I'm pleased to announce the seventh Beta release of my hand-painted indie roleplaying adventure, "The Testament of the White Cypress." The new version is numbered 1.6, and is now available for Windows and Linux. (A Mac update from 1.4 is in the works.)
I've expanded the quest, and responded to a whirlwind of player feedback, bug reports, and suggestions! While some work remains to be done, Cypress v1.6 is looking really good. Read on below for an overview of the changes.
I want to thank my friends online and in real life, for all for your enthusiasm in playtesting the game and creativity in making suggestions. Thank you!
Here's what's new:
Story changes
- The quest has been expanded with new objects, new characters, and new story locations.
- Many additional pop-up hints have been added to help guide the player.
- New magic spell "Translation".
- The story's final scenes have been rewritten and adjusted.
- New music has been added for the final scenes.
- Quine's second letter has been greatly expanded.
- The game-opening meadow's appearance has been revised to include a curved Stone of Remembrance and a ruined building.
- A mysterious new NPC:
- Music is now triggered more often when traveling.
- The story now opens with a scrolling card after the title screen.
Combat improvements
- Packs of gray wolves include only two wolves.
- Wolves now bite and then run away temporarily, instead of "camping" on the player. Wolves also now move a little more slowly. Together these changes make wolf combat a bit easier.
- Geoffrey can now be Gashed, which means he will bleed and take damage for fifteen seconds. Gashes add up, and blood trails are fully persistent. Camping or healing will also stop bleeding. Here's a look at the new blood trails!
- Magic arrows are now significantly more damaging to Geoffrey.
- The wizards no longer get stuck in a clump while chasing Geoffrey.
- The final boss is more difficult.
- Geoffrey now barks when he is out of arrows.
- The Escape key now closes all open scrolls.
Other improvements and fixes
- Geoffrey can now unlock doors by clicking either the gear or the plate, not just the plate.
- Fixed a bug with Lucius wandering away during initial meeting.
- Fixed bug with NPC's just standing around after closing conversation gump.
- A note about the Escape keybinding has been added to the Adventurer's Guide.
- Townspeople no longer accept inventory items via drag-and-drop.
- Fixed bug with becoming unable to travel after re-visiting same sector.
Cypress v1.6 for Linux:
What's next?
The final release is coming in August 2014, and will include:
- Various AI and combat improvements.
- More side quests and things to discover.
- An in-game quest journal with integrated hintbook.
- Bugfixes!
Stay tuned to IndieDB for more news!
