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[zircon]

NEW BUILD!

WINDOWS: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-2-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-2-17.app.zip

We're kicking off February with a well-rounded new update to Tangledeep! I wanted to address a bunch of nasty bugs here and also experiment with various quality-of-life improvements related to mouse control and cleaning up the UI. (Less pop up text, less intrusive combat log, etc.) There's also gobs of new art (items, skills, fx), balance tweaks, and new monster abilities, and most importantly the addition of side areas to the dungeon.

These side areas round out my latest effort to make the dungeon - Tangledeep itself - even more fun to explore. You might find a themed combat area, or a terrain challenge, a merchant, or something else. As development continues this concept will be extended even further, giving you more to discover in the dungeon, more ways to get loot (or spend money), and more interesting/unique "stuff" to add to your experience.


Divine Bolt FX!


You can finally punch stuff now


New spell FX for the Spellshaper


A new side area to discover!

CHANGELOG

ART
* More item art! Thanks to Lachlan Cartland for killing it on this!
* Specifically, we now have FISTS.... yes!
* Reworked the system for drawing walls / ground, and corresponding art. Good times!
* Thrust attacks (spears, punching) now have a separate 'swing' animation
* New projectile animations for mechanical enemies (still working on making projectile firing look better though)
* Young Water Elementals have an appropriate projectile attack now (wave shot)
* More icons for skills and status effects
* You will now find not only barrels, but also crates, and stacks of crates. Exciting!
* More combat / ability battle FX and objects! (Fewer placeholders!)

AUDIO
* New music for Riverstone Camp (town) - wistful and nostalgic, enjoy!

BALANCE
* Mold-Infested Vermin will use their mold mind control on you more frequently
* Monster density reduced on upper levels to a max of 2 monsters per area. For very small areas, the max density is limited to 1 (for a 3x3 room)
* All toggle abilities now refund 100 CT when used (i.e. they do not take up a turn)
* Swapping equipment now no longer takes a turn (experimenting with this)
* Young Water Elementals have a longer attack range
* SPELLSHAPER: When casting materialized evocations, the effect will now trigger immediately on any actor in the tile
* SWORD DANCER: Thundering Lion no longer costs Energy to activate.
* SWORD DANCER: Flame Serpent now deals damage if you move the fire into the target - not just if the target ends turn on that tile

BUGS
* MAJOR: Fixed an issue with moving near map edges (and other various terrain) locking up player movement and causing lots of other issues
* Fixed a bad bug when saving, loading, and then saving -> loading the game
* Tweaked mouse texture to hopefully avoid some buggy looking’ cursors
* The game should no longer let you load saves from versions of the game with particularly different save data structures (important at this stage of development)
* Secret rooms should now appear on floor 8
* Stair spawning has been rewritten, preventing cases where stairs up or down sometimes did not spawn at all
* Decor layer should now load properly when you Continue the game
* Options values should load properly (note: you may be switched to default options values as I add new stuff)
* The mouse and keyboard 'focus' when navigating lists (items, skills, shops) should now be synchronized
* In a long item/object list (such as the shop), pressing UP at the top of the UI will now scroll to the very bottom of the list properly
* Sentry adds in the Level 5 boss fight now aggro/target you properly, and use attacks
* Thundering Lion no longer lasts forever, and will expire (along with other Energy-using toggles) when you don't have enough resources
* Fixed various issues with powerup drop chance calculation

CONTENT/GAMEPLAY
* Starting at the 2nd floor of Tangledeep, you will be able to find stairs leading to areas "off the beaten path": merchants, special enemy areas, and other fun stuff. Many more will be added, but for now, explore those stairs and see what you find!
* Adjusted map generation for upper levels (should be better now)
* More cave ‘pieces’ have been added
* New food item: Juicy Apple (restores all stats a bit)
* Jade Beetles now have an armor break effect at melee range, when their health is reduced to 50% or less
* Plunderers now use a dagger toss when at range
* Cave Lions now have a deadly 3-range claw rake attack (takes one turn to wind up)
* Young Water Elementals now have a powerful cross-shaped splash (heh heh) attack (takes one turn to wind up)
* New monster: Guardian Sphere. Appears on levels 6 and up
* New champion mod (floor 3 and up): Nightmare. Summons deadly shadow traps across the battlefield!
* SPELLSHAPER: Changed Spellshape BURST to Spellshape RAY. Try it!
* New weapon mod: RUST-BITING (more damage to machines)
* New boss encounter on floor 8 of the dungeon (beware, no idea if this is balanced!)

ENGINE
* Refactored how the dungeon is stored in the game's memory
* Changed how stairs work (they can now travel to any location as opposed to incrementing floors up/down, or hardcoding)
* Created option for monster abilities to limit target tiles to ONLY actors affected (i.e. damage and then summon object on damaged actor)
* Added the capability for map object effects to trigger if an actor STARTS turn in that tile

QUALITY OF LIFE
* Experimental: Changed the way the combat log is displayed. It now appears "when needed" under you on screen, and disappears after a short delay. Press "L" (rebindable) to toggle it to always show.
* When opening the equipment screen, you will now only see weapons (as weapon slot 1 is the default selection). Move to another slot to see items in that slot
* Monster-attracting gems will no longer spawn in mud, water, or lava
* Barrels and crates no longer spawn in water, mud, or lava
* Mousewheel can now be used to scroll list pages, such as the shop list or known skills, if they take up more than one page
* Experimental: Cleaned up popup text displays. Parry, Whiff, and Block no longer pop up over your head (but you still get the SFX and combat log text.) Walking through mud/water no longer pops up -stam text, but combat log text is now yellow to make things more obvious.

[Thaumaturge]

Excellent! I've downloaded the new build, I believe, and am eager to (hopefully) try it out soon! ^_^

I really like the idea of side-areas--for one thing, I like to see rewards for exploration.

* Mold-Infested Vermin will use their mold mind control on you more frequently

... I don't think that I was aware that they had that ability. Either I've missed it up until now, or they really have been using it sparingly! o_0

* All toggle abilities now refund 100 CT when used (i.e. they do not take up a turn)

...

* SPELLSHAPER: When casting materialized evocations, the effect will now trigger immediately on any actor in the tile

Yes... MWHAHAHAHAHA!

* MAJOR: Fixed an issue with moving near map edges (and other various terrain) locking up player movement and causing lots of other issues

Aah--I take it that this was what caused the "unresponsive character" bug that I previously reported? Interesting.

* SPELLSHAPER: Changed Spellshape BURST to Spellshape RAY. Try it!

Oh, I intend to!

* New boss encounter on floor 8 of the dungeon (beware, no idea if this is balanced!)

Ah, I had thought to ask whether there was a reason to progress past the golem boss--it seems that there now is! ^_^

[zircon]

The upcoming build is coming along and has yet more polish, bug fixes, and quality of life stuff. Really looking to get the "feel" of the game right with smoother interfaces and less jank. I know it's pre-alpha but polish is important to me.

But I'm mainly posting to say that I've started a mailing list for Tangledeep that I plan on using for MAJOR announcements, such as the upcoming Kickstarter campaign, alpha/beta release, and eventual Steam launch (+ possibly other platforms!) It would mean a lot to me if you signed up, IF you're interested in following the game!

http://eepurl.com/cAFft1

[Pixel Noise]

Signed up - I've been following every update, just haven't had time to test the game myself 

Definitely enjoying the updates and progress though, and looking forward to hearing more of the OST! 

[Thaumaturge]

I've signed up, I believe! ^_^

Will the mails include anything not mentioned in these devlogs?

[zircon]

I'll be using the list for BIG news primarily, so following the thread will technically have more info, but email is a guaranteed way to reach people... And speaking of news:

NEW BUILD TODAY: 2/7/17

WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-7-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-7-17.app.zip

OVERVIEW

The purpose of this build is primarily polish, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements, plus overhauled tutorials and hint popups. A number of underlying UI systems have been reworked to fix things like overlapping damage numbers. The combat log has been further improved and cleaned up. Various interfaces should work much better with the mouse now. The world itself now auto-clamps the camera as you approach the corners, so that your screen isn't primarily taken up by black space. There's more art replacing various placeholders. Level transitions.

You get the idea - hopefully the game feels a lot less like a pre-pre-Alpha now, and more like a pre-Alpha :-)

BUT! There are some new balance changes and content too. I've done a pass on monster density as I think that was one of the biggest issues before (density getting out of control). Also there are some new items and tiers of equipment, plus a couple new monsters on the upper levels that will really give you a run for your money... Let me know if you make it that far

FULL CHANGELOG

ART & PRESENTATION
* More tile variation for walls
* More playing around with lighting effects
* Even more new art for items!
* Targeting tiles now have synced animations again
* New transition fades when changing areas
* Stairs removed from Riverstone Camp - just walk into the cave to use it
* Projectiles should now track their target even if the target moves
* Fixed title screen background jank

BALANCE
* Slightly nerfed low-level stamina and energy potions
* All low-level healing-type potions now have a slightly higher value
* Running Shoes nerfed
* Monster densities reworked floor-by-floor

BUGS
* Deflecting Filter and Vigorous Draught now both exist again
* Fixed Evocation: Shadow art
* Sacrificial altars now only work when dropping within 5 squares of them
* You can no longer drop Fists/empty item slots!
* Offhand weapon, while dual wielding, now displays properly on main HUD after loading the game
* Clicking now works again in the job screen to learn abilities
* Fixed some cases where clicking in a UI area would cause the player to move or act
* Fixed some minor bugs where the cursor would disappear in dialogs
* When killing a fleeing monster, its "death fade" will no longer jump a square
* Selecting "Continue" when you have no game loaded no longer brings you to a black/empty screen
* Arrow keys and mouse position in menus/lists should be synchronized... properly this time
* You seriously, really, actually can't shoot your own pet with a ranged weapon now
* Fixed bug where dungeon terrain tiles (i.e. lava) would no longer be dangerous to player after loading game

CONTENT & GAMEPLAY
* NEW MONSTER: Bandit Swordmaster, to give the Sword Dancer a run for her money... Will show up on floor 7+
* NEW MONSTER: Young Lightning Elemental, mischievous but deadly... Shows up on floor 9+!
* NEW ACCESSORY: Infinite Flask. Restores Energy, but makes you tipsy.
* NEW ACCESSORIES: Incombustible / Incorruptible Necklaces. Each offers specific elemental resistance.
* NEW ITEM TYPE: Gems. These don't do anything but sell for a hefty price to merchants! Where might you find them...?
* NEW POTIONS: Stronger Health, Energy, and Stamina restoratives
* NEW WEAPON TIER: The fourth tier of weapons can now be found from difficult enemies deeper in the dungeon!

ENGINE
* Cleaned up how tile visual types are stored, allowing for more variation
* Reworked how the combat log works (now: GameObjects), allowing for all sorts of processing per line of text
* Added code support for tiered 'innate' abilities in jobs, i.e. unlocked after spending a certain amount of JP total
* Lay the groundwork for an improved loot table / drop system
* Reworked tutorial system loading / display - much more expandable and loads from XML now
* Monsters can now use movement abilities outside of combat
* Reworked how monsters are spawned at map start; new min-max monsters per floor definitions
* Some code optimizations to reduce GetComponent() calls, as well as pre-allocating some variables for heavily-used operations

QUALITY OF LIFE
* Various unnecessary combat log messages cleaned up, some colors added to make things more digestible
* Damage number popups will no longer overlap but instead queue up if a whole bunch happen in quick succession
* Shop interface: Exit button moved to upper right for mouse users. Pressing escape now quits the shop.
* Experimenting with a new camera locking mode that prevents you from seeing way beyond the edge of a level, "clamping" the camera to map edges.
* Added a clickable, flashing indicator when you are able to learn a new job skill
* Treasure sparkles should no longer spawn on barrels / chests
* Combat log now writes a different message when you block an attack
* Moving into the cave at Riverstone Camp now automatically takes you to Tangledeep
* Tutorial hints have been cleaned up. Some have been added, others removed or rewritten. Tutorial tips will also never show twice, even if you die.
* Melee, ranged, and spirit power added to character sheet (C) along with parry, block, dodge and crit chance
* Rather than text messages, the stamina bar now flashes as you move through difficult terrain (mud/water)
* While at low health (<30%) your health bar now subtly blinks red
* When in the merchant interface, items you can't afford will be marked RED
* Barrels/crates should no longer spawn on the monster-attracting gem

[zircon]

Aaand I had a couple lingering major issues that are now fixed. Same build links...

WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-7-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-7-17.app.zip

BUGS
* Combat log text now scales properly
* Mouse control now works at smaller resolutions properly
* Camera no longer scrolls off screen at lower resolutions

GENERAL
* Game is now locked to 16:9 aspect ratio (this may change later, but this is the most stable/bug-free for now)

QUALITY OF LIFE
* Right-clicking can now be used to Cancel dialogs/targeting
* Abilities that have floating targeting shapes (such as lines, crosses) will no longer rotate if you use the arrow keys - use the "T" key instead
* The mouse can now be moved to rotate abilities that are not cursor-targeted

[Thaumaturge]

That's quite a list of fixes, in particular; as per usual, I have the new version downloaded, I believe, and intend to try it out soon! ^_^

I have a few quick thoughts from playing briefly with the "Ray" spell-shape. These come from the build that introduced it; if the points raised have been changed since that version, then please ignore.

Overall, I like it, but find it a little awkward to use. Specifically:

 - The ray only rotates in forty-five degree increments, which can make it tricky to hit things at times--especially since moving to line up the ray with an enemy gives that enemy an opportunity to move out of alignment.

 - It seems that I can only use the shape by directly targeting an enemy--I can't click on a box or barrel to target those, it seems.

I intend to spend more time with it while playing the most recent build, however; presuming that I do so, I may have further thoughts!

[Thaumaturge]

I have some feedback, based on a few quick play-sessions:

First--since this may affect the validity of my other comments--I note that the stairs seem to still be visible in the "camp" area. Do I perhaps have an old build? I'm reasonably confident that I used the link given two posts above this one; the downloaded file is named "Build2-7-17.rar", I believe.

That said, the game seems to be running rather slowly again. :/ This slowness may have decreased a little as I played the level, but it may also have been greater in a certain region, near my spawn-point--the former impression may simply have arisen from moving away from that region.

In the equipment screen, item descriptions seem to still overflow the right-hand border of the window. I note that I don't seem to get a resolution dialogue any more; is the game perhaps using my old options file--and thus my old, possibly-unsupported resolution--and if so, where should I look to delete that file?

I may have mentioned this next bug previously; I don't see it on a quick look through the last page or two, but I may be mistaken. If I have mentioned it previously, please ignore! ^^;

In the shop menu, use the mouse to hover over an item, then use the mouse-wheel to scroll the list. This part works as expected, I think. However, now move the mouse again so that another item is highlighted--you should see that the description no longer matches the item displayed. To be specific, I think that the description corresponds to the item that would be highlighted if the list hadn't been scrolled.

Conversely, however, mouse-functionality within such menus seems improved overall--that's appreciated! ^_^

I like having the camera cease scrolling near the edge of the map--as you mentioned, I believe, it . However, it also means that, when the player-character is near the bottom- or right- edges, parts of the level are covered by the UI, concealing objects beneath and making it awkward to click on them. Perhaps it might be worth having the camera go just a little beyond the edges of the map, just enough to clear those parts of the level?

As to the ray-targeting, I'm glad to see that the ray can now be rotated via the mouse, and that one can target empty tiles!

As a suggestion, it might be nice to see the spell-effect appear in all tiles along the ray: On the practical side, it might convey to the player that the ray affects all highlighted tiles, and show that the spell succeeded even when no enemies were hit. On the aesthetic side, it might simply look cool.

One thing does feel off to me: When the player-character is near the edge of the screen, the camera is offset, leaving the character no longer centred on the screen. However, the mouse-targeting seems to still determine the direction for the ray relative to the centre of the screen, rather than the position of the character--this feels somewhat unintuitive to me.

I like the new indicator that appears when a job-skill is available. ^_^

[zircon]

Great feedback. Next build has tons o' fixes and QOL (again), I have several QA people now helping so... Stay tuned!

[Thaumaturge]

ext build has tons o' fixes and QOL (again), I have several QA people now helping so... Stay tuned!

Excellent--I'm glad to read both points! ^_^

Would you prefer that I scaled back my feedback, then, perhaps particularly with regards to bugs, or should I continue to give feedback as I have been?

[zircon]

ext build has tons o' fixes and QOL (again), I have several QA people now helping so... Stay tuned!

Excellent--I'm glad to read both points! ^_^

Would you prefer that I scaled back my feedback, then, perhaps particularly with regards to bugs, or should I continue to give feedback as I have been?

Your feedback is massively helpful so by all means give as much as you want. I write down everything and try to address as much as I can with each build. Sometimes I need to do engine changes to support certain things. Other issues that are more related to balance, or connected to larger systems, may take longer.

Performance for example is a broad issue... but I did run through the code and tighten up some spots where I was instantiating lots of Lists<> per turn etc.

Also while the next build is primarily focused on bugs, QOL and polish (again) there will be new content too. Specifically after finally playing Shiren the Wanderer I'm really interested in adding more situational consumable items, so I'm working on adding more of those for freshness.

[Thaumaturge]

Your feedback is massively helpful so by all means give as much as you want. ...

I'm glad, and fair enough--I intend to keep doing as I have been, then. ^_^

I write down everything and try to address as much as I can with each build. Sometimes I need to do engine changes to support certain things. Other issues that are more related to balance, or connected to larger systems, may take longer.

Performance for example is a broad issue... but I did run through the code and tighten up some spots where I was instantiating lots of Lists<> per turn etc.

That's fair enough--and, from an external perspective, at least, things seem to be progressing pretty well, overall. ^_^

Also while the next build is primarily focused on bugs, QOL and polish (again) there will be new content too. Specifically after finally playing Shiren the Wanderer I'm really interested in adding more situational consumable items, so I'm working on adding more of those for freshness.

Interesting...

I'll confess that I'm likely to be one of those players not much affected by such an addition: I have a perhaps-unfortunate tendency to not use my consumables overmuch. ^^; (I tend to forget them, or prefer renewable means of recovery, I think.)

(I don't believe that I've played Shiren the Wanderer; seeing your mention of it there, I did very briefly look it up on TV Tropes, at least.)

[zircon]

I think for Tangledeep, consumables are designed to:

(a) help you get out of bad situations, for example a Lightning Brew when your resources are exhausted

(b) prepare you to tackle harder challenges, for example popping the right buff or eating some food before a difficult champion fight

(c) fill in the gaps for your character - giving melee heroes some reach, giving non-healers a way to restore health, etc.

They also add an extra element of positive randomness to the game that I think is fun for dungeon crawlers. I want you to find an Orb of Summoning and smile as you call your very own Moss Jelly to your side. I want you to breathe a sigh of relief when you find a Mint Herb Brew in a barrel as you're escaping from a crowd of baddies. That kind of thing.

Of course... you do have to use them for them to have an effect Dying with a backpack full of potables = shame!

[Thaumaturge]

Oh, I imagine that they're very useful--I just tend to not use them! I suspect that I've died many a time with a satchel full of potables. :D

That said, I think that there are some types of consumable that I'm likely to use--I imagine that the single-use (I presume) summon that you mention would likely be one such, for example. Perhaps it's things that I'm likely to use immediately, not drop into my inventory and forget.

[zircon]

NEW BUILD!

WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-15-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-15-17.app.zip

OVERVIEW
This build features a ton of bug fixes, QOL improvements, balance tweaks, some deep engine improvements, major new art and new audio. Overall - as with the last build - it's largely intended on delivering a better all-around player experience. There IS some new content too, in the form of new consumable items and map areas, plus a badass new monster.

Over the next 1-2 weeks you can expect more content additions/balance tweaks, plus dungeon areas, new monsters, and a new player job (Hunter).



FULL CHANGELOG

ART
* All-new tileset found in different levels of the dungeon! Wow!

AUDIO
* Two new placeholder tracks added (boss and merchant themes)
* New music track (dungeon theme)
* Various SFX mixing

BALANCE
* (Half bug) When unequipping accessories that grant abilities, like Endless Flagon, their cooldown will be remembered if you re-equip them
* Sentry Assemblers no longer give ludicrous amounts of XP
* Dual wielding has been toned down. Previously, your offhand weapon had reduced damage and accuracy. Now, your main hand weapon also loses some damage and accuracy (though not as much)
* Shield block chance increased overall
* Medium and heavy armor now offers some flat mitigation for physical damage
* Made the Lava Pit side area a little tougher, with a little less loot
* Experimental: When switching floors, all monsters heal to full (to prevent stair cheesing)
* Adjusted map size/room distribution further - should be more even now
* Adjusted XP curves (now written manually)
* BRIGAND: When YOU are in your smoke cloud, enemy aggro range is now severely reduced. (It already reduced enemy sight range if they're in it.)
* Adjusted magical item drop chance; anytime a monster or destructible has a better chance of dropping items, these items are also more likely to be magical

BUGS
* Many abilities (and ranged weapons) could fire at targets not in line-of-sight (i.e. blocked by walls), this should be fixed
* Disconnected rooms were possible on some floors (4, 7) - this should no longer happen
* Hovering over abilities on the job sheet ("J") with the mouse should now display full info
* Hopefully fixed various weirdness when restarting the game after dying, such as not being able to properly do character creation, and post-restart hang/glitching
* You can no longer sell equipped items. Selling an item or weapon in your hotbars will remove it from the hotbars
* Fists should no longer randomly turn into Javelins on the hotbar
* The blinking cursor that indicates when an item/slot is selected for swapping has been re-enabled
* When in the middle of swapping equipment, hovering the mouse over item slots will no longer filter
* Fixed various other weirdness during item swap on equipment screen
* Abilities granted by items (Bottomless Brew, Endless Flagon) are properly removed from the character and hotbar
* Fixed mouse wheel scrolling causing bad behavior in some menus
* Revised some code relating to turning sprites on and off when out of vision. Should no longer see champion (etc) buffs when they are not in line of sight. If it's still happening... tell me!
* Mouse rotation of ability targeting is now relative to hero position, not screen center
* Fixed lighting bug where stacked items would look brighter and brighter
* Magic mod exclusion groups now work - i.e. a weapon cannot be converted to both Fire and Water damage
* Damage numbers should now 'track' objects much more closely and accurately, same with status effect icons/hovers
* Damage numbers will no longer pop up if enemies are out of sight, nor will combat text or animations
* Removed the dead mouse zone at the bottom of the screen (still working on how to prevent UI from getting in the way of character movement)
* Small zones no longer obey camera clamping - this gets rid of some issues, but I need a way to do this better.
* Tweaked how stat modifier (comparison) icons are displayed on the equipment screen - should work better
* Fixed a bug where transparent stairs (like those in Riverstone Camp) would re-appear after game load
* Possibly fixed bug with champions getting the same champ mod twice? We'll see!
* Fixed a bug where food in the bandit storeroom would not save/load
* Fixed a bug where you could use consumables like gems that have no on-use effect

CONTENT
* Added several new room layouts for all map types
* New consumable: ORB OF SUMMONING. Calls a random monster to fight for you for awhile.
* New consumable: BALSAM. Heals all negative status effects.
* New consumable: UNSTABLE CONCOCTION. Summons a bunch of acid pools that damage and debuff enemies!
* New monster: ROCK GOLEM. Spawns on floor 9+. He's rough, tough and he'll mess you up.
* New weapon mod: PENETRATING. Ignores 50% of physical damage resistance (e.g. some monsters are resistance to blunt, slash, or pierce.)
* New side area!
* New consumable: DUNGEON MAP. Reveals an unexplored floor at random. (But which one? And where do you find the maps?!)

ENGINE
* Items now support a persistent counter of cooldown
* Audio engine now properly supports different mixer groups
* Assorted performance optimizations

QUALITY OF LIFE
* EXPERIMENTAL: Removed weapon swing animation for everything but critical hits, to avoid combat clutter. (Impact sprites are still there.)
* Audio settings have been rescaled, one tick = 1 dB, total dynamic range of 30dB. At minimum value, that mixer group is OFF.
* New "Back to Game" option added to Options menu. "Save and Quit" renamed for clarity.
* When moving with the mouse, you will no longer auto-pass turns when trying to move into a wall
* Monster HP should never appear as 0% - only 1%
* Reduced the threshold needed for mouse movement -> changing ability directional targeting
* When using Spellshapes (ray, line, etc) you will now see the spell effect trigger even for unused spaces
* By pressing Escape or your bound Cancel key, you can return to previous pages of character creation
* Barrels and crates should no longer spawn on stairs. Really. Yes. For real this time.
* Extended camera clamp range so you should no longer be blocked by the UI (this still needs to be improved further)
* Ability damage numbers should now pop up AFTER the ability animation has played. If this is not happening with some abilities, let me know as internal numbers must change
* Added two new tutorial popups related to difficult terrain and selling items.
* Added a (placeholder) splash sprite + sfx when you enter water

[Thaumaturge]

[edit] Download delayed. ^^; [/edit]

[edit 2] Right, now I have the new build downloaded, I believe, and intend to try it soon. ^_^ [/edit 2]

I like the new dungeon art shown above! It looks cool, and it's pleasant to have a little variation in the game's environment, I feel. ^_^

[zircon]

Yep! The goal is lots of different tile sets for different areas.

Also because I got some reports of resolution weirdness, I've put the resolution selector back in (which is also connected to the input manager.) While I was at it I made some other changes, bug fixes and QOL improvements.

WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-15-17b.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-15-17b.app.zip

BALANCE
* Toxic Urchins can no longer be champions
* Nerfed the health on Sentry Bots and the Steam Golem, as well as both Assemblers
* Toned down the damage on Explosive champion bombs
* Increased the damage for Electrified champions, and the number of lightning strikes that appear
* PALADIN: Increased the stamina cost for Heavy Guard (4 -> 7 per block)
* SWORD DANCER: Increased the energy cost for Thundering Lion (7 -> 11 per attack)
* You now lose stamina for taking actions in water, not just moving through it

BUGS
* Fixed a bug where hovering the mouse over an item and dropping it with D would sometimes drop the wrong item
* Fixed a bug where a blinking cursor would appear in the Inventory screen sometimes.
* Lava tiles now hurt with each step again (related to a bigger bug with certain effect types)
* When you die, your health bar reflects your current health (0)
* When killed, monster health should display properly as 0

ENGINE
* Monsters can have a NoChampion flag

QUALITY OF LIFE
* Hovering over status buffs from toggled abilities now shows that they are Toggled, and not fixed duration
* Hovering over a monster now shows whether it is Neutral, Aggressive, or Hostile to you

[Thaumaturge]

I've downloaded the build just above, I believe, and have played it briefly. I have some initial thoughts, but I want to hold onto them until I've played a little more, I think.

I will say that I like the new dungeon music! ^_^

Yep! The goal is lots of different tile sets for different areas.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a level that seemed to use both tilesets. It gave a welcome bit of variety within the level, and made the place feel a little more organic, a little less like a themed set of levels, I think.

[zircon]

NEW BUILD! 2/18/2017

WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-18-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build2-18-17.app.zip

I've been on a roll over the last week or so getting some serious work done on Tangledeep. I'm very excited, and I think we're on track for a Kickstarter next month.

This build is well-rounded, with a mix of art/polish and quality-of-life enhancements, UI tweaks, balance changes, and new content. One of the major changes is the fact that you no longer start with 4 abilities for free. Instead, you get 250jp which can be spent (or saved) as you please. There is also a new job that is about 40% done, directional sprites (well, left and right-facing...), some cool new terrain interactions, and some engine improvements to help catch serious crashes/issues.


Breaking walls with the new Demolition Hammer!


Budoka kicking a hapless Salamander in the face.

ART
* Sprites now flip X axis to 'face' the right direction
* New art for Swamp Toads!
* New effects that appear when you enter water, mud, or lava for the first time, and with each subsequent step. (Should this apply to enemies? Let me know!)

BALANCE
* Scaled up JP costs for most abilities
* Champion mobs will no longer combine themselves into a regular mob (thus making the regular mob non-champion). However, regular monsters CAN combine themselves with champions, making the champion even stronger.
* Nerfed sentry bot "Robo Repair" skill in the first boss fight
* Your effective block chance is now auto-set to 0 if you are not using a defensive item in your offhand (codexes count). This is relevant for Paladin Heavy Guard.
* Creeping Spider's venom will no longer stack duration on multiple casts.
* Monsters summoned by Orbs of Summoning will no longer drop items or yield XP/JP/gold
* Frog Swamp toned down a bit
* Spread out the distribution of side areas a bit. It's a little less likely for there to be ton of side areas on one floor now.

BUGS
* Fixed a bug with some mouse / keyboard click weirdness in menus (namely the Perk menu)
* "Explosive" champion bombs no longer explode instantly but now have a fuse
* Fixed minor cursor flicker in menus/dialogs
* Fixed a music error with the new temp shopkeeper theme
* Minor visual/text fixes in opening dialogs/menus. More to do
* You should no longer get double-gameovers
* Adjusted "Ruins" layout algorithm (floor 3) to try and fix unreachable area bug
* Possibly fixed shop item list 'desync'
* Orbs of Summoning will no longer only summon a specific monster type per game
* Monsters summoned by Orbs of Summoning should now ALWAYS be on your side (untargetable etc)
* Guile now actually helps your defeat dodge/parry chance (it was supposed to before, but didn't)
* Juicy Apples and Boxes of Mints now work.

CONTENT/GAMEPLAY
* Reworked the job system and game start. You no longer start with 4 abilities. Instead you are given 250 JP at the start of the game, which you can spend to learn 2 or 3 skills. You no longer get 'temporary' active skills from switching jobs, and there is no longer a concept of 'mastering' an ability. You either know it or you don't!

* New job: Budōka! A badass martial artist, master of a secret assassination art passed down for 2,000 years. Her abilities have longer cooldowns but pack a big... punch. (Pun intended.) - Note: The job is not totally done yet, more abilities are coming.

* All classes now have NEW innate abilities unlocked when you spend 1000 or more JP in that class! Though you lose this bonus when you switch jobs, you will gain it back if you return to the original job.
   - PALADIN: After blocking an attack, your next Smite Evil or Divine Bolt deals 25% more damage
   - SPELLSHAPER: While using a Spellshape, your spell range is increased
   - BRIGAND: Your bleed effects last 2 turns longer
   - SWORD DANCER: Summon a one-tile Flame Serpent when parrying an attack
   - FLORAMANCER: You learn "Summon Living Vine II", which gives your vine a ranged poison-element shot attack
   - BUDOKA: Get a kick attack if you are unarmed in both main + offhand. The kick is even stronger than your fists.

* Added more terrain interactions!
   - FIRE damage is enhanced if the target is standing on lava but diminished if they're in water.
   - WATER damage is diminished if the target is in lava.
   - LIGHTNING damage is enhanced if the target is standing in water.
   - Walking into water now removes any burning effects.

* NEW MONSTER: WRAITH, found on floor 6 and up. Beware its haunting gaze...
* NEW ITEM: Greater Orb of Summoning. Summons more powerful monsters!
* NEW ITEM: Demolition Hammer. Destroy walls. Have fun :D
* NEW SIDE AREA: Bottles n' Brews
* NEW ARMOR MAGIC MOD: Heavy. Adds 10% physical damage resistance, but slows your CT gain.
* NEW CHAMPION MOD: Illusionist. Summons up to 4 illusions, and swap places with one of them. (Clones are easy to kill and don't attack!)
* NEW CHAMPION MODS: Fire/Water resistant (both elements), Lightning/Shadow resistant, Physical resistance. Takes 50% less damage from those damage sources. Don't rely on just one or two skills in your character build

ENGINE
* Added a try/catch to the game turn loop, hopefully to help diagnose and debug serious issues. The game log will notify you when a big error occurs.
* The game will now delete your save file when you die. Permadeath! Kind of important for a roguelike, right? :D
* Resistance data on equipment is now serialized/deserialized, not just read from a template (thus: changes to resists via mods can be done)
* Code support for magic mods to affect resistances directly
* Game now caches many common resources (combat text, damage numbers, monster fades, etc.) to improve performance
* Support for champion monsters to spawn with specific accessories (that can in turn grant various new powers, resistances, etc)
* Support for champion mod exclusion groups (e.g. preventing particularly bad combinations)
* Performance optimizations related to animation and line of sight

QUALITY OF LIFE
* Added UI buttons for equipment, inventory, job (etc) screens. Placeholder graphics naturally, ux still in progress
* When attacking monsters on top of destructibles like Ice, you will always target the monster first. (Not the best solution, but I'm working on it)
* Increased combat log delay-to-fade time
* Increased combat log scrollbar sensitivity
* Added numbers below the skill/item hotbar
* Added a (bad) placeholder splash sprite for when you walk in lava
* If weapons have extremely similar power (power uses floating point behind the scenes) they will no longer show a comparison difference on the equipment screen unless the integer difference is >= 1
* NPCs now show up on the minimap
* Added labels to equipment slots when the slots are empty ("Offhand", "Armor", "Accessory 1/2")
* You can now hover over stats on the equipment screen to see what they do.
* Added a page on what each stat does in the Help manual (press "H")
* You can now use Control+1-4 to switch to a weapon on the weapon hotbar.
* Added a warning message in the combat log when a Regenerating champion has activated its Reactive Regen ability.
* Added more possible descriptors for monsters on examine/hover ("Stalking", "Curious" etc)
* On the skill hotbar, hovering over a skill on cooldown shows the remaining turns left