Hello dungeon crawlers! This is the second in a currently not-too-long line of change notes as I still continue to come out of my cave. It's been a while since my last update, I have put in many an hour into the changes that come! This version brings a new combat system built up on what you might remember. While similar, the changes opened a floodgate of possibilities regarding what was previously pretty black and white. So I have been toiling the digital earth with lots of fun new things. But first!
Playtest!
The current state of the game is comin along real good, I'm lookin for a handful of folks who are interested in breaking it and giving feedback on the experience! It will be 'limited' for now, if you want to participate you can request access and I will grant 'em in batches (I suspect there are dozens of bots applying so you can also reach out on Discord to solidify a spot while keys last). It will probably run for a week or two before being taken down.
Major Changes and Additions
I'm sure there are plenty of things I missed in this log but here are some of the less forgettable things 😎
Combat
Health and Mana
What was once just 1 point of health/mana is now 5. Making this change was simple but radically evolved what I could do in the game. By creating a gray area with these stats, it is now much easier to make new items and abilities that won't dramatically alter the course of the game.
Stamina
While it will still function the same, stamina has been reduced to 1 for every class. You will no longer be able to increase it via level and I removed all items that permanently upped it. This makes remaining stamina items more valuable and opens the door for many more abilities! Also, items that add temporary stamina will now overflow it so you aren't required to disable auto-turn to get the most out of them.
Defenses
Defenses are no longer flat! Previously, they were just another health bar you built to prevent damage of a certain type, which meant you were left naked and afraid once it depleted. This was fine considering your actual health bar only had a few points, but it was redundant. They now act as a 'roll' to reduce damage.
Quick time attacks
I wanted enemies to be able to crit in a way that was fair, and now they can! If an enemy is going to deal critical damage, you will have a chance to break the turn-based system and freely move away. This also allowed me to make some enemy ranged abilities less punishing since it is now in your power to avoid them.
Holes
Holes are more common, spread into other tiles, and can now be explored! Without rope, they will drop you down to 1 HP (killing you if you have just 1) but will contain some random goodies. A Rope item has been added to the game which allows you to go down safely and come back up. Geronimo!
Food
I added a food system to both penalize and reward un-intrepid behavior down in The Dark. This mostly affects your regen stats since Stamina and Mana regen blew up a run very quickly in olden times. If you had a couple points in either, the game was set. Tying these stats to the turn timer makes it so you don't get 5 magic bolts in every round of combat. Instead, you will have to rest between battles that hurt a little too much.
Resting
If you have the food for it, you can now rest between battles! This will tick hunger depending on your carry weight and procs your regen stats.
Leveling Up
Leveling up wasn't as impactful as I would have liked. It is now slightly harder to level up but you will feel it when you do! I replaced the old reward cycle with a one-time package deal to sweet damage and new abilities. Your level-up rewards will be based on your main class and subclass, alternating stat rewards as they come.
New Enemies
I somewhat removed Troglins from the game since they felt out of place (for now) and have been replaced with more sub-surface-level critters:
Bats
Rats
Wisps
Slimes
Mushmen
You will find stronger versions of the last three in Old Caverns and Old Dens.
Map Changes and Additions
Old Floors
You will now be able to explore Old Caverns and Old Dens! These are bigger floors than normal, containing more enemies and stronger versions of them. They now spawn in the lower levels of the dark.
Rest Sites
These floors will have everything you need to catch your breath, containing a random keeper to lighten your load and a firepit to restore your stats and upgrade an ability!
Caverns
I removed the keeper that spawns here, though you will still be able to find them in Old Caverns.
Dens
Dens are now less rewarding in XP, Loot, and Gold, but they are a reliable source of food. Also, you will only fight one type of monster in dens.
Carry Weight
There used to be a hard limit to how much you could carry which has been replaced by a weight system! As you get heavier, enemies will detect you more easily and you will consume more food.
Weapon Accuracy
Weapons now have accuracy that goes down with distance between an enemy and other units in the way. You can increase it with Precision! Targeting has also received some love, you will now auto-target the closest enemy and the cursor will snap to nearby targets in the vicinity.
Minor Changes and Additions
Game Start
The start room now comes with a training dummy to whap with yer weapon, providing a little context as to what's going on under the hood! If it's your first session, a white-eyed keeper will be there to welcome you.
Encounters
Instead of being a floor of their own, Encounters are now horizontal to their previous room. This makes them more supplementary and won't ruin a run. I removed some and added others!
Stat Changes
Luck
There is now a luck stat in the game which can add more gold or items to containers/shops. It will also increase your Crit Chance :0
Power, Precision, and Focus
All weapons will now rely on these for more damage. The amount depends on the weapon type; Swords will deal more damage with every point of Power and every 3 points of Precision/Focus. You can hover over a weapon to see what stats it will use!
Power
Now increases your weight capacity and Health Regen.
Precision
No longer affects Crit Chance. Instead, adds a bonus to weapon accuracy and 'stealth'.
Focus
You will now get 1 Mana Regen for every 4 points of Focus.
New Abilities
I have tweaked the cost and cooldown of pretty much every ability and added some new ones:
Bandage: Restore 20% health and remove bleed.
Blind: Reduce an enemy's vision radius
Ember: Low-damage spell with a high chance to cause Burn
Magic Sentry: Sits back and shoots magic
Mana Shield: Converts Mana into Health
Quick Step: Raises Evasion
Rage: Temporarily increases Power and reduces damage received by 1.
Reinforce: Defense rolls have advantage
Sap: Grants mana
Backgrounds
Outside of the playtest, all backgrounds are now unlockable. Each will subtly influence your run with a unique passive and comes with unlock conditions! Initially you can choose between Adventurer, Scholar, and Veteran.
Items
All equipment will now manipulate a base to add some variety. There will be some degree of randomness in the name, and an item may have better or worse stats than usual which will influence its price. The price of an item also goes up when you add an upgrade, rune, or oil!
Added:
Food Items - Taste good
Weapon Oils - Adds elemental chance to a weapon
Upgrade Kits - Upgrades either weapon or armor
Craft Runes - Unstable rune created from putting two gems together
Spellbook - Used to be a Utility item but is now a weapon item for mages. Hard to hit but hits hard, free of charge!
Catalysts - What spellbooks used to be. Reduces cooldowns and cost of abilities
Trapkits - A utility item provided to the ranger class. Provides a Caltrops ability and comes with a buff to Precision, Crit Chance, or Evasion
Utilities now come with an ability that requires 0 mana and equipment items will also have new icons to indicate which equip slot they belong to!
UI
Some quality of life mhm mhm
Patch Notes - Can be found on the start screen to provide more of all this
Character Creation - Updated
Item and Equipment Icons - Updated icon sprites
Shop UI - Shop items are now yellow, purchased items turn white on exiting shop and vice versa
Health, Stamina, and Mana - Now moved under description window
Enemies - Will display current health and stats on hover
Weapon Scaling - Hovering over a weapon will highlight its most prominent stat scale in green, mid scale in yellow, and poor scale in red
Abilities - Will now create a box above ability slot when summoning a creature or laying a trap. Clicking this will destroy the thang
Death UI - UI will stick around on death, displaying any new progress towards any background unlocks
Currency Changes
Removed silver! Having one currency makes it way easier to price items and manipulate that in game.
Status Effect Changes
You will come across Bleed, Poison, and Shock. I changed the way these work to make them more friendly against players.
Bleed:
Take damage on spending stamina.Take extra damage from attacks and abilitiesPoison: Take damage based on stack at end of turn.
Shock:
Can't use stamina to attack.Reduces accuracy by 25%Burn: Now procs at the beginning of turn instead of the end, dealing max health damage.
What's Next?
Version 1 release is close, I will consider the feedback I get from the playtest and incorporate that in my next update! It has been a fun journey and I'm excited to share what I've been working on for the past 2 years. While the final version will be smaller than I initially expected, I have poured lots of love into it and I am proud of what I achieved for my first game! I expect there will be some more quality of life updates post-launch which will deal with controller support and bugfixing, maybe even some localization in there at some point if there is a wanting for it. Otherwise if you have any thoughts, reach out on the Discord and let me know what you think!