Hey everyone,

It's been a long time coming, longer than I would have liked, but 0.5.5 is here! I took my time, releasing experimentals along the way to help search for bugs or awful balance. I'm pretty confident there should be no crippling bugs for the majority of players, and that the content I've added here will be a stepping stone towards the finished product. The limb system has gotten a large overhaul to make way for some new features: grappling, off-hand weapons, and training limbs. I've had to re-adjust my opinion of Axu's power curve recently due to players wanting some more rewards. I had intended to keep it quite shallow, but I realize that this didn't suit the atmosphere of the game too well. Limbs will gain stats via use (up to a point), but only organic ones. Prosthetics have also gotten a huge price drop in shops, and severed limbs from enemies will have randomized stats. I'm hoping this will create a better power scaling presence in the game. I have a feeling the content of the mid-game will be too easy, but I will address that as we come to it. There is a late-game quest with some very difficult enemies, so tough players can test their mettle against them. That particular area is only available through the Ensis quest line (for now), so keep that in mind.

If you'd like to see, in detail, the list of fixes and changes, see the changelog below!

Cheers,

Matt (Cynapse)

CHANGELOG:

• Segmented body code from inventory.
• Added the ability to wrestle enemies via the "Grappling" skill. It is a tome you can find. You can grab onto limbs, push enemies, strangle them, and drag them to the ground. The availability of each skill depends on your strength and proficiency with the ability.
• Enemies can hold and take you down via grappling.
• You can strangle opponents if you grab onto their head.
• Two new status effect icons dealing with grappling states.
• Implemented a vague form of "handed-ness". Weapons and off-hand items (now all in the same category) can be equipped to your main or off hand.
• "Off hand"-wielded items have a chance to do an extra attack based on your Dexterity and off hand skill.
• Holding a shield in your main hand now increases your chance to block.
• Holding a disarming item in your main hand gives you the chance to disarm.
• Added damage values to some shields so they can be wielded as weapons.
• Extra attacks give offhand exp.
• Limbs gain stats through use.
• Creature limbs have semi-randomized stats.
• Adjusted the stats of various replacement limbs.
• Attacking or using arm-based skills trains your arms.
• Moving trains your legs/tails/wings.
• Using mental skills trains head.
• Reduced the price of all prosthetic limbs.
• A new static 3x3 zone with new tough enemy types.
• If the system cannot find an underground area on the map, it will make a new one.
• Re-implemented Cellars.
• You can move items up and down in the inventory list with the "Go Up Stairs" and "Go Down Stairs" keys. The same applies to abilities.
• Shield Bash stuns and knocks enemies back.
• Map generation tweaks.
• New alternate power plant levels.
• New song (rough).
• Added a new encounter type for ocean tiles to prevent players from traveling mostly over water.
• Limbs on the character screen have their attributes available to be localized.
• Localization of map screen names.
• Added translation support for body parts and structures.
• Local tile values are more moddable. They have parameters for dig-ability, whether or not they are see-through, and if they are considered a "wall" by the autotiling system.
• Reduced Parasect's armor.
• New traits.
• Adjusted the stats of many polearm items, giving them knockback and more damage to compensate for being two-handed.
• Hostile enemies attack villagers and other passive entities on occasion.
• New explosion graphic for 3x3 explosions.
• Reworked tile-based damage system to be more data-driven.
• Various combat tweaks.

    FIXES:

• Replacement Limbs no longer have their stats show up as opposite (+/-) values.
• Unequipping an item with the same skill as another equipped item no longer removes the skill completely.
• Tentacles (Tendrils II) now gives you the proper equipped item.
• Reduced the chance screens will be different between sessions.
• Experiment body parts use IDs instead of names to find.
• Fixed Ensis/Kin hostility past a certain point in each quest line.
• Fixed Isazna's quest trying to give you a nonexistent item upon completion.
• Missing item ID fixed.
• Fixed various spawn bugs.
• Fixed the color code display for shock damaging weapons.
• Fixed the log display when thrown items shatter.
• Hopefully fixed an issue with shoving enemies into others.