Today's update includes some tweaks to combat, mostly related to animations. In the previous system, the attack animations always played the entire way through, meaning the animation would play and then return to the start position before playing the next animation.

The new system blends the animations together better, so as long as you are clicking, the character will attack much more fluidly.

Visually, it's a pretty big change and I think it feels much better this way. Please let me know what you think as I can tweak the timing as I get feedback.

This build also includes some more fixes:

• Removed the shininess from the some of the buildings. This was an artifact of the the roof hueing changes I made. You can see the difference in the screenshot below between the old (top) and new (bottom) look of the buildings.
  
• The mouse sensitivity slider in the options menu will no longer reset back to its default when opening the settings UI. You may have to go into the settings UI to reset the mouse sensitivity slider to your preference, but after doing that it will remain in the correct spot whenever you open the settings UI in the future.
  
• As part of the combat update, I also fixed the bug that sometimes caused the character to get stuck when blocking, forcing you to right-click again to clear it.

Building material fix to remove the glossiness.

Before I begin with the patch notes, take a look at the above screenshot and see if you can guess what is different than usual.

Give up?

...

I have over 100 Stamina. :)

Today's build includes two new quests. Perfect Fit and Where's the Beer?

In "Perfect Fit" help the Tailor and s/he'll improve your armor, making it fit better. Better fitting armor gives you more stamina. The bonus applies to each piece of armor (helm, shoulder pads, and bracers) and increases with the ore used - so Jade armor gives a larger stamina increase than Copper. Make sure you are wearing whatever armor you want to be improved when you speak with the Tailor at the end of the quest!

In "Where's the Beer?", the Brewer wants you to know that worst thing imaginable has happened. All of the beer is gone! Find it quick before the other Dwarves notice.

The build also includes a few bug fixes.

• Objects placed in Shaydee's sell UI that are Mastercrafted or Poor will now correctly display their icons.
  
• The settings screen drop down menu for screen resolution now correctly defaults to your current resolution.
  
• Fixed a small bug in the new Stolen Seeds quest.

Today's build includes an update to the Quest System to allow for better control of giving quests and reduce the chance of getting the same quest too soon after completing it.

The new system is better at picking quests related to the townspeople in your town including checking to make sure that townsperson doesn't already have a quest. So for example, if your Hunter already has a quest (and you only have one hunter) the system won't pick "Hunted Hunter" and will choose something else. The old system would choose "Hunted Hunter" anyway and just use another townsperson as a proxy. I never liked that so I changed it!

This update adds a new quest related to the Herbalist. Completing this quest improves the Herbalist's next harvest!



Using the updated system I'm also working on new quests related to Hunters, Cooks, and Tailors. My goal is to have quests related to each job so your town has a larger affect on which quests you get.

Today's Monster Monday is the Goblin!



For the new Goblin, I wanted something that looked really different from the current Goblins in the game. I wanted him to look a bit more intelligent and devious. He's wearing clothing and armor, which helps him look like he's part of a culture rather than just a wilderness monster. I'm probably going to add something to the map that acts like a home base for them too.

I also really like the red skin tone that Ash used rather than the typical green. It really helps differentiate him from the Orcs!

A change to fisherman and some quick bug fixes in this late evening build.

Fisherman will no longer go out on their boats to fish. Instead they will walk to the end of the dock. This is due to a bug that causes them to sail forever.
Once I figure out why they are doing that I will have them go out on their boats again. They will still deliver the same amount of raw food when they go to the storehouse.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the build menu to fail to close when placing a house.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Heirloom quest to fail to advance to the second part of the quest.

Note, if your game was hit by the Heirloom quest bug, please feel free to send me your save file and I will set it back on track for you so you can complete it.

You can find the save here:

Users\NAME\AppData\LocaLow\Super6Games\HammerHelm - where NAME is whatever your default name is for your PC.

The file will be called "savegame", "savegame1", etc. depending on which slot you used. Note the save game for the first slot has no number after "savegame".

Just send the file savegame. I don't need the settings file.

You can email the save file to: supersixstudios@gmail.com

Today's update includes the Water, Cleanliness, and Beauty systems! When placing an structure that affects those aspects of the town you will see a blue circle around the object letting you know which houses will be affected by placing the structure in that location. Icons will also appear over the houses letting you know which ones will get the benefit.

The town building UI also includes toggles that you can use to turn on or off the overlays on the houses for the three systems.


Gained by placing Stone Water Wells. Provides a positive mood buff for residents of a home that gain water from a well. Indicated in the town build mode overlay by a water drop icon.


Gained by placing Sewers. Provides a positive mood buff for residents of a home that are near a sewer entrance. Indicated in the town build mode overlay by a sweeping broom icon.


Gained by placing Town Trees, Wooden Lamp Posts, Stone Lamp Posts, and Stone Fountains. Provides a positive mood buff for residents near any of those decor structures. Townspeople with the "Visual" trait gain a larger buff. Indicated in the town build mode overlay by a flower icon.

The screenshot above shows the icons. The heating system will use the fourth icon slot in the upper right. Since that system actually uses resources it's a bit different from the three in today's build so I decided to work on it separately.

If you load an exiting save and have any of these structures placed, your town will automatically update the homes and townspeople traits. Just open the town build menu and turn on the overlays to see which homes have the benefits!

Welcome to the first of four Monster Mondays! Each week I'll be showcasing the concept art, created by Ash Jackson, being used as reference for the new in-game monsters.

Today's Monster Monday Concept is the new Skeleton!


I really like what Ash did with the Skeleton. His armor and clothing are much more tattered looking than the current skeleton. I think it gives him a lot of personality. Exposing his ribcage rather than covering it with armor was also a nice touch.

The arrow in his shoulder pad also gave me the idea to do that sort of thing with the skeletons. Basically show how they died. One might have an axe in his chest. Another might have a sword through it's skull. Could be a fun way to add some variety to the spawns. And yes, an arrow to the knee may not be out of the question! ;)

I'm working on the system to add functionality to Water Wells, Decor, Sewers, and Fireplaces, and wanted to share some progress.



Placing a Water Well will give you an indication of which houses it will service. The owners of a house that has access to fresh water will get a mood buff. Since Water Wells require a Stonemason, and thus are mid to late tier structures, there won't be a mood debuff for not having water right away. I'll likely add something so the debuff doesn't hit for some number of days, giving you time to make some Wells before the debuff affects your town.


This system will also be used to add "Beauty" to the town by placing Town Trees, Fountains, Lamp Posts, and other decor. Placing these will also provide a mood buff for the residents of houses near the decor. Townspeople with the "Visual" trait will get an extra buff if their house is near a decor object that adds beauty. There is no penalty for not placing "beauty" decor, so it's entirely up to you how many, if any, you want to place.


Likewise, sewers will use this system as well. Residents of houses with access to a sewer will get a mood buff. Similar to water, the debuff for not having sewers will be delayed to give you time to make them. In this case, it'll likely be tied to how many houses you have. So for example, after placing 10 houses, the townspeople could start wanting sewers.


I'm also working on the heating system, which will give mood buffs if a house has a fireplace. When this is active, fireplaces will start to use wood and coal from the town's resources and running out of resources for heating will produce a mood debuff for residents of houses without proper heating.

All four of these will have overlays that you can toggle on and off when in build mode. Because they're all related and using similar systems I'm going to release them all at the same time. So it'll be a little while before this is live. But I wanted to give you all a heads up that they are on the way. As usual I'll update as progress is made!

Update 4.1.1 is a quick hotfix to resolve a bug that sometimes caused invisible walls to appear in dungeons and the sewers.

Today's build includes a nice bundle of updates and improvements.

• Updated the UI for the mini-map and the spinning item in the crafting menu.
  
  • This update means they should always scale correctly based on screen resolution.
    
  • The mini-map is also improved so it no longer needs the wood background, reducing the amount of screen real-estate that it uses.

Improved Mini-Map

• Hunters now leave town to go hunting. They don't do a hunting animation yet though.
  
• Added a new quest - Hunted Hunter!
  
• Scarecrows will now show up in the 3D item crafting UI.
  
• Slightly adjusted the color contrast for the game. I overdid it a bit in the last update. :)
  
• Added a new monster, the Treant.
  
  • He's used in the Hunted Hunter quest and can also appear in normal wilderness monster spawns.
    
  • Treants always appear alone, but are much tougher than other monsters of the same level.

Be on the lookout for updates on Mondays as I will be showing new, original concept art for more of the monsters each Monday for the next four weeks!