The Slormancer News

Hello everyone!

As discussed in our latest Slormite Chronicles, I've been working on various aspects of how the Controller behaves, both in menus and in game. Both were causing some frustration and a rework was much needed.

This update introduces major changes to our controller support but I also took the chance to work on other technical and / or quality of life features so everyone has something to look for in this update.
So here goes!

Controller Aim Assist:
Reworked the Auto-Aim system to be much more efficient.
The Auto-Aim should now accurately follow the direction of the ground cursor.
The Auto-Aim should no longer aim for enemies behind walls.
As a result, switching between targets should be much MUCH easier.

When moving with the Left Stick, the system should aim for pretty much any relevant target nearby in front of you. When using the Right Stick, you will be able to more accurately pick a direction FROM the enemy currently being targetted. If you don't like that behavior, I've also added two other options for you to choose from:

"Aim Assist" Setting:
Added an Aim Assist Setting with 3 options:

• Auto Aim: (Default option) Use the Right Stick to navigate between targets.
  
• Semi-Free: Use the Right Stick to Aim. Your aim will adjust to a relevant target in the direction you're aiming.
  
• Free: Use the Right Stick to Aim. No Help.
  

Toggle "Aim Assist":
Added a Bindable Option called "Toggle Aim Assist" that I encourage you to set to R3 (R3 used to be Toggle Enemy Life Bars by default): Toggle Aim Assist will switch from your chosen Aim Assist setting to "Free" and back to your previous choice when you press R3 again.

Visual Feedback

• A Locked Target will now glow with a more distinct stroke and the back of its lifebar will change.
  
• When a Target is locked, the ground cursor will change color.
  

User Interface:
The Left stick can now be used to move a newly added cursor around menus and select any button or hover over any kind of tooltip. This should make the navigation much MUCH smoother.

I've also fixed a couple of weird behaviors:

• Ancestral Tree Menu: Moving the Tree now takes stick sensitivity into account.
  
• Ancestral Tree Menu: You can now properly refund Ancestral Legacy choices with a controller.
  
• Inventory: Enabled Stick/Pad Navigation to Slorm Reapers, Thumbs and pretty much any button.
  
• Inventory: You can now add/remove Traits 10 by 10 by holding RB.
  
• Inventory: You should now be able to navigate through the Slorm Reapers menu without issues.
  
• Inventory: You should now be able to properly close Reaper Runes / Ultimatums notifications with the A button.
  
• The Great Forge: You can now hover over Challenges Effects and Rewards.
  
• Expeditions: Now that everything is clickable, the default button to start Expeditions is now Y instead of A (used to click on things).
  

Bonus:
Button Faces can now be customized between Xbox / PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.

Font Sizes:
Added new Font Sizes called "Biggerer" and "Biggest" which are bigger than the "Bigger" font size.

Search Bars:
Added a Search Function to Skills, Attributes and Slorm Reapers.
The Search Bar in the Ancestral Legacy menu has been moved to the top right out of consistency.

Mouse / Keyboard
You can now bind Side Mouse Buttons (up to 2).


Added a "Target FPS" setting with 4 options: 30, 60 (default), 120 and Uncapped.

This was heavily requested, so here goes.
I haven't been able to test those options on proper hardware, so please let me know if everything is working properly. When playing above 60 FPS, you may notice elements going slower or faster than usual. If you do, please let met know.


Added 21:9 support to The Slormancer.
The following resolutions are now available:

• 2560 x 1080
  
• 3440 x 1440
  

Same as FPS, I haven't been able to test those options on proper hardware, so please let me know if everything is working properly. You may find some UI elements in the wrong places, or unable to click on some buttons.


Added a Zoom setting that allows you to zoom in by 25% and zoom out by 25% (via mouse wheel or via the Settings Menu). It should feel better for people unconfortable with our current level of zoom without breaking the experience.


And here are a couple of bug fixes that I've managed to squeeze in before today.

Act 4:
- Minimap sizes should fit better.
- Arnaldow, The Scarecrow, should no longer stop targetting you when you move too far.
- Chaining missions should no longer cause an inappropriate "Time Played" to be displayed on the Victory screen.

Various:
- Influence should now be properly displayed on the Victory screen (there was a small difference due to Influence Gain stats).
- Victory Screen should now properly display Flasks and Books destroyed in The Mage Academy (major bug!).
- When using Bryan's Portal, "Next Floor" should be displayed, instead of "Next Mission", when applicable.
- The number of possible Reforges displayed at the Blacksmith for Masteries, Reaper Affinity and Attributes should now be the correct values.

Crashes:
- Fixed a Crash when clicking on Flawless Defense occuring in Chinese.


That's about it!
Let us know what you think.

Hello everyone!


In our previous Slormite Chronicles, we've said that the Controller Update was expected to be done in February. I later posted a comment regarding the delay that most of you probably missed:
I had personal things that came up so we had to delay the release a bit. But we can now announce that
The Controller Update will go live on March 7.

Things also got out of control as I felt the need to add more and more features to this update! :D
So the "Controller Update" became a larger beast, now known as "The Technical Update".


I don't want this to turn into a patch notes (that we will publish on March 7 as well) but I'm glad you ask!

[h3]Controller Rework[/h3]
Controller Aim Assist:
I've reworked the Auto-Aim system to be much more accurate and efficient.
I've also added an Aim Assist Setting with different control schemes:

• Auto Aim: (Default option) Use the Right Stick to navigate between targets.
  
• Semi-Free: Use the Right Stick to Aim. Your aim will adjust to a relevant target in the direction you're aiming.
  
• Free: Use the Right Stick to Aim. No Help.
  

On top of that, we've added a new bindable option called "Toggle Aim Assist" that is used to quickly switch between your default Aim Assist option and the "Free" control scheme.

We've been working on visual feedback aswell.

User Interface:
Navigating through menus with a controller used to be really painful. But fear not! Things got much MUCH smoother as you can now use the Left stick to move freely inside menus.

And as mentioned in our previous Chronicle, you will be able to change button faces and choose between Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.


[h3]Wait! There's More![/h3]
We've also been working on various Quality of Life features and technical stuff that should improve the overall experience.

• I've added new Font Sizes called "Biggerer" and "Biggest", bigger than the "Bigger" font size.
  
• You can now bind Side Mouse Buttons (up to 2).
  
• I've added Search Bars (similar to the one in the Ancestral Legacy menu) to Skills, Attributes and Slorm Reapers.
  
• The Slormancer now supports UltraWide and the 2560 x 1080 and 3440 x 1440 resolutions are now available.
  
• The Slormancer now supports 120+ FPS and a "Target FPS" setting has been added by 4 options: 30, 60 (default), 120 and Uncapped.
  
• Last but not least, I've added a Zoom setting allowing you to Zoom Out by up to 25%. It should feel better for people unconfortable with our current level of zoom without breaking the experience.
  

Everything listed above will be available with the "Technical Update" on March 7.


While working on the technical aspect of the game, we've also made progress on The Royal Update that will add a New Environment and 5 New Enemies to The Slormancer.

[h3]New Enemies[/h3]
Here's a preview of our upcoming enemies!



From left to right:

• The Loot Thief
  
• The Decaying Domestic
  
• The Spectrum of Justice
  
• The Ominous Jester
  
• The Undead Paladin
  

[h3]New Environment: The Royal Wing[/h3]
It is actually the very first environment we've built for the game. It has been through a lot and is now ready to come to The Slormancer.



[h3]Bonus Pic![/h3]
As I've said, the Royal Wing was the very first environment we've built for The Slormancer. Behold its first iteration. You can also enjoy the very first designs for The Mighty Knight and Skeleton Soldiers.
Back then, we were super proud of the result. :o




That's about it for now!
Have a nice day everyone and see you tomorrow for the update!

Hello everyone!

It's Chronicle time!


The Luxuriant Update Part II has been out for a week now. So it is time to take a look at the feedback we've got. Basically, we've mostly had positive reactions while negative points that were addressed were almost only about two specific things:

1. The Great Labyrinth Mission is basically too long, boring and uninteresting. We tried something different, it didn't work. But it is pretty simple to take care of so we plan to address this an upcoming Update.
   
2. The Story as a whole, is repetitive and missions get boring fast. This is a much more complex point, and we tend to agree that the Story/Missions part of the game is not one of The Slormancer's strengths. We also believe that reworking each and every mission won't fix this. So we're still looking for solutions.
   

We've allocated 50% of the resources of the company (being one artist) to start working on our next content update: The Royal Update Part I. It will include 5 new enemies and a new environment, so quite a bit of assets to draw.

While the entire tech department (being me) is currently working on a Quality of Life / Controller / Technical update.

And since HyonD, being the fancy artist that he is, doesn't want to share his precious designs (even to me), I'll talk about what I'm doing instead.


Jokes aside, we've had a lot more feedback regarding our controller support lately. It is most likely due to the Steam Deck being more and more popular.

To be honest, the very first iteration of our controller support was not meant to be final, and we aimed for something "good enough" without having the Steam Deck in mind or even thinking about how popular playing on a PC with a controller actually is.

Right now, I'm working on the "True Final Omega Version", not the "Final 001 Version" if you know what I mean, addressing every issue that players have encountered.

The goal here is to get the "Optimal" status for the Steam Deck, instead of the "Playable" that we currently have. On top of that, we've always wanted to get The Slormancer on consoles, so I'm working with that in mind. And ideally, a Switch release could be done without any further adjustments that the ones I'm currently making. So it has to be close to perfect.



Here are the points I'm focusing on:

• Better Menu Navigation: I'm adding a cursor (similar to games like God of War or Assassin's Creed) to easily navigate. And it is much much smoother.
  
• Better Auto-Aim / Aim System: I'm reworking the Auto-Aim to actually work (...) and to be a lot less intrusive when players want to manually aim for their targets.
  
• Bigger Font Size: Pretty self-explanatory. This is mostly for Steam Deck users, but if your setup is to play on a TV with a controller, then you should like this one aswell.
  
• Fixing Various Issues: Such as not being able to select Slorm Reapers, or get Challenges Tooltips inside the forge etc...
  
• More Keybinds options: By allowing every button to be remapped.
  
• Button Faces: Since I'm planning (way ahead) a console port, I've added different controller styles so you will be able to choose the one you want to use (from X-Box, PS & Nintendo Switch / Steam Deck).
  

A cursor, bigger font size and a PlayStation design.

Some points are mostly technical stuff, that are probably hard to understand on paper but very easy to feel ingame. So I'll be looking for more feedback once the update is live. As of right now, if you're a Steam Deck / Controller user and feel like I'm missing something that should be addressed, please let me know.

I'm also adding a couple more options on the way for Mouse + Keyboard users, such as the ability to bind side mouse buttons. I'll be looking to add some more if I have enough time.


I should be done with the "Controller Update" by the end of February.

Quick update about the date (also in the comments).
I was hoping to get it done before the end of February but we unfortunately won't make it. The good news is that it is ready (and actually far more important than I expected), the bad news is that I have personal stuff to take care of (nothing to worry about) and I won't be able to upload it and be around to handle issues that may arise.
For this reason, the update will go live on March 7.


And to reiterate, given the nature of our next content update, working on this will not delay the
addition of new content.


That's about it for now!
Have a nice day everyone!

Hello everyone!



We said January, and we delivered, so yay!
The Patch Notes below looks a lot like Slormite Chronicles #20 since it was a preview of what we were working on. Let's get to it!

[h2]New Mission[/h2]
8 new missions have been added to the game, followed by a glorious boss fight!

In the Luxuriant Gardens, we tried to build a few missions around the maze and the possibilities that it offers without, hopefully, creating tedious missions.

We also introduced a few riddles and small brainteasers throughouth the act.

We are also adding a new Quality of Life -sort of- mechanic: When you complete a mission, you will now be able to move on to the next mission without having to come back to the village everytime.

Once you clear Act IV, you will get your usual Ancestral Stone from Adam Nostrus which leads me to our next part.


This new Ancestral Stone will give you access to 32 new Ancestral Skills.

Here are a few examples of the new Skills you will have access to:




And finally, the Level Cap has been increased to 70.

Quick Quality of Life for The Slorm Temple:
Goldus and Materials are now automatically drawn to you when you clear a Room.

Slorm Reapers:

• Pure Reaper of Temple Keeper is no longer adding its % Pure Slorm bonus twice.
  
• Reaper of Necromancy: Squires should now properly benefit from your stats.
  

The Fierce Huntress:

• Arrow Shot should now be cast properly when using Prime Totems.
  

The Mischievous Mage:

• Switching to a Tier 5 Upgrade after casting Orb of the Temporal Master should no longer crash the game.
  

The Slorm Temple:

• Pure Slorm Reward is now calculated when the Temple Shrine rises up, not when you pick up Pure Slorm.
  

Various:

• You should no longer be able to knock Obelisks back inside The Great Forge.
  
• You should no longer be stuck on Result Screen with a Tutorial Tooltip being shown.
  

That's about it for today.
We didn't have the time to add everything that we wanted in that update (such as reworking the controller or balancing various things) but we believe these can be done in a later update.

And as always, please report any bug that you may find.
Have fun!

Happy New Year everyone!

For this Chronicle, we wanted to do a recap of the year 2022 for The Slormancer and take a moment to appreciate what's been done and how things have changed.

Fun fact: You may not know this but we publish the Slormite Chronicles devlog every 6th of the month, which is the day The Slormancer was released (on April 6, 2021). Everytime we publish a Slormite Chronicles, the game gets one month older, and it is currently 21 months old. \o/


https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3142949576403601336
Slormite Chronicles #9 (January 2022)
For our first Slormite Chronicles of the year, we had quite a bit of an announcement to make. The Slormancer sold 100 000 units which was definitely unexpected for the two of us.
So again, thanks a lot to everyone that made it possible.

We also briefly mentioned the work we were doing on the 19 upcoming Slorm Reapers by revealing the now notorious "Pure Reaper of the Temple Keeper".

This Chronicle led to the first Update of 2022: The Mage Academy Update Part 1 on January 31, adding:

• 19 New Slorm Reapers
  
• 5 New Enemies
  
• A New Environment: The Mage Academy
  
• The Material Tabs for your Inventory
  

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3127189423521555236
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3133947359552796548
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3222896627768113666

Slormite Chronicles #10, #11 and #12 (February, March & April 2022)
During this timeframe, we were mostly working on Part II of The Mage Academy Update which included Act III of the Story, an increased Level Cap, 30 new Ancestral Skills but also 5 new Cataclysms and 2 new Exaltations.

At this point, we were also reworking Act I by reducing the number of mandatory missions, adding Exalted Breaches, and adding diversity to the enemy pool. We also increased the number of Slorm Reaper drops during the Story while increasing the pathing of the early game in various ways.

These 3 Slormite Chronicles led to The Mage Academy Update Part 2 being released on April 18, adding:

• Act 3 and a new Boss
  
• A rework of Act 1
  
• 30 New Ancestral Skills
  
• 7 New Cataclyms & 2 New Exalted Breaches
  
• Chaos Breaches
  

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3218395575733114513
Slormite Chronicles #13 (May 2022)
This is where we started brainstorming an upcoming endgame mode called The Great Forge, while doing so, I felt like adding a couple of highly requested Quality of Life features to the Ancestral Legacy Tree: a search bar and a zoom function.

This led to a small Quality of Life Update released on May 16, adding:

• A Search Bar to the Ancestral Legacy
  
• A Zoom Function to the Ancestral Legacy
  

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3330988087699527445
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3325361215008126727
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3362518992740887891
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3342255406639516854

Slormite Chronicles #14, #15, #16, #17 (June to September 2022)
From June to September, we've worked on The Great Forge and all the elements had to fit in such a mode. This was the HEAVY work of this year and we didn't anticipate for it to take us that long. We also really wanted to create something interesting and unique out of a basic "waves" mode, which led to what's currently in the game. And although The Great Forge has its flaws (we're working on those), it seems like players are having fun.
To build this mode, we've had about 1 month of Brainstorm only which led to dozens of (extremely complex) ideas that we eventually rejected. Then a month working on the Reaper Runes, which were the "Progression system" tied to The Great Forge itself followed by a couple of months to build The Great Forge itself.

All of this came down to The Great Forge Update that was released on September 27, adding:

• A New Endgame Mode: The Great Forge
  
  • A Challenges System
    
  • The War Chest Mechanic & 32 Unique War Chest Effects
    
  • A New Boss
    
  • A New Environment
    
  • The Addition of Obelisks
    
• 28 Reaper Runes:
  
  • 7 Runes of Activation
    
  • 14 Runes of Effect
    
  • 7 Runes of Enhancement
    
• New Currency: The Reapersmith Spirits
  
• New Mechanic: Slorm Reaper Affinity
  
• The Slorm Reaper Forge
  
• A New Slorm Reaper: Fate-Crusher
  
• 4 New Cataclysms
  
• a New Balance to Slorm Reapers Base Damage
  
• Reworks on The Mighty Knight:
  
  • Ascension
    
  • Crest Shield
    
  • Whirlwind
    

So this was definitely a HUGE update. With a little hindsight, 4 months to build all of this seems pretty good. It just didn't feel this way while working on it. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3314110913448715507
Slormite Chronicles #18 (October 2022)

Because of how big The Great Forge Update was and how very little progress it represented, the release was bittersweet and not so satisfying. We were proud of the content that we released but the cost felt too high. Basically, these 4 month represented roughly about 5% of the Road Map.

This left us a bit burnt out, so we decided to focus on basic and easy stuff for a while, and release smaller yet impactful updates at a faster pace.

This is why we posted a new Road Map during Slormite Chronicles #18.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3427829445185536662
Slormite Chronicles #19 (November 2022)
In this Slormite Chronicles, we talked about the Luxuriant Update Part I that was coming up.

This led to The Luxuriant Update Part I being released on November 14, adding:

• 5 New Enemies
  
• A New Environment: The Luxurious Gardens
  
• 5 New Cataclysms
  
• "Super" Elites & Elite Affixes
  
• Reworking Life & Mana Leech
  
• Reworking the pool of Epic Stats
  
• Adding Alternate Slormeline Recipes
  

This took us 6 weeks to get done, which is much more satisfying for us.
And this is a pace we'd like to keep up.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1104280/announcements/detail/3601220554059111339
Slormite Chronicles #20 (December 2022)
This is our latest Slormite Chronicles, in which we talked about our progress on The Luxuriant Update Part II and the various reworks we'd like to get done.

Which is where we are right now.



Right now our goal is to get The Luxuriant Update Part II done before the end of January.

And as we mentioned it in the last Chronicle, it will introduce Act IV, 32 new Ancestral Skills and a new Level Cap (to 70) but "that's about it". Shortly after, we'd like to make an Update focused on various reworks: Controller, Armor & Resistances, Reaper Runes, etc...



As for the rest of year, the goal will be to finish a few sections of the game such as the Story, Environments and Enemies so if we look at the Road Map, this would mean completing:

• The Luxuriant Update II
  
• The Royal Update Part I
  
• The Royal Update Part II
  
• Enemies & Environments
  
• (The Warlords Update on top of that would be extra nice)
  

I'd say this is the core plan, and depending on our mood and the needs of The Slormancer, we will work on other aspects of the game in-between core Updates.

We're feeling good about the future of The Slormancer. We just need to keep working, add content, fix stuff and we'll eventually see the end of it. But it may take more time than anticipated.

That's about it for now!
And again, Happy New Year!

Cheers!