NOW THAT'S A CHONKY BOI

Whew! This patch is a chonker. A large, long-standing bug has slain (although a new one may have formed in it's place), a slew of smaller issues, adjustments to quests, alternative completion methods... Big! Remember last week when I said I'd get the loot tables re-done? That one's on me, been busy with a lot of stuff in my personal life as well as things for this patch. Like I promised last week, soonTM.

Also continuing to chip away at the menu lock-up bug. If you're someone that has experienced it, please send me your specs so I can try and track down some common denominator.

Ephemeral Tale 1.23.4 Changelog

• Adjusted rate of random encounters in the Forgotten Forest (on average, it now takes 20 additional steps to enter combat, although in some cases it’s as many as 50 more steps)
• Fixed an issue where levels 48 + 49 were reversed in their placement on the skill tree (thanks, neoterrar!)
• NOTE: the above issue is fixed for new saves, but existing saves will still have the issue until I force a skill-tree reset. If the player hasn’t played since before the save file update, the skill-tree reset will fix the issue without them knowing there was an issue. Sorry for the minor inconvenience in the interim!
• Fixed an issue where using a Recall Rune while in a jelly portal area would cause it to bug out
• Using a Recall Rune with an jelly portal open will now cause the rift to close
• Fixed an issue where Sabrina would accept her Cauldron, but also let you keep it in your inventory and as such was causing time paradox related issues
• Fixed an issue where sometimes, chests wouldn't show the rewards that players received from opening them
• Raised the drop rate of the Tome of Lost Knowledge quest item required for Merlin’s acquisition quest
• Addressed an issue where quest-related drops (shell fragments, etc) could be inconsistent in their drop rates versus reported drop rates
• NOTE: Previously, the post-battle screen could report that you got (for the sake of example) 2 shell fragments, but when you checked your inventory you would have only received 1 (or even 0!) fragments. If you see it visibly drop, you should now properly receive it. For quest-related gear, you may see a "phantom drop." This would be if you see a piece of equipment without any rarity assigned to it in addition to the base item (Shelld & the Rowdy Hat may suffer from this), like this:
• CONT. NOTE: To my knowledge, I've fixed this bug as well, but can't confirm due to being but one fella. If you see this bug occur, please report it via the forums, discord, or twitter (or message me on Steam, but I may be playing doing research on something and ghost you for a bit).
• Added a safeguard to the chest containing the seashell that grants access to the Sunken Summit, if you have one and enter NG+ it will no longer spawn (as you already have one)
• Additionally, added an extra layer of protection to the Sunken Summit portal where if you do have several seashells, it will remove all of them rather than just a singular one
• Added an additional dialogue prompt for the Smithy’s quest in order to better point players in the right direction
• Added an alternative acquisition method for the Bread Crumbs for the Smithy’s quest

THE WORK CONTINUES

Another week, another bunch of work finished! I'm typing this at 2am, desperately trying to wrap it up so I can get to sleep. This week, work was done fixing bugs (like you can see above), working on some technical stuff for the upcoming zones (fogs and combat did NOT get along), and cleaning up the existing code base and engine work so that any future content beyond these zones is hypothetically easier to work with.

Cute, but dangerous.

Meet the first enemy group revealed for the Graveyard Grove! You'll notice two familiar faces alongside a new one! While the goal of these new zones is to get more value out of the already existing enemies, that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be new enemies to throw a wrench in your well-tuned combat scenarios.

Meet Impster: this little fella throws a mean right hook, and his Blaze skill will set a fire under your butt like something fierce! In addition to that, he'll also have a new piece of equipment for you to obtain and hunt down the best version of.

While I still don't know exactly when these zones will be available, I'm happy to say that work is going well on them. I hope to share more in the coming pupdates, but in the interim please keep sending your feedback my way! It's so crucial to improving the experience of each player.

Until next week, stay safe and have fun!
-- Ryan
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