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Striving for Light News

Descent Content Update - Preview 1



We are proud to announce the name and theme of the upcoming 0.9 content update. Update 0.9 will be the biggest content update Striving for Light has ever seen!

"Descent"

With the upcoming content update traces of a new ore have been found in the vast lands around Ankerath. The ore was a shimmering hue of blue, as deep and mesmerizing as the sky. News of the discovery spread like wildfire. It's told that some light fragments formed the ore when colliding at the great scatter.



The lands are transforming. Where once there were meadows and forests, now wooden scaffolds shadowed the ground. The clang of hammers and pickaxes became a constant echo as mine shafts, like scars, began to appear, burrowing deep into the belly of the earth, driven by the insatiable hunger for the new ore. No one thought we would awaken these ancient dormant terrors...




In Descent you will find frequent tunnels that lead into the belly of the earth. Construct mine shafts and install defense upgrades to defend yourself and your mine shaft from the awakened horrors to descent and digg for skygems.




Prolong and intensify your descent to maximise the risk and reward of your expedition into the deep!



[h2]New Trinket System[/h2]

The upcoming content update will introduce a new item type: Trinkets. Trinkets come in 4 different types and can not only grant you passive stat improvements but also active and passive abilities. So lets take a look at the different trinket types. You will be able to carry 4 trinkets at the same time and you can combine them freely as you see fit.

[h3]Legendary Trinkets[/h3]
Legendary Trinkets are the rarest and most powerful trinkets you can find. These trinkets do not only hold passive stat improvements but also an unique active or passive ability that you can gain by meeting the trinket power requirements. These are indicated by colored circles that stand for other trinket types you need to have equiped to gain the ability. In general legendary trinkets belong to no color and do not count towards meeting the requirements for other trinkets.



Once you have met the requirements you can use the new active abilities by the right mouse (or assigned) button. Active Abilities have a cooldown that requires to empower the trinket by a certain amount of enemies that have to be defeated. The active abilities can be everything from shapeshifting into a new form, a temporal shield preventing you to receive damage, berserker auras or massive new attacks.

[h3]Normal Trinkets[/h3]

Normal trinkets are colored blue (defensive), red (offensive) and green (utility) and can hold a variety of stats but also passive effects. Those trinkets are required to activate the abilities on the legendary trinkets. While the active abilities from legendary trinkets are powerful they might not be best for all builds. Some builds will benefit more from stacked passive effects from normal trinkets or even combining multiple legendary trinkets without activating the legendary ability. The possibilities are endless.







We are planing to add a huge amount of different trinkets with the upcoming content update to bring a huge variety of new build possibilities to explore. Here are some of them to give some hints on what will await you.



These trinkets can be aquired all throughout the world but also in the new descent events.

[h2]What comes next?[/h2]
This only marks a fraction of all the new content that will be included in the Descent content update. You will be able to use the new skygem currency to descent into several brutal mini dungeons. There are plans for a new world event. We are currently experimenting with awakened gatekeeper bosses that you will call once you dived deep enough into the darkness. There might even be a complete new map. And this is just the new content, we not even have talked about all the improvements that will come to the existing content like reworked range combat with overall faster projectile speeds to make range attacks feel more responsive.

Please note that all of what we have showed you here is subject to change as we are still full in active development for all of the new content. Abilities, names and stats might change as we see fit. Also since the scope of this update is huge and we want to make sure everything is polished and enjoyable on the update release day this will still need some time to cook until its ready.

We want to thank you for your patience and the ongoing support! If you want to stay up to date with the ongoing development and chat with fellow players about the new update, you are invited to join our discord.

Update 0.8.7.2b-e

[h3]Improvements[/h3]
  • Performance improvements for all constructs
  • Additional projectiles from weapon stats do now update the range attack immediately (was updating after next skill tree scene switch) 


[h3]Bugfixes:[/h3]
  • Fixed a memory leak when using range constructs
  • Fixed skill tree node search camera pan after searching for nodes that contained letters "wasd"
  • Fixed a crash on player death (v.0.8.7.2c)
  • Fixed a crash due to new improved scene loading (v.0.8.7.2.c)
  • Fixed a crash on player death while active world events (v.0.8.7.2d)
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when a unstable internet connection leads delays in posting leaderboard entries. (v.0.8.7.2e)

0.8.7.2a

Update 0.8.7.2a is making getting hit more fun than ever... with complete new player hit visuals and sound effects.

[h3]Improvements[/h3]
  • Player hit visual effects have been completly reworked. Player hit has also got a brand new sound effect. This will make player hits feel much more responsive and impactful. And last but not least they should make getting hit more fun than ever :). And this is how it looks in action.



  • Reworked trembling ground visuals effects and fixed inconsitent visual effect drop outs


[h3]Balancing[/h3]
  • Fragmentation projectiles now have increased range and less travel speed


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Fixed crahses that have been introduced by the latest loading rewrite to reduce scene transition loading times
  • Fixed wrong number of assigned enemy on death effects

Update 0.8.7.2

[h2]Improved Controller Support[/h2]

Controller usage on the skill tree and the pathfinder has been improved. You can now as well use the thumb stick to jump between nodes. Fast movements make the cursor jump to the next node in the targeted direction. Slow thumb stick movements unlock the cursor for fine adjustments. This should hopefully make navigating the trees more fun using the controller. 

You can now use the LB+RB button to switch between softcore and hardcore mode at the start of the run when using a controller.

[h3]Improvements[/h3]
  • Highlighted nodes in the skill tree and the pathfinder now have an animated highlight for improved visibility when using a controller.
  • Darkness skill gem world event reward window now also on keyboard / mouse focuses first option so that selection can be made by UI arrow navigation
  • Further performance improvements on critical hit enemy flash effect
  • Fissure skill is now fully affected by the player effect transparency setting
  • Improved distort shader effect for the fissure skill effect.
  • Reduced loading times when switching scenes.
  • Player character is now remaining facing in the latest walking direction instead of always facing in the downwards direction.


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Fixed map tooltip offset to the right when activating a map or deactivating a map
  • Fixed misplaced tooltips on the pathfinder radial menu when using a controller.

Update 0.8.7.1

Just yesturday we have released a big update for Striving for Light and we are going full force ahead! This update 0.8.7.1 is full packed with performance improvements to make exploring the new added weapon as well as the new weapon effect / construct interactions more fun than ever! This update also fixes the portal not detecting the player after scene switch which made you require to leave and return to a pathfinder portal in order to activate it!

[h3]Improvements[/h3]
  • Massive performance improvements for all enemy hit flash effects that have multiple body parts like worms/centipedes. Previously long worm enemies like worm map boss or the bleak worm gatekeeper endboss could lead to massive frame drops when attacking with a huge amount of frequent hits. The enemy flash effect was rewritten for maximum performance at exact same functionality.
  • Massive performance improvements for all companion enemy hit effects. Previously all companions triggered additional enem hit visual effects that where not intended. This could lead to massive frame drops when a big bunch of companions attacked an enemy with much HP like bosses.


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • The pathfinder portal now detects the player directly after scene switch and does not require you to leave the portal area and return to activate the portal and use it.


Thanks for being part of the development journey of Striving for Light. Participate in the ongoing development and join our official discord community!