Introducing the Desert - a whole new biome with exotic creatures and new items & mechanics. Also included is a new melee skill "Warrapt", an overhaul to the Chivalry skill, and changes to character creation. Save files from v0.5.0 are NOT compatible.

Desert Biome

This new biome is teeming with danger, with predatory Wyrms and Scorpions lurking beneath the sands. Staying safe requires strategically navigating between the smaller rocky islands amid a vast ocean of sand.
Map Generation The world map generates with at least one expansive desert region, interspersed with smaller desert patches.
The Desert Dwellers The desert is now home to seven new creatures: Sand Wyrm, Dune Flyer, Silt Strider, Sandscale Viper, Sandshell Prowler, Sandshell Titan, and Desert Scorpion.
Surviving the Heat Be wary of accumulating "Sunscorched" wounds, which can be cured by consuming cactus fruit, or through a medicine item. Sunscorch accumulates as you traverse the scorching desert but dissipates quickly in cooler biomes.
Plants & Potions Four new harvestable plants can be used to brew five newly-added potions: Bulwark Extract, Fireflash, Sunhorn Elixir, Dalaar Deflection, and Blossomguard Brew.

Warrapt

We've added a new skill "Warrapt", which includes 20 new abilities and passives.

• Designed as a generalist melee skill, Warrapt synergizes well with all melee weapon types and offers new build paths with both defensive and offensive options.
• The skill is available for all background types.

Chivalry

Chivalry has received a significant update, featuring new abilities, upgrades, and a unique "Oaths" mechanic.

• Added abilities: "Oath of the Fallen," "Vanguard's Edge," "Last Stand," "Otherworldly Protection," and "Knight's Challenge."
• Removed "Shield Bash", "Parry", and "Riposte", which are now included in the Warrapt skill.
• The Knight now starts with the item "Letter to a Fellow Knight," directing players to the nearest Altar of Ahnais.

As part of this change we've refined the Knight's background lore for better coherence with the game world, removing all references to Arthurian knighthoodno more 'Sirs,' Squires, or medieval titles. Instead, Knights are now envisioned as defenders of good, intrinsically linked to an ancient order called the Knights of Ahnais (more to be revealed as we progress on the main story and add Knight NPCs to the game world).

Altar of Ahnais

Forests, Plains, and Deserts now have a chance to spawn an Altar of Ahnais.
These Altars are closely related to the new "Oaths" mechanic in Chivalry. By slaying beasts, the Knight can collect "Oaths of the Fallen," which may be offered at the Altar for rewards.
This Altar is the first of many special map features to come. We imagine a world filled with relics and altars, each offering unique effects or services, relating to specific guilds, quests, and world lore. While currently only usable by the Knight, future updates will introduce a secondary effect to the Altar of Ahnais, accessible by all classes.

Character Creation

Starting items are now shown as part of character creation, and can be rerolled an unlimited times.
Other Changes

• Added new music for Character Creation.
• Updated the UI to better match in-game art.

Warding

We've introduced three new stats: Physical Warding, Mental Warding, and Magic Warding.

• Physical Warding offers a percentage chance to negate physical-based debuffs like temporary poisons or blindness during combat.
• Mental Warding provides a chance to shrug off mental-based impairments such as shouts or fears.
• Magic Warding protects against magic-based negative status effects, including hexes.
• Added +5% physical warding to the knowledge ability "Stoic Perspective".
• Added new knowledge abilities "Astral Repel" (requires a book to unlock), and "Bodily Sutra" which both reward warding.
• Added 2 new enchantments "Mindmeld", "Stalwart", which give warding.
• Added a physical warding bonus to the enchantment "Resilience".

In addition to the aforementioned enchantments and Knowledge abilities, these new warding stats have been included in abilities within both Chivalry and Warrapt. We recognized a gap in the combat systemplayers had no way to defend against various debuffs that didn't qualify as wounds. These warding stats aim to address this.

Ability Time

All activated abilities now show their use time in the tooltip.
Since several passives now give increased ability speed, it felt right to show the exact time cost on all ability icons which can be seen on the bottom right. As part of this change we've standardized how ability activation speed works, going through all abilities and specifying how their speed works in a more precise way. Note that some abilities are based on the speed of your equipped weapon, while others like 'Reload' or 'Mark Prey' have their own intrinsic.

Other Changes

• Added new option "Log Weapon Used". Enable this option to show details of the weapons used by both the player and enemy units in the text log.
• Added 3 new enchantments: "Quickdraw", "Celerity", and "Mindmeld". Changed crafting costs and stat balance of various other enchantments.
• The notification log now shows deaths-by-status effects so that monsters in players vision that bleed to death, succumb to poison, or touch an "Essence Conduit" result in a notification.
• Removed reduced energy recovery from Frostbite wound.
• Updated medicine item Soothing Balm to also cure sunscorch
• Rebalanced potion prices.
• Added new lore book "Dreamer's Tryst with the Ether".
• Removed stat "Tenacity Resist". In all places "Tenacity Resist" was used, replaced with "Stun Resist", and "Knockback Resist". This stat was originally intended to do what warding now does (and did not work correctly).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed text-wrapping issues in the notification log. Lines of text too long to fit now wrap to a new line.
• Fixed issue with drop down menus, where clicking an item in a drop down menu would sometimes select the UI element below the drop down menu.
• Implemented more robust handling of zone state changes. This fixes issues, related to quickly changing zones or reloading the game.
• Fixed UI scaling not working during character creation.

[ 2023-10-02 05:23:47 CET ] [ Original post ]