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Update #3: Plague!

Hello everyone! Our Plague update is now up. As mentioned before, previous saves will no longer be compatible. Please see below for details of what's new:

The Biolab




The Biolab is a new structure that allows the player to customize the effects of Plague. The player gains Plague Points by spreading the Plague, triggering some of its symptoms or killing off Plague-bearers. Plague Points can then be used to improve the Plague, retroactively affecting those that are already afflicted.

The player can still use the Plague affliction without the Biolab but it will have randomized effects. The player may also use the Biolab without the Plague affliction but will be limited to spreading it by spawning Plagued Rats. These Plagued Rats are produced by the Biolab once every 2 days until the player has 3 available charges. Plagued Rats are pests that tend to visit Villages to consume available food there and they may typically transfer their Plague to the food they eat.

The Biolab replaces Defiler as one of the Lich's default Demonic Structures but is also available for other Archetypes as an optional choice. Defiler, on the other hand has now replaced Prison as one of the Puppetmaster's default Demonic Structures.



The Biolab has five upgrade categories:

Transmission - Unlock or improve the various ways of transmitting the Plague.
Lifespan - Increase how long the Plague naturally stays on a character or an object. The Plague has varying lifespans on objects and characters of different races.
Fatality - Choose from various ways that the Plague can kill off its victims.
Symptoms - Unlock various symptoms that the Plague can trigger on its victims.
On Death - Choose one powerful effect that will trigger when a Plagued victim dies.

Note: These upgrade costs and rates are "introductory". We'll take input from the players to tweak these over the next weeks.

Hospice




Villagers will now sometimes build a Hospice. When a Village thinks that a Plague is running loose, they may quarantine and take care of plagued Villagers if they have a Hospice. Otherwise, they may end up slaying or exiling assumed plague bearers - depending on the current leader's Traits. Some Villages may even end up doing nothing at all about it.

Plagued victims recover faster when they are quarantined inside a Hospice. They are also less likely to transmit it. The Healing Expert trait has been removed and the ability to take care of Plagued victims are now transferred to the Hospice and the Druid class.

Class Change


Villagers may now sometimes change their character class if deemed necessary. For now, the only class change that may occur is a change to a Shaman (when the Village feels like they need one due to a Werewolf Hunt or Vampire Hunt) or to a Druid (when the Village feels like they need one due to an active Plague event). Villagers can change to Shaman or Druid class from the Hospice.

Ratmen


You may now discover some pesky rats in some scenarios and custom worlds. They belong to a unique Ratmen faction separate from Wild Monsters and Undead. They usually start off at war with most other factions except for the Undead. Ratmen are rather unique as they are as complex as Villagers but behave somewhat like wild monsters while part of the Ratmen faction. You use Seize Villager on them, and Afflictions and Trigger Flaw can also be used on them once they get recruited by a Villager Faction but you don't need to wipe them out.



Also, Ratmen are Plague Reservoirs - they permanently carry the Plague but are not affected by its Symptoms and Fatalities. You'll find out some other interesting behavior that Ratmen do as you encounter them in your playthroughs!

Tweaks

- Villagers are now less likely to kill off intruders that have already been rendered Unconscious. This makes it more likely for Major Factions to have Prisoners that they can eventually recruit.
- Removed Zombie Virus as it is now included as an On Death upgrade for the Plague.
- New Trait: Ruthless. As leaders, they are more likely to harshly punish criminals. They are also more likely to decree that plague-bearers should be slain.
- Plague affliction have randomized upgrades if the player does not have the Biolab in their loadout.
- Vagrants are now more likely to relocate to other regions.
- Cultists may now sometimes transfer to a Demon Cult faction if its leader is alone or if there are available empty houses.
- Abductions will now use non-lethal combat instead of the Knockout Action - even if the target is sleeping. But if the target already cannot move when hit by a non-lethal attack, they will always get knocked unconscious.
- Druids can now take care and feed any quarantined Villagers inside the Hospice. They will do this once per day.
- Active parties can now set up camp even during day time if one of them have important Needs Recovery.
- Wild Monsters will sometimes feed on corpses of livestock animals. The new Plagued Rat is also considered a livestock animal and can therefor transmit (Consumption) the Plague to monsters when they get eaten.
- Cultist in an Active Party doing a Counterattack Quest will instead flee and then get expelled from the party once they reach their target destination. The other members will feel betrayed by the turncoat.
- Cultists in an Active Party are temporarily unavailble for Snatching.
- Villagers will no longer report crimes to leaders that are in an Active Party.
- Villagers living outside Villages are now slightly more likely to relocate if its Faction has other Villages.
- Factions with Reveres Werewolves ideology are now friendly with normal Wolves.
- Only one Defiler structure can be built at a time.
- Small Spiders will not transform to Giant Spiders while currently being targeted by an action.
- Puking slightly reduces Fullness while Seizures slightly reduces Entertainment.
- Leaders are automatically dethroned when they are presumed dead rather than when they are presumed missing.
- Villagers will no longer haul resources found inside Caves or other special structures that belong to another Major Faction (including Ratman faction).
- Witness and its corresponding emotional reaction logs have been combined into one.
- Undead characters should no longer attack the Necromancer when it transforms into a bat or a werewolf. Note - they will still attack it if it transforms into a wolf.
- Characters lose their Restrained and Prisoner status when they die.
- Necromancers can no longer turn into Cult Leaders.
- In Villager Info UI, Current Region line has now been replaced with Village line which displays the character's settlement residence.
- Added a No Shake option in the Settings Menu.
- Added a Randomize Monster Names option in the Settings Menu.

Bug Fixes
- FIXED: Trolls and Kobolds sometimes get stuck performing certain actions.
- FIXED: Villagers often drop Share Rumor or Spread Information to do other tasks.
- FIXED: Resting Parties sometimes stop moving if their camp is inside a cave.
- FIXED: Werewolf Cult Leaders founds a Lycan Clan faction instead of a Demon Cult.
- FIXED: Ensnared characters sometimes glitches when snatched.
- FIXED: Some characters follow the cursor if their target has been seized by the player.
- FIXED: Tutorial flow breaks when The Eye is already built before The Afflictions tutorial has been completed,
- FIXED: Demon Worshipers still sometimes report Demonic Corruption and post Counterattack Quests against the player.
- FIXED: Popup related to Demonic Structure attack repeatedly shows up sometimes.
- FIXED: Fleeing characters while having a butchering job will cause the villager to get stuck.
- FIXED: Snatched prisoners are inconsistently set as personal prisoner of the snatcher instead of the prisoner of the Demon Faction.
- FIXED: Berserked characters may indefinitely attack lakes.
- FIXED: Berserked characters may indefinitely attack the Excalibur.
- FIXED: Fixed missing text replacement on Take Shelter log.
- FIXED: Lycanthrope tooltip description does not fit when the afflicted has mastered it.
- FIXED: After a long playthrough, sometimes logs stop getting added.
- FIXED: Various Null Reference issues.

About the next update and The Steam Awards

Hi everyone! Our next update focused on the Plague and the new Biolab structure is coming tomorrow. Previous Saves will no longer be compatible so we hope you can wrap up your current playthroughs soon.

Also, there will be another Steam Awards coming soon. It would be very much appreciated if you would nominate us for Most Innovative Gameplay!

Update #2 Hotfix 2

Rename Characters

We've updated the Villager nameplate UI with a few useful changes. Most of these came from great suggestions from our Discord channel:
- An edit button to rename any character. Note: Maximum number of characters is 12
- Replaced Elven and Human texts with new icons to give more space for longer names and classes
- Changed name color of Wild Monsters, Undead and Demons everywhere for easier identification
- Monsters no longer have random names and will default their name to their monster type

Updated Villager UI

The previous Villager/Faction UI was a bit too huge so we thought of some ways to reduce its width.

Updated Faction Emblems

Around 30 new Faction Emblems have been added to the game, replacing the previous placeholder emblems.

Tweaks

- Vampires may now sometimes eat in the morning if they are Starving
- Food can now be ignited while it is being eaten
- Thick Walls can no longer be poisoned by the player
- Added a new Tutorial Popup when the player first experiences Low Mana
- Added some new thought bubble icons
- Villagers are now less likely to feel Worried when seeing other Freezing Villagers
- Added a clearer "No Target" popup when there is no valid Vampiric Embrace target
- When stealing corpses, a Villager will less likely target those that are in hostile Villages. NOTE: Steal Corpse Job uses a new Avoid Combat mechanic so those that are performing this will Flee and drop the job when a hostile gets in range
- Different witnesses/assumptions of the same crime will now be collected together rather than each have separate crime entries
- Added different combat/assault reasons based on context

Bug Fixes

- FIXED: Parties may sometimes still track and follow a seized monster
- FIXED: Evangelize and Dark Ritual can sometimes be performed without a Cultist Kit
- FIXED: Some tutorial pop-ups have overflowing texts
- FIXED: Demons and Villagers may sometimes stop attacking each other when a Prison gets destroyed while someone is being tortured inside it
- FIXED: Necromancer still uses the default Villager icon

Update #2 Hotfix

Hello! Today, we have a bunch of tweaks and bug fixes for the recent update.

TWEAKS

- Renamed Evangelize to Preach
- Added back Afflict action to Cultists
- Rephrased all accusation logs to include the name of the Accuser
- Updated Vampire and Lycanthropy tooltips to show whether the Villager loathes or enjoys being one.
- Updated Vampire and Lycanthropy tooltips to show which other Villagers are aware
- Reduced the number of steps in the Faction Tutorial
- Allowed Snatch to use Cultists even when not using the Lich Archetype
- Increased low mana regen to 15 per hour up to 45 Mana
- Starving vampires may now be enticed to drink someone's blood even in daytime when they see a valid victim
- Updated invalid popup to better describe why a Vampiric Embrace trigger flaw fails
- Removed Trigger Flaw once someone becomes a Necromancer

BUG FIXES

- FIXED: Various errors causing the Villagers and time to stop moving
- FIXED: Vampire Lords sometimes target tombstones when they want to have a blood prisoner
- FIXED: Switch Region arrow button sometimes gets covered by other UI elements
- FIXED: A Culitst Werewolf instructed to snatch a Villager gets stuck transforming back and forth
- FIXED: A Villager may sometimes visit a Tavern owned by a hostile Faction
- FIXED: Save Data issue related to a dead lycanthrope
- FIXED: A character that is being apprehended by a different Faction may be forced to leave its current Faction even if it isn't Wanted there
- FIXED: New arrivals may sometimes get stuck on Monster Lairs placed at the edge of a map
- FIXED: Logs may sometimes use the wrong pronouns on Cultists
- FIXED: A Villager may be able to pick up an object through a wall

Update #2: Fangs and Claws

Hello everyone! Our second Early Access update thematically revolves around Vampires, Werewolves and Cults - just in time for Halloween!

Please note that your previous Save Files will no longer work.

Vampires

- Vampires will no longer proceed with their Drink Blood action if there are witnesses around that consider it a crime.
- Vampires may transform to a bat to flee from combat or escape enclosed spaces if there are no witnesses around that consider it a crime.
- Vampire's Drink Blood action is only performed at night.
- Vampire's Drink Blood action has a significantly reduced chance of turning its victim into a Vampire.
- Vampires may be forced to Drink Blood of animals but this will give them a Poor Meal negative status afterwards.
- A new Vampiric Embrace action has been added that allows a Vampire to transform someone into another Vampire. A Vampire may do this on their own if they are unhappy or if they want to reanimate a dead loved one.
- Vampire Trigger Flaw is now Vampiric Embrace instead of Drink Blood.
- A Vampire may transform into a Vampire Lord! I'll leave it up to you to discover how it happens.
- A Vampire Lord may abduct a Villager and keep it in its home as a source of blood.
- Some Vampires dislike being one and may resist their urges.
- Shamans are able to remove Vampirism from friends and close friends if they become aware of it.
- Sometimes, a Village may enter a Vampire Hunt state where it is in a heightened alert against possible Vampires.
- While in Vampire Hunt state, Shamans will produce Phylacteries that non-Vampires can pick up to protect them from Drink Blood or Vampiric Embrace.
- While in Vampire Hunt state, Villagers moving around late night may be correctly or falsely accused of being a Vampire.
- While in Vampire Hunt state, a Villager may accuse someone of being a Vampire simply because they hate them.
- A new Hemophiliac trait has been added. These Villagers are supportive of Vampires!
- A new Hemophobic trait has been added. These Villagers hate Vampires!
- A new Reveres Vampires Faction Ideology has been added. This makes Vampirism legal and makes known Vampires more likely to be Faction Leaders and Settlement Rulers.
- A new Hates Vampires Faction Ideology has been added. This makes Vampirism a Heinous Crime.

Lycanthropes

- Lycanthropes still start off the same way as before - they sometimes unwillingly transform to a plain wolf at night. If they are able to survive this phase, they will eventually master their Lycanthropy and can transform to a powerful Werewolf at will.
- Master Lycanthropes can transform to a powerful Werewolf in combat - if there are no witnesses around that consider it a crime.
- Whenever a Lycanthrope transforms into a Wolf, it produces 1 Chaos Orb.
- Whenever a Lycanthrope transforms into a Werewolf, it produces 2 Chaos Orbs.
- Aside from your Afflictions, there is now another way for Villagers to become Lycanthropes!
- Master Lycanthropes may sometimes have the urge to hunt for prey.
- Some Lycanthropes dislike being one and may resist their urge to hunt for prey.
- Characters killed by a Werewolf will have Mangled (new Status) bodies.
- Shamans are able to remove Lycanthropy from friends and close friends if they become aware of it.
- Sometimes, a Village may enter a Werewolf Hunt state where it is in a heightened alert against possible Lycanthropes.
- While in Werewolf Hunt state, Shamans will produce Phylacteries that non-Lycanthropes can pick up to protect them from becoming Lycanthropes.
- While in Werewolf Hunt state, a Villager may accuse someone of being a Lycanthrope simply because they hate them.
- A new Lycanphiliac trait has been added. These Villagers are supportive of Lycanthropes!
- A new Lycanphobic trait has been added. These Villagers hate Lycanthropes!
- A new Reveres Lycans Faction Ideology has been added. This makes Lycanthropy legal and makes known Lycans more likely to be Faction Leaders and Settlement Rulers. This Faction will also not initiate combat versus Wolves and Werewolves.
- A new Hates Lycans Faction Ideology has been added. This makes Lycanthropy a Heinous Crime.

Cults

- A Cultist should no longer report another Cultist's crime unless they are directly affected.
- Cultists can become Necromancers even if they are not Evil or Treacherous.
- Cultist abilities have been revamped - aside from Evangelize, they have been given one different ability that the player can manually activate per Archetype.
- All Cultists can be instructed to Evangelize someone they personally know to try to turn them into Cultists.
- A Puppetmaster's Cultist can be instructed to Spread Rumor about someone they personally know.
- A Lich's Cultist can be instructed to Poison someone they personally know.
- A Ravager's Cultist can be instructed to Place Traps for someone they personally know. (Note: only available on Custom playthroughs with Omnipotent Mode)
- If the player has the Snatch ability, Cultists can be used to do it.
- All characters have their own personal religion. Elves are initially Nature Worshippers. Humans are initially Divine Worshippers. When someone becomes a Cultist, their personal religion becomes Demon Worship.
- Nature Worship, Divine Worship and Demon Worship can become a Crime depending on the Faction.
- Praying may be associated to Nature Worship, Divine Worship or Demon Worship depending on the character's Personal Religion.
- Chaos Orbs are produced when a Demon Worshipper prays.
- If the hidden requirements are satisfied, a Cultist can become a Cult Leader!
- A Cult Leader can be instructed to start its own Faction and create a new Village - if it's not a Faction Leader yet.
- Demon Cult Factions may be able to produce their own Bone Golems to defend their Villages - you'll have to figure out how this works!
- In the next update, we will allow players to instruct their Demon Cult Faction Leaders to declare war and start Raid Quests on other Factions.

Tweaks

- Players now have a new Repair Structure action to fully repair a damaged Demonic Structure.
- Villagers are now able to found a new Village.
- A new Faction Leader can change a Faction's Ideologies and Crimes. A Cultist for example will make Demon Worship legal. A Hemophobic will make Vampirisim a Heinous Crime.
- If there are no Worker-type Villagers in a Village, Combatant-type Villagers will be forced to perform Peasant-level Jobs but may not be very happy about it!
- Heinous Crimes may be punished by burning the accused on a stake.
- Prisoners may be freed when someone sees them restrained. This takes several factors into consideration.
- Villagers will more likely start with more Acquaintance-level relationships compared to previous version.
- Villagers that have recently changed Factions will not engage in combat with other Villagers from a warring Faction for a short duration. This reduces instances where a Villager may get attacked by its previous Village while moving away to its new Faction.
- Villagers are now less likely to hoard too many random items in their homes.
- Characters are now less likely to flee or cower in combat.
- Revamped the way Villagers perform Entertainment Recovery actions. This change makes it more likely for Villagers to be in Bored or Sulking status for longer periods of time if they have negative statuses such as Griefstricken and Heartbroken.
- A Villager that directly caused the death of another should no longer freeze in shock upon seeing its corpse.
- A Villager will no longer invite to make love someone in an Active Party.
- Flying characters like the Dragon and a Vampire's Bat form can now pass through walls.
- Reduced Lethargy duration.
- Added a new Major Events category for Logs and Notifications. These will have different containers in the Notifications List so players can quickly see them.
- Added an Undead icon for all members of the Undead Faction.
- Reduced per tick damage of Poisoned and Burning status.
- Increased duration of Heartbroken, Griefstricken and Betrayed status.
- Replaced Tool art asset.
- Added F8 as a hotkey to report bugs.
- Added the Living Roadmap on the Main Menu.

Bug Fixes

- FIXED: A Vigilant corpse can still witness and stop crimes targeting its dead body.
- FIXED: Characters sometimes flee in the same direction as the character it's fleeing from.
- FIXED: Rescue parties sometimes stop moving.
- FIXED: Rescue quest sometimes does not end even when the rescue target is already okay.
- FIXED: Berserked character can sometimes get stuck in combat.
- FIXED: A wolf may get stuck in combat state when you seize it and put it inside a cave while it is currently hunting for livestock.
- FIXED: Giant Spiders may multiply indefinitely.
- FIXED: Low Mana Regen does not trigger on the Tutorial Scenario.
- FIXED: Sometimes, Villagers may not drop their carried Resource Pile even if they have been distracted by another higher priority job.
- FIXED: A Psychopath may not be able to target its victim if the victim is too far away.
- FIXED: Villager that don't live on Villages get stuck when reporting a demonic structure.
- FIXED: Error encountered when a Mine Job is created even if there are no caves in the region.
- FIXED: Some Factions become hostile against Vagrants after loading a Save File.
- FIXED: Attacking Angels sometimes disappear after loading a Save File.