Version 0.1.6 release!!

It's finally here, sorry about being a day later than planned, I had a nasty crash that I'm pretty sure is now fixed, but just in case it's not there's also autosaves so you're less likely to lose a lot of time. (Quick bugfix patch to 0.1.6a, everything should be good now)

Shoutout to X-Rhoden-X, Stubborn Skill Grinder book 2 is available now on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7Z3JLS3?tag=r0b5d-20

Major Changes

• Combat Mastery and Toughness skills, replacing the old character level and experience gained from defeating enemies. This is a significant change - you cannot play an older save file on this version (you can, but it'll be way unbalanced and weird).
• Skill caps called out - in almost all cases, if you are performing an activity to train a skill and you reach the cap skill level for that activity, you will get a message and/or the activity will no longer be available.
  • For example: using the "Practice Blacksmithing" action at the forge, you'll get a message saying something like "I don't think I'll get any stronger just doing this" to let you know that your Physical Fitness has reached the cap for that activity
    
• Autosave feature added - the game will now autosave at the beginning of each loop. Save slot 1 is used for autosaves, so if you want to keep multiple saves around for whatever reason, use other slots.
• Fire and Poison damage over time are now affected by resistances. Previously both were just a set % of your max HP; now it's the same, but reduced based on your resistance). Also, poison is a little harder to get rid of now, to balance that it does less damage than fire.
• More content added - I won't spoil it too much, but you can go a bit further in the game, find new areas and learn new skills, before getting a message telling you that the game is still in development and that's all for now.

Minor Changes / Bug fixes

• You can no longer gain the Regeneration skill when dying
• Various conversations now are shortened after you've seen them once or twice.
• Shield Mastery now gives a chance to counterattack, but only when you have used the defend action (and only if you have a shield equipped)
• Axe Mastery / Unarmed Combat Mastery now give a chance to counter-attack when using the defend action with no shield
• Fixed some bugs in the Lumberyard so you can't accidentally skip learning useful things
• Updated conversations in the Woodshop. Did you know it's possible to get the key and open up earlier?
• Updated logic around the dragon fight based on what area you are in
• Various other small bugfixes and QoL improvements

Future Plans

Thanks to everyone who has played, especially if you've commented here and/or on the Stubborn Skill Grinder discord. I'm continuing development, the next release will probably be a big one with a significant step forward in the timeline of Graham's story, so I'm going to call it version 0.2. The dates below are very tentative but I think I'll be able to get something out by then. I've got a job and other things, but having a community around this game of people playing it and excited for updates really encourages me to work on it.

Planned early access: September 17th

Planned itch.io release: October 3rd