Hello GuildMestars,

This update brings with it a number of large changes to the game's skill system, completely changes the way the game handles dungeon generation, and adds a new type of skill for adventurers to use. Let's dive in!

One thing that never sat right with me was the chance that should you enter combat the initial situation could be so dire it would be completely unrecoverable. As the game previously handled combat there was very little a player could do outside the normal flow and as such it felt frustrating for the wrong reasons. Update 0.2.2.0 adds a new type of skill for adventurers, granted at level 2, called an Exert skill. These skills are special in that they do not get added to the character's deck but rather are available at any time via a new UI element on their exploration information.

The power of these new Exert skills lies in the fact that they are able to be used prior to the regular combat cycle and have powerful effects such as immediately drawing additional cards or granting Taunt. This on its own would be far too strong so they carry 2 heavy downsides: firstly they can only be used once per combat, secondly they cause you to discard ALL other cards belonging to that character. Due to these downsides the skill can still be used regularly but contains a strong level of strategic importance on when to best use them.

Adding a new type of skill shed some light on the existing skill system and while I liked the varying trees overall it felt... lacking. This update provides some much needed love adding altered skill trees tied to the number of overall skillpoints spent, passive upgrades such as increased stats and unique upgrades for each profession, auto granted upgrades for more basic race skills, and a complete visual overhaul. Having some skills auto grant level ups provides a constant source of power while the additional options in the skill tree allow for more diverse character specialization. Oh, and skill points can now freely be changed at any time, so go nuts!

On the dungeon side of things its more of a technical change but players will notice some interesting new additions. In the past dungeons were only partially seeded while storing some structural information directly on the save file, this is no longer the case. As of this update the entirety of dungeon generation has been seeded removing annoying save bloat and allowing for a lot of interesting alterations. The old system disallowed making structural changes on the fly and hindered the ability for dungeon mechanic and boast design, but no more! Additionally the map display has been overhauled providing information on the various rooms and routes available rather than just room depth in a dungeon.

All in all these changes give some much needed life to corners of GuildMestar and open a number of interesting possibilities in the future.

As always more information can be found in the patch notes below. Give the game a try and leave a review to let me know what you think!

Signed,
StrangerTod - OffPath

Version: 0.2.2.0

- Major -

• Full dungeon seeding and smaller save files. In the past only small sections of dungeons were seeded while the majority were saved and directly loaded.
• Dungeons can now spawn multiple room paths in addition to multiple progression options. A revamped map will display these paths before entering and during expeditions. Existing unique dungeons will still follow the old method of a single progression room path, though this may be changed in the future.
• Completely reworked the character skill system.
• Characters now have complete skill trees based on their Race and Profession. Each tier of the skill tree can be accessed per 2 points spent except for the first tier which is unlocked after only a single point.
• Profession skills have trees and branching paths as before however they now are spread between tiers rather than all available at the same time. Profession skills are also now entirely opt in.
• Race skills are auto granted based on skillpoints spent.
• Added a new type of skill called Exert Skills.
• Exert skills are granted automatically to adventurers upon reaching level 2 and are upgrade gradually thereafter.
• These Exert skills are uniquely different from normal skills in that they are not added to the adventure deck and are rather used asynchronously to normal combat. These skills can be used once per combat and provide the ability to make large power swings, however due to this they also cause you to discard all cards belonging to the character that is exerting.

- Minor -

• Changed the low difficulty double Du-urn fight to a single Du-urn. This specific combat was significantly more difficult than others at this level.
• Added a small new tutorial about characters and their skill points / exert abilities
• Adventurers no longer start with a skill point at level 1, they now gain an extra point at levels 5 and 10
• Added a new renown reward: Every 3 levels of renown new adventurers will join at 1 higher level (ex: at renown 3 new adventurers will join at level 2, renown 6 adventurers will be level 3, etc.)
• Added 18 new Event Options.
• Disabled the Action Block sliding animation at the start of combat rounds.
• Added shadows below characters to better differentiate themselves from the background.

- Bugs -

• Fixed small black bar of exploration character portrait not highlighting gold when an applicable item is dragged during combat.
• Weather effects displayed in dungeons no longer load incorrectly on first entering a dungeon after loading your game.