Denham Update is now Live

Hi folks,

This update brings a ton of new content, features, and improvements to make your adventures even better. It’s one of the biggest updates so far, laying the foundation for a more dynamic and immersive world. The tech behind it has been in the works for a while, and with so many interconnected changes coming together, it made more sense to get it into your hands now rather than leave it sitting in development limbo while I finish the Marsh events. Releasing it at this stage keeps the momentum going, allows me to refine things based on your feedback, and helps push forward to the next big steps even faster.

So, what’s this update really about? Sure, there’s Denham, but there’s not much to do there just yet. New actions and weapon specials, and yes, there’s a long list of patch notes—but where does that actually leave us?

In many Choose Your Own Adventure games—and, let’s be honest, most RPGs—the world and its NPCs exist solely to serve the main character. NPCs have no real lives of their own. They may pretend to be busy, follow scripted actions, or even die when the story demands it, but beyond that, they remain static.

This update attempts to changes that.

What if NPCs decided to go on their own adventures? What if bandits raided each other instead of just waiting for you? What if vampire hunters tracked and fought other undead instead of standing around until you showed up?

That’s exactly what this update introduces—a world where NPCs act independently, creating a dynamic, unpredictable experience. The result? A beautiful kind of chaos and a deadly dance of survival, where only the fittest grow stronger.

Will you let the bandits grow unchecked, allowing them to become an even greater threat? Or will you take them down before they do? Maybe you’d rather become an outlaw yourself and rob those pesky adventurers instead. Or perhaps you’ll take a different path—playing your lute by their campfire and earning a living through song.

Of course, you remain in control. You can adjust how much chaos unfolds in your world by setting the number of active hostile and neutral factions. A new combat difficulty slider allows you to fine-tune the challenge to your preference.

This update includes various UI improvements, bug fixes, and other quality-of-life enhancements in addition to these major changes.

In any case, you can check out the full patch notes below! Since they may contain a few spoilers, I tucked them behind the updated roadmap.

With this update arriving earlier than I anticipated, the next update will get some extra time and attention. This means I’ll be able to fully flesh out the rest of the Marsh events I am writing and revisit existing areas with even more content.

Have fun exploring the new update, and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you have any questions, feedback, or just want to share your experiences, feel free to reach out. Enjoy the adventure, and happy gaming!

[h2]Patch Notes - 10/02/25 # 0.6.45[/h2]

[h3] Bug fixes [/h3]

Tweaked the Attack & Utility action highlighting algorithm to prevent certain enemies from being incorrectly untargetable due to terrain obstacles.
Multiple elemental damage stacks will now accumulate on the same target instead of replacing the previous one.
Fixed several typos and improved wording for consistency across various perks.
Fixed an issue where Sheela was not granted the proper Vampire perks after turning her in Taymoor ruins.
Fixed an issue where Sheela was not using the correct dialogue in Harronwell Manor.
TurnToVampire lua will now correctly grant the actor the Feed action if they don't already have it.
Fixed a few typos in the Forest events pack.
When the event randomizer selects the fallback event where nothing happens, it is now presented more immersively.

[h3] Roaming Bands [/h3]

Member levels are now more varied and scale in difficulty your combat difficulty Settings.
Roaming band levels are now capped based on the region:
Considering there isn't a level cap for the PC party, eventually, you can out-level the outlaws of every region, shifting the balance as the hunter becomes hunted. Roaming enemies will avoid advancing toward the player's group if their leader's level is 2 levels lower.
Speaking of hunters, Vampire Hunters were added as roaming bands. Vampires now have a chance to encounter them while traveling at night. They are incredibly lethal, but losing to them will not result in final death. Instead, it will trigger one of the random defeat scenarios. They also eradicate any other undead or vampires that come along their way.
Tweaked and improved the spawn and band movement algorithms.
Bandit leaders will now drop Grim Trophies, which can be exchanged with local authorities for coin and regional fame.
Neutral Adventurer Bands that travel between towns were added. They won’t interact with the player unless the player chooses to engage with them through a world action, such as Diplomatic Exchange or Skirmish. If they cross paths with hostile bands, they'll fight them, and if victorious, they'll increase their renown and combat experience.
If hostile bands are nearby, they will engage neutral bands and defeat them, increasing their notoriety and improving their experience.
Hostile bands may pillage the countryside, increasing their wealth and power.
Treating neutral bands with open hostility will provoke them into hostility and combat.
Robbing or killing neutral bands will increase your Notoriety.
Hostile bands can now get generated outside the town, even if the player is on one.
While the player is safe in towns, hostile bands worldwide will actively pursue and destroy other hostile bands based on their faction, strengthening over time.

[h3] New Content [/h3]

Added Bedale & Denham tiles.
I added a new arena in Denham (which has the exact requirements as Valetport).
I added a courier's outpost in Denham. You can now pick up deliveries from and to Denham.
Added a Bowyer in Valetport
Added Denham's Merchants
Added a few Marsh-specific Events (more to come at a later time)
Implemented the high tier Trinkets & Boots.
Updated most Ranged Weapons with new bonus actions.
Updated most Bladed Weapons with new bonus actions.
Updated most Magical Weapons with new bonus actions.
Updated several Blunt Weapons with new bonus actions.
Added over 90 new actions, attainable through trinkets or weapons.
Added a new dialogue for Sheela in Harronwell Manor.
Assigned regions to the currently implemented world map.
Added Bounty Offices across various towns to exchange Grim Trophies. Turning in Grim Trophies grants positive fame. These offices, known as King’s Justice, can be found in town barracks.
A new NPC interaction, Bond, requires a Friend, rel. 35+. Learn about the NPCs' past and backstory.
Added 30 unique backstories & their related background perks.
Barracks were added in Valetport, Ashwick, and Denham.
New & Updated Overworld Actions:
- Diplomatic Exchange (cooldown 4 turns): You can Parley with a hostile band within 2 hex tiles. A successful attempt allows you to avoid the encounter entirely, while failure leads to combat.
- Skirmish (cooldown 8 turns): You can ambush a hostile band within 2 hex tiles. Success eliminates the band, giving you some rewards, while failure means they evade your ambush and remain on the map. The rewards gained from Skirmish don't include any potential secret drops.
A Combat Difficulty slider was added to the Settings UI. You can choose from 7 different settings, with a preview detailing the affected enemy stats.
Added new settings for the number of Hostile and Neutral Bands that can spawn at a given time. The default is set to 2 for both.
Losing to the Shadows in Emerald Basin will now trigger a custom defeat scenario. While it has ramifications, it is not a game over.
Losing to Dravienne's Coven in Llanford's Catacombs will trigger a custom defeat scenario. While it has ramifications, it is not a game over.

[h3] Misc [/h3]

Added a copy button to copy visible portrait names to the clipboard.
New actor tag 'Monstrous': forces actors to follow a stricter, more biased progression when leveling up. Their SP converts to HP, their PP is spent exclusively on tag-based perks, and any unspent PP is converted into combat bonuses.
New passive: Exploration Range x increases the FOW tiles revealed by x. (By default, your character uncovers adjacent tiles up to a range of 2. Any additional Exploration Range +x increases this radius, allowing you to reveal more tiles beyond the default limit.)
In the actor's editor, a search field was added to find specific portraits.
Expanded the HexTileEditor to allow the creation of regions on the world map.
I added a new shell command, 'StartConversation.'
New Lua extensions: ThisEncounter, ThisEncounterResolve, ThisEncounterRewards, and ThisEncounterSpoils enable working with bands while in Conversation mode. ExchangeAll mass-exchanges items for scripted rewards.
Tweaked various game layouts.
Slightly increased the log size in the story UI.
Increased stash & description space & added icon filters for each slot category in the inventory UI.
I've tweaked the buttons in the barter UI: when in loot containers, the "Loot All" button is more prominent and automatically closes the container.
The camp action is now an overworld action and will not trigger if there are enemies within a 3-tile radius. Instead, a warning will be displayed.
The skip time button is now more prominent and is located in the former spot of the camp button.
Be careful when skipping time! You will now skip turns, and enemies may spawn, move, and even attack you!
While skipping time, you can click the "Stop" button to interrupt the process. This will play one final turn before returning control to the MC.
The action currently taken will now also be displayed in World and Downtime states to improve visual feedback of other actors' actions or when skipping time.
The spoils will now appear in a loot container when resolving a skirmish.
After finishing a move, the fog of war is revealed instantly instead of on the following action.
Removed the Encounter settings from the Journal. (You can now use the Game settings to set combat difficulty)
OnDefeat: ConversationId can be used as an encounter reward to trigger a specific defeat scenario instead of a generic one.