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!

Version 1.14 released

This version introduced some mild changes to gameplay (like no longer being able to call a griffin while on a ship or boat, one location slightly adjusted and a tiny, unimportant change to Champion class). Those do not change a lot and do not mess up with existing games at all, that’s why I introduced them to regular changes. Next, is the interface improvement which should be especially nice to those who play on Steam Deck or laptops with small screens. Basically, the game will try to display item properties using as big font as possible, also colors were adjusted for better visibility. The last thing is bug fix to respawn monster and some smaller fixes.

One more thing. I know some people are waiting for localization, so I’m happy to announce that the first batch of localization is half done. Actually, this version physically includes some partially translated files to some languages (disabled). So, if you happen to really need them now, drop by Discord, I posted there a file which you can manually upload to your game to enable those half finished translations (and possibly download a more complete localization file). Of course, I recommend to wait till those are included in the regular version, so it’s more like an option for people who can not wait any longer.

– [misc] Griffin can no longer be summoned while on boat/ship (but can still land on those). I got tired of all those support requests “I have lost my ship”, this change should greatly reduce the instance of “forgotten ships”. Note that gameplay wise it changes nothing, since you can always dock the ship and disembark before calling a griffin, also you can always return via griffin to the ship, since the griffin can always land on those.
– [misc] Slightly adjusted lava area to allow landing next to the fountain via griffin.
– [misc] Champions always hit Sorcerers and Warlocks.
– [misc] “Unrestricted Party Creation” option renamed to “Extra New Game options”.

– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Hit/Evade tooltip lists chance to hit table vs example values (it shows with experimental hit/evade formula only, the standard formula can not be trivially represented as simple % chance).
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Offensive spells power +20%, level 1-29 offensive spells power +50%.

– [interface] Improved some tooltips (on Character screen).
– [interface] Item properties colors adjusted to increase visibility (lighter colors overall, Armor color changed to grey).
– [interface] Slightly bigger item properties font size.
– [interface] Dynamic font size for items properties (so the biggest possible that fits is displayed whenever possible).
– [interface] On Steam Deck resolution (1280×800) the item area is automatically made bigger, which allows to fit even bigger font size and therefore the item properties text is even bigger (which is handy when playing on handheld), at the expense on the number of items displayed at once. This is screen resolution based, so while designed specifically for Steam Deck, it will behave the same way on any hardware.
– [interface] On Nintendo Switch resolution (1280×720) the item properties font was made bigger at the expense of stuff being more cramped (which is a good tradeoff in this case). This is screen resolution based, works the same on any hardware.

– [fix] Respawn Monsters Option was incorrectly active only when Experimental Features were enabled (now it works as it should, as a regular optional feature).
– [fix] Inn opening on Deposit items screens in some rare occasions.
– [fix] One small unimportant tooltip (regarding caching) was slightly incorrect.

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 1.13.1 released

Hot fix for a new serious bug introduced in v1.13. A tiny, small change in the game over screen made it crash whenever it pops up. Just a single character was incorrect. This warrants an immediate hot fix. In addition a few smaller bugs were fixed.

– [fix] v1.13 introduced a new bug, the Game Over screen crashed the game.
– [fix] Some water tiles around deep north also caused frost damage.
– [fix] One tile in Silent Forest was not properly marked as part of the the Silent Forest.
– [fix] Several small spelling fixes.

Version 1.13 released

This version, in addition to the usual fixes and smaller interface improvements, focuses on experimental rebalance. The idea is that for most players there is no change, they play using the old stable rules. But for the more adventurous spirits, there is an option to opt-in to experimental rebalance changes. Which allows to experiment with the rebalance without upsetting most players who just want to play the way it is. The plan is, after all this rebalance is properly tested, to make one big rebalance somewhere in future (v1.20 or v1.30 most likely) in a single big update (with the old rules v1.x being preserved as Steam beta branch). Oh yes, also Respawn Monsters option was moved to regular features, so now you can officially grind as much as you want, if you so desire (it can be enabled/disabled anytime, it works with both old and new saves), well except if you play on Insane since on that difficulty you are not granted the luxury of infinite resources.

– [feature] Experimental Rebalance option (need to be enabled in Options). When enabled it will use an alternative rebalance settings (presumably better than the standard one). This rebalance can change from version to version (so the gameplay can be somewhat chaotic, therefore it’s not recommended for most players) and is aimed to forge out the final rebalance. Around v1.20 I plan to move this experimental balance to regular balance in one big batch (with an alternative build that uses the old balance preserved in Steam beta branch for people who liked the old one better).

– [misc] Respawn monsters option moved to regular features.
– [misc] Development markers (small triangle) not shown unless those indicate an error (to avoid confusion).

– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Monsters got Dexterity attribute (Dexterity value depends on level, also Trolls got it significantly lower), which affect hit and evade.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Dragons got better armor.
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: New hit chance formula (taking Dexterity into account more).
– [experimental] Only if enabled Experimental Rebalance: Whirling item ability chance increased significantly (to 25%).

– [interface] Added list of known trainers locations to each individual skill level tooltip (the skill tooltip was frequently overlooked, now the information is duplicated which makes it much harder to overlook).

– [fix] Notices (like Evil Aura notice) not cleared on load and new game. Also, one tile in DarkWood had no proper aura.
– [fix] Experimental feature “Auto recast party spells at midnight” was not taking into account the level of the caster (which made it possible to cast the spell by inappropriate character in some cases). BTW, I could use some feedback on this feature, I want to move it to regular features at some point.
– [fix] Spelling and other story related cosmetic stuff.

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 1.12 released

The third after release version contains a bunch of fixes, miscellaneous adjustments and one experimental feature, some of you were eagerly waiting for. Respawn monsters is here, as an option which you can enable at will. Personally, I think such option is not really needed to enjoy the game since the balance (on Normal) basically guarantees there is enough resources to beat the game. Still, I understand why some of you would desire such an option, so here it is. In future versions the feature will be moved to regular optional features, possibly in an altered form. For now you need to descent into the experimental features to enable it.

– [feature] Experimental feature (needs to be enabled via Options): Respawn monsters. When enabled monsters will respawn (once per month) on the overworld map. This setting is ignored on Insane (no infinite source of gold or experience on Insane, nope). This setting can be changed anytime. Note that you need to re-enable all experimental options each time you launch the game.

– [misc] Experimental feature: Midnight auto cast party bonuses timing adjusted. Now those are attempted after the rest (to avoid a situation when the cast is attempted while out of MP). This change results in more reliable auto cast.
– [misc] Experimental features options settings are now saved.
– [misc] All special abilities are now guaranteed to hit.

– [interface] Added Invisibility notice on Evade tooltip (analogous to Displacement notice).
– [interface] When fled from combat it shows the time passed notice.

– [fix] Gamepad button “Y” to call Map Notes not working properly.
– [fix] Fix of armor formula (was not working as described).
– [fix] Fix of Hit/Evade formula (was incorrect in some cases).

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 1.11 released

The second after release version has some fixes, but nothing really important, mostly cosmetic ones. Which makes me very happy that there was nothing serious to fix reported since the last version. I expected to spend more time on fixes to be honest, considering that’s my first title released without Early Access. Therefore, I could spend more time on features. Two very important improvements, many of you requested. Map notes which you can put on the map as you desire (like to help you remember which location was explored) and an option (for now marked as an experimental feature) to auto cast party bonuses spells at midnight. Some interface improvements were done as well.

– [feature] Map notes. Now you can put colored markers on the map and leave small text notes to yourself (which will be shown in tooltips). Several colors to choose from, some with predefined meaning (like Completed, Too Hard, etc), you can disregard the intended meaning of those markers of course and use them as you desire.
– [feature] Experimental feature (need to be enabled via Options): Auto recast all active Party Bonus spells at midnight. I tossed it together quickly because it was requested heavily by players. It might have glitches (but nothing that would break the game, it’s safe to use) but overall works. Later it will be replaced with a better solution.

– [interface] Map and minimap shows fountains effects in a tooltip (similar to names of locations).
– [interface] Map and minimap shows service type (inn, shop, etc) in a tooltip. Also other, less important things, are shown in a similar way.

– [fix] Levers do not show on minimap on some resolutions.
– [fix] Language tooltip can be shown when “How to Play” menu from the main menu screen is called.
– [fix] The last update introduced a bug where victory status was not properly cleared and was propagated to the new game.
– [fix] Clicking on close button also selected a monster in some circumstances.
– [fix] Quests scroller not working properly in some cases.

By the way, Legends of Amberland II just got VERIFIED status on Steam Deck.

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!