4.3 Keep Your Secrets Release
Psst... we have a secret to share!
The Keep Your Secrets update for Barony is now live! In this massive expansion, you'll gain access to one of our long-awaited Kickstarter features: the Compendium.
Keep Your Secrets also features a complete overhaul of the Ruins, new breakable objects littering all the dungeons, a few new ambushing enemies, and even a new shrine.
Every feature of the expansion makes Barony richer and more interesting to explore. So let's open the creaky cover of this update and reveal everything that hides within!
The Compendium
The dungeon is full of secrets, but with the Compendium, just maybe you can find you way! Whether you want to know the strengths and weaknesses of a Cockatrice, learn what kinds of enemies you'll encounter in the Swamps, or discover the mysteries of Alchemy, the Compendium has it all.
The secrets of the Dungeon lie within this ancient tome!
As you explore, you'll organically reveal more entries to the Compendium when you encounter the subject of each entry. In addition to some intriguing lore, each entry offers additional helpful gameplay details, many of which may help you in your quest to master all the dungeon’s treasures, traps, and challenges. But these details require Research to unveil!
As you earn more Achievements playing Barony, you’ll be awarded with Lore Points. Spend these wisely to research the most useful knowledge from entries that’ll aid your future adventures!
Sick of dying to the same foes over and over?
Learn your enemies and adapt your strategy!
For those of you who have already cleared a lot of the game’s achievements, don’t worry! You’ll receive full-credit for your research efforts.
Ruins Overhaul
Deep beneath the Labyrinths, Baron Herx lurks at the heart of the Ruins awaiting his next challenger. But sinister movements are afoot amongst the inhabitants of the realm closest to him. Like the Mines, Swamps, Labyrinths, Underworld and Hell that came before, the Ruins has received a complete rework.
Deadly Variety
Further exploration has revealed ~170 new rooms thought lost to time. Ancient statues, abandoned gardens, seized manors, and arcane traps have been unearthed, awaiting the lich’s challengers.
While the fireplaces are still used by the palace’s squatters, chandeliers hang darkly. Among the rubble, you’ll also find relics of Mechanist security systems. New caution is needed to succeed in the Ruins!
Some new Ruins rooms are lethal. Will you survive?
Gnome Thieves
In the destitute Ruins, ruthless gnomes have given up on mining, and are now on the hunt for gold from anyone they can mug. By their effort, most wayward Goblins have given up hope surviving here!
The devilish gnome thieves wander with strength in numbers. In addition to attacking in groups with both ranged and melee weapons, they’ll also drop traps when defeated! One would be wise not to underestimate a coordinated band of gnomish cutthroats, even in their deaths.
Think carefully about how to approach these wily little creatures who like to whisper in the dark as they approach. A leader usually emboldens a debt of gnomes to more direct violence, compared to their more magic-oriented kin.
Gnome thieves think they’re so cool with their bycokets and pipes.
But take out their leader, and their bravado crumbles.
Bugbears
Trolls have finally been almost completely driven away by the marginally smarter, but certainly tougher, Bugbear.
These beasts wield a variety of weapons including battle axes, falchions, arbalests, and the mighty scutum shield. They'll get in close to attack, and then shield bash you when you try to counter! Try to pick them off from afar, and they raise their shield to nullify almost any attack.
Bugbears like to strafe around targets, dividing their attention, so you'll need to stay on your toes when a team of these monsters sets their sights on you. When you hear them approaching, get ready for a serious fight!
Bugbears like to travel together.
It’d be kinda cute if they weren’t trying to kill you!
Bells
Leftover from a more sophisticated age, these finely crafted bells remain hanging, waiting to once again echo their song through the Ruins’ large chambers.
What secrets can a bell keep? Unless its clapper is muted by a hidden item (or a colony of bats!), ringing one is sure to draw the attention of enemies within earshot. It’s wise to be prepared before pulling on its dusty ropes. In return, its chime may also inspire those close by to take bolder action!
However, it’s just as likely that these brass beasts haven’t seen proper maintenance. We wouldn’t want to see what kind of damage a huge falling bell could do to an unwary adventurer.
Ouch!
Updated Ambushers
Some enemies can now be a threat no matter where you’re exploring.
Slimes
Slimes have been a menace in Barony since the very beginning. These pesky piles of oozing goo are a significant threat to adventurers in the early levels of the game, but now they're even more lethal.
Several varieties of slimes have been added, each with their own unique ability. When they vomit on you, be prepared to be poisoned, set ablaze, covered in opaque or slippery goop, and watch your metal equipment dissolved by corrosive sludge. In addition to lurking within the dungeon’s plumbing, keep your guard up around water and lava too, as some have mastered sliding across fluid surfaces!
Some slime vomit will slow you down.
Good luck getting away when that happens!
Bats
Bats thrive in darkness... which means they can be found hiding anywhere shadows are deepest! They're a brand new enemy to Barony that are small, evasive, and like to attack in groups. Bat attacks cause Bleeding, which means in addition to being hard to hit, their bites can wound even the toughest adventurers.
Bats nest in small colonies and sleep on the ceilings until disturbed. Any hapless hero who draws their ire should take care, or else find themselves exsanguinated on the floor amongst the squeaking suckers.
Bats are evasive creatures.
Can you take them out before you bleed out?
Dungeon Enhancements
While you're doing battle with slimes and bugbears, you'll also discover that all areas of the Barony dungeons are richer to explore than ever.
Breakables
New breakable items have been added all over the Dungeon. From carts and sacks to sarcophagi and gibbets, Barony is now brimming with things to bust. Each region has its own selection of containers, suited to the environment in which they are found. But breaking them open isn’t just a great way to relieve the stress of your last death, it can be practical too!
A variety of things will drop from breakables. Reliably, a few gold pieces have been stashed away, or a random item, rewarding your destructive curiosity. But smash open the wrong coffin, and an angry vampire may emerge and attack in retaliation for ending his beauty rest! Enemies may sense you drawing near to their hidey-hole and give you a surprise, so stay sharp!
That cart didn’t stand a chance against
my mighty fireball!
Daedalus Shrines
Daedalus Shrines appear when a Minotaur is near, seeking to guide adventurers away from the Baron’s deadly pet. When touched, its crowning symbol orients toward the exit, offering you hope of escape.
On floors where a Minotaur is about to spawn, these magical shrines provide light in the darkness. When discovered, interact with it to reveal the location of the exit. If the Minotaur is near, it’ll also offer enhanced speed, granting one more chance for a getaway!
Let the mystical light guide your way!
Keep Your Secrets offers some of Barony’s biggest features to date, and we can’t wait for you to explore all of its secrets! Bugbears, bells, and bats all await you within, and we’re excited for you to learn and master it all with the help of the Compendium.
V4.3.0 Changelog
General
Ruins have been invaded by new Bugbear and Gnome Thief enemy types, as well as a new Bell dungeon feature to interact with
Slimes now appear in 5 different color variants
Slimes attack with melee and new magical spray attacks depending on the type
Slimes now scale with dungeon level
Certain variants can walk on water/lava, and have set ambush spawns on map generation when an enemy walks nearby
Breakables are now scattered throughout each biome, containing items, gold and monsters
Daedalus Shrines now appear on Minotaur levels (This replaces what was formerly a second standard exit)
Daedalus Shrines will appear in a different quadrant of the map from the standard exit
Dark maps now spawn groups of bats hiding on the ceiling
Several new achievements have been added to complement the new features of this update
The Compendium
The Compendium has been added, listing monsters, items, and game mechanics that can be researched using Lore Points, a currency awarded from unlocking Achievements
Most entries start hidden and are revealed by interacting with the world, killing enemies, and identifying items
Research entries to reveal tips, monster stats, item tooltips, and records
New Records within every researched Compendium entry track thousands of game events to look back on
A list of all Achievements is now located inside the Compendium with categories and filtering options
Hotkey "P" is default to quickly access the Com[P]endium
Researched items show their tooltip for quick reference
Preview the blessing/status changes of any item using the arrow keys while hovered
Viewing item tooltips in-game will reflect your character's stats when held; otherwise, on the Main Menu, it will assume a character with 0 in every stat
Viewing the Compendium in-game with Hardcore mode enabled will show the relevant stat changes for monster entries
Maps
Added a new dedicated exit room preceding the Hell bossfight
Caves base map size has been reduced to improve performance
Removed kobolds from the Citadel spawn pool
Blocking Skill Changes
Shield items are now more durable, only rolling to degrade after a certain number of hits rather than on each hit taken
Higher quality shield materials/blessings increase the hits that can be taken before checking to degrade
Blocking now can only be increased by one skill point per enemy
Non-shields (Torches, Lanterns, etc) now only benefit from Blocking +AC up to skill level 40
Arrows can now degrade armor, but also can provide Blocking skill ups when being hit as melee attacks do
Blocking now has the following bonus chances to level up:
Performing "block, attack" combos 3 times in a row ("Rhythm of the Knight" Achievement) awards 80% chance to level skill
Blocking an attack within a short time of raising your shield awards a bonus chance to level Blocking
Blocking an enemy hit and having ally players/NPCs kill the enemy ("Thank the Tank" Achievement) awards a bonus chance to level Blocking
Spellbook-Casting Durability Changes
Casting from an equipped spellbook now only has a chance to degrade your book after a certain number number of casts
Higher Casting Skill and blessings increase the number of casts before checking to degrade
Torn blessed books will now lose a blessing point instead of being destroyed upon degradation
Sustained Spell Leveling Changes
Sustained spells (light, levitation, etc) now only level Magic/Casting skills if a certain amount of MP has been used on sustained spells prior
10 MP is required to be spent with Casting skill above 20, or 5 MP when below 20 Casting
Chance to level up is only checked when casting a sustained spell
Example, casting Light for 1 MP, leaving it sustained for 9 MP. Recasting Light will now check for a skill increase as 10 MP has been spent
MP consumed while spells are sustained and when fizzling casts counts towards the total
Gameplay
Maximum character level is now 255, stats are capped to 248 to prevent desyncs in multiplayer
"Leveling up" beyond level 255 still grants stat rolls and +HP/MP
The Minotaur now spawns after 3.5 minutes in the Mines and Labyrinth levels (Previously 2.5 minutes)
Enchant Weapon/Armor scrolls are now targetable
Same targeting rules apply as previous updates, Weapon can target any item that can be held in the main-hand, Armor can target off-hand and other equipment apart from rings/amulets
Merchant class increased starting Remove Curse scrolls from 1 to 3, now also starts with 2 Identify scrolls
Slowed hunger tick rate in the starting floor before the Mines
TIP: Hunger is already slowed in Hamlet, biome transition floors and boss stages
HP Regeneration effects (Ring of Regeneration, Troll's Blood, etc) now work when Hunger is disabled in the Game Settings
Regeneration rates are a bit slower than when Hunger is enabled
Starvation now deals 5% MAXHP damage per tick, instead of a static 4 damage, less punishing for early game and not irrelevant by end game
Starvation now also pauses HP Regeneration
Insectoid maximum Energy has been increased from 50 to 100
Food replenishment is still percent based to a maximum of 50 EN, so food doesn't provide any more energy than previously
Increased damage dealt to breakable walls
Human NPCs can now spawn with Maces
Greasy status effect now drops items when attempting to use/swing them rather than dropping randomly
Greasy status effect can now drop shields when attempting to defend
NPCs wielding Arbalests now attack 50% slower instead of default fast speed for crossbows
Hazard Goggles now protect against the secondary effects of Slime sprays
Baphomet
Removed monster drops from Baphomet minions
Minions award 0 XP after 25 have spawned
Legacy leaderboard entries which utilized Baphomet farming will be de-ranked, removing them from the top-200 scores to improve leaderboard competition
Audio
Audio engine performance improved to remove many stuttering issues
May remove the need for Preload Music Files audio setting if your system had issues in previous updates
Reduced frequency of idle monster cries
Reduced frequency of liquid sound effects, improved sounds overlapping to reduce overall volume
Ambient noises now loop rather than repeatedly play to improve performance
Added sound effect when setting tinkered trap items
Added sound effect for Fear status effect on monsters
UI / Visuals
Added transparency effect to invisible players and HUD models
Lobby visibility is now displayed in a floating banner for the server during online multiplayer character creation
Gold animates when dropped
Skillsheet and weapon tooltips now properly display the attack penalty % calculation from your current skill level
Added HUD text in splitscreen to notify when all characters are dead
Improved network speed for item tooltips to populate for ground items in multiplayer
Improved network speed for character models loading in on level change in multiplayer
Modding/Editor
Editor can use shortcut arguments on launch to resize
E.g right click editor.exe, create shortcut, open right-click shortcut properties and add xres and yres to the target string: C:\Program Files\steamapps\common\Barony\editor.exe "-xres=1920" "-yres=1080"
No fix for drag-to-resize yet
Added AND logic gate sprites to the editor, these can be combined to create any logic needed (NAND/OR/XOR/Latches etc)
Added entity-specific options to pressure plates F2 options (players only, monsters only, items only etc)
Fixed "selected tile" in editor not displaying correctly
Fixed custom monster.jsons not spawning correctly with followers
Using /jumplevel -1 will always regenerate the same seed, use command /map_sequence_rng false to make this random each time for testing
Added tooltip for collider/floor/decoration models to show the mesh name chosen from models.txt
/cleanfloor command added to remove items from the floor
Readable books with no matching title set as their name will spawn random titled books instead of the same name
Translations
Fixed "XP" text in the EXP bar to support longer translation strings
The Compendium translation files are found in the game directory, /lang/compendium_lang/ folder
Fixed item tooltips cutting off text in the top icon area for long strings
Fixed books not properly reloading/formatting when using modded font files
Controls
Added command /player_can_move_in_gui true/false, set this to false to prevent character movement when the inventory is open if your keybind configuration requires
Added Quick Turn speed settings in Controls
Bugfixes
Fixed multiplayer stats overflowing to negative beyond 128
Fixed starvation not processing correctly in 3/4 person multiplayer
Fixed ATK tooltip calculation on the character sheet being slightly incorrect due to rounding
Fixed holding space while opening inventory randomly causing items to be used
Fixed seed events requiring insectoid not displaying insectoid text correctly
Fixed rebinding left click to "use" closing sign GUIs on activation
Fixed slimes spawning inside walls from sinks
Fixed monsters being stuck in door frames when the walls next to them have been broken
Fixed client status effects HUD icons showing wrong icons for some of the newer status effects added in the last update
Fixed Accursed spellbook chest being overridden by a mimic
Fixed Salvage spell being able to target invisible/hidden map items
Fixed Appraisal skill not being synced to the server and sometimes resetting for clients
Fixed "Secret Weapon" achievement triggering when using Elemental Focus enhanced spells
Fixed local hiscores not being created after the host has closed the lobby before client has left
Fixed "I Want It All" achievement checking for all playable classes rather than just DLC classes
Fixed softlock in the Mystic Library with sleep spell wielding enemy
Fixed lich death sounds playing multiple times in splitscreen rather than once
Bounty Hunter hat no longer targets neutral tinkering bots on maps
Fixed depleted sinks not playing the depleted sound effect when using empty bottles
Added sound effect when breaking sex change amulet on use
Fixed crossplay logging in notification getting stuck at "logging in" after failure
Fixed achievement notification vertical text alignment
Fixed "DLC required" prompt crash at character creation in splitscreen
Fixed +HP amounts when using healing spells not showing for clients in multiplayer
Fixed some crashes for player names using % signs
Fixed minotaur warning not showing up on dungeon level 7 in the Swamps after exiting the Underworld
Fixed ally NPCs rotating incorrectly when backing up with ranged weapons
Fixed dropped gyrobots blocking boulders rolling
Fixed Magic skillsheet displaying duplicate spell names when using mods