Alpha 16: Combat Just. Got. Serious.

Welcome to Stonehearth Alpha 16! Or as we call it, The Fracas in the Forest. Or the Dustup in the Desert. Something like that. Anyway, this release is all about battles and fighting the good fight. To do that, your hearthlings will need more than Footmen to handle newer, meaner, nastier (as well as more familiar) enemies. So we’re bringing you not one, not two, but THREE new hearthling classes that will introduce entirely new dimensions to your town’s combat capabilities.

Introducing the Archer, the Knight, and the Cleric. Together with your existing Footmen, these form a formidable fighting force. The Knight is the tank, drawing enemy aggro and soaking damage. The Archer takes the ranged role; fragile in melee but able to do big damage from a distance. High level footmen focus on doing massive damage (DPS, or damage per second) to enemies. The Cleric, while capable of hand-to-hand battling, is really in a support role — casting directed healing spells and emitting a constant healing aura for nearby allies.

With all this new, beefy hearthling firepower on your side, you may be feeling pretty smug about taking down those annoying goblins, golems, entlings, and other beasties that have to date plagued your settlement.

To which we say: don’t get complacent.

Alpha 16 also introduces a host of new enemies… and they’re much tougher than anything you’ve faced to date. Not only that, but as your town grows, they become more powerful. The battle to keep your hearthlings safe and healthy has just begun.

You can also test your new hearthling fighting force in the continuation of the Goblin Campaign as well as an entirely new battle scenario featuring (shudder) Kobolds.

Read on for details of your new fighters… and your new threats.

The Archer

That still only counts as one!

• Requirement: Level 3 Footman.
• Promotion talisman: Archer’s Bow (crafted by the Carpenter).
• Upgraded quivers (special arrows) are crafted by the Weaver; in addition to raw materials, these also require poyo feathers, which are an occasional drop from poyo harvesting.
• As Archers level up, the damage wrought by their arrows increases, their range grows, and their speed and power become greater (armor piercing!). At their highest level, Archers can even nock and fire two arrows simultaneously.
• Archers are not particularly well-armored, so take care of their position in battle.

The Knight

Fight me IRL.

• Requirement: Level 3 Footman.
• Promotion talisman: the Knight’s Shield (crafted by the Blacksmith).
• Apprentice knights start with the “Fortify” ability, which naturally draws enemy aggro. They also receive bonuses to strength and stamina as their knightly training proceeds.
• Knights have an innate ability to increase the courage of those fighting with them.
• Their starting armor already soaks significant damage, and their advanced abilities help them make better use of armor upgrades as they level up.
• Heavy (steel) armor is now exclusive to Knights, so footmen can focus on being fast damage dealers. Note also that Footmen now do increased damage at higher levels.
• Knights cannot wield two-handed weapons, though Footmen can.
• Though the knight is effective on his own, he is much more important when you have squishier classes in your party, like archers.

The Cleric

Bless yourself before you mess yourself.

• Requirement: Level 2 Herbalist.
• Promotion talisman: Cleric’s Tome (crafted by the Herbalist).
• Clerics are combat units, and join parties with footmen, knights, and archers.
• The Cleric is a healer with some (albeit limited) combat abilities. He hits with his book. Have you ever been hit with a big book? It hurts.
• They support the ranged/tank/DPS triangle by making each sturdier and more effective at their job.
• Clerics lose the ability to craft potions and tend to sick hearthlings with bandages, but they can still heal injured townsfolk by standing near them: clerics emit a constant healing aura, and can cast directed healing spells at nearby injured allies.
• The auras increase in power, type, and range as the cleric levels up. The directed healing spell gets stronger too!
• In combat the cleric joins the footman and the knight in the front row, so that all your melee characters can benefit from their healing aura. They will also automatically direct their cooldown-monitored healing spell at appropriately injured allies.
• Clerics also add a buff to the Muscle attribute of those nearby; higher Muscle scores increase weapon damage.
• Add a cleric to a group of townsfolk in town defense mode, and see their chances of surviving dramatically increase!

Orcs and Ogres and Kobolds, Oh My!

Hey, who let these guys in?
Ready to test the new combat capabilities of your hearthlings? You’ll find a host of new, more powerful enemies waiting.

• Orcs come in three flavors: Footmen, Knights, and Clerics. So they’re playing with the same capabilities as your hearthlings.
• Kobold Archers are nasty. Their wolves are nastier.
• Ogres are large, ugly (really, they’re super hideous), smelly, and can take — and dish out — a lot of damage. Some of them also have the ability to break down doors. So just hiding in a house may no longer be enough.They don’t use keys… just their fists.
• Oh, yeah. As your hearthlings grow in strength, so do their enemies. Behave in a warlike fashion? Draw the notice of tougher enemies. Just trying to keep your hearthlings on their toes. You’re welcome.

But wait, there’s more! Your combat cup runneth over. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you:

The Goblin Campaign Concludes!

You have pretty skull. BONK!
At long last, Ogo Skullbonker makes good on his threat to come and take all your shinies. Will you fight him head on, or follow the advice of the mysterious Erdene?

Welcome the Red Kiln

Goblins. Goblins are children. Now you have a real enemy.
The Khan is dead, Long Live the Khan! The warriors of the Red Kiln Empire are looking for honor, status, and a good, knock-down-drag-out fight. Are you worthy, or will you prove yourself beneath their notice?

Important note!

Though Alpha 16 is save compatible with Alpha 15 and Alpha 14, you should start a new game in order to experience the new Goblin Campaign and Red Kiln content. (Old saves where you have completed the Goblin Wolf episode will not spawn the new encounters.) Also, if you load up an old save (pre-A16) with more than 20 hearthlings in it, your hearthlings may be facing more than they can handle. Or maybe you just want to watch the carnage. (Though that would be cruel. But entertaining.)

And as if that weren’t enough… there’s also:

Hard Mode.

Go ahead. Make your hearthlings’ day.
At the start of the game, decide if you want a peaceful game, a normal game, or to face off against dramatically more dangerous foes.

Moar New Things!

This release of Alpha 16 also sports other improvements and bug fixes too numerous to list here. But of particular note:

• Upgraded the renderer: improved performance on complex scenes with lots of entities, as well as improved performance with large numbers of lights and shadows.
• The “loot” command can now be found in the harvest menu. (Was formerly in the combat menu.)

And additional building improvements:

• You can now move around placed decorations and windows/doors on a building blueprint. (YES!)
• Fixed fixture_fabricator error when removing templates.
• Fixed the ui occasionally not coming up on startup.
• Fixed error where walls could not be grown on 1-high slab.
• Fixed error where fixtures are placed in an incomplete building on load.

Known Issues

• If you’re loading a save from a previous Alpha, you may receive an error message that the basic shield does not exist. You can ignore this safely.
• If you’re loading a save from a previous Alpha, and your Footmen were already equipped with steel armor, they will continue to wear it (though in new games, Footmen cannot equip this heavy armor). It’s a loophole. Enjoy it.

And a host of bug fixes!

• Food now appears only in one stockpile filter
• Clean up some unused buffs
• XP distribution fixes: xp goes to combat units around an enemy, around the attacker, and anyone who was targeting the enemy
• Fix for thread being counted as cloth
• Acceptable job icons no longer float over overlaying screens
• Fix for mining adjacent bugs
• Tuning net worth on various items
• Some more pathing improvements (hearthlings won’t zig zag around as much)
• Better cleanup when releasing objects in memory
• Now you can spawn an effect on an entity from the console
• Fix health inconsistencies b/w hearthlings and mobs
• Health is now tracked as an expendable resource
• Better cleanup of notification views
• Remove NPC knight and combat basic buffs, moved numbers to monster tuning files to increase transparency in designing NPCs
• Remove orphaned building structures for better memory cleanup
• Make sure grow walls doesn’t happen more than once for a given location
• Tweaks to bone axes
• Fix spaces and spelling in select game story. Because spelling counts
• Tons of tweaks to monsters and monster tuning
• Month and date added to clock widget
• Vision in combat is now symmetric
• Sheep jerky is now deprecated
• Tweaks to weapons
• Fix a bug where well-to-do towns weren’t getting raids
• Fixed attack leash bugs
• Add leashes when holding ground; defense command should keep people close to the banner
• Fixed units not participating in party commands when the party formation is blocked by obstacles
• Fixed units not engaging at a defense banner until attacked
• Fixed AI errors in ranged combat
• Fixed errors when demoting a crafter
• More combat and encounter tuning
• Tune net worth (buildings are now worth more, non-food items worth less)
• Fix citizen count staying at 1 after all hearthlings have died
• Fix new game settlement banner being able to be placed on trees and rocks
• Fix error when looking for combat targets
• Fix a case of rapid target switching if a defense banner is used
• More encounter tuning
• Fix bug where items in containers were not being placed
• Fix bug during combat when choosing targets
• Hearthlings now consider target health when prioritizing targets
• Allow raiding parties to hang around longer
• Raids on normal mode are now based on military strength to give players more time to recover from a hard beating
• Fixed bug when distributing experience points
• Fixed issues when merging new structures into a building
• Fixed bug rendering shadows
• Fixed level requirements for meat and veggie stew
• Fixed categories for leather bolts and gongs
• Tweaked sleeping schedules so hearthlings have a better opportunity to find a bed