Gnoll Types and Release Changes | Patreon Weekly #227

Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some more design work on the gnoll variant of the caves quest, and an important update about the release plans for v2.2.0.

Also, as a quick aside, if you have any feedback about the recent Patreon redesign then please let me know. I don’t use this site much outside of posting to it, and so am eager to hear about how the changes work (or don’t work) for you guys.

Meet the Gnolls

Much like with the crystal caves quest variant, the gnoll variant will feature three unique enemies: one more common respawning one, one tougher enemy that spawns statically, and one boss.

The weakest enemy is the Gnoll Guard, which trades in some of a brute’s stats for a spear that lets it attack at a distance. Guards aren’t particularly proficient with these spears though, and also wield them in one hand. This means they’ll need a straight open line of sign to attack you with their +1 reach, they can’t ‘curve’ their attack around terrain like the hero can. They also do notably less damage up close, so using the rocky terrain to force them next to you is your best bet.

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Next up are Gnoll Sappers, which have a variety of disruptive and supportive tools granted to them by the area’s boss. They’re terrible fighters but are accompanied by one or two guards to protect them. You’ll want to kill the sapper first though, as their supportive tools will make the guards quite difficult to kill. Of course, using some of the sapper’s disruptive magic against the guards might work quite well for temporarily disabling them.

Finally, the region boss is the Gnoll Geomancer, which has powerful magic that lets it use the earth against you. I don’t yet have the specifics pinned down here, but expect this fight to play out a bit like Tengu’s, but with a bigger emphasis on Terrain changes and mining through hazards. You’ll probably want to clear out all the sappers first too, as the Geomancer will be capable of calling for their aide.

I don’t yet have sprites for the sapper or geomancer, but have done a bit of experimenting with gnoll models in general. Here’s how they all look without their armor on.

A Change of Plans for v2.2.0

It’s now been a bit more than 4 months since v2.1.0 was released, and just about 3 months since v2.1.4. At the current pace of development, v2.2.0 will need another month at least, which would put its release around mid November.

You might remember that I’ve previously regretted releasing larger updates in a big single release, instead of splitting them up where possible. v0.7.0 and v0.8.0 are the best examples of this, whereas the v0.9.X updates were an example of successfully splitting a massive update into smaller parts. v2.2.0 certainly isn’t as big as these updates, but with 3 quest variants that each have unique enemies, bosses, and terrain, it is really starting to feel a little bit like v0.8.0.

Because of this, I’ve made the decision to split the caves quest rework into two updates. All of the content that’s currently in the beta will release as part of v2.2.0 in about another week, and then I’ll start work on a follow-up v2.3.0 which includes the other two quest variants.

This does unfortunately mean that the two new variants are delayed slightly versus working on everything at once, but I think it’s much more important to actually get v2.2.0 out and work from there, instead of staying silent to the public for about another month.