Greetings Wizards!
This patch focuses on spell upgrades, with a few significant gameplay features as well, and a bit of new content sprinkled in as well. Read on:
General Gameplay:
Added combat log UI to game. Press m to open it. Hopefully comes in handy during some of the weirder more complex turns!
(For those who like to browse files: logs are now split per save, rather than overwritten each time. Furthermore, they are also available split by level and by turn, to make finding data easier.)
Inventory size is now limited to 10. I did this for 2 reasons- to discourage hoarding, to avoid situations where the player inventory is so large that the option space becomes overwhelming (something RW frequently struggles with!), and because I have no elegant UI solution for the player having so many items.
The Line of Sight algorithm has been changed from restrictive precise angle shadowcasting to permissive field of view. The gameplay impact of this change is that more squares are visible from any given square. The goal is to make LOS more intuitive and easy to guess- though of course the CTRL key still works.
(The previous choice to use the restrictive algorithm was driven by a desire to not allow beam spells to cause beams to penetrate through walls- the restrictive algorithm does this quite easily, but it turns out, it is also possible to construct beams between any 2 points visible with the permissive algorithm as well.)
If you'd like to read more about the two algorithms, check out roguebasins write up on the matter ]here.
Creatures are now more willing to divert their path around stationary units blocking their path (stationary units which block a path are now counted as equivalent to a 50 tile detour, previously, they counted as equal to a 10 tile detour)
Fixed a bug where living scrolls would sometimes not disappear after casting themselves
Fixed a *myriad* of tooltips, rare crash bugs, and threat display bugs- thanks to the community for helping to find and identify these!
Levels will now tend to be bordered by either walls or chasms, so as to seem more like isolated realms. This was done purely for aesthetic reasons, but I like the gameplay effect of slightly lower max level size as well.
Spawner HP decreased by 1. (This reduces the number of casts required of 9 damage spell to kill a level 1 spawner by 1)
Reincarnation buff now reincarnates creatures with the same max hp and shields they had when they gained the buff
Fixed bug where creatures that respawned as others would use their current flyingness instead of new flyingness to determine an appropriate spawn point (resulted in vampires disappearing if you chased their bats deep enough into a big chasm)
Fixed bug where changing speed would close the options menu (dear fellow programmers: be careful with your gotos, and remember that break and continue statements are just gotos!)
Fixed some bugs with tab previewing of portals in deploy mode
Reworked achievement tracking. Achievements must now be earned on one machine- aka,, you cannot 5 winstreak on a desktop and a laptop at the same time (there are some edge cases here that are hard to resolve- what if you start 5 games on 5 machines simultaneously, and win them all? What if you simply leave the runs midway through, and keep buying more machines (or making more RW installations) until you have 5 good runs going, leaving the others in purgatory forever- is that a winstreak when you finish???). I'm a little bit sad that some of the simpler achievements (aka, 'get 5 wins') will now have to be completed on one machine, but this reduction in technical complexity will allow me to focus more on feature work and less on various maddening, hard to reproduce cheevo bugs.
Items:
Dragon horn now has a 1/3rd chance to summon ice, gold, or void drakes instead of fire/storm drakes
Monsters:
Added 1 new monster: Gargoyle
Added 4 new variant monsters: Mega Gargoyles, Fire Gargoyles, Ice Gargoyles, Aelf Arachnomancers
Added 2 high level monsters: Energy Knight, Twilight Knight
Added 5 new rare monsters: Twilight Seer, Fire Wizard, Enchanter, Translocator, Mechanomancer
Shrines:
White Candle Shrine: now gives a projectile attack rather than an aura (the aura was *ridiculous* on any multi summon... but you can still get it on seraph if you like! read on..)
Grey Bone Shrine: no longer applies buffs to the bone shamblers from the original spell (aka no getting minion health bonuses on wolf to *also* apply to the shamblers your wolves made)
Chaos Conductance Shrine: the redealing of damage is now enemy only (though you still have to damage your own minions to proc it)
Added 2 new shrines: elemental harvest (gain charges on ice/fire/lightning spells by killing ice/fire/lightning creatures), and icy spriggan (summon an icy spriggan on a nature or ice spell)
Spells:
Fireball upgrades:
Chaos Ball: fireball randomly deals physical, lightning, or fire damage. Enemies will always take the damage type they are least resistant to. 3SP.
Energy Ball: fireball randomly deals arcane, holy, or fire damage. Enemies will always take the damage type they are least resistant to. 4SP.
Ash Ball: fireball randomly deals poison, dark, or fire damage. Enemies will always take the damage type they are least resistant to. Applies blind for 1 turn. 5SP.
(The ball upgrade are all exclusive to each other)
Lightning Bolt upgrades:
Wall penetration upgrade removed.
Judgement Bolt: lightning bolt also deals dark and holy damage (triple damage total). 6SP.
Energy Bolt: lightning bolt also deals fire and arcane damage (triple damage total). 6SP.
(The bolt upgrades are all exclusive to each other)
Annihilate:
range 5->6
Mega Annihilate:
range 5->6
Cascade upgrade cost 4->3
Teleport upgrades:
Void Teleport: teleport deals 1 arcane damage to all enemy units in line of sight of the target equal to its maximum number of charges. 5SP.
Blink upgrades:
Lightning Blink: Blink deals lightning damage in a 3 tile burst upon arrival equal to the distance travelled. 4SP.
Dark Blink: Blink deals dark damage in a 3 tile burst upon arrival equal to the distance travelled. 4SP.
(The blink upgrades are exclusive to each other)
Thunderstrike:
Heavenstrike: thunderstrike now also deals holy damage. 4SP.
Wolf upgrades:
Blood Hound: summon a blood hound instead of a wolf, which gain a temp damage buff each time they attack (and are demons). 3SP
Clay Hound: summon a clay hound instead of a wolf, which have various resistances, and regenerate HP. 3SP
Ice Hound: summon an ice hound instead of a wolf, which deals and is immune to ice damage. 3SP.
(These 3 upgrades are exclusive to each other)
Wolf pack: Each cast of wolves consumes 2 charges and summons 4 wolves. 8SP.
Giant bear upgrades:
Armored Bear: Summons an armored bear instead of a giant bear. Armored bears have higher HP and resist physical, but are vulnerable to lightning. 3SP.
Venom Bear: Summons a venom bear instead of a giant bear. Venom bears have a poison bite, and heal whenever any enemy takes poison damage. (This is basically the same as the venom beast spell, and that spell has been removed). 4SP.
Blood Bear: Summons a blood bear instead of a giant bear. 5SP.
(These upgrades are exclusive to each other)
Prison of thorns upgrades:
Iron Prison: summon iron thorns instead of normal thorns, which deal more damage and are resistant to many forms of damage. 5SP.
Icy Prison: summon icy thorns instead of normal thorns, which have a ranged ice attack. 6SP.
Bloodlust upgrades:
Holy Fury: now also impacts holy damage. 3SP.
Dark Fury: now also impacts dark damage. 3SP.
Regeneration Aura
Global cost 2->4
Eye of rage upgrade:
Lycanthropy: when eye of rage targets a living unit with 25 hp or less, that unit is instantly killed and raised as a friendly werewolf. That werewolf is berserked for 14 turns.
Nightmare Aura upgrades:
Dark Dream: Upon expiring, temporarily summons an army of ravens, werewolves and old witches. The army's size depends on how much total damage nightmare dealt. 5SP.
Electric Dream: Upon expiring, temporarily summons an army of spark spirits, thunderbirds, and aelves. The army's size depends on how much total damage nightmare dealt. 5SP.
Fever Dream: Upon expiring, temporarily summons an army of fire lizards, fire spirits, and flame rifts. The army's size depends on how much total damage nightmare dealt. 5SP.
(These upgrades are exclusive to each other)
Imp Swarm upgrades:
Metal Swarm: summons copper imps instead of spark imps and furnace imps instead of fire imps. 6SP.
Dark Swarm: summons rot imps, void imps, and insanity imps instead of the default imps. 5SP.
Mega Swarm: summons giant imps instead of normal sized ones. 7SP.
(These upgrades are exclusive to each other)
Orbs now path towards their destination each turn instead of following a set path.
Flame Burst upgrades:
Bright Flame: Flame burst deals holy instead of fire damage. Allies in the blast are shielded instead of damaged. 6SP.
Spreading Flame: Casting flame burst consumes all of its charges. Each consumed charge grants +1 radius and +1 damage. Slain enemies create additional explosions with half radius and damage. 7SP.
Wall melt upgrade cost 3->4, renamed melting flame.
(These 3 upgrades are now exclusive to each other)
Fire Drake upgrade:
Dragon Mage: fire drake can now cast your fireball spell. 6SP.
Storm Drake upgrades:
Dragon Mage: storm drake can now cast your lightning bolt spell. 6SP
Lightning Swap: targeting storm drake with a lightning spell will cause you to swap places with it. 2SP.
Void Drake upgrades:
Dragon Mage: void drake can now cast your magic missile spell. 5SP.
Essence Drake: whenever void drake kills an enemy, a random temporary ally gains +4 duration. 4SP.
Ice Drake upgrade:
Dragon Mage: ice drake can now cast your Death Chill spell. 5SP.
Gold Drake upgrades:
Dragon Mage: gold drake can now cast your Healing Light spell with a 15 turn cooldown. 6SP.
Gold Guardian: Gain a free charge for gold drake whenever you enter a rift containing atleast 1 demon or undead unit. 2SP.
Chain Lightning upgrades:
Cloud Conductance: Chain Lightning can arc to blizzards and storm clouds. 3SP.
Lightning Shield: Chain Lightning can arc to friendly targets. Friendly units hit by chain lightning gain 1 SH instead of taking damage, up to a maximum of 3SH. 6SP.
Death Bolt upgrades:
Withering: Non living units damaged by death bolt lose max hp equal to the damage dealt. 2SP.
Soul Battery: Deathbolt permanently gains 1 damage whenever it slays a living target. 6SP.
Wheel of Death upgrades:
damage upgrade removed
Death Roulette: On kill, gain a roulette stack for 10 turns. Wheel of death hits 1 additional enemy per roulette stack you have at cast time. 7SP.
Touch of Death upgrades:
Touch of the Raven: When a living target is slain, it is raised as a raven. 2SP.
Touch of the Reaper: When a living target is slain, it is raised as a reaper for 6 turns. 6SP.
(Touch of death can be upgraded with only one raise-dead type upgrade, including the existing vampire upgrade)
Earthen Sentinel:
charges 7->5
attack upgrade removed
3 new upgrades:
Earthquake Totem: earthen sentinel gains your earthquake spell on a 3 turn cooldown. 6SP.
Stinging Totem: earthen sentinel gains your poison sting spell. 5SP.
Holy Totem: earthen sentinel gains your Heavenly Blast spell on a 2 turn cooldown. 7SP.
Mystic Memory
level 4->6
Conjure Memories:
Fixed bug where if a spell had a charges upgrade but was at its unupgraded max, it could not gain charges from conjure memories
Death Gaze upgrade:
Vampiric: Each allied unit heals for 100% of the damage its beam deals. 4SP.
Magic Missile upgrades:
Max charges: +15 for 2SP
Slaughter Bolt: When targeting a living unit, magic missile deals poison, dark, and physical damage instead of arcane (dealing triple damage). 4SP.
Holy Bolt: When targeting an undead unit, magic missile deals holy damage in addition to arcane damage (dealing double damage). 4SP.
Disruption Bolt: When targeting an arcane unit, magic missile deals dark and holy instead of arcane (dealing double damage). 6SP.
(Only one bolt upgrade can be purchased)
Melt upgrade:
Ice Penetration: Melt also reduces ice resist by 100. 3SP.
Blue Lion upgrade:
Holy Bolt: Blue lions melee attack is replaced by a range 6 holy attack. 4SP.
Fae Court upgrades:
Fae Queen 6->7SP
Glass Fae: Summon glass faeries instead of normal ones. 9SP.
Holy Blast upgrades:
Spirit Bind: Slain enemies create temporary spirits. Spirits are blinking holy undead with 4HP and a 2 damage ranged holy attack. 6SP.
Shield: Affected ally units gain 2SH, to a max of 5. 3SP.
Echo Heal: Affected ally units are rehealed for half the initial amount each turn for 5 turns. 4SH.
Heaven's Wrath upgrades:
num targets upgrade removed
Culling: Heaven's wrath also damages the units with the lowest current HP.
Blinding Light upgrade:
Duration: +4 for 2SP
Flock of Eagles upgrade:
Thunderbirds: Summon thunderbirds instead of eagles. 4SP.
Summon Seraph upgrades:
Moonblade: Seraph now also deals arcane damage in addition to fire and holy damage with its melee attack . 3SP.
Essence Aura: All temporary summons near the seraph gain +1 duration each turn. 5SP.
Holy Fire Aura: The Seraph gains a damage aura which randomly deals either 2 fire or 2 holy damage to nearby enemies each turn. 5SP.
(Seraph can receive only 1 aura upgrade, including the existing heal aura)
Soul tax charges 2->4
Sealed Fate no longer gets duration "bonuses" from arch enchanter
Fiery Tormentor:
Now gains minion damage bonuses on its burst attack
new upgrades:
burst damage upgrade removed
damage upgrade added: +3 for 2SP (impacts both lifesteal and burst).
Frostfire Tormentor: summons a frostfire tormentor instead. 3SP.
Ghostfire Tormentor: summons a ghostfire tormentor instead. 3SP.
(Only one tormentor type upgrade can be purchase)
Knightly Oath:
Removed extra knights upgrades
new upgrades:
Void Court: summon only void knights, also summon a void champion. 5SP.
Storm Court: summon only storm knights, also summon a storm champion. 5SP.
Void Court: summon only chaos knights, also summon a chaos champion. 5SP.
Toxin Spore upgrades:
Grey Mushboom 4SP->2SP
Red Mushboom: Summons red mushbooms instead, which deal fire damage. 5SP.
Glass Mushboom: Summon glass mushbooms instead, which glassify. 6SP.
Iceball upgrade:
Ice Crush: Units inside the aoe which are already frozen take physical damage before being refrozen. 6SP.
Icicle upgrade:
Icicle Harvest: Whenever a frozen enem dies to ice damage, regain a charge of icicle. 3SP.
Earthquake upgrade:
Safety: Earthquake will not damage friendly units or the caster. 2SP.
Blazerip:
Damage upgrade 9->5 damage
Restless Dead upgrades:
Junk Golems: constructs are raised as junk golems. 3SP.
Elemental Spirits: whenever an enemy fire, ice, or lightning unit dies, a random summoned ally gains 100 resistance to that element and a ranged attack of that type. Each ally can gain only 1 such buff.
Devour Mind reworked: no longer grants charges of other spells. Is now a short range living-only nuke, which can be upgraded to recharge if it gets a kill.
Protect Minions: duration 20->10
Bestow Immortality: charges 2->4
Venom Beast: Removed, is now a Giant Bear upgrade
Siphon Shields: level 3->4
Orbs now path towards their target each turn rather than teleporting along a predetermined path each turn
Skills:
Translocator: max charge bonus 7->5, range bonus 4->3
Ice Lord: damage bonus 9->6, now works on stormcaller
Pyrostatics: reworked. Now generates 2 charges on casting a lightning spell, which are consumed the next time an enemy takes fire damage, creating arcs to nearby enemies that deal that much lightning damage (1 arc per charge consumed).
Unholy Alliance: damage buff 6->7, holy creatures now get damage bonus instead of the previous hp bonus
FaeStone: damage 16->20, hp 70->120
Icy Vengeance: level 4->6
Frostbite: reworked. Now deals 7 damage per turn to all frozen enemies each turn instead of converting ice to dark damage.
Stormcaller: now applies damage bonuses
Added upgrade: Purestrike. Converts physical damage to arcane and holy damage, on the condition that the source has atleast 1 SH.
Mordred:
Mordred has been reworked a bit to be less vulnerable to soul tax and word of undeath.
Enjoy!
-Dylan