Greetings!

In case you’ve read our previous devlog, you can remember, that in that diary we promised to shed light on a Psyche system. Stoneshard is a game, which makes the hero experience different severe situations, thereat, a special system of mental health simulation takes its place. Here comes an in-depth guide.


Extreme conditions demand Heroic responses.

Each character has two mental indicators – Sanity and Morale. Sanity displays character’s mental health, how adequately he perceives. Morale is all about the character’s spirit, responding for alacrity to withstand all perils. Morale and Sanity are affected by different events.

For example, by dealing a critical strike or killing a hostile, you will increase character’s Morale. Similarly, starvation, thirst, injuries and low HP, on the contrary will cause a character to lose determination. Same rules apply for Sanity: dwelling in darkness, uncanny monsters, head injuries, intense pain and high intoxication will decrease it dramatically. Increasing it is much more complicated – Sanity restoration is available strictly on the surface, being safe and sound.


No, this isn't the political compass.

Proceeding to the most interesting section – Mental conditions. Conditions provide various unique effects, obtained by the character, depending on the current Sanity and Morale ratio. Each combination grants access to a special pool of Conditions, as illustrated above.

Each Condition demands a trigger – certain circumstances, that your hero must encounter, to activate a Condition. For example, to become Optimistic you need your Sanity and Morale level to be over 50, and HP level over 85%. While the conditions are fulfilled, the chance to become Optimistic will inevitably increase each turn. Also various Conditions work different: some require special conditions to be maintained, and other pass away automatically after several turns.

To illustrate it, we would like to provide a few descriptions:





It's a nice day outside to be Optimistic.

That’s all folks. See you in the next devlog!

Greetings!

In case you’ve read our previous devlog, you can remember, that in that diary we promised to shed light on a Psyche system. Stoneshard is a game, which makes the hero experience different severe situations, thereat, a special system of mental health simulation takes its place. Here comes an in-depth guide.


Extreme conditions demand Heroic responses.

Each character has two mental indicators – Sanity and Morale. Sanity displays character’s mental health, how adequately he perceives. Morale is all about the character’s spirit, responding for alacrity to withstand all perils. Morale and Sanity are affected by different events.

For example, by dealing a critical strike or killing a hostile, you will increase character’s Morale. Similarly, starvation, thirst, injuries and low HP, on the contrary will cause a character to lose determination. Same rules apply for Sanity: dwelling in darkness, uncanny monsters, head injuries, intense pain and high intoxication will decrease it dramatically. Increasing it is much more complicated – Sanity restoration is available strictly on the surface, being safe and sound.


No, this isn't the political compass.

Proceeding to the most interesting section – Mental conditions. Conditions provide various unique effects, obtained by the character, depending on the current Sanity and Morale ratio. Each combination grants access to a special pool of Conditions, as illustrated above.

Each Condition demands a trigger – certain circumstances, that your hero must encounter, to activate a Condition. For example, to become Optimistic you need your Sanity and Morale level to be over 50, and HP level over 85%. While the conditions are fulfilled, the chance to become Optimistic will inevitably increase each turn. Also various Conditions work different: some require special conditions to be maintained, and other pass away automatically after several turns.

To illustrate it, we would like to provide a few descriptions:





It's a nice day outside to be Optimistic.

That’s all folks. See you in the next devlog!

Hello everyone!

There wasn’t any news from us recently, but that doesn’t mean we halted the development. In this devdiary we’d like to tell you about our health system. In the past devlogs we mentioned intoxication and pain systems, but didn’t go into details. Today we’re going to change this.

Stoneshard is a game with a deep focus on character management. Medicine plays very important role here. Besides the traditional HP system you’ll need to manage hunger, thirst, pain, intoxication and injuries. Let’s start with pain.



Pain is a parameter showing how much suffering the incoming damage brings. Usually greater damage causes greater pain, but it isn’t always the case. Sometimes even non-life-threatening impacts can cause large amounts of pain – this is especially true when speaking about thermal and chemical burns, injuries and some types of magic.

Pain has different levels which have various effects on your hero. If the pain level is too high your character will have difficulties with concentration and self-control. He may even die from the pain shock. So it’s considered wise to always have some anesthetics in your inventory: flasks of ether, strong alcohol and drugs are a great way to lower the pain. Beware of pushbacks though – bad trips are really dangerous.



Hunger and thirst doesn’t work very differently from any other game with these survival elements. They have different levels of severity too, and on the highest levels death is almost inevitable. It’s worth mentioning hunger and thirst gain speed depends on your activity. Physical activity (e.g. combat) fastens hunger rates, while eating and casting spells makes your throat dry. Pronouncing spell words is usually a tiresome process, you know.



And finally injuries. In our game the body of your character is divided on several parts: head, torso, legs and both arms. When receiving a critical hit there is a chance some body part of your character will get injured. Different activities have different risks: for example traps usually injure your legs and torso, while breaking doors down is pretty unsafe for your hands.

The heavier the damage was, the more severe the injury is going to be. The severity affects the active debuff: light head trauma will slightly reduce your character’s Perception, while heavy head trauma makes regenerating mana and casting spells impossible. Light injuries can occasionally heal on their own, but medium and heavy traumas require special treatment. In that case you’ll need to use some splints or a healing salves to stabilize the injury – then your body will eventually heal it.


That’s all for today. In our next devlog we’ll dicuss my personally favorite thing – the Psyche system.

Have a nice day!

Hello everyone!

There wasn’t any news from us recently, but that doesn’t mean we halted the development. In this devdiary we’d like to tell you about our health system. In the past devlogs we mentioned intoxication and pain systems, but didn’t go into details. Today we’re going to change this.

Stoneshard is a game with a deep focus on character management. Medicine plays very important role here. Besides the traditional HP system you’ll need to manage hunger, thirst, pain, intoxication and injuries. Let’s start with pain.



Pain is a parameter showing how much suffering the incoming damage brings. Usually greater damage causes greater pain, but it isn’t always the case. Sometimes even non-life-threatening impacts can cause large amounts of pain – this is especially true when speaking about thermal and chemical burns, injuries and some types of magic.

Pain has different levels which have various effects on your hero. If the pain level is too high your character will have difficulties with concentration and self-control. He may even die from the pain shock. So it’s considered wise to always have some anesthetics in your inventory: flasks of ether, strong alcohol and drugs are a great way to lower the pain. Beware of pushbacks though – bad trips are really dangerous.



Hunger and thirst doesn’t work very differently from any other game with these survival elements. They have different levels of severity too, and on the highest levels death is almost inevitable. It’s worth mentioning hunger and thirst gain speed depends on your activity. Physical activity (e.g. combat) fastens hunger rates, while eating and casting spells makes your throat dry. Pronouncing spell words is usually a tiresome process, you know.



And finally injuries. In our game the body of your character is divided on several parts: head, torso, legs and both arms. When receiving a critical hit there is a chance some body part of your character will get injured. Different activities have different risks: for example traps usually injure your legs and torso, while breaking doors down is pretty unsafe for your hands.

The heavier the damage was, the more severe the injury is going to be. The severity affects the active debuff: light head trauma will slightly reduce your character’s Perception, while heavy head trauma makes regenerating mana and casting spells impossible. Light injuries can occasionally heal on their own, but medium and heavy traumas require special treatment. In that case you’ll need to use some splints or a healing salves to stabilize the injury – then your body will eventually heal it.


That’s all for today. In our next devlog we’ll dicuss my personally favorite thing – the Psyche system.

Have a nice day!

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to tell you about many interesting new features. In this diary you’ll find some details about weapons properties, differences between damage types and also durability system.

Let’s start with weapons. There are 13 planned types of weaponry in Stoneshard. You’ll be able to equip whichever you like, as there won’t be any class restrictions. Aside from obvious differences (like daggers deal less damage than two-handed greatmauls etc.) each weapon type has its own unique critical hit mechanics.




Also, different weapons may have different damage types. For example, swords and axes deal slashing damage, while maces and staves deal blunt damage, and bows, crossbows and daggers have piercing attacks. Damage mechanics are worth discussing as well: it’s one of the core systems of our combat. To begin with, there are 17 different damage types, which belong to three branches: Physical, Magical and Natural.

Physical damage can be dealt with weapons and related skills. There are 4 types of Physical damage: Slashing, Piercing, Blunt and Tearing. Physical damage can be absorbed by Armor.

Magical damage, as you must have guessed, forms the basis of various spells. Also it can be dealt with usual attacks, if you were lucky enough to find suitable enchanted weapon. In total, you can master 7 types of magical damage: Arcane, Aether, Blessed, Eldritch, Chrono, Metamorphic and Psionic. Magical damage pierces Armor with ease, but can be lowered with specific resistances.

Natural damage unites those types of damage, typically dealt by the forces of nature itself. Some of them though are frequently used for conjuration and weapon enhancement. So, there are 6 types of natural damage: Fiery, Frost, Electric, Poison, Acidic and Blast. Natural damage can be nullified only by specific resistances as well.


Slashing, blunt and piercing damages in action

Each damage type also has a special effect. The more powerful your attack gets, the more likely that special effect will be applied. For instance, blunt attacks can ignore a portion of target’s Defense, electric damage – additionally chain to the nearest enemy, aether – temporarily blind everyone in a small zone, metamorphic – permanently decrease target’s attributes by painfully transmuting part of its body into gold.

Some damage types are also much more painful than others. For example, acidic and fiery damage deals three times more pain than piercing damage, which should be always taken into consideration when engaging toxic slugs or burning monsters in melee.



The next important feature is equipment durability, which decreases from active usage. Low durability means low stats – nearly broken item is roughly half as effective. Weapons will degrade from successful and fumbled hits, armor and shields wear out from absorbed damage, and boots fray from movement. The speed of deterioration is also affected by equipment material and received damage type. Fiery attacks burn out wooden shields and clothes quite fast, and attacking ooze slimes corrodes melee weapons.

It will be impossible to completely break an item though, so you shouldn’t worry about your favorite legendary sword – any item could be repaired to 100% durability again.

Stay tuned!

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to tell you about many interesting new features. In this diary you’ll find some details about weapons properties, differences between damage types and also durability system.

Let’s start with weapons. There are 13 planned types of weaponry in Stoneshard. You’ll be able to equip whichever you like, as there won’t be any class restrictions. Aside from obvious differences (like daggers deal less damage than two-handed greatmauls etc.) each weapon type has its own unique critical hit mechanics.




Also, different weapons may have different damage types. For example, swords and axes deal slashing damage, while maces and staves deal blunt damage, and bows, crossbows and daggers have piercing attacks. Damage mechanics are worth discussing as well: it’s one of the core systems of our combat. To begin with, there are 17 different damage types, which belong to three branches: Physical, Magical and Natural.

Physical damage can be dealt with weapons and related skills. There are 4 types of Physical damage: Slashing, Piercing, Blunt and Tearing. Physical damage can be absorbed by Armor.

Magical damage, as you must have guessed, forms the basis of various spells. Also it can be dealt with usual attacks, if you were lucky enough to find suitable enchanted weapon. In total, you can master 7 types of magical damage: Arcane, Aether, Blessed, Eldritch, Chrono, Metamorphic and Psionic. Magical damage pierces Armor with ease, but can be lowered with specific resistances.

Natural damage unites those types of damage, typically dealt by the forces of nature itself. Some of them though are frequently used for conjuration and weapon enhancement. So, there are 6 types of natural damage: Fiery, Frost, Electric, Poison, Acidic and Blast. Natural damage can be nullified only by specific resistances as well.


Slashing, blunt and piercing damages in action

Each damage type also has a special effect. The more powerful your attack gets, the more likely that special effect will be applied. For instance, blunt attacks can ignore a portion of target’s Defense, electric damage – additionally chain to the nearest enemy, aether – temporarily blind everyone in a small zone, metamorphic – permanently decrease target’s attributes by painfully transmuting part of its body into gold.

Some damage types are also much more painful than others. For example, acidic and fiery damage deals three times more pain than piercing damage, which should be always taken into consideration when engaging toxic slugs or burning monsters in melee.



The next important feature is equipment durability, which decreases from active usage. Low durability means low stats – nearly broken item is roughly half as effective. Weapons will degrade from successful and fumbled hits, armor and shields wear out from absorbed damage, and boots fray from movement. The speed of deterioration is also affected by equipment material and received damage type. Fiery attacks burn out wooden shields and clothes quite fast, and attacking ooze slimes corrodes melee weapons.

It will be impossible to completely break an item though, so you shouldn’t worry about your favorite legendary sword – any item could be repaired to 100% durability again.

Stay tuned!

Hello everyone!

You must have missed our devlogs, aren't you? Well, that was not in vain – and in this diary we'll tell you more about Stoneshard combat system.

What's the combat like in traditional roguelikes? The player's character has the set of various attributes, and his enemies have their own sets of exactly same attributes. They get close on neighboring tiles and attack each other – the one with higher attributes usually wins the fight. Sometimes RNG may take place: someone may land a critical hit, block incoming attack or just evade the hit – but that rarely affects the general outcome.

In Stoneshard there are even more possible strike outcomes: for instance, you can accidentally fumble, thus hitting with severely lowered damage. You can critically fumble as well – and in melee that means you will hurt your own limb. All of this is connected to several dozens of different attributes, which you, the player, will improve during the game's course – with special Attribute Points, equipment, traits and some passive abilities.

Though this concept is a classic one – and quite viable on itself – we always thought it lacks some flexibility, and player lacks the possibility to directly influence the fight. Yes, correct positioning and the usage of skills may have a huge impact, but in the beginning of the game, when your character doesn't have huge arsenal of abilities, the fighting system gets a little bit boring and random. And then we came with the solution: Attitudes. So what are Attitudes?



By this name we mean a certain mix of character's battle stance, preferred tactics and the overall "fighting" mood. Each Attitude has its own advantages and disadvantages, differently modifying character's attributes. All Attitudes are designed for very specific cases. Thus tactically thinking player will be able to quickly adapt to dynamically changing situation by taking right Attitude in time. As you may have guessed, it will take a turn.

We added nine different Attitudes:

• Aggressive
  This attitude develops the offensive potential, but makes defensive techniques harder to perform. Aggressive Attitude is great to use in one–on–one fights if your life isn't under great threat.
  
  
• Defensive
  
  This attitude focuses on using of defensive maneuvers but worsens your attacking skills. It's intended for those cases when you must survive at any cost – for example, in battles with overwhelming and dangerous enemies.
  
  
• Balanced
  This attitude is a great choice for those who don't like to risk and rely more on skill than luck. This fighting style strengthens your usual attacks and improves your blocking technique at the cost of making critical strikes much less likely and effective.
  
  
• Precise
  This attitude allows to fully focus on ranged combat at the cost of mobility and overall attentiveness. It's effective in situations where the enemies are quite far away to snipe them from a distance.
  
  
• Cautious
  This attitude makes combat incredibly risky and hard but helps to retreat and hide. It's fit for those cases when your successful retreat is a matter of life and death.
  
  
• Stealthy
  This attitude increases your chances to stay hidden before the right moment but it makes you less nimble and lowers your field of view. It's intended for the situations when successful surprise attack will bring a great advantage.
  
  
• Meditative
  This attitude helps to abstract oneself from the world, improving body's restorative forces. It's great to use after hard fights.
  
  
• Concentrated
  This attitude helps to fully control one's own consciousness. It increases spell power but leaves the caster almost defenseless in melee combat.
  
  
• Full Potential
  This attitude allows mystical energies to flow directly through one's body. It fully uncovers hidden magical powers at the cost of decreased vital forces and worsened physical control.

Mind that each character won't be able to take every attitude from the beginning – for example, Dwarven Berserkers aren't familiar with Meditative, Stealthy or Cautious Attitudes – while Elven Shadows specialize on those, but aren't taught how to get fully Aggressive. However you can unlock missing Attitudes as you advance through the game – but this is a topic of another devlog.

Stay tuned!

Hello everyone!

You must have missed our devlogs, aren't you? Well, that was not in vain – and in this diary we'll tell you more about Stoneshard combat system.

What's the combat like in traditional roguelikes? The player's character has the set of various attributes, and his enemies have their own sets of exactly same attributes. They get close on neighboring tiles and attack each other – the one with higher attributes usually wins the fight. Sometimes RNG may take place: someone may land a critical hit, block incoming attack or just evade the hit – but that rarely affects the general outcome.

In Stoneshard there are even more possible strike outcomes: for instance, you can accidentally fumble, thus hitting with severely lowered damage. You can critically fumble as well – and in melee that means you will hurt your own limb. All of this is connected to several dozens of different attributes, which you, the player, will improve during the game's course – with special Attribute Points, equipment, traits and some passive abilities.

Though this concept is a classic one – and quite viable on itself – we always thought it lacks some flexibility, and player lacks the possibility to directly influence the fight. Yes, correct positioning and the usage of skills may have a huge impact, but in the beginning of the game, when your character doesn't have huge arsenal of abilities, the fighting system gets a little bit boring and random. And then we came with the solution: Attitudes. So what are Attitudes?



By this name we mean a certain mix of character's battle stance, preferred tactics and the overall "fighting" mood. Each Attitude has its own advantages and disadvantages, differently modifying character's attributes. All Attitudes are designed for very specific cases. Thus tactically thinking player will be able to quickly adapt to dynamically changing situation by taking right Attitude in time. As you may have guessed, it will take a turn.

We added nine different Attitudes:

• Aggressive
  This attitude develops the offensive potential, but makes defensive techniques harder to perform. Aggressive Attitude is great to use in one–on–one fights if your life isn't under great threat.
  
  
• Defensive
  
  This attitude focuses on using of defensive maneuvers but worsens your attacking skills. It's intended for those cases when you must survive at any cost – for example, in battles with overwhelming and dangerous enemies.
  
  
• Balanced
  This attitude is a great choice for those who don't like to risk and rely more on skill than luck. This fighting style strengthens your usual attacks and improves your blocking technique at the cost of making critical strikes much less likely and effective.
  
  
• Precise
  This attitude allows to fully focus on ranged combat at the cost of mobility and overall attentiveness. It's effective in situations where the enemies are quite far away to snipe them from a distance.
  
  
• Cautious
  This attitude makes combat incredibly risky and hard but helps to retreat and hide. It's fit for those cases when your successful retreat is a matter of life and death.
  
  
• Stealthy
  This attitude increases your chances to stay hidden before the right moment but it makes you less nimble and lowers your field of view. It's intended for the situations when successful surprise attack will bring a great advantage.
  
  
• Meditative
  This attitude helps to abstract oneself from the world, improving body's restorative forces. It's great to use after hard fights.
  
  
• Concentrated
  This attitude helps to fully control one's own consciousness. It increases spell power but leaves the caster almost defenseless in melee combat.
  
  
• Full Potential
  This attitude allows mystical energies to flow directly through one's body. It fully uncovers hidden magical powers at the cost of decreased vital forces and worsened physical control.

Mind that each character won't be able to take every attitude from the beginning – for example, Dwarven Berserkers aren't familiar with Meditative, Stealthy or Cautious Attitudes – while Elven Shadows specialize on those, but aren't taught how to get fully Aggressive. However you can unlock missing Attitudes as you advance through the game – but this is a topic of another devlog.

Stay tuned!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our new development diary! Today we are going to tell you about two new changes - visual customization and intoxication mechanics.



Hundred to one that you’ve already played other graphical roguelikes. Even if their interface looks much more friendly than the one of ASCII oldschool roguelikes, many elements are still rather symbolic and schematic. It’s quite understandable, taking into account traditionally abundant amount of possibilities in the games of this kind. Sometimes it’s a totally back-breaking task to reflect all elements graphically in details.

Nonetheless since the beginning we clearly understand, that it’s essential for a player to see the progress of the character, and along with that an ability to see all the changes of character’s equipage is quite important. So the last week was dedicated to implementing of visual customization. From now on any equipage you put on your character is shown on the character’s sprite.

Weapons, shields, armour, helmets, boots are available for admiration not only in inventory but directly on the character. We don’t have enough pixels to show full-featured rings and amulets, so they became an only exception. As for the rest with this new system you have an ability to make your character both efficient and aesthetic. Who knows, you may be the one who will leave the mark in a history as the most stylish dungeon conqueror.



Now let’s get down to the gameplay moments to tell you more details about intoxication mechanics we have implemented a bit earlier. Along with hunger, thirst and pain, intoxication is one of the health indexes of your character. Potions, alcohol and drugs are happened to play one of the key roles in our game.

Imagine yourself lying in the dark dungeon with broken legs, on the verge of a swoon because of the pain shock. Well, the only relief you may get from in this situation is a bottle or a pinch of Elven dust. So there is a logical question, how do we show that drugs are bad and you should not overuse it? Intoxication is right here to help: it is getting higher when your character is under affection of diverse toxic factors.

Increase of intoxication varies depending on the intensiveness of impact. Heavy drugs and potent alcohol give the strongest thrust to the one-time rise. Long-term effects such as protracted drug trips or inebriation may also contribute to the rise of intoxication. Potion overuse doesn't come without price as well, intoxication will raise differently according to the strength and type of the effect.

It will be much harder to control the character if his organism has accumulated too much toxins. He may stop obeying player’s commands, faint, suffer from nausea and even slip into a coma for a while. Thus just in case keep a few bottles of antidotes in the inventory, they may save your life once. There is also a passive way to lower an intoxication: toxins are excreted from the organism by themselves on conditions of good health and enough amount of water.

That's all, stay tuned!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our new development diary! Today we are going to tell you about two new changes - visual customization and intoxication mechanics.



Hundred to one that you’ve already played other graphical roguelikes. Even if their interface looks much more friendly than the one of ASCII oldschool roguelikes, many elements are still rather symbolic and schematic. It’s quite understandable, taking into account traditionally abundant amount of possibilities in the games of this kind. Sometimes it’s a totally back-breaking task to reflect all elements graphically in details.

Nonetheless since the beginning we clearly understand, that it’s essential for a player to see the progress of the character, and along with that an ability to see all the changes of character’s equipage is quite important. So the last week was dedicated to implementing of visual customization. From now on any equipage you put on your character is shown on the character’s sprite.

Weapons, shields, armour, helmets, boots are available for admiration not only in inventory but directly on the character. We don’t have enough pixels to show full-featured rings and amulets, so they became an only exception. As for the rest with this new system you have an ability to make your character both efficient and aesthetic. Who knows, you may be the one who will leave the mark in a history as the most stylish dungeon conqueror.



Now let’s get down to the gameplay moments to tell you more details about intoxication mechanics we have implemented a bit earlier. Along with hunger, thirst and pain, intoxication is one of the health indexes of your character. Potions, alcohol and drugs are happened to play one of the key roles in our game.

Imagine yourself lying in the dark dungeon with broken legs, on the verge of a swoon because of the pain shock. Well, the only relief you may get from in this situation is a bottle or a pinch of Elven dust. So there is a logical question, how do we show that drugs are bad and you should not overuse it? Intoxication is right here to help: it is getting higher when your character is under affection of diverse toxic factors.

Increase of intoxication varies depending on the intensiveness of impact. Heavy drugs and potent alcohol give the strongest thrust to the one-time rise. Long-term effects such as protracted drug trips or inebriation may also contribute to the rise of intoxication. Potion overuse doesn't come without price as well, intoxication will raise differently according to the strength and type of the effect.

It will be much harder to control the character if his organism has accumulated too much toxins. He may stop obeying player’s commands, faint, suffer from nausea and even slip into a coma for a while. Thus just in case keep a few bottles of antidotes in the inventory, they may save your life once. There is also a passive way to lower an intoxication: toxins are excreted from the organism by themselves on conditions of good health and enough amount of water.

That's all, stay tuned!