This release is a big one! Lots of visual updates have the demo looking better than ever, our unique Passive Grid system has been implemented, along with a level overhaul and lots of bug fixes and improvements!
Changes
Visuals
- Added post-processing: lighting levels, ambient occlusion, bloom, color grading
- Added in Sergey's new enemy health bar and skill panel
- Different zones now have different loading screen splashes
- Added tutorial tooltips to the skill and passive screens, like the ones on the crafting panel
- Added a spotlight over the character so you can see in the dark
- Added screen shake to some events
- Sped up monster death animations
- Added an option to switch off damage numbers
- Removed the spare sword and shield from the back of skeletons
- Updated the in-game map
Levels
- Updated lighting of all levels for the new post-processing upgrades
- The Depths and The Cavern have been removed; The Underground Lake now leads to Trollmud Swamp
- Rebalanced second half of levels
- Briarwatch
- Name changed from Lost Glade
- Removed clutter from the beginning of the level
- Removed original quest giving NPC placeholder
- Additional foliage and grass balancing
- Added a new bridge
- Briarhold
- Name changed from Bridgewood
- Removed the east gate
- North area of the city looks more like the main area
- The Cliffs
- Changed cliff rocks for better shear drop
- Adjusted fog levels
- Created and adjusted bridges
- Removed some crystals and enhanced others
- Underground Lake
- Adjusted color and density of fog
- Adjusted smoke color and flow
- Adjusted rocks and textures
- Trollmud Swamp
- Removed standing water over the level, added placeholder puddles
- Added a northern route shortcut
- Added eastern ruins
- Additional foliage and grass adjustments
- Putrid Lair
- Added a placeholder time travel event after the Draal Queen. The first half of the demo is now in the Imperial Era, the second is in the Ruined Era
- Added lighting changes between the two eras
- Added additional details to the Ruined Era
- Added dead Draal Queen model
- Sundered Path
- Added a large graveyard area
- Added watermill
- Changed enemies to fit the Ruined Era: Scavenging and Void based enemies
- The Ruins
- Drastically shortened the bridge
- Added better cliffs
- Added additional, better trees
- Temple of Eterra
- Adjusted columns and rocks
- Better NavMesh around items on the ground
- Better floor textures
- Added an invisible barrier before the pit
- Made the lever for raising the bridge more obvious
- Eterra's Rest
- Re-added to the demo
- Added ending message
Balance
- Intelligence now gives 15% increased elemental damage and 5% ward retention per point (changed from 20% increased elemental damage and 1% reduced ward decay rate per point)
- Dexterity to 25% increased crit chance and 25 dodge rating per point (changed from 10% increased crit chance and 100 dodge rating per point)
- Greatly narrowed the range of increased crit chance affixes, the first tier "sharp" now gives 25% - 29% increased crit chance, which should feel more noticeable, and enable higher crit chance to be reached in the demo
- Drastically reduced monster pull abilities
- Reduced the pull strength of the ancient golem's tornado by 44%
- Sightless Abominations now get void meteor instead of void black hole
- Changed specialisation slots to unlock at levels 4, 9, 19, 34 and 49
- Nerfed Mourningfrost added cold damage from 10 per agility point to 5
- Nerfed monsters with the "of the Stag" suffix
- Reduced added dodge rating affixes by 30%
- Increased the number of void spectres in ruins
- Removed void pillars from the void boss arena
- Reduced the power of lightning blast's ward on cast node
- Gave the Spriggan summon health regen
- Frenzy Totem now has a limit of one totem
Skills
- Added the Passive Grid! Read about it here: https://lastepochgame.com/skill-system/
- Added basic damage variance. No more hitting every enemy for 22 damage!
- Added new ability Ice Shield. Adds more defense than Fire Shield but doesn't shoot projectiles
- Nodes on skill trees are no longer on right angles to each other
- Added 8 new nodes to the Fire Shield tree
- Changed Thicket Blades' visual effect
- Changed Fire Shield area damage visual effect
Items
- Added tooltips for unique items
- Added two new unique items
- The rarity of dropped items now depends on character level
- Added a delay for picking up gold for the first 0.5 seconds after it drops
Sound
- Added new Draal attack and on hit sounds
- Added new Skeleton on hit sounds
- Added sounds for raising the bridge in the Temple of Eterra
- Added ambient crow sounds
Bug Fixes
Items
- Fixed items that were picked up while the inventory was full being deleted. They now stay on the ground
- Fixed items unequipping when not intended
- Fixed item tooltips staying open when the inventory closed
- Fixed item slots changing color when an item hovered over them
- Fixed items not saving when initially added to inventory
- Fixed items failing to load when affixes saved incorrectly
- Fixed items not dropping when rolling a unique on a base type that has no unique items
- Fixed the nodachi being massive on the ground
- Fixed a bug where unique items could be shattered, which would delete them
- Fixed bug that occurred when equipping Mourningfrost
Skills
- Fixed a bug where a Fire Shield node would stop the skill from working
- Fixed the lightning blast tree not display the number of unspent points
- Fixed a swipe node that wasn't working properly
- Fixed an error in ice barrage's description text
Other Fixes
- Fixed a crash that could occur when a minion was summoned after its creator died (ex. void pillars in Temple of Eterra)
- Fixed bug where Added attributes would also modify attribute effect. For example, 9 agility gave 540% increased attack speed
- Fixed waterfall sounds not being affected by the sound effects slider
- Fixed the player moving when clicking dialog boxes
- Fixed a bug where monster deaths were failing to trigger the correct events (skills and summons on death)
- Fixed a bug that caused monsters and the player to be immune to stuns
- Fixed UI scaling at different resolutions
- Fixed crafting menu not updating in certain scenarios
- Fixed a bug that was causing minions to run on the spot after killing enemies
- Fixed a bug that was causing minions to fail to deal damage on some slopes
- Fixed status effects persisting after death