Greetings, travellers of the Otherworld!
The year is coming to an end, and looking back it definitely was the best year for our studio since its foundation. Drova's release was a great experience and the following months after were a huge source of joy. It's been extremely motivating for us to read all of your feedback and thoughts about Drova and we're looking forward to a future of developing games together with you, our community.
But now it's finally time! We've been hard at work for the past two weeks to be able to now present to you our second major Content Patch.
We proudly present to you Version 1.2, the "Insane Patch". We're very excited (and slightly nervous) to see your reactions to the additions and changes!
As usual, we've prepared an Update Video for you as well. The spoken language is German (as usual) but English subs are available.
The Insane patch
This Update is mainly about our new difficulty, "Insane", and the new Save mode, "Hardcore".
Both are completely new additions to the game that will offer new possibilities to experience the world of Drova.
The "Insane" difficulty is for those players who feel like they've already mastered what Drova had to offer on "Classic" and are yearning for a more difficult challenge. It's been important to us to not just skew around some numbers to increase enemy HP. We also integrated new behaviors and attacks for known enemies that were not in the game previously.
The Save mode "Hardcore" is an iteration of the mode "Iron". It's a special challenge mode in which your character is not allowed to die - once you do anyway, your save will get changed to the "Iron" mode automatically. This will be applicable to both classic and insane difficulties.
To be able to play any of these new modes you'll have to start a new game- In the character creator you'll now have the choice between the difficulties Explorer, Classic and Insane. It is not possible to change your difficulty from a lower one to Insane nor from Insane to a lower during the game.
When starting the game, you'll be asked for your save mode of choice. Next to "Classic" and "Iron" you'll now also be able to choose "Hardcore".
Challenges
To properly celebrate the occasion, we came up with something special:
Starting from today, there'll be two special challenges running. The first players able to master them will receive a special role in our discord and will be put into the game itself in the form of a statue in the Remnant's camp.
Challenge 1 - No Hit Run
Whoever manages to beat the game first without their character being hit one singular time will be the proud bearer of the title "The Invulnerable". But be aware! Just a single scratch, and you're out!
You'll have to choose either Classic or Insane difficulty for this, Explorers may not enter the fray. Save mode doesn't matter. No reloading previous saves!
Challenge 2 - Insane Hardcore
Whoever first triumphs over death and insanity will be known forthwell as "The Invincible". Everyone can have a go at it, but only the fiercest warriors in all of Drova will have a lick of a chance.
This challenge asks to be the first player to beat Drova on Insane difficulty and Hardcore save mode.
Both of these challenges come with some stipulations, naturally:
- The entire run will need to be given to us in video form.
- The game timer must be visible for the entirety of the run. We've added one in the options, in the “interface” subsection. When active, the time will be visible in the top right of your screen.
- The use of mods that change the game experience is disallowed, especially the cheat console, excluding translation mods. If you’re still having any uncertainties or doubts concerning mods you are using, feel free to ask us directly.
- After finishing the game having beaten a challenge, you'll have to send us your corresponding save files. This can be done, on PC, using the Bug-Report feature on the F2 key.
Apart from these handful of things, feel free to use all your knowledge and skills gained in your adventures through Drova to be able to master the challenges at hand.
We're looking forward to seeing your attempts and are excited to see how long it'll take until the winners emerge!
Insane Difficulty
The Insane difficulty will prove to be a challenge even to those that have already explored every nook and cranny of Drova, putting to test their mastery of skill. Behaviors of most enemies have been reworked to create new challenges.
From the getgo, your character receives 30% and gives out 20% less damage. You will, however, also be offered settings to further modify these values to customize the game further to your liking.
New Enemy Attacks
In the new difficulty a bunch of enemies have learned a few new tricks to surprise you with.
This will of course mix up the battle and cause some new situations to occur.
The Stone crusher follows the player while continuously hitting the ground- you should better keep a safe distance away!
The magically changed spiders are now able to channel their energy to buff themselves- making them doubly as dangerous in impending attacks!
The red Froglings will try to get as close to you as possible to catch you in the explosive force of their own bodies. Better keep away to not also be torn apart!
These were just a few examples for the new attacks enemies will use, but there are plenty more. Have fun discovering them!
General Changes
We've received plenty of feedback from you, our players, on a multitude of platforms over the past few weeks. Taking your wishes and ideas to heart, we've decided to implement a few more general changes that'll influence all difficulties. Here are some we'd like to put to your attention:
New Snaptor variants
To make the riverbed Snaptors more exciting and interesting to fight we've decided to add some more variants to their flock.
The blue Snaptor is a new edition to both normal and insane difficulty, while his green sibling only appears in Insane. Both of these variants have unique attacks that discern them from their kin.
Rework of the Bandit camp
The bandit camp in the north west of Drova has been expanding by adding another cave that's got good use as storage space for, well, whatever a bandit's heart may desire.
New Armor
Since most players seem to spend most of their time in Chapter 1, we've thought about how to improve the armor progression after the long ebb following the leather armor.
We've decided to add the new, stronger Heavy Leather Armor to remedy this.
Food Buff Rework
Since food loses its potency in the late game, we've been thinking about ways to make it more useful in the long run. Food will now heal 1-3 life every 4 seconds while losing 1-3 charges depending on the dish.
This should make the healing effect significantly more noticeable even at higher levels.
________________________
Changelog
Finally, here's a list of other bug fixes, balancing changes and the like that we've done in the context of this update:
Tweaks/Changes
- Added two new achievements for Hardcore and Insane
- Added blue Snaptor variant
- Added an additional harder fight with Bady after teaching the player
- Added a new armor that bridges the gap between leather armor and first faction armor
- Added new options to disable fog and rain
- Added new option to display playtime in the corner
- Changed behaviour when enemies are leaving the combat
- Added a screen effect when being hit by the dirt throw of Digpig
- Added a new cave at the bandits camp in the north-west
- Added new rooms to the ruin on the Knoll in the Floodplain Forest
- Added stagger animation to the young waterrat
- Added new environmental hazard to the moor
- Added prevention to autosaving in the challenge cave with the two golems
- Added aiming indicators to some range attacks of enemies
- Removed damage reduction from Blackflames when wearing the Gladiator armor
- Bloodfly no longer trigger traps on the floor
- Added autosave area before the traps in the bandit mine
- Reduced audio clutter in moor areas when frogs and Bloodfly are fighting each other
- Removed some mud zones from the Riverbed
- Moved pickaxe in the Deep Mines to make it easier to find
- Gras weapon is no longer lootable from below the cliffs
Balancing
- Changed damage calculations to always deal at least 1 damage
- Stamina cost of Unarmed Kick increased from 20 to 33
- Critical damage multiplier of Unarmed Strikes decreased by 50%
- Strength scaling of Unarmed Strikes decreased by 15-30%
- Green Frogling Mortar attack spread increased
- Magic Vision duration increased from 120 to 300 seconds
- Placement of ambush enemies iterated
- Ring of Blood healing reduced by 25%
- Expanded the ruins basement on the knoll of the floodplain forest
- Expanded the bandit camp in the mountains to the north
- Root trap poise damage reduced from 50 to 5 per tick
- Tinker's Revenge bonus damage reduced from 100% to 50%
- Crow's Feet bleeding damage reduced by ~50%
- Changed needed materials and prices for Acid Bombs, Bear Trap, Crows' Feet, Cluster Trap and Cluster Bomb
- Reduced duration of hitbox with axe attacks
- Reduced duration of hitbox of Charge
Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the weapon set indicator wasn't updating in the HUD
- Fixed some teleporter positions when using trap doors
- Fixed a bug where traps disappeared from the world
- Fixed Leyna going throught the void
- Fixed a dialog option with Ede (was selectable twice)
- Fixed that you can fight the bodyguard of Fawini if you kill Fawini and keep him alive
- Fixed missing Baltus position in the journal
- Fixed an edge case where the bandits on the road to the Pit don't want money from you
- Fixed a state where you couldn't start a fight with some bandits
- Fixed some situations where Owain triggered a cutscene from the wrong position
- Fixed a bug where sheeps started to attack enemies
- Fixed some equipment was not lootable from NPCs
- "Treasure: Floodplain Forest" can be maked as garbage now
- Fixed buff icon of Shadow Fragment
- Fixed some shadows of room fading in the mine in the Riverbed
- Fixed a bug that caused the water to be red in the world
- Fixed movement speed of strong bear
- Fixed a bug where the ring at the end of the quest "Sticky Fingers" was not removed
- Fixed lots of collider issues in the world
- Fixed lots of small graphical issues in the world
- Fixed lots of typos