Bowmen News

What's New?: Beta v0.0.0.135 from Beta v0.0.0.134

[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• "+X EXP" text now pops up after an enemy is killed, letting you know how much EXP has been earned for each enemy.
  
• Enemies now spawn in "waves", rather than spawning as a constant stream. This allows the player to recuperate if they dealt with a wave efficiently. Over time, more enemies spawn per wave, increasing the difficulty.
  
• In response to the addition of "waves", item mechanics have changed slightly (for example, Mjolnir deals less damage), and bombs spawn less frequently.
  
• Item text has been modified to indicate item quality, based on how powerful the item is at damaging enemies. Items with higher quality will drop later in the encounter, while during the first few waves of enemies items with lower power will drop.
  
• Items with the new "Legendary" quality will only drop off bosses (Balrog), off enemies with a lower drop chance, and/or after the player as completed some prerequisite (in the case of Masfury).
  
• The legendary sword Masfury requires you to collect Pieces of Balrog Hearts to assemble. The sword drops after the player has collected three Pieces of Balrog Heart in one sitting.
  
• Enemies have been adjusted across the board to accommodate the major gameplay changes listed here (health, movement speed, damage, etc.).
  
• A new healing animation has been added to the Scroll of Regeneration, which plays whenever the item is activated.
  
• Two new enemy types have been added: the Skeleton Mage and Bat Riders. These enemies will cast spells on you from afar, have a large health pool, and must be dealt with fairly quickly. Bat Riders stay in the air until killed.
  
• You are no longer unable to shoot until your last arrow has landed. Players can now rapidly shoot for faster and more engaging gameplay.
  
• A new item has been added: Akash, Greatstaff. This is a one time use item that will summon the Wizard to cast Genesis, a large area of effect attack that can help clear the map.
  
• Fireball animation for the large Fel Bats has been updated. It also has a small animation when it hits the ground or the player.
  
• Mark of the Barbarian, the first game buff, has been added to the game. This buff will give you a 10% chance to "evade" or completely dodge an enemy attack upon each enemy hit. This buff is provided by the Barbarian and is given to your character at random intervals. Lasts 1 minute.

[h3]GUI Changes[/h3]

• The text for your player's current angle has been slightly adjusted to anchor to the right of the health bar.

[h3]Item Changes[/h3]

• Mana cost per second of Angelsbane has been increased to 7%.
  
• Mana cost per second of Mjolnir has been increased to 5%.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• The "earth shaking" effect of the Infernal Balrog walking will now no longer occur if the Balrog is currently playing the "die" animation.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player could spawn item effects even while the game is paused.
  
• Force quitting the game will no longer cause the chat window to report your "last onslaught" score when you log back in.
  
• Fixed an issue where users could add a new paragraph line in their name.
  
• Some GUI elements have been re-positioned to avoid overlap with other elements.
  
• Players will no longer be able to spawn item drops (Ghost Ship, Sword of Justice, etc.) while the game is paused.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could equip a "hidden" Marksman skin by accident.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could take "negative damage" (essentially a heal) if they had sufficient Fortitude.
  
• Tooltips will now reposition to the left of items if the item is on the far right side of the screen. This is to prevent any tooltips from going "off screen".
  
• Fixed an issue where bosses could not be hit by the ghost ship spawned from the Captain's Mace.
  
• Fixed an issue where "EXP gained" was being incorrectly reported.
  
• Fixed an issue where items would potentially spawn right on top of one another, making it difficult to selectively equip one.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player could generate many "frozen" arrows in the air with the multishot, by spamming the shoot key while the arrows were firing.
  
• Fixed a few issues whereby sound effects would not be properly adjusted by your settings in the game's options.

What's New?: Beta v0.0.0.134 from Beta v0.0.0.133
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• The player may now increase their stat points on the "Hero Information" screen. The game will no longer pause automatically at the start of an onslaught for stat point distribution purposes. However, you can still pause with the "K" key during an onslaught to enter stat points.
  
• The game now has three different background audio tracks that it cycles through during Onslaught.
  
• A brief tutorial has been added to the game, which instructs the player how to play the first time they start an onslaught.
  
• Playtesters can no longer level up using the "0" key during Onslaught.
  
• We've changed how the game handles connecting to our online servers and we've added in error messages. The game is now playable offline, however, your rank and scores will not be updated during offline play.
  
• Completed some GUI updates (such as the "exit" button on the credits screen).

What's New?: Beta v0.0.0.133 from Beta v0.0.0.130
[h3]Major Game/Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• Arrows no longer scale damage with flight time. Instead, arrows that reach a certain y height will have their damage increased by either 300% or 400%, depending upon how high they go. The "Training Sword" item has been updated accordingly.
  
• Enemies have had their movement speed significantly slowed, spawn rates dropped, and their health boosted to accommodate for the arrow damage changes.
  
• Bomb and item damage have been modified to accommodate for the enemy health increases.
  
• The items Vol, Sword of Justice, Stonehammer, and Captain's Mace have been modified. Instead of dropping the Sword, Spirit Golem, or Ghost Ship, respectively, in a given location, the player can now select where the objects will spawn and deal damage to enemies.
  
• The "Balrog Slayer" achievement has been modified. It now will unlock after you have killed the infernal balrog 2 times in one sitting on any difficulty.
  
• The "Marksman", "Ranger", "Hunter", and "Archer" ranks now also unlock any achievements below those ranks as well. For example, if a player achieves the rank of "Ranger" from one run of inferno, they will now also unlock the "Hunter" and "Archer" achievements as well.
  
• Because of the gameplay changes above that favor skilled high angle shots, we've changed the Z and Right mouse buttons to toggle wide and small views, rather than requiring to be held down.
  
• Items will now drop 1 at a time, with an item not dropping if one is presently on the map. Item drop rates have been increased.
  
• Mana has been added to the game. Mana will slowly regenerate over time along with health, but it is not influenced by the Vitality stat, but by Intelligence instead.
  
• Angelsbane has been modified to now cost mana instead of health. The item is also now toggled active or inactive with the "A" key.
  
• Razor Shield has been modified to increase your Fortitude by 6, down from 17. This is to balance its damage bonus and make Shed, the Golden Savior viable.
  
• Shed, the Golden Savior has been modified to increase your Fortitude by 18, up from 7.
  
• The item Frosthowl has been added to the game. It adds frost damage to your attacks and will slow enemies by 50% if hit.
  
• How the game damages the player has been modified. This is to decrease the possibility of "negative damage" if the player has sufficient stats in Fortitude and Strength.
  
• Background Audio ("BG") and Sound Effects Audio ("SFX") options have been added to the game, allowing players to adjust game volume.
  
• The intro "Ethereal Gem" logo is now animated.
  
• Skins have been added to the game.
  
• A basic "chat" feature has been implemented on the home screen, which allows current logged in players to communicate with one another.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue whereby the last arrow of the multishot would shoot with 0 power.
  
• Fixed an issue whereby multiple items could drop on the map at once.
  
• Fixed an issue where temp power can reset to 0 or to the previous last shot (if you're trying to charge a shot while firing).
  
• Fixed an issue where ultra high angle shot text was not the same size as regular damage text.
  
• Fixed an issue where the item Frosthowl was not affecting the Infernal Balrog.
  
• Fixed an issue where "Double Kill" and "Multikill" sounds were not correctly being called.
  
• Fixed an issue whereby damage would be dealt to the player twice, if double damage would be fatal.

For a list of full changes made in this patch and others, please see the detailed changelog here: https://www.etherealgem.com/public/d/6-changelog-and-known-bugs