Stoneshard News

- Fixed the bug causing accumulated Pain levels to change too abruptly when the Pain Limit is decreased.
- “Keep Them Coming” can no longer be triggered by casting spells.
- Fixed “Determination” doing nothing when used against enemies on the same tile as a doorway.
- Fixed the possibility of attacking Runic Boulders while Stunned.
- Added an Accuracy bonus to Throwing Nets, Nistrian Flame Flasks, and Spider Blood Flasks.
- Fixed the bug causing some contracts to not register the Necromancer’s death.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers casting “Stone Spikes” without a good enough reason.
- Fixed Brigand Geomancers using the character’s Spell Range instead of their own when casting “Boulder Toss”.
- Dungeon Bats and Giant Rats can no longer open doors.
- Updated Crowns’ sprite.
- Fixed Elite Brynn Guards not switching to their alternative sprite when in combat state.
- Fixed Horse Pelts using an incorrect sprite when dropped on the floor.
- The Brigands' speech lines aimed at nearby allies are no longer triggered by nearby dogs.
- Bleeding enemies no longer use the character’s speech lines.
- Completely fixed the bug that allowed some animals to use speech lines.
- The Brynn Hierophant now uses his intended name and role.
- Fixed Mannshire Guards being tagged as Osbrook Guards.
- The standalone Prologue is now up-to-date.

- Fixed the freezes reported by some players when playing with the native cursor enabled. Returned the option to enable it in the settings.
- Fixed some empty vessels being able to apply their targets with “Wetness” and “Covered in Alcohol” when thrown.
- Fixed wolf packs getting stuck in the “Howl” loop.
- Fixed the possibility of avoiding death by moving to another location on the same turn as receiving lethal damage.
- Adjusted the menu layout for the 1280x800 screen resolution.
- The cursor size now adapts to the game window size.
- Fixed “Rune of Enfeeblement” and “Rune of Fortifying” granting their effect regardless of the distance to a runic boulder.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by killing Girruds.
- Fixed the issue with displaced container menus.
- Reduced the intensity of the “Drunkenness” visual effects.
- Fixed Necromancers using the same speech lines as the generic Undead.
- Fixed the bug causing enemies to use incorrect speech lines under certain circumstances.
- Tweaked the effectiveness of alcohol and the Bloodletting Lancet to make Pain and Intoxication more manageable during the early stages of the game.

- 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!