Revelations Update Dev Diary I - Changing Morale into Determination
[p]Hello adventurers![/p][p]Ever since we released version 0.6, we’ve been focused on Dustgrave’s next big milestone: the Revelations Update. Today, we’d like to share some key highlights of what we are working on:[/p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]Today’s dev diary will focus on the last element on this list. After extensive internal testing and valuable player feedback, we have decided to change how Morale works and remove cooldowns from skills. Let’s dive into why we made these decisions and what we’ve implemented instead.[/p][p][/p][h3]Why remove Morale?[/h3][p]Morale was initially designed to add tactical dept, causing characters to flee. However, in practice, it brought unintended gameplay issues:[/p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][h3]Skill Cooldowns: limitations and changes[/h3][p]The second area of concern is how Active Skills worked with cooldowns. This encouraged repetitive, predictable gameplay patterns: use your strongest skills as early and often as possible. [/p][p]We wanted players to consider when to use powerful skills, instead of using them automatically the moment they became available.[/p][p][/p][h3]Introducing Determination[/h3][p]We’ve now removed all cooldowns from Skills, and replaced Morale with a new mechanic: Determination.[/p][p][/p][p]Determination Points (DP) work as follows:[/p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][h3]What happens to existing moral items and skills?[/h3][p]All existing gear, Talents, and Skills previously linked to Morale will now work with Determination instead. We already started testing this new system and the early impressions are excellent. In particular, high-level characters now feel truly powerful, having a high Determination and therefore being capable to take down hordes of enemies with their Skills![/p][p]You have questions? Feel free to join the conversation on our Steam Forum or in our Discord server. You will find us there! [/p]
- [p]World Map Rework: a more compact, richer, and detailed map designed to make exploration more engaging and rewarding.[/p]
- [p]Settlement Simulation Overhaul: new simulation mechanics to better represent settlement prosperity and better simulate their development.[/p]
- [p]Expanded Dynamic Narrative: new dynamic quest structures to ensure greater variety and deeper storytelling.[/p]
- [p]Character Progression Revamp: New class specializations and hundreds of additional talents, providing more depth and build diversity for your heroes.[/p]
- [p]Determination: we are removing Morale and turning it into Determination, to make fights more varied and interesting.[/p]
- [p]Boring builds: characters focusing on Morale have never bun as fun and engaging as standard characters.[/p]
- [p]Quest and scripting complications: fleeing characters disrupted quest flow, dialogue sequences, and sometimes led to game-breaking bugs.[/p]
- [p]Skills consume Determination: powerful skills cost more DP, basic ones cost less.[/p]
- [p]Determination regenerates each turn: every character gradually recovers DP at the start of their turn.[/p]
- [p]Shouts still matter: Shouts still replenish DP for allies or reduce it from enemies, allowing allies to use spend more Determination on Skills or preventing enemies from using theirs.[/p]