Category Balrum news

Hello there dear backers!

We would like to ask you all a favor.
We will start the Steam Greenlight process for Balrum tomorrow (fingers crossed). If you are able, please vote for us. As soon as our Greenlight page is up we will post another update here on Kickstarter.

The next beta version of the game is shaping up nicely. You will see a sneak peak of it in our Greenlight video.

The hardest part of Balrum’s development was that we had to show you an incomplete game (beta). Thanks to your feedback and countless development iterations we finally can safely say that the game reached a new milestone and is near completion.

Thank you for everything guys! See you soon!

Hello there guys and girls!

This update is for those who are eligible (pledged enough and selected the proper pledge) for the following things:
-npc design
-monster design
-item design (create a magical item addon)

Sorry for the months of delay. We are finally at the stage where we can focus on backer content! Everyone has received the BETA of the game so now you have a feeling about the world of Balrum. This should help you in your designs.

If you already sent us your design simply ignore this and the emails/kickstarter messages which we will send soon!

(8 of you who are able to design an NPC have not replied to our emails)
(3 of you who are able to design a Monster have not replied to our emails)
(a lot of you have not replied regarding your item designs)

For those of you who haven’t replied we simply can’t do anything. Please reply if you want to have your design in the game.

We will finalise the backer content design list this weekend!

Have a nice day!

Hello there Backers!
We have been very busy with Balrum in the past few months. The next update will be a big one. Another mega update! But you need to wait a little more for it. It’s not ready just yet. (this means the new version is not available yet) Anyway we would like to talk about the new features and changes.

New technologies:

New Renderer 
We have written a completely new renderer that uses modern OpenGL. The old renderer is still in the game and will be in the final game to preserve compatibility with really old video cards. The new renderer allows us to use smooth zooming and gamma correction. Lighting is a bit smoother too thanks to the new tech. You don’t have to do anything to enable this new feature. The game will determine if your system is capable to handle the required OpenGL. (if you are having problems with the new renderer you can revert back to the legacy renderer using the config file option: modernOpenGL n=”false” This was a really big challenge, but we felt that this is an absolutely needed feature. The new zoom is much better than the legacy zoom. With the new renderer we rewritten the display creation system. This system has better compatibility with Linux systems and tries to find alternative methods to start up the game if something goes wrong. The new renderer in action:

New Input 
We had to completely rewrite the input system for the game. Finally there are no unintendedbehaviors (clicking outside of the spell book while the spell book is displayed does not start a “walk that way” command..etc) and “tap” clicking is working consistently. Also now you can use double keystrokes to trigger the always walk feature and you can even adjust the delaysbetween individual keystrokes and mouse double-click recognition. Pretty much everything input related is reconfigurable. The new input system in conjunction with the new input part of the GUI enables much smoother cursor movement and an altogether much smoother GUI interaction. The annoying buggy shift/caps-lock detection is a thing of the past.

Main Game Features:

New GUI 
The GUI pretty much has been rewritten too. Not all of it but at least 60-70% of the code has been altered. Everything feels better. There are new fade effects on the panels and interacting with the GUI is much better now. The new GUI allows you to open up more than one container in the world so now you can more easily manage the contents of your chests. The new system allows us to zoom the GUI, but this feature is not complete yet. Items that have state variables (like a durable pickaxe that is usable multiple times until it breaks) have a small indicator next to them for you to see their states immediately without the need to hover on them for their tooltip. Sliders are easier to use now. There are dozens of small new GUI features which we will talk about below.

Building
Building is totally new. The new building uses scrollable lists...

Greetings dear backers!

We have another engine update for you before we release the content/balance update. Version 0.89_14.

The new version contains dozens of fixes and lots of cosmetic and small gameplay changes. Sadly saves are not compatible.
You can find the updated version at the usual place!

Things are looking good!
At the moment our graphics team is working on tropical art for the game.
We originally thought that we won’t be able to have special “not truly needed” graphics in the game but it looks like we will be able to put in a lot more art! (people sitting at the inn table, children npcs, fat npcs, birds flying around, etc)
We made sure that Balrum has interesting and deep history and if you choose to read everything you find in the game you will be able to discover three thousand years of history.
In the beta there are three music tracks that play in the game (there is four but only three actually start to play). We hope that we will have at least 10 tracks at release!

We still don’t have an official release date, but we are aiming for a summer release!

Back to the content update for us!

And as always.
Have a nice day.

Hello there dear backers!

Here we are with another minor update to the beta. A lot of the improvements are under the hood improvements, but you will see a whole lot of small fixes and adjustments all around! As always thank you for the bug reports!
What’s in the update:

-Increased world simulation size (NPCs will be more active with their daily lives)
-New NPC behaviors (for example: the town guards will turn on torches around the villages at sunset)
-Your pet is now smarter and he/she will be more precise while performing your commands
-Added a “Select” button to the pet bar
-Added a reset button to the blacksmithing panel so you can easily restart experimenting
-Added sliders to the GUI making navigating lists way more comfortable
-Added a large number of GUI goodness (fading panels, nicer effects, more precise control)
-When a friendly NPC is in your way (standing in a door for example) you can push him/her so you don’t have to wait for them to get out of the way
-More zoom options
-Added a “stackable” property to item tooltips if needed
-Added a faster combat animations toggle button to the options panel
-Added ability to simply press “enter” when the usage is obvious
-The spellbook now reorganizes itself when a savegame is loaded filling the holes that might have been present do to “one cast” spells
-Now you are able to destroy your tent
-New targetless AOE spell effects for certain mobs (be careful where you are standing agains a skeleton warlock)
-While in combat if you point your cursor at your pet you will now see its health and mana
-Added new “gameplay” tab to the options panel
-Good/Bad deeds are now logged
-Traders now refresh their inventory every other day
-More sleeping NPCs (finally female NPCs go to sleep too)
-Pet agro now grants a small amount of agro towards the player (when the pet was the only combatant, upon dying the enemy did not go after the player)
-Wind now affects berry bushes too
-Not every animal attacks you on sight any more (there are peaceful monsters out there)
-Numerous small map changes
-Added spells with random cooldown times
-Faster startup times
-New internal datatypes for large data
-Lower memory usage
-Overall performance improvements

Grandpa no longer trains you in the arts of the arcane. He was asking way too many thalers for his services from his grandchild.

-Fixed: NPCs won’t notice your crimes
-Fixed: Sound effects playing at the wrong places in the world
-Fixed: While transformed (rat or mantis) you hear human footsteps when walking
-Fixed: Pet attacks twice when pet initiates combat
-Fixed: Lighting popping
-Fixed: Spellbook errors regarding “one cast” spells like the forget crime spell
-Fixed: Trading panel bugs
-Fixed: Item icons sometimes were a little bit smaller or bigger when swapping them
-Fixed: Sometimes selecting a spell for use is not responsive
-Fixed: Item state not loading properly
-Fixed: Player walk freeze sometimes when the pet killed a selected enemy
-...

Hello there everyone!

Version 0.88 of Balrum is now available! Update 0.88 is a minor update and mainly a bugfix release but there are a few new features! All of the bugs that you sent us have been fixed (fingers crossed). A huge thank you for all of you who sent in reports and a special thank you for those of you who helped us reproduce the bugs!

You can find the links at the usual place! (The OSX version needs the JDK to run not the JRE)

-Finally the 2x zoom option does not make the mouse super fast.
-There is an “always walk” feature for your convenience. (default key for it is X)
-In the options panel you will find a new toggle button for increasing the size of the cursor.
-Right click menus now have a close button.
-When it’s raining you can catch some rain. (camping button)
-Entering the escape menu now pauses the game.
-We disabled the minimum resolution checking when resizing the window. (Linux users reported strange behavior)
-There was a rare bug with looping sounds. Now the sound system should properly stop every looping sound effect.

If you copy your saves folder please delete your old config file! Savegames are compatible with this release.

Please keep sending your bug reports if your time allows it!
Thank you and have a nice day.

Hello there dear backers.
It is way past the release date. Sadly we have to announce that we need more time. We need at least a few extra months. We don’t want to release an unfinished product. Balrum has to be polished!

There is good news too! Balrum is getting much bigger and we are adding extra features along the way. The remaining chapters are coming along nicely and we have a big update for you right now.

We would like to ask you guys something. What do you think about an open beta for all backers? The beta version has been out now for a long time. We are way past the release date so we think that we should at least give the beta to those who bought the game but had no beta access.

The beta does not include backer specific and backer created content. The content created by you will be in the final product.

The new beta is available now at the usual place!

Crafting has been rewritten and redesigned from the ground up. Now we have multiple craft panels for each crafting stage/element as opposed to everything being in one large panel. All crafting systems are more comfortable to use and all remaining crafting related features have been implemented. Now you are informed via a tooltip when something is not right about your custom recipe.

Now you have a chance for a critical craft! Items will receive a minor bonus if a critical craft has happened. You can increase the critical craft chance with a few items.

All those previously unusable items are now usable in at least one of the crafting systems.

Some weapons now have special on hit effects.

A few new items worth mentioning:

You should check out the trinket that Grandpa gives you! It might help you out in certain situations, but be prepared for a few surprises when using it!

Building your house has also received a big update. Now you are only able to build in a certain place (see what Grandpa has to say) but you are not restricted in any way. No more distance restrictions and other unnecessary things. You are able to build lots of things this time around (almost 4 times more than before). Also you will find special schematics for statues, paintings, trophies all around Darkwood.

Now you are able to build pig and spider troughs. You can release your bought/found pigs or spiders near the appropriate trough. Your livestock will produce “goodies” in the nearest barrel. If your animals are fed regularly they might produce offsprings.

All remaining disabled quests and unfinished quests are now completed. You can except quests that have radical outcomes if you choose your path loosely.
Spoiler ahead! For example: You discover the true origins of an NPC and if you decide to cruelly inform him about this new knowledge the consequences might be dire. This might even put other NPC’s lives in danger.

There are a number of new traps in the game including the “Taming trap” which enables you to capture a new pet if your Hunting skill allows it...

Hello everyone!

We are making steady progress! The remaining bugs are fixed and the content update is on it’s way!

Here is what you can expect from the next beta update:

• Every skill is redesigned and now the skills have more meaning. Every skill has a detailed tooltip explaining the skill.
• The unfinished quests are now finished: (spoiler ahead!!) For example: The sick troll quest is now completable by curing the troll (various ways) or by killing it.
• Building your home has been heavily altered. Now instead of being able to build a house in specific places, the story will reveal a safe place for you where you will be able to build your own home early on in the game. A build button has been added to the main bar.
• Hundreds of new sound effects are in the game.
• Lore bits are finally in the world! This means that you can find old letters and documents that the long forgotten inhabitants of Darkwood wrote. We think that reading these texts will help you understand the history of the woods and Balrum.
• All crafting systems have been redesigned. As we mentioned in our first beta update the crafting systems were really primitive. Now we feel that we have well working and more comfortable crafting systems for you!
• Now there are recipes/schematics hidden in chests and other places in the world that you can learn from.
• Translation support is finally complete! All text in the game is now accessible via simple xml files.
• New AI behaviors are implemented. For example: a mainly ranged enemy will try to use it’s ranged abilities more often than it’s close combat ones.
• There are already many mini games/puzzles/secrets in dungeons. Now there are a few of them above ground too. Some of these puzzles are only completable if you read the lore bits and find the information you need to solve them.
• Special weapon and armor properties. Quite a few weapons now have special on hit effects and give the player various attributes. There are armor sets in the game now. These sets will give the player extra attributes and effects if a certain amount of the set pieces are equipped.
• Information! There are small helper tooltips where there should be one. These will help you understand how certain mechanics work in the game.
• Item tooltips now tell you more about the item. For example the tooltip of a potato will inform you about how nutritious it is.
• Combinable items are now more useful! There is a new combine button on the main bar. This button will bring up the item combine interface. You will be able to create items that do not require a special crafting facility. For example: fire arrows, torches..etc
• The character panel is redesigned and the quests menu finally has been updated too.

In the upcoming weeks we will send everyone who pledged more than the base game an email regarding their rewards. Some of you have already sent us ideas and descriptions about what you would like your npc,monster or special item..etc, to be like...

Hello, everyone!

First and foremost, thank you for everyone who sent us bug reports! We have been working on fixing these bugs and rethinking some elements of the game based on your feedback on the forums. It is time to release a new version of the beta. This version is mainly a bugfix version. There are a few content related updates but our main focus was to make the engine as bug free as possible. In the coming weeks we will fix the remaining few issues and any new bugs that we find. After that we will focus on content. Based on your feedback we know that we have to rethink and redesign pretty much all crafting systems and skills. So the upcoming update for the beta will be a major content update. You can download the updated game form the usual link.

It’s great to see that there are people who are helping others on the forum. Also, there are people who spent a lot of their time helping us in identifying/reproducing bugs. For this we are sincerely grateful.

It is burning hot here in Hungary! We hope that all of you will have a nice and safe summer!

Because of the major fixes previous savegames are not compatible with the latest beta version. The new config.xml is at „files/saves/”. The game version is now „Balrum_v0.0.86_beta_003”.

Old school graphics option:

Old school

Major fixes:

Quest: Osrick’s feed the pigs quest was causing CTD (crash to desktop).

Quest: The player was able to rebuild the burnt down door while standing on the door’s tile.

Quest: The rebuild your home quest is now not completable without repairing your home.

Quest: No more CTD while entering the secret area where Hugo died.

Sometimes the lighting system would skip a frame causing a flicker.

Various tooltip fixes.

Various Quest dialog fixes.

Fixed a bug that may cause CTD when learning a new recipe.

Fixed an error in the positioning of the trade panel.

The watersack is now usable and refillable.

The visibility indicator is now properly displayed.

If wolfs killed some deers the player’s hunting skill might have increased.

Fixed numerous player experience related bugs.

Fixed a bug that prevented the player to level up.

Sometimes the raining sound effects did not start when they should have.

Fixed a rare bug when crafting panels would go haywire.

Attackable objects properly react now.

Prism turrets when pushed away from their original place were not blocking fireball like effects after a game load.

Fixed a bug that was preventing skill stats to reset upon starting a new game.

When spliting up items the spliting up panel sometimes disappeared or showed up wrong.

When luring an enemy far away from it’s home sometimes they were unable to go back after they lost interest in the player.

Reassigned hotkeys now properly show the reassigned keys on the hot bar.

Lockpicking logic adjusted and because of the new crime system it needs to be closed to stop the lockpicking action.

Numerous savegame related bugs fixed.

The player is now not able to go to sleep while in combat.

So...

First of all, we are sorry for the extra delay! One thing we learned is that it might seem like there are no problems at all.. but sneaky problems always lurk in the shadows! Oh, and another thing is that we need to be more careful from now-on with deadlines.

All of you who are eligible to participate in the beta already received a key that will allow you to play the beta. For everyone else we put together a video showcasing the new content.

There are a few areas that are considered really early prototype versions: -weapon crafting -armor crafting -bow abilities. All crafting systems need more work and will be much more complex in the future! Also not all features are in the game (character creation).

We are planning to release a couple of updates for the beta version. With your kind help we hope to fix a few nasty bugs hiding in Darkwood so please if you find a bug and your time allows, send us an email describing the bug and how to reproduce it. Also if you find a fatal error (an error that will cause the game to crash) please send us the debug info by pressing the “Send debug.txt” button in the launcher.

Enjoy the beta and have a nice day in Darkwood.

P.S. you need to put abilities/spells into your main bar (at the bottom of the screen). You can find your spells/abilities in your spell book ‘S’. You can select one melee ability and one magic to be your main attacks (left click is the melee, right click is the selected spell). There will be tooltip informations everywhere in a future update.

We updated the beta to version 002. If the window title says 002 that you have the newest version. If it displays Balrum_v0.0.85_beta instead of Balrum v0.0.85_beta_002 than you have an old version so please re-download the game. This is an important update so please make sure you have the 002 version.