Greetings, friends!
Today's the day we're rolling out the February content update from the beta branch, officially adding it to the game along with a few extra features we decided on, thanks to your patience and a bit more development time.
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Here's a list of the things we did, but you'll also find a bunch of surprises, including locations you've explored before.
On new locations:
Cursed Underhalls, our team's largest dungeon yet, has received a lot of polish and will require a very capable party to completely clear. Compared to the version you might've experienced in the beta patch, the full version includes the following extra additions:
- Destructible environment (just click the manual attack button and go for it);
- *Explosive* solutions to some combat encounters were added. Look for red jars and see what they do upon destruction. More environmental elements with potential strategic uses are on the way;
- The area miniboss now has unique attack animations and custom-built particle effects;
- More options for stealthy players were integrated;
- Unreachable loot (especially the rain drums) issue was fixed, alongside a myriad other bugs;
- A hidden new interaction available after beating the ...
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Horsefish Anchorage, another one of the new locations, now has environments that change based on what you do and the quests you take on.
- There's an unmarked—let's say—ritual, that will allow you to benefit your main character greatly;
- The area features newly added enemies like snapping turtles, and giant toads. Their animations have been improved, and a special technique given to the turtles will make battles much more strategic;
- Plenty of small interactions were added as well. From reading signs, to discovering new types of hidden loot containers;
- Two mini-bosses with stories told through the environment and hidden notes were also added.
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The Abandoned Ship now features more interactive objects with special animations, much more environmental storytelling, and an upgraded ambush event.
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The Lonely Cabin, home to the first custom skill teacher in the game, has received some improvements. Now, the skill you're taught finally has a proper icon. Plus, Tomer's shield-holding stance has been fixed.
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There's also a new companion, and as always, you'll need to do a bit of snooping and make some key decisions before you can recruit them. If you've already gathered all the party members up to this point, this will boost your party size to five!
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On graphics:
The full version of this content update features a ton of new works from our designers. There are many more animations for weapon techniques, unique idle animations, more portraits, and items, which means you'll see the dreaded placeholder-box icon way less than in previous iterations.
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New particle effects were added. Environmental explosives now feature an actual blast wave that harms all who stand in its way. While throwable objects are still WIP, these received a much more intuitive throwing and missing mechanic that might lead to some unforeseen consequences, as well as more variety in the visuals.
Trying to go for more show than tell, we added animations to many interactions. For example, should you go grave digging in one of the new locations, you will see your character actually flinging and rolling rocks away, instead of us explaining how the character digs through dialogue.
As with the portraits, we have added more NPC clothes to the game, making characters more distinct.
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For isometric mode fans: more materials were changed to allow you to see your character through them—like roofs, rocky overhangs, trees, etc.
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More interactive objects:
We've added (and will continue to add) new little interactions you can have with the world—from digging in cow patties (!) and reading signposts to disturbing special light-producing mushrooms, lighting snuffed-out candles, and avoiding new traps.
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New weapons, armours, weapon mods and more were added. Older equipment received newer 3D models, updated icons where needed, and some items were slightly rebalanced.
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More love for craftables:
Most craftable objects now have icons, models, and are far more balanced. Ingredient weight issues were also tackled.
Tools now come with proper use point pools, so you can predict when you'll need a new cross-peen hammer or mortar and pestle long before they actually break on you. We should thank our community for that suggestion.
And speaking of community efforts—many player-suggested QOL features were added. There's name highlighting for NPCs on the map, new sorting options, price changes, weight adjustments, and improvements to weapon techniques for both playable characters and monsters. We'll keep adding more with each new content patch.
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More love for older locations:
Many older locations, from dungeons to more peaceful places like Clamreach and Grainhold, now offer some extra goodies for you to discover, including new characters!
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New hostile NPC behavior beginnings:
From this patch on, we will do our best to make combat much more strategic than it currently is.
Now, many of the enemies you'll encounter have hidden perks that relate to their roles within a larger squad. In the upcoming updates, we'll connect those perks to custom models and AI behavior, making the enemies act as a cohesive team.
An example of this can be found in one of the new dungeons, where a certain type of foe has a hidden perk. Larger enemies have more natural armour but less stamina, so they'll tank you, while the more nimble ones will try ranged combat. After a few updates, they'll also exhibit kiting behavior.
Their perks will be visually represented by how their models look. However, this is still a very early Work In Progress. The initial building blocks for the system are already in place, and the same will eventually happen for non-humanoid monsters.
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Great news for those of you following the game's localization process. This patch is adding French, Brazilian-Portuguese, Italian and other new, improved localizations. Please feel free to provide us with any and all feedback you might have!
What's next? Once we're completely satisfied with the results so far, we'll keep working on the game, this time putting much more emphasis on the main plot. Next time, you'll finally be able to visit Swordhaven proper!
We will announce this next content update sometime next month.
Thank you so much for your patience, your amazing feedback and your overwhelming support. We hope you enjoy the game!
Yours, as always,
Atom Team
