Well, it was quite a challenge getting this done in time. Adding new art to over 500k words of game content and then testing that is pretty time consuming, as it turns out. XD But here we are! This update not only contains a very large new section of the game (Chapter 10), but also significant new art!
I'll be updating with the new assets across various websites and storefronts throughout the day today, but I wanted to get the actual patch out before heading to bed.
Edit #2: Updated to v0.11.1.4 to address a very minor exp discrepancy in Chapter 7. This only affected saves that did Chapter 7 in v0.11.x, and can be corrected in the Temporal Rift if desired.
Edit: Updated to v0.11.1.3 to address an issue with map scrolling in one area.
v0.11.1.2 "A King's Legacy" Patch Notes (4-26-2024)
- Significant new section of the story
- 74k words of text
- Extensive new combat section(s)
- New title screen for the game!
Art by the very talented Celineyus: https://www.artstation.com/celineysus
- New art for Alexander, including a bust and 32 expressions!
Art by Mimo: https://www.reddit.com/user/Mimo_draw
- New art for Ligaea, including a bust and 6 new expressions! (note: a patch is available here (second in the patch list) to restore the old look if you dislike the new one).
Art (new and old) by Zecypher: www.zecypher.com
- Recolored art for Sindarion and Lorena to better match their roles in the story! In addition, extra expressions have been added for Sindarion, Lorena, Lorelai, and to a lesser extent Veronica.
- Recolored sprites for Calysia and another member to better match their bust and portrait art!
- Busts added for character introductions where possible! These can be reviewed at a new book in Alexander's room
- One new intimate scene for those with the optional patch.
- Four new achievements for those playing on Steam.
= Balance Changes
- Alexander
~ Changed the effect of the Prince's Regalia to be -20% MP cost rather than MP regen, as its effect was trivializing his MP management entirely, and the crown is quite good otherwise already.
- Sindarion full rework!
~ Poison damage buffed, and Wracking Poison desc expanded.
~ Most skills now have a stealth and non-stealth version that replace each other in the menu.
~ Stealth versions of most skills now ignore Cover and range reduction (note they still show as resist," but the damage is increased to offset).
~ Skill functions and damage allocations have changed.
~ Skill TP costs and TP regen changed up to create more of a rotational cycle.
~ Vanish now costs no TP, has High Priority, and grants 100% evasion vs most attacks on the round used. Also clarified that it removes fixates.
~ Stealth now increases attack by 20% and grants partial piercing damage.
~ Perfect Focus now has a 3-round cooldown and automatically activates if off CD when an attack would knock Sindarion out of stealth.
~ Ambush cooldown reduced.
~ Added a new set of skills, Dagger Rush/Deadly Rush.
~ Acidic Shiv is now under Alchemy and has an 8 round cooldown rather than one use per combat.
~ Sunthistle Tea is now Instant and has a two-round warmup.
Developer's note: Sindarion felt like he was badly underperforming, especially compared to Ligaea who shares a similar role of single-target physical attacker. More to the point, he was pretty boring. So, he's been completely reworked to be both more competitive, more engaging, and more unique. He now focuses on damage negation and the ability to hit enemies regardless of Cover or range while in Stealth.
- Buffs to Cynthia, including:
~ Farstrike damage increased.
~ Annihilate can no longer miss.
~ Clash now has slight priority.
~ Healing of Tranquil Fury increased.
~ Clash now pierces Cover effects.
- Buffs to Lorena, including:
~ Swift Strike restores an extra 10% MP.
~ Howling Slash restores an additional 20% MP and has a three-round cooldown (was four).
~ Shatter now restores 20% MP
- Adjustments to Somnus
~ Warding Thorns cost increased to 200 MP.
~ Siphon Aether cost reduced to 20 DP.
~ Shadow Lance now applies Touch of Night if the target is not already affected by Touch of Night.
- Some improvements to Sir Leonidas
~ Leonidas now uses unique gear when temporarily in the party.
~ Increased TGR, Hit, and Crit for Sir Leonidas slightly
~ Sir Leonidas now has passive effects when temporarily in the party (based off his effects as a support member).
= UI Improvements
- Increased the height of the game window by 64px. This is the max possible at present.
- Reduced the screen dimness caused by weather by 33%.
- Added the ability to save a screenshot in the fame directory using the F7 key.
= Bugfixes
- Somnus's Enthrall will now be removed by damage at the appropriate rate.
- Calysia's Moonblades now generate Sacred Power as intended.
- Calysia's Purge Sorcery now cannot be evaded or reflected.
- Wildfire now properly deals 200% damage against a single enemy.
- Blazing Arrow now correctly consumes Ariadne's MP and may cause Burning.
- Various polishing changes throughout the game.
- Fixed some spots where pages were skipped in the intimate scenes. Please report any point at which these scenes seem to jump around.
= Known Issues
- The proposal screen does not display Elite Units as a benefit. This will be addressed in a future version, as I ran out of time.
- The Quest Log quest descriptions may clip the border in some cases. This will be addressed in a future version, as I ran out of time.
Some constructive criticism on the new Ligaea art, the new look makes her look too young with the bigger eyes and less sharp features. Since, she is supposed to be the oldest of the three main duo it feels a bit off (basically she looks too young and soft now).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the patch for the old art doesn't seem to work despite trying to place it in multiple different parts of the game files. Is it supposed to be a text file?
I appreciate the thoughts. I'm considering commissioning another iteration of it from the artist who did Alexander's new art, since the new art here seems a bit divisive.
DeleteAs far as the patch, sorry, I should've updated the link to the fuller page I made when I was more awake. Look on the optional patches page (or basically, put it in PatchData, then change the new setting that should appear in the system menu). Let me know if this doesn't work.
After following your instructions the patch worked, thanks.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to a new iteration of Ligaea from the other artist, that would certainly be a nice addition. As the new Alexander art is pretty good.
Glad to hear. Let me know if you encounter any issues when using it, as I could only do basic testing because I was so busy this launch cycle.
DeleteGlad to hear you like it! ^^
Is there also a patch to restore Alexander old appearance?
ReplyDeleteOr is this new art a success and I’m the only one to think it don’t suit the protagonist very well?
It can be that I was accustomed to the old arts as I also have reservation for Ligaea’s new arts (too young and innocent I think) but I find the new Alexander’s art more fitting to a villain than the hero. Or is it that the expressions (like the one shown in the update summary) seem to make him more severe, cold and calculating?
I also want to ask a question of coherence: magic is supposed to be rare, hence the importance of Alexander, Ariadne, Cassander, the two with Duke Myron and so on. So how and why are there so many sorcerers in Albion and Salericos?
Idem for siege weaponry: it is said that such weapons were restricted for fear of revolts. In the last chapters there are suddenly a lot of them (and some even more heavy weapons).
I can understand for the royal army: made for the future war with Ekestria the army has quality equipment and soldier. But how and why Antipater has so much equipment and soldiers?
He should only directly control the forces of Albion duchy (he wasn’t in command of the army, had to purge those who didn’t acknowledge his claim, most of the Myrmidons were killed, the eastern dukes barely supports him, etc…). Yet he has a lot of soldiers with high morale, many sorcerers, and sieges weapons (including experimental ones). When Alexander has to heavily invest to acquire the same things…
It’s normal that Antipater have more forces than Alexander but if he had such forces, why did he sign the pact instead of simply crushing the (seemingly) puny forces of Elysios? Apparently he even has some powerful experimental siege weapons for destroying Castle Kharos…
In any case you did a good job for the depictions of Albion and Castle Salericos: vast, richly decorated, lot of pertinent interactions and a good choice of ambient music.
Too good perhaps as you may want to redrawn some earlier work: Albion and Salericos Castle put to shame the others notably Avalonia, Elysios and Paraliapolis…
And I will wait with impatience the next chapter!
> Is there also a patch to restore Alexander old appearance?
DeleteI don't currently plan to do this. I added one for Ligaea's art since it was already a complete set and the quality was relatively higher, but Alexander's old one didn't even have expressions. If it became a widespread demand, I'd consider it. That said, I did pick one of the more severe expressions for the bust, and we have quite a range. See this joke I made the other day: https://imgur.com/a/dSI76dP
(Don't worry, the last one is very rarely used XD I think I've only used it twice in the whole game so far)
> I also want to ask a question of coherence: magic is supposed to be rare, [...]
I would say this is an issue of scale. If 1 in 100 people are sorcerers (certainly quite rare), but the kingdom has a population of 1 million, then it has 10,000 people with a talent for sorcery (just example numbers). Thus, they are rare, but not so rare that you can't gather them. In addition, the significant individuals like Ariadne, Cassander, etc. have significantly -stronger- gifts than the average sorcerer in the army. Most of them (say, the Royal Sorcerers using fire in the army) have spent decades honing their skills and still can't really hold a candle to Ariadne in terms of versatility of combat sorcery, much less endurance or power. (Her greatest strength, as noted several times, is how quickly she can recover aether, to the point that even Calysia is a bit jealous).
> Idem for siege weaponry: it is said that such weapons were restricted for fear of revolts. In the last chapters there are suddenly a lot of them (and some even more heavy weapons).
We only have seen heavy siege weapons in Albion and in Salericos. There was no reason to disarm the Albion army because the king is also the duke of Albion, after all. The Elysian army had battlefield catapults at Riversmeet, which are precisely what Kheiron said the ducal armies still had.
> It’s normal that Antipater have more forces than Alexander but if he had such forces [...]
The Albion army is only slightly larger than the Elysian army (in my notes, Albion has 25 army size, vs Elysios's 20). Antipater does have Myron's forces and those of Cilicia, but those are both smaller, he couldn't be sure the dukes of the west wouldn't respond immediately to the attack, and, most importantly, before the non-aggression pact, Alexander could expect to be able to call on Lysander for aid in an outright battle. Even if that siege weapon was already finished and tested, relying on it in that circumstance would be extremely risky, especially with the possibility of all of Calistrae's forces riding to Kharos's defense. In that sense, Kharos's location makes it especially dangerous for Antipater to attack because it's a very easy place for Calistrae to reinforce.
> In any case you did a good job for the depictions of Albion and Castle Salericos
Thank you! I'm very happy with how they came out!
> Too good perhaps
I'll give this some thought. Avalonia and Hypernia were already upgraded once, and tilesets are a scarce resource, so I don't really want to waste too many on ultimately unimportant locations. It may be more worth looking over Elysios and Paraliapolis, though. I doubt I'd fully redo either, but they could probably be improved with some custom work and new elements.
> And I will wait with impatience the next chapter!
Glad to hear!
So, I’m not the only one for Alexander’s new art and the evaluation of Albion’s army is consistent with what is said in the game.
DeleteIt seems your depictions of Albion and Castle Salericos are way above the other locations (so far) in graphics, interactions and level of troops shown.
Thanks for the reply.
No problem!
DeleteFor a slight clarification, you are the only one who said they overall dislike Alexander's new art so far. The person I made the joke to was commenting that they were glad I had swapped his neutral expression (see here, textbox rather than bust: https://imgur.com/iu5yTyg ) to one that was more neutral than the one in the bust which they felt looked a bit villainous if used as the -default-. Which is fair enough, but I had only used it as the default during the patreon testing as it was the first expression I had finished. But they liked the art overall.
I may consider swapping the bust to neutral as well.