Hello! I'm Mr. Slate and here you can find the patch notes for version v.0.3.26 of the MoonWard Demo! This is the latest and as of today current MoonWard patch version.
Before I continue, you can get the MoonWard Demo here!
1. Characters can now move between 2 counties.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to open the can of worms that is a whole second county's worth of content, but then I realised - this would be a good way of testing the game's systems and my content pipeline. It was an interesting experience. Most counties will use the same assets so at first it was going smoothly. Very quickly I realised this wasn't going to look great so then I improved several systems to give me the ability to add distinction between the visuals. As a result, Kragnac, the new county, has a lot of new stuff, making it fill distinct from Vinterstrath, the original county.
2. First phase of content for county Kragnac.
For the sake of sanity I make a distinction between assets and content. Assets are things like visuals, audio, writing - things that the player doesn't interact with directly in game-play terms. I define content as item and enemy configs, cinematics, story configs etc., things that are necessary for play and use assets to convey something. So in this context what I mean by new content is a lot of new bounties, specific to county Kragnac.
3. Improved usability of combat action bars.
The action bars show you what move you've just used. This is a quality of life feature that enables players to keep their eyes focused on the clocks instead of looking down to the buttons to make sure their fingers are where they should be. I'm developing on a computer (doh) so some of my UX choices are informed by being able to scan the entire screen easily. Anyway, long story short, I realised that on device, looking so far below the clocks to see the action bars defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. So I took an inspiration from Half Life 2 and moved them closer to what should be the main gameplay focus - in this case the clocks. I think visually they're not quite there yet, but I believe the change is worth it functionally.
4. Complete rework of map visuals.
I've added dozens of new map hex images. Biome tiles are now much more varied. The system picking tiles was improved to allow county specific tiles which I think makes the map more interesting to look at.
5. Complete critical damage rebalance.
Weapon types and sizes now have much more balanced ratios of Parry/Stagger/Backstab critical amounts. For example Swords of all size have the most critical amounts and have significantly better riposte critical than axes. Axes have higher backstab critical, with the lowest cumulative amounts of critical due to their higher overall damage. Slightly unrelated, I'm considering separating out spears as their own weapon type (currently spears are considered axes).
6. AI behaviour update.
Certain AI behaviours were underrepresented (like using throwable consumables or kicking). Furthermore one AI stereotype (let's call it "Tricky" as it's evasive and uses more consumables in combat) was very poorly defined and needed a major update. Resolved both of those issues.
7. Became a dad.
Yup. Already skilfully annoying Baby Slate. It's funny how naturally that comes to you.
8. Improved UX, fixed typos and bugs.
Plenty of those. Trust me. I'm Mr. Slate.
Once again, thank you 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 week!
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