Devlog: Second Tier Dungeons

As mentioned before, you can take several routes through the game. After completing one of three starter dungeons, the hero is presented with a choice of two second tier dungeons.

• AddedNew dungeonsthe two new dungeons are rather outside areas near the starting village, both with a cultist hangout. These maps have static layouts, but semi-randomized contents. With the areas also came new monsters, like zombie-like 'drowned' who throw up cold water and various cultists.

• Events: there is now a possibility to run scripted events on the maps. This is first used in the starting village, where you can follow a pair of hooded guests from the inn who leave in the middle of the night, which is how you find the new dungeon entrances. This event is mainly there to teach the player the basics of stealth mechanics: if a monster is in an area of light and you are in darkness, they can't see you. Making noise can still alert the monster to your presence, but this can be reduced with the stealth skill. Throwing items on the ground can be used to distract monsters. For anyone wanting to go all in on stealth, there is a 'Hide in Shadows' talent which allows you to try to stay hidden even in areas of light.

  

• RemovedDay-night cycleto make the midnight event make sense, there is now a day-night cycle in the game. At night, any daylight is obviously removed from the maps. There is a sundial in the village that can be used to pass time in one-hour increments so you don't have to adventure in the dark if you don't want to.
• RemovedCursed itemsthe first cursed item was added to the game, a mask that the leader of the local branch of a blood cult is wearing. Once worn, cursed items can not be removed by normal means. As every item in the game is fully identified when found, cursed items do not come as a surprise to the player, but they rather have some benefits and drawbacks which makes wearing them an interesting decision.

• Fist weapons: a new weapon, fist blade, was added. Fist weapons use the unarmed skill to give that an actual good use (punching things without weapons is possible, but quite ineffective). Fist blade has a range of 0, which means it can not attack diagonally adjacent enemies, but it has a nice damage with a very fast attack speed. Several monsters have a range of 0 as well, which can mean a free attack against them if you can position so that they have to approach you diagonally.

  

• Dusts: I wanted a consumable that can be used on enemies rather than yourself, to give the player more tactical options. Anyone can use dusts, but only herbalists can make them by grinding herbs. Dusts can be thrown at nearby enemies to give them conditions like sleep or horror, but the enemy gets a saving throw to avoid the condition. Different dusts require different saves, so having several in inventory gives you the most options.

• AddedNew monster abilitiesMonsters got some new abilities, like being able to affect the hero with a shout or a swear just like the player can affect them. An interesting new ability is horrifying presence, which inflicts sanity damage on the hero for every turn the monster is in view. This can make the usually best tactic of letting the monster come to you costly, so you might have to charge in quickly even if it could put you in more danger.

• Many miscellaneous additions like patrolling mobs, new map features, some talents, deaf monsters, balancing and fixes.

That's all for now. Next up is more spells and magic items for the early game, for the magic schools that are still missing them.