Greetings! Latest development arc has been finished with the implementation of the 'Well Caves' dungeon, and with it, the three starter dungeons are ready!
New dungeon: The newest dungeon is a damp network of tunnels one under an old well. A new level generator was needed to achieve the squiggly small tunnels that connect small open areas. This dungeon is the most challenging of the starter ones, both in monster levels but also regarding the secondary skills that are used to complete it in the most efficient manner, starting from athletics skill checks to climb down and up the well shaft without hurting yourself.
New monsters: The new dungeon is populated with monsters mostly of an aquatic theme. Here are some of them:
Tactical challenges: When designing monsters, care is taken to make them tactically different. Giant centipedes move 2 tiles per turn requiring care in positioning if you want the first strike. Ichthyan warriors have reach 2 spears so you need to match their range, sneak in next to them, or run in and accept they get an extra attack on you. Cultists have a prayer that gives them temporary health for a short while, giving you a choice to either kite them for a bit waiting for it to run out, or just fight and chew through the extra health.
Minibosses: As a first, there is a named miniboss among them. Minibosses appear randomly on some runs, offering extra challenge and sometimes loot. Rend-Fin the ichthyan warrior is always equipped with a magical coral trident, for example.
Choosing a path: You are not the only one looking to solve problems in the starting village, as there are two guards in the town. You have a free choice of which of the three starter dungeons to go to, but once you do, the guards will clear the two others. Overall, there will be a lot more dungeons in the game than you are supposed to go to in one run, this way each run will can take a different path based on your hero's needs and capabilities, starting right from the beginning.
Colored item labels: Item labels (that show when holding alt or ctrl) are now color-coded for convenience: equipment, consumables, magic items, coins etc get their own color.
Keys: Locked doors/containers were added in last arc, and to add to that I implemented an 'old key' item that can open any lock (for now at least), to give characters not skilled in thievery a way to access locked doors and containers. Keys often break when used, but can be repaired by smithing.
Many miscellaneous additions like smooth camera movement, poking at dungeon objects with weapons, improved balancing, lots of bugfixes, and so on.
That's all for now. Next up are spells and magic items for the early game!