Blacksmith Legends News

Hey everyone,

after about 2 weeks of work I have to share some exciting news with you! As some of you may know (thanks for your ideas and suggestions) there are a bit too many things so this patch will take at least month longer than I anticipated. However, step by step, slowly getting there!

I've gone wild here clearly as no one sane would agree with this amount of content but for some reason, it drives me forward even more :D So what other stuff can you await in 0.9.0 patch?

[h2]1. New profession: [/h2]


She will bring another bunch of equipment made out of leather, cotton, linen, silk and wool! The materials will act like ingots, so she will have to make them out of basic materials.
All recipes will be divided into leather, fabric and fine fabric as per specializations.
Her biggest benefit will be for staff items. If some may remember, I've created equipment for staff workers too. Although decided to rework it a bit as it was kinda lame before and have a look by yourself.



[h2]2. UI - rework[/h2]
Equipment menu will bring total of 9 equipable slots by staff! Tailor will cover the garment (armor) slot and head, gloves, shoes. So it will kinda be divided into some reasonable things so that every profession contributes on it's own.

With that being said, I had to rework mines as there will be 5 new sources orderable from 'Royal farm' due to tailor. And I know that lot of players complained about it since it was a bit confusing and late game not helpful. So here is the change, where red brackets showes removal of the old HUD. It may have been graphically nice, but it consumed about 5-10 fps during late game, so it's a big no.

The new, green highlighted parts are icons of materials. After ordering them, it will just show quantity and display countdown delivery.

Yes, ordering will be done the same way as at marketplace. For now the limit will be up to 100 materials per oder. You can set it on repeat, which will repeat the same order after it's finished.

With new materials, I've decided to rework the top menu too, which is now like this:

Lastly, crafting system got a huge rework as there are 3 new stats for every employee due to the new stuff as well:


1. Energy - will be reduced by - 1/s when worker is crafting and + 1 / s when not crafting ofc. Same goes for Morale and Crafting speed during the day. Overall now it is pretty fixed as after 8pm workers just get refreshed stats and that's it.
New system will count when the worker is NOT at work and thus refresh +10% of their stats. That will kinda give working shifts more meaning.
2. Accident reduction change % - this stat is basically from skills atm, but I feel that it should be displayed and will also be included in items for workers.
3. Manuscripts reduction % - also same as above stat, but will now be included in items for staff. This kinda helps differentiate items for Heroes, Gladiators and Staff.

Employee allowance per fame is now increased and you can have Tailor as soon as you open Tavern. Which may be a lot for new players, but the quests will be in the bulletin board, so they are all optional.

I'm also optimizing the process with the overseer, as her actions are kinda heavy on the game performance due to constant refreshing and checking on many items. So that's why it takes big amount of time but it will probably save us some previous FPS (I hope :)).

I've thought that Dynasties and Wholesale orders will be the big things of this patch, but it was just a beginning :D. I'll have to create about 100 additional recipes and so on.

Thanks for the great input and hope everyone is doing great!

Will definitely put some pre-update before Steam Summer Festival with some survey for additional feedback. Coming in hot guys!

Stay tuned!

VM Machal

Hello dear crafters,

my work got quite slow down due to the amount of content I'm preparing, but it will be much more worth it in the end. Also it takes a lot more work to implement new item now, than months ago, due to the depth of all the features.
But so far, it looks very exciting and you can definitely look for a major content update along with some changes! This week, I'm bringing you a small presentation of it's first part.

[h2]1. Staff equipment[/h2]

It somehow felt weird to me, that you can equip your heroes with a lot of stuff, but your crafters no. Since it's a crafting game, I've decided to add it in the next update.
For now, I'm thinking about 4 slots should be enough. Expansion is possible based on the feedback, so we'll see.
In this case, weekly plan Apprentice training will be nerfed as the stats from it will be now equalled by the items.
Here are some items for staff:


Overall items will bring more depth in the game and more customization in terms for staff.
There will be also new buildings, such as furnace and so on, but not sure If I will make it in this patch or will just add it in the machinery update in the future.

[h2]2. New item tier - Epic[/h2]

In previous updpate, I've mentioned how can you negotiate with other dynasties and build/keep relations or pillage their mannors. Either way, here is part of items. I don't want to spoil everything, but there will be also new researchable stuff from the library.


As a small example, I'd like to point out this item from the list:


If you equip this book, you will basically unlock a small additional feature to the game, which is

[h2]3. Legendary monsters[/h2]

Map exploration can also reveal powerful monsters that will drop materials necessary for crafting powerful items. Although beating them will be quite a challenge and will require strong gear.

A discovery of the monster will be revealed on the world map, like Gemstone deposits, will not persist after loading and if you fail to defeat the monster, it will disappear from the map and restart the chance of its discovery.


[h3]Rogon[/h3]

This two headed serpent will have detailed info in the battle. Maybe can add feature to show his pros and cons even before the battle depending on some conditions.

Let me know what do you think, as player's feedback here is very important!

This patch is bigger than I anticipated (surprise surprise :)), but all of this feels pretty necessary to be there already, so it has to be included. Second part of features will be revealed in few weeks!

Thanks in advance for all your input!

Cheers,

VM Machal

Hello crafters,

as I'm prototyping new content for a major patch in summer, I want to introduce you the new content that will be added.

[h2]1. Dynasties[/h2]


This feature will introduce more depth into the Kingdom and what is happening with it's economy, how it is handled and influenced and so on.
In order to do wholesale, you will have to register yourself as a form of a Dynasty so that your crest will be assigned to the Blacksmith Guild.
Marketshare will play important role as the one with the highest one will be able to submit Tax changes or have the upper hand in bigger decisions!
(King's tax is annoying you for so long!? Then change them!)

[h2]2. Friend or foe[/h2]


So every dynasty will have it's own blacksmithing business. You could either sabotage their production lines or boost them, maintain relations, use your reputation into the play to get access to recipes of each family.
Having a friend or foe can make your game easier or more difficult. As others will be able to do it to you too! It's all 'busines' after all! :)
More detailed stuff will be shaped during these weeks so every suggestion or idea matters.

Mine ownership and potential backfires is a great idea presented by 'coolighost' on Discord channel as a great example!

[h2]3. Wholesale[/h2]


With upcoming mid-late game play, there comes the Wholesale. As explained above, in order to do it, you have to have a Dynasty of your own. Think about huge deal contracts with rival blacksmiths standing in your way for becoming a legend!
These orders will be huge and which dynasty fulfills it first will get the market share bonus + all the rewards from it. So the percentage next to the order represents a progress made by certain dynasty on that particular order.
Citties will be issuing these orders randomly and it's up to you to build bigger infrastructure and make it all count!

4. Various new additions

Overseer automatic production will offer options to craft selected item types to respect char specializations.

Heroes will fulfill the role of being fighters but also market 'influencers'.
These items will be useless in combat, but great for your business. You can farm higher level on your Hero and then make him become an idol for the masses!

And many other improvements will be later introduced.

Stay tunes and thanks for your unrelenting support!

VM Machal

Changes:

- player character now starts with 1 skill point so it properly aligns for later levels and doesn't confuse player during a skill reset

5.5 Update

- 'Dual forging' skill that has a chance to spawn additional item will no longer stuck that additional item in 'Closing deal' during sale
- returning money from ursury will be represented in a timeout dialogue that will auto close so player won't get stuck in some special circumstances
- Black diamond can be manualy crafted now
- all items will be now properly sold every now and then when player has 'Auto-Sell' enabled
- paintings will no longer be allowed to intercept wall mount decor or have a wall destroyed with them hanging in the air
- 'Derp Sheep' painting will be placeable on the wall with new collision


4.5 Update

- buying or selling stuff in marketplace will no longer break the value input bar when clicked on bottom menu buttons
- going from Plans tab to Crafting one will properly hide all the weekly plans choices
- Overseer menu will not be triggered during Sales and other menus
- fixed a bug that caused items in Sales menu to be hanging in 'Closing Deal' status infinitely


3.5 Update:

Bug fixes:

- pressing 'U' key in Main Menu will no longer bring the Dynasty HUD
- Overseer model will now have collision updated with other stuff in the workshop


2.5 Update:

Bug fixes:

- fixed Overseer auto quest handling in case of few quests
- fixed World Map event option when fighting the cave creature


1.5 Update:

Bug fixes:

- hiring new employees with 'Individual' trait will turn off Overseer control properly, also when Overseer auto production is turned off (when it was previously on)
- closing main menu will now show bottom menu frame with buttons
- closing Staff/Inventory menu by going to Town/Heroes/Treasury menu will now properly show minimap (if player unlocked world map)
- firing an employee will now properly reset his weekly programs too
- hiring an employee will reset their working hours to standard 12 hour daily shift
- any attack during battle will now properly close the side mines delivery menu
- saving a game will no longer hide bottom UI
- setting material value during marketplace trade will no longer show 'cancel' button at the bottom right part of the screen


29.4 Update:

Changes:

- certain skills that are limited per character will be marked as 'specialization'

Bug fixes:

- fixed display level and experience of all workers after loading the game into town
- fixed a bug that might cause Skill menu overlay when using max speed
- Warrior skill 'Heavy Hitter' will be learnable now
- calibrated V-sync button collider area to be accessible even when Anti alias settings is off
- Enchanting device will no longer be interactable when Sales or Staff menu UI is open
- Anvil is able to be sold in Sales menu
- fixed scrolling in equipment UI inventory
- 'Advanced craft and' 'Shiny stones' quests are now added to Overseer automatic handling

Original update:

Bug fixes:

- fixed world map special event option that will no longer stuck player camera
- fixed world map special event where the text overlay wasn't dismissed after chosing one of the options in the dialogue
- large wooden and metal chests will be now added to player's inventory automatically when moving to new town (requires new game)
- fixed a bug with old saves where Overseer menu -> Mining button was hidden
- fixed a bug where coming from Working Hours menu to Staff menu would kept Overseer employee hidden
- updated World Map dungeon special event with RUS translation
- maximum employees will be now properly counted based on player Fame count
- Wanborne is no longer skipping time as in old patches
- fixed some tutorial text overlay in the beginning of the game
- fixed font size for all quests

Hello dear blacksmiths,

after another month of hard work I'm happy to present you another patch that brings a lot of changes, mainly around overseer, employee traits, quality of life, special events and so on.
I want to thank players and publisher's QA team for helping me test the Beta and find a lot of bugs.

Full list of changes is here:

Changes:

- *NEW* Overseer menu - Manuscripts - overseer will now control design / utility / material setup of every recipe based on their sold quantity
- *NEW* Overseer menu - Quests - overseer will now automatically control what quest is currently player on and then set required quantities to craft
- *NEW* Special Event - Tavern can now pop up after player unlocks tavern feature offering some actions
- *NEW* Exploration of the map can be now automatic through Overseer menu
- *NEW* Special event added for World map exploration with various outcomes
- all manuscripts will now have predefined basic settings for design/utility/materials
- Staff menu/Working hours menu will now always call a default Pause to save performance
- added log notification for working accident messages and removed their 'pause' function
- increased character skill point cap to 15 (up from 10) for new obtained characters (requires new game)
- 'Skip tutorial messages' option added for the 'New Game' feature which will make all Lucy messages to not pop-up
- building tutorial tracker will now have also info about assigning overseer if player chooses casual game mode
- monday paychecks will no longer pause the game
- Runes will now be accounted for items that takes +1 slot in inventory space
- Complexity chance was reduced from all manuscripts based on their setup
- Fighting Terror quest will now discover Haunted Crypt automatically and spawn it on the World Map if it wasn't dicovered yet
- floors and walls have roughness and normal maps removed to slightly reduce the performance requirement
- player can now 'repeat' an exploration mission after heroes finish exploration and the status message pops up
- Casual game mode has now some added tutorial in the beginning
- starting scene light has been changed to help player understand shadow from the invisible 'roof'
- debug log will be popped at the start of the game
- starting prologue screen with world map is smoothen out
- aligned the mines menu and the scrollbar to fit withing the notification windows
- removed the moving notification to Wanborne, all objects should be already moved automatically
- smoothed out the movement to world map from the city
- employee accidents are now displayed temporarily and no longer obstruct the whole screen and are noted in the debug log
- Overseer automatic quests will now prioritize timed quests first



Bug fixes:

- working hour button will now show correct working hours number and redirects player to the menu upon mouse click
- Treasury HUD will now pop always on Monday listing all expenses properly and reseting the weekly chest in Tavern
- after losing a battle, group icon will properly disappear and exploration will be possible when heroes are ready
- Lesser scroll of glory will be now properly crafted
- fixed a bug with Blacksmith 1 menu tab displays
- fixed a bug where Shopping Fever quest enabled made World map accessible
- item not sold due to market being closed will now properly set back for sale after the market re-opens
- fixed a bug where screen resolution change buttons were not working
- accepting/declining quest will now put player back into pause (if his game was paused before that)
- fixed missing pop-up for cracks in different languages and some FR language errors
- player will start from 7am now, so character won't disappear and then reappear
- fixed a bug where player could place Overseer sooner than Blacksmith, thus breaking the tutorial
- fixed a bug where Drezhul hero could summon more than 2 skeletons in one fight
- Holy staff will be properly counted as 2 handed weapon, removing shield upon equip
- alchemist bookcase and reagents storage can now be placed on whole Wanborne workshop area
- ingots are now removed from the Manuscripts menu as they don't fall under the rules as other items
- mine displays withing the Mines Menu (E) are now properly aligned
- guard in Wanborne won't be stuck forever under the bridge during his partrols
- clicking on 'Skills' in Heroes menu will toggle the Skills menu on or off for heroes
- bottom menu will now be properly updated with language changes when going to main menu
- aligned the Auto production and Inventory space texts when player reached higher quantities of items
- equipment menus will have more space for scrollbar in case of more items
- game will no longer crash when trying to exit to main menu on 3x speed
- FPS counter is now properly displayed above the reputation bar
- Runes will now be counted in inventory slot during crafting process
- aligned fame count in-game with the one represented in the save file display
- fixed a bug where player could leave world map while dungeon menu was still on and spamming hotkeys would break the battle camera when entering battle
- fixed Manuscript Complexity calculation for most items as it was way too high


With these changes there may be some performance issues, especially late game with many items in the inventory. I'll think about implementing a hard cap for items.
Also, potions distribution for Overseer is not yet finished. It is because many things will have to be done consequtively as other changes will be implemented.


So with these changes, I'm now going to focus fully on the roadmap! So next patch will bring Dynasties and Wholesale. These 2 changes have to come hand in hand as they benefit from each other. I'll put some update as I'll have more info in the upcoming weeks!

Stay tuned and thanks for your support!
VM Machal