A Storm Unsung News

Hello all!

This week I am happy to announce that we will be opening a beta branch! Or, rather, that the beta branch is now open. It is open to everyone that owns ASU, so feel free to participate if you want to try out new content before it is complete.

For the current beta, those that have beaten Saren Glass on normal difficulty will be able to now enter the Blistering Beach if the winds of fortune favor them.

Important!: The Blistering Beach is not complete. There are currently only two native enemy types and the boss is incomplete. Reaching the end teleporter for Blistering Beach will take the player straight to Virulent Village!

In order to participate, just right click on ASU in your Steam library, choose properties, then make your ways to the 'Betas' tab. From there, there is a drop-down box on the right that will allow you to opt-in. If you ever want to head back to the default branch, then simply choose 'none' from the beta box.

On top of that, here is the change-log for this week. It's a bit short, as that's life sometimes, but here it is!


Version: 0.350.06
Updates:

-Added the Bubble Geyser trap

-Endemic to Blistering Beach

-Launches large bubbles upwards which can be ridden

-The bubbles pop at the top, dealing physical damage and launching everything upwards


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Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where Leir's Bubble Shield would have the default material applied if leveled past 3 and he had the double shield charge shroomery upgrade chosen

-Fixed a bug where Moira's third shroomery upgrade for Pole Vault didn't properly eliminate the cooldown


And that's all for this week!

Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!

Hello all!

Today, we've got another update, as you can probably clearly see from the update in your Steam game list.

But! This week, there are a few bigger changes, including, but not limited to, the Bounty Board now functions for all characters, not just those that are being hunted, and we changed the way that chests spawn.

We're also making headway on Blistering Beach, with only two enemies and the boss remaining until it is ready to get into your hands!

Anywho, changelog!


Version: 0.350.05
Updates:


-Blistering Beach

-Added all the remaining tiles



-Bounty Board

-All characters now have a chance to be stalked by bounty hunters, regardless of wanted level

-Characters with wanted levels will now be stalked twice as often as those without

-Characters with wanted levels now have a lower minimum time between bounty hunter spawns

-30 sec -> 15 sec


-Added the enemy Decallo

-Fodder type

-Found in Blistering Beach

-Spawns in swarms and elites have the chance to bleed the player


-Enemy Invader Class

-Entourage now has a chance to scale larger with bounty level


-Chests

-Now can have a random chance to be either locked or unlocked

-Now have a 10% chance to spawn captive motes

-Increased follower mote spawn chance

-25% -> 50%

-Shard and Soul amounts now scale with difficulty and hymn level

-Now randomly spawn


-The cost of blacksmith upgrades now scales with hymn levels

-2% cost increase / hymn level


-Added the Death Fire elite effect

-Deals damage around the enemy on death based on max health


-Added the Spirit Spire elite effect

-Deals damage in a random cluster around the enemy periodically


-Added a display to the character change widget that indicates current hymn level


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Bug Fixes:

-Fixed an issue where the upgrade Advanced Shields was providing armor value instead of shield value

-Fixed an issue where one of Tabitha's shroomery upgrades to her Bludgeon caused her attack to do zero damage instead of both physical and magical

-Fixed a description issue for Tabitha's Bludgeon


And there you have it!

Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!

Greetings,

Xermillion Glass, at your service for our special spotlight about one Pilvi Glass, the long-dead daughter of Saren Glass and the subject of numerous, unfounded rumors spreading through Riilavkava.

Pilvi was born of Saren and some unknown woman. If I had to hazard a guess, I would assume that Pilvi's mother was nobility of some sort as Socor Glass was of new nobility and those of new nobility often wreathe themselves in the trappings of their new stature.

In any case, shortly after Pilvi was born, her unnamed mother stole her away, fleeing from the newly named Castle Glass.

Pilvi's life from that point onward is a mystery. All that is known is that, sometime later, her mother dies of some illness or another and Pilvi winds up homeless. She lives in the wilds for a time, before a chance encounter with her father, Saren, brings her back to her place at Castle Glass.

As one would expect, Pilvi is taught to properly fit in her new stature through rigorous lessons; matters of: state, warfare, theology, decorum. Pilvi especially takes to the theology lessons, becoming a devout Congregationist, from whence her association with the stars comes.

Shortly after Pilvi has made herself at home, the Storm Wars break out with a Särönen leading the rebellion. Ultimately, Saren Glass is slain in the courtyard of Castle Glass by the forgotten Faulder. Records are unsure, but some, primarily those from my family, claim that Pilvi slew the Faulder mere moments after Saren fell, others claim that the Faulder lived to old age. I am unsure which to believe, but in either case, Pilvi is forced to flee Castle Glass with nothing - save an unborn child, Saren's unborn child, who would one day grow to be Xertain the Reclaimer.

Between Pilvi's flight and Xertain's conquest the records are scant, indeed. It must have been at least 20 years that Pilvi and her son were missing, where and with who, none can say. But, they returned, as Socor did some 50 years before, and took Castle Glass. The army that was fielded that day was, by all accounts, larger than any single army that was ever fielded in Xerenia prior.

Castle Glass was restored and Xertain crowned. That is not why we are here though. Pilvi herself is scarcely mentioned from that point onward. It is assumed that she died one day, of something less exciting than death by single combat or the wasting disease. There are many stories, however, mostly from the commoners, of the Witch of the Stars.

But once, is the Witch attributed to Pilvi Glass. A local legend from a small harbor village in the north of Xerenia tells of Pilvi Glass visiting one day in search of something. So the legend goes, Pilvi found her way to the tallest tree in the entire town and climbed to the top. They say that the Witch of the Stars was born that day as Pilvi devoured the very stars from the night sky, absorbing them into herself. This is absurd, of course, as clearly the stars can attest. But, that is all the evidence that connects Pilvi and the Witch.

The Witch, herself, if she ever existed, is blamed for many things, both good and bad. Ignorance will do that. The Witch is claimed to be a great healer, a helper to those in need, someone that the common folk can count on. With the next breath, however, a different story is told. That the Witch will steal your soul. That the Witch will destroy you crops. That the Witch will bring down the stars to burn your home.

The Witch of the Stars has been referenced for hundreds of years across Xerenia and the rest of the Wind Kingdoms. She is simply folklore or, if not, an exaggeration of what Pilvi Glass once was.

Our current specter, however, is nothing but idle talk by damned souls. They need something to distract them, so it may as well be the ghost of Pilvi Glass.

This was the last spotlight, as it were, that I have for now. I will be keeping my eye out for any more of our brood and, when one has been found, will be writing another explanation. You have my word.


Until next time,
Xermillion Glass

Hello all!

This update is mostly fixes and small updates to various systems that weren't performing as well as I would have liked.

On top of that though, we are gearing up for the Blistering Beach release, which is still about a month off, if my guestimate is correct.

Anywho, changelog!


Version: 0.350.03
Updates:


-Blistering Beach

-Added all common tiles


-Added the Upward Current trap

-Slowly pushes everything upward


-Added the Sear enemy

-Fodder type

-Endemic to Blistering Beach

-Lots of knocking the player around


-Lion's Stump

-Mycelium Tendril

-Lowered damage ratio

-0.75 -> 0.1

-Increased tick rate

-0.5 sec -> 0.25

-No longer deal damage on initial overlap

-Note: This way, it will now do less damage overall, and seem less like a huge burst of damage


-Devil's Skyburst event

-Lowered the AoE

-1500uu -> 800uu

-Lowered the damage

-50 / 75 / 100 / 150 -> 30 / 50 / 70 / 100


-The chance that any given enemy spawns as an elite is now increased based on current difficulty and hymn level

-Elite chance multiplier (difficulty)

-1.0 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.5

-Elite chance multiplier (hymn)

-0.025 / hymn level


-The absolute number of potions that the player currently has now affects: enemy spawn rate, event spawn rate, swarm spawn rate, bounty hunter spawn rate, and event difficulty


-Hymn level now affects the number of possible elite effects for an enemy

-Elite effect count multiplier

-1.2 / hymn




---
Bug Fixes:

-Findable NPC's should no longer be able to be found twice in one level

-Added a missing Fullscreen option from the main menu

-Fixed an issue with the briars that the Overgrown Sentinel spawns where they weren't properly despawning on death


And that is that for this update!


Thank you all,
Until next time,
Lucas

Join our Discord!

Greetings, once again,

It is I, Xermillion Glass, to talk about the last of our subjects for the time being, Moira Stubtail.

A Saurian from southern Xerenia, Moira fancies herself a bit of a scholar. Most of what we talk about is history and most of it is relatively new to me. I cannot argue the voracity of her claims, however, as she has the necessary tomes to reference and, on more than one occasion, she has proven me wrong or given me greater insight into something that I would have never guessed.

For instance, the fact that it was, in fact, a Faulder that slew Saren Glass was completely lost to time; forgotten. But, Moira knew it. Where she gets this knowledge, I cannot say, but it is very much the truth.

Moira claims to be from the slums of a small holdfast near the southern tip of Xerenia, Steelshores.

Now, Steelshores is currently ruled by a saurian by the moniker Stubtail, Darg'on Stubtail, but Stubtail is a given name, not unlike the name Black from the Iron Sands, so it would be unwise to jump to conclusions.

Stubtail, as a given name, is granted to those that disobey the Kär, a cult of saurian priestesses that wish nothing more than to return to their homeland. The Kär, as far as I know it, are not a powerful sect, but their word carries great weight within saurian communities, and as such, they are given the run of the law in many places where the god of the Red Bogs is worshipped.

Moira says that she lost her tail and was given her surname from a Kär priestess who would often visit the slums where she was from. Moira wears the surname with pride, however, as beforehand she was simply Moira the street urchin.

Moira is more than forthwith with anything I could ask, but there is something about her that simply has me on edge. She is different from the others, but how, I cannot say.


Main

Moira's weapon of choice is her spear. She mentioned once offhandedly that she took it from the corpse of a guard in Steelshores. It functions as one would expect a spear to function.

From the monkey, she can learn to: heal her magic defenses when striking something, increase the arc of her swing, or knock those struck backwards.


Secondary

Moira, as many of us seem to be, is a blackblood. She commands water and spirit manas both. Not-unlike Rowan, she is able to conjure spears of mana which she hurls at her enemies.

From the shroomery, she can learn to: condense the mana, causing an explosion the the impact point, increase the harm that each spear can cause, or conjure several at once, firing them with less accuracy.


Dodge

She is a rather agile woman on top of everything, she is able to balance on the tip of her spear as a defensive maneuver, slamming her spear into the ground once she releases the pose.

She can learn to: cause magical harm to those around her as she balances, launcher herself as she slams, or remove her need for time between stances entirely.


Ultimate

Moira is able to use her mana quickly, she is quite the adept mage, despite being a blackblood. She can condense mana into small spheres, which explode outward after a small delay. She does this in a forward arc, stunning all those near the spheres along the path.

From the monkey, she can learn to: spawn the spheres in a complete circle around her, spawn all of the explosions at one point, or vastly increase the amount of time that each explosion stuns her enemies for.

And, at last, we have reached the end of my list of distant relatives. I will keep you all informed when a new one surfaces, as I'm sure they will. Those of my blood are rather... indiscriminate sometimes, and as such, it would not surprise me to learn that most people possessed a drop or two.

I will, however, speak next week of someone a bit different. There are stories circulating through Riilavkava of a white fox in black, skulking about, using queer magics when almost seen. All around seem to agree that there is something afoot, but none can come to a consensus.

Saren Glass had one daughter, a white fox; the Witch of the Stars, Pilvi Glass.

Now, do I believe this specter is, in fact, the long dead daughter of Saren Glass? No. But, I do enjoy any excuse to speak of the history of my house. It is a storied history, with as many defeats as victories, but, in any case, I am rambling.

Next week, we will be speaking of Pilvi Glass.

Until next time,
Xermillion Glass