Below the Stone News

[p][/p][h3]🏰 Kingdom o' Quests Update is Live! 🍻🗡️[/h3][p]Greetings, brave delvers! ːsteamthisːːsteamthumbsupː The dwarven realms have grown richer and rowdier with our latest Below the Stone update: Kingdom o' Quests! This patch brings a trove of new content to explore, fight, and drink your way through. Let’s dig in:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]📜 Quests Galore[/h3][p]Open your journal and keep track of some of our new new side quest chains that add depth, danger, and delightful rewards to your journey. Whether you're rescuing lost miners, hunting rare beasts, or uncovering ancient relics, these quests will test your mettle and expand your legend.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]New quest lines to assist new NPCs at the kingdom[/p]
• [p]New Quest tracker in the journal (for all those needing to keep track of game progress)[/p]
• [p]New "Craftmaster" NPC (which we will go into more later!)[/p]
• [p]New "Bartender" NPC with quest line to repair his bar[/p]
• [p]New Bar patrons who visit once the bar is repaired, with repeatable side quests[/p]
• [p]Unique NPCs with personalities as strong as their ale[/p]
• [p]Crafting costs gold now -- so help out some of the folks in the kingdom to earn some coin![/p]
• [p]A new foundation that we will continue to build on in future updates![/p]

[p][/p][h3]🍺 Drinks on us! Welcome to the Tavern[/h3][p]Say hello to your new favorite haunt: The Hollow Hearth Tavern! Nestled in the heart of the dwarven kingdom, this lively locale is more than just a place to grab a pint.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Meet quest-givers, gossip with locals, and hear rumors of treasure[/p]
• [p]A rotating cast of characters and events to keep things fresh[/p]
• [p]A new way to make gold, [/p]
• [p]A new foundation that we will continue to build on in future updates![/p]

[h3]🏹 Ranged Weapons Enter the Fray[/h3][p]Steel isn't the only way to slay anymore. With the introduction of ranged weapons, you can now take down threats from afar with precision and flair.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Craftsmaster will assist you in crafting new ranged weapons after completing her quest[/p]
• [p]New Crossbows[/p]
• [p]New Guns[/p]
• [p]Craftable ammo[/p]
• [p]Ranged playstyle getting more attention as updates go on[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]📜 What this update means for players[/h3][p]A lot of work has gone into foundation that we will continue to build upon in the dwarven Kingdom -- from quests, to ranged weapons, the tavern, a lot of this content will continue to be built on. Another big request we get from players is combat changes, this update allowed us to prepare a lot of what will be seen in our upcoming, and well awaited...[/p][p][/p][p]We want this update to be special, so please let us know what you look forward to most with combat improvements in the game. We want to do an entire pass on the game's combat system, We've already collected a lot of notes on what players have been asking for, but please add your voice to the mix, let us know what you think! We dwarves take each other seriously, and we want to craft the best experience for all our depth dwellers.[/p][p][/p][p]So whether you're a seasoned spelunker or a fresh-faced recruit, the Kingdom o' Quests update adds new layers of adventure and allows a lot of upcoming content to shine. So grab your gear, and head below the stone—there’s glory to be won and ale to be spilled![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Alpha 0.10 - Kingdom o' Quests Update[/h2][h3][New Features][/h3][p]* Added new "Quest" system to bring longer term goals to the game. Quests can be viewed in the Journal.[/p][p]* Added new Bar area in Kingdom with many new NPC's who also offer quests.[/p][p]* Added new crafting NPC called The Craftmaster who allows you the craft things that the Blacksmith can't (glowsticks, ranged weapons, dynamite, etc).[/p][p]* Added 6 new ranged weapons.[/p][p]* Added health regen level 2 potion[/p][p]* Added a gold cost to crafting recipes[/p][p]* Added "low hp recovery" mechanic. If you have less than 20 HP, you will slowly regenerate HP until it reaches 20, but only after a short delay of not loosing more HP. This should help people who have 1 hp and feel doomed in the caves.[/p][p]* Added shale buddies to shale biome.[/p][p]* Added crafting recipes for a few existing items to Craftmaster.[/p][p]* Added guard NPC's to kingdom.[/p][h3][Improvements][/h3][p]* Updated Head Explorer to now use the new Quest system to give the player the "Save NPC quests" that you would previously only get through dialog.[/p][p]* Changed the loot tables of wooden crates and basic treasure chests. Wooden crates now predominantly hold crafting resources, and treasure chests now often drop ammo.[/p][p]* Upgraded ranged weapons' logic to now use an "internal magazine" for holding ammo. Useful for more types of weapons going forward.[/p][p]* Improved cave sweeper to now have a 4 round magazine, allowing you to finally live your dream of properly soaking a cave in bullets.[/p][p]* Crossbow bolt's max stack size set increased to 64[/p][p]* Shotgun shell's max stack size set to a staggering, recording break amount of 128[/p][p]* Balance tweaks to melee weapons to hopefully help smooth out the difficulty curve of Layer 1[/p][p]* Slightly reduced health of some Layer 1 enemies to also help smooth out the difficulty curve of Layer 1.[/p][p]* Webbing potion now has a stack size of 4[/p][p]* Refactored Journal UI[/p][p]* Refactored Crafting UI and reintroduced it for Blacksmith (and used for Craftmaster). Overall quality improvements to the UI's feel.[/p][p]* Updated/Removed/Added various tips that both Kroz and the Head Explorer give to try and help their information feel more useful to players.[/p][p]* Tweaks and improvements to Mole Trader (and his UI) in caves.[/p][p]* Updated the "item drop entity" hit ground sound.[/p][p]* Very slight improvements to player's "light lamp" in caves.[/p][p]* Green Troll now has a mass of 10 (he's a chunky boi) so that shotguns don't push him around as much.[/p][p]* Slightly reduced health of spider cocoon entity.[/p][p]* Reduced drop rates of crossbow bolts from skeletons. You should be getting them from treasure chests now, and crafting them.[/p][h3][Fixes][/h3][p]* Fixed HP bar "low hp animation" not happening for the first heart.[/p][p]* Fixed a noticeable delay from when an "item drop entity" hits the ground, and the sound that plays when it hits the ground. The sound should now play with almost no delay from the item hitting the ground.[/p][p]* Fixed issue where spider cocoon's still had a damage cooldown, which meant it took way too long to break them.[/p][h3][Removals][/h3][p]* The original wooden crossbow's crafting recipe has been disabled. The item has not been removed, but you can no longer craft it. So you will still have it as a token of the past.[/p][p][/p][h3]🛠️ As always, we’re listening—drop your feedback/reports in the Steam forum, as well as our Discord and let us know what you think![/h3][p][/p][p]ːsteamthisːːsteamthumbsupːSee you in the depths, – The Below the Stone Team[/p]

[p]Some people have been asking us what we've been working on, so I think it's due time we do another Steam announcement.[/p][p][/p][p]A lot of our current work is centered around Kingdom NPCs and connecting that to new in-game objectives, such as Quests and Kingdom Upgrades.[/p][p][/p][h2]Improved crafting UI[/h2][p][/p][p]A lot of this work required us to refactor various bits of code so that us programmers don't lose our minds while trying to implement new features.[/p][p][/p][p]
One of which is the refactoring of the Crafting UI. To keep things simple, there were 2 separate files that were essentially copy/pastes of each other, one was for the Blacksmith, and one was for the Alchemist. Since we are adding a new NPC with new crafting recipes, it's high time we refactored that code to something general that would be used by all NPCs.[/p][p]Because maintaining 3 (or more) separate files that do basically the same thing is a programmer's worst nightmare.

Additionally, we have made various nuanced improvements to the "base" crafting ui that all NPCs use. Such as snappier animations, sizing and positioning changes, and proper scaling of certain UI elements based on window resolution.

On that note, the next thing I would like to show is the [/p][h2]Craftmaster.[/h2][p](Work-in-progress screenshot of the Craftmaster and her workshop station.)[/p][p][/p][p]The Craftmaster is a tireless maker of various wonderful gadgets and contraptions, but can also make some typical and important items when needed. She supplies her fellow dwarves with many useful gadgets that other professions in the kingdom simply can't.[/p][p]She is also known to experiment once and a while. Well... Maybe it's all the time. So many projects, but only so much time in a day![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For the player, several of the Blacksmith's crafting recipes will be moved to the Craftmaster, and many new items/recipes will be added to the Craftmaster as well.[/p][p][/p][p](Special armor for different play styles)
[/p][p](^ Some potential new items to be introduced with the Craftmaster ^)[/p][p]All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality![/p][p]https://www.dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Craftsdwarf%27s_workshop[/p][p][/p][h2]Next up, Quests![/h2][p][/p][p]Firstly, a point of clarification. The Foreman gives "missions". "Quests" are similar, but don't have to be completed to exit the caves.[/p][p]The player can accept and complete quests from various NPC's. Some of these quests are relevant to the story, and others will unlock things in the Kingdom. There is a lot more variety potential with Quests compared to Missions. There will even be some quests that serve as something like a tutorial, in that the quest will help introduce the player to important aspects of the game.[/p][p][/p][p](A work-in-progress screenshot of quests showing in the journal)[/p][p][/p][p]Once you start accepting quests, you will be able to see/track them in your journal. When a quest is completed, you go back to the NPC that gave you the quest and it will be removed from your journal, and you will be rewarded.
[/p][p]This new quest system will be used to present the player with the existing "save this NPC" quests that already exist in the game.[/p][p][/p][p]Quests will also be very relevant to our next feature to discuss:[/p][h2]The Bar![/h2][p][/p][p]The bar is an area where you will find many new NPCs with various colorful personalities, and stories to tell. The bar will also be a place where the new quest system will see a lot of use, as the owner of the bar will need your help repairing it and getting it ready for customers again. Other NPCs may also offer special quests with unique rewards.[/p][p][/p][p]Overall, we want the bar to be a lively and atmospheric place that you will want to visit just to see what's going on.[/p][p][/p][h2]Some other good mentions[/h2][p][/p][p]We are also introducing a gold cost to crafting so that there is a bit more meaning behind the gold you all are accumulating.[/p][p][/p][p]We have also added a "low health passive regen" mechanic. This will heal you very slowly over time if your health is under 20 hp. It will help you out when you're in a rough spot with only 1 hp left and still need to escape the cave.[/p][p]Additionally, we have internally talked about introducing random fireplaces in the caves that you can ignite and cook foods that give you special buffs. We have not started work on this yet, but it's a highly anticipated idea.[/p][p][/p][h2]This is all for now[/h2][p]I know I am probably missing some smaller things we have done already, but I have covered all the major stuff we have either done or are currently working on.[/p][p][/p][p]If you wish to ask us anything regarding Below The Stone or learn anything else about what we are working on, we can be reached on our Discord server. https://discord.com/invite/MW72QReXKh[/p][p]We typically post what we are working on there.[/p][p][/p][p]Anyways, thank you for reading.[/p][p]We hope you are digging it![/p]

We threw up our arms and said:
"You know what, this is getting out of hand. It's time we show these bugs who's in charge here!"
We really went crazy with this one. But we hope this helps make the game feel a lot more stable and polished.

Enjoy!

[h2]Alpha 0.9.1 - Bug Annihilation Update[/h2]

[h3][New Features][/h3]
* Added new escape theme (new music)
* Added cursed lodestone decor bricks (and added them to their respective structures)
* Added coal ore spawns to layer 2
[h3][Improvements][/h3]
* Added 3 more potions to gold loot chest
* Torch crafting recipe now gives 16 torches rather than 15
* Added logging for each time player generates a new cave system
* Reduced torch melee reach from 1.3 to 1.1
* Improvements to music crossfading in situations where it happens
* Small adjustment to escape sequence
[h3][Fixes][/h3]
* Fixed issue where knockback could be applied even when melee attacks were out of range
* Fixed issue where dashing while stun locked would still consume stamina
* Fixed issue where standing on top of a "broken drill pod" while fully repairing it would cause the player to instantly jump into the repaired pod, effectively ending the run, without realizing that would happen. You will now be prompted if you wish to leave.
* Fixed oddity where repairing a drill pod, and then pressing "summon drill pod" would effectively teleport the same drill pod to a different location based on the summon drill pod logic. It now creates a separate pod.
* Fixed dialog UI appearing behind minimap
* Fixed dialog UI appearing behind "deploy drill pod" button
* Fixed "old goblin" journal sprite and description
* Fixed issue where the "focus player" button on the Megamap would not be visible/clickable depending on your resolution
* Fixed some visual issues with tooltips in crafting UI
* Fixed a bug where the player could be killed while using the "layer escape hole" when it takes you back to the kingdom
* Fixed various sounds (including UI sounds) not being affected by current volume settings (and sliders)
* Fixed sort point of web cocoon entity
* Fixed some cursed lodestone structures using the wrong Megamap icon
* Fixed issues related to game unpausing while still on pause (ESC) menu
* Fixed issue where some sounds that should be treated as "sound effects" in the space of the game, but instead are treated as UI sounds, resulting in their volume being 100% and not attenuating with distance
* Fixed some minor visual/sorting issues with boomerang projectile
* Fixed issue where lodestone golems could still be damaged by other damage sources like projectiles
* Fixed controller icons not showing in several spots
* Fixed controllers not being able to access general settings
* Fixed baby spooder having strange movement compared to what it previously was
* Fixed fire troll also having strange movement compared to what it previously was (Also disabled collider and hitbox when doing his jump attack)
* Fixed some invisible objects in the tutorial scene

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



We've been hard at work in the mines addressing player feedback here, and wanted to make the game fit to everyone's playstyle. Based on your reviews, and your feedback, we have EVEN MORE HARDCORE elements for our roguelike-iest players to select, and also added easier playstyle adjustments for those who want to have a more casual time in the caves.

For our hardcore players...Locked away behind new dungeons to explore, there are Cursed Lodestones ~ Interacting with cursed lodestones now points you to the boss dungeon, buffs existing enemies, and eventually spawns the new Nightmare creature, BUT also rewards you by guiding you to layer 2 + gives you bonus loot when you open chests, mine, and kill enemies. And for our more casual dwarves... Players can buy back their gear from the goblin trader Imogen (this was already in, but we never mentioned it in a video and we also fixed how it would not save when you closed the game)... HOWEVER beware the curse of these lodestones, as they will make your items impossible to recover once you activate them! Play with cursed demonic magic, and taste the cursed flames. There's also a new mission type, elite enemy kill mission now available at Foreman.









With all these changes, we want to hear back from YOU the players, through all your amazing reviews letting us know what you like, and also letting us know any bugs or issues or features you'd like on our Discord community.


[h2]Alpha 0.9 - Demonic Dealings Update[/h2]

[h3]Key Feature:[/h3]
We have completely reinvented the "caves awakening" system from the ground up. Shades no longer spawn after being in the caves for X amount of time. Instead, shades are manually summoned through "Cursed Lodestones" found in new structures that spawn in the caves. Cursed lodestones grant certain buffs to the player, but in exchange, you are constantly pursued by shades. For each cursed lodestone you activate, you gain more and more buffs, and invite more and more dangerous shades to attack you. This all resets when you exit a layer.
The goal of these changes is to again allow people to play in the caves for as long as they want, while giving other players a more difficult experience, if they choose.
A hardcore mode, if you will.

[h3][New Features][/h3]
* Added Cursed Lodestone
* Added 6 new "Cursed Lodestone structures"
* Added Cursed Lodestone Guardians
* Added fire turrets
* Added new "kill elite enemy" mission to replace the existing "kill specific creature" mission
* Added Layer 2 chest (currently spawns in goblin structures)
* Added boomerang
* Added break action shotgun
* Added comically large spoon
* Added throwable flares (green and orange) that you can have a blast throwing around!

[h3][Improvements][/h3]
* Completely remade Nightmare shade (potentially fixing some bugs along the way)
* Improved the "buy back lost items" feature in Imogen Shopkeep to persist the lost items over game sessions
* Tweaks to various loot tables for chests
* Reduced the spawn radius of the Mole Trader to allow for him to be discovered more often
* Various additions and improvements to Mole Trader trades to add a bit more utility to him
* Small change to torch recipe
* Other various refactors and improvements to keep the programmers sane

[h3][Fixes][/h3]
* Fixed an error with falling kobolds
* Did we fix some bugs? Yea. Do we remember what they were? Not really. Maybe that's a good thing...

A happy holidays to all our depth dwellers! 20% off BELOW THE STONE!!!









We got plenty for you to dig into, from new enemies to fight, sub-biomes being implemented, new biome hazards such as falling shale rocks and slippery ice, as well as new unique layer 2 structures to explore!

This update was spent adding more content that players have been asking for with layer 2, and there is much more coming your way with our following updates we have planned.





In January, we hope to have a public road map to show what we're planning for our 1.0 release of Below the Stone. We want to make 2025 the big year of Below the Stone! Please join our Discord for more news on this as time goes on.



[h2][New Features][/h2]
* Introduced "sub biomes" where a single biome will have other smaller biomes that can generate within it. For this update, the Ice Biome is now a sub-biome of the Arctic biome.
* Added many new static decor objects to many Layer 2 biomes
* Added "ice slick" entity to ice biome. Stepping on it gives you a cartoonish speed boost.
* Added Ice Slime
* Added Ice Bat
* Added Rock Golem
* Added Tiny Little Rat
* Added Goblin (just a basic goblin)
* Added Kamikrazy Goblin (he loves his comically large dynamite)
* Added Baby Radiation Scorpion
* Added stamina regen potion
* Added ore glow potion
* Added "biome welcome ui" that appears when you enter a new biome for the first time. Now you know what they are called!
* Added falling shale hazard to shale biome
* Added the ability to buy back certain items that you lost from your previous death (at goblin trader). This currently does not persist across game sessions.
* Added many new goblin structures to Layer 2 to replace the existing kobold structures on Layer 2.
* Added Stabilizing Crystal item (found in geode biome)
* Added Ectoplasm Crystal item (found in haunted biome)
* Added Ripe Lava Leaf (drops from lava ferns)
* Added Fire Troll Fur (drops from fire troll)
* Added sound that plays when an item drop hits the ground

[h2][Improvements][/h2]
* Refactored and Updated character movement (both player and other creatures) to be more realistic. Objects now have proper surface friction when on the ground, and don't when in the air. Due to this, objects now also move slower in water.
* Ice is now slippery
* Fixes+Changes to how knockback is calculated
* Updated radiation crystals to play a low hum when you stand close to them, but they also deal small damage. Highly recommend checking them out.
* Nerfed bone's (skeletons) melee damage from 20 to 15, and ranged damage from 15 to 13. Also slightly buffed the basic goblin enemy, since it is meant to be mostly a Layer 2 creature. This is to help make general combat on Layer 1 more forgiving for new players, we hope.
* Various minor adjustments to the spawn rates of static entities on Layer 2.
* Changed ordering of biomes on Layer 2.
* Various updates to existing Layer 2 static entities
* Lava fern now spawns sparsely in shale biome
* Various improvements to sound
* "Escape Pod Summon" sound now plays positionally in the game's space. So it's generally quieter, and you can hear if the escape zone is to your left or right.
* Very tiny changes to bat ai. They may be less likely to make small flight paths now.
* Small change to Haunted Skull ai to give an opportunity to the player to hit them twice before orbiting again.
[h2][Fixes][/h2]
* Fixed tooltips for applied effects
* Fixed some visual issues with some particle effects
* Fixed a bug where players could dash through gate entities in structures, this also means that creatures can't see you through gates as well.
* Fixed unnoticeable error messages that would happen when the player opened the sound settings menu.
* Fixed Haunted Skull journal description being a copy/paste from the small slime.