The Council once held dominion over The Dark World, from the lowest Canyons to the highest Ridges. Their influence remains, a presence that tells of the [b]Remnants of Five.[/b] Lootmeister Hans, a former member of The Council of Five, has need of a delivery made to a destination unknown. Surely a hero like you can handle a simple package… right? [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/f68f8f6ddee475217d9d231aecbf4b2161eb07f3.gif[/img] [h2]Remnants of Five[/h2] In [i]Remnants of Five[/i], players will have a chance to meet Uulaa, the Ember Eye. Once a member of the esteemed Council of Five, the Matron of Flame has not been seen for many cycles. However, some say she’d prefer to keep it that way... Hans has tasked you with discovering the location of his long-lost friend. Where in the Dark World could someone like Uulaa be hiding? [previewyoutube=5d2zBlN0A2g;full]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d2zBlN0A2g[/previewyoutube] Along with this Legend, Stone Story RPG will also be adding a new shop, the Hotspring Shop, that uses a resource many of you have already been saving up: [b]Ki Crystals!*[/b] [i]*You can find more details about Ki Crystal economy further down in the post[/i] The Hotspring Shop will stock rare and hard to find items that players can purchase with their crystal currency. The inventory found here is of much higher quality than will be found in the Mushroom Shop; intrepid adventurers can expect to purchase valuable loot like nametags, legendary enchantments, and [i]even Lost Items![/i] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/3be36404fa4dc313160d905cdc8c9e0233247836.png[/img] Since the items in the Hotspring Shop will be of greater quality, the way the Ki Crystal economy works will be a bit different. Crystals, however, can be obtained both through playing the game, completing weekly quests, and finding them in Delta treasures. But that’s not all: this content patch also introduces Weekly Quests! Each week you’ll get a new set of objectives that, upon completion, will provide you with a [b]Crystal Treasure.[/b] [h2]New Scripts Added[/h2] As part of this content drop, we’re also including a few of our favorite entries from the StoneJam 4 as official scripts in-game! We hope you give them a try~ [h3]New cosmetic: Knight by: Mind Stone Thief, Gergő, XX, standardcombo[/h3] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/225d3a9ce2f525e0099da55bb6fb3d0d4d2eb9d2.gif[/img] To use in-game, add the following line to your Mind Stone: [i]import Cosmetics/Knight[/i] [h3]New mini-game: Mystic Sword by: Flan Bi[/h3] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/8c61e41d74feda2f220014024568be73049a108d.gif[/img] To use in-game, add the following line to your Mind Stone: [i]import Games/SwordGame[/i] [h3]New UI: Free Chest Tracker by: 10100111001[/h3] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/663857bb0b5483c33189abc4e59852ede18cd761.gif[/img] To use in-game, add the following lines to your Mind Stone: [i]var freeChest = import UI/FreeChestTracker freeChest.Main()[/i] [h2]The Quest Update Continues[/h2] Two down, many more to come. We hope you look forward to more adventures in the Dark World! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/9860e9e74e3699ff9a0f28aae0b0cbb5dc9aa131.gif[/img] [h2]Shop Mechanics and Game Economy (design talk ahead!)[/h2] While we want to make use of certain idle/mobile mechanics, PC players can rest assured that we have no intentions of adding microtransactions to the desktop client. We do have a mobile port with monetization in mind further down the line, but we took what was necessary for mobile (e.g. the Ki Crystal shop) and instead of excluding it from the PC, we've reframed it. Not as a monetization tool, but as an engaging mechanic; formatted for a different purpose, with different balance values, that we hope adds to the game's fun. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/67c4ce976c5f4844f30fbb18280e3f085701acb6.gif[/img] As discussed in a previous post, Stone Story RPG is a metrics-driven project. This means that we base many of our design choices around trends and statistics that we notice in how players progress through the game. Changes are made in order to engage players through the 1st day of playing to the 7th day to the 30th day (the D1 > D7 > D30 funnel). Major factors in this design are shop mechanics. Functionally, they are a way to give players options: the option to brute force a challenge, the option to farm and stockpile, the option to choose how they progress. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//30519309/c3e851afea1c8ca898c4c6967c8cf7ea6a389058.gif[/img] In Stone Story RPG we want players to have room to experiment and play around. The Mushroom Shop does that for the early-mid game; it gives you a way to buy items like runes to overcome a difficult combat encounter that you might not have figured out the optimal solution for yet. The Ki Crystal shop is a way for us to add this kind of flexibility to the mid-late game, going hand-in-hand with Quests and their respective rewards. We’re still experimenting with how these systems and mechanics work in tandem with each other, which is where the Quest Update comes into play. Slowly, but surely, we’re filling Stone Story RPG’s design out and bringing it one step closer to the full vision we have in mind. --- As always, thank you for playing. We appreciate your continued support and feedback as we continue to chip away at the game. See you in the next update! -SSRPG Team [h3][url=https://twitter.com/StoneStoryRPG] Stone Story RPG Twitter[/url] [url=discord.gg/stonestoryrpg]Stone Story RPG Discord[/url][/h3]