This patch is a big one for Adventurer NPCs. I've put a lot of work into making them feel more like actual players in the world.
Adventurers now equip gear. You can walk up to any Adventurer and inspect what they're wearing. When they're in your group, they will Need on gear that is better than what they currently have equipped. Gear stats will actually change their stats, so they get stronger as they get better equipment.
Adventurers that aren't in your party will now loot gold and items from NPCs they kill. They have their own inventory and will sell items at vendors and buy gear with the gold they've earned.
Adventurers will group up with each other, take on quests, and kill NPCs on their own. This should make the world feel much more alive and give these NPCs a real player-like presence.
You can now right-click an Adventurer's portrait to get a menu where you can inspect them or invite/kick them from your group.
You can now left-click Adventurer portraits in your party to select them as a target.
Major improvements to Adventurer AI along with several bug fixes.
Fixed two bugs where Adventurers in your group would get stuck in combat and stop moving.
The Corruption system for dungeons is here! At the entrance of a dungeon you'll find a Corruption Altar. Activating it will set the dungeon to Corruption +1, increasing NPC and boss stats. Gear that drops inside a corrupted dungeon will also have increased stats and will show what Corruption tier it was dropped from. You'll be given a timer to complete the dungeon, and if you finish in time you'll receive bonus loot and a Corruption Token. Tokens can be used at the altar to push the Corruption level even higher, which continues to scale up both enemy difficulty and item quality. This system can go very high, so push it as far as you can.
A new dungeon has been added in Coalway Swamp called "The Underglow." It's a spore-themed dungeon with 3 bosses and is more challenging than "Tidefallen Grotto." Two new dungeon sets drop here, along with 7 new weapons and gear pieces.
A World Loot Table has been added. Every NPC in the world now has a very small chance of dropping rare items.
A DPS meter has been added. It will display your current DPS while in combat and resets when a new combat encounter starts. The meter will also show the DPS of other Adventurers in your group.
Stat change tooltips now show on gear in the merchant window, so you can see if an item is an upgrade before buying.
A couple of new quests have been added in Chillwind Heights.
Some performance improvements.
Changes to NPC targeting and ability distance, fixing bugs where certain NPCs had trouble attacking.
Fixed some visual glitches for Human and Dwarf female characters.
Several smaller bug fixes.
Controller support has started to make its way in. The game will auto-detect gamepad use, and you can move and control your character with the left and right joysticks. Some keybinds will automatically switch over as well. This feature isn't fully done yet, but it's well on its way.
The localization system for the game's database is almost finished and is being implemented. This still needs more time, but the first languages to be supported will be Simplified Chinese, Russian, German, and Portuguese, with others to follow.
Here's a look at what I'm working on and what's making progress toward a future update:
Trading with Adventurers. They might need something you have and will offer you gold or items in exchange. You'll also be able to offer trades for things they're carrying.
Inspect Adventurer inventory. Being able to look through what an Adventurer is holding.
Chat bubbles and chat functions for Adventurers. They'll be able to chat with you like players, and you'll be able to write to them in the chat window.
Housing and Farming. Buying a house, decorating it with furniture, renting it out. Buying farms or taverns and running a business.
World Quests. Similar to World of Warcraft's system, quest areas will appear on the map with random spawns and a countdown timer. When they expire, new ones arrive, so there's always something to do.