THIS UPDATE IS SAVE-COMPATIBLE

- Fixed the inability to interact with the nightstand on the second floor of the brewery.
- Fixed the layering issue of fences and wheat near the mill.
- Fixed the lack of footstep sounds when walking over bridges.
- Fixed the bug with enemies not spawning on river map tiles.
- Fixed the Abandoned Homestead crash.
- Fixed the Homestead crash.
- Fixed dungeons retaining their structure upon respawning.
- Fixed the incorrect sounds on map tiles with river bends.
- The first two tiers of Hunger and Thirst effects have a lower influence on morale (0.05 and 0.1 > 0.01 and 0.05).
- Fixed the missing price of Nikos of Arpheon's Astrolabe (doesn’t affect already acquired artefacts).
- Fixed the incorrect duration of Hazzun Celestial Sphere’s daytime buffs.
- Disabled the option to learn rumors from secondary NPCs in Brynn.
- Added an option to catch leeches in deep water.
- Containers in the witch’s hut now have an owner and are marked red.
- Increased shields’ Durability (doesn’t affect already saved items).
- Fixed the bug with brewery NPCs having merchants’ inventories.
- Fixed the bug with “Drunkenness” affecting main Attributes.
- Fixed the bug causing Fumble Chance and Armor Penetration to not be affected by leveling Agility and Perception respectively.
- Fixed the cutscene at the brewery.
- Added an option to rent a room in the Rotten Willow Tavern and Ralph & Sons Inn.
- Fixed the crash caused by “Boulder Toss”.
- Fixed the inability to harvest Harpies and Crawlers.
- Kromm now gives a correct reward upon completing the quest.
- The duration of “Wetness” now has an upper threshold.
- Changed reputation perks (Better Gear I and II now increase the maximum level of sold items by 4 and 6 respectively).
- Fixed the crash caused by opening certain containers.
- Fixed crimes not being registered in some of the Brynn quarters.
- Fixed the missing sound of the Troll’s “Deafening Roar”.
- Increased the base Accuracy bonus of “Taking Aim” by 10%.

- Brynn elves no longer tell rumors.
- Reduced the number of enemies in Necromancers’ rooms.
- Low tier Necromancers are now accompanied by the Restless instead of Skeletons.
- Fixed reputation changes from contracts not being displayed in the Reputation menu.
- Fixed the issue with the missing ships in Brynn.
- Fixed the missing location name hover of the Lone Farmstead.
- Fixed sound issues near rivers.
- Added the missing journal entries for “Gathering the Caravan” and “Fate of the Brewery” quests.
- Slightly reduced the amount of herbs encountered on the map.
- Fixed “Blood Craze” granting incorrect bonus to damage.
- Fixed strange NPC behavior in settlements.
- Fixed incorrect ranged combat log entries.
- Fixed the bug preventing the use of “Double Lunge”.
- Fixed the crash caused by “Forceful Slam”.
- Fixed wolves never dropping pelts when skinned.
- Fixed the crash caused by the dialogue about key Mannshire NPCs.
- Fixed Jonna’s unique trait reapplying its bonus once more upon loading a save.
- Fixed rescue contracts not functioning properly.
- The state of the jail room now resets after you serve your time.
- Fixed the issue with overly powerful enemies spawning on map tiles and during ambushes.
- Reduced the size of wolf packs.

- Fixed the issue with bridges’ collision.
- Fog of war should now be properly displayed on river tiles.
- Tweaked Brynn merchants’ stock.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: we are aware about the bug that prevents merchants and other NPC from appearing on Brynn streets after the first couple of days - it will be fixed soon.
- Reduced the amount of crowns in village containers.
- The Korean localization should now function properly.
- Fixed the bug causing one of the achievements to be triggered by non-hostile animals.
- Tweaked dungeons’ drop rates.
- Fixed the crash occurring in jail.
- The elder no longer tells rumors about himself.
- Reduced the amount of gold in non-merchant NPCs’ inventories.
- Fixed the bug causing guards to disappear in the Guild Quarter.
- Fixed the quest-giving Brynn quartermaster’s name.
- Fixed the issue with certain damage types affecting pelts’ Durability too much.
- Fixed the treatise crash in the Prologue.
- Fixed the crash occurring during the Mannshire scribe dialogue.
- Fixed the crash caused by “Anticipation”.
- Fixed the issue with “Fire Barrage” Accuracy.
- Fixed the issue preventing a waterskin to be filled from a river
- Slightly reduced Durability loss from basic attacks.


- Fixed the crash occuring when using Stone Spikes under certain circumstances.
- Added some missing animations.
- Fixed the crash occuring during the dialogue with Rotten Willow innkeeper.
- Fixed the crash occuring after picking up spoiled food.
- Fixed the crash caused by crowns.
- Fixed the issue making containers contents disappear if the option to automatically close inventory
was enabled.
- Enemy spawn rates adjustments.

The size of the game’s world has grown almost 10 times - from 17x10 tiles to 40x40. You’ll be able to track your journey across it with a new global map menu that will also feature a character marker.

In your travels you’ll have a chance to encounter many Points of Interest, including monster dens and a handful of new unique locations.


The first major city will open its gates before you. It consists of four separate districts, each with their own vibe and special traders.


Your progress is now saved automatically upon exiting the game. However, these saves are deleted upon loading, so in case of your character’s death, you’ll be brought to the latest “hard” save made by sleeping.


Instead of being marked on the map from the get-go, Points of Interests are now discovered by learning rumors about them. You’ll be able to learn gossip and news from certain characters - some of it will end up leading you to an interesting location.


Theft, assault, and disturbing order within settlements is now a punishable offense. The punishment includes fines, jail time, and being executed on the spot.


The game’s world will now feature rivers, allowing you to fill a waterskin in the wild or just take a dip.


- Protection values from different items no longer stack, instead affecting only the body parts they are actually equipped on.
- Fumbled attacks now have their Stun, Daze, Knockback, Immobilization, and Bleed Chance set to zero.
- Dodge Chance now turns successful melee attacks into fumbles, and fumbles - into misses.
- Block Chance received an additional sub-system: successful blocking now costs some Block Power, which takes time to recover.
- Changes to the Accuracy formula: Accuracy and Dodge Chance now have two separate rolls, but their extreme values (Accuracy over 100% and Dodge Chance below 0%) will still have an effect on each other.


- Decreased Stat Point gain per level to 1. Main Attributes cap at 30 points.
- Attributes grant larger bonuses to a smaller number of stats.
- Each 5 points invested into an Attribute grant a special bonus to three additional stats.
- Reworked the structure of every Ability Tree: each of them received more starting paths. Unlocking powerful spells and skills will now require you to first learn all the abilities connected to them.
- Abilities now have Attribute requirements as an alternative way of unlocking them.
- You can now learn the first tier of Ability Trees from trainers - for the right price.


These are powerful relics of the past that possess unique properties - some of them require activation, while others grant their boon directly from your inventory.

You’ll have a chance to acquire them from distant dungeons - particularly dangerous locations, situated far from the settlements.


Encounter three new enemy types: Crawlers, Harpies, and Deathstinger Swarms.


Three new bombs: Nistrian Flame Flask, Spider Blood Flask, and Deathstinger Jar.


Recreate your favourite songs!


Will you be able to earn them all?


- A special quest in the beginning of the game.
- Reworked dungeon progression.
- Most dungeons won’t have a fixed difficulty level - it can shift back and forth during subsequent repopulations.
- Added special distant dungeons: there are no roads or contracts leading to them. They have the most dangerous enemies and the most valuable loot.


- Rebalanced most passives and some active abilities.
- Rebalanced all Injuries and Conditions.
- Being Knocked into an occupied tile now applies Daze instead of Stun.
- Fixed and rebalanced Durability - it now functions as intended.
- Bows now have an Accuracy penalty when shooting at targets within 1 or 2 tiles.
- Ranged weapons receive Accuracy penalty for shooting at distant targets: -2% Accuracy for each tile beyond half the maximum Range.
- “Sudden Lunge” and “Seize the Initiative” have an increased Range when used with a spear.
- “Seize the Initiative” now properly works with bows and crossbows, using the Range of an equipped weapon.
- Each firebolt from “Fire Barrage” now has a separate chance to hit.
- “Petrification” will now remove Bleeding.
- “Ensnarement” and “Immobilization” will either decrease Dodge Chance by 25% or set it to zero, whichever is more impactful.
- Tweaked caps of many secondary stats.
- Abilities’ hovers now properly display the Attributes that modify them.
- Increased damage from Knockback.
- Decreased the chance for curses to trigger their effect.
- Shouting now generates less noise.
- “Stun” will also grant Stun Resistance to reduce the possibility of stunlocks.
- “Wetness” now has stacks, the number of which depends on the duration of the effect.
- Dungeons will take twice as long to repopulate.


- Birds can now be hunted.
- Rebalanced the Troll: decreased its Resistances and increased its Max Health. The Troll also gets weaker when low on Energy.
- The Restless received higher Bleed Resistance.
- Archers can now drop their melee weapons on death.
- Rebalanced the chance of enemy spawns - it now depends on the nearby dungeons, hunting grounds, and the hidden wilderness factor.


- Rebalanced prices for most items.
- Increased the amount of valuables inside NPCs' homes.
- Rebalanced the price of arrows and bolts.
- Rebalanced money and reputation rewards for completing contracts.
- Tweaked reputation values.
- Rebalanced merchants’ stock.
- You can now request a starting weapon from the sergeant in Osbrook.
- Added 2 Catacomb and 3 Brynn-specific contracts.
- Changed rewards for completing tasks.
- Reduced the Mannshire scribe’s stock.
- Changes to the Troll quest: it can now be accessed only after reaching level 10.


- Added lots of new dishes.
- Added new items.
- Increased the base chance of triggering “Battle Rage” with Henbane.
- Antitoxin no longer completely removes Aftermaths from drugs, now only reducing them by half.
- Mindwort no longer completely removes Drunkenness, only decreasing its duration by a few turns.
- Increased the spawn chance for herbs.
- Added spoiled milk.


- Added pop-up speech lines for casting spells.
- Ability trees now have hovers with a short list of their strengths and effects.
- Numerous changes to in-game texts: item descriptions, characters’ bio, contents of treatises, etc.
- You no longer need to earn entrance to the Mannshire castle.

Hello everyone!

The City of Gold update is soon to be released: the approximate time is 21:00 MSK, November 18th. Right now is a good moment to give a summary of the progress we’ve made, talk about the update’s new features and what will be added to the game until the end of the year, and also discuss our plans for the future development of Stoneshard.


The City of Gold update will feature the long-awaited expansion of the game’s world: the old 17x11 map will be replaced with a 40x40 one - there’ll also be a new menu for navigating it. This map will be filled with numerous Points of Interest, including monster dens and some new unique locations.



As for finding these locations, you’ll need to make use of the new Rumor System - chatting with NPCs will occasionally provide you with valuable (and sometimes not so valuable) hints about places that are worth checking out.



Paper maps will be reintroduced into the game at a later date as an alternative way of finding Points of Interest and all kinds of treasures and hidden stashes.


The first major city will open its gates before you. It’s composed of four separate districts, each having its own vibe and special merchants.






After the update is released, you’ll no longer need to rush to a nearby tavern or camp when you need to urgently exit the game - your progress will be automatically saved on exit. It’s worth mentioning that saving on exit isn’t the same as quick saves - exit saves are deleted upon loading, so in case of your character’s death, the game will continue from the closest “hard” save made by sleeping.

On top of that, the new system will preserve information on lots of variables, including the state of tiles and the fog of war, dungeons’ layout, and more. This means that you won’t have to re-explore locations upon loading the game.


Expect to encounter three new dangerous enemy types that come with their own nests: deathstinger swarms, crawlers, and harpies. Each of these enemies will require a special approach, so make sure to exercise caution while hunting them!





You’ll also be able to hunt birds!


Expand your arsenal with throwable bombs: fire, acid, and the one that unleashes a swarm of enraged deathstingers.



And after you survive a difficult fight, treat yourself to some new dishes.






Artefacts are incredibly valuable relics of the past that possess various unique properties. Some of them grant passive bonuses while occupying your inventory, and others require activation.

You’ll have a certain chance to discover them in distant dungeons - hidden locations inhabited by the most dangerous enemies. These dungeons don’t have contracts associated with them, so you’ll need to find them first...


The Combat System received many important changes: let’s start with the most prominent ones - changes to armor. In City of Gold the Protection value from every equipped item will no longer stack. Instead, armor will only affect the body part it’s equipped on - this will make combat even deadlier, and there’ll be much more strategy involved in gearing up.

We also reworked two key defensive stats: Dodge and Block Chances. Dodge Chance now transforms successful attacks into fumbles, and fumbles - into misses. Block Chance received an additional mechanic: successful blocking now spends some Block Power, which takes time to recover, so if you want to use shields to their full potential, make sure to check out the corresponding Ability Tree!


The Attribute System was reworked as well: Attributes now grant different, more powerful bonuses, but you’ll be getting less Stat Points upon leveling up. In addition, every 5 points invested into an Attribute will grant you a major bonus to certain stats.



The Ability Trees’ structure was affected too. In order to make leveling more engaging and fluid, each Ability Tree now has multiple starting paths, and reading treatises will no longer be the only way to unlock higher tier Abilities - it can also be done by meeting Attribute requirements. In addition to that, it will be possible to unlock initially unavailable Ability Trees with the help of trainers, which will give you access to the first tier of them.




This update will feature the first batch of 40 Steam achievements. A large portion of them will be awarded for maxing out Ability Trees, but some will require you performing unorthodox feats. For instance:

Leechfeast – have leeches applied on six Injured body parts at the same time.
Shovel Knight – kill the Ancient Troll with a shovel.
What A Time to be Alive – experience 4 Deadly effects at the same time.
Totally Bear-able – kill a bear with a level one character.
Dr. Phlogiston, I Presume – have 7 enemies on fire at the same time.
I Have No Arms And I Must Kill – kill an enemy with a melee attack while both your arms are Severely Injured.


We plan to release a series of patches and small updates over the course of December and January to polish the existing content and add some new stuff. This will mostly affect Brynn: we want to introduce interiors to every house and add at least half a dozen extra buildings. In February you can also expect a small surprise on the second anniversary of the game’s Early Access release - but more about it later...

After we finish all that, we’ll start working on the Rags to Riches update, which will flesh out the global map and introduce two new Ability Trees to the game - Armor and one of the magic schools (we'll share the details later).

Wizard’s Fate, the update coming after Rags to Riches, will almost be entirely dedicated to magic - other than new magic schools, Wands, and Magic Mastery, we’ll also implement new systems that will make playing as a sorcerer not as easy and serve as a foundation for the full-fledged character generator.



An important mention: we will no longer be giving approximate release dates. The updates will be released only after we are sure that everything is ready. Exact release dates will be announced during the final stages of development and testing - one month before a patch’s release or so.

=======

That’s all for now. See you in the lands of Aldor on November 18th!

Hello everyone!

The City of Gold is almost here! Before its release on November 18th, we plan to publish one more devlog with a summary of the update’s most important changes and additions. Today, however, we’d like to tell you about two previously unannounced systems.


Rumors are closely tied to the new global map. As you may recall from its designated devlog, the global map will be initially concealed in the fog of war that you need to clear by exploring the world.
The same principle applies to Points of Interest, the location of which will be hidden until you stumble upon them yourself or learn about them from rumors.

Rumors are scraps of the latest news, gossip, and other interesting information, mostly exaggerated and sometimes not matching the reality at all. This mechanic is already partially present in the game: most NPCs can be chatted up to learn their thoughts about recent events, although this feature currently doesn’t have any gameplay applications.



After the CoG update, talking with some characters will actually provide you with valuable information, usually hinting at nearby POIs, which will then be marked on the global map. Different types of Points of Interest will have their own rumors associated with them: you’ll be able to learn about nearby camps, hunting grounds, monster dens, unique locations, distant dungeons, and so on.

Keep in mind that sometimes NPCs will request payment for valuable rumors, so make sure to bring your gold purse when fishing for information. If you fail to learn anything useful on your first attempt, don’t be discouraged - you’ll be able to try again in a few days.




Let’s talk about artifacts, a new type of loot with special properties. Artifacts are powerful relics of both recent and ancient past, some of them even dating back to antiquity. They’re usually imbued with mystical properties and can greatly benefit your character if you’re willing to sacrifice inventory space to carry them around.

Artifacts function as unique items: each of them can only be acquired once per playthrough. You’ll be able to find them in distant dungeons - dangerous locations situated far from settlements. These distant dungeons don’t have contracts associated with them, so you’ll have to either find them on your own or rely on rumors.



In the future, we might introduce additional means of acquiring artifacts: you’ll be able to find some of them in special locations, and others - in secret rooms or during quests. But for now, here are some of the artifacts you’ll have a chance to encounter in this update:




“St Wald, one of the first Aldorian saints, left his mark in history as a great preacher and an implacable enemy of heretics and the wicked. His relics are said to possess miraculous properties, capable of warding off the evil eye and cleansing malicious curses”

Effect: grants +30% Unholy Resistance and immunity to the “Curse” effect.




“This hefty tome is written in the Order's notorious code which no one has yet managed to crack. It's rumored that this book was blessed by all three Hands of the Host, and that it contains the full history of the Order and every mystery of creation they were privy to…”

Effect: killing undead or Proselyte enemies has 25% chance to grant “Blessing” for 100 turns.




“Nikos of Arpheon was perhaps the greatest seafarer known to the world. He was the first one to make a successful voyage around the Continent about a century ago. Even in the eye of Southern storms or amid icebergs of the North, Nikos's unparalleled skill as a navigator allowed him to always keep his ship on the chosen course”

Effect: can be used on the surface during night time once per day. Upon activation, grants the effect of “Clear Vision” for 2880 turns, boosting Crit Chance, Accuracy, Vision, and Bonus Range.




“A bronze jug in the form of a lion, expertly crafted on the Bronze Isles by an unknown master. Somehow this aquamanile found its way to Aldor, where it was blessed by the Archtheurgist of the High Hieron himself to serve as an eternal source of water to those dying of thirst - whenever emptied, it miraculously refills itself”

Effect: can be used once per day. Upon activation, sates 50% Thirst and also replenishes 25% Health and 15% Condition to each body part.

=============

That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll tell you about changes to the leveling system that will be introduced with the City of Gold update.


As we observed choices made by players when building their characters, we found out the following things:

• Players rarely spread points between multiple Attributes - both stat points gained upon leveling up are usually invested into a single Attribute to receive a more noticeable increase in power.
  
• Primary Attributes affect too many secondary stats: it’s difficult to keep track of them for most players, and leveling usually comes down to focusing on 1 or 2 build-defining stats.
  
• Some primary Attributes are way too important for certain archetypes while being pretty much ignored by others.

That’s why we decided to revise our old Attributes system:

• All Attributes are now capped at 30 points.
  
• Each Attribute governs only two secondary stats.
  
• You only gain one stat point upon leveling up, but its impact is now much more noticeable.
  
• Each primary Attribute now also has thresholds - upon reaching them your character will receive a powerful bonus to 3 additional stats. Each Attribute has 4 thresholds that you can reach - 15, 20, 25, and 30 points.
  
  We noticed that many players enjoy investing into Perception for much-desired Bonus Range breakpoints - it’s one of the reasons why we’re introducing a similar twist to other Attributes, making leveling more engaging and providing players with goals to pursue.
  
• The bonuses to characters’ starting Attributes were reduced.

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All these changes will require you to put more thought into building your characters - many important stats are only increased upon reaching an Attribute threshold, so you’ll have a lot of things to consider: shall you put your precious SP into Vitality to gain bonus Health? Perhaps it’s more worthwhile to invest into Perception for Accuracy and Crit Chance? Or maybe the best course of action is to continue pushing Strength, hoping that its bonus Damage will offset the characters’ shortcomings? The decision is yours to make.


We closely monitor our community’s feedback, and it’s apparent that many players consider the existing treatise system to be way too restrictive and irritating. Unsurprisingly, many people try to circumvent it by resetting traders’ stock or even by editing save files. It’s not the most desirable outcome, so that’s why we’re also making important changes to another key mechanic - how Abilities are learned.


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This example is WIP and is subject to change. To better understand the context make sure to read the final paragraph of the list below.

• We’ve reworked the structure of every Ability tree in the game. They now look cleaner and should provide better indication about which tier each Ability belongs to.
  
  
• Most Ability trees now have significantly more starting paths. This should make early combat more fun and reduce the frequency of situations when players are forced to stockpile points because they run out of Abilities to invest them into.
  
  
  
  
• Some Ability trees have a new type of link - a node. Nodes indicate that in order to unlock Abilities below them, you’ll first have to unlock every Ability linked to them.
  
  This change will reduce highly prominent power spikes that are detrimental to the overall balance - you will no longer be able to quickly cherry-pick active abilities while ignoring everything else. Before the rework, the deadly combo of “Incineration” and “Melting Ray” could be unlocked just after putting 2 points into Pyromancy, but now you’ll have to learn all 8 prerequisite Abilities before you gain access to it. To sum it up, expect mages to become less overpowered.
  
  
• At the same time, the opening tiers are much more flexible - the new system will provide you with more opportunities to grab a few starting Abilities to round up your build, but if you plan to gain access to high-level Abilities, you’ll need to actually invest.
  
  
  
  
• With the exception of the first tier, Abilities now have Attribute requirements as an alternative to learning them from treatises. Still, we don’t want the system to be too restrictive, so the requirements are fairly adaptable: as a general rule, you’ll have to invest a certain amount of points into a combined sum of relevant Attributes in any combination you want. For instance, if an Ability requires 6 points invested into Strength or Agility, you can unlock it by putting all 6 points into either Strength or Agility, by putting 2 points into Strength and 4 into Agility, and so on.
  
  To put it simply, you have a choice between unlocking Abilities on your own by fulfilling their Attribute requirements and searching for a treatise if you want to unlock them earlier or plan to forego Attribute requirements entirely (in case they aren’t supported by your build)
  
  
• In addition to treatises, starting Abilities can also be unlocked by trainers - for a price, of course. Most trainers are Osbrook and Mannshire NPCs whom you’re already familiar with, which means that you’ll be able to unlock all Ability trees (except for magic and Dual Wielding, the trainers for which are located in Brynn) right from the beginning without specifically looking for a relevant treatise.
  
  
• These changes will elevate treatises back to their intended place as rare and valuable loot. In addition to that, treatises are no longer sold by village merchants - you’ll have to search for them in dungeons, points of interest, or buy them from designated traders in Brynn. The Mannshire scribe’s stock was also reduced: instead of selling every single book in Aldor, he’ll only have a small selection of tomes that survived the siege.
  
  
• Many passives (as well as some active Abilities) were massively reworked to increase their usefulness and versatility, making them a better fit for the reworked Ability trees, so don’t be too swift to judge the presented changes.

===============================

Until the next devlog!

Hello everyone!

Let’s start with the release date: as many of you might already know, the City of Gold update was moved to November due to a number of reasons. And today we’re ready to announce its exact release date - November 18. This date is final, so make sure to set up a reminder!

Now to the latest news. We’re currently working on bringing the city to life, setting up NPCs and implementing side quests, many of which will have multiple paths and long-term consequences. Even though we would be happy to give you details, it’s not possible without getting into spoilers, so we’ll let you discover the secrets of Brynn streets by yourself.

Here’s a teaser just to get you started. And in return we’ll tell you about many other things that will be added with the City of Gold:


We haven't yet finished setting up NPCs, so you can expect the end result to be much more lively.


The bestiary of Stoneshard will see many new additions: other than mid-tier Proselytes (this topic deserves its own devlog), there’ll be a few other dangers to watch out for when exploring the world.




“Deathstingers are the scourge of the local woods. A large enough swarm of these sizeable insects can make short work of pretty much anything or anyone”

Deathstingers are large and very aggressive insects that form swarms around their hives in certain points of interest. Their primary strength lies in numbers - until a Deathstinger hive is destroyed, it will periodically spawn new swarms, maintaining their number.



But even a single Deathstinger swarm can cause a lot of grief: these things are hard to hit, and even successful strikes don’t deal much damage. On top of that, the less Health a swarm has, the higher its chance to dodge future attacks, although its own attacks will deal less damage as well.




“Crawlers make their burrows in deep woods, where they hunt small wildlife. Other predators do their best to stay away - crawlers' blood and bites are venomous, and their ability to almost instantaneously heal their fragile carapaces turns any encounter with them into a battle of attrition”

Needless to say, we had no choice but to introduce giant spiders into the game - therefore, meet Crawlers. You’ll be able to encounter them in the woods, but fortunately for you they won’t stray far from their burrows. Crawlers are dangerous predators for quite a number of reasons.



First of all, they are capable of spitting liquid webs, immobilizing and weakening their victims. Just as with Mancatchers’ nets, it will be possible to untangle yourself from them by skipping turns.

Crawlers’ huge size makes them rather frail - to compensate for this shortcoming, they have an ability to quickly regenerate any damage done to their chitinous carapace. Each turn Crawlers restore some of their Armor Durability, which also grants them additional Resistances. At the same time, they don’t have much Health, so the best weapon for hunting Crawlers is something with good Armor Damage and Penetration.

And finally, their blood is corrosive. Fighting Crawlers in melee will get you sprayed with it, dealing Caustic and Poison damage. This damage is also increased by each Injury or Bleed affecting a Crawler.




“Initially, harpies inhabited only the ridges of Aldorian foothills, but now they can be encountered across the entire realm. Their habits haven’t changed in the slightest though: these perpetually ravenous beasts are still the source of constant nuisance, attacking livestock and lonely travelers”

Harpies are enormous scavenger birds that can be found across most of Aldor. Hunting them requires a strategic approach: make sure that you bring a net or two with you or have a way to quickly cripple their wings - Harpies get significant combat bonuses while they are in the air.



Upon spotting their prey, Harpies swiftly close in to intercept it, so archers and mages will have a hard time keeping their distance - until a Harpy’s wings are injured, their mobility skill has no cooldown.
Harpies usually attempt to intimidate and confuse their victim with deafening screeches, then surround it from all sides, trying to peck out the eyes. Harpies’ heinous stench also doesn’t make fighting them any easier, causing coughing and the urge to throw up.

Despite all that, Harpies are incredibly cowardly: when threatened by defeat, they immediately try to take off and fly away a few turns after beginning their retreat, leaving you without valuable feathers and other trophies.


No one expects you to face new dangers without new tools, so we added a few bombs with different effects.


“The recipe for Nistrian flame, the flasks of which occasionally find their way to Aldor, still remains a secret despite the efforts of many talented scholars. Alas, no one has yet invented an alternative that burns at least half as well”




“The only reason why this deadly weapon is barely ever used is that any attempt to encase a swarm of enraged insects in a fragile container is incredibly dangerous”




“Certain alchemical procedures can prevent crawler blood from curdling, allowing it to be stored in glass containers for prolonged periods of time. This creates many new possibilities ranging from using it in further alchemical experiments to throwing it in combat”




And finally, the first look at rivers and lakes:



Bodies of water have a whole lot of mechanics tied to them, ranging from the basic option to fill a waterskin to swimming, combat, and special interactions with some abilities.
When your character is in shallow water, moving to another tile takes two turns. The distance of dashes is affected as well.

Upon entering deep water, the character begins to swim. The main thing to keep in mind is that swimming requires Energy - each traversed water tile will consume some of it. If Energy reaches zero, your character will drown, dying instantly. Swimming Energy Cost is affected by many factors: certain active effects, Injuries, and also whether you have heavy armor equipped.

On top of that, you can’t use weapons when in deep water - all attacks will count as unarmed, stats like Block and Counter chances will be disabled, and taking damage will burn Energy.

The same rules will apply to your enemies too. Some of them will be unable to swim at all, actively trying to avoid entering deep water.

Once we get closer to implementing Alchemy and cooking, we also plan to add a fishing system, but for now it’s way too soon to get into any details.

================================

That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!

Hello everyone!

The City of Gold update is going to be the largest one yet not only in terms of content, but also the overall mechanics. The introduction of the global map will greatly affect the progression and will be the first step in making it work as originally intended - and that’s where tweaks to the mechanics come into play. Today we’ll address some of them in this devlog and tell you about every important change to the combat system.


Let’s start with the most important change: splitting the Protection stat between different body parts. The current Protection system is a remnant of those times when Stoneshard was envisioned as a simpler and shorter game. Every piece of armor increased the unified Protection stat by a certain amount, affecting all incoming strikes and allowing, say, plated boots to protect the entire body.

This resulted in a number of issues: the stacking of resistances and heavy armor was way too effective, allowing to almost entirely shrug off most enemies’ attacks. We decided to abandon this system: Protection, as well as Damage and Bleed Resistances, granted by each individual piece of armor, now affect only their designated body parts. Helmets only protect the head, cuirasses - the torso, and gloves - just the hands.



This makes middle and late game combat noticeably deadlier, strengthens the role of individual pieces of equipment, and allows more flexibility in armor progression - before the City of Gold, heavy helmets only granted 2-3 more Protection than the mail coif, but now the difference is quite substantial.

Finding the balance between the offensive and defensive playstyles will become more important than ever: the heavy plate is safer, but takes a toll on Energy; on the flip side, light and medium armors provide less defense, but allow using skills more liberally.


The shown numbers are subject to change

Protection, just like Block Power, now also affects the incoming Magic and Nature damage, but only with 50% effectiveness: you’ll need 20 Protection to fully soak 10 Fire Damage.


As you may have guessed, the Blocking mechanic was affected as well, gaining some extra depth. Meet the new stat: Block Power Recovery.

Before the rework, it didn’t really matter how hard or how many times you got hit on the shield: if your Block Power was high enough, you were completely invulnerable to enemy attacks. Now, however, Block Power is expended by blocking, representing the exertion and the loss of balance, and then slowly being recovered each turn.

Let’s say you have 25 Block Power and 20% Block Power Recovery. An enemy strikes you for 25 Damage: you block it, spending 25 Block Power, so you’re left with zero. After that, 20% Block Power Recovery replenishes you 5 Block Power: if you block another attack during the next turn, you’ll receive 20 Damage.

This way prolonged fights, especially against multiple opponents, will quickly drain your Block Power, so you’ll have to use your resources more strategically or rely on specialized skills.

Naturally, shields were affected by this change the most. They lost their innate Protection and gained higher Block Chance and Block Power to compensate for it. Other than that, shields were roughly split in three categories: light, medium, and heavy.


The shown numbers are subject to change.

• Light shields have the lowest Block Chance and Power, boasting a large bonus to Block Power Recovery instead: they block limited amounts of damage, but they do so with reliable effectiveness. Certain Shield skills also grant them additional bonuses.
  
• Medium shields are a jack of all trades: they have decent Block Chance and Power, but lack the bonus to Recovery, making them a balanced choice for defensive playstyles.
  
• Heavy shields have a huge bonus to Block Chance and Power and can withstand some of the most devastating attacks. But woe to you if you run out of Block Power in the middle of a fight - heavy shields Recover incredibly slowly, so unless you invest into the specialized skill tree, you risk handicapping yourself with an unwieldy, heavy piece of equipment.

In the current version of the game, the hit chance formula is very simple:


We decided to change it by splitting dodges and misses into two distinct categories: there’ll be two independent checks for the attacker’s chance to hit (depends on their Accuracy) and the target’s chance to perform a dodge.

At the same time, Accuracy over 100% still reduces the target’s Dodge Chance, and the negative Dodge Chance contributes to the attacker’s Accuracy.


Now to the next important change - the new Dodge system.

Initially, Dodge Chance was a completely secondary stat, and we didn’t plan making dedicated Dodge builds a thing. This changed with the introduction of the Dual Wielding skill tree, when we tried adding some dodge-focused gear and the “Berserk Tradition” passive that granted a huge Dodge bonus to characters without armor.

That experiment wasn’t very successful. The issue with its current implementation lies in the “all or nothing” conundrum: you either take no damage or you take it all. Dodge builds revolve entirely around stacking Dodge Chance, running a very thin line between invulnerability and being borderline unplayable: sometimes it’s possible to consistently avoid all damage only to have your character annihilated by a single instance of bad luck..

To sum it up: Dodge builds ignored a large portion of available gear, mindlessly stacked a single stat, and were overly reliant on two key skills (Elusiveness and Berserk Tradition) - none of it worked with the rest of the game.

That’s why we listened to our community and changed Dodge in accordance with the suggestion made on our Discord server by @WatcherOfArabia, that was also supported by other players: instead of simply negating all damage, performing a dodge turns successful attacks into fumbles, and fumbled attacks into misses.

This way Dodge becomes more nuanced, functioning as an important stat with numerous applications. It can be combined with light and medium armors (their lower Protection is more manageable with the 50% Damage penalty on fumbled attacks) or with more aggressive playstyles that focus on applying Stagger and Fumble Chance debuffs with skills, passives, or certain consumables.

The “Berserk Tradition” passive was remade as well - it no longer requires you wearing no armor and has different mechanics and bonuses associated with it.


The rest of the changes aren’t that massive, but they are still worth mentioning:

• Most conditions and injuries were rebalanced to make them more distinct and to increase the influence they have on gameplay.
  
• Being knocked back into an occupied tile now applies Daze instead of Stun. This was done to prevent stunlocks and counteract the strategy of abusing doorways and corners, which is way too effective in the current version of the game. Stun now grants a significant bonus to Control Resistance, which should also make stunlocks much less frequent.
  
• Some effects received a rework: Wetness, for instance, now has stacks that depend on the overall duration of the debuff. The longer you stay under the rain, the stronger the effect. Rain now also causes metal items to slowly degrade :)
  
• Skill trees received short descriptions with keywords, meant to help new players to quickly understand their theme and possible synergies..
  
• There were also some changes to main Attributes, but more about them later...

That’s all for now! Stay tuned: we’ll begin revealing the upcoming update’s content starting with the next devlog.



Until the next time!

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since the last announcement! During this time, we’ve been working on lots of stuff: new enemies, locations, mechanics, quests, changes to combat, and other features - we’ll tell you about it all in a series of devlogs prior to the “City of Gold” release, planned for this October.

The first devlog will showcase the largest of the new systems: the global map.


The global map is one of the most ambitious mechanics that we have ever worked on. It’s vital for implementing the proper scale and introducing the intended progression system, so that’s why it took the longest to make.

We experimented with multiple map sizes, settling on a size smaller than what we had originally intended - this way the map will be denser with points of interest and random events. In the “City of Gold” update you’ll be able to explore Brynn and its surrounding areas - it’s about 20% of what we plan Aldor to be on full release and ten times larger than the existing map.



The map generation uses a mixed approach: some elements are static, while others are randomized with each new playthrough. The static locations are mostly tied to lore, they include cities, villages, some story locations, mountain ranges, the coastline, and rivers (although rivers will also be randomized in the future; we’ll talk about them in greater detail in a separate devlog).

Most points of interest, dungeons and their types, forests, some bioms, and roads are procedurally generated, preserving the spirit of exploration even after multiple playthroughs.

In the future it’ll also be possible to use the caravan to travel across the global map, but it won’t be just an unlimited fast travel option. It’s more of a means to occasionally cross large distances rather than something you use to ride to a dungeon and back.




In a sense, the global map records your journey, only marking the locations you personally visit or hear about. The rest is concealed by the fog of war.

That’s why instead of replacing paper maps, the global map will complement them. You’ll still need to purchase paper maps in order to find points of interest and to navigate through new zones, comparing the information you learn from them with the global map.

Naturally, there’ll be other ways to learn about interesting locations (rumors, for instance), but paper maps will remain the most readily available and reliable option to do so. They will more or less work as notes - the large part of their function, such as pop-ups with tile descriptions, was moved to the global map.



This function was greatly expanded as well: most locations now have lore descriptions, letting you better understand the game world. Abandoned carts, roadside shrines, graves, and other minor landmarks now have their own map marker. So does the player character, as it’s way too easy to get lost on such a large map without a character marker, especially after taking a long break from a playthrough.

Our ultimate goal is to make exploration exciting and unpredictable, and the world - vivid and more detailed. That’s why we also added many new points of interest as well as places where you can rest and regroup for a fair fee, such as lonely homesteads or roadside inns.




The global map has a few hidden systems under the hood, meant to improve the player experience and make the world more logical and believable.

The most important of them is the reworked progression of dungeons. Now that we aren’t limited by the map’s size, we can place many more dungeons on it. As a result, there’ll be only beginner level dungeons around Osbrook, which will prevent sudden difficulty spikes and will make levelling smoother and more measured.



The dungeon respawn system was also reworked. First of all, it will take significantly longer for them to respawn: you’ll have to move between settlements upon completing all their contracts, otherwise you’ll waste a huge amount of time waiting.

The level of enemies you encounter in dungeons is no longer static - it can shift with subsequent respawns, making enemies stronger or weaker. However, it’s still limited by the zones’ level: even by the time you reach the endgame, you won’t be able to encounter rogue knights around Osbrook.

Some dungeons can only be found far from settlements - you’ll have to search for them on your own, as they don’t have contracts leading to them. The payoff is usually more than worth it: there you will find not only the strongest foes, but also the most valuable loot.

Another important factor is the Wildness of an area. This hidden parameter influences many things: it increases the overall amount of animals, the chance of them spawning, and also reduces your chances to run into a random bandit group in the middle of the woods. This parameter is much lower next to cities and dungeons, so it will be a rare occurrence to come face to face with a bear or a huge wolf pack upon stepping outside of Osbrook. The wilderness factor also affects the chance of being ambushed: there’ll be less ambushes on distant roads and more of them near brigand Bastions.



There’s one more important addition - a new type of points of interest that can be called “dens” or “habitats”. These locations attract specific animal types, guaranteeing that you will encounter them there. Most large animals will have such locations: wolves, bears, moose, boars, etc. The habitats also increase the spawning chance for these animals in the surrounding map tiles, so discovering them can make hunting much easier. On the other hand, it’s best to exercise caution in your search - sometimes instead of a deer trail you can find a ghoul den or something even worse...

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That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!