We are a small independent game developer located in Warsaw, Poland. Before The Astronauts, some of us worked on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.
Our latest project is Witchfire, a dark fantasy first person shooter set in an alternative world in which witches are real and very dangerous – but so are you, witchhunter.
Our first game was a weird fiction mystery titled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game has won many awards, including BAFTA, and we sold over one million copies. It’s available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Click here for more details.
Fixed misaligned crosshair bug introduced with the fix to FOV scaling in ultrawide screens
Fixed FOV scaling (the last patch introduced a change that had inflated your FOV just a little bit if you played on any aspect ratio bigger than… 4:3 — it should go back to normal now 🙂 )
Reduced stamina damage range for Assassin’s flashbang grenade
Limited HP cost for falling from extreme heights (75 HP max)
Clearer description of Galleon Calamity objectives
Fixed some typos in objectives
Updated sound and particle effects for the Mystic Alphabet trap
Fixed missing poison flowers spawns in the Scarlet Coast Vault
Enemy blacklist fixes
Meaning some enemies can only appear in select areas now. This is to make the maps have their own “ecosystem”. For example, the Woodsmen will never appear inside the Castle
Knight IK fix
Adjustments to how damage affects the Calamity bar
Fixed Warden body staying after death
Fixed ghosts not being able to fly through walls
Sister
Increased melee animation speed
Increased spit animation speed
Increased spit projectile collision size
Increased spit projectile damage
Decreased spit attack swipe angle size
Tweaked behavior selection logic
Devotee
Increased melee animation speed
Increased spit animation speed
Increased spit projectile collision size
Increased spit projectile damage
Stigma Diabolicum on Mysterium 0 now has 1.2 dmg multiplier (reducing the effect of it being weaker than normal headshot)
Potential fix to Axeman remaining invisible after throwing the axe
PATCH 0.2.4.51213 2024.04.30
Highlights
Better AI
Fixed a building up delay of AI action selection that was caused by a large amount of AI units in a scene. This should result in much more responsive behavior selection
This affects …everything, so please let us know if you see any issues
Performance boosts
Various optimizations we performed resulted with around 25% CPU performance boost on average in our tests. This should be perceivable when the performance was CPU bound in the first place, like with weaker hardware, or while playing on lower settings.
We managed to tackle a few sources of heavy hitching related to high intensity damage situations (looking at Iron Cross + Blight Cyst combo) — there should be a significant improvement here, but there is still some work to be done!
Overall AI behavior
Spawn preparation while roaming the map
Added mouse smoothing option to KBM controls (Off by default)
Members of the PCMR cult, rejoice!
Limited Husk and Cultist Archers range to 40m community feedback
No more WTF hits from enemies on the other side of the map
No more level-up notifications for max level players.
From Cartman to Lukas, with love.
Gear
Hypnosis
Killing an enemy with fully charged Mysterium III Hypnosis now correctly triggers lightnings
Hypnosis no longer has blocked charging after cancelling reload animation
Crown of Fire
Mysteria II and III mechanics won’t trigger before unlocking
Fixed Mysterium III duration scaling
Stigma Diabolicum
Fixed a bug that made the cyst smaller on Mysterium I and II
Mysterium III now also triggers on Decay damage/ticks
Now deals more decay damage over shorter period
Fixed an incorrect Mysterium III decription. Now it says “Killing an enemy with decay or a shot at the cyst fully regenerates the spell.” This has always been Stigma Diabolicum’s third Mysterium ability (besides the Decay part)
Lightning Bolt
Mysterium III now correctly stuns the first target hit
Hunger
Fixed Mysterium III multi-target freezing caused by a weapon swap.
Adjusted charged bullets glow for ammo regenerating abilities and effects.
Shadowmist Ring
Adjusted the activation angle: now you have to dash more in the direction of the enemy to proc the ring effect
Gameplay/UX
Fix to FOV scaling in ultrawide screens
Fixed an oversight caused Incantation II to be a much rarer Irongate Castle drop than intended
Calamity Timer around Mini-Map is back community request
Ascension notifications were triggering with old unlocks data, this has been fixed
New potion slots are granted on level 15, 25, 45, and 70 now
Patrolling enemies now have proper drops, this should speed up leveling a bit as well
Added another hidden chest to the Irongate Castle, unveiled when players are at Gnosis II or higher
Optimized method of refreshing map icons. This should improve your performance during gameplay and also reduce hitches experienced by some players when opening the map
Nerfed the compositions and enemy counts of roaming enemies at the Castle
Calamity vortex now has a bigger “crown”, should be easier to spot from across the map
Empty room in the Gnosis Room no longer consumes witchfire. All other Mirage costs have been lowered. This is aimed to limit their influence on ascensions, especially in the early game
We’ve nerfed certain Calamity triggers to make less of a influence on the Calamity bar. Calamity bar takes longer to fill now. Additionally, some of the triggers got cooldown periods. This was to address the issue of penalizing players for mashing the potion key several times in quick succession
Range of camera shake from galleon cannonade was lowered to make it less of a nuisance
Ascension requirements have been smoothed out to provide a better level up experience
Ascension cost is now normalized and no longer relative to player’s class starting level
Removed duplicated King’s Bell item which was not useable by the player
Fixed a bug that was causing Swordsman to remain invisible if they got damaged sufficiently just before teleporting
Arcana updates
Deadeye arcana now correctly boosts critical damage
Immunity Swap arcana now correctly triggers immunity and has added shield effect
Stormbringer arcana now works as described
Cascade arcana now works as described
Fixed Ice Statue’s infinite duration on minor enemies
Fixed Witchfire Orbs arcana witchfire dropping and scaling
Fixed Piercing Bullet arcana, now works correctly with Shieldbearer’s shield
Stun Bullets arcana fixed to only work for physical damage. Added percentage value to the description
Memento Mori event
Lost souls now properely dissolve after you bring them required items
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented them from granting rewards
Increased chances of receiving Incantations as event rewards
Simultaneous Weapon swap + Fire inputs will no longer make the weapon disappear and disable all interactions
Spell casting action followed by a very quick Fire/Reload will no longer play spell fail animation and will proceed to firing/reloading instead
Fire/Reload input pressed at the end of the spell fail animation will no longer result in invisible weapon
Fixed a navigation bug that was allowing Patrol enemies to step into Vaults when the door were closed
Musketeer group shooting fixes (this should also stop them from running outside of some events)
Weapon mesh is no longer visible under player’s feet when performing weapon swap or casting abilities
Increased vendor price of Witchfire Cluster to 3 gold pieces (previous price didn’t take bonuses from Gnosis into consideration, which could lead to infinite witchfire exploit)
Poisonous Flowers now only spawn of arenas with Manifestations (In the future they will spawn around other combat scenarios, but additional work needs to be done to ensure that they don’t prevent players from completing those scenarios and flowers properly wilt when the scenario is done)
Provoking a Devotee attack by breaking too many eggs now increases your calamity bar (as much as triggering any other trap would)
Fixed ragdoll deaths on Decay and Electro explosions for all enemies
Optimized logic updating the weather state
Restricted Woodsman and Larva movement so that they don’t leave their designated areas
Fixed Crouch mode switch settings implementation.
Fixed Drowned Captain ice mesh using Musketeer ice mesh
Fixed a bug that caused Drowned Captain to remain invisible and invincible if his teleport got interrupted early on
New weapons now show correct values on their Inspect screen
Fixed a bug that caused both Faithful to take no Decay or Ice damage
Fixed some improperly set up in place turning animations
Fixed Sister Headshot particle rotation
Adjusted Sister and Devotee shooting conditions
Changed Devotee shooting pattern and damage
Fixed improper Revenant Rotation Rate
Lowered Grenadier Artillery’s attack occurrence frequency
Fixed a black screen bug which occurred when player pressed Tab immediately after clicking ‘Start expedition’
Added a feature allowing flying enemies to teleport back to navigable area if they ever seem stuck
Added better logic selection for Sister and Devotee movement targets to prevent them from flying off of navigable area
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented alarms bells from spawning during the Ambush event
Fixed a bug that would keep displaying Event Failed messages each time you get damaged after failing one of the Cursed Chest events
Fixed issues with some events not updating their map icons after player completed them.
Crystal that attracts proximity mines now properly grants treasure when destroyed Incantation II now displays proper pickup prompt
Fixed a bug that caused one Mirror Lock event on Scarlet Coast to spawn below the ground
Adjusted some particularly hard to find Mirror Lock battery locations
Lowered the chance that three Gatekeepers will spawn at the same time
Fixed a bug which caused Gatekeeper objectives to stay on the screen in some cases
Elemental effects on enemies should correctly refresh after Fire+Freeze synergy.
Optimized Gnosis chamber slightly on low quality settings – this is not a big change, but we’re looking at more reasons on why the framerate there can suffer
Altered Devotee spitting pattern to make it actually dodgeable
Lowered requirements for Mysteria unlocks on new spells to take into consideration their single target nature or increased cooldowns
Fixed missing objective completion when required progress was patched below the current objective progress.
Improved shadow quality on enemies and gameplay items at LOW quality preset
Sounds
Added sounds to the Buried Treasure scenario
Psychopomp’s damage boost SFX now correctly triggers only after shooting
Fixed a bug reported by one of the players, that was causing a wind to fade out too abruptly around the Quarry in the Village
Designed new sounds for the Mystic Alphabet trap
Tweaked the attenuation curve of the Warden’s idle VO
Tweaked the attenuation curve of the Proximity Mine’s idle VO requested by the community
Fixed a bug that could cause the Galleon’s foley sounds to remain audible after defeating the Calamity reported by the community
Added idle sounds to the Sister and Devotee to make their presence in the battlefield easier to detect requested by the community
Tweaked the attenuation settings of the Swordsman’s teleport sound cues
PATCH 0.2.3.50947 2024.04.15
Crown of Fire:
Now properly ignites enemies 🔥
Activation window reduced from 1/1.2/1.5 sec to 1/1.1/1.2 sec
M2 now triggers when you ignite a non-burning enemy
Ring of Wings:
Reduced Stamina cost from M2 now only works for the first dash
Airborne dashes no longer possible when exhausted
The above tweaks change nothing for the intended use, simply blocks the ability to fly around the map like a witch on a broom
Ring of Obedience:
Does not work on bosses anymore
We not not like making exceptions for items but this makes sense from the lore reasons, too: the bosses are basically too big and heavy to be smacked around with a magic leash like a puny ghoul
Hypnosis bolt action rifle
Decreased the time window for the Perfect Shot
The gun is incredibly strong and its user needs to prove they’re worthy of all that power. With great power comes, uhm, great skill requirement
Ice Stiletto M3 now correctly resets its cooldown when nothing was hit
Tribute event now has proper collisions
Added missing rewards for some Mirror Lock events
Fixed missing or broken bonus reload speed limits on some weapons
Dimacher now has correct Freeze resistance
An anti-death fix to dropping to the first Familiar
PATCH 0.2.2.50919 2024.04.12
Highlights
Added poisonous flowers to Scarlet Coast Witch Vault boss arena
Discourages players from running straight to the boss
Makes the Vault puzzle more interesting
Progression changes I
Gnosis 1 multiplier on Scarlet Coast raised from 1.1 to 1.15
Gnosis 2 multiplier on Scarlet Coast from 1.25 to 1.35
Gnosis 3 multiplier on Scarlet Coast from 1.5 to 1.55
Gnosis 2 multiplier on Irongate Castle raised from 1.4 to 1.5
This should make leveling around level 15 feel a lot better
Progression changes II
Significantly lowered costs of ascension on levels 1 to 5
Penitent class is still the hardest, considering stat penalties or scarce initial gear but now a bit faster to bring up to speed in relation to other classes
Progression changes III
Changed the level up costs around level 15 to make the difference in cost more pronounced (instead of jumping from 18K to 20K, it jumps from 16K to 25K)
Progression changes IV
Added a slight boost to research for each set of patrol enemies
Changes and fixes for Cornucopia spell and Psychopomp shotgun
Cornucopia now refills ammo from reserves instead of regenerating it
Psychopomp now grants +10% damage per hit instead of +20%
These are fairly mild nerfs so we will see if this is enough. We still want this combo to be useful and exciting, just not broken
Cornucopia’s duration now extends when cast again while active
Other fixes, updates and tweaks
Fixed one case that could glitch the spawn system
You can now pick up more King’s Bells and Ornate Keys
Projectiles no longer collide with some event mirages
Fixed infinite witchfire glitch w/ Ring of Obedience on the tutorial enemy
Major enemies now properly resist Freeze, shortening its duration
Fixes to flying enemy pathing
Fix to Warden seeking behavior
Added foley sounds to the no-hit melee attacks 💪
Changed objectives colors in Gnosis Screen for better clarity
Better display of bonus witchfire in Deus Vult notification community request
Class Selection Screen now displays starting level of each class
Improved display of research requirements in Workshop Screen
A mix pass on weapon shooting sounds
Mysteria objectives now correctly progress only for equipped items
You can no longer disable the mirage in the Scarlet Coast Witch Vault before killing the Vault Guardian
Scarlet Coast Witch Vault should now complete properly
Scarlet Coast Witch Vault Guardian got it proper boss buff
Explosive Delivery: walking is now less aggravating to the Head
Enemies no longer keep spawning after you finish the Explosive Delivery
Flamekeeper event now drops non-cursed items
Mandrake no longer prevents death from falling out of world bounds
Calamity Catalyst will no longer appear in the Castle’s boss room
Calamity objective UI should now disappear without spoiling anything if you kill too many enemies
Closed portal should bo longer appear on the mini-map during Calamities
Cleanup of various adventure log entries. Messages in the bottom left side of the screen should not duplicate as often now
Enemies are no longer able to get on the barrier blocking the passage to boss arena in the Scarlet Coast
Smaller/cosmetic tweaks and fixes
PATCH 0.2.1.50866
Locked chests now get added to the map properly after looking at them
Patrolling enemies now grant witchfire on death
Mirror Lock event now works properly
Added High quality water reflections to final Scarlet Coast Vault arena
Fixed Hermitory severe visual issues when loading from slow disks
Enemies no longer able to shoot through walls from inside (or outside) of barracks room in Irongate Castle
Fixed several visual glitches and ability to walk outside of game space in Castle vault
Fixed ability to walk outside of game space through ceiling of Gnosis Room
fixed Vault logic affecting all Necromancers on Castle and all Sisters and Devotees in Village past Vault activation
Fixed Music not being changed post calamity
Falling Star’s homing projectiles bonus damage now ramps up slower. It’s stun damage has been drastically lowered.
Gold cost of starting new research now properely ramps up over the first few projects, starting at 0 for most of them
Some event starting objects were not emmiting subtle witchfire particles as they are supposed to, making them harder to spot in the game – this has been fixed.
Fixed incorrect formatting of the Breadcrumbs event timer
Gnosis Chest mirage is no longer teeny-weeny
Fixed issue with some players not having ‘New game’ nor ‘Continue’ option in Main Menu. If your savefile is corrupted, main menu will now display an option to open ‘Profiles’ window (so you are able to manage your savefiles). Corrupted savefiles are now displayed in the ‘Profiles’ window. Note: if any of your save files happen to be corrupted, please report it on the #wf-bug-reports channel and send us the whole folder with your saves before deleting the faulty ones.
Tweaked the sounds for the Charged Melee and Charged Melee on Stunned Enemies abilities, made them slightly quieter on the mix and made them duck other mix elements.
Fix for Wf balance in run summary when safe deposit arcana is active
Fixed the Sound Class settings on a few ambient sounds that were playing outside of the systems, remaining audible regardless of the game’s sound settings.
Fixed Mirage in Castle Vault entrance not playing sounds
Fixed player insta death on melee use if snapping found a collision in between player and melee target
Fixed Liberator perma staying in frozen state when dying while frozen
Fixed Bosses and minibosses not playing crit death sounds on death in some circumstances
Lowered Hypnosis zoom-in effect
Stigma diabolicum now gives the right amount of charges when combined with Extra Charge arcana
Fixed penetration settings on Shieldbearer shield
Fixed lore in ice stiletto
Fixed ability descriptions in Burning stake
Smaller tweaks and bugfixes
HOTFIX 0.2.0.50804
Gameplay
Workaround for the “hitbox too small” issues affecting some objects like portals, Gnosis Book or mirage incantations.
PATCH 0.2 – Ghost Galleon Update
The detailed GGU patch notes are available in a special blog post here.
PATCH 0.1.10.48090
Important announcement! First, unless a severe issue is found, this is the final patch until the GGU (our first big update). The game is in good shape, so we can now focus exclusively on creating the new content and gameplay for the GGU. Second, we have announced that the GGU will be out second half of November/beginning of December but we’re no longer so sure (which, for the 100th time, is the lesson one should never announce a date until 100% certain). Reason? We have basically increased the scope of the update to make sure it’s both:
A great jumping point for new players
A worthy reason for returning players to spend some quality time in the game playing something they have not played before
This means not just new content, but new gameplay and other surprises, including some changes to the core systems. To make sure we deliver, we’re not aiming for a date, we’re aiming for the GGU to be complete as according to the plan. If this means we’ll slip, then we think it’s worth it, and we hope you’ll agree when the GGU is out. We will be updating the status on Discord, Twitter and Facebook, and we plan on blogging more in the coming weeks.
Highlights
Updated used Unreal Engine version from 4.27.1 to 4.27.2. This should hopefully fix some rare crashes
Tweaked the warning sounds that play when there’s an incoming attack from an out-of-sight source community feedback
Significant texture optimizations in some Castle areas community feedback
Game-wide texture pool optimizations
Gameplay
Pressing the Sprint key will longer interrupt auto-fire weapons when standing
This might have been the reason for “Midas sometimes stops firing” kind of bugs
Pressing Dash input while airborne won’t trigger dash-related events
This prevents unwanted behavior of Arcana, such as Reload Dash, which could be abused by repeatedly pressing dash in the air
Fixed double-jump while crouching or sliding
Pressing Jump key for the first time when already in the air/falling will now correctly trigger double jump instead of the normal jump
Added a visual effect to spell icons to indicate that the spell is ready to be cast community feedback
Added a visual effect to spell icons to indicate that spells are disabled community feedback
The names of new Arcana are now displayed when you claim them in the Workshop community feedback
Fixed incorrect Cricket’s First Mysterium description. It now reads: “Killing enemies generates extra Witchfire Essence”
Added a new layers to Cricket’s auto-reload sound
Fixed the bug that caused the Eye of the Madwoman’s thunderstrike to be inaudible. Now for realsies
Fixed a bug that was causing Cursed Chests to spawn in the same place. This time for good. Or so we hope
Gates event in the Castle now changes the color on completion
Echo’s damage boost will no longer stay charged indefinitely after sliding
Improved the logic to show Souls Sigils, it’s now easier to materialize them
Added new sounds to the torches and extended their audible range
Extraction portal should disappear from the map correctly after collapsing
Sentinel icon will change the color to red when Master Sentinel gets killed
Fixed a pathfinding issue that caused the ghosts to get stuck
Cooldown reset prompt in the tutorial now also melee
Tech/gfxcommunity feedback
Merged functionality of two ‘reset’ buttons in controls settings to avoid confusion. Now you reset both settings and bindings using the same button.
Fixed small tree branches and leaves blocking bullets
Minor zone traversal performance optimization
Flying Effigies of Plague healing particle effects no longer stack on top of each other
Fixed a bug that could result in Effigies of Scabs spawning outside the bounds of the level during the Duel Events
optimized Soul Sigils performance
Improved 16:10 support in Weapon Inspect Screen
Fixed a bug which in some cases made it possible to shoot while being in the Map Selection Screen in the Hermitorium
Slightly better visuals at two Castle spawn points
Fixed more holes and streaming issues in Castle
Miscellaneous visual polish
Fixed a couple of places where player could get stuck unable to move
Added potential fix to bugged Midas’ magic sight’s material
Midas heat bar won’t show anymore on top of main menu when the game is loaded
Fixed a bug that caused enemies to get into locked areas in the Castle
Fixed a faulty collider that would stop Vulture bolts from passing over Cursed Chests
PATCH 0.1.9.47935
A week’s worth of updates in one patch.
Highlights:
Added ADS modifier setting for both mouse and controller community request
Potential fix for enemy spawns that stop functioning for the duration of the run community feedback
Hunger’s charged bullets and Freezing Bullet will no longer disappear when reload is canceled community request
Also tweaked the visuals: color of the bullets won’t go from blue to orange (charged -> normal) right after the reload has started
Lightning Bolt’s range has been increased slightly community request
Gameplay:
New sounds for the exploding barrels
Fixed incorrect or missing reload interrupts in following scenarios: community feedback
Jump after already performing two jumps – won’t interrupt
Jump after walking off the edge and falling – will now interrupt
Dash while airborne – won’t interrupt
Sprint without actually starting to sprint – won’t interrupt
Healing with no elixirs available – won’t interrupt
Pressing Healing key won’t interrupt sprinting when player has no elixirs in the inventory
Pressing Fire while airborne with running velocity will prevent the player from continuing the sprint after landing (unless Sprint key is pressed again before landing)
Held inputs now reset when pausing the game (i.e. via opening the menu). This prevents them from being pressed indefinitely after unpausing
Running speed while Exhausted is no longer slower than normal walking speed
Snare updates:
Snare minions (eyeballs) no longer stack on top of each other
Vulture bolts no longer pass through Snare minions
Enemy projectiles can now destroy Snare minions
Added a particle effect to a disappearing Fire Orb (Arcana effect)
Fixed some Gatekeeper power sources geometry clipping
Fixed an issue that could spawn unreachable enemies during Rituals on Irongate Castle community feedback
Teleport audio mix now triggers way closer to teleport
No more progress research while killing the Hermitorium Revenant
Treasures shouldn’t spawn anymore outside of the player space in Castle’s boss arena
Fixed access to treasure spawn behind statue in Castle hallway
Pausing the game will no longer “lose” some of the input logic
This potentialy fixes a lot of issues with targeting, casting, interruptions and other player-weapon interactions.
Applied a possible fix to the bug that caused Swordsman’s telegraph sound to be inaudible
Applied a possible fix to the bug that caused the Eye of the Madwoman’s thunderstrike’s sound to be inaudible
There are now always exactly two cursed chests on each expedition
This was always the intention – due to a bug, sometimes there were less or more cursed chests present
Fixed a cooldown bug for spells with charges (might help with some of the reported issues with casting being blocked)
Switching weapons back and forth in Gunroom no longer blocks reloading, ammo usage and ADS stamina draining
Fixed issue with Interact input still being pressed after closing the menu
Tech:
Hermitorium stairs collision fix – no more interrupted sliding community feedback
Hermitorium vista cosmetic fixes
Fixed a bug that added to the stutter during traversal between zones
Significantly reduced rendering cost of poisonous plant fields
Fixed two instances of falling out of level while inside Castle
Fixed camera clipping through some level geometry in Castle
GPU optimizations in a few Castle arenas
Cosmetic fixes in Scarlet Coast villages
Fixed streaming bug causing parts of level to disappear when hugging some hallway walls inside Castle
Disappearing calamity portal shouldn’t leave active portal sound behind
PATCH 0.1.8.47828
Last ping this week unless someone finds a game breaker in this patch (let’s hope not). Half of the team went to GIC (Game Industry Conference, https://gic.gd/) so we shouldn’t be risking anything else for the weekend. The main reason for the patch is to fix the enemy spawns.
Gameplay:
Fixed the cursed chest breaking the spawn system
Added a potential fix to the spawn system breaking all together
Now a faulty scenario spawn can — but doesn’t have to — affect only that given scenario but not the whole run. Please report if any of these two things happen to you!
Pathfinding bug fix – enemies should now more consistently push their target as well as reach their destinations
FIxed melee attaching to enemies – no more flying around. For now.
Tweaks to Swordsman jump attack and teleport logic to allow them to get into more locations
Minor pathfinding optimization
Added a failsafe that should prevent two Cursed Chests from spawning in the same location
Tech:
Fixed v-sync being unavailable when only DLSS SR is on but not FG. Now only FG disables v-sync community request
Cosmetic and collision fixes on Scarlet Coast
Tower ruins on Scarlet Coast now have precise collision for easier climbing
Added option to switch Run action between Hold and Toggle community request
PATCH 0.1.7.47804
Lots of nice things in this one. See the highlights. Also, a few buffs to the player. We want a hard game but a fair game. A few nice QoL updates up in this patch too.
Highlights:
Cloud saves community request
Added an option to disable low health and stamina exhaustion effects community request
Gameplay:
Traps (including the Warden) are now added to the game at higher player level community feedback
Game ramped up in difficulty too fast at the lower levels. This should let new players get a better grip on the core combat before the witch starts throwing new obstacles at them
Player HP during the Assassin Calamity capped higher, at 21. You will survive small damage once, now.
Fixes and tweaks to research progression
Fixed errors where player was being granted random amounts of research while simply walking across level. This fix slowed perceived research speed significantly so we boosted the amounts granted elsewhere to compensate for the change:
Following ghosts and killing bosses also gives research points now
Killing enemies now grants small amount of research up to 7 points of research. This is mostly to help some players with early item unlocks during the starting hours of the game to compensate for situations when you have problems with area clears
We’ll keep an eye on how it all turned out, so please report your overall feelings after those changes
Lowered the Research Time of the first Heavy Spell from 25 to 15
Removed Mine spawnpoints in Sunken District that could trigger on player spawn
Enemy footsteps now more clearly audible in short ranges and the midst of battle
Headshot now sound always audible always, even when you snipe at long distances
Extended duration of the post death camera effect and tweaked logic to better showcase the enemy behind the final blow
Lowered the tick rate of the Grenadier AoE effect to decrease its stamina penalty
Tick now occurs every 0.5s instead of 0.25s
Damage dealth per tick increased from 2 to 4
Added Volatile Witchfire reward to Soultrap event (the bigger the better you do during the event)
So those of you who do it before unlocking Demonic Weapons don’t feel like you wasted your time community suggestion
Spells with charges should now work properly on any charge and do not block casting
Spell cooldown UI was adjusted to better display charge status and whether the spell is available or not
Fixed a bug with incorrect notification text being displayed after trying to upgrade stat at the max level
Unveiled Arcana now display feather icon and short explanation that it’s possible to unveil them using White Raven Feathers
Watching you play made us realize that it wasn’t clear that you can unveil third Arcanum in a row simply by using White Raven Feathers. Now it should be more clear
Interaction prompt will now always appear regardless of your HUD visibility settings
It was possible to accidentally hide interaction prompts completely. It looked like a bug, especially when using “minimal HUD” preset, and could be confusing to some players
Added small version indicator in the top-right corner of the screen
Calamity Projectiles now resemble sentinel skulls and no longer deal damage, they only strike sanity of the preyer
This should hugely help with dispatching Catalyst vortexes while having two close range weapons
Tech:
It’s now possible to bind mousewheel in your KBM controls scheme
Few more ‘stuck in geometry’ fixes for Coast and Castle levels
Lots of enemies and traps got optimized when viewed at distance
Added Discord and Patch Notes links to the main menu
We want to be in touch with as many players as possible and this change should make it easier to find us. We also want to be transparent how the game evolves, and thus made the patch notes to be more accessible
PATCH 0.1.6.47760
This week we are focusing 99% on optimizations, QoL updates and bug fixing. There might be one new feature soon but if we manage to squeeze that in, it’ll mostly concern new players. In other news, next week we’re starting the work on a big update planned for the second half of November. We will also reveal the road map. Finally, expect a cool blog post tomorrow!
Gameplay:
Adjusted Mines explosion ranges
You can now run away from the Sanity-draining Cursed Chest ritual to avoid further Sanity drain
Removed Mine spawnpoints that ended up in a rock
Removed occasional wrong visual effects near interaction objects
Fixed an indestructible Gatekeeper Switch on the Scarlet Coast
Fixed a Cursed Chest Barrier Scenario bug that caused a black aura to linger on enemies after their protective aura was removed
Removed collisions with a destroyed Cursed Chest
Players can no longer claim rewards off failed Cursed Chest rituals
Added a few stream sounds that were missing in the Castle’s Garden
Easier to climb the tower ruins on Scarlet Coast community pain relief initiative
Did a minor tweak to the way being in proximity to a portal affects the ambient sounds
Fixed Stamina Bar overflow bug
Fixed crouch related dash bugs
Temporarily removed Larvas from Cursed Chest Barrier Ritual enemy pool, in lieu of other enemy compositions
Larvas were encountering numerous serious problems in this event (like being invisible), we’ve temporarily put them on the bench until we sort those problems out
Tweaked the behaviour of the first boss’s dome to better represent the intended design
The dome now scales down to better represent that the player is supposed to stay inside
Changed the damage interval while outside to 1s up from 0.67s, and fixed the time of the 1st application
Shortened the duration of the dome from 90s to 31s
Tech:
Reduced CPU and GPU cost of all chests and some other spawnable gameplay items
Added an icon for unknown keyboard input
Some of you use more exotic input devices, like AZERTY keyboards. Currently we can’t make custom icons for all possible inputs, but we added a generic “unknown input” icon. This way you know that the game recognized you input but simply can’t show a correct icon
Added quick weapon swap binding to keyboard (default: Z) community request
Added subtab swapping bindings to rebinding menu
Fixed issues with binding keyboard’s U key
Miscellaneous collision fixes, light visual polish and more level optimizations community feedback
2023.09.30 – PATCH 0.1.5.47713
We’ve done an extensive pass over all the Light Spells, fixing, tweaking, and balancing them. Some even got new powers…
Highlights
Blight Cyst:
Fixed the growth animation, explosion range and damage
Removed friendly fire and proximity detonation
Replaced the Second and Third Mysterium powers with new ones
Fireballs:
Fixed projectile target acquisition and homing
Changed base charges to one, increased to two with the Second Mysterium
Shockwave:
Fixed Shockwave’s recharge on Third Mysterium
Lightning Bolt:
Affected targets now scale with each Mysterium
The spell now correctly stuns the first target with the Third Mysterium
Frost Cone:
New Frost Cone’s Second Mysterium bonus
Third Mysterium now properly refreshes the charge. Changed required targets from 3 to 5.
Wretch, Musketeer and Assassin hit particle effects from projectiles disabled if they hit the player community feedback
The fights are now even more dynamic with your vision clearer
Double and Triple mushrooms are now much rarer, but restore much more health
Finding a rare mushroom should be a reason to celebrate
Gameplay
Fixed missing Mysteria objective descriptions for some weapons
Tweaked the sounds that play during the Bell Ambush, making them audible at longer distances
Added new sounds that play when opening Ammo and Supply Chests
Improved Wisp navigation capabilities
This will hopefully eliminate instances in which it got stuck and the event couldn’t proceed
Added a second completion condition to Wisp
Even if for some reason it can’t move, it will run out of power after summoning enough enemies
Fixed some Angelica spawns that clipped with geometry
Fixed multiple unreachable Cursed Treasure spawns in Irongate Castle
Tech
Fix for dematerialized enemy bodies stopping bullets and projectiles
Insanity post process eye adaptation fix
Fixed some Scarlet Coast bushes blocking bullets
Removed an invisible wall blocking the entry to the wooden pier
Witchlock switch minor optimization
Fixed animation blends from equip to sprint on Hailstorm and All Seeing Eye
HOTFIX 0.1.4.47685
We’re getting reports that the Castle has some performance issues on some setups. We have found one culprit, and even though this does not fully solve the problem — which is a puzzle in itself, as during the development the level ran very well — we’ve decided to publish it right now before the next bigger patch. We will continue investigating but you should feel a difference nonetheless.
Just to make life more fun, we’re also releasing experimental redesign of Balewort. Hopefully we didn’t make it op. With much larger pool of player data, it was obvious that Balewort was under-performing by a huge margin, compared to other Fetishes. Those changes should make it a viable choice.
Highlights
Major optimization to navigation requests performed close to multi-layered navigation planes
Translated to human language, enemies will calculate their paths to you much faster than before
Balewort’s rebalance:
Healing Essence now drops when you are below 75% health, instead of 50%
Increased Healing Essence drop chance from 10/12/14% to 30/35/40%
Gameplay
Fixed a bug that allowed multiple chests to spawn in the same location and prevented a more even spread throughout the level
Tech
Fixed a bug that forced Horizontal FOV scaling even if that option was overridden in the Engine.ini file SuperUltraWide fans rejoice
2023.09.27 PATCH 0.1.4.47671
Our short term focus will be improving the new player experience (without killing the spirit of the game) and balancing. Expect some nerfs and buffs in the Friday’s patch!
Also, as always, we’ll be taking care of various bugfixes (e.g. 2nd and 3rd Mysterium of various spells and items) and QoL updates. We’re working on the game’s roadmap as well. Eta? Next week or the week after. We are having tons of discussions based on your feedback and need to make some decisions first!
Highlights
Swapped Shockwave with Fireballs in the Research order community feedback
After a lot of player feedback, we realized that Shockwave was way less new player friendly than we thought – and as such it didn’t work well as the very first spell you research, and probably your first research ever. Fireballs should fill that role much more better. If you already researched Shockwave, it will remain safely in your inventory.
Gameplay
Fixed weapon upgrade objectives, now correctly marks them as complete
‘No Ammo’ warning shows up when using Demonic Weapon
Blunderbusser and Dimacher now show properly on the minimap (instead of as tiny white dots) community request
Preyer now becomes invincible after stepping into a portal community feedback
Another pack of fixes helping ghosts find their way
Ghost wont startle you now when you are too close
Removed flickering from Wisps and trapped enemy souls during the Soultrap event
Removed mine spawnpoints around one of the Castle’s starting portal
Tweaked duration of the killcam after death
This should help understanding what killed you
Killcam will be improved / longer in the next patch
Boss on the Scarlet Coast should always spawn now
Fixed locations for two bugged Gatekeeper’s “batteries” – they spawned inside geometry, which made them unreachable
New sounds for the Ring of Excreta
Tweaked the way the Gatekeeper’s Power Sources’ idle sound propagates in space. This change should make them much easier to locate
Chests now spawn more evenly throughout the level
Fixed a bug that prevented flying Effigies from displaying their particle effects: beams, explosions on death and teleportation effects
Fixed a bug that prevented most Effigies from correctly displaying their healthbars and names when you targeted them
New treasure and event icons
Fixed a bug that caused Survival Ritual to Succeed even if you moved too far from it.
Tech
Added ability to remap Map button (default M)
Improvements to the off-navigable area teleport logic
Fixed elite enemies effects remaining post death
Significantly less textures streaming in the Castle
The Castle remains less smooth that we know it can be. Consider …not Ultra. Top men are working to discover the source of the curse!
Miscellaneous collision fixes and visual polish community reports
Fixed bug with the last row of Arcana being not entirely clickable
Fixed bug with icons on the map being not clickable at times
Fixed bug with black screen after pressing Esc immediately after death
Fixed a bug that was causing the a part of the drops’ sounds to play twice
Fixed a bug which caused Shielbearer to play his Shield calling animation twice in a quick succession
Known issue/next patch
21:9 and other ultra widescreen ratios don’t work for everyone
We have a fix but it’s an engine-level change. We didn’t want to risk it with this patch, needs extensive testing first
2023.09.25 – PATCH 0.1.3.47576
Highlights
The focus of this patch was to finally reign in Calamities and the Warden. And thus: community Astro colab
Warden now has way lower chance to trigger Calamity
Warden now moves slightly faster and might decide to abandon his search for you earlier
Destroying traps doesn’t raise the calamity roll requirement (it’s still there, it’s just not growing anymore for now)
Calamities now grant sweet drops on completion. Use them wisely
Gameplay
Improved base Echo power and increased max ammo capacity (36 to 48)
Very long story short: slightly more damage to pellets, less to explosion make it a better gun early on (can one-shot Husks with a well-placed headshot). This massively improves its early game ammo economy, makes it viable at low-level content and more fun to level-up.
Reduced Hunger base range 16>15m and ADS range 22.5>21m
Our first nerf, rip the dream. But the gun was too hot. We slightly lowered its effective range to keep things relatively balanced, while keeping it beginner-friendly
Added low ammo notifications except for Demonic Weapons
Ammo economy is super important in the game but it’s easy to stop counting in the heat of the battle
Lowered kills required to upgrade Echo and Hailstorm
Taking their lower max ammo reserves into consideration, both Echo and Hailstorm were supposed to have lower upgrade kill requirements. They did not, until now.
Added “Stun Power” to weapon inspect screen. An important stat!
Ammo Chests can no longer spawn in two extremely hard to reach places
Increased Mines proximity trigger delay by 0.1 sec
Changes to explosions speeds made it a bit to difficult to get out of the mine’s range without taking damage
Removed almost every level up notification like “A new event unveiled”.
This was an infospam, didn’t really add anything, ruined the mystery and made no sense (witch reacting in 0.01s after levelup)
Added fail-safes to Effigy of Scabs that should prevent wandering enemies from acquiring permanent invincibility shields
Calamity Catalysts no longer spawn the portals inside Village geometry
Flame barrels now properly set both enemies and the player on fire
Dramatically lowered the amount of damage flame barrels deal to the player per tick
Reduced tick damage from the poisonous flowers
Enemies should now properly spawn in the Castle’s garden, and grant Crystal at the end
Sentinels now block damage when closed
Tech/graphics/audio
New skulls and ammo map icons
Fixed multiple instances of displaying incorrect mouse input icons
Tweaks to crouching animations across all weapons
Dash should no longer kill you community pain relief initiative
Fix to player fall damage vo sound not playing if the velocity was low enough to take fall damage but not high enough to trigger the harshest animation
Minor systemic AI optimization
Minor shader, texture and geometry fixes
2023.09.22 – PATCH 0.1.2.47492
Highlights
We had a fantastic opening hour …for people who knew how to play the game. A few nuclear changes to make it new player friendlier:
Increased the starting weapon range
The world (seed) when you’re level 1 is now the same for all players (i.e. minimum potentially punishing RNG on the first map)
Lowered the cost of the first three level ups
Apothecary and the crafting of Healing Elixirs are now available from the start instead of Level 2
Husk Archers arrows don’t set the target on fire anymore
The witch reacts to your growth but it was too much (not to mention bugged). To make the game more fun for higher level players:
Way less often Calamities for “aimlessly wandering about”
Wretch Calamity (the cold one) requirement lowered to 10 kills
Assassin Calamity (the slo-mo one that lowers health) shouldn’t request Assassin spawns while it’s inactive now
Grenadier now comes into enemy pool at lvl 15 (still can be triggered earlier in events), other enemies unlock after him
New traps are added a bit slower to the pool. Max number of traps on the map rises slightly slower with further level-ups
21:9 and other non-16:9 aspect ratios should work properly now
Also, more resolutions available for your display device
Gameplay
Inventory: added option to consume entire stack of crystalized witchfire at once community suggestion
Vastly reduced the intensity of the stamina exhaustion post process effect community request
(we’re working on some additional options to turn some of the effects off – but that will require a little bit more work)
Iron Cross now correctly progresses towards its upgrade requirements
Crouch Toggle/Hold option now works correctly
Wisp now stops spawning new enemies when players move too far away
Moreover, if the players moves too far and doesn’t come back for a long while, the event fails and all spawned enemies de-materialize
Proximity mines trigger zone no longer stops projectiles
Henbane now heals up to maximum health in the Elixir’s current healing duration
Multiple Cursed Chests can no longer spawn in the same spot
Enemies now teleport to a navigable area after too much time outside of it
Settings: QoL improvement: settings no longer stop at the first or the last option (you can cycle through them using one button) community request
Apothecary: changed ‘Herbs’ to ‘Angelica’ to avoid confusion
Melee/Spell/Elixir + Dash combo no longer makes the weapon disappear
Melee now snaps properly to all enemies
Enemies won’t attack until they’ve fully materialized
Inventory: added section which displays ALL items
Removed misplaced trap spawnpoints that could trigger as soon as the player entered the Irongate Castle
Galley Slave now grants rewards on death
Fixed an Event-related infinite witchfire exploit (who found it?)
The ghost that leaves footsteps should have less problems leading the player to his possessions
Tech/graphics/audio
Fixed evil sinkholes in some rocks geometry
Fixed missing collision on crates and other stuff in the quarry
Miscellaneous visual polish
Tweaked volume of impact sounds.
This should make shooting and kills even more satisfying
Tweaked the volume of the explosions when using the Ring of Excreta
Cool new sounds coming soon
Known issues for the next patch
We now know exactly what causes DLSS Frame Generation crashes but might take a moment to deploy a proper fix
2023.09.21 – PATCH 0.1.1.47414
Highlights
Doubled the Angelica spawn rate community suggestion
Fiend is now green on the radar instead of red justice for Bobby
Negative luck modifier now properly resets after triggering Calamity
Lowered the chance for Calamity to trigger on traps interactions
Both above mean less Calamity chaining / a bit more rare Calamities community and Astro colab
Tech/graphics/audio
Added a potential DLSS FG related crash fix.
Added warning information when using DLSS Frame Generation. It is known to cause crashes for some players, we’re working on a proper fix
Fixed visual glitch on some open chests on lower quality settings
Castle gate chains no longer levitate by the forbidden magic
Fixed invisible forest collision, few more visual fixes
Fixed a bug which caused the headshot sound’s volume to be controlled by the Dialogue Volume in the Audio Settings
Gameplay
Barrels can no longer spawn inside chests
Cursed Chest can no longer spawn an excessive number of enemies
Added missing collision to Cursed Chest
Itinerant portal (the orange one) properly spawns in every run now
Elixir Station in Apothecary now properly shows the elixirs produced
Your remains now properly show on radar community suggestion
Cricket’s inspect screen no longer shows an incorrect Clip Size
Warden’s map icon should now properly disappear with him
2023.09.20 – Hotfix 0.1.0.47362
Strange Coins are now Bound instead of Unbound, meaning you don’t lose them on death. That was the idea from the start, they were Unbound by mistake
More Arcana packs to research. We have reshuffled Arcana close to release and …puff, some disappeared for a second
Lowered unlock requirements for Incantations. They didn’t really need a higher level (15/30) req, now you can evolve your weapons earlier
