Depthcrawl patch notes

v146 — The 3D update

Everything since v145: dungeons in first-person 3D, a hub town you can walk around, hand-painted monsters, a new action-RPG HUD, loot that keeps up with you, and item comparisons you can trust.

First-person 3D dungeons

• Dungeons and roadside fights can be played in first person. M switches between 3D and the classic top-down map.
• Controls:
  • W/S step forward and back, A/D strafe.
  • Arrow keys or Z/X turn. Turning doesn't use up your turn.
  • You can also click the edges of the screen to turn.
• Every kind of site has its own look:
  • stone dungeons, castle masonry, rune-carved necropolises, mossy temples, crypts, timbered mines and lava lairs;
  • grass, sand and snow fields under an open sky with stars and rain.
• Torches flicker, and you carry a lantern. There are floating damage numbers, particles and a visible weapon that swings in first person.
• A minimap, a compass, your current target, and warnings when you're being flanked.
• Stairs are real staircases: up-flights rise into the ceiling, and down-flights drop through the floor.
• The graveyard is outdoors:
  • no ceiling, a misty moonlit sky, and grass underfoot;
  • wrought-iron railings instead of walls, and free-standing mausoleums.
• Falling through a pit lands you on open floor instead of on the up-staircase, and the game remembers which floor you fell from.

3D skeleton warriors

• Skeletons are fully sculpted 3D models:
  • a hollow skull with a chattering jaw and individual teeth, and real ribs, spine, pelvis, hands and feet;
  • lit by the torch or moonlight where they stand;
  • drawn sharp at whatever size they appear on screen.
• They're dressed as barbarians:
  • a shaggy fur mantle, a strapped leather bracer, a buckled belt with a pouch, and fur-cuffed wrapped boots;
  • a rusted sword and a weathered round shield.
• They stand in a guard with the sword raised beside the head, walk, stagger when you hit them, and wind up and cut when they strike.

Hand-painted monsters

• Every monster in the game has a painted portrait: humanoids, beasts, dragons, serpents, spiders, oozes, tentacled horrors, hydras, swarms and more.
• 30 undead in 9 painted styles: skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights, spirits, mummies, a death knight, vampire spawn and liches.
  • Spirits float and are see-through, undead eyes glow, and corrupted undead have a violet taint.
• Monsters are shaded with lighting, rim light and glossy eyes. The same art appears in 3D, on the map, in the bestiary and on the Last Foe panel.
• Treasure, potions, scrolls, gear, portals, altars, thrones, headstones, ore, shops and torches are all painted objects too.

The town hub

• Villages are a full 3D town seen from an angled action-RPG camera:
  • timber and stone buildings whose windows glow at night, chimney smoke, a smithy with sparks, and an alchemist's bubbling cauldron;
  • a market stall and a palisade with a torch-lit gate.
• Each town's look matches its region (forest, swamp, desert, tundra, mountain) and its people. Day and night follow the in-game clock.
• New features in town:
  • a waypoint on the plaza, for travel to any town you've visited;
  • a stash chest with 60 slots, shared between every town;
  • the Captain of the Watch, who now hands out quests (look for the ! or ? overhead).
• Every vendor is a named character standing outside their shop.
• Click the ground or a person to walk there. WASD still works, and the mouse wheel zooms.
• Buildings between you and the camera fade out so they never hide you.

New action-RPG HUD

• The game fills the whole window:
  • life and charges orbs on either side of a skill bar that matches your hotkeys;
  • an XP bar, a character plate and a target frame;
  • a combat log that fades out.
• Stats and spells slide out as a drawer (Tab).
• A button switches back to the classic three-column layout if you prefer it.

Loot that levels with you

• Drops now scale with what you're fighting instead of with the floor number.
  • Dungeon loot keeps pace with shop gear all the way to level 20. Before, it was about half as good by the endgame.
  • Roadside fights drop loot for your level. Before, it never improved.
  • Boss loot drops at the boss's level with a steady bonus. Before, it was always level 20, which was far too strong early and then never got better.
• Uniques get stronger as their item level rises.
• Newly unlocked base items and mods turn up more often around the level they unlock, and half of your gear drops are usable by your class.
• Potions, scrolls, wands, vaults and chests follow the same scaling, so the higher-tier potions can actually drop.

Item comparison you can trust

• Upgrade arrows and the shop's upgrade/downgrade verdict now try the item on and score your whole kit with it, using the same maths combat uses. They count:
  • every mod, runeword and set bonus, including completing or breaking a set;
  • your stats, as your class actually uses them;
  • weapon proficiency, crit, deadly strike, elemental damage, life steal, regen, thorns, damage reduction and unique on-hit effects.
• Gear is scored against the real monsters around your level and against a boss, so armour class, attack and regen still count on a strong character.
• A weapon your class isn't trained with is no longer marked as junk. You can wield it without your proficiency bonus to hit, and it's compared on that basis.
• New rings replace whichever of your two rings you'd miss least.

Fixes

• Bonus damage from anything other than your weapon now actually applies to your attacks:
  • +damage and +% damage from armour, jewellery, runewords and sets;
  • Dragonborn's Draconic Might;
  • the Battle Master, War Domain and Berserker subclasses.
• Crit bonuses from gear other than your weapon now count.
• The death recap log is no longer hidden behind the new HUD.

Under the hood

• The game runs fully offline. The itch.io build includes its 3D library and fonts, so it doesn't depend on any outside site.
• If 3D can't start on a device, the game falls back to the classic painted and top-down views.