Dev Update #31: Build 19 (40% Off, UI Updates, Pause Button)

Dead Monarchy is currently 40% off so it is a great time to try it out if you were on the fence about it, it costs about as much as a coffee.

Originally my plan was to simultaneously work on post-release content and the new game however due to an overwhelming amount of feedback directed to the UI, it has changed my priorities.

As such, I will most likely be spending the rest of the year just working on UI and balancing, I won't be able to do much work on the post-release content. The UI work will technically be for the new game however I am backporting it to Dead Monarchy as well. This is the solution to me moving forward as a developer but also responding to player feedback.

I am introducing the first round of changes, there is a lot more to come later this year. If everything goes smooth, there is also a chance that the first part of post-release content will drop towards the end of this year, as in literally the end of the year.

Important: For the most part you can continue on your existing save however not all changes will have an immediate effect. For example, all the changes to armour will only take place on newly spawned equipment. Other than that if not specifically stated, the majority of the changes will carry over. For the best experience, it is still recommended to start on a new playthrough.

Important: Build 18 will now be available on the beta branch, if you wish to continue your current playthrough on the same build.

Controls/UI:

• [Spacebar] no longer ends your current phase. [Backspace] and [Left Ctrl] is now the key to end your current phase during combat.

• [Spacebar] will now pause the game during combat and in the overworld map.

• Rejoice! The camera will no longer move with the player when the camera is not centered on the player. It will remain in its position unless you move it with WASD keys or center the camera on the player again [SHIFT].

• Added a button (T) to toggle tooltips on and off, if you find tooltips getting in the way of things.

• Added control list to the journal (requires a new playthrough to view).

• Improvements to battle camera. When camera angle is pulled all the way back (optimal angle) zooming in and out will maintain the same angle. You can still tilt the camera with "< and >" keys. If you don't like the way the camera moves away and focuses on different characters, you can disable it by enabling "Simple Camera", this gives you complete control. Furthermore, if you don't like the cinematic camera, that too can be disabled "Cinematic Attacks".

• Pushed back the camera collider borders for every single map, overworld and battle. Let me know if I am missing one. This basically gives the camera more freedom at the extreme edges of the map. It was needed due to the changes to the camera.

• Hovering over the shortcut bar will now preview the attack range and valid targets of the hovered ability.

• Removed the item stack limit to condense the inventory. A holdover feature from when I initially had an inventory limit. This feature will return in a future game, for now it doesn't really serve any purpose. Current items in the inventory won't autostack themselves, only newly added items will add to existing stacks. This is unfortunately just a limitation of the UI system that is currently implemented.

• You can now access the perks menu while resting in the tavern.

• New keybinds "+ and -" to adjust the height of the camera, "< and >" can then be used to adjust the distance/tilt of the camera.

• New keybinds "V and B" to zoom the camera in and out whilst maintaining the angle so long as the camera is angled all the way back first. If you don't bother with the angle/tilt of the camera then don't worry about this, the zoom will function as intended. If you do manually adjust the camera tilt then you just need to readjust when you zoom out. The default angle is already considered the optimal angle.

• Chests now have a larger mouse detection range. When zoomed out further, the player crown UI can be clicked through when in close proximity with a chest, this means you don't need to scroll down again.

• Fixed the issue on the shortcut bar where "Adjust Rotation" was highlighted despite not being able to use it when Exhausted. It will now be unavailable when Exhausted as intended.

• The locked cities bug should now be fixed. Let me know if it's still occurring.

• Items sold to the marketplace can be bought back at their original price. Once the menu is closed, the item price will revert to default values.

Gameplay:

• Added an option to toggle on easy/hard mode for the post-game boss fight. This option can only be set at the start of a new playthrough, it will not affect existing save files.

• Quick Shot (Arbalest) now has a default AP cost of 5, down from 7. This means you can take two inaccurate shots per phase during clutch moments.

• Organised Chaos (Tactics) no longer reduces the AP cost of Quick Shot. Previously it would reduce it to 5 but the default AP cost is now 5. Quick Shot hit chance increased to 60% against targets on adjacent tiles.

• Chaotic Strikes (Heavy) is now the perk that further reduces AP cost of Quick Shot. AP cost reduced from 5 to 3.

The reason behind this was to create a "ranged" version of Wild Strike, this perk is what builds a heavy arbalester. This also opens up the path for a very interesting hybrid build, a warsword wild striker who carries an arbalester for burst ranged damage. With this build, it won't require high focus however you will still be effective when it comes to heavily defensive units due to Quick Shot ignoring Block and eventually being able to ignore Agility. This playstyle wouldn't be effective if you were required to quickly take out high priority targets however it is effective when trying to clear out heavily entrenched fighters.

• Heavy armour, stamina rebalanced. The stamina penalty is now reversed. -25/-20/-15-/15 and then -10 for Ancestral (orange) armour. Max rolled Masterworks (500 armour - purple) will have 0 Stamina penalty, lower rolled Masterworks retain the -10 Stamina penalty, but it is still an overall improvement. I opted to skip -5 because I wanted there to be more incentives to doing the end-game content. These changes will only apply on newly spawned items. IE either when the marketplace refreshes or when you get new drops.

• Maxed rolled Masterwork heavy armour (500 armour) will no longer have a movement penalty. These changes will only apply on newly spawned items. IE either when the marketplace refreshes or when you get new drops.

• Various perks that restore or reduce a status value have had the Stamina cost reduced from -30 to -25.

• All the stat reducing warcry perks, will now remove certain medium armour perk status effects. These warcry perks are useful for countering medium armour fighters as you can now remove their most powerful stacking effects.

• Violent Warcry (Reduce Attack) - Removes the status effects Defensive Strikes Effect and Killing Zone Effect from valid targets.

• Savage Warcry (Reduce Strength) - Removes the status effect Reinforcing Footwork Effect from valid targets.

• Unnerving Warcry (Reduce Defense) - Removes the status effects Defensive Movement Effect and Graceful Impact Effect from valid targets.

• Distracting Warcry (Reduce Focus) - Removes the status effect Sudden Death Effect from valid targets.

• Agitating Warcry (Reduce Agility) - Removes the status effect Defensive Dodge Effect from valid targets.

There will be more updates coming this year, I still have a lot of requests that I have responded to but have not implemented yet. All in good time.

As always, thanks to everyone that has supported Dead Monarchy! These updates are a result of player feedback.

Please consider leaving a review, they do have the ability to impact the direction of the game as well as my own motivation towards development.

Cheers, Kevin.