Update 0.1.8.4 – Performance & Gameplay Improvements

• Improved performance in Points of Interest

• Increased visible shadow distance

• Fixed and reworked character spawn issues

• Increased damage for enemies level 10+

• Quest bug fixes

• Added a new Point of Interest (work in progress)

• Reworked skill Explosive Arrow

• Reworked secret in the Secret Casandra Dungeon

• Water visuals reworked

• Multiple additional bug fixes

Since I had to work a lot, this update unfortunately took a bit longer. Content-wise, not much was added. Most of the time I spent working on the game was used to improve performance in the two large Points of Interest, the castle ruins, which I unfortunately broke a bit with the previous update.

The original idea was that all loot containers (chests, destructible weapon racks, crates, etc.) would load at once when entering a specific area. The loading itself worked well, but it turned out that once all containers were loaded, they consumed too many resources. I spent the last few weeks trying to find a solution.

To get to the point: it didn’t work out. I’m back to the old problem where containers unload and reload individually, which causes them to reset and allows looting multiple times. For now, this is still better than extreme frame drops.

I will try a new approach that I actually like quite a bit. Since I want to make more use of the previously mostly decorative day-night cycle, I plan to use it for this system as well. The idea is to save all lootable containers as “looted” and reset this state after one in-game day has passed. I plan to tackle this next year.

I also addressed the character spawn issue, which unfortunately did not work well at all. In theory, it seemed simple: the player character crosses certain checkpoints, and the coordinates are saved. There are several of these before dungeons, villages, the player base, etc. Whenever the world map is loaded—either when starting the game or leaving a dungeon—these coordinates are read and the character is placed there. Logical enough.

Unfortunately, for reasons still unknown to me, this coordinate transfer does not always work, which results in the character being placed at 0,0,0. Because of this, I added an intermediate screen that appears when the world map loads, with a “Continue” button. The game stays paused until you press it, and only then is the character moved to the last saved coordinates. It’s a bit clunky, but so far it works without errors.

I’ll probably decorate this window later with some kind of random quotes or similar.

These are, I think, the most important changes in this update. Additionally, I added a new Point of Interest that is still under construction and increased enemy damage for levels 10+. The damage might feel a bit high, but once you have equipment around level 12, it should be manageable.

For the next update, I’m planning a few smaller Points of Interest in the currently available area and the opening of the second-to-last region of Act 1, which will likely be balanced around levels 12–15. I’ll see if I can still manage to get this done by the 31st—so I can at least say I made it in 2025. I’ll also put together a rough plan for 2026 in the coming days.

With that, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and if we don’t see each other again this year, a Happy New Year.

Best regards, Mark Koch

And never forget: Have Fun!