Serpent in the Staglands - Additions & Fixes

Serpent in the Staglands got a big update on June 7:

Update 8 went live earlier today, with the following additions and fixes to known issues. Included in this is enemies mid and late game with more challenging abilities and harder hitting attacks to match a savvier, more powerful Spicer and company. We’ve updated some spells and skills that needed it as well, and have listed them in the bottom section. We’ll continue to balance as we hear and see is needed to prep the high-level expansion starting areas down the road. *Note that some economy or world-changes such as that will only affect a new game, and not disrupt places you’ve already been to or anything.

Steam and our patches area available since this morning, and if you’re waiting for GOG we’ll be sending that to them tonight when they get into the office. Our new downloadable builds will be up in ~6 hours.

Additionally, the long awaited manual update and downloadable version is going to ready today, and we’ll announce when that is up! It will be packaged at GOG as well downloadable from the current Online Manual page.

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• Ending scenario which can cause characters not to move fixed
• repeated tombstone in Lumen Targ fixed
• Its Cale Moon Lord Shrine layering issue resolved
• Camp water layering issue resolved
• Fire imp random encounter now spawns correct enemies in the West
• Re-entering areas through different entrances set you in correct position
• Economy adjustment for sell prices and merchant purses
• Lebez cellar exit easier to navigate to
• During confrontation in Lebez someone could spawn over an object, resolved
• Its Cale dresser that was bugged with trying to spawn dialogue now fixed
• Bruul island raft now saves correctly visually
• Bruul dialogue update
• Kyrrilu from Emerald Mines now sells as intended
• Mines superintendent now closes dialogue properly
• Enemies will not cast Shimmering Scales on your party
• Enemy spells could start in wrong location visually, fixed
• Iele could be frozen when hit in some scenarios, fixed
• Fuldea Mare layering issue on tower
• Returning spice mission from Lev now grants reward
• Untouchable objects in Lumen Cave near fields fixed
• 2 chests found in Lebez that were not clickable now open as expected
• Grigore of Rumin now sells wares via dialogue
• Imps now have their attacking sounds in all scenarios
• A few art layering issues in Corem resolved
• Catalina convo may get interrupted in Ista Cale, fixed
• When someone is walking toward you to commence dialogue, you cannot pause or quick save
  
  UI:
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• Item description update to show stats on top.
• Small portrait update
• Emerald Mines map navigation map error resolved
• progression to get from 3 to 4+ WPN Prof made smaller
• WPN Prof reaching 9 stars now shows correctly
• updated minimap FOW to display cleaner
• Moving units now stop when paused
• Margarita now conducts conversation when intended
• Mod numbers for CS properly reflect item deduction/enhancements
• Mod numbers for CS go to shorter decimal now
• Meads and torches in early areas may not stack, fixed
• Dressers in Lumen Targ that were inoperable should now in all circumstances
• Gems: removed numbers next to them in inventory
• Two low-tier wands averrable have updated descriptions with more info
• Can now open the Incantation Book from the quick-inventory
• Can now cast spells when targeting portraits right when you enter a level
• A handful of map’s camera boundaries for the overworld map were too wide, fixed

Skills/Spells:
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• resolved issue with pausing during spell-proc and having cast speed set to 0
• Skill Strafe: no longer shows up in their hover description if they recently took damage from it
• Skill Poison Weapon: appropriate damage reduction
• Spell Arcane Attack: increased damage output
• Spell Eclipse: reduction, online tables being updated soon with newest information
• Skill Shield Bash: applies item AC to damage appropriately in all scenarios now
• Skill Concentrate: no lunger duplicated in character sheet
• Disabled traps turn into disabled trap art, instead of just disappearing now
• Wolf Form doing intended damage now
• Some de-buff incantations resolved when it could land on caster instead of target
• Imp stolen stats now count towards unlocking tiers of Spell and War books

More information.

Agris wrote a nice short review on Steam:

It's a classless game system, where your investment into combat and non-combat skills entirely determines how your character progresses.There is an attribute system that influences combat skills and has its own stat pool, while combat and non-combat skills share their own stat pool. You get a set amount of points for both pools on leveling up to split across 5 attributes and over 50 skills / spells / aptitudes. The companions don't exist to massage your ego (though they're a lot more likely to if you bind their soul to yours), so romancers need not apply.

Without quest markers, a journal that automatically updates itself and a tutorial, expect to take notes and rely on your own observations to drive the story. This game respects the player by not treating them as a child who needs "something awesome" to happen every time they press a button.

Hard and thoughtful, though never punishing, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. For those that find it too hard, read the manual! http://serpentinthestaglands.com/manual/#page/6 it should come as no surprise that a game so firmly rooted in the 90s that it's actually rendered in 400x300 and upscaled, really needs the manual read to understand how to build characters and explore the world. I also recommend making several avatars, including a tank with points in str and a weapon + shield skill, and a healer with a point in int/occ and taking blood cocoon (heal). Once you polymorph yourself into a cat to fit into a tree trunk and find *******, you'll realize the game is taking you as seriously as it expects you to take it.

Bought this on release day, but held off playing because of the bugs. Maybe now I'll finally give it a try after my current Bioshock playthru is complete.

Well I was thinking about firing this one up today or tomorrow, but with more updates promised, I'm going to wait, for now.

Well, I'm interested.
After the bugfix and polish, this game looks to be a real gem.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Well I was thinking about firing this one up today or tomorrow, but with more updates promised, I'm going to wait, for now.

That's how I've been looking at it. The game is on my hard drive, and I've fiddled with it somewhat, but I keep hearing about more fixes and whatnot, so just figure that I might as well wait a bit longer.

They said patch #9 will be their final fast patch. After that they will work on adding bigger things community asked for like some UI enhancements. I think patch 9 should be out soon.

So for people that waited for first round of patching to be one, you can start playing after patch #9 (I plan to).

Your other options is to wait for "enhanced edition"

Patch 9 is now ready as well:

Patch 9 should finish off the remaining kinks we’ve seen and some of the other smaller ones, and includes a few more balance items and UI additions! Steam and patches are currently up, we’ve submitted to GOG, so they should upload it soon as well!
If you do see any errors or fringe cases please let us know on our forums or Steam page and we’ll mark it down! We’ll be having a small UI update down the road with some of your suggestions that will take a bit more testing or weren’t a huge priority, like windowed mode in Windows to scroll properly (this is a universal Unity engine issue we’re looking into a workaround for) and some other requests for other camera movement or hotkeys.
We’ll be continuing to balance leading up to the expansion as well, but this will be more sporadic going forward. Closer to that release we may add in any neat AI updates for new enemies onto some of these older ones (like new spells/skills and mechanics for them for grade 4, or other AI updates). More on that in the future.
For those of you who purchased the art book, we’ll be having a KS update soon related to that (we’ll re-host here and Steam like usual), so stay tuned!
Version 9 Updates:

General:
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Trap description update
Rune book requires a bit more precision, cannot be activated until returning to scene
Binding a character after they attempt to abandon you changes their portrait appropriately.
Soul bound companions, once dismissed, cannot be found again
Emerald Metalis barracks map could have issues when entering with full party, fixed
Harvester animations may not correctly play burrowing animation, fixed so it always plays
Bruul hostility fixed which could occur for some players
Various merchants in Rumin and Corem given more money (only occurs if you haven’t visited yet).
Some companions, when released, could be found again with duplicates and wrong inventories, fixed to have correctly saved inventory and without original clone
Hitting barrels no longer procs combat-starting skills
Less chance of enemies spawning near you upon load if in hostile area (unless you missed some in the grouping you are in/near)
Additional thieving imps added to various NPCs

UI:
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Toggle added for running the game in background *if you’re experiencing memory allocation issues on Windows, advised to leave this turned off*
Magic Axe description updated to correct skill name it augments (Crushing Blow -> Seismic Swing)
Arrow keys to move camera now have hotkeys
Chain whip description updated with correct stats
Ringmail Coat: New — description update for correct stats
Various helms and rings updated with correct AS stat reflection
Attack speed number could display to a large decimal, fixed

Skills/Spells:
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Turn to Stone damage output changed in game feed: once proced it instantly kills target — no longer displays target’s health as damage
Poison Weapon damage reduction, but now includes any Skill points in Herbology Aptitude to give a flat bonus
Amplify visual effect positioned correctly
Shimmering Scales had chance to stack AC bonus, fixed
Searing Light effect could linger above enemy cast on it if interrupted, fixed

Are you playing this Archangel? Do you/anyone have some impressions? I haven't gooked around the site yet for threads about this, but I will.

Too many games. I'm nowhere near done with W3, but there are so many toys out there….

I bought the game on release day as i really liked what i saw but it kept crashing so i am keeping it on the side for after the patches. Looks promising.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Are you playing this Archangel? Do you/anyone have some impressions? I haven't gooked around the site yet for threads about this, but I will.

Too many games. I'm nowhere near done with W3, but there are so many toys out there….

It is very different than modern games, very old school. No map of level your are on like in IE games, no automatic journal, no hand holding. I have not played darklands so I cannot compare it with that but I can say it is a mix of Fallout 1/2 and BG games.
It is still rough around the edges but for 20$ it is a good game.