Hey everyone,

So it's been quite a while since I've updated Axu on anything but the experimental branch. This changes today! 0.7.0 has plenty of new content, and several overhauls of existing systems. Refer to the changelog below for more detail. I've spent quite a bit of time poring over old code to try to make everything as stable as possible. This has the bad side effect of potentially breaking links between certain parts of the game. I've done all I can to exhaustively test my changes, and taken feedback from testers. I really hope that 0.7 is smooth sailing, but will not hold my breath.

0.7 marks a change of priorities going forwards. I adore creating new systems that excite me, but really need to buckle down and fully realize at least one path of the "main" storyline. I want some kind of win state, even if the goal post changes over the course of development. Getting an idea of a) how long a playthrough takes, and b) how powerful a character will be at any time, will help me balance normal and endgame content. I believe I'll be starting with the Ensis' quest line first, as it was the very first one I wrote. Past that, I also want to improve the game's UX (user experience) by streamlining keypresses, adding more buttons, and perhaps the tutorial I've had in my design document for years. Stay tuned on more info on this. I'm going to attempt to write more blog posts, unless players feel overwhelmed.

Thank you guys so much for your patience,

Matt (Cynapse)

WORLD CHANGES:

• Separated biomes from locations. Villages can now show up in Tundra, Desert, Shore, etc.
• Locations are now rendered on top of the world map, instead of overwriting that tile.
• Rivers can run through any walkable terrain without another zone interrupting it.
• Almost all areas are read from a text file, making adding new locations even easier.
• Underground areas work in a similar way, but are able to have specific generators.
• Alpha mask autotiling.
• Village houses now use up to 2 shapes for their walls.
• Updated Tundra tiles to look more pleasing.
• Various other biome tiles can show up in small quantities in specific areas. Sand can appear in plains, plains grass in forest, etc.

NEW STUFF:

• New Liquids and Mixtures, including various forms of mutagen that allow you to mutate along specific paths.
• New status effects.
• New enemies.
• New quests added on to main story (Ensis quest line).
• New tiles for an upcoming area.
• Many new object types.

TWEAKS:

• Heat damage can possibly inflict the "Aflame" status effect.
• Cold damage can possibly inflict the "Slow" status effect.
• Energy damage can possibly inflict the "Stun" status effect.
• Increased the number of random limbs the Experiment can have from the start.
• Reworked spawn/encounter system due to map overhaul.
• Applied increasing world danger level to other aspects of the game.
• Resting recovers a fraction of max HP/ST each turn instead of just 1.

UI:

• Map creation tool updated:
  • Added a hover tooltip when loading maps displaying their properties.
  • Elevation and LocationID are always present. Vault areas are created by making elevation negative.
  • The map name displays at the top.
• New pause menu.
• New icons for items on the ground. These are also displayed in the inventory, loot, and shop screens.
• Adding and deleting custom notes on world map locations is now possible.
• Minimap auto-hides when you enter an underground area.

CONTROLS:

• Pressing the "Enter" key on stairs uses them.
• You can hold a direction key in menus to scroll faster.
• Decreased the time needed to hold down a key to continuously move in a direction.
• Contextual actions based on your surroundings. (Unset by default). If there is only one possible action, it will do that one. If there are more, a list will pop up for you to choose from. This includes talking to friendly NPCs, interacting with objects, and looting chests/corpses.
• Normal interact key now interacts with closest object/character by default if there is only one action available.
• Pressing Tab (default) while looking will allow you to cycle between hostile targets. Useful for ranged/throwing weapon users.
• Instead of forcing an attack on a target, Ctrl+Direction now allows you to target specific limbs of a character.

FIXES:

• Maps should now more often display correctly between save/load cycles. There were some issues where, when you load back into the game, the map was different due to a seeded rng issue. Hopefully this stops persisting.
• Fixed some quest-related bugs.
• Health and Stamina bars update only when their values change, and not every frame.
• Objects with animated fires no longer check to see if they should be visible every frame. Only upon updating the turn counter.
• Entities/Objects no longer have to use  the math (pos.x, pos.y + mapsize.y) to correct their display location. This means less bugs in the future. This should (in theory) prevent chests or enemies from spawning in the walls.
• Characters should stop when being shoved into closed doors.
• Characters will no longer attempt to pathfind through solid objects.

And more!