This release mainly fixed a bug where the play button did not show on some screen resolutions.

The project had been shelved for a good bit - some UI changes are included in this change that were started last year but I cannot remember what they were ^^

The game engine version was also forcefully upgraded - hopefully this does not create even more bugs...

Edric the Alchemist has been experimenting with Gem Fragments his entire life. He's been trying in vain to unlock the hidden potential he believes they hold. Most in town have written him off as an eccentric old coot and know not to get into any lengthy conversations with him! After all, everyone knows Gem Fragments lose their powers when you tinker with them. Nothing much ever came of his travails... until now.

Firstly, he has discovered a way to transmute Gem Fragments into Alchemic Fragments. These new Alchemic Fragments can be used at the Artisan to roll new unique abilities on items! Head Item types in particular can roll an Override Skill component that grants a Skill from any of the other Item types. However, Edric isn't just handing these Alchemic Fragments out for free. He needs your help with his even greater breakthrough.

Secondly, he was able to use these Alchemic Fragments to bring to life powerful Golems. He believes with the proper training they can be used to help keep the peace and protect the town. He is looking for some hearty Heroes to help in these training sessions. Powerful creatures with a rock for a brain wielding weapons and spells... what could go wrong? Heroes who can best his Golems will be rewarded with Alchemic Chests which contain Alchemic Fragments.
The Alchemist has new adventures for you in his Laboratory! Check them out in the Game Menu.

• Three new Story Mode games that introduce Golems.
• The Laboratory is a new game mode that works similarly to the Crucible in that it has its own leaderboard and progress system.
• Rewards from the Laboratory include Alchemic Loot Chests and Alchemic Fragments used at the Artisan to craft powerful new item components.
• Alchemic Loot Chests also have a small chance to drop unique cosmetic items. Rare: Alchemist Tongs, Epic: Alchemist Flask, Legendary: Alchemist Goggles, Artifact: Alchemist Mask

• An entirely new set of Alchemic Item Components have been added.
• Helmet slot items can now use Alchemic Fragments to roll a new Skill Override component that adds a skill not normally found on helmets. This will allow a wide variety of new builds for players.

The release of Seasonal Game Mode has been put on hold indefinitely. The groundwork is complete and everything worked pretty well technically, but I didn't like how the user experience was panning out. Also, HEXAD doesn't currently have a strong playerbase, and introducing seasons and splitting the playerbase further is, quite frankly, a dumb idea. So for now, I'll continue working on the base game and at some point in the future if we do get more active players I'll re-evaluate if Seasons would be a good addition to the game.

• Adventure and Story game difficulty starts low and ramps higher through the game rarities at the following multiples of potential player maximum values; Common: 50%, Uncommon: 75%, Rare: 100%, Epic: 125%, Legendary: 150%, Artifact: 200%.
• This makes the End Game of HEXAD impossible unless you are properly equipped. Even well equipped Heroes are going to find these games challenging (as should be expected).
• Action Points in battles has been modified in a way that makes positioning more accessible. This change also helps reduce some extreme kiting tactics. See Battles section for more info.

• The Town area has been removed for this release. It was an interesting experiment but it had no functional value other than showing off your items. In the future there will be new ways for other players to see and interact with your Heroes. It also created more work for each release and retracted from my original vision of a Lobby centric design.

• You can now purchase more Hero slots with Diamonds.
• The Guild Leader can now be renamed for free and any rename will change your name on the leaderboards also.
• Guild Members can now be renamed at the Guild Registration Office for a fee of 2 Diamonds. Member names are strictly enforced and randomly chosen by the GRO and are unique across the game.
• Base Power is now 12 down from 36.
• Base Health is now 72 down from 180.

• All rarity items now generate with 6 component slots. This change is not retroactive.
• High level items are too easily obtainable and they makes many parts of the game trivial. Many of the changes below are done to increase game longevity.
• Salvage fragments earned for higher tier item components has been increased significantly.

• Resist Magical has been renamed to Resist Elemental.
• Resist base values have been changed from 2 to 6. This increase makes it possible to overcap resists for endgame content since debuffs to resistances are taken from the overcapped value.
• Damage base value has been increased to 2 from 1.
• Healing Inherent values on items is now 3 down from 6.
• Warding Inherent values on items is now 3 down from 6.
• Components on Items from loot chests can roll with up to + 2 to component level. Components rolled this way will be marked as Fused. Fused components cannot be Rerolled or Upgraded by any means at this time. All existing item components that have a higher rarity than the item have also been retroactively marked as fused.
• Components no longer have a minimum rarity. This makes nicely rolled high level items much more rare.
• Fused components provide no salvage Gem Fragment value.
• Penetrate components have been moved to Honor Fragments.
• Skill Multiplier (Greater) renamed to Skill Multiplier.
• Skill Multiplier (Lesser) has been removed and items with this component have been given Skill Multiplier.

• The Loot Chest window is now more of a stash looking UI that only shows loot chests you have unopened.
• The chance of an item being Epic, Legendary, or Artifact has been decreased.
• The first item in a loot chest is guaranteed to be the same rarity as the chest
• Items in chests are guaranteed not to be more than 3 levels below the level of the chest (Artifact chests roll Rare at a minimum).
• All items have a 10% chance to be upgraded one rarity level higher.
• The chance for loot chests to drop gold and fragments has increased significantly.

The Quartermaster provided a very easy way to use PVP Honor and obtain Epic+ items. In turn, this provided an easy way to trivialize initial gameplay.

• The Honor merchant has been removed for now and will be brought back to sell cosmetic and/or QoL items.
• Existing Honor has been converted to Honor Fragments for use at the Alchemist.

• The reroll cost of each component on an item now starts at 1 Fragment. Each reroll increases the cost by 1 Fragment no matter what rarity the component is.
• The Artisan now has three categories for components: Standard, Honor, Alchemic. All categories require Gem Fragments while Honor and Alchemic require Fragments of those types as well. The Fragment cost for Honor and Alchemic = (Number of Rerolls on Component / 6) * 6. So Rolls 1-6 on a component require 6 special Fragments, rolls 7-12 require 12 special Fragments, etc.
• Components cannot be upgraded beyond the value of the rarity.
• The Artisan no longer needs to be upgraded.

The Merchants main purpose is to get new players up to speed and help them through the first sets of adventures. It also provided a very easy way to get end game gear and farm fragments. It's not an ideal implementation end game or game longevity.

• The Merchant has a much lower chance of rolling Epic and above items.
• The Merchant no longer needs to be upgraded.

• Pretty sure no one reads these patch notes, but in case there is... the first person to say the word 'Flabbergast' in game or in the Discord General Chat channel will earn 900 Diamonds. These have to be awarded manually so just wait for me to see your message.

• The Leaderboards now have a screen for Laboratory.
• Each Leaderboard now shows the Guild Leader Model for the top 6 ranks.

• The game log displays the last few lines of log items on a transparent background at all times. If no new text has come in for 30 seconds these log items are hidden.
• When the chat box is clicked or Enter is pressed the game log now shows as a solid background window. Custom game log transparency has been removed.
• The game log now shows the levels and names of all players that are online. Clicking on these names will show that players profile.
• The game log now only has two different heights.
• Fixed a bug where the scroll wheel was not scrolling the game log.

• The Party System has been removed. Now when you join a game you can pick any Hero from your Guild Roster.
• In the future, this system will be re-added similar to how it worked previously but will be used for co-op mode.

• 3 new games have been added to Story Mode!
• The first time you complete an Adventure you will earn 3 Loot Chest currency. Completing the same Adventure again only awards 1 Loot Chest currency.
• Extra Diamonds and Gold earned from completing an Adventure the first time has been removed.
• The Halloween Mini adventures are now available in the Adventures game mode, but they no longer offer Halloween Loot Chests.

• Crucible difficulty ramps up faster with fewer levels between rarity types.
• Existing Standard Geared Leaderboard Max level has been divided by 4.
• Existing Standard Vanilla Leaderboard Max level has been divided by 2.
• Crucible rewards now follow the Adventure rewards formula based on game rarity and do not continue to scale with higher level crucibles.
• Crucible mobs now have base resists dependent on their rarity type.

• Heroes now get 6 AP per turn and skill costs have been increased to 3 AP.
• Attack with a Basic Attack skill now use either Physical Damage or Magical Damage as a primary component type depending on the Main Hand weapon type. These new damage types use the average of your Physical (Slash, Pierce, Crush) or Magical (Fire, Ice, Energy) Damage Types. This skill will also use a new Physical or Magical Penetration value which works in the same way.
• Defending against a Basic Attack Skill uses your Physical Resist or Magical Resist internal values, which use the average of your Physical (Slash, Pierce, Crush) or Magical (Fire, Ice, Energy) Resist Types.
• Max AP is now 9.
• Damaging Skills that are single target (including Basic Attack) now apply a 40% damage bonus when the target is attacked from behind, and a 20% damage bonus when attacked from a flanking position.
• Changing your facing now costs 1 AP.
• Non player Mobs now have base resists of 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 at their respective rarity levels.
• Having the high ground when an attack is used against you will reduce damage taken 20%.
• Fixed a bug where the high ground damage bonus was being applied when the source mob was below the target mob.
• Fixed a bug where logging back in to a game in progress would not show ground effects until the next round started.

• The honor calculation for games has been changed to apply a maximum of 64 Honor Pool split amongst the participants. The pool is then split between the teams using the point differential. The Winner will earn 150% of their pool share. The Loser will earn 50% of their pool share. Each teams pool share is then split amongst their Heroes. The more points you score the higher a percentage of honor that Hero will earn.
• Games that don't make it to 6 rounds or higher will have a smaller Honor Pool.
• When a team earns less than 25% of the pool share the game will be marked non-competitive. The loser receives no honor and the winner has a 50% penalty.

Halloween is coming and the townsfolk have been decorating accordingly! Enjoy the new town atmosphere and music as you prepare for Fall.

From now until November 1st there are three new Halloween themed adventures to play. These adventures award limited time Halloween loot chests that contain Diamonds, Gold, Fragments, and rarely a unique Cosmetic item. These cosmetic items will be unobtainable after this event ends!

• The Goblin Lantern is an Uncommon level adventure that awards Uncommon Halloween Loot Chests. In this chest you will sometimes find a Lantern Off Hand cosmetic item.
• Skeletons at the Feast is an Epic level adventure that awards Epic Halloween Loot Chests. In this chest you will sometimes find a Scythe Main Hand cosmetic item.
• Jack Hallow is an Artifact level adventure that awards Artifact Halloween Loot Chests. In this chest you will sometimes find a Pumpkin Helm Head cosmetic item.

These adventures can be completed as many times as you want!

• The town camera can now be zoomed in a bit further.
• The town camera can no longer be rotated with the arrow keys.

• Renaming the Main Hero works again. Using this feature will change your name on leaderboards as well now.

• Fixed a bug where you could not queue for Geared 1v1 from the games window.
• Added a new Halloween Event section.
• Completed Adventure/Story games now do a better job of showing their pool rewards when you have already completed the game and earned the bonus rewards.

• The skill description should now calculate stat changes to the skill that are added by equipped item components. This only works if the item is currently equipped on a Hero.

• Fixed a bug where item salvage audits were not being recorded correctly. Fragment totals are still correct but some crafting leaderboard stats will seem skewed.
• Fixed an issue with the audit migration script in the last release duplicating items salvaged leaderboard stats.

• Heal skill now has a chance to apply Regenerate instead of Rejuvenate.
• Leap Slam skill can now be self targeted.

• Fixed a bug where disabling shadows setting was not being applied when restarting the game.

• Fixed a bug where Geared PvP was not enforcing the turn time limits.

• Fixed a bug where Vanilla game modes were adding in Crit Chance values from items.
• Fixed a bug where Vanilla game modes were adding in Crit Multiplier values from items.
• Fixed a bug where Vanilla game modes were adding in Skill Stacks from items.

• Fixed a bug where the new stats system was not recording Crucible progress correctly.
• Fixed a bug where Geared Crucible was loading Vanilla Crucible stats for Heroes and Mobs.
• Fixed a bug where Geared Crucible was not enforcing the turn time limits.

• Reworked the server architecture and changed how player load is handled. This is either going to work really well or make things really unstable. Let's find out together!

HEXAD is finally getting to a point where I think most of the necessary Quality of Life features have been completed (except for item sets). Now I can finally work on adding some fun to the game! :) At this point I'm not sure how many seasons I will be able to release per year - I have the high level design for several seasons planned out but they each take a lot of time to implement.

For anyone not familiar with Seasons concepts in games; Seasons are a way to allow players a fresh start and introduce new features to the game (mechanics, item types, mob types, game modes, etc.). Season Heroes do not have access to Standard Stash/Loot and vice versa. Seasons also allow me to make potentially drastic changes to the core game without them being overly impactful to veteran players.

• When a new season begins, you'll have the option to see your Standard Heroes/Stash/Loot, or your Season Heroes/Stash/Loot. I've not decided how this will be done visually and technically yet!
• Seasons will have separate leaderboards.

• Your Season Stash and Standard Stash use the same Stash size calculation. Purchasing more slots in one mode will have an affect on the other.
• Your Cosmetic items will be visible and available in your Standard Stash and your Season Stash, however each cosmetic item can still only be equipped on one Hero.

• There will be several cosmetic items that can only be earned during that Season and will never be available after.
• There will be unique cosmetic items for the top N players (of each leaderboard?) for that season.
• Each Season will introduce a new Item Influence type that cannot be earned in Standard until that season is over. There is also a chance that these Influences do NOT get rolled into standard or into the next season.

• When a season closes, your Season Main character will be deleted. Their experience will be rolled into your Standard Main character.
• Other Heroes will be moved into your Standard Roster as room permits.
• Currencies (except diamonds), and Loot Chests will be rolled into your Standard account.
• Diamonds used for dyes on your Season Main will be reimbursed if there isn't an alternative to diamond dyes costs yet.
• There will be a bit of downtime in between Seasons so that players can take a small break and get their stashes and Heroes sorted.

Mini Events are a series of adventures that are only available during the event and award a unique Currency or Loot Chest. These events will occur in between Seasons.

• Save up your currency to purchase cosmetic items that are only available during that mini event.
• Remaining currency at the end of the event will likely be converted to Diamonds at some ratio.

The first Mini Event: 'Pumpkinhead' will begin this Fall. After the Mini event is completed the first Season: 'The Mad Alchemist' will begin. More on this in the future.