Patch Notes 9/22/2023


Inventory

• No classes or loadout restrictions.
• Players will have all abilities available and unlock perks through progression.
• Adding back in the stash and stash tabs which unlock as you level.
• Backpack slots reintroduced.
• Reduced number of available slots, but all slots can hold weapons and armor.
• Secure slots will allow players to store weapons and armor.
• Armor will remain droppable.
• Armor will stay as 4 pieces: Helmet, Chest, Gloves and Boots. 
• Weapons and armor will now roll a single attribute from set pools.
• For example, chest armor can roll Resilience, Max Health, Max Shield, or Headshot Mitigation.
• The amount of the rolled attribute increases with rarity.

Progression

• Reputation is granted on confirmed player kill and extraction, as it was before.  
• Daily Contracts will grant XP, Credits, and have a random loot pool of items.
• Progression for stash/crafting/etc will unlock with levels.
• Secure Slots: Unlocked at levels 6/16/26/36
• Stash Tabs: Unlocked at level 8/18/28/38
• Level Progression Tab removed.

Vendors and Crafting

• Adding Armor, Weapon, Consumable and Salvage vendors with level gating.
• Economy has been reworked for weapon and armor rarity costs
• Crafting will be limited to the salvage vendor and crafting from salvage (no component).
• Crafting materials removed from loot drops.
• Added ability to craft Unique rarity at later levels

Revives

• Revives will work differently now. Players will now be put into a ‘downed state' where they can be revived via their beacon found on their player crate. If an enemy destroys their beacon, they will be unable to revive for the remainder of the match.

In-Game

• Maps and Fog circle will remain the same (Squads and Solo).
• Escape pods will spawn in waves around the outer edge of the fog circle for players to use to escape.
• High security rooms will have some harder bots to fight.
• Loot rarity drop rates will be reduced slightly.
• Valuables will drop again in lower quantities for selling.

Known Issues

• Crafting an item will take components but not give the item until the player relaunches or comes back from match.
• Salvage items also may not visually be taken after being used for crafting. 
• Items may automatically move from the backpack to the stash.
• Stormslicer VFX are missing.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to give an update on the progress I've been making with the game.

Lately I've been making a ton of progress and it feels great. I've been working on this game on and off for a very long time and now that I can see the it coming together I am more motivated than ever. There are just a few more things I'd like to get in the game and then I can consider releasing it into early access.

There is some conventional wisdom that one should participate in Steam Next Fest before releasing in order to build wishlists but the next one is in February and I think I may be able to release well before then. If all goes well, I'll get the game into a good state within a month, and take some time to thoroughly playtest it to make sure there aren't many issues on release. I think if I learned anything from the demo release, it's that there will always be issues and I'll just have to work on them post-release. Especially as a solo developer there's just no way I can find and fix every bug that's possible and perfectly 'one-shot' the release.

So my plans are to finish the last few features of the game:

• Upgrading your house to the final level.
  
• A winter festival.
  
• More achievements.
  
• More player customization options.
  
• An area where you can harvest wood and greens besides the farm.
  
• Some UI improvements.
  
• Other quality of life improvements.

There are more areas that I'd like to improve but they can be done in early access such as improving the story, perhaps a better quest system, and improved character portraits among other things.

I'll also update the demo one more time so it gets all the latest improvements. I plan on keeping the demo up forever. Not many people have played the demo but it looks like some people have played for a considerable amount of time and that's amazing.

I have so many cool ideas I'd like to add to the game but it all depends on releasing the game. It's really important to me that people are playing and enjoying the game. I can have all the neat ideas in the world but if the game never gets released it doesn't matter!

So keep an eye out for a release date and thank you so much for playing!

Reach the community goal in the RELAX Effect Mode this weekend in these game modes: Chill Marathon, Quick Play, and Playlist (Sea, Wind and World)

3v1 Multiplayer: Play as a team or the boss in Connected Vs.

Starts: Sept 23, noon UTC
Ends: Sept 24, noon UTC

Fixed a bug with arrows and boomerangs.

• Fixed Skin Stealer speed in Level 1
  
• Added Difficulties
  
• Fixed Level 94 ambience bug
  
• Fixed Level 52 being "too confusing"

As we approach the Extended Demo release (27th September!) and Steam Next Fest in October I thought it would be a great idea to lay out some bite-size insights to the many things you can do within Tales from The Dancing Moon.

So without further ado - let's dive in!




For the ultimate quest gameplay breakdown, feel free to watch this 30 minute developer "let's play" where I go through one of the quests early in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc8rTVsf4SY

Read on for more bite-size gameplay details!




Follow the main quest and read collectable diary entries scattered across the land to fully understand your place in this world.

Unravelling the mysteries behind the disappearance of four teenagers who lived in the village before you arrived.






Play at your own pace through an ever changing backdrop of seasons and weather effects in the village of Illisor, a place recovering from a recent invasion of a threat known as the "shadow beasts".






Each NPC comes with their own beautifully drawn portrait and unique personality and traits.

They are the driving force of all quest related gameplay in the game!

Here's just a small sample of the people you'll meet.






It wouldn't be a casual life-sim RPG without its own fishing mini-game!

Match the controller/keyboard inputs to the fishes swimming direction in this tricky but fun mini-game!






Prepare land, plant seeds, and nurture your crops to help provide income for yourself and the struggling village.

The changing seasons provide a different colourful theme to your farming aesthetic!






Just east of the village you can explore procedural zones, where you can practice sword skills, find rare artefacts for the museum, and find valuable loot.








Speaking of the museum, on your travels you will find rare artefacts that the local curator will be interested in.

Learn stories and explanations of the various items you find.







Experiment with a food ingredients to cook meals that buff your health, or mix liquids to create drinks with special enhancements and abilities.






A robust crafting, construction, and free placement system allows you to build and decorate the village to your heart's desire.







And that just scratches the surface of the gameplay, without really going into the story or quests! (unless you watched the 30 minute video above. If you did so - yay!)

- DjMonkey

Enjoy reading my dev diary newsletters? Then please consider giving me a Wishlist & Follow! I'd greatly appreciate it! You can do so from the the Steam page.

If you’d like to join the community and discuss the content of this post, please visit the Discord or make a comment on Threads or Twitter!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782420/Tales_from_The_Dancing_Moon/

Make sure not to overlook the fantastic live stream by indie__scum during the Game Devs of Color Expo! Be part of the excitement on September 23rd at 7:30 PM EST, as they dive into the world of Sky of Tides.

Kat is a passionate fan of Animal Crossing and enjoys exploring a wide range of games. Their hobbies extend to anime, skincare, and, of course, a special fondness for Taco Bell! Don't miss out on the action—tune in!

You can also catch them streaming regularly at: Twitch indie__scum.

15 years is a long time! We're so grateful to have seen so many young Wizards pass through the Spiral over the years and grow right alongside us. Through all the ups and downs and unexpected surprises, thanks so much for sharing all of life's magical moments with us!

We can't wait to share 15 more years with you!

This patch completes the new player friendly changes , with better arrows pointing to where to click and new exit icons.

This patch also incudes a ton of new text lines for sgiggy and the bosses so be sure to check those out !

New Features


Echo Stones are no longer in chests! They have a unique sprite!


Stages 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 have been made fully backtrackable. You can now run laps around them and return to paths that were once one-way.


You can now go to both Stage 9 and Stage 10 at any point during the post-game

Stage 7 has a brand new Minecart section. You can use it to backtrack or as an alternate path.

Stage 10-2 now has an abundance of late-game weapons and armor… The catch is they don’t show unless you meet a specific requirement. For example, Kiyota’s Armor can only be seen if you have four or more Sync with her.

Some in-game Items now have reminder text! Items and Armor that had extra space now tell you what certain statues do.

Arch-Demon Gemini and her Faceless counterpart now have a new music track!


Balance Changes
Enemies who use Null Number will use it less, instead of 100% of the time.
F. Nut now properly heals for it’s full value
Doomsday now gives the user Panic for two turns, and its cooldown has been lowered.
Stage 1-1 has more healing items. Primarily to teach players about the status
Shopkeepers now conveniently carry items that help with the corresponding elements. So Mika carries Icy Profen to help deal with the Frozen status in Stage 3, and Quan carries Eye Drops for the Blind, the enemies in Stage 5 like to inflict.
Null Number now reduces Hype by 1. (Down from 3)
Enemy Luck in Stage 1 has been lowered across the board
New Cooldowns for all Upgrade Skills, like Wave Slash and Stop Gap.
Every ten upgrades reduce their respective Cooldown by 1. This should make it appealing to go all-in in a stat.
Genesis has Bonus Base Evasion and Ward. She is the squishiest character and can’t really hang in some late-game fights. This hopefully helps.
Extended Warranty now has a longer cooldown and warm-up in Hard Mode
Headache now properly reduces your MP Regen to 0, THEN inflicts -1 MP. Guarding and Hype MP is cancelled out.
Guard now correctly gives 1MP upon using the skill and an extra 1MP a turn. (It was giving 2MP upon execution.)

Bug Fixes
Fixed certain Treasures not being passable after opening them
Fixed Akira not learning Mirror Beam when getting their first Sync.
Fixed Leo’s Ultimate Move not properly killing every Spawn
Fixed certain backtrack switches not working
Fixed the hanging bars in 5-1, letting you float
Fixed Mirror Beam being usable in the skill menu.
Fixes Leonis having unintended damage reduction.
Fixed lots of weird collisions in 10-2
Fixed Tsukasa sprite turning into a completely different character (it was funny but incorrect)
Fixed typos and repeated Dialogue
Fixed Quot not answering a question in her first location.
Fixed a particular character talking even though they should have been dead.
Fixed Akira doing a disappearing act when in the backrooms of the Mocha Bar
Fixed weird music cut-offs in Stage 6
Fixed Twelve being revived suddenly
Fixed ???? and Arch-Demon variables not updating properly.