Patch 0.9.95: Final overhaul, release very soon!

Shadowed is a game that has been in development for quite a while now. A lot of things have been added that weren't part of the original plan, some parts of the original plan didn't turn out so well, and many different changes have been made thanks to feedback. With all this being said, the release is *very* close, just a few days away in fact, and when I went over my core design goals, and I realized that Shadowed had strayed away from a few of them. This next patch is quite an upheaval as far as these things go, but to sum it up in a few words, most things in the game have gotten easier, although actually defeating Shuten-douji has gotten much harder. As always, the ascension modes are there for people seeking a greater challenge.

Note: Some changes in this update may not carry over to saved games/builds. Apologies for any inconvenience.

This post might get quite long, but I want to explain my design goals, and how they went. Starting with the good:

Class fantasy

My biggest goal with shadowed was to make a roguelike that really did things like ninja/samurai/onmyoji justice. This one, I think has gone very well.

Stealth matters, but combat is inevitable

It's been a long and hard road, but with the recent updates, I'm very happy with where stealth is in Shadowed. There are good rewards for partaking in it, and it feels good to do, but combat is still a major core focus of the game.

Tactical combat

With Shadowed, I wanted to make a roguelike where repeatedly bumping an enemy to death was rarely the optimal solution. I don't know if I would say I did a perfect job at this, but I think I did quite well, and have no regrets with how it turned out.

Varied enemies

Shadowed ended up having a lot more enemies than were originally planned. And while some of them are basic, I'm happy with this too.

Cool and useful status effects

This is one that I may have gone a little too far with, if anything. Still, there's nothing that I dislike enough to warrant changes.

Fun-to-explore levels

Here's where we get to the first one that I have some issue with. Mostly, the castle levels were still a bit dry. But beyond that, I think it's all good.

Every stat is good for every class

This was something of a failure. The stat growth system is something that I was quite attached to, but it just makes it so that you get more value for levelling some stats than others, and ironically, the fact that every stat has value meant that it was just better to level whatever got you the most stats in the end.

Preparation and long-term planning

This one is a mixed bag. I'm happy with fatigue, but preparation has been a bit of a fail. If you round a corner and run into a fire monster about to roast you, you're not going to have your fire resistance items prepared, for several reasons: Limited slots, and few ways to see enemies coming. Unfortunately, some of the issues here run quite deep, but there are at least a few steps that can be taken to make this aspect a little better.

Getting to Shuten is the easy part

This is one that most people may not even really know, but yes, my core vision was always to be having reaching Shuten be challenging, but beating him to be extremely difficult. I wanted the game to be a balancing act of trying to survive, while also trying to assemble the items/skills necessary to win. It's hard to say how well this went, but I certainly think things could be better, and I need to balance out all the buffs that the player is receiving somehow anyway.

With all these in mind, you should understand the changes being made now:

-Shuten has been buffed, a lot. If you don't have countermeasures, he will obliterate you.

-Added the "talisman of ritual binding" item. These are talismans that will weaken Shuten, and they are scattered randomly throughout the game, with a few fixed spawns. If you don't have around 10 or so of these by the end, you're gonna be in for a rough time.

-Shuten will now patiently wait for you if you have divine sake (so he doesn't oneshot you before you can offer it to him)

-For the Kamikui, his resistance mutations have been buffed. This should hopefully be enough to give him a fighting chance.

-All stats now cost 3 points to level. This has been quite a painful decision, but in the end, as much as I liked the idea of the class scaling system, it just didn't really lend itself well to the "all stats for every class" thing.

-Each class now has a "preferred stat". They get 1 of this stat every second level up. This actually maths out to being worse than A scaling for the purposes of maxing a stat, but overall, just about every character can have more stats overall now thanks to the changes.

-Many, many, many perks and abilities have had their requirements/scaling tweaked to reflect these changes.

-"Squishy" classes such as the Kunoichi and Onmyoji only get 2 HP per HP increase instead of the normal 3, to help maintain their identity.

-The stats window on character generation still keeps the A-D ranking system, but it's mostly a starting stats/cosmetic thing moreso than anything else.

-Even though the whole "six points per level and 3 to level a stat" thing could be divided down to 2 and 1 respectively, the 6 per level figure is being maintained in order to preserved the balance of stat point boosts from items/events/perks etc. It's a little inelegant, but changing it would honestly double the amount of work that this stat overhaul has taken so far.

-Characters now have +1 prepare slots, and the second prepare slot perk no longer exists. The Kamikui is unaffected. Taking one perk for an extra slot may be an interesting decision, but I don't think it feels very good to do twice.

-Pills now have a base use time of 0, meaning that they take 1 turn when used from inventory, and 0 turns when prepared. This *sort of* makes them better than talismans, although the same bonus could not be given to talismans without making the onmyoji absurdly powerful, so it just is what it is. Pills do still have the disadvantage of having weight and needing identification though.

-There are now warning messages that play when dangerous monsters are near, but not in sight. The messages are quite vague, and may not help you if you don't have the right countermeasures, but it's something.

-Castle levels have received another change. There is a new system where statues will randomly spawn in rooms and hallways, causing buffs/debuffs to enemies or allies within. Most of these start out harmful to the player (or beneficial to monsters), but may be converted to the players side with a little luck and high purity. Statues that spawn in hallways need a sacrifice, however, just to make things interesting. This was probably the biggest overhaul code-wise, so any testing and feedback is appreciated.

Misc changes:

-Immoral choices in events now corrupt you more.

-Overexertion now gives you a little more fatigue to work with.

QOL:

-Readjusted the colors in the help docs.

Bugfixes:

-fixed a bug where enemy spells were not affected by damage debuffs.

-fixed a bug related to the game not knowing if you were inside a room/hallway or not(may have been responsible for arena rooms bugging out)

-fixed a bug where taking and deselecting items on character generation stopped working sometimes.

-fixed a bug where you would get a "you cant use that" message after successfully using poison.

-cleaned up some edge cases where passages in castle levels could spawn in inappropriate places

Thank you for supporting Shadowed! The final release will be next weekend, but don't worry, there will be post-launch support. The Japanese translation is also on the way!