0.57.3 "Casual Friday" - Edition |

0.57.3 "Casual Friday" - Edition

What happens in this update?

New scene in the town hall! Is what I had time for...
I've started reworking the combat, finally.
It will be a bit whack for 1-2 updates, but grab the cheat skill and you're good until the work is done.

I can also mention that the 'giga-update' 0.57.4 has landed over on Patreon if you want to check it out.
Due to the amount of changes you'll have to start a new game from 0.57.4 and onwards.

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💼 Plot/Scenes💼
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Added the fourth Interview/Report session in the Town Hall, along with renders/animations!

Improved some of the previous animations.

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💼 Gameplay💼
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You can now fight Sea Raiders on the Northern Sea overworld Map
Added new sprites for the Sea raiders
Some new Weapon sprites for bows/swords/daggers
You can now fight Tribal Nekoharans on the Southern Desert overworld Map (They show up on the map after CH6)*
Adjusted balance/functionality of some skills
You can now control Window opacity in options (for dialogue and menus)
Added Plugins, which gives you a simple overview of party/enemy status, including current buffs/debuffs etc, in battle.
During battle: right click and select "Enemy Status" or "Party Status". Right click to dismiss.
Still working on the status descriptions, some might be empty
Might add some more visual flair to it in the future
If you apply state: Blind to an 'Evil Eyballs' enemy, it can't use eye-related attacks.
Some map touch-ups (visual), mainly the snowy areas
New art for the AOE targeting circle during combat
More variation of the AOE targeting art
Rebalanced some skills and updated descriptions
Improved/rebalanced some consumables
Some improvements to the Cheat Room
Changed behavior of some skills
Added new skills for some Party members
Anvil will now use 'skills' instead 'melee', she'll be able to use some elven trickery on higher levels.
Added some Icon art, and edited some old ones
Lots of new gear (mainly rings/necklaces) with various effects added to the loot lists. More to come.
At the moment the gear can be randomly found in chests and such, but I'm planning to have hand-placed gear as well in specific locations.
Characters now have two eqipment slots for rings, 1 slot for a necklace, and one for an accessory item.
Gear/Skills with multiple elemental damage types are now possible ...This didn't work previously.

I am testing different Cache settings and such, let me know if there's any sudden improvement (or de-provement) in loading times or performance compared to the previous version.
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💼 Bugfixes💼
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Added in a failsafe if the 'cinematic bars' doesn't disappear at one point in ch6
Direction fix for Northport, if you approached it from the 'wrong' side, the sprite would switch momentarily
I fucked up when editing some code for the options, so please report any option or menu related issues. I think I fixed it all, but you never know...
Fixed a bunch of bugginess with the Town Hall scenes, like bust not disappearing, or the scene not properly triggering, or all of them playing one after the other... came up with better way of handling the 'code', so should work better now

💼 Dev Notes💼
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As mentioned 0.57.4 is now out on Patreon if you wanna check out the new changes... Still a bit rough, but I'll try to speedrun the next update to polish it.

There will be one more Town Hall/Mission Madame scene, and replacement of her old art, after this update & then I'll get to work on making some nice interactions with all the the other townswomen.

Working a better prologue scene as well, with fresh animations, turned out a bit more complicated than expected, but should be done in 0.57.4.

I'm also planning on improving all Cave scenes with the gobs, not just visually, but mechanically.
To make them a bit more immersive than just selecting a text option in a menu.

I forgot to re-render the reactions for the second interview, so if you pay attention you'll notice the wine glass changes. I'll fix it next time.
May re-render the latest scene as well, from this update, cause I improved her pants lol. Small tweaks and fixes like is something you can do in an evening, so no big deal.

What are the the Combat revamp plans?
- Improved Math, Better Stats, Damage Formulas
- New Skills for all party members (some have already started popping up) with more interesting mechanics and combo potential.
- I decided to make elves a bit more... folklorish. Meaning Anvil will get some spells as well.
- Goblin Layer will be primary physical damage dealer, will enable some more risky tactics.
- Plus, all fights involving green women will get a bit more spicy hopefully. (Ch6 and Ch2 has a little bit of this already)
Shitload of new gear to be spread around the world, some will have "boring" +5% fire damage buffs, others will be more... unique.
- "Larian-style" combos, E.g. State: 'Wet' + Ice Attack = State: 'Frozen'. That example is pretty straightforward, but the plan is to allow for more unorthodox tactics as well.
- Ok, maybe Larian didn't invent elemental combos, but play Dos2 and you'll see what I mean. I thought it was fun.
- I will  put some actual thought into party stat progress to make them feel more unique

I think maybe 1-2 updates for something playable, and a bit longer to be polished. I could maybe do it faster, but I'm prioritizing new scenes and animations 🙂

And yeah, I'm aware that combat might not be the main reason you play this.
In fact, I'll have plan for how we combine the "the plot" with combat for certain fights. Actually, not just certain fights. But all fights.

And at some point I'll try to get this on Steam (no guarantees they let me though), but before that can happen I gotta upgrade the old art. I hope this will be the year, but as always it will depend on how much free time I have.