Greetings Rairians! This patch comes with an insane amount of new content, and modkit fixes to boot. I think I published at least 15 modkit versions over the last 3-4 weeks.

Depths of Madness

Finally, this map has more than 8 insane creature spawners. Instead, it has 8 floors of content, finishing off currently at level 35. There are a handful more floors to go yet, but this first release should contain quite a bit of parallel-but-different content with Catacombs. Some floors that are not yet specified will have some basic content, but aren’t fully fleshed out. This map has also been revised significantly from early versions!

The balance has not been thoroughly tested. Please give feedback on it! I’m also seeking feedback on the general itemization of the area!

There are:

• New spells
• New threats
• 4 new boss creatures, each with unique loot (that hopefully doesn’t suck)
• 8 floors

Acid Damage

I heard you like equipment damage, so I added some. Acid damage, by default, does equipment damage. The burst is insanely powerful: if it goes off, it will inflict random equipment with a lot of equipment damage. Hope you have a succor to a smith!

Look At Improvements

When looking at a creature, you now get a full dump of their equipment and condition. So, suppose you were using acid damage to try to break a creatures armor. You’d be able to check how far along you are!

ModKit Dialog Tree Editor

The ModKit now has a dialog editor that isn’t a mess of JSON! This should make it easier for other folks to create NPCs, and it will make it much easier for me to do so, as well. I’ll be fully testing how rigorous this editor is with the quest NPCs in the Depths, so, soon!

Other ModKit Improvements

• UI Improvements
• Rework YAML editors to actually be JSON editors
• Tier will auto-set based on level requirement
• Validation performance improved
• New option: navigate to log directory
• Much more logging to try to fix errors as they come up
• Show count of icon usages for STEM icons as well as for items, to hopefully reduce redundancy
• Improve pinpoint: tanned items are now included
• Can now reference the existing effect when creating a new spell, rather than having to save, come out, go back in, and change the effect
• Many new reports, including spell utilization by NPC count, all damage values of an NPC, highest damage of each NPC per map, average stat at a level
• Tier is now very visible in the editor
• Add an option to make exports not have backups
• Some equipment items are marked sackable by default, preventing weird confusing situations later
• Teleport validations work again!

New Content

• Solo/Ori now have lightning casters
• Solo/Ori now have acid casters
• Passwall spell added (with limited applications)
• Augmented Strikes spell added

Balance Changes

• Ghosts in cata no longer damage their allies with holybath
• Catacombs now has a warden enemy that boosts perception of nearby creatures
• All creatures now have a “type” that fits them (humanoid, dragon, etc)

Other Fixes & Features

• macro “for” only shows up if it’s not a default macro
• opaque decor (hidden walls, etc) now render like real walls again
• humanoid creatures now get more natural hp regen (scaling with CR)
• added new creature types: rock, elemental, insect, plant
• added a nag to download the game to help me not get reamed on bandwidth
• some effects (braindaze, brainchill, etc) can now be called directly from an items strike effects, rather than needing a corresponding spell to exist
• clicking on stairs will Do The Thing again
• refactored more core game things (this took forever and sucked)
• fixed a few crash bugs

As always you can find the full changelog here.

What’s Coming Up?

More work on Depths of Madness. Hopefully, finishing it in the next patch. This has been a huge effort and I want to get it out there!

As always you can find the full roadmap here.

Until next time,

• Seiyria