Launch of the Beta!

Patch Notes

BETA (PLEASE READ)

Hello!

This update is going to be released into the Beta branch first. This will allow players who want to test it to do so while those who want to keep playing a proven version of the game can continue with the current version of the game.

I plan to use betas with future updates as well. I think its a great way to let you all to decide on your own terms if you want to play a slightly buggier/more up to date version of the game or the tried and true version.

This update will likely go to everyone in a week, assuming it is in a good state to do so, and a new beta will take its place.

To enable the beta:

1. Right click on the game in your library

2. Select the fourth option "Properties"

3. Select the fourth option again "Game Versions and Betas"

4. Select the "beta" branch

If you try out the beta branch and don't enjoy it you can always follow the same instructions and just select "default public version" at the end to switch back to the current version of the game.

NEW FEATURES

This update is the first step in fleshing out a few of our existing systems like Permanent Companions, Procedurally Generated Towns/Dungeons, and the Adventurer Quest system.

Note: For those who have not encountered companions yet you can do so after reclaiming Mount Greywind as your home. It lies directly east of Alara.

The dungeons system was tuned in response to player preferences and is now capped at 50 total floors vs the old 100.

You can now rename your character through the View Stats option in the general menu! This also changes the name of future save files to match, so it should be easier to categorize your saves now if you so desire.

If you have the inclination, please give feedback in the various discussion pages we have on the community tab. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated and by far the best way for me to tell if the new additions are having their intended effect.

I want to give a special thank you to everyone who has given feedback, bug reports, or a review so far! The feedback has helped me zero in on what I really need to prioritize and given me some new ideas. At the same time everyone's bug reports have helped immensely and made it easy for me to implement comprehensive fixes in a timely manner.

Enjoy the update!

-Lansdolli

Combat

Unified Combat System — Single enemy and multi enemy combat are now one system. Every mechanic works in every fight: brew buffs, special abilities, status conditions, all boss special abilities, ally attack phase, target switching, and all edge cases included. Previously many of these only existed in one path or the other causing a lot of bugs. This fix should be a huge improvement on stability and the ease of future updates involving combat.

Enemy Level Display — Enemy level now appears next to their name in all combat screens, including single enemy fights.

Dungeons

Floor Cap Reduced to 50 — Dungeons now run 50 floors instead of 100. The boss still waits at the bottom.

Depth Bonus — The deeper you go, the better the rewards. XP, gold, and loot drop chance all scale up every 10 floors: +25% at floor 10, +50% at 20, +75% at 30, +100% at 40. The floor counter shows the active bonus.

Mount Greywind Shortened — Mount Greywind is now 20 floors instead of 99. Axel still waits at the end. Enemy levels and difficulty scale with depth.

Adventurer Guild

Guild Clerk — All guild quests now require a turn in at a Guild Clerk rather than completing automatically. The Clerk is the first option when you enter any Adventurer Guild. Rewards, rank advancement, and rank promotion announcements all happen here.

Fetch Quest Overhaul — Guild fetch quests now ask for items that exist and are obtainable in the correct zone. If you already have the items when you talk to the Clerk, they count toward the quest immediately.

Classes & Skills

Venomblade Chain — New class chain available at T3. Requires proficient daggerwork, poison magic, and stealth skills to unlock.

Exclusive Ability System — Abilities can now be restricted to a specific class chain. Signature abilities for specialist builds will no longer appear in the ability pool of unrelated classes.

Forced Skill Evolution — Skill and class evolution menus can no longer be skipped or bypassed. If an evolution is available, a choice must be made (even if that choice is to decide later). This will help prevent accidentally missing the option to evolve your skill. The no path message now also notes that evolving your class to a higher tier may unlock new paths for better player clarity.

Companions

Permanent Companions — Random permanent companion generation has been removed. Three permanent companions now reside at Mount Greywind, each with a name, personality, and their own dialogue. It is important to note Permanent Companions are NOT the same as adventurers hired at the guild.

Xen the Steadfast — Veteran soldier. Quiet and reliable.

Elara — Scholar-researcher. Precise, curious, occasionally baffling.

Una of the Road — Grew up on trade routes. Has opinions about everything and shares most of them.

Give companions weapons - You can now give companion items! This will inspire their evolution choices. More additions to come with future updates to better control companion paths.

Companion Persistence — Dismissing a companion sends them back to Mount Greywind. Their level, class, skills, and equipment are saved. When you recruit them again they pick up exactly where they left off.

Companion Recruit Menu — The Mount Greywind companion menu now lists available companions by name with a short description before you recruit. Current party members are shown separately.

Companion Idle Dialogue — Each permanent companion has unique lines when you check on them in the follower menu.

Party Cap — Maximum party size is now 3, counting companions and hired adventurers together.

New Companions via Quests — The companion pool can be expanded through future quest rewards and world events.

Procedural Town Barkeeps

Dialogue Tree — Proc town barkeeps now have proper conversations with rotating flavor lines, matching the feel of permanent town barkeeps. The dungeon clearing quest is offered as a menu option rather than triggering immediately.

Two Phase Quest — The dungeon clearing quest now has two stages: clear all five assigned dungeons, then return to the barkeep to hand in and collect your reward. Quest targets are listed in your active quest log with coordinates and checkmarks as you clear them.

Find the Next Town — Completing the quest and returning to the barkeep unlocks the next undiscovered settlement as a new quest in your log, with coordinates.

Quality of Life

Rename Character — Press R on the View Stats screen to rename your character at any time.

Potion Counts — Potion menus now always show how many you're carrying next to the item name.

Zone Herb and Ore Selling — Zone-specific harvestable resources (Heartland Clover, Forest Iron, Stormsteel, etc.) can now be sold at any shop.

Prepared Abilities Saved — Your prepared ability loadout is now saved with each save file and restored on load. No more reselecting abilities after every session.

Fixed Contract Lengths — Hired adventurer contract lengths are now fixed when you first see them. Leaving and re-entering the guild menu will no longer reroll their terms.

World Generation Tripled — The number of procedurally generated towns and dungeons in the world has been tripled. This should make it much easier to find them!

Bug Fixes

Fixed many, many bugs associated with having two different combat systems. Status effects in particular should be much more readily apparent now that they apply to all combat.

Fixed enemies in all zones resetting to starting area enemies whenever the player or a follower reached a class milestone. Enemy pools were being written back to the world grid with the wrong zone ID after moving out of render range.

Fixed dying after loading a save returning the player to a blank new game instead of the loaded save.

Fixed a duplicate follower appearing frozen on the map after saving and loading or after dying. (this requires saving the game with the new version and reloading from that save to fix existing versions)

Fixed Save and Quit: cancelling the save slot selection now correctly returns to the menu instead of closing the game.

Fixed Quit to Desktop sometimes returning to the launcher menu instead of closing the application.

Fixed a crash when entering any shop caused by the combat system merge removing the shop entry function.

Fixed a crash on new game start caused by NPC adventurer groups referencing the player object before it was created.

Fixed dungeons crashing with a TypeError on the depth parameter.

Fixed fetch quests at the guild board occasionally completing after clearing only one dungeon instead of all five.

Fixed guild fetch quests not appearing at the Clerk even when the required items were in the player's inventory.

Fixed proc town barkeeps re-offering the dungeon clearing quest after it had already been accepted.

Fixed the Deserter Captain near Alara Barracks having significantly inflated HP and attack for a zone 0 enemy.

Fixed skill evolution being passable from the Skills menu at proficient tier and above.

Fixed exclusive class abilities causing a crash during world generation because they referenced the player object before it existed.

Fixed some UI graphical bugs causing broken displays

Fixed some more placeholder dialogue but there is still some remaining