hark and well met friends

It is a good day, for once again patch day dawns upon us. This patch contains a lot of changes, but none that are what I would consider game changers. So, since this patch does not contain a new level or anything on that scale, I recommend that if you've played the last version you should feel free to skip this one. As the game gets bigger and bigger, it also means that patches with many changes might break something I've not tested myself. Should any bugs arise, be sure to report them so that I can get them promptly fixed!

So, here are the notes you've been waiting for.

Most Important Game changes:

-Added IRONMAN mode. As the name suggests, it prevents saving/loading. Saves are automatically made when the player exits the game or returns to the Main Menu. Dying with IRONMAN mode enabled deletes any saves tied to that playthrough.
-Fixed all navmesh issues. There should now never be a case of the player being stuck due to navmesh breaking on the death of an enemy or barrel.
-Improved Save/Load UI, with focus on slot ordering, submenus such as Deleting/Overwriting saves
-Improved UI and fixed collection of small UI bugs, such as the Level Up popup disallowing clicking behind it, pressing hotkeys opening menus while loading a level, Quickswitch text remaining in textbox on switching menus, Combat Arts text being removed on switching weapons if they weapons are the same type, and so on
-Saving with a buff or effect on will now keep that effect when loading said save
-Losing a stat will now perform a requirements check for items stored in your backslot. If the check fails, the item drops on the ground normally
-Changed random color assignment for named items or enemies. Colors will no longer be too dark.
-Fixed rare case of targeting an arrow on an enemy who had part of their collider behind a wall or obstacle, causing targeting to lead shots slightly astray of the target.
-Added rebindable hotkeys to quickly switch Spellwheel Spells without bringing up the radial menu. Keys are F1 to F6 by default.

Dungeons:

-Added 5 new rooms across the first few floors
-Added two new World Objects, the Enchanter's Lifeblood and the Shadowman. Both can impact your equipment, and both have one set spawn in the game so that you can try them. Enchanter's Lifeblood can also spawn randomly in the Lower Dungeons 1, LD2, and Upper Halls
-New Arch model with better colliders
-Statues no longer block sight (but still block projectiles)
-Experimenting with direction-based ambient sound (subject to change)
-Added a new trap type
-Traps cannot be activated in the start room of Lower Dungeons 1
-Named enemies cannot have their strongest modifiers in Lower Dungeons 1
-Rarer enemy types (Maulers, Flaming Skulls, Flesh Priests) spawn slightly less often
-Named enemies cannot spawn near the start room on Lower Dungeons 1
-Barrels hit by opening doors will be destroyed as if attacked
-Changed ambient sound types for specific levels. Fixed "Bug Ambience" playing during incorrect levels
-Improved enemy navigation when walking towards player. Still some room for improvement
-Changed how Magic Shrine effects are calculated. They are now grouped into three categories (Stat change/ HP change/Misc).
This change will improve the odds of getting more interesting shrine effects.
-Added 3 new "Misc" type shrine effects

Balance Changes and new features:
-Completely redone how Armor and Defense are calculated. Defense now scales slower and is more extreme. Previously, most enemies had a 70% chance to hit player and defense would not hinder this value by a lot. Now the value scales logarithmically, taking into account the level of the foes, the player and the player's equipment. These changes make carrying a shield a viable choice, and range builds without heavy armor or fitting equipment must be careful as a single hit might prove deadly.
-Nerfed defense and armor in a lot of midgame equipment to make items consistently scale instead of having a large gap between item levels
-Buffed some unpopular items, such as 2H Axes, Clubs, Spears, Handaxes, Maces
-Lowered chance of a lower-tier item dropping, effectively increasing the average item level drop per floor
-Slightly changed drop rates so that Healing potions will drop more often than Mana potions
-Added Amulets
-Added several Unique items
-Added 3 combat arts - Charge, Shield Bash and Ricochet Shot
-Added the Blind Spell and the +Blind % item modifier for shields
-Improved visual readability for Slow and Unstable Pressure Orb spells
-The Wounded Paladin now has dialog options
-New music track for Paladin sections
-Cauldron spell heal for 80hp or mana instead of 40

Enemies:
-Added a new Skeleton Golem enemy type for the Skeleton pit (currently he is reusing the default skeleton sounds)
-Changed how enemies calculate their To-hit chance.
-Changed a lot of HP and Damage values for a lot of early game enemies
-Goats will now stop moving on taking sufficient melee damage
-Fixed certain enemies attacking and dealing damage while playing their dying animation
-New animations for Skeletons
-Added Hurt animations for several enemies, including Skeletons, Ghouls and Skinless Cultists
-Added bloodspray effects upon hitting some enemies
-New sound for the Venus Demons
-Unseen have a chance to fear themselves (and run away) upon hitting the player
-Named enemies don't feel the full extent of elemental modifiers. Poison and Cold effects do not last as long.
-Changed obstacle size for many enemies, such as Maulers, Trolls, Crawlers, all Bug enemies, and some minor special cases
-Skeleton archers have a 50% chance to pursue their target if they lost sight of them
-Added more varying sight radius to enemies, calculated once they spawn

Thrown Weapon and Projectiles:
-Changed hitboxes for all projectiles and thrown weapons.
-Projectiles and thrown weapons no longer hit certain enemies twice in the same pass (namely Maulers and Bugmen, who have multiple colliders due to their large size)
-Projectiles no longer hit multiple enemies simultaneously if hitting multiple hitboxes.
-If thrown weapon returns while player is attacking, player will no longer stop attacking or freeze.

Bugfixes and Miscellaneous 
-Fixed elemental damage calculation for Golden Goblin, causing any +elemental damage to create a +Hallowed Damage modifier instead of the corresponding modifier. Same change for +Resistance modifiers
-Fixed Truthseeker projectile reflection sometimes slowing the projectile as it was reflected
-Fixed Flesh Priest projectile not slowing enemies hit by it
-Fixed Cultist Sacrifices getting stuck melee attacking nonstop
-Changed a bunch of item and spell icons
-Added some UI options in menu, such as "Always display HP/Mana" values
-Changed Orb visuals again
-Changed visuals and effect for Venom Globe and Ice Wave
-Fixed rare cases of enemy fireshields not damaging player
-Fixed inability to use Combat Arts when behind doors
-Improved Haste visuals to only be active if player is moving
-Fixed end-of-game screen stats, namely the Timer
-Added some new props across multiple levels

At some point I'll go over in detail about the thoughts behind some changes, but I think this patch is long enough without that.
Lastly, as always I recommend checking out the Discord for the game if you want to be kept up to date with my current progress. The link to join is https://discord.gg/TFeZ2NxK8n
You can also reach out to me there (or here) to report any bugs you may encounter.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again soon.

-osur