Supporter newsletter 12

Issue
This is a copy of Eternal and Diamond Supporter Newsletter #12, published by Grinding Gear Games.

Hello Diamond Supporters!

Last week was spent on 0.10.8, which was finally released on Friday. This was exciting (and nerve-wracking) for me as it was the first patch I did most of the production work on. I was very pleased when it was finally on beta without any major issues, if a bit later than intended.

As scary it was, the next major patch has a few challenging things also. The white board is full of big issues, such as large melee changes.

While I’ve been learning the ropes of production, Rory has been working on the unique items.

0.10.8

0.10.8 included three Diamond unique items: Lori’s Lantern from TakenNotGranted, Zahndethus' Cassock and Lightbane Raiment.

All three of these items included adding some mechanics to the game which we plan to reuse.

Lori’s Lantern has a mod that makes makes the damage monsters do “reroll” twice and take the lowest value. In adding this we decided it needed to be keyworded to explain it, and added support for this mechanic for other randomised elements. Look out for Lucky and Unlucky to appear on other Unique items.

The other two items tell a story of a fall from grace, and add the ground effects Consecrated and Desecrated Ground. Consecrated ground provides life regeneration, while Desecrated Ground does Chaos Damage over time. As these required new art and mechanics, you can be sure you will see these ground effects in other places!

0.10.8b

The patch this week is going to be a much smaller patch, while we work on the bigger issues for the next major patch. It will include a set of unique items, including a helmet and a wand from Prpnnightmare and Zand, as well as items from GGG and Brother Laz.

Rory is now working almost exclusively on Unique items. We also have a new programmer, Daniel, joining the team. With the additional team member, and a focus on these items, we are aiming to increase the number of unique items we release every week.

We are planning to get more unique maps in soon. Maps take a lot of additional effort compared to other items, however they have proven very popular, and an excellent addition to the map running experience.

Insider Info

The image linked below is a planning image for a more full art progression for helmets.

http://i.imgur.com/eOtHfy3.jpg