Hello! I'm Mr. Slate and here you can find the patch notes for v.0.8.1 of the MoonWard Demo! This is the latest and as of today current MoonWard patch version.
It's been a long month but I'm finally back! Even though this version brings less content, I still think I've made some good progress.
The focus this time was on quality, difficulty controls and polish. Combat should feel better, bugs should be at a minimum. There are also a lot of new animations, some for gameplay purpose some because rule of cool.
Lastly, before I continue, you can download the latest version of the MoonWard Demo here!
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Let's get to the patch notes!
1. Aura system.
This is my favourite feature this time round. Auras are passive abilities that some enemies can have. Some are guaranteed while others have a chance of appearing. These auras work in parallel with the opponent you are already fighting. Auras can only be used by enemies... for now.
There are two kinds of auras - "Direct" and "Attack". Both are recurring and work on their own timers. Direct auras deal some sort of damage or affliction that can't be avoided, while attack auras represent an attack happening in parallel to the duel. This can be one of the enemies allies , environmental hazards like a rockslide, or even unorthodox ways the enemy can hurt you. Attacks from attack auras are indicated with an icon on screen before the damage is dealt and allow enough time to be dodged or blocked. Attacks are also affected by defences. The time the attack icon is seen on screen before damage is based on the target's Insight ability. Here are a couple examples.
Fire elementals have a "Flame Wall" aura that deals burn affliction damage to your character every few seconds. This acts exactly as if they're hit with a weapon that deals burn affliction.
Bandits have a "Bandit Ambush" aura that attacks your character every several seconds. As mentioned, the attack is visible to you for an amount of time based on your character's Insight ability. If hit, your character receives physical damage. You can block to receive less damage or dodge to receive none.
I think this system adds a lot of depth to the combat. It definitely increases the threat levels later in the game. One thing I didn't mention is that enemies can have multiple auras at the same time. I can't wait to put together some interesting bosses using these. Perhaps you're fighting a dragon and one of their auras is a tail attack. Maybe another is an infrequent but extremely damaging fire breath. This is what I mean... This system adds so many possibilities to my toolbox. I love it and I'm excited to see what I can come up with!
2. High tier item shine animation.
Not as interesting as auras, but I think this addition is nice eye candy, but it also has a functional aspect to it. I was made aware a while ago that the colour coding for common and rare tier items looks very similar (white for common and bright yellow for rare). I've been meaning to distinguish between them by adding a shine animation to item icons but there was always something more important. Now that I'm wrapping up the feature set the time was perfect to add this. It
definitely fixes the rarity issue at a glance but it also just looks cool.
3. Aspect upgrade animation.
Deepest lore. The aspect is an item that starts inert and can be activated by... Doing things. It's a fairly important story and gameplay moment as you unlock a core power of your character. It bugged me to no end that in terms of gameplay you got absolutely no feedback for what you were doing. In fact there was no way of knowing the inert item has now become consumable. I like a bit of obfuscation, in the same way that Souls games are but it was too cryptic.
This new animation not only shows you the old and then new item, but it also opens an item popup when done where you can see the new item and clearly tell what it is and what it does. I believe this solves the original problem. Now all I have to do is show how you get the inactive item. But that's... something else.
4. Bounty enemy buffs based on county.
Every county has a list of buffs applied to enemies in bounties. These can be as broad as an enemy category (elementals), race (oozes) or as granular as enemy types (toxic ooze). The system gives me a lot of freedom to make certain types of enemies much harder (or easier) based on the county your character is in.
This is essentially one of a few difficulty controls that I've implemented since last patch and you'll see more below. This one specifically means that as you go through the story bounties will get progressively more challenging.
5. Level caps on bounties based on county.
Every county has a bounty level cap. This means bounties will stop matching your character's level when you reach a certain level.
Another of my new difficulty controls. This one should prevent players from grinding in the same county because lower level bounties naturally give less rewards.
6. Rewards from bounties are based on county.
Every county has a reward modifier that is applied to its bounties. Rewards are gold, experience and renown by the way. You'll receive less rewards for the same level bounty in county 1 than you will in county 2.
Once again, another of my difficulty controls. This is the main way I'll use to prevent players from grinding in low tier counties. As I said in point 4, county 1 enemies will be the weakest in the game so why wouldn't you grind them to gain easy experience. Well, this is why. You will get on average about 15% less rewards than the next county. Aside from that, this feature also means that reaching a new county is always exciting, because the rewards will be significantly better.
7. Enemy types based on player character level.
This is something I've been able to do for a while but I only just got to setting it. As you level up, new enemy types will enter the bounty roster and old enemy types will leave it! This should make progress through the game a lot more rewarding as you'll be given bounties for more and more powerful enemies, as weaker ones are phased out.
8. Fixed bugs and typos.
There were several serious stragglers from last patch, and some typos to be honest. Overall, there are less bugs in MoonWard now than ever before. I'm quite proud of that.
I'll try my best to keep the pace of these patches up and bring new features every 3 weeks until release... Which is getting closer by the way!
For now, though, thank you all for your time! I work hard on these patches so please give the MoonWard Demo a try!
Have a great week and like always,
stay awesome!
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