Update; 19.12.18

Hello all!

After getting everything figured out, our new blog day is going to be Wednesday!

This week, again, there wasn't much to show. I continued to work on the reworking of the buttons, even creating a button that I unconsciously play with. There's not much to show, as nothing is complete, but I can upload the templates that I am using for my buttons, just for a sneak peek!

All but the sapling can be, and are, colored in Wind Carrier. I figured I'd go with the nature-y motif as it was working well so far. I look forward to being able to actually show off the new widgets once I am done with them.

Speaking of, after Christmas, I should be back into the swing of things and regularly scheduled updates will continue again. The next new build will probably be in early January.

Anywho,
Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Update; 9.12.18

Hello all!

I'm a bit late and a bit short on an update. I was rather busy this week and I have, just today, started a new job! It means more income, but less time to work on Wind Carrier.

Don't fret, Wind Carrier isn't on hold or anything, just wanted to explain why my next indefinite number of updates are going to be smaller than usual.

Along with that, my blogging schedule will be changing. I can't say for sure when the day will be when I get everything settled and in order, but I can say that I will keep you posted.

As for this week's changelog, there were only two bug fixes and a couple smaller changes that really don't warrant a whole changelog by themselves. I'll say that I updated the running and jumping animations for anthros and I worked on making the main menu a bit more thematic. It's not done yet, of course, but it is being worked on. I'll include those changes, along with pictures, in next week's changelog.

So, until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 1.12.18

Hello all!

A couple updates and a couple cards - not a lot of additions but some upgrades.

I'm a little short on focus right now, so lets get to it.


Changelog

-Updated the remainder of spell effects to work with the upgraded system

-Upgraded the quest system to include 'counter point' quests
-counter point quests are pairs of quests that only a single quests from which can be completed

-Every single NPC in the game is now killable
-Note: As much as I didn't really want to do it, I recognize that there are those that would

-Added a new AoE decal, denoting projectile card types


Card Updates:

-Added Cloudfall card
-Tier 2
-Upgraded from Refreshing Downpour
-After a delay, knocks back enemies, dealing a small amount of damage, then creates a field which recovers the player's mana when standing inside
      -Note: the mana recovered is around 300% of the player's total mana if they were to be standing in the field for the entire duration

-Added Blazing Web card
-Tier 2
-Fires a projectile which becomes a trap if nothing is hit, once it is triggered or the projectile hits an enemy, the enemy will be stunned and everything around it will begin taking damage


Quest Updates:

-Added the counter point quest, A Vengeful Lot
-counter point to Dangerous Farmers

-Dangerous Farmers
-The quest giver can now be killed, either when first encountered or after taking the A Vengeful Lot quest


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where the Thunder Egg card wasn't properly moving around
-Fixed a bug where Shimmering Bubble wasn't launching enemies as far as intended
-Fixed the rendering type of a few tree foliage types
-Fixed collision on a pond north of Kerankohora

Anywho, that's all for this week. I'm having problems getting the game to compile for testers this week. I'm almost sure it has something to do with the way that I implemented NPC killability. I'll re-code it over the next week and have it all fixed up by the time the next demo is released.

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 24.11.18

Hello all!

Not a huge list this week, I had another week where most of my days were spent out of the house doing this or that.
I did manage to upgrade the spell system a bit. Now, all spells, player and otherwise, will interact with one another. I haven't quite tested it in practice yet, but the preliminary testing has seemed rather interesting. I just need to finish adding spell interactions to those that have none as of yet.

Anywho, changelog!


Changelog

-Player spells now react to the damage types of other player spells
-Enemy spells now do the same
-Water puts out fire, fire boils water, earth damage shatters ice, etc.
-Note: Most interactions which are spawned this way, steam, for example, deal damage to everything - the player, their allies, enemies, other spells

-Adjusted the materials for weapon trails to look more appealing

Player Updates:

-Lowered the heal on the scythe's level 1 combo from 6% of damage/tick to .5% of dam/tick
-Increased the tick speed of regeneration from 1/sec to 2/sec
-Note: Done both to mitigate the scythe nerf a bit and buff enemies that utilize the regeneration effect
-Note: I have no idea why I left it so strong for so long. >.>


Card Updates:

-Updated most spell effects to have at least one interaction with the new, upgraded system

-Crystalline shards now only pierce 3 times as opposed to infinitely

-Added the Crystalline Fountain card
-tier 2
-upgrades from Crystalline Barrage
-spawns a turret which fires crystals toward enemies for the duration

-Bastion of Ice
-Now has a 4%/sec chance to stun enemies caught inside

-Crown of Ice
-Increased AoE from 300 uu to 550 uu
-Now has a 4%/sec chance to stun enemies caught inside
-Adjusted tick timer and damage from 10 ticks/sec to 4 ticks/sec and from 1.5 dam/tick to 3.5 dam/tick, effectively from 15 /sec to 14 /sec

-Ashen Charge
-The trail of ash left by the ashen Miirä'där now slowly shrinks along its lifetime
-Increased the life of the trails from 20 to 25 seconds


Enemy Updates:

-Ember Father
-Increased damage of breath attack from 8/sec to 16/sec


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where Crown of Ice wasn't properly attaching to the player's signet socket


As I said, there wasn't a huge amount of anything this week. I plan to finish up the existing spells and their interactions next week.

Anywho,
Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha Demo 0.1.4

Hello all!

The astute among you will notice that this is not Saturday - it is, indeed, Sunday. I was rather swamped yesterday, so I had to postpone this until today. 

This week is a build week and the newest build can be found: here or from the bar up top. 

We've got a couple of graphical updates this week along with some additions and a new EIR encounter; which I guess technically isn't found anywhere yet as it is for an area that will be added in an update which should be coming soon. 

Anywho, changelog!


Changelog

-Redid all the hummingbird meshes animation and equipment

-Redid some of the pine trees

-Added a new material and gathering node, Cervine Moss

-Updated the AoE mask

-Lowered the chance that it will stay raining if it is already raining
-Similarly, increased the chance that if the sun is shining, it will continue to


Player Updates:

-Increased base produce gain from farmers from 2/unit to 5/unit

-If the produce that the player civ has is less than the population at the beginning of the day, there is no chance that the civ will grow

-Ritual of the Homebound and Ritual of the Dancing Shrines both now close the menu as they are used


Item Updates:

-Added Biting Blue warpaint
-Default crafting type
-Made from water berries and produce
-Increases mana regen and decreases MCM


Enemy Updates:

-Hummingbird WitheredLeaf
-Decreased attack time for both the teleport and the swing from 3 to 1 and 2 to 1, respectively
-Increased alacrity from .65 to 1
-Note: The player's WitheredLeaf follower got a similar treatment, though, the follower version technically got a bit of a nerf, as it was not properly waiting after teleporting away.


EIR Updates:

-Added Tiiru Tööräätenaaraa'idar
-Lit. Shards of broken dreams
-A dense, nigh indestructible tree
-Deals 2.5% of everything's max health in spirit damage per second
-Favorite growing spot of Cervine Moss


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where buildings being built didn't have the proper material being set immediately
-Fixed a bug where named shopkeepers were spawning with the wrong animations
-Fixed a bug where named shopkeepers weren't showing warpaints

The Tiiru Tööräätenaaraa'idar, also featuring the new AOE mask

The Tiiru are found in the northern reaches of Goldrath, near the Cervine homelands. The trees are the favorite growing areas of Cervine moss, which is used in more traditional Cervine crafting. As such, the gathering caste of the Cervine are generally considered to be their most physically resilient. 

The Cervine homeland is surrounded by barren ground, almost all plant matter having been killed and absorbed by the Tiiru. The Cervine worry not about invasion - even the Leonen have decided that it is not worth what they would gain; the Tiiru would need to be uprooted before the land would be worth anything to them and it is much more difficult to uproot a Tiiru than it is a traditional tree, as their root systems are large, dense, and constrictive. 

It is a rite of passage for the young gatherers to venture alone into the barren Naaraavaanet, the dream lands, to gather as much Cervine moss as they can muster. Many fail and are felled by the parasitic nature of the Tiiru, but those that survive are ranked and placed into appropriate families based on their performance. Those that fail to bring anything back are stripped of their gatherer titles and forced into the merchant caste - the lowest in their society.

A quick, ugly shot of the new pines, along with the updated sheets material. I only uploaded this because I noticed that I had it, heh. :p

Anywho, that's all for this week. If you have questions, concerns, opinions, or bugs which you wish/need to share with us, you can e-mail us at cloudsofglassgames@gmail.com

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 10.11.18

Hello all!

I know it's technically 11.11 right now, but for more than 80% of the viewership, it's still 10.11, so, that is the title that I'm going with!
Not a super, super huge changelog this week; I was busy running around for half the week, so I did what I could.
I did manage to get Ob Minaar (lit. wet mountain) finished along with some extras that go along with that. Ob Minaar was previously a large, mostly empty section of mountainous plateaus south of So'ria'ra. It is now densely populated with: plants, minor creatures, random encounters, and enemies. Also water, a fair amount of that. >.>

To the changelog!

Changelog

-Updated the typewriter text to no longer play a sound when characters between asterisks are printed, denoting a descriptive text, rather than a verbal one
-When dismissing a dynamic dream, the player will now gain a random number of mana crystals based on their level
-Added a smaller interaction to the world, simple yes/no decisions
-Minimized the chance that enemies/minor creatures/eir encounters will spawn under the map
-Finalized the external section of Ob Minaar along with adding a small, internal cave network that can be accessed from the top of the mountain


Player Updates:

-Experience to level is now:
-(level * 5)((level/10)+1)


Item Updates:

-Added Saarnar Li'ieri
-Unique
-Dagger
-Fire damage
-When the player is hit, there is a chance, based on the damage that was done, that a damaging spirit AoE will be spawned and the player will be healed for 35% of the damage that caused the recoil to spawn. The chance is 100% if the player takes more than 75% of their max health in damage in one hit.


Enemy Updates:

-Updated a large number of enemies which were technically part of the wrong civs

-Updated the S'Hae's suggested level, currently 18

-Saurian Treefeller
-Increased melee damage from 65 to 80
-Increased throwing ax damage from 25 to 35
-Decreased melee attack delay from 2 to 1 sec


Dream Updates:

-Added the dream Of Feather and Bone
-Short
-Vulpine
-Negative Influence
-Found in the caves under Ob Minaar


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where, when Kerankohora's base level would spawn, the civ interaction menu would open. This was a weird bug. :/
-Fixed a bug where A Single Drop wasn't properly spawning the well water properly
-Fixed a bug where when a follower teleported to the player position, they would occasionally attempt to move back toward their previous position
-Fixed the position of a few quest indicators
-Fixed some incongruities caused by dreaming on slower machines

Ob Minaar

I haven't really considered the cultural relevance of this mountain yet. The dream Of Feather and Bone, which is found within the depths, very clearly tells that the location is of some significance to the Vulpines who worship Li'Kuntuu. If that has anything to do with the mount itself or if it is simply because it is out of the way is yet to be seen.

Funny side note: The interior to the cave is not actually where it should be at this moment in time. There was a bug with the world composition which placed it back at 0,0,0 and I'm going to have to sort that out next week. Yay. -.-

Anywho, that's all that I have until next week; next week being a build week.

Until then,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 03.11.18

Hello all!

We've got a whole host of bug fixes this week, along with some scaling fixes that I had no idea existed. >.>

Anywho, changelog!


Changelog

-The daily resources widget no longer pauses the game, it appears on the side of the screen, waits, then slowly scrolls downward

-EIR encounters and random encounters will no longer spawn if the player is nearby on load

-Removed a no longer functioning test dungeon

-Updated the shrines tutorial to be more clear

-Added a tips section to the loading screen


Player Updates:

-Lowered the toss speed of throwing axes


Item Updates:

-Added A Fallen Fern
-Macuahuitl
-Deals earth damage
-Unique, dropped from A Sodden Mount


Enemy Updates:

-A Crazed Cleric should now properly cast his abilities
-His vine shot now explodes when hitting something, creating the bramble at that location
-Bramble no longer blocks movement

-Brindlebark
-Buffed sapling damage from 3 (?) to 15, also buffed their healing from 1.5 to 7
-Buffed radius from 200 to 225 uu


Dream Updates:

-Added A Sodden Mount
-Saurian aligned
-Platformer
-Boss


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where a null card would sometimes be added to the deck when manually discarding
-Fixed a bug where the targeting reticle as being collided with in certain situations
-Fixed some scaling issues on the shop and crafter widgets along with some issues involving menus
-Fixed some rather egregious map tears (one of which was found by JonnyCrazyHound from itch.io)
-Fixed a bug where the player could theoretically fly by tossing throwing axes at their feet forever
-Fixed a bug where the resources gained widget wasn't properly clamping the values for the produce gained/lost
-Fixed a bug where the loading screen wasn't appearing when loading the game from the pause menu
-Fixed a bug where Tho-to was intractable from too far away
-Fixed a looooong standing bug where the menu required you to click it before it could be closed with any of the close buttons. [rant] Turns out they changed how the focusing worked and I must have missed it. It was literally just one tick box in the root variables for the damn widget. I am more than a little annoyed that this little thing was causing such a huge problem. It worked at one point a long time ago, but they changed the damn thing and probably just put a tiny side note somewhere about it in one of their changelogs. [/rant]

A Sodden Mount's dreaming location

There's another dream that I've been mulling around recently that'll probably be worked on a bit in this next week. I also need to finish A Poisoner's Paradise... with that update, I'll probably be adding a new weapon class as well.

Anywho, until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 27.10.18

Hello all!

I spent a fair amount of time working on a new dream, along with making general improvements to dreams over all. The new dream, A Sodden Mount, is a stone's throw away from being completed, just have to test and tweak the jumping sections.

Along with that, I made the new stun less punishing and changed the dodge to be more flavorful plus having more utility.

Anywho, changelog!


Changelog


-Cleaned out an absolutely massive number of old, unused files


Player Updates:

-When failing a dream, the player now has the option to 'Wake,' sending them back to the location in the world where they entered the dream while keeping xp, items, and crystals that they have found

-The dodge now transforms the player into a tornado temporarily, dealing air damage to those they pass through
-Base damage is equal to 10% of player level

-Added the skills Cutting Dodge I-III
-Increases the damage from base to 15/20/35% of level

-Can now switch between primary and secondary weapons while in the card use stance

-Lowered Stunned time from 2 to 1.25 secs

-Lowered the stun chance from 5% at max health to 1% at max health

-The threshold for attacks that have no chance to stun the player now scales at the rate of 5 damage/ level
Ex. At level 10, the player will not have a chance to get stunned when taking any damage less than 50.
Note: This was done both to make lower level enemies less of a threat and to keep smaller tick damages from stun locking the player.

-Swimming is now a thing


Enemy Updates:

-Adjusted Fennoc Fire's damage from 10 ticks/second and 6 dam/tick to 4 ticks/sec and 4 dam/tick (From 60 dps to 20 dps)


Dream Updates:

-Added area bounds to each dream that did not have them


Bug Fixes:

-Actually fixed the bug where a taken skill would still display 'Take Skill'
-Fixed a discrepancy in the damage window for spear light attacks 1 and 2
-Fixed a bug where certain skills weren't saving correctly
-Fixed a bug where multiple EIR encounters could spawn in the same place
-Fixed a bug where macuahuitl that were equipped as secondary weapons weren't properly being attached to the player
-Fixed a bug where when swapping primary and secondary weapons, the secondary being swapped would be duplicated

A quick shot of the not-quite-ready A Sodden Mount dream.

Everything is done save making the jumping section perfect. This includes the unique which for this one is a macuahuitl!

Swimming, woo!

Anywho, that's all I've got this week. 

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 20.10.18 - Hotfix 0.1.3.1

Hello all!


There were a couple pretty hefty bugs in the last release. I will be uploading a new build here in a minute, which can be downloaded, as always, from the banner or from here.

This week there weren't a huge number of changes. I spent the majority of the last two days working on getting the topography down for the map between Ardor and Granforn. I am happy to say that that work is basically completed. I just need to chunk the map and, well, populate it with stuff. :p

I've also blocked out the location of the home city of another race. I'm not entirely sure what it is going to be, but we'll see in time.

I'm excited about working on new areas again. I've grown tired of treading over and over Kerankohora, Ardor, and Käykäl'niis.

Anywho, changelog.


Changelog

-Bonfires and campfires now heal the player by 2.5% of their max health per second while nearby

-The skill point indicator is no longer visible when the player has 0 skill points


Player Updates:

-Adjusted Banquet of Spirit I-III
-No longer procs on player damage, rather player tick
-Decreased proc chance from 10/20/40% on hit to 2/4/8% on tick
-Adjusted the on player attack rate from half of the on hit to twice the on tick (from 5/10/20% to 4/8/16%)
-Spirits now have a much lower rate of acceleration due to gravity
-Spirits now can move up 90 degree slopes
-Adjusted the spirit material to make them more visible
-Similarly adjusted all followers to keep them from getting stuck

-Used and discarded cards now have the slot they occupied replaced as opposed to everything shifting down a slot


Item Updates:

-Finally re-added the Hurttafur Vest


Enemy Updates:

-Brindlebark
-Fixed the tick on the toxic mist it emits


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where secondary weapons weren't properly being unequipped when equipping another
-Fixed a bug where EIR encounters were spawning at run-time instead of streaming in
-Fixed a bug where Miirä'där merchants were having their animations replaced with incompatible ones
-Fixed a bug where followers who teleported to the player's location would continue to attempt to move toward their previous goal location
-Fixed a few spawners which were under the ground
-Fixed a bug where text was being displayed too quickly
-Fixed a bug where the player could discard the deck into negative numbers


Anywho, that's all for this week. The hotfix should be done being uploaded somewhere around an hour after this was published.

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 0.1.3

Hello all!


Our play-tester has had his time with the new build, so here it is!

Along with that, we've got a couple reworks for menus and a whole host of changes. So, here we go!



Changelog

-Mana crystal drops now change shape and color based on the amount in them

-Added screens for all the remaining tutorials

-Added a stunned animation for anthro enemies

-Reworked the Skills menu to be more readable and allowing me to have more control on its look
-Each skill now also includes the minimum level and the prerequisite skill name in the tool tip
-Reworked the Rituals menu to accomplish the same

-Added some more sounds

-Fixed some resolution issues with the hand widget

-Redrew all the skill icons

-The icons for persistent rituals now change in the rituals tab based on the level of unlocked ritual


Player Updates:

-Decreased the player pickup radius
-Note: This was done because of a change a while ago which made all items pickup on touch. 

-The player can now be stunned
-The chance is dependent on the percent of health damage that they took

-The 'Take Skill' button will no longer show up if the player has 0 skill points

-When using a ranged weapon and not zooming in, ranged projectiles will now spawn 20 degrees above the player's line of sight

-Added the persistent Rituals Ursine Rage I-III
-Akin to a berserker's rage, on melee attack, the player causes water splash damage that scales based on the player's lost health
-Levels II and III also increase the player's armor multiplicatively based on missing health
Note: With level III Ursine Rage and some luck, the player can become invincible
-Level III Ursine Rage also makes the player immune to the new stunned status effect, regardless of health level


Card Updates:

-Added card art for Capture


Enemy Updates:

-Enemies now properly stop and clear their targets when they get too far away

-Vulpine Trickster
-Lowered melee damage from 45 to 35


Building Updates:

-Added a water material that does not implement distance fields to the well water mat

-Buildings with a civ cost of 0 can now be placed regardless of the player's current civ points


Dream Updates:

-Added a checkpoint widget to checkpoints *cough*


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where dynamic dreams weren't properly streaming out upon leaving

-Fixed a bug where the player could sleep endlessly

-Fixed a bug where the loading screen wasn't loading when pressing continue

-Fixed a bug where equipping a second weapon caused it to disappear

-Fixed a bug where performing a second persistent ritual wouldn't cancel the first

-Fixed a bug in the ritual menu, where if a player selected a ritual they could perform, then without pressing the 'cancel' button, selected another that they hadn't unlocked, the would be able to perform the second, locked ritual
-Fixed a similar bug in the skills menu

The new skills menu. It's actually legible now, so, woo. :p

Now that I look at it, I notice that I should probably make an icon just for the skill point counter up top. Should probably also just not have it display when the player has none....

Anywho, there were quite a few changes that I was rather happy with this week. I feel like this was the most productive week that I've had for a while. 

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 6.10.18

Hello all!

I managed to get Wind Carrier to compile and build, but I'm going to delay the next update until our play-tester gets his hands on this build and tests it for a bit.

Anywho, changelog


Changelog

-Added a different song for nights

-Increased the volumes of various UI sounds

-Added UI sounds for the tutorial widgets

-Added more sounds here and there

-Increased the nav mesh size, fixing any crashes that that may have caused.

-Added elemental swooshes, pierces, and spins


Player Updates:

-Drastically lowered the health and mana regeneration gained per level

-Added the skills Banquet of Spirit I-III
-Spawns hungry spirits around the player when they are hit or deal melee damage
-Spirits charge at enemies and explode, dealing AoE damage which scales based on player level and MCM

-Dodge now cancels the current attack


Item Updates:

-Throwing axes now fall more slowly
  -Note: Enemy projectiles also got this treatment


Card Updates:

-Added card art for Call Lightning, Pinecone Bomb, and Shimmering Bubble


Enemy Updates:

-Vulpine Trickster
-Changed the preferred range a bit so it doesn't try to move INTO the player
-Lowered the attack delay from 1 to .75 sec

-Saurian Treefeller
-Now has a larger preference for ranged combat


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where when upgrading a card, the interface wouldn't properly re-fill itself with cards

-Fixed a bug where projectiles had collision which interfered with their damaging capabilities

-Fixed a bug where the Atmospheric Fog actor was causing lighting issues

-Fixed Vulpine Garb's value - is no longer 0

-Fixed a bug where, if the player entered a cities stream range while transformed and then de-transformed, the city would stream out

-Fixed a bug where, when teleporting closer to the player, followers would sometimes spawn in the ground, forcing them to teleport infinitely

-Fixed a bug where follower widgets wouldn't properly despawn occasionally

-Fixed a bug where the poison from a combo level 4 dagger attack was despawning as it spawned

The Elemental swooshes mid-swoosh. They also come in different shapes and sizes based on the attack that was used. 

In order:

Physical, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Spirit

Card Art:

Call Lightning, Pinecone Bomb, and Shimmering Bubble, respectively

I spent far too much time this week working with distance fields in UE4. It ended up being far too expensive for what I wanted them for. Though they are still active on the water material. 

I feel like I've been having a bit of an off time recently. I probably won't even get a lot done next week as I've a crap-ton of running to do. Bleh. 

Anywho, until next time

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 29.9.18

Hello all!

This was supposed to be a build week, I know, but I have to push it back until next week at least.
I've a new computer, courtesy of my beautiful wife!
Alas, because of this I had to install, well, everything again and I spent most of my day just getting to the point where I could potentially build it and start to package and upload, but I don't even have my packaging software yet... note to self: download 7zip.

On another note, the changelog is still on my previous computer. I only remember a couple of the things and as such will just add that changelog to next week's changelog. So, I guess this is just a quick update to inform what's happening.

So, until next week,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 22.9.18

Hello all!

A larger changelog this week, with a few significant changes and a couple firsts. The S'Hae is being held off until next week because our play-tester didn't get to actually test it last week because I screwed the test dream all up. :p

Anywho, onto the changelog!


Changelog

-Added hit-sparks to anything and everything

-Added a moderate screen shake for melee attacks

-Adjusted some (read: most) attack animations to read better and generally feel better to use


Player Updates:

-Clamped the effects of MCM and Alacrity to 10% - 200% and 50% - 200% respectively

-Added the skills Bloodfire Engine I - III 
-The first unlocks a ritual of the same name, Bloodfire Engine
-Bloodfire Engine converts the mana cost of cards into health cost at a 10/25/50% rate, allowing the player to gain the Sanguine multiplier on spell cards even when mana is more than sufficient

-Added a 'Dismiss Current Ritual' button to the ritual screen
-Does as you would expect and cancels all active ritual effects


Item Updates:

-Added the Ember Cradle accessory
-First equipment to implement the unique effects system
-Has a chance, when player is hit, to spawn a patch of fire underneath the player which does level dependent amounts of fire damage to enemies


Enemy Updates:

-Increased the range at which enemies will despawn

-Enemies can no longer spawn as the player is

-Added the Ember Father Saurian enemy
-Ranged artillery
-Tosses explosive embers
-Rarely drops Ember Cradle Accessory

-Added the S'Hae

-Adjusted the Leonen Iron Head's attack ranges to make it more consistent
-Increased the size of his weapon collision as well


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where some enemy magic didn't have a proper element assigned to it

The hit-spark for fire element attacks. 

The hit-sparks look mostly the same, aside from the colour and the small particles that escape from the center. I may make those smaller bits larger to emphasize the element. 

Bloodfire Engine III

The first persistent ritual, or rather, it's final form. I intend to have all active rituals be accompanied by a particle effect to remind the player that they are active. It may change in the future, but this is what we've got for now. 

Persistent rituals will provide a unique, multi-level effect - nothing like simple stat bonuses. I've another in mind that gives a chance when spawning creatures to spawn 1-2 extra for free, for example. 

Bloodfire Engine was just the first that I had fully fleshed out, which is odd because it just came to me on a walk yesterday. I've had other ideas just percolating in my head, but nothing that completely got worked out.

Oh, as a side-note, adding Bloodfire Engine got me to get all the code out of the way and the couple new classes so that adding new persistent rituals shouldn't be too much work.

Note: all persistent rituals should save with the player, if not then I guess I suck. :p

I should really write out instructions for myself about how to implement a new this and that; it's getting kinda out of hand in a way. :p

Anywho, that's all I have for this week, 

until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 15.9.18

Hello all!

Again, a short week, but the S'Hae is a hair away from being finished.

Let's jump right into it!


Changelog


-Added a back-plate to equipped items

-Increased the icon size for equipped items

-Adjusted the drop logic for items/materials from enemies.
-Now there is no chance that larger creatures (Haljuhurtta, S'Hae, etc.) will drop nothing
-The change has no effect on creatures that would only drop nothing or 1 thing at a time
(Faithless Hound, Vulpine Ritualist, etc.)

Player Updates:


-Cards whose mana cost is higher than the combination of the player health and mana will now appear in a dark blue in the hand widget


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where in the equipment screen, when unequipping an item, the hover text would remain

-Fixed a bug where the equipment screen hover text would become visible even if nothing was equipped in any given slot

-Fixed a bug where the scythe equip socket was 10 degrees off from where it should have been

-Fixed a bug where the talk widget was still disappearing too quickly

-Fixed a bug where: Fennoc Breath, Fennoc Gout, and Rockdancer's Descent were not rotating properly when used

A quick screen of the new wood-esque back-plate, along with S'Hae related equipment icons.

The S'Hae will be in the hands of our play tester this week, so if there are any unintended bugs with the way that it works, hopefully they will get found and sorted this coming week. Other than that I've one more piece of equipment to finish that I decided to add at almost the end and the texture for the S'Hae needs a bit of work. And then it's done! And I can start doing other things than working on it! Woo!

Anywho, until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 8.9.18

Hello all!

I'm almost on time this week!

This week I spent working on getting everything S'Hae related finished up and ready. I can happily say that 90% of everything for it is now complete. The only things left to do are: equipment icons, crafting recipes, and the small meshes for the its material drops. Oh, and couple of textures because I keep forgetting to do them. :/

Other than that, this week had a couple of quality of life changes, mostly dealing with card usage and the health as mana mechanic.

So, to the changelog!


Changelog

-Dropped items now have a particle effect to be more visible


Player Updates:

-Cards which cannot be cast with mana alone are now tinted red

-Added the Insufficient Mana tab to the card usage tutorial
-Outlines using health as mana

-Increased readability of card usage

I give you the S'Hae Shell, Shell Helm, and Magne Gauntlets!

The Shell armor focuses more on the defensive aspects of the S'Hae - specifically the magnetic armor that it generates for itself. 

And here are all the S'Hae weapons!

The only texture that is incomplete is the throwing ax - seen in the middle on the far left side. Everything else is done. 

I'm not making any promises, but we're getting very close the the S'Hae release. I'm quite excited because it is the biggest creature that we have put together to date. Let's just hope it isn't super buggy when I'm not watching it carefully. :p

Anywho, until next week,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha Demo 0.1.2

Hello all!

As this week is a build week, you can find the new build: here

As for this week's changelog, there isn't a lot to write. I spent the most of my time working on S'Hae related things.

I had to cut one of the planned attacks for the S'Hae, but with that I can say that it is complete, save for the equipment.

I've designed both armor sets along with all the weapons. I've only managed to model two of the weapons, however.

The S'Hae Carver

-dagger

The carver is complete, texture and all, as you can probably see. I may want to do something more with the inside guard, but who knows?

The S'Hae Gouger

-spear

The gouger is mostly complete. I just need to finish the handle texture. Here it is seen without anything but coloured materials in Blender.

Anywho, that's what I got done for this week, it's not a bunch, but it is what it is. I'm a bit bummed that the S'Hae isn't completed yet, not much to do about it though. 

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 25.8.18

Hello all!

Another week and more changes!

The biggest change this week is the official re-adding of the Leonen race. They are completely game ready now. Other than that, I worked on getting some quests fixed up along with the addition of a couple more.

Anywho, changelog!


Changelog

-Added a foliage density option to the option and pause menus

-Re-added the Leonen race for player choice

-Added more sound effects and a couple of open licensed songs

-Changed the way that the quest indicator worked, now it stars hidden, but becomes visible if a quest is available


Player Updates:

-After dying a non-Spirit Walk death, the player now has the option to teleport home instead of reloading the game
Note: If a player home is not found, the player will teleport to the hill where the game starts

-Updated the dodge animation, along with adding left and right directional dodging

-Added Spirit Walk tutorial


Enemy Updates:

-Made Enemy AI more aggressive

-Updated the Leonen IronEye and Leonen IronPaw to work properly with the new meshes


Minor Creature Updates:

-Minor creatures now play death animations as well

-Added a death animation for the Kiwi


Quests Added:

-The Windy Seas should spawn properly now

-Feeding Ardor should spawn properly now

-Added Dangerous Farmers
-Leonen

-Added A Few Leaves
-Vulpine


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where cities that hadn't been built yet were still creating the city name widget

-Fixed a bunch of incorrect normals

-Fixed the lack of collision on the Builder's Workbench

-Fixed a bug where spawning within a civ's stream radius would not properly set the civ's influence level

-Fixed broken attack animations on the Vulpine Poisondrinker and the Saurian Treefeller


Along with the mentioned changes, I also started designing S'Hae themed armor and weapons! Nothing concrete yet, however. And now, the S'Hae itself only requires one animation sequence and one more bit of logic before it is completely complete!

Note to self: Ilhkor'sei needs its weapons to be designed...

On that note, I have begun to redesign the Ilhkor'sei animations - they're rather atrocious right now...

Anywho, I'm hoping to have the S'Hae itself ready for implementation by next week, as next week is our next demo week. So, woo!

And that's all I have for now,
until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha 18.8.18

Hello all!

Not a whole lot this week either, I spent two more days this week out of the house dealing with various things that needed dealing with. Good news is now we are actually running off a proper modem instead of a mobile hot-spot. So, woo. :p

The largest change this week is a new death state. I explain it in full below, but basically, when it is up, the player will enter a Spirit Walk mode which allows them to regain lost health/mana based on how well they do during its duration.

I also plan on adding the option next week to allow the player to teleport home after a non-Spirit Walk death. Because losing progress isn't fun, but being teleported home is better than actually losing experience, items, and way points. At least to me.

Anywho, changelog time.


Changelog

-Minor Creatures, depending on the type, now have a chance to drop various materials on death

-Adjusted card code to make it more efficient

-Increased the detection range for allies


Player Updates:

-Once per minute, when the player would otherwise die, they will enter a mode called "Spirit Walk" where they will detach from their body and gain increased movement speed for the duration. Time will freeze for everything but the player and spirits will begin to spawn and the player can collect them. Each spirit will either heal the player 10% health or mana. Once the Spirit Walk duration has ended, the player will resume playing as normal with the percentage of health/mana that they collected.

-Added the skills Strength of Spirit I -III
-Multiplies the duration of Spirit Walk, from death and from cards, by 1.5/ 2/ 3 times respecively


Card Updates:

-Added the Time Dilation card
-Tier 1
-Slows time for all but the player by 80% for 5 seconds

-Added the Spirit Walk card
-Tier 2
-Upgrades from Time Dilation

-Added the Mana Overload card
-Tier 2
-Currently only obtainable from enemy Carving Dolls as a rare drop or as their capture, and as a rare gift from benevolent Carving Dolls
-A Carving Doll appears and charges, taking mana from the player to increase the scope and damage of the attack
-Explodes dealing damage to all in the AoE


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a host of cards which weren't properly damaging everything that was necessary



Another week without screenshots? Hmm. I really need to take more screenshots. Bleh

I also spent a fair amount this week working on the S'Hae - the fabled creature that doesn't seem to be coming at all. By my count, it still has four damn things that I need to make it be able to do before it is complete. Of the remaining things, only one of them will require anything that I haven't done before, so there's that. This is the biggest creature that we have ever made (code/asset wise, not physically) and is shaping up to be an interesting one. I'm learning quite a bit from it about AI: both AI in general and where ours needs to be improved. After this creature, the next "big" one should be easier to handle. It doesn't help that this one requires completely new interactions and status effects (to me.) It'll probably also have two armor sets, which will make more sense after it has been revealed properly.

Note to self: Design S'Hae armor sets...


Anywho, until next time

-Lucas Cady

Project Director 

Wind Carrier; Alpha 11.8.2018

Hello all!

I'm working off a shitty mobile hot-spot right now, but our modem should be here by next week... hopefully.
I haven't gotten a whole lot done over the course of the last two weeks. I've spent the majority of it setting up our new apartment and settling in, along with dealing with a sprained ankle that I got from trying to get everything moved up to our new apartment too quickly.
I also spent a fair amount on company related planning and really thinking and devising ways to make Wind Carrier feel and play better.
The changelog is fairly sparse this week, as one could imagine. So, lets get to it.


Changelog

-Adjusted the speed and various other variables within the building management system to make it feel better to use

-Civ Cost now appears in the overhead management widget for the selected building, along with the building interaction widget that spawns when interacting with a sign post

-Adjusted some code within the enemy parent class to make it more efficient

-Added a visual indicator for creatures over the player's level


Enemy Updates:

-Carving Doll
-Now has a 20% chance to spawn as a benevolent variant of itself
-Currently, the only benevolent type it can spawn will heal the player significantly and may gift a resource. Afterwords, it will immediately despawn


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where the weather actor wasn't properly attaching itself to the player when they used a transform card
-Fixed a longstanding bug where the Vulpine Ritualist would only cast Fennoc Fire at the player no matter their target


Yeah, told you so. :P

I expect next week's changelog to be a bit more close to the norm. I finally sorted out my notes for the S'Hae and I've been working on a couple of minor creatures to populate the world with. But, yeah.


Until next time,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Wind Carrier; Alpha Demo 0.1.1

Hello all!

I apologize for the delay, this is now the latest changelog and build in history! Woo...

My upload speeds today were atrocious and I've no idea why. It took 5 hours to upload the newest test build to Google Drive for testers and another 3 to upload the actual build to itch.io.

Maybe it was going slow because of the horrendous heatwave that we've been experiencing recently.

Yes, that's probably it.

As this week is a build week the new build can be found here and from the header up top, as always.

A fair number of changes this week, nothing drastic that I can remember, but still a fair few.

I've got a couple of larger changes that I've been considering for the past bit, trying to take care of a couple problems that I've felt Wind Carrier has had; the fail state of death, for example. We'll see if I can get something up and going for the next update.

Which reminds me, there may very well not be an update next week as my wife and I are moving across town this coming Wednesday. I may work Monday and Tuesday, but I doubt I'll get much done during the latter half of the week. Along with that, there is also a chance that I will not have access to the internet by next Friday. It depends heavily on the whims of the Finnish postal system. :p

One thing that I fell needs explanation is the grass fix.

Note: This was written at a different time than the larger portion of this update. Please ignore the tonal shift, if there is one.

I fixed the grass and for anyone who may have something similar I am going to try to explain what I think was happening. I have used Simplygon to make LOD's for my landscapes and generally, since this computer is 8 ish years old, I play and work on Wind Carrier on the lowest setting. I had noticed that doing this does not have the LOD's for the landscapes properly switched, nor does it allow the LOD's for other things to switch, but when testing that really doesn't matter.

So, I noticed that grass maps built entirely fine on maps that I had not created LODs for yet, so when I switched the engine to 'epic' settings, it cleared up the entire problem. It was because the proper LOD landscapes were not loading in, so it couldn't build maps on something that wasn't loaded.
Kinda weird, but hey, it's fixed now! Woot!

Anywho, to the changelog!


Changelog

-Grass is back!

-Updated the way that weather is handled and added the option for more types in the future

-Updated most wind-based spell effects (Hurriscale, Scale Dance, etc.)

-Optimized the aforementioned spells' particle effects as well

-Added Pinecone Bomb and Crystalline Barrage to random NPC stock
-Pinecone Bomb and Crystalline Barrage have also been added to the random stock of the Hummingbird and Mirrä'där merchants respectively

-Shrines now spawn wind priests
-Priests have a lower chance to gift, but they only gift population normally
-Have a low chance to gift Wind Priest Garb

-Once the player's home has been upgraded, random civilians have a chance to spawn as home-upgrade specific NPCs which gift different equipment and items


Player Updates:

-The Priest path now begins with a Wind Priest Garb instead of a Loincloth


Item Updates:

-Added Wind Priest Garb
-Randomly gifted by wind priests
-Offers little in terms of combat use, but increases the population gain rate by 10%


Card Updates:

-Added the Ashen Charge card
-Unique reward from A Single Drop
-Spawns a fan of Ashen Miirä'där which charge forward, dealing damage and leaving a damaging pool behind them

-Added Pinecone Bomb card
-Tier 1
-Can be harvested from pinecones high up in pine trees
-Sizzles for 2.5 seconds, then explodes, dealing damage and sending shards outward

-Added Pine Tree Guard card
-Tier 2, upgrades from Pinecone Bomb
-Heals
-Deals damage to enemies as they pass over the ring of pine needles


Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where, if a creature only had rare drops and no normal drops, they would occasionally drop null items

-Fixed a bug where, on load, the quest indicator would not properly change if the player was too close to the quest location

Wind Priest Garb

I originally had this on a Saurian, but the default green didn't feel like it really showed the garb too well. :p

Pinecone Bomb

Just a size comparison, since it's just a pine cone which explodes.

Pine Tree Guard

This card heals those that stand nearest to the tree along with dealing damage to those that cross the ring of pine needles. I will also probably change the name of this card as it was a first draft name and I was unable to find anything better just yet. >.>

Scale Tornado

Just a quick shot to show the new wind effects. 

The priest inside the tornado is just for scale. 

So, until next time,

 -Lucas Cady

Project Director