Skills felt too 1 dimensional. Sometimes you wouldn't have enough useful skills to put all your willpower into, so you would put the rest into extra starting lives which didn't actively help you win the scenario. Now that the damage skill is unlocked from the start you will always be able to use your willpower to actively help you destroy enemies. If you can't put it towards buffing a tower in a unique way, you can always just get 10% extra damage. This change did make all the scenarios easier, so enjoy the reduced difficulty while it lasts.
The reason why I added the skill caps was because without it some skills felt far superior to others. Now I can gate the power of skills and allow the player to unlock more potential in those skills as I see fit.
I really want to get the scenarios to all be solid, from start to finish, including through all the challenge levels. This update broke things more than it fixed them, but I do feel like its heading in the right direction. Each challenge level is a significant increase in overall difficulty
Changelog:
New features:
* added baseline boss skill: heals for 1% of its missing health every second * bosses now always have armor * added skill caps to almost all skills * skill caps can be increased through unlocks
Polish:
* reworded the tooltips for the challenges * rearranged some skills in the skills menu * reworded some skill unlock tooltips * renamed some skills * reworded boss ability that deals less damage based on health * added visual effect for boss heal ability * slightly changed intensity calculation for vision quest * boss damage visibly changes with their health * slightly changed the layout of vision 12 * optimized towers a bit (framerate performance)
Balance:
* increased the difficulty of each challenge * reduced wind attack speed skill step to +0.5 per (was 1) * changed freeze duration skill step to +0.2 sec duration and +5% dmg (was 0.1 and 10%) * reduced corrosion skill bonus damage to armored per level to 0.5 (was 1) * changed lightning chance skill step to +2% chance and +6% armor ignore (was 4% and 10%) * reworked essence boost skill: now gives +10% essence for defeated enemies only * reduced attack speed skill step to 5% per (was 10%) * "potency" skill no longer increases damage based tower abilities * "potency" is unlocked at 1 willpower, "healthy heart" is unlocked at 75 willpower * increased fire tower suppressed bonus to 4 (was 3) * increased victory bonus exp * increased consolation exp gain to +10 per wave survived (was +2) * slightly reduced enemy exp scaling per wave * adjusted boss armor and regen multipliers * increased iron health and armor to 130/40 (was 120/20) * reduced the difficulty of vision 4, 5a, 6a, 7, 8, 10, and 11 * increased the difficulty of "coil" * reduced the difficulty of "ziggy"and "roll" * increased the difficulty of nightmare I and II
Bug fixes:
* "refocus" is no longer an option after you lose in endless mode * no longer gets stuck during the tutorial if you press play too quick
Alpha 20.2.28 weekly update
Developer Comments:
I'm trying to find a good balance between challenge and progress. I think that rewarding bonus experience gain from intensity is a good start. It should encourage players to try harder scenarios, without punishing them if they play easier scenarios. I wasn't quite happy with how straight forward the challenge levels were, so I added more unique attributes to make them more difficulty and hopefully more rewarding.
Expect a big scenario rebalance next week. I'm going to focus on how each individual scenario feels to play. And hopefully make them all feel very enjoyable.
Changelog:
New features:
* the scenario endscreen now displays if you quit a scenario * the endscreen shows experienced gained during restarts (if any) * reworked swarm modifier (more enemies spawn, faster spawn rate, more move speed) * greatly enhanced the difference in overall difficulty between challenge levels * you can no longer change the wave scaling in archmage+ * new boss skill: deals less damage based on percent of missing health
Polish:
* adjusted the version indicator on the main menu and also added it to the scenario select menu * changed the "new scenario" button to "quit scenario" * adjusted the intensity calculation * boss count modifier no longer sets a minimum wave count * adjusted the challenge visuals
Balance:
* intensity increases exp gained by 2% per point (was 1%) * most modifiers no longer increase exp gain directly (its all done though intensity now) * randomize wave modifier now gives +10% exp gain (was 4%) * restlessness modifier now gives +10% exp gain (was 20%) * increased the challenge experience multiplier * greatly increased boss damage * adjusted boss vitals * experience given for defeating enemies scales more per wave * experience given for defeating enemies slightly increases based on intensity * reduced wind tower extra attack chance to 1 extra hit every 3.3 attacks (was every 2 attacks) * reduced fire burn duration to 14 (was 16) * reduced fire suppressed bonus damage to 3 (was 5) * increased frost tower damage to 51 (was 49) * increased water tower armored bonus damage to 7 (was 5) * increased max wet stacks to 60 (was 50) * increased lightning tower damage to 26 (was 24) * increased light tower damage to 10 (was 8) * reduced light tower attack speed to 1.3 (was 1.4) * reduced light tower bonus damage per speed to 0.5 (was 0.8)
Bug fixes:
* selling is no longer available in the tutorial
Alpha 20.2.21 weekly update
Developer Comments:
I was going to balance scenarios this week, but as I was testing the intensity calculation I found multiple towers that didn't feel like they were living up to their full potential, so I decided to add/rework a bunch of functionality there. I want towers to synergize well with each other and I want them all to have a potential use in the late game where raw power becomes more important. It seemed like the "water-lightning-frost" combo was by far the best combo, but I want other tower combos to be really strong too. So hopefully now there are lots more other combos to try and that work really well.
Balancing the scenarios is still really important to me. But I think I might need one more week of testing the new towers before I feel comfortable balancing the scenarios. I don't want to spend time balancing the scenarios if I will just need to rebalance them again if I change any towers.
Changelog:
New features:
* intensity now increase exp gain (+1% per) * added a "show health popups" option to the settings menu (toggles numbers that appear on enemies when their health changes) * wind deals bonus damage to suppressed targets * reworked baseline fire ability: deals bonus damage to suppressed (used to deal bonus damage per point of regen) * lightning towers overkill ability can now pass on repeatedly until no enemies in range or not enough damage * absorbers deal bonus damage to burning targets (increases with withering grasp skill) * earth towers ignore 50% of enemy armor if revealed * reworked light tower revealed skill (10% chance for enemies to take 50% bonus damage from any attack) * light revealed skill is now baseline * light towers ignore 50% of enemy armor if revealed * light tower damage per speed is now capped at 100% bonus damage * dark towers have a chance to instantly destroy a revealed enemy
Polish:
* adjusted bulk click modifiers to be bigger (shift=5, ctrl=25, alt=100) * adjusted intensity calculations (should be much more accurate now) * archmage+ speed step size is now 0.2% (was 0.4%), max is x3 (was x5) * acceleration modifier now caps at 8 (was 10)
Balance:
* reduced enemy spawn count per wave scaling * reduced enemy essence per wave scaling * increased enemy damage scaling per wave (endless only) * reduced enemy spawn rate scaling per wave (endless only) * increased essence given over time from enemies spawning * reduced the exp multiplier from challenges * restlessness now reduces the delay between waves even more * reduced wind tower bonus to burning to 0.5 (was 1) * increased fire tower base burn duration to 16 (was 14) * reduced fire tower number of wet stacks removed to 8 (was 10) * reduced lightning tower base damage to 24 (was 29) * lightning towers no longer deal bonus damage to chilled targets * absorber no longer removes regeneration from enemies * absorber essence leech ability no longer increases with tower damage * reduced absorbers base essence boost to 200% (was 300%) * reduced absorber attack speed to 0.6 (was 0.7) * reduced absorber bonus to suppressed to 4 (used to be a bonus if the enemy had regeneration)
Bug fixes:
* intensity now considers modifiers * extra waves are no longer added beyond the current challenge levels base amount * lucid dream no longer uses vision quest time between waves * archmage+ speed increase no longer also increases spawn rate * suppressed debuff no longer applies to enemies without regeneration * wind didn't do bonus damage to burning targets
Alpha 20.2.14 weekly update
Developer Comment
Now players will actually be able to challenge themselves as soon as Lucid Dream is unlocked. There is still a lot more testing and tweaking that needs to be done to the intensity calculation. I want players to be able to push their limits, the intensity calculation will help them know where those limits are.
I want to focus on getting more of the Vision Quest scenarios balanced. It is a very long and tedious process, so I'm going to spread it out between the next few updates (hopefully balancing 5-9 scenarios each week).
I've been considering adding an "enraged" system. The basic idea is that enemies will dynamically become stronger if the player is overpowered. I want to allow the player to feel overpowered, so this would most likely be an "opt in" system. Where the player can choose to enrage the enemies, increasing stats and experience gained. Let me know if you have thoughts about this system.
Changelog:
New features:
* added hotkeys for building towers (same layout as numpad) * pressing spacebar (the hotkey for play/pause) while the in-game menu is open will close the menu and resume the game * number of waves in lucid dream can now be increased using a slider (max 100 waves) * base enemy vitals in lucid are increased the more waves there are by a scalable amount * increasing the stats of archmage+ now also increases exp multiplier * added a "custom" enemy preset, this allows for complete control over what enemies spawn in lucid dream mode * added more buildable locations to vision 5a and 6b * completely changed the way intensity is calculated, it should not give a more accurate estimate of willpower needed to beat the scenario
Polish:
* deselecting a tower with left click only works in the playable area * selecting a tower or enemy while build mode is active no longer gives the invalid build warning * added a separate warning sound for invalid location and not enough essence * made it more obvious that you can see the upcoming wave stats * armor and regen stats no longer hide if equal to 0 * armor, regen, and essence now display the max value (current/max), but only if the values are different * frost tower description now explains that damage is "split" equally between all targets * clicking "esc" while the in-game menu is open will close the menu * minor wording adjustment to "ashes to ashes" skill tooltip * fixed spelling and capitalization mistakes with the target priority system * reorganized target priority dropdown order (hopefully to make it more intuitive) * max base difficulty is 100% (was 110%) * base difficulty is no longer shown on the scenario select screen * exp multiplier from difficulty assist is not shown on the exp gain tooltip unless it is less than 1 * challenge level vitals are now a multiplier instead of a percent * archmage+ stats now increase at bigger intervals * reorganized some of the lucid dream modifiers * renamed "enemy group" to "enemy preset" * lucid dream no longer uses default map lives and essence, instead it uses a base amount of 20 and 200 respectively
Balance:
* reduced how much easier a scenario becomes when "refocus" is clicked, now 3% (was 5%) * reduced yellow plastic move speed to 4.5 (was 5) * reduced water tower attack speed to 4 (was 5) * reduced max wet stacks to 50 (was 100) * increased water tower bonus damage per stack of wet to 0.02 (was 0.01) * increased wet slow per stack to 1% (was 0.5%) * reduced minimum burn duration to 14 (was 20) * increased absorber damage to 20 (was 16) * reduced absorber attack speed to 0.7 (was 0.8) * changed the default priorities for earth to: best splash, alive after burn, least health, deal most damage, last on path * enemies no longer give exp from spawning * slightly increased the difficulty of vision 0 and 1 * reduced the difficulty of vision 3, 5a, 5b,
Bug fixes:
* the in-game menu can only be opened once and only while in a scenario * restlessness is no longer available in vision quest * the profile selection progress bars are now more accurate * archmage+ damage increase actually applies now
Alpha 20.2.7 weekly update
Developer Comment
I am preparing for some major changes with how the Lucid Dream gamemode works. I want it to be a sort of "create your own challenges" mode. Currently it is very basic. These are a few of the changes I had in mind:
Changes to how the scenario "intensity" is calculated. I want it to be an accurate representation of how much willpower is needed to beat the scenario.
More customization available early on in Lucid Dream mode. I want this gamemode to enable creativity and to let players try new things to help them learn how to better beat Vision Quest scenarios.
More control over enemy stats (spawn delay, spawn count, move speed, etc.). But I think this might be too much control. I still want the Lucid Dream scenarios to be challenging. If I give too much control, the player could make the scenario too easy.
Changelog
New features:
* reworked experience gained from victory and defeat (victories reward much more based on difficulty, and defeats don't reward much at all) * removed bonus exp gain from custom difficulty (it still gives the base x8 gain)
Polish:
* renamed "skill level" to "willpower" * renamed "suggested skill" to "intensity" * changed some of the words on the profile information progress bars
Balance:
* increased the boss damage on vision 3 by 2 * increased the delay before wave 6 on vision 6b
Bug fixes:
* fixed lucid dream victories not unlocking modifiers at the intended pace
Alpha 20.1.31 weekly update
New features:
* added a new wind tower skill (increases base attack speed) * added a "can be frozen" target priority to the frost tower
Polish:
* dropdown menus will now consume mouse scroll wheel input * reworded some tooltips * reworded the wind hit count skill * changed "most essence" to "has essence" (picks enemies if they have essence) * optimized the tower attack code (should be a small performance improvement) * added another buildable location to vision 3
Balance:
* reworked how much relative power each skill gives per point applied (mostly increased) * slight changes to almost all towers (not all listed here) * changed the default target priorities for most towers (absorber most noticable) * reduced water tower range to 2.5 (was 3) * max wet stacks is now 100 (was 40) * slow per stack of wet is 0.5% up to a max of 20% slow * water tower bonus damage per stack of wet is now 0.01 (was 0.0125) * removed wind tower ramping attack speed ability and skill * decreased wind tower attack speed to 7 (was 8) * increased wind tower extra hit charge to 50% (was 10%) * reduced dark tower range to 7.5 (was 9) * increased light tower range to 9 (was 7.5) * reduced the difficulty of vision 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 6a (if this difficulty goes well, all the maps will follow) * reworked vision 6b (it will probably feel more difficult, but it's technically easier)
Bug fixes:
* fixed wind tower extra hits not working properly when upgraded * fixed light tower occasionally attacking non-existent enemies * resetting skill points will now update the skill tooltips * fixed target priority system it should work as intended now * fixed absorber essence leech giving no essence
Alpha 20.1.23 weekly update
New features:
* added the ability to set the default target priority (unlocked after vision 3) * added a "refocus" button for when you lose, it restarts the scenario but with slightly reduced stats (this replaces auto difficulty) * refocusing will reduce the enemy stats by 5% each time, winning the scenario will increase stats by 4% (min stats: 70%, max stats: 100%)
Polish:
* removed auto difficulty from the settings menu (it is now part of the "refocus" system) * target priority is now unlocked much earlier (vision 1) * reduced the duration of the "victory" and "defeat" pop-ups * added tooltips and changed the wording on a few buttons * rearranged some buttons on the scenario selection and in-scenario exit menus * removed the "map select" button from the skills menu * renamed "fall asleep" to "begin" (I just wasn't happy with how it felt. I will add better flavor text for all the buttons soon)
Balance:
* increased water towers range to 3 (was 2.5) * increased base wet slow to 30% max (was 20%) * increased wind tower base attack speed to 8 (was 3) * increased exp bonus from unspent skill points to +2% (was 1%) * increased the difficulty of vision 0 * increased the difficulty of vision 1 * decreased the difficulty of vision 7
Alpha 20.1.17 weekly update
-Overview-
The biggest change with this update is the tower target priority system. This system allows the player to customize how each target chooses what enemies to attack. The system is very robust, you can add as many priorities as you like, the tower will filter each enemy through all the priorities until it finds the best enemy to attack.
For the most part you won't really need to change the targeting priorities of towers, but the option is there if you want to use advanced strategies or just have some fun. There is a lot that you can do with this system, so let your imagination go wild! The ability to change the default target priority for newly created towers is coming in the next update (I didn't quite have time to fully implement it).
An example of how the target priority system works:
The priority is: 1. least health 2. fastest 3. closest to tower
There are 5 enemies in range, so it checks all 5 to see which one has the least health ->
3 of them have the same health and its less than the other 2, so it checks those 3 "least health" enemies to see which one is the fastest ->
2 of them have the same speed and its faster than the other 1, so it checks the 2 "fastest" enemies to see which one is closer to the tower ->
only 1 of the 2 enemies is closest to the tower, so this is the enemy the tower attacks.
-Changelog-
New features:
* added the ability to change what each tower prioritizes when choosing what enemy to attack (unlocked by beating vision 8) * adjusted some of the base target priorities for towers (towers might attack different targets than you're used to) * the upcoming wave now displays exactly how many seconds till it comes
Polish:
* tooltips are now positioned better relative to the cursor * the info panel is now a scroll box * removed debug text in top left corner * adjusted some of the wording in the tutorial * adjusted tooltip for base difficulty in the settings menu * adjusted text in many locations that referred to "map" to now refer to "scenario" * renamed "-Play-" to "-Fall Asleep-" to help fit the feeling I'm trying to evoke
Bug fixes:
* fixed dropdown menus not closing after clicking on something other than them
Alpha 20.1.10
The first update brings many changes. Here is a rundown of the key differences.
New features:
* added a tutorial to the first map * added a visual effect to indicate how soon the next wave will be * added visual effects to indicate how many enemies have already spawned in a wave * added a visual effect to indicate how soon the next enemy will spawn * added change log button on the main menu screen
Polish:
* auto difficulty adjustment only displays if a value change actually occurred * reworded auto difficulty tooltips to better explain what it does * new enemy/tower/functionality pop ups only appear once per play session, until you win the scenario * lowest difficulty in settings menu is now 80% (was 50%) * play/pause tooltip says "start first wave" if no waves have been started yet * removed "are you sure you want to quit" text in top right corner when leaving/reloading a map * skills in the skills menu are more properly aligned
Balance:
* adjusting the base difficulty will now affect how much experience you gain multiplicatively (was additive) * lucid dream novice victory bonus is now +2% exp gain (was +1 bonus skill point) - reduced the suggested skill level of vision 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, and 7 - cost increase for leveling up reduced to 25 per level (was 50) - reduced the health of armored class bosses (from 2 to 1.5 multiplier) + increased difficulty of vision 2 - decreased difficulty of vision 4
Bug fixes:
* fixed vision 12 not being playable (sorry about that) * fixed defeat bonus giving slightly more exp than intended * fixed misspelled "essence" in multiple places
