The Slormancer News

Hello everyone!
Welcome to The Slormite Chronicles #42!

Since the last Slormite Chronicles, we've published The Balance Update on the Live Branch and it got a great reception considering the huge amount of changes that's been made.

Taking the time to polish the Balance Update on the Experimental Branch for a couple of months to fix and balance a bunch of things that we've missed or overlooked was definitely the way to go, and a much smoother release experience for us. And this is something that we will want to reproduce.

And as mentioned, we've also increased the price from $14.99 to $19.99. That being said, as soon as we reach the end of Early Access, we will move on to bigger sales than our usual 20%. So if you're waiting for a good opportunity to get into The Slormancer, just wait a little longer.

[h2]The Final Update and leaving Early Access[/h2]
I've seen a couple of questions regarding our next update, so I'll try to clarify it here:
The Warlords Update will be our Final Early Access Update and will actually be released as part of our 1.0 Release. This means that everything that is currently waiting on our Road Map will be added for this Update. This includes:

• The Final Boss
  
• A Level Cap increased to 100
  
• Part III of Adam Nostrus' Trials
  
• The Warlords Endgame Mode
  
• The Influence System
  
• A total of 200 Legendary Items
  

And of course, quite a bit of bug fixes and balance changes. And on top of that, a proper translation for about 8-10 additional languages along with completing the ones that are already in the game.

The downside is that we will also prepare our release with quite a bit of marketing so it will take some time to get everything done, but now that we're so close to the end, we really don't want to mess things up!

[h2]The Warlords[/h2]
As mentioned in our latest Slormite Chronicles, we've been working on The Warlords, our final endgame mode. We want it to be a mode with a great sense of progression, instead of the usual "Difficulty Climb" that we've offered.

So the first thing we had to craft was a nice and fancy menu to display said progression. In The Warlords mode, the player will actually move on to The Slormancer's realm and defeat its armies and Warlords right there. It's currently called "The Netherworld" as I've yet to find a funky word with "Slorm" in it for this place.

The Menu currently looks like this (as always, everything is subject to change):


Since we went for a map / conquest kind-of design, you will be able to open it in a larger window:


There currently are 45 Cataclysm Runs and 25 Warlords Runs.

You will only have to defeat Cataclysm Runs once to unlock said Cataclysm in its highest Difficulty setting (called "Warlord" difficulty). And to challenge a Warlord, you will have to unlock its Cataclysms to try and defeat him.

Every Run has a set Enemy Level and Wrath Difficulty, yet we want it to be accessible right after the end of the story so the difficulty will start quite slow and increase gradually. Once you've defeated the entire Netherworld, you will get access to The Primordial Netherworld.

In The Primordial Netherworld, everything is set on the highest difficulty (Enemy Level 100, Wrath 10), but this is where the loot table of The Warlords get really interesting.



About the loot tables: Warlords have a set loot table (displayed on the Warlords menu) that is randomized everytime the player completes a Warlord run, so you will never have to defeat the same Warlord 10 times in a row if you're looking for a particular item.

When defeating a Warlord, you will get to choose between 3 Legendary Items from its loot table. But if you've defeated a Primordial Warlord, you will have a chance to get Nether Items instead (more on that in our previous Slormite Chronicles).

[h2]New Cataclysms[/h2]
To get to 45 Cataclysm Runs, we've had to add 15 new Cataclysms to The Slormancer. They've been implemented and offer quite a fresh experience. As mentioned before, we've also been reworking the most unfun Cataclysms of the game.

For instance, Invulnerability now grants a great amount Shield every few seconds, instead of complete Invulnerability, so players have a chance to actively destroy it.

Here are a few screenshots of the new ones:
Endless Fire casts a neverending Fireball that is constantly following you.


Seals of Blindness reduce your Line of Sight when you walk over one.


Shadow Clones let enemies cast one or more attacks once they die.



That's about it for today!
Cheers everyone and see you in the next one!

Hello everyone!

The Balance Update (v.0.9.0) has been moved from the Experimental Branch to the Live Branch and is now available for everyone!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
Given the size of the Patch Notes, we couldn't upload it here on Steam so it is available
here on our website.

You can leave your feedback here on Steam, on our Forums or right below this post, but the best way to interact and chat with us about specific issues you're having is on our Discord, so feel free to join in!

[h2]About Balance[/h2]
We've made quite a lot of changes and I believe that it is safe to say that most builds will require at least a bit of adjustments to work properly. And if despite your best effort, you can no longer make your build work and that you feel that it is was unfairly nerfed, then open a topic or join our Discord and politely discuss it.

[h2]Migrating a Save File from Experimental to Live[/h2]
If you've been playing the Experimental Branch and would like to carry your progress over to the Live Branch, there is a small extra step that needs to be done:

1. Head over to C:/Users//AppData/Local/The_Slormancer and find the save_exp_0_9_1 file, copy it and rename it to save_1 (and erase the previous file).
   
2. When you launch The Slormancer, if Steam asks you to choose between the Local and the Cloud file, choose Local.
   
3. Profit!

This assumes that you are playing on the Save Slot 1.
if not, simply change the numbers accordingly (e.g: Rename save_exp_0_9_2 -> save_2 etc...)


Have fun!
Cheers!

Hello everyone!
Today is Chronicles' day!

[h2]The Balance Update[/h2]
We've been talking about releasing The Balance Update from the Experimental Branch to the Live Branch for a while now, but this is happening on Thursday, September 12th.

Update: I've found a critical issue that needs to be fixed before the release so I've delayed the release until Thursday, September 12th. Sorry about it!

The Balance Update introduced a lot of changes (that you can read in the Patch Notes) and it is now ready to be played by everyone. Since its release on the Experimental Branch, we've made at least a couple of rounds of changes that can be found under the Changelog part.

Altough, we're pretty happy with the changes introduced in this update, especially all the changes regarding New Player Experience, we will continue working on changes and balance during the last months of development prior to the 1.0 Release, and probably long after that.

[h2]Price Chance[/h2]
We've mentioned this once, in our previous Slormite Chronicles: The price of The Slormancer will be increased within the next week (around September 11) and will be changed from $14,99 to $19.99.
Prices all around the world will be adjusted accordingly (with a 33% increase roughly).

Considering how the game has grown over the last few years and the amount of playtime that it offers, we feel like it is a fair adjustment. That being said, we intend to push more aggressive discounts during Sales once the game leaves Early Access, so you should always be able to pick it up at a more than reasonable price.

[h2]The Warlods Update[/h2]
It is now time to talk about The Warlords Update.

We've been hard at work these past few weeks to finish the preproduction / brainstorm phase of development. Once the Balance Update hits the Live Branch, we will move on to production, and even if we have quite some work to do, we feel like we got better at preproduction and anticipation so it should be a smooth ride (it never is, but hey).

As mentioned in our previous Slormite Chronicles, we have 120 new Legendary Effects ready to go. Including Legendary Effects for Slorm Reapers.

We've also been working on 20 new Cataclysms that will be available in Battlefield, The Great Forge and in The Warlords (more on that later). And as we will discuss below, Cataclysms will be an important part of The Warlord, so we will need to make sure that they all are fun and interesting to play around (looking at you Invulnerability shield).

We're also reworking and clarifying Boss Affixes. They will now have a tooltip available during a Boss Fight so that players have a clue of what's going on. We will also be adjusting some of their effects (looking at you, Regeneration Affix creating invulnerable Bosses).

The Warlords
The Warlords is our fourth Endgame mode and will be unlocked once you reach the endgame and defeat Pasltrang. And although, the Third Part of the Adam Nostrus' Trials will be linked to your progression there, it will be available much sooner for players to explore.

The Warlords is an endgame mode that has a progression system and various objectives to complete and bosses (The Warlords) to defeat.

We have numerous sketches of what the menu will look like but nothing final to be shown right now but here's a brief recap:

The goal of this game mode will be to travel to the Kingdom of Ohm Agad (codename "Netherworld") in order to defeat its legions directly on-site and stop its progression into the Kingdom of Adreart. Once there, players will have to defeat the usual enemies as well as their captains, the Warlords.

Progression will take place on a "conquest-type" map with various points to capture and Warlords to defeat. There will be a total of 45 points to conquer and 25 Warlords to defeat (subject to change).

Everything will have a set difficulty (Enemy Level and Wrath Level) so that you should be able to explore the first few areas relatively soon (around Wrath 4) but the latest Warlords will be Level 100 - Wrath 10 beasts.

To attempt to defeat a Warlord, players will need to possess keys and have activated Cataclysms in other areas of the map. Once the conditions are met, the player can access the Warlord. There, they will have to defeat enough enemies to trigger the Warlord and attempt to defeat him.

As mentioned earlier, Cataclysms play a significant role in this game mode. In fact, each Cataclysm will have a new level of difficulty (Warlord Difficulty), and each Warlord will be tied to several Cataclysms that will remain active, at Warlord difficulty, throughout the run.

Moreover, the enemy compositions will always be perfectly synergized with the selected Cataclysms.

For example, a "Multiplication" Cataclysm that adds +1 Projectile to enemies will add +4 in Warlord difficulty, and all enemies in the run will be projectile-throwing enemies, benefiting from this effect.

Players will therefore need to strategize around the Cataclysms and potentially adjust certain parameters of their builds in order to successfully complete these runs.

Basically, everything is a placeholder BUT it can give a rough idea of what's going on.

And although we do not have enough time and resources to recreate multiple environments, we're trying to create "alternative - Netherworld-like" versions of the current Environments.

This is one of our numerous tests for The Graveyard.

Legendary Items
Now, since we're adding a lot of Legendary Effects, we're aware that it may become tedious to craft the proper Legendary Effect on an Item, and we would like to offer some form of target farming for Legendaries.

Besides defeating a Warlord, you will be able to fight them again (and again) to loot specific Legendary Effects. Every time you defeat a Warlord, all 25 Warlords will be randomly given 8 Legendary Effets that they will be able to loot.

Once you defeat a Warlord, you will get to choose between 3 Legendary Items with 3 of these effects (you will also be able to reroll each item once). So by the time you reach the endgame and are able to kill every Warlord in the game, you should be able to target farm specific Legendary Effects with relative ease.

"Nether Items"
For seasoned players, we know that looting Legendary Effects is not the best option and that they'd rather have a Normal or Magic Item with top Pure Stats on which to craft the correct Legendary Effect.

So here's a twist!
We're introducing a new type of Legendary Item (see the purple icon on the Warlord screen above) available only against Warlords.

The name is still subject to change but we call them "Nether Items".
To loot a Nether Item, you will have to defeat a Warlord and hope for one (or more) of its 3 Legendary Items to be turned into a Nether Item (This chance will be tied to your Influence in that environment).

A Nether Item is:

• An Item with an Item Level of at least 101, and up to 120. If looted at Level 101, it can be reforged using Slormandrites of True Potential up to Level 120.
  
• An Item with all Stats already available (Epic Item, with a Legendary Effect, Slorm Reaper, Mastery and Trait stats)
  
• An Item with a greater chance to roll Pure Stats.
  
• An Item with 3 Grafts possibilities.
  

Graft Possibilities ?!
Yes! A Nether Item can be grafted up to 3 Stats (it will replace a stat of your choosing of the same rarity). So first, you will be able to graft Pure Stats from other items directly to a Nether Item (destroying the other item in the process). It means that a Nether Item will be able to hold up to 6 Pure Stats, 3 from its original roll and 3 from the various Grafts.

On top of that, players will be able to graft stats that are not accessible to the Nether Item onto it, such as Grafting Critical Strike Chance from Bracers onto a Nether Helm.

On top-top of that, players will also be able to graft Legendary Effects that are not accessible to the Nether Item either, such as Grafting "Brightsteel Warden" from a Legendary Chest to a Nether Helm.



That's about it for now.
We should have much more screenshots of all these mechanics and effects for our next Slormite Chronicles!

Cheers!

Hello everyone!
It's that day of the month!

[h2]The Balance Update[/h2]
So, as you may have read in previous Slormite Chronicles, we've been monitoring The Balance Update (0.9), currently available on the Experimental Branch, that introduced a LOT of changes (Read the Patch Notes here). Since its release, we've made at least a couple of rounds of changes that can be found under the Changelog part.

We're pretty happy with how everything is turning out and are almost done with Balance changes (at least for this update, of course). This means that The Balance Update will soon hit the Live Branch and will be available to everyone.

If you want to read more about The Balance Update, check out:
Slormite Chronicles #38 Slormite Chronicles #39

And of course: The Patch Notes

I've said this before, but if you want to try the update of The Experimental Branch, it will copy your progress from the Live Branch and you will later be able to keep playing on that save as soon as the Balance Update hits the Live Branch, so you can try it out without losing your progress at any point.

[h2]The Final Update[/h2]
The Final Update, as found in the Road Map, will include:

• A new endgame mode: The Warlords.
  
• The end of the Story.
  
  • Adam Nostrus' Trials Part III.
    
  • The Final Boss.
• About 120 Legendary Effects (to get to 200).
  
• A Level Cap increased to 100.
  

This Update should take us about 2 to 3 months, however this is the update that puts an end to Early Acces and that marks the release of The Slormancer in 1.0. This means that we will have quite a bunch of stuff to do before releasing this update, and the game.

This also includes translating The Slormancer in various languages but more importantly, this includes a big marketing campaign to be sure that we make as much noise as possible when we release the game. This as well, should take a couple of months.

This will be a crucial moment for The Slormancer so we will have to be very careful with how we handle the release and pick a good release window.
We have a release date in mind but that's still too early to tell.

While preparing the release, we will also be moving The Final Update to a Closed Beta branch so that it can be thoroughly tested before going on the Live Branch.

[h2]Legendary Effects[/h2]
We've already started working on The Final Update and now have a complete list of 120 new Legendary Items, that now need to be properly implemented into the game.

Unfortunately, they are currently in a huge sheet so I have nothing to screenshoot and share.
Here's a quick teaser though: We've added Legendary Effects for each Class so that there is at least one Legendary Effect for each Mechanic / Skill and we've also added about 20 Legendary Effects regarding the Ancestral Legacy.

Now here's something new that we've had in mind for quite a while: We're adding a few Legendary Effects for Slorm Reapers. The idea is to boost some Slorm Reapers that need one or more extra effects to make them work.

[h2]Price Change[/h2]
Now that The Slormancer is almost in its final form, we believe that it is no longer correctly priced and we will increase its price by about 25%, altough we're still not quite sure about the final price yet.

We've had our share of Negative Reviews, and we've had feedback on about every single aspect of the game, yet I don't think we've ever seen a Negative Review regarding the price, which is a great. And despite this increase, we would love to keep it this way.

This change will occur in September after our next Slormite Chronicles.
This is only a first notification.

That being said, The Slormancer will be on sales as often as possible, including on its release week so if you haven't bought the game yet, do not feel rushed to buy it now.

That's about it for today!
Cheers!

Hello everyone!

As you may know, we've just published The Balance Update on the Experimental Branch of The Slormancer. It is the result of a couple of months of work on new player experience, balance and changes.

If you've missed the announcement, it's right here!
And if you've missed the Patch Notes, it's right there!

[h2]Balancing Balance[/h2]
Since we published the Patch Notes a few weeks ago, we've been monitoring feedback we got about it and already made a few changes and additions that can be found in the "Changelog" part of the Patch Notes. This includes a few suggestions from our Discord members such as:

• Adding a few Quality of Life changes to The Blacksmith.
  
• Adding new options for the Filter-o-Tron.
  
• Adding more options for Raw / Skill Damage.
  

Now that the update is live, we're still monitoring feedback and plan to make changes and adjustments before releasing the Update on the Live Branch. So please, give it a try and let us know what you think about it.

If you want to jump in The Slormancer, I encourage you to do so on the Experimental Branch, it is now stable enough and introduces many changes to New Player Experience that we would love to get feedback on. And you will be able to keep your save once this Update goes from the Experimental Branch to the Live Branch.

Here's my 100% not biased opinion:
I did a complete Playthrough from Level 1 to the end of Adam Nostrus' Trials right before publishing the Update, and everything felt really good, there is much less friction, everything tends to be unlocked at a much faster pace and it doesn't feel as grindy as it used to be.

And this is very important for us, as much as Endgame balance is. After all, most players tend to stop playing after completing the Story-part of any given game, or stop as soon as the game gets stale or repetitive, so we've made a lot of effort to smoothen the experience.

We may not be quite where we want to be regarding Endgame balance but I believe we got Early Game right, or at least, as right as it can be given the current state of the game and the time we have ahead of us.

On this, I'd like to add that we're at a point where the price for perfection is prohibitive. We're working with limited resources and we're not trying to build a competitive environment so as soon as most players feel that they can build whatever they set their mind to in a respectable timeframe, without feeling the need to build the current metabuild, then we will be happy.

We chose to build an ARPG because we love that genre but unlike most others in the market, we're not trying to build a Game As A Service that will last for a dozen of years. So if the game gets stale or if issues regarding balance or content start to arise after 200+ hours of gameplay, we believe that it is acceptable.

That being said, we will keep updating and balancing the game for a few years, just because we enjoy it.

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
We will keep working on Balance for the next month, while brainstorming and finalizing the content for the Final Update but since we've just released new content, we currently have nothing new to share. Once we get endgame balance in a good enough state, we will move the Update to the Live Branch.

And then... After 3+ years of Early Access and about 15+ Updates... We will move onto The Final Update.
It will introduce:

• A new endgame mode: The Warlords.
  
• The end of the Story.
  
  • Adam Nostrus' Trials Part III.
    
  • The Final Boss.
• About 120 Legendary Effects (to get to 200).
  
• A Level Cap increased to 100.
  

More on this Update in the next Slormite Chronicles.
Meanwhile, please try out The Balance Update in the Experimental Branch!

That's about it!
Cheers!