Alone - Llama
Salutations,
I am pleased to announce some details about the next milestone for Alone. So without further ado...
The next milestone will be called "Rune", and includes a mixture of changes which will impact both the combat, and the living part of the game. As always, it is still in active development, so things are likely to change by the time it is released. Starting with the major features
Alone has been through many many changes since it was first out on Early Access. It has now arrived at a point where I feel it's stable and featured enough to receive an official release.
So what will change after this release? It doesn't mean that the game is entirely and totally done, just that future updates will be more iterative and less gamebreaking than the previous ones.
Runes are an entirely new feature that will be introduced in this milestone. Runes are items that can be found as loot, and embedded into weapons and will apply powerful bonuses.
Let's start with the motivation behind runes - the idea was to shake things up a bit when it comes to weapon choice. Since all weapons are currently equally powerful against different enemies, there's no real reason to switch or try out different weapons. Once you find a weapon you like, you can use it until it breaks (or you repair it). With runes, it'll be possible to customise weapons to a certain degree, to optimise them for a specific purpose.
Runes can be obtained just like normal loot - although they are quite rare, especially the more powerful ones.
Runes come in three levels - Faded, Normal, and Mythical - and they can have one of many different effects. Some effects involve increasing the loot that you'll find, how quickly you gain experience - whilst others will occasionally grant powerful temporary bonuses to help you in combat. These bonuses are always limited to triggering when you fight enemies of a specific faction - this way, the weapon which is most suited to fighting the undead might not necessarily be the best weapon for fighting goblins - if one has a specific rune embedded into it.
Embedding runes happens at the shrine. A weapon can only have 1 rune embedded into it - and trying to embed another one will replace the previous one.
Once the rune is embedded, it'll show on the interface as part of the weapon details.
Runes can also be empowered at the shrine. Finding a Mythical rune is very rare indeed, but you can make one yourself.
Empowering a rune requires 3 runes of the same level - but not necessarily of the same type. Two of the runes will be destroyed, and the primary rune will be empowered by a level.
Another major change is handling how trade works.
Starting with the motivation again. The trader is currently not as useful as they can be. Currently, each trader is specialised, and will primarily bring items of two types - but this is rather limiting. For a start, not all items are equally desirable - and certain items - weapons, armour, and tools - are only going to be useful if they are of high quality, which the trader rarely brings because of their price - preferring to bring many cheaper items instead of a few expensive ones.
This will change in the next milestone. The trader now has a fixed amount of "slots", with each slot being of a specific type (although some slots are general). As a trader gains more money, the value of each slot will increase - meaning they will bring nicer items, including tools, weapons, and armour of a quality that should be acceptable. One of the slots is always going to be for food, and another for raw materials - meaning that the trader should always bring something worth purchasing.
And the first slot is always guaranteed to be an exotic good. These are goods which can only be found from the trader. They did exist previously, but now they are going to be more accessible.
Also as part of this milestone, quite a few new exotic items have been added, including foods, drinks, as well as weapons and armour.
Also, the trade post has received two new upgrade paths - which unlock two additional slots. What do these slots bring? It's up to you...
Through the new Agreements tab - the player can choose what sort of items they want the trader to bring in these additional slots. The first unlocked slot even allows the bringing of more exotic items.
The Everpunished have also received some updates. Firstly, they now look a little different - making it more clear which are the more dangerous of the lot.
Similar to goblins, there are now also some more special undead at higher (or should that be lower) levels.
And similar to the goblins, they will occasionally land a critical hit on you and apply some nasty effects. At higher levels, the axe-throwers will be replaced by crossbows, and the banshee will make an appearance, who's powerful screams can leave you stunned.
The undead aren't the only ones who will receive an update in the next Milestone. The forest has been changed as well.
The forest will continue to remain the easiest area to hunt in, a good place for newer characters to earn some skill, and collect much needed resources - but for those who want to advance further - it'll get a bit more dangerous.
Now the forest will contain one of three "boss" enemies. When defeated, they will grant access to some fancy loot - but they are very dangerous - and their special abilities make them even more so.
There will be other smaller changes and improvements included, as always. One of the changes comes as a suggestion of bicZoid - having the name of the item and not just icons - and should help readability when determining which resources are needed for an upgrade or a building.
So, what do you think ? Is there anything that particularly has you excited ? Do you have any suggestions or any improvements to recommend? I would love to hear them.
I am pleased to announce some details about the next milestone for Alone. So without further ado...
The next milestone will be called "Rune", and includes a mixture of changes which will impact both the combat, and the living part of the game. As always, it is still in active development, so things are likely to change by the time it is released. Starting with the major features
First Official Release
Alone has been through many many changes since it was first out on Early Access. It has now arrived at a point where I feel it's stable and featured enough to receive an official release.
So what will change after this release? It doesn't mean that the game is entirely and totally done, just that future updates will be more iterative and less gamebreaking than the previous ones.
Runes
Runes are an entirely new feature that will be introduced in this milestone. Runes are items that can be found as loot, and embedded into weapons and will apply powerful bonuses.
Let's start with the motivation behind runes - the idea was to shake things up a bit when it comes to weapon choice. Since all weapons are currently equally powerful against different enemies, there's no real reason to switch or try out different weapons. Once you find a weapon you like, you can use it until it breaks (or you repair it). With runes, it'll be possible to customise weapons to a certain degree, to optimise them for a specific purpose.
Runes can be obtained just like normal loot - although they are quite rare, especially the more powerful ones.
Runes come in three levels - Faded, Normal, and Mythical - and they can have one of many different effects. Some effects involve increasing the loot that you'll find, how quickly you gain experience - whilst others will occasionally grant powerful temporary bonuses to help you in combat. These bonuses are always limited to triggering when you fight enemies of a specific faction - this way, the weapon which is most suited to fighting the undead might not necessarily be the best weapon for fighting goblins - if one has a specific rune embedded into it.
Embedding runes happens at the shrine. A weapon can only have 1 rune embedded into it - and trying to embed another one will replace the previous one.
Once the rune is embedded, it'll show on the interface as part of the weapon details.
Runes can also be empowered at the shrine. Finding a Mythical rune is very rare indeed, but you can make one yourself.
Empowering a rune requires 3 runes of the same level - but not necessarily of the same type. Two of the runes will be destroyed, and the primary rune will be empowered by a level.
Trade Changes
Another major change is handling how trade works.
Starting with the motivation again. The trader is currently not as useful as they can be. Currently, each trader is specialised, and will primarily bring items of two types - but this is rather limiting. For a start, not all items are equally desirable - and certain items - weapons, armour, and tools - are only going to be useful if they are of high quality, which the trader rarely brings because of their price - preferring to bring many cheaper items instead of a few expensive ones.
This will change in the next milestone. The trader now has a fixed amount of "slots", with each slot being of a specific type (although some slots are general). As a trader gains more money, the value of each slot will increase - meaning they will bring nicer items, including tools, weapons, and armour of a quality that should be acceptable. One of the slots is always going to be for food, and another for raw materials - meaning that the trader should always bring something worth purchasing.
And the first slot is always guaranteed to be an exotic good. These are goods which can only be found from the trader. They did exist previously, but now they are going to be more accessible.
Also as part of this milestone, quite a few new exotic items have been added, including foods, drinks, as well as weapons and armour.
Also, the trade post has received two new upgrade paths - which unlock two additional slots. What do these slots bring? It's up to you...
Through the new Agreements tab - the player can choose what sort of items they want the trader to bring in these additional slots. The first unlocked slot even allows the bringing of more exotic items.
Everpunished and Forest
The Everpunished have also received some updates. Firstly, they now look a little different - making it more clear which are the more dangerous of the lot.
Similar to goblins, there are now also some more special undead at higher (or should that be lower) levels.
And similar to the goblins, they will occasionally land a critical hit on you and apply some nasty effects. At higher levels, the axe-throwers will be replaced by crossbows, and the banshee will make an appearance, who's powerful screams can leave you stunned.
The undead aren't the only ones who will receive an update in the next Milestone. The forest has been changed as well.
The forest will continue to remain the easiest area to hunt in, a good place for newer characters to earn some skill, and collect much needed resources - but for those who want to advance further - it'll get a bit more dangerous.
Now the forest will contain one of three "boss" enemies. When defeated, they will grant access to some fancy loot - but they are very dangerous - and their special abilities make them even more so.
Smaller Changes
There will be other smaller changes and improvements included, as always. One of the changes comes as a suggestion of bicZoid - having the name of the item and not just icons - and should help readability when determining which resources are needed for an upgrade or a building.
So, what do you think ? Is there anything that particularly has you excited ? Do you have any suggestions or any improvements to recommend? I would love to hear them.
Share: 
