Hello, Mercenaries!

The update bringing the game to version 0.7.1.0 is now available!

We'd like to thank all of you for supporting the game, providing your feedback and being patient with us!
And a special shout-out to kormakrtv, a friend and streamer who provided his voice for one of the characters in this update. See if you can spot him!

Update notes

Content Update 1 - Version 0.7.1.0

A note on save compatibility

While preparing for this update, we did some extensive testing to ensure older save compatibility, smashing most major bugs in the process, including the pesky Birgit dialogue issue which was still plaguing some players in the previous patch. We also added backwards compatibility for the majority of changes to player character progression.

This means that your saves should allow you to jump into the new content added with this update right away, and your characters will also be able to unlock and use all the new abilities we introduced. In Ashya's case, you'll have to win a couple of fights with her (luckily there are respawnable enemies now...) in order to unlock the new baseline Bard abilities from her updated starter kit.

Unfortunately, we cannot ensure such backwards compatibility when changing objects which already exist in the player's save state: that would mean somehow merging the changed state of each individual object the player has interacted with during their playthrough - a cyclopean task that would deter us from working on actual new content.

Because of this, we suggest starting a new game whenever a large update such as this one drops. Of course, you're still welcome to submit bug reports and other feedback when playing the game using an older save using the "Send Feedback" in-game tool - we will review such reports case-by-case and do our best to resolve any issues we can reasonably fix. Thank you for your understanding!

Changelist

Bolded changes are new additions since the preview

General

• Added a difficulty slider and two new difficulty levels: Normal and Hard.
• Existing saves from previous versions will continue the game at the default difficulty, known as Classic.
• Difficulty can be changed at any point during the game. Note: difficulty levels were designed specifically to affect the strategic difficulty of the game without affecting the numerical progression of the characters - e.g. enemies on Hard will not suddenly turn into arrow sponges, but fights on that difficulty will require more careful planning and preparation with less room for mistakes.
• New enemies will now appear in certain areas when the players revisit them later in the game.
• Enemy corpses will now disappear as time passes by.
• Improved the chase logic of enemies in the map. As long as the enemy who initially noticed the player is chasing, the other enemies in the pack will continue chasing as well.
• Changed "load game" on defeat to "load last save".
• Slots in Load Game menu are now sorted by date and time.
• Fixed scrolling issues in Quest Journal.

Content

• New major side-quest: recruit a blacksmith for your hideout!
• New contracts: unlocked after clearing one of the initially available contracts. Fight men and beast alike, and test your mettle against the might of a travelling blademaster!
• Hidden mini-boss added: see if you can find it!
• Several new items added, including a new weapon group: bows!
• Morten can now pet the dog.
• Fixed a progression blocker with Birgit refusing to talk to the player if certain conditions were met. Note: hopefully for real this time. If she still doesn't talk to you after updating, please make sure to head downstairs and interact with the contract board. Return upstairs and Birgit should revert to her normal dialogue.

Ability Changes And Fixes

• New ability mechanic: modal passive abilities that can be switched on and off at will during the order phase for no additional cost. Active modals are highlighted in your character's ability lists. Note: it made sense - both thematically and tactically - to allow certain passives to be switched on and off depending on the situation on the battlefield. For example, with this change a Rogue character will be able to switch Patience on when needed to delay their action in combat, then switch it off when a quick response is required.
• New ability mechanic: area damage. Note: usually this works in combination with Engagement-based attacks such as Cleave - such attacks will now deal damage to everyone standing in their area of effect, but targets affected by Engagement will take additional damage.
• New ability mechanic: targeted buffs (certain Preparation abilities can now be used on other characters, not only self).
• Certain abilities will now ignore weapon scaling and will instead only scale with character stats directly (where thematically appropriate). Examples include Kick (Two-handed stance) and Mend Wounds (Item ability). Equipped weapons can still affect these abilities by providing direct bonuses to main stats.
• Generator abilities (e.g. basic attacks) will now restore 1AP to characters using them instead of a number of AP equal to the character's Preparation. Preparation still defines the number of AP a character gains each turn normally.
• New ability group: Archery (stance, requires a bow equipped).
• New ability group: Conjuration (magic).
• Bardic Lore: abilities now ignore weapon power but scale better with base stats.
• Class: Bard's Repertory passive logic updated: the buff it grants cannot be stacked endlessly by rotating just two songs anymore, but is now easier to maintain (playing any song will automatically refresh it).
• Bardic Lore: Soothing ballad is now a direct heal (regardless of Repertory).
• Bardic Lore: Several new abilities added.
• Class: Mender's Healing Pulse passive has been reduced in efficiency. AP bonus is now chance-based, and can only occur once per ability use.
• Support: Several new abilities added.
• Destruction: Several new abilities added.
• Destruction: reduced the Critical rate bonus of Fireblast and made it slower.
• Class: Wizard has received a brand new Spell Focus passive. This replaces the Spell Focus preparation ability previously available in Protection tree.
• Protection: Arcane Shield is now an active preparation ability and has been moved to Conjuration tree.
• Protection: Group removed as its abilities were dissolved into other ability trees, old and new. Note: we felt that Protection, with its pure defensive focus and no offensive spells, lacked the flavor of other ability groups, and made a choice to dissolve it, moving important abilities such as Arcane Shield into other thematically-appropriate groups.
• Shield Stance: Reduced the scaling of Shield Bash at level 2.
• Restoration: Reduced the healing provided by Healing Chain and made it slower.
• Items: Mend Wounds will now correctly work as a generator.
• To avoid disrupting the player's strategy, certain abilities (mostly buffs and debuffs, e.g. Kick) will no longer allow switching to another ability when it is unlocked.

Stat changes and fixes

• Characters can now have 0 engagement slots under certain circumstances. Such a character can never intercept nor be intercepted, their attacks will always be from the side, but attacks made against them will also be resolved as side attacks.
• Added a hidden Damage Taken multiplier (1 by default). This can be altered by certain abilities to reduce or increase all damage a character takes (on top of normal Defense modifiers).
• Fixed an issue with Strength stat having incorrect XP gain calculation.

Miscellaneous fixes

• Reworked the pathing logic in combat. The characters will now try to stay away from enemies when repositioning for action, and will move much less chaotically when idle.
• Resolved numerous minor bugs reported by our players. Thank you all for submitting your feedback!

Thank you for supporting the development of Shores Unknown. If you're enjoying the game, please leave us a review - every single one helps us a lot! (If you already did - we see you and thank you!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/899460/Shores_Unknown/