TITANIC UPDATE 0.50: Ace in the hole

During the past Steam Next Fest many players have tried out the Frozen Flame demo and shared their first impressions of the game. And we were more than happy to read their feedback and watch their streams:

Together with Quin69 we grieved the fact he didn’t get to fight a big boss at the end of the Cradle of Keepers…
…adored the game with CohhCarnage and his son…
…tanked every single blow with LobosJr…
…spent days playing the game with Badocs…
…rejoiced in culinary breakthroughs of TwoAngryGamersTV…
…actively sought out an interpreter to listen to Tama-Kuro’s commentaries…
…and shuddered, as you all overcome the difficulties and slayed monsters and bosses alike.

All of that just to feel every moment of your experience, fix the game’s downfalls and make the game more enjoyable. Thank you for your feedback.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/715400/Frozen_Flame

[h2]Demo Update[/h2]

All changes taking place in Cradle of Keepers will be included in the demo. Download the update, play, and tell us about your experience!

[h2]New Beginnings[/h2]

Player’s first steps are always the most important ones, so we’ve rebuilt the beginning of the game to make the initial goals clearer. Following the “all roads must lead to the portal” principle, we’ve reduced the amount of such road to one, updated notes in the quest log and the map, and persuaded some Aborigines to “borrow” a backpack from Hornhead, so that the players could perform a heroic feat and retrieve it. Now nothing should throw a fresh Pilgrim off the intended path.

Updated the portal’s visuals.
Added a short overview cutscene.
Changed the way quests are displayed on the map and in the world.
Quest update: “First Steps”.

[h2]Even more amusing stories[/h2]

The Cradle of Keepers is more lively than ever! Archeologist twins Diodorus and Dora has arrived with an expedition to study dragons’ ancient secrets, but, sadly, simply can’t achieve understanding with each other. And, speking of understanding - Cu the merchant is certainly very interested in.. Urt… Utr.. Urthuvn.. nope, you’ll definitely require interpretor’s assistance here.

There are also rumors of the magic sword stuck in the stone - Laertus, once wielded by mighty warrior Aks.

New NPCs: Archeologist twins, Laertus, Aks.
New quests: “First Steps”, “Help the Cu”.

[h2]Cold Greeting[/h2]

The ancient portal of the Cradle of Keepers leads into the Tower of Winds - a place located on the flip side of reality. It became a place of refuge for one of the Faceless’ loyal servants - the Ice Elemental. Ensure you are well prepared before entering its lair - a warm welcome isn’t something you should expect.

New location: Tower of Winds.
New boss: Ice Elemental.

[h2]Crafted A-New[/h2]

Now upon gathering a new resource players will also receive all recipes tied to it. This way they will be able to expand their tech tree just by exploring the world.

Reworked the recipe unlock system.
Added numerous new recipes.
Recipes no longer have level requirements.

[h2]Magic Plants[/h2]

While gathering a wide variety of resources, you can fidn magic seeds that can be used to “grow” and gather some useful materials. If you ever wanted to become a wizard-farmer - your time has come.

Added a new station with corresponding recipes: “Magic plant”.

[h2]Make Way to the Potion Brewers![/h2]

Potion brewing is a complicated science, but a simple potion can be made by anyone. All you need is to throw in correct ingredients into the cauldron and wait a bit. We haven’t unveiled all the recipes quite yet, but we’ll complete the potion brewing manual in no time!

You can also make some empty water skins to collect water from wells and use for your brewing needs.

The second recipe - “Energetic Potion” will be available for purchase from Woodhad in the Broken Valley, but only once the Curse of Faceless gives way.

Added a new station: “Cauldron”.
Added a new recipe: “Empty Waterskin”.
Added Magic Wells to the world.

[h2]Destructive Weather[/h2]

You can now place basic workstations on the ground for quick access. Without a foundation or a shelter, however, they won’t last long. To ensure their longevity, you’ll need to build and activate the construction core!

And outside the Cradle of Keepers it’s even worse, with not just “unpleasant”, but destructive weather. The protection of the construction core alone won’t be enough - you’ll need the safety of a proper shelter. And the worse storms you want to endure, the better material you’d want to use!

Weather conditions now affect durability of buildings and stations.
Added a windy weather to the Cradle of Keepers.
Stations no longer require a “Shelter” (farewell, Shelter, our old and annoying friend, you will not be missed.)
Basic stations no longer require a foundation.

[h2]Building Changes[/h2]

The construction core has received an update - it is now a heart of your house. Placing it now marks your territory, but to activate its protective aura and begin constructions, you’ll need to fuel it with magic crystals.

Changed Construction Core’s model.
Players can place multiple Construction Cores.
Reduced the Construction Core area of effect.
Reworked modules’ construction cost.
Reduced the modules’ brightness in building mode.
Jump platform moved from crafting to construction modules.
Removed foundation modules.
Fixed the modules’ sticking.

[h2]Traversing the Realm[/h2]

Teleportation is the fastest way to traverse long distances, but it requires lots of energy. Inhabitants of Arcana has solved this issue by constructing teleports and creating teleportation stones.

Knowing the dangerous state of the world, the Keeper has also enchanted special Returnal Stones for pilgrims - they will return their users to the nearest teleport at the cost of all their flame.

Added new items: “Teleportation Stone”, “Returnal Stone”
Teleports allow traversing between any other teleports in the world.

[h2]Combat Improvement[/h2]

We’ve studied the plentiful feedback received over the course of last months, and spent lots of time working on the combat system update. These update delivers our first steps in the right direction.

Updated attacks and balance of basic weapons.
Completely overhauled the dodge system.
Updated the power attack: from UI all the way to sounds.
Staffs can now be used while moving.
Increased bows’ rate of fire.
Weapons no longer locked behind classes, only levels.

[h2]Dark Nights[/h2]

The Cradle of Keepers is much more safer during the daytime. Comfy weather, boars and bubbles peacefully roam around, not paying any attention to pilgrims. Nights, on the other hand, should be spent in the safety of your warm and cozy house.

Always remember - despite the dangers, the darkest nights come before dawn.

Reworked weather in the Cradle of Keepers and the Broken Valley.
Bubbles and boars no longer attack players during the daytime.

[h2]UI Update[/h2]

We’ve been studying our players’ experiences with the game, and came to the conclusion that we should overhaul the main UI to make it more convenient and clear. As the result we’ve completely reworked character and inventory UI, including:

Changed main characteristics’ placement and appearance.
Improved visuals for stamina, flame, HP and power attack bars.
Reworked status effect icons.
Increased the number of quick slots to 8.
Empty quick slots will now be hidden.
Changed the inventory tabs.
Status effect descriptions will now be shown in the inventory.
Increased the size of the compass.
Introduced the ability to transfer items between stations with RMB and Ctrl+LMB, split stacks with Shift+LMB and cancel queues.
Undroppable items will not show up in storage menus.
Added recipe categories.
Reworked building module information UI.

[h2]Summoning Elites[/h2]

Upon summoning elite monsters, the entire world outside the camp switches colors, and a pale fog appears above the ground. The environment itself starts screaming, that the battle will be remembered for a long time.

Added environmental effects that appear during the battles with elites.
Elites slowly regenerate health if all players leave the encounter area (they will no longer immediately reset to full HP).
Removed sarcophagi from elite camps.
All quest masks now drop directly from the elites.
Updated the Skull Hunter’s mask.
Changed the Skull Hunter’s summonin requirements.
Reduced the Furious Grunt’s damage.

[h2]Empowered monsters[/h2]

While traveling around the world, among regular monsters you might encounter their empowered kin. They are stronger, faster and smarter, having more attacks in their arsenal - truly formidable foes. You can recognize them by a slight flame illumination around them.

[h2]Optimization[/h2]

One of the most frequent subjects of player feedback and request was the optimization. And in this update we’ve introduced some initial changes that should help its improvement, while also adding more video settings.

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

Updated the flight - now the eagle form can fly upwards.
HP no longer increases with levels.
Upon respawning players will have 25% HP instead of 75%.
Rewordked the stamina expenditure and regeneration.
Reduced the cost of the Ability Tree reset.
Ability Tree leveling now only costs 1 Frozen Flame.
Rebalanced Earth Stomp and Fire Breath damage.
Increased Haste movement speed.
Reworked the way Flame drops on death.
Logs can no longer be found scattered around and ca only be gathered by cutting down trees.
Stellas now grant Birthseals.
Reduced the respawn timer of some monsters.
Massively increased the thorny vines’ respawn timer.
Wooden fences and spikes ae now destructible.
Reworked the quest, rituals and boss kill reward system.
Glowbug-hunt Ritual replaced with runestone-hunt.
Added a new secret runestone-hunt activity in the Sanctuary.
Updated the snowy islands’ Ritual.
Players no longer need to return to the obelisk to claim Ritual rewards.

[h3]Map[/h3]

Updated quest mark colors.
Rewarked quest marks and beacons in the Cradle of Keepers.
Added a new memorial in the Cradle of Keepers.
Reduced the NPC icons size.
Redyced the amount of resources in the Cradle of Keepers starting area.
Added iron ore to the Cradle of Keepers.
Added new notes and points of interest to the Sanctuary.
Updated the snowy islands of the Cradle of Keepers.
Updated the environment around Hornhead.
Removed the Beacon from the Cradle of Keepers.
Added stellas to the Cradle of Keepers.

[h3]UI[/h3]

Updated gamepad hints.
Reworked the bonus HP acquisition visuals.
Added new status effect descriptions and fixed the existing ones.
Removed the “successful cooking chance” display.
Added new NPC dialogue font.
Added an animated icon to the NPC dialogues.
Reworked the in-game hints.
Added the “key is already bound to another action” notification.
Expanded the graphics settings.
Added an option to disable the screen shake.
Removed the monsters’ stagger bars.

[h3]Sound[/h3]

New dungeon, cave, crags and ravine ambient sounds.
New Mithra voiceover.
New NPC voiceovers: Cu, Laertus, Aks, Twins.
Player can now hear following sounds from other players: picking up and dropping loot, inflicting critical hits, enemy deaths.
Updated tree chopping and stone digging sounds.
Changed female character’s voiceover.

[h3]Animations[/h3]

Added new weapon combo animations.
Updated combat and resource gathering animations.
Updated combat jump animation.
Updated blocking animation.
Updated jump attack animations.
Changed encumbured animations.

[h3]Other[/h3]

New Bonehead and Hornhead models.
Landscape and atmosphere improvements.
Updated air currents’ visuals
Updated flight camea behavior.
Added new daytime and night time lighting options.
Updated fog visuals.
Fixed visuals of certain materials.
Reduced the amount of logs.
Reduced quest item weight to 0.
Replaced books with tablets.
Reduced the amount of hides dropped from boars.
Prologue skeletons no longer drop flame.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Characters no longer get stuck in the circular tower in the Cradle of Keepers.
Fixed some key binding issues.
Thorny vines can no longer broken with torch without suffering damage.
Fixed the camera behavior in coop.
Chat messages no longer disappear after death.
Fixed sidequest functionality in coop.
Fixed the compass directions.
Fixed doves’ hints in coop.
Players can no longer open map while dead.

These changes also affected other biomes. As such, the access to the Broken Valley and “Survival” mode is temporarily disabled. We, with help of Chronos and the Keeper, do our best to fix them up. They will return in the following update.

We’re also working on the next biome, and more than happy to share this beauty of a screenshot with you:

This is Benny the ram, and he eagerly awaits the next update.

[h3]For more on Frozen Flame, follow the game on social media on the following channels.[/h3]

Join other fans on Discord: https://discord.gg/wPPgehR
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/playfrozenflame
Share your review on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FrozenFlame/