Hello everyone!
The work on Rags to Riches continues as planned, and it’s already evident that it’ll be the largest update yet. Right now our hands are full with implementing a whole bunch of different mechanics: Caravan Upgrades, improved Dungeon Generation, reworked Contracts, Cooking, better pathfinding for enemies. Some time is also being spent on conceptualizing new features that will be introduced to the game after RtR. And if all goes well, we’ll soon release a couple more devlogs highlighting the Caravan System and Cooking, which are close to being finished.
But since everything else still requires more time in the oven, we decided to release yet another interim update that will include some of the content originally intended for Rags to Riches. So, what can you expect from the 0.8.2.0 content patch arriving in the next few weeks?
NEW ENEMIES
It’s been a while since the Undead faction received an update. We want to amend this by adding 9 new basic enemies: high level Accursed and Ancient Ghasts, Putrid Restless, and 6 new types of Wraiths.
A large portion of the Undead-specific abilities was reworked and redistributed between the existing and new creatures. Our goal was to put a stronger emphasis on the interactions between the faction’s elite, Ghasts and Necromancers, and ordinary walking corpses, the latter serving as a disposable resource.
As an example, take a look at “Curse of Decay” and “Curse of Agony” (former “Curse” and “Curse of Weakness”):
New bosses. For quite some time, low level Necromancer minibosses had a chance to spawn even in high tier dungeons. It will be changed in this content patch by finally introducing powerful tier 3 Necromancers to Brynn Crypts. Distant dungeons will have their own mage miniboss too - Wraithbinder, who, as you may guess from his name, specializes in summoning Wraiths. Additionally, distant dungeons will have a chance to spawn the Revenant as a miniboss - long-dead commander of the Order, resurrected by unholy magic.
High level Restless will gain a new ability, “Death Grip”, designed to make them more of a threat during mid and late game - it has a chance to Immobilize the character and is even more dangerous when combined with the curses applied by Undead mages. Then there’s a cloud of foul miasma surrounding the Putred Restless - the effect is somewhat similar to Harpies’ “Unbearable Stench” but stronger.
Proselytes will receive two new minibosses, since their high level dungeons also lacked variety in that department. Very soon, the cult will be joined by the Brander - a versatile miniboss with a focus on debuffs and using fallen allies to his advantage - and the Juggernaut, whose strategy is to disable the opponent, then demolish them with devastating strikes.
MAPS
Another important feature that will be included with the upcoming content patch is reimagined paper maps. Many of you may remember them being briefly present in the game when it just launched in EA. And now paper maps are finally making a return - combined with the Rumor System and hints about POIs’ location, their new purpose is to make the exploration easier and more enjoyable.
The mechanic itself is very simple: interacting with paper maps will allow your character to fill up the blanks on their Global Map, painting it with rough outlines of the terrain, roads, dungeons, and certain POIs that you are yet to discover. Camps, hunting grounds, abandoned carts, shrines, and other similar locations can’t be revealed this way and will need to be found through exploration or rumors.
Keep in mind: all paper maps had been created before Aldor was ravaged by the war. Consequently, many locations won’t look the same way as they are drawn on maps: Catacombs, for instance, will be depicted as perfectly intact chapels and monasteries rather than caved-in ruins. Any Points of Interest that didn’t exist before the war (such as the Siege Camp) or weren’t known to a cartographer (such as the Witch’s Hut) also won’t be present on paper maps.
Some paper maps will be purchasable from Elders after you reach Benevolence with their settlement, and you’ll receive a map of the Osbrook region after your first conversation with Verren. Finally, there’ll be maps depicting distant, sparsely-populated corners of the Brynn March, which will be obtainable as random loot in high level dungeons.
WILL TO FIGHT
Will to Fight and a chance for enemies to flee are relatively old mechanics, first added with the Way Forward update. However, for a number of reasons, we weren’t particularly happy with how they turned out. This is why we decided to rework them by making the following adjustments:
- First of all, enemies’ Will to Fight will now be visible when inspecting them, providing you with a rough idea about how close they are to giving up and fleeing.
- Fleeing enemies will no longer try to repeatedly reengage the character only to start running away again.
- The overall system also became more deterministic. Instead of the chance to flee, affected by specific conditions, there will now be a depletable Will to Fight bar. The number of conditions influencing it was greatly expanded too: in addition to receiving damage, critical hits and Injuries, enemies’ Will to Fight can be swayed by the presence of nearby allies, them dying or fleeing, certain negative and positive effects, the player character’s equipment, and so on. We’ll share more details in the patch notes.
- At the same time, some conditions will actually give your opponents an advantage: if your character is Injured, Bleeding, or low on Health, the surrounding enemies’ Will to Fight will receive a boost, making them less likely to retreat.
- It’s a well-known issue that enemies can’t be chased after they flee to another map tile. Essentially, it all stems from the limitations imposed by the game’s engine - GMS can’t process events that happen outside the room or map tile occupied by the player character.
Our original plan was to fix it in this very patch by adding a system that would emulate the transition of enemies between map tiles. But after some deliberation, we decided it would be a better approach to combine the system with the existing mechanic that allows enemies to follow the player character between locations. On top of that, we want to lay down the groundwork for future Random Encounters, which will also require NPC routes to be simulated on the world map. Unfortunately, this kind of major rework would make the update incompatible with existing saves, so the chase mechanic has to be postponed until Rags to Riches.
STATISTICS
This small but fun feature will allow you to quickly review your character's exploits. Here you'll find details about the most important aspects of your ongoing playthrough: from the time spent dungeon-crawling to the number of desecrated graves and the amount of money you spent on drugs.
That’s all for now. Until next time!
