Stoneshard News

Hello everyone!

We have some important news for you today. First of all, the 0.5.8.6 patch has been released, bringing new content and some major fixes. The full changelog can be found at the bottom of this post.
Now that the entirety of the “Trollslayer” content has been added to the game, we’d like to share our updated development plan as well as some info about our future goals.

As many of you could have noticed, the current content is limited by the first 7-10 levels - characters outgrow most dungeons and enemies upon reaching this threshold. We are well aware of this problem, however adding high level content is meaningless until we resolve two important issues.

Ideally we’d like different enemy factions to have distinct behaviour patterns. Right now the enemies only differ in their stats and skills, as they share a single template for their actions. To fix this we plan to dedicate a few months to fully rework our AI system and some of the associated systems.

The same can be said about dungeons - right now they are generated based on shared parameters. The only two things which set them apart at the moment are graphical assets and enemy rosters. We, however, would like to make the dungeon crawling process in our game much more memorable than clearing out similar room after room. That’s why we plan to work on a new dungeon generation algorithm along with the AI rework.

Both of these tasks are fairly difficult and time-consuming, and both of them require extensive testing. That’s why we can’t give you the exact date this time - we’ll have to work on these elements until we are completely satisfied with the results. For now the approximate date for the updated AI and updated dungeon generation (and any associated content as well as some additional features) is summer 2020.

To keep you from getting bored during these few months, we plan to release a series of minor updates over the course of this summer to introduce some additional content such as new weapon types and new skill trees. The first update is planned for the end of May - it will add crossbows, polearms, and, perhaps, something extra to the game. Follow our devlogs and announcements for additional information!



Thanks for staying in touch!

[h2]0.5.8.6 - CHANGELOG[/h2]
[h3]CONTENT[/h3]

• 17 items - new maces and axes, as well as a unique necklace and a new headpiece.
  
• 7 one-time requests which will allow you to earn a quick coin, improve your standing with the denizens of Osbrook and Mannshire, and receive a small bonus from certain characters.
  
• 2 new Proselyte minibosses: Matriarch and Abomination.
  
• Added 7 new dialogues for Osbrook and Mannshire villagers.
  
• Verren’s unique ring is now available for all players, not just to those who subscribed to our newsletter. Talk to Verren at the start of the game to receive it.

[h3]BALANCE[/h3]

• Reduced the base Vision range (13 > 11).
  
• [Daggers]: “Coup de Grace”: added a base 0.5% bonus to Armor Penetration for each missing percentage of the target’s health.
  
• [Ranged Weapons]: “Long-Distance Shot” now grants +[50 > 30]% bonus Range.
  
• [Ancient Troll]: The troll now uses “Troll Regeneration” not only upon reaching a certain Health threshold, but also upon receiving a certain number (or some particularly prolonged) of debuffs.
  
• [Ancient Troll] Increased the troll’s resistance to Nature Damage (50% > 75%) as well as Stun Resistance (80 > 100%).
  
• Completing “Troll Hunt” now grants a significant boost to reputation with Mannshire.
  
• Changed the following rewards for “Troll Hunt”: staff, axe, helmet, mace, greatsword. Gryphon sallet in the signal tower has been replaced with a common sallet.
  
• New items can now be found in graves (including 4 uniques).
  
• Skeleton resistances have been changed: Slashing Damage: [20% > 15%], Piercing Damage [33% > 25%], Crushing Damage: [-15% > -10%].
  
• Changed loot for certain points of interest.
  
• Minor changes to some weapon and armor stats.
  
• Temporally removed Vision range from enchantment effects. It’ll be brought back once the enchantment system is reworked.

[h3]CHANGES AND STABILITY[/h3]

• [Axes]: “Ferocity” no longer grants its bonuses until you learn it.
  
• [Combat Mastery] “Offensive tactic”: fixed the missing bonus to counter chance.
  
• [Combat mastery] “Right on Target”: removed the bonus to Armor Penetration which was added to it by mistake..
  
• [Combat Mastery]: “Right on Target]: the bonus for free offhand is no longer granted when using staffs and bows.
  
• [Combat Mastery]: “Right on Target”: the bonus for free offhand is no longer granted twice upon loading a save.
  
• [Athletics]: the Energy cost for “Dash” now correctly takes adjacent enemies into account.
  
• [Ancient Troll]: Added new visual effects for the trolls’ AoE Abilities.
  
• Fixed the bug which prevented Proselyte Hierarch and Proselyte Chosen from spawning in the Catacombs.
  
• Fixed the possibility of dazing and stunning an enemy at the same time.
  
• Fixed “Fire Barrage” and its bizarre affinity for hitting dungeon doors.
  
• Fixed the exploit with selling items via Shift shortcut for twice their actual price.
  
• Mindwort now properly removes the effect of being drunk, as stated in its description. The same thing applies to ginger root.
  
• Fixed the issue with “Deadly Trick” which prevented the fog of war from being removed after switching places with an enemy.
  
• Fixed the debuff for dual wielding which could occasionally disappear upon reloading a save.
  
• Removed the possibility of equipping a shovel together with cursed items.
  
• When stunning a dazed target, the applied stun now has bonus duration based on the initial daze.
  
• Fixed the bug which caused contracts to grant doubled reward when they were generated for a second time.
  
• Fixed the backpack-related crash.
  
• Fixed the stun from runic boulder destruction, which could occur when it wasn’t supposed to.
  
• The troll now destroys runic boulders by moving over them.
  
• Changed the condition for passive pain reduction. Physical debuffs such as being “Wet” no longer prevent pain from decreasing.
  
• Fixed the issue with Catacomb rooms, which caused chests to occasionally block passage to shelves.
  
• Fixed the bug which allowed learning potions’ effects without identifying said potions first.
  
• Fixed numerous typos and mistakes across all localizations.
  
• Updated log messages for picking and dropping items.
  
• The visual effects of daze and stun are now correctly displayed above the troll’s head.

- Added Brazilian Portuguese localization
- Increased reputation gain from completing contracts, and decreased requirements for all reputation milestones (by ~25-30%)
- Fixed the possibility to be cornered by the priest in the Mannshire Chapel
- Fixed bison AI bug – now they don’t remain passive if you aggroed anyone from their herd
- Fixed rare crash after loading the container
- Fixed enemies standing still while the player is stunned
- Fixed Flame Ring damaging Ancient Troll multiple times
- Fixed possibility to stun against the location transition tiles
- Added special visual icon for Ancient Troll location on the map
- Added missing stats to enchantments pool: Stun Chance, Daze Chance, Knockback Chance, Armor Damage, Bodypart Damage, Cooldown Duration, Stun Resistance, Knockback Resistance, Bleeding Resistance, Physical Damage Resistance, Nature Damage Resistance, Magic Resistance, Pain Resistance, Hunger Resistance, Toxicity Resistance
- Added sound effect for Bad Trip modifier
- Entrances to some dungeons are now correctly displayed as closed if the dungeon is inactive

- Added Turkish fan localization (thanks @ Mustafa Sinan Üçler, İdil Şenel, Ceren Coşkun, Alper Tornacı, Efe Akarca)
- Fixed Catacombs loot not taking dungeon level into consideration
- Fixed inability to enter bandit’s tower by pressing LMB
- Blood Vow animation now properly ends after the buff wears out
- Enemies no longer can teleport behind your back after using “Crippling Lunge”
- Fixed crash upon dying simultaneously with Ascended Archon
- Fixed food spawning with zero freshness
- Fixed “Seized Initiative” gaining stacks after attacking targets without “Initiative Loss”
- Fixed issues with inn room renting
- Fixed traps being generated under the furniture
- Fixed crash caused by using spells on bisons
- Fixed a bug with Block Power, resulting in character having max possible Block Power value instead of a current value
- Increased Block Power of brigands and skeletons
- [Ancient Troll] Fixed unintentionally low Knockback Resistance
- [Ancient Troll] Stun Resistance increased from 50% to 100%
- [Ancient Troll] Fortitude increased from 50% to 70%
- [Ancient Troll] Troll Regeneration now gives +30% Fortitude instead of 50%
- [Ancient Troll] Base Defense value reduced from 35 to 30
- [Greatswords] Fixed “Courage” passive ability not increasing “Heroic Charge” range by 1
- Added 50% Knockback Resistance for mooses and bisons
- Miller sells food 15% cheaper
- Nerfed Brigand Crooks and Cutthroats. Now they’re less likely to dodge, crit and counterattack.
- Increased damage of most staffs
- Merchants sell 4 treatises instead of 3

- Fixed Ginger Root-related crash. If you have a save with a Ginger Root present in your inventory or chest, please get rid of it and re-save the game.
- Fixed an issue with merchants not restocking treatises.
- Fixed an issue with free Ranged Weapons treatises
- Fixed an issue with items disappearing after being stored in the backpack
- Fixed weaponstands being labeled as “wardrobes”
- Increased base prices for most hides, especially bison ones [100g > 200g]
- [Ancient Troll] Troll Regeneration: Cooldown reduced from 20 to 16
- [Ancient Troll] Deafening Roar: Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12
- [Ancient Troll] Nature Damage Resistance increased from 35% to 50%
- Decreased base Knockback Chance of Mighty Kick by 5%
- Increased base Knockback Chance of Hail of Blows by 5%
- Pennybun: Gives +[5 > 3]% Health Restoration
- Decreased Brigand Rioter’s base damage – [18 > 17]
- Adjustments to treatise drop rates from dungeon bookcases.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello everyone!

We are happy to inform you that the first major update “Trollslayer” can now be downloaded and played! This expansion adds a new boss, two skill trees, many new items, and lots of fixes, improvements, and additions – the full changelog can be seen below.

Keep in mind that because of the new locations being added to the world map, your old saves will be incompatible with this update. To experience new content, you’ll have to start a new game. If you wish to continue playing on the old version, check out the instructions on how to rollback to it.

Happy hunting!

[h2]MAIN ADDITIONS[/h2]

• New boss: Ancient Troll and its dedicated quest line. Try your luck at defeating this dangerous monster, but first make sure that your character is properly leveled!
  
  
• Two new skill trees: Athletics and Combat Mastery. 27 new abilities to include into your builds!
  
  
• Save slots: No more shuffling game files around – keep as many characters as you want.
  
  
• Altars: discover them alongside the roads and gain the Host’s blessing for bonus experience.
  
  
• Grave robbing: rob graves using a shovel or your bare hands to discover valuable (or not) loot. Perhaps you’ll even stumble upon a grave of some legendary warrior?
  
  
• New fauna: saigas and bisons. Venture into the steppes to hunt them: their pelts and horns are rather valuable. Be careful – bisons are capable of standing up for themselves...
  
  
• New flora: treat your wounds with fleawort, use henbane to enter battle rage, snack on roasted penny buns.
  
  
• New meat system: every animal drops a dedicated meat type on death. Even rats and bats are not an exception.
  
  
• “Gathering the Caravan”: the quest has been expanded to have a better conclusion instead of ending the storyline abruptly upon fulfilling three contracts.
  
  
• Fast travel system between the villages, which becomes available upon completing the first part of “Gathering the Caravan”
  
  
• Two hidden quests: To discover them you’ll have to pay attention to the dialogues and maybe help a certain person in their time of need...
  
  Miniquests/requests will be added with the follow-up patches.
  
  
• Three new points of interest. Explore the world in search of new landmarks, each with their own loot and lore. You can save your progress in some of these locations.
  
  
• New dungeon type: the Catacombs. The proselytes now inhabit them instead of the Crypts.
  
  
• Lots of new dialogues. Get to know some of the denizens of Osbrook and Mannshire
  Some additional dialogues will be added with the follow-up patches.
  
  
• More low level valuables: silver nuggets, clasps, bolts of cloth, bottles of oil and much more.
  
  
• New items: new mage mantles, more greatswords and bows. Also GINGER ROOT.
  
  
• 24 new treatises. Every skill tree (except the magic ones) now has two more treatises associated with them in order to make the vertical progression more difficult and slow down the character’s power gain.
  
  Now you won’t be able to learn every active ability of a skill tree within the first 3-4 levels, gaining immediate access to all its skill rotations. Instead, you’ll have to diversify your build by levelling starting abilities from, say, Athletics or Combat Mastery.
  
  For now all new treatises can be bought from traders or found in dungeons. In the future high-level treatises will only be available in dedicated locations or bought from specific traders.
  
  
• Wares and reputation: merchants and craftsmen will hold onto rare items until you prove your worth to the village by fulfilling contracts. The higher your reputation, the more powerful items you’ll be able to purchase.
  
  
• New localizations: the game is now available in Latin American Spanish and Italian languages.
  Official Brazilian Portuguese localization and Turkin & Czech fan localizations will be added with the follow-up patches.
  

[h2]BALANCE AND GAMEPLAY[/h2]

[h3]EQUIPMENT[/h3]

• Most weapons and some armors were rebalanced to further accentuate the differences between the items of the same type and reduce stat clutter.
  
  
• Shields and their protection values were buffed. Now they are the main source of Block Chance and Block Power.
  
  
• Increased the maximum durability for most items and decreased the speed with which they degrade (boots in particular).
  
  
• Crowbar and lancet deal increased damage instead of using bare hands’ damage.

[h3]ECONOMY[/h3]

• Rebalanced prices for most equipment pieces, consumables, and valuables.
  
  
• Merchants now sell more treatises.
  
  
• Rewards for contracts now scale with dungeon difficulty slightly more.
  
  
• Tweaks to traders’ inventories – for instance, the Osbrook’s herbalist no longer sells enchantment scrolls.
  
  
• The Mannshire’s merchant gives better prices for treatises.
  
  
• The base buy price for traders is [10 > 15]% of the standard item value.
  
  
• Due to the addition of fast travel between the settlements, the Mannshire’s apprentice no longer sells equipment, but he can still fix cloth and leather items.
  
  
• Containers in more dangerous dungeons now generally have better loot in them.
  
  
• Increased reward and reputation gain for completing contracts.

[h3]ABILITIES[/h3]

• Rebalanced energy costs for most abilities.
  
  
• Reduced the damage for most spells, reduced energy costs for certain spells.
  
  
• Improving associated Attributes has a smaller effect on abilities’ effectiveness. Initial values of certain active abilities were also reduced.
  
  
• Some enemies received new abilities from Athletics and Combat Mastery skill trees. Watch out for them!
  
  
• Rebalanced minimum and maximum values for most enchantments.
  We are aware of the abuse with rerolling enchantments and the associated randomness, but until the item quality system is reworked, there isn’t much we can do about it.
  
  
• The effect of “Confusion” now prevents you (or your enemies) from attacking and using abilities instead of moving to a random tile with a certain chance. Random movement chance was transferred to “Clumsiness”. Most abilities, consumables, and effects which used to cause “Confusion”, now cause “Clumsiness”
  
  
• [Pyromancy] “Melting Ray” was moved further down the skill tree.
  
  
• [Pyromancy] “Ring of Fire”. Added: for each affected enemy grants +20% Pyromantic Power for 4 turns.
  
  
• [Pyromancy] “Blaze”. Added: for each point of damage dealt, the spell burns double the amount of energy.
  
  
• [Daggers] “Deadly Trick” was moved further down the skill tree.
  
  
• [Daggers] “Deadly Trick”. Instead of granting +100% Dodge Chance for 2 turns, grants +25% Crit Chance for the next turn. Also instead of Immobilization it applies Confusion. The chance to swap with the target is affected by their Knockback Resistance.
  
  
• [Proselyte Flagellant] “Driven by Pain”: decreased damage gain when on low health. Crit Chance was swapped away for Life Drain to avoid one-shotting possibility.
  
  
• Arna’s Trait “Vow of the Feat”: grants -[5 > 7.5]% Abilities Costs and Cooldown Durations for each enemy within Vision. Added: -7.5% Spell Costs and -4% Damage Taken for each enemy within Vision.
  
  
• [Staffs] “Battle Trance” replenishes [20 > 10]% Max Energy.
  
  
• [Staffs] “Triumph”: grants +20% Crit Chance for 7 turns upon killing an enemy instead of +10% Damage and Magic Power for 9 turns.
  
  
• [Axes] “Execution”: replenishes 35% Max Energy upon killing an enemy instead of reducing Active Cooldowns for axe skills by 50%.
  
  
• [Greatswords] "Parry": +[10 > 7.5]% Block Chance and +[12.5% > 10%] Block Power for each stack of the stance.
  
  
• [Ranged Weapons] "Hunter’s Mark": using this ability not only applies the effect but also performs a shot.
  
  
• [Ranged Weapons] "Anticipation": applies the target with -[8 > 10]% Dodge Chance for [3 > 10] turns each time you land a shot. Added: each missed shot against the target grants +5% Accuracy for 10 turns.

[h3]MECHANICS[/h3]

• Mushrooms and potatoes can now be roasted at campfires
  
  
• Walking barefoot has a chance to damage your feet.
  
  
• Significantly increased Thirst and Hunger gain during sleep.
  
  
• Bleed damage not only depends on the target’s Max Health but also on its Bleed Resistance.
  
  
• Burn Damage no longer deals fixed damage, instead scaling with Max Health, though to a lesser extent than before.
  
  
• Rebalanced Knockback Damage. Both colliding targets now receive Crushing Damage for [15 > 10]% Max Health of the target which was knocked back. If the target was knocked into a wall or an occupied tile, it receives Damage for [15 > 10]% of its Max Health.
  
  
• Knocking the target back into an occupied tile no longer has a 100% Stun Chance. Now it takes the target’s Stun Resistance into account.
  
  
• Each enemy now has a correct set of Body Parts – no more injured snake paws. Also different enemies have different Body Part “durability”: it’s easier to injure skeletons and critters.
  
  
• Bleed Chance upon receiving damage to injured body parts is now affected by Bleed Resistance.
  
  
• Decrease the chance of modifiers to be triggered by their respective damage types – it’s now very unlikely to witness a self-sustaining loop of poisoning or burning. Decreased the base duration for those modifiers.
  
  
• Stun Chance from Shock damage and Bleed Chance from Rending damage are now affected by the respective resistances.

[h3]ENEMIES[/h3]

• High tier brigands received a buff.
  
  
• Increased the amount of brigands in camps.
  
  
• Increased Accuracy for most 5-9 and 10+ level enemies.
  
  
• Increased experience gain from killing enemies by 20-25%.
  
  
• Rebalanced ambushes – they scale from your level at a significantly lower rate.

As a reminder – the enemies scaling with your level is a temporary solution which will be disabled after expanding the world and implementing danger parameters for zones.

[h3]MISCELLANEOUS[/h3]

• Jonna and Dirwin start with affinity for Athletics, Jorgrim and Arna – for Combat Mastery.
  
  
• Jonna starts with first tier of Geomancy and Pyromancy unlocked instead of second.
  
  
• Characters have 6 bonus starting Attributes instead of 8.
  
  
• Each point of Vitality grants [3 > 5] Max Energy.
  
  
• Each point of Agility grants [0.75 > 0.5]% Dodge Chance
  
  
• Dodge Chance can reach a negative value, increasing the Accuracy of your enemies’ attacks.
  
  
• Reworked Block Power progression. Its initial bonus was removed, it now depends entirely on Strength. Block Power values also have a cap which is limited by Strength as well.
  
  
• Pinecaps can only be encountered in pine forests. Leaf forests now have penny buns.
  
  
• Increased the chance of finding treatises on bookshelves.
  
  
• Destroying the Well of Souls spawns wraiths.
  
  
• The witch now offers a potion instead of a pot of espresso.
  
  
• Consuming spoiled food reduces morale.

[h3]UX[/h3]

• Enemies can no longer spawn in dungeon rooms adjusted to entrances/exits in order to avoid situations when the player is swarmed right after transitioning between the floors.
  
  For the same reason enemies no longer spawn next to zone borders.
  
  
• Picking an item up while your inventory is full no longer automatically drops the item, but keeps it suspended instead.
  
  
• Added the Chapel autosave to the standalone Prologue.
  
  
• All stages of main quests now have journal entries.
  
  
• Dropping treatises and scrolls is now displayed in the log.
  
  
• Improved the scrollbar in the trading menu.
  
  
• Added an outline for runic boulders.

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Added a new resolution: 2560х1080.
  
  
• Improved quests journal interface.

[h3]VISUALS[/h3]

• Animals now have their own icons for Injuries.
  
  
• Improved forest generation.
  
  
• Numerous visual fixes and tweaks.
  
  
• Added new visual effects for Bad Trip.
  
  
• Added new visual effects for Drunkenness.
  
  
• New sprite work for some items.
  
  
• New sprite work for Ghouls.
  
  
• Added a new entrance variant for the Bastion (brigand dungeon).

[h3]FIXES AND STABILITY[/h3]

• Fixed room renting: the game now correctly saves and detects the remaining rent time.
  
  
• Fixed the bug with a sudden HP and Energy drop when transitioning between zones.
  
  
• Fix quest items duping.
  
  
• Carts and other map encounters retain their state upon restarting the game – it’s now impossible to endlessly loot them.
  
  
• Animals can escape to other zones when they reach the border.
  
  
• Stepping on a burning tile not only sets you on fire, but also deals immediate damage. The chance to catch fire is no longer 100%, now it’s affected by Fire Resistance.
  
  
• Fixed the bug which prevented certain effects from triggering when reaching Benevolent reputation with a settlement.
  
  
• Fixed an exploit which allowed using abilities and moving on the same turn.
  
  
• Fixed bizarre trajectories for enemy’s charge-based abilities.
  
  
• Fixed the bug with immortal enemies
  
  
• Fixed numerous memory leaks.
  
  
• Improved optimization.
  
  
• Fixed lots of crashes and other minor bugs.