Barring any unfortunate surprises, I intend to release the next build no later than 12/11.

Apologies that this one has run a bit long: as I remarked to a friend earlier this week, I hope someone stops me if I decide implementing two new major systems in one shot is a good idea again. But, it will be worth it, as both Relic Wraiths and Interactables will be arriving in what I hope are very strong starting states, fully integrated into the game as if they had been there from the first build. On top of those, there will be a good number of small bug fixes and balance tweaks as well.

Aside from any bug fix builds that may happen, the next major release will be content heavy. Once Relic Wraiths is safely out the door, I’ll have more to say about it, but in short: it’s about time the Tower did some growing again. Cheers!

With lots of help from Keylan (thank you!), the online components of Relic Wraiths are now fully functional and implemented. Each of the 3 ways of spawning Relic Wraiths will now (at random) spawn local or server-stored Wraiths.

This includes searching corpses (3% chance)…

… using the Enemy Lure upgrade (25% chance)…

…and using a Ghost Chime (100% chance, so long as an appropriate level Relic Wraith exists that is!)..

Additionally, you can also use a Mirror Chime to create a Relic Wraith of your current character and party to fight, should you think you have a good reason to do so…

Whew. Getting all this working has been a bit more involved than I originally anticipated, but it’s all downhill from here. I want this build out there pretty badly myself at this point, but there’s still a few more things to take care of. Stay tuned!

We’re in the process of updating the backend for the upcoming Relic Wraith build. This has taken down score submission for the time being, with apologies.

Edit: Scoreboard viewing is also down intermittingly.

Edit 2: I think we’re fixed now. Probably one more similar disruption in the future though.

ayayaya is no stranger to the top spots on Demon’s scoreboard, but this one is pretty impressive even  relative to his usual norm. Congrats ayayaya!

For my part, I’m still plugging away on the next build. Nothing much new to report on that front, other than it’s coming along. Two new systems in one build is bigger than I usually go, but it will be worth the wait I think. Cheers!

Relatively speaking, we’re starting to get close on the Relic Wraiths + Interactables build. Still some smaller things to do, as well as an extra-large chunk of testing, but most of the bigger tasks are completed.

One other note: The new version will of course be on a different scoring model. If you have any large games you’re close to wrapping up and want folks to be able to see for a bit, it’s getting about time for that.

Also coming up in the next build is a new concept for Demon: Interactables!

Interactable are objects in the dungeon that can the player can find and choose to interact with to produce various effects.

Interactables are fully integrated into existing systems, such as auto mapping and auto explore. For example maps will mark them as Points of Interest and show them in purple:

The first Interactable to be added? Searchable corpses!

The most common result of searching a corpse is finding an item you can lay claim to:

But it is also possible you manage to extract an ability from the corpse’s damaged Relic. This result has two flavors: the more common flavor picks the ability by randomly selecting a demon that can spawn on that level and then picking one of its abilities at random. The rarer and more exciting finds come from the second flavor, which picks the ability by randomly selecting a *modifier* that can appear on that level and then picking one of those abilities. This can potentially lead to finding very esoteric abilities relatively early on!

Of course, a damaged Relic is nothing to trifle with… they seem to have a habit of responding to close contact with other summoners by releasing all their remaining demons at once! This result too, has two flavors: the more common result is an encounter with a typical number of demons. More rarely, a larger number of demons will appear, but with all of them (even Mind-resistant/immunes) put to Sleep for a longer than usual (but not infinite) duration. It is also worth noting that these demons are not drawn from the encounter tables, but are rather treated like enemy summoner designed groups (since, hypothetically, that’s what they were at one point!): thus, you may see demons together that normally do not appear in a group alongside each other.

And of course, the most terrifying result possible when dealing with a corpse… the creation of a Relic Wraith!

Interactables is a system that will be expanded upon in future builds to include other types of objects; everything from simple doors and treasure boxes to ritual circles, sacrificial altars, and other even stranger things.

There’s still a ways to go on this next build, but we’re getting there, I promise. Until then, good luck in the Tower!

The next build coming up is going to be a bit of a long one, but with good reasons: not one, but two new systems are being in Demon. Tonight, a brief peek at the the first of these: Relic Wraiths, Demon’s version of the “player ghost” mechanic you may be familiar with from other roguelikes.

But, on the chance that you aren’t, a brief explanation: starting with the next build, when you lose a game of Demon, ghost data for your character and their party will be saved locally, as well as sent to the score server. Making certain choices during the game will cause ghost data from these sources to be used to generate Relic Wraiths.

Relic Wraiths function as enemy summoners that use a slightly modified copy of the deceased player’s party. The main changes you will see in the conversion from a player to a Relic Wraith are as follows:

• Relic Wraiths use their own resistance tables based entirely on the relic chosen, not whatever resistances the summoner had. If the summoner had Soul Armor, the Relic Wraith’s resistances will be improved to a degree based on character level.
• Particularly lopsided stat distributions will be smoothed out somewhat, matching the limits imposed on designed enemies.
• Unique demons will be removed from the summoner’s party, however, modifiers granted by uniques to other demons via Fuse Demons will be allowed to carry over.
• Significantly higher level demons will be adjusted in some way I have not yet sorted out yet, but basically, you won’t run into a Tower:4 ghost that got lucky and managed to nab 3 Raiju from Ccoa’s Sanctum.
• Any empty slots in the summoner’s party (whether from removed uniques, deaths, or other mishaps) will be filled from the “coffin” that stores targets for Restore Demon, starting with the most recently killed.
• Like enemy summoners, Relic Wraiths do not possess, nor can they use, items.
• The floor a Relic Wraith appears on is not necessarily the floor it died on: this is particularly true in cases where you die on a level containing a branch *after* completing that branch. In some cases, a Relic Wraith’s summon method may make character level the main factor rather than the floor they are haunting.
• Otherwise, everything carries over as it was: abilities, party, relic upgrades, etc. Note that many relic upgrades (those related to gaining additional Credits for example) will have no further affect on the Relic Wraith, since it is assumed the ghost data already reflects the benefits these abilities provided.

Finally, let’s have some art. Geminimax has put out some awesome sprites for the Relic Wraiths, so I thought I’d share those with you now too.

That’s it for now on Relic Wraiths! I’ll post again at some point about the other major feature of the next build: Interactables!

Maintenance on the server is complete. Blog, forum, and leaderboard are all back up now. Have fun, and thanks for your patience. I’ll have a post about what’s coming up in the next build soon. Cheers!

Due to technical difficulties, the server maintenance scheduled for yesterday will be taking place this Monday the 24th at 3pm CST instead. Still slated to last 2 hours. Blog, forum, and score servers will all be down. Apologies for the bumpiness on this, it should be a one time thing as we shift everything over to a different size storage plan. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and good luck in the Tower.

Hey folks.

The server the website, forums, and scores are kept on will be down for maintenance tomorrow starting at around 3pm CST.

If you have a particularly great run you’re working on and want to see on the scoreboard, try to not to die while the server’s down.

Estimated downtime is 2 hours, so we should be back up by 5pm CST tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience, and good luck in the Tower!