Update 1.34

Hello everyone!

Update 1.34 is here with a bunch of new content, bug fixes and some changes (reverts really) to character development. Thank you everyone who commented on the recent feedback request regarding which char-dev system we should use going forward. Much like my own thoughts on the issue, it looked like there were some mixed opinions with a reasonable bias towards the old attribute system. So that being said and since, after a bunch of playthroughs I think I prefer the old system as well myself, we'l be reverting to attributes and working with them going forward. Obviously there's a lot of kinks to work out and balancing to be done but I think the game definitely feels better overall with the attributes rather than the skills.

I'll be continuing to release updates reasonably quickly I think going forward, each one with a bit more content, bug fixes, and polish. Since we're getting near to the end of development I'll also be posting a lot more feedback requests, maybe trying to hit one key aspect per update, just really trying to hammer everything into a nice final version.

So thanks as always for everyones feedback and support, now onto the update!


Reverted back to the previous system with:

• Attributes instead of skills.
  
• Encumbrance system based on strength.
  
• Attribute requirements for talents instead of levels.
  

I believe the system is mostly the same as it was before, but I'll be continuing to balance the actual numbers here over the course of the next few updates. There were a lot of good suggestions in the feedback thread on how to improve the system so I'll be taking a lot of that into account.


Really the major part of this update besides the char-dev. I'm working my way down the dungeon starting from the top and adding bosses wherever they seem to be missing. Also adding items wherever they were missing.

• The Upper Dungeon: Bojacks the Berserker, dropping a Bloodstained Axe.
  
• The Upper Dungeon: Argyl the Swift, dropping a Goblin Swiftbow.
  
• The Sunless Desert: Synax the Snake Charmer dropping the Serpent Fang Dagger.
  
• The Swamp: Fergus the Fungal King dropping a Mushroom Cap Shield.
  
• The King of Thieves now drops boots instead of the Serpent Fang Dagger.
  
• The Vampire Bat now drops the ring of vampirism.
  
• A bunch of vaults were added for the new bosses as well as new vaults for some of the existing ones.
  

A bunch of subtle balancing, changing enemy cooldowns, damage and hit points, generally making the end game a bit harder (it was getting to the point where surviving the first 8 levels or so made victory almost assured).

• Added restrictions to really weak items like (ex. short swords, short bows etc.) so they no longer drop in the deeper dungeon where they are pretty useless.
  
• Significantly reduced mana regen (back to where it was before) as part of the changes to character development.
  
• Added a ton of new tables for crystal chests, specifically for higher level items.
  
• Also added restrictions to crystal chests so they don't generate junk items at deeper dungeon levels.
  
• Reduced item drop rate a bit (way to many items in the late game).
  
• Reduced the frequency of Reward-Vaults a bit for the same reason as above.
  

• Enemies will no longer try to buff or heal arcane arrows, fire orbs etc.
  
• Cone of Cold now works through opaque clouds.
  
• Cone of Cold and Burst of wind will no longer pass through pillars.
  
• Freezing Clouds will now be correctly created on platform walls.
  
• Chakrams can now be targeted over platform walls.
  
• Enemies that have a slight randomness to their movement will just move normally when dominated or charmed (they wouldn't follow you nicely due to their random movement).
  
• Javelins will now work with sneak attacks.
  
• Fixed crash: blinking onto pits.
  
• Fixed interactions with perfect aim and 'chest high walls / objects' like tables.
  
• Stairs will no longer be placed in view of drop walls.
  
• Killing an enemy that produces a gas cloud on death with fire will no longer immediately burn the gas.
  

Balance:

• Scaled enemy hp a bit higher, particularly in the later half of the game. Lots of people were noticing the game was a lot easier, myself included, so this should patch that up again. As is always the case, I'm just trying to keep balance 'good enough' until the game is basically complete.
  
• Dex now only grants a 1 movement point per 2 dex (as was the case previously).
  
• All staves now grant some kind of spell casting bonus (mana, magicPow, specific elemental focus etc.). This should provide some differentiation between staves and other range options, with bows and such always being superior weapons. I'm open to suggestions on how else to differentiate the two weapon classes.
  
• Level-up heal now also removes poison or any other negative status effects.
  

Bugs-and-Crashes

• Fixed all the attribute rings giving strength instead of the actual attribute.
  
• Gloves of strength and dexterity now give the attribute rather than raw damage bonus.
  
• The movement point bar was extending past the limits when placing points in dexterity.
  
• The players allies will no longer attempt to attack orbs or any indestructible 'characters'.
  
• Gold and items will not longer spawn on timed gates, making it impossible to read the time.
  
• Fixed: you could not use movement points to swap with an ally but you could swap if you just targeted past them.
  
• Spawners (ex. rat nests) now give exp for all unspawned creatures so its not beneficial to stand around farming them. This was already a thing but was commented out in the code for mysterious reasons now lost to the ravages of time.
  
• Arcane arrows were giving exp every time they 'burst'. Has this always been a thing lol?
  
• Fixed intelligence description to list magicPow as 5% rather than 10%
  
• Fixed characters not being able to raise attributes to the supposed cap based on their race/class.
  
• Group buffs (ex. shield of flames) were still being cast on invalid targets.
  
• Burst of Wind was not knocking back or damaging enemies that were stacked up.
  
• Enemies that blink their allies near the player will no longer blink those allies onto traps or over pits.
  

Just as a side note, Umbrs discovery of a Rogue Fable version of the 'peasant railgun' (posted in the discord bugs-and-crashes), gave me a legitimate LOL this morning, so well done :P

Bugs-and-Crashes

• Shooting a trap w/ a Runic Staff of Death will no longer crash the game
  
• Upgrading a talent w/ a cooldown will now reset the cooldown to 0
  
• Enchanting a wand that is recharging will now reset its cooldown to 0.
  
• Using < to goto the upstairs while levitating over a pit will no longer cause you to descend the pit.
  
• Fixed a bug where storm shot on a reflective enemy would cause all subsequent arrows to fire in the reflected direction.
  
• Fixed blink not working past closed gates.
  
• Scrolls of teleportation will now search for a destination tile by flood searching the map starting at the up stairs. This will stop the player from teleporting into inaccessible areas while still allowing teleport to get you out of otherwise trapped positions. The issue here was that previously it was flooding from the players position so if you had blinked into a treasure vault, a teleport scroll wouldn't get you out.
  
• Fixed charging enemies passing through objects directly in front of them on the first turn.
  
• Fixed random attribute gains from fountains and levelups giving already maxed attributes.
  
• The Queen Spider will no longer lay eggs once dominated since the resulting spiders would either have to be hostile (not good) or else on the players side which would allow for infinite allies (also not good). Let me know if there are any other enemy abilities that might need to be flagged with this dontUseIfCharmed tag.
  
• Fixed charms being consumed when used rather than going on cooldown.
  
• Fixed issue with boss monsters dropping multiple copies of their items if killed by multiple damage sources at the same time.
  
• Fixed storm shot projectiles being blocked by low height objects when adjacent to the player.
  
• Fixed the librarian still listing level requirements on talents rather than the new attribute reqs.
  
• Fixed some drop wall rooms in the core that were not triggering and leaving the enemies trapped and visible via telepathy.
  
• Fixed a crash when using MvP to swap with a dominated enemy caster that is currently in the middle of casting fire storm.
  
• Fixed the movement bar extending past the bounds when upgrading the athletics talent.
  
• The level up message will no longer end the turn when clicking 'OK'. Technically what was happening was the player was leveling up on an enemies turn and then subsequent enemies in the turn order were making their moves when you clicked 'OK'. So now level up just forces it to be the players turn.
  
• Fixed a generation bug where 2 x copies of lockjaw would spawn on the same level.
  
• Fixed issue where cone of cold would not knock back 2 large enemies in a line.
  
• Fixed a generation bug where the merchant would stock his inventory multiple times. Previously the merchant would stock his inventory, adding new items to the global merchant inventory, when he was created. However, level-gen has many fail states that can cause it to re-gen multiple times behind the scenes and this was causing multiple stockings. So now the merchant inventory is only stocked once level-gen has successfully completed.
  

Balance:

• As part of an overall push to remove obscure stats, resistance will now just display as a % (same underlying mechanics and values). There might be some slight discrepancies that will be balanced for over time.
  
• Slightly reduced some cooldowns on various enemies making them use their abilities faster.
  
• The Cat Lord now drops a Ring of Dexterity when killed
  
• The Slime King now deals damage when he tosses his baby slimes at you.
  
• Orc Armor, Elven Chain and Wizardry Armor now grants STR, DEX, and INT respectively rather than raw stats. I think the option to raise attributes with equipment is quite critical to broadening your build in the later half of the game.
  
• Attribute rings now grant +2 to the attribute
  
• Reduced the weight of all armor in the 'body' slot by a bit since a lot of it was a bit absurd.
  

User-Interface:

• Some cleanup on the character screen, lining up the attribute and talent panels nicely.
  
• Moved the inventory to the center of the character screen to put some distance between all the text.