Welcome to Stonehearth Alpha 14!
The theme of Alpha 14 is the evolution of enemy encounters and combat (Part One… to be continued in future releases). You’ll find several new features related to this, as well as continued performance improvements and bug fixes. This is an Alpha release, so you may encounter monsters of a different kind -- that is to say, bugs. Please report them in our forums at discourse.stonehearth.net
Here’s what’s new and notable in this release:
Moar Monsters!
You didn’t think we were going to stop at goblins and undead, did you?
- Several new enemies and enemy encounter types, both raids and ambient appearances (enemies spawn and lie in wait for unsuspecting hearthlings).
- Encounters increase in difficulty over time.
- An encounter spawns randomly in each twelve hour period.
New Class: The Herbalist
Moar enemies? Moar hurt! Your herbalist makes house calls.
- Hearthlings injured in combat now heal much, much more slowly without intervention, and their rate of healing is dependent on their willpower stat.
- Once injured, a hearthling’s health status (heart icon) will become visually persistent until healed.
- The Herbalist can heal injured hearthlings quickly.
- The Herbalist can craft a number of healing items.
- The Herbalist can craft strength and stamina tonics.
- The Herbalist’s talisman, a healing staff, is crafted by the Carpenter. It is also available for purchase from a new game’s start screen.
- Wounded hearthlings will seek out beds. The Herbalist can only treat hearthlings who are in beds.
- Wounded and untreated hearthlings will decrease a settlement’s happiness.
- Wounded hearthlings will move more slowly.
New Combat Party Controls
Move. Attack. Defend. I’m talking to you, soldier.
- Only Footmen can now be placed in combat parties.
- Hearthlings who are not Footmen may be enrolled in the Militia; see below.
- You may have up to four combat parties; you can manage each separately from the “Fight and Defend” menu.
- Parties have three modes from which you can select: Move, Attack, and Defend.
- ”Move” directs the party to proceed to a specific location, ignoring intervening threats.
- ”Attack” directs the party to attack a specific enemy or location, while engaging anything hostile on their way.
- ”Defend” directs the party to move towards and then remain at a specific location, engaging anything hostile on its way. The party will remain at the Defense location until otherwise directed.
New Town Defense Options - and a Well-regulated Militia.
Your settlement now has a new way to manage non-combatants in times of crisis. Also, you now have a militia!
- Safety Standards, crafted by the Carpenter or the Potter, can be placed anywhere in your world to create a “safety point” for non-combatant hearthlings. Camp standards are safety points by default.
- Selecting “Town Alert Mode” (formerly Defense Mode) will cause all hearthlings not in the militia to run to their nearest safety point.
- To assist with town defense, non-Footmen hearthlings may be enrolled in the Militia.
- Hearthlings in the Militia will hold their position attack anything hostile that approaches them. They are less likely flee from enemies than their non-militia counterparts and also receive a slight boost in damage.
- By default, all hearthlings are opted out of the militia. You can add people to the milita via the “Groups” page, accessed through the tab at the bottom of the Hearthling Therapist interface.
Hats and Helms!
Moar Monsters? Moar Armor! This release finally implements a new schema for hair that allows for hats and helmets. Some classes come with hats by default, and others can get helmets from advanced crafting recipes. For modders, this release also includes a new way to define the colors of things from json palettes, allowing more variation in hearthling hair colors, skin tones and more.
And much more!
We have also made extensive improvements and fixes to performance; combat and encounters; crafting, building, and other hearthling activities; and more.
You can find full release notes at: http://stonehearth.net/alpha-14-has-arrived/