Update 0.1.50

Warriors!

We have heard your feedback, went through the messages and reports you sent us and today, we bring you a new update! It shall make your adventures in Gwern more pleasurable and also bountiful. We introduced some key quality of life improvements and changes, but keep in mind, the journey of Kromlech is still in its first steps and more crucial updates will come at a steady pace. Our team is already working on the next update, but for now, let’s focus on today’s news!

Here are the highlights

Introducing faster loading times

We have completely redone the loading system, which helped us to drastically reduce loading times, both while loading the game from the menu or while entering dungeons, but also while sleeping, fast traveling or, unfortunately, dying. The improvement is significant, but we are still working on delivering even shorter loading times in future updates.. Long waits are over, get back into the fray!

Better onboarding

We have already introduced a tutorial in our previous update, but this time, we also added useful hints to loading screens, added height indicators to quest markers, so you’ll know if your target is above or bellow ground, and also added visual and aural indicators of getting hit and getting low on health or stamina. We believe this change makes combat more understandable and enjoyable.

Improvement of blocking mechanic

The guard/block system of shields and weapons has been redone. Shields and weapons are now draining stamina based on their weight. Shields now have a new parameter called Absorption which reduces the incoming damage potential and redirects it into stamina.

Changes to Cronach’s movement

Yes, our mighty hero was running as if the hounds of the underworld were at his heels. All movesets now have reduced speed, we also disabled sprint while Cronach is overencumbered. To make your encounters with tough enemies fair, we also prolonged the invincibility frame during dodging.

Changes to lock-on system

That pesky lock-on dot should work as intended now! The system is now more reliable and we also fixed related bugs, i.e. inability to lock on an enemy or disappearance of the lock-on dot.

Game size reduction

We managed to reduce the size of Kromlech by approx. 10 GB, but we’re not stopping there! A more significant reduction is coming in future updates.

Full Changelog

Gameplay

Combat & Movement:

• Reduced player movement speed by 20% across all movesets

• Increased invincibility frame duration during dodge

• Reworked block logic for shields and weapons — shields and weapons now drain stamina based on weight; new Absorption parameter reduces incoming damage and redirects it to stamina; weapon block damage reduced from 50% to 10%

• Sprint now automatically resets after stopping

• Sprint disabled while over-encumbered

• Improved player lock-on targeting system

• Fixed horizontal slash aiming while locked on

• Fixed player attack aiming against animals — player now correctly adjusts slash height when fighting on slopes or stairs, instead of slashing straight ahead regardless of elevation difference

• Adjusted timing of heal within the heal animation (heal occurs earlier)

• Reduced Marauder collider thickness (better player reach during attacks)

• Fixed camera movement during death

Balancing:

• Reduced enemy difficulty in early game — mainly wolves and bandits

• Significantly increased Stability for mid/late game enemies (undead warriors, kings, lurgs, elite lurgs)

• Increased base damage for lurgs

• Increased enemy difficulty in High Risk zones; improved elite enemies — boosted stats, unique appearances, dedicated armor

• Weapon balancing — Tier 2 and higher weapons weakened, stats reduced

• Rebalanced stability for most armor (reduced previously left-in