Keeper's Toll News

Hi Everyone,

This week's update improves a lot of minor things, and Build 0.5.16 adds a new feature: Cursed Altars. The spawn logic of cursed altars will likely change in future updates. These new altars are one of many new events planned for the game to spice up early gameplay. We will be adding lots of new events to the game which offer different types of challenges and rewards. Expect more soon!



Engaging with 3 of these altars will reward you with a new achievement, so check it out!

[h2]Full Patch Notes:[/h2]

- New Altar: Cursed Altar. Discover it and see if you've got what it takes to reap the rewards!

- New Achievement: Activate 3 Curse Altars

- XP will now carry over to the next level on level up

- An outline has been added to elites to improve visibility and identify them easier

- When enemies take poison damage over time they now have a custom shader effect applied to them to improve the visibility of the effect



- Ranger: When closing the Merchant Window, the toggle to switch between kiting mode and regular movement will no longer be triggered

- Ranger: When closing the Sacrifice Altar Window, the toggle to switch between kiting mode and regular movement will no longer be triggered

- Bug Fix: Treasure Map chest will no longer be deactivated when starting a boss fight in Usvit Depths

- Ranger Bug Fix: Burst Shot damage calculation was off. It was boosting the attack multiplier by +1 every shot, which eventualy resulted in insanely high damage. Fixed this, sorry no more OP burst shot.

- Increased base enemy move speed by 9%

- Linden Forest: Decreased hitbox size for the following enemies: Grub, Worm

- Reduced the gold reward for the Treasure Map item

- Bug Fix: Toast notification that Bilee has spawned will now properly display

- Bug Fix: Force Trigger necklace was not properly storing collider references


Next week we are planning to add at least 1 more new event to the game, along with a host of other QoL improvements and tweaks.

We have shifted our main focus to the development of Castle Usvit, but we will continue to push out QoL improvements and new builds as often as we can.

Next week we'll have some other news about the future of the game, so stay posted!

Thank you for your support. If anyone has any questions, feedback, bug reports, or anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Stingbot

[h2]MERCHANT[/h2]

A traveling merchant from a distant land has arrived, and he brings a trove of mysterious and powerful items for you to purchase and use.

Meet Likho, the Traveling Merchant:



Likho currently has a variety of common and uncommon items available to purchase. Likho will be available from the start of the game, but he is not designed to be used with new players as the cost of his items may be too high initially. Like the Talents System, the merchant will enhance the player's abilities and set them up for a chance at a great run, so saving up Gold to purchase items could be a good strategy. We've even introduced a new way to acquire large amounts of gold, and more on that below.





Likho will appear at roughly 5 and 15 minutes in every run. You will be notified and must seek him out to browse his wares and boost your powers. He sells everything from basic stat boosters and re rolls, to more unique and rare items not seen in the game world anywhere else.

For instance, he may offer you a Nightmare Cloak, which boosts your Damage by 60%, however the cloak will cast a curse on you. But if you've got the skills and you can afford the cost of the item, the reward could most certainly outweigh the risk.

Then you have items like the Treasure Map. If you purchase the map you will be directed to find 3 treasure chests, with each chest holding more gold than the last. The cost of the map will run you 400 gold, but the reward can set you up for many runs if you find all 3 chests.



This is only the beginning of the Merchant System. As we continue development we will introduce Rare, Class Specific items that Likho will sell to you, as well as add to his pool of common and uncommon items.

[h2]COMING SOON: HARD MODE[/h2]

The Merchant will become a very crucial part of the core gameplay loop as we continue further in development. We are designing a Hard Mode that we anticipate to be live in Linden Forest before the end of July. Once you complete a stage on the regular difficulty, you will unlock a new, harder variant of that stage. With the new version will come a variety of changes including changes to existing enemies and behaviors, new encounters, new environment hazards and a new boss. If you want to become a true Soul Survivor, then Hard Mode will be your ultimate test. Here's a preview of a new boss coming to Linden Forest. Meet the Spore King, a giant Mushroom Shaman King who commands a fierce fungal army:



We've also patched a bunch of things in this update (0.5.14)

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

- Save Data: refactored code and added extra failsafes to notify player if corrupted data was detected. New data will now be automatically created, to avoid causing bugged behaviour during gameplay. The player will also be notified that their file was corrupted, and if you would like us to send you a new file with custom data, we can do so.

- Changed Save File extension in Steam Cloud setup

- Ranger: Refactored and improved code for Arrow Volley ability

- Ranger: Reset default movement mode to kiting, but toggle remains unchanged

- Modified the damage text positioning above Bosses to improve readability

- Modified and Optimized damage text again, boosting performance by a small margin

- Bug Fix: Ranger Explosive Trap counts will now reset when entering Autlaic and Velya boss fights, to ensure max traps can be laid during the fights

- Reduced the Base CDR for passive cooldown from 5% to 4% per rank. Ashendusk Powder (sold by the merchant) will boost this to 7% per rank.

- Enemy damage text will now only be activated if the enemy is on screen within the camera view

- Bug Fix: fixed an issue with destructibles in Usvit Depths not rendering the fully destroyed sprite and leaving the shadow active

- Bug Fix: Ember Particles on level up screen now disply and position properly

- Bug Fix: Ranger Explosive Traps will no longer be set off by Velya's Blue fireballs during the boss fight in Usvit Depths

- Bug Fix: 1 million soul achievement will now update

- Code refactoring


Finally, next week we'll also be making some changes on Steam Cloud after we can verify some things in the Cloud. This will be a silent update on the backend as we verify the code is working.

As always, thank you for everyone's support as we continue development on Soul Survivors. There's a lot more to come, and if you have any feedback, requests, suggestions for ways to improve the game, or bug reports, please don't hesitate to reach out. We appreciate the feedback and we strive to improve the game in each and every update.

Stingbot

Hi Everyone,

Build 0.5.11 is Live, and with it comes a bunch of improvements to the game. There's a lot to discuss so let's begin with some major points:

[h2]PERFORMANCE[/h2]

As of version 0.5.11, The game runs very well, even on low end machines and the Steam Deck. We've made some huge performance boosts with some recent changes. If you feel you are getting some FPS drops below 60 on your device just go into Options and disable damage text and this should resolve the problem. In the future, we'll continue to optimize the game so you don't have to do this on low end hardware, but for now this will solve any issues.

[h2]SAVE DATA[/h2]

In the next major update we'll be updating some game settings, so we wanted to inform players ahead of time to make sure their data is up to date. If you haven't played the game since it launched in Early Access or prior to version 0.4.20 then you will probably sign in sometime in the future to realize your data is apparently gone. It's not actually "gone" but could be missing due to some changes we're going to make. Anyone who has played the game within the past month will not be affected by our upcoming changes.
There is a problem with Steam Cloud syncing if you play on multiple machines. We have threads on this in the forums. We've even filed a bug report with Valve as we believe there may be an issue with Steam Auto Cloud and certain directories in Windows. We have a workaround should you run into any issues while playing the game on multiple devices and can be found in the forums. The next update will address this issue.

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

Here's what's new in version 0.5.11

- Ranger: Arrow Volley skill has been revamped. The attack is no longer a line attack, instead it's now a targeted AOE attack with high damage. Arrows will rain down in a circular formation inflicting high AOE damage.

- Ranger: Kiting Mode is now off by default, but can still be toggled on at any point during gameplay

- Usvit Depths: Tombs and Statues are now destructible and will drop souls

- Drop rate of purple souls from destroying objects such as Gravestones has been increased from 20% to 50%

- Performance Boost: Revised text and tweening systems to boost performance with damage text and enemy death logic

- Bug Fix: Corrupted Souls Curse should no longer be drawn in to the player unless already in transit before the color switched

- Added checks to Corrupted Souls Curse that should enable proper sync with all souls in the scene

- Bug Fix: When pressing A / Confirm on the Items menu while the Ranger is active, Kiting Mode will not be toggled until gameplay is fully resumed

- Sorted effects icons above enemy heads so they don't overlap

- Adjusted enemy damage text positioning to improve readability

- Code refactoring


[h2]COMING SOON[/h2]
For the remainder of version 0.5.x we will be adding the following content to the game:

[h3]Merchant/Items[/h3]



We're getting close to releasing the Merchant, Likho, into the game. The Merchant will provide the next leap forward in the game's core gameplay loop as dozens of new items will be on offer for players to purchase throughout their runs. There will be 3 tiers of items: common, uncommon and rare. We will be rolling out the Merchant / Item system in multiple phases. We hope to launch Phase 1 by the end of next week. This will include common and uncommon items that the merchant will sell. It's time to put all that gold you've been saving to work! Phase 2 will include rare items and phase 3 will include items that can also drop within the game world itself as we revamp and add more additions to the environments.

[h3]Hard Mode[/h3]

After the Merchant is in we will be adding a Hard Mode for each stage. Once you complete the stage on regular difficulty you will unlock a hard mode version of that stage which is, well, harder to say the least. There will be many new encounters as well as modifications to existing enemies and mechanics in Hard Mode. It will not be easy. It will not be for everyone and is not required to complete the game. But there are special encounters and bosses that you won't find anywhere else and they will be challenging. Putting together an awesome build and utilizing the Merchant/Item system will be very crucial to winning this mode. We will be rolling out the Hard version of Linden Forest and later Usvit Depths.

[h2]JUNE CONTEST [/h2]
There is still time to enter!



Want to design an Elite for our next environment of the game: Castle Usvit?

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2002220/view/3683427732701626663?l=english

Read about the contest and submit your idea today for a chance to win some prizes, including your design added to the game + a Steam Gift Card! You have until July 1 to submit.

We would like to thank everyone for joining us on our adventure through Early Access. There is loads more to come and we look forward to continue building the game with you all.

Stingbot

Hi Everyone,

Build 0.5.9 is Live. Here's what's new:

- New Curse: Heretic's Embrace

- New Curse: Torches (Usvit Depths only)

- New Achievement: Max Ranger Talents

- Ranger: Burst Shot Active Ability has been revamped. It now shoots out a burst of arrows in a cone
shape in front of the ranger. Upgrades increase arrow count and large boosts to effects at later ranks

- Ranger: Removed Poison Ivy Passive Ability

- Ranger: Modified Active Ability: Nature's Snare. Upgrades now inflict poison damage as well as slow

- Ranger: Created a new Passive Ability: Emberdust. Burst Shot and Explosive Trap will now inflict a delayed secondary burst of damage when this passive is active

- Ranger: Improved collision detection with the Quick Shot Arrow

- Ranger: Minor tweaks to balance skills and talents damage output

- Ranger: Revised Multi Shot Passive. Double Shots will now inflict 2x base Quick Shot damage. Triple shots will now inflict 3x base Quick Shot Damage

- Ranger: Fixed an issue with Burst Shot collisions sometimes not triggering on specific mobs

- Ranger: Burst Shot and Soul Arrow wind ups will now change direction to face the player's look direction, until the shot is fired

- Necromancer: Fixed a bug with Bonecaster. All ranks now spawn correct. Also reduced initialization time by 1 second

- All bosses are now immune to knockback

- Usvit Depths: Improvements and optimizations to the enemy spawn system

- Usvit Depths: slightly lowered HP for the fire mage, spectral sword and beggar enemies

- Bug Fix: Necromancer: Effigy will now properly inflict damage against enemies

- Bug Fix: Mimic should no longer attack when stunned. attack timer will now be reset

- Bug Fix: Poison Shroom can no longer spawn a poison cloud, if dead

- Poison Shroom now plays SFX when emitting his poison cloud

- Bug Fix: Boss Souls will no longer spawn out of bounds in Usvit Depths

- Bug Fix: When speed powerup is active and player levels up and upgrades speed, the powerup boost will no longer be deactivated

- Bug Fix: when spamming enter at game startup, the game would take you to a failed to load page and shut down the game. This has been fixed and will not occur if the data is loaded correct

- Modified Audio Management system to add a slight cooldown on audio clips to prevent multiple clips of the same type to overlap and play at the same time

- Improved enemy navigation when hitting obstacles

- Code refactoring


We have a seemingly endless list of requests/fixes that we're contsantly working on knocking down, while we continue to add new content. If you have any requests, bug reports or suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

[h2]Coming Soon[/h2]

We'll be releasing a Merchant/Item system to the game with all sorts of unique items players will be able to purchase during runs to enhance their experience. We are going to roll this system out in phases. More details to come in the next week or 2!

[h2]June Contest[/h2]
Just 1 week left to enter our Design an Elite for Castle Usvit Contest! Prizes up for grabs, and we'd love to see some more submissions, despite the great entries so far:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2002220/view/3683427732701626663?l=english

Thanks for following along and showing your support as we continue development on Soul Survivors.

Stingbot

Hi Everyone. Due to the number of requests to control the Ranger classic style (same as Bogatyr and Necromancer), we added an in-game Toggle feature to do so. You can toggle "Kiting Mode" on/off at any time during the game now simply by pressing "A" on your controller, Spacebar or Right Mouse. Although we designed to her to keep distance and focus on long range, we understand the controls feel awkward for some of you, and so I wanted to push this out early this week as opposed to later in the week. There will be another build coming later in the week as well, with lots more ability modifications, bug fixes, and improvements to come! We have some new passives coming for Bogatyr, Necromancer and Ranger, and some new Curses too. There's lots to come, and we'll continue to roll out changes in several updates over the coming weeks. After this, we'll be adding in the Merchant/Items system. It's fully designed and we are now working on all of the Art assets to put it together. Lots of cool features to come.

Here's the full release notes for the latest build (0.5.3):

- Ranger: Players can now toggle between 2 movement modes: Kiting and Regular movement. This can be toggled on/off at any time during gameplay by pressing the Action Button (Controller button A, SpaceBar or Right Mouse)
- Update text description for the Ranger on character select screen
- Usvit Depths: Bug Fix on Velya Fight where blue fire FX was not properly deactivating, or some fire was being left active when it shouldn't have been
- Ranger: Summon Wolf collision detection improvements
- Ranger: Fixed a bug where exploding traps were auto-detonating during Velya boss fight
- Bug Fix: some incorrect gameplay settings were being applied during Warden Grainloch fight when Ranger was active character
- Bug Fix: SFX no longer can be played over and over again when spamming the play button on level select
- Ranger: Fixed a bug with Burst Shot where it wouldn't explode at close range from the player
- Added some gold sparkles to the bonus gold text on the end round menu
- Ranger: Elites will now be marked as targets based on enemy level, to match game difficulty
- Linden Forest: - Poison Shroom Elite's poison cloud hitbox will no longer linger on the battlefield longer than the graphic is present
- Warden Grainloch - Can no longer be knocked back

Lots more to come! Feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback. We document everything and we're always working through a huge list. Expect another build towards the end of this week with some nice improvements and new features!

Stingbot