Its been over seven months since the last version of NovaMundi, I did a preview post back on May 31 of what was coming, but the new version is finally out! I will try to summarize what we are shipping here:
Combat Areas At long last, there are now several maps where combat takes place, based on whether you are close to a town, or the biome where the engagement took place (plains, forests, wetlands or even mountain pramos); additionally the maps are much bigger now, so instead of a simple faceoff youll have to maneuver your units around to meet your enemies.
Overworld Movement Time compression has been removed, instead you will be able to sprint in the overworld, to move quicker at the expense of stamina. This will allow you to maneuver and evade chasing expeditions or animal packs. These chasing expeditions are now affected by terrain, as well as the visibility of your expedition (so they will move slower if they cannot see you while you are in a forest or during the night). Your party itself will move slower during nigh time as well, since you never know what you are going to step into. A critical fix was implemented to the lost track checks, so it should now be possibly to lose them without walking for days. Invaders Camps You will now see invader camps scattered thru the map. You can decide to raid them for some cool lot in exchange for a hard battle.
New Weapon: Blowgun Blowguns have been reintroduced to the new units model; you can now equip and use them. They have extra range and can inflict negative status effects in your enemies however, you are most likely to suffer these maladies in your own party, as the enemy groups often have a couple of these guys at least. So keep some healing herbs around! Combat Flow The combat flow has been improved with attack animations now playing continuously instead of breaking to idle status, this makes battles feel much more exciting. Additionally, units now move MUCH quicker in battle, they actually run this time! Icons and UI With her passage through Slashware, talented illustrator Alicia Mendez (who also did a lot of foundational work for Yuhalak) left us some sweet icons for: The perks you can use to personalize your runs The status effects for units (poisoned, sick, healing, etc) The modifiers for items (magical, high/low quality, special, etc)
She also helped us with some UI art for the floating dialogs which make the game looks much more smooth. The item modifier icons are also shown now in the unit detail panel, so its easier to check what kind of stuff you have on. Camping Camping has been simplified: You no longer have to carry tents around, or pick up the camp manually when you finish using it. You can also now be ambushed by wild enemies, and they are no joke! A cap was also introduced to prevent consecutive ambushes during the same night. Discoveries Animal discoveries have been divided between big animals and small critters; small critters continue working mostly the same but are uncapable of causing a lot of damage to many party members (some of them wont even do any damage). Big animals will now spawn hostile wild animal packs that will attack you most of time time, and they are no joke! They have been integrated more seriously into combat, you can now see their remaining hit points and other stats when clicking on them.
Discoveries also now provide a reputation bonus (that you can use to hire units); their overworld icons have been changed and you will now be able to see them from afar. For plan discoveries you will now get a notification of the amount of items you grabbed as well. UI Art Art by Inkiluana has been added to the game over screen which had been neglected for too long.
The main menu art has been replaced back with the beautiful art created by Simernio, years ago. Caverns (Duitama Cave for now) Some small fixes were made before focusing in the spelunking facet, likely coming next month; giant spiders were fixed so they can actually attack, and other animals were added to the cave for variety. The number of spawned enemies was also increased. And a blue shimmering light was added to the altar so you dont miss it. And thats it for now! I hope you find these changes exciting we continue working towards the full release, keep an eye out!