Hello everyone!

I've started work on implementing the next race, the Gwdir. In addition to them, I'm adding some other fun things to the game. The Gwdir aren't quite ready to play just yet, but I do want to get some testing help for the other new things being added. Let's take a look at those!

Artifacts

I want to start telling more of the history of Odd, and artifacts are a way for me to do this, but also give players more things to discover in the world.



Some items have the tag 'Artifact' and 'Can Be Studied' on them. These indicate that players can study them at the Library to unlock historical details and, potentially, new knowledge.

Regarding tags, I'm going to start using these more and more. And, I've made it so you can now search items by tag in the inventory list. Searching 'artifact' or 'can be studied' will only list those items with those tags. I'll also be getting rid of 'Item Categories' and replacing them with the tag system. This won't really affect the player too much. You'll still see Raw Food, Cooked Food, etc, but they'll be tags instead of a separate category system. My intention is for players to be able to make their own filters (like the ones you see at the top of the inventory window) based on tags, and even to make their own tags to categorize things. And, you'd be able to list the tag at the top of the HUD like you can with item categories. Again, not really something players need to care about, but some of you might find this helpful or interesting, so there you go.

Stealth Entities

Stealth entities have been a thing in the game for a while, but a few of the events weren't really set up correctly. This version re-introduces them with two events, the kidnapper, and the thief. These have hostile entities show up to steal children, and/or valuables. Entities can see stealthed entities when they are not working, and when the entity is in their sight for long enough. I will be introducing guard posts and some patrolling very soon, which will help players detect these entities. In the meantime, you should still be able to set up traps and the like to capture these lurking bad guys in your base.

Patch Notes

-Content: Study Artifact job in Library. Studying artifacts can unlock new blueprints and bits of lore.
-Content: Several new blueprints and items related to artifact studying.
-Content: Trinket item type.
-Content: Several artifact items to discover in the world.
-Content: Added stealth thief event that steals Ren.
-Content: Added stealth kidnapper event that steals children.
-Feature: Tags can now be searched to filter item lists. i.e., typing 'can' will list items that 'can be studied'.
-Feature: Unlocked research now appears in a popup to show what has been added to the player's repository of blueprints and rooms.
-Bug Fix: Rare/Epic/Legendary items were not spawning in dungeons correctly.
-Tuning: The survival skill can no longer be disabled.
-Tuning: Generated Ardyn settlements now use Ardyn props and platforms.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, you'll no longer be able to disable Survival. Too many players were disabling this and then their entities would die of hunger/thirst and didn't know why. Instead of coming up with a bunch of annoying notifications to communicate this, it made more sense to just lock that skill. I could be wrong, so let me know if you can't play without being able to disable it for some reason I'm not seeing. Would love to hear your feedback there, and if you have a better solution. I'm happy to tune that stuff further.

As for the Gwdir race, it's going along very well. I'm currently making up the art and figuring out the details of their mechanics. I'm not going to spoil them just yet, but I am super excited about how they play. Personally, I think they are my favorite race so far.

Some other things to be excited for that will go into Lost Legends are: more social interaction amongst settlers, a family tree UI, more pros/cons for skills and jobs (i.e., making better items, or critically failing things), and more events.

That's all for now! Hope you are all well. Thank you for your continued support, feedback, and kind words.

Waylon