Of Blades & Tails News

Hey everyone!

A new update is here that brings lots of new abilities to play around with. It also introduces support for new languages, thanks to our amazing community!

[h2]Changelog v0.15.0[/h2]

[h3]Engineering Talent[/h3]

A new talent line around "Engineering" has been added. It allows you to place stationary weapons and other utilities in combat.
In addition to the familiar resources like stamina or mana, these abilities also cost Toolkits.
Each minor perk along the talent line grants you a chance not to lose any toolkit when using an ability.
A master of engineering won't waste any toolkits at all, but the less experienced engineers have to deal with this extra resource cost.

All active abilities require expertise before you can learn them!
A skilled woodworker in Immerfurt probably knows more about this craft...

(Please note that the sources for receiving this talent expertise might change during EA.)

• Explosive Barrel: Places an explosive barrel at the selected position.
  
• Defensive Training Dummy: Taunts nearby enemies and reflects 50% damage back to the attacker. (Only close range)
  
• Double Shot Ballista: Places a ballista that fires 2 shots per turn, with the last shot having a chance to knockback the target.
  
• Frost Turret: Places a turret that freezes (stuns) nearby enemies for a few turns.
  
• Explosive Catapult: Places a catapult that shoots burning projectiles which cause a 3x3 explosion at the target position.
  

[h3]Beastmastery Talent[/h3]

Beastmastery has been added and allows players who earned the respect of the wild to tame beasts and make them fight on their side for some time.
To earn the respect (read: expertise ;)) you have to complete newly introduced wave attack challenges, which are placed across the overworld.

Activating the challenge requires you to place a "Beast Bait", which has a low chance to drop from all insect or plant-based creatures in the game.

(Please note that receiving the bait(s) may require a good amount of grinding, if you want to rush it. However, for any new playthrough it should be something that just drops along the way at some point. Beastmastery is meant to be a supportive talent and nothing you can learn/focus on right from the start.)

• Insect Taming: Allows you to tame insects and make them fight on your side for some time.
  
• Such A Good Pal: Heals a tamed ally and extends the taming duration.
  
• Plant Taming: Allows you to tame plant-based creatures and make them fight on your side for some time.
  
• Call of the Battle Bug: Call for the help of your new bug friend, who can taunt enemies and will stay with you until the end of combat.
  

[h3]New Ranged Weapon: Crossbow[/h3]

Crossbows are now a thing and can either be found through random loot or be bought alongside bows.



Note the 2 turns cooldown which the base attack of this weapon has.

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• Bosses (enemies marked with "Hard!") now gain a stun immunity for a few turns after they recover from a stun.
  
• You can now see in the enemy details view (right-click) a list of perks, which can tell you more about the effects on each individual enemy.
  

[h3]New Languages[/h3]

I'm really happy to finally add new languages to the game on which members of our amazing Discord community have been working on over the past weeks.

Important: All of these languages are translated by volunteers who love the game and want to make it more accessible to players in their native language.
Please be aware that there might be issues with some texts. Any missing translations will appear in English.
Especially after future updates, there will be times when new game content might not be translated into all supported languages in time for the update to be released.

Now to the additionally supported language and their level of completeness with the current update:
[h4]
Ukrainian: 100%
Finnish: 100%
Brazilian Portuguese: 100%
Korean: 100%
Japanese: 100%
Turkish: 82%
[/h4]

Everyone is welcome to help translating the game in their language (this includes helping out with existing translations, proofreading, etc.)
Join our Discord server and let us know if you'd like to join the localization team!

[h3]Savegame Compatibility[/h3]

Savegames from version 0.14.x are compatible.

[hr][/hr]

[h2]What's next[/h2]

I'm working on a new system that allows you to modify the stats of your equipment items. My goal is that (i.e.) if you find a sword with +Dexterity but you're playing ranged only, then you can still extract the stat modifier from the sword and place it in another item that you actually use and strengthen your ranged build anyways.

Besides that I'm also taking the first steps into the new region for the upcoming world expansion, part 2.

The next update may take a little bit longer now, but I'll make sure to update you with a preview post as I go!

If you enjoy your time with Of Blades & Tails and the new contents, then please consider writing a short Steam review. It really helps the game to grow and reach more players :)

Until next time, take care everyone!

Felix

This is a small update that adds a few quality of life improvements and fixes some issues.

• The Ancient Talisman now proccs when you're dealing damage, instead of receiving damage.
  
• Added an option to stop any queued movement on enemy sight.
  
• Pressing the key for "Skip turn" now also stops any queued movement.
  
• Added an option to display text with a regular font, instead of the default pixel font.
  
• Fixed an issue where some enemies won't use their skills as intended. Especially in melee combat.
  
• Fixed a potential cause for enemies getting stacked upon each other. (May not be 100% fixed yet)
  
• Fixed various locales.
  
• The feedback form now allows copy & paste, so it's much easier for you to copy your kind words over to the Steam review box ;)
  

Hey everyone!

This is the next big chapter for Of Blades & Tails, which expands on the story, world map, and adds a lot of new content to the game.

Please refer to the last preview post to learn more about the new content and how the added mechanics work.

[h2]Changelog v0.14.0[/h2]

[h3]Story & Quests[/h3]

• The story quest Of Rats & Ferrets has been fully added.
  
• You can now become a member of the Adventurers Guild.
  
• A secret has been added that reveals more lore about the human history.
  

[h3]Game World[/h3]

• The game world has been expanded to the east.
  
• A new region has been added: The Haunted Forest
  This region also features a new mechanic where you will get haunted by spirits the longer you walk into the forest.
  
• A new region has been added: The Southern Swamp
  
• 2 new dungeons have been added.
  
• An overworld encounter has been added: Ancient Sentinel
  
• A new faction with unique enemies has been added: Cultists
  
• New locations have been added: Cultist Camps
  
• A new faction with unique enemies has been added: Spirits
  
• New location has been added: River Crossing / Guarded Bridge
  
• New location has been added: Twisted Twig Inn
  
• New POI has been added to several areas: Altar of Fortune
  
• New POI has been added to several areas: Sprout of the Golden Tree
  

[h3]Items & Equipment[/h3]

• Upgraded items can now get downgraded again using the newly added Orb of Modesty. This also returns the spent Orb(s) of Magnificence.
  
• A legendary treasure map has been added.
  
• New legendary items have been added.
  
• New consumable item added: Potion of Elemental Resistance
  
• New consumable item added: Potion of Magical Resistance
  
• New consumable item added: Juice of the Golden Tree
  
• New consumable item added: Cheap Swill
  
• Other items have been added.
  

[h3]Talents & Abilities[/h3]

• New abilities have been added to One-Handed, Ranged Weapons and Polearms.
  (They require expertise to learn them.)
  
• Shield Block is now instant, but damage mitigation has been set to 75% and it now has a 2 turns cooldown.
  

[h3]UI, Controls & Accessibility[/h3]

• Skill bar has been reworked: You now have access to 2x5 skill slots and they are swapped based on your current weapon set.
  
• An additional quick item slot has been added.
  
• NPCs/enemies that are not visible will mostly complete their action instantly now, to avoid unnecessary delays to the global turn system when enemy factions are engaging with each other.
  
• Defeated sentinels are tracked in game statistics.
  

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• A reset at the Shrine of Oblivion now always requires an Orb. It's not possible to just have it reset your level experience anymore.
  Additionally you can now find 2 Orbs of Oblivion at the first shrine you visit.
  
• Traps are now harder to detect, but do slightly less damage.
  
• Reduced the amount of restored stamina for One-Handed and Polearms training perk.
  
• The amount of exp required for leveling up on higher levels has been slightly increased.
  
• The amount of exp you receive for defeating enemies on a lower level than yourself has been reduced.
  
• Increased the stamina cost of the Grappling Hook.
  

[h3]Achievements[/h3]

These 5 achievements have been added:

• The Good Stuff
  
• Diminisher
  
• Lore Master
  
• Fearless Adventurer
  
• Fearless Cult Buster
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue with 'Hold to Move' option and instant skills that cause movement.
  
• Fixed an issue when player wants to sell an item but has no money stack in their inventory yet.
  
• Several smaller fixes.
  

[h3]Savegame Compatibility[/h3]

Savegames from version 0.13.x are largely compatible.
This is what you need to know:

• Your abilities will be reset. You need to redistribute them.
  
• The Quest Of Rats & Ferrets will be reset.
  
• The bonfire near the Church Ruins has been removed. You will spawn in the top left corner of this area, if this was your last save spot.
  

[hr][/hr]

[h2]What's next[/h2]

I'm already working on the Beastmastery and Engineering talents! So that's something that will most likely be ready in March as well. Besides other QoL improvements and smaller features that I can implement along the way.

If you enjoy your time with Of Blades & Tails and the new contents, then please consider writing a short Steam review. It really helps the game to grow and reach more players :)

Until next time, take care everyone!

Felix

Hey everyone!

We're happy to announce that Steam Community Items for Of Blades & Tails are finally here! With that being said you can now load up the game and have a chance to receive a trading card drop.
Collect your trading cards to receive cool badges and profile backgrounds that you can then show off on your profile.

Here's a preview of some of the trading cards you can get:

We have also dropped profile backgrounds and emoticons but we will let you discover them on your own!
Please don't forget to show us your customized profiles and those beautiful badges. We would love to see them!


Best regards,
Felix & Pineapple Works

Hey everyone!

In this preview post I want to share more details of what I'm working on right now and what you can expect not only for the next update but also for the months to come!
We've got a few things to cover, so let's get started :)

[h2]World Expansion[/h2]

First of all I want to tell you more about the upcoming world expansion. It will be part of Update 0.14 and introduce the Haunted Forest and Southern Swamp regions. The Home of the Deer Tribe will already be part of the map but not yet accessible. It will get introduced in a separate update, same as the other displayed regions on the map below.



The new swamp area will feature tall (new) mushroom trees, which we of course all love since the dawn of Morrowind ;) It contains a dungeon and new legendary rewards.

The Haunted Forest is a dark and spooky area, occupied by cultists and summoned spirits. It also introduces a new overworld mechanic which I'll explain below.

The new regions will be based on existing biomes, but I try my best to add enough variety to them so that they still feel fresh when you first visit them.

[h3]Story and Main Quests[/h3]

In Update 0.14 you will be able to advance further in the story line. However, I want to point out that I divided Story and Main quest in two different branches. It's just a subtle change that you may not even notice, but if you want to read more about my reasoning here we go:
When I started Of Blades & Tails I knew I wanted it to be a game that quickly delivers the main plot and target destination to the player, so you don't have to play through a bunch of story quests in order to "beat the game". Instead you could focus on the core gameplay (combat, character development, exploration) if you want to. So the game's basically saying: "There's where you need to go eventually, good luck!", and with that the player is free to roam.
(Well, at least you have to complete the first quest and find Aro. But I hope you get the idea anyways ;) )

Now the Story Quests on the other hand will be for players that enjoy storytelling along their journey and want a bit more guidance. They will lead you through the world and also ensure you will obtain certain items that will make beating the game easier!
I believe this separation will also make sense for everyone who starts a second or even third playthrough, where you aren't required to play through all the story quests if you already know them.

So what actually changed in the game?
TL;DR the quest Of Rats & Ferrets that sends you to Immerfurt and the following quest(s) are all part of the story line. The Main Quest is Over Hill and Dale and sends you directly to the Great Lair. Eventually the story line will join in with the Main Quest.

Okay... Lots of text. I hope you found it interesting enough :)

Let's have some screenshots now!


[h3]The Haunted Forest[/h3]



As mentioned before, the Haunted Forest will be part of Update 0.14 and it will be a much darker area than what we've had in the game so far.



The area also introduces two new factions: Cultists and Spirits
They both are allies but are hostile to all other factions in the game. So you can expect to see plants and insects having smaller skirmishes with them as you explore the forest.

Besides an eerie atmosphere and dangerous enemies I also implemented a new overworld mechanic for this zone. I don't have a cool marketing name, so I just call it the "Haunted Feature"!
(Same as in the code actually, because naming things is hard...)



As you stroll through this area, you will inevitably incur the displeasure of the spirits that haunt it. This will be visualized by a larger spirit sprite that floats along your left or right screen edges. After some time more spirits will join in, up until 4 of them. A vignette effect will continously darken the corners of the screen as well.
Now it's definitely time for you to find and activate one of the Light Pools that are placed throughout the forest. Activating a Light Pool will dispel all spirits that are currently haunting you and also damage all spirit enemies around you by 50%.
If you don't make it to a Light Pool in time, the 4 spirits will "spawn" right next to you and hopefully give you a hard time, since especially a pack of them is designed to be pretty hard ;)

My intention is to make travelling through the Haunted Forest a more intense experience than previous areas. Also there is no bonfire inside the forest, so if you don't make it through it by using the Light Pool mechanic (or being very powerful?), you'll have to start over at the beginning. Little bit of a mini-roguelike experience if you want.

But Of Blades & Tails wouldn't be an accessible game that rewards exploration if there weren't things that could make your forest crossing easier... And I don't necessarily mean this one thing that already can be found in the game ;)

So yeah, it's a new mechanic. I hope you like it and enjoy the challenge. If not we'll work on it until it's great! In that regard I'm really looking forward to your feedback.


[h2]Reworked Skill Bar & Slots[/h2]

Another highly requested feature that will make it into Update 0.14 is weapon set based skill bars, or simply put: More skill slots!

Instead of the current 6 skill slots total, you'll be able to use 2x5 slots. The skill bars are swapped based on the weapon set that you're using.
A button to switch the weapon set has been added to the bar as well.



This gives access to a total of 10 skills during combat.
I do believe this should be enough to make use of most (if not all) skills in a specific talent line and still requires players to choose their loadout carefully. It also encourages to use different weapon types.

Additionally one more quick item slot has been added as well.


[h2]Item Downgrading[/h2]

Yes, you will be able to downgrade your items if they became too powerful and you started hurting yourself!



Jokes aside, this is the way to reclaim already spent Orbs of Magnificence, if you want to use them on a different item.
As you may know Orbs of Magnificence are very limited, but you should still be able to experiment with new and old equipment. Therefore Orbs of Modesty will be added. You can find them throughout the world and also for defeating specific bosses. Those encounters can be repeated as often as you want for as many Orbs as you need.

Which leads to ...


[h2]New Overworld Encounter: Ancient Sentinel[/h2]

Ancient Sentinels are very hard bosses, that can be encountered at specific spots in the overworld. They have a new Defensive State, which means they won't attack you on sight, unless they feel threatened and/or you stay in their territory for too long.
This way you hopefully won't start a fight with them by accident.

Another new mechanic is that Sentinels have a random set of skills that they use. They have like 8 skills in total and select 4 of them randomly when they spawn. This way it should always be a bit of a surprise how they will engage in combat and also make repeating encounters more interesting.

They can also have slightly different appearances each time.


[h2]New Locations (in Old Places)[/h2]

Update 0.14 will also introduce new (small) locations that won't be marked on your map! You can only discover them by careful exploration.



They will reward you with small bonusses to your character stats or very handy consumable items. However, they are completely optional side locations. Therefore similar to Spider Nests, they won't mess up your world map with ?-icons.
Even though you may want to find them all, once you stumpled upon one ;)

As the headline indicates, they can already be found in the starting area and forward.

Oh, before I forget: New secrets and lore around humanity will be added as well!

[h2]Updated Roadmap 2023[/h2]

I want to use this post to revisit the Roadmap and give you a better idea of what's already done and what's coming in the future.



As you can see Winter is already done. Parts of the Spring/Summer content will be implemented in Update 0.14, including first quests for the Adventurers Guild.

[h3]Future Talents[/h3]

New talents won't make it in this update. They will be part of a separate update that won't focus on world expansion.
You can also see that a pure Summoning talent maybe won't make it in. You will be able to summon minions, that's for sure! As a matter of fact that's already something you'll be able to do in Update 0.14..... Even without a new talent... But enough of the teasing!
Most likely there's gonna be a new magic-based talent that also contains one or two summoning skills. I just have to figure out what makes the most sense and offers enough overall utility for magic players.
Talking about utility: Engineering is something I've had in mind now for some time. Actually since I added the Portable Dummy to the game :)
This talent will evolve around putting together gadgets like turrets and other placeable utility objects (like the dummy). It will most likely be a supporting talent for stamina-based play styles.

[h3]Future World Expansions[/h3]

I also want to share how I want to divide future world expansions during Early Access.



As I mentioned in one of the last posts, creating world content is the most time consuming part. It is probably also the hardest part when moving forward, because there's so much stuff to consider to make it fresh and interesting and still working together with content and mechanics that already exist in the game. However, it's very rewarding to see the world growing!
That being said, I think it makes sense for me to divide world expansions in smaller parts and alternate between them and other updates. Other updates may introduce new systems/mechanics or add new talents for example.
I have ideas for a reasonable crafting system, but I need to get Update 0.14 out before I can focus on it or even share details with you... Stay tuned please :)


[h2]Support for Additional Languages[/h2]

Last but not least I think it's safe to say that new languages will be added to the game in the near future!
This has been made possible by the amazing members of our community Discord server.

Portuguese (Brazil), Finnish, and Turkish are already in a very good shape and should be available soon!

Please keep in mind that these translations are entirely managed by the community, so it's likely that after an update there will be strings missing and still appear in English (default fallback) or that they contain smaller issues.

If you'd like to help out with translating the game to your language, please join our Discord server and let us know.


[h2]Update 0.14 when?[/h2]

After this rather long post, I keep this section short: Early March :)


I hope you're happy with the things I introduced in this preview post and I would love to read your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, take care everyone!

Felix