The Dwarves of Glistenveld News

[h3]It has been a long wait, but it's finally here! We will be releasing Chapter 2 on October 13th at 13:00 UTC![/h3]



The release of Chapter 2 unlocks the next 6 levels of the Campaign, which take you to the mysterious underground Ruins of Heckler! A new region unlocks for Skirmish Mode as well as a myriad of final improvements to make this the most robust patch to date!


We are putting The Dwarves of Glistenveld on sale for 2 weeks starting on the 13th (the day of the Chapter 2 launch), as well as releasing a demo for the first time. Our goal here is to try to get more visibility for the game.



To prove to everyone including ourselves that we haven't been sitting around idly all this time 😉, we're going to look at the more significant changes that have come since the game entered Early Access:

[h3]Campaign (Chapter 1)[/h3]

The introduction level in the campaign was first introduced in Patch 12 (Oct '20), and is an important addition because it bridges the gap between the backstory (introduced by the first cutscene) and when you arrive in Fisher's Cove. Windy Rivers saw an overhaul, which was a level originally released with little purpose. The other levels have also seen many improvements through development, based on player feedback and our own testing, with Bridge-it Lake topping the list at 53 revisions!

[h3]Technology Tree[/h3]

Originally the tech tree was less of a tree and more of a list...


Now we have multiple tiers with currently 15 techs to unlock, and the promise of many more! With this comes the many new buildings that can boost your defences or economy, or beautify your bases! The aim by the final chapter (if all goes well) is to have 4 tiers and at least 30 techs!

[h3]Greater Player Choice[/h3]

Originally dwarves received random abilities, but we quickly realised that players should be able to choose them! The ability selection UI has been around ever since Patch 6! Dwarf abilities have gone through many revisions, some were replaced while others were buffed and balanced.



Patch 12 saw the introduction of the difficulty options, allowing you to choose a more casual or hardcore gameplay experience, and more recent patches introduced mechanics like Tinkering and the By-laws tech, giving you more power over your playstyle!

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

One of the most requested features was being able to change the game-speed, and was first introduced in Patch 16. A few more examples of quality-of-life improvements include being able to move storage with items together, the introduction of one-button mode, new instruction options, configurable storage, improved game save UI and much more!

[h3]More Informative[/h3]

Along with the addition of the Guide to Glistenveld (an in-game wiki / bestiary that unlocks entries as you explore the game), we've been adding more notifications, visual aids for effects, and a lot more information to help players understand the mechanics behind the gameplay.



[h3]Enemy Quantity & Quality[/h3]

The Dwarves of Glistenveld is still a little light on enemy variety (which we will be addressing as we work on Chapter 3), but initially there were only 2 enemies, and they weren't too bright either! Not only does Chapter 2 feature one of the most intimidating enemies in the game (the draugr), the other enemies have also received a variety of perks and quirks, increasing the strategic potential in their encounters. We believe every type of enemy should feel unique, and we have worked hard to make that a reality!

[h3]Environment & Resources[/h3]

We've introduced new minerals like coal and granite, new types of mushrooms and roots, tomes and bookshelves, all meticulously designed with unique mechanics to help make the world of Glistenveld vibrant and mysterious!

[h3]Caverns Mode[/h3]

First released in Patch 7 (Feb '20), Caverns mode has become one of our favourite modes to play due to its procedural nature, expansive base-building potential and replayability. Caverns mode is a challenge to master, yet features some of the most impressive bases:


Since there's so much more that we could cover, we will be re-uploading the original release as a beta option, for those of you curious enough to check out the differences for yourself! To access it go to your steam library, open TDoG's properties, and under Betas, switch to "first_launch". You can switch back at any time.



We'd also like to reflect on what we've fallen short on for this chapter release, so that we can learn from them and work on future improvements.

[h3]Time[/h3]
The most significant for us and I'm sure for many of you is how long it took to get to Chapter 2. We touched on some reasoning for this in our blog posts, but moving forward we intend to give ourselves clearer objectives and planning in future.

[h3]Visibility[/h3]
The game has not seen enough promotion through development. Moving forward we will be putting the game on sale during seasonal events such as the Steam Winter Sale, and will be working harder to give it more attention. We have struggled to build awareness for The Dwarves of Glistenveld, and we are grateful for anyone who supports us in this regard.

[h3]Tutorials[/h3]
In-spite of all our polishing, we've heard the tutorials can be a bit of a grind to play through. This will impact our potential to grow, so it is also something that we should address.

[h2]Lastly[/h2]

Acknowledgements aside, we are very happy with how Chapter 2 has turned out. The team has worked tirelessly to bring this chapter to life and we feel a lot more character, lore and fun design has been poured into the game. We can't wait to find out what you guys make of it!

[h3]I hope you're as excited as we are for the upcoming release! That's all for this announcement, see you all in 2 weeks![/h3]

Hot-fix for suspected issue with 'end of Chapter' trigger, plus we also noticed holding units would sometimes move the unit back to a previous tile.

Fellow Dwarves! It's been a while, but there's a lot to cover on this one...

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]
Features & Design Changes:

1. Cutscenes - Should now play in-game, instead of directing you to a youtube video. Note to linux users: you will have to install VLC for this to work.
   
2. Carroots - A new harvestable food that grows out of special type of roots! Unlike the other 3 food types, carroots cannot be cooked into a meal, nor replanted, but they do provide a steady supply.
   
3. Defend Zone -> Combat - What used to be the Defend Zone instruction has now become a new sub-panel called 'Combat' currently with 2 instructions: Defend Zone has been renamed to Patrol Regions for clarity, and a new instruction called Battle-Lines can be used to make warriors form a line and wait there, rather than patrol around.
   
4. Ally/enemy base AI - Many improvements have been made for ally/enemy AI in terms of base-building, defending and attacking, expanding on the existing wall-building update.
   
5. Pressure-plate Buttons - The signage on floor buttons in-game has been updated to be more clearly distinguishable between the different types: hold, toggle and lock.
   
6. Mushrooms - New placement variants for mushrooms. It was bothering us that every patch of mushrooms looked identical, now they'll look a bit more natural! We also plan on introducing different species of mushrooms eventually, but that's for a later update.
   
7. Gem Crystals - Can now appear protruded out of cave walls.
   
8. 'New Game' Menu - Now when choosing which mode to play, it shows a breakdown of what to expect. Since each mode differs in style, they are rated out of 5 in the following: Challenge, Adventure, Colony-sim, Story/lore and Game length.
   
9. Spiders & Webs - Spiders' behaviour has been improved, and they now spawn strewn webs on the ground all around their nest. This type of web has a smaller movement penalty, breaks after a few steps, and also dictates where spiders will place their eggs.
   
10. Abilities Selection UI - The UI to choose new abilities for your dwarves has been revamped.
    
11. Level Up UI - Any time a dwarf levels up and their notification clicked, you are now presented with a UI that shows the precise improvements of their abilities, so you can see what's changed!
    
12. Fish - Fish are now lured by ripples, which are made when the Forager arrives at their spot, by cave-ins near water and when the player clicks the water.
    
13. Caverns Mode - Various design updates including chest loot-tables & special item spawns, and the introduction of carroots.
    
14. Campaign - Tweaked dialog, added more interjections and reduced confusion around Floody Hell's floating barrels.
    
15. Skirmish Mode - Controlling teaming in skirmish mode has been revamped and now features 3 presets: teams by kin, teams by neighbour, or all vs all. Teams by kin means dwarves team with other dwarves, goblins with goblins. Teams by neighbour means dwarves will only team with other dwarves if they are also neighbours. All vs all means there are no teams. Teams can still be configured manually. Also various fixes & improvements to this mode.
    
16. Root-puller Ability - This ability has been buffed and now reveals 3 tiles each harvest, and at higher levels can also reveal roots that aren't connected but close by. The description also clarifies that the minerals on those tiles are revealed at the same time.
    
17. Low Health - Added a new option in By-laws to set your dwarves to automatically flee and rest when they reach low health. This is also in effect by default in Dwarfling difficulty.
    
18. Main Menu - While no item is highlighted, one of your statistics shows, such as Spiders Defeated or Gems Mined.
    

Fixes & Improvements:

1. AI for Dropping items - The previous system for when units decided to drop items was too aggressive. Engineers would return dwarf hearts back to storage instead of spawning a dwarf right away, and other classes would return prematurely when they could have continued their work. This has been almost completely redesigned. The new system is not as 'catch-all' robust and may need some tweaks going forward, but is now much more logical in terms of when to drop items off. Units now start an internal clock once carrying items and won't return them unless full inventory, switching jobs or the clock reaches a certain job-dependant threshold.
   
2. Tutorials - Various updates and refinements for the 5 tutorial levels. Dialog has been reduced in places to improve pace, and the clickable sign that explains the game-speed control has been replaced with a prompt in the tutorial itself. Also added guide & notifications optional tutorials that appear in the objective list.
   
3. First-time usage tips - When certain items such as tomes are first interacted with, a dialog pops up explaining what they do. Also when entering skirmish or caverns mode for the first time, a dialog pops up explaining some of the unique features of that mode.
   
4. Harvesting rocks - No longer adds foraging experience to miners.
   
5. Combat Abilities - Fixed a bug with their proximities not updating the ability stats correctly!
   
6. Eat & Rest - Fixed some logical flaws in how dwarves decide to eat & rest when you tell them to via the associated buttons.
   
7. Guide to Glistenveld - Updated some information in the guide.
   
8. Goblins - Updated some goblin recipes to improve gameplay balance, such as in skirmish mode.
   
9. General AI Improvements - Units will now flee more sensibly, for example only when they're low health and there is a threat nearby. Both goblins & dwarves base-building AI has been significantly improved, and made more competitive.
   
10. Scenery - Fixed some rendering-order graphical bugs.
    
11. UI Panes - Improved the gradient on many of the UI windows for text to be more readable at the bottom.
    
12. Unit Movement - When the player changes a unit's movement they will now switch directions immediately if the target is behind them, instead of waiting until they've reached the next tile.
    
13. Instructions - The Patrol Regions (formerly Defend Zone) instruction now has better logic for when to rest, and was ignoring a particular by-law option. Warriors will now go rest at a higher health, but otherwise only if their stamina reaches 0. Foragers will no longer try to harvest tougher roots (i.e. iron roots) if they lack an iron tool. Also minor fixes to building, crafting & mining, and claims on jobs not being cleaned up.
    
14. Warriors - Warriors will no longer go to rest or eat until they are both hungry and tired or one of those stats is completely drained. When changing a dwarf to Warrior, they will now stand still for an extended period of time, waiting for you to give them something to do.
    
15. End of Level Stats - Amended some missing icons in the end of level statistics window.
    
16. Map Editor - Added missing icons and made various improvements to the map editor, including all item types are now available in the quick panel at the bottom.
    
17. Various other fixes including tooltips not displaying for certain highlighted objects, and removed all unneeded libraries from the executables, reducing their filesize.
    

We'd like to apologise for the lack of updates this year. We've had some major hurdles to overcome in preparation for Chapter 2, including finally getting cutscenes working in-game and finishing the new trailer. These took priority over releasing more regular patches, though hopefully we can balance this better in future. We'd set our bar high for the Chapter 2 release in terms of polish and robustness, since we want people to have a great experience with it. Most of these improvements are present in this patch (the last significant patch before Chapter 2 releases), so we hope you enjoy!

That's all for now, stay safe out there!

Hot-fix for a rendering corruption bug that involved the Root-Puller Forager ability.

[h3]Halloween Mode[/h3]
Glistenveld is getting spooky once again with Halloween Mode enabled (until Nov. 10th)!
In Halloween Mode, you will experience the following changes to the game:

1. Atmosphere - The atmosphere of the game is more dramatic with fog and a change in colour palette!
   
2. Pumpkins - You will find random pumpkins in each level. You can harvest these to get a tasty pumpkin stew, which dwarves treat as equippable meals!
   
3. Webs - You will find random webs that stick to your dwarves and slow them down!
   
4. Bats - When you start a new skirmish mode game, you'll find a few more bats roaming the tunnels!
   
5. Bubbling waters - Water has turned greenish and bubbles.
   
6. Green blood - Units and creatures flash green when injured, instead of red.
   

The scary scenario maps Fishbeard's Mining Operation and The Tomb are both challenges built to test your resolve around Halloween! As usual, seasonal modes can be disabled in the options menu under Gameplay > Seasonal.

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]

1. By-laws - A new tech that unlocks the ability to define rules for your dwarves' behaviour depending on the circumstances. You can manage whether instructions are carried out, needs are taken care of, when to engage in combat, or whether to risk leaving the safety of your base. For example, if there are a lot of enemies about, you could switch to more restrictive by-laws to keep your working dwarves safe while your warriors deal with the threat!
   
2. Control Groups - Control groups have been updated with UI at the top of the screen and should now save & load correctly. When you have units or buildings selected, you can press Ctrl + 1-9 to create a control group. Pressing 1-9 again later or clicking the respective button will reselect those units / buildings again.
   
3. Equipment Slots - Equipment has now been split into 4 types: wieldables such as tools or weapons, armour such as helmets, equippable meals and finally accessories such as potions or rings. Potions used to take up the meal slot, and rings used to take up the armour slot.
   
4. New Textures - Stone, iron, coal & gems now have new texture variants, to add to the natural visual aesthetic of the underground.
   
5. Tutorial 2 - Fixed a bug where it was possible to softlock the second tutorial.
   
6. Smuggle Me Timbers - In super rare circumstances the guard would walk across the map instead of out of your way. This was caused by a flaw in our script engine and required a bit of an overhaul to future-proof this problem.
   
7. Fixed various other bugs including the world map zooming into the top corner instead of centring on the current level.
   

This patch is a little lighter due to our focus on preparing for the chapter 2 release, and also having time off to recharge our batteries. Taking breaks is an important part of a healthy workflow!

Until our next update, Happy Halloween!