Happy New Year! Happy New Alpha!
Stonehearth Alpha 14 (develop 2786) is now available on the Steam latest (unstable) branch. (Go! Go now!)
The theme of Alpha 14 is the evolution of enemy encounters and combat (Part One… to be continued in future releases) and the arrival a new class: The Herbalist. You’ll find these and several other related features, as well as continued performance improvements and bug fixes, in this hefty release.
This is a Steam unstable branch release; 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! Call your herbalist.
- 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.
- Selecting “Town Alert Mode” (formerly Defense Mode) will cause all non-combatant hearthlings 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 attack anything hostile that approaches the safety point where they are stationed.
- By default, all Workers are included in the Militia. By default, all workbench-based crafters are not part of the Militia. You can change who is included (or not) on the “Groups” page, accessed through the tab at the bottom of the Hearthling Therapist interface.
Other Notable Changes
- All plants (but not trees) can now be uprooted and relocated.
- All plants (but not trees) regrow after harvest.
- Castle roofs are now included in the building editor.
- Wooden Tunnel Doors can now be crafted by the Carpenter.
- Livestock now remain in their pastures.
- Tweaks to Rayya’s Children, including selected outfits and journal entries.
- Modders can now add custom encounter types.
Major Bug Fixes and Improvements
- Identified and fixed some memory leaks.
- Numerous performance improvements, including a further reduction in idle hearthling behavior and support for larger settlements
- Combat music stuttering is eliminated.
Known Issues
- Combat music starting and stopping when enemies are not evident; combat music getting stuck.
- Heathling Therapist settings (other than defaults) do not persist on save/load.
- Town Alert Mode UI doesn’t persist on save/load, even though town remains in Alert Mode.