Test Games/2022-03-20

Test games are special games occasionally launched by admins to test updates, experimental features and maps.

As test games are run to test specific things, they may not progress in the normal way (for example, heroes may be spawned artificially or monsters may be given additional mana) so that we can more easily test new features. They may be buggy or unbalanced, and may need to be restarted multiple times. Quest, achievement and stats progress may or may not be saved as normal. In-game tutorials and other text may not be updated to reflect changes being tested.

Test games help us ensure new updates work properly and allow us to get player feedback on possible new features and maps. If test games are running, anyone is welcome to join through the main portal in the lobby. We might miss some comments in game chat, so it's helpful to post feedback in the Discord afterwards.

What are we testing?

Today's test games include several adjustments to minor heroes to make them feel more engaging to play, and would appreciate your feedback after experiencing them in-game. The test game also includes several smaller quality of life features and some bug fixes.

Lord of the Undead

No longer receives resistance from holding the Staff of Defile. Instead, rampaging with the Staff of Defile will allow Lord to build up to 30 absorption hearts which persist until they are lost through damage.

While resistance is a fantastic buff, it is not noticable and many players did not feel Lord was very useful as a result. With a more visible absorption heart shield, players will notice Lord's tanking ability and also be able to utilize it for repairs or regular combat when no longer holding the Staff of Defile.

Salogel Sureshot

Salogel, when drawing back her bow during a rampage, can now store a rampage onto her next shot. While any dwarf can fire an arrow during a rampage to deal rampage damage at a distance, this allows Salogel to do so outside of the 3 second rampage time. This allows her more utility inside, giving her more time to line up a shot on pesky monsters sitting in hard to reach places.

Priestess Arianna

Arianna's pylon no longer disappears after a set amount of time and is now permanent; instead it can be attacked and destroyed by monsters. The pylon buff range has been tightened, but effects now last longer and properly refresh. Her pylon now emits light providing protection against buffed monsters nearby. These changes are to encourage Arianna and other players to play around the pylon and its buffs as presently the pylon's range is so wide players rarely need to think about it.

Note: There will be some inconsistent client lighting in these test games. Lighting behaves consistently for determining blindness, fury, etc despite this.

Sprocket and SuperHorse

Now have nameplates.

Shrine Bar

Adjusted the shrine bar to reduce flickering and occurences of lingering shrine bars.

Blaze Cannons

Reduced the randomness on launched fireballs.

Fixed issues with slowness not getting applied.

Fixed a longstanding issue with fireball passthrough.

Slimes

Slimes can no longer mount an already mounted target.

Stats Command

Now shows stats related to your current role. Can display stats of the other role by using the "dwarf" or "monster" argument respectively.