Following a limited playtest in preparation of the upcoming Steam Next Fest, the Event Horizon team brings us an updated demo for their upcoming “Guns N’ Sorcery” tactical RPG Dark Envoy.
Thanks to over 850 participants and 300 pages worth of feedback, the demo now offers a VSync option, assorted performance improvements, shorter loading times, as well as numerous gameplay and UI adjustments.
Here are the patch notes:
Dark Envoy Demo is out now thanks to your feedback!
Over the past two weeks, hundreds of our followers and members of our great Discord community have participated in friends and family tests of the Dark Envoy Demo. Our goal wasn’t to fix the bugs because that’s what our QA is for, but to find out what your feedback is and what we can improve to bring you more fun during the upcoming Steam Next Fest.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Here’s a list of the latest updates we’ve implemented based on your valuable comments and observations. Thank you for playing Dark Envoy Demo! Oh, we almost forgot to mention that it is now available for free to all Steam players!
Patch Notes: Dark Envoy Demo, 3 February 2023
General:
Added an option for the cursor to be locked to the game window. It can be toggled in settings → display.
Multiple small performance improvements, especially on lower tier hardware.
Target framerate can no longer be decreased below 30 fps.
Added VSync setting.
Fixed various problems with loading saves from previous versions.
Audio banks loading should take considerably less time.
Substantially improved level loading times.
Gameplay:
Neutral summoned units no longer reveal fog of war for the player.
Re-rolling item modifiers during item crafting now works properly.
The player can no longer move the camera during cutscenes.
Some unit statistic values have been renamed, and the values shown have been fixed.
Custom items with already applied enchantments on them can be found.
Cone skill targeting (e.g., Adept’s Frostbolts) had been centered and now show proper range.
Fixed a glitch in intro cinematic that caused the first few frames to be rendered incorrectly.
Fixed slow time audio effect when opening popups.
Fixed face animation in first cutscene.
Fixed an issue with enemies getting stuck on covers and other static units.
Improved interactions with objects or NPCs when multiple units are selected.
Improved line of sight calculations, for both better performance as well as more clarity for players
Fixed an issue with player being in combat, despite no enemy being in proximity.
AI:
(1) Threat system had been improved – target switching should now be more obvious to the player.
(2) Skill casting should now be more reasonable.
(3) Rats should now behave more like actual rats.
Removed excessive party join/leave messages.
Fixed an issue where audio positioning wasn’t always properly set.
Added new difficulty setting: Story.
Hard statuses (Stun, Freeze, Knockdown etc.) now interrupt casting skills.
Removed TAA and Motion Blur display options as they tend to glitch too often.
NPC units no longer ignore personal space of other characters.
Added Edge Panning sensitivity settings.
Added Edge Panning and arrow keys movement to World Map.
Fixed an issue that caused blurry screen upon entering World Map.
Added item comparison when buying from a Merchant.
Fixed an issue with Frozen status that caused damage mitigation not to work correctly.
Fixed starting camera position on World Map.
Healing fountain logic had been improved, as the previous one could have been abused by the player.
Multiple balance changes throughout the game, including, but not limited to:
(1) Items,
(2) Enchantments,
(3) Skills and their synergies,
(4) Enemies stats and skills,
(5) Resources dropped,
(6) Crafting prices.
Various tweaks to both boss fights:
BOB:
(1) Increased range on some of his skills, as they were not feasible to use previously.
(2) His charge skill had been fixed to have specific interactions with rats.
(3) First phase of combat had been altered to the correct version.
ANCIENT GUARDIAN
(1) Minor tweaks to his balance.
Fixed an issue where Bandit Chief could have become invulnerable for an unlimited time.
Fixed the issues with missing item icons in inventory.
Fixed marking area of effect skill effects that are triggered by projectiles on hit.
Fixed an issue with some enchantments that caused units wearing items with them to stop moving.
UI:
Input had been blocked on loading screen.
Fixed an issue where some skill icons were not loaded.
Multiple mini-map fixes:
(1) Dungeon mini-map is now updated properly when obstacles are removed.
(2) Fixed mini-map marker rotation.
(3) Added a setting for disabling mini-map rotation.
(4) Added labels for map markers in large map view.
(5) Added dungeon entrance icon.
Blocked save button if a save file name is empty.
Unit information tooltip will be shown over non-targetable units.
Disabled scaling of environment-related overhead messages.
Added confirmation popups if a player tries to exit without saving in Settings, Crafting, Skill Tree and Attributes screens.
Added icons in Player Menu, when a player has points to distribute remaining.
Added sorting inventory by most recent and markings for new looted items.
Added warnings when player wants to progress through Class Selection screen without selecting a class.
Skill telegraphing UI is now properly removed if a skill is interrupted.
Removed unit names over their health bars to decrease screen clutter.
Moved Weapon Skill from Skills to Inventory screen.
Rearranged multiple settings options as well as added missing descriptions.
World Map Location popup is now attached to the edge of the screen.
Fixed an issue with Weight modifiers not influencing all shown stats correctly.
Fixed an issue where some Attribute modifiers were not shown to the player.
Multiple improvements to the quality of background textures in different UI panels.
Fixed mouse input problems when trading with a Merchant or using the Journal screen
Fixed an issue with cursor rotation image not displaying
Character creation panel now explains that the specialization can only be selected at level 5
Changed the way Frozen status was shown on units
Clicking on the background around the map automatically closes it.
New looting popup – “take all” button instead of “close”.
Added an option to hide helmets in inventory.
Added “continue” button that automatically loads your last save.
Multiple changes to tutorial popups, for better clarity.
Visuals:
Charged Ground – range is now shown more visibly.
Healing Fountain – new 3D model and VFX.
Point of Interest icons now have an animated effect.
Columns in mines now fade out.
Multiple lighting tweaks in mines.
Multiple minor item (both weapons and armor) tweaks to the textures and icons.
Fixed issues with ocean rendering in City of Bones.
Co-op:
Improved automatic region selection.
Added connected region and latency info in multiplayer menu.
Added latency display per player in multiplayer menu.
Online session can be started once the player has at least 2 units in the party.
Improved unit synchronization when a client takes control of a newly assigned unit.
Fixed skill level synchronization for client.
Fixed multiple game breaking errors when loading a saved game.
Improved session connectivity and added specific error notifications for easier debugging.
Fixed an issue with stats being mismatched between the server and a client.
Fixed connectivity errors when a client leaves a co-op session and joins a new one.
Fixed client stuck on loading screen when leaving a co-op session.
Reduced delay when client is casting skills.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
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