Monomyth: Alpha Patch 0.0.1
Treasured Belongings
Hi everybody,
the first phase of closed alpha testing has gone very smoothly and with today's patch, I will send out a new batch of alpha keys. So, what's new?
This patch is all about new loot, new items and new possibilities to interact with the world. It also introduces a few improvements concerning controls. Some highlights are water arrows, firebombs, and fountains (as well as crystal flasks to draw water from them). Here are the patch notes in detail:
- Water fountains: You can now draw water or drink from fountains. If it's a magic fountain, drinking from it either gives you health or mana, but only for the first sip. Then its just regular water until the magic replenishes.
- Crystal Flasks: Drawing magic water only works with crystal flasks - otherwise the magic escapes and you get regular water.
- Treasure: Gold and silver, gems and jewelry. I added lots and lots of treasure items to add some loot variety. You won't be seeing all of it in the alpha level since some of it is too precious for that part of the game.
- Stamina Management: Low stamina attacks now cause minimum damage instead of none.
- Respawn System: Reworked the respawn system. There are no more "enemy nests" that have to be cleared before enemies stop respawning. Respawn is now handled individually. Spawn points can still change state and spit out a different set of NPCs though (basically secondary encounters to mix things up a bit).
- Mantling: Pulling yourself up is now automated. Mantling checks should now be more generous.
- Mantling tutorial: I added another room to explain mantling - and then another room and another cave, but those are kinda unrelated to mantling. They are just connected to that first room.
- Torches: Adjusted torch light radius as well as the light's position so it doesn't clip into objects anymore. You can now douse a torch by clicking its icon in the character menu.
- Candles: Added candles as a new light source. They work like torches but with a smaller radius. Candles in the environment can be blown out.
- Keys: Made named keys more visible
- Quickslots: Consumable items go straight to one of the four quickslots after picking them up.
- Equipment: Armor and weapons are now immediately equipped if their respective slot is free.
- Momentum movement: I reworked movement into something with actual velocity and momentum. It should feel more natural now - hopefully not too floaty.
- New Spells: There are two new spells - Douse & Ignite. As the names already suggest, these let you douse and ignite torches and candles. This might draw an enemy's attention to the light source.
- Water Arrows: A new type of arrow was added. These arrows let you douse torches and candles from far away.
- Firebombs: A grenade-like, new item. Goes boom and does a good amount of damage. Also, it's pretty loud - handle with care.
- Search: To find all that pretty new loot, you can train your "Search" skill. This will sometimes give you an audible (and in rare cases even a visible) hint when you are near a secret. Finding the secret is still up to you though.
- Dragon's leaf: A rare item that sharpens its user's senses. It makes time go by slower, but once it wears off you will be extra exhausted.
- Stone of Return: A rare gem that lets you travel to the last shrine you visited.
- Documents: Mouse capture should now work correctly in reading mode. Also there is now a UI element for closing documents.
- Item distribution: Treasure should be much better distributed now. No more prominently placed boxes with nothing in them.
- Arcane Connection: The range of Telekinesis, Douse and Ignite now scales by the Arcane Connection skill.
- Archery: The Archery skill now influences draw speed.
- First Aid: Training first aid lets you assess an enemy's health. I haven't decided yet how inaccurate the assessment should be on lower skill levels. For now its your typical "wounded", "near death" etc. On higher levels you get the health bar again. (Sidenote: The skill is still shown as "Inactive" because it's main component isn't in the alpha yet).
- Combat: Breaking through defense does no longer make the attacker stagger. Also stamina locking does no longer stack.
- Enemies: Archers have better aim now and are generally faster and more deadly. Dead enemies do no longer have any collision. AI now takes more chances with blocking weak attacks. Enemy alertness should now decrease a bit faster
Other stuff:
- The character menu now shows a debug output for the player's position.
- Clicking on the [+] next to the Feedback/Bug Report button reveals the forms' link, which can be copied & pasted (some players had problems opening the URL via the buttons)
- At the end of the alpha level you will be shown the percentage of secrets you found.
- Added a twitter link in the menu.
- You should now be able to quit the inventory with the ESC key.
- Doors should now persist their lock state correctly
- Temporarily lowered weight of iron broad sword
- Temporarily deactivated refraction on water surfaces
- Key objects in the alpha level's main puzzle should now be more visible
- Item combinations are now based on a respective table (not important for user experience)
And to round it all off, here a couple screenshots:
The patch is already up. The mails with the alpha invites will go out soon. Don't forget to check your spam folder! And if you haven't received an invitation this time, don't worry: More patches and more alpha invites are coming soon!
Best wishes,
RatTower