Build numbers are for boring people! Check out the patch notes for today’s new build.

New Dread Spire Under Construction

The Dread Spire has changed from a single huge map to a hub and spoke system with smaller maps and handcrafted themed boss floors. The majority of the dungeon is unfinished, though you can encounter many of the new and upgraded enemy types:

• New: Ascended Cavalier
• New: Ironbound Foomcrawler
• Evolved: Cultist Theurge, Cultist Annihlator, Cultist Titan

The final boss encounter is CLOSED and unavailable for the time being, but if you’re a high level Dungeonmans and want to help me out, kick the tires in the new final dungeon and let me know what you think.

Please note that the numbers for these high end monsters have not yet been tuned, but the Cavalier and Foomcrawler can do upwards of 500 damage (before armor) on special attacks, so step lively.

If you are loading a save from a previous build, you’ll need to visit the Headmaster and reshuffle your Overworld to have the Dread Spire work correctly.

Character Sheet Overhaul and Stat Changes

Pressing SPACE will open a full detail character sheet with all gameplay stats as well as a description of each of their effects. If there’s anything there that is unclear, please let me know!

Ranged, Melee and Spell Hit have been merged into a single Hit value.

Elemental Resists have changed to use ratings rather than raw percentages on gear. You can still use scrolls of resistance that give you a flat temporary bonus while in tight spots.

Heroskins

Add your own images to the game’s collection of selectable hero sprites! For instructions and examples, head to your Steam install folder and look for “\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeonmans\how to use heroskins\”

Deadpulses and Special Enemies

The Manabones skill in The Terrible Basics of Necromansy will occasionally cause Champion, Boss and Ancient King monsters to spawn Deadpulses when hit, even if they don’t die from the attack.

Bug Fixes

• King of Thieves now drops stolen gear on death.
• Blueprints work again!
• Temple Traplords are now working correctly.
• Teleport traps no longer spawn on stairwells.
• Take Them With You! Now works correctly.

Hey Dungeonfans,

Since the very first time Dungeonmans was available to the public in 2010, I’ve done my best to engage with every player who wants to engagem talking about the game, development, and basically jawin’ about dungeons. With the launch of last year’s Kickstarter, I made the promise to be as transparent as possible with everyone who supported the game, and that same pledge extends to each player who shared their support with me in Early Access. The status of development must never be a mystery to people who ponied up good coin for Dungeonmans.

With that said, here’s the following bad-but-not-terrible news: I am separating from my partner and taking some time to get settled in a new location and pick the pieces back up. Normally, this sort of personal information isn’t really something I’d share, but as I explained above I feel like I owe total transparency to the people who gave me their support.

What does this mean for Dungeonmans development?

• I won’t be actively working full time on the game for at least the next week. I’ll be spending a lot of this time traveling and we all know not to code and drive.
• I will miss the next few live streams, at least a week’s worth.
• 1.6 will almost certainly not be delivered next Tuesday– I’m loathe to miss the schedule, but I don’t feel like I can get the job done correctly in days to come.

Now let me be very clear on one point: Dungeonmans is NOT going into a murky, endless, development hiatus.

Working on this game is one of my great joys and work will continue once I get my shit wired and things settle down. I will do my level best to remain available for questions and conversation, both via email and twitter, while all this is going down.

Lastly, I apologize for letting this personal issue get in the way of delivering the game I owe you. The last few weeks have been a difficult period and I simply haven’t been firing on all cylinders. No doubt there are some of you who feel like you are being let down. Please contact me directly if you feel like there’s something I can do for you to make things right.

Crypts/Undead

Undead monsters have undergone a complete balance pass and new variations have been added to cover the entire leveling spectrum. Previously, it was quite likely that when you entered a Crypt you’d encounter some monsters that were 5+ levels stronger than the area you were in. These unfortunate events would often lead to what was best described by an instance of player feedback: “total bullshit deaths”. I agree.

Make no mistake, Undead are still powerful enemies! But they will level and scale appropriately to the area you are in. If you are in a level 5 part of the map, you won’t see level 12 Damned Necromansers sauntering in with 300 points of cold damage every round. The power of the creatures scales to the location, not the player’s level, so if you outlevel an area the monsters won’t suddenly grow in power to match you.

Undead Champions have been given a host of new Champion Powers that you will only see if facing off against a Champion or Ancient King version of the monster. Some of these are rather brutal and adventurers heading into crypts need to be prepared for anything.

Doors

Two important features have been added regarding dungeon doors: the ability for monsters to open them, and the ability for players to spike them shut.

Door Spikes are new items that allow you to close a door and spike it shut, forcing monsters to break the door down to get through. Spiked doors appear with a lock symbol on them, and when attacked by monsters they will shake and show damage numbers as any other object would. Door spikes vary in the amount of damage they can withstand, look for higher level spikes in more dangerous dungeons of the world.

Monsters may now open doors. When a monster is actively chasing you, it may find that the quickest path to your location is through a doorway you may not have opened yet. Even worse, ranged monsters fleeing from you might step into a room that you weren’t ready to open!

Chest of Exiled Champions

New to 1.5, Chests of Exiled Champions are caches of powerful treasure that may appear in any Dungeon map. Brave Dungeonmens who want a shot at exceedingly rare loot may dare to challenge these chests at their own peril!

Other:

• Blueprint turn-in crash fixed.
• Occasional crash heading down to a new floor fixed. This was caused by bad stair placement.
• Fortify Weapon/Armor scrolls now provide the correct tier of bonus.
• Searing Ray targeting should no longer break.
• Teleport traps have new and easier to see art.
• When stepping on a teleport trap, any loot on the trap will be picked up first.
• Resource on kill weapon powers have been tuned down.
• Gender properly saves for player heroes.
• He/His in Quick Dash now changes based on player gender.
• Fix for Bandit type champions only acting every other turn.
• Fix for particle FX that were flying off to the upper left hand corner of the screen.
• Unique boss music has been added to Warlord encounters.
• New music has been added for Temple and Crypt boss fights.

Temple Traplords

Waiting at the inner sanctum of Temple maps is an encounter with a Temple Traplord. Surrounded by whirling blades, vicious spikes, and rotating pillars of flame, the Traplords are said to be completely invincible, unable to be scratched by even the strongest Dungeonmans. Could this be true?

Masters Program: Grimdark Darkmans!

The first Masters Program is in game! Once unlocked by a Dungeonmans that learns the correct masteries, a Masters Program offers new and powerful skills accessible to any future graduate starting at level 9. The Grimdark Darkmans is a ruthless engine of war, and also a vessel of the most empty and black darkest grim grimness. Puppies and children will starve while your favorite characters are killed at their weddings! So grim!

New Backer Weapons

• The Lionsword: full of courage and fury, bolstering the power of some Sword and Board skills.
• Anavrin: ostentatious, flamboyant and full of potential, but doomed to never land a hit.
• Yoyogod’s Sturdy Banjo: The blood-soaked companion of a Dungeonmans great at fighting but terrible at playing the banjo.
• The Hexblade: A machined artifact of war, full of Science– perhaps too much Science?

New Monsters

• Carpenter Bee: This mid-game antagonist loves nothing more than fortifying their position with hand-crafted wooden barricades.
• White Triger Duke: Triger nobility? Oh dear.

New Feature: Overworld Regeneration

The Academy Headmaster now offers the option of creating a brand new randomized overworld while keeping the Academy intact. You’ll lose whatever progress you’ve made in the various towns and dungeons of your world, but will have a brand new map to explore and plunder.

Balance Changes

• Standard dungeon layouts have been shrunk (again!) and are usually 4 floors, with the occasional 5th.
• Dread Satellites no longer shoot Bolts of Doom all the time.
• Lava Lance gets less bonus damage from Spellpower.
• Enemies have a basic understanding of spike traps and will try to avoid standing in them, usually.
• The second tier power in every Mastery now requires level 3, and the third tier level 6. This will not affect existing characters.

Miscellaneous

• Buff Swap and Big Bamf won’t cause crashes in the overworld.
• Power tooltips should clearly display required level if you aren’t there yet.
• Fixed bug that let enemies counterattack arrows or spells when they should be countering melee parries only.
• Fixed bug with wrong tooltip being displayed when the masteries panel is open and you’re mousing over a hotbar slot.
• Prevented monsters from attacking obstacles they created.
• Prevented monsters from attacking F Bombs.
• Fixed bug with measuring Spellpower and calculating character stats.
• Fixed bug where ranged weapon comparisons weren’t working correctly.
• Fixed major bug that prevented items from granting the player additional powers.
• Monsters who can Counterattack now have an indicator over their heads displaying this ability. Attack at your own peril!
• Dungeon Pools have new art.
• Treasure chests have new art, *and* toss loot everywhere when opened.

Armory Crafting
* Blueprints for randomly generated weapons will sometimes be dropped by powerful enemies. Taking these back to the Academy will unlock them for construction at the Armory. Recipes are permanent once learned.
* The items are designed to be a step between tiers, slightly more powerful than regular magic items of a given tier but still outclassed by magic items of the next tier.
* This feature is being closely watched! Your feedback is very important.

Town Shops
* New variations on shops have been added to towns. Expanded weapons, armor, and even some rarer class-specific shops. This is still a work in progress.
* Items purchased from a vendor are Store-bought and will produce much less metal when melted at the Armory.

Champions and Bosses
* Enemy Champions have been tuned down from 1.1
* Villain Cloud and Slowing Strike have been pulled from champions.
* Warlord Harrier burst damage from stealth has been reduced by 150%

Temple Dungeon and Traps
* Much work went into these but they’re not ready for delivery yet. Expect them in 1.3.

Bug Fixes
* All Scorpomanser and Smokestalker gear should be storable in the Wargear Vault.
* Took a swing at fixing crashes on alt-tab or minimizing the window.
* Fixed various edge case crashes involving Wheel of Pain.
* Other minor bug fixes here and there.