Update 0.3

Mighty Warriors!

We bear good tidings. The time has come and update 0.3 is live! And this time, we focused mainly on further optimization.

One of the biggest and most wanted features is a significant reduction in Kromlech’s installation size. Thanks to better compression and usage of new technologies, the game will now take up only around ~50 GB of disk space, less than half of what it required when Early Access launched. We believe this size is now much more reasonable for most players, and these storage optimizations also give us more room to continue expanding the game in the future. Most importantly, the size reduction comes without any noticeable decrease in visual quality.

We have managed to increase average performance by 15-20% (depending on hardware and settings). This milestone was achieved through a series of major under the hood optimization endeavors. We segmented the main map into groups with variable quality levels, optimized the NPC movement and animation systems, converted our trees to a new rendering pipeline, optimized VFX, interaction system, and many other systems to ensure better frame rate across the entire game.

Reducing VRAM usage was another major focus for this update. The biggest breakthrough came from discovering a memory leak in our hair rendering system, where assets stayed loaded in memory long after NPCs disappeared. Fixing this means that long play sessions will no longer trigger performance degradation or require game restarts. Furthermore, we used this opportunity to optimize the hair rendering pipeline, resulting in better performance and noticeably improved hair visuals across all quality settings.

Optimization remains a key focus for us and you can expect further improvements in future updates.

Narrative

Speaking of the future, our design team is currently finalizing the first act of Kromlech’s main story line. This part of the game focuses on reasons why Cronach came to the ancient land of Gwern, his journey to the mythical god-tree Derwach and also on more details about the lore background of our world. You can expect new locations, NPCs and quests that will make your exploration even more enjoyable and bountiful!

The entire team is hard at work, new concept art, 3D models and music are being prepared and we listen to your feedback very carefully to ensure Kromlech becomes the game we always dreamed of creating.

Localization

Last but not least, we have some good news for our friends in China. Update 0.3 brings Simplified Chinese localization. Other language versions will be available with the release of version 1.0.

Full changelog

Gameplay

Combat & Movement

• Fixed stamina generation after loading

• Fixed player threat level not updating correctly after revive

• Death now teleports you to the last visited fireplace or in case of dungeons at the entrance

Balancing

• AdjustedShrine Blessing "Hunger of Thousand-Maws"effect threshold increased from 20% to 10% HP — triggers more reliably
• AdjustedWarpaint "Tough Gets Going"Max Endurance growth bonus replaced with Max Stamina; Max Stamina growth bonus reduced from +5 to +3
• AdjustedWarpaint "Knife's Edge"Max Health growth bonus reduced from +10 to +5
• AdjustedWarpaint "Limit Breaker"Damage growth bonus reduced from +5 to +2

• Warpaint "Give As You Get": Max Stamina growth bonus replaced with Max Endurance

• AdjustedWarpaint "Tough Bastard"Max Health growth bonus reduced from +10 to +5
• AdjustedWarpaint "Too Angry To Die"Max Health growth bonus reduced from +10 to +5; fixed warpaint functionality
• AdjustedWarpaint "Fleshed Out"Defense growth bonus reduced from +5 to +2
• AdjustedWarpaint "Warpath"Max Health growth bonus reduced from +10 to +5
• AdjustedWarpaint "Bull Amidst Pottery"Force growth bonus reduced from +5 to +3
• AdjustedWarpaint "Killing Momentum"Max Stamina growth bonus reduced from +5 to +3
• AdjustedWarpaint "Lightning Strikes Twice"Damage growth bonus reduced from +5 to +2

• Assigned correct loot tables to various containers that were previously providing contextually incorrect loot

• Fixed and improved loot quality in chests across the world

Game content

• Added new chest types across the world

• Added armor sets for Celt Peasant Female, Scum, Thug, and Celt Warrior

• Fixed and optimized game events across the world

• Fixed Ascetic epithet not being correctly acquired

• Fixed errors when selling charms

Quests

• FixedQuest Spiritual Cleansefixed navigation to properly show the location of the Lurg shaman
• AddedQuest Last Supperadded VFX effects to highlight investigation spots
• AddedQuest Mine Your Businessadded VFX effects to highlight investigation spots

• Quest Big Trouble, Little Lettrek: rewritten quest resolution texts to better reflect the scenarios that follow

UI & UX

• Added visual separation between Fated quests and Crisis quests in the Journal

• Fixed item sorting when selling items

Localization

• Added Chinese language support

• Various in-game texts updated; fixed typos and grammar mistakes

Audio

• Updated inventory SFX

• Brought various NPCs to life with random voice lines as the player passes by

• Split loot notification sounds separately for weapons and gear

• Added sound for mastery point notifications

• Added notification sound for gaining/losing god's favor

• Added sound for the tracking button on the map

• Extended ambient in Natuhuk

• Added height-dynamic wind audio on Cursed Hill

• Further music updates in rifts and dungeons

• Added missing audio volumes in caves

• Fixed random audio dropout during travel

• Fixed game music bleeding into the Main Menu and causing two tracks to play simultaneously

• Fixed waterfall audio bleed in caves

• Fixed atmosphere not changing correctly in King Grave dungeon

• Smoothed atmosphere transitions in/out of caves

• Fixed unhandled situations in the audio system within animations

Graphics

• Fixed various graphical bugs in environments across maps

• Fixed eye rendering on Low/Medium quality settings

• Improved hair render pipeline — faster and better-looking hair across all quality settings

• Fixed blood visual during healing with "Too Angry To Die" warpaint

• Improved burning logs visual effect

• Fixed highlighting effects

Optimization & Performance

• Optimized interaction system

• Optimized VFX across the world

• Optimized fog rendering

• Optimized dynamic ropes

• Optimized GI ray tracing

• Optimized vegetation SFX system

• Optimized local ambient system

• Reduced VRAM usage from 2D textures

• Optimized disk size of 2D textures, 3D textures, and 3D models

• Optimized background rendering

• Optimized corpse rendering

• Optimized decals rendering

• Disabled shadows for small vegetation on Low/Medium settings

• Optimized procedural decoration generator

• Optimized gore system

• Optimized wrinkle rendering on characters

• Optimized character movement and animation system

• Completed conversion of trees to newer render pipeline (faster rendering, higher quality, smaller disk size)

• Removed duplicate grass patches in maps

• Split main map into groups with variable rendering quality (faster performance, reduced memory usage)

• Unified standard and mirrored models through rendering pipeline improvements (disk size reduction, faster rendering)

• Implemented async save system — saving no longer causes stalls or interruptions during gameplay

• Optimized character LODs

• Fixed memory leaks caused by hair while traversing the world

• Fixed stuttering and freezing in tutorial

• Eliminated redundant model variations

Thank you for your continuous support and all the love you show to our game. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you.

Until next time!