- Version 19 Patch - 7 December 2023
Fixed compatibility issues with OS updates Improved performance during combat Increased character movement speed Increased party movement speed for Morph into Bats spell Fixed character creation bug where skill points and name don't appear immediately Fixed music fade bug during intro questions Fixed small text/spacing issues
- Additional Performance Optimizations: Update 18 live - 6 January 2017
We're ready to push out the second part of some optimizations we've been testing to follow up with our last update. Of note: Some maps causing occasional performance hiccups have been fixed Combat performance update Herbology UI has been updated Polymorph Wolf no longer utilizes range of missile weapons equipped Sound and Music levels balanced since last update Cheers!
- Additional Performance Optimizations: Update 18 live - 6 January 2017
We're ready to push out the second part of some optimizations we've been testing to follow up with our last update. Of note: Some maps causing occasional performance hiccups have been fixed Combat performance update Herbology UI has been updated Polymorph Wolf no longer utilizes range of missile weapons equipped Sound and Music levels balanced since last update Cheers!
- Faster Load times and optimization: version 17 now available! - 22 December 2016
In celebration of the Winter Solstice and Necholai’s worst after party, we’re ready to release update 17! We’ve been poking at Shroomers and Serpent for a while now to optimize a lot of the behind-the-scenes systems, especially load times. The engine has been updated and with some heavy optimization to art and loading structures we’re looking at 60-70% speed increase. Maps should load in at ~5 seconds, depending on your system or how large the map is. Besides that we’ve had some other system updates for stability and content tweaks listed below. We have some art and content for the expansion, A Banquet For Fools, that we’re planning on releasing next year. There is the perfect amount of monks, mead and illuminated manuscripts. Merry Christmas! Joe & Hannah Update log: System Load time optimization Revamped ammunition system — for fringe cases of some equipped ammo disappearing on game l…
- Faster Load times and optimization: version 17 now available! - 22 December 2016
In celebration of the Winter Solstice and Necholai’s worst after party, we’re ready to release update 17! We’ve been poking at Shroomers and Serpent for a while now to optimize a lot of the behind-the-scenes systems, especially load times. The engine has been updated and with some heavy optimization to art and loading structures we’re looking at 60-70% speed increase. Maps should load in at ~5 seconds, depending on your system or how large the map is. Besides that we’ve had some other system updates for stability and content tweaks listed below. We have some art and content for the expansion, A Banquet For Fools, that we’re planning on releasing next year. There is the perfect amount of monks, mead and illuminated manuscripts. Merry Christmas! Joe & Hannah Update log: System Load time optimization Revamped ammunition system — for fringe cases of some equipped ammo disappearing on game l…
- Cyberpunk RPG Copper Dreams Hits Crowdfunding Goal - 11 June 2016
Whalenaught Studios, the husband and wife duo behind last year’s gothic old-school RPG affair Serpent in the Staglands , are hard at work on their next project, Copper Dreams . A turn-based cyberpunk-inspired role-player, its creators suggest we “think an isometric Escape from New York, or Deus Ex.” Which sounds pretty darn exciting. If that’s not enough to get the juices flowing, know that Copper Dreams has now been successfully crowdfunded to the tune of $40,000 at the time of writing. You’ve still got a few short hours to help up that. Hop below for a trailer and deets. …
- Expansion system in action in Copper Dreams! Kickstarter now live - 14 May 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsRs-r93As Hi everyone! If you wanted to check out how the system we're using for the Serpent expansion is shaping up, our cyber-espionage game Copper Dreams is the start of it! Vol will certainly have less firearms, but you can see the movement, 3d world and how combat works. We'll be going over a lot of the systems in detail throughout the campaign, but the Burning Candle ruleset section will be essentially the same for the expansion. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/description Below is the Greenlight link, we'd love your support getting it on Steam! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682999664 Also, one of the miniatures we'll be offering for the KS will be a Pasaaran Bloodless Hunter in all their 3d glory, we'll be sure to post a picture. Cheers!
- Expansion system in action in Copper Dreams! Kickstarter now live - 14 May 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsRs-r93As Hi everyone! If you wanted to check out how the system we're using for the Serpent expansion is shaping up, our cyber-espionage game Copper Dreams is the start of it! Vol will certainly have less firearms, but you can see the movement, 3d world and how combat works. We'll be going over a lot of the systems in detail throughout the campaign, but the Burning Candle ruleset section will be essentially the same for the expansion. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/description Below is the Greenlight link, we'd love your support getting it on Steam! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682999664 Also, one of the miniatures we'll be offering for the KS will be a Pasaaran Bloodless Hunter in all their 3d glory, we'll be sure to post a picture. Cheers!
- Copper Dreams is a cyberpunk cRPG - here's the first trailer - 27 February 2016
Whalenought Studios' Serpent in the Staglands slipped under a lot of peoples' radars, and that's a crying shame. It's a novel cRPG set in a fascinating gothic fantasy world, inspired by the ahead-of-its-time Darklands—Darklands!—of all things. Not ones to sit on their laurels, the two-person development team is making another cRPG: a "cyberpunk, cybertactical party-based cRPG" no less. Copper Dreams is a roleplaying game featuring grappling hooks—I think it's important to impart that detail first. Turn-based combat, hacking, stealth and an "open city" also feature. That's definitely a 'throwing money at the screen' type situation. Here's the premise: "Dumped onto the island world of Calitana, you are one of hundreds drafted to ease the overcrowding that is rapidly miring the citizens of Earth in famine, violence and poverty. Once a beacon of hope, the isolated Calitana…
- Expansion News! A Fool's Banquet - 27 February 2016
We're back and excited to share some information with you about the free Serpent in the Staglands expansion! Titled "A Fool's Banquet," the expansion takes place in the Lachovinian Isles in the aftermath of the Moon Lord's journey through the Staglands. A New Engine and Ruleset As we began designing the campaign for A Fool's Banquet, we had a ton of ideas that we wanted to implement for the expansion and for future games set in this world. While we could have shoehorned some of these into the Staglands engine, we decided to do something drastic and create an entire new engine that was set up to handle all of the new really neat mechanics and optimizations we wanted to ad in. Thus decided, we started designing and have been spending the last few months building a new and improved engine that will have much faster loading times, better performance, has taken user feedback into account and…
- Expansion News! A Fool's Banquet - 27 February 2016
We're back and excited to share some information with you about the free Serpent in the Staglands expansion! Titled "A Fool's Banquet," the expansion takes place in the Lachovinian Isles in the aftermath of the Moon Lord's journey through the Staglands. A New Engine and Ruleset As we began designing the campaign for A Fool's Banquet, we had a ton of ideas that we wanted to implement for the expansion and for future games set in this world. While we could have shoehorned some of these into the Staglands engine, we decided to do something drastic and create an entire new engine that was set up to handle all of the new really neat mechanics and optimizations we wanted to ad in. Thus decided, we started designing and have been spending the last few months building a new and improved engine that will have much faster loading times, better performance, has taken user feedback into account and…
- News in the The New Year + Rock Paper Shotgun's The Scrolls of Honour – 2015! - 28 December 2015
Earlier this month we were on Richard Cobbett's "The Scrolls of Honour" , listed as: "The Scroll of Histories: Serpent in the Staglands". We thought that was very neat and we wanted to share the article with you, and the whole thing is a very fun read if you hadn't seen it yet, check it out. As we close out the year we wanted to say thanks to everyone who supported us with feedback and played Serpent in the Staglands since the release in May! We wanted to post some information on the free expansion, but decided we could do better with a proper reveal with more actual content early next year. Big changes coming to Vol that we think you'll enjoy! So expect some news on that and Copper Dreams , as well as a small Vol chronology site which will house content on the different campaigns happening in it. Hope all you Spicers have a wonderful new year! Cheers
- News in the The New Year + Rock Paper Shotgun's The Scrolls of Honour – 2015! - 28 December 2015
Earlier this month we were on Richard Cobbett's "The Scrolls of Honour" , listed as: "The Scroll of Histories: Serpent in the Staglands". We thought that was very neat and we wanted to share the article with you, and the whole thing is a very fun read if you hadn't seen it yet, check it out. As we close out the year we wanted to say thanks to everyone who supported us with feedback and played Serpent in the Staglands since the release in May! We wanted to post some information on the free expansion, but decided we could do better with a proper reveal with more actual content early next year. Big changes coming to Vol that we think you'll enjoy! So expect some news on that and Copper Dreams , as well as a small Vol chronology site which will house content on the different campaigns happening in it. Hope all you Spicers have a wonderful new year! Cheers
- The RPG Scrollbars: The Scrolls of Honour 2015 - 14 December 2015
As the dragons finally return to their nests to hibernate and the ghosts don their chains to help remind misers of the meaning of the season, we approach the end of another year. As is tradition, that is time for we at the guild-house to award both quests and questers the ceremonial Scrolls of Honour . (Chorus of affordable angels) Scribed upon only the finest vellum in ink taken from a particularly recalcitrant octopus from the Abyssal Depths, they are a testament to skill and imagination and occasional disappointments that mean exactly nothing whatsoever except that I have a column and so I can hand out whatever made-up crap takes my fancy. Lo! We begin! …
- Balancing, Spells, and Update 16: Live! - 13 October 2015
There are some late game encounters and enemies that have been tweaked to add difficulty and some resistances, along with an overhaul of smaller changes and improvements to many of the spells. The update list below is a bit long, but besides the gameplay/quest updates, most of it is spell tweaks we've been wanting to fix up. Many of these have just had updated language in their descriptions to be more accurate to their output ( like removing proc/duration for spells that end when casting stops), while others had various stability changes or tweaks to their math. You shouldn't see anything that abruptly changes builds, but improvements overall. * Note: The Balance section has some spoilers of enemies in the game Update log: UI Added diagonal direction option to keys (can hold two at once) Various spelling updates in conversations and items Gameplay Trap re-loading bug in Lumen Caverns fi…
- Balancing, Spells, and Update 16: Live! - 13 October 2015
There are some late game encounters and enemies that have been tweaked to add difficulty and some resistances, along with an overhaul of smaller changes and improvements to many of the spells. The update list below is a bit long, but besides the gameplay/quest updates, most of it is spell tweaks we've been wanting to fix up. Many of these have just had updated language in their descriptions to be more accurate to their output ( like removing proc/duration for spells that end when casting stops), while others had various stability changes or tweaks to their math. You shouldn't see anything that abruptly changes builds, but improvements overall. * Note: The Balance section has some spoilers of enemies in the game Update log: UI Added diagonal direction option to keys (can hold two at once) Various spelling updates in conversations and items Gameplay Trap re-loading bug in Lumen Caverns fi…
- Interview at The Existential Gamer, general updates - 30 September 2015
We're doing some final testing on a spell and skill balance update which has a myriad of small usability improvements, math tweaks, or terminology on a lot of spells and skills. There's also some balance updates for some some encounters and enemies. Nothing too game changing, so builds and load-outs should continue just fine. That should be available soon. Meanwhile, we had an interview about some of the story elements and thematic design of Vol and Serpent in the Staglands in an interview with The Existential Gamer. I don't think there is anything in spoiler territory there, so check it out if you're interested! http://existentialgamer.com/interview-whalenought-studios Lastly, we have a small website coming together to chronologically record games in the Vol campaign, starting with Serpent in the Staglands and its Expansion. It will house bigger news in general there, and will be avail…
- Interview at The Existential Gamer, general updates - 30 September 2015
We're doing some final testing on a spell and skill balance update which has a myriad of small usability improvements, math tweaks, or terminology on a lot of spells and skills. There's also some balance updates for some some encounters and enemies. Nothing too game changing, so builds and load-outs should continue just fine. That should be available soon. Meanwhile, we had an interview about some of the story elements and thematic design of Vol and Serpent in the Staglands in an interview with The Existential Gamer. I don't think there is anything in spoiler territory there, so check it out if you're interested! http://existentialgamer.com/interview-whalenought-studios Lastly, we have a small website coming together to chronologically record games in the Vol campaign, starting with Serpent in the Staglands and its Expansion. It will house bigger news in general there, and will be avail…
- Update 15 Live! Now with graphic smoothing! - 13 August 2015
Now featuring AAA graphics. Update 15 has a few small fixes, a UI update, and a new accessibility option: there's now a new graphics setting you can access within a game (this will save on start up next time you play) that will smooth out the pixels. It's not a perfect system and may cause a few graphical hiccups, but does a pretty neat job of smoothing pixels together, so if you were having issues reading the text over long periods of time it may help! This setting requires a shader model 3.0 compatible GPU, along with playing the game in at least 200% or 300% scale, obviously we can't do anything when you're playing at actual pixel-level resolutions. Change-log below: UI Smooth Pixel option added which blends pixels edges and creates smoother text and 'oil painted' effect on the art. Implemented a smoother scroll for the dialogue menu FIXED player selection hot keys interrupting incan…
- Update 15 Live! Now with graphic smoothing! - 13 August 2015
Now featuring AAA graphics. Update 15 has a few small fixes, a UI update, and a new accessibility option: there's now a new graphics setting you can access within a game (this will save on start up next time you play) that will smooth out the pixels. It's not a perfect system and may cause a few graphical hiccups, but does a pretty neat job of smoothing pixels together, so if you were having issues reading the text over long periods of time it may help! This setting requires a shader model 3.0 compatible GPU, along with playing the game in at least 200% or 300% scale, obviously we can't do anything when you're playing at actual pixel-level resolutions. Change-log below: UI Smooth Pixel option added which blends pixels edges and creates smoother text and 'oil painted' effect on the art. Implemented a smoother scroll for the dialogue menu FIXED player selection hot keys interrupting incan…
