Second Weekly Update for Main Branch and Beta

Weekly Update!

Hello! I am trying to keep to weekly updates now with a two part focus. The first focus will be what is coming to the default branch of the game. This will be a build already vetted by our beta players and should be very stable!

The second focus of these weekly updates will be information on the new beta! The beta will have the newest features I've been working on and should be relatively stable as I've usually played the build for a few days before shipping it. However it will likely not be as stable as the default branch of the game. So if that is your priority I'd stick to the main branch.

The Default Branch and the Beta are both covered in these patch notes. Clearly divided by "Default Branch Update" and "Beta Branch Update" for easy navigation.

Most of the default branch update for this week was covered in the patch notes for the last beta, as in this instance the beta branch build ended up being very stable and is now for the most part the default build of the game.

The beta build is completely new and is full of some exciting stuff I hope you're all excited for including a lot of UI optimization that will hopefully make the game feel a little more polished!

If you are inclined to join the beta to help test the newest features you are welcome to! The beta is open to all players who wish to participate!

Enjoy the update!

-Lansdolli

DEFAULT BRANCH UPDATE:

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. Mount Greywind is down to 20 floors, making it easier than ever to take back your home!

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.

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 — Quiet and reliable.

Elara — 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!

Buy Mutltiple Items at Once — You can now buy multiple items at once!

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

Fixed a crash involving potions

Fixed a crash caused by false dialogue

Fixed skills not working as intented

BETA BRANCH UPDATE:

NEW FEATURES

This updates main focus is undoubtably Companions. Companions are now fully controllable in combat (not hired adventurers, just Companions). Companions are now also able to evolve and have access to the same ability pool the player has. For those who wish to do so they are a great way to explore mutliple class builds simultaneously and explore the right party composition for you!

In addition to companions there have been many bug fixes and UI changes that should make the game feel more polished and complete. There has also been more content added that should start to make the world feel more full and busy with things for the player to do.

The ability to "Wait" has also been added, so now you can regen by just holding Z while out of comabt but be careful the world keeps moving while you wait...including zone bosses.

Autosaving is now in the game, set to autosave the game in a new "0" save slot every 1000 ticks. You can disable this if you so choose in the settings.

Thank you for playing the beta and I hope you enjoy the new features!

Companions

You now control companion turns in combat! The companion turn uses the same full combat screen as the player's turn. All combatants shown with the active companion marked with ◄. Actions: Attack, Defend, Use Potion, prepared abilities, and Flee are all available options for each companion.

Companions can use abilities in combat — All effects work correctly including Iron Shell, Cleave, heals, buffs, and elemental damage. The prepare abilities screen for companions matches the player's exactly. same category grouping, same slot limit, same markers.

The follower menu is restructured — Select a companion by number to open their submenu: Equip, Talk, Dismiss. The equip menu shows current gear at the top, accepts all wearable items, and stays open after equipping.

View Stats — Now available from the equip submenu showing the companion's full stat block and gear.

Dismiss Companion — Now requires confirmation.

Level Cap — Companions cannot exceed the player's current level. This doesn't affect hired adventurers.

Evolving — If a companion is ready to evolve and the player skips the dialogue, the prompt returns automatically when talking to them again. A ✦ marks the path from the context menu through the follower list to the Talk option so it is never missed.

UI Changes

Combat — All combatants now use a two-line format: name on the first line, then level, HP bar, HP, MP, ATK, and DEF aligned in columns on the second. Player, companions, and enemies all share the same column widths.

Player — The player row now shows their name and level with a health bar. "You:" is gone.

Levels visible — Companions show their actual level in combat.

Trailing grid coordinates eliminated — The long line of grid coords is gone for new saves. Unfortanetly this doesn't apply to old saves. However it is the only part of the update that doesn't apply to old saves permanently (and it is a minor visual one) so feel free to continue playing your old save with no worries!

Combat messages — in group combat pause between phases so the player can read them.

Zone Map

Rebuild — The zone map has been rebuilt to be geometrically accurate. The player marker, roads, and location symbols now sit at their correct world coordinates, a systematic rounding error previously caused all three to be offset from each other.

Roads — Roads no longer render over towns, dungeons, gates, or the player base.

Gates — Gates now appear on the zone map.

Recolor of ?? Tiles — Undiscovered tiles render dim grey instead of bright white.

Location Key — Location numbers continue past 9.

Town Criers — Now report the zone boss's live position.

Warning Signs

Warning Signs — Appear on the road before higher-level zone boundaries. One sign per crossing, rendered as a gold S. Stepping on it shows a popup that requires 1. Acknowledge to dismiss. Acknowledging one sign clears all signs for that crossing.

Zone Bosses

Zone Bosses — Spawn on road tiles and patrol between towns in their zone. Their position and data are correctly preserved across saves and loads.

Autosave

Autosave! — The game autosaves to slot 0 every 1000 turns. Slot 0 appears at the top of the save menu. Autosave can be toggled in Settings and is on by default.

Inventory

Ordered Inventory — The inventory is now categorized: Weapons, Armour, Consumables, Materials, Books and Tomes, Quest Items, and Other. It should be much easier to navigate your inventory now.

Quests

Main Quest: The Serpent's Legacy

A main quest is now in the game! It begins automatically on a new game: reclaim Mount Greywind from Axel, find Raltre at Smuggler's Den, collect the three guardian keys, and descend into the Lair of Obcassus. Progress tracks in your quest log with coordinates and checkmarks.

This quest is currently not old save compatible but I plan to be fixing that in the next couple days and pushing an update. UPDATE 6/12 IT HAS BEEN FIXED. Players with old saves just need to talk to Raltre to start the chain.

Chain Quest: The Shape of Things

A second quest opens at level 60 for players who have met Raltre. He will ask you to visit all four corners of the world. The reward is permanently expanded vision for your character!

Quest Log

Live Grids — The active quest screen now shows your current coordinates next to the header.

Quality of Life & Misc

Wait — Pressing Z now allows the player to "wait". Enemies advance, zone bosses patrol, and regen ticks exactly as if you had moved. Holding it down accelerates this effect.

New Items — Steel Dagger, Axe, Spear, Bow, and Staff now available at weaponsmiths.

Rest at Mount Greywind — now always free and restores full HP and MP.

Intro Fix — The new game intro scrolls from the top of the screen. Pressing Enter while it prints skips to instant.

Item Descriptions — Arcana XP text removed from book descriptions in the inventory to reduce bloat.

Difficulty rebalanced — Normal is now the default with unmodified stats. Easy is 0.8x HP and damage. Hard is unchanged.

Scaling Rewards — Dungeons now reward the player the deeper they go! Every 10 levels a new modifier is applied increasing their loot.

Bug Fixes

Fixed fleeing from a corner guardian triggering its death sequence and granting loot.

Fixed tavern quests not working correctly

Fixed messages clearing to fast for the player to read

Fixed a crash caused by talking to a specific traveling NPC

Fixed companion abilities not appearing in the combat menu despite being prepared.

Fixed companion MP being deducted twice when using an ability.

Fixed companions always displaying as level 1 in combat.

Fixed armor always equipping to the chest slot regardless of item type.

Fixed companions being able to exceed the player's level.

Fixed the evolution dialogue having no way to return to the theme selection.

Fixed companion ghost entities remaining on the map after dying and reloading.

Fixed teleporting leaving followers behind.

Fixed zone boss spawning a duplicate copy on every load.

Fixed dead hired adventurers reappearing in the guild roster.

Fixed enemies moving on the same turn they first detected the player.

Fixed combat messages clearing before the player could read them in group combat.

Fixed town crier reporting the wrong coordinates for the zone boss.

Companion ghost entities no longer remain on the map after dying and reloading from snapshot.

Teleporting through a gate or using the Teleport spell now brings followers with you.

Future Content

My current focus is on widening the ability pool to provide more diverse options for group combat (like healing, buffs, aggro). I will likely be adding the ability to target your allies in the next update to help with this.

I also want to flesh out companion dialogue with meaningful content and maybe even a companion specific quest. Adding more companions into the game with different ways to unlock them is also a goal.

In the same vein of fleshing out the world more I want to add more types of encounters for dungeons and the open world. This should help make the game feel more alive =)

Finally I want to start tuning the game a little bit more to make sure you all are getting an enjoyable experience.

Please post on the Balance Discussion post if you have any opinions on the games difficulty and progression pace if so inclined! All feedback is incredibly helpful and useful!