Navigating The Labyrinth news & patch notes

Fixes an issue that caused the incorrect achievements to be unlocked and adds a frame rate cap setting.

Fixes an issue with saving and loading portrait changes made after character creation.

Fixes an issue with special encounters introduced by yesterday's release and adds display of more status effect text: weakened, cursed, etc.

Changes in this release:

• Fixed an issue that could cause problems adding or removing characters to/from the character roster.
• Added a graphics quality setting to the settings on the main menu in case you want to lower your graphics settings. It's set at the highest level by default.

This update brings in a bunch of new features that were developed for Toward The Ice. Many of them are things players had asked for in the discussion area. Here's what's new in this release:

• Added the ability to have a roster of "extra" characters. You can have up to 25 characters total with 6 in the party and up to 19 "extra". These extra characters will stay at an inn when not in the adventuring party, and new characters can be created at the inn. You can also delete a character. Deletion is not permanent until you save the game. I plan to add a confirmation prompt to the deletion process at some point, but there isn't one now, so be careful.
• The option of using a pregenerated adventuring party. If you don't feel like going through the process of character creation and just want to get into the game quickly, you can start with a pregenerated party. You can always create more customized characters at the inn later and leave the pregenerated characters at the inn via the character roster.
• A bestiary where you can view info about monsters you've encountered. The more of a monster you kill, the more info is revealed.
• Resting in the wilderness to regain hitpoints and mana. It will require that the party be in an outdoors zone (somewhere they can camp) and have enough food in their inventory to feed everyone. While resting, there is the danger of being attacked by wandering monsters, and some or all of the party will begin combat asleep. It may be worth noting that areas can have different random encounter chances (and always could in all of the previous games). I may adjust the amount recovered, but currently the group will recover 6% of their mana and hitpoints per hour of rest, which means two rests will be required for a full recovery. Resting is entirely optional and you can always pay to recharge hitpoints and mana at healers and mana rechargers.
• Adding notes to the map. When you discover something like buried treasure but don't have a shovel, you can add a note to the map to remind you that it's there so you can find it later. Notes are visible as the letter "N" on the map and are stored with your game save data. You can also view all of the notes from a window that can be opened from the overview map and they will be displayed as a pop-up message when you enter the location that contains them. Right now there is just basic note adding and I plan to improve the user interface so you can edit and remove notes.
• A new spellcasting screen in combat. Instead of bringing up the full-screen spellcasting window in combat, which is a little jarring/disrupting, there is a smaller overlay interface within the context of combat for choosing which spell to cast. Spells now have icons that will be shown on this screen.
• Added footstep sounds. These can be turned on or off via the settings menu.
• Counterattacking. When dodging or blocking, all characters will have a chance, based on combat skill and level, to swing back at the enemy. Warrior-type classes will also have a very small chance to do this during normal combat when not actively blocking or dodging. You should not expect to counterattack with low-level characters.
• Better resistance bonuses on items that have them. They've been doubled.
• You can now drag-and-drop items on the character sheet to equip or unequip them.
• Now shows an indicator over a monster when it is hit by a player in combat, just like is shown when players are hit.
• Some improvements to some spell sound effects.
• Added translations for the feedback form so it's easier to send feedback in every supported game language.
• Added a loading progress bar when entering the main game. It sits at 90% for a bit and that's just the nature of how the zones load in Unity.
• Game manuals have been updated.
• Some translation improvements.

This is a quick fix to correct some issues that players have discovered. I'm planning another update that that incorporates some things from conversations in the game's discussion area, but that will come later because it will require more work and testing.

• Fixed an issue with the duration of the Rest spell.
• Fixed an issue with the guard cheese quest reward. You might need to give him more cheese, but this time you'll get something for your trouble.
• When using an item, the target select buttons will now show more info, just like when casting a spell.
• Made some zone transitions a little more obvious, either by showing roads on the map, or by adding visible doorways at the transition point.
• When completing the catacombs the skull quest, it will now disappear from the party's inventory. If you completed the quest already and still have it, you can throw it away. Nobody will ever know. I also added a small hint in the catacombs about the location.
• Finding the graverobbers in the Ruins of Phaestos is a now a bit easier if you're observant. Also adjusted the buildings a bit.
• Small manual update.
• Translation improvements, including when using items.

Changes since the last demo release:

• Added a LOT of new quests, events, and unique encounters and interactions to the game, many of which reward unique items.
• Added many new traps to the game. Be careful.
• Adjusted the hills areas to spawn fewer monsters in combat. This should make it a bit easier to survive the early game.
• A sound effect will now play when a battle begins.
• Sages can now identify items. Thanks to Wizard Worm for the suggestion.
• Spells that affect initiative will now be applied immediately instead of on the next initiative roll. This means that spells like Haste, Slowness, and Freeze Bones can cause characters or monsters to shift forward or backward in the initiative order and will be a bit more useful.
• Adjustments to loot drops. This game has a lot more items than the previous games.
• Made some zone entrances/exits more obvious.
• The game intro no longer auto-advances. You'll need to click the arrow (or hit enter/space or a controller "select" button) to advance the text. You can also skip the intro by hitting "escape". Thanks to Bumpy McSquigums for the comment leading to the change.
• Healing a character who has taken enough damage to put them into negative hitpoints will no longer require healing the negative damage before they regain consciousness. Instead, they will be treated as if they have 0 hitpoints. This should make it easier to get fallen allies back into the fight.
• The large overview map can now be shifted up, down, left, and right with new arrow buttons or the arrow keys so you can view the far areas of larger maps.
• Added some tooltips to the character creation window so you can see how your hitpoints, armor class, or mana is being affected by your ability score rolls. Thanks to Bumpy McSquigums for the suggestion.
• The walls in Pherae (the starting town) have been rebuilt.
• Fixed an issue with fleeing from combat. Hidden characters also now get a bonus to flee.
• Fixed an issue with the last surviving character being hidden and the monsters freezing because they have no valid targets they can pick.
• Fixed an issue with awarding items for some quests and prospecting events.
• Fixed an issue that could cause shop items to be displayed incorrectly.
• Improved the map indicator rendering to show some quest or shop indicators that might not have shown up previously.
• The potion seller in Approaching The Labyrinth now has a table to showcase his wares.
• Improved the mouse scroll wheel sensitivity for the quest log and message log.
• Items that cannot be sold will have the sell button grayed out in shops.
• Shop transactions will now play a coin sound effect.
• Made some spells that should not be castable in combat, like Enchant Weapon, only castable outside of combat.
• Increased the shadow render distance so that shadows will no longer weirdly appear as you approach distant objects.
• Translation improvements, including chest trap effects and monster names.

In addition to building a lot of late-game content that isn't in the demo (like the Ruins of Old Zakros, New Temple, Ruined Temple, and Ruins of Phaestos zones), a lot has been added in areas that are visible in the demo.

• Added experimental Turkish, Polish, and Japanese translations. These are machine-translated, so could probably be improved. Please share any observations in the discussions area.
• Added some quests, unique encounters, and shops to the Southern Hills, Northern Hills, Catacombs, Town of Pherae, and City of Zakros zones. Some of these will award unique items.
• Some monsters, mainly Arcane, Demons, Djinn, and Undead now have some level of psionic resistance.
• Some zone themes have been updated/added - the game soundtrack is now complete.
• Expanded the items usable by Oracle and Sage classes.
• It is now possible for a weapon to cast a spell on enemies when attacking. There is at least one item of this type in the game.
• Improved the layout of the Catacombs zone.
• Added more monsters, including some Oracle and Sage enemies.
• Fixed an issue with monsters' spellcasting.
• In combat, the initiative order portraits will now show the character or creature's name when hovered.
• Shops, healers, rechargers, and curse removers will now show character names on the numerical selection buttons.
• Fixed a location issue with the entrance to Approaching The Labyrinth from the City of Zakros.
• When all members of a monster group is killed in combat, its image will dim to indicate that it's been defeated.
• You can now hover the mouse over the hitpoint and mana bars of your characters to see the exact values.
• Combat command buttons will better indicate that they're selected via a text highlight color.
• Improved button focus behavior for the spellcasting window.
• Made some improvements to the UI for non-16:9 screen resolutions.
• Improved the look of monster thumbnails in the combat initiative order list.
• Expanded the system for quests and special events so more types of things are possible.
• Updated the Portuguese and German versions of the manual and created first versions of the manual in Italian, French, Polish, Turkish, and Japanese.
• Translation improvements for all languages, including tooltip text on the character sheet.

There's been a lot of progress since the last demo release. A lot of the visual changes have been in the late-game zones not accessible in the demo, but there are still plenty of visible changes. The main work remaining is adding more quests and late-game content. Because of this, the world is a bit emptier than it will be at launch. Please share any comments or observations in the discussions are - there's still plenty of time to make changes and improvements before the full release at the end of April. These things have been added or changed since the last version:

• Added initial translations of the game into French and Italian. They still need work, so please let me know if you see any improvements to be made in the discussions. These new languages do not have user manuals yet, but will on launch day.
• Added some Sage spells including Mass Smite, Mass Propel, Kill, and Barrier and increased the damage for higher level Sage spells. Also implemented functionality for the Enchant Armor spell. Very few pieces of armor can be enchanted right now, but the base leather types can. There are 11 right now, and I plan to add more before release.
• Added some Oracle spells including Group Cure and Group Repair (group healing), and implemented the Identify, Sight, Avoid Enemies, Detect Trap, and Disarm Trap spells. The Oracle and Sage spell sets are now complete.
• Thieves and Assassins will now automatically try to re-hide after attacking from a hidden position. This chance is the same as the initial hide check.
• Added a taunt command, usable by everyone, that causes a character to be more likely to be targeted. It can be repeated to increase the chance.
• Chance to dodge and block successfully has been increased. Dodge chance is now 2x agility, and block is 2x dexterity (was 1.5x).
• Chests now have a 44% chance of dropping an item, up from 33%. Non-chest encounters have a 22% chance of dropping an item.
• Added some new equipment to the game, 23 new items, especially including a variety of rings, and a shop to sell some of them.
• Adjusted the UI so dialogs for NPCs, Healer, Curse Removal, Recharger, and treasure chests no longer overlap the character status icons.
• Finished building the layout of the Catacombs map.
• Added some more detail to the Approaching The Labyrinth map.
• Improved some monster graphics.
• Improved the floor/ground in some zones.
• Added more soundtrack music. The full soundtrack has been completed.
• Updated the English and Spanish versions of the manual. German and Portuguese will be updated next release.

This update includes various fixes made to the first two games (yay shared codebase!) in addition to many content additions. Much of this is late-game content not available in the demo since it only contains the first six zones, but there's still a bunch to report. There's a lot to do before the full release, which is a little over three months away.

• Added some quests in the town of Pherae and Catacombs areas. It is now possible for a quest to permanently change a map's contents.
• Re-paved the streets of Pherae and improved the look of a few statues.
• Reworked the layout of the Catacombs zone. There are still a few adjustments to be made in future updates.
• Added new mini-map graphics for the City of Zakros.
• Updated the game intro backgrounds.
• More music added. The soundtrack is about 50% done.
• Undead and golems are no longer affected by the Sleep spell. In addition, some monsters with natural resistances will have a chance to save vs. sleep. Most monsters still fall asleep easily.
• Warriors now gain a permanent +1 to strength and slightly more hitpoints per level (+1 extra HP every 2 levels on average).
• Warriors will now have 15% faster natural base hitpoint regen (fewer steps per hitpoint healed) and monks will have a 7% faster base hitpoint regen.
• Wizards will now have 2.5% faster natural mana regen (fewer steps per point of mana regained).
• Fixed an issue where loading a game with the music turned off but sound effects on would also cause sound effects to be disabled.
• Fixed an issue with the sky that could cause clouds/stars to fail to render.
• Translation improvements.

Development progress, with a mix of new content and features, and fixes for existing features. Most noticeable in this update is that the core combat rewrite has been finished. There's still plenty to do in the next five months before release, with the main focus being quests, maps, and polishing combat, so stay tuned for updates.

• Many fixes and improvements to the combat system. You can no longer enter commands on a monster's turn, no longer spam keyboard commands when you shouldn't be able to, damage/healing over time effects are working properly, and dodge/block status sets and resets properly each turn.
• Added more monsters.
• Added more spell sound effects. All spells have sounds now.
• Added sage spells to create basic randomized armor and weapons and a spell to enchant weapons. Only certain weapons can be enchanted, and if so, they will gain a "+1" to their enchantment. Some weapons can go up to a +2 enchantment. There's also an enchant armor spell, but it doesn't do anything yet.
• The Feeblemind spell has been added for Sages. It will reduce a victim's intelligence and wisdom to 1 and slow down mana regeneration. Some monsters might also have this feeblemind as an ability.
• Added the Bullseye spell for Oracles. This will cause monsters to be more likely to attack the party member who you cast it on, and is stackable.
• Added the Enhanced Vision spell for Oracles. This will cause obscured map squares to fill in to a distance of two squares as the party walks instead of the usual one.
• The Sage spells Doze and Stun now work as intended by incapacitating the target.
• A sage now gains 1 mana when spending a combat round to dodge.
• Added a potion seller to the Approaching The Labyrinth zone.
• It is now possible to enter areas and buildings from only specific directions. Previously, if a building/square was enter-able, you could approach from any direction. This will allow buildings to behave more sensibly, and now not all buildings in Pherae and Zakros are walkable/passable.
• More shops have been added to the city of Zakros.
• Adjusted the placement of some farms and towers in the hills zones.
• Fixed the gap in the eastern wall of Zakros.
• Translation improvements.