Build 4 Patch Notes:
Build 4 introduces the "Perks System" into Dead Monarchy. This will be the start of several updates that will slowly add more perks over the coming weeks. For the time being, the next few updates will be uploaded to an experimental branch of Steam, IE a "beta build". The changes in this build are quite drastic and so it will definitely affect existing save files. While still technically playable, it will affect how abilities are handled as abilities are no longer automatically given to the player when X weapon is equipped. You will have to start a new game. I predict at least 3-4 weeks of uploading to the experimental branch and then once things have stabilized a bit more, I'll transfer the changes over to the live build. So that means you have about a month or so to finish up any playthroughs without any interruptions. To clarify, the main reason these next few builds will be uploaded to the "experimental branch" is to not interrupt current playthroughs. Build 3.1 will remain as the stable branch for now, but if you are itching to see new things you should opt into the experimental branch. Instructions to opt into the beta/experimental branch: 1. Within the Steam library list, right click 'Dead Monarchy", then select "Properties". 2. Towards the top of the window that pops up, click the "Betas" tab. 3. A dropdown menu list will then appear, select "experimental - Experimental branch". 4. The game should then automatically download and update to this build. 5. Once you have booted up the game, if you see "Build 4" in the main menu, then you are good to go. NOTE: There is a bug related to displaying ability descriptions, I am looking into it now. Basically ability cooldowns are not shown in the ability tooltip, same goes for use count/charges. They are still properly displayed on the shortcut bar though.
Perks System:
Each character can gain up to 50 perk points, between level 1-50. Each perk/ability will cost 1 perk point. Each character can only select up to 6 active abilities (not implemented yet). I also plan to introduce global perk points for extremely OP perks. This means you can only have a certain amount of characters with that OP perk.
In the future, EXP will be updated again to make it so that levels past 50 are extremely hard to get, overall levels will be adjusted too, IE monster and equipment requirements. The idea is that anything above 50 is "veteran/champion" levels.
Progression within the perk trees is both vertical and horizontal. All weapon abilities have been transferred over to the perk trees. Most of the work is centered around longbow and crossbow in this update. The abilities are sorted into a column with each ability requiring a minimum level requirement. So the further you progress down the tree, the higher the level requirements will be. Future perks will do more specific things but for now, only the most basic perks have been added to longbow/crossbow sections.
As you can see from the image above, the root abilities all start on the furthermost left side. When you progress horizontally, there is no level requirements. The only prerequisite is the perk that came before it. For now only two "perk effect types" have been added. Perks that increase ability range and use count/charges and this only applies to ranged abilities.
As you progress horizontally as shown in the image above, you will gradually improve the ability. In the case of crossbow/longbows you are increasing the amount of times you can use the ability and the range of that ability.
So for example, if you are using a longbow and you want to acquire the infamous "Snap Shot" ability, then you need to be at least level 20. When you first get it, it will have a range of 4 and you can only use it once. As you upgrade it, you can upgrade the range to 6 and acquire 5 uses. So that means if you really want to, you can burst DPS and use all x5 Snap Shot uses in one turn. To get to that point, you would need to have 5 perk points and to be at least level 20.
To obtain the power of ranged combatants prior to Build 4, you would basically have to expend 25 perk points. Of course the beauty of it, is you can pick and choose your abilities now. There will also be perks that do more interesting things, for now I am just doing the most basic ones.
New Stuff:
- Two "perk effect types" have been introduced. Those two effect types total up to 50 perks if you include the base abilities that have been reworked into the perk tree itself. For now I will focus on the basic ones. The main goal of this build is to balance ranged combat and to transfer the "raw power" over into the perks tree.
- Swords now have a new combat idle animation.
- Maces now have a new combat idle animation.
- Hatchets now have a new combat idle animation.
Gameplay Tweaks:
- New parameter for Veteran and Monarch difficulties. On Veteran you still gain x2 EXP but bonus EXP is also rewarded to the warrior that lands the killing blow.
- Similar to Veteran, Monarch difficulty rewards EXP to the warrior that lands the killing blow but that is now the ONLY way to gain EXP. So a warrior that doesn't land the killing blow, won't get any EXP. (Highly experimental, Monarch is a difficulty setting used for measuring perks.)
- On Monarch difficultly, the Monarchs or "biome bosses" will have less restrictions. They can now spawn right away but still cannot spawn in level 1 missions or when a party has 3 or less warriors.
- Ranged weapon abilities no longer have cooldowns but have a limited amount of uses. The amount of uses for each ability can be upgraded in the perk tree. Ranged weapon abilities now have a base range of 4 tiles and can be increased through perks.
UI Updates:
- "Loot all" button has been implemented into the battle loot UI as requested by the community.
- All weapon abilities have been transferred to the perk trees. Equipping a weapon now only gives you the basic attacks. (Attack Body/Head, Break Helmet/Armor.)
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed the issue of not being able to rotate or individually end a warrior's turn when unarmed. Doesn't really change anything since in most cases you wouldn't be unarmed anyway, but another bug squashed nonetheless.
What's Next?
With Build 3.1 released, I feel the game has become quite stable now. There has been no reports of crashes and the major FPS issues have been fixed. So now, I will turn my attention towards working on the major features.
As mentioned, I will continue working on the perks system. I need to create basic perks for melee abilities. These basic perks would be different to ranged ability perks. No doubt things will become unbalanced again but as you know, I am more than willing to work with the community.
Aside from direct development on the game, I am still working with the freelance animator and modeler. Things are still progressing slowly with the freelance modeler, we are still in the concept phase for the weapon models. I have also been spending a little bit of time on putting together a few more armor sets. There is still a lot more work that needs to be done before these sets are "game ready" but I thought I'd drop a teaser.
The community has nearly hit 1.5k members, so thanks again to everyone for their continued support! It would mean a lot if you guys could leave a review as it really does help motivate me. ːsteamhappyː
Cheers,
Kevin.