SWORDHAVEN News

Greetings, friends!

The next content update for Swordhaven is scheduled for May, and we're not wasting any time working on it. Today, we'd like to share some information on what you can expect.



[h3]New locations[/h3]

The upcoming update will feature several new locations, the most important of which are the Gate Quarter of Swordhaven and the Sewers—a sprawling dungeon filled with monsters, puzzles, treasures, and loopy loners who have found solace underground.

Several mini-bosses will also be added, not to mention a completely new monster type—a foul jelly beast that doesn't seem too strong... until you notice it can strip you of most of your armour points with its acidic spit attack!

Along with all this new content, we'll also introduce unique distinctions, new achievements, a pair of legendary weapons, fresh monster loot, and weapon techniques—one of which relies on a non-martial skill to work.


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[h3]Finishing touches on already existing locations[/h3]

Smelters Row and the outskirts of Swordhaven, which were previously presented in their bare-bones form, will feature many more characters with quests and new skills to teach you. Some characters that were already present will now be included in these new quests.

All locations added in the last update will receive finalized minimaps, new interactable items, improved sounds, and animations we are currently developing.

Those of you who discovered the lively ghosts of Nova Drakonia will also be pleasantly surprised, for there is now another spectre added to the flock of restless spirits that roam both old and new locations.

Many of the portraits and item icons that weren't there before are currently being worked on. Some of these will be added in minor patches, so there's no need to wait for the full content update to see the portraits of boars and other critters that were previously faceless.



[h3]Quality of life features galore![/h3]

We always listen to your suggestions, and here are some we have been working on for the upcoming update:

• We are fine-tuning the sound quirks and enhancing the overall soundscape by adjusting footstep sounds based on distance and varying them according to the surface they're on;
  
• We are adding an improved TV mode;
  
• Those of you who prefer using a gamepad will find targeting and global map travel easier through a selector menu;
  
• The weapon mods now share an inventory;
  
• Crafting menu design is also in progress; it is now easier to see if you lack the skill for certain recipes, how many items you need, and so on;
  
• We are tweaking and enhancing the passive buffs you receive for reaching specific skill levels. For instance, maxing out your medicine skill now allows you to create two potions instead of just one.
  

Naturally, the list of additions also includes optimization improvements, bug fixes, typo corrections and much more.

We hope you are as excited for the big update as we are!

See you in the next post where we will announce the date.

Yours truly,
Atom Team

Greetings, friends!

Today's the day we're rolling out the February content update from the beta branch, officially adding it to the game along with a few extra features we decided on, thanks to your patience and a bit more development time.



Here's a list of the things we did, but you'll also find a bunch of surprises, including locations you've explored before.

On new locations:

Cursed Underhalls, our team's largest dungeon yet, has received a lot of polish and will require a very capable party to completely clear. Compared to the version you might've experienced in the beta patch, the full version includes the following extra additions:

• Destructible environment (just click the manual attack button and go for it);
  
• Explosive* solutions to some combat encounters were added. Look for red jars and see what they do upon destruction. More environmental elements with potential strategic uses are on the way;
  
• The area miniboss now has unique attack animations and custom-built particle effects;
  
• More options for stealthy players were integrated;
  
• Unreachable loot (especially the rain drums) issue was fixed, alongside a myriad other bugs;
  
• A hidden new interaction available after beating the ...
  

Horsefish Anchorage, another one of the new locations, now has environments that change based on what you do and the quests you take on.

• There's an unmarked—let's say—ritual, that will allow you to benefit your main character greatly;
  
• The area features newly added enemies like snapping turtles, and giant toads. Their animations have been improved, and a special technique given to the turtles will make battles much more strategic;
  
• Plenty of small interactions were added as well. From reading signs, to discovering new types of hidden loot containers;
  
• Two mini-bosses with stories told through the environment and hidden notes were also added.
  

The Abandoned Ship now features more interactive objects with special animations, much more environmental storytelling, and an upgraded ambush event.


The Lonely Cabin, home to the first custom skill teacher in the game, has received some improvements. Now, the skill you're taught finally has a proper icon. Plus, Tomer's shield-holding stance has been fixed.


There's also a new companion, and as always, you'll need to do a bit of snooping and make some key decisions before you can recruit them. If you've already gathered all the party members up to this point, this will boost your party size to five!



On graphics:

The full version of this content update features a ton of new works from our designers. There are many more animations for weapon techniques, unique idle animations, more portraits, and items, which means you'll see the dreaded placeholder-box icon way less than in previous iterations.


New particle effects were added. Environmental explosives now feature an actual blast wave that harms all who stand in its way. While throwable objects are still WIP, these received a much more intuitive throwing and missing mechanic that might lead to some unforeseen consequences, as well as more variety in the visuals.

Trying to go for more show than tell, we added animations to many interactions. For example, should you go grave digging in one of the new locations, you will see your character actually flinging and rolling rocks away, instead of us explaining how the character digs through dialogue.

As with the portraits, we have added more NPC clothes to the game, making characters more distinct.


For isometric mode fans: more materials were changed to allow you to see your character through them—like roofs, rocky overhangs, trees, etc.

More interactive objects:

We've added (and will continue to add) new little interactions you can have with the world—from digging in cow patties (!) and reading signposts to disturbing special light-producing mushrooms, lighting snuffed-out candles, and avoiding new traps.


New weapons, armours, weapon mods and more were added. Older equipment received newer 3D models, updated icons where needed, and some items were slightly rebalanced.

More love for craftables:

Most craftable objects now have icons, models, and are far more balanced. Ingredient weight issues were also tackled.

Tools now come with proper use point pools, so you can predict when you'll need a new cross-peen hammer or mortar and pestle long before they actually break on you. We should thank our community for that suggestion.

And speaking of community efforts—many player-suggested QOL features were added. There's name highlighting for NPCs on the map, new sorting options, price changes, weight adjustments, and improvements to weapon techniques for both playable characters and monsters. We'll keep adding more with each new content patch.

More love for older locations:

Many older locations, from dungeons to more peaceful places like Clamreach and Grainhold, now offer some extra goodies for you to discover, including new characters!

New hostile NPC behavior beginnings:

From this patch on, we will do our best to make combat much more strategic than it currently is.

Now, many of the enemies you'll encounter have hidden perks that relate to their roles within a larger squad. In the upcoming updates, we'll connect those perks to custom models and AI behavior, making the enemies act as a cohesive team.

An example of this can be found in one of the new dungeons, where a certain type of foe has a hidden perk. Larger enemies have more natural armour but less stamina, so they'll tank you, while the more nimble ones will try ranged combat. After a few updates, they'll also exhibit kiting behavior.

Their perks will be visually represented by how their models look. However, this is still a very early Work In Progress. The initial building blocks for the system are already in place, and the same will eventually happen for non-humanoid monsters.


Great news for those of you following the game's localization process. This patch is adding French, Brazilian-Portuguese, Italian and other new, improved localizations. Please feel free to provide us with any and all feedback you might have!

What's next? Once we're completely satisfied with the results so far, we'll keep working on the game, this time putting much more emphasis on the main plot. Next time, you'll finally be able to visit Swordhaven proper!

We will announce this next content update sometime next month.

Thank you so much for your patience, your amazing feedback and your overwhelming support. We hope you enjoy the game!

Yours, as always,
Atom Team

Greetings, friends!

It's finally time to unveil the February content update we discussed earlier. There are still quite a few kinks that need ironing out, so for now, the patch is being uploaded to the beta directory on Steam, with a proper release planned for a later date in March. But don't worry! A handy set of instructions on how to access and play the beta branches will be included in this thread.


Now, onwards to the most important question: what's new?

An entirely new region around Swordhaven City features mountain ranges, fields, plains, and forests packed with challenging encounters. New creatures, like wild boars and even wilder snapping turtles, will lie in wait as you traverse fresh maps filled with surprises, thanks to a new beta mechanic we're calling the Loot Point system.



The game now checks what type of random encounter map you're on and adds loot depending on the region. This system was also retroactively added to the previous random encounter maps. Even NPC behavior in random encounters has become more complex.



Swordhaven has become much closer too. While the city itself is still under development and not available yet, its outskirts are bustling with new characters, quests, and even a new follower.

Weapon Master is also added into the build, with his hut hidden somewhere in the dense woods of the new region, so prepare to receive a handy new skill... If you have the moxy to complete the master's challenge, that is!

Speaking of challenges, the dungeon we promised earlier has gotten a bit out of hand. The Forgotten Canyons is now our biggest location yet—two sprawling maps featuring an outdoor area, a giant cave, and a mysterious ancient complex.



The best thing about this dungeon, though, is that it inspired us to get more creative with the environment. We've added explosive gas barrels, visual puzzles that let you move parts of the environment to continue your exploration or earn special rewards, destructible environments, more types of hidden loot, and even more environmental and physics-based traps. There's a lot more in store!
We would love to hear your feedback.



The other locations that deserve a mention are the Pirate Bay area, which will continue a certain quest(s) from Grainhold.

We're closely following the wishlist stats to determine the order of localization. You can check out the latest additions to the language pool in the beta.
Thank you so much for your support! Here's hoping for a lot of valuable feedback on the quality of the ongoing translation projects! You can visit our Discord for that.

[DISCORD LINK]

This month has also been great for the animation aspect of the game—we've gained even more unique animations than we hoped for. While this means that many of them still need tweaking, the end result will surely be worth the initial jankiness. Now, most of the special weapon techniques feature their own movements, including both the player and the enemies, as well as the monsters you've already encountered.



Speaking of combat, you'll now have a lot more options to choose from! We've sorted out the craftables, balanced existing weapons and skills, added new ones, unlocked the final level of combat techniques, and rebalanced the combat formulas and enemy stats. We took many of your suggestions into account to improve the overall battle experience.



Choose-your-own-adventure encounters got a fresh set of graphics, just like those NPCs that didn't have portraits before. A lot more items now come with unique icons and models. Plus, we've added a bunch of new musical tracks and various sound effects for the game!

All in all, a surprising number of improvements have been added to the game, including locations you already visited. Once all the bugs and kinks have been eradicated, we would recommend starting the game over instead of continuing via a save, since even the humble Clamreach village now hosts new secrets and extra fun stuff hidden in certain nooks and crannies scattered around the map.



First dungeons, like the Snatcher's lair received makeovers, the performance issues have been fixed, and various small but important quality of life upgrades have been added just like many of you suggested.

Now, here is how you can get into the beta branch to see it all for yourself:



We really hope you enjoy the fruit of our labour! However, we also understand if you'd like to wait some more until this update receives a proper mainstream branch release. As always, your feedback and support are greatly appreciated!

Yours truly,
Atom Team

Greetings, friends!

We hate to keep you waiting for any longer, so here is a post announcing the first big update for Swordhaven, planned to release around the end of February.

In short, most of our work this month and the next revolves around the suggestions you've provided to us on Steam, Discord and other platforms.

Now, let's discuss them in detail. Please note that even if you don't see your suggestion in the list below, it doesn't mean it was ignored. To keep this post (somewhat) concise, we're only mentioning the things we are currently working on, not everything that is planned.



1. Game Balance and Weapon Techniques:

Weapons, from the initial ones you start with to craftable and higher-tier weapons found throughout the world, have received a significant overhaul.

Now weapons in each tier are more in line with one another, hopefully fixing the issue of one weapon choice being more viable than the other, as happened with Martial Arts in the current version.



The planned rebalance aligns much more closely with how our team envisions this battle system. Halberds hit hard but can only strike once per turn, while knives are the quickest, albeit weakest, hitters, boosted by their bleeding potential. Staves and mauls offer a variety of defensive fighting options, while two-handed swords provide the highest offensive potential. Sword-and-shield users excel at tanking, and axes trade off some defense for increased damage. Clubs may not inflict as much damage as some other weapons, but they can completely demolish armoured foes. Spears fall somewhere in between, and martial arts provide either a highly mobile or high-damage-dealing style, allowing for various combinations to accommodate a wide range of builds.

Ranged weapons will also receive a lot of care, making the hassle of always requiring ammo worth it, through improved damage potentials and range.



Craftable weapons, shields, armours and items you have previously witnessed in a rather undercooked state are now also balanced out, making crafting much more viable, and the interface changes should make the process smooth.

To highlight each weapon type's strengths and weaknesses we have revamped some techniques, keeping usefulness and damage potential in combat as our highest priority.

As we mentioned once before, now, just like you asked, all skills will feature a default 100% chance to hit against an enemy with 0% resistance, so you will only have to worry about one to hit dice roll instead of two when performing a weapon technique.



Some weapon techniques have switched places. For example, the valuable but damage-less debuff skill for halberds, Bannerman's Cry, will be moved to an earlier tier, where it will be much more viable.

We will also be opening the fourth Technique skill, since now most players will be able to reach a level where they will be able to get those, thanks to the new content.

Shields have also been revamped for the upcoming update. With new, higher blocking chance percentages and Stamina debuffs, they will now represent a trade-off between defense and mobility.

Same can be said for armours and jackets, which were rebalanced. Both of them will provide their own unique bonuses and will feature their own flaws.

Healing will also receive an upgrade based on your suggestions. Now, the amount you heal operates on a spectrum, with both maximum and minimum amounts influenced by your skill. This change allows for events like critical success in healing.

Additionally, you won't need to worry about the destruction of your mortar and pestle while crafting, as all crafting tools will have a set number of uses. They are generous but finite, so at some point, you will need to purchase a replacement.

Potions and poisons are still somewhat more WIP than other craftables, but these will also get some tweaks and new additions.

The way information about current buff or debuff effects and resistances will now become way more elegant thanks to our 2D artist.

There is still a lot of testing to be done, but the update's battle system can be considered semi-final. We hope it will leave a good impression, and we look forward to your feedback!



2. New Locations:

We will be adding the first legendary weapon master to the game, and his secluded woodland hermitage is just one of the several locations we have in mind.

You will finally get to visit the outskirts of Swordhaven—two major locations that are home to a tavern, numerous market stalls, an ore foundry, and of course, a blooming conflict that your character will have the opportunity to resolve or exacerbate.



One of the first planned dungeons is currently in the works, featuring a vast cave system and—well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? ;)

In the new part of the country you will get to fight feather-beasts, evil snapping turtles, and a larger variety of human enemies with new tactics and more complex AI behaviour patterns such as proper patrolling of areas, calling for help, and more.
All that on an expanded pool of new random maps.



3. Tweaks and QOL Improvements:

We're planning to add such features as better inventory sorting buttons and NPC name highlighting. We are also working on optimization-related tasks which will ease up on the CPU power consumption, give out more FPS, and reduce load times.

The locations that you can see in the current version of the game are also planned to receive some attention before the update hits. We are working on a range of improvements, including visual upgrades for villages and dungeons, adjustments to loot spots, the addition of new enemy encounters on the maps, and the expansion of some NPC dialogues.



4. Conclusion:

It goes without saying, that the update will fix a numerous amount of bugs, but to keep this post a bit shorter, we will save a complete report on those for the appropriate future patch note.

In conclusion we would like to thank you again for your great contribution to the development process. Nothing beats creating something side by side with fellow lovers of the genre! We hope you are stoked for the update! We sure are :)

Yours,
Atom Team

Hey, everyone! We wanna wish everyone a happy festive season!
You guys are legendary, thank you so much for being with us, livening our chats, bringing us awesome feedback and helping us stomp out all those pesky bugs. Hope that next year we'll all enjoy an amazing finished game! 🎅

We also present the festive patch 0.3.3, and here are its changes:

• Fixed typos in dialogues and item names;
  
• Added new random encounter images;
  
• Fixed illegal trade logic;
  
• Fixed the ghost questline;
  
• Fixed NPC naming in dialogues (Ožka);
  
• Fixed Švarno's quest logic and dialogue options;
  
• Fixed the statuette selling process;
  
• Added to and improved existing localizations;
  
• Child sleeping logic fixed;
  
• Fixed inventory filter system;
  
• Fixed Viper Shoal exit being available before completion of the dungeon;
  
• Improved some tooltips and stat descriptions, as well as character creation information sheets;
  
• Fixed an animation issue with 2-handed swords;
  
• Fixed numerous situations where you were able to abandon party members;
  
• Fixed discount hints;
  
• Added to crocodile animation list;
  
• Improved the Daggerfang summoning animation and logic;
  
• General logic fixes to Grainhold NPC dialogues and quests;
  
• Fixed crafting UI glitching on some resolutions, as well as general crafting issues like duplicating items, jumping icons, etc;
  
• Improved pathfinding;
  
• Improved crafting chances;
  
• Improved fire damage and how fire attacks work;
  
• Fixed children sleep animations;
  
• Made changes to the EXP table;
  
• Added more glue;
  
• Much smoother dialogue window performance;
  
• Tarnished Sabatons—improved the model;
  
• And many more minor fixes, tweaks and optimizations for FPS in larger locations.
  
• Show/Hide Armor/Helmet in the game settings.
  
• Fixed Grainhold's well interactivity;
  
• Fixed the opening for non-English localizations;
  
• Improved sounds and animations for Firecrafker;
  
• Improved battle music mixing in Grainhold;
  
• Fixed a certain key-related exploit;
  
• Fixed multiple dialogue issues from Irmant, Lapsene;
  
• Added fashion options - display helmet, display armour toggles that remove armours and helmets visually to customize appearance;
  
• Grainhold pathing optimized;
  
• Improved watermill quests;
  
• Fixed wolves and dogs dodging animation;
  
• Fixed sneak attack glitch;
  
• Quiver autofills;
  
• Improved controls via controller in dialogue, reversed polarity of the right stick in scrolling;
  
• Vibration during knockdown lessened in intensity;
  
• Dialogue position snaps to end after viewing history now;
  
• Fixed map pins for houses, mainly Ozka;
  
• Fixed OSX controller hints;
  
• Slave Camp bugfix.
  
• World map save/load fixed;
  
• Chinese voiceover fixed;
  
• Gamepad auto-selection fixed;
  
• Wustus quest bugs fixed;
  
• Pushback fixed;
  
• Custom attack sounds added;
  
• Cutscene ESC issue fixed;
  
• Enemy swing fixed;
  

Stay cool, as always!
Yours,
Atom Team