The Armorsmithing Update 🛡️

This update introduces Armorsmithing and a fully rebuilt level system. Just as importantly, a major portion of this patch was dedicated to optimization, stability, and long-term performance improvements. 

A lot of work went into reducing memory usage, improving UI efficiency, tightening up systems, and eliminating issues that could affect performance on mid-range hardware. If you experienced low-res textures in-game, this update should fix that for you! 

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Additions 

• Light, Medium and Heavy armor skills have been added. Increasing these skills reduces the impact armor pieces of the associated class has on your mobility. 

• Armorsmithing – You can now craft Light, Medium, and Heavy armor. This includes armor enchanting, which introduces the new Rune Attunement skill and minigame. 

• Rune Attunement – A new skill that utilizes the Rune Attunement Table. Place dormant armor runes on the table and bind enchantments to the runes. Runes come in three tiers, with higher tiers increasing the potency of the bound enchantment. 

• Added 100+ armor enchantments 

• Added 300+ armor pieces for Armorsmithing – each piece is fully color-customizable and enchantable 

• x171 helmet types 

• x35 torso armor pieces 

• x30 leg armor pieces 

• x20 foot armor pieces 

• x27 shoulder armor pieces 

• x42 arm armor pieces 

• 3 tiers of Armor Runes have been added. These can be found via mining, chiseling and in loot containers 

• Added controller support to armorsmithing 

• Completely reworked the main level system. (The full details are below!) 

• NOSES have been added to the character creation screen! (Remember, if you want to give an existing character a nose, you can re-edit your character by interacting with the mirror in your room at your stronghold.) 

• Added Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Chiseling, Rune Attunement, Armorsmithing and Focus crafting to the detailed stat window 

• Added new player base stats (strength, dexterity, intelligence, etc.) to the detailed stat window 

• Added interiors to empty buildings at Millshade. Added locked doors and lootable objects to these buildings. 

• Removed purification shrine from Squall’s End 

• Added interiors to all empty buildings at Squall’s End. Added loot and locked doors to these buildings as well. 

• Added a new armorsmithing-focused shop to Squall’s End 

• Filled in empty building at Ordwood (locked door, loot, bed) 

• Filled in empty buildings at Raven’s Reach 

• Added new alchemy shop to Raven’s Reach 

• The Armorer now spawns a Armorsmithing Bench and a Rune Attunement Table 

• The Wizard Tower now spawns a Focus Assembly Table 

The following mobs now drop Raw Leather: 

• Rabbits 

• Pigs 

• Deer 

• Lesser Sand Serpents 

The following mobs now drop Cured Leather 

• Deer 

• Wolves 

• Sand Serpents 

• Boars 

• Camels 

The following mobs now drop Hardened Hide: 

• Bears 

• Sandscourges 

• Runeweavers 

• Thornlings 

The following mobs now drop Reinforced Hide: 

• Hill Trolls 

• Armored Hill Trolls 

• Great Ogres 

• Goblin Boar-Riders 

Bug fixes/Optimizations 

• Farming Hoes can no longer harvest crops that aren’t fully grown 

• Exiting the main hall to the exterior of the Mage’s College now places you outside the doors instead of at the bottom of the stairs 

• Opening the Mage’s College quartermaster shop no longer causes camera to remain zoomed in 

• Can no longer spam-click the “Quick Finish” button when chiseling 

• Wand “Blast” attacks now deal damage properly 

• Chapter Pauldrons no longer have bird skulls under the pauldrons (remnant from other pauldron type) 

• Fixed quest marker after completing the objectives for “Into the Righteous Current” 

• Fixed issue with some Death Seals not being interactable in the Necropolis 

• The quest “The Sacred Siphon” should now properly complete upon returning to Eldraeth 

• The quest “Vessels of the Forgotten” should now properly complete upon returning to Eldraeth 

• Fixed quest marker for the quest “The Hollow Assembly” 

• Fixed various quest markers not disappearing properly in the Necropolis 

• Fixed controller input for the cauldron minigame 

• Armorer shopkeeper is no longer floating a few feet above the ground 

• Holding RMB when in the seed window should no longer allow you to press ESC to get temporarily “stuck” in the seed window 

• Equipping a spear with a shield already equipped will now attach the spear to your character properly and initialize the spear+shield animation as intended 

• Texture memory usage has been reduced by several gigabytes (yes, that much) through format and streaming improvements. This should help prevent blurry textures as well as keep camera movement smooth, and help reduce pop-in. It should also generally help stability on mid-range GPUs! I’m still very much learning everything about game dev and Unreal. This should be a great step towards the game running (and looking) much better!  

• Optimized skill window UI 

• Optimized trade window UI 

• Optimized character sheet UI 

• Player no longer clips into the ground when interacting with the Enchanting Table at the constructable Wizard’s Tower 

• Fixed issue with beards and noses showing when wearing some full helms 

• Guards no longer follow the player after speaking to them (unless you have a bounty, of course) 

• Fixed quest markers for “The Court Rebalanced” quest objectives 

General Adjustments 

• Armor speed and mobility penalties have been updated. The impact of armor on player movement now depends on your skill level with the armor class you are wearing. For example, wearing Heavy Armor at low proficiency will greatly reduce mobility, while higher proficiency significantly lessens the penalty. This is a general buff, as even the baseline for the lowest level is the same as it was before. It just allows you to work towards making armor less burdensome and, when the skill trees are reworked, this will also allow for more passives and buffs to be added for better build crafting. 

• Decreased starting health, mana and stamina. This should help lean into the new level up system and slow down the power increase for players. The game is indeed a power fantasy, but players become incredibly powerful very soon. This should help slow that down a bit. 

• Drawing your bow no longer slows you down, allowing for full movement while using a bow and arrow 

Full Level System Revamp 

The primary level system has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Previously, players chose between just three stats (Health, Mana, or Stamina) which offered modest bonuses. While each option included a few additional effects, some of these never functioned correctly and were disabled. The result was a flat, unengaging system that offered little room for meaningful specialization.  This old system has been thrown out the window, and a new nine-stat system has been implemented, allowing players to have better control over what their characters excel in.  With each level up you’ll be able to allocate 3 stat points to any of the stats.    The new stats are as follows:  Strength - Increases melee damage. Increases the weight of objects you can lift. Also increases the rate at which you gain EXP for melee-focused skills. Small increase to stamina.    Intelligence - Greatly increases mana. Also increases the rate at which you gain magic-focused EXP.    Dexterity - Increases critical hit and headshot damage. Also increases the rate at which you gain ranged EXP. Slightly increases stamina.    Endurance - Greatly increases stamina. Reduces armor's effect on mobility.    Fortitude – Greatly increases health    Constitution - Moderately increase health and stamina. Also slightly increases health regeneration.    Vitality - Greatly increases health regeneration.    Wisdom - Moderately increases mana regeneration. Slightly increases mana.    Willpower - Greatly increases mana regeneration. Small increase to mana. 

You can also decrease stats, allowing you to freely re-spec your character.   

And don’t worry – you don’t need to start a new game for this to take effect! When you load an existing save after this update, you’ll be automatically granted the appropriate number of stat points. Keep in mind that your already-existing character’s stats will appear higher than those of a newly created character. This is expected, as the baseline starting stats for new games have been lowered, while existing save stats have been left untouched.  Along with these changes, I also reworked the primary level EXP requirement formula. The one I was using before was quadratic, which felt really bad. Most players would top off at around level 15-20 or so, which is way lower than I wanted. To show just how big of a change this is, here’s a little table showing the difference in required EXP: 

  Since starting stats have been lowered and the increase from stats has also been lowered, this new system should strike a balance between letting players level up more frequently while preventing too much of a power increase too early in the game. Again, the game IS a power fantasy, and you’re meant to feel powerful. But this should help players feel like you’re achieving that power yourself. This new curve will allow levels to still come steadily and slow down in a predictable manner, allowing for continuous growth while slowing down meaningfully at higher levels. There still is no level cap.  Note: If you’re playing on an existing save that has EXP towards your next level already, you might see that you are over the required amount of EXP for the next level. If this happens to you, simply gain at least 1 EXP and it will resolve itself via a level up.