Stoneshard News

- After the latest hotfix a small percentage of players started to experience occasional game freezes when playing with the native cursor enabled. We're still investigating, so as a temporary fix we disabled this option until a proper solution is found.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes didn't properly register killing dungeon bosses.
- Fixed "Short Circuit" incorrectly mentioning being modified by Bonus Range.
- Fixed the "Intimidation" hover displaying a technical tag instead of the debuff chance.
- Fixed critical kill character lines being triggered when targeting inanimate objects.

[h3]MAIN CHANGES[/h3]

- Reworked the Drunkenness mechanic:

- Drunkenness was split into 4 stacks with varying changes to stats: 1 and 2 stacks of the effect are mostly beneficial, while 3 and 4 are largely detrimental.
- The number of stacks depends on the effect’s duration and is tied to specific thresholds (1x / 120x / 240x / 300x ). Stacks can only go up: once a threshold is achieved, they will remain until the effect’s duration completely runs out.
- Apart from changing the character’s stats, Drunkenness also has special modifiers that manifest with each added stack. 2 stacks of Drunkenness can cause Confusion, 3 stacks - Vomiting, and 4 stacks introduce a chance to fall Asleep. These chances change dynamically depending on the number of stacks and the effect’s remaining duration.
- Vomiting while asleep deals significant damage to your character and can potentially be lethal.
- The intensity of visual effects now changes depending on the effect’s number of stacks. The distortions and wobbling will be barely noticeable while affected by 1 stack and will reach the levels of old Drunkenness by the time you achieve 4 stacks.
- The duration of Drunkenness gained from drinking alcohol is governed by several factors. High Hunger will increase the duration, while high Vitality and Intoxication Resistance will do the opposite.
- At the end of its duration, Drunkenness with 3 or 4 stacks will transform into Hangover.
- Unlike other types of Aftermath, Hangover allows you to drink alcohol without triggering Bad Trip, offering an opportunity to partially negate the debuff.
- Elven Citruses, Mindwort, Ginger Roots, and Antitoxin can be used to gradually reduce the duration of Drunkenness.

- Added ~400 new speech lines for the player character (including unique lines for each preset option), the Brigands, and the Undead. The list of conditions that can trigger speech lines was greatly expanded as well.
- Added more options to display settings: fullscreen, bordered, windowed.

[h3]GAMEPLAY & BALANCE[/h3]

- Offensive skills’ bonuses to Accuracy and/or Fumble Chance are no longer individual. Instead, there’s now a universal bonus of +10% Accuracy and -5% Fumble Chance. Leveling “Right on Target” will improve it directly.
- Increased stat gains from Strength.
(for each achieved threshold): [+5% > +7.5%] Weapon Damage, [+10% > +15%] Armor Damage, [+10% > +15%] Crit Efficiency
(for each SP invested): [+2.5% > +3%] Bodypart Damage)
- Reduced the base Block Power and Block Power coefficients for most weapons.
- Changed the order of condition checks for Distant Dungeons' boss chests (if all possible Artifacts are already found, these chests are now guaranteed to spawn a unique item).
- If an ability is modified by Bonus Range or a specialized Magic School’s Power, it will now be listed in its hover.
- Standardized the way Bonus Range interacts with spells. Increased the number of spells affected by it.
- Reduced the base Range of some Pyromancy spells.
- Rather than working within the entirety of the caster’s Vision Range, Geomancy spells now have their own Range stat, just like all other Magic Schools.
- Increased the durability of Runic Boulders (boosting the damage dealt to anyone Knocked back into them), but greatly reduced their Resistances, making them much more vulnerable to attacks.
- Moving to another location will now automatically skip a turn, giving enemies a free action.
- Significantly reduced the passive Pain decay [-0.2 per turn if all conditions are met > -0.05 per turn / -0.5 per turn if the current Pain is higher than Pain Threshold > -0.25 per turn]
- Tweaked the stat scaling of Mace skills (some of the skills’ effects now favor Strength over Agility).
- Significantly reduced Leechworms’ Accuracy and increased their Fumble Chance.
- Bad Trip will no longer increase Intoxication.
- Reduced the durability of sarcophaguses. Knocking enemies against them should no longer deal obscene amounts of damage.
- Increased the impact of active debuffs on the Rest Mode’s restorative effects.
- Bloodletting Lancets now use a different mechanic.
- Generic Brynn merchants no longer sell treatises.

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

- Fixed the exploit allowing to dupe items with the Caravan Storage.
- Fixed the Bloodletting Lancet not displaying in the character's hands when equipped.
- When inspecting enemies, the displayed Resistances to individual Damage types will no longer duplicate the numbers gained from the Resistances to broad Damage categories. This change should noticeably reduce the size of enemies’ hovers and improve their readability.
- Fixed Backfire Damage not having 100% Armor Penetration, which was allowing to completely negate it with some armor.
- Fixed an issue that made it impossible to reduce the base Backfire Chance of spells.
- Fixed the upper threshold of Backfire Damage being displayed as 100% instead of 200%.
- Fixed the bug with Stone Spikes’ durability that was causing enemies to receive minuscule amounts of damage when Knocked back into them.
- Fixed Crit Efficiency not being split between hands in the Character menu while dual-wielding.
- Fixed the loot generation bug that was causing contract chest in high level dungeons to provide insufficient rewards.
- Fixed Pyromancy spells granting excessive bonus to Pyromantic Power when learned [2.5% > 2%].
- Fixed “Deadly Trick” increasing its user’s Crit Chance upon activation.
- Fixed “Unstoppable” replenishing Energy for 20% of the character’s Max Health instead of Max Energy.
- Fixed “Earthquake” burning a static amount of Energy instead of the listed percentage.
- Added a cap to Energy Burn applied by “Earthquake”. The effect scales with Willpower.
- Fixed “Cauterize Wounds” increasing the duration of its effect with each stopped Bleeding rather than boosting the effect’s power.
- Fixed enemies being able to use “Maneuver” to traverse 2 tiles in 1 turn.
- Fixed the Ancient Troll taking multiple instances of damage from “Piercing Shot”.
- Fixed “Whirlwind” being able to move nests and hives.
- Fixed “Determination” being able to hit charging enemies multiple times per turn (by Knocking them back over and over again).
- Fixed Martyrs’ “Blessed in Death” granting its bonuses to the character instead of the Proselytes.
- “Offensive Tactic” should now correctly improve the character’s Accuracy when they miss with a ranged weapon.
- Fixed “Peck” being able to apply Blindness upon hitting any body part, not just the target’s head.
- Fixed “Berserk Tradition” not granting Dodge Chance for each degree of Injury affecting the character (this includes stabilized Injuries as well).
- Fixed the hover of “War Cry” displaying a technical tag instead of the debuff chance.
- Fixed “War Cry” granting 1 less turn of “Battle Rage” than mentioned in its hover.
- Fixed the hover of “War Cry” not mentioning Willpower as a relevant attribute.
- Fixed “War Cry” using an incorrect area of effect.
- Fixed “Keep Them Coming” not granting the effect of “Mighty Swing” when killing enemies with the ability tree’s skills and critical hits simultaneously.
- Fixed ranged enemies being able to use “Seize the Initiative” from a distance without actually taking a shot.
- Fixed the bug that prevented the use of abilities while Frozen Stiff.
- Skipping time by sleeping will no longer take the Rest Mode’s bonuses into account.
- Fixed the issue with the display of stats in the Character menu when using the Rest Mode.
- Fixed Brigand Paymasters not being able to attack the character under certain circumstances.
- Possibly fixed the crash caused by moving to a different location if a Brigand Geomancer summons a Runic Boulder on the same turn.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers being able to use Runic Boulders outside of their Vision Range.
- Fixed the Blessed Aquamanile healing damaged body parts for a smaller amount than mentioned in its hover.
- Fixed Paregoric not granting immunity to Coughing when it’s applied by Harpies’ “Unbearable Stench”.
- Fixed the crash caused by the Manticore’s “Lion Leap”.
- Fixed the bug with the“Gwynnel’s Answers” quest that could potentially result in the disappearance of the hidden lever.
- Fixed Brynn Guards using incorrect speech lines.
- Fixed Leechworms and certain other animals being able to use speech lines.
- Ahruz from the Prologue is now correctly listed as an elf rather than a human.
- Fixed the outdated hover of “Curse”.
- Fixed the outdated hover of “Baleful Scream”.
- Fixed the collision issues affecting the second floor of the Brynn Bank and the cart in the Plague Village.
- Fixed the layering issue with the Brynn Banker's sprite.
- Fixed the Guard Helmet not displaying correctly when worn by Arna.
- Fixed certain vessels’ sprites not displaying correctly in the inventory and when dropped on the floor.
- Fixed the incorrect sprite of the tier IV Ranged Weapons treatise.
- Fixed the issue with the Throwing Net’s visuals when used on Young Trolls.
- Fixed “Sleep” darkening the screen on top of the already existing visual effect.

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since the last devlog, so we’re here to tell you about the current state of affairs and our plans for the near future.

Let’s just say the workflow has been less than ideal - the Ukrainian part of our team experiences blackouts and disrupted internet access due to the constant Russian shelling of the country’s infrastructure, and the part of the team that formerly resided in Russia needs time to adjust in a new place. Nevertheless, we’re still determined to continue working on Stoneshard.

The main focus right now is on the next major update, “Rags to Riches”, which will both introduce and expand upon a number of key gameplay systems, namely the Caravan, the dungeon generator, and the economy.

Unfortunately, we’re in no position to announce even approximate release dates, definitely not within the next few months. But it doesn’t mean there won’t be any new content until then - we plan to release a few small patches, mostly focusing on fixing bugs, implementing some long-awaited QoL improvements, tweaking the existing ability trees, and fleshing out certain minor mechanics that we kept on the back burner. This approach will keep the game from getting stale while simultaneously giving us an opportunity to clear the accumulated backlog and resolve some technical issues.

For instance, in the near future we’ll release a hotfix that will improve the Drunkenness mechanic and add a few hundred new speech lines - both for the main character and the enemies - to cover a much larger number of scenarios.



Now back to Rags to Riches and the progress we’ve made so far. Many of you may remember that the dungeon generator was already reworked in the “Way Forward” update. But even though the result was much better than the original iteration, the last couple of years brought us enough experience and feedback to realize that we can do better. After all, dungeon-delving is one of the most prominent mechanics in the game, so any improvements to it will serve the betterment of the experience in general.



The dungeon generation rework is meant to achieve the following:

• Move away from the boring and predictable dungeon structure that consists almost entirely of small rooms separated by doors.
  
• Get rid of single-tile doors and hallways, as they promote the repetitive tactics of funneling enemies into the same choke points over and over again. New rooms will have a more engaging design, giving you more reasons to reposition and interact with the surroundings.
  
• Add more distinguishing features to each dungeon type: the Bastion should differ from the Crypts - and the Crypts from the Catacombs - not only in terms of decorations but also their overall layout.
  
• Make dungeons and room structure more logical and believable: upon entering a room, you should be able to get a basic idea about its function.
  
• Make dungeons’ visuals consistent with their difficulty and loot quality: high level dungeons will boast richer decor and additional room types that you won’t be able to encounter early in the game.
  
• Add dungeon modifiers that will shake up the established routine and make you adjust your usual preparations - we’ll share more details in future devlogs.
  
• Change enemy spawns to make fights more fair and interesting.

While our game designers are busy conceptualizing the Contracts rework (and all the new mechanics that come along with it), our artist and level designers are working on gradually transitioning the Crypts to the new generation ruleset - of all the dungeon types, it needed a facelift the most. For now, here’s some of the results:









The next step is to use the Crypts as a testing ground for the entirety of the reworked system, which includes new contacts, modifiers, and certain other additions - after that, we’ll make the necessary adjustments and apply it to the remaining dungeon types as well.

That’s all for now. Until the next devlog!

- Made sweeping updates to the Bleed system as a follow-up to the recent distribution of Bleed Resistance between specific body parts.
- Changed Durability of most weapons to better fit with previous balance tweaks.
- Tweaked the level range of the loot in chests.
- Added exquisite dishes to the Ralph & Sons Inn.
- Added traps to the Brynn Quartermaster’s stock.
- Nerfed Proselyte Matriarchs.
- Moved Yagrams back to higher level Catacombs.
- Paregoric will now add 4 hours to the max sleep duration.
- Made the following changes to “Gaping Wound”: reduced the Abilities Energy Cost debuff [50% > 33%], added a Cooldowns Duration debuff [+33%], removed the Bleed Resistance debuff, and lowered the skill’s base Bleed Chance [75% > 50%].
- Fixed certain abilities disproportionately targeting some body parts over the others.
- Fixed “Painful Stabs” granting more Crit Efficiency than listed in its hover. [+15% > +10%]
- Fixed “Tormenting Swings” reducing its targets’ Max Health for a larger amount than listed its hover. [-7% > -5%]
- Fixed “Blade Maintenance” granting more Crit Efficiency than listed in its hover. [+15% > +10%]
- Fixed "Fatal Strike” reducing Abilities Energy Cost for a smaller amount than listed in its hover. [-25% > -33%]
- Fixed “Maim and Kill” granting less Bleed Chance than listed in its hover. [+15% > +20%]
- Fixed “Moment of Weakness” not granting Stagger Chance.
- Fixed “Severe Concussion” reducing Accuracy for a larger amount than listed in its hover. [-50% > -25%]
- Fixed “Offensive Tactic” not granting a bonus to Crit Efficiency upon landing a critical shot.
- Fixed “Revel in Battle” granting all its bonuses while just under the effect of “Striker Stance”.
- “Seal of Finesse” will now properly reduce the accumulated Backfire Damage by 20% rather than only negate the Backfire Damage generated by the ability itself.
- Fixed enemies with two-handed maces incorrectly prioritizing the use of “Mighty Swing”.
- Fixed “Flame Saturation” reducing Spells Energy Cost for a larger amount than listed in its hover. [-20% > -10%]
- Fixed “Inner Reserves” replenishing less Max Energy than listed in its hover. [20% > 25%]
- Fixed “Now or Never” not granting its bonuses for successful and partial dodges.
- Fixed “Dismember” reducing the target’s Health by a flat amount rather than scaling the damage with its Max Health.
- Fixed “Residual Charge” granting its effect for a smaller number of turns than listed in its hover. [4 > 6]
- Fixed “Shield Bash” reducing Block Power by a larger amount than listed in its hover. [-30% > -20%]
- Fixed “Pack Sense” granting its bonuses not only to Wolves but also the Character.
- Fixed “Spot Weakness” not applying some of its effects.
- Fixed “Seal of Power” incorrectly reapplying its effects.
- Fixed “Boulder Toss” using two different formulas for its chances to apply Stun or Daze.
- Fixed the softlock that could occur when bringing potion ingredients to l’Owcrey.
- Fixed the crash caused by learning certain rumors.
- Fixed the hover of “War Cry” not listing the skill’s debuff chance.
- Fixed “Tongue Push” displaying an incorrect hover.
- Fixed ranged Brigands not dropping bows on death.
- Fixed Bleed Resistance appearing twice in the Character’s stat menu.
- Fixed the issue preventing the activation of the Boulder Circle under certain circumstances.
- Fixed the generation bug with one of the abandoned carts.
- Fixed the generation bug with one of the Camps.
- Severe Intoxication will no longer cause Vomiting. Also significantly reduced the chance to Vomit while affected by Deadly Intoxication - on top of that, the overall chance drops to zero if the Character experiences significant Hunger.

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

- Fixed the NPC in the Order’s Prison not appearing on some saves.
- Fixed the inability to interact with the Boulder Circle on some saves even after performing all the prerequisite actions.
- Fixed Deathstinger Swarms having 100% Piercing Resistance.
- Fixed tier 4 Electromancy and Magic Mastery treatises spawning only in one specific distant dungeon.
- Fixed “Piercing Shot” not benefiting from “Taking Aim”.
- Fixed magic missiles being affected by the same close range Accuracy penalty as bows.
- Fixed Agility not affecting Backfire Chance.
- Dirwin’s unique trait should now work as intended.
- Fixed Anmarraks not spawning in distant Catacombs.
- Fixed “Keep Them Coming” instantly removing the effect of “Mighty Swing” granted for killing enemies.
- Fixed the incorrect loot in some secret rooms. Increased the amount of loot spawning in secret rooms’ chests and sarcophaguses. Added guaranteed loot to certain secret rooms.
- Fixed the incorrect loot in the Catacombs’ containers. Church-themed valuables should now appear more frequently.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers and Electromancers dropping incorrect treatises.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by using “Chain Lightning” in certain circumstances.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by Harpies’ “Peck”.
- Fixed the crash caused by moving to another location while under the effects of “Will to Survive”.
- Fixed “Will to Survive” checking for incorrect conditions.
- Fixed “Recharge” granting its bonuses before it’s actually learned.
- Fixed “Pathfinder” granting its bonuses before it’s actually learned.
- Fixed the duration and stacks of “Maneuver” not adding up as intended.
- Fixed “Offensive Tactic” being able to indefinitely stack Crit Efficiency.
- Fixed the incorrect duration of the Damage Taken debuff applied to the Ancient Troll upon interrupting its “Troll Regeneration”.
- Fixed “Coordinated Advance” reapplying its bonuses each time the character enters the same location, potentially resulting in enemies receiving a massive damage boost.
- Fixed the effect of “No Retreat” not being removed when moving to a different tile.
- Fixed the possibility of stacking the effect of “Taking Aim” with “Precision”.
- Fixed “War Cry” receiving bonuses for every object and piece of furniture within its area of effect. Fixed the ability’s missing damage.
- Fixed the glitches occurring with the Servant in the Golden Grain when she delivers breakfast.
- Fixed the Tanat's Skull raising Fumble Chance instead of lowering it.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by purchasing rumors from the Fence.
- Fixed some of the Restless being able to feel pain.
- Fixed Rotten Boiled Eggs’ incorrect sprite.
- Fixed the inability to eat or cook Harpy Eggs.
- Fixed some treatises granting incorrect amounts of XP when read.
- Fixed some high tier Geomancy spells having incorrect Attribute requirements.
- Fixed the incorrect price of renting a room in the Rotten Willow when attempting to pay for it on the second floor of the tavern.
- Fixed the inability to reduce the duration of “Ensnarement” by skipping a turn when it’s applied by Crawlers.
- Fixed the bug allowing extreme Intoxication to drop Immunity below zero (which then prevented it from being raised).
- Fixed the inability to swap between loadouts while interacting with a Backpack or the Caravan Storage.
- Fixed the bug which, upon loading a save, spawned incorrect loot in graves.
- Fixed the possibility of placing a Backpack inside another Backpack.
- Fixed the missing “rotten” state of Gray Crabs.
- Fixed enemies not having a cap on their Weapon Damage and Damage Taken.
- Fixed issues with the barrels in the Rotten Willow.
- Fixed issues with abandoned carts’ generation.
- Fixed issues with some of the Restless’ shadows.
- Fixed various visual bugs in Brynn.
- Fixed the sprite of one of the Craftsmen in the Guild Quarter repeatedly flickering as he attempted to enter the building.
- Fixed Brynn guards being able to sometimes step inside walls.
- Incense now counts as a Valuable.

[h3]BALANCE[/h3]

- Numerous tweaks to various items’ stats*.
- Reduced most weapons’ Armor Penetration - this change affects enemies as well*.
- Reduced most weapons’ penalty to Skills Energy Cost*.
- Rather than being an universal stat, Bleed Resistance from armor now works as it was originally supposed to, providing its benefits only to specific body parts.
- Added Bleed Resistance to most pieces of armor*.
- Certain stats are now less impacted by the Dual-Wielding penalty.
- Magehunters now spawn in higher tier dungeons.
- Magehunters no longer have access to “Against the Odds” and “Seize the Initiative”.
- Added new abilities to some Proselytes.
- Increased the amount of loot in distant dungeons’ boss chests.
- Reduced the effectiveness of most Staff passives.
- Rebalanced One-Handed Axes passive abilities.
- Rebalanced Two-Handed Axes passive abilities.
- Tweaked Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces abilities to smoothen the difference in their impact and efficiency.
- Reduced the minimal possible value of Block Power Recovery to 1% (from 5%).
- Fixed the overly high chance of “Petrification” to apply its effects. As a baseline, a character with unmodified stats will need a buff from three runic boulders to raise the Petrification chance to 100%. This chance can now be decreased by the target’s Magic Resistance. Also increased the spell’s Damage over time and its Cooldown, but decreased its Energy Cost.
- Numerous tweaks to the AI’s usage of abilities.
- Casting spells now increases Backfire Damage by 30% instead of 20%.
- Tweaked the effects of some enchantments and curses.
- Perception now has 50% higher impact when passively discovering secret rooms.
- Changed the loot-generating algorithm for distant dungeons' boss chests: rather than performing two separate 35% rolls to spawn a Unique and an Artifact, chests will have 50% chance to spawn a Unique. If this roll fails, you'll be guaranteed to find an Artifact instead.

* - these changes won’t affect already saved items.

[h3]UI & UX[/h3]

- “Maneuver” now correctly grants the bonuses listed in its hover.
- Removed the mention of a non-existing Aftermath from Stardust’s hover.
- “No Mercy” now correctly grants the bonuses listed in its hover.
- Updated the hover of “Claw Swipe” - it now has a description of the skill’s hidden mechanic.
- When interacting with a Lute, the “Use” line in its context menu will now appear as “Play”.
- Rather than recover Reputation incrementally with each day spent in jail, you’ll now instantly receive the full amount once you’re done serving your sentence.
- Learning “Austerity” now changes the debuff thresholds listed in the hovers of Thirst, Hunger, and Intoxication.
- The Hostess in the Close Harbor should now have her role correctly displayed.
- Fixed the “Mindwort” dialogue option being displayed incorrectly during “From the Cradle to the Grave” quest.
- Made some improvements to the camera edge panning option.
- The Turkish localization is now up to date.