FreeHolder Alpha 8 Hotfix 2
3.13.2020
NOTE: Please note, the title screen still says hotfix 1 at the moment. I will update this soon. Rest assured the newest hotfix is live.
***See dev notes below, if you're interested.***
Bugfixes
Action Fixes
-Excavation and Deep Mining discounts now appear properly in mouseover text when building pits, quarries, and mines
Black Market Fixes
-Equipment purchased at black market now is the correct type; obsolete types were causing glitches
Combat Fixes
-Bleed status ailment is now working properly
Equipment Fixes
-Crafted fishing nets now work properly
Fatigue and Disease Fixes
-Fatigue calculations now implemented properly after previous changes
-Disease calculations now implemented properly using disease resist property
Bribe and Quota Fixes
-Bribe and wheat quota no longer sometimes resets upon loading game (!)
Equipment Fixes
-Woodsman's Axe and Heavy Scythe no longer display incorrect properties on crafting screen
-Net Fishing action now consumes first available net's durability rather than being disabled
Changes
Equipment Changes
-Revised sell pricing on all equipment
-Lowered stone cost for all basic tools to 1
-Lowered stone cost for all primitive weapons to 1
-Druid Garb now costs 2 Hides and 2 Linen, and does not require Heavy Furs to make
-Greatcloak now costs 2 Linen rather than 2 Cloth to make
-Fishing net now costs 3 Reed rather than 3 Willow to make
Market Changes
-Lowered cost of buying items from 2 x normal price to 1.5 x normal price
-Lowered amount required for most market orders considerably
-Increased monetary reward per good for market orders
-Changed clothing repair market order to flax (from wool)
Black Market Changes
-Greatly alter existing item inventory for sale items
-Revised pricing for all black market sale items
-Revised fence contracts to be less profitable, and partially randomized amounts required
Developer Notes
What? Easier?! Stone Crafting and Market Orders
It may or may not surprise you that, while I designed and coded it, I am not particularly good at PLAYING FreeHolder. Partly because I don't have much time, as I have to keep working on it, and partly because I am too experimental and unfocused in my approach to games of this sort. Being experimental and unfocused as a DESIGNER has helped the game be what it is, but as a player, it is less helpful. Although I definitely hope that the game itself encourages experimentation and not just min-maxing.
So whenever I actually consider making the game a bit easier based on my own playthroughs, I have to be thoroughly certain that I am not simply editing the game to be easier because I'm bad at it. That would be a tremendous disservice to you all, who are the actual measure of what the game is, difficulty-wise. But the following items ultimately I felt could not be justified from a design perspective, and not just a player perspective, so I feel okay with making these adjustments. Do not hesitate to let me know what you think.
Upon a few playthroughs the other day I absolutely cannot justify tool crafting consuming 2 or even 3 stone to make a single tool, which disappears after a mere 5 uses without Toolsmithing. Stone is too hard to gather and valuable to consume so quickly, so all primitive tools and weapons that require stone only take 1. It was insane that it was ever more than that.
Furthermore, some of the early market orders are just plain unrealistic without extreme effort which was never my intention, considering the relatively small reward. Market orders are currently the best universal way to generate early income, and I don't particularly like the optics of starting up a game and getting a bunch of unfillable market orders. The game is plenty hard without arbitarily impossible orders.
Other Market and Black Market Considerations
I also updated the market and black market in terms of costs and benefits. I really think the double priced buy goods are too expensive to be useful; I want people to be including buying things from the market as part of their strategies, and I don't want that option to be priced out of existence, so I lowered it from double cost to about 1.5 x cost. It's still expensive, but hopefully will allow a little more flexibility when considering buying some things you can't easily obtain yourself.
The black market has been thoroughly updated with relevant contract types and items, and the monetary reward in general has been lowered somewhat, as it was frankly too much before. The item text is still wonky. I need to redo a number of information displays but that will take some time and although it looks bad it doesn't affect the function, which was my concern on this update.