Stoneshard News

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hello everyone!
[/p][p]In today's devlog, we'll talk about the reworked Psyche system, which will be a part of our next major update, “Of Beasts & Sages”.[/p][p][/p][p]Let's start by exploring why the Psyche even needed a major revamp - as it stands, it's the oldest remaining mechanic, largely untouched since the early demo builds, despite having several clear flaws.[/p]

• [p]The system was only partially complete. In our initial design, each quadrant of the Morale-Sanity chart was meant to include four distinct Psyche states. Unfortunately, we never got to implementing the states for the combination of low Morale and low Sanity. The same goes for the original vision of Hypochondria, which required functioning diseases before it could be properly added to the game.[/p]
• [p]The concept of unique triggers for each state sounded great on paper, but in practice, it proved to be far too obscure - even for us as developers. Some states were extremely common due to their simple, easily reproducible conditions, while others were so rare and tied to such convoluted triggers that players had to resort to wiki guides and meticulous planning to discover them (shoutout to all the madmen who've actually managed to unlock the “Ups and Downs” achievement). The system simply didn't feel dynamic, varied, or responsive enough.[/p]
• [p]While certain states had interesting mechanics, most could be boiled down to simple stat changes that didn't encourage players to adapt their strategy in any way.[/p]
• [p]The majority of interactions with the Psyche system were primitive and lopsided: any horrors and hardships could be completely forgotten after a few nights of sleep.[/p]

[p]Before anything else, we wanted to fundamentally change the focus of Psyche maintenance, making it a reflection of your mercenary's long-term living patterns rather than just a bar you top off by gorging on mindwort. [/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]The solution we turned to was to transform Morale and Sanity into compound stats, split into several segments with different caps and conditions for maintaining them. In this new system, both Morale and Sanity are half-dependent on the emergent situations your character finds themselves in and half-dependent on their sustained routine - such as sleep, diet, and so on.

In other words, a grounded and comfortable way of living serves as a sort of buffer, allowing the character to experience positive Psyche states even when facing all kinds of unpleasant challenges.[/p][p][/p][p]Morale is divided into three segments: Situations, Diet, and Sleep.[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][p]Situations cover everything that can affect your character during combat and exploration: killing enemies, completing Contracts, picking locks, disarming traps, landing critical hits, missing and fumbling attacks, losing Health, receiving debuffs, using consumables, eating some foods, and so on - all of it contributes to Situational Morale to various extent. Its maximum impact is capped at 50%.[/p][p]Diet is responsible for 35% of Morale. Eating quality food will have a prolonged beneficial effect on your character's Psyche - but only if their meals are sufficiently diverse. If your merc eats nothing but fried eggs, bread, and meat skewers, they'll eventually grow sick of it, leading to a gradual decline of Morale.[/p][p]The remaining 15% comes from Sleep. As you might expect, regular and sufficient rest will contribute towards this segment, while prolonged wakefulness will do the exact opposite.[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]Sanity functions very similarly, 50% of it is dedicated to Situations: this segment is negatively affected by killing humans but can be replenished by slaying the Undead and Proselytes. Other factors include having high Morale, close encounters with unholy magic and its abominations, head Injuries, grave robbing, casting Miracles, Backfired spells, using certain consumables, and more.[/p][p]Another 35% is governed by Lifestyle, which includes work and recreation. This segment slowly decays over time but can be maintained by completing Contracts, chatting to NPCs, cooking, crafting, and praying. The list of relevant activities will be greatly expanded in the future - a good example would be the ability to go fishing or pay a visit to the Brynn Bathhouse.[/p][p]The final 15% of Sanity is tied to Sleep - just like with Morale. [/p][p][/p][p]All in all, the new system is capable of providing vast roleplay possibilities and can be potentially integrated into other areas of the game. For instance, some conditions can theoretically influence different characters' Psyche in very distinct ways, which will give us a lot of tools to work with while implementing Traits and the Character Creator...[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]Let's move on to the Psyche states themselves and what makes them occur. The general idea was to standardize and greatly simplify the triggers - the result is three states per Morale-Sanity quadrant, each connected to one of the following conditions: [/p]

• [p]No enemies nearby.
  The states associated with this condition often persist for a long while until replaced by something else.[/p]
• [p]High health and multiple enemies nearby.
  Such states usually last for two to three fights' worth of time.[/p]
• [p]Low health and at least one enemy nearby.
  These are the shortest-lasting states, frequently ending within a single fight.
  [/p]

[p]When fulfilled, a condition will gradually contribute towards an invisible progress meter, triggering its designated state upon reaching 100%. Now, why don’t we take a closer look at states as a whole?[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]HIGH MORALE + HIGH SANITY[/h2][p][/p][h3]Optimism
[/h3][p]Condition: no enemies nearby
[/p][p]Optimism has remained mostly unchanged: it grants bonuses to Experience Gain, Fortitude (which now also reduces Psyche loss from all sources), while also slowly restoring Morale, Immunity, and slightly reducing Fatigue.[/p][p][/p][h3]Heroism
[/h3][p]Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby
[/p][p]Heroism now scales with the number of visible enemies. Each stack of the effect grants bonuses to Weapon Damage, Magic Power, Crit Chance, Miracle Chance, Accuracy, and Life Drain. [/p][p]Additionally, killing enemies replenishes some Energy and grants a temporary boost to Healing Efficiency.[/p][p]
[/p][h3]Second Wind
[/h3][p]Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby
[/p][p]It would be impossible to count how many cinematic moments this effect has brought to the game, so we decided to keep it with only a few minor tweaks. Second Wind clears physical debuffs and replenishes Health and Energy upon activation (slightly less than before), then continues to replenish small amounts of Health and Energy every turn.[/p][p]Other than that, it reduces ongoing cooldowns every turn and provides a once-per-activation 50% chance to avoid death. And finally, Second Wind can activate upon receiving lethal damage even if its progress meter isn't fully charged or another Psyche state is already present.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]HIGH MORALE + LOW SANITY[/h2][p][/p][h3]Megalomania
[/h3][p]Condition: no enemies nearby
[/p][p]Megalomania is one of our most favorite states. Although it's often reported as a bug, it's still amusing to see how new players perceive their fake stat boost as real and genuinely begin to feel stronger, acting as recklessly as their character would. Because of that, the mechanic of falsely displayed stats remains exactly the same.[/p][p]To further highlight the character's sudden surge of arrogance, Megalomania now includes a gradually increasing penalty to Trade Favorability and Reputation Gain, which resets upon completing Contracts. In combat, the character will have a chance to start loudly taunting enemies, potentially attracting unwanted reinforcements. And since the character deems caution beneath them, their passive chance to detect traps and hear unseen enemies will be reduced to 0%.[/p][p][/p][h3]Frenzy
[/h3][p]Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby[/p][p]
Frenzy provides a substantial boost to Weapon Damage and Magic Power. However, all attacks and certain abilities have a chance to target a random nearby enemy instead of the intended one - this chance grows over time but can be reset by skipping a turn.[/p][p]Similarly, when walking to other tiles, your character may take a step toward the nearest enemy rather than their intended destination.
[/p][h3]Death Wish
[/h3][p]Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby
[/p][p]Death Wish is a reimagined blend of current Sadism and Masochism. The character suffers significant penalties to Healing Efficiency, Energy Restoration, Damage Taken, and Range - in exchange, they get bonuses to Life and Energy Drain that scale with Pain and missing Health. Life and Energy Drain also affect spell damage, although this bonus becomes weaker with each tile of distance from the target.[/p][p]Killing enemies reduces the effect's duration.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]LOW MORALE + HIGH SANITY[/h2][p][/p][h3]Pessimism
[/h3][p]Condition: no enemies nearby
[/p][p]Pessimism applies penalties to Experience Gain and gradually dampens the character’s Morale even further. It also reduces Fortitude, Healing Efficiency, and Fatigue Resistance - the penalty's severity scales with missing Morale.[/p][p]Pessimism can be temporarily removed by using consumables that benefit Morale, such as alcohol.
[/p][h3]Anxiety
[/h3][p]Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby[/p][p]
Anxiety improves Dodge Chance and reduces Damage Taken, but all your attacks and spells will generate penalties to Accuracy, Fumble Chance, and Backfire Chance respectively. Any miss, fumble, or Backfired spell will reset the corresponding penalties.[/p][p]In addition, each turn there's a chance for one of your Attack skills to go on a 1 turn cooldown.
[/p][h3]Panic
[/h3][p]Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby
[/p][p]Panic gives a one-time Energy boost, significantly reduces Vision range, while also lowering Abilities Energy Cost for each enemy in sight. However, each enemy within Vision will also continuously drain the character's Morale - and if it reaches zero, your mercenary will drop their equipped weapon.[/p][p]This can be avoided by skipping turns, which replenishes some Morale and greatly reduces the effect's duration.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]
LOW MORALE + LOW SANITY[/h2][h2][/h2][h3]Paranoia
[/h3][p]Condition: no enemies nearby[/p][p][/p][p]Paranoia causes your mercenary to quickly accumulate Fatigue, which in turn worsens the state’s penalties to Abilities Energy Cost, Damage Taken, Fumble Chance, and Backfire Chance.[/p][p]Furthermore, the character may occasionally hear nonexistent voices, and some encountered enemies will be hallucinated illusions. If such an illusion reaches an adjacent tile, it’ll vanish, damaging your Sanity - alternatively, you can attempt to preemptively destroy it to replenish some Sanity instead.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Delirium
[/h3][p]Condition: high Health and multiple enemies nearby[/p][p]
A character affected by Delirium behaves irrationally: depending on their missing Morale and Sanity, they have a chance to take a step in a random direction when moving, land their abilities on random tiles around the intended target, or drop items instead of using them.[/p][p]Delirium also heavily randomizes all received Experience, regardless of its source.[/p][p][/p][h3]Catharsis
[/h3][p]Condition: low Health and at least one enemy nearby
[/p][p]Catharsis can be seen as a cousin to Second Wind, offering a chance at redemption when death is all but certain. Upon activation, it replenishes a small amount of Health and Energy, while also allowing you to replenish Health, Energy, Morale, and Sanity with each enemy killed - potentially letting you claw your way out from the pit of low Psyche.[/p][p]Moreover, after it ends, Catharsis grants temporal immunity to negative Psyche states depending on how many enemies were killed over its duration.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]That's all for now. In the next devlog, we'll take a closer look at Caves, their types, and what lies within - we’ll also reveal the release date for “Of Beasts & Sages”.
[/p][p]Until next time![/p]

[p]
Hello everyone!

In today's devlog, we're taking a look at Arcanistics - a new ability tree that will be added to the game with the upcoming major patch.

Arcanistics is perhaps the most distinct form of sorcery, offering unique ways to control the battlefield. Drawing power directly from the Aether realm - the primal source of magical energies - this school focuses on manipulating space and, to a limited extent, time.

What Arcanistics lacks in direct damage, especially early on, it balances out with versatile tools for positioning and crowd control. The higher-tier spells will even let you summon allies to aid you in battle... But let's go through it step by step:


Like all magic schools, Arcanistics includes 14 abilities: 7 actives and 7 passives.

[/p][h2]ACTIVE ABILITIES[/h2][p]
Dimensional Shift


This entry-level spell lets you select two targets (including yourself) and teleport them, forcibly swapping their positions.

The spell deals a small amount of Arcane Damage for each tile of distance between the targets and has a moderate chance to Confuse or Daze them while also applying stacking penalties to Weapon Damage, Accuracy, and Fumble Chance for a few turns.

This spell doesn't harm the caster and can't be used on inanimate objects (except the ones summoned by this ability tree) or giant targets (such as bosses).

Wormhole


Lets you select a target (including yourself), marking its tile and remembering its current position.

After a few turns, the target will be returned to the marked tile (or the closest available one), receiving significant Arcane Damage if it's already occupied.

The spell doesn't go on cooldown until the mark expires. During this time, recasting the spell removes the effect prematurely, returning the target to the original tile.

This spell can't be used on inanimate objects (except the ones summoned by this ability tree) or giant targets (such as bosses).

Aether Shield


Creates a magic shield around the caster for a few turns, decreasing incoming damage and granting bonuses to Control, Bleed and Movement Resistance. While the shield is active, teleporting prolongs the effect's duration and temporarily adds Arcane Damage to the caster's attacks.

The shield also converts a portion of received damage into Energy and destroys any physical or magical projectiles that would hit the caster, preventing their damage and effects entirely (this includes thrown objects such as daggers, bombs, and hunting nets).

And finally, any target colliding with the shielded character will receive some Arcane Damage.

Schism


Lets you select a 5x5 tile area, dealing Arcane Damage to all targets within it. Afterwards, knocks back all enemies in a 1 tile radius away from the area's center and pulls all enemies in a 2 tile radius towards it, forcing them to collide.

All affected enemies also have a chance to be Staggered or Immobilized.

Stasis


Applies "Stasis" to a selected target for a few turns.

While in "Stasis", the target is immune to all damage types except Arcane. Until the effect expires, "Stasis" also freezes all of the target's cooldowns and the duration of other active effects.

When "Stasis" expires or is removed, any Arcana Damage received by the target over the course of the effect's duration is dealt in a 3x3 area with a chance to Stun or Immobilize all affected targets.

Teleporting a target with "Stasis" removes the effect prematurely and doubles the chances to Stun and Immobilize.

This spell can't be used on inanimate objects (except the ones summoned by this ability tree) or giant targets (such as bosses).

Mana Crystal


Summons an inanimate Magic Crystal on the targeted tile, which persists for eight turns. Each turn, the Crystal shoots a bolt of arcane energy at the closest enemy, prioritizing the ones with low Health.

Teleporting the Crystal causes it to shoot three arcane bolts, spreading them between random enemies within its Range.

The Crystal's stats change dynamically depending on the caster's.

Phantasm


Summons a Phantasm on the targeted tile, which persists for 8 turns. The Phantasm is immune to all effects (except "Wormhole" and "Stasis") and can move within a small area around the tile of summoning.

The Phantasm attacks enemies in melee range, can be healed with Arcane Damage, and its stats change dynamically depending on the caster's.

Additionally, the Phantasm itself has access to the following abilities:

Arcane Tether


A ranged ability that deals Arcane Damage and has a chance to pull the target to the adjacent tile.

Mana Siphon


An empowered strike that burns the target's Energy, transferring it to the caster.

Consonance


Performing a miracle while casting Arcanistics spells prolongs the existence of the summoned Phantasm by one turn.

Teleporting the Phantasm instantly refreshes its active cooldowns and moves its "tether" tile to the new location.

[/p][h2]PASSIVE ABILITIES[/h2][p]
Arcane Might


Dealing Arcane Damage with attacks and spells grants bonuses to Accuracy, Fumble Chance, Backfire Chance, Crit Chance, and Miracle Chance.

Teleporting grants bonus Range to Arcanistics spells for a few turns and reduces accumulated Backfire Damage.

Transcendental Anchoring


Teleporting enemies burns some of their Energy, transferring it to the character

Teleporting yourself or the entities summoned with Arcanistics reduces the cooldown of "Dimensional Shift" by 2 turns.

Time Echo


Casting "Wormhole" on yourself and returning to the original tile will replenish 33% of Health and Energy lost over the effect's duration.

Casting "Wormhole" on enemies will deal additional Arcane Damage to them upon returning to the original tile, equal to 33% of the damage they received over the effect's duration.

Astral Tides

[/p][p]Successfully moving enemies with "Schism" or the summoned Phantasm's "Arcane Tether" lowers their Magic and Arcane Resistance for a few turns. Failing to do so will instead deal additional Arcane Damage to them. [/p][p]Entropy Flare [/p][p]
Teleporting a Mana Crystal grants it bonuses to Range, Damage, Accuracy, and Damage Reflection for a few turns.

When hit in melee, Mana Crystals and Phantasms will now deal Arcane Damage to their attackers.

Aether Harmony


Every 10 turns, performing a miracle when casting "Mana Crystal" instantly refreshes the spell's cooldown and reduces its Energy cost until it's cast again.

Each currently summoned Arcanistics entity grants the character bonus Magic Power and gradually reduces their Backfire Damage.

Beyond the Veil


Casting "Stasis" on yourself no longer causes the character to take damage or receive debuffs when the effect expires.

While in "Stasis", the character's cooldowns are no longer frozen, and the effect itself grants major bonuses to their Arcanistics Power and Miracle Chance.

When the effect expires, the character will receive "Between the Worlds" for one turn, making them untargetable by aimed attacks and spells.

==================================

As you can see, Arcanistics is a highly versatile school that opens up a wide range of tactical possibilities - perfect for complementing many existing builds or forming the foundation for entirely new ones.

And to wrap things up, here's another small teaser:


Until next time!
[/p]

Hello everyone!

Today, we are excited to present the updated 2025 Roadmap for Stoneshard. But before diving into the details, we'd like to take a brief look back at the development of “Rags to Riches”.

“Rags to Riches” was a major success for our team. That update brought the highest number of players since the game's Early Access launch, received a wealth of positive feedback, and showed a significant increase in engagement compared to previous releases. We are incredibly grateful for this warm reception and hope that future content will continue to meet your expectations.

However, as many of you may remember, the development of “Rags to Riches” proved to be long and arduous. While the complexity of the new features played a major role in it, we also had to devote significant effort to extensive reworks of many existing systems to ensure the seamless integration of all the planned content.

It wasn't uncommon for the development of one system to necessitate changes in several others, sometimes to the point of adding new systems altogether. Splitting these changes and additions across multiple updates or postponing them wasn't really an option, as certain core elements like the Caravan, reworked Contracts, Dungeons, the World Map, and numerous smaller but technically crucial features are all deeply interconnected. This quickly turned into a true Gordian knot of conditions and dependencies. Untangling it took a great deal of time, ultimately leading to the substantial delay of that patch compared to previous ones.

Fortunately, now that we have added one of the last truly large and comprehensive systems - the Caravan - we hope to release future updates more regularly. Unlike “Rags to Riches”, the remaining mechanics and content follow a fairly modular structure.

To sum it up, we aim for smaller but more frequent patches. Our new Roadmap reflects this change as well, moving away from massive, standalone updates in favor of parallel content development, which will be divided into smaller releases (don't worry - they'll still have names).

Because of this, the “Venom in the Waters” update, which was previously planned as the next major patch, has been postponed. Some of its features have been redistributed into other content blocks, since such a heavily thematic patch would have taken an unreasonably long time to develop.

So, what's next for Stoneshard?

Full size

• The first order of business is Caves. This new location type is designed to add variety to world exploration - unlike usual Dungeons, Caves won't be strictly tied to one faction, will boast more diverse visuals, and can be home to a wide range of enemies and dangers, including unique ones.
  
  It's worth noting that Caves won't be used for Contracts. Instead, they will play a key role in the reworked Task System, which we plan to introduce in one of the future patches.
  
• The rest of the planned features include a new school of spatial magic - Arcanistics, new quests, more Caravan Events, and the elimination of gaps in gear progression that emerged after transitioning to the tier-based system.
  
• We also plan to revamp the Psyche System, reworking both the existing Psyche States and the core mechanic as a whole. Our main goal is to make the entirety of it much more interactive and immersive.
  
• And finally, something many of you have long been waiting for: we are officially beginning work on the Character Creator. We have plenty of ideas and concepts for how this system should function (the recent overhaul of Character Traits should serve as a small teaser for the direction we're taking). Combined with the Trait System, this will be an incredibly complex and resource-intensive task, making it difficult to predict an exact timeline - all we can say is that it will be released once we're certain it's ready.

That's all for now. Once again, we want to thank all of you for your support and trust. Stay tuned, and we'll see you soon in the world of Aldor!