Small update + AFK protection (?)

Heeeey :)) We did some fixes here and there, plus some new things :)

First of all, I have asked my highly trained professional gemini to generate a few pictures to give the posts some fresh vibes :) So join me, as we go through the news :)Steam post image

Core features

Thanks to you on the Discord, we were able to fix together some bugs :) My most favourite improvement was afk protection, but I was still not happy with the current implementation until I realised that it should be completely up to you how you will play the game. I don't have a good experience with too much automation in games - they usually ruin the gaming experience, so I am trying to be cautious and don't automate the game too much. I had different concepts from promoting the active gameplay with "handicapping" the auto-attack and auto-cast, to creating a new mechanic that would somehow kill the afk player and be pretty easy for an active player, but at the end of the day - literally (it took me a full day.....) I realised ... why? And I just let go... So you won't see any afk protections for now :) It is up to you how you will play.

We have a clear inventory now = the essences are gone, they are now "currency" represented as drops, but then as a currency in the inventory.

We have also spots (requested feature btw) on minimap + players on minimap (this was my idea! :D) :) with tooltips.

I have also prepared a new demo build and set up a demo release date. It was right when I boosted warrior - as he needed it, and it is now my main class as I decided others received enough attention, but our first class ... the original square :D In my first working prototype :D was just lying there waiting for his time :)

I also had some ideas in my mind regarding class "super versions", an ancestral version of the class ... and I have a current working prototype for warrior :) So stay tuned for the next update :) It should be there if everything goes as planned (which never does :D:D:D)

And Arena will also be reworked :) I am currently testing it locally.)

Full list here :)

NEW

• Minimap spot tooltip: hover over spawn zones to see mob type and level (e.g. Gnome Lv3). Hold Shift to show player names instead

• Added ruin locations scattered across the world map (12 locations with mixed building styles and fire effects)

IMPROVED

• Monster Essence and Boss Essence are now currencies (like Gold) instead of inventory items; existing essence items in saves are migrated automatically

• Essence drops on ground as loot; pickup adds to currency. Hover over Monster/Boss Essence in inventory shows tooltip with icon and usage (Blacksmith / Arena)

• Multiplayer: essence currency now loads, saves, and migrates correctly (was missing in MP flow)

• Adjusted event ticket value and Happy Hour Token cost to 2,000,000 gold

• Rarity-based weapon upgrade glow: upgraded weapons (+7 and above) now feature unique glow colors based on their rarity (Common: Yellow/Orange/Red, Blue: Blue, Excellent: Green, Unique: Gold/Orange). The "breathing" effect (pulse) now also takes on the rarity color at its peak intensity for a more immersive look. Toggleable via FEATURE_RARITY_BASED_WEAPON_UPGRADE_GLOW.

• Blizzard damage increased by 20% (T6 ultimate)

• Mass Poison Cloud damage reduced by 50% (T5 AOE)

• Minotaur and Troll: HP bars and floating damage numbers moved higher to fix visibility issues (Minotaur +20px, Troll +50px)

• World & Quest Buffs: Completely separated "World Buffs" (from shrines/towers) and "Quest Buffs" (from quest rewards). They now have distinct names, separate icons, and their effects stack if you have both active at the same time.

• FixedHP Buff TooltipFixed description showing "+100% Heal" when it actually increases "Health" (Max HP).
• AdjustedConsistent Buff TooltipsUpdated all world and quest buff tooltips to use proper capitalization and descriptive names (e.g., "Quest: Atk Speed Buff", "World: Atk Speed Buff").

• Arena entry denied

  message now shows exact gold and essence required for selected tier (e.g.

  T5

  125,000 gold + 50 essence); displayed ~5.5s instead of 2.5s

• AdjustedChaos Rift statsupdated summary and leaderboard UI with modern rounded design and semi-transparent background
• FixedChaos Rift statsfixed leaderboard layout for 4 players to prevent text overflow
• AddedChaos Rift statssummary and leaderboard now persist until manually closed via the new "X" button

• Rift leaderboard: close button now matches Players table style (red, rounded); stats shown in proper table (GridContainer) instead of plain text with formatted numbers

• Minimap tooltip uses floating window style (UIStyleHelper), drawn on top of all markers

• Warrior class boost: +200 starting HP, innate HP regeneration (2.5/s), and base defense (18.0) for better early-game survivability

• Warrior starter equipment now includes a Buckler (Shield) and Chain Vest (Armor) in addition to the Rusty Blade

• AdjustedWarrior Fortress skillimproved movement speed multiplier (0.4 -> 0.6) for better mobility in defensive stance

• Warrior farm speed multiplier increased by 15% (BUFF layer)

• Stash and Trade windows now use the unified floating panel design (rounded corners, shadow, consistent close button style)

• Removed era-based sprite tinting (Iron/Steel/Chaos); item icons now display original sprite colors

• Mob spawn spots: tier-based density and respawn — low tiers (T1–T5) have 1 big + 3 small spots and fastest respawn (0.7s), mid tiers (T6–T10) 1 big + 2 small and 0.8s respawn, high tiers (T11+) 1 big + 1 small and 0.9s respawn. Low-level spots are now more efficient for farming; high-level spots reward higher XP/drops with lower mob throughput.

• Spell damage scaling: Replaced the hard damage cap per spell tier with a soft cap. Spells now scale infinitely with INT, but damage exceeding the tier's threshold suffers heavy diminishing returns (square root scaling). This preserves endgame balance while ensuring stat upgrades always provide a benefit.

• Spellbook/Skillbook: Centered the Class Mastery section vertically for better visual alignment

FIXED

• AddedFixed Steam invitesecond invite during join could not be accepted or cancelled (popup now always receives input; Accept restarts join with new lobby)

• Fixed "[EnemyFactory] Unknown enemy type" crash when spawning Super Boss pack (empty mob_type fallback to gnome)

• Removed Monster Essence from Autosell settings (essence is now currency, not inventory)

• Fixed misleading "RESISTED" text when hitting mobs: damage cap and tier penalty now show the actual damage number instead of "RESISTED" (damage was always applied; text was wrong)

• Blacksmith upgrade: only normal monster essence types (beast parts, essence, broken equipment) count toward upgrade cost; tickets, boss essence, and pet rations no longer consumed (whitelist instead of exclude)

• Fixed Warrior autocast skills (Charge, Brutal Slam, Taunt) being unresponsive due to long check intervals (now retries every 0.5s if rage/mana is insufficient or no target is found)

• Fixed Warrior autocast skills not triggering correctly while moving

• Fixed Taunt autocast not detecting nearby enemies (now only casts when enemies are in range)

• Fixed Warrior skills being interrupted by movement

• Fixed Warrior Charge autocast accuracy by using target position instead of mouse position

• Reduced RID/Texture leaks on game exit: static caches (ItemIconRenderer, action bar, spell shop, expertise UI, player buff icons) and custom cursor are now cleared before shutdown

• Arena start: clients with gold and essence no longer get "need resources" denial (server had no inventory sync; now trusts client validation for remote players)

• Arena teleport: clients now see teleport dialog when clicking Arena NPC (was blocked when host was in arena — now uses local player for "in arena" check)

• Superboss event: boss event circle now disappears on clients when event ends (queue_redraw on network sync)

• FixedSuperboss eventclients now see superboss as purple (tier 3) when returning to event; fixed tier 3 in batch sync and boss_tier detection in gather

• Fixed a bug where new characters didn't receive their starting equipment package (needs_starter_equipment flag)

• Fixed Iron Town Monk not healing or restoring mana (monk_heal_effect was never created; HP/mana restore was gated behind it)

• Demo map bounds updated to correctly include T1-T4 zones (Harpoon, Paddle, Gnome, Snake + Iron Town); previous rect excluded T1-T3

• Fixed respawn town in pause menu showing wrong value (e.g. Iron Town) when a different town was actually set; label now syncs on menu open and after save load

• Fixed blue player dots appearing on minimap in single player (now only shown when multiplayer is active)

• Removed quest giver marker from minimap

• Fixed minimap "teleporting" player when walking in the western map area (arena detection radius was too large, causing false arena coordinate conversion)

• Fixed world map terrain corruption near the left edge caused by arena terrain tiles overlapping with world map tiles (moved arena region further away and added world-bounds safeguard)

• Fixed stale FoamLayer/ShadowLayer tile data persisting from old map generation, potentially causing visual terrain artifacts

• Daily Grind quest (50% XP reward): progress now accumulates gained XP (capped) instead of raw kill XP. Farming high-level mobs at low level no longer grants uncapped quest reward based on raw XP

• Fixed unique jewelry/weapon bonuses (XP Gain, Luck, Move Speed) not being applied — Zen Master's Seal, Troll King's Seal, Spirit Ring, and all similar uniques now correctly apply their displayed bonuses when equipped

• Implemented all mob-drop unique effects that were display-only: Gold Find, Damage Reduction, Weapon Damage %, Mana Regen, Block Chance, Crit Damage, Life Steal (on hit and on kill). Leviathan's Tooth, Ancient Fin, Alpha Band, Soul-Reaper, and 40+ other uniques now apply their bonuses correctly

• Chilled (Frost-Walker Boots) and all unique disable effects: 5s internal cooldown per mob. Prevents infinite freeze when stacking many Poison Clouds — mob can only be frozen/stunned once every 5 seconds

• Fixed spell damage tooltips showing incorrect values. Tooltips now perfectly match the actual damage dealt by correctly applying all buffs (including Overload and Berserk) and the soft cap.

• Fixed Archmage's Crown (Overload) effect: +40% Spell DMG and +50% Mana cost now apply correctly

• Fixed missing damage numbers on hit for projectile spells (e.g., Fire Strike, Energy Strike) and delayed AoE spell ticks (e.g., Blizzard, Volley) in multiplayer

• Legacy tab: weapon icon now displays correctly in Progression window (preview was hidden and never received weapon data)

• Legacy tab: tooltip now shows when hovering over the weapon icon (was showing on frame, hiding on icon)

• Quest progress now correctly tracks after rebirth (was frozen until abandon+re-accept; reset_progress_only now re-accepts quests to create fresh state)

• Fixed "RPC on yourself" error when host completes Chaos Rift or views rift summary — host now adds results locally via add_host_rift_results instead of rpc_id(1)

REMOVED

• Removed stray landmark buildings outside towns (Outpost, Cottage, Cabin, Farmhouse)