The Acropolis Herald highlights important changes to Stone Story RPG. For a full list of updates to the game, please see the official release notes.






The Acropolis Herald highlights important changes to Stone Story RPG. For a full list of updates to the game, please see the official release notes.


-SSRPG Team

Hi, I'm releasing a small patch. I've started having difficult times, so updates won't come out as often as before. I'll let you know when everything is fine.

• Changed the mechanics of throwing grenades. Now you can throw grenades in any direction that you set with the sight (with the mouse online or with the gamepad in the locale).

• Fixed a bug that made it possible to shoot through walls with an energy ball if you stand very close to it.
  
• Fixed a bug due to which, when the energy ball came into contact with the surface, the contact effect was sometimes created with an offset.
  
• Fixed a bug due to which there was a chance that after entering the menu, the sound of the environment from the previous location was playing.

• Our biggest Alpha patch yet went live! It came with a bunch of QoL and balance changes, and the first new arena added since initial release! The Cavern arena is the most vertical yet, with many nooks and crannies that skilled players can take advantage of. Read the full patch notes here!
  
  
  
• In a follow-up patch, we also introduced Avieon to the Alpha as a playable Kinfolk! Every type is now represented in the arena, which feels good. Launch powerful projectiles from the skies with Avieon, but be careful; if your stamina runs out, you’ll be at the mercy of your opponent on the ground. Read the full patch notes here!
  
  
  
• We started reworking our lock-on system. Some of you may remember that we had one before that had to be removed due to being too abusable. We’re working on a version that will hopefully feel balanced to skilled and amateur players alike! Our biggest focus with this is to help keep the player’s target on the screen without providing ranged characters with an inherent advantage while using it. We think this will be a significant improvement to the feel of melee characters. Just like when the last version released, we’ll be extra observant of your feedback on this feature.
  
  
  
• In an upcoming patch, we’ll introduce the configuration option to not have Avieon automatically land when it touches the ground (you’ll have to manually toggle flight if you have this option enabled).
  
  
  
• We’ll be making improvements to our controller support in the very near future as well! The primary focus will be on improving the feel and making the controls more responsive. One feature we’re especially looking forward to enabling is variable movement and camera speeds that correspond to how far you’re pushing the control stick.
  
  
  
• We started investigating and tinkering with a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) system! We were able to get 3 players into the same arena together using P2P, with very solid performance throughout. This is in preparation for future co-op and 2v2. Assuming it performs well in testing, it will also eventually replace our current server-based system for Alpha matches. We anticipate that players who usually have pretty bad ping playing the Alpha will be able to host their matches and gain increased performance. Based on our initial speed tests, things are looking promising. Check the video below for our first successful trial of P2P! This test shows players connecting between different locations across North America.

• The Settings menu is (finally) getting a facelift! We’re really excited to be adding a version that’s easier to use and much more pleasant to look at. We’re planning to eventually add this version of the menu to the Combat Arena Alpha as well. Here’s a WIP preview of the new UI:
  
  
  
  
• Made many different bug fixes for camping, the biggest of which makes sure that the camp stays in the same place after saving and loading.
  
  
  
• We made final adjustments to the Utility AI hybrid mentioned in the last newsletter, and it’s now merged to the single player. We also made a first pass on Hull_Piercer’s combat AI.
  
  
  
• We’ve started looking into selectively slowing the speeds of certain animations for NPCs to make attacks more telegraphed. This should give players more opportunity to react to abilities when playing in single player, and also keeps animations unchanged in our more fast-paced PVP environment.
  
  
  
• Made several adjustments that affect the look and feel of how NPCs animate. They now smoothly blend between their idle and running animations and vice versa, animate turns better, and face the player more often.
  • This can also be used to help the movement of playable characters feel better overall. By applying a small acceleration curve to movement, we can vastly improve the look and feel of character movement, without the stiffness it had previously. This method is performant and doesn’t require the use of turning animations! It still requires some workshopping, but we hope that it will be usable in the near future. See below for a sneak peak!

Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you next time, on June 3.

- Added the ability to cancel a Twitch login. This will allow players to cancel and retry their login if something goes wrong during that process.
- Upon changing the Effects or Announcer volume, a sound will now be played to preview the new volume.
- Announcer clips will now only play one at a time. If a clip is playing, it will stop in favour of playing the most recent Announcement. This should fix the Announcer talking over himself in certain situations.
- Added sorting to the Ban List in the Options Menu. Date Banned is the default sort.
- Fixed improper sprite sizing in the Controls panel of the Options Menu. Control Binding buttons should now look higher resolution.

Sorry for the delay in launching the game. I'm contacting Steam support as they are having issues with the publishing site. As soon as they give me feedback I will release the game. Please just a little more patience. Sorry.

Hello everyone!

We're excited to be showcased at Indie Live Expo! Check out Indie Live Expo’s stream showing off the game at the following link: https://indie.live-expo.games/en/

We have entered the last stage of our development of the single-player version of Retreat To Enen. In the last couple of months, we have completed work on the environment, finished implementing all of our crafting and building items, and have begun the testing and refining of the gameplay. In total, we have over 130 items to gather, craft, and build, spread across three vast biomes to explore. Here's a look at just some of the awesome things you can get to experience in game:








Our current plan is to finish the single-player version in the next couple of months and then begin work on implementing the co-op portion of the game. We do not have a timetable set in stone for when co-op will be finished, so rather than delay infinitely, we have decided to release the single-player version of Retreat To Enen first. Co-op will be provided to you in subsequent updates to the game. We have some big announcements regarding this release date soon!

Thank you all once again for your support and we’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve done with you! If you want to join our community, you can follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord!

This is a patch release. No new missions have been added.

Gameplay:

• Added Women's Suffrage flag.
  
• Added Tone cruiser parts; all planned playable ships are now in the game!
  
• Improved the button bindings to the post-combat screen, and removed the "retry mission" prompt.
  
• Most point-defense weapons have been flagged as being able to fire on missiles. Existing ships with those weapons installed will need to reconfigure the valid target types for those weapons.
  
• Torpedoes are generally faster and hit harder. Torpedo launchers get more ammo.
  
• Added rolloff torpedo launchers, which fire forwards.
  
• Torpedoes now course-correct after launching, so that the spread between them doesn't increase constantly. This should make them more effective at long range.
  
• The 56" gatling torpedo is now the 28" gatling torpedo; stats are otherwise unaffected. Existing ships using the old launcher will still show the old name.
  
• Tier-3 and higher ships are substantially harder to sink.
  
• The mass and HP bonus for using armor now varies more between different hulls. Armor stats are displayed on the hull stats card.
  
• Tweak the sound made by heavy gatling weapons
  
• Added new UI for indicating when a target is unable to be hit due to being too high for ballistic weapons to reach
  
• The spar torpedo weapon now gets infinite ammo
  
• Tweaked visuals when player is badly damaged
  
• Enemy ships that are nearly dead get set on fire
  
• Planes always go into evasion if they are targeted by a rocket or missile
  
• Torpedo and bomber planes have less ammo
  
• Anti-aircraft missiles require PD command to operate
  
• Tweaked appearance of missile smoke trails
  
• Tweaked music selection in many missions
  
• The ocean can now cast shadows
  
• Tweaked appearance of "ocean froth" at large distances
  
• Reduce amount of knockback that high-tier ships take when they take damage

Bugfixes:

• Fix some parts (e.g. sawblade, flight unit) not loading properly on saved ships
  
• Fix visual issue with player guns on extremely large ships
  
• Fix being unable to place drives in the Dreadnought and Konig battleships, and the Deutschland cruiser
  
• Fix planes not generating splashes when they hit the water
  
• Fix engine overdrive special VFX looking too small on large ships
  
• Fix a bug allowing more than 3 drives to be added to cruisers
  
• Fix misleading UI when trying to set autofire on weapons that cannot autofire, like the Energy Knife
  
• Fix misnamed "Ordinance Test Ship" -> "Ordnance"
  
• Fix Sakura bridge/aft bridge not providing any PD command or aux space
  
• Fix Squid weapon not having a turntable to explain how it can pivot
  
• Improve reliability of ASROC weapon, though it still has issues sometimes
  
• Fix planes not evading properly when flying in formation
  
• Fix a bug preventing non-animated weapons (e.g. VLS missile launchers) from being able to autofire
  
• Fix bug causing planes to fly below the surface of the ocean
  
• Fix two superstructure blocks not being available by default
  
• Fix the "ram 20 ships" achievement not working
  
• Fix bug causing the DD 1936 bridge to throw autotargeting off
  
• Fix a typo in one of the loading screen tips
  
• Fix large shadow being visible in the "Quetzalcoatl" cinematics
  
• Fix bad normals on Coleoptere plane
  
• Fix laser shotgun running out of VFX if fired rapidly
  
• Fix drone ships showing up in the ship designer
  
• Fix overlapping text in the combat HUD between the "survive timer" and "combat message"
  
• Fix the "invert Y axis" option not working
  
• Fix bug causing weapons with damage colliders (e.g. rocket jet exhaust, sawblade) to fire during cutscenes

Modding:

• Added projectileHomingRadius property; if set, weapons that can home will not start homing until they are within that radius of their target.
  
• Added projectilePID property, which allows customizing how missiles home in on targets, and how mines float.
  
• Added autofireRetargetChancePerSec, which controls how frequently the weapon will switch its current target when in autofire mode. Basically it allows configuring how much the gun cares about taking out individual targets vs. distributing fire across multiple targets.
  
• Buildings can have rotating parts; these work like rotating parts on guns

• Jaws of the Lion DLC scenarios are now available from the start of the campaign (no longer have to complete the first two base-game scenarios)
  
• Rebalanced Jaws missions 1 & 2 to facilitate a smoother start to the game
  
• Fixed an issue that could occur in Multiplayer where scenario difficulty could differ between players, meaning things like Traps could have different damage for each player or enemies have different max HP resulting in desyncs
  
• Fixed a Multiplayer issue where sometimes consumed elements were not correctly being seen by all players
  
• Fixed a Multiplayer issue where using items like Boots of speed, to change initiative was not correctly being seen by all players in the session
  
• Fixed an issue with some lightning abilities Ones where the merc can suffer damage to add a bonus when toggling them on/off and adding items like Battle Axe, that change AoE of attacks
  
• Fixed some UI issues around undo-ing / clearing targets for certain Items
  
• Fixed a Multiplayer issue with Hatchet ability Ricochet, clearing target selection for the 'damage adjacent' would not correctly be seen by all players
  
• Fixed a Multiplayer issue that could cause a desync in Guildmaster mode when switching multiple mercs in the party roster very quickly
  
• Fixed an issue in Multiplayer with Summons that had HP enhancements, restarting round could see different HP for each player resulting in desyncs
  
• Fixed a Multiplayer issue with Brute's Immovable Phalanx where Undo / clear targets could result in desyncs with this ability
  
• Fixed an error that could occur when using Spelweaver's Impaling Eruption T attack in certain situations with specific line of site etc and in some situations, when AngryFace has their ability 'Detonation' active + a target was killed
  
• Fixed an issue with the Undo button becoming unresponsive in some situations during Multiplayer sessions which could result in softlocks
  
• Fixed an issue with Two Minis Undoing targets on Disorienting Roar 'Swap' ability
  
• Fixed an issue with undoing targets on 'destroy adjacent obstacle' abilities

New

• Introducing a heavy sword attack to Danse Macabre. You can now click and hold to trigger a devastating heavy attack or tap the attack button to perform a light sword attack. The heavy attack will inflict a high level of stability and health damage on any unprepared foes.
  
• New sound effects and vocalizations for Vampire’s heavy sword attack.
  
• Added a sound cue which plays when the vampire attempts to use a skill that is on cooldown, is unavailable in the current trinary state or has a mana cost which cannot be satisfied.
  
• Added a channelled mode to Exsanguinate in the Physical and Ethereal states. Tapping the skill button will perform a standard quick cast of exsanguinate while holding the button down will channel the attack. While channelling, the vampire will continuously gain resources. In the Physical state, if the vampire receives more blood than they need to restore their vitality, the channelled blood will give the vampire additional bloodlust.
  
• New sound effects for blood and ethereal streams when using Exsanguinate’s channelled mode.

Balance

• Restored bloodlust gain for sword attacks.
  
• By reaching 50% Bloodlust, the chant now plays once and continues as an audible heartbeat. The heartbeat rate also increases as Bloodlust gets higher. This will only be triggered again if Bloodlust drops and rises to above 50%.
  
• Added a mana cost to exsanguinate when used in the Physical state.
  
• Slightly reduced time-of-flight for the exsanguinate spell.
  
• Added a moderate delay between gaining bloodlust and the start of the loss of bloodlust.
  
• Adjusted the speed at which the bloodlust bar will increase to provide a more accurate read on the amount of bloodlust at any given time. We will continue to evaluate and address this system.
  
• During the Werebat Cinematic, sound effects from the player, enemies and music will be muted. Once the cinematic ends, sounds will resume to previous gameplay levels.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a case where a target could get stuck animating a hit reaction.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the camera transitions into the Werebat Cinematic to not work as intended.

This game update heralds the launch of the game's Closed beta to select kickstarter backers. We'll be doing closed testing until the launch of the game in July to make sure everything is stable, fun, and runs well.

Specifically, this patch is the initial launch of the game's story quests, which give some greater context to your goals in the tower and some background on each of the character's motivations.

Patch Notes .0032 Story Start

-Story quests added. Tor Eternum now has a story you can playthrough to discover the lore behind each character and their journey through the tower. These story quests will reward unique items and progress towards an ultimate end-goal of beating the game.
-New unique weapons/armor/trinkets.
-New enemy models.
-New boss abilities.
-New exploration enemies & abilities
-New furniture.
-WIll be rapidly adding more new things during beta. All the assets are prepared, but we're going to release things one at a time during the beta. Look forward to new features coming soon.
-Warlock Magic Missile volume adjusted down.
-Rogue Secret Passage CD adjusted. Gear CDR can reduce it incredibly low. I know the way talent now increases its cooldown per player that enters it by a flat amount.
-Warlock Dampening Field CD adjusted. Gear CDR can reduce it incredibly low. Strategic protection talent now also increases dampening field’s cooldown by 5 seconds per player in the game.
-This is a massive buff for CDR and those two talents while preventing cheese strategies of 10 players using CDR + those talents.
-Crushing Slam stun duration nerf and frequency changed based on player number.
-Fixed bug related to ‘alone’ talents that were counting dead things..
-Experimenting with slightly longer delay for win/loss to accommodate boss death animations and story RP.
-Player melee range buffed by 7%.
-Assassins and ambush archers are no longer immune to CC.
-Calamity Brute melee range and size reduced slightly.
-Calamity Brute attack animation changed from medium to slow..
-Fixed a map tiling bug. Fixes buggy crossover between brown/purple tilesets at certain junctures.
-Fixed a bug related to which abilities story bosses have.
-Fixed bug related to changing characters while about to do a story mission.
-Story mode button text corrected.
-Fixed a bug in the demo allowing them to play through an incomplete version of the game’s story.
-Fixed Story mode and Random Quest buttons being reversed.
-Fixed the Knight’s Aid upgrade range being increased.
-Fixed Warlock Sentry talent being invisible and tooltip wrong.
-Rogue Stealth bonus damage to Exploit Weakness buffed 20%.
-Rogue Exploit Weakness base damage nerfed 25%
-Rogue Mastery buffed 12%.
-Rogue Resourcefulness buffed 30%.
-Rogue Patient Assassin reduced from 330% to 300%
-Rogue Pilfer potion healing increased by 20% and related healing talents increased by 200%.