Hello everyone!

This week, we want to cover one of the new classes that we're adding in Missions and Monsters, the
Samurai class!

But before that, some quick notes about Missions:

Since posting our devlog on the Missions system, we've been thinking about adding a currency cost to missions. As we've been creating the list of them (we're up to 79 missions so far!), it became obvious the cost was a good idea.

We've decided to use both GP and CP (Company Points) for the cost. A mission will only have a GP or CP cost at once, but they'll always have a cost. This will help make GP less "trivial" to accrue and give it increased worth. And it will give CP another use apart from being used for Guild Upgrades, which will create an opportunity-cost for them.

This change ties things together neatly and elegantly! It's just a question of creating all the remaining Missions now!

Thanks to everyone that sent us feedback on this, we appreciate it!

With Missions and Monsters, we'll be adding 3 new base classes to human units. Base class means they'll be usable by any unit (story and generic) and won't require a badge to open up.
The new classes are tied to missions though, and will only become visible after the associated mission has been completed, on top of having the usual class requirements (eg. 3 Mercenary, 4 Scoundrel, etc.).

The default portrait for the Samurai unit:


The basic design idea behind the Samurai class is a mix of high-risk/high-reward abilities and passives, as well as a fairly versatile kit. They sport some interesting unique abilities to give them varied options.
Samurais should be somewhat fragile in the face of taking damage, but deal fairly well with status effects, while providing high damage and utility for the team.

Here's their ability list (please note the names aren't final at this point). As a note, a fair amount of these abilities apply their status effect on the Samurai themselves, so pay close attention to the wording!

Actives:

• Overreach: 8MP. Attack range tied to weapon. Count as a regular attack. Deals 1.2x damage and inflicts def-down on the user.
  
  
• Meditate: 6MP. Self spell that removes all debuffs and heals 0.6x (mnd) for each debuff removed. Sets user evasion to 0% until next turn.
  
  
• Finisher: 20MP. Attack range tied to weapon. Count as a regular attack. Deals 2.4x damage and inflicts atk-down on the user.
  
  
• Single Out: 8MP. Range 5, single target. Inflicts def-down, res-down on the target and force them to turn towards the user.
  
  
• Spirit Sword: 14MP. Range 1. Does 2.6x (MND) non-elemental damage to the target and inflicts mnd-down on the user.
  
  
• Martial Spirit: 10MP. A small cross shape centered on the user. It deals 0.35x damage to all units around, inflicts cripple on them and forces them to face the user.
  
  
• Blood Spirit: 8MP. Range 1. Does 0.6x damage to the target and ignores their def stat. Also inflicts bleed on the user.

Passives:

• Razor Wind: Can use with any single-target skill. Adds 6MP to the cost and changes the range to 3. Sets user evasion to 0% until the next turn. (This adds a new command, much like Double Cast).
  
  
• Unbreakable Spirit: Being afflicted by def-down/mnd-down increases atk/mnd by the same amount. Being afflicted by atk-down/mnd-down increases def/res by the same amount.

Counter:

Counter Critical: Focus: Automatically uses Defend and Focus when HP becomes critical.

Weapons: Sword
Armors: Light, Heavy

Here's some of the art we're preparing for the new abilities:
Single Out:


Spirit Sword:


Thanks everyone for the support!

Hello everyone!

We've mentioned to you in the past about our good friends behind Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. They have just published a major content update for their horror RPG, and as we know some of you from this community are interested in this game, we would like to share these news here.

Check out the largest update for Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/779290/announcements/detail/1687093048750087508

Hello everyone,

just wanted to share with you that over at https://videochums.com/article/retro-game-of-the-year-awards-2019#fell-seal-arbiter-s-mark Fell Seal was awarded the "Retro-Inspired RPG of The Year"

To quote Video Chums:

"Once in a while, a game developer completely nails a retro formula while offering their own gameplay twists. When I played the incredible Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark earlier this year, it brought back memories of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vandal Hearts and I absolutely fell in love with its challenging gameplay and immersive world. Talk about going above and beyond!"

ːsteamhappyː ːsteamhappyː ːsteamhappyː

Hello everyone!

In this week's devlog, we'll detail another system tied to the missions: the Guild Upgrades system.

As mentioned in the previous devlog, the world is divided into 5 different regions. Upgrades can be built into any of these 5 regions and will confer a variety of bonuses, primarily to that region.

After selecting the Upgrades section in the Guild, the player can decide in which region they want to build upgrades for. Selecting a region will show it on the world map, show which battle maps are tied to it and which upgrades are currently built on there.


Afterwards, the player can build upgrades for the region, or reset current upgrades for the region.


Resetting the upgrades will refund a portion of their cost and clear all upgrades from the area, so the player can change their layout if they feel like it. On that screen, the player can see the layout for the selected region and the currently built upgrades if there are any. Each region has its own layout for adding buildings. This example has a 3x4 area to add buildings. Other regions will have different areas, such as a 3x3 or perhaps a 2x3 and a 1x3, etc.

Selecting to build a new upgrade will show the list of all possible upgrades the player could create as well as their cost in CP (Company Points). There will be a core of buildings that will be the same for all regions, but some regions will have unique buildings that confer special bonuses or bonuses that pertain to the specific zone better (things tied to poisonous maps for example).


You can see the bonus for the selected upgrade in its description. These bonuses are divided into 3 general categories:

• Mission Bonuses: these bonuses apply to Mission that are in the same zone as the Upgrade.
  
• Patrol Bonuses: these bonuses apply to Patrols that are in maps that are part of the same zone as the Upgrade.
  
• Global Bonuses: these bonuses apply all the time to all zones. Those are considerably rarer.

On top of this base bonus that a building confers, there's a concept of synergy, where a building can bolster another building if they happen to be touching on the building grid. For example, the Cantina will confer a bonus to the Gardens, the Bounty Board and the Watchtower if they are built side by side. Thus, the grid available in a region (3x3 vs 2x3 for example) will impact what kind of bonuses you could get in that region. And, of course, the player's choices in placing the buildings will also have an impact on that front.

Here's what it looks like when selecting the Gardens, which receives a bonus from the Cantina. It shows what the bonus would be on that building if it was next to a Cantina, in this case "receive 2x as many components from Gathering".


Finally, when selecting a specific upgrade, you will be able to place it where you want in the building grid, assuming you have the CP and the grid position isn't already occupied by another building. As you select a position, the "border bonuses" that will be active will light up to show which would be active from placing the building there and greyed out if they wouldn't currently confer a bonus.


The current building icons were taken from some of our maps and aren't final, but they showcase the visual style we're going for with the buildings.

Currently, there are 24 different building upgrades and each will have its own unique building sprite. Each has their own bonus and many will have synergy bonuses as well. Here are some examples of the bonuses the upgrades will grant:

Missions:

• Missions take 20% less time to complete.
  
• Missions award 20% more CP.
  
• Missions award 2x as many components as normal.
  
• One extra unit can be sent on each mission.
  
• Missions award 20% more AP
  
• …

Patrols:

• While patrolling the region, increase the chance of meeting stray Kawa Bandits 5%
  
• While patrolling the region, increase the chance of meeting stray Zotzits 5%
  
• While patrolling the region, increase damage dealt by player units by 5%.
  
• While patrolling the region, all deployed units will start with Renew.
  
• ...

Global:

• Store prices in any store are 5% cheaper when buying.
  
• Guild prices in any guild are 5% cheaper for all services costing GP.
  
• Can run 1 more mission at the same time.
  
• ...

When combined with the Missions, the Guild Upgrades system should give the player a lot to do outside of battles and help them open up new challenges, areas and rewards.

Feel free to send us comments, ideas, feedback and suggestions!

Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone,

It’s this time of the year when Steam once again organizes the annual Steam Awards where you can vote for your favorite games in multitude of categories.

A lot of great games came out this year (some which we spent more time than we probably should), that deserve your vote and attention but if you consider Fell Seal to be one of those, please consider nominating it in some of the categories. We know that the competition is very hard as there are a lot of great and recognizable titles however every bit of potential visibility helps to introduce the game to new people who may also soak their teeth into the land of Teora and become full-time arbiters!

Hello everyone!

We've been quite busy hammering the designs down for Missions and Monsters, and we've finally reached a point where we feel we have enough details to start our devlog on the creation process.

With each devlog, we'll be focusing on one of the new systems that Missions and Monsters will be adding to Fell Seal. This week, that's missions! But first, a quick refresher on the general scope of the DLC.


Missions and Monsters isn't meant as a continuation of Fell Seal's story, but rather to extend and add to the core systems of the game, as well as add new challenges and content.

As such, the plan is to add a missions system, a guild upgrade system, recruitable monsters, a monster-taming system, monster classes, new encounters, new classes and new crafting recipes. We're also adding large encounters that will feature a lot more combatants on each side, for putting to work more of those units you've been collecting.


The new missions system is wide-reaching and meant to achieve several goals.
It will give more things to do for "benched units", with some missions giving special rewards, opening new content and being a viable method to procure many crafting components. Missions can also serve as an alternative means of earning EXP and AP for benched units, although in that case they tend to yield less impressive loot. Most missions will be repeatable, but some will be unique and award something quite special.

It'll be up to the player to decide which style of missions they want to focus on, as they can only run a limited amount of missions at once.

Missions (and guild upgrades, which we'll cover in a later devlog) are accessed through the Guild menu:

A new resource called Company Points (CP) will be added next to the current GP bar. Currently, CPs are only used to purchase Guild Upgrades, but we're considering adding a cost in CP to run Missions as well.

Once you've selected Missions from the Guild, you need to select the Region in which you want to start a mission. There are 5 Regions in the game and they open up as you unlock new nodes on the world map.

In this screenshot, only the "Centina Hinterlands" region is available and it's still missing 3 nodes to be fully unlocked. All missions have a location node where they take place, and thus won't be available until the given node has been explored by the player on the world map.

After selecting the region, the player can start a mission in that region.

Missions that aren't known yet (because they are locked behind a map node, or because they require a previous mission to be completed, for example) are shown as ??? in the list.

Missions can be in various states: new, in-progress, completed-and-done, completed-and-redoable. They have a different icon depending on their current state. In the example list, they are all "new" or unknown.

Here you can see the rewards of the mission as well as the required participants and how long they last (more info on that later!).

Selecting a valid mission will bring the player to a selection screen to decide which units to send on the mission. Only the units participating in the mission will earn the various rewards, such as AP, EXP, etc.

Story-characters can't be sent on missions and only recruits without an injury can be sent. When a unit is sent on a mission, they won't be available to be deployed in a regular battle map.

Each mission has a minimum and a maximum of participants and the first participant chosen becomes the leader of the mission. Once enough units are selected, the mission can be started.

Once the mission is started, it'll show as "in-progress" in the missions list.

In-progress missions have their own icon and are always sorted at the end of the list for a quick visual identification. Selecting a mission already in progress will allow the player to cancel it if they want to. Cancelling the mission will free up the units that were running it, but no rewards shall be given for the mission.

Currently, the maximum amount of missions that can be run at once is 3, although there is a way to increase that amount via the Guild Upgrades system.

When a mission is in progress, it will take some amount of time to complete, usually 30 mins, although that's something we're still tinkering with. After 30 mins of "real life time" has passed, the mission will be completed and display a result for the endeavor anywhere on the world map.

Mission success is not guaranteed, although the success rate will be tuned to be pretty high in general. There are multiple ways to increase that, including Guild Upgrades and carefully selecting the leader of the mission. The class of the leader will grant them a bonus success rate based on the mission. The description of the mission itself will have clues hinting at which type of class would do well on it. This bonus is only applied to the leader of the mission, to reduce the amount of micro-managing of classes that the player has to do for missions, while still providing some incentive for "thinking about it" rather than just clicking through things. Missions can also have a critical success result, in which case bonus rewards will be granted to the player.

The overall goal of the missions and guild upgrade systems is to create another layer of interesting actions the player can take "outside of combat", with a wide array of goals possible, such as farming AP, EXP, GP or CP, as well as focusing on crafting materials, special rewards or unlocking new content.

It'll be tied to the Guild Upgrade system, which we should cover in our next devlog.

Feel free to send us comments, ideas, feedback and suggestions about the design or the devlog itself!

Thanks everyone!

Hello everyone!

We have a quick update today. Nothing fancy, mostly some minor bug fixes and adding a forgotten portrait.

Here are the full notes:

11/16/2019 - Version 1.1.2

• New Portrait: Adding a forgotten male portrait.
  
• Accessibility: Adding a new key to help with accessibility for users. The key can be setup in GameConfig.txt file under [UI] by adding "accessibilitymouse=2", which uses the "mouse middle button". Pressing the key in combat will "lock/unlock" the screen so that the cursor doesn't move the map cursor anymore. This allow the player to easily click the "bottom right hints" with the mouse at all times, without changing where the map cursor is on screen. This helps players to navigate the game using exclusively the mouse, without having to rely on the keyboard at all. This key should be moved to the regular key-rebind menu once it's been tested a little more.

• Save Files: Tiny optimizations to the format to make it just a bit smaller.

• Menu Sorting: Sorting could be used in combat under specific circumstances. Disabling that (sorting units while in combat creates issues with deployment).
  
• Hallowed Mind: Used to incorrectly trigger when being revived by Reraise. Fixed.
  
• Class Wheel: When using the custom option to show monsters sprites to represent Bzil classes in the class changing menu, it was showing human sprites after the last update. Fixed.
  
• NG Plus: When using "Keep AP" with a Newgame , a certain story character would not correctly retain their AP. Fixed.
  
• Mercer Warning: The warning to let the player know when the optional event with routing certain bandits would become unavailable would show even if the event was already completed. Fixed.
  
• Aries Ram: Last update broke the visuals. Fixed.

• Massive Hit: Increasing MP cost to 16 (from 12).

• Monsters: Adding Monsters.xml file, that allows the player to create new "base monsters entries", which are the building blocks of monsters (it contains their image, portrait, base elemental and status resistances, weapon range, etc). Using this file, monsters can be modified or new monster tiers, or different monsters can be created.
  
• GameOptions and Jobs Deprecating the Hats and Outfits section in the GameOptions.txt to set up the hat and outfit of classes. The class itself will now contain that information in Jobs.xml.

After 4 months (sorry about that) we are back with Did you know Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark! With the fact #6 we conclude the series but we plan to revisit it in the future as your reactions were super awesome ːsteamhappyː

Stay vigilant Arbiters...

Hello everyone!

Build 1.1.1 is a PC only update with one main goal: improving the mouse keyboard experience by adding hotkeys to all main "commands list".
This will allow players to easily make selections with the keyboard alone without needing to move the mouse and help speed things up. Here's what the menus now look like when using mouse and keyboard:




The short version is that you can press these hotkeys to automatically activate them and that things will remain consistent even as you learn new spells and abilities or use different characters.


The numbers on the side are the default keys assigned to "Hotkey 1 to 12" and can be configured in the regular "key binding" menu to be any key.


Each action in a list is bound to a specific hotkey, so that they remain consistent through time.
For example, the "End" command in battle will always be mapped to "Hotkey 6", regardless of which other commands are available.
That way, units with Double Cast, Focused Rage, next to a treasure chest, etc., will still use "Hotkey 6" to quickly end their turn so it remains consistent at all times.


The concept is the same for skills and spells, where a specific spell, such as "Water II" for example, will always have the same hotkey assigned to it regardless of which spells a Wizard has learned. So, learning "Fire II" later won't suddenly change the hotkey for "Water II" because now there's a new spell before it in the list.
For example, "Sniper Shot" will always be "hotkey 7" on every character at all times, even if you made a beeline for it and skipped most other skills in the Ranger tree.

The only exception to this is when using Double Cast, Infused Edge, etc. The generated list of available spells will simply use the hotkeys in order, since it's not possible to retain "always the same hotkey" across two different groups of abilities, since they would share hotkeys.

Lastly, please note that when using a gamepad, those hotkeys won't be visible in the lists and nothing is changed from the previous state of things.

Let us know how it goes!

Very small hotfix to prevent a rare possible crash during some cutscenes when using a certain set of options with a New Game Plus.

Sorry about that and thanks to the user that reported it to us and sent us their save file, it was a lot of help in fixing the issue!