Hey there! 

The time has come for the next major release cycle, v0.3 "Destruction" update to Soulash! The new patch comes with new content and mechanics, as well as some changes and fixes. As with the nature of my neverending work on Soulash, it will probably take many years to get the game where I want it to be, so don't worry if some of the requested features didn't make it to this patch, they are likely still on the list.

As some of you might know, I had to rewrite essential parts of the game to support new mechanics. Because of that, saves from v0.2.x will not work with the latest version. Your save game will not be removed on starting a new game, however. If you wish to finish it, the v0.3 takes a new folder on new game creation, and you can use the older version of the game to complete your previous attempt. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The new area to explore is the Undying Desert. It's a dangerous place, so be cautious. There is a new moddable weather system in place that can affect the conditions of battles. New enemies, items, and races also come in this update. The berserker profession abilities have reached level 13, joining Fallen Knight, Poacher, and Warlock. There is a new destruction mechanic that can break stuff on the map and turn background tiles into something else. Enemies new spill blood when physically damaged. You can find the full changelog below, but first...

Added
- Desert area consisting of multiple new region maps to the east of the Yelling Mountains.
- Weather events: Rain, Acid Rain
- Playable races: Goblin, Dark dwarf
- Actions: Clean yourself, Clear contents of a container
- Effects: Wet, Bleed, Corrosion, Covered in blood
- New Berserker abilities: Axe throw, Painless, Groundbreaker, Break, Rend, Infinite Blades, and Revenge Counter.
- New Necromancer abilities: Death ray, Deadly touch.
- New Profession neutral abilities: Cyclone, Poison bite, Disintegrate, Poison ray.
- 16 new regular enemies, 6 new minibosses, and 1 new boss.
- 10 new items.
- New item images: Mastery ring, Moon amulet, Golden legs, Golden boots, Armguards.
- Entities that have corpses filled with blood, now spill blood on being successfully hit by physical or true damage source.
- Static entities like walls, tables, trees can be damaged by regular attacks or abilities and destroyed or turned into another type of object.
- If there are no tiles on the current map, tiles from the map below can be displayed. It includes the field of view calculation, which means the player can discover the map below this way.
- Background tiles like grass can receive damage and be replaced depending on damage type applied.
- Active icons with timers of damage over time effects.
- New sounds for open doors, close doors, and dragging items.
- Added random Goblin, Lich, and Rasimi names.
- Player character without a specified name has one randomized depending on the chosen race.
- Lich has a new passive ability Death aura, also replacing hunger and thirst with life essence that feeds on death damage.
- Orc has a new passive ability that gives an extra hit chance.

Changed
- Killing entities on a different level than the player change the experience gain by 20% for every level of difference. It means taking on higher-level opponents will give more experience, and lower levels will give less. Enemies with level difference lower than five or more will give only 1 point of experience.
- Characters with infravision have their sight range reduced to half rounded up if not under a roof during the day.
- Active effects tooltips display a description of the abilities used to apply them.
- Health regeneration from willpower now includes decimal values, which translated into every point of willpower, giving 0.1 health regeneration per tick instead of 1 health every 10 points of willpower.
- Damage buff from "Bless weapon" ability applies to caster instead of weapons.
- Poacher's abilities now consume ammunition instead of arrows.
- Attacks that deal damage to multiple targets drop only one point of durability per attack instead of per target.
- Cleave ability damage increased to 50% + [3, 6] from 50% + [1, 4]
- Whirlwind ability damage reduced to 50% + [2, 4] from 50% + [3, 7]
- Chakram is now level 6 Nomad ability.
- Blade dance is now level 7 Nomad ability.
- Increased font size in the new game screen, and changed color to improve visibility.
- Split stack action is now available when there is more than one item in the stack.
- Moved equipment slots to feel more naturally placed.
- Change lighting during the night to improve visibility in the available range.
- The head candle is now craftable.
- Bandage improves health regeneration by 2 instead of 1.
- Orc has a racial ability that increases his weapon hit bonus by 1, which translates to a +10% hit chance.
- Performance improvements.

Fixed
- Clicking on Accept or Reset button in keymap during gameplay will not trigger action buttons.
- Fixed crash on death when no water or blood was drunk during character lifetime.
- Fixed crash on cutting down the dragged wood trunk.
- Fixed parry calculation.
- Fixed issue with disappearing item when dropped on the ground.
- Removed drink action icon on corpses in the backpack when not playing a Vampire.
- Fixed case when using a stackable item dropped, it counts below 0.
- Belts drop durability when dealt damage.
- Rarity color is used to display crafted items.

What's next? There will likely be some bugs that I'll need to fix in the coming weeks. I'll be adding a couple of quality of life changes soon. One at the high priority will be multiple save slots when continuing on the game and changing the new game mechanics not to overwrite the existing game. Other than that, I look forward to your feedback before moving on toward v0.4, which I'll be writing more about soon.

Have fun guys, and thanks for supporting the game!