The Slormancer News

Hello everyone!

If you're not a regular Slormite Chronicle reader, or if you're not following the Road Map of the game, here's a quick recap: We're currently working on the last part of "The Mage Academy Update" which will introduce a new end game mode called The Great Forge. We haven't revealed much about it yet, but everything's coming along nicely.

We have lots to talk about, so let's get to it.

Gameplay and Rewards



I'll start with what we've made the least progress on. We've worked on a few things, including the environment itself. We also have most of the mechanics down but everything is still very rough around the edges.
But basically, here's what you can expect in The Great Forge:
Your goal will be to outlast as many waves as possible to get as much rewards as possible. Easy.

Every few waves (we still have to figure out the pacing) you will be facing Cory's Challenges:
You will have to make a choice between 3 Challenges that will either add a new Cataclysm for the next few waves, make enemies stronger for the rest of the run, increase the number of enemies, add elites to the next waves, add new attack patterns to the boss, increase its spawn chance, spawn a new type of enemy we're working on, etc...

You may have guessed it, we're introducing a new boss (codename "Siege Leader") that will randomly spawn during The Great Forge and that will get stronger over time.

Each Challenge will have a different / bigger Reward based on its difficulty. Once you complete a Challenge, and once you feel like you have completed enough Challenges or that the difficulty of the cumulated Challenges is getting out of hand, you will be able to leave The Great Forge and collect your rewards.

The reward system inside The Great Forge will allow you to unlock new Reaper Runes (which we talk about below), or upgrade Reaper Runes you already own, or Reapersmith Spirits (which we talk about below as well). That's on top of more regular rewards such as Goldus, Slorm, Equipment and such. We're also adding a "multiplier" type of reward such as "The value of your next Rewards are increased by 25%" or "The value of your current rewards are increased by 10%".

Wraths will work just like in Battlefield Expeditions: Enemies will be stronger but Rewards will be better.

That's the very basic idea behind The Great Forge and we'll be able to share actual screenshots and informations in the next Slormite Chronicle.

The reward system will also tend to reward you with Reaper Runes and Reapersmith Spirits related to the Slorm Reaper you're using. As an example, Challenges that reward you with 3 Astorias Spirits will instead reward you with 9 Astorias Spirits if you're currently using a Slorm Reaper wrought by Astorias.

One of our goals with The Great Forge is to emphasize a bit more on Reapersmiths.



Reapersmith Spirits:
We're adding 7 new currencies called Reapersmith Spirits.
Each Spirit is tied to a Slorm Reaper Reapersmith (or family):

• Spirit of Astorias
  
• Spirit of Adrianne
  
• Spirit of Beigarth
  
• Spirit of Cory
  
• Spirit of Smaloron
  
• Spirit of Fulgurorn
  
• Spirit of Hagan
  

We're adding a new layer called Reaper Runes. We've explored a different approach from what we talked about in the last Slormite Chronicle. Basically, our goal is to create a new "minor" layer of customization for the player, that reuses Hall-of-Fame Slorm Reapers effects in different ways.

There are three types of Reaper Runes: Activation Runes, Effect Runes and Enhancement Runes.
Right now, there are:
7 Activation Runes (1 for each Reapersmith)
14 Effect Runes (2 for each Reapersmith)
7 Enhancement Runes (1 for each Reapersmith)

The idea is to combine 1 of each to create a unique Effect that suits your build the most.
The only rule is that you cannot use an Effect Rune that is the same as your current Slorm Reaper.

DISCLAIMER: Reaper Runes have not been tested or balanced yet so do not take values inside these tooltips for granted. They will most definitely be changed.

Activations Runes offer various trigger conditions. Once you meet the trigger condition, you trigger the associated Effect Rune.



Effect Runes grant you a temporary buff or a single trigger strongly inspired by Slorm Reapers.



And finally, Enhancement Runes allow you to upgrade your Effect Runes or modify your Activation Rune to customize the effect even more.



Each Rune can be upgraded up to Level 15 by using Reapersmith Spirits at Cory Ironbender's Shop or by playing inside The Great Forge where you can loot Rune Upgrades via the reward system.

Just like Slorm Reapers or Equipment, you will be able to change each Rune at any moment.

Slorm Reapers Levels from Equipment
First and foremost, we are removing the bonus Levels that are granted by Equipment to Slorm Reapers.
This will be replaced by Slorm Reaper Affinities, a layer that we will talk about below that is both more progressive and more flexible.
Here are the reasons for that change:

1. The original goal was to ease the transition from a Slorm Reaper to another by allowing the player to purchase the first few levels, which almost never happens.
   
2. The upgrade is not progressive enough. Most of the time, players get to the beginning of the end game (which is when you start using the Blacksmith) with a Level 70 Slorm Reaper and get their +55 Levels for a small amount of Goldus. This usually tend to double or even triple the Damage of the Slorm Reaper without any form of progression.
   
3. When thinking about the +55 levels, we unfortunately completely ignored the fact that some Slorm Reapers had a much stronger Damage multiplier than others. These +55 Levels are not equal for every Slorm Reaper at all.
   
   Here are couple of examples of the Level 100 / 155 differences:
   The Most Powerful Reaper:
   At Level 100: 3524 - 5502 Damage
   At Level 155: 13228 - 20686
   So about a 275% Increase of the Max Damage Range.
   
   Reaper of Necromancy:
   At Level 100: 377 - 527
   At Level 155: 717 - 1005
   So about a 90% Upgrade in Max Damage Range.
   
   It means that a Slorm Reaper that does not have a strong Damage multiplier gets even worse at level 155. This was never intended. We kind of forgot how fast multipliers tend to go.
   

Slorm Reapers Affinity
Slorm Reapers Affinity is a new type of Upgrade that you will be able to purchase at Cory Ironbender's shop with the use of Reapersmith Spirits.



There are 7 Slorm Reaper Affinities, one for each Reapersmith.
Each can be upgraded up to Level 100 using Reapersmith Spirits that you can find in The Great Forge.

The previous Slorm Reaper Levels granted by Equipment will be replaced by Slorm Reaper Affinity. And for the sake of round stuff, it will be capped at 50.

This means that when the update comes out, your Reaper Damage will be reduced, especially if you're playing with The Most Powerful Reaper or a Slorm Reaper with a high Damage multiplier.
For The Most Powerful Reaper, if you had it at Level 155, you will get back to:
3524 - 5502 + 25% = 4 405 - 6 877 Reaper Damage.

After a bit of farming in The Great Forge, you will be able to get back to :
3524 - 5502 + 75% = 6 167 - 9 628 Reaper Damage.
That's about a 50% nerf in the end (Since Level 155 was 13 228 - 20 686 Reaper Damage).

So you will be able to exceed Level 100 and get to Level 150 with the dedicated Equipment.
However, Levels you purchase from Cory are permanent and bound to your save (not your Character).
Slorm Reaper Affinity is a way to permanently upgrade the strength of all the Slorm Reapers of the same "family". They get stronger, are easier to Level and it is also easier to trigger their Primordial form.

Balancing Slorm Reapers' Damage
Most Slorm Reapers are often immediately disregarded by players as soon as they are found because they simply lack Reaper Damage. And even though they add fancy effects or powerful synergies, they cannot compete with the strongest Slorm Reapers (such as The Most Powerful Reaper).

When designing Slorm Reapers, we either try to create a Reaper that is strong from the start that does not require the player to build around it but that does not scale well in the late game or the complete opposite: a Reaper that does not immediately shine but get immensely stronger when you build properly around it.

Easier said than done. And unfortunately, we tend to not give enough Reaper Damage to these Reapers, which lead them to never see the light.

So with this update we are also buffing the base damage of all the Slorm Reapers that needs it, by a lot, if necessary. Our goal here is not to nerf The Most Powerful Reaper for no reason (which is done by removing the +55 Levels from Equipment). We actually want players to find creative options with their Slorm Reapers and get back to what The Most Powerful Reaper was offering with a dedicated build and a good use of synergies. Not just brute force.


Unlocking Slorm Reapers for the first time feels natural and happens at a pace that we currently like, however, we want to change (or at least add new options to) how Slorm Reapers are unlocked for your other classes.
Right now, if you find a Slorm Reaper (even a Primordial Reaper) with The Fierce Huntress and think "oh this would be nice on my Mage", then you basically have to grind until RNG gets you the Reaper you want, which can take quite a bit of time. And for Primordial Slorm Reapers, you then have to farm it all the way back to their Primordial form.

This is why we are introducing a way to forge Slorm Reapers.
To be able to forge a Slorm Reaper, you simply must have found it with at least one other character. This includes Primordial Slorm Reapers as well, though you will also need the regular version to be able to forge a Primordial version.

Reapersmith Spirits costs are heavily subject to change.


If you're curious about the last button in Cory Ironbender's shop. It is where you'll get to purchase a new and unique Slorm Reaper called "Fate-Crusher, Reaper of the Seven".




That's about it for new stuff.

This Chronicle has introduced quite a bit of changes on top of new things being added, so please let us know what you think about all this.


As for the release date.
To be honest, this is the biggest update we've made so far and we're not yet done. So please be patient a little longer, we're getting there. And I believe it'll be worth the wait.

Our best guess for a release date is mid-August.

We're falling behind on the Road Map, but we believe that's a good thing. After all, this update will add an unplanned boss, an unplanned environment and an unplanned layer of customization, on top of various unplanned changes and features. :)

Have a nice day everyone!

Hello everyone!

If you've been following the Road Map, you are well aware that the next update is the release of The Great Forge, a new endgame mode.

In this Chronicle, we'll talk a bit more about the mode itself, why we can't give a release date yet and what went wrong during development (nothing to worry about, just a few stepbacks).


When we first thought about The Great Forge, the most important thing we wanted it to be was some form of "Endless Waves" type of challenge. Something that looked a bit like some of the Wave-based missions that you can find in the story coupled with the pace of Chaos Breaches.

That hasn't changed, so you can definitely expect a Wave-based mode out of The Great Forge.

However, we've been trying to add our own touch to the mode, and that's were things went wrong. We've tried a few concepts and different approaches regarding rewards or progression that were not working the way we wanted to.

To understand how we try to design an endgame mode, we try to offer:

1. A different gameplay loop. Something that moves away from what you can see in Battlefield expeditions, which is the default "Clear Breaches->Clear Floor->Repeat" gameplay loop.
   
2. A form of Progression inside the mode, so you can see yourself progress and unlock new things.
   
3. A form of "Meta-Progression" which should be a new layer a progression that makes you stronger even in other modes. So besides just fun, it should be the one good reason for players to play that mode.
   

For The Slorm Temple, the different gameplay would be the different environment, the fact that you're playing against a timer and against The Temple Keeper and the various Traps waiting for you inside.
The Progression would be to reach the latest floor and defeat the final Temple Keeper while unlocking upgrades that makes your life easier. As for the Meta-Progression, it would be to unlock Ultimatums and purchase Pure Stats related upgrades.

A wild screenshot appears. What's a Great Forge without Lava ?

Just for fun, I'll talk about some of the design ideas we had for The Great Forge.
Please note that they were discarded for the time being at this very moment in development but they may come back later down the road if we find a better approach to implement them.

- The Tower Defense Hybrid: At first, we tried to mix a Wave-based mode with Tower Defenses mechanics. So basically, you had one large arena with various paths where enemies would come in to try and destroy the Forge you had to defend. And you had various towers you could drop on the battefield to help you out. This is the VERY basic idea and I'm not going to detail everything that was involved but basically the main issue was that in the current state, most endgame players would simply not need the help of towers to clear what we could throw at them, regardless of number or scaling. The pace was also pretty slow and involved the player going back and forth between the various lanes. We came up with solutions for these issues but they also came up with their own problems which is why we dropped it. We had super cool ideas for upgrades related to Towers and a very nice Talent Tree that came with it though. :(

- The Reaper Runes: We've tried our best to implement this one, and it may very well come into the game later once we figure out how to make it work. Basically, we wanted to give the player the ability to extract effects from Slorm Reapers in the form of Runes that could then be equipped without using the Reaper itself.
Let's say you wanted to extract effects from Adam Nostrus' Reaper: after a bit of farming inside The Great Forge, you would end up with a Reaper Rune with the effect "Whenever you open a Breach, you gain Adam's Blessing, granting you +20% Attack Speed for the next 5 seconds" and/or another Rune with the "+21 Raw Damage" or with the "+15% Attack Speed" from it.



The player would have 3 Rune Slots where he could equip either Minor Runes (containing "Minor" simple effects and taking up 1 Rune Slot) or Major Runes (containing "Major" effects such as new Ancestral Skills or Synergies and taking up 2 Rune Slots).
What's cool about this idea is that disregarded effects from Reapers deemed too weak could very combine very well with another.
We were not happy with our integration with The Great Forge and couldn't find a proper way to balance the whole thing, so we discarded the idea for now.



What's important is that we came to the conclusion that both ideas (besides the fact that they were flawed and that we still had to fix many blanks) were potentially adding a great number of balance issues that we would later have to fix. And of these, we already have more than enough.

So we're going the other way around: instead of adding fancy things that may very well break the game even more, we're instead looking at some of the issues that needs to be adressed and use the Great Forge as a way to fix them.

This means we're shifting toward a lighter mode, and we will probably go easy on new mechanics, but we really feel like our ideas went too far for where we currently are in development and what our goals currently are, which is to deliver a top-notch 1.0, with a balanced experience, within a respectable timeframe.

The Great Forge, HyonD, 2022. Work in progress


Besides The Great Forge, the next update will also contain a number of fixes and changes regarding Slorm Reapers.

As I've mentioned above, The Great Forge will offer various solutions to some issues we're facing with Slorm Reapers.

Below is the list of issues but the solution for those is still a work in progress. :)

1. We want to ease how regular Slorm Reapers are unlocked with other classes. Basically, if you find a super cool Reaper with your Knight and want to try it out with your Mage, then it should be easier than the classic "pray and farm" technique.
   
2. We also want to ease how Primordial Slorm Reapers are unlocked. The very first Primordial Slorm Reaper you get should remain quite a feat. However, subsequent Primordial Slorm Reapers should be easier to obtain.
   
3. Unlocking Primordial Slorm Reapers should also be drastically easier when you are trying to unlock it for the second or third time on a different class.
   
4. Primordial Slorm Reapers should be much more fun to unlock. Right now the feeling once you unlock a Primordial Slorm Reaper is negative since you know you have to farm from scratch again.
   Basically, there's an abysmal difference between what's required to get the Primordial Slorm Reaper and what you actually feel once you get it. And this has to change.
   
5. We're also looking at reducing the difference of damage between the different Reapers in order to emphasize the mechanics and not only their damage.
   

We're also considering adding a new option from Professor Geranium where you would leave a Slorm Reaper to him and he would work on unlocking its Primordial form while you do your own stuff, just like "Pokemon daycare" if you're familiar with the idea.
This would be on top of other solutions we plan to bring to ease the whole Primordial process but I thought I'd mention it.


Besides Slorm Reapers and Great Forges, we're also reworking a couple of skills from The Mighty Knight for the next update. Right now, we've only changed the "mechanic/feeling" of said skills which should be enough to make them enjoyable.

• Ascension has been reworked so that it is an actual Movement Skill. It's basically much faster and with a smoother jump that doesn't interrupt your rhythm.
  
• Whirlwind has been reworked to feel much better. Most changes were minor but completely changed the feeling: Whirlwind no longer "ticks" every few frames but immediately hits enemies that come within its range. The range is slightly larger and the Cooldown is slightly shorter. Oh, and the Knockback has been removed.
  
• Crest Shield has been reworked so that you are no longer locked in a "Cast" state. So you can now move normally and cast other Skills (or other Crest Shields even) while a Shield is moving.
  

Well, it seems like I had a lot of things I wanted to say, even though we've been struggling with progress lately. And as you can see, development is not a linear process.
We hope you had fun reading it.

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

Hello everyone!

In 0.4.2, we are introducing a couple of Quality of Life changes for the Ancestral Legacy Tree and a a few bug fixes.

Once we know this patch does not add gamebreaking issues, we'll move on
This update is mostly about fixing bugs.
Some are new, some are really old.


- There is now a Search Function in the Ancestral Legacy Tree.
- You can now zoom in / out of the Ancestral Legacy Tree.

Technical Issues:
- Borderless Full Screen should be working properly again at startup.

Story:
- Temppopotamus' Bastion should no longer drop a Necromanchovy Emblem.

Attributes:
- Bravery 30 is now properly removed by ANY Critical Strike dealt by you or a source under your control.

The Fierce Huntress:
- Wandering Arrow should no longer target enemies while you are in Bryan's Circle of Protection.
- Immortal Arrow should now grant the proper amount of Instructions.
- Heavy Explosive Projectile Auto Aim System should now aim with more accuracy.
- Self Control should no longer be gained while being Delighted or Tormented.

Reapers:
- Power Crystals from the Ancestral Legacy Reaper should no longer target enemies while you are in Bryan's Circle of Protection.
- Reaper of Retaliating Foresight should now properly trigger at the correct range.
- Sight of Vengeance now explicitly mentions a range of 3 yards in the tooltip.

Legendaries:
- Fenren's Barrage Shot should no longer disable itself when you get back to the village.

Various:
- Enshrining Ancestral Stones now only occur when releasing the mouse button. As a result, dragging the Ancestral Tree around should be smoother.
- Friedrich should now always properly trigger its dialogue when you've unlocked him (and unlock additional features).
- The Avenger Cataclysm should no longer trigger on Reaper of Necromancy's minions.
- Chaos Breaches will now spawn enemies slightly faster (this is more Balance than a bug being fixed though).
- Fixed a few typos.

Crashes:
- The game should no longer crash while a minion under your control is attacking while you have Finesse and Free Membership equipped.
- The game should no longer crash while a minion under your control is attacking while you have Fury
45 equipped.


That's about it for now.
I really wanted to fix more bugs for this patch but couldn't find the time this week.

Once we know this patch does not bring a gamebreaking issue, we'll move on to working on new content for a while.

Have a nice day everyone!

Hello everyone!


If you've been following the Road Map, you know that we're one endgame mode away from finishing the second part and move on to another update cycle.

The endgame mode we're talking about is called The Great Forge (the name may or may not change before it gets released) and we have the ambition to make something Great out of it, otherwise it would be called The Average Forge, or The Meh Forge.
With each endgame mode we try to build, we try our best to offer a different experience, new features and new mechanics that keep the game fresh and exciting for a bit longer.

That being said, we know we've rushed the very first version of The Slorm Temple so we had to rework most of it later on to get to something we're proud of.

And this is something we do not want to reproduce, so we're taking our time to brainstorm and test multiple versions of our vision for The Great Forge until we get something that clicks well.

Building a new endgame mode is much trickier than say designing new Slorm Reapers or new Enemies because we can basically go in any direction: The Great Forge could be about you being a cook and gathering vegetables to create meals that can boost your stats, or be about you hunting monsters that you can later on use as pets or mounts, or something entirely different.
We want to make sure we go with something that is relevant, fun and also not totally out of scope for a 2-man team.

We currently have the concept down (though we believe it is too early to talk about it) and are itterating through various ideas and features that may or may not be in the final cut. Once we have everything planned, we'll be able to let you know what it is all about.
Also, if we plan everything correctly, then the coding/building part should not take too long.


That leads me to my next point: While brainstorming and designing stuff is fun, I also really like to just code tangible things so I've been hard at work fixing bugs (or almost fixing them) and implementing some highly anticipated Quality of Life Improvements.

So behold...

The Ancestral Legacy Tree! BUT IT HAS A SEARCH BAR!!!1!!

Looking for Fire-related Skills?


Or Auras?


You can type all sorts of stuff.


...
Also! The Ancestral Legacy Tree can be Zoomed in!
Which is not super useful.


But it can be Zoomed OUT!
Plus, you can combine it with the Search! How great?!


We plan to deploy these changes on Monday the 16th (so in about 10 days from now). That will leave us a bit of room to fix another round of bugs and add a couple more small Quality of Life upgrades.
After that, we'll move on to actually building The Great Forge.

Also, The Ancestral Legacy Tree Zoom + Search function have been requested (multiple times) on our Discord where we have a Suggestions section that we use a lot to get a feel of how bad players want this change or that change into the game.

So if you have an idea of an improvement or a Quality of Life upgrade you'd like to see, feel free to join the Discord and we'll see what can be done. You can also post your idea here as a reply of this post or as a new thread on our forums.

That's about it for now!
See you in a few days for the next Patch!

Hello everyone!

This update is mostly about fixing bugs.
Some are new, some are really old.

Progression:
- Doing one of the optional missions in The Graveyard should no longer unlock Mission 12 "Undeads only live Twice".
- Missions requiring the player to find an Emblem can now be properly redone.

Act III Boss:
- The seal in front of Alarin while he casts should be more easy to see.
- The seal that needs to be activated should more easy to spot as well.

- The Victory OST should no longer loop indefinitely.
- You can no longer hide in the corners of the room to avoid the Multi-Projectile attack.

Critical Strikes Triggers:
Some Critical Strikes Triggers were not properly triggered by "Indirect" Damage (Any source of Damage that was not from your Primary/Secondary/Support Skill).
The following Effects are now properly triggered by ANY Critical Strike Damage dealt by you (this does not include Minions under your control).
- The Mighty Knight: Building a Wall (Gain a Block Stack)
- The Fierce Huntress : Free Membership (Reduces Finesse's Cooldown)
- The Fierce Huntress : Golden Strikes (Chance to loot Goldus)
- The Mischievous Mage : Shut Down (Silence Enemies)
- Attributes: Fury 45 (Increases Primary Skill Attack Speed)
- Attributes: Determination 15 (Increases Life on Hit)
- Attributes: Bravery 30 (Removes Strider Stacks)
- Reapers: Ancient Ancestral Legacy Reaper (Grants Ancient Legacy stacks)
- Legendary: Gazloka's Conquest (Grants Conquest Stacks)

Ancestral Legacy:
- Burning Rage now properly displays a visual effect on enemies.
- Enemies hit by Burning Rage now properly engage the player.
- Walking Bomb's Damage is now properly affected by Area Increased Effect.
- Lightning Arks should now properly target an enemy nearby and not the same enemy.
- Lightning Rod's tooltip should now display the correct value.
- Twitching Warp should no longer let you move out of bounds.
- Icy Veins is now tagged as an Area of Effect and the Radius of Effect has been added to the tooltip.
- Agent of Shield should now properly attract all Shield Globes to you.

Slorm Reapers:
- Primordial Reaper of the Goldfish now properly denies Greater Traits only.
- Primordial Reaper of the Sleepy Butterfly should no longer increase the Cooldown of your Ancestral Legacy Skills.
- The wording of Reaper of Retaliating Foresight has been changed to better reflect the effect. :)

Legendaries:
- Soul Eating Mantle should now be properly triggered with Burn Damage.

The Fierce Huntress:
- Delightful Rain stacks should now be properly removed when unequipping the Skill or the Upgrade.
- Using Tumble right before a Boss cinematic should no longer move you out the room.
- Multiple Ravenous Daggers from the same trigger now properly deal damage to the same enemy

The Mischievous Mage:
- Speed Gate now grants the proper amount of Movement Speed.
- Arcane Clones casting Arcane Barrier should now only cast it once and not cost Mana over time.

Cataclysms:
- Projectiles from Fury of the Storm are now properly categorized as Projectiles instead of AoE.
- The Wrath Multiplier is now properly calculated in the tooltips of Fury of the Storm and Shadow Curse.

Extras:
- Steam Screenshots should be working again.
- Sound from The Slorm Temple should now properly stop when you exit the Expedition.
- Level and Reinforcement Level of Items are now properly displayed in Inventory on smaller/larger resolutions.
- Mana on Hit and Mana on Kill should now be working properly even when the player has Mana Leech.

- Additional Informational Tooltips (such as Fireballs, Frostbolts, Arcane Clones or Inner Fire) are now always displayed after being idle for a few frames on your Skills or Ancestral Legacy menu instead of having to hover.
- Missing Informational Tooltips should now be properly displayed.

Performance:
- The script preventing enemies from staking up has been reworked.
This means performance should be better (although maybe not noticeable unless you used to pack dozens of enemies) when large amounts of enemies are on screen and packed or being packed with Skills.


- Elite Strict Tutors: Reflected Projectiles from Elite Tutors have been drastically slown down.
- Elite Stric Tutors: There is now a 1 second delay between the activation of the dome and the moment the dome can actually reflect Projectiles.


That's about it for now.
I'll be working on another bug-fixing patch that will also include a couple of very requested Quality of Life upgrades. Once it's done, we will move on to the next update.