I'm excited to tell you that work on the new combat system is now complete, so just the testing to get through.
I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out and hope that both existing and new players will enjoy it.
As announced before, the new system introduces the idea of "combat sequences". These are the patterns of moves that a particular type of enemy will use in combat. For example, all Mountain Goats in a particular game might use a Hack-Lunge-Hack-Slash pattern.
The pattern used by a particular foe will be different for every game, and the length of the pattern will also vary, with higher level enemies having longer patterns. You won't know at the start of a combat where in its pattern an enemy is going to start.
There are two ways of learning an enemy's pattern: from experience, and from a Combat Trainer. There are now Combat Trainers in all the Towns, who are happy to train you to fight various enemies (for a fee of course). Combat Trainers in more northerly Towns can train you to fight higher level enemies.
After 15 rounds of combat, all enemies will become angry and start to fight erratically, dispensing with their pattern and behaving more randomly. This means that, if you know an enemy's pattern, it's best to get the fight over quickly.
The new version will be backwardly-compatible with old saved games.
I'm aiming for a mid-May release.