does when it closes, to the game form's OnDestroy() event, to see if that helps.
- Moved the call to SteamAPI_Shutdown as the last thing that the game does when it closes, to the game form's OnDestroy() event, to see if that helps.
Update notes for release 58.2 + Zordiac Challenge results
- Fixed a bug where autoexplore would not pilot in front of an unexplored area if the door to that area was trapped.
- Friendly creatures (non-companions) should no longer block autoexplore / autopilot. Happened mostly when there was just one corridor exit from an area.
- If no clear path to a container / item / trap can be found, autoexplore / autopilot automatically clears the flora (plants and fungi) from its way if a path is found that way.
- Yet another new setting: "Flora overgrowth".
- For immersion, some areas in the dungeon are overgrown with plants and fungi. You might need to clear your path to get through the area.
- Enabled by default: overgrowth areas similar to previous releases of the game.
- If unchecked, plants and fungi are not placed next to each other.
- A minor impact to gameplay: creature's Stealth is boosted when surrounded by plants and fungi.
- For immersion, some areas in the dungeon are overgrown with plants and fungi. You might need to clear your path to get through the area.
- If a companion runs out of ammunition, there's now a red "A" (for arrows) or "B" (for bullets) indicator on the bottom right corner of the companion's image in the companion list. Had to set the letter background to solid black, otherwise it looked garbled, even with a text shadow.
- When a creature is charmed or tamed it is cleared from being the target for autoattack.
- Examining a creature with the target cursor shows in its description if it can be recruited or tamed.
- If the new commands (V for full heal, CTRL + T for autopilot to nearest trap) introduced in release 58.0 don't seem to work, reset the keybindings in the keybindings menu.
The Zordiac Challenge
The cipher was first solved by Herr Harold!
The solution: www.zorbus.net/cipher.txt.
Update notes for release 58.1
- Fixed a bug that could happen when autoexploring and "Auto use key on lock" setting was unchecked: autoexplore would not try to find alternative routes around a locked door. (thanks to Tempe for providing a save file)
- Fixed a bug that could happen when "Stop (autopilot) when mildly hostile creatures are seen" setting was on. (thanks to Tempe for providing a save file)
- The current Health / Stamina values after level up are now set to the same percentages of max Health / Stamina as they were before the level up. Previously the Health warning sometimes launched when the current Health of max Health percentage dropped under the warning threshold. So now there's a small boost to your current Health and Stamina on each level up.
Zordiac Challenge
- Find the 3 books (This is the Zordiac speaking, vol. I-III), solve the cipher. First one to solve it will get a $50 Steam gift card as a reward!
- When reading books, press TAB to switch between the script font and a plain font. Book text can be copied into the clipboard with CTRL + C.
- Check this webpage to see if anyone has yet solved this: www.zorbus.net/cipher.txt.
- Mail the solution to joonas@zorbus.net.
Update notes for release 58
- Important! This game release is not compatible with the save games of the earlier 57.x releases!
- If r57 save files are detected, they are moved into "(game folder)\Backup_r57\Save". When you start the updated game, a menu will open where you can launch older releases of the game and finish those runs.
- If you had an unfinished extended game going on where you plan to utilize previously ascended characters, you can continue that with the older release.
- Check the "Skip this menu until a new release is out" checkbox if you don't want to see the menu anymore until a new release is out.
- You can also manually run the older version of the game from the "Backup_r57" folder, but close any other running version of the game first.
- Older game release backups that don't have any unfinished save games are removed after a month.
- If you launch an old game release from the menu, and the game doesn't seem to react to keyboard presses, it might be that the game window just isn't active. So click somewhere on the game screen with the mouse, and you should be ok.
- Troubleshooting forum thread here
- If r57 save files are detected, they are moved into "(game folder)\Backup_r57\Save". When you start the updated game, a menu will open where you can launch older releases of the game and finish those runs.
- Zordiac challenge:
- Find the 3 books (This is the Zordiac speaking, vol. I-III), solve the cipher. First one to solve it will get a $50 Steam gift card as a reward!
- When reading books, press TAB to switch between the script font and a plain font. Book text can be copied into the clipboard with CTRL + C.
- Check this webpage to see if anyone has yet solved this: www.zorbus.net/cipher.txt.
- Mail the solution to joonas@zorbus.net.
- Find the 3 books (This is the Zordiac speaking, vol. I-III), solve the cipher. First one to solve it will get a $50 Steam gift card as a reward!
- New command: Full rest (V or NUMPAD_MINUS). Rest until both you and your companions are fully healed and restored. This will often take some (real) time when you have lots of Health / Stamina points and there are still lots of creatures on the dungeon level.
- Resting is now properly interrupted if a companion is hit by a ranged attack / spell from an unseen enemy or is otherwise damaged. Previously an unseen enemy could kill a companion during resting if the companion was set to regroup-behavior. (thanks to M for mentioning)
- New command: autopilot to next undisabled trap (CTRL + T).
- Changed "trap cycling" key to T and "focus cursor on tracked creature" key to X in the autopilot screen. The old key R for trap cycling still works.
- Autoexplore now checks if the player or companions can detect traps from already explored areas. (thanks to Tempe for mentioning)
- Continuous autoexplore now properly starts when there are autopickable items on the player tile. (Tempe)
- Autopilot command (P) now binded also to NUMPAD_PLUS by default.
- Companions that don't fit the companion list now respect the "command all companions" command (CTRL + 0). Change tactics works also with ALT + 0, but the indicator (none, M, or R) can be seen only on characters that fit in the character list.
- Command key in the companion list is in red if a companion is poisoned. It's just an indicator, you can still command the companion.
- Mouse tooltips in the companion list now lists states / effects that the companions has.
- Tweaked autoattack / approach and attack -command (A) so that it attacks creatures that are on a blocked area when the player is not, and the player is next to them or can reach attack them. (Tempe)
- Moving with mouse clicking: better pathing around obstacles when hostile creatures are around. (Tempe)
- You can now order companions to target (attack) friendly creatures in examine-mode. (Tempe)
- When you give orders to a specific companion (1-9) in examine-mode and the cursor is on the companion, following behaviors are cycled: follow, regroup, stay.
- You can now transfer devices (potions, wands, etc.) that you have given to companions back to you, but they won't let you transfer the original devices that they had in their possession. The original devices won't be combined with devices of similar type as long as they're in the companion's possession.
- Added floating text indicators when a creature is anchored / tracked / withering.
- Added floating text indicators on a creature when one of these effects end: anchored, diseased, poisoned, tracked, withered. (Tempe)
- New setting: "Attack marked Health percentage". Minimum Health percentage for attack marked to be available. 0 disables (default). Works similarly as the setting "Autoattack Health percentage", but instead for the attack marked -command (R) for reach / ranged attacks. (Tempe)
- New setting: "Centaur hooves sound effect". Hooves sound effect when playing as a centaur. Might be a bit distracting so is disabled by default.
- Inventory / level loot lists: typed filter accepts multiple keywords separated by spaces. Pressing SPACE is a bit problematic since it's also used for actions / selecting items, but this can be bypassed by pressing SHIFT + SPACE or by pressing ".". Remember that you can enter a filter keyword in lists by writing it with SHIFT pressed, but if you disable letter selecting from settings, you can just write a filter word directly without pressing SPACE. Level loot has letter selecting disabled as a default.
- Talents menu during birth / level up: you can filter talents by writing a keyword with SHIFT pressed. (SHIFT needs to be used as pressing C or H already open the character sheet / Zorbupedia)
- Settings / keybindings menu, book reading, log viewing: typed filter accepts multiple keywords separated by spaces.
- Added starting date id to save game filenames, so that you can have several ongoing games with the same character name, and no longer have to worry about saves being overwritten.
- Email address in settings menu is hidden, mainly for streamers. (thanks to Cowslanlr for the idea).
- By pressing O in the tutorial screen, you can open it in your designated PDF viewer so that you keep it open on another monitor. So from the main game mode press H twice to get into tutorial screen, then O. The PDF tutorial also exists in the game folder as "Tutorial.pdf" and has the keyboard help screen included as the last page.
- Better handling of corrupt save files. (thanks to Aeth for help)
- Some players have reported that their ascended characters were not saved on the endgame level, i.e. the avatars file was not properly saved or was recreated on later runs. Could not yet reproduce this problem, but the game now creates a log file to try to catch this problem. The log is saved to the game folder as "Log.txt", and shows changes to the avatars file among other things.
Happy New Year + Tournament results
The tournament is over. The final results can be seen at tournament.zorbus.net.
The winners and prizes by category:
- Overgod ... Cat ... $50
- God ... Over-Troll ... $25
- Fastest ... Madnak ... $25
Congratulations!
Update notes for release 57.2
- Fixed a bug where the Seeker Shots talent didn't work with the mouse when shots were made in the main game mode (not in fire mode). (thanks to General_Jah for reporting)
- New setting: Cursor centering in examine / target modes. Off by default. (thanks to Decay for the idea)
- Disables centering the view around the cursor in examine / target modes, and instead the view is moved when the cursor is close to a screen edge. This setting is used as the default for started games, but you can toggle this ingame when in examine / target modes by pressing C. Automatically used if the "No view centering (push-scroll)" setting is checked.
- Disables centering the view around the cursor in examine / target modes, and instead the view is moved when the cursor is close to a screen edge. This setting is used as the default for started games, but you can toggle this ingame when in examine / target modes by pressing C. Automatically used if the "No view centering (push-scroll)" setting is checked.
- "Push-scroll" setting renamed to "No view centering (push-scroll)".
- Removed the cycle containers -command from the examine mode.
- Some changes to mouse commands:
- Right mouse button in main game mode is now only used for "use last used talent at location".
- Interacting with creatures is done with CTRL + left mouse click or with middle mouse button.
- You can now attack gradually-turning-hostile creatures with a reach or shoot weapon from the main game mode.
- You can melee attack gradually-turning-hostile creatures with ALT + left mouse click from the main game mode.
- Added some mouse related tooltips to the info box.
- Right mouse button in main game mode is now only used for "use last used talent at location".
- Changes to item exchanging with companions:
- When exchanging items with a companion, first ENTER keypress or first left click on an unselected item under the selector just chooses the item, and the second ENTER keypress or left click transfers the item.
- If the unselected item under the selector is a potion, just one item of the stack is selected. You can select the whole amount with SPACE or adjust the selected amount with movement keys left / right.
- Items that can not be transferred back from a companion are color coded in red and there's a warning in the item info box.
- When exchanging items with a companion, first ENTER keypress or first left click on an unselected item under the selector just chooses the item, and the second ENTER keypress or left click transfers the item.
- Fixed a bug where the email field in settings didn't output "@" character when SHIFT + 2 was pressed.
December tournament
More info at tournament.zorbus.net.
The main menu will have a "Tournament rules & leaderboard" button during the tournament (also visible one week before / after).
When the tournament is active, you can choose between a regular and a tournament game when starting a new game.
PRIZES
- $50 Steam / Amazon eGift Card for the ascended Overgod with the highest score.
- $25 Steam Amazon eGift Card for the ascended God with the highest score.
- $25 Steam Amazon eGift Card for the fastest ascension.
RULES & NOTES
- You need to enter your email address in the game's settings. Needed so that you can be contacted if you win a prize. The email address is not publicly shown anywhere. Winners will be contacted after the tournament.
- Character data is automatically sent to the tournament leaderboard. The tournament leaderboard is not updated in realtime but in about 10 minute intervals.
- Saving the game is disabled. You have to play the game in one run, but it's ok to leave the game running and continue later. The game clock pauses in the game menu or after there is no user activity for 30 seconds.
- Normally ascended characters remain as gods and demigods on the Zorbus level, but not in the tournament version.
- For scoring, see the PDF manual (page 53) or ingame Zorbupedia ("scoring" 1 and 2).
- This tournament is run with a restricted race and talent selection with no ability rolling.
- Disallowed races: Aasimar, Gnome, Human, Tiefling
- Disallowed talents: Lone Wolf, Natural Leader, Team Spirit
- Disallowed archetypes: Infernal, Leader, Noble, Wizard
- The "Never flee", "Never blink", and "Never teleport player or companions" settings can not be used in a tournament game.
- For character progression tips, see the current regular leaderboard and old leaderboard.
- You can play as many time as you want.
- It is possible to win two prizes with the same run (Overgod-ending + fastest / God-ending + fastest), but most likely the fastest run is going to be one with a Demigod-ending.
- Please, do not cheat. Character data will be inspected and cheaters will be banned from all leaderboards and future tournaments.