Player: Camera Rotation Changed To Orbit Player: Added Hero System * Player: Added All Remaining Weapon Models Player: Gear Is Now Class-Restricted (See Tooltips) Editor: Prefabs System Added ** Workbench: Cutscene Camera System Added inc. Cutscene Node, CameraPath Node *** Workbench: Scripts Can Now Be Added To Objects Via The Inspector
Minor Changes
Player: Attribute Points Now Auto-Gained For Non-Hero Units To Reduce Micromanagement **** Player: Characters Now Gain 50XP When Completing A Workpoint, Enabling Them To Level Up Player: Return To Editor Option Added To Pause Menu Player: Quit To Desktop Added To Pause Menu Player: Disabled Camera Height Auto-Adjustment To Reduce Glitching Player: Crypts Map Reworked To Standardize Wall Heights Player: Tooltips On Crafting Recipes Improved Player: ‘F’ Key Changed To ‘Tab’ For Finding Units Player: Removed Significant Delay When Clicking Construction Options For First Time Player: Added crossbow and bow research to Blacksmith Player: Added second zombie melee attack animation Player: Added skeleton reaction animations (hit, dazed, knockdown, stunned) Player: Added yeti reaction animations (hit, feared, dazed, knockdown, stunned) Player: Added werefu monk hit animation Player: Added zombie hit animation Player: Added wolf reaction animations Player: Arbalists gain +20 str and +5 vit from training Player: Crossbows damage doubled Player: Removed navmesh cuts from berry bushes Player: Temporarily removed research from Barracks and Storehouse Player: Added Magic Essence to lots of chests to support crafting of uncommon and rare items Editor: Added Play Button - Will Load Map Into Player For Testing Editor: Groups Now Show Only Blue Selection Box, Not One White Box Per Object Editor: Added First Interactable Doorways (Classic Dungeon Kit) Editor: Added Vertical Fog To Underworld Ambient Theme For Dungeons Editor: Maps Can Now Be Marked As Village Or Dungeon In Environment Settings Editor: Added Toggle Tool For Hiding Visual Helpers (e.g. Colliders, Triggers, Lights) Editor: Added Nara (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Willow (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Spriggan (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Murp The Dentist (Ogres) Editor: Added Quixl The Thief (Goblins) Editor: Added Mordrich (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Brom (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Skeleton Archer (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Skeleton Champion (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Kenny The Scar (Bandits) Editor: Added Bandit (Bandits) Editor: Added Ogre Warrior (Ogres) Editor: Added Mighty Rhog (Toadkin) Workbench: Conversation Node Can Now Accept Input From New Loot Node To Show Quest Rewards ***** Workbench: CharacterInventory Node Provides Access To A Character’s Inventory (Not Useful At The Mo) Workbench: Added RevealFOW Node for revealing an area in the fog of war (use systems kit/point) Workbench: Added NameOf Node (Use In Conjunction With Format, And Feed Into Conversation)
Bug Fixes
New Game, but instead of loading with file browser, click settings; no way back to browser Fixed Stonecutters Not Carrying Stone To Supply Wagon/Storehouse Fixed Expanded Boundary On Hunting Lodge Using Wrong Name
Known Issues
The cursor caret is vertically too high in the Editor. This is a known engine bug that should receive a fix soon. Lava rivers are playing water flowing sound. Keep an eye out for wave points having changed monster type. One of the male hair styles is missing from the portrait. Mossclaw (Swamp Beast) is creating undead arms instead of roots in a special attack. Targeting heroes for heals is challenging when fighting lots of enemies. The Toadkin walls are messed up and need remaking Water might turn a rich green, but we haven’t got reproducible steps as yet.
Developer Comments
In Alpha 23, we’ve changed camera rotation to orbit around a point. This is consistent with other games in the genre, and is mandatory for dungeon adventuring where we’ll be locked on to a hero. To lock on and follow a character, press the tab key. The camera will then follow them until you deselect them. It's a big change, and once you've had some time to play, we'd love to hear your feedback in the community forum.
* The new hero system comprises UI that appears in the top left of the screen when you’ve unlocked one or more heroes.
** To create a prefab, make a selection, press ‘H’, and give your prefab a name.
*** For guidance on how to setup a cutscene, please watch Dev Hangout 5th August.
**** To reduce micromanagement associated with levelling up characters, professions now earn and assign attribute points from levelling up into appropriate attributes. Heroes remain self-allocated so players can shape their heroes as they see fit.
***** In Workbench, when setting loot to be displayed in a conversation node, please note that the loot items are not transferred to the player. To do this, you must use the InventoryAdd node. This is so that potential quest rewards can be shown during the conversation when a quest is first presented to the player, as well as at the point of completion.
Maps must now be marked under Environment Settings as Village or Dungeon. Dungeons will enforce the player always having a hero selected. In Village maps, they can deselect to move around freely.
Willow The Healer has been added, although her abilities are not fully implemented. Quixl The Thief has no abilities yet.
Player: Camera Rotation Changed To Orbit Player: Added Hero System * Player: Added All Remaining Weapon Models Player: Gear Is Now Class-Restricted (See Tooltips) Editor: Prefabs System Added ** Workbench: Cutscene Camera System Added inc. Cutscene Node, CameraPath Node *** Workbench: Scripts Can Now Be Added To Objects Via The Inspector
Minor Changes
Player: Attribute Points Now Auto-Gained For Non-Hero Units To Reduce Micromanagement **** Player: Characters Now Gain 50XP When Completing A Workpoint, Enabling Them To Level Up Player: Return To Editor Option Added To Pause Menu Player: Quit To Desktop Added To Pause Menu Player: Disabled Camera Height Auto-Adjustment To Reduce Glitching Player: Crypts Map Reworked To Standardize Wall Heights Player: Tooltips On Crafting Recipes Improved Player: ‘F’ Key Changed To ‘Tab’ For Finding Units Player: Removed Significant Delay When Clicking Construction Options For First Time Player: Added crossbow and bow research to Blacksmith Player: Added second zombie melee attack animation Player: Added skeleton reaction animations (hit, dazed, knockdown, stunned) Player: Added yeti reaction animations (hit, feared, dazed, knockdown, stunned) Player: Added werefu monk hit animation Player: Added zombie hit animation Player: Added wolf reaction animations Player: Arbalists gain +20 str and +5 vit from training Player: Crossbows damage doubled Player: Removed navmesh cuts from berry bushes Player: Temporarily removed research from Barracks and Storehouse Player: Added Magic Essence to lots of chests to support crafting of uncommon and rare items Editor: Added Play Button - Will Load Map Into Player For Testing Editor: Groups Now Show Only Blue Selection Box, Not One White Box Per Object Editor: Added First Interactable Doorways (Classic Dungeon Kit) Editor: Added Vertical Fog To Underworld Ambient Theme For Dungeons Editor: Maps Can Now Be Marked As Village Or Dungeon In Environment Settings Editor: Added Toggle Tool For Hiding Visual Helpers (e.g. Colliders, Triggers, Lights) Editor: Added Nara (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Willow (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Spriggan (Gladefolk) Editor: Added Murp The Dentist (Ogres) Editor: Added Quixl The Thief (Goblins) Editor: Added Mordrich (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Brom (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Skeleton Archer (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Skeleton Champion (Withering Dead) Editor: Added Kenny The Scar (Bandits) Editor: Added Bandit (Bandits) Editor: Added Ogre Warrior (Ogres) Editor: Added Mighty Rhog (Toadkin) Workbench: Conversation Node Can Now Accept Input From New Loot Node To Show Quest Rewards ***** Workbench: CharacterInventory Node Provides Access To A Character’s Inventory (Not Useful At The Mo) Workbench: Added RevealFOW Node for revealing an area in the fog of war (use systems kit/point) Workbench: Added NameOf Node (Use In Conjunction With Format, And Feed Into Conversation)
Bug Fixes
New Game, but instead of loading with file browser, click settings; no way back to browser Fixed Stonecutters Not Carrying Stone To Supply Wagon/Storehouse Fixed Expanded Boundary On Hunting Lodge Using Wrong Name
Known Issues
The cursor caret is vertically too high in the Editor. This is a known engine bug that should receive a fix soon. Lava rivers are playing water flowing sound. Keep an eye out for wave points having changed monster type. One of the male hair styles is missing from the portrait. Mossclaw (Swamp Beast) is creating undead arms instead of roots in a special attack. Targeting heroes for heals is challenging when fighting lots of enemies. The Toadkin walls are messed up and need remaking Water might turn a rich green, but we haven’t got reproducible steps as yet.
Developer Comments
In Alpha 23, we’ve changed camera rotation to orbit around a point. This is consistent with other games in the genre, and is mandatory for dungeon adventuring where we’ll be locked on to a hero. To lock on and follow a character, press the tab key. The camera will then follow them until you deselect them. It's a big change, and once you've had some time to play, we'd love to hear your feedback in the community forum.
* The new hero system comprises UI that appears in the top left of the screen when you’ve unlocked one or more heroes.
** To create a prefab, make a selection, press ‘H’, and give your prefab a name.
*** For guidance on how to setup a cutscene, please watch Dev Hangout 5th August.
**** To reduce micromanagement associated with levelling up characters, professions now earn and assign attribute points from levelling up into appropriate attributes. Heroes remain self-allocated so players can shape their heroes as they see fit.
***** In Workbench, when setting loot to be displayed in a conversation node, please note that the loot items are not transferred to the player. To do this, you must use the InventoryAdd node. This is so that potential quest rewards can be shown during the conversation when a quest is first presented to the player, as well as at the point of completion.
Maps must now be marked under Environment Settings as Village or Dungeon. Dungeons will enforce the player always having a hero selected. In Village maps, they can deselect to move around freely.
Willow The Healer has been added, although her abilities are not fully implemented. Quixl The Thief has no abilities yet.
Building equipment stores, a performance boost, and an editor overhaul.
Reducing Micromanagement With Building Equipment Stores
Community feedback is an important part of the Early Access process and a common theme is reducing any micromanagement burden. As your population grows, managing the gear on every unit can be tiresome. In the pre-release of Alpha 22 that is no longer the case.
Opening the new Equipment tab on a production or military building now enables players to drag and drop gear from the village inventory and assign it for use by the building's workers. Workers will automatically equip gear based on ordered priority. For now, equipment further to the top left is given higher priority. In time, we hope to implement an internal gear rating stat to help us compare items to determine which is better.
Each item shown in a building's Equipment tab stacks and shows how many have been allocated. Darkened icons may show 0/2, indicating there are 2 of that item in stock, but workers aren't currently using that item. As one becomes equipped (1/2), the icon fills up until to half way with normal brightness, and when all are equipped (2/2), it becomes full.
Items can be dragged directly out of a building's equipment tab back into the village inventory, and will be removed from any worker who has it equipped. The worker will then try to equip another item into that slot should one exist in the building Equipment stores based on the priority rule.
Performance Boost / Engine Migration
June saw a challenging engine migration from Unity 4.6 to 5.1. Major code changes were required to the way we manage assets, shaders, and third party products. While that has limited the time we had available to work on other areas of the game, one of the key benefits is a performance boost of 25-37% depending on machine architecture. Players should now enjoy improved frame rates across the board, and may be able to increase their settings.
There is however a known issue preventing the game from running on Snow Leopard. We've filed a bug report with Unity (the engine developer) so hopefully we'll have a fix in the coming weeks.
Editor Overhaul
The Editor was running a legacy UI framework (NGUI) to drive the toolbar and a number of the dialog boxes. As part of the engine migration, it was time to purge NGUI from the project, and while re-implementing the dialog boxes, add some extra touches.
The Kits and Kit Pieces dialogs are now merged into one. A kits popup organizes kits into categories for quicker selection, while the addition of search enables level designers to search for pieces across all kits.
The new favourites tab lists kit pieces added by toggling the star in the inspector dialog, and the recently used tab does as you would expect.
We've also fixed the horizontal scaling of the toolbar, which would have affected players running at high resolutions.
One of the headline features we are launching in Alpha 22 is the terrain generator tool. Since it's first reveal in Dev Blog 35, we've added more options including support for the new volcanic biome.
The final Editor improvement is marquee selection. Being able to select objects by dragging a selection rectangle (aka marquee) is a huge time saver. Previously, you had to hold down left shift and click each item. The addition saves time, and will become the primary method for selecting objects, before grouping them and eventually saving them off as a prefab. At least that's what Alan is moving on to now that the terrain generator is all but finished.
Volcanic And Dwarf City Kits
Both have benefited from improvements, and are included in Alpha 22. We're working on an exterior location to test the pieces, and will be streaming level design sessions on Twitch.
Building equipment stores, a performance boost, and an editor overhaul.
Reducing Micromanagement With Building Equipment Stores
Community feedback is an important part of the Early Access process and a common theme is reducing any micromanagement burden. As your population grows, managing the gear on every unit can be tiresome. In the pre-release of Alpha 22 that is no longer the case.
Opening the new Equipment tab on a production or military building now enables players to drag and drop gear from the village inventory and assign it for use by the building's workers. Workers will automatically equip gear based on ordered priority. For now, equipment further to the top left is given higher priority. In time, we hope to implement an internal gear rating stat to help us compare items to determine which is better.
Each item shown in a building's Equipment tab stacks and shows how many have been allocated. Darkened icons may show 0/2, indicating there are 2 of that item in stock, but workers aren't currently using that item. As one becomes equipped (1/2), the icon fills up until to half way with normal brightness, and when all are equipped (2/2), it becomes full.
Items can be dragged directly out of a building's equipment tab back into the village inventory, and will be removed from any worker who has it equipped. The worker will then try to equip another item into that slot should one exist in the building Equipment stores based on the priority rule.
Performance Boost / Engine Migration
June saw a challenging engine migration from Unity 4.6 to 5.1. Major code changes were required to the way we manage assets, shaders, and third party products. While that has limited the time we had available to work on other areas of the game, one of the key benefits is a performance boost of 25-37% depending on machine architecture. Players should now enjoy improved frame rates across the board, and may be able to increase their settings.
There is however a known issue preventing the game from running on Snow Leopard. We've filed a bug report with Unity (the engine developer) so hopefully we'll have a fix in the coming weeks.
Editor Overhaul
The Editor was running a legacy UI framework (NGUI) to drive the toolbar and a number of the dialog boxes. As part of the engine migration, it was time to purge NGUI from the project, and while re-implementing the dialog boxes, add some extra touches.
The Kits and Kit Pieces dialogs are now merged into one. A kits popup organizes kits into categories for quicker selection, while the addition of search enables level designers to search for pieces across all kits.
The new favourites tab lists kit pieces added by toggling the star in the inspector dialog, and the recently used tab does as you would expect.
We've also fixed the horizontal scaling of the toolbar, which would have affected players running at high resolutions.
One of the headline features we are launching in Alpha 22 is the terrain generator tool. Since it's first reveal in Dev Blog 35, we've added more options including support for the new volcanic biome.
The final Editor improvement is marquee selection. Being able to select objects by dragging a selection rectangle (aka marquee) is a huge time saver. Previously, you had to hold down left shift and click each item. The addition saves time, and will become the primary method for selecting objects, before grouping them and eventually saving them off as a prefab. At least that's what Alan is moving on to now that the terrain generator is all but finished.
Volcanic And Dwarf City Kits
Both have benefited from improvements, and are included in Alpha 22. We're working on an exterior location to test the pieces, and will be streaming level design sessions on Twitch.
OSX SNOW LEOPARD USERS, PLEASE DO NOT OPT IN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
I'm pleased to provide community members with access to a new opt-in experimental beta. This is a pre-release of Alpha 22.
We are taking this step due to risk associated with upgrading the game engine to Unity 5.1. While we've performed internal tests, running a test among active community members allows us to capture any remaining issues prior to a public release.
I am especially keen to hear about any crashes from game sessions exceeding 30 minutes.
Accessing the Experimental Build 1. In your Steam Library, right click on ‘Folk Tale’ and select Properties 2. Click the fourth tab labelled ‘Betas’ 3. In the dropdown list, select experimental and click close 4. Wait for Steam to auto-update 5. If the update fails to download, quit and restart the Steam Client
OSX SNOW LEOPARD USERS, PLEASE DO NOT OPT IN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
I'm pleased to provide community members with access to a new opt-in experimental beta. This is a pre-release of Alpha 22.
We are taking this step due to risk associated with upgrading the game engine to Unity 5.1. While we've performed internal tests, running a test among active community members allows us to capture any remaining issues prior to a public release.
I am especially keen to hear about any crashes from game sessions exceeding 30 minutes.
Accessing the Experimental Build 1. In your Steam Library, right click on ‘Folk Tale’ and select Properties 2. Click the fourth tab labelled ‘Betas’ 3. In the dropdown list, select experimental and click close 4. Wait for Steam to auto-update 5. If the update fails to download, quit and restart the Steam Client
Player: Heroes: Added Ser Gregory And Special Abilities (Taunt, Shield Bash, Power Slam, Iron Skin, Decisive Victory)* Player: Mechanics: Woodcutters Now Automatically Plant Seeds** Player: Mechanics: Trees Have 100% Probability Of Dropping Seed When Felled** Player: Character Portrait System Added***
Minor Changes
Player: Idle Characters Will Now Move Away From Other Characters They Intersect Player: Salvaging Implemented Player: Added Zombies Player: Added Beetles Player: Special Abilities Can Now Be Queued Player: Special Abilities Now Have Cooldown Timers Player: Weapons Can Now Apply Buffs On Hit (Positive Or Negative) Player: Disabled Experimental Anti-Kiting Code Player: Weapons/Shields Now Scale Properly Depending On Character Player: Stun Implemented Player: Modified Some Labels To Remove Silliness Player: Added Poison Visual Effects Player: Added Distance Culling To Corpse Sparkles Player: Forced Characters To Rotate First Before Move When Requiring > 90 Degree Change For A More Natural Feel Player: Beasts And Spiders Den No Longer Drop Seeds Player: Decreased Culture Cost Of Tier 2 Buildings From 350 To 275 Player: Workers No Longer Walk Long Distances To Reach Work Points e.g. Fishing Player: Beastmen No Longer Drop Treebane Or Rare Weapons Player: Adjusted Soundtrack Volume Range And Default Volume Player: Adjusted Keyboard Sensitivity Default For Faster Panning Player: Added Setting For Ambient Sound Volume (Tweeting Birds, Howling Winds etc) Player: Changed Mead And Honeycomb Production Amounts Player: Villagers Need For Entertainment Enabled When First Tavern Is Built Rather Than Waiting For Culture Level To Be Reached Player: You Can No Longer Sell The Supply Wagon/Storehouse If It’s The Last One Player: Supply Wagon Capacity Now Properly Capped Player: Tweaked Costs Of Bakery, Bee Yard, Butchery And Fishing Hut Player: Disabled Medium And Severe Diseases Temporarily Player: Only Announce Disease Outbreak If No Medicine In Stock Player: Most Maps Updated Editor: Light Intensity Can Now Be Changed In Inspector Editor: Object Scale Factor Now Shown In Inspector Editor: Added Missing Armor Crafting Recipes Editor: Added Lots More Loot Items Editor: Added Bone Kit Heaps And Decals Editor: Added Beetles, Zombies, Alternative Spider, Spider Queen To Wave Spawner Editor: Workbench: Added Node SetAllegiance Editor: Workbench: Added Node Console Editor: Workbench: Added Node InstantiateCharacterAt Editor: Workbench: Added Node AddAttributePoints Editor: Workbench: Added Node To Set Attributes On Spawned Character Editor: Workbench: Added Node CameraMove Editor: Workbench: Added Node InstantiateBuildingAt Editor: Workbench: Added Node CharacterToWorldObject (Converts, Enabling Use Of Destroy) Editor: Workbench: Added Support For Boolean Variables Editor: Workbench: Added Active Output (Boolean) to Quest Node Editor: Workbench: Added CharacterHealth Node Editor: Workbench: Added CharacterAlive Node Editor: Workbench: Character Portrait Can Now Be Set Via An Input On Conversation Nodes (However Implementation Will Change In Alpha 22) Editor: Workbench: Modified Gate Node To Include Initial State Toggle Editor: Workbench: SpawnedCharacter Can Now Get Character From Wave Spawner
Bug Fixes
#0182 Sandbox Player: Destroying Supply Wagons Leads To Unrecoverable Problems #0184 Sandbox Editor: Entering Editor Second Time Breaks Bounding Boxes #0185 Sandbox Player: Some Particles Are Being Affected By SSAO #0186 Sandbox Player: Duplicate Civics Bars For Vegetables #0187 Sandbox Player: Some Sounds Not Playing Or Very Quiet #0188 Sandbox Player: Most Weapons, Rings And Necklaces Not Stacking #0189 Sandbox Player: Scale And Halberd Recipes Not Unlocked By Blacksmith Research #0190 Sandbox Player: Villagers Sometimes Get Stuck Outside Cottages #0191 Sandbox Player: Peasants Near Cottages Ignore Command To Chop Tree
Known Issues
Crafting recipes found in loot aren’t showing their icons, but are appearing in the crafting menu. Ser Gregory really needs a rage meter rather than taking power from the Mind stat.
Developer Comments
Alpha 21 has a strong focus on heroes, special abilities, and combat improvements. It includes all the code to support heroes including queueing abilities, applying buffs on hit, combat AI
*Level Designers please note that Ser Gregory should be created via workbench using the new InstantiateCharacterAt node, which also allows you to set his allegiance.
**Automatic seed planting is now in. Woodcutters will plant saplings if there are 5 or fewer trees within the boundary of the Woodcutter Hut, or if you have an abundance of seeds. Felled trees automatically grant 1 seed, at least until we implement the Marketplace building. We have removed seeds from monsters and spider dens.
***Everything but profession uniforms are in. There’s a missing male beard, and the female herbalist hairstyle which are known issues.
Player: Heroes: Added Ser Gregory And Special Abilities (Taunt, Shield Bash, Power Slam, Iron Skin, Decisive Victory)* Player: Mechanics: Woodcutters Now Automatically Plant Seeds** Player: Mechanics: Trees Have 100% Probability Of Dropping Seed When Felled** Player: Character Portrait System Added***
Minor Changes
Player: Idle Characters Will Now Move Away From Other Characters They Intersect Player: Salvaging Implemented Player: Added Zombies Player: Added Beetles Player: Special Abilities Can Now Be Queued Player: Special Abilities Now Have Cooldown Timers Player: Weapons Can Now Apply Buffs On Hit (Positive Or Negative) Player: Disabled Experimental Anti-Kiting Code Player: Weapons/Shields Now Scale Properly Depending On Character Player: Stun Implemented Player: Modified Some Labels To Remove Silliness Player: Added Poison Visual Effects Player: Added Distance Culling To Corpse Sparkles Player: Forced Characters To Rotate First Before Move When Requiring > 90 Degree Change For A More Natural Feel Player: Beasts And Spiders Den No Longer Drop Seeds Player: Decreased Culture Cost Of Tier 2 Buildings From 350 To 275 Player: Workers No Longer Walk Long Distances To Reach Work Points e.g. Fishing Player: Beastmen No Longer Drop Treebane Or Rare Weapons Player: Adjusted Soundtrack Volume Range And Default Volume Player: Adjusted Keyboard Sensitivity Default For Faster Panning Player: Added Setting For Ambient Sound Volume (Tweeting Birds, Howling Winds etc) Player: Changed Mead And Honeycomb Production Amounts Player: Villagers Need For Entertainment Enabled When First Tavern Is Built Rather Than Waiting For Culture Level To Be Reached Player: You Can No Longer Sell The Supply Wagon/Storehouse If It’s The Last One Player: Supply Wagon Capacity Now Properly Capped Player: Tweaked Costs Of Bakery, Bee Yard, Butchery And Fishing Hut Player: Disabled Medium And Severe Diseases Temporarily Player: Only Announce Disease Outbreak If No Medicine In Stock Player: Most Maps Updated Editor: Light Intensity Can Now Be Changed In Inspector Editor: Object Scale Factor Now Shown In Inspector Editor: Added Missing Armor Crafting Recipes Editor: Added Lots More Loot Items Editor: Added Bone Kit Heaps And Decals Editor: Added Beetles, Zombies, Alternative Spider, Spider Queen To Wave Spawner Editor: Workbench: Added Node SetAllegiance Editor: Workbench: Added Node Console Editor: Workbench: Added Node InstantiateCharacterAt Editor: Workbench: Added Node AddAttributePoints Editor: Workbench: Added Node To Set Attributes On Spawned Character Editor: Workbench: Added Node CameraMove Editor: Workbench: Added Node InstantiateBuildingAt Editor: Workbench: Added Node CharacterToWorldObject (Converts, Enabling Use Of Destroy) Editor: Workbench: Added Support For Boolean Variables Editor: Workbench: Added Active Output (Boolean) to Quest Node Editor: Workbench: Added CharacterHealth Node Editor: Workbench: Added CharacterAlive Node Editor: Workbench: Character Portrait Can Now Be Set Via An Input On Conversation Nodes (However Implementation Will Change In Alpha 22) Editor: Workbench: Modified Gate Node To Include Initial State Toggle Editor: Workbench: SpawnedCharacter Can Now Get Character From Wave Spawner
Bug Fixes
#0182 Sandbox Player: Destroying Supply Wagons Leads To Unrecoverable Problems #0184 Sandbox Editor: Entering Editor Second Time Breaks Bounding Boxes #0185 Sandbox Player: Some Particles Are Being Affected By SSAO #0186 Sandbox Player: Duplicate Civics Bars For Vegetables #0187 Sandbox Player: Some Sounds Not Playing Or Very Quiet #0188 Sandbox Player: Most Weapons, Rings And Necklaces Not Stacking #0189 Sandbox Player: Scale And Halberd Recipes Not Unlocked By Blacksmith Research #0190 Sandbox Player: Villagers Sometimes Get Stuck Outside Cottages #0191 Sandbox Player: Peasants Near Cottages Ignore Command To Chop Tree
Known Issues
Crafting recipes found in loot aren’t showing their icons, but are appearing in the crafting menu. Ser Gregory really needs a rage meter rather than taking power from the Mind stat.
Developer Comments
Alpha 21 has a strong focus on heroes, special abilities, and combat improvements. It includes all the code to support heroes including queueing abilities, applying buffs on hit, combat AI
*Level Designers please note that Ser Gregory should be created via workbench using the new InstantiateCharacterAt node, which also allows you to set his allegiance.
**Automatic seed planting is now in. Woodcutters will plant saplings if there are 5 or fewer trees within the boundary of the Woodcutter Hut, or if you have an abundance of seeds. Felled trees automatically grant 1 seed, at least until we implement the Marketplace building. We have removed seeds from monsters and spider dens.
***Everything but profession uniforms are in. There’s a missing male beard, and the female herbalist hairstyle which are known issues.
Ser Gregory, the first hero built on a growing RPG code base, Dwarven culture, and the terrain randomization tool.
Well met Ser Gregory
While the last release cycle was all about village building and economy, the team are now focused on expanding the RPG side of Folk Tale. As you explore the world you'll meet heroes entwined in an evolving story. Help them with their goals, and they'll become available for selection in your adventuring party.
Building on existing RPG mechanics including inventory and stats, our first foray into RPG adventuring begins with the addition of hero systems, and in Alpha 21 we're introducing Ser Gregory. As a heavily armoured tank, Ser Gregory's abilities place him at the heart of melee action. His abilities are designed around defence (Iron Skin), crowd control (Taunt and Shield Bash), area of effect damage (Power Slam) and being able to finish off opponents with low health (Decisive Victory). Each ability is detailed on the website (link above). Abilities can be queued to be executed one after another, have cool down timers, and power costs to prevent you from spamming special abilities which would be totally OP. We've added all the supporting systems for character states including stunned and knockdown, and will be rolling these out across new and existing characters in Alpha 21 and beyond.
For now we've enabled all Ser Gregory's abilities for community feedback, but in a future release you'll unlock abilities as Ser Gregory levels up, and then level up each ability to make it more powerful. For now, pick your battles carefully and save regularly as there's perma-death. We'll be adding revival to respawn dead heroes back in your village, but that's not in yet.
Combat feels a little smoother now we've reduced the interval between attacks from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. The anti-kiting code has been removed so there's no more insta-heal enemies, and characters no longer stand on top of each other, moving apart if it occurs. We've also made characters rotate before running in a direction. It's a subtle change, and it might feel a little different for a few minutes, but ultimately adds a little bit of extra quality.
And what to do with all that junk loot? Salvage it of course in exchange for a little gold! You can now drag unwanted inventory items onto the salvage icon.
Character Portraits
The days of looking at the bald male villager placeholder in the character wheel are over. We now have a new portrait system showing the actual appearance of villagers in a nice hand-painted portrait. While heroes, bosses and behemoths all have their own unique beautifully hand-painted portraits, villagers are a little more challenging. Due to the number of permutations of hair - including beards and moustaches on men - we layer up the features and use tinting. We start with the background and uniform, then add skin (ranging from light to dark), beard, moustache, head hair and finally any hats/helmets. For now, villagers will all have the peasant uniform. We expect to have the other profession uniforms including hats added for Alpha 22.
Death By Deforestation
If you've played a long session, you'll be familiar with the impending doom that awaits due to deforestation. We previously added seed drops to spiders, bears and boars, but your feedback told us this didn't really solve the problem. So in Alpha 21 each felled tree now drops a seed (added to your inventory), and when a Woodcutter's Hut has 5 or fewer trees in it's boundary, Woodcutters will automatically plant a seed. This completely removes the micromanagement burden, however you can still use the Woodcutter ability to plant saplings where you please. In time we may link this ability to the Forestry research. We'll have to see how well this scales with a Tier 3 upgrade.
Village Building And Economy
Attaining Tier 2 building upgrades needed to happen a little sooner in gameplay, so we've reduced the culture cost from 350 to 275. We've still got to implement the reasons for upgrading, including tying research with better bonuses and effects to higher building tiers.
One community reported issue was that workers could end up walking a long way to reach a workpoint within a building's boundaries. For example, a Fisher may have to walk a ways to reach a bridge to cross a river to get to the other side. This could take them into enemy territory leading to their death. We now check journey distance to determine if a work point should be used or not.
Mead and Entertainment were bugged in Alpha 20. For the next release, we've made sure that villager need for entertainment begins when you first construct a Tavern, even if you haven't yet attained a culture score of 300. A barrel of mead also now converts to 4 tankards of mead at the tavern instead of 2, helping with supply shortages. To address the over-production at Bee Yards, 30 honeycomb are now required per barrel productions instead of 5, although the yield of honeycomb has been increased to be inline with other buildings. Further rebalancing may well be required, so please share your experiences in the community forum.
Dwarven Cultures
Development of the dwarven culture is progressing well, including the dwarven fortress of House Hraun (faction), under siege by the exiled Cult Of Pyros (faction) and it's leader, Archmagus Brimstone. There's a mountain of work goes into developing each culture, including modelling and painting weapons and shields that appear on characters, loot icon illustrations including armor and jewellery, environment props, textures and visual effects, script writing, voice acting, character modelling, painting and animation, sound effect design, and of course soundtrack composition.
Expect to see Dwarven content make it's way into the game in Alpha 22 or 23.
Story Script And Voice Acting
Story will feature prominently in Folk Tale, delivering a campaign like feel similar to the original tutorial, but within a sandbox environment. The Grassland starting story script is now complete, which leads into the Withering Dead and Gladefolk faction storylines. We completed voice actor casting a few months back, and are now working our way through the recording sessions.
Terrain Randomization Editor Tool Progress
Building large terrains in the Editor can be time consuming. To help increase productivity, we're working on a terrain randomization feature that automatically generates a terrain based on settings. It's able to generate mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and waterfalls, place trees, generate coast line, and apply splatters of paint. It utilises the full range of core tiles available, including full, half and quarter height tiles.
All being well, by the time you've read this Alpha 21 should be in final testing ready for launch.
Ser Gregory, the first hero built on a growing RPG code base, Dwarven culture, and the terrain randomization tool.
Well met Ser Gregory
While the last release cycle was all about village building and economy, the team are now focused on expanding the RPG side of Folk Tale. As you explore the world you'll meet heroes entwined in an evolving story. Help them with their goals, and they'll become available for selection in your adventuring party.
Building on existing RPG mechanics including inventory and stats, our first foray into RPG adventuring begins with the addition of hero systems, and in Alpha 21 we're introducing Ser Gregory. As a heavily armoured tank, Ser Gregory's abilities place him at the heart of melee action. His abilities are designed around defence (Iron Skin), crowd control (Taunt and Shield Bash), area of effect damage (Power Slam) and being able to finish off opponents with low health (Decisive Victory). Each ability is detailed on the website (link above). Abilities can be queued to be executed one after another, have cool down timers, and power costs to prevent you from spamming special abilities which would be totally OP. We've added all the supporting systems for character states including stunned and knockdown, and will be rolling these out across new and existing characters in Alpha 21 and beyond.
For now we've enabled all Ser Gregory's abilities for community feedback, but in a future release you'll unlock abilities as Ser Gregory levels up, and then level up each ability to make it more powerful. For now, pick your battles carefully and save regularly as there's perma-death. We'll be adding revival to respawn dead heroes back in your village, but that's not in yet.
Combat feels a little smoother now we've reduced the interval between attacks from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. The anti-kiting code has been removed so there's no more insta-heal enemies, and characters no longer stand on top of each other, moving apart if it occurs. We've also made characters rotate before running in a direction. It's a subtle change, and it might feel a little different for a few minutes, but ultimately adds a little bit of extra quality.
And what to do with all that junk loot? Salvage it of course in exchange for a little gold! You can now drag unwanted inventory items onto the salvage icon.
Character Portraits
The days of looking at the bald male villager placeholder in the character wheel are over. We now have a new portrait system showing the actual appearance of villagers in a nice hand-painted portrait. While heroes, bosses and behemoths all have their own unique beautifully hand-painted portraits, villagers are a little more challenging. Due to the number of permutations of hair - including beards and moustaches on men - we layer up the features and use tinting. We start with the background and uniform, then add skin (ranging from light to dark), beard, moustache, head hair and finally any hats/helmets. For now, villagers will all have the peasant uniform. We expect to have the other profession uniforms including hats added for Alpha 22.
Death By Deforestation
If you've played a long session, you'll be familiar with the impending doom that awaits due to deforestation. We previously added seed drops to spiders, bears and boars, but your feedback told us this didn't really solve the problem. So in Alpha 21 each felled tree now drops a seed (added to your inventory), and when a Woodcutter's Hut has 5 or fewer trees in it's boundary, Woodcutters will automatically plant a seed. This completely removes the micromanagement burden, however you can still use the Woodcutter ability to plant saplings where you please. In time we may link this ability to the Forestry research. We'll have to see how well this scales with a Tier 3 upgrade.
Village Building And Economy
Attaining Tier 2 building upgrades needed to happen a little sooner in gameplay, so we've reduced the culture cost from 350 to 275. We've still got to implement the reasons for upgrading, including tying research with better bonuses and effects to higher building tiers.
One community reported issue was that workers could end up walking a long way to reach a workpoint within a building's boundaries. For example, a Fisher may have to walk a ways to reach a bridge to cross a river to get to the other side. This could take them into enemy territory leading to their death. We now check journey distance to determine if a work point should be used or not.
Mead and Entertainment were bugged in Alpha 20. For the next release, we've made sure that villager need for entertainment begins when you first construct a Tavern, even if you haven't yet attained a culture score of 300. A barrel of mead also now converts to 4 tankards of mead at the tavern instead of 2, helping with supply shortages. To address the over-production at Bee Yards, 30 honeycomb are now required per barrel productions instead of 5, although the yield of honeycomb has been increased to be inline with other buildings. Further rebalancing may well be required, so please share your experiences in the community forum.
Dwarven Cultures
Development of the dwarven culture is progressing well, including the dwarven fortress of House Hraun (faction), under siege by the exiled Cult Of Pyros (faction) and it's leader, Archmagus Brimstone. There's a mountain of work goes into developing each culture, including modelling and painting weapons and shields that appear on characters, loot icon illustrations including armor and jewellery, environment props, textures and visual effects, script writing, voice acting, character modelling, painting and animation, sound effect design, and of course soundtrack composition.
Expect to see Dwarven content make it's way into the game in Alpha 22 or 23.
Story Script And Voice Acting
Story will feature prominently in Folk Tale, delivering a campaign like feel similar to the original tutorial, but within a sandbox environment. The Grassland starting story script is now complete, which leads into the Withering Dead and Gladefolk faction storylines. We completed voice actor casting a few months back, and are now working our way through the recording sessions.
Terrain Randomization Editor Tool Progress
Building large terrains in the Editor can be time consuming. To help increase productivity, we're working on a terrain randomization feature that automatically generates a terrain based on settings. It's able to generate mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and waterfalls, place trees, generate coast line, and apply splatters of paint. It utilises the full range of core tiles available, including full, half and quarter height tiles.
All being well, by the time you've read this Alpha 21 should be in final testing ready for launch.