Hello! I'm Mr. Slate and here you can find the patch notes for version v.0.4.1 of the MoonWard Demo! This is the latest and as of today current MoonWard patch version.
This time I've been focusing on bugfixes and quality of life features like the Renown Ranking screen where you can finally see what each rank gives you! Or the race/background/class popups in character creation that give you a list of exactly what you get per option as well as some flavour text to help you with role-playing!
Before I continue, you can download the latest version of the MoonWard Demo here!
You can support MoonWard here!
1. Simplified tutorial messages.
I broke all messages (even the videos) down into multiple pages, so now every one focuses on a single element or group of elements. As opposed to before where I tried to have as few pages as possible but presented way too much information at once as a result. I realised more pages is fine as long as only the basics pop up automatically and I teach the player where they can find more if they're confused. In fact I've created a bunch more categories so it should also be easier to find what you need. I don't know if these are perfect yet, but I feel I'm getting closer and closer to cracking them.
2. Better onboarding flow.
Continuing with the tutorials, a lot of pages will now only show when the feature is interacted with as opposed to as soon as the screen opens for the first time. I also now allow you to skip the tutorial practise fight with Rowan. Speaking of that, I've sort of low key implemented loadouts, but right now I only use them to equip your character with training gear for Rowan's tutorial. Let me know below if you'd like to see some sort of loadouts system implemented! Next on for onboarding could be to add step by step instructions to Rowan's tutorial fight, but I'm still not sure that's what the game needs so we'll see.
3. Intuitive defence numbers.
I implemented a new defence and damage absorption system and a by-product of that was the vastly more intuitive armour defence numbers. But saying that is a mouthful so I settled for the above instead title. As part of this I also removed defence from shields and replaced it with a base attack. Shields now behave a bit more like weapons, which is true to Dark Souls 1.
4. Updated UI visuals.
By this I mean, I went in and replaced ugly/outdated icons, added some new ones, created UI elements that fit the overall style better, touched up layouts, sizes, colours, etc. I'm including some quality of life features. Finally added the "Remove" and "Boast" bounty buttons to the journal as opposed to just being available in the map popup. Also made it so equipping doesn't close the "Equip Item" screens (seriously what was I thinking with this one). Plus a few smaller ones like warning or info popups here and there, etc.
5. Character creation flavour text.
This was an idea my play-tester friend, Henry, suggested a while back and I only just had the time
to implement it. Honestly this took a lot of time. I'm seriously looking forward to getting someone to help me with the months worth of writing I've got left for the full version. Oh, yeah, the feature. The race, background and class labels on the character creation screen were always buttons but until now they only gave you a basic (and kind of useless) description. When you click them now you will see 2 things. One - a breakdown of what the current option of this type gives the character, and two - a (sometimes) short lore description. Some of this is cannon I had to come up with on the spot, other I've had nailed down for years, but the content itself is all new and I very much hope you enjoy it. IF I get some more funding (completely unrelated, please check our Ko-fi) I'd like to have some nice pencil illustrations for each option.
6. Renown ranks.
Another idea suggested by a friend of mine. This time a designer, Jack. He pointed out that I don't actually tell you what renown does apart from a very basic description. I think we workshopped this implementation for a few minutes before moving on to the combat UX (that on the other hand was a very long discussion). Either way the basic Idea's been in my mind since then and I finally got to do it. Honestly I'm pretty happy with it and while I'm sure I'll probably pretty it up at some point, I think the bones are good. You can now see exactly what you get for every renown rank. Neat!
7. Fixed typos and bugs.
Including some touched up text. But overall, plenty of those. Especially bugs. There were some bad ones in the combat system that I can't believe I missed last time. Overall, the demo should be a lot more stable and coherent now.
Thank you all for your time! I work hard on these patches so please give the MoonWard Demo a try! I hope to see you again soon!
Have a great weekend and like always, stay awesome!
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