Version 1.21 released

This version introduces an official translation to several languages. Now the game can be played in English, German, French and Polish. In future more languages could be added (and it’s like almost guaranteed judging from my past experiences with localization). Next, some balance tweaks were done and one location was altered (added Ancient Evil Aura). Some of those adjustments affect new games only and some old ones as well (now the save remembers at which rules the game was started and tries to aim for consistency of gameplay within same gameplay campaign). Some traditional fixes are there as well.

I would like to thank here all translators and myriads of other helpers who, over the years, helped me to improve the quality of the Amberland series. Many thanks! You are truly the most devoted fans!

– [misc] Localized to German, French and Polish.
– [misc] Introduced rulesets which are tied to save files. Basically, when a rebalance which would not work well with old saves (side effects or plain too heavy changes) is introduced those changes affects new saves only and the existing saves will work under the old rules assuring consistency. The active ruleset is listed on Quick Menu, next to difficulty level. If there is a need, I might add an option to manually convert the save to another (newest) ruleset in future.

– [balance] Normal difficulty was rebalanced, now monsters deal more damage (affects new saves only, ruleset: #121).
– [balance] Formula for experience required to level up made a bit more steep (all difficulty levels), at 20/30/40/50 thresholds. It slows down access to the highest levels, in practice it’s a difference of around -5 levels in the late game (affects new saves only, ruleset: #121).
– [balance] Added “Ancient Evil Aura” to Dungeon of Doom, adjusted plaque and description of that location.
– [balance] Battlesmith MP per level x2 (instead of x1), Max Encumbrance increased drastically (to Enc 50, which makes this class the highest encumbrance class in the game). Now also starts with Blacksmith’s Heavy Forge Armor which is similar to Heavy Forge Armor (which would be actually usable by this character due to extreme Enc).

– [interface] Wider “+” button for increasing stats. Should make it more convenient to play on Steam Deck.

– [fix] Boats/Ships related texts were not included in the translation file (and therefore not translated).

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.20.1 released

A small update, mostly to fix incorrect manual version. Also added one intermediary quest (purely so people would not get confused what to do next, since I observed many people got lost in that part of the game).

– [misc] Added an intermediary quest “visit chancellor” (because many people were confused what to do at this point).
– [misc] Localization (DE/FR/PL) is almost complete. Those are still marked as partial but those are actually more than 99% complete.

– [fix] Manual was incorrect (from old v1.1x), replaced with the proper (v1.20).
– [fix] Interface scroller visual glitch.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.20 released

Finally, the big rebalance version is out! In the last months I was gathering feedback, drawing proposals and discussing implications of various balance changes with many people. Here is the result of this long work. First, a lot of rules were adjusted. Hit/Evade formula was redone, difficulty level effects adjusted, Arcane, talents and so on. Next, many classes and some races got significant rebalance. The premise being that specialized classes should get their special bonus for free or almost free and instead focus on a more generic perks and that hybrid classes should be stronger. Arcane bonuses availability was increased, including special musical instruments for Bards, more items with Arcane and Knowledge bonus to Arcane adjusted. Spells got rebalance as well. Monsters were adjusted in many cases, in a logical way, for example Dragons got better armor. The mid/late game areas difficulty was increased accompanied by environmental zones damage increase (Frost and Lava). In addition barrels were redesigned, now those grant gold, vials (rare) or just flavor text. The are also smaller changes like prices rebalance in the Magic Shop, griffin travel time, etc. And the last thing, there is now a new location on Eastern Swamps (some players raised a concern this area is empty and I found this complain valid).

OId saves (pre v1.20) will be automatically converted to the new rules (very minor things will be not, like attributes adjustments for classes, but those are very minor, so it’s perfectly fine to play the adjusted version using your old saves).

Overall, the goal of the big rebalance was to introduce the much needed changes, especially regarding classes balance, without upsetting the state of existing games in progress. But if you prefer to finish your existing game in progress using the old rules, you can always access the “Pre BigRebalance version v1.1x” which will be permanently available on the Steam Beta branch.

– [feature] New item type Musical instruments which grants “Music” (Arcane bonus usable for Bards and Troubadours only).
– [feature] Barrels redone. Now instead of experience those have a chance to give gold or drop a vial (savescumming protected, as usual).

– [balance] Elves have no longer Endurance penalty.
– [balance] Elves got +10 Sorcery resistance.
– [balance] Wood Elf extra attributes changed to DEX & TOU (to allow a viable elf warrior option).
– [balance] Archer second attribute boost upon level up changed from STR to TOU (since Strength is useless when using bows).
– [balance] Champions extra damage vs Sorcerers & Warlocks +30% instead +10%.
– [balance] Champions got Sorcery resistance +15 and Fire/Cold/Lightning resistances +5.
– [balance] Troll Slayers got Fear resistance +50.
– [balance] Wizards and Healers (plus derived classes) talent changed to “Magical Resistance” (+1 Fire/Cold/Lightning resistance per 3 points of Knowledge).
– [balance] All classes got double Arcane gain from knowledge (like Wizards and Healers previously). Which makes Knowledge equally efficient for all classes in regard of extra Arcane.
– [balance] Experience required to level up from Difficulty level flattened (Hard and Insane now have a much smaller experience penalty).
– [balance] Insane difficulty now has all prices like on Hard.
– [balance] Reduced monsters’ damage on Insane difficulty level.
– [balance] Armor maximum damage reduction increased by x0.5 (minimum damage reduction not changed). This means that armor can potentially reduce more damage (and reduces more on average) but has a higher variation.
– [balance] Actually a fix, attacks vs ALL party members were never causing status effects as those intended to. But since it was never mentioned it should work this way and it was playtested without this and therefore the difference here of being classified as a bug or a feature is my original intention, it was propagated from a bug to a feature… Yup, that’s the most logical approach. I know, life is strange.

Everything from Experimental Rebalance moved to regular ruleset:
– [balance] New hit chance formula (taking Dexterity into account more).
– [balance] Monsters got Dexterity attribute (Dexterity value depends on level, also Trolls got it significantly lower), which affect hit and evade.
– [balance] Offensive spells power +20%, level 1-29 offensive spells power +50%.
– [balance] Whirling item ability chance increased significantly (to 25%).
– [balance] Reduced griffin travel time (from 4h to 2h).
– [balance] Lava environmental damage x3, Extremely cold environmental damage x2 (lower grades of frost damage not changed).
– [balance] Troll Slayers got extra +2x HP multiplier (to a total of 9x HP), making the class the highest HP in the game (to compare: Warrior has 6x HP and Knight 7x HP).
– [balance] Archers got +x1 Damage multiplier and +20% Critical Hit Chance (previously +10%) when using bows.
– [balance] Bards (and Troubadours) got +1x MP multiplier.
– [balance] Mage Knights got +1x HP multiplier and +1x Arcane multiplier (on par with Wizard) also access to Resist Elements spell.
– [balance] Dragons got better armor.
– [balance] Snow/Ice/Great Ice Lizards got significant level up.
– [balance] Barbarians got level up (from 15/20 to 20/25).
– [balance] Trolls got Fear attack.
– [balance] Green Beetles level increased.
– [balance] Mantis level increased and more deadly attack types added.

– [content] Magic shop adjustments: prices reduced significantly (almost halved), new items available (weapons, arcane sources, etc).
– [content] New item: Ring of Arcane (common).
– [content] New location on East Marshes with high level enemies (to explore in the late game).
– [content] Removed some Barbarians and added some Grey Snakes in the beyond Bardacia region (there were too many identical monsters).

– [interface] Hit/Evade tooltip lists chance to hit table vs example values.
– [interface] Shows Critical Hit Chance on the Character/Hit tooltip.
– [interface] Added Overburdened and Ranged wrong position on status list (on the Characters stats screen).

– [fix] Incorrectly enabled quick exit DEV mode hotkey, disabled now.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.16 released

This version proudly presents localization. For starters German, French and Polish language with more to come later. Next there were adjustments in spells. A new “Improved heal” spell (accompanied with “mass” version) were introduced to act as a solution for the healing gap around level 20. This went straight into regular features (omitting experimental rules) because I concluded it does not upset balance and is really, really needed. Also continuous heal spells type added. Those are pure convenience heal spells which can be used outside of combat only. Another nice feature was redesign of the interface to allow better items comparison when shopping. Technically, no new feature was added, but the small adjustments how the UI behave made comparing items while in shop much easier (now the interface will be smart enough to guess you just want to check items and will try to allow you to do it without exiting shop and will adjust it’s behavior accordingly). I tried it and it works quite nice in my opinion (but if there is still a need for it, we could think of a full blown compare items feature I guess). Some traditional fixes and experimental rebalances entered the scene as well.

And a small announcement some of you waited for a long time. Most likely this is the last version before the big rebalance one (v1.20) where a bunch of rebalances will be introduced all at once (everything in experimental rebalance and many more). As usual in such case, the old branch v1.1x will be preserved as an optional Beta branch in case you wanted to finish your existing game using the old rules. Note the rebalance version will auto convert old saved, so you can switch in the middle.

If you wanted to take part in the Big rebalance version testing, hop in to the Discord where we organize such things. Thanks!

– [feature] Continuous heal spell type introduced. Variable cost spell which can be used outside of combat only. It will heal the target to full heal by spending X MP per Y HP healed.
– [feature] If started with fewer party members than 7 (using “Extra New Game options”), then experience required to level up is reduced by -10% per missing party member. Works retroactively with old saves.

– [misc] Game was localized to German, French, Polish (more to come). Might be incomplete and/or full of mistakes (will be improved later is needed). Also manual was not translated yet (this will be done after Big Rebalance version).
– [misc] All professions with access to “Heal” spell got a new spell “Healing Touch”, which is a continuous heal.
– [misc] Elven Touch spell redone to continuous spell. Note it still has remove poison which makes it distinctive from the regular “Healing Touch” spell.
– [misc] Added Improved Heal and Improved Mass Heal spells (better than Heal, worse than Power Heal).
– [misc] New icon for Heal all party members spell, to distinguish from Heal a single target spell.

– [balance] Replaced most Snow Lizards with more dangerous Ice Lizards in Northumbia (this affects new saves only, you will see no change in your old game in progress).

– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Snow/Ice/Great Ice Lizards got significant level up.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Barbarians got level up (from 15/20 to 20/25).
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Trolls got Fear attack.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Green Beetles level increased.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Mantis level increased and more deadly attack types added.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Shows Critical Hit Chance on the Character/Hit tooltip.

– [interface] Redesigned interface behavior to allow more convenient items comparison while shopping. Now, when entered shop, the interface will enter a special mode in which it will attempt to conveniently show you inventory whenever possible without exiting the shop. For example clicking on character portrait will bring you to inventory by default and when you close inventory (or any other screen you attempted to visit) you will be back to shop. Works with keyboard, mouse and gamepad. This, while not a full fledged “compare items” feature by itself, greatly improves shopping interface and should remove most of the annoyances related to shopping.

– [fix] Not a fix, but added several safeguards to interface modes, so some potential low priority interface bugs should be avoided.
– [fix] Info button did not close the screen when clicked.
– [fix] Was able to illegally enter magical restricted zones using Flee from combat option.
– [fix] Incorrect tooltip for Griffin when on Desert/Lava or Boat/Ship.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.15 released

This version finally makes a permanent solution for “Auto recast Party Bonuses at midnight”, now those are controlled by drawing runes (a new spell type all characters which has access to Party Bonus spells got). There are also two new options, one to play extra sound on secrets (in addition to the eye) and an obscure one (which was requested by some people) to totally disable minimap (don’t ask, it was an easy change to implement and some people actually wanted it). There is a bunch of interface improvements and one measly and totally unimportant bug fix. There is a also a very mild rebalance regarding Arcane and Sharpness effect, I decided to put those directly to the regular version since those are very intuitive and do not mess up with your gameplay in progress (I concluded those two changes are what everyone would want to have instantly). Of course there is a bunch of extra rebalances hidden behind Experimental Rebalance option. Have fun!

Of yes, if you play using the experimental features enabled I could use your feedback on those. You know, to evaluate those and decide what to discard and what to eventually move to a regular version (on the promised Big Rebalance version in future).

– [feature] Option to play an extra sound upon secret detection, in addition to the eye marker (it makes finding secrets easier).
– [feature] Option to disable minimap (yup, some people actually requested this).
– [feature] Added “Draw Midnight Rune” & “Erase Midnight Rune” spells to all characters who have access to party bonus spells. This rune, when drawn, will attempt to recast all eligible party bonus spells at midnight (this replaces the experimental “Auto recast all active Party Bonus spells at midnight” option).

– [misc] Removed Sorcery resistance/immunity from all monsters (it had no sense, since a heroic party would never use evil sorcery in the first place).
– [misc] Many gameplay options got reset (because those were redesigned and some were obsoleted). Go to Options/Gameplay and set those again to your liking.

– [balance] Battlesmith’s “Sharpness” changed to “Damage of melee and ranged weapons increased by additional 1/10” (which makes it more into what you intuitively expect, compared to the previous additive +10% Damage bonus).
– [balance] Reduced Arcane cost for Power Heal and Mass Power Heal, especially for mastery 5 (1000 was way too high).

– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Troll Slayers got extra +2x HP multiplier (to a total of 9x HP), making the class the highest HP in the game (to compare: Warrior has 6x HP and Knight 7x HP).
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Archers got +x1 Damage multiplier and +20% Critical Hit Chance (previously +10%) when using bows.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Bards (and Troubadours) got +1x MP multiplier.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Mage Knights got +1x HP multiplier and +1x Arcane multiplier (on par with Wizard) also access to Resist Elements spell.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Lava environmental damage x3, Extremely cold environmental damage x2 (lower grades of frost damage not changed).

– [interface] Main quests are listed using a different color, so that they differ from the other quests. Also “*” marker is added next to the quest name and it explicitly says it’s a main quest in the quest tooltip.
– [interface] More options button on gameplay options. Moved some options to extra options (with recent additions the screen run out of space).
– [interface] Right side menu auto adjusts the font size if needed (useful if you play using a translation to a language with long words).
– [interface] Localization selector shows “Translation partially finished” notice if the translation file is half done.
– [interface] Display saves location on Options/Gameplay (in “More options”).

– [fix] Small inventory display bug (shadow below “Magic bag of carrying” not displayed sometimes).

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!