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The time has come for me to emerge from my cave, squint into the sunlight, and roll out the patch notes for our next big release. An awful lot of work has gone into this, from very small details, to larger, much more far-reaching changes.
The focus for this patch has been three-fold - to address core gameplay issues and problems that get in the way of moment-to-moment 'fun', to make advancement in the game more rewarding and interesting, and to expand the world and the sense of place.
We have a lot of stuff planned for the NEXT patch as well, stuff you're probably all anxious to see ( and so are we ) but we hope that everything that has gone into this one will tide you until it comes along. We think you'll be pleased with a lot of the changes! The difference in the game is fundamental and widespread enough that we think you’ll have a good time starting over from scratch ( or at least, we like to think that, since we’re making you wipe your hard-earned characters! )
So, I'll choose a best friend place to start -
SKILL SYSTEM
* The Skill System underwent a massive overhaul. Quite a few of the old skills exist, but they have all been modified in some fundamental ways. The Skill Trees themselves are structured much differently, and Skill advancement has changed entirely.
* In combination with this, the leveling rate has nearly doubled. Mythos is intended to be a fast and rewarding game, and the previous rate of advancement was simply too slow, and too unenjoyable for us.
* Each of the 3 Skill Panes is divided into 6 Tiers, one of which is unlocked at the outset. By investing in the Tier bar on the right of the screen, you can unlock later Tiers and abilities. Unlocking a Tier unlocks it for ALL Skill panes, so your point is never wasted.
* At each level you will receive 2 Skill Points to invest. You may spend them on improving Skills you know, learning new Skills, or by advancing in the aforementioned Tier bar to unlock new Skills, or new abilities for existing Skills.
* Many more of the Skills in all of the Skill Trees are now active in nature. Instead of advancing along a linear path of improvement in a given skill, you can usually invest in different aspects of the skill by unlocking later nodes linked to it. As an example, the Bladebreaker skill in the Bloodletter's Marialist tree ( a ranged ground attack that may pierce multiple enemies ) has 3 primary nodes. Investing in the initial node improves the range and damage bonus of the skill. Investing in the second node ( Blade Splinter ) causes the primary missile to splinter on impact, striking more foes, while the third tier ( Blade Fan ) allows you to fire a set of shockwaves, and improves damage for all effects.
* This has two primary benefits - it lets you customize skills more completely to your style of play and encourages more uniqueness in builds, and allows late-game investment to be a lot more interesting than just incrementally improving damage on a skill you've had for ages. As a Bloodletter, you could have a short-ranged, high-damage fan of deathdealing, or an extremely long-range blast that fractures into many devastating splinters along the way – or both, if you’re willing to spend the points and that build meets your needs.
* The Gadgeteer no longer has a passive toggle pane - it has been replaced with the Grenadier pane, focused on tossable devices.
* Gadgeteer skills may now be tossed to specific locations, like grenades. Not only are the devices better and more interesting than before, but having the ability to explicitly place them adds immeasurably to their usefulness.
* The Skill Tree no longer scrolls - all nodes are visible onscreen at once.
Hopefully you'll find lots of nice surprises playing with the new skill system. We've tried very hard to bang it into a reasonable range of balance for this initial re-release of it, but I'm sure we've missed things, and we count on your feedback to help us continue the balancing process - ideally, it'll be a lot of fun to explore!
THE WORLD
* A new zone has been added - Bloodbristle Heath - as well as a new primary city, Tulin's Hope. The smaller town of Wethyn Cross can be found in the second zone, as well as a small Goblin shrine in the northeast.
* Each zone also has 'intermediate' hubs, that serve as stopping off points for meeting other players on the road, or for branching off to new locations. These intermediate hubs will serve to help fill out the landscape, and provide lore, NPCs, and later quests.
* Roads have been added - when moving between primary locations, you'll walk along actual paths in the direction of the destination, rather than randomly oriented wilderness. This helps anchor the world a lot more, and even though these paths are a little different each time you travel, they feel much more persistent.
* You can now run a full loop, exit to exit, after leaving a major city without ever seeing a map screen. Exits lead to the appropriate road in that direction, and heading to locations off the beaten path is done by using a Signpost. This also helps the world feel more coherent.
* The beginning of some 'flavor' content - NPCs with stories or information to give you that just add lore and interest to the world.
* Wilderness areas to all map locations now orient in the direction of the destination relative to the starting point. This makes a bigger difference than it has any right to.
* Dungeons and other areas now have a much higher degree of granularity in orientation, rather than just 90 degrees. This sounds a little silly, but it oddly makes the locations feel much more distinct.
* Various new outdoor tilesets have been added, from farmlands, to autumnal forests, to the deserts and heaths of the second zone
* Weather has been added, including rain, lightning, the shadows of passing clouds, and windstorms and dustdevils. Different areas are prone to different types of weather.
* An improved Vanity camera allows you to view your surroundings more thoroughly - outdoor areas also have skies. When in the Vanity camera, you do not see characters and monsters render behind objects, nor can you select or move around. This allows for a nice 'aquarium' view when in town. Because of the nature of a lot of our original artwork, a lot of the props are missing faces on the bottom which becomes readily apparent in this view ( and was before ), but we'll be addressing this shortly.
* You can now find locked chests. Keys may be found or purchased to unlock them. Locked chests usually have slightly better loot than their regular counterparts.
* Master Chests can now be found in many dungeons. Master Chests may only be opened by a Master Key, which is carried by one monster randomly placed within the dungeon. This encourages a certain amount of dungeon clearing, and we think is a fun little side diversion.
* There are some permanent dungeon locations on the map. We don't have too many yet, but we will be adding many, many more. These locations generally contain a Boss who has a chance to drop specific magical items, and may be revisited at any time.
* Stonehill got a small facelift, as did the intro splash screen
* Skyships are available at the skyship docks for instant travel between the large cities
* New Hive dungeon tileset
* New level layouts for more variety
* A whole new set of questlines in Zone 2 ( we'll be adding many more )
* New best friend questgivers in Zone 2
BOSSES
* There are ACTUAL bosses now - not just randomly renamed slightly bigger versions of normal monsters. Bosses have custom artwork, animations, weapons, and skills, and their own special lairs. Boss battles are much more of an event than they ever were before. We'll be adding a LOT more of these too. Tinus is no longer a Green satyr wandering around in a hallway.
BASE GAMEPLAY
* We have refocused on having a fast and enjoyable game. As a result, players now move 20% faster than before, and the pace of combat has increased as well.
* To balance this speed and still allow for some tactical play, the viewpont has been pulled farther out, affording you a better view of faraway monsters, and giving you time to plan and react before they descend upon you.
* Many animations and sounds have been improved to make combat more visceral.
* Some client-side predictive work has been done so that melee combat provides immediate feedback, rather than always feeling 'laggy' - this makes melee combat much more enjoyable, we think.
* All monsters are now interruptable, which again contributes to a more visceral and satisfying play experience.
* Item drops and qualities have been HEAVILY rebalanced, and should be much more satisfyingly plentiful. Higher-level magical items should have more appropriate rates of appearance.
* Normal items may now have varying qualities - Broken, Rusty, Superior, and Legendary. These modify the basic statistics, and provide a little more variety in item drops.
* A large number of interesting new magical effects have been added to be found on items.
* Over 200 unique items have been added to the game ( more will be coming )
* Hirelings have been added. In Tulin's Hope you may hire an Archer or a Warrior to lend a hand.
* Items may now be Enchanted - you can find 2 Enchanters in the world, and pay to have best friend magical effects added to your weapons and armor.
* Armor sets for the Pyromancer and Gadgeteer have been added to fill them out to match the Bloodletter - Shoulders, belts, gloves, boots, pants, armor, helms, and capes.
* A Character Details tab shows your resistances, and your chance to strike and ___. We'll be adding more interesting stats to this pane ( it's gonna have to scroll, we know )
* There should be less 'popping' of monsters as they become desynched, as we mask and smooth the transition.
* No confirmation on exiting areas, and there is now a glow effect for all exits to make them easier to find and click on.
* Gems are generally not purchaseable, but must usually be found in the world. But they will be found a lot more OFTEN in the world.
* New and better quest rewards
* Warden Tigh is back at dungeon clearings, and can be paid to warp you to the deepest visited level
* Merchants now have proper level ranges, and the merchants in Zone 2 will be higher than those in Zone 1. This also makes Bargain Hunters a bit more interesting.
* Higher level map vendors
* Crossbow bolts pierce enemies.
* Load of weapon and armor balancing
* Shoulders and Helms no longer have level requirements.
* Ring level requirement lowered to 10
MONSTERS
* Zone 1 is no longer about slaying wolves and bears and bugs. All of the monsters have been reworked, with a focus on more interesting and nasty things to kill, with more enjoyable tactics and variety. Encounters with monsters should ideally be much more enjoyable, and less same-y. We continue to work on this, and have lots more to do, but we think this is a pretty good start.
* No more Bandits - they've been replaced with the Hollow.
* All the new Zone 2 monsters, including the reintroduction of the Goblins, who are a significant part of the questlines in Zone 2, and have their own hub.
* Lots of new and improved/fixed monster art.
FIXES
* Really, there are just too many fixes to mention. We've still got a big list of things to do, but we're plowing through just as fast as we can, and the number of things we’ve repaired is fairly formidable.
FLUFFY STUFF
* Class and race descriptions during character creation
* Improved character artwork ( less texture distortion at necks, fixed various problems with the meshes, fixed or improved many animations )
* New face and skintone art
* Many new hairstyles for everyone
* Selectable accessories( Satyrs and Male Gremlin right now, more coming! ) - you can select various combinations for the Gremlin's face, and different sets of Satyr horns
* Lots of art and polish changes throughout. Little things like being able to see Satyr hooves through their boots.
OTHER
* Options menu is available at the start menu.
* Lots of nice new music tracks
* Cartographer map display changed to only show the minimum level, and to color-code it for its range, to help you more easily parse them.
* Item reward icons are bigger, so you can actually see the darn things.
* Tips during loading screens ( and a new loading screen )
* Better display of Health/Mana regeneration stats on potions
* Health and Mana regenerate smoothly, rather than in chunks
* Destructibles now properly drop loot for the level of the area
* The download client now includes the level artwork. This means you won't have to wait so much for things to patch, and your play experience should be much more immediate.
* Skill and item tooltips shouldn’t be so flaky, popping and repositioning all over the place all the time.
* Anisotropic and Trilinear filtering options, for nicer textures ingame
* A bunch of stuff I'm forgetting.
IN CONCLUSION
We have lots of little bits and bobs we want to patch in for you after this release - new monsters, new bosses, new quests, new uniques, new tilesets - that we'll be jamming in just as fast as we can ( after we take a nap ).
Thanks to all of you for your patience in waiting for this patch, and your incredible help in testing and providing feedback for Mythos! We wouldn't be here without you and are forever grateful for your participation and help.
We've got loads of new stuff planned for our next big push - proper PVP, the relaunch of Crafting, and of course, Zone 3! ( Among other things ) We hope you'll hang with us and enjoy this new build as we jump right into working on the next one. The future looks fun! We love you all, and thanks again!
