Stoneshard News

- 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.
  

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll share more details about some of the new additions which will be included in the “Trollslayer” update.

[h3]Grave Robbery[/h3]


Now you’ll be able to grab a shovel and head to the nearest cemetery. If you spend some time digging around, you might find something valuable or interesting. Just remember that this isn’t the most pleasant of activities, so your character’s sanity and morale can take a noticeable hit if you rob graves too frequently.

If you don’t have a shovel with you, you can also try digging with your bare hands. Though the process will take much more time in this case plus there’s a risk of hand injury.

[h3]Roadside Altars[/h3]


It’s now possible to randomly encounter roadside altars which were set up to honor the Host, the deity worshipped in Aldor. You can pray to the Host by these altars to gain a blessing for a few hundred turns. Blessings grant resistance to unholy damage, gradually restore psyche, and slightly increase received experience.



With the addition of a fully-fledged worship system, the altars mechanics will be substantially expanded, but for now their purpose is to add more variety to the world and encourage traveling by roads.

[h3]Save Slots[/h3]


There were lots of requests to add character slots, so by popular demand it was decided to add them with this update. You’ll no longer need to bother with backing up game files. It’ll now be possible to create multiple characters and switch between them without any busywork.

[h3]Changes to Dungeon Generation[/h3]
We continue experimenting with our dungeon generator by adding various changes. The updated version will be able to create more complex and engaging structures.

We also continue to fill the world with more details. The “Trollslayer” update will have three new points of interests. One of them we’ve already shown. Here’s the second one:



[h3]Update Release Date[/h3]
We’ve decided to add a number of initially unplanned and unannounced features (such as save slots and changes to dungeon generation), so we’ll need a bit more time to finish their implementation and polish the build. “Trollslayer” will be available in three weeks - exactly on April 14th.

Until next time!

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog we’ll share some details about our new skill tree, Athletics, which will be added to the game with the “Trollslayer” update in the end of March.



Athletics is an utility skill tree composed of 13 abilities: 6 actives and 7 passives. Its primary goal is to provide more options to control the battlefield and improve mobility. Because of that, Athletics can easily be picked up by almost any build, since warriors, archers, and mages can all find a use for a timely repositioning. Let’s now have a look at these new abilities:

[h3]Active Abilities[/h3]


Mighty Kick is an opening ability for this skill tree. It offers a cheap but effective way to knock an enemy back while dealing a bit of damage. At the same time, the power of knockback resistance is doubled against this specific skill, so you are most likely going to have a bad time if you attempt to kick a bear. In case if you fail to inflict a knockback, the cooldown for Mighty Kick is immediately refreshed, so you’ll be able to try your luck again.



Sudden Lunge deals low damage, but puts all enemy’s abilities on cooldown for a few turns. Also it has a chance to apply Confusion for a couple turns, preventing enemy from attacking or using skills (but not spells).



Elusiveness grants 100% dodge chance till the end of the turn. After that it applies an effect of “Elusiveness”, its duration scaling with the amount of attacks dodged after the skill’s activation. Elusiveness increases dodge chance and decreases damage taken. Moving and receiving attacks grant extra stacks of the effect.



Dash allows you to charge for up to three tiles. It can be used to either create some breathing room or to initiate a fight. If you decide to Dash into enemies, you’ll receive a decent bonus to damage and reduce skills energy costs.



Leg Sweep is an unusual ability, somewhat similar to Deadly Trick from the current version of the game (it’s been slightly changed in the Trollslayer update). Leg Sweep deals a small amount of damage to three adjacent enemies, immobilizing them. Then it allows you to move to a nearby tile.



Adrenaline Rush can be viewed as a controlled, but weakened version of the Second Wind effect. Adrenalin Rush replenishes energy, slightly decreases pain and grants an effect which significantly increases energy restoration, crit chance, and pain resistance. The strength and the duration of the effect increase when low on health.

[h3]Passive Abilities[/h3]

• No Time to Linger – using Sudden Lunge against stunned, dazed, bleeding, or immobilized targets will trigger a free attack against them without damage penalty.
  
• Sprint Training increases the distance by one tile for all charge-based skills such as Mutilating Lunge (Axes), Onrush (Swords), Heroic Charge (Greatsword), Step Aside! (Staffs), Distracting Shot (Bows), and, naturally, Dash from this very skill tree.
  
• Disengage decreases the chance to trigger Attacks of Opportunity by 30%.
  
• Peak Performance grants bonus damage, dodge chance, and reduces abilities cooldowns if your energy level is more than 75%.
  
• Never Again significantly boosts Fortitude (resistance to negative effects) after receiving a negative effect.
  
• Inner Reserves replenishes 15% of your max energy when it drops below 15%. This passive can only trigger once per 90 turns.
  
• Invigorating Violence replenishes 5% Health for each enemy you kill while under the effect of Adrenaline Rush, allowing you to better capitalize on the limited duration of that effect.
  

That’s all for now. Until next week!

Hello everyone!

In this devlog we’d like to present you a new skill tree which will be added with the “Trollslayer” update - Combat Mastery.



Combat Mastery is an utility skill tree, designed to be particularly useful to warriors and other characters relying on weapons. Overall it contains 14 abilities: 7 actives and 7 passives.

[h3]Active abilities:[/h3]

• Seize the Initiative – start combat by delivering a strike which will “steal” some of the stats from your target and grant them to you as a buff. Each following strike will increase the amount of debuff stacks on your target and the amount of buff stacks on you
  
• Defensive Tactics – a buff with unlimited duration. The effect depends on the number of enemies around your character. The higher the number, the stronger this dynamically calculated effect. Additionally, as long as Defensive Tactics is active, blocking and dodging will restore your Energy.
  
• Offensive Tactics follows a similar logic, though it provides offensive stats instead. Additionally, critical strikes and counterattacks decrease the remaining cooldowns for weapon skills while it’s active. Keep in mind that you only can have a single tactic active at a time, so you will have to choose the most appropriate one for any given situation.
  
• War Cry deals a small amount of psionic damage, Weakening all enemies in a large AoE. In turn, you receive Battle Rage effect for several turns - the more enemies there are, the longer it lasts.
  
• Finisher – perhaps some of you may remember this skill from one of the oldest devlogs about the currently retired class system. This skill allows you to deliver a strike which immediately refreshes all active cooldowns as long as it kills its target.
  
• Thirst for Battle is meant to improve survivability for warriors, especially when they are near death, injured, and are pretty much ready to give up on life. The power of the effect increases when low on health, so it has the potential to break the tide of battle with a significant bonus to damage and life drain.
  
• Against the Odds – the legendary skill of Verren from the old Prologue returns. Now this skill is a crowning jewel of Combat Mastery. Its duration was decreased to 2 turns, however if you manage to kill an enemy within this time frame, you’ll recover a significant amount of HP and energy. Against the Odds is best used in combination with Thirst for Battle and Finisher for maximum impact.

[h3]Passive abilities:[/h3]

• Setup – grants you bonus accuracy and damage after you skip a turn, which makes waiting more tactically advantageous.
  
• Armor Crusher makes the task of disposing of armored targets easier. As long as their armor condition is more than half, your attacks have a bonus to armor piercing and armor damage. On top of this, when the target’s armor durability reaches zero, this passive increases the amount of damage the target takes for a few turns.
  
• Intimidation – grants War Cry a chance to daze or confuse all affected enemies for a few turns.
  
• Right on Target – grants bonus stats to all weapon skills. Additionally, it grants a significant bonus to your weapon damage, increasing accuracy and crit chance, while decreasing skills cost and fumble chance as long as your second hand is empty.
  
• Opportune Moment – grants your physical attacks a chance to decrease all active cooldowns for your skills by 1 turn.
  
• Stance Training adds an additional effect to your Defensive and Offensive Tactics. As long as your Defensive Tactics is active, all your stance-based skills will lose 1 stack on triggering instead of 2. When using Offensive Tactics, all your stance-based skills will activate with 6 stacks, which means that you’ll most likely lose them quickly.
  
• Final Push – ensures that Against the Odds is a much more reliable tool for escaping death by increasing damage and accuracy for your attacks while you are under its effects.

That’s all for now. In the next devlog we’ll tell you more about Athletics skill tree and, perhaps, will show you something extra!

Until next time!