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NPCs in ZpellCatz: The Merchant

Hey there, fellow Catz! Today I want to talk about one of the NPCs in ZpellCatz: The Merchant.

You will find lots of items and Thalers when looting dungeons in ZpellCatz. Most of your equipment will be self found, but when RNG is working against you, there are NPCs to help out.

I talked a lot about the itemization in ZpellCatz in April '21 (a long time ago, but the article still provides correct info). This time, lets focus on the Merchant.

Offer Pages

The Merchant starts with a small selection of items. Then, whenever you finish a main quest relevant task, a new offer page unlocks.



Fixed Items

Most of the equipment items sold are of special quality (fix stats + some bonus stats). The cool thing? The stats and their values are fixed, meaning they are always the same. One of the design pillars of ZpellCatz is "Randomization vs. Reliability". Since most of your looted items are completely random, you have a source of reliably rolled items.



Gems & Sockets

But the Merchant has a lot more to offer than special quality items, if you have saved up some Thalers... One of the more powerful stuff sold are gems and sockets. We'll talk about gems and the Jeweler NPC soon, but some short info here: Gems are quite powerful and you can put them in sockets (that are independent of your items) to receive their bonuses.





Currencies

The Merchant is also the place for changing currencies. You have too much Emerald Dust and Sapphire Dust but you're short on Ruby Dust? Merchants are happy to help you with a cutthroat 3:1 exchange (well, that's how capitalism works, amirite? :-D ).



Respec

Not satisfied with your allocated skill points? The Merchant has a respec scroll, but it's very, very expensive. So, it is possible to respec, but don't expect to do that oftentimes.



Randomly Rolled Items

Okay everything mentioned so far supports the reliability side of the "Randomization vs. Reliability" design pillar. In contrast, there's one kind of product that's purely random: Buying randomly rolled items.



That's pretty much everything the Merchant has to offer. But there are other important NPCs that we'll look at in the future (Blacksmith & Jeweler). Want to get notified when new articles are released? Join my Discord and wishlist & follow ZpellCatz here on Steam.

Note: All info here is in development content and subject to change.

"Kick and Start" Update (0.95.2) September '22

Hey there. A new version of the Pumpkin Prologue is ready to be played. It's in a good shape now for the upcoming game festival season.

Here are the patch notes for the current version:

"Kick and Start" Update (0.95.2) September '22

*** UI ***
- Quest finished dialogue looks nicer now
- Replaced the discord box with a SimaGames info box
- Small UI bug fixes

*** System ***
- Added resilience to corrupted save files

*** Engine ***
- Game engine update
- Library updates

Full Changelog

"Dark Harvest" Update (0.94.0) June '22 + Updated Prologue Trailer

Hey there. Spell effects have greatly been improved and there is a new version of the Pumpkin Prologue available to give them a try.
But first, let's check out the updated trailer:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/zpellcatz/videos/pumpkin-prologue-trailer-june-2022

Here are the patch notes for the current version:

"Dark Harvest" Update (0.94.0) June '22
*** General ***
- Improved spell visuals effects
- Mountains now have a slightly different color for each height level
- Improved destructable death animation
- Steam Cloud now correctly works for cross-platform (Windows / Linux)

*** Shaman ***
- Increased "Ice Missiles" shot speed by 50%
- Updated "Ice Missiles" description

*** Pumpkin Prologue ***
- The epic item "Dark Harvest" is now a guaranteed drop (one time only)
- Slightly adjusted the base resistances of Traulicht
- Fixed a bug that occasionally caused a black screen when entering a room

Full Changelog

A guaranteed epic item drop? Yep! The later parts of the prologue needed something interesting, so I decided to add this guaranteed epic. I really like playing around with the totem refresh mechanic. Have a look:



Want to try the new spell visuals, the "Dark Harvest" or the sped up Ice Missiles?
Play the Pumpkin Prologue for free, here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1679590/ZpellCatz_Pumpkin_Prologue/

New ZpellCatz Trailer

Hey there. I polished the spell effects and the environment over the last weeks. Check out the updated trailer and screenshots:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]















"Great on Deck" Update (0.93.0) April '22

*** General ***
- Added more epic items
- Friendly rooms are allowed to spawn closer to the dungeon entrance now
- Advanced blacksmith services are now cheaper when the base item is of normal quality
- This change makes normal items worth being picked up in midgame / lategame (e.g. to craft epic items)
- Treasure rooms and boss rooms now drop at least one item of quality special or higher
- Added an option to change cursor speed when playing with a gamepad
- Reworked main menu scene
- Small bug fixes

*** World ***
- Greatly improved water / ocean mesh and added a wave animation
- Wall and doodad meshes have been improved
- Crystal cave (pumpkin prologue) walls now have crystals in them

*** UI ***
- Dialogue box now supports colored text
- Adjusted quest item info icon position
- Added new logo graphic
- Name box of the new game screen is now on top to better work with on screen keyboard (Deck)
- "Box" gamepad layout now has proper button images for "start" and "select"
- Added "Deck" gamepad layout
- Minor UI fixes

*** SAVE STATE ***
- Audio & video settings are now saved locally only
- There is no reason to share these settings between multiple devices (e.g. main PC and Deck)
- Breaking change: Your previous audio & video settings will be overwritten by default values

*** Engine ***
- Game engine update: Unity 2021
- Library updates

Full Changelog

Do you own a Steam Deck? If yes, you should definitively try ZpellCatz: Pumpkin Prologue!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1679590/ZpellCatz_Pumpkin_Prologue/