June 9, 2022
Corruption of Champions
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A while ago, I gave Balak pretty much free reign to do a combat mechanics update, and he’s now delivered on the first of two major gameplay patches. Some of the devs and a group of backer volunteers have been rigorously testing Balak’s changes to date, and we’ve all agreed they’re a big enough game improvement to release into the wild. To go along with it, we’re also releasing the huge changelog of narrative tweaks I talked about a month or so ago, and bumping the game up to its 0.5 milestone.

Current saves work flawlessly with the new systems and narrative tweaks to the extent of our testing. Still, I’d highly recommend starting a new playthrough just to enjoy them all from the start!

Balak has asked me to pass along that he’ll try to read the comments on the post and in the forum and discord threads to answer what questions he can about his decisions.

There will almost certainly be weird edge-case bugs, and new/exciting ways you can break the game that we didn’t find. As always, please report issues on the bug report forum!

0.5.0 Patch Notes, Part 1: Combat Changes

  • RESOLVE has been removed from the game. Any power or effect that would increase or decrease Resolve now applies to Health. Health is now calculated as follows: 100 + (25 * level) + (toughness * 5) + (presence * 2) + any additional modifiers.
  • Oil of Oliban has been removed, and a commensurate number of Vulneraries have been added to your inventory if any were present.
  • Threat is no longer random. The character with the highest Threat level in your party will now always have priority.
  • At-Will Stances automatically activate as soon as combat starts, without using up your turn.
  • Companions now have the same XP as the Champion. No more needing to take your friends out grinding to keep them leveled; they just share your level at all times.
  • Blue-balled is now a 20% debuff to Focus and Mental Resistance.
  • Champion’s Resolve is now +20 Health.
  • Base Tease damage has been increased, now that it’s targeting the overall Health pool.
  • Arona’s Take Her Pleasure scene now procs based on how long it’s been since her last orgasm, rather than her Resolve levels.
  • Berserker Arona replaced Warcry with Kiaijutsu; Spirit Totem Arona replaced it with Steady Strike. Her Nightfang has +10 Spellpower now instead of +10 CritChance.
  • Kiyoko’s Slip of the Mind perk is now +20% Health instead of +35% Resolve.
  • Brienne now shares the same elemental vulnerabilities as Brint.
  • Etheryn’s Outrider set has been revamped.
  • Etheryn’s Chastity perk gives her some vulnerability to Tease and Pheromone damage.
  • Hornet High now grants +10 Max Health; Venom Craving imposes -20 Health but grants +10% to Tease damage dealt.
  • Bleeding now properly cuts healing in half.
  • Healing’s scaling with Spellpower and Critical power has been cut in half.
  • The Lureling no longer buffs your Companions if he steals them.
  • Only one of the two Jotuns in the Rift gets an extra action per round.
  • Reduced the number of Hobgoblin reinforcements that spawn by 2.
  • Silenced and Disarmed durations are no longer additive if they’re applied multiple times.
  • Trying to stun/prone someone who’s immune doesn’t interrupt their stances anymore.
  • MANY powers have been updated for balance purposes due to the Resolve cut.
  • The stats on most bows have been adjusted.
  • Every background grants a new starting item.

0.5.0 Patch Notes, Part 2: Narrative Changes

  • Dog Days has been moved up to a main story quest; you can no longer enter the Alraune’s garden without getting the loggers from the camp to help cut a hole through a great wall of briars sealing off the Alraune’s inner garden.
  • To compensate, Hethia now has new sex scenes in Dog Days (unless you lose to her in combat, then you get no bitches).
  • Many Etheryn interactions throughout the early game have been revised, including her initial meeting, her first interactions at camp or the Frost Hound, and her reactions to seeing Alissa in the Winter City speech event; mostly this is to make her narrative a little more coherent if you DON’T interact with her a lot before the Winter City dungeon.
  • The Winter City’s actual boer’alvarin name, Njorhaalt, is now sprinkled throughout Etheryn’s content. I got fed up enough with using “The Winter City” in her new quest I’m working on that I decided to give it a real name :V
  • Dreams are now a modal you can turn on/off entirely — well, mostly. Dreams tagged as being actually important will go through regardless, but the at this point overwhelming bevy of fun/random/lewd dreams are all able to be turned off from the options menu.
  • Jael’yn’s lethicite is now a topic of discussion with the Alraune and Farrah, if you sent her to the Wayfort.
  • When you bring Cait to Lady Evergreen, you can now rebuke Evergreen’s offer entirely and go to find Barney yourself without her pointing the way.
  • Cait’s Dancer set is now acquired immediately after the tutorial; just talk to her about her other talents!
  • Brint has an all-new set (also applies to Brienne) he starts with right off.
  • If you turn Brint into Brienne while Elthara is pregnant with Brint’s child, there’s a new scene between them.
  • If you gave the Harem Cats coin to help them get home, you’ll eventually get a letter from Calill saying they made it home safe and sound.
  • Garth has a new talk supporting both the Dog Days changes, and introducing the Corrupted Lupine plotline after they become a thing (which also leads into an upcoming character, Drifa).

Also New Content Just Because We Love You:

  • Evelyn has a new scene for Champ’s with dicks of 4″ or smaller, and who have done the [Obey] option in her pitch anal scene.

So, that’s a hefty package worth of changes! But what’s coming up next?

I’m currently working on the final encounter and bad-end for Etheryn’s quest to hunt down Queen Alissa. Berry’s 2nd quest is already in the code mines, and now that Mayternity is over with and these fat stack of coding is over with, I don’t think it’ll be too much longer before that’s released into the wild. An adorable new half-lupine cleric NPC, Drifa, is also almost ready to hit the game — and following that, a steady expansion to the Corrupted Lupines plotline.

My current plan is that, once RynQuest 2 and its followup character/sex content is done with (*internal and external screaming*), I’ll pivot back to Khor’minos and either write up Isadora as a proper NPC or do the next CaliseQuest (ie, the main story questline).

At some point in the future (not soon!) there’ll be a followup mechanical patch, taking into account feedback from this one, focused on item and power balance and addressing any issues this patch has brought up.

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