WARNING: New update will break existing save games.
Hello everyone! Our 7th update is here and it introduces significant improvements to the Villagers! The primary goal of this update is to expand the internal systems governing Villager behavior and powers so that we can introduce more interesting interactions in future updates. While there are a lot of new features in place, this wouldn't play much differently from the previous version aside from some variance in Villager survivability. It's actually the succeeding updates that will expand on each one of these in much more meaningful ways for the player.
With this update, we've finally applied all of the major systems of the game. In a perfect world where development funds weren't an issue, this should have been the state that the game launched at as an Early Access. We thank all players for putting up with the game's unrefined state and we're glad that we're nearing the end of this tough development period.
We are about to proceed to the more important (and fun) next phase of development which is to polish these systems for a smoother player experience, resolve various simulation issues and fully flesh out each Archetype's powers and progression.
We plan on slightly increasing the game's base price soon so the current Steam Sale is probably the cheapest you will get it for a while.
Talents
Talents have been added to introduce variations in Villager capabilities. One Villager may have a high Talent level in Combat Arts, unlocking higher tier combat classes and providing it with combat-related stat buffs. Another Villager may have a high Talent level in Resources, which may expand the type of Resources it can gather.
Below is an overview of the different Villager Talents:
Martial Arts - Talent related to physical combat
Combat Magic - Talent related to magical combat
Healing Magic - Allows Heal skill in combat and unlocks various cures to Injuries, Plague, etc
Crafting - Allows crafting of various Equipment
Resources - Talent related to gathering non-Food resources (some Talent level effects are not applied yet)
Food - Talent related to gathering various types of Food resources (some Talent level effects are not applied yet)
Social - Talent related to interactions. Requires further expansion in future updates.
Villagers gain experience and level up their Talents by performing relevant tasks.
Equipment
Villagers can now craft Weapons, Armors and Accessories. Each character can equip one of each type to gain various improvements to their stats. A character can only equip a limited number of type of weapon or armor based on their Class (ex: Mages can only equip Staves). Do note that once equipped, an Equipment can no longer be unequipped manually by that Villager and
For now, Villagers obtain these equipment only through the new Workshop structure. In the future, monsters will also be able to drop equipment with unique effects.
New Resources
We've expanded the number of different resources that Villagers can gather and utilize. This is another way to introduce variety to the Villages you encounter. For example, a Village with access to Orichalcum will be able to craft better Equipment compared to a Village that only has access to Stone. For now, this simply provides rare instances where Villages have unique bonuses but we're hoping to expand on this further and introduce inter-village trading and resource envy.
Racial Improvements
We've already introduced Piercing and Resistances before but Villagers did not yet have any means of improving theirs until now. To recap, Resistances reduce damage to that specific type of element. It also gives a chance of completely resisting Spell effects (ex: Seize Villager is a Physical-based Ability so a Villager with high Physical Resistance may resist it). Meanwhile, Piercing negates Resistances.
One way that Villagers may gain Piercing and Resistances are through Equipment. The other way is through Racial Improvements. To differentiate Humans and Elves further, we've made the way they naturally gain permanent Piercing and Resistances different. For Humans, the system is more individual: a Human Villager gains various Piercing and Resistance improvements each time they level up any Talent. The gains depend on their Character Class. For Elves, the system is more collective: Power Crystals are now randomly dropped by monsters and animals. An Elf may absorb a Power Crystal to gain a random Piercing or Resistance improvement. This gain will be shared by all Elves from the same Village.
In general, Humans improve much quicker, but they tend to be capped because there is a limited number of Talent levels they may gain. Humans from the same Village will also have different Piercing and Resistance values as their gains are dependent on what their Character Classes are. Elves on the other hand improve relatively slowly and heavily depends on how many Power Crystals the Village finds. Even though they gain slowly, their progression is uncapped as they may keep improving as long as they continue finding Power Crystals. Also, since the gains are shared, the entire Village will tend to have similar levels of Resistances.
Villager Schedule
Villager Schedules have been slightly simplified so that they are more likely to be in sync with each other. There are now designated times for Work, Free Time and Sleep. Nocturnal characters have inverted schedules, but if they join a Party, they will still respect the party's normal schedule. Non-combatants are now assigned to specific Work Structures, and they perform jobs dependent on where they are working. There are still a few jobs that are shared by the Village members that do not come from Work Structures such as Bury, Build Structure and Repair.
Party Quests have also been significantly reworked so that they can all be finished within the day. Quests are generated early in the day, and available Parties take what they can at the start of their Work schedule. They will end their Quests as the Work period ends, even if they haven't successfully completed it yet.
Coins and Purchasing
While building Village structures is still a communal effort and uses resources freely, most of the other personal Villager Needs require them to spend Coin. Villagers now earn Coins by performing various Village tasks.
Villagers now no longer communally share Food and other resources. They must now earn Coins and spend it to obtain various needs.
This is still in a very early state and will be iterated and polished by next update. Furthermore, new Powers will be introduced to take Coins or manipulate greedy people with Coins.
New Non-combat Professions
Previously we had 3 non-combatant classes: Peasant, Craftsman and Miner but there aren't a lot of differences in them as most tasks were shared by the Village anyway. Now, the non-combatant Classes have been further expanded: Farmer, Fisher, Butcher, Skinner, Miner, Crafter and Merchant. These new Classes also now also must claim a single Work Structure to work on. The tasks they perform there will produce them Coins. Resources and Items are now no longer communally shared so Villagers that need resources or items created on a Work Structure must spend Coins to purchase it.
Updated Hospice
Villagers with at least Level 2 Healing Magic may now start working as a Healer in a Hospice. They produce Healing Potions and Antidotes from Herbs and cure different ailments. At Level 5, they can even dispel Vampirism and Lycanthropy, but only those that actually dislike being one will visit asking to be cured.
Updated Farms and Food Buffs
There are now four different types of Farms, depending on the Biome where it was built. The different crops as well as the other Food types now provide temporary Buffs to those that eat them:
Potato - Increases Intelligence by 50%
Corn - Increases Strength by 50%
Pineapple - Increases Mental and Physical Resistances by 100%
Iceberry - Increases Elemental Resistances by 100%
Fish - Increases Secondary Resistances by 100%
Animal Meat - Increases Piercing by 50%
Class Change
Standard combat classes have now been subdivided into three Tiers. At the lowest are the Marauders, Archers and Druids. At the middle are the Barbarians, Stalkers and Shamans. At the top are the Knights, Hunters and Mages. Villagers unlock the higher Tier classes as they level up the relevant Talents. Once a higher tier Class has been unlocked, they may eventually change into it.
Villagers may also switch between combatant to non-combatant and vice-versa depending on what the village may be missing.
Villager Wants
Villagers now have internal priority lists of Wants that they will attempt to satisfy. On first priority is the House, then Food, then various Furniture, Equipment and extra Food variety. Right now, all Villagers have the same order of Wants priority with some exceptions (Vampires skip Food) but we do plan to differentiate these further based on Villager traits.
Updated World Gen
The World Generator have been slightly tweaked so that there will be more variety in terms of what types of biomes may show up. New resources have also been applied to the generation tool and the new Village structures have also been introduced to the Village generator.
Disabled Scenarios
As mentioned in a previous update, we've decided to disable the Scenarios while we are still in the development phase where mechanics are still rapidly being changed. We intend to reintroduce scenarios in the future, and the new Scenarios may be drastically different.
Tweaks
- Manifest Food may now spawn different food types at random. Upgraded versions expand possible options.
- Trigger Flaw for Vampires may now target other Villagers that they do not have any relationship with.
- Settlement Rulers may now place blueprints multiple times per day.
- Objects may get Dirty from time to time. Villagers gain a negative mood modifier whenever they enter a structure that has too many Dirty objects. Lazy Villagers are less likely to clean Dirty objects.
- Defenders spawned by Prism will now target distant hostiles that attack any demonic structures.
- A single home torch will now light up the entire dwelling at night.
- Villagers may socialize at the Village Center or Tavern during their Free Time.
- Villagers may now sometimes drink water from the Village well.
- Characters now have Crit Rate. Critical hits deal double damage.
- Character damage stats have been split into two: Strength and Intelligence. Strength is used for damage computation for Physical-based attacks, while Intelligence is used for Magical-based attacks.
- Physical and Mental Resistances reduce Knockout success rate.
- New dwellings start out empty of Furniture.
- Monsters now also have hidden Stamina values. This should allow Villagers to get away from monsters if they have more Stamina for running away.
- Map sizes have been slightly adjusted. Fewer starting Villages may now be spawned by the player, with expectations that these will grow and expand over time.
- Characters will be fully healed once they get successfully recruited by a Villager faction.
- Tank monsters and lesser demons will now also taunt enemies that are attacking demonic structures.
- Tweaked cooldown of Afflictions.
- Additional tutorial tips have been added.
- Hotkey changes. Top Menu hotkeys have been reassigned to numbers 1 to 8. F5 is now for Quick Save while F8 is for Load Screen. + and - are now used to toggle between Game Speeds.
- Improved speed of game saving.
- Allowed players to name their game saves.
- Renamed Snooper to Watcher.