Changelog #44 - Scrolls and Arrows

April 19, 2022 · 3 min · Vsevolod

That was really motivating four days with a lot of new ideas and implemented features. From important things: spell scrolls now are implemented - these are group-wise spells that consume items on use. They need to be created from scrolls. Other thing is projectiles for weapons like bows. Now you’ll have to supply different kinds of projectiles like in factory games.

Here is a huge changelog.

  • wild animals now are wandering on the map
  • new workers now appear at the end of the turn instead of the beginning. It was super-confusing before
  • hints at loading screen
  • interface improvements
    • delayed spellcasts now warn you with a message near cursor
    • skills that are not possible to be cast are now greyed out instead of hiding
    • an animation for selecting understandings
    • a lot of new icons
    • updated tutorials
    • some tutorials are now shown only once and can be reset in settings
    • improved New Game menu
      • map selection in new , you can now select demo map, random map and difficulty
      • some random items on the map now have some fancy descriptions
  • one-use items are now done
    • they can be used by any worker, spellcast area is shared between all creatures of the group
      • scrolls now work as expected
      • items now can’t give skills to separate creatures, only to the whole group
  • improved map generation
    • now there is three types of beaches: papyrus, sand, and stone
    • deserts are now more deserted
    • “sublevels” - pre-made pieces of map that are placed interestingly
      • 15 sublevels
  • new night track: Meridian
    • after a few days I realize it’s not yet good, I’ll update it later
  • when you transfer resources, a road is created between creatures
  • when creature steps on grass, it gets worn a bit. After dozens of steps, grass might turn into ground without grass
  • morale is not just simply a mana/fear resource. It’s somewhat shared between local creatures of the same species.
    • this have some cool lore linked to it
    • when creature casts a spell, it stresses out not only him, but nearby creatures as well
      • the further an ally is, the less morale loss will be
    • ally death now doesn’t lower morale (it gets too hard too predict stuff)
    • increased morale bonus on killing a creature in hope to increase combo potential
  • bows, crossbows now require arrows
    • you’ll need constant supply of projectiles to continue fighting
    • a lot of types of arrows from different resources
  • balancing and battle system improvements
    • pilum now doesn’t do critical damage, just N pierce damage
    • hp and mp regen is now finally completed every subturn, not just at the end of the turn
    • fire damage also burns some nearby enemies’ morale
    • rearranged some secondary stats and changed their formulas to make it make more sense
    • slightly less difficulty
    • AI improvements
      • creeps now cast abilities like humans do!
    • productions are now commited on the first subturn just after making spells. Because otherwise automatic worker assignment is problematic in combination with spells on player side.
  • fixes
    • battle movement algorithm is greatly improved
    • sand doesn’t block movement anymore :D
  • new bugs (but hopefully no)