Friends! 

It has been a great experience for me with the beta - all the feedback, and the feeling of sharing in general :) Thanks to all of you!

Today I am concluding the beta - but I will let a game version stay available, as good or bad as it is. 

Now, let me recap briefly what's been going on in the last days of the beta (other than general crunch that bears no description): 

I have been fixing critical bugs and adding some kind of real gameplay to make it interesting to play even in this test version. I've done a lot, but of course this is far from what the game really must be like on the release day. In general, I have to say that polishing a game that still does not have major parts of the core logic fleshed out is a tenuous matter - I cannot afford to invest too much time into it since it would mean delaying the completion of those features - and they are the things that actually need the most polish (I'm saying, who cares about wrong padding if there is no hook in the game?)

Now, to get you started and hyped up for this demo version, here is a little gif collection I made while testing: http://bit.ly/eidolonsGifs

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Most recent fixes: 

♦Fixed Options selection boxes 
♦Fixed initial music volume 
♦Fixed ammo not running out on crossbows
♦Fixed skill/class radial items being blocked

♦Added default action on doubleleft-click
♦Pressing Alt will hide any tooltip currently displayed – figured it could be useful when trying to snipe enemies with alt-clicks 
♦Initiative modifier now works correctly (from jewelry etc)

And here is the main V0.6.2 changelog:

 Gameplay

♦ XP and natural level up are on now!

♦ Durability rule is back!

♦ Shields work properly now, as well as Parry, although there is no animation for either of them

♦ Overlaying objects are back - seems I've 'lost them' after some Vision Rule changes... so mushrooms, torches, inlaid gems and wall runes are there for you to gaze - or strike - at :) 

Content 

♦ One of the many 'outlined' levels has been made playable, tested and shipped! Meet the Ancient Ruins, where the Ravenguard made their improptu camp. Tip: it's an easy one. 

♦ I've added more chests and treasure here and there, be sure to explore those distant corners, shiny things lie in the darkest places! :) 

♦ Also, all Characters receive a small piece of jewelry as a sign of good faith!

 New Options

♦ 3d Animations off

♦ 3d Animations for Main Hero only

♦ Alt-pressed mode by default (caution is advised)

♦ Auto camera options + Auto Camera fixes

♦ Some other Control options

Major Fixes

♦ HpBars - now all numbers are calculated only on logic thread

♦ Scale back to normal on hover off always works now

♦ Music duration fixed

♦ Fixed a bug in Clearshot – dead objects were obstructing for some cases!

UI

♦ Scaling of UI

♦ Floating text reworked

♦ Weapon/Armor Tooltips reworked

♦ Drag and Drop for inventory

 Misc

♦ Tooltips show optimal attack information

♦ Icon generator is rising! Already using it for armor, weapons, jewelry…

♦ Some crutches have been added for things that resist fixing, like hitAnim displacement stability and occasional wrong positions displayed

♦ Floating text now has varying duration modifier and direction vector

 System

♦ In-game file-logging has been implemented!

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So now every kill brings you real experience points that add up until you gain a new level. You can distribute various poit you gain at any time outside combat by hitting f1 or double clicking the hero. It's a very early UI prototype, just scratches the surface, but enough to build a powerful, if not very balanced, character :)

Durability is one of my favorite rules, it makes things count, you no longer go in berserk mode... thought i do allow turning it off and low difficulty all but nullifies it

not only will your items break eventually, but they will be less effective for each point of durability they lose. So you don't need to worry about keeping best weapons on low durability safe for the boss ht - it will be all but useless if it has 10% left!

 I have struggled a lot with the hp bars - an apparently simplistic element yet with the overwhelming complexity underneath the game math, displaying always correct value ended up as quite a challenge, especially since i wanted to animate it all... But it works fine now, only one glitch that I know of, and most won't even notice it :)

I often hear how devs are initially super-excited about their games and then if they have to work on them really long and hard, they get jaded and bored

 It's the opposite for me - initially I admit I could not bring myself to like the game, it was too far off in quality level from what I had dreamed about, that super-solid and super-deep rpg where everything is possible and everything works...

So now, while this is still a distant goal, I am beginning to enjoy Eidolons as a game... and that with merely a half of the rules being active, others still turned off as prototype-level stuff.

 Its beauty comes up to the surface when everything links together and falls into place, since every aspect of the game is based on real-world, or fantasy-world logic (strictly defined by the concepts of the Eidolon lore).

 Taken on its own, it's nothing special or impressive, but when put together and tied with a single purpose of making you feel gritty and powerful... it starts to blow my mind :)

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Now about some less celebratory things:

One bug resisted fixing and I will not be able to get to it too soon, so I am writing about it instead...

In some cases, after killing an enemy, you are transported logically to their position, but not visually. This is very confusing and dangerous for gameplay, but does not break the game luckily, you just need to move somewhere and it's back to normal.

Also there are still issues with resolution change in-game, I found one way to implement it, but it brought a different, less obvious issue with input controls, even if all looked good, it was worse deal than just having to restart the game.

 So yes, Light and Darkness are closely mixed these days... but I am growing to accept, and to love the Fury against Bugs! It liberates me from self-destructiveness that my vengeful moods otherwise results in. And how often those sneak into my head of late!