Select Patch Notes for The Wailing Tower Update

The Wailing Tower Update is out…

…and the nation demands the patch notes.

Typically, we handle patch notes through a dedicated channel on our studio’s Discord. Whenever someone makes a change, they drop a brief description in the channel. This system works perfectly well for regular patches. However, when it comes to the initial release of a big update like The Wailing Tower, this approach isn’t as feasible.

Why? Because major updates involve countless changes, many of which are still evolving—or may even be scrapped—during development. Imagine a team member meticulously documenting their work on a feature that ultimately gets cut because it didn’t meet our standards. Now what? Do we track down every mention of that feature and delete it from the logs, spending even more time on something that’s no longer relevant?

I hope you see the challenge. During a big release, too many things are in flux for us to maintain a comprehensive changelog with the same level of detail as a standard patch.

Instead, for these large-scale updates, I ask everyone on the team to write their own patch notes, focusing on the most significant changes—the ones players will actually care about. I then compile and edit those notes into a single post, and voila, we have detailed patch notes.

Of course, this approach has its drawbacks. Sometimes, team members forget what they’ve worked on over the past few months. For example, when I asked one of our programmers for his notes, all I got was: “added a crash report tool to the game.” Meanwhile, I know full well he spent weeks optimizing the game to run smoothly even on older hardware.

So, this time around, I’m doing things a bit differently. I’ll present the changes by person rather than by category. While I didn’t manage to get everyone’s notes in time, I didn’t want to bug (pun intended) anyone during the release day.

With that said, here are the top things The Wailing Tower Update has brought:

• New map: Island of the Damned
• New features: Prophecies, Corrupted Arcana, and Fallen Preyers
• New gear: weapons (Rotweaver MP, Basilisk SR, and Whisper DW), spells (Stormball, Firebreath), and magical items (Relic: Severed Ear, Fetish: Belladonna, Ring: Thorns).

Also…

Tomorrow's #Witchfire update brings new music by:

🔷 Marcin Przybyłowicz (The Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077)
🔷 P.T. Adamczyk (Gwent, Cyberpunk 2077)
🔷 Paweł Błaszczak (Dead Island, Call of Juarez, Dying Light)

Here's a sampler:

cc @kwazol @ptadamczyk @PawelBlaszczak pic.twitter.com/kOrm8St54r

— The Astronauts (@TheAstroCrew) August 13, 2024

And now for some details… Again, this is just from a few Astronauts who found the strength to write us the notes. We are all pretty happy with the update, but need some rest…

Piotr “Cartman” Korgul / code / UI design

New location (Island of the Damned) support from an UI perspective:

• set up Island in ‘Start new expedition’ menu in the Hermitorium
• new loading screen image when Island is being loaded
• set up and calibrated Island map

Arcana screen:

• reworked Arcana sceen (changed layout to be more flexible and to take into account recent changes, removed column-like categories, fixed and improved a lot of logic under the hood)
• optimized Arcana textures memory footprint
• added new column with categories/prophecies
• new high resolution textures for Arcana slots
• added UI support for empty slot (Arcanum which failed to conjure due to Prophecy set on a given row)
• added UI support for locked slot (Arcanum which has disabled interaction because of some Omen)
• changed Arcanum details to display boosted charismata values along with the base ones (when Omen boosts power of a given Arcanum)
• Arcanum details now display different states of a given Arcanum (Unknown Arcanum / Arcanum / Awakened Arcanum / Corrupted Arcanum) instead of old categories (Firearm Arcanum / Spells Arcanum / Varia Arcanum)
• changed ‘Unlock’ action name to ‘Awaken’ for consistency

Corrupted Arcana:

• added UI support for Corrupted Arcana in the Arcana Screen
• added new animation for unveiling Corrupted Arcana row
• added new texture / VFX displayed under activated Corrupted Arcanum to differentiate it from a normal Arcanum

Prophecies:

• added Prophecy Study in the Hermitorium
• reworked Arcana screen so that it alows to edit Prophecies when opening it through Prophecy Study. Added new window, similar to the one in the Gunroom, listing all Prophecies which are available to equip on a given slot
• added tooltip displaying Prophecy description and its Omen
• added UI support for locked Prophecies slots (unlocked with higher Gnosis levels)
• added Prophecies category in the Inventory
• added popup displaying Prophecy being picked up
• added popup which displays which Arcana have been unlocked by picking up a given Prophecy

Fallen Preyers:

• added Fallen Preyers potraits displaying active preyers in the Map screen
• added tooltip displaying Fallen Preyer description and letting player interact with them

Hermitorium Objectives:

• added system which reminds you what to do in the Hermitorium when preparing for the next expedition. No more forgetting about upgrading Mysterium
• the same system now informs you that you have new gear (found during your previous expedition) to inspect in the Gunroom; the same goes for the new Prophecies in Prophecy Study
• the same system reminds you to check Gunroom after claiming research in Workshop

Map:

• displaying possible rewards (‘Likely spoils’) in the icon tooltip
• tooltip titles now support long names (they will wrap instead of overflow)
• some symbols on the map have been changed slightly. IYKYK.

Start new expedition:

• changed action used to switch between maps in ‘Start new expedition’ menu. Now it defaults to Q/E (and LB/RB on gamepad) for consistency with other menus. Old actions (A/D and LT/RT) are still quietly supported as a QoL feature.
• added UI support for different objectives for every level. Set up Island of the Damned objective which differs from Scarlet Coast and Irongate Castle objectives
• changed default selected level from Scarlet Coast to Island of the Damned, as it’s the new starting level
• Scarlet Coast is now locked by default and requires finding proper Navigation Chart

Workshop:

• removed Arcana category from Workshop, there’s now other way of unlocking new Arcana
• replaced Magic Items category with three new categories (Relic, Fetish, Ring)
• new icons for the new Workshop categories

HUD:

• added UI support for displaying additional info under each objective in upper-left corner. It’s used by the Fallen Preyers’ echo quest
• reworked and optimized logic of Witchfire Counter
• added new Divine Essence Counter, displayed when necessary above Witchfire Counter

Other:

• added popup used to show details of an item being picked up (Navigation Charts, Memorabilia, new gear found in the world etc.)
• added popup displaying info what has changed after increasing Gnosis
• new icon for ‘All’ category in Inventory
• changed ‘Thank you’ message at the beginning of the game, as the number of people in the studio has changed, there’s now more than 12 of us
• updated in-game credits
• changed Charismata widget (used both by Arcana and Inspect Screen) to be more flexible
• displaying ‘LOST’ text instead of gold balance in the Post-Run Screen after unsuccessful run. It should make treasures/gold mechanic easier to understand

Improvements:

• new high resolution textures for main menu buttons, settings buttons, button for upgrading mysterium
• Settings: better readability of binding conflict messages (colors + using display names instead of code names)
• Settings: changed settings names to be more understandable (‘Boosters Icons’ -> ‘Arcana Icons’, ‘Radar’ -> ‘Mini-Map’, ‘Ammo Count & Weapon Perk’ -> ‘Ammo Count’, ‘Targeting’ -> ‘Aim Down Sights’)
• removed angelica cap info from Apothecary popup as it could have been misleading at times
• HUD markers (which, until now, have been used solely for displaying additional icons on enemies when using certain gear) now can be used on static items as well
• added support for more text colors in tooltips
• shortened Endurance description in the Stats screen for better composition
• fixed a few typos

Bugfixes:

• fixed a bug with softlock after pressing M when having Inspect Screen opened
• fixed ‘cold’ text position for Midas M0
• fixed bug which caused credits to not scroll at high framerate

Karol “KroQ” Krok / design

• New Buildcrafting Avenue with Prophecies: After you unlock them, you will gain a opportunity to select what kind of arcana are available for you for each row unlocked during expeditions.
• 18 unique prophecies with their unique omens to master. for now.

Also:

• Lowered the amount of major enemies in arena ecounters in the Castle level
• Slightly lowered the overall amount of enemies in Castle level
• There is way less swordsmen blocking the gates in Castle now, it should make entering it on Gnosis 2 way easier.
• Lowered the lvl up requirements for lvl 25 and above.
• Lowered the difficulty of the miniboss encounter at Castle battlegrounds
• The Wailing Tower became new first level, with difficulty adjusted for smoother onboarding
• Added several collectible notes in game that provide some combat and exploration tips
• Removed camera shakes around pickable objects
• Unified interaction prompts across all enemy drops and pickable objects
• We’re starting to experiment with the way you unlock additional maps – so now you need to find navigation chart leading to a biome in order to access it (implemented for Island and Coast for now, Castle is still Gnosis-capped). Depending on the initial response to it, we’ll either keep it or not.

Andrzej “Sugar” Sugier / design
Jeremiasz Kacprzak / code

• Fixed incorrect values on few guns Inspect screen
• Fixed incorrect costs/research times on a few Magic Items research projects

Collector

• Collector reduced his prices (previous prices turned out to be steep enough for many players forgo using consumables altogether, instead of treating them as a valuable resource)
• Broken Mirror now also doubles rewards for defeating the Calamity
• Treasure Hunter Prism now doesn’t cost gold, but has a much longer restock timer

Armoury

• Three new weapons
• Two new spells
• Three new magic items
• New Mysterium III power for Midas: burning enemies are now damaged when reloading an Overheated Midas
• Ricochet Mysterium III now requires less ricochets to trigger
• Stigma Diabolicum rework: the cysts are no longer a projectile, instead they spawn instantly. The casting animation is significantly faster, and the spell now hold three charges.
• Balance tweaks to existing weapon, spells and magic items parameters.

Workshop

• Rings, Relics and Fetishes are now separate categories in the research menu
• Additional Arcana are no longer researched – the majority of them are unlocked from the get go, with select few locked behind specific collectable items.
• Tweaks to research times and prices, making them slightly faster, cheaper, and unlocked at a faster pace.

Arcana Rework

• Every unveiled arcana row now consist of up to three arcana from the same category
• Row categories are randomized every time a row is unveiled
• No more useless arcana – now only Arcana relevant to your current loadout will show up

Exploration

• Treasures now stay on your corpse, and can be picked up again

Demonic Weapons

• Demonic weapons now start with half a clip of ammo, instead of a single bullet
• Patrolling enemies now occasionally drop demonic ammo (this makes Demonic Weapons a more viable option, and makes encountering patrols more fun)

Fallen Preyers

• Ghosts of Fallen Preyers now can aid you in your fight against the witch
• Three unique Fallen Preyers can be unlocked by collecting Echoes and Mask Shards

Paweł “Panda” Kaczyński / code

• Arcana 2.0 – Prophecies, Corrupted arcana, Categories
• Weapons now have snappier ADS after reloading
• Increased starting ammo reserves for Demonic Weapons
• Consuming a Healing Elixir after being hit now instantly starts stamina regeneration
• Treasures lost on death can now be retrieved alongside lost Witchfire
• Elemental status stacking: when multiple instances of the same element are present on an enemy, the most powerful one will be now correctly selected as active
• Fixed processing order of player’s defense components such as shields or immunities – taking damage won’t put on cooldown or consume stacks of components that did not participated in damage prevention.
• Fixed various Quest serialization issues
• Fixed various bugged Weapon + Spell interactions

Kacper “Kacpi” Domański / code

• Fixes to Weapon bullet penetration logic
• Fixes to All Seeing Eye and Hypnosis ironsight alignment
• Procedural sight animation added to all automatic weapons
• Fixed shaking on sniper rifle animations then aiming
• Added Monk, Cleric, Madman, Astral Zombie, Astral Musketeer, Goon, Arquebusier, Witchfire Wretch
• Tower boss fight
• Fixes to aggro logic
• Optimized the code base to remove circular dependencies (this should result in improvement of stability)
• Fixed warning system spawning sounds when target in sight
• optimized aim assist systems
• optimizations to pathfinding system
• optimizations to AI behaviour selection system
• Added missing animation blends for enemy locomotion system
• Grenadier barrage attack condition changed to make it less oppressive
• Maceman attack tracking weakened
• Necromancer projectile attack nerfed to make it less oppressive
• Decreased force applied to enemy bodies post death
• Added Cinematics in Tower bossfight
• Fix to Visibility System failing to refresh when an enemy with no active target was present
• Scarlet Coast boss now preloads earlier to avoid hitch mid drop to his arena

Jazmín Giolito / audio

Modifications to stuff that was already there:

• Did some general sound rebalancing.
• Made minor tweaks to the Ricochet’s sound design to enhance readability.
• Made minor tweaks to the Psychopomp’s sound design to enhance readability.
• Removed some ambient sounds from the Hermitorium to accommodate for the new station.

Additions to stuff that was already there:

• Designed idle sounds and breaths to The Collector, including a special interjection when he detects the Preyer’s presence.
• Designed new sounds to notify the player that their Sanity levels are decreasing, including a different version of the sound when damage is taken because Sanity dropped to 0.
• Designed a new sound that triggers when Gnosis Chests are unveiled.
• Designed a new sound that triggers when the player becomes shielded.

New stuff:

• Designed sounds for the new enemies.
• Designed sounds for the new weapons, spells and magic items.
• Designed sounds for the new elements the player can interact with (Fallen Preyers and their Mask Fragments, Prophecies, Echoes, etc).
• Designed sounds for the new UI elements (such as the Corrupted Arcana).
• Designed sounds for the new location, the Island of the Damned. (This includes both the sounds that inhabit the area and those that result from the player’s interaction with the environment)
• Placed multiple reverbs inside the Tower, in the new location.
• Designed sounds for the game’s first ever cutscenes.
• Imported the new music tracks into the project and did the set up for a new feature that allows cutscenes to mute all other sonic elements, except for the UI sounds.