Jun 29, 2023

Dev-log: A summary of everything so far, and the future

The Unliving - Lo_Team17

Greetings, Necromancers!

A lot happened since our early access release. During development, we realized that the roadmap we had drawn up at the beginning did not include all the things you requested in feedback, so we adjusted it to allocate more time to the things that worried you the most. ICYMI - we have also just dropped the 'Apex Necromancy' update, check out the patch notes for that here!

As we're fast approaching our 1.0 update, we would love to tell you in detail about everything that has been done in the game since the beginning of early access, and how we envision further development!

We'd like to start with a summary - scroll all the way down to the "Future of Development" section below for a sneak peek at what we have planned for the future.

Fixing the Horde: High Undead 🧟

One of the biggest changes in the game for now - is the higher undead system, which is meant to give players the ability to create the horde they want!

From the very beginning, the behaviour of the undead horde been a focal point of player feedback. To address this, we have made many different additions and fixes to improve the experience of controlling the horde (more on those below), but in the end, we realized that part of the problem is rooted too deeply in the game's foundation, and it is geometrically impossible to make a horde that fills the screen without simultaneously feeling cumbersome and getting in its own way.

We wanted to keep the game pivot - the element of “every killed unit would join the undead horde”, as a dark version of the "leave no one behind" principle. And so, we developed the"High Undead" system.

Now, the Necromancer has a limit on the number of simultaneous units, but each unit can consist of several undead. If the Necromancer resurrects new undead and exceeds his current limit, then he will merge several corpses (choosing the most decayed and damaged ones) and receive the High Undead - who posses increased parameters and updated hit points!

If you manage to gather an incredible amount of corpses, further merging into higher ranks of undead may be possible! With each rank, health and damage will increase significantly, reflecting how many corpses are now combined into one, and the higher-ranked undead will also decay slower.

The limit itself, as well as the strength of the high undead, can be changed in different ways: during the necromancy power upgrade, in the binding crucible, and in the throne of ascension.

Moreover, in the throne of ascension, a pair of forces responsible for the limit will appear. Those who prefer to play with a larger army will be able to increase this limit, while those who prefer a compact elite squad will be able to decrease this limit, obtaining an empowerment of the highest undead (as well as making it easier to promote ranks due to the small number of units).

Balance revision: Binding Crucible and Increasing Power of Necromancy 📖📈

Many things have also been done to respond to your request for the Necromancer's tools to become more customizable.

With new systems, you can make a composition that matches the style you want to play the game!

If you love spell casting you can make spells world shatteringly powerful, at the cost of everything else.
If you don't - all this power could be channelled into the undead, to make them mighty hulks. You could even can hog all power for the Necromancer himself - who decided that casters are fragile and need an army?

Most of the living enemies have been rebalanced to match to new dynamic of Necromancers power. Now that difference in power level will be more pronounced between locations - the cemetery will be easier to beat, especially with crucible powers, and city will be more resistant to crucible powers for longer!

Customization Options: Binding Crucible

The Binding Crucible adds progression and customization to the meta-game. You will encounter it immediately upon returning to the Citadel, and once repaired with Majra and Nazrail, you can use it right away!

The Crucible maintains its flame with coals of life from the Necromancer himself, formed every time a lifespark breaks.

For each level of the Crucible, you can choose one of four alternative upgrades. More often than not, upgrades are responsible for choosing between enhancing the combat capability of the Necromancer himself, enhancing the army of undead, enhancing spells, or enhancing sacrificial abilities - but there are exceptions.

In-run progress: Necromantic Power

The Binding Crucible added necessary progression to the game, but to prevent it from becoming a stagnant choice of the same strategy, we added a system focused on increasing Necromancy Power.

Now, by resurrecting enemies, the Necromancer will receive upgrades that can adjust the direction of development during the run, depending on the vagaries of fate and your mood.

Achievements and Rewards: Citadel Store Update 🛍️

The need to spend Prima simultaneously in three different places - with Majra, Nazrail, and on the Ascension Throne - caused inconvenience, so we reworked the system. Now, apprentices will not have to wait for the Master to bring them resources, but will independently conduct research when certain achievements are reached!

Access to enchantments and new weapons from Nazra'il and Life Sparks from Majra will now be entirely tied to achievements rather than purchased, and Prima will only be spent on restoring the Ascension Throne.

Use Life Sparks and spend life force to provide Majra with the necessary data for research. Kill enemies with different weapons and raise them as undead to inspire Nazra'il to forge new enchantments!

Re-rolls and Grimoire empowerment 🌠

Some feedback suggested that restoring the grimoire often doesn't feel like progress because with a large pool of spells and runes, it becomes harder to find the desired spells. To address this, we added a system of rerolls to the game, tied to grimoire restoration!

Now, when a necromancer unlocks a new circle of ten spells they will activate its core, which provides various bonuses, including additional reroll charges!

With this charge, essence results can now be re-rolled! Additional charges can be earned inside the run by discarding essences.

Navigation tool: Necromancer Divination 🗺️

In order for you to better navigate and make decisions on whether to deviate from the path in pursuit of the Zolarian's gold reserves, we have added a Divination system.

This is a radar that, when activated by a button press, will display points of interest around the necromancer and their direction, as well as a pointer to the main path to the location boss.

Throne of Ascension update 🪑

Initially when developing the Necromancer's throne interface, we were focused on achieving a diegetic look, but from your feedback, players found the interface to be unclear... so we updated it!

We made the Necromancer's throne more informative and obvious in conveying what needs to be done to unlock new powers within it. We also made the effects of the powers more obvious and displayed that only one of the two paired powers can be active at a time.

Late-game challenge: Vow of Deicide 🗡️

To ensure that after all the changes and various enhancement systems the player still has a challenge in the later stages of the game, we developed the 'Vow of Deicide'.

The Vow of Deicide is a counter-part system, meant to oppose the Binding Crucible. It will allow you to raise the level of difficulty after the Necromancer reaches end-game stages - and you can get rewards for it!

The Vow of Deicide is activated after you have defeated the final boss for the first time, and it allows you to start a new run with increased difficulty. All enemies, including bosses, will become stronger, but the amount of resources will increase as well. Additionally, rewards for first-time boss kills will be given for each level of difficulty.

After the final boss is defeated on the new level of difficulty, the next level will be unlocked.

Different tweaks and Optimizations 🛠️

We worked hard on different aspects of how the army of undead work, and have made quite a lot of technical progress in response to all issues you, the community, are reporting.

There was logic, and technical updates for pathfinding and aggression, the most noticeable change was the addition of a dash or jump to meelee units. Of course regular skeletons will never be on par with mighty werewolves, but now they have a line rush move to get them to the front line, rather than stuck behind archers!

We have also made quite a few internal changes of how all things work, small QOL changes, and some explanation attached to things that were unclear before! Based on your feedback, we added a tracker to display how close the Necromancer is to finding the next shard of his soul.

Numerous abilities and runes texts were re-written to make their function clearer, and loading-screen tips were also added!

Future of development 🔮

We are almost at the end of early access development, and the next big update will be version 1.0!

All major systems and radical changes that we deemed necessary and that you asked for in the feedback are now online. We will most likely still make some changes for the release version, based on your further feedback, but the next update will have a focus on narrative. Most excitingly, the biggest part of this update will be the final boss and Zolar's elite guard.

Of course, you can expect the conclusion of the Necromancer's story and that of his apprentices, as well as many small plot additions. During the time that the apprentices spent in the necromancer's citadel, they managed to collect all sorts of things, (both necessary and otherwise). Some say that a ghostly meowing can be heard, echoing through the citadel at times... 🐱

There will also be small objects in the locations that will further reveal the story of the events and the world. For those that love lore, this is going to be huge!

[/img] We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us on this journey. We are close to the finish, but there is still time for some changes, so we would be extremely grateful if you could fill out the survey to make sure that the final version will be the necromancy game you are waiting for. Thank you! [img]https://i.imgur.com/A7P5DuU.gif[/img] [b]🧟 Keep up to date with The Unliving 🧟 [/b] [url=https://twitter.com/TheUnlivingGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor]Twitter [/url] [url=https://www.facebook.com/theunlivinggame/]Facebook [/url] [url=https://twitter.com/Team17?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor]Team17 Twitter [/url] [url=https://www.facebook.com/Team17/]Team17 Facebook [/url] [url=https://discord.gg/FwTpJC9Cns]Join our Discord![/url

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us on this journey. We are close to the finish, but there is still time for some changes, so we would be extremely grateful if you could fill out the survey to make sure that the final version will be the necromancy game you are waiting for. Thank you!

🧟 Keep up to date with The Unliving 🧟

Twitter
Facebook
Team17 Twitter
Team17 Facebook
Join our Discord!

Jun 29, 2023

The Unliving l Apex Necromancy Update

The Unliving - Lo_Team17

Hello Necromancers!

A major update is here - are you ready to reach Apex Necromancy?

Enemy resurrection necromancer upgrades
Create powerful ranked undead when horde is increased
Reach achievements to conduct apprentice research
New difficulty modes after first completion
New rewards for grimoire restoration and throne essence
Navigation radar
Achievement based enchantment access

Check out the full patch notes below!

Apex Necromancy Patch Notes
Gameplay Fixes:

Fixed an exploit allowing players to reload saves for currency farming.
Bonus Cinders are now correctly awarded to the Necromancer on Apostate difficulty.
Fixed a bug where difficulty options would not apply on a continued run.
The Blood Cysts modifier can now be found in Homespace.
Corrected the "Ascension Elixir" Lifespark upgrade functionality.
Fixed an issue where multiple lifesparks would activate simultaneously.
Improved functionality of Enchanter upgrades.
Adjusted conditions for the Flower Lady achievement.
Fixed a bug that caused projectiles to freeze after being launched.
Added option to select difficulty parameters after defeating the third boss.
Improved decay state update in the starting area of a run.
Resurrected Hierarch mini boss units can now be sacrificed.
Fixed an issue preventing the sacrifice of flower bulb enemies in the Swamp Boss stage.
Corrected a problem causing undead to get stuck at invisible walls.
Improved horde responsiveness with 40+ units.
Fixed a bug where raising dead could be used during combat.
In-store items will now correctly subtract coins when purchased.
Fixed an issue that prevented the raising of the Cleric of Zolar from the dead.
Pressing 'R' for the raise dead ability will now consistently raise the dead.
Interactions with Lifesparks will now correctly grant Lifeforce to the player.
Spells unlocked by the player will now save correctly, even without loading a stage.
Commander unit will now be visible when dead.
Fixed an issue causing the "Expend" button to lack functionality when interacting with an Essence.
Fixed performance issues in the Swamps level and during large Horde encounters.
Fixed issues with Essence UI popups showing up incorrectly.
Fixed issues with Blood Feast spell display and icon representation.
Fixed a bug causing the "Expend" option to appear with no functionality in the Ash Forge menu.
Corrected spelling errors and inconsistencies in several tooltips and descriptions.
Addressed an issue where the trial version text appeared on screen.
Fixed a bug causing the Binding Crucible to exhibit visual tearing during the first cutscene.
Fixed an issue with Necromancer movement during the Binding Crucible cutscene.
The Capital level can now be correctly reloaded from the Necromancer Citadel after defeating the Capital boss for the second time.
Fixed a bug causing tooltips to appear as placeholders when slots are empty.
Addressed incorrect display of unlocked upgrades on the Ascension Throne.
Fixed incorrect functionality of various abilities, modifiers and spells.
Improved sound effect cues and resolved various sound issues.
Fixed incorrect keybindings display on the in-game UI.
Corrected an issue causing undead to pass through the scenery when ordered to attack.
Resolved issue with Monolith of the Outer Gods causing unintended undead army behavior.
Fixed an issue causing the Carrion Hook to stun multiple enemies at once.
Corpse Trebuchet will now correctly state the number of corpses required for use.
Fixed a bug that prevented the game from pausing after the final barricade's destruction by Apotheosis.
Fixed several inconsistencies with blood cost of abilities.
Addressed an issue preventing undead and living entities from entering specific tutorial areas.
Improved gem drop rate from enemies.
Fixed the behavior of Apotheosis explosive barrels based on damage taken.
Fixed an issue preventing the skipping of the death screen.
Added tooltips to empty ability slots for improved user guidance.
Resolved blending issues in the starting area of the Swamp stage.

UI/UX Fixes:

Fixed a bug preventing the display of button icons for the arrow keys in the Tutorial.
Localized all elements of Hexenwraith upgrade from the Enchanter, Darkest Ritual menu, "Report a bug" feature, "Credits" option, "Give Up" option, and several HUD elements.
Lifesparks will now unlock at correct progress points.
Improved placeholder VFX for explosive barrels in Apotheosis fight.
Fixed an issue where the unlocked Lifespark Fabricator did not display the "R" prompt.
Adjusted the loading screen when returning to the front end menu to include artwork.
Improved controller navigation between options in the 'Audio & Video' menu.
Fixed an issue causing the user to repeatedly press "R" to interact with the Transmutation Rune.
Resolved an issue with misplaced text in the Spanish control mapping option.
Adjusted loading times for faster transitions between screens.
Resolved a visual bug involving the overlap of the "Leave the Burial Isle" window with the "R" prompt.
Fixed display of cooldown values on certain spells.
Fixed inconsistent rewards from defeating bosses on the first run.
Fixed a bug causing the game area not to stretch or fit the screen when changing resolution.
Resolved an issue causing the camera drag to occur even after interacting with the Grimoire dialogue.
Fixed issues related to areas in Cemetery and Citadel levels where player and undead could walk out of bounds.
Resolved various issues related to art, texture, and sprite mismatches.

Other Fixes:

Resolved an issue where the game continued to render sound when not in focus.
Fixed incorrect placement of quotation marks in the description box from the main screen.
Resolved texture misalignment on chests.
Fixed hints not appearing in the loading screen.
Fixed shop price text overlapping with the button prompt.
Fixed issues with swamp structures' collision boxes after being destroyed.
Fixed an issue with repeating icons for multiple modifiers.
Resolved a visual bug causing the shadow of a statue in homespace to load incorrectly.
Improved scroll wheel functionality on drop down boxes.
Additional minor bug fixes and gameplay enhancements.

We're fast approaching our 1.0 update, and we're so grateful for all of your support, feedback, and love so far! It's not too late to make changes - be sure to let us know your thoughts, so we can make the best necromantic dark fantasy game.

You can do this by posting here on Steam in our General Discussions, Discord, or by filling in a survey available on the game main screen.

We would also invite you to celebrate how close we are to launching out of Early Access - we've written up a dev log for you summarizing everything we've done so far, and what's next for the future of The Unliving. Check it out here!

Thank you for your ongoing support, as we continue to work on The Unliving!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/986040/The_Unliving/

🧟 Keep up to date with The Unliving 🧟

Twitter
Facebook
Team17 Twitter
Team17 Facebook Join our Discord!

Jun 29, 2023

Community Update #20: A Dragonborn, a Half-Orc & a Monk Walk Into a Tavern

Baldur's Gate 3 - SaloAtLarian

Where to begin.

This week has seen you take to the streets of the Lower City as amateur sleuths in Blood in Baldur’s Gate, a community murder mystery to uncover the hidden darkness that lurks just beneath the city's surface. Where will the investigation lead? Keep digging, detectives, you’re leading us all to the Panel From Hell, where untold surprises await you: July 7th.

In the meantime, it’s time to talk about Baldur’s Gate 3. But not as you know it. We’re going to go in depth about some of our most-anticipated details: races & classes (we see you Ctrl+F Dragonborn), new Origins and Companion characters, the official level cap, new Difficulty Settings, and much, much more.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a game nearly 6 years in development. When Divinity: Original Sin 2 launched, we were 120 people, across a 3 year development. Now we’re 400. Since releasing in Early Access, we’ve been joined by nearly 2 million of you. Together, with your invaluable support, we’ve created a game that eclipses the depth & breadth of our previous RPGs.

We’ve over doubled DOS2’s five races, bringing 11 to life in BG3 with 31 subraces.
DOS2’s 10 ‘schools of spells’ is eclipsed by the 12 classes & 46 subclasses in BG3.
You caused chaos with the 225 player spells & actions in DOS2, so just imagine the havoc you’re about to unleash upon Faerûn with the over 600 spells & actions, excluding upcasts, in BG3.
Characters in DOS2 enjoyed 45 talents, against BG3’s 308 passive features, which are comparable to talents.

There’s a lot more where that came from, but this is already going to be a long one. We’ve been busy. We’ve grown, and so too has Baldur’s Gate 3. Let’s get into a little detail about what you can expect to see in the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase, just in time for the release of the game on August 3rd for PC, and September 6th for PS5.

YOU READ THAT RIGHT

We will be releasing the game in order of platform readiness. Baldur’s Gate 3 will first come to PC on August 3rd, before launching on PlayStation 5 a few weeks later on September 6th.

This means the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released at a time where you’ll have more time to play it.

The PlayStation 5 version will be released roughly a week later than its originally scheduled date of August 31st. Baldur’s Gate 3 is targeting 60 frames-per-second and we’re close to achieving that on the platform but need a bit more extra time. We don’t want to compromise on quality, and feel it would be a shame to downscale to 30fps or make other compromises to hit an arbitrary date.

We understand that folks may be disappointed with this but we're close enough to reaching new heights for RPGs on the system that the benefits of a short delay outweigh the downsides of rushing the PS5 release and having to downscale. The full Mac version will also be released at a later date, and we’ll update you as soon as we have a target.

More on those new heights: Baldur’s Gate 3 has more cinematic dialogue than three times all three Lord of the Rings novels combined. It has 174 hours of cinematics, making it more than twice the length of every season of Game of Thrones combined.

All that content serves to give you a tremendous amount of choice and consequence, ensuring everyone’s adventure will be unique. And what’s more, you’ll be able to enjoy that content not only in single player, but also in online multiplayer or local co-op with split screen. At the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase, you’ll really get a first glimpse of how it all comes together.

We’ve said before that our goal is to bring our games to as many platforms as possible. We’re optimistic about Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series X, but in order to announce and release the game on Xbox, we need to ensure that the game is performing without compromise across the entire Xbox X|S ecosystem, in multiplayer and with split-screen. We already put a lot of effort into making it work and will continue to do so. Like with the PS5 version, we’ll release it when it’s ready. We’ll update you as soon as we can.

Now for something completely different

So what can you expect from Baldur’s Gate 3 when we launch this Summer? Well, this’ll be a long one.

New Level Cap: Unleash Your Full Potential At Level 12

While we originally planned for Level 10 to be the highest character level in the game, too many rad high-level spells would have been left just out of reach had we done so. Instead, Baldur's Gate 3 players will be able to reach Level 12, unlocking Planar Allies, Otto’s Irresistible Dance, and Chain Lightning.

Races

Play as a human if you want, but by no means do you have to! Baldur’s Gate 3 features 11 races, with 31 subraces.

And we can now reveal Dragonborn and Half-Orcs will round out our list of races that will be playable at launch.

Hailing from Toril’s distant sister-world of Abeir, Dragonborn are rare in the realms. And they’re hard to miss. Hulking in size next to any other humanoid creatures, they bear the unmistakable mark of their draconic heritage - with chromatic and metallic scales reminiscent of the majestic dragons from which they trace their lineage.

A Dragonborn's subrace determines their damage and resistance. For Silver Dragonborn that's cold damage; for Red Dragonborn it's fire. In Baldur's Gate 3, there are 10 subraces to choose from: Black, Blue, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Green, Red, Silver and White, more subraces than any other race in the game.

Your draconic ancestry also determines your breath weapon: a gift from ancestral Dragonborn, giving you the power to unleash an unholy burp of destructive energy from your very maw - Thanks grandpa!

Tune into the Panel From Hell: Reveal Showcase on July 7th to see Dragonborn in action.

With a fierce physique and an underbite that would make a dentist cry, Half-Orcs are an intimidating addition. Generally more inclined to act before they think, these are creatures of intense emotion who are propelled by that inner fire. Sometimes it surfaces through acts of protection, loyalty, and selflessness. But often it appears in a rage that compels them into battle. Harnessing Savage Attacks, Half-Orcs do some of the highest weapon damage in the game - dealing extra damage crits using triple the dice.

Half-Orcs are also one of the most resilient races in the game. To quote from the prose of Chumbawumba: They get knocked down, but then get up again. Thanks to their key ability, Relentless Endurance, Half-Orcs are able to beat death once per long rest. This means instead of outright dying when your health is drained, you'll drop to 1 HP.

A smaller addition to our lineup, but no less significant: Duergar are coming to Baldur’s Gate 3. The third Dwarf subrace will be playable at launch, adding a stoic and subterranean cousin to the dwarven family tree. We’ve also added a ton of reactivity around these characters, with over 200 new dialogue responses tailored to Duergar-kind.

New Classes and Subclasses

For every class we introduced in Early Access, we'll be launching with at least one new subclass. That's a total of 46 subclasses, nearly half of them new, across all 12 classes - including the new Monk class.

Zen And The Art of Punching: Monk Class Revealed

Monks are masters of manipulating the field of combat - pushing, pulling, and stunning enemies across the battleground using forceful Ki-powered punches. Their combat style is a balance between Fighter and Rogue, allowing them to traverse the map effortlessly - with Step of the Wind - and then strike out with powerful melee blows.

Beginning the game with Unarmoured Defense, Monks receive an AC of 10 + their Dexterity and Wisdom modifiers at Level 1. Monk weapons are neither heavy nor two-handed, with this class opting instead for lighter fare like clubs and quarterstaves - or forgoing weapons altogether in favour of a classic knuckle sandwich, punches that scale up in damage as they level. In combat, they combine light, quick unarmed attacks with weapon attacks - producing beautifully distinctive and stylised combat animations.

And we've got to say, the animation, VFX and SFX for this class are on a whole other level. We've pulled inspiration from the rulebook to create a stunning audio visual experience which lives up to Kung-Fu cinema classics.

We also did a lot of work house-ruling this class, re-balancing Monks and giving them more Ki to ensure they feel powerful next to our other classes. So we're introducing brand new actions to play with.

Baldur’s Gate 3 features a trio of Monastic traditions to choose as your subclass. Monks of the Open Hand excel at close combat, using special unarmed techniques to manipulate the enemies at hand. At mid levels, this subclass can charge their attacks with Psychic, Necrotic or Radiant damage (representing mind, body and soul). At higher levels, we give them Ki Resonating Blast, which infuses punched targets with Ki and can create a chain reaction of explosions across all in-range targets who have also been touched by Ki.

Shadow monks are stealth ninjas who teleport to and from the shadows, a skill that allows them to stealthily strike enemies then return to the safety of darkness. And finally, Monks from the Four Elements subclass are casters who unleash Monk variants of spells followed up with a rapid bonus action punch.

Through Martial Arts, a Monk's attack damage using Monk Weapons and unarmed attacks will scale with their level. This also gives the Monk a bonus unarmed attack after they attack by punch or weapon. And if their Dexterity is higher than their Strength, their Dexterity will be used to determine their Monk Weapon attack rolls and damage.

Should your Monk become the target of ranged attack, Deflect Missiles will allow them to deflect a range weapon or thrown item back at their attacker using the new Interrupt system added in Patch 9.
You'll also soon find new magic items throughout the world designed to further support the Monk's playstyle.

Meet Your Companions For The Journey Ahead

Whether exploring the streets of Baldur’s Gate from the perspective of a vampire spawn or investigating the driving force behind Gale’s strange gastrointestinal urges, each Origin character brings their distinct personality, background, and story to the game.

With the addition of Karlach, our number of Origin characters now rises to six. She will join Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Wyll like a well-meaning, devil-fighting bat out of hell, rounding out the moral spectrum of playable characters from good to bad, and the shades of grey between. But she won't be our final Origin - you'll have to tune in to next week’s Panel From Hell: Release Showcase for that.

Along with your Origins, you can also expect to find four Companion characters who can join you on your journey: Halsin, Jaheira, Minsc, and Minthara. While we initially planned to lock players in with a core crew of companions past Act I, we nixed that plan in favour of a buffet-approach to team selection. You’ll be able to mix and match any of these characters into your group throughout. And, yes, you’ll be able to romance almost all of them (ask us sometime about that Halsin scene).

From the Fires of Avernus: Karlach Joins The Party As A New Playable Character

After brawling her way out of the scorched battlefields of the Blood War, Karlach now joins your party. Long-time players will recognise this battle-worn Tiefling Barbarian from Early Access, but come launch you’ll finally get to unlock her full story as a playable Origin story.

Karlach's battle history is written across her body in scars, burns, and tattoos, the indelible marks of a legendary warrior with unyielding resilience. After finally escaping from this endless war between devils and demons, she is determined to live life to the fullest. Or at least as much as she can given the unholy machine pumping hellish fire through her veins. This little present from the archdevil she served makes her a beast in battle, but if she gets too worked up, she'll destroy anything she touches - including you.

In the words of writer Sarah Baylus: “In a 2023 setting, [Karlach would] roll in on a Harley with shades and a cigar between her teeth, blaring Sabbath - a diesel-soaked dynamo with a heart of gold. She seeks justice for the oppressed, camaraderie, and revenge on the bastard who sold her to Hell.”

Finding Your Feat

Every so often as you level, you'll have the chance to improve your ability score with a new Feat: an upgrade that gives unique advantages to your character. At launch, you'll have a total of 37 possible feats to choose from - and most of those will be completely new to the game at launch.

NEW

Actor
Alert
Charger
Crossbow Expert
Dungeon Delver
Durable
Elemental Adept
Heavy Armour Master
Lucky
Mage Slayer
Medium Armour Master
Observant
Performer
Polearm Master
Resilient
Ritual Caster
Savage Attacker
Sentinel
Sharpshooter
Spell Sniper
Tavern Brawler
War Caster

New Spells Coming in 1.0

Baldur's Gate 3 will have over 600 player spells and sub-spells at launch, and that doesn't even include upcasting.

New spells coming at launch include:

Difficulty Levels & Rules

In D&D, picking the right DM is key to defining the journey you want to embark on. In Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ve created three modes of play that essentially act as different types of DM: the forgiving, narrative driven DM, or the DM that isn’t afraid to let you die if your glass-cannon wizard decides to tickle an owlbear.

At launch, in addition to ‘Normal mode’ (which can be considered our default), players may avail of the following:

In Story mode, combat has been made more forgiving so players can fully immerse themselves in the narrative layer of this adventure. In this mode, friendly NPCs are harder to kill, trader prices are at a 20 percent discount, and you'll begin the game with a +2 starting proficiency bonus.

Hardcore mode, then, is where to test your mettle. In this mode, enemy lethality is cranked up to Brutal, ensuring that enemy AI are stronger, will prioritise squishier targets with low AC, and will seize opportunities to go in for the kill. Additionally, many adjustments have been made to the fights themselves specifically for Hardcore mode, with certain enemies receiving additional support through reinforcements, spells, or consumable items.

A Truly Global Release

With a script roughly 2,000,000 words in length, translating Baldur's Gate 3 was no easy task. But thanks to an incredible team of over 200 strong, we’re proud to reveal Baldur’s Gate 3 on PC will be available in 13 subtitled languages: English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Turkish, Portuguese-Brazil, Italian, and Ukrainian.

The Collector’s Edition

With the release of the game brought forward on PC and delayed by a week on PlayStation 5, those of you who pre-ordered our gargantuan Collector’s Edition probably have questions. We have answers!

The Collector’s Edition should make it to you around the 31st of August, the original release date. For those who ordered on PC, your Steam code will be emailed to you earlier so you can start playing sooner. (Quick note: save games will not transfer from your Early Access build to release).

On PlayStation 5, to ensure you’re ready for your Digital Deluxe Edition 72-hour Early Access period, your code will be sent to you via email before the 72-hour period starts, so you can jump in right on time to claim your rewards. Phew!

You can still buy the Collector’s Edition over on the official website, https://ce.baldursgate3.game/?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=newdate_20230629&utm_medium=steampost. It’s ma-hoosive. We’ll show you at the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase.

35 DAYS TO LAUNCH

We’re eternally grateful for your patience as we reach the final milestones of development. There’s still some work to be done, but we know you’ve waited a very long time for confirmations on many of the topics discussed in the community update today.

We didn’t want to spoil anything, though. We’ll reveal more content - and more numbers - on July 7, as we explore the breadth and depth of Baldur’s Gate 3, at the final Panel From Hell: Release Showcase. It’s been real.

Jun 29, 2023

Gangs of De Ojeda Update

Cartel Tycoon - Under Andr

Hola, Capos!

The Gangs of De Ojeda Update is here! The citizens of República De Ojeda are fed up with all the criminal activity! Enforcers are more ruthless, and the criminal underworld needs to fight back!

Find new ways to grow your empire! Maybe your enemies can become your friends? For a while... ːcartel_nothing_personalː

Steam Summer Sale is Live! Get the game with a 40% Discount! ːcartel_loveː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220140/Cartel_Tycoon/

Patch Notes

Major Changes

ːcartel_nothing_personalː Gang Alliances. Convince Enemy Gangs to enter into an Alliance with your Cartel! They will provide firepower in combat, won’t attack you, and even let you use buildings in their region! But be cautious. You’re not the only one that can break off an Alliance…

ːcartel_nothing_personalː Enforcers vs. Enemy Gangs. Why should you be the only one that gets blamed for everything? Now when Terror rises, Enemy Gangs, their cities, and their buildings will also become a target.

ːcartel_nothing_personalː Updated Tutorial. We’ve expanded the Tutorial to add missions about Gang interactions and combat!

ːcartel_nothing_personalː Gang Agreement UI. It’s no longer a dialogue! Conduct your trades in a new window that will make the process easier and smoother!

Other Updates & Changes

Enemy Gang City loses power when their convoy is out of it. Use new combat mechanics to attack the Enemy Gang City when they least expect it!
Updated Global Unlocks Menu. Added different categories for easier navigation, added cinematic category.
Ignore Expiring Events. Simply press the expiring event phone marker with your RMB to ignore the event!
Added informational Expiring Event about Enemy Gangs. When you’re attacked by an Enemy Gang for the first time, an informational event is triggered, which will explain how to deal with Enemy Gang attacks and what triggers them.
Reworked attack with weapons. If at least one of your characters is in the building containing Weapons, when you send them to the Enemy location, you can select “Attack with weapons”.
(Playtest) Updated the Gang Agreement Menu to include checkmarks under unlocked Agreement levels.
Added detailed tooltips to the Event Log.

Balance

Decreased the amount of Allegiance players get from small talks with Enemy Gang Leaders.
(Playtest) Players now need to have more than 1/2 of the Enemy Gang’s power to ally it.
(Playtest) Decreased combat encounter cooldown for Allied Gangs from 30 to 21 days.
(Playtest) Slightly decreased the chance of Enforcers attacking Enemy Gangs instead of the player.
Changed the power of the Hospital from 0 to 3.

Visual & Audio

Updated Cache models for all levels.
Added audio cue when the player is nearing defeat in a combat encounter.
Added phone call sound.
(Playtest) Removed audio cue when Enforcers attack Enemy Gangs.
(Playtest) Removed audio cue when Enemy Gangs move to defend their property from Enforcers.
(Playtest) Changed the color of some Allied Gang markers from red to white.

Bug Fixes

(Potentially) Fixed: Mouse Cursor doesn’t align with the menu buttons on some resolutions.
Multiple localization fixes.
(Playtest) Players were able to ally with Enemy Gangs at the start of the ‘Needs and Fears’ campaign without completing a loyalty check.
(Playtest) Fixed: Enemy Gangs weren’t engaging in combat with Enforcers that were stronger than the Enemy Gang.
(Playtest) Fixed: The game didn’t pause in the Gang Agreement Menu,
(Playtest) Fixed: Allying with an Enemy Gang would trigger an event about capturing Enemy Gang buildings.
Fixed: Players were able to demolish a building during a CIA combat encounter in it.
Fixed: Equipped character and building skins disabled after reloading the game,
Fixed: Volatile Lieutenants displayed incorrect destinations in some cases.
Fixed: Tutorial subtitles were obstructed in some languages.
Fixed: Incorrect Cache marker was displayed when it was in a construction queue.
Fixed: Enemy Gang Cities sometimes disappeared from the Warehouse ‘Connection’ list during an Agreement.
Fixed: Random Gang Agreement Event didn’t start if the Gang Agreement was on a cooldown.
Fixed: Planes were stuck in mid-air if an aerodrome ran out of upkeep money during a sale cycle.
Fixed: Some events displayed Incorrect resource prices in tooltips.
Fixed: Some event markers were displayed over Prison even if the Lieutenant was already out of it.
Fixed: The ‘Bury the Money’ Event didn’t complete if the player was using a Rathole.
Fixed: 'Endurance' level was obstructing some parts of the interface in Lieutenant Menu.
Fixed: Injured Lieutenants couldn’t be evacuated after reloading an autosave in some instances.
Fixed: The event to hire a Lieutenant wouldn’t disappear if the player hired a Lieutenant in the last remaining Cartel slot before accepting the event.
Fixed: Achievement ‘Bite The Blow’ would be awarded for buying Weapons in an Area Depot.
Fixed: Quest remained on the screen after completing all of the objectives in rare instances.
Fixed: Demolishing of Caches can’t be canceled.

Known Issues

A rare crash can happen in a very specific scenario (will be fixed soon).
Localization is missing in some places.
Incorrect localization is present in the Gang Alliances tooltip.
Incorrect tooltip description for the Extradition III quest.
Incorrect colors are present in the description of Enforcer convoys.
Obstructions in the Area Depot UI
Guerrilla trucks remain in front of non-city buildings after the end of an encounter.