Most Honorable Knights,

it is with great pleasure that I can announce the completion of the Playtest release candiate. The first version of the game that will go out to everyone is finally ready!

A series of all-nighter coding sessions made it possible to stick to the dev schedule, and testing is now in progress to make sure you will have a smooth experience.

Should you have been among those who participated in the closed testing round for Alpha 3.fun, you can find a list of changes below.

Looking forward to your feedback when the Playtest unlocks on January 15.

Until then,

Martin

• Quickdemo mode ("Aldhelm's Path"), including a new quest and new cutscenes

• Crafting of items

• Prison mechanics

• Treasure maps

• Readable books

• Interactive tutorial & quick hints

• Steam Achievements

• Steam Cloud Saves

• Added new NPC types

• Added new objects

• Added new items

• Added a new map location

• Added a new dungeon type ("Ancients")

• Added new music tracks

• Added new sound effects

• Added a new NPC behavior pattern: tavern

• Added a new NPC behavior pattern: city life

• Added an additional work shift to increase NPC schedule variety

• Added NPC reactions to theft

• Added some special behavior for certain character types

• Improved handling of how criminal acts affect the personal relationship between characters

• Improved guard behavior during a manhunt

• Added new ways of interacting with items and objects

• Added the concept of natural armor

• Added a new behavior mode (crouch)

• Added logic for some NPC types to never sleep (like undead)

• Added storing of time when the PC last attacked an NPC - they will remember what you did!

• Added a general mechanism to recover an NPC who is stuck (needs to be used more often still)

• Improved the animation and movement speeds of some characters

• Improved the footprint definition of some character types

• Added new NPCs to human settlements

• Added concept of hidden map locations

• Added the Thyle supermap to the overview map

• Added signs to country roads

• Improved procedural generation of natural cave dungeon maps

• Improved some settlement and building maps

• Improved handling of door locks and implemented lock traps

• Improved rendering of trees, especially during tactical combat

• Enabled the overview map in dungeons

• Enabled the campire action in dungeons

• Improved logic to position for an attack

• Improved archer behavior

• Improved behavior when NPCs occupy the same space

• Improved escape logic

• Improved logic to scroll/zoom the map to the appropriate position in combat

• Added option to customize portrait book behavior (pinned, transparent, or sliding)

• Added hover descriptions for attributes and skills

• Added concept of having action icons directly shown on the map

• Added progress bars when loading

• Added loading screen

• Added feature to move items between containers using a right-click (and updated tutorial)

• Added highlight of slots in the inventory where items can be equipped

• Added indicators for hunger/thirst/fullness levels to health screen

• Added indicator to show when distributable points or perks are available

• Added visual indicator when the PC receives an item

• Added hover description to several buttons

• Added hover description for any item special status (stolen, quest, etc)

• Added feature to open journal entry when clicking quest or criminal record banner

• Added display of estimated power when prompted for quick resolving a combat

• Added icon to display the state of a manhunt

• Improved and simplified concept of damage and life points (and added label for the value)

• Improved the readability of status messages

• Improved the combat UI (fonts, font colors, added backplates)

• Improved the resting panel

• Improved inventory belt clip background image

• Improved size of book widgets

• Improved timing of some hovers tooltips/popups (now appearing quicker)

• Improved the display of written tutorials and added feature to show them on the map

• Improved readability of hover popups (now hiding mouse cursor)

• Improved positioning of screen size setting (now visible if resolution is wrong)

• Improved determination of applicable mouse cursor asset during combat

• Removed obsolete combat actions (Communicate: now interaction, Item: now used via quickslot)

• Many smaller improvements

• Reduced the stamina penalty from blood loss

• Increased the skill roll bonus (or penalty) from high (low) attribute values

• Improved character power calculation (life points, armor, sleep status)

• Adjusted NPC group sizes

• Added more starting money and quest rewards

• Reduced prices for metal items

• Improved timing of when music begins to play

• Greatly reduced audio stuttering when map changes (more work needed)

• Added hover popups

• Added sparkle effect to game logo

• Improved the wishlist icon

• Now showing if the max number of saves has been reached

• Added links to socials, Discord, Website, Steam

• Improved the copyright notice

• Improved handling of absolute timestamps

• Improved handling of NPC behavior patterns when time gets skipped or the game gets paused

• Improved performance when switching to a screen that shows the last screen in the background

• Overhauled action handling

• Improvements to the dungeon map generation process (more efficient use of arrays)

• Now disposing all static TextureAtlases with the static disposal mechanism

• Updated included libGDX framework version to 1.14

• Updated included LWJGL library version to 3.3.6

• Added many new generic Requirements

• Moved data folder from "ProgramData" to "Saved Games"

• Tied the attribute "quest item" from Item to ItemInstance

• Improved handling of output logfiles (now keeping those of three sessions)

• Removed superflous calls to setting the generic popup active

• Fixed: app does not start anymore when a saved game is corrupt

• Fixed: app hangs when spam-clicking while a new game starts, corrupting the database

• Fixed: crash when an NPC flees to a different dungeon level

• Fixed: crash when confirming a new combat move while just arriving from another move

• Fixed: crash when an NPC's update queries the database after the PC died (database erased)

• Fixed: crash in Pathfinder when there is no route around an entity

• Fixed: crash when entering city map and patrol resumes at last waypoint

• Fixed: crash when looting dungeon container with colored item

• Fixed: crash when combat starts while mounting horse

• Fixed: crash when a manhunt ends at a certain building level

• Fixed: crash when storing criminal record entry with too many witnesses

• Fixed: crash when NPC is trying to get to a spot on top of a building, but there is no path to it

• Fixed: hang (NPC who is not yet to appear in the game incorrectly gets loaded)

• Fixed: error when saving game while mounting horse (action name too long for db)

• Fixed: lock components are not persistent

• Fixed: procedural lock generation gets stuck if there are not enough valid trap slots

• Fixed: NPC in explorable building, PC outdoors same town: isOnMapInMemory value incorrect

• Fixed: group is not fully removed when a character is moved out of a single-member group

• Fixed: bystander NPCs sometimes get added twice to the combatant list when attacked

• Fixed: town guard behavior pattern not always gets started when needed after a map change

• Fixed: in rare cases, it is incorrectly determined whether the PC is indoors

• Fixed: when the game loads in a static location, the shown room can be wrong

• Fixed: season Fast-Forward hover shows without the icon being available

• Fixed: unable to cancel activities while the spinner is up

• Fixed: outdated hover popup still shows up after a modal dialog appeared

• Fixed: NPC's action queue stuck when leaving building and PC is in a static location

• Fixed: rider and horse out-of-sync when opening Credits screen

• Fixed: book widget "inventory" not fluently scaling

• Fixed: book portrait visuals sometimes incorrect around the edges

• Fixed: popups with large amounts of text exceed the screen bounds

• Fixed: items can incorrectly be dropped in special locations using the key shortcut

• Fixed: when re-positioning checkbox, hovered and checked variants remain at the old spot

• Fixed: when loading game, effect trigger for an item not restored if it is inside a container

• Fixed: widget icon rollover status can be incorrect after setting it externally

• Fixed: a criminal record entry is added when picking a lock of a self-owned object

• Fixed: rendering order incorrect when indoors (precipitation not showing through window)

• Fixed: flickering on character sheet screen when animations are loading in the background

• Fixed: when game is paused while in a special location, key commands still work

• Fixed: Thyle city watch is not a unique special location, causing ambiguous guard behavior

• Fixed: function to query the position of a building that is not in memory sometimes crashes

• Fixed: incorrect behavior when a manhunt is triggered by a guard on top of a building

• Fixed: attacker gets too close when positioning for an upcoming combat

• Fixed: after dropping coins, carried weight does not get updated immediately

• Fixed: in the map editor, cellar levels are exported twice

• Fixed: possible PC actions not reset to default when starting a new game during same session

• Fixed: descriptions for locations on the travel map are incorrect (indexing issue)

• Fixed: even for non-humanoid NPCs, average armor is calculated based on humanoid body parts

• Fixed: map inappropriately changes when PC is taken to prison while in a static location

• Fixed: on some screens, modal dialogs are rendered under any screen darkening

• Fixed: The UI renderer does not correctly return the hovered status

• Fixed: some dungeon doors are locked although they are open

• Fixed: dungeon containers not always filled correctly

• Fixed: next quest step not always shown

• Fixed: in tactical combat, nearby enemy cannot be selected after canceling a move

• Fixed: quest "True Hospitality" proceeds incorrectly if the PC does not act for a while

• Fixed: music stuttering when changing maps and deleting games

• Fixed: incorrect item for starting campfire shown if using tinder pouch

• Fixed: flintstone sound missing when igniting object with tinder pouch

• Fixed: coin treasure item can include zero coins

• Fixed: NPCs can block themselves after being spawned on a new map

• Fixed: store visitors have a superflous action to enter the building on the queue

• Fixed: children and some other characters are unable to talk in certain scenarios

• Fixed: incorrect south stairscase asset in human dungeon

• Fixed: lantern (on) does not show a flame in inventory

• Fixed: the leader of the Dark Ones does not own the robe he is wearing

• Fixed: various issues with activity spinners

• Fixed: tutorial combat with bat can be started as quick combat when fleeing first

• Fixed: when camping in dungeon, sleep actions are shown incorrectly

• Fixed: after closing the gravestone overlay, interaction menu choice stays highlighted

• Fixed: when holding Alt, entities stand out that should not

• Fixed: wraith's footwear not rendered when attacking

• Fixed: "door close" sound sometimes plays twice when PC leaves a building

• Fixed: attacks incorrectly occur against already destroyed body parts

• Fixed: signpost assets have incorrect filenames in settlement winter atlas

• Fixed: temporary road and river paths are not disposed in travel map maker

• Fixed: incorrect dialog text in quest "True Hospitality" after PC attacked goblin and left

• Fixed: a selected NPC leaving the map stays in the interaction panel

• Fixed: incorrect hover text for "Take all" button on loot screen after taking selected items

• Fixed: character output related to food consumption is not correct

• Fixed: if one side in combat is powerless, power bar not showing correctly

• Fixed: life point bonus in power calculation incorrect

• Fixed: PC name instead of target's name is mentioned in status message after PC attacks

• Fixed: archers move to invalid positions on the map (outside the content area or in water)

• Fixed: incorrect music might come up if the PC joins an ongoing NPC-NPC combat

• Fixed: during combat, non-humanoid characters can open doors to escape

• Fixed: issue in conversation with Chosh in quest "All bats are gray in the dark"

• Fixed: incorrect result when determining whether a mounted character is in attack range

• Fixed: after being in combat hit while mounted, cannot dismount and animation stuck

• Fixed: sometimes, the wrong combat music variant starts

• Fixed: town guadrs sitting in a tavern do not get up when spotting a criminal

• Fixed: quick combat portraits sometimes show incorrect number of fighters

• Fixed: "construct shelter" action available in dungeon after loading game

• Fixed: after tuning towards an enemy during tactical combat, action sectors not always updated

• Fixed: coins can be dropped in special locations (impossible to pick them back up there)

• Fixed: combat gets stuck in quest "True Hospitality" if PC starts combat with the guard around

• Fixed: the retiree does not appear in quest "Echoes from the Past" when skipping time

• Fixed: corpses are incorrectly added as crime witnesses

• Fixed: dehydration level not correctly restored after loading