Hey Hunters,
We know you've been waiting a long time for this, but we finally have an update we promised you a long time ago, to hit the PC!
First, it lands on the experimental branch so that you can test it in a safe environment, as it brings so many new changes. We will organize a separate QA session with our publisher around the same time to ensure that the update is worth the wait. Below this post, you can find a MASSIVE changelog detailing all of the changes the update brings.
We cordially invite you to check out the new update and share your experience, as we deeply appreciate all your feedback.
Now, for a bit of an explanation, because you deserve it. This Alder’s Blood update has been in the works for a while and has remained our priority all throughout the process. We gained a lot of feedback from the community and we knew how to fix the game. But the thing is that Alder’s Blood is a complicated game with many systems overlapping each other. A simple change in one place has a huge impact in a different spot, which had to be adjusted as well. In the end, we had to change or at least re-set up pretty much any system in the game, and that takes time.
We promise to focus more on frequent communication with you here on the Steam forums. However, the fact we were inexperienced during the development of Alder’s Blood made this title almost impossible to enhance with bigger content updates, but we’ll try to regularly patch it and maybe add something little from time to time.
It’s a different game now, and we really do hope you will enjoy it more. Let’s take a look at what has changed:
Highlights:
Corruption system:
The most controversial feature of Alder’s Blood has been completely reworked. No longer will your hunters suffer the corruption effects just because they fight monsters, or take part in missions. The original idea treated hunters as expendables, but it didn’t work out well.
Now hunters gain corruption only from the listed sources:
- using weapons or items with “Cursed item” trait,
- banishing monsters,
- some random events.
Now you control your corruption gain. Cursed items are more powerful, so you can choose between a powerful but costly approach, and a moderate yet safer one.
So, our previous design of expandable hunters is now optional, you decide whether you want to keep your hunters safe, exploit then discard them or something in-between.
Wind system:
In the release version the wind was too random, so we stopped it from changing its direction until we could fix it. Now the wind will show you the direction it's going to change to, a turn before. So that you can prepare, and hide in the right place.
Darkness system:
The Darkness system was planned as a big thing that brings variety to the game. From looking at your comments, all it brought was frustration. We are turning off the system completely for the time being.
Ranged weapons:
You will notice that Ranged weapons cannot be used in melee. Only shotguns break this rule. Keep your riflemen safe!
Attack of opportunity:
Ranged weapons cannot be used in melee, so why not just move away? Well, because your hunter will get hit by the monster when disengaging. Be careful when you commit to melee, or where you move, cause that attack of opportunity may hurt!
New weapons:
We’ve added 23 new weapons to deal some damage to the enemies. We think that everybody should find something interesting to arm their hunters with. Weapons availability also changed. Many of them can be purchased in shops from the start of the game, as long as you have the cash.
Critical Damage:
Every weapon has a new statistic now: Critical Hit Chance. Critical hit deals 125% base damage.
New abilities effects:
Some of the new gear features new abilities’ effects. The big highlight in these sections are push and pull effects. Remember the attack of opportunity feature? Pushing or pulling enemies away from your hunters is one of the ways to deal with that.
We also added a smoke bomb that can create a temporary cloud of smoke that can hide your hunters like bushes or tall grass.
New enemies:
We’ve added 3 new enemy types to the game:
Bat swarm:
A low-level enemy with knockdown resistance, and short, but 360 vision range. Look out for it’s Bleeding attack! A simple addition to add more variety.
Woods Witch:
This enemy is capable of buffing her fellow monsters with new Status effects:
- Armored: armored enemy receives only 50% damage.
- Wrath: enemy with wrath will deal extra 25% damage.
Ah, and she can also heal other enemies. It would be wise to prioritise her in your battles.
Elder Vampire:
Mini-boss type of enemy. They can deal some serious damage from afar and close by. You can encounter them in the new Blackwells side questline.
Research wagon:
Progression was tightly packed with your main quest. Now we open this up with availability of weapons in stores, but also with a Research wagon. Research takes time, but can unlock new gear and weapons at your own pace.
Hunters roster and levels:
Hunters now have their max level capped at 6. You need to carefully choose what Traits you want them to have, as they can only have a few!
Also, your caravan has a limit to the amount of hunters that can travel with you at the same time. This amount can be increased through the aforementioned Research wagon.
New traits:
We’ve added a couple of new Traits to the game, including:
Weapon Mastery Trait giving a hunter a 25% damage bonus when using weapons of a specific class.
Dark One gives a hunter an extra 25% damage dealt when using cursed weapons.
Cursed Item trait indicates a cursed item (what a twist!), they are generally more powerful but they corrupt hunters who use them.
We’ve also added traits that are unlocked through the Research wagon and affect the whole caravan.
Factions Contracts:
These smaller missions can provide you with some needed XP, as well as faction loyalty that can get you some unique gear. Previously, it was tied to the side missions, now you can get loyalty points through contracts. Each faction has 3 levels of contracts, adding 12 new missions with different levels of complexity.
New questline:
House Blackwell gained a new quest line featuring a new Elder Vampire enemy. It unlocks after the destruction of the Tower of Love in the main quest.
This concludes the list of major changes to the game in this update. We really hope you will enjoy them, and give us your thoughts and feedback. This beta version of the update will stay on the experimental branch for a week or two, until we finish gathering feedback from both you and our QA team. Once all is set and done, we will move the update to the main branch.
Thank you for your patience Hunters, and see you on the hunt!