Halls of Torment News

Thank you for your support! We had an awesome first week with the PRELUDE and we are glad that you’ve found enjoyment in the Halls of Torment. We’ve read through your feedback and issue reports.
Today’s update will mainly address the problems we could fix until now and smaller changes to the game.


[h2]Change Log 2023-03-15[/h2]

[h3]FEATURES[/h3]

• Full gamepad support has been added and a steam default configuration has been set.
  
• If you have any input problems, please reset the gamepad to default settings for the game.
  

[h3]BALANCING[/h3]

• XP distribution has been modified among monsters, giving early monsters more XP comparatively.
  
• Completed quests now only give 0.5% additional XP instead of 1%.
  
• Astronomer’s Orbs now have a smaller starting distance.
  
• Range modifier affects Astronomer’s Orbs less.
  
• Size modifier of Astronomer’s Orbs has been reduced.
  
• Second orbit of Astronomer's Orbs now spawns closer to the player.
  
• Disabled the automatic difficulty scaling (Torment Rank) for now.
  

[h3]OTHER CHANGES[/h3]

• Piercing Wind trait unlocks only when the player has an attack that requires Piercing.
  
• Mouse cursor will not be hidden anymore. This should fix disappearing cursor issues overall.
  
• More Linux versions should natively be supported. Anything newer than Ubuntu 18.04 LTS should work.
  

[h3]POLISH & QOL[/h3]

• The Wellkeeper cage location in Ember Grounds is indicated with a marker.
  
• Opening the pause menu will always open the character view first.
  
• Main menu can be opened without selecting a character.
  

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

• Weapon Proficiency is now using roman numerals.
  
• Blessings and stages are now unlocked without having to restart the game.
  
• Quests requiring certain damage now include critical hits (e.g. Power Hitter).
  
• Killing 50 000 enemies with effects quest is now properly tracking progress.
  
• Lord of Pain kills are now properly recognized by the quest system.
  
• Character selection via gamepad has been fixed.
  
• Runner Shoes movement buff has been fixed and should be now permanent.
  
• Corrected the description of Spellcaster Gloves: it increases all direct damage.
  
• Scorched Skeletons in Ember Grounds dropped way too much XP.
  
• It should now be possible to equip the right ring slot properly at any time.
  
• Health of monsters now doesn’t increase over time in Ember Grounds.
  
• Fixed stats display of pickup ranges and health regeneration tooltips.
  

[h3]PERFORMANCE[/h3]

• Optimised environments
  
• Optimised Imp behaviour
  
• Optimised performance of destructible objects
  

[h3]STABILITY ISSUES[/h3]

• Fixed: Certain monsters could cause crashes on death events.
  

[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
We’re still looking into more issues. For now, it’s uncertain how many problems we’ll be able to fix in the near future. There’s one particular issue with the game’s input that seems to occur on certain setups which we’re working on right now. Alongside we’ll work on performance and stability improvements.

But we also need to make progress for the Early Access release. Hence, we’ll start working on some additional features and content. We’ll continue to listen to your feedback about progression, difficulty, balancing, and more. Based on this, some changes may also find their way into the PRELUDE Version.


We hope you’ll keep enjoying the game!
Chasing Carrots

In time for the PRELUDE we have more exciting changes to share with you.


[h2]Change Log 2023-03-09[/h2]

[h3]FEATURES[/h3]

• Level 2 (Ember Grounds) now has a proper progression with its own elites and bosses. Some bosses are substitutes for now and are slightly different versions from the first stage.
  
• Additional enemies with ballistic projectiles (Vulcano Slime Elite)
  
• Additional exploding enemies (Bomber Imps and Unstable Magma Slimes)
  
• Many more additional enemies for Ember Grounds
  

[h3]BALANCING[/h3]

• Ember Grounds now has a steeper XP curve in the beginning
  
• Traits are now available based on your level
  
• Additional level 4 & 5 traits have been added for most general traits
  
• Effect of traits have been adjusted (up and down, overall values increased)
  
• Movement speed mods have been decreased as well as enemy speed
  
• Adjusted drop rates of Hand of Greed and Potions
  

[h3]OTHER CHANGES[/h3]

• Wishlist and discord buttons in the top right of the overworld UI
  

[h3]POLISH & QOL[/h3]

• Several assets for items have been added
  
• Descriptions of traits, abilities and modifiers have been updated
  
• XPGain and Pickup range are now displayed in the stats
  

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

• Several quests were bugged. While some were removed, most have been fixed
  
• Fixed the quests that should have been visible where hidden
  
• Fixed a bug where revive blessings would crash the game
  
• Fixed a bug where monster speed would increase during pause
  

[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
Bug fixes and improvements! For the next week we haven’t planned anything specific. We will probably prepare more content and see what problems arise. From the next update on, there might be different patches for our Playtest version and the PRELUDE.
If you are interested in the Playtest, visit us on our Discord to learn more. We keep on developing the game with our community, and feedback from playtesters is essential for us when it comes to new features and content.

[h3]Have a nice week![/h3]
Chasing Carrots

[h2]Hello Adventurers![/h2]

The PRELUDE to Halls of Torment has been released and we invite everyone to play!
This is a stand-alone
Demo version of Halls of Torment and can be played for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316660/Halls_of_Torment_Prelude/

We hope you’ll join us on our adventure making the game by giving it a try and if possible leave some feedback along the way. The PRELUDE savegame will be fully compatible with the main version of the game and can be played on Windows and any Linux device, including the Steam Deck.

Since the development of the game is in full swing, many parts of the game are still not fully fleshed out, yet. This includes bits that you can find in the PRELUDE. While development continues, we intend to update the demo version with bug fixes, QoL updates, and other changes that affect the content including the demo.

[h3]What can you play in the Demo?[/h3]

• 3 Characters
  
• 2 Stages
  
• 20+ unique enemies
  
• 7 Abilities
  
• 100+ Traits
  
• 50+ Quests
  
• 30+ Items
  

Halls of Torment will have full gamepad support. You can already play it with a gamepad but we are aware of some limitations in certain UIs. This will be fixed in the upcoming weeks.

If you enjoy the game, please spread the word, wishlist the main game and join our Discord to be part of our community.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2218750/Halls_of_Torment/

Cheers!
- Chasing Carrots

Unfortunately, we didn’t have update notes on last week’s update. But we didn’t have many visible changes either. This week we have some more exciting changes that play big parts in the preparation for the PRELUDE version.

An important note: Today’s update will reset your progress and remove the Shield Maiden character for now. Hopefully, we won’t need another save game reset, since we’ve sorted out the meta progression for the PRELUDE and don’t want to entirely redo it again.




[h2]FEATURES[/h2]

• Gamepad support! It’s almost complete and all essential menus should be usable.
  
• Auto-aim setting for the main attack
  
• A powerup item that will collect all XP on the current stage
  
• New unlockable traits for each ability
  
• New boss: “FlameDancer” in Ember Grounds
  
• New enemy: exploding imps
  

[h2]BALANCING[/h2]

• Unlocking the Wellkeeper will now add start items to the chest
  
• Torment rank build-up is now a bit faster
  
• Haunted Caverns progression is now a bit easier
  
• Ember Grounds now unlock by defeating the Imp Chieftain boss
  

[h2]OTHER CHANGES[/h2]

• Quests can now be bound to specific stages
  
• Quests have been recreated with a new progression in mind
  
• Added many Icons for items & traits
  
• Added final assets for Ring Blades and Arcane Splinter
  

[h2]POLISH & QOL[/h2]

• Additional sounds
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Fixed all those nasty crashes that happened by taking damage from stuff on the ground (like slime puddles and fire patches)
  
• Putting the well back on the Haunted Cavern once unlocked
  
• Initial shooting directions are set so that bullets won’t get stuck when entering a stage
  
• Abilities won’t continue to fire anymore in the revive screen.
  
• Radiant Aura trait description had negative values printed in green instead of red
  

[h2]PERFORMANCE[/h2]

• Major changes to reduce CPU load
  
• Changed processing of physics and movement behaviours for better performance
  
• The general performance on all devices, especially in later waves should improve - please send us feedback about this!
  

Finalization of the PRELUDE! This means getting a proper Ember Grounds progression and some polish and finishing on different things. We will very likely keep the demo and playtest version updated once the PRELUDE is released until the Early Access launch. The PRELUDE will have limited content, but the playtest will not. But improvements, balancing, and finishing some content and changes based on feedback will go into the PRELUDE as well.


We’re looking forward to your feedback!
- Chasing Carrots

Today we’re bringing great news! On 9th March the prelude of Halls of Torment will be released.
You will be able to play the first part of the game for free yourself.

Wishlist the PRELUDE to not miss its release:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316660

The PRELUDE will include following content:

• 2 stages with dynamic progression
  
• 3+ unique bosses
  
• 15+ unique monsters
  
• 3+ playable characters
  
• 6+ different and upgradable abilities
  
• 8+ blessings making you stronger for each attempt
  
• 30+ different items to unlock and retrieve
  
• 100+ traits that upgrade characters and abilities
  
• 30+ quests to complete
  

The PRELUDE is fully compatible with the main game that will release into Early Access in Q2 2023



Your feedback is important. Currently we are working with our lovely community that volunteered to test the early version of Halls of Torment to make the game fun. We are taking their suggestions and feedback seriously and are updating the game based on it.

You can help as well! The PRELUDE is far from being final and we would love to hear your thoughts. And you can also help us a lot by spreading the word! We want to get a lot of the game nailed down before Early Access so this is your chance to influence the direction we are heading.

As developers we are mainly active on our Discord server or in the Steam forums.




If you are eager to learn more and follow the development, visit us:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chasing_Carrots
Discord: https://discord.gg/chasingcarrots
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/chasingcarrots

Cheers and demonic wishes
- Chasing Carrots