The Kramora Times # 8, Ananias 2.5.0 released on Steam!

It has been almost 6 years since the last release of Ananias on Steam.

Well, here we are. After recovering control of the tech stack used to build the game, and prompted by our participation in the Roguelike Celebration Celebration Steam Sale (yay!), I am finally able to offer you this long promised maintenance version. It comes packed with a lot of small, but highly valuable changes. And maybe some bugs. Get it now on Steam!

Are you ready? Here we go!

Ananias 2.5.0 has been released on Steam!

Let’s being with a BIG one, the long requested option to disable weapon degradation. Yes, this is now completely optional and turned off by default and it’s a complete game changer, you can now use these cool weapons you find without remorse (just be careful of enemies that spit acid, these are still an issue).

This didn’t come out as a lightly-taken decision. After a lot of discussion I believe it’s the best for the game given the format of the runs and their difficulty. I figured it didn’t made sense to punish the players even further (am I not merciful?)

You will still find weapons of varying quality laying in the dungeon, and the spells and scroll that restore them have been increased in power as well. Note that the setting only applies for New games (you cannot change it for an ongoing game).

Then there is a number of small, high impact gameplay changes:

• Alchemy is now safe for all classes. Yes, no more explosions in your face. The elements of the universe have stabilized so alchemy is now more useful!
• Ammunition should be more readily available. Bows (and especially crossbows) should be much more useful.
• Scrolls with magic attacks will now never backfire and they are also much more powerful now (hence more useful!).
• Spellcasting backfire chance when you are not an expert spellcaster has been lowered to 5% (was 20%), thus making spells more useful to all classes.
• However, some tweaks were made to the failure chance when attempting to cast higher circle spells. (20% chance of failure on top of 10% for each difference between spell’s circle and caster magic power). Note that this is failure change (no effect), not backfire!
• The barbarian can now select combat and hit-points heavenly patrons without any cap, so he doesn’t have to spend level ups in useless magic skills.

One area that was often overlooked by players was the fact that depending on the weapon you are wielding, and the material of your target, there are important bonuses applied to the damage caused. This has been addressed by displaying the attack effectiveness along with the damage caused, when there is a bonus. The manual has also been improved with a new complete section on these “Damage Multipliers”.

Speaking of the manual, several mistakes and omissions on it have been fixed, especially in the Alchemy and Magic sections. The class descriptions were also updated to reflect their current abilities.

Finally, another big usability improvement long requested: The inventory window will no longer close after using an item, provided you are in a “safe” room. This makes equipping and dropping items especially a much smoother experience, but also applies to using items on self and performing alchemy.

This version also inherits the fixes made on v2.4.5, which had a mobile and web-only release on 2022. The most important fixes were preventing friendlies from using skills outside of combat, and handing gifts directly from NPCs if no available room space.

Many thanks to SlashwareKnight Stoltverd, who has been pushing for improvements and fixes on Ananias since he joined Slashware, and is constantly testing and spreading the evangelion of Ananias in the net.

Ananias is part of the Roguelike Celebration Celebration Steam Sale!

We have been selected to take part of the Roguelike Celebration Celebration event, we are joined by speakers both present and past, and a selection of excellent roguelike games of all kind. Go now and check them out! Ananias has a -20% discount in case you still don’t have it.