Heart Of Muriet News

Hey all, we have been busy working on a big update in the past 2 months.

We prefer smaller updates, but as we overhauled a lot of different vital game systems we decide otherwise. Expect more frequent updates in the future.

Check out all the cool new features and improvements!!



[h2]Wizard Incarnation Feature[/h2]

• Spell has to research first in the Laboratory.
  
• Wizard can be called to a formation or a base without a tower.
  
• Incarnation costs mana upkeep for the time the wizard is on a formation/base without a tower.
  
• Having not enough mana break the incarnation.
  
• Wizards can cast spells when incarnated.
  
• There is additional research available that brings down the upkeep costs significantly.
  

[h2]New Tutorial[/h2]

• The tutorial is now separated from the main campaign and can be played anytime from the main menu.
  
• There is a complete new Tutorial UI.
  
• some tutorial steps are skippable some need to be done to make sure vital controls are understood correctly.
  
• story and tutorial text are now separated, this made it much easier to write better tutorial commands/help.
  
• Sending units, selecting nodes should be much clearer now!
  

[h2]UI overhaul[/h2]

• All Icons have been redone.
  
• All UI screens finally have a consistent look.
  
• Map Editor UI has been completely revamped.
  
• All buttons react to mouse-overs with animation and sound, we are not done in that regard.
  
• UI supports HDR rendering.
  
• UI is much more vivid and responsive.
  
• UI uses the correct material for the linear colour scheme.
  
• Fixed the look of dropdowns.
  

[h2]New Dialog System [/h2]

• Removed the old portraits from the game. They looked cool but didn't fit the style of the game.
  
• Added voxel characters (which are not yet polished).
  
• Characters are now moving in and out in conversations,
  
• Up to 4 characters in one conversation possible.
  
• Dialogues can now be narrated with the new system.
  
• Added sound effects for speaking and narration, character pop-ins etc.
  
• Lights fade in and out on active characters.
  
• All over more fluid and fun to read the story.
  

[h2]New Quest System and QuestUI[/h2]

• Map editor has a quest editor, trigger and quests action editor with pre-configured trigger types.
  
• Check out the blog post for more details on the quests editor.
  
• Added new quests to all demo maps (this is just a start, expect a lot more here!)
  
• Quest has progress which is shown in the upper left corner and is frequently updated.
  
• Clicking on a quest gives you more details on it and you can browse through all open/resolved quests.
  

[h2]New Story Texts[/h2]

• Less tell more "show". :)
  
• Wrote background stories for all characters to have a better understanding of their traits, emotions etc.
  
• Dialog text is as short as possible.
  
• Lots of narration added.
  
• Story should be much more relatable.
  

• Selection in player input standard can now be locked/unlocked by tutorial.
  
• Base selection is now much better visible.
  
• Build slot positioning has improved significantly.
  
• Improved mouseover decal for bases.
  
• Added trigger events to the game.
  
• Fixed some possible crash bug in minimap -> tweens were not correctly killed sometimes.
  
• Fixed a problem in tutorial manager not finding the correct game objects sometimes.
  
• Added a new function to building utils for finding research buildings on a base.
  
• Removed cast ring from wizards, for now, will probably add them back later with some cool effects.
  
• NPC wizard has finally some animations.
  
• Added a bunch of new sound effects.
  
• Fixed all light cullings masks.
  
• Game statistics in now also saved in savegame.
  
• Rebalanced research, buildings and units.
  
• Improved AI behaviours when attacking an enemy.
  
• Added new AI personality for "The Jivalon Incident".
  
• improved AI behaviour when there are no siege units available.
  
• improved how the AI is calculating attack/defence values.
  
• quest actions -> spawning units at a random formation gathering position.
  

• Fixed a bug where ground melee attackers would in some cases attack flying enemies.
  
• Fixed a possible crash bug in HealthBar.
  
• Fixed a possible crash bug in PlayerInputStandard when pressing the Tab-Key very early after loading.
  
• Fixed some possible crash bugs in UIPanelFader.
  
• Fixed IntroUI not showing in DEV_DEBUG is on.
  
• Fixed a possible crash bug in SettingsUI when a certain resolution does not have a specific Refresh-rate.
  
• Fixed another possible crash in panel fader.
  
• Fixed problems in CampaignMenuUI -> would not correctly reset on enable/disable sometimes.
  
• Fixed bug in bugreportingUI -> discord button was not working correctly.
  
• Fixed bug in bugreportingUI -> description text had wrong mask set which leads to wrong text formatting.
  
• Fixed bug in build UI which would sometimes show even though there were no buttons active.
  
• Fixed a bug in quest details UI and hidden/inactive quests.
  
• Several bugfixes in DialogUI and StoryManager.
  
• Several bugfixes in MessageUI.
  
• Fixed a big bunch of (crash) bugs reported via Trello. Thanks for all the players reporting!
  
• Map Editor crashes should be hopefully be fixed, this was a Unity Engine bug in TextMeshPro.
  

• Save/Load during mission might have issues on some maps in certain situations. Expect crashes. Crashes are automatically sent to your Trello board.
  
• The Incarnation feature is still missing a bunch of SFX and gfx effects. They will be added in the upcoming days. It might also have some weird bugs.
  
• Missing icons in result statistics and some other places (should be fixed by tomorrow).
  
• Pressing Escape while a dialogue runs show the pause menu, resuming to the dialogue might show/hide the UI. (should be fixed by tomorrow).
  
• Probably a few more other problems we haven't discovered yet. ːsteammockingː
  

Thanks for reading,
The HoM Dev Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/Heart_Of_Muriet/

Hey,

Raffa our artist and co-designer will show off the Heart of Muriet demo as well as the map editor and maybe some new content if we get it ready in time.

He will also give a short outlook on what to expect in the near and distant future.
Matthias, designer and programmer will also be joining in chat.

It would be awesome if join us and let us know what you think!
We looking forward to talking to you!

Cheers,
The HoM DevTeam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/Heart_Of_Muriet/

We have been quite silent in the last few weeks as we were very busy adding exciting features to the game. We promise to talk more frequently about the game and its development in the upcoming future.

Today I want to talk about our quest and trigger system.



We have made a modular quest and trigger system that we added directly to the in-game map editor. This is a complete gamechanger in terms of what kind of map content we and you (if you dare :) will be able to create.

[h2]Triggers and Editor[/h2]
We started adding a whole bunch of configurable trigger types. You can configure these trigger types with additional parameters to make them more flexible. Each trigger currently consists of up to two different types to make the system more flexible.

This is how the trigger editor works:



All dropdowns are context-sensitive for easier use. Currently, the following triggers are available in the editor:

ConquerMap, DestroyPlayer, ConquerBase, AttackBase, HoldBaseForTime,
UnitsCount, LostUnits, BuildBuilding, BuildBuildingOnBase, BuildBuildingCount, BuildBuildingCountOnBase, DestroyBuilding, DestroyBuildingOnBase, DestroyBuildingsCount, DestroyBuildingsCountOnBase, CastSpell, CastSpellCount, ResearchTechnology, CollectResources,
ConquerBaseCount, HarvestResources, KillUnits, RecruitUnits, RecruitSquads, SquadsCount, ConquerMapInTime, LooseBase, TimeOver, UseNodeBonus.


As you might have seen in the gif, triggers also work for AI players, bases, etc. and can be used for player quests and hidden game events, like spawning a big attack at a certain time, etc. Adding a new trigger type is currently a matter of minutes, so expect a growing list over time ːsteamhappyː

Resolving quests can trigger so-called quest actions. This is necessary to make quests more engaging and fun. The first interaction of the editor had only resource rewards, but that seemed very dull and would make it harder to make interesting maps.

[h2]Quest Actions and Editor[/h2]
Quest Actions can be all sort of things. Like spawning troops at a certain location, handing over a base to a player, unlock new technologies etc.

Here is the first glimpse of the quest action editor:



It looks similar to the trigger editor and actually uses the very same mechanics in terms of dropdowns and list management, but has a very different set of action types:

ChangeResources, ChangeNodeBonus, SpawnSquadsAtBase, UnlockTechnology, UnlockBuilding, UnlockUnitType, ChangeNodeOwner, DestroyBuildingsOnBase, AddUpgradeToAllBuildingsOfType,
ChangeAIPersonalityForPlayer, ResearchTechnology


Adding new action types is in some cases a little bit trickier than adding triggers — probably a few hours adding a quite complex quest action.

[h2]Quests and Editor[/h2]

Quests are a very flexible tool and can trigger a lot of different events/actions to make maps a lot more interesting in the first place.

Here is a glimpse of the quest editor, which was quite a beast to develop, including all the quest functionality.



As you can see in the gif, you can configure 3 different triggers for a quest.

[h3]The Start Trigger[/h3]
If you have configured a start trigger, the quest is not activated immediately but only when the trigger condition is hit. This makes it, e.g. possible to establish a sequence of quests which depend on each other, which is really cool, right?

[h3]The Solve Trigger[/h3]
As soon as this trigger is fulfilled, the quest is solved. If it is empty, the quest is immediately resolved, and the player gets the rewards at the start of the level.

[h3]The Fail Trigger[/h3]
If this trigger hits, the quest will fail, and the player will not get any rewards. If it is empty, the quest will never fail.

[h3]Optional Flag[/h3]
Optional quests are side-quests which do not need to be solved to finish the map.

[h3]Hidden Flag[/h3]
Hidden quests are more like a game event that the player should not be aware of, something like an AI attack, which is triggered when the player reaches a certain army size, etc.

[h3]Resource Rewards[/h3]
The player can receive but also loose resources when finishing a quest.

[h3]Quest Actions[/h3]
The quest system can fire up to 4 different quest actions as soon as a quest is done.

[h2]Ingame Quest UI[/h2]
Let's look at how the quest system is looking inside the game.

The list of active quests is shown in the upper right corner of the screen:



The quests are shown with their short description and a progress bar. If the trigger has a time component, this is also shown. If you want to see the full quest description, just click on a quest.



Quests will be marked as done once they have been solved. You will get a message and some quality sound effects when a quest is done or failed.

We have already reworked the demo content to integrate with the new quest system. Stay tuned for more info on the new tutorial system, revamped dialogue system, wizard incarnation feature, improved Icons, new UI rework and much more.

Thanks for reading!
The Hom Dev Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/

Hey!

We have another small update for the demo.

• Replaced old start logos introduction with a new intro. This fixes the coil whine, which has happened due to super-high frame rates. With the new intro the VSync settings are now correctly respected.
  
• The new intro can be skipped by pressing Escape.
  
• Improved the overall screen-shake when buildings get destroyed or spells hit the ground.
  
• Added a subtle screen shake to tornado spell.
  

While fixing smaller bugs for the demo, we are eagerly working on new and bigger features for the upcoming EA in spring. We will post an update with more details soon.

That's it for today, enjoy your weekend!
The HoM dev team.

Hey again :),

the new crash reporting to our Trello has shown first results, and we learned about a crash in the settings menu, which we were not aware of.

In certain circumstances (with specific monitor Hz) the settings menu, when opened, would crash. This is now fixed.

Cheers and good night.
The HoM DevTeam