Hello, all!
Here it the latest development update for Hermit, including some upcoming new features as well as recent updates that came throughout the month of December.
December Update: Trolls, Wandering Traders, & More
Forest Trolls
Finished work on AI behaviours and locomotion / combat abilities for giant enemy types, the first of which to be released to the Hermit Demo is Forest Trolls (with 4-5 more in the main game)
A forest troll can now be found on the Demo Map in a new area to the North East
A quest is in development to lead new players to this area, but the new enemy can be accessed immediately
I will be continuing to work on refining Troll behaviour and combat abilities (as the main game will feature many types of such large enemies), but the first iteration is stable enough for release
New Weapon Equipment System
One of the other major changes that was released in December was the recent update to the way that equipment works. This marks a major improvement to weapon/torch use and storage. Today's patch includes several bug fixes and refinements to this system.
Players can now equip torches, melee weapons, and bows all at the same time
Only one of these may be wielded at a time
Rebindable hotkeys were added to quick-swap weapons
This change allows Torches to be quickly swapped out for a weapon, which greatly improves the smoothness of exploring dark dungeons where quickly swapping between torches and weapons is necessary
This also receives a great portion of inventory burden, as these extra weapons are now stored on the player character rather than in the backpack (i.e., You can carry a torch and a melee weapon without having to spend valuable backpack space to do so)
Wandering Traders
Wandering trader encounters have been created and one has been added to the Hermit Demo
For the Demo, the wandering route is short and fixed (since the Demo map is fairly small compared to the main game)
This is a new encounter, and the trader has some unique armours for sale that cannot be obtained elsewhere in the game demo
Winter Update: Currently In Development
A winter update is also in development which will transform the Gravenstaad area into a winter zone
This will be a temporary feature for the winter months and will be released once work on some of the new winter features is completed
Other recent changes/ bug fixes
Added a Festive Hat to the Donkey
The dead merchant quest has been revised with more lore context and better rewards
An auto-sort feature was added earlier in December to improve inventory management as a QOL feature
Fixed an issue with L-Alt Freecam while swimming that could cause the player's movement to become stuck in an incorrect mode (this fix to be shipped in the next patch rather than today's patch)
Fixed an issue with AI path querying that could cause AIs to become stuck in a failed move command without immediately timing out
Fixed an issue with save / load and the new equipment slot system that made it possible to equip a shield with a two-handed weapon using the save/load system
The main Demo Quest now requires clearing the dungeon boss to complete, since the objective ingredients can be obtained elsewhere
Some experimentation quest objectives can now be completed by finding (not just crafting) spell items
Forest trolls, wolves, and bandits will now all attack one another if not focused on the player
Giant enemy attacks can no longer be blocked or parried due to their size/strength
Giant enemies now rarely stagger / hit react when hit; the chance of a react scales with difficulty mod
Fixed a custom collision channel issue that could cause arrows to impact save game trigger volumes
Fixed an issue with player character target locking that could cause the player to rotate downwards when swinging at an enemy with low stature (e.g., Spiders)
It is now possible to block with a torch when a shield is equipped
It is now easier to sprint with a weapon unholstered on easier difficulty modes
There is no longer a move speed penalty for wielding torches; players can now sprint at full speed with a torch out
Unequipping a bow now tries to return the nocked arrow to the inventory rather than destroying a nocked arrow
It is now possible to cycle to a loadout when that loadout has no active weapons (required to be able to remove a shield in scenarios where you are wearing a shield but no weapon)
You can now re-bind the 'Next weapon' and 'previous weapon' hotkeys via the game input settings
Fixed an issue with Donkey calling that sometimes cause him to get stuck inside of a rock in some locations when teleporting
Supporting the Project
If you've been enjoying the Hermit Demo and want to help support the game, some things you can do to help support the project:
Consider leaving a positive review for the Demo Page! It helps the game a lot, and allows me to focus more of my time on development rather than having to divert that time and energy toward advertising
Share the game Demo with friends / Discord servers you know might enjoy it
Submit bug reports using the reporting tool: if you find an issue, let me know. I can't reply to every report, but I do read them all and I make an effort to fix every issue that I can reproduce on my end