Stoneshard News

[h3]MAIN CHANGES[/h3]

This update IS COMPATIBLE with old saves, but we still recommend you to start a new game, as some changes won’t take effect until then.

- Added “Armored Combat”, a new utility tree with 8 abilities. It will serve well to any character that fights in melee regardless of their preferred armor type.

- Added 57 new items:
Headgear: Academy Circlet, Battlemage Circlet, Gilded Circlet, Topaz Circlet, Ruby Circlet, Court Mage Diadem, Hermit Wreath, Dwarven Circlet
Chestpieces: Vehement Gambeson, Battlemage Gambeson, Mail Mantle, Mercenary Cuirass, Vehement Brigandine, Red Silk Mantle, Maen Mantle, Court Mage Mantle
Gloves: Riveted Gloves, Court Mage Gloves, Battlemage Gloves, Novice Hand Wraps, Mage Bracers, Mystic Gloves
Boots: Fancy Boots, Court Mage Boots, Magehunter Boots, Engraved Greaves, Sardar Boots
Belts: Fur Belt, Ornate Girdle, Fancy Belt, Court Mage Belt, Rope Belt, Plated Belt, Duelist Belt, Nomad Girdle, Mercenary Waistband
Rings: Silver Insert Gold Ring, Ancient Copper Ring, Brass Ring, Brass Signet, Steel Signet, Brass Agate Ring, Berserk Ring, Mastercrafted Silver Ring, Silver Jade Ring, Hermit Ring, Morion Ring, Gold Diamond Ring
Necklaces: Runic Amulet, Coin Talisman, Carved Topaz Amulet, Crescent Necklace, Mastercrafted Emerald Pendant, Mastercrafted Aquamarine Necklace, Trophy Necklace, Hexer Talisman

- Updated and improved ability hovers, making them more concise and informative. Most of them were standardized to leave little to no ambiguity when it comes to describing mechanics.

All active abilities were split into 5 categories: Attacks, Charges, Maneuvers, Stances, and Spells. Some of the reworked passives and effects have special interactions with specific ability types.

Spell hovers now display their previously hidden Armor Penetration stat as well as their current Backfire Chance and Backfire Damage.

- Reworked curses - both buffs and debuffs are now static, which should noticeably streamline the system. Other than that, added 2 new curse types.

(If you’re playing on an old save, any cursed items that you’ve already acquired will retain their existing bonuses without the downside of constantly increasing penalties. Enjoy!)

- Added a new achievement, “Enemies Closer”, awarded for unlocking and learning every Armored Combat ability.

[h3]BALANCE[/h3]

- Reworked and tweaked most of the existing abilities. The changes primarily affect Ranged Combat, Shields, and Warfare (former Combat Mastery). The full list is humongous (12 pages!), so we decided to post it separately:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s-ZhqHMuw_CpO2gVAVPzQYh8KJH3XcfjLQdh08pd0QM


- Rebalanced all armor and shields. Changed the system for categorizing armor types: in previous versions of the game, gear type usually correlated with its level (most light armors were early game), but now armor types are represented more evenly across all levels. This change strongly affects light armor, allowing it to stay relevant even during the later stages of the game.
- Nerfed most enemies to compensate for the changes to armor and shields.
- Removed Passive Bonuses from most abilities (excluding Spells).
- Rebalanced weapons’ critical effects:
Swords: [+50% > +25%] Bleed Chance
Axes: [+50% > +30%] Bodypart Damage
Maces: [+50% > +25%] Daze Chance
Daggers: +50% Crit Efficiency now correctly applies to common crit strikes as well. Increased the Energy Burn threshold [20 > 25].
Two-handed swords: [+75% > +50%] Bleed Chance
Two-handed axes: [+75% > +60%] Bodypart Damage
Two-handed maces: [+75% > +50%] Daze Chance
Spears: [+75% > +50%] Immobilization Chance
Staves: [replenish 10% Max Energy > +50% Energy Drain]
Bows: +50% [Immobilization Chance > Knockback Chance]
Crossbows: [+125% Knockback Chance > +100% Immobilization Chance]
- Strength: each point grants [+3% Bodypart Damage > +1.5% Weapon Damage]. Each threshold grants [+15% > +10%] Crit Efficiency and [+5% Weapon Damage > +7.5% Bodypart Damage].
- Willpower: each point grants [-1% > -1.5%] Cooldown Duration and Abilities Energy Cost. Each threshold grants [+5% > +7.5%] Magic Power.
- Changed the counterattack mechanic: each individual enemy can now trigger only one counter per turn. The same applies to the player character as well: enemies can’t counter them more than once per turn regardless of the number of received strikes.
- Fumbling a shot will now halve its damage (similarly to melee strikes) and not just break an arrow or bolt.
- Spike traps will trigger only once, just like all other trap types.
- Added additional effects to “Confusion” (-20% Block Chance and -20% Counter Chance)
- Fortitude now affects the damage received from DoT effects (Bleeding, Poisoning, Burning, Acid Bath), and each 1% Fortitude reduces received debuffs’ duration by [0.5% > 1%]. Lowered Fortitude cap: [100% > 50%].
- Reduced Durability loss rate for both the player character’s equipment and enemies’ Armor.
- Reduced Pain gain from receiving damage by 15%.
- Increased the base effectiveness of Immunity on the passive Intoxication decay: [1:0.75 > 1:1]
- Changed starting Affinities of the following preset characters:
Arna: swapped Maces for Armored Combat.
Jorgrim: swapped Shields for Maces.
- Tweaked Velmir’s trait: [-3% > -5%] Damage Taken and [+3% > +5%] Accuracy for each received strike.
- Tweaked Arna’s trait: [-2.5% > -3%] Damage Taken and [-5% > -3%] Cooldowns Duration for each enemy within Vision.
- Tweaked Jorgrim’s trait: [+15% > +20%] Crit Efficiency upon killing an enemy.
- Tweaked Dirwin’s trait: hitting an enemy with a strike or shot for the first time applies them with [-20% > -10%] Dodge Chance and [+20% > +5%] Damage Taken for [10 > 8] turns.
- Reduced the power of most enchantments.
- Raised Magic Power cap: [250% > 350%].
- Raised Energy Drain cap: [100% > 150%].
- Reduced base Block Power by 5. Reduced base Block Power Recovery by 5%.
- Increased the school-specific Magic Power bonus granted for learning relevant spells [2% > 2.5%].
- Reduced Intoxication gain from Poisoning [+4 > +2 per turn].
- “Loud Barking” now generates less noise.
- Increased the “ruby” stat bonus granted for solving the Standing Boulders’ mystery [4% > 5%].
- Increased food drop rates in the Prologue.
- Verren will have 33% Fatigue Resistance and 33% Hunger Resistance when playing as him in the Prologue.

[h3]MISCELLANEOUS[/h3]

- Ghoul corpses can now be skinned to harvest their fur and hearts (once “Huntmaster” is learned).
- Added fish, crabs, and nets to the Dock Trader’s stock.
- Removed treatises from the Brynn Pawnbroker’s stock
- Standardized the levels of treatises sold by the Mannshire Scribe and Brynn Bookmaker.
- Changed prices of some consumables.
- Throwing potions at enemies now applies them with “Covered in Alcohol” effect.
- Added Durability to Shovels, which is reduced by digging.
- All equipable consumables (Crowbar, Lancet, Shovel) now lose Durability when used as a weapon.
- Renamed Rogue Pyromancer into Hired Sorcerer and swapped his “Ring of Fire” and “Incineration” with “Jolt” and “Seal of Power”.
- Renamed some items.

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

- Fixed the incorrect order of attack outcomes.
- Fixed the issue preventing “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” and “I.C.B.M” achievements from being unlocked.
- Fixed enemies becoming invulnerable to AoE abilities for one turn upon entering a location, being moved to another tile with a “swap” ability, or being summoned, resurrected, or transformed.
- Fixed certain abilities skipping a turn after being used.
- Fixed action-limiting effects not working as intended in some scenarios.
- Snakes should no longer spawn in pairs, and some traps - trigger twice.
- When moving to another location, the fade to black will now happen after enemies take their turn, not during it.
- Fixed the bug linked to dying on the same turn as moving to another location.
- Fixed one of the abandoned cart POIs always spawning high level brigands.
- Removed the possibility of reapplying Dirwin trait’s effect to the same target.
- All missile Spells (“Fire Barrage”, “Jolt”, “Bolt of Darkness”) now use a standardized system for their chance to hit.
- Fixed “Fire Barrage” always missing all of its remaining firebolts if the first or second one in the series failed to hit the target.
- Fixed the Restless’ “Abominable Vitality” passive not working as intended.
- Fixed “Petrification” not taking its target’s Magic Resistance into account.
- Fixed “Overflowing Power” replenishing Energy when damaging inanimate props.
- Fixed the incorrect interaction between “Rune of Cycle” and “Overflowing Power”.
- Fixed the issue with the Ignition Chance of “Incineration”.
- Miracle casting any Seal now grants its effect additional duration.
- Fixed Damage Resistance enchantments not working when applied to shields.
- Fixed the interaction between drugs and alcohol/Hangover that allowed to avoid Bad Trip after mixing these two together.
- Fixed the issue that prevented Rotten Crabs from appearing in the game.
- Fixed Ol’ Tott’s travel prices.
- Fixed the axe variant of Skeleton Kingsguard dropping two-handed maces on death.
- Fixed the Smithing Workshop Bailiff refusing to accept a bribe if there’s more than three bottles of Elven Wine in the inventory.
- Fixed ranged enemies being able to counter before they actually swap to their melee loadout.
- Fixed the occasional crash caused by Harpies’ “Peck”.
- Fixed the bug that allowed enemies to use ranged weapons and combat abilities while in deep water.
- Fixed the bug causing ranged enemies to take a shot at the player character after loading a save.
- Fixed the penalty for dual wielding shields not working as intended.
- Fixed disarmed traps being displayed with an incorrect sprite after loading a save.
- Fixed Bran not marking his cabin on the map after mentioning it in the dialogue.
- Fixed the Osbrook Inkeeper’s wife not selling food and drinks.

[h3]VISUALS[/h3]

- Added animations for receiving all types of Magic and Nature damage.
- New sprites for some abilities.
- New sprites for some items.

[h3]UI[/h3]

- Armor and shield hovers now list their type (light, medium, or heavy).
- Effect hovers now list stats in a more orderly fashion.
- Standardized the listing and rounding of stats displayed in the character menu. This change also affects the hovers of abilities and modifiers.
- Bonuses from enchantments no longer affect the basic stats of items.
- Fixed Girrud abilities displaying incorrect stats in their hover.

Shoutout to @DacianDraco, @Psojed, @RedOrder, @Gura, @Mindwitness, @MassBlin, @Monmon, @Rocket!, @iamyoyoman, @Amadeo, @Mallagar, @Malacar, @Joe Mad, @BlazingBreacher, @Guard, @Manual the Nah and @CommAmethyst for participating in the closed test and making this patch a better experience for everyone else

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll take a look at the new ability tree - the long awaited Armored Combat. We also have a surprise announcement to make.

Initially, we planned to add Armored Combat with the next major update, “Rags to Riches”. But since there’s still a lot of work to be done, and it’ll be a while before “Rags to Riches” is released, we decided to make this one ability tree a part of the previously unannounced Equipment Update III, which will introduce many new pieces of armor for mages and hybrid builds.

On top of all that, Equipment III will feature various tweaks to half the existing abilities. There was a lot of negative feedback regarding Ranged Weapons, Warfare (former Combat Mastery), and Shields, so these ability trees in particular were changed the most. There’ll also be certain QoL improvements, such as reworked skill hovers and a better system for skills classification. The exact details will be revealed in the patch notes.



We aim to release the Equipment Update III on May 16th. Please take note that this interim update won’t feature new bags, reworked Dungeons, the Caravan, and everything else that was explicitly presented as a part of “Rags to Riches”. The exact date for the latter will be announced a short time before its release. Another thing worth mentioning: the Equipment Update III will be compatible with your current save files.

Now let’s move onto the new ability tree. Armored Combat consists of 8 skills, spread evenly between actives and passives.



While conceptualizing Armored Combat, one of our goals was to make it useful to all armor types, both heavy and light.

As a result, its skills are designed to dynamically change depending on the equipped armor. This mechanic bears some resemblance to the one used by Shields, although the differences between armor types’ effects are significantly more noticeable.

• Light armor adds bonus Dodge Chance to the skills’ effects or otherwise improves the effectiveness of evasion. It also allows using Armored Combat skills more frequently.
  
• The main drawback of heavy armor is its hefty penalties to Max Energy, so its changes to the ability tree’s skills are focused on counteracting them in one manner or another.
  
• Medium armor offers a compromise between Energy efficiency and Protection. For the most part, it doesn’t require any bonuses to be effective, and wearing it usually won’t modify Armored Combat skills in any way.

[h3]ACTIVE ABILITIES[/h3]

“Brace for Impact!”





Grants bonus Dodge Chance and Block Chance until the next turn. While the effect is active, all received strikes receive major penalties to Accuracy, Fumble Chance, Armor Penetration and can’t crit.

Light body armor halves the skill’s Cooldown Duration and Energy Cost, and heavy armor doubles its Cooldown Duration.

This skill is useful for situations when your enemy is preparing to deliver a highly damaging or debilitating strike - “Brace for Impact!” will allow you to either negate it entirely or at least greatly reduce its effectiveness.

“Flexible Defense”





Delivers a strike to three adjacent tiles with a penalty to Weapon Damage but a large bonus to Stagger Chance. Additionally, all enemies within the skill’s area of effect receive a debuff to Weapon Damage, Fumble Chance, and Accuracy for three turns.

Light body armor prolongs the debuff’s duration to six turns, and heavy body armor replenishes 5% Max Energy for each enemy within the skill’s AoE.

Although this skill works well with all armor types, its synergy with high Dodge Chance makes it exceptionally useful to lightly armored builds.

“Unyielding Defense”





Allows to reposition to an adjacent tile, then activates an effect that grants a bonus to Control Resistance, Block Power Recovery, all body parts’ Protection, as well as Block Chance or Dodge Chance (depending on which one is higher). Receiving enemy strikes grants an extra stack of the effect.

This skill isn’t considered a stance, so it can be used together with Weaponry stances. Other than that, it provides an option to safely reposition when surrounded by enemies, as moving with abilities doesn’t trigger Attacks of Opportunity.

“Battering Ram”





“Battering Ram” performs a charge towards a target, dealing Crushing Damage to it with a chance to apply Stagger.

Light body armor halves the skill’s Cooldown, increases its Range, and allows it to grant bonus Weapon Damage for a few turns that scales with Dodge Chance. Heavy armor reduces the skill’s Range and switches the Stagger Chance to Stun Chance for a greater impact.

This skill is meant to be an alternative to “Dash” from Athletics, offering extra means of closing distance with enemies, especially if your weapon of choice doesn’t have access to charges.

[h3]PASSIVE ABILITIES[/h3]

“Self-Repairs”



Reduces the rate of Durability loss (for weapons too) by 15%, increases the effectiveness of Repair Kits, and allows to dismantle armor into fragments that can be used for patching up your other armor.

Additionally, this passive grants a bonus to Bleed Resistance and Fortitude for each equipped piece of armor with more than 80% Durability.

Different fragment types replenish different amounts of Durability depending on an item’s level. For instance, a piece of cloth scrounged from a peasant shirt won’t be very effective when used for repairing an expensive mantle.

“Hard Target”



Reduces Armor Penetration of all attacks against the character.

Ranged attacks against the character also grant a bonus to Dodge Chance for a few turns while simultaneously reducing the attacker’s Accuracy. The effect triggers twice if the enemy manages to land a shot.

“Battle-Hardiness”



Using stance skills and maneuvers reduces Damage Taken until the next turn.

Light body armor also grants bonus Dodge Chance and Counter Chance for a few turns for each traveled tile (this includes tiles traversed with charges and maneuvers), and heavy body armor reduces Skills Energy Cost for each turn spent on the same tile.

“Custom Adjustments”



Each piece of equipped armor grants a special bonus depending on its type.

Light armor grants additional Protection to the respective body parts. Medium armor grants Bleed Resistance to the respective body parts. Heavy armor increases Max Energy and Energy Restoration.

====================================

And finally, here are some of the new items that will be added with the Equipment Update III:



That’s all for now. Until next time!

Hello everyone!

The last couple of months our team has been working on lots of new content: the long-awaited Caravan, the previously highlighted rework of the Dungeon Generator, and dungeon and settlement modifiers that will be a part of the upcoming Contract System rework - speaking of which, today we’d like to elaborate on some of its elements, namely Outskirts locations.

Outskirts are a new type of Points of Interest that will be introduced to the game with the next major update, “Rags to Riches”. Located a few tiles away from settlements, they still act as their continuation of sorts

Their main purpose is to add more variety to the basic contract loop and facilitate early game exploration. Most Outskirts will usually offer you the following things:

• A spot to save your progress.
  
• Access to one or more traders and craftsmen who will sell vital consumables, fix your gear, etc.
  
• A chance to interact with new NPCs who can offer you contracts or give rewards for their completion.

It’s fair to say that granting alternative access to contracts and rewards is perhaps the Outskirts’ most important function. After “Rags to Riches”, village Elders won’t be the only ones in the contract business, the following three new NPC types - Officials, Captains, and Couriers - will be able to participate as well.

Their main difference from Elders lies in the rewards they will offer:

- Captains won’t pay as much, instead providing extra Reputation with settlements you complete contracts for.
- Officials will split the Reputation boost between all settlements of their faction (for instance, completing Osbrook contracts will slightly improve your standing with both Brynn and Mannshire).
- Couriers won’t actually hand out quests, instead giving rewards for completing contracts that require you retrieving certain items. Bringing those directly to a Courier will earn you extra gold.

Additionally, contract rewards can be received from any of these NPCs regardless of your initial quest giver, thus breaking the routine of walking the same roads over and over again. So instead of having to stick to the “settlement-dungeon-settlement” route, you’ll be able to receive a contract in a village, clear out its dungeon, get your reward in a nearby Outskirt, grab a new contract there, sell your loot and replenish supplies (optionally), then head straight to the next dungeon.



All Outskirts can be roughly split between these three categories:

- Military Camps and Outposts. This is where you’ll find Captains and, most likely, someone to fix your gear and sell you medicine and ammunition.
- Trade Posts and Production Sites. Their main role is selling special goods that can be transported to other settlements via the Caravan and sold at a profit. An example of such a site would be the Osbrook Mill or the Mannshire Winery, which many of you are already familiar with. This is where you may also encounter Officials, who are tasked with overseeing the production.
- Homesteads and Roadside Inns. These locations will offer a hearty meal, a place to catch some shut-eye, and a chance to meet a Courier, should the need arise.

To better illustrate the system, here are some of the new Outskirts:

Osbrook - Roadside Tower



Not wanting to be caught off guard if the Council suddenly breaches the truce, the Magistrate took it upon themselves to restore the web of outposts and signal towers that now covers the entirety of the Brynn March.

Osbrook - Drunken Woodsman Inn



The Drunken Woodsman is a safe haven for any hunter whose trade brings them close to Osbrook.

Mannshire - New Orchard



The war gave the best cidery in Aldor little time to react: its previous owners couldn’t save neither themselves nor the flourishing gardens, taking the ancient recipe of their specialty beverage to the grave. But not all hope is lost: the new proprietors of the New Orchard are determined to do everything in their power to restore this place to its former glory.

Mannshire - Southern Outpost



This encampment was originally established by Duke di Berro during his brazen counterattack against the Council army. It’s not nearly as large as it used to be, but it still plays an important role in bringing order to the Magistrate-controlled lands.

It’s worth mentioning that the existence of Brynn contracts and dungeons is only temporary (in the future there’ll be an entirely new way of gaining city Reputation), so it won’t have Outskirts in the gameplay sense of the word. At the same time, you can expect a certain other location to receive its share of Outskirts POIs…

[h3]New Backpacks[/h3]

Let’s move onto the next addition planned for “Rags to Riches” - a wide selection of new bags and their overall rework.

Right now the game features just one backpack type that offers as many slots as it occupies in the inventory - this was done to prevent exploits associated with carrying multiple backpacks.

In “Rags to Riches”, all bags and backpacks will become much more capacious. As a tradeoff, you’ll have to equip them first before storing any items, and they’ll have to be emptied before you can place them in the inventory. These combined tweaks allowed us to create a bunch of new backpack configurations:

Medium Backpack grew in capacity and received sizable side pouches.

Small Backpack isn’t particularly roomy, but it’ll be much easier to obtain than other bag types.

Field Surgeon Bandolier - a solid choice for anyone who wants to carry lots of meds and other consumables.

Herbalist Satchel allows you to not really worry about precious inventory space while transporting large amounts of potion flasks and other vessels or gathering important herbs.

Hunting Backpack is meant to easily fit a few pelts and can be used to comfortably carry a bedroll.

Treasure Seeker Backpack will greatly improve your carrying capacity, although its bulky frame will do no favors to your agility and finesse.

On top of all that, it will also be possible to store single cell treasure items in common Purses.

And finally, here’s a teaser for the much-anticipated Armor ability tree that we’re currently working on as well:



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That’s all for now. Until next time!

- 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.