Playtest update: new Act III areas, a new look, and sharper combat
New in Act III
- The furnace house: a whole new dungeon of ash pits, flues and dampers, the charging hall, slag runs and the chimney, with its own foes and a heat haze over the molten slag.
- The wardens' office and Lamp Street: the furnace house's records, and a way back out to the street.
- The Ossuary: the bronze door is open. Explore the burial galleries and the relic repository in a new quest, The Saint Who Left Nothing.
- The Ashkeeper's Ledger: a new side quest in the Ashen Quarter.
- New music for the cathedral, the furnace house, the old aqueduct and the public archive.
Story
- Dren, Ironroot and Greyfen are rewritten: quieter and sadder, with more for people to say.
- Six new Act I side quests, with experience in Act I rebalanced to suit.
- Act II's characters have new lines and last words.
- Dren's villagers now notice what happens as the story moves on.
Looks and sound
- Act I's outdoors are now a cool blue dusk, with gnarled trees and warmly lit windows.
- Dren's buildings are rebuilt in a gothic style, with more realistic stone, plaster and timber.
- The Ironroot Hills, Wayfarer Cave, Old Watchtower and Abandoned Mine each have their own look, and every cave has been carved anew.
- About sixty maps across the game are dressed in their zone's own style.
- Props, townsfolk and portraits are retouched.
- The opening now plays like a film.
- Ambient sound is now in stereo.
- Rain stops under roofs, and storms are louder.
Combat
- Footwork: human foes circle you, wait their turn while another attacks, and punish a missed swing, a stagger or an empty stamina bar.
- Button presses made a little early now still count.
- Hits knock foes back and jolt the view. Swings and recovery are slower, and stamina comes back faster.
- Battle music now matches how dangerous the fight is, from five tracks.
- A creature's bestiary entry now unlocks the first time you hit one, rather than only when you kill one.
Other
- Steam now shows your friends where you are in the story.
- A sunken drain gallery has been added under the watchtower, and its flooding is fixed.
As always, please report anything broken in Bugs & Glitches, and your thoughts on the new areas and combat in Suggestions. Thank you for playing!