Jun 21

Nordic Ashes: Survivors of Ragnarok - Noxfall Studios

Hello Vikings!

We’re back with a new DLC balancing and fixing update. We are always reading your comments and feedback, and we really appreciate them.

ːNA_CrystalːYou’ve been sharp as a knife with your feedback (and with good reason). Instead of receiving it as a defeat, we will keep updating until the game feels as it should.

ːNA_CrystalːIt is our duty to make this DLC fun and rewarding and we won’t abandon its development.

Balancing and fixes

This update will focus on balancing Normal, Difficult and Expert and a few touches of Hardcore. Next week we will focus on Hardcore and Endless.

Here are the changes and fixes we’ve made:

The rarity of weapon stat upgrades now depends on their level. This means that at level 1 they will grant common upgrades, at level 3 they will grant rare upgrades, etc.
As you climb the tower floors, the weapons you collect will appear at a higher level.
The ultimate ability is now upgraded on specific floors: 11 and 31. If you use a shortcut, this upgrade is still obtained.
The experience curve has been adjusted. Now, every time you increase a character's level 50 times, the level upgrades increase in quality.
You can disable the automatic opening of stats when leveling up. You can open the panel at any time by pressing the F key /select button.
Meta-progress corruption has been significantly reduced. Upgrades that improve stats no longer increase corruption.
You can accumulate level points without spending them and then use them in the level-for-gold exchanger in Gnöki's room (unlocked in Helheim).
Item's price cannot exceed 99 gold due to inflation
Any character can use a shortcut door as long as it has been unlocked in the meta-progression.
Scroll has been fixed in the constellation.
When defeating a boss, weapon upgrades do not count as a level-up, but rather as a bonus upgrade.
Other minor fixes and UI improvements.

Thanks again, we will check back in a few days with some more fixes and exciting news!!

Cheers!

If you have any suggestions, issues or any kind of feedback, don't hesitate to contact us: 🔸 Discord. 🔸 Steam Community

. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3636780/Nordic_Ashes_Remnants_of_Corruption/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2068280/Nordic_Ashes_Survivors_of_Ragnarok/

Jun 21

Devlog: Psyche System Overhaul

Stoneshard - Wayfinder

Hello everyone!

In today's devlog, we'll talk about the reworked Psyche system, which will be a part of our next major update, “Of Beasts & Sages”.

Let's start by exploring why the Psyche even needed a major revamp - as it stands, it's the oldest remaining mechanic, largely untouched since the early demo builds, despite having several clear flaws.

The system was only partially complete. In our initial design, each quadrant of the Morale-Sanity chart was meant to include four distinct Psyche states. Unfortunately, we never got to implementing the states for the combination of low Morale and low Sanity. The same goes for the original vision of Hypochondria, which required functioning diseases before it could be properly added to the game.
The concept of unique triggers for each state sounded great on paper, but in practice, it proved to be far too obscure - even for us as developers. Some states were extremely common due to their simple, easily reproducible conditions, while others were so rare and tied to such convoluted triggers that players had to resort to wiki guides and meticulous planning to discover them (shoutout to all the madmen who've actually managed to unlock the “Ups and Downs” achievement). The system simply didn't feel dynamic, varied, or responsive enough.
While certain states had interesting mechanics, most could be boiled down to simple stat changes that didn't encourage players to adapt their strategy in any way.
The majority of interactions with the Psyche system were primitive and lopsided: any horrors and hardships could be completely forgotten after a few nights of sleep.

Before anything else, we wanted to fundamentally change the focus of Psyche maintenance, making it a reflection of your mercenary's long-term living patterns rather than just a bar you top off by gorging on mindwort.

The solution we turned to was to transform Morale and Sanity into compound stats, split into several segments with different caps and conditions for maintaining them. In this new system, both Morale and Sanity are half-dependent on the emergent situations your character finds themselves in and half-dependent on their sustained routine - such as sleep, diet, and so on.

In other words, a grounded and comfortable way of living serves as a sort of buffer, allowing the character to experience positive Psyche states even when facing all kinds of unpleasant challenges.

Morale is divided into three segments: Situations, Diet, and Sleep.

Situations cover everything that can affect your character during combat and exploration: killing enemies, completing Contracts, picking locks, disarming traps, landing critical hits, missing and fumbling attacks, losing Health, receiving debuffs, using consumables, eating some foods, and so on - all of it contributes to Situational Morale to various extent. Its maximum impact is capped at 50%.

Diet is responsible for 35% of Morale. Eating quality food will have a prolonged beneficial effect on your character's Psyche - but only if their meals are sufficiently diverse. If your merc eats nothing but fried eggs, bread, and meat skewers, they'll eventually grow sick of it, leading to a gradual decline of Morale.

The remaining 15% comes from Sleep. As you might expect, regular and sufficient rest will contribute towards this segment, while prolonged wakefulness will do the exact opposite.

Sanity functions very similarly, 50% of it is dedicated to Situations: this segment is negatively affected by killing humans but can be replenished by slaying the Undead and Proselytes. Other factors include having high Morale, close encounters with unholy magic and its abominations, head Injuries, grave robbing, casting Miracles, Backfired spells, using certain consumables, and more.

Another 35% is governed by Lifestyle, which includes work and recreation. This segment slowly decays over time but can be maintained by completing Contracts, chatting to NPCs, cooking, crafting, and praying. The list of relevant activities will be greatly expanded in the future - a good example would be the ability to go fishing or pay a visit to the Brynn Bathhouse.

The final 15% of Sanity is tied to Sleep - just like with Morale.

All in all, the new system is capable of providing vast roleplay possibilities and can be potentially integrated into other areas of the game. For instance, some conditions can theoretically influence different characters' Psyche in very distinct ways, which will give us a lot of tools to work with while implementing Traits and the Character Creator...

Let's move on to the Psyche states themselves and what makes them occur. The general idea was to standardize and greatly simplify the triggers - the result is three states per Morale-Sanity quadrant, each connected to one of the following conditions:

No enemies nearby.
The states associated with this condition often persist for a long while until replaced by something else.
High health and multiple enemies nearby.Such states usually last for two to three fights' worth of time.
Low health and at least one enemy nearby.
These are the shortest-lasting states, frequently ending within a single fight.

When fulfilled, a condition will gradually contribute towards an invisible progress meter, triggering its designated state upon reaching 100%. Now, why don’t we take a closer look at states as a whole?

HIGH MORALE + HIGH SANITY

Optimism

Condition: no enemies nearby

Optimism has remained mostly unchanged: it grants bonuses to Experience Gain, Fortitude (which now also reduces Psyche loss from all sources), while also slowly restoring Morale, Immunity, and slightly reducing Fatigue.

Heroism

Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby

Heroism now scales with the number of visible enemies. Each stack of the effect grants bonuses to Weapon Damage, Magic Power, Crit Chance, Miracle Chance, Accuracy, and Life Drain.

Additionally, killing enemies replenishes some Energy and grants a temporary boost to Healing Efficiency.

Second Wind

Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby

It would be impossible to count how many cinematic moments this effect has brought to the game, so we decided to keep it with only a few minor tweaks. Second Wind clears physical debuffs and replenishes Health and Energy upon activation (slightly less than before), then continues to replenish small amounts of Health and Energy every turn.

Other than that, it reduces ongoing cooldowns every turn and provides a once-per-activation 50% chance to avoid death. And finally, Second Wind can activate upon receiving lethal damage even if its progress meter isn't fully charged or another Psyche state is already present.

HIGH MORALE + LOW SANITY

Megalomania

Condition: no enemies nearby

Megalomania is one of our most favorite states. Although it's often reported as a bug, it's still amusing to see how new players perceive their fake stat boost as real and genuinely begin to feel stronger, acting as recklessly as their character would. Because of that, the mechanic of falsely displayed stats remains exactly the same.

To further highlight the character's sudden surge of arrogance, Megalomania now includes a gradually increasing penalty to Trade Favorability and Reputation Gain, which resets upon completing Contracts. In combat, the character will have a chance to start loudly taunting enemies, potentially attracting unwanted reinforcements. And since the character deems caution beneath them, their passive chance to detect traps and hear unseen enemies will be reduced to 0%.

Frenzy

Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby

Frenzy provides a substantial boost to Weapon Damage and Magic Power. However, all attacks and certain abilities have a chance to target a random nearby enemy instead of the intended one - this chance grows over time but can be reset by skipping a turn.

Similarly, when walking to other tiles, your character may take a step toward the nearest enemy rather than their intended destination.

Death Wish

Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby

Death Wish is a reimagined blend of current Sadism and Masochism. The character suffers significant penalties to Healing Efficiency, Energy Restoration, Damage Taken, and Range - in exchange, they get bonuses to Life and Energy Drain that scale with Pain and missing Health. Life and Energy Drain also affect spell damage, although this bonus becomes weaker with each tile of distance from the target.

Killing enemies reduces the effect's duration.

LOW MORALE + HIGH SANITY

Pessimism

Condition: no enemies nearby

Pessimism applies penalties to Experience Gain and gradually dampens the character’s Morale even further. It also reduces Fortitude, Healing Efficiency, and Fatigue Resistance - the penalty's severity scales with missing Morale.

Pessimism can be temporarily removed by using consumables that benefit Morale, such as alcohol.

Anxiety

Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby

Anxiety improves Dodge Chance and reduces Damage Taken, but all your attacks and spells will generate penalties to Accuracy, Fumble Chance, and Backfire Chance respectively. Any miss, fumble, or Backfired spell will reset the corresponding penalties.

In addition, each turn there's a chance for one of your Attack skills to go on a 1 turn cooldown.

Panic

Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby

Panic gives a one-time Energy boost, significantly reduces Vision range, while also lowering Abilities Energy Cost for each enemy in sight. However, each enemy within Vision will also continuously drain the character's Morale - and if it reaches zero, your mercenary will drop their equipped weapon.

This can be avoided by skipping turns, which replenishes some Morale and greatly reduces the effect's duration.

LOW MORALE + LOW SANITY

Paranoia

Condition: no enemies nearby

Paranoia causes your mercenary to quickly accumulate Fatigue, which in turn worsens the state’s penalties to Abilities Energy Cost, Damage Taken, Fumble Chance, and Backfire Chance.

Furthermore, the character may occasionally hear nonexistent voices, and some encountered enemies will be hallucinated illusions. If such an illusion reaches an adjacent tile, it’ll vanish, damaging your Sanity - alternatively, you can attempt to preemptively destroy it to replenish some Sanity instead.

Delirium

Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby

A character affected by Delirium behaves irrationally: depending on their missing Morale and Sanity, they have a chance to take a step in a random direction when moving, land their abilities on random tiles around the intended target, or drop items instead of using them.

Delirium also heavily randomizes all received Experience, regardless of its source.

Catharsis

Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby

Catharsis can be seen as a cousin to Second Wind, offering a chance at redemption when death is all but certain. Upon activation, it replenishes a small amount of Health and Energy, while also allowing you to replenish Health, Energy, Morale, and Sanity with each enemy killed - potentially letting you claw your way out from the pit of low Psyche.

Moreover, after it ends, Catharsis grants temporal immunity to negative Psyche states depending on how many enemies were killed over its duration.

That's all for now. In the next devlog, we'll take a closer look at Caves, their types, and what lies within - we’ll also reveal the release date for “Of Beasts & Sages”.

Until next time!

Jun 21

v1.5 "Meditations" Now Available

Dystopika - roachsniper

It's been a whole year since Dystopika launched and what an incredible year it has been. We wanted to do something special with v1.5 so we really went to town on this one: new soundtrack. new districts, new props, new weather options, and a whole lot more.

Release Notes

New Soundtrack by Sascha Dikiciyan

With credits including The Long Dark, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Quake II, Mass Effect 3, and the soon-to-be-released Metal Eden, Sascha Dikiciyan (Sonic Mayhem) brings his signature cinematic-ambient compositions to Dystopika, a meditative city-sculpting experience for creating stunning cyberpunk cities and future noir vibes.

Meditations from the Future is a sonic journey through ambient cityscapes and imaginary futures. Blending nostalgic synth textures with modern minimalism, Sascha crafts a reflective soundtrack for Dystopika - Influenced by the old-school Berlin electronic sound and modern cinematic soundscapes, it weaves emotion into architecture, shaping the skyline of your imagination.

A digipak CD featuring original artwork by Rob Sheridan (NIN, Pearl Jam) is now available for pre-order.

Also, please check out Rob’s merch store, Glitch Goods.

New Districts: Labber’s Row and C-VILLE

Labber’s Row

Labber’s Row is the home of cutting-edge research, where advancements in materials science, weaponry, biotechnology, and chemical engineering shape the future behind closed doors. Within its labyrinth of imposing, brutalist structures, the scientific elite—known as "Labbers"—operate under a strict veil of secrecy, their work shielded from prying eyes by both physical and procedural fortifications. The air here is thick with sterilization protocols: UV-sanitizers line the streets, pulsating with an eerie glow, while infrared scan stations stand as silent sentinels, ensuring that contamination is swiftly detected and eradicated.

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C-VILLE

Connectville serves as the black market hub of the dystopian world of Dystopika. It is a vibrant, chaotic tapestry of favela-style alleyways crammed with backstreet shops, ramen stands, and a maze of tangled electrical wires. Known colloquially as "C-VILLE," its interconnectedness mirrors the tightly woven local supply chains that have evolved over decades between the district's myriad of specialty shops. These connections have birthed a dense network of skybridges and makeshift pathways that thread through the heart of the district.

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New Megastructure: Jade Corp.

Jade is a global leader in AI, developing both hardware and software used the world over in infrastructure, daily mobile computing, governance, security, and manufacturing.

New Weather Options

City Settings now includes two new Weather options: Thunderstorm and Sandstorm.

Thunderstorms will periodically strike sufficiently tall buildings. Sandstorms will put the city under a coat of sand giving a distinct “Dune”-like feel (especially paired with the new Labber’s Row).

Expanded Photo Mode

Several improvements and enhancements have been made the game’s photo mode.

New Camera Control Scheme. FPS-style controls allow for much more creative freedom than before.

New Camera Movement Widget. Capture up to eight camera positions for playback to create moving camera sequences using three different movement styles: Linear, Smooth, and Rollercoaster.

Video Recording. You now have the option to export video directly from the game in Photo Mode.

Depth of Field effects. Create more immersive photos with aperture, focal length, focal distance, and vignette controls.

New filters and Lens Dirt effects. Change up the tone and atmosphere with several new color filter effects, and glitchy lens dirt options.

Improved Lighting & Light Props

New Volumetric Lighting

New volumetric lighting effects can be found throughout Dystopika, greatly enhancing the utility of the Light Brush. You can now create a sense of major streets and activate additional light effects on buildings.

New Props: Pot Lights and Light Bars

Thanks to the new volumetric effects, you now place your own light-emitters as you please, with customization options for size, color, and intensity.

New Wall Props

Create massive, oppressive walls around your cities to define districts or a dangerous world beyond. Walls utilize the same spline system as Roads, allowing you a variety of height and size options.

Blimps Evolved

The Blimp Pad has been completely overhauled. Blimps now take an editable path that you can customize and configure along with original controls for height and speed.

Two new Blimp styles have also been introduced, plus a facelift of the original blimp. Blimp styles can be cycles by right click.

Saved cities will still load the “old” blimp pad as to not change your past creations. To update to the new Blimp prop, simple delete it and place it again. Moving forward the old Blimp Pad is considered “deprecated” and no longer appears in the prop menu.

Mod Support: Landscapes (Beta)

The Modding Community can now craft custom landscapes, allowing for a range of new creative backdrops for your cities. Mod Support via our Unity ModKit continues to be in Beta. Check out https://modding.voidswithin.com to get started with creating mods.

Custom Landscapes can be selected when creating a new city if you’ve activated a Mod that includes Landscapes.

Quality of Life Improvements

Prop Menu now features a category filter.
Multiple font styles have been added to the Neon Text props
District list will become scrollable beyond a certain height threshold (i.e. with several mods loaded)
Multiple checks have been added to recover when failing to load a city due to corrupted or missing save files.
A visual aid has been added to curved props to identify location of control points when hovered.
Added a Setting for Volumetric Resolution to the Pause Menu
Some buildings move/height interaction hot zones have been adjusted
Delete Tool size calculation has been adjusted to better accommodate large buildings
Neon Text props now have proper spacing when aligned vertically

Minor Adjustments

Czech Language support now available.
Prop Adjustments.
- Mounted Satellite Dishes prop has been visually updated
- Original Blimp has been visually updated
- The right click to Edit Text for Neon Text props has been removed.
Minor UI Refinements.
- Photo Mode Play Icon has been changed to Play/Pause to better reflect its functionality
- Load File button has been modified slightly to have a stronger visual draw.
- Camera Height and Camera Pitch controls in Photo Mode has been removed as they have been made obsolete due to Camera Control changes
- A special V1.5 Meditations-themed title screen has been temporarily activated.
- Buildings now have a “weight” when raising and lowering to create a heavier feel.
Game credits have been updated.
Several adjustments under-the-hood to accommodate new storefronts for the game.

Bug Fixes

Traffic Funnel prop now spawns with correct rotation.
Fixed an issue with tooltips displaying offscreen.
Fixed an issue where customer mods with billboard ads did not save properly.
Fixed an issue where spline control points may not raise/lower properly
Fixed an issue where right clicking in Prop Tool would not cycle randomly as intended
Fixed an issue with dynamic sky that may result in 20-35% performance increase in many scenarios.
Leaving the Pause Menu will now respect Play/Pause setting when in Photo Mode
Air Traffic Density selector will now display localizations correctly
Fixed several bugs related to the Prop Tool and using right click to cycle to the next prop
Fixed an issue where an extra building wireframe would be visible for a few frames after placing a building

Fixed some bugs where pressing Z to Undo while hovered on a prop may soft lock the game.

Known Issues

Video Recording does not record audio. This is intentional due to licensing constraints on game music.
Landscape mods may cause camera clipping in certain scenarios.
Landscape mods may cause unexpected behavior when placing buildings and props.
Landscape mods may not correctly display weather effects in certain scenarios.

What’s Next

It’s been one year since Dystopika launched v1.0 and since then I’ve been shipping a variety of updates both on and in addition to the roadmap. Sometimes you just get Video Billboards working right away and decide to yeehaw out an update, y’know?

We still have features being worked on, but as of v1.5, I have decided to retire the public-facing roadmap. After nearly 3 years of of work, I’m eager to start exploring something new while continuing to make incremental improvements to Dystopika.

After 1.5 me and the team are immediately resuming improvements to Mod Support and creating improved tutorials and workflows for our creators.