Dungeonmans News

This is where all the patch notes are supposed to go but I'm kinda waiting for the Summer Sale to be over before putting up a big announcement, otherwise who's gonna read it?

But yeah, Hatch and Slash. Once you reach level 5 and crush enough bosses you'll find a Mysterious Egg that'll get the ball rolling. You'll have the option of being followed around by a brave Battle Poultry who helps you crush monsters and get loots. They'll even pick up coins.

Monsters sometimes drop steaks made of themselves, feed those steaks to the bird and the bird grows accordingly. Steaks change different values (it's in the item card, I promise) and sometimes teach your pet a power that they use on their own. The banner one is pretty good.

I also nerfed one of the Dread Spire bosses, buffed Trigers, and made Real Armor a little tougher. Again, real patch notes later.

Come to discord and say hi

Ironmans Mode now requires you to have advanced a hero to level 10 in Heroic Adventure Mode.

If you currently have no heroes of 10 or higher, then the mode is locked for you, even if you've already gotten a hero to level 10 many times. That is an inconvenience, and I apologize. But it shouldn't take you long to get another hero to level 10, right?

The Academy Battlemaster will now let you clear out all the stored proofs of stremf for your current hero.

If you want to start a hero and use none of the points from previous heroes for that run, now you can do so. This will not affect your future characters, they can spend proofs as they like.

Why?
I'm really tired of having people think that Ironmans Mode is the "real" roguelike and the actual game is some roguelite fluff. Ironmans mode is a smaller and less interesting experience, people who jump into it first are missing so much of what Dungeonmans is and they are more likely to be disappointed and refund the game.

Heroic mode is a mighty challenge as is. Sure if you're a deep RL veteran you're gonna have an edge, but the v a s t majority of players find the game to be a real meaty adventure. First time players should go nowhere near Ironmans mode, not because it's harder (it isn't) but because they miss out on the Academy and the cool gameplay that comes with it.

That's right, Ironmans mode is not harder. If you start a character in a brand new Academy and start a character in a brand new Ironmans world, the Ironmans player has a loot advantage -- they can use shovels right away, instead of artifacts that are preserved for future runs.

ːstremfː Players who say they want fresh starts and no carry over progression, I'm here for you ːstremfː
When you start a new character in the Academy, do the following:
* Don't go looking for any optional teachers / faculty to get their bonuses.
* Tell the Battlemaster to wipe out previous proofs of stremf. She will oblige.

Dungeonmans 1.91b

Lots of crash fixes, some major ones:
* The bosses in Caverns shouldn't crash you.
* Rare Echo crashes should stop.
* Bumping your toe against the Cartography table should no longer sometimes crash you.

Dungeonmans Armory Fixes
Renown Weapons and the Vault: That was bugged before, and should be better now. Weapons placed into the Wargear Vault from here out should no longer risk losing their Renown status. Current weapons in the vault may still be bugged however.

The Amaranthine Hammer: Recipes should no longer require this hammer. If they do, let me know. Recipes that did require the hammer now require Bitey instead.

Better Blueprints: Blueprints found at threat levels 18+ are guaranteed 5 star, with a whole pile of enchants. They will break the UI for the blacksmith, that's how you know the depth of their stremf.

No more "1H Axe, Sword, or Hammer Hammer"

Banners should behave better when you load them from disk, either by restoring your game or revisiting a level that had one.

A bug involving Renown Journals causing future enchants to get stuck has been fixed.

21:9 fullscreen support is in.

Psychofoci should properly display all the enchants on them.

Renown Weapons and Psychomansers: Apologies to the weapon TKing wild mad monks out there, but you still cannot Renown your fists or Psychofocus. I do realize that this locks the Psychomansers out of one progression path, and I'm thinking of ways to get around that. Adjusting fists and foci to be Renownable would require some surgery I don't have the ability to commit to right now.

What else did I fix, uh, dang, I should have kept better notes. Lots of little bits and things -- come by the Discord and figure it out with me. discord.gg/stremf.

Today's patch has some potent new content for players in the late or post game, an update to the Dungeon Dervish mastery, and bug fixes for everyone.

Lots of words here! If you have questions after, don't hesitate to swing by the Dungeonfans Academy Discord!

[h2]Weapons of Renown [/h2]

The most powerful weapons and armor of Dungeonmans are soaked in legend, storied implements of war that tell tales of conquests long past. It is time for the mighty heroes of today to get a chance to pen their own legends as well.

Mix it up with enough Ancient Kings and you might find Chronicles of Renown Unwritten, an item that lets you take a five-star (or better!) weapon and begin a mighty tale of legend. You can rename the item, and even write your own flavor text. The item then increases in star rank, scaling up its damage slightly and allowing for one more enchantment scroll. You also get to pick one of three renowned suffixes that have unique effects outside of any other enchantment. Now for the best part: the weapon gains Renown XP when you defeat further Ancient Kings or bosses of sufficiently tough Adventure Maps. Earn enough Renown XP and the weapon ranks up, giving you more damage, another star, AND the option of upgrading one of your titles or adding a new one on.

More details down at the bottom of the notes, but the short version is this: swords can level up now too, and as you push deeper into more difficult Adventure Maps, you can continue to enchant and evolve your weapon of choice.

[h2]Great Foes Forgotten[/h2]

Powerful Ancient Kings lurk in the deepest and darkest dungeons, the stubborn will of history's greatest conquerors, and have long been some of the strongest enemies known to Mans. Even so, Ancient Kings were once simply Kings, and they too looked back on distant legend. Something so truly and incalculably ancient could only be a distant echo of its true power over the countless generations since... but should many such echoes gather at once, the force would be overwhelming.

There's a new champion type one step above Ancient King, an Echo From Time Unknowable. Like AKs, they're powered up versions of the base monster, but they come packed with powers that bend space and time. They also have new music and are introduced with a special dialog, so there's no mistaking that you are in for a tremendous fight. Pay attention to everything, and expect difficult surprises. Defeating one of those foes is certainly a feat of great renown.

[h2]Dungeon Dervish[/h2]

The dual wielding tree was a little lackluster, and didn't do anything particularly well. It seemed like the fate of a dervish was to have two great melee weapons, and only use them as a last resort while kiting enemies through the dungeon with an enchanted bow.

* Razor Fury has a two tile range movement range instead of one. Still doesn't let you go through enemies. The damage reduction on the whirlwind attack has been eased a little, and the stance it puts you in has been powered up significantly, with increased damage and duration. You'll use this move often, first as an opener, and then to make calculated movements weaving in and out of groups while slashing them apart and increasing Tempo.

* While dual wielding, your parry effects have a chance to fire when you dodge. This is a big change -- dodge is the first defense that gets rolled, which means all the potential counterattacking from Tempo wasn't happening unless monsters beat your dodge, which made medium armor a bad choice for the dervish. Crazy! Here's how it works now: if you dodge, your parry chance is rolled, and if you succeed all your on parry effects fire. Previously, if you had a 90% dodge and a 15% parry, you would only see a Tempo counter attack 1.5% of the time-- 15% of the 10% that get through. Now you get all 15%. The monsters are doomed.

These changes together make Dungeon Dervish way more mobile and lethal. Keep Tempo up, keep Razor Fury up, and you'll be hitting really hard on your turn and the monsters. Dashing Charge is still a great combo of escape + damage that makes Stick and Move so jealous and bitter it stops responding to your text messages and makes you drive over to its house to ask whats wrong. Decimanser's Dance is pricey but still brings you value when surrounded by 3+ monsters.

Just don't run out of stamina.



Q Movement

Down in the options there's a new toggle for Q Movement, a mode where the numpad on your keyboard simulates input from a controller. You press in a given direction to aim, and then press W (because Q is bound to Drop Item, you see) to step in that direction, or hold W to run.

Save/Load Issues in emulators

Some people running dmans on a linux box through sorcery have noted that saves can't be reloaded. True ironmans mode sure, but this build should have a fix for that issue.

Adventure Maps

Map dungeons are shorter, 3 to 5 floors max, and the rewards on the bosses have been kicked up a little bit. Further, when you are under level 15, you're more likely to find maps that are at your level and higher. Currently there's too often when a level 13 mans ends up having to chew through level 9, 10, 11 AMaps just to get up to level. There should be less of that now.

• Fixed up the Blacksmithing menu, that mysterious unclaimable ???? enchant has been removed, and some new ones added.
  
• Restocking a pig farmer with Purloined Inventory will restore their supply of actual pigs, instead of random crap.
  
• If you somehow lost your initial Adventure Map, that chain of encounters is now likely to begin again for you.
  
• UI improvements for a number of windows where text was getting lost in the background, including the extra messed up use-item-on-item window.
  
• The UI for moving Starshards and handing over Purloined Inventory has been improved.
  
• Corrected the names of a few older powers.
  
• Fixed some really jank tooltip issues. They should be more clear and consistent now, and better about showing stamina costs.
  
• That bug where music gets stuck if you enter and leave a new dungeon too quickly is finally fixed, damn. Also, the music should no longer vanish when in those spiral dungeon floors.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ending of the last Halloween battle might display incorrectly.
  
• Ancient Kings should keep their purpley glow and menace even if you save and reload.
  
• Fixed up the presentation on Dashing Charge.
  
• Temple dungeons -- the big green ones with the traps -- may now have Ancient Kings (or worse...) guarding their sanctums.
  
• Banners now have to be dropped on empty tiles, sorry.
  
• Cryoduchesses do less damage with thier ice spike, but only a little. They're still nasty.
  
• Champion Undead Archers no longer get to drop Boneshredded on you if they miss with all their thrown bones.
  

I attack with my...


[h2]Ancient King Farming[/h2]

Some players have found a method to reliably farm Ancient Kings -- I won't spoil it here, but you know who you are. There are lots of places in the truly high-powered late/post game where Dungeonmans can be broken, and generally I am ok with this, but after much consideration I decided to turn off this particular Radiant Shard firehose. Have your fun, though it will be harder, and when you've reached the limit you will know.

[h2]Renown Weapons, Deeper Dive[/h2]

The special renown-only enchants are mostly straight up percent boosts to elemental damage done, or damage against certain monster types. If a player has a few renown weapons, they'll have a fair set of tools to go up against the various crazy combinations found in high tier Adventure Maps. There's also a bonus to loot finding, and a bonus to base health. There should be more, and there may well be more, it depends on how well this content is received by you the player.

When a weapon ranks up, you're given three titles to pick from at random. However, if you already have titles on the weapon, the first one is guaranteed to be one you already have. This will let you focus on a particular upgrade if you feel like it. Picking "The Charbroiler" multiple times just increases fire damage more each time.

If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings Online, you're familiar with the bones of this system. What about items that add unique titles? Breaking weapons down into renown for future weapons? Mysterious renow-- ok, yeah, I can dig it. If the playerbase turns out to enjoy this system, they'll see more content for it.

Some tidbits:

* Warlords react differently to you if you're packing a renowned weapon, and they will fight harder.

* If you die carrying a renowned weapon, the dungeon boss steals it. If you had more than one on you when you died, the rest are scattered about the world, and might turn up anywhere. But they are out there!

[h2]You did it[/h2]

You reached the end of the patch notes. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Comment all you like on this event, or head over to the Dungeonfans Academy Discord to yell at me directly.

Retiring a Dungeonmans and sending them out to wander the land leads to some interesting and unique events, but as the game's grown and gotten more complicated, the feature started to get crashy.

This update fixes all the related crashes I could find (I am sure you'll find more ːstremfː) and makes some improvements to the AI for a retired Dungeonmans. It also increases their survivability, boosting health and adding in the ability for them to throw back healing potions when needed.