Balance Changes and Stealth Rework : Weekly Update #6

Weekly Update!

Hello! Welcome to our Sixth Weekly Patch Notes!

We are continuing the Thursday/Friday weekly update and remain on schedule for our 1.0 release in August!

Just like all weekly updates these patch notes are divided into the Default Branch and Beta Branch Updates. This week the previous Beta Branch has been rolled into the new Default Branch completely.

The new Beta is a little less packed than previous betas as I am done with everything I planned to add to the game, although we do have a stealth rework allowing players to use it in the open world most of my work this week went into tightening up the codebase and some small tweaks with balance.

If you have things you would like for me to look at adding or ideas on how the game could be better please let me know and I'll look at adding/incorporating them into the game =)

Hope you all enjoy!

DEFAULT BRANCH UPDATE:

NEW FEATURES

This weeks update includes a reworked Arena system, reconfiguing how companion evolution works at higher tiers, and a polishing/balancing pass over much of the game.

The Arena has been rebuilt from the ground up. It runs on the real combat and ability systems now, so every fighter is a genuine character with a class, a mana pool, and a full kit. You can duel, spectate, bet, and climb a ladder against a whole roster of house fighters, and there is a new Arena Association tying it all together.

Your allies come everywhere with you now, dungeons included. Companions that evolve at higher tiers are offered paths that match how they actually fight. Many menus have been brought in line to include Space+Enter=Back that didn't have it before, excessive notes have been removed to help provide a cleaner UI, many flicker byproducts of previous systems have been removed so the game should feel cleaner and more optimizied (maybe your 5090 can run it now 🤞).

An important note is the game should feel easier and faster with this patch as levling speed has been increased as well as player damage.

A lot of quiet work went into making the game read better and feel fairer, from a stronger, more consistent character to cleaner menus, cleaner dialogue, and a smoother combat screen. I hope it all lands well!

The Arena, Completely Reworked

• The Arena now uses the real combat and ability systems. Every fighter has a class, a mana pool, and a full ability kit, and fights play out exactly like the rest of the game.

• Duel a roster of hand crafted house fighters, each with their own class, level, wager, and reputation.

• Duels are non lethal. Lose and you simply yield, with no death and no penalty beyond your wager.

• Spectate and bet on bouts between house fighters, or pit your own companions against each other and back them.

• Enter single elimination tournaments for a purse and a champion's cup.

• A per save leaderboard tracks wins, losses, and cups for every fighter, including you and your companions.

• Every arena town has a named master with with unique lines that tell you their background, from bloodthirsty ex gladiators to scheming bookmakers guarding the Association's gambling monopoly a diverse cast find themselves as Arena Masters.

• Ironhold (2400,2400) is now THE GRAND ARENA, seat of the new Arena Association, run by Grand Arena Master Karl.

• New Grand Arena questline from Karl. Win a sanctioned bout to gain his trust and then willingly defend the Arena Associations monopoly as you purge the Bloodstone Arena. After removing the dissidents Karl will reward you with the Arena Association Card, a living directory of every arena in the world and proof that you are on the right side of controlled capitalism.

• Every arena town outside the Grand Arena fields its own local roster, so each region's fights feel distinct.

• Added arena cooldowns and tournament gating. Fighters need to rest between fights.

Party Combat Everywhere

• Your companions and hired adventurers now join you automatically in every non arena fight.

• That includes dungeons, procedural crawls and hand built story vaults alike.

• Every dungeon now runs on one unified system, so your party shows up and behaves consistently no matter where you dive.

Companion Evolution

• Companions at Tier 3 and beyond are now offered class evolutions that match how they actually fight. A physical bruiser is offered physical classes, a caster is offered casters, a hybrid gets both, and a generalist Adventurer can branch into anything.

• Each evolution path comes with themed dialogue for that companion.

• Companion abilities now apply their bonus riders correctly, and effects that trigger from a downed ally work as intended.

Balance and Progression

• Title and skill stat bonuses now actually apply (max HP, defense, and percentage bonuses). Your character should feel noticeably stronger this patch.

• Adventurer rank progression fixed. Only contracts at or above your current rank count toward promotion.

• Basic Herbalism now triggers correctly when harvesting herbs.

New Abilities

• New solar light healing and buff abilities. We now have a clear "Healer" type class in the game with the Solar Magic skill for those interested in the playstyle or who want their companion to back them up as one.

• Single target abilities can now be freely aimed at any valid target.

• Basic Arcana is now offered through the standard learn prompt.

Combat Feel and Presentation

• Enemy stun, freeze, and taunt are unified into clean status tags in the HUD.

• Flicker free combat redraw restored. Switching targets updates in place, and advancing the turn clears cleanly instead of piling up old frames.

• Victory now prints inline instead of wiping the screen first.

• XP rewards now show the true amount gained.

• The combat HUD is narrower so wide health rows wrap less in smaller windows.

NPCs and Dialogue

• Step through NPC dialogue one line at a time with a Keep talking option.

• Bare Enter now rolls through dialogue without an extra keypress.

• Town Criers use the same clean step through.

Menus and Readability

• Universal Back. Every menu now backs out with Space instead of a mix of keys.

• The Evolve a Skill menu can be backed out of without committing to a pick.

• The skills menu is regrouped under clear, player facing headers, with stealth skills tucked under Survival.

• Potion menu cleanup and consistent Space to back out.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a tavern crash.

• Fixed dungeon bosses fleeing being counted as a victory.

• Fixed solo win rewards printing twice.

• Fixed a double Press Enter after harvesting when a skill is discovered.

• Fixed a dungeon depth bonus that was scaling incorrectly and leaking between runs.

• Moved tome spells back to Tier 1 where they belong.

• Cleaned up leftover references to the removed Proficient Arcane Arts merge.

Thanks for playing the beta!

BETA BRANCH UPDATE:

NEW FEATURES

The biggest change this update is stealth is now usable outside of dungeons. Its tied to a toggle you can turn off and on at will with the drawback that when its own you move twice as slow (two ticks pass vs one so enemies will move faster than you).

Sneaking near mobs slowly trains your Stealth skill, so you can finally level it without ever setting foot in a dungeon. Fair warning though, stealth doesn't have a 100% successrate. If an enemy is higher level than you they have a chance to see through your cover and give chase. Since you are moving at half speed that means they'll instantly enter combat with you if they are withing one grid of you when you're spotted.

This stealth rework should satify any player who wants to live out the true rogue playstyle =)

Hope you all enjoy!

Open World Stealth

• Press X to toggle stealth on and off. It is off by default and toggling is free, much like how Z lets you wait in place. Nothing changes while it is off.

• While stealthed you move at half speed but draw no new aggro. Slip right past enemies without them chasing you.

• Going stealth will not shake an enemy that is already chasing you. An active chase still runs its course and ends after its normal duration, so plan your escape before you are spotted.

• Sneaking next to a mob trains your Stealth skill, which means you can now level Stealth entirely out in the world.

• Detection. A much higher level enemy can see through your stealth and give chase anyway. Be careful when sneaking in higher level areas.

• Clear visual cues. The controls line shows the toggle state inline as X=stealth(OFF) or X=stealth(ON), and your @ marker on the map greys out while you are sneaking so it should be easy to tell if you're currently in stealth at a glance.

Obcassus Patrols

• Three new Obcassus enemies, the Herald of Obcassus, the Obcassian Swornsword, and the Obcassus Devoutee, now spawn and roam the land around the Lair of Obcassus.

• They appear over time and spread outward from the Lair, and they stick around across visits until you clear them out. This should add a layer to the game where now the player has a small penalty if they take their time as they'll have to grind through more enemies to get to the final boss the more time has passed since the games start.

• Each of the new patrol mobs have a unique ability kit that intentionally requires strategy to deal with. Swornsword's taunt that locks your targeting, the Devoutee's battlefield healing, and the Herald's void bolt, weakening curse, and stun. You'll need to prioritize your targets and use your own abilties well to avoid being at a disadvantage against them.

• The Monster Grimoire lists their real moves so you can study them and plan ahead.

Balance Changes

• Balance changes were mostly smaller tweaks to certain abiltiies or damage numbers

• The reduced time to level from last week remains as well as the increased player damage

• Still working on finding a good balance in player damage, enemy health, and overall time to kill.

• Slowly working my way through abilities to make them feel more accurate to their tier, mana cost, and class identity.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a double Press Enter prompt when learning Basic Arcana from a book or an NPC.

• Removed a large amount of unused legacy code tied to the old patrol system, keeping things clean for future updates.

• Removed a few more annoying bugs that had been affecting status affects

• Fixed some aggro ranges

• Changed the way enemy generation works to reduce file size

Thanks for playing the beta!

Future Plans:

As always I want to continue finding bugs and implementing features that players want.

Please let me know if you have an idea you want to see in the game or if theres any bugs you find. I haven't had any crash reports in a while but if you do encounter one please let me know as soon as you can and I'll push a fix ASAP.

This week I'm planning continue trying to find a good balance for the game by tweaking attack values, hp pools, and abilites. Soon I will be making some changes like removing the three starting companions from Mount Greywind and making them instead recruitable in the open world. In their place I will have one or two (I haven't decided yet) companions that thematically match Mount Greywind.

Thanks for playing and have a great weekend!

-Lansdolli