Hey everyone, sorry for being silent for so long. 12 weeks ago I planned to drop a ton of content in one big patch that would clean out the rest of the work needed for the current areas and give a taste of the next area.
Turns out that was a bit too ambitious. It's been far too long, so I'm splitting the changes into two patches instead. While the next area is still under construction, here are the current changes for the demo as is:
Translations:
- The (secretly) biggest change of this patch is the new possibility for translations. The base text engine was rebuilt to read from an external script file, located within the install directory of The Dark Egg. For English, nothing should be different. My blood, sweat, and tears for nothing. Insert something about bad trade deals here.
- Official translations will not be offered for the demo as we have no way of providing or validating them. This update was for future proofing the rest of the game and making volunteer translations possible.
- For those interested in translating, the script is located in the "Languages" folder titled english.json (on Steam, click on Manage > Browse Local Files). From here, just make a copy, rename it, and go. Important points:
- At the bottom of the file there is a group titled "info." Make sure to change the name in here to the language you're targeting (it shouldn't be the same name as another language file).
- Don't change any node titles (e.g. FB_1, CG_Elevator), any of the keys ("name", "lines", "choices", "ALL", "FIRST", "RANDOM", "SHOP"), and don't change the number of choices/lines.
- Choices are formatted as "NAME_|_DESCRIPTION_|_TARGET" in the file. Translate the NAME and DESCRIPTION portions, leave the TARGET alone.
- Hopefully it will make more sense looking at the file. I'll see if I can't make a more in-depth guide in the future. Regardless, your file should automatically load in on game start, so you can test things as you go.
- At the bottom of the file there is a group titled "info." Make sure to change the name in here to the language you're targeting (it shouldn't be the same name as another language file).
- Descriptions/Names have not been moved to the external file yet, just story text. So Items, Buttons, Stats, etc. are still locked to English for now.
New:
- New way to open the Cold Gate's Temple Doors.
- A new event can occur when you travel across the bridge into the Cold Gates. To compensate for the change:
- The entire area has reduced energy costs and travel time.
- Siren dies faster, deals less energy damage, and uses Hailstorm slower. The Guardians also deal less damage. Each change is small, but together should make the boss easier after a more grueling Cold Gates.
- The entire area has reduced energy costs and travel time.
- Soulstones now can be used to ignore negative death effects. Gaze does not reduce trauma anymore, but instead lets you reset your skill tree anywhere.
- It's once again possible to clear the Piano Puzzle without the sheet music.
- Reworked Slide puzzle controls. Improved opening Slide Puzzle tutorial.
- All status effects now finally display either on the sidebar (where weather used to be) or in combat for more temporary statuses. Added a bunch of new icons for this reason.
- Short Resting at the fire has been replaced by something else.
- New "wet" status effect. When receiving new status effects for the first time, they are highlighted.
- A new Skip button has been added that speeds through text. An option to not skip "unseen" text (saved globally between saves) can be turned on.
- New Quick Save/Load buttons that can be turned on in options. A one-click save system alternative.
- Back button has been rebuilt with more predictable behavior. Holds up to 20 lines of story history.
Combat:
- New movement system that uses either WASD to move or an on-screen control stick. You can now move before and during an action, without having to click a "move" button first.
- All 6 weapons now have their own unique minigames, with visual elements to help explain how to play. Some are a bit more complete than others, so please give feedback on how they feel to play.
- Knife: Rapid clicking minigame remains the same.
- Bow: Click on yourself, then drag back to aim. An arrow fires in the direction the bow faces.
- Axe: Two circles appear at the side of your target. Click and hold until they line up over the target.
- Sword: Click on yourself, then drag over enemies to damage them. The faster you swipe, the more damage you deal.
- Scythe: An arc will spawn on your mouse. Click on a target, and the shape will change. On release, all units hit by the arc take damage.
- Lance: Click on yourself, drag over an enemy to target them, then drag back. They will be pushed back by the attack, and you will charge forward based on where you released of the mouse.
- Knife: Rapid clicking minigame remains the same.
- Counterattacks have been added.
- Combat/Skill menu moved to where choices would normally be.
- Context Buttons (Retreat/Pick Up) now show up on the map, over the icon they refer to.
- Pick up no longer takes a turn, but does permanently deplete your movement that turn.
- When projectiles miss or hit terrain, they now give a notification when they disappear.
- Arrows now appear above targetable enemies.
- When moving, Camera no longer centers on the player, but instead just moves relative to its current position.
- Movement effects (like the Sky Sire's wind attack) can now be resisted.
'Critical Hit' Rework:
- The critical hit system has been removed for being unnecessarily complex. Crit Rate, Crit Damage, and Crit Avoid have all been removed (you probably didn't even know all those stats existed, did you?)
- Instead, a new "critical" stat has been introduced that increases the bonus damage weapon minigames give.
- Knife: Each attack will randomly critically strike, similar to the old system.
- Bow: Perfectly accurate attacks will critically hit. Higher awareness increases the margin for error.
- Axe: Better timing leads to more damage. The Axe has the most extreme damage margins and also benefits the most from the critical stat.
- Sword: The faster the slash, the more damage is dealt.
- Scythe: The more the target(s) overlap with the arc, the more damage they take.
- Lance: The faster the thrust, the more damage is dealt. Knockback also decreases if you take too long.
- Knife: Each attack will randomly critically strike, similar to the old system.
New Sanity Decay System:
- Every day on the Island will slowly increase the rate of Sanity loss. The increase will be unnoticeable for a long while, but taking too long to complete your journey may come to haunt you (all previous saves will behave as though you've spend 0 minutes on the island).
- Your Willpower reduces the decay speed.
- Base trauma gain from sanity is slower.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed an issue with descriptions sometimes being drawn below other visual elements.
- Fixed a display error that could cause hitboxes to be place wildly far away from their intended location.
- Fixed a timing issue that made the game run very slowly on certain setups.
- Fixed a softlock that could occur in the Stone Statues puzzle.
- Fixed a bug with the Siren's boss theme failing to change its pitch as the battle raged on.
- Fixed an issue with the music pitch becoming strange if you died in certain circumstances.
- Fixed the camera zooming off center when in fullscreen.
- Fixed an issue where the witch could still attack you for stealing even when dead.
- Fixed a bug with the Back, Choice, and Next buttons sometimes lingering when they weren't supposed to.
- Fixed a bug where units could be clicked when your mouse was not inside the map area.
- Fixed a bug that could cause strange auto-save behavior if you quit the game with the skill tree open.
- Fixed a bug that was causing some status effects to fail to update.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if the option file was corrupted.
- Fixed a bug that was making the Misted Harbor music stop playing even after clearing the chapel.
- Fixed a rarer save failure bug when items were still on the field.
- Fixed a bug that let you open multiple menus at the same time.
- Fixed a bug where a certain Lady could spawn on top of you unfairly.
- Fixed a bug with the Blast Potion showing its range incorrectly.
- Fixed a bug with weather effects not updating in certain cases.
- Fixed a rare bug that could cause some elements in lists to disappear.
- Fixed a bug with the Ghost Scythe sometimes failing to undo its stat changes on unequip. Old saves that were already affected might be stuck with the changes - you can send me your file if that seems to be the case.
- Fixed a bug where Conniving could trigger more than once per day.
- Fixed a bug where Serenity was accidentally giving more regen than expected.
- Fixed a bug that could occur when encountering the Lady while crossing over the City Overpass.
Misc:
- Improved bullet object collision detection.
- The offering in Misted Harbor now states how much Gold you will give.
- Choice buttons are now a bit higher than Next/Back buttons.
- Combat Turn icons only pan to their unit when clicked now.
- White Walkway now costs Sanity to walk away from.
- When opening the Skill Tree for the first time, it zooms out one level. It's zoom is now independent from the map's.
- Splash Screen is better centered.
- Spear renamed to Lance.
- Blast Potion costs 10 more gold.
- It's easier to lie to the Innkeeper (but it's still hard).
- Added highlights to some item drops.
- The Jerky gives less energy.
- Various areas are more consistent even if you enter into them from odd angles.
- Keen Eye has been renamed to Eye of Avarice, and it's icon was changed.
- Fixed typos.
