Sellsword Tales [v0.4.2] [Paleoman Studio]

Reworked Laura’s model and added 2 more skins: Naked and Witch.
– Expanded time skip. You can now choose the exact time of day you want to skip to.
– Fixed a bug with counting answers in dialogues. Some answers could disappear if there were more than 20 of them. This only affected Laura.
– Fixed a bug with counting items when turning in quests. Quests now check the total amount of an item in your inventory instead of a single slot.
– Added a limit on haggling with merchants. After you haggle over a price once, you can haggle again only at a different time of day.
– Fixed Mara’s overly active breasts.
– Fixed a small visual bug with the carpet in the castle save slot.

Combat Balance
– Monsters reworked: all have more health and deal less damage, so fights last longer and depend less on lucky hits.
– New strength order: orux are the easiest, then wolves, bears and undead, with ghosts the most dangerous.
– Higher-level monsters on hunts are much tougher: each level adds +50% health and damage.
– The number of enemies per encounter now depends on the location: up to 2 at the Crossroads and in the Forest, 1 on the Meadow, up to 3 in remote locations.
– Elite enemies appear 4 times less often.
– Cultists now appear in the Abandoned Village, both in random encounters and on hunts (from Intellect 5).

Rewards and Loot
– Experience and gold from monsters now scale with their level. Experience values were revised to match the new monster strength, and cultists now give experience.
– Loot rarity now uses weights: common items drop more often, rare ones less often.
– The chance to drop equipment grows with monster level.
– Lower drop chance for the Elite Ghost’s earrings and shawl and for the Elite Cultist’s rings. Cultist loot chances were evened out.

Orux Defeat Route
– Experience reduced 4 times.
– Arena rewards are now up to Rare items, and the sword is always Epic.

Items
– Healing potions restore three times more health, their price is roughly doubled.
– Herb bags heal three times more, their price is unchanged.
– Tank starter pack: Family Greatsword P.Attack 20 → 30.

Attribute Tree
– Strength: every damage node now gives +5 and the fifth node gives +15 (+50 total instead of +21), and the last node gives +40% crit power instead of +50%.
– Dexterity: evasion nodes give +3 instead of +1, and the evasion and accuracy node gives +5 instead of +3.
– Without the evade stance, half of the evasion chance applies instead of a third.
– Persuasion is now added to Charisma checks in dialogues.
– Tree changes apply to points spent after the update.

Task Board mechanic
– Gold from repeatable hunting and gathering tasks doubled.
– Task experience now scales with task level the same way gold does.
– “Bears at the woodcutters’ camp” now requires Adventurer rank 1.

Dialogue Checks
– Mid-game checks are harder: the fountain, the green bands, the patrols, the village tunnels and the Spirits Awakening event. Early quests are almost unchanged.
– Fixed: the “Jump over and keep running” check after the skeleton fight could not be passed.

Major update v0.4

Highlights
– 2 new H-scenes with Merl and a new lewd event
– 2 new quests with Merl: the Patrol series and Green Gangs
– Task Board with 30+ new quests, unique and repeatable
– City State: your work on the board changes prices, merchants’ stock and future quests
– Hunting and Gathering, food buffs, 67 new items and 12 item sets
– New location: Small Fountain Square

New Content
– 2 new H-scenes with Merl and 1 new lewd event.
– 2 new quests, the Patrol series and Green Gangs, that develop your relationship with Merl.
– 30+ new Task Board quests (unique and repeatable).
– New location: Small Fountain Square.
– 4 new merchants. The shopkeeper by the tavern now trades too.
– New job: Tavern Bouncer.
– Expanded the waitress job. It now requires a check.
– 67 new items, mostly food.
– 12 item sets.
– Added sound effects to dialogues in the new quests.

New Systems

Task Board
– Take on quests from the Task Board in the city.
– Completing quests raises your Adventurer rank and Glory.
– The main story now continues through the Task Board. To move it forward, raise your Adventurer rank by completing quests. It takes roughly 5-7 quests.
– Most interactive objects in locations are no longer text-only placeholders. They are now used in Task Board quests.

City State
– Completed Task Board quests affect the city’s Prosperity and City level, which change what merchants sell, their prices and the types of quests on the board.

Hunting and Gathering
– Hunt monsters and gather ingredients and food.
– Random monster encounters in dangerous locations are now much less likely.

Meals
– Eating food now gives buffs, usually for 1-3 days.

Combat & Stats
Luck now matters a lot more:
– Evasion: +1 per 3 Luck
– Critical chance: +0.5% per point
– Bargaining: +2% persuasion chance per point
– Loot quality: every 3 Luck increases the chance of rarer items
– Item stats: +1 to main and secondary stat values per 3 Luck (except Luck itself)

Evasion rework
– Evasion now gives a passive chance to dodge even when you don’t use the Evade ability. The passive chance is 3 times lower than when you actively evade. This also applies to monsters.
– Your character no longer stops evading after being hit.

Defense and damage reduction
– Defense now lowers incoming physical damage by an additional percentage when you defend.
– Reduce Damage now reduces physical damage by a percentage instead of a flat amount.

Other
– Temporary Health now works correctly and is shown in the stats. You can also gain it by resting if you have the right talent.
– Some items and sets can now grant Action Points and Additional Action Points.
– Using an item in combat now costs 1 Additional Action Point.
– Two perks now work: Prepared and Lucker.
– Smarter auto-battle: the autobattle can now use abilities (Double Strike) and heal with potions and poultices from your inventory, if you allow it to spend them.

Items & Trading
– Items are now themed and give specific stats instead of random ones (some items are still random).
– Restructured item stats and how they are displayed.
– Removed duplicate stats among secondary stats.
– Reworked item generation.
– Expanded monster drop lists.
– Finch, a new merchant, now sells mysterious wooden crates. Open one for a chance at rare armor, materials or weapons… or a rock.
– Poultices now heal gradually, both in and out of combat.
– Improved and rebalanced trading. Prices and stock now depend on the city’s prosperity.
– Added city types and regional prices. Vinbran is an agricultural region.

UI & Quality of Life
– Redesigned the dialogue UI to be more compact.
– Reworked answer icons to show more clearly where a choice leads.
– When a character has several quest topics, they are now grouped under a Quests button.
– Added hotkeys for most game modes. Some of them can be rebound in the settings.
– Added quick save (F5) and quick load (F8) outside of dialogues.
– Time skip, rest and search now unlock after the prologue.
– Drag wearable items onto the character to equip them.
– Equipment slots are now highlighted.
– New item sounds.
– New fonts, including signature fonts for characters, shown in their names and notes.
– Hovering over a monster in combat now shows an outline instead of an animation.
– Tabitha’s hair color now carries over into combat.
– Rebalanced the volume of 1300+ sounds. H-scene voices are no longer too quiet.
– Improved hair highlights. They no longer darken along with the whole hairstyle.
– Proofread and improved the English text.

Performance & Stability
– Loading a game on the main scene now fully reloads it. This unloads unused data, reduces the load on your PC and makes the game more stable. Loading takes a bit longer than before.
– Optimized animations and art for mobile and PC.

Bug Fixes
– Fixed a bug where starting a new game after finishing one could keep old static flags and cause random bugs (for example, a quest stage counted as completed in a fresh playthrough).
– Fixed textures failing to load when the game was installed in a folder with a very long path.
– Fixed Gallery images not showing on some Android devices.
– Fixed animation sizing in the Gallery. Animations now fit the device screen.
– Fixed restarting an H-scene in the Gallery.
– Fixed food not healing when eaten.
– Fixed the Health and Luck stats never appearing on generated items.
– Fixed Tabitha’s hairstyle in dialogues where she changes into a preset outfit. It now keeps the style chosen by the player.
– Fixed the orux not disappearing after Tabitha dealt with him in the Spirits Awakening quest.
– Fixed the tree texture in the Crossroads location.
– Fixed the Auto button in dialogues.
– Fixed the Skip button in dialogues. It now works as originally intended.

Known Issues & Notes
– Lust is capped at level 1 (100) in this version.
– Balance: we plan a thorough balance pass later. For now, some items, food or stats may be stronger than others.
– Optimization: mobile and PC optimization still needs more testing. If you notice performance problems, please let us know via the in-game bug report or on our Discord.

Thank you!

• Fixed long location loading times by reworking scene loading logic.
• Fixed issues with resetting colors to default during main character customization at the start of the game.
• Fixed a bug with a missing route leading to the Arena mini-game in the Orux Grove.
• Fixed an incorrect address for submitting bug reports.
• Fixed a bug with incorrect loading and saving of character hairstyles (short ponytail changing to long hair).
• Removed the loading placeholder for gallery scenes and reduced gallery scene loading times.
• Fixed a visual defect on locked scene cards.

Features
• Significantly expanded the Orux defeat route(new event)
• Added the ability to minimize the main dialogue window
• Introduced the foundation of the Lust mechanic. You can now gain Lust through certain actions and choices.
• Expanded the trading system. You can now haggle in the trading window, and trade calculations have been improved.
• Added the ability to find Epic and Legendary quality items through the new Orux route.
• Rebalanced item prices (increased overall). Epic and Legendary items are now significantly stronger.
• Added a large number of new items (rings, earrings, amulets, and more)
• Stat check results are now displayed in the dialogue log
• Added customization system for Tabitha’s dialogue model
• Reworked and expanded the random item generation system
• Added starting equipment presets

Other
• Reworked the game settings menu
• Slightly increased the difficulty of orux enemies
• Added rewards to all quests
• Added new tags to the Gallery: Titjob, Pregnancy, Bondage, Bukkake and more.

Technical
• Added an in-game Bug Report system. You can now send bug reports directly from the game.
• Switched to Addressable Assets
• Moved H-scene and background textures to Addressables, reducing RAM usage from 4 GB to 2 GB
• Upgraded to Spine 4.3. We can now use Physics in animations.
• Converted all dialogues and choices to JSON format
• Added dedicated editors for dialogues, the card game, and other systems (foundation for future modding support)
• Added mobile UI adaptation
• Added an Android port (We will add it to download later. Still need to do some tests)

Visuals
• Added 3 new artworks with 2–6 variations each (9 images in total)
• Added the new Orux Grove location
• Temporarily unlocked the H-scene “Orux Blowjob”
• Revamped Tabitha’s dialogue model
• Added new animations for Tabitha’s dialogue model (including covered in cum and other lewd states)
• Added 14 new hairstyles for Tabitha’s dialogue model
• Added hair color customization
• Added makeup color customization
• Added 2 new skins for Tabitha (now 4 skins total)
• Added icons for dialogue choices (Combat, Quest, Stat Checks) for better navigation

Bug Fixes
• Fixed a softlock that occurred when Tabitha allows Mara to be hit.
• Fixed a bug where Tabitha would appear without clothes after defeating the Orux Chieftain.
• Removed most potions from loot drops, as they weren’t particularly useful at this stage of the game.
• Fixed experience gain from Intellect. Additional EXP is now also granted from completing quests.
• Fixed an issue where character physics was too active during dialogues
• Improved QTE timing in the dummy minigame (now easier to hit successfully)
• Fixed music restarting when playing art scenes in the Gallery
• Fixed softlocks after Orux and/or Ghost defeats
• Fixed a visual bug where the selected item for sale was displayed incorrectly in trading
• Fixed the Auto button in dialogues (previously required two clicks and often stopped working after continuing the dialogue)

Known Issues
• Location and H-scene textures may display incorrectly on some devices

Tabitha’s maximum level increased to 20.

Fixed a bug where there was a short period of time before dialogue to click on interactive elements.
Fixed a bug related to disabling interactive elements after battles and dialogues.
Fixed a bug with saves.

How to unlock:
Meet Eyira
Work three shifts as a waitress
Visit Laura in the morning for the fourth time.

Changes and improvements:
Added experience for stages of the quests “Spirits Awakening” and “Merl Training”. In the next patches, we’ll add experience for the remaining tasks.
To earn experience for these quests, you need to start a new game!
Added a script to control the frame rate.
Added a method that unloads unused assets when RAM usage is low.
Expanded the reputation accrual method.
Added reputation gains for Ozan, Laura, and Eyira.
Expanded the dialogue system’s capabilities. For example, awarding characteristic points, checks for fulfilling multiple conditions, and more.
Hiding a dialogue will now stop it.
The battle start animation now overlays the interface.
Added a system for handling the Esc key press.
Added a save deletion system.
Removed the exp bar from battle results.
Notifications now display only at the top, with added quick filling and a notification queue.

Visuals:
Added 8 splash arts for the quest “Spirits Awakening”. Three of them have 2 variations each.

Balance tweaks:
Weakened monster characteristics.
Evasion will now be more effective (needs testing).
Fixed the experience accrual formula (it was awarding more than intended).
Increased the bonus from leveling Intellect from 3 to 9 points.
Temporarily increased the merchant’s level (Intendant). Rarer goods will now appear in his assortment.

Fixed:
Softlock preventing climbing the stairs from the tunnels.
Softlock when transitioning to the Vinbran main street location after the Dummy mini-game.
Softlock in dialogue that prevented making a choice if a Codex link was open.
Softlock in dialogue. Hiding the dialogue could disable the settings panel along with the button, blocking progress.
Softlock in dialogue when spamming LMB.
Softlock during dialogue with the cultist when trying to return armor in the tunnels.
Bug causing identical items to disappear from inventory after returning to the main scene.
Bug where potions sometimes didn’t disappear from inventory after use.
Bug causing Ozan to appear at the gates at night.
Bug where used items could merge into one slot after battle, even if they had different parameters.
Sound bug. Night sounds will no longer play at other times of day.
Bug with displaying notifications for unlocking H-scenes. They will no longer repeat if the H-scene is already unlocked.
Bug causing part of a key interactive element to disappear after defeating the cultists and loading a save before entering the abandoned village.
Fixed cursor changes.

Other:
Small text improvements

Bugfixes:
Fixed a minor bug that allowed interacting with the interface during game loading.
Fixed a bug that allowed entering the city without talking to the guard (the bug could break the main quest).
Fixed a bug in the item drop databases (some items had the wrong type), which could cause a softlock after battle.
Fixed a minor bug that couse soft lock when you buy food or drink at tavern(restore health)

Locations:
Fixed option to interact with Eyira and Laura in the tavern at night.
Fixed active interface during the dialogue between Kir and Tabitha.
Fixed Forest location visual bug.

Gallery:
Added new scene.
Fixed visual issue with gallery boxes borders.

Other:
Added confirmation window for save.
Added animations for empty save slots and saving games.
Added early trading system. Now you can sell items. Be careful! The items that you sell will disappear from the merchant’s inventory after the battle scenes or when you exit the game.
Fixed autosave issue which led to losing gear and stats when trying to load the first autosave in game.
Fixed load screen when starting a new game.
Fixed pop up box in inventory.
Fixed issue that prevents the unlock scene “Laura the witch”.
Fixed incorrect stats calc when changing equipment.
Fixed some minor visual and technical bugs.