Dev Blog

Welcome everyone to Alpha 7! The big highlight of this patch is of course the release of the Halloween Event for 2022.  But it also contains many game features expanding the core functionality of the game. This blog post will summerize the changes, and a simplified change log will be written at the bottom.

Alpha 7.0

Feature: Repair and Death

Before today's update when you died Death would take a sizable chunk of change (based on your equipment and the quality of it).  This "Death tax" now been moved to the new Repair and Durability system, and in doing so the amount of gold taken when you die is less.

All items now have durability. Which is basically a value of how much damage it can take before it breaks. When an item breaks it can no longer be used, but it doesn't get destroyed forever. You will simply not benefit from its stats any longer. Well at least until you can go repair it.

Repairing gear is fairly easy. Just visit a blacksmith or select merchants around the world. Repairing gear costs gold, but not nearly as much as how much Death previously took each time you died.

Durability is reduced by 10% on all your equipped pieces of gear each time you die. And each time you take a critical hit a random piece of armor will take a durability point loss.

Feature: Full Keyboard Support

You may now use just a keyboard to do most things in the game.

Many question why Keyboard support has been a feature we have been working on for so long when, "the game already let's me use a keyboard". I would like to clear up this confusion now. Only a few select places had keyboard support previously. The point of this feature is to get keyboard support in all places. Keyboard support is also important because it is needed to support controller support.

The process of adding keyboard support was more than just mapping keybinds to every button, but also required us to figure out how U.I. components connected to each other. Imagine what would happen if you were to hit the left arrow key while on a specific button or list. Does it go to the next thing on the left? This may seem obvious, but some menus can get a bit confusing.

Feature: Controller Support

You may also use a controller to play the game! This is the first release of controller support and as such should be classified as experimental. As Mei said, "Controllers are finicky, every controller works a bit differently," fully supporting this feature will require many iterations and much more testing.  We also need physical controller hardware here at our studio to test every controller. There are so many controllers out there.   What we have done though is we are supporting the "Xbox" controller spec which seems to be an industry standard for most controllers.

Please see this blog post to see a post outling the controls and buttons mapped for controllers:
Aether Story Controller Support

What's still needed in the controller support department? We need to test more controllers and need to smooth out many interfaces to be more controller friendly. One suggestion made was to better label the battle screen for your controller. Also, Mei is passionate about adding user hotkey/binding management, so players can configure their controllers themselves. This feature should be coming out by Early Access or shortly thereafter.

Feature: Social Menu: Friends

The Social Menu finally makes it to Aether Story: you can finally have friends. By popular demand, I have finally added the friends list. This allows you to add other players to a listing that you can check if they are online, when they were last online, and easily message and interact wtih them.

Friends are not mutual. Meaning you can add anyone as a friend, and anyone can add you. You do not need to mutually agree to be friends. This is mainly because the system is a lot simplier to design this way.

Feature: Guilds

The first version of Guilds have also been added to Aether Story! Wow! Much social. To create a guild visit the Clerk in the Domhan Outpost Command Hall and register a new guild for 10,000 gold. Or you may join someone else's guild. Use our Discord to find or recruit for your guilds.

The basic Guild functionality has been added, including: guild chat, guild tags, guild ranks, and guild message of the day.

In the future Guilds will provide new features and game play opportunities. Including guild storage, guild halls, guild perks and even guild pvp.

Halloween Event 2022

What's New This Year?

• Two new pets have been added that you can buy with Spirit Charms.
• A new cosmetic Mask hsa been added purchasable with Spirit Charms.
• A new Trickster Pumpkin quest has been added to farm pumpkins to get a Pumpkin Pet.
• A new one-time side quest has been added to better explain the lore of the Halloween Event, rewarding Spirit Charms.

Features Returning from Previous Years:

• The Spirit Mazes are back. Run them solo or in a party to farm Spirit Charms.
• The Beholder's Lair Dungeon is back in both Normal and Hard-Mode. Don't try this one alone.
• Blood Chests spawn in the Spirit Realm. They reset occasially so be sure to check them once a week.
• Spirit Cages spawn around the Spirit Realm and can be looted once a day.

Log into Aether Story today and join in on the Halloween fun by visiting the witches in the Domhan Outpost.

If you are looking for help gathering Spirit Charms check out the Spirit Charm Guide.

Change Log

0.7.0 - 0.7.1

• Repair and Death
  • Death no longer takes gold when you die.
  • Gear now has durability. When it runs out your gear will no longer function until its repaired.
  • Repair your gear at a blacksmith or other select merchants.
  • When you die your gear will now take 10% durability.
  • Taking a critical hit also will reduce one random piece of gear's durability by a point.
• Weight Update
  • Weight is now supporting decimals (non-full numbers).
  • Many items have had their weights updated to be lower.
  • For example Potions now weigh only 0.1 weight (down from 1)
• Guilds
  • Visit Clerk Joey in the Domhan Outpost Command Hall to form your own Guild for 10,000 gold.
  • Guild commands include: /ginvite, /gquit, /gdisband, /gkick
  • A new guild menu may be found in the Social Menu.
• Friends
  • A new friend menu may be found in the Social Menu.
  • Shows when your friends were last online and their current status.
• Keyboard Support
  • Interact in most menus without using the mouse, if desired
• Controller Support
  • Play the game with just a controller (with the exception of typing)
• Halloween Updates 2022:
  • New Pet: Lil' Zombie - 600 Spirit Charms
  • New Pet: Zombie hand - 600 Spirit Charms
  • New Mask: Spirit Mask - 600 Spirit Charms
  • New Quest: Jack the Pumpkin - collect pumpkin essences to get...
  • New Pet: Pumpkin Pet
• Bug Fixes:
  • Explosives in the Flooded Lode now shouldn't be lootable after completing the quest.
  • All health items that give a max health buff should heal you to full as well now.

0.7.2

• Halloween
  • Bug Fix: Spirit Cages should now properly spawn in the Spirit Realm and Beholder's Lair dungeon.
  • Adjusted the amount of Spirit Charms rewarded from all sources:
    • Spirit Mazes -
      • Completion: 50 Charms (up from 20)
      • Lost Spirits 5-10 Charms (up from 1-5)
    • Daily Quest: Eye of the Beholder: 100 Charms (up from 50) Defeating the Beholder boss.
    • Spirit Cages - 1-5 Charms each (up from 1 each) scattered around the Spirit Realm, respawning daily.
    • Bloodvine Chests - 25 Charms each (up from 10) vines gripping chests in the Spirit Realm, respawning weekly.
  • Increased the difficulty of Trickster Pumpkins by allowing more to spawn in single battles.
  • Increased the difficulty of the Bloodvines surrounding the Blood Chests slightly.
  • Increased the drop rate of Pumpkin Essences from Trickster Pumpkins.
  • Added a new merchant option to the Witch that gives the pumpkin quest, allowing you to buy the raw Pumpkins and the Pumpkin Pie recipe with Pumpkin Essences.
• Misc:
  • Added a new merchant option to Miss Betsy Moo's Farm Handler in the Domhan Outpost. Who now sells Milk in limited supply.