Ephemeral Tale News

Whew! This patch is a chonker. A large, long-standing bug has slain (although a new one may have formed in it's place), a slew of smaller issues, adjustments to quests, alternative completion methods... Big! Remember last week when I said I'd get the loot tables re-done? That one's on me, been busy with a lot of stuff in my personal life as well as things for this patch. Like I promised last week, soonTM.

Also continuing to chip away at the menu lock-up bug. If you're someone that has experienced it, please send me your specs so I can try and track down some common denominator.

[h2]Ephemeral Tale 1.23.4 Changelog[/h2]

• Adjusted rate of random encounters in the Forgotten Forest (on average, it now takes 20 additional steps to enter combat, although in some cases it’s as many as 50 more steps)
  
• Fixed an issue where levels 48 + 49 were reversed in their placement on the skill tree (thanks, neoterrar!)
  
• NOTE: the above issue is fixed for new saves, but existing saves will still have the issue until I force a skill-tree reset. If the player hasn’t played since before the save file update, the skill-tree reset will fix the issue without them knowing there was an issue. Sorry for the minor inconvenience in the interim!
  
• Fixed an issue where using a Recall Rune while in a jelly portal area would cause it to bug out
  
• Using a Recall Rune with an jelly portal open will now cause the rift to close
  
• Fixed an issue where Sabrina would accept her Cauldron, but also let you keep it in your inventory and as such was causing time paradox related issues
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes, chests wouldn't show the rewards that players received from opening them
  
• Raised the drop rate of the Tome of Lost Knowledge quest item required for Merlin’s acquisition quest
  
• Addressed an issue where quest-related drops (shell fragments, etc) could be inconsistent in their drop rates versus reported drop rates
  
• NOTE: Previously, the post-battle screen could report that you got (for the sake of example) 2 shell fragments, but when you checked your inventory you would have only received 1 (or even 0!) fragments. If you see it visibly drop, you should now properly receive it. For quest-related gear, you may see a "phantom drop." This would be if you see a piece of equipment without any rarity assigned to it in addition to the base item (Shelld & the Rowdy Hat may suffer from this), like this:
  
  
  
  
• CONT. NOTE: To my knowledge, I've fixed this bug as well, but can't confirm due to being but one fella. If you see this bug occur, please report it via the forums, discord, or twitter (or message me on Steam, but I may be playing doing research on something and ghost you for a bit).
  
• Added a safeguard to the chest containing the seashell that grants access to the Sunken Summit, if you have one and enter NG+ it will no longer spawn (as you already have one)
  
• Additionally, added an extra layer of protection to the Sunken Summit portal where if you do have several seashells, it will remove all of them rather than just a singular one
  
• Added an additional dialogue prompt for the Smithy’s quest in order to better point players in the right direction
  
• Added an alternative acquisition method for the Bread Crumbs for the Smithy’s quest

[h2]THE WORK CONTINUES[/h2]

Another week, another bunch of work finished! I'm typing this at 2am, desperately trying to wrap it up so I can get to sleep. This week, work was done fixing bugs (like you can see above), working on some technical stuff for the upcoming zones (fogs and combat did NOT get along), and cleaning up the existing code base and engine work so that any future content beyond these zones is hypothetically easier to work with.

Cute, but dangerous.

Meet the first enemy group revealed for the Graveyard Grove! You'll notice two familiar faces alongside a new one! While the goal of these new zones is to get more value out of the already existing enemies, that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be new enemies to throw a wrench in your well-tuned combat scenarios.

Meet Impster: this little fella throws a mean right hook, and his Blaze skill will set a fire under your butt like something fierce! In addition to that, he'll also have a new piece of equipment for you to obtain and hunt down the best version of.

While I still don't know exactly when these zones will be available, I'm happy to say that work is going well on them. I hope to share more in the coming pupdates, but in the interim please keep sending your feedback my way! It's so crucial to improving the experience of each player.

Until next week, stay safe and have fun!
-- Ryan
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/jpStbUf

What's up, fellas? Hope this Pupdate finds you well! This week, I've spent a lot of time working on the upcoming "haunted forest" zone. It's nearly done! About one room left to get finished and it'll be ready for internal play-testing! More about that after the jump.

[h2]Ephemeral Tale 1.22.1 Changelog[/h2]

• Made how to summon the boss of the Sunken Summit more transparent
  
• Additionally, there is a vague warning text now that should help indicate that a battle is about to occur
  
• Added a visual indicator to some objects in the Sunken Summit to better indicate that they were interactable
  
• Fixed a number of grammatical errors throughout the Sunken Summit
  
• Fixed a couple of grammatical errors throughout the Mute Mountains
  
• Fixed a number of grammatical errors throughout the Jelly item events
  
• Fixed an issue with tile passability in the Occluded Oasis
  
• Fixed an issue where a particular ladder would slow the player in the “dark” variant of the Respite
  
• Fixed an issue where two particular chests in the Mute Mountains could repeatedly award Frozen Keys

Big thanks to Neoterrar for his feedback for the Sunken Summit! Was incredibly helpful in upping the quality there.

Like I mentioned earlier, this week has been mostly spent on one particular section of the upcoming Major Update #5. The "haunted forest" zone now has a name: the Graveyard Grove! I don't have anything particularly mind-blowing to talk about this week, so how about we take a look at the process?

A nice before & after of the mapping process.

This is one of the maps that was most time consuming in the Grove-- between trying to manage the space of the various surrounding rooms, ensuring I wasn't repeating patterns too much, and accomplishing everything necessary for the map itself, I've spent probably around a full eight hours on this one alone.

Oh look, it's an mspaint rough draft of the zone! Fascinating!

If you've ever wondered what a map looks like during the planning stages, here's a nice look for you! It starts with an MSPaint drawing, getting down the general shape and flow, and then I move onto an aesthetic test in-engine, and finally start mapping the area.

So that's what it looks like!

Once an area is mapped out, I can put it into the game and apply any necessary post-processing! That's how we end up at this final result. It's a time consuming process, but necessary to make sure that things are as consistent as possible. Next week, I plan on addressing a piece of long-term feedback with regards to encounter rates in the Forgotten Forest, and (hopefully) finally getting around to the world pool sorting that I spoke about a few weeks back. If I don't get around to it then, I'll still be working on it (I swear, don't hurt me!) in the background.

With that said, I hope you enjoyed this look behind the process! Maybe next week I can show off some of the combat for the upcoming areas? We'll see what happens! Until next time, have fun and stay safe!

-- Ryan
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/jpStbUf

What's up, puppers?

As I’ve spent the majority of this week working on a spooky forest (more details down below), the patch itself is a rather small one this week. With that being said, it’s a marathon not a sprint! We’re getting there, and each week the game continues to improve. I love discussing it with you guys, getting your ideas, feedback, and working it into the game! If you want to join in on the fun, feel free to join us over on Discord or on Twitter. Heck, even the community forums! Lots of ways to jump in.

Now let's take a look at the changelog this week, shall we?

[h2]Ephemeral Tale 1.21.1 Changelog[/h2]

• Updated icons for a few items
  
• The Crypt of Kings has been expanded upon, and now features a pseudo quest of sorts that reveals some in-game lore and expands on two of the companions
  
• Fixed a bevy of grammatical issues across numerous locations & quests, including the Forgotten Forest, the Great Palace, the Florence & Ronaldo quest, the Shelldon quest, and the Jesse quest
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the Oasis portal rooms

Ooh, spooky.

Let’s talk about Major Update #5, the Throne of Shadows.

Last we spoke about it, I had given a vague hint as to the general theme of the update being “the dark world.” I think it’s time to clarify that hint a bit, don’t you? Here’s the pitch (subject to change based on development timelines and yadayada blahblah “uh-oh cover-my-butt” sentences) for you: Major Update #5 will include new, mandatory-for-completion content. A lot of new content, actually! Three zones worth, if you wanna get surgical about it.

In the past, I’ve spoken about the challenges of doing new zones for the game, as there’s a lot that goes into it:

1. Where does the player enter and leave these zones?
   
2. What is the primary theme of these zones?
   
3. How is the player rewarded for exploring these zones?
   
4. What is in these zones?
   
5. Do I have the assets to support the above concepts?
   
6. If not, how much will it cost to get those assets created?

Once these questions start to get answered, I’m able to sit down, do an “aesthetic test” (more or less ensuring that I can adequately create the intended vibes & evoke the proper emotions), map out the zone, and figure out what the enemies are, what gear they drop, what that gear does, etcetera.

Slimey, yet satisfying.

As I’ve remarked upon before, this is generally why zones take so long to develop. Sunken Summit took the better part of two-to-three months to develop, and Mute Mountains roughly was around two months. As it’s been about two months since Mute Mountains entered the game, let’s answer the obvious question: does this mean Major Update #5 is four months away?

No. Not at all.

Of the three new zones being added in the next Major Update, one of them is already complete, another is well into development, and the last is currently going through some aesthetic tests. If you follow the game over on Twitter (@DawdlingDogltd) you’ll have likely seen snippets of the progress already! If not, you've been seeing them throughout this week's Pupdate!

That looks pretty nice, actually!


These zones are able to come together so quickly for a few reasons, most of which I’ll go over in next week’s Pupdate. As always, enjoy the patch, have fun, and stay safe! We’ll talk again next week.
-- Ryan
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/jpStbUf

This week's Pupdate will be a quickie! Let's hop right into it then, shall we?

[h2]Ephemeral Tale 1.20.5 Changelog[/h2]

• The Crypt of Kings has been added as an explorable space (albeit, a smaller one)
  
• NOTE: In the future, this area will be gated off as part of a quest. Explore it freely until then!
  
• Updated flavor text on a number of items
  
• Updated and fixed grammar issues across a number of areas
  
• Buffed Swiftstep status, it now lasts 5 turns (was 2 to 5 turns) and doesn’t fall off on damage anymore
  
• Made changes to the battle HUD to improve readability and consistency
  
• Whenever an enemy becomes enraged, their evasion rate now drops substantially
  
• Fixed a bug that would impede progress on the Voodoo Juice portion of Sabrina’s quest
  
• Fixed a bug where a chest could be repeatedly looted
  
• Fixed a bug where being Paralyzed would cause consumables to still be consumed if the Paralyze proc’d successfully
  
• Lowered Paralyze’s successful rate of impeding an action to 40% (was 50%)
  
• The skill trees “unlocked” and “unlockable” colors have been swapped to improve readability (unlockable is now brown, w/ unlocked being green)
  
• Moved Clarke’s unlock logic onto an instanced object rather than being separate instances of the same logic
  
• While in battle, commands can now “wrap” horizontally

This week, we've seen the addition of a smaller area to Ephemeral Tale in the form of the Crypt of Kings. Next week, I'll be using this area to deliver some form of quest and as an opportunity to put some additional lore into the game. Through recent conversations with you guys over on our Discord, I'm quite excited about introducing more character building moments into the game.

While I never intend on the game becoming as dialogue heavy as something like a Final Fantasy or Shadows of Adam, I'm happy to continue to give you guys things to ponder over in your adventures through the game. A huge part of the "writing of your path" is that the lore is somewhat open-ended-- whatever you believe to be the situation may be that way for you, but not another player.

This is the fundamental concept behind "death of the author," which is sourced from an essay written long before my time. In the coming weeks and Pupdates, I’d like to explore more of the world that we’ve managed to build through means similar to this weeks update.

I hope that next week's quest, involving the Crypt of Kings (and a party member, as well!) will help feed that lust in your belly for sweet character building and lore! Ultimately, I hope to build an experience that will both satisfy your desire for more story and world building, but also leave you pondering things.

That wraps up this shorter quickie Pupdate! While it's a shorter one, I hope it leaves you with an idea as to where we're going in the near future! As always, I hope you guys have fun with this patch and stay safe! We'll talk more next week :)

-- Ryan
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/jpStbUf

Hello again, my pups! We have an update focused on balance changes and bug fixes this week, but also quite a bit of insight as for what's coming in Major Update #5. Additionally, I'd like to bring attention to a bug added to our issue tracker this week:

Certain quest-related drops can be inconsistent in their drops, showing a disparity between the reported rewards and given rewards

This issue has been known internally for a while, but I've begun receiving reports on it as well. I'm actively investigating this, and apologize for any inconvenience in the interim. If it helps, it only seems to impact a handful of drops (3 or so), and means that you may have to make a couple more attempts towards some given thing (like a Shell Fragment, as an example).

With that out of the way, let's hop right into the changelog!

[h2]Ephemeral Tale 1.19.1 Changelog[/h2]

• Lowered drop rate of multiple Scrolls of Power by 1-2%
  
• NOTE: The above is a change specific to the chance of getting multiple scrolls from a rare enemy, and does not touch their default rate of granting a scroll of power
  
• “Splinters” state (which can happen when attacking Trunksters) now lasts exactly 4 turns, instead of a variable 3-5 turns
  
• Updated Earthquake’s animation to feel better (more motion on pieces of it, screen tints, etc)
  
• Updated chests that grant Power to properly grant it for the purpose of leveling up
  
• Lowered Boldozer’s hit rate by 5%
  
• “Napping” status has been overhauled (Candlenap, also an item I can’t remember at the moment), and now lasts a set 2 turns
  
• Additionally, it will now fall off on damage 100% of the time (for Candlenap, that is. For players, it’s a 50% chance to fall off from damage)
  
• Fixed a bug where you could get your sea legs in the Sunken Summit (Thanks, Gush!)

[h2]THE THRONE OF SHADOWS[/h2]
In the coming weeks, Major Update #5 will be upon us. I’ve yet to talk with you in-depth about what it will bring, and while I can’t reveal everything quite yet, I thought today would be a good opportunity to discuss the basics of Major Update #5, and how this ties into the eventual Major Update #6.

When Major Update #5 drops (due date still unknown), it will be the largest content drop for the game we’ve seen in a single update! The plan is (currently, and fluid to change) to introduce a “dark world” of sorts into the game. Ephemeral Tale currently has over 60 unique enemy types, with the vast majority of enemies having some form of unique mechanic across 5 rather unique zones. The primary goal of Major Update #5 is to allow me to create new combat/exploration scenarios without a huge investment into new art assets, sound assets, and the like.

This means that from a functional level, the vast majority of what comprises Major Update #5 (in terms of assets) will be things that already exist in some form or another, but put together in a new (and hopefully fun!) way. Having to deal with the passive damage you’ll take from fighting Trunksters alongside the burning damage of a Bibbity is a new challenge that you don’t ever have the chance to face in the current version of the game, so I’m excited to push an update that allows for more oddball enemy combinations of that sort.

As the overarching theme of the update is "dark world," it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that I plan on turning a portion of the Forgotten Forest on its head, corrupting it and turning it into this weird amalgamation of the beauty of nature found in the forest and the cursed imagery found deep in the Corrupted Castle. I think there's a lot of fun to be had with that vibe, so I'm hoping to share more of that with you guys in the coming Pupdates.

Earlier, I mentioned that Major Update #5 would eventually have direct ties to Major Update #6, so I would like to close out today's Pupdate by clarifying that a wee bit. With Major Update #5, I'll be adding more core content to the game, however the primary goal of Major Update #6 is to polish the overall game on a technical level. Improve performance across the board, fix weird bugs (like the menu shenanigans that can occur on certain systems, or the odd drop rates for enemies when on quests), and improve the presentation. That update will likely serve as the baseline for our release out of Early Access and onto console.

This doesn't mean that updates beyond that wouldn't occur, as that would be preposterous in the digital era-- it mostly means that at that point, I'm likely to slow down on the frequency of updates as I begin to plan and work on our next title (whatever that may be). I also feel comfortable stating that any post-release content updates will be free for all players, of course. Ultimately, this is a game that I love working on for you guys: as long as it remains financially feasible for me to, I will continue to do so.

As always, I hope you guys have fun with this patch and stay safe! We'll talk more next week :)

-- Ryan
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/jpStbUf