Hollow Playtest · published
Patch 3.2.5 is one of the biggest updates the Hollow demo has received so far.
This patch focuses heavily on the things that can completely derail a run: dungeon generation failures, quest progression bugs, encounter spawning, enemy variety, and combat balance.
The biggest change is the Catacombs.
A long-running issue could cause perfectly playable dungeon layouts to be rejected during navigation validation, forcing repeated regeneration attempts and sometimes causing Floor 5 to fail entirely. That has now been corrected, and the Catacombs should be much more reliable to enter and play through.
Side quests also received a major pass, and enemy spawning has been expanded so more enemy variations can now appear throughout the dungeon instead of encounters feeling as static from run to run.
Major Fixes & Improvements
Fixed the Floor 5 Catacombs generation/loading failure.
Corrected navigation validation behavior that could reject otherwise playable generated dungeons.
Improved Catacombs generation reliability.
Fixed multiple side-quest spawning and progression problems.
Improved quest-content placement in procedurally generated floors.
Fixed The Brood Below.
Egg encounter now progresses correctly.
Broodmother spawning has been fixed.
Added support for a pre-spawn VFX sequence and adjustable spawn delay.
Improved The Collector.
Added dialogue before the item handoff.
Added dialogue after the item is returned.
The Collector now leaves the area after the encounter.
His requested trinket will no longer spawn on the same generated tile as him.
Fixed runtime quest-enemy tracking.
Fixed duplicate and stale quest-placement issues.
Fixed a serious quest-placement recursion problem that could cause crashes.
Improved procedural dungeon startup and retry handling.
Expanded enemy spawning so more enemy variations can appear throughout the dungeon.
Improved enemy distribution across dungeon floors to make encounters less repetitive.
Combat Balance
Shield block calculation has also been corrected.
Hollow uses Diablo-style blocking based on Agility and the level difference between the player and attacker. The problem was that every character was receiving the Warrior-grade +30 block bonus.
Class Path bonuses now work correctly:
No Class Path: +0
Warrior: +30
Rogue: +20
Sorcerer: +10
The existing enemy-level adjustment remains unchanged, so block chance still decreases against stronger enemies and increases against weaker ones.
The character sheet now makes it clearer that the displayed block value represents the chance against an equal-level enemy.
What’s Next
With dungeon generation, side quests, and regular enemy encounters in a much better place, attention will now turn to the boss fights.
The next update will focus on reviewing and improving boss combat so those encounters feel more distinct and less like larger versions of normal enemies.
A lot of the work in 3.2.5 wasn’t about adding flashy new systems. It was about fixing the kinds of procedural, quest, and combat problems that can completely ruin a character’s run.
3.2.5 should make the demo significantly more reliable and varied from floor to floor.
Thanks to everyone who has been playing, reporting bugs, and helping me break this thing before release.
— Ded Hed Studios