v0.8.b_5 has been released to beta.
Report issues and bugs in the steam forums.
Note: The previous beta was shown to be a bit less stable than expected after some live playtests, so it is not being pushed to the default branch this week.

Known Issues Updates: Currency rewards in nodes/exploration features are still mostly out of date. Un-even fight balance was partially solved for dungeons, but not other instances.

Partial Changelog:

• Many insidious bugs that crashed in certain contexts, or did not apply numbers properly in a way that was around correct, but not actually correct.

• Picking archetypes and feats shows which skills you already have.

• Looting now displays your current capacity usage.

• Saves now have a timestamp instead of date.

• Added an 'adventuring party' system to tower dungeons. (Can also be used on other dungeon types, but currently only tower dungeons have need of them.) You can hire companions for a token fee, and they will aid you in the 'high security' checkpoints in the dungeon, as well as the boss. They take a share of all the loot in the dungeon, but even the odds in the mass battles. They will leave if you do not visit the dungeon for a while. Fighting alongside them will increase the duration they wait at the dungeon for you before leaving. They die permanently and cannot be taken outside the dungeon, but you hire from the actual world occupants of that town, and after leaving, they return to wandering the world in their own story.

• Re-added random wandering behavior of AI. They tend to group around inns, residential districts, and dungeons with the party feature enabled.

• A deliberate balance choice to tweak neck and head damage multipliers from 3x to 2.5x was made. This may require further reduction, to reduce the 'neck meta' of unexpected instant kills.

• Legacy behavior was added to nodes and town features, most now have another feature designated as fallback art, and thus display time passing better.

• Examining weapons closely now has a more comprehensive display and itemization of attacks.

• Armor qualities have been re-added with more substance, and now are closer to weapon qualities, with the notable exception that partially negative qualities (flaws/traits/qualities) exist.

• Level display has changed from words to a number, the word tier now indicates the number of weapon/armor qualities. This means players no longer have to remember that a shoddy weapon is better than a crude weapon but less than a poor weapon to determine level, since examining weapons and armor displays their traits fully. This system was in place before, but only for weapons greater than 'legendary' tier, and it started at 'legendary' rather than level 1.

• Old leveling display adjusted to show traits/qualities/flaws at a glance.

Example of new display of armor traits:

Dungeon with NPC friends, my friends