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Aisla the Apothocary's Daughter

Greetings,

Xermillion Glass back to talk about another new arrival, Aisla.

Aisla is a charming, young woman that arrived some time ago, whistling as she did. From talking with her, I'm not even sure that she has died like the others have. She says that her father told her to come here and she obliged.

Aisla claims that she is the only daughter of an apothecary out "to the West." She has never expanded on "the West," but from what I can gather, it must be somewhere on Xerenia as she says that she simply walked here.

Aisla, herself, is a null, despite the techniques that she displays. She has claimed that the bag she holds is from her father, enchanted just for her and gifted on the eve of her departure. I've inspected this bag on numerous occassions, as Aisla is happy to indulge me and it does not function other than a simple bag for me or, presumably, anyone else. One can interact with the berries and stems that are currently in the bag, but once depleted, it will be a simple, empty container. Aisla, however, reaches in and pulls out a new branch laden with magical berries whenever she needs them. I'm unable to discern the nature of the magic involved in the creation of this bag-in-question, therefore it must be rare indeed.


Main

Aisla's main form of defense come from the magical berries in her pouch. Her default idea is simply to throw them. This is quite effective, despite all logic to the contrary.

She seems to have three different types of berries that come out in sequence and, depending on berry type, all of the techniques that she uses are different. I will be going over all those that I have observed.

The rosehips strike as a stone, the mulberries as a bolt of mana, and the snowberries poison everyone that they touch, save Aisla.

From the monkey, she can learn to: toss all the berries from her pouch at once, fire a salvo in quick succession, or toss a larger, volitile berry which will explode.


Secondary

Aisla is also keen on rolling the berries, again, one cannot argue the efficacy, despite the oddness of this. And, again, the berries will harm the opponent in the way that one would expect, based on previous research.

From the shroomery, she can learn to: cause the berry to begin rolling again three times, roll all the current berries at once in random directions, or create small pockets of damaging mana at the end points of the rolls. She calls these pockets 'wells.'


Dodge

When in a pinch, Aisla will toss a single berry to the ground, causing it to detonate in the most queer way.

The rosehip will push enemies away, the mulberry will push Aisla back, and the snowberry will poison them, as expected, but also stun them briefly.

She can learn to: toss three at her feet at once, somehow not use a berry when performing the technique, or cause all types to stun, but increase the stun duration for the snowberry beyond the other two.


Ultimate

And, for her 'ultimate technique' as she calls it she... panics and tosses all her current berries high into the air. They fall from on high as what amounts to a salvo of magical bombs. The amount of these bombs is, of course, directly related to the number of berries currently in her pouch.

The rosehip will create a number of rolling berries at its point of collision. The mulberry will knock anything struck into the air. And the snowberry will explode into a fine mist, which coalesces into a cloud, raining poison on those below.

With the monkey though, she can learn to: toss six berries into the air for the cost of one berry, create more of her 'wells' at the point where the berry lands, or add a secondary effect to the berries, based on type. The rosehip will increase the number of rolled berries. The mulberry will quickly grow a small bush, which blocks enemy movement for the duration. And the snowberry will cause vastly increased amounts of harm to those inside - the most insidious of Aisla's abilities, if I do say so myself.


And that, my dear readers, is Aisla. She's an interesting, little null, with quite the hand for knitting, if nothing else. I'm currently wearing a scarf that she made for me from her own wool. One can imagine that it's quite handy for an artisan of her quality to have a nigh-infinite source of raw material, but I digress.


Until next time,
Xermillion Glass

ASU 0.450.4

Hello all!

Another build ready for you to enjoy. We're still working toward the next level, got an addition or two that are for that, though the level itself isn't ready for testing yet as I haven't finished any of the creatures yet. All of them are modelled, I believe, save the boss, but none of them have been added code-wise.

Anywho, we've also got some changes to the general spawning of enemies and to how swarms operate. You can find all the details below, as per usual.

Oh! And for the eagle-eyed among you, you may have noticed that I have removed a digit from the version number. This was done because I realized the last time that I needed that extra digit was long, long ago. As I've updated the way that I update the version number, it became less and less relevant.


Version: 0.450.4
Additions:



-Added the Ice Bulb trap

-Endemic to Contaminated Channels

-Applies slow and slippery upon getting too close

-Resets after a delay




---
Updates:



-Added an invulnerability to displacement timer for falling off the map


-Actually flagged ASU as having achievements and cloud saving on the Steam page


-Falling off the map no longer does damage to the player


-Added a check for those that beat Saren Glass on various difficulties before the achievements were added to recieve the achievements without lowering the difficulty


-Added 3 achievements related to Vulight Invaders


-Added our first hidden achievements!


-Enemy Class

-Added a visible indicator when a given enemy has more than its normal max shield, armor, or both

-Added native code to increase armor and shield

-Added a clamp of 2x the default max value of armor and shield


-Increased the visibility of system messages


-Increased the pickup area of captive motes

-150uu -> 250uu


-Mushroom Witch

-Doubled scale for increased visibility


-Swarms

-Increased amount spawned per wave

-2x normal -> 4x normal

-Increased time between waves

-15 sec -> 20 sec

-Increased base time between swarms

-120 sec -> 180 sec


-Normal enemy spawning

-Decreased the minimum number of enemy types to spawn

-2 -> 1

-Hymn level now increases the absolute number of enemy types to spawn

-0.25 / hymn level

-Increased random deviation timer

- -2 - +15 sec -> -15 - +15 sec

-Increased the base time

-30 sec -> 35 sec

-Increased the clamped range of time between spawns

- 5-30 sec -> 15-60 sec

-Lowered the contribution time of potions

-0.5 / potion -> 0.25 / potion

-Increased the contribution time of hymn levels

-0.8 / hymn level -> 1.2 / hymn level



-Note: Basically, what I have done is offloaded some of the spawning away from normal spawns and put more of an emphasis on swarms as the real meat of the combat experience. It should give plays a bit more breathing room between fighting normal enemies, but make swarms a bit more challenging and more engaging.


---
Bug Fixes:



-Added a failsafe to the Forgotten Footnote to keep it from taking damage while resurrecting

-Fixed the missing custom depth tag on the Stone Forest elite skill actor

-Fixed an issue where recruiting Mirei would not destroy other instances of Mirei still in the level


And that's all we have for this week. To those that care, Zaima has been busy at work with the design of our next character, an icey archer from Greensway in the far north east of Xerenia, but he's still in the planning phase.



Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!

ASU 0.450.03.01 Hotfix

Hello all!

A quick hotfix to fix unlock issues with a few achievements. Namely the: Dorga, Mote Colony, and Starward Softshell.

Along with that, there's a fix for both Aisla's and Marble's scarification altar unlocks not working properly.


Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

ASU 0.450.03

Hello all


The first round of achievements has been added, as some of you may have noticed as they went live at the beginning of the week. They are now actually achieveable now, however.

Portal Guardians have now officially been added as well. I haven't talked about them here, but, essentially, they are boss level enemies that have a better chance to spawn the longer you are in any given level. Once defeated, they will drop a portal that will take you to a random, unlocked level - boss levels included. A risky move in a later level, but probably a smart one in a beginning one - depending, of course, on you current goal.

Oh! And Aisla's shroomery work was completed last week, but I used a different type of build update event and, as it turns out, that type doesn't actually inform on itself, it just sorta sits there, in the feed of the game. So, yeah, I will not be using that type in the future.

Anywho, the changelog follows!


Version: 0.450.03
Additions:



-Added the first round of Steam achievements


-Added the necessary code for Portal Guardians to spawn


-Added the Portal Guardian Va'ko Miisirä

-Summons Miisirä to help during combat

-Deals primarily magic damage

-Deals a large variety of status effects


-Added the enemy summon Miisirä

-Slowly floats toward the player and detonates on death


-Added a system message for swarms beginning and ending



--- Updates:


-Enemy elite skills now function on a cooldown timer


-Updated the swarm spawning code to have wave number increase based on difficulty and hymn level




---
Bug Fixes:



-Fixed an issue where Marble and Aisla weren't receiving Scarification Altar bonuses properly

-Fixed a bug where normal Vulight were sometimes spawning as elite

---


And that's all for this week. Coming next week, I will be pivoting entirely into the next level, the Contaminated Channels. Which, as I may have mentioned, will be our first very hard difficulty level replacement!



Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!

ASU 0.450.02

Hello all!

A quick, little update that is mostly just Aisla's shroomery perks, but also some small balance changes and a couple bug-fixes.


Version: 0.450.02
Additions:



-Aisla

-All of her shroomery perks have been added



---
Updates:


-Sear

-Lowered elite damage scaling

-2.5 -> 1.5

-Lowered bubble projectile damage ratio

-1.0 -> 0.7

-Lowered bubble field scaling

-0.1 -> 0.05



-Eye Stalk trap

-Lowered damage

-15 / 30 / 45 / 75 -> 10 / 20 / 30 / 50





---
Bug Fixes:



-Fixed an issue where the bounty board unlock was not obtainable under certain conditions

-Fixed an issue where Aisla's dodge could only be cast once


And that's all for this week.



Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!