A lot happened since our early access release. During development, we realized that the roadmap we had drawn up at the beginning did not include all the things you requested in feedback, so we adjusted it to allocate more time to the things that worried you the most. ICYMI - we have also just dropped the 'Apex Necromancy' update, check out the patch notes for that here!
As we're fast approaching our 1.0 update, we would love to tell you in detail about everything that has been done in the game since the beginning of early access, and how we envision further development!
We'd like to start with a summary - scroll all the way down to the "Future of Development" section below for a sneak peek at what we have planned for the future.
Fixing the Horde: High Undead ????
One of the biggest changes in the game for now - is the higher undead system, which is meant to give players the ability to create the horde they want!
From the very beginning, the behaviour of the undead horde been a focal point of player feedback. To address this, we have made many different additions and fixes to improve the experience of controlling the horde (more on those below), but in the end, we realized that part of the problem is rooted too deeply in the game's foundation, and it is geometrically impossible to make a horde that fills the screen without simultaneously feeling cumbersome and getting in its own way.
We wanted to keep the game pivot - the element of “every killed unit would join the undead horde”, as a dark version of the "leave no one behind" principle. And so, we developed the"High Undead" system.
Now, the Necromancer has a limit on the number of simultaneous units, but each unit can consist of several undead. If the Necromancer resurrects new undead and exceeds his current limit, then he will merge several corpses (choosing the most decayed and damaged ones) and receive the High Undead - who posses increased parameters and updated hit points!
If you manage to gather an incredible amount of corpses, further merging into higher ranks of undead may be possible! With each rank, health and damage will increase significantly, reflecting how many corpses are now combined into one, and the higher-ranked undead will also decay slower.
The limit itself, as well as the strength of the high undead, can be changed in different ways: during the necromancy power upgrade, in the binding crucible, and in the throne of ascension.
Moreover, in the throne of ascension, a pair of forces responsible for the limit will appear. Those who prefer to play with a larger army will be able to increase this limit, while those who prefer a compact elite squad will be able to decrease this limit, obtaining an empowerment of the highest undead (as well as making it easier to promote ranks due to the small number of units).
Balance revision: Binding Crucible and Increasing Power of Necromancy ????????
Many things have also been done to respond to your request for the Necromancer's tools to become more customizable.
With new systems, you can make a composition that matches the style you want to play the game!
If you love spell casting you can make spells world shatteringly powerful, at the cost of everything else.
If you don't - all this power could be channelled into the undead, to make them mighty hulks. You could even can hog all power for the Necromancer himself - who decided that casters are fragile and need an army?
Most of the living enemies have been rebalanced to match to new dynamic of Necromancers power. Now that difference in power level will be more pronounced between locations - the cemetery will be easier to beat, especially with crucible powers, and city will be more resistant to crucible powers for longer!
Customization Options: Binding Crucible
The Binding Crucible adds progression and customization to the meta-game. You will encounter it immediately upon returning to the Citadel, and once repaired with Majra and Nazrail, you can use it right away!
The Crucible maintains its flame with coals of life from the Necromancer himself, formed every time a lifespark breaks.
For each level of the Crucible, you can choose one of four alternative upgrades. More often than not, upgrades are responsible for choosing between enhancing the combat capability of the Necromancer himself, enhancing the army of undead, enhancing spells, or enhancing sacrificial abilities - but there are exceptions.
In-run progress: Necromantic Power
The Binding Crucible added necessary progression to the game, but to prevent it from becoming a stagnant choice of the same strategy, we added a system focused on increasing Necromancy Power.
Now, by resurrecting enemies, the Necromancer will receive upgrades that can adjust the direction of development during the run, depending on the vagaries of fate and your mood.
Achievements and Rewards: Citadel Store Update ????️
The need to spend Prima simultaneously in three different places - with Majra, Nazrail, and on the Ascension Throne - caused inconvenience, so we reworked the system. Now, apprentices will not have to wait for the Master to bring them resources, but will independently conduct research when certain achievements are reached!
Access to enchantments and new weapons from Nazra'il and Life Sparks from Majra will now be entirely tied to achievements rather than purchased, and Prima will only be spent on restoring the Ascension Throne.
Use Life Sparks and spend life force to provide Majra with the necessary data for research. Kill enemies with different weapons and raise them as undead to inspire Nazra'il to forge new enchantments!
Re-rolls and Grimoire empowerment ????
Some feedback suggested that restoring the grimoire often doesn't feel like progress because with a large pool of spells and runes, it becomes harder to find the desired spells. To address this, we added a system of rerolls to the game, tied to grimoire restoration!
Now, when a necromancer unlocks a new circle of ten spells they will activate its core, which provides various bonuses, including additional reroll charges!
With this charge, essence results can now be re-rolled! Additional charges can be earned inside the run by discarding essences.
Navigation tool: Necromancer Divination ????️
In order for you to better navigate and make decisions on whether to deviate from the path in pursuit of the Zolarian's gold reserves, we have added a Divination system.
This is a radar that, when activated by a button press, will display points of interest around the necromancer and their direction, as well as a pointer to the main path to the location boss.
Throne of Ascension update ????
Initially when developing the Necromancer's throne interface, we were focused on achieving a diegetic look, but from your feedback, players found the interface to be unclear... so we updated it!
We made the Necromancer's throne more informative and obvious in conveying what needs to be done to unlock new powers within it. We also made the effects of the powers more obvious and displayed that only one of the two paired powers can be active at a time.
Late-game challenge: Vow of Deicide ????️
To ensure that after all the changes and various enhancement systems the player still has a challenge in the later stages of the game, we developed the 'Vow of Deicide'.
The Vow of Deicide is a counter-part system, meant to oppose the Binding Crucible. It will allow you to raise the level of difficulty after the Necromancer reaches end-game stages - and you can get rewards for it!
The Vow of Deicide is activated after you have defeated the final boss for the first time, and it allows you to start a new run with increased difficulty. All enemies, including bosses, will become stronger, but the amount of resources will increase as well. Additionally, rewards for first-time boss kills will be given for each level of difficulty.
After the final boss is defeated on the new level of difficulty, the next level will be unlocked.
Different tweaks and Optimizations ????️
We worked hard on different aspects of how the army of undead work, and have made quite a lot of technical progress in response to all issues you, the community, are reporting.
There was logic, and technical updates for pathfinding and aggression, the most noticeable change was the addition of a dash or jump to meelee units. Of course regular skeletons will never be on par with mighty werewolves, but now they have a line rush move to get them to the front line, rather than stuck behind archers!
We have also made quite a few internal changes of how all things work, small QOL changes, and some explanation attached to things that were unclear before! Based on your feedback, we added a tracker to display how close the Necromancer is to finding the next shard of his soul.
Numerous abilities and runes texts were re-written to make their function clearer, and loading-screen tips were also added!
Future of development ????
We are almost at the end of early access development, and the next big update will be version 1.0!
All major systems and radical changes that we deemed necessary and that you asked for in the feedback are now online. We will most likely still make some changes for the release version, based on your further feedback, but the next update will have a focus on narrative. Most excitingly, the biggest part of this update will be the final boss and Zolar's elite guard.
Of course, you can expect the conclusion of the Necromancer's story and that of his apprentices, as well as many small plot additions. During the time that the apprentices spent in the necromancer's citadel, they managed to collect all sorts of things, (both necessary and otherwise). Some say that a ghostly meowing can be heard, echoing through the citadel at times... ????
There will also be small objects in the locations that will further reveal the story of the events and the world. For those that love lore, this is going to be huge!
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us on this journey. We are close to the finish, but there is still time for some changes, so we would be extremely grateful if you could fill out the survey to make sure that the final version will be the necromancy game you are waiting for. Thank you!
???? Keep up to date with The Unliving ????
Team17 Twitter
Team17 Facebook
Join our Discord!
