Hello everyone! The day has finally come: Rags to Riches is now available for download! This is the largest update in the game's history, adding and overhauling a dozen major systems. We're confident that for most of you, it will transform Stoneshard into a brand new experience. Let's dive right into it - the patch notes are below. Keep in mind that these don't cover the full scope of changes and additions, as many of them have been deliberately omitted or only vaguely described. Rags to Riches alters the game in many ways, and we want to leave enough surprises even for seasoned players.

MAIN FEATURES

This update is not compatible with old saves and will require you to start a new game. If you want to complete your old playthrough, make sure to follow this guide.

• Caravan. A fully functional Caravan System that allows for fast travels over large distances using a special resource - fodder. It also comes with an option to directly purchase items into the Caravan Storage (or sell from it) when the Caravan is parked near settlements.
• Caravan Upgrades. 24 upgrades that will introduce additional utility to your Camp and improve the Caravan's overall efficiency.
• Caravan Followers. Recruit up to three non-combat companions, each with their own unique specialization, perks, events, and dialogues.
• Overhauled Dungeons. The Dungeon Generator was reworked from scratch - small rooms and narrow corridors have been replaced with massive halls, their visuals and structure properly reflecting each dungeon's type and tier.
• Reworked contracts. A wider variety of contract types and objectives. New dialogues for requesting additional information about the job, asking for an advance, and haggle for a better pay. Consequences for failing contracts and their behind-the-scenes completion by rival mercenaries. Contracts can now also be turned in to different NPCs for a higher monetary reward or additional local or Brynn Reputation.
• Dungeon Conditions. Unique effects that introduce new challenges to dungeon exploration and increase the reward for completing the contracts tied to them.
• Enhanced Economy. Dynamic and responsive supply and demand, commodity trading, as well as flexible traders' stocks and preferences.
• Denbrie. The fourth and final settlement of the Grand Magistrate, utterly devastated by the war.
• Situations. 9 unique Settlement Situations, providing additional opportunities or offering new challenges.
• Outskirts. 10 new locations and 60+ new NPC with their own dialogues, roles, and goods for sale.
• Revised Global Map. Adjusted the map generation algorithms and the placement of locations to ensure a smoother progression. Added contracts to the Rotten Willow Tavern.
• Cooking System. 40 unique recipes, each offering various advantages along with the possibility of adding spices to further customize their effects.
• Crafting System. 15 schematics for creating useful consumables in the field.
• Reworked Progression. All equipment, enemies, and dungeons have been rebalanced to challenge even high-level characters.
• Reworked the Loot System.
• Reworked the Spawn System.
• Reworked Reputation Perks.
• Reworked the Noise System.
• Reworked the AI States System.
• Updated and improved many dialogues.
• QoL improvements: faster character movement, trade hovers, the ability to store small valuables in purses and caskets, and much more.
• 5 new bags, each with its own distinct purpose.
• 7 new Undead minibosses.
• New items: 35+ new pieces of equipment, 15 valuables, and 10 new ingredients.
• Balance changes: a complete rework of all the equipment, abilities, and enemy stats. Survival tree overhaul.
• 12 new Steam achievements.
• Updated Prologue.
• Numerous bug fixes.

IMPORTANT: Due to the extensive amount of text work carried out in Rags to Riches, many translators were unable to complete the localization in time. We recommend playing in English to avoid outdated text. Unfinished localizations will be completed in upcoming hotfixes and patches. Special thanks to @MassBlin, @Lymetel, @djxput, @Mallagar, @funkmonster7, @Denizu, @Mindwitness, @RedOrder, @iamyoyoman, @Gura, @SleepyDummy, @das Halgrim, @Milchritter, @Kjokkenmoddinger, @Cyborgwars, @Kay_Win, @DacianDraco, @Joe Mad, @Psojed, @qbuben for taking part in the closed test and making the public launch better for everyone.

OTHER CHANGES

• Dungeons are now generated upon entry - if your character dies and re-enters them, it will produce a new layout (unless the save was made after the dungeon was already generated).
• Traders' stocks now use a seed system, rather than being generated when a player accesses them for the first time after a reset.
• Reworked the system for resetting locations. This will also affect any items dropped in settlements, which will now be removed after a certain time.
• The difficulty of open world encounters no longer fully depends on your characters' level. Instead, the type of enemies you will run into will depend on global map zones. Zones may become more dangerous over time but only up to zone-specific limits.
• Changed the system for resetting and repopulating dungeons to a more deterministic one. Regenerated dungeons can no longer degrade to a lower tier.
• All dungeons now use preset names.
• Added a tanner NPC to Mannshire.
• Added a new stat: Crit Avoidance, which reduces the probability of enemy crits.
• Special Elemental and Magical effects no longer rely on RNG. For example, Burning will now be guaranteed to trigger after dealing sufficient Fire Damage to the target, scaling non-linearly with the target's maximum health.
• Enemies can now use Charge skills to preemptively close large distances, not just to initiate combat.
• Animals will no longer skip their threat phase if they were previously fighting another target
• Fixed the issue causing the reduction of Max Health before actually taking damage.
• Enchanted and magical items are now sold at slightly higher prices than regular ones.
• The chance of receiving armor fragments via Self-Repair has been significantly increased, now scaling with the enemy's Armor Durability upon their death
• Changed the requirements for certain Steam achievements.

BALANCE

• Skills can now be unlocked after reaching the minimal character level, reducing reliance on finding random treatises when building non-optimal stats. However, level requirements are still significantly higher than corresponding attribute thresholds.
• Counterattacks now strike twice when using dual weapons.
• Change experience requirements for leveling, along with a rebalance of most experience sources.
• Existing bosses (Archon, Ancient Troll, [spoiler]Manticore[/spoiler]) have received a new passive, Indomitable, which prevents the cooldowns of their abilities from being affected by outside sources.
• Rebalanced every piece of equipment to properly work with the new tier system.
• Rebalanced medical consumables.
• Rebalanced ammunition stats.
• Rebalanced food stats.
• Rebalanced herb stats.
• Rebalanced Injuries' effects and their impact on Pain accumulation.
• Reduced the base coefficient of damage taken by enemy Armor, increasing the importance of Armor Penetration and Armor Damage stats.
• Health regeneration now fully halts during combat instead of pausing for 10 turns after taking damage.
• Critical strikes no longer deal at least 1 damage even through full blocks.
• Increased the impact of active debuffs on the Rest Mode's efficiency.
• Rebalanced the effects of Drunkenness
• Reduced the impact of Fatigue on Max Energy, but increased its gain from multiple sources.
• Removed the hidden Accuracy and Fumble Chance bonus from Attack skills.
• Increased the impact of character actions on enemies' Will to Fight
• Changed the gravedigging mechanic: digging graves will take less time, but will take a toll on your Morale even before you finish digging them up.
• The Surgeon's Toolkit now uses a non-linear formula for pain accumulation, improving its feasibility when treating light and moderate injuries.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Let's briefly discuss our plans for the future. In the coming weeks, we plan to collect player feedback and release several hotfixes and minor patches. Since the Rags to Riches update is extremely comprehensive, some features may be unstable or not work perfectly - we'll do our best to address it as quickly as possible. This includes adding some content that was originally planned for the update but ended up temporarily removed or unfinished for various reasons. This primarily involves:

• Certain new items
• Additional contract types for Bastions
• Bastion Conditions
• Caves and rare plants
• Some Follower events
• Some description, dialogues, and localizations

The rest of the announced changes are already present and can be encountered in the game right now. After wrapping up post-release support for Rags to Riches, well release a new Roadmap outlining the next update. This will happen early next year, and we're quite certain youll like what we have planned! See you soon, mercenaries. Good luck on your journeys through Aldor!

[ 2024-12-16 15:05:03 CET ] [ Original post ]