The Doors of Trithius News

Keyboard controls for all interactions with the game world including ability targeting, looting, and talking to NPCs.

Also included are bug fixes and improvements to how the game manages memory.

Save files from v0.5.4 are compatible.

[h2]Visual Effects[/h2]
Enhanced targeting visuals: Animations now clearly indicate which targets will be affected by an ability.


Player path animations updated:


[h2]Keyboard Targeting[/h2]
All abilities can now target using keyboard controls.

• Use numpad directional keys to move the target cursor.
  
• Press [Tab] to cycle through potential targets.

[h2]Keyboard Controls[/h2]
Added 3 new keyboard controls: [G]et, [T]alk, and [E] interact.

• Use [T] to talk to any adjacent NPCs.
  
• Use [G] to access any adjacent lootable containers.
  
• Use [E] to interact with any object, such as workbenches or beds. Also can be used to loot.
  
• If multiple options are available, target selection is activated. Use [Tab] to cycle through targets and [E] to select.

[h2]Quaff, Feed, and Medicine[/h2]
Introducing three new commands: [Q]uaff, [F]eed, and [M]edicine.


Press the corresponding key to open a quick-item menu, allowing you to quickly use an item without navigating the inventory.

These can also be accessed from the action menu.


[h2]List Navigation via Keyboard[/h2]
The loot window can now be navigated with keyboard controls, enabling you to take individual items without the use of the mouse.


Press [Up] and [Down] or numpad keys to navigate the list, and [Space] to take an item.

Use any of these keys to activate list navigation. Alternatively, select "List Navigation via Keyboard" in options to enable it automatically.


Currently, only the loot and quick-item windows support keyboard navigation. Future updates will extend support to other UI windows.

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Memory management improvements: the game now only loads the current dungeon floor into memory, significantly reducing overall memory usage and improving performance on systems with limited memory.
  
• If an error occurs while saving a zone, it will now be logged and reported to the user. Previously save file failures would go unnoticed until an attempt to load a corrupted file was made.
  
• Nerfed Gremlin Experimenter: reduced maximum health from 105 to 65 and burn chance from 15% to 12%.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug causing ring duplication.
  
• Fixed an issue where rings could get stuck and become unequippable.
  
• Fixed player summons disappearing when entering a new zone.
  
• Addressed several issues related to time simulation when entering a zone, which caused some entities to skip turns. This issue made them vulnerable to attacks without the ability to move or retaliate.

[h2]v0.5.4b[/h2]

• Fixed crash during faction battles
  
• Fixed in some cases unable to re-enter a settlement after a battle had occurred there.

[h2]v0.5.4c[/h2]

• Fixed error loading into battles.

[h2]v0.5.4d[/h2]

• Fixed null exception when loading into zones, after a battle has taken place.
  
• Fixed duplicate shopkeepers spawning after battles.
  
• Fixed quests spawning for NPCs that do not exist either due to leaving from low prosperity, or death in battle.

[h2]v0.5.4e[/h2]

• Fixed after entering the inn room, unable to reenter.
  
• Fixed crash when leaving inn room.

[h2]v0.5.4f[/h2]

• Fixed Grimjaw's defeat not marking fortress as defeated or removing faction influence.
  
• Fixed player unable to complete quests due to faction battles. NPCs required for a quest which have been killed (from a battle or otherwise) will now automatically respawn upon reentering the town.
  
• Fixed all doors in a settlement are open and unlocked after a battle is finished, even doors that should be locked.
  
• Fixed issue where locations currently in battle would be invisible to the quest system, causing various unintended effects.
  
• Fixed killed npcs permanently disappearing after a battle is resolved. NPCs killed in battle will now always respawn after enough time has passed, given the town has the required prosperity.
  
• Faction armies can no longer walk on top of locations. This fixes an issue where battles could be started while standing on a location, which technically was not a siege (attacking from a city, or attacking an army that happens to be standing on a city).
  
• Bandit armies will no longer chase the player while standing on a town (or other location).
  
• Fixed battles (in the case where the player is attacked by an army) taking place on the tile of attackers, instead of defenders tile.
  
• Fixed bug allowing player to keep receiving rewards for a successful battle.
  
• Fixed crash "Attempt to enable respawn for NPC with respawn info".

[h2]v0.5.4g[/h2]

• Fixed summoned animals attacking guards in Aridax and Stonewarden towns.
  
• Fixed mail courier (part of "Gremlin's Grief" quest) stuck always following the player.
  
• Fixed quest "Confidental Matters" missing the dialog option for the Guard Captain.
  
• Fixed some parts of the character creation user interface not scaling correctly, according to the "UI Scaling" setting.
  
• Fixed array out of bounds exception to do with field of vision attempting to refresh partially outside the map bounds.
  
• Fixed crossing paths with an allied armies will initiate a battle (against no one).
  
• Fixed shops not selling or buying some rare animal materials (beetle wings, spectral remains, etc).
  
• Ethereal Gremlins no longer can spawn decay roots.
  
• Removed text "World Turns: X" from overworld HUD, which was intended for debug mode only.
  
• Reduced speed and view distance of bandit armies to make them less punishing (more balancing changes to come).
  
• Speed up influence decay rate, so influence recedes faster when a location is defeated.
  
• Tweaked army compositions for more variety, reduced chance of armies comprised only of archers or melee units.

[h2]v0.5.4h[/h2]

• Faction structures (Bandit Camps, Gremlin fortresses) now spawn in wilderness tiles, as they did prior to v0.5.4.
  
• More improvements to simultaneous turns for faster gameplay. Enemies chasing the player now move simultaneously if out of attack range.

Factions summon armies, settlements can be attacked and turned destitute, and bandit hordes wander the map. Gear up for a more engaging and challenging world.

This is a massive change! Expect continuing balance changes and fixes in the coming months.

Save files from v0.5.3 are NOT compatible.

[h2]Faction Warfare[/h2]
Factions will now spawn armies reflective of their wealth and strategic interests.

These armies attack settlements to expand their territory and will patrol and defend their holdings, creating a living world of conflict and conquest.


Join battles to defend cherished locations or tip the balance in factional conflicts.

Strategic window lets you know the time remaining until a battle is completed.


Your participation will be rewarded with not just loot and experience but also a tangible impact on the game's evolving geopolitical landscape.


Enable the faction overlay while in the world map to see faction influence.
How it works:

• Factions spawn armies based on their wealth. Wealth is gained over time based on the number of tiles controlled by that faction.
  
• Unless completely defeated, wounded armies will slowly regenerate their troops over time.
  
• Multiple armies can join the same battle, assuming they are allied with one of the sides.
  
• To join a battle, one of the sides must be your enemy and one must be your ally (no joining Bandits vs. Gremlins).
  
• If a town is under attack, fire will be visible on the world map, even if it's on an unexplored tile or outside your view radius.
  
• The armies of enemy factions will chase the player, but tend to move slower than normal movement.

For more details, including information about how factions gain and spend wealth, see the recent dev blog.

[h2]Human Factions[/h2]
Previously, there was a single generic "human" faction. This has been removed and split into 3 named factions:

Verdant Guard
Forest dwellers, who reside near where the player starts.


Stonewardens
Empire loyalists, typically found in mountainous regions.


Aridax
Fiercely independent desert dwellers.


Each human faction starts with its own territory and influence, which will shrink or grow based on the influence of other factions.

[h2]Bandit Factions[/h2]
Three new wandering bandit factions have also been added.

Eagle Clan
Small groups with strong units, the Eagle Clan prefers the mountains and forests.


Cragwolf Outlaws
A powerful, bloodthirsty bandit group, with a unique dual axes drop.


Barren Outcasts
Ill-equipped but with larger numbers.


Wandering bandits do not control territory but will attack and wreak havoc on all non-bandit factions (including the player).


[h2]Desert Towns[/h2]
To match the desert theme, Aridax towns have newly added building and pathway art.




[h2]Prosperity[/h2]
Upon entering settlements (villages, cities, and towns), you'll notice a new feature: prosperity. Visible on the location window, prosperity is represented with an indicator showing its current level and the trend of where it's heading.


Prosperity is a direct reflection of the economic health of a settlement, influencing the availability of shops, presence of adventurers and quests, frequency of traveling merchants, and the number of guards available.

The below screenshot is of a closed shop. As a town loses prosperity, shop owners will pack up and leave.



How it works:

• Settlements start with a hidden base prosperity amount. This amount is increased or decreased over time based on the number of nearby tiles controlled by the faction.
  
• Completing quests for a settlement causes prosperity to go up.
  
• Defeating nearby enemy dungeons makes space for factions influence to spread, causing prosperity to increase.
  
• If a settlement is attacked by a faction army, all local town guards and adventurers will team up to fight the invaders. If the battle ends in defeat, the town's prosperity is reduced to 0 (Destitute).
  
• If a settlement is under attack, it can be seen with a burning fire, even if the settlement is in fog-of-war or unexplored tiles.
  
• If a settlement loses shops, guards, or other NPCs due to low prosperity, they will return once prosperity has improved.
  
• Inns will never vacate a town, regardless of prosperity. This means you cannot lose your belongings if they're stored in an inn.

Prosperity Ranks

• Destitute (0-10) The settlement is nearly abandoned. It exerts no influence on the world map.
  
• Impoverished (11-30) Limited resources and low morale.
  
• Stable (31-60) The average, everyday life of a settlement with basic amenities available.
  
• Prospering (61-85) A flourishing settlement with abundant resources.
  
• Wealthy (86-100) The pinnacle of prosperity, featuring the best goods and services available.

[h2]Gremlin Dungeons[/h2]
Added 6 new room types to Gremlin Dungeons for more variation. These rooms have a chance to spawns in small and large Fortresses.


[h2]Simultaneous Turns[/h2]
This drastically speeds up combat when fighting in larger numbers. Instead of waiting for all enemies to take their turn one by one, entities will attack and move in the smallest number of batches.

All combat now uses "Simultaneous Turns," allowing enemy units to take their turn at the same time.


[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Reputation is no longer per settlement but is instead per faction, meaning reputation gained in one settlement unlocks bonuses for all settlements of that faction.
  
• Time now passes in the overworld while in dungeons. For example, if being chased by a bandit army, you can escape to a nearby town or dungeon. If enough time has passed, upon returning to the overworld, the army will have wandered away. Note this is up to a maximum number of turns, to ensure there is time to return to help defend nearby settlements while you are in dungeons.
  
• Added 2 new poisons: Jester's Toxin and Red Spigot.
  
• Added 8 new armor and weapon items: 3x Stonewarden Armor, 4x Dual-wielding axes, Furyforge Crown.

For the last several months we've been working on a major update: Faction Warfare

With this update, factions will spawn armies reflective of their wealth and strategic interests.


These armies attack settlements to expand their territory, and will patrol and defend their holdings, creating a living world of conflict and conquest.


You're not only a bystander in this world at war. Join battles to defend cherished locations or tip the balance in factional conflicts. Your participation will be rewarded with not just loot and experience but also a tangible impact on the game's evolving geopolitical landscape.


To get a closer look at these changes, also check out our previously released videos:
https://youtu.be/bqjI2Q1zOYQ
https://youtu.be/ncpyn8nvvL4

Our vision with this update is to breathe life into the game world. The world really is at war, regions and border actually matter and change over time, and you the player can influence the outcome.

Furthermore, this system has been designed with modularity in mind. This means even after the initial update, new factions, complete with their own unique units and behavior can be seamlessly integrated into the game and will automatically behave according to their designed nature and alignment — be they monstrous hordes or bandit clans (so to answer your question: yes, we plan to add magic-based factions & wizard armies).

[h2]Faction Wealth[/h2]
At the heart of Faction Warfare is a strategic economic system where each faction has an amount of wealth they can use to purchase armies.

The image below is from a prototype used to simulate faction behavior

Here's how the wealth system operates:

• Territorial Control: Wealth is gained based on the number of tiles controlled. The more tiles a faction controls, the faster its wealth accumulates.
  
• Upkeep Costs: Maintaining an army isn't without its costs. Each faction incurs an upkeep cost per turn to support its existing armies, necessitating a balance between expansion and sustainability.
  
• Army Recruitment: Factions use their accumulated wealth to purchase new armies. Each faction has unique costs and unit compositions for their armies, reflecting their individual strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Gremlins field numerous but weaker units at a lower cost.

[h2]Player Influence[/h2]You might be wondering how the player can affect this system.

Initially, as a lone adventurer in a world embroiled in conflict your influence is understandably limited. Charging into armies alone would be ill-advised. However, as you grow in power and cunning, so too does your ability to impact the world.

Undermining Faction Wealth
One strategic approach is targeting the enemy factions where it hurts: their wealth. Defeated dungeons stop exerting influence. As a result, the faction's borders begin to recede and their ability to fund and maintain armies diminishes.


Joining the Fray
Another way to sway the course of war is by joining battles alongside friendly factions. Engaging in these conflicts rewards you with loot, experience, and aids in defending vital territories.


[h2]Destroyed Towns???[/h2]
The introduction of faction warfare brings with it a more immersive and engaging world, but it also introduces new design challenges.

Our primary challenge is striking a balance: How do we ensure that faction armies are impactful, instilling a sense of urgency and consequence, while avoiding excessive penalties for the player?

Consider the following dilemmas:

• What if you've invested in a home or stored treasures in a town that's been razed?
  
• If you're mid-quest in a town that suddenly falls, or if an essential quest-giver resides in a now-destroyed settlement, how does that affect your story and objectives?
  
• What of the distant conflicts? If a town you care about is under siege while you're leagues away, should you have the option to intervene, or must you accept the fortunes of war?

These questions guide us towards a new solution: the prosperity system...

[h2]Town Prosperity[/h2]
Prosperity is a new system developed to address the challenges presented by faction warfare. It's the current focal point of our development efforts.

(as it's under active development, details are subject to change)

Upon entering settlements (villages, cities, and towns), you'll notice a new feature: prosperity. Visible on the location window, prosperity is represented with an indicator showing its current level and the trend of where it's heading.


Prosperity is a direct reflection of the economic health of a settlement, influencing the availability of goods, shop wealth, presence of adventurers and quests, frequency of traveling merchants, and the number of guards available.

[h3]Prosperity Ranks[/h3]
Prosperity is categorized into several ranks:

• Destitute (0-10): Settlements are nearly abandoned.
  
• Impoverished (11-30): Towns struggle with limited resources and low morale.
  
• Stable (31-60): The average, everyday life of a settlement with basic amenities available.
  
• Prospering (61-85): A flourishing settlement with abundant resources.
  
• Wealthy (86-100): The pinnacle of prosperity, featuring the best goods and services available.

[h3]Influencing Factors[/h3]
Several factors can influence a settlement's prosperity:

• Nearby Tile Influence: Proximity to enemy factions can decrease a settlement's prosperity. For example, if surrounded by enemy Bandits tiles, a town will see a gradual decline in prosperity.
  
• Player Actions: Completing quests or defeating nearby threats will boost a settlement's prosperity.
  
• Battle Outcomes: If a settlement falls in battle, its prosperity plummets, reflecting the devastation of war. It's then up to the resilient townsfolk and perhaps a helpful player to rebuild and restore what was lost.

[h3]Special Note on the Destitute Rank[/h3]
Settlements at the Destitute rank find themselves in a state of significant hardship, a status that typically follows a defeat in battle.

In this dire state, only essential structures like the Inn, your house, and quest-specific buildings remain operational. A destitute town is essentially off the map in terms of faction warfare: it poses no threat and thus is not a target for further attacks, nor does it exert any influence in the broader conflict.

As time passes, these settlements will naturally progress towards recovery, albeit slowly. To expedite this process we are planning to introduce special quests which appear in nearby towns. Through these quests, you can accelerate the recovery by contributing gold or other resources.

[h3]Benefits of the Prosperity System[/h3]
Where previously destroyed towns were completely inaccessible, the addition of the Prosperity system ensures that while such towns are still affected, the impact is less punishing.

This feature not only integrates with the simulated world, enhancing the realism and dynamism, but also amplifies the impact of faction borders and armies on the game's mechanics.

Looking ahead, we are also planning a separate update dedicated to enhancing town aesthetics. This future enhancement will see key town features dynamically change in line with the town's prosperity level. Imagine witnessing the physical transformation of a town as it progresses from destitute to wealthy...



That's it for now and thank you for reading.

As we forge ahead into the new year, there are several significant updates that we've been working on.

One of those changes is the revamp of our skills system, evolving it into a more robust skill tree structure.

Today, I'm pleased to introduce Eric Wagoner, the newest member of our development team, who is spearheading this exciting redesign. In this post, he shares his journey and insights directly with you.

[h2]Skill Trees[/h2]
Several years into development, we’ve added many skills and abilities… and we’re not nearly done yet. Choosing skills has always been one of my favorite parts of RPGs. Now, the time is right to take our skills system to the next level.

Accelerated Warfare – “Let’s go!”

[h2]Why Trees?[/h2]
The decision of what ability to select is a special moment in the game. It is a triumph. By placing abilities in a more structured flow, the player has guidance on where to look and what exactly their current decision is.

On the right is an art mockup, not the actual tree!

Note: In our game, the term "skill" refers to the overarching category you level up in, such as "Chivalry," "Cooking," or "Botany." And within each skill, you unlock items called "abilities" (technically, this means our discussion is about ability trees, but we've chosen to use the more intuitive term "skill trees" for simplicity).

These limitations also add a new layer of strategic thinking to the game as you puzzle out the trade-offs involved in ascending the tree and getting the abilities you want. And with Jake busy on the upcoming Factions update, it was a good time to reconsider ability balance, including how it relates to larger battles and more allied units.

[h2]Structure[/h2]
We decided to have our skill trees unlock from the bottom to the top to give players the feeling of scaling a mountain of awesomeness. The bottom level starts unlockable, and abilities can also start deeper in the tree with no parent ability, requiring that any ability (or hard junction) of equal or greater depth be available to unlock first.

Soft junctions (on the left) are unlocked by either prerequisite.
Hard junctions (on the bottom) require each.

Ability powerfulness (& complexity) generally increases as the tree is unlocked. More powerful abilities might be placed earlier on the tree if their connecting paths are reduced or limited. Less powerful abilities may be used as prerequisites to increase the total cost of powerful abilities.

[h2]What makes a good tree?[/h2]

Distributing the most desirable abilities away from each other creates many viable paths through the tree, adding depth to the decision-making process. Since players can earn XP from using active abilities, some are placed early on the trees to give players options to level each skill through use.

Battle Hardened won’t let you go down without a fight

Grouping related abilities together adds realism and makes intuitive sense, since it's easier to learn things which are similar to what you already know. The shape of the trees also allows us to convey meaning through symbolism, such as the stability and connectedness of the new Chivalry tree.

[h2]Skill Themes[/h2]
As you might expect, there are lots of considerations when designing a skill system. We want to give each skill a special feel and particular strengths. To do this, we consider the general themes of each:

Chivalry: Virtue, honor, protecting humanity

Warrapt: Tradition, pragmatism, persistence, practice

Dreadheart: Instinctual, barbaric, savage, animalistic

Another consideration is how many abilities are in each tree. Dreadheart had the least number, so I added a few new ones. Warrapt and Chivalry, having the most, received more modifications instead.

The above three are coming first, but deliberation is already underway for the weapon skill changes:


[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]
When considering individual abilities, I compare them to similar abilities. For example, ‘Mighty Lunge’ on the Warrapt tree is similar to several other jump-attack abilities. In playtesting, the 2-range limit was annoying, because, being an attack, it only gave one tile of extra movement. This wasn’t quite enough for what it was used for: catching up to those pesky hit-and-run enemies. It also didn’t make ‘Mighty Lunge’ feel particularly mighty.

‘Vicious Lunge,’ in the Daggers tree on the other hand, has a much longer range. This felt off, because a long jump is more mighty than vicious, and daggers are relatively short range. I want to keep a short range jump-attack for variety, because the others are longer range. Therefore, let's make ‘Vicious Lunge’ the jump attack skill with the short range but better energy cost, cooldowns, and less vulnerability, since daggers are light & fast. ‘Mighty Lunge’ can have a longer range.

From concept to completion: can you guess the skill?

Several existing abilities will become applicable to nearby allies in light of the new Factions update. For example: Bravery, Aura of Valor (Chivalry), Guarded Wait, Combat Awareness (Warrapt), Vicious Sustain and Blood Lust (Dreadheart). Other kinds of abilities may also be applicable for allies, i.e., Parry & Knight’s Challenge.

[h2]New Abilities[/h2]
Our dev post just wouldn’t be complete without a few teasers for some of the new abilities coming your way.


Lacerate: Lash out in a bloody attack with +5..15% bleed chance, dealing +5..15% more damage, but taking +20..10% longer. On hit, the enemy takes +8% damage and bleeds twice as fast for 1..3 turns.

Lacerate adds to the short supply of Dreadheart active abilities, but it’s placed so late in the tree that it cannot help much with XP gain, which is addressed by another new ability. It’s fairly powerful, however, so it makes sense that it would be an apex ability to strive towards (the ‘tip of the claw,’ so to speak.) It fits with the Battle Trance line of abilities, but this is purely thematic.

Bleed is a major feature of Dreadheart, so I wanted to give it a little more punch by causing the target to bleed twice as fast (two ticks per turn) for a few turns. I also wanted this ability to create additional blood tiles around the target, so that the player can start using the environment more as part of their tactics and strategy. Blood tiles combo with yet another upcoming ability, as well as future abilities such as the Blood Mage, but be careful; you might not be the only one who likes getting bloody!

Bleed resist never looked so cool

Noble Steel Resonance a new Chivalry ability: firmly embed your weapon into the ground, sending forth a resonating shockwave that weakens the defenses of all enemies in its path. Enemies receive -10..14% dodge chance and -10..14% physical resist for 3..5 turns.

Just when you thought Chivalry had enough abilities, we added more. While Chivalry is bordering a bit much on the magical for a skill not listed in magic menu, it's possible to consider nobility in its own mundane yet semi-magical category, almost as a prerequisite for certain kinds of virtuous magic.



Martial Flourish: Launch a flourishing attack against adjacent enemies when you enter a new stance, dealing -40..20% damage with +15..35% knockback chance.

Martial Flourish puts a bit of kung-fu in your step, replacing Quick Swap, which is merging into Efficient Dispatch to make it more attractive. We don’t stop there; players have said stances were underwhelming, and Swift Transition’s switching stances quicker seemed that way. After all, you can only use one stance at a time, and each stance requires investment.

So, let’s make stances more exciting! Making them compatible will breathe new life into these mechanics. Swift Transition is getting five upgrade levels so that players can now briefly have two stances active at higher levels.

Combat Awareness gets a new ‘look’

I hope you enjoyed reading this update as much as I enjoyed writing it. Development continues on Factions, Skill Trees, and more, so keep your eyes peeled for more exciting updates.