First of all I want to state my intentions as a game designer.
My biggest goal is to make the game as fun and interesting for players as possible. That is what I personally want. I'm not trying to make a hard or easy game. I'm trying to make a game that challenges players and allows them to explore combos and mechanics and have fun with them.
Please know I have the best intentions in mind even if I may make design mistakes here and there. If I make a bad change, I'm willing to admit it and find another solution.
Sometimes it should be hard to help push you towards improving but this has to be done very carefully. Sometimes it should also be chaotic to throw a rush of excitement and panic at a seasoned player, but this scenario is rare and should not be an every-battle occurence like it can be now.
--Difficulty Changes--
1. The chaotic part of the game (mainly mid-late game) are pretty messy. I'm introducing a new system that calculates the current number of live enemies on the field and increases the time between their attacks dynamically. Chests and minions will also affect this amount but to a lesser degree.
This should give you more breaks during the onslaught of the later battles, reducing the need to "burst" down an enemy at the start of battle, and help keep things strategic while still retaining a "fair" level of difficulty. I highly doubt I'll get this formula exactly right on the first try so please let me know your feedback on it!
2. Easy mode is not something I want to just tack onto a game. Making everything "80%" slower is a pretty lazy design choice and not something I'm comfortable with doing. I've made changes to open up more opportunities to hit and avoid bosses between attacks.
It seems like the first world is slow enough for most players since it already has some "limitations" such as not spawning more than 2 enemies. I'm going to extend this limitation to the second world for non-ascension runs.
I've reworked the way higher tier enemies appear based on luck, leading to a smoother curve throughout runs.
I love a challenge and don't want to take that away from hardcore players. Most of the changes I'm making are not just about making the game "easier" but slower, more strategic, and easier to understand. If you're here for the difficulty, there are plenty of ascension levels I will continue to balance.
Hopefully these and the quality of life changes below help make the game more manageable.
This isn't the end for making the game more accessible. I'll keep working on it.
--Spells--
AirSlash
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Rarity: 1->0
Ambient Burst
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Rarity: 2->1
Blast Crystals
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Rarity: 0->1
Not a great beginner friendly spell and gets in the way sometimes. Making it a bit less common.
Booster Shot
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Rarity: 0->1
A bit too advanced for a common.
Detox
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Mana: 1->0
It doesn't do much atm, I want it to deal dmg equal to triple instead of just double poison but I'd have to re-localize in every language so it may take a while.
Energizer
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Damage: 40->90
Dmg increase per cast: 20->30
Flurry
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Range: 2->3
Shots: 10->12
I love this spell, I think it's awesome but it was just a bit too situational and hard to use. Hopefully this makes it much more viable, even without root/tilebreak/summons.
Gambit
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Damage: 20->30
Jam Slam
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Rarity: 0->1
Kunai
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Anchor: Yes->No
Adding Anchor seemed unecessary, instead I reduced the effects of a couple artifacts that worked a little too well with kunais.
Last Letter
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Z Damage: 200->250
Magic Claw
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Damage: 40->60
Minefield
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Rarity: 1->0
Great against bosses that move around a lot, especially for newer players.
Orbital Beam
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Rarity: 0->1
Time to hit: 0.7->0.6
Many newer players were taking this spell but it's not very beginner friendly. It's also not used in many builds so I'm increasing the rarity.
Pyroblast
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Damage: 100->50
Explosion dmg: 50->100
This should help the spell feel a bit more "explody" and powerful, rewarding nice placement but not affecting single target damage since the explosion also hits the target.
Sera Cannon
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Mana: 3->2
Rarity: 2->3
For most builds 2 Mana fits this spell perfectly. It shouldn't be too easy to get for money builds since it can be so powerful, so instead I'll be increasing the rarity. This way normal builds can still enjoy the spell, but not have it clutter the options too much.
Skipper
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Defense reduction duration: 15s
Damage: 50->120
It's an awkward spell to hit. I'm increasing the damage but putting a timer on the defense reduction to round it out for more builds. It should still be good for multi-hit builds but with more of a "combo" feel.
Sweeper
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Damage: 40->60
Felt a bit weak since it could miss so often.
Sword Row
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Rarity: 1->0
Tsunami
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Damage: 40->50
Felt a bit weak for it's name.
Wall
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Rarity: 0->1
Not usually useful, making it a bit less common.
Waterfall
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Damage: 50->40
Anchor: Yes->No
Feedback seems to be that it's more fun if you can move around during it and I agree. I'm reducing the damage a bit to make up for it.
Zenith
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Mana: 1->0
Kind of annoying to have to keep track of having enough mana to pull off the combo, hopefully this makes it a bit more viable without "step/dash" spells too. I think the risk/reward justifies this change.
--Artifacts--
Adaptive Armor
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Armor: OnTakeHit->AfterTakeHit
Rarity: 2->0
This artifact helps with some the more overbearing "multi-hit" attacks like diamonds or rotating saws. Moving the Defense to trigger After the hit, before it was basically 10+ free defense (not in-line with other artifacts). I'm lowering the rarity to make it more accessible to newer players.
Card Thrower
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Consume dmg: 30->20
Worked a bit too well with kunais, 20 dmg is still a nice bonus.
Cassidy's Scarf
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Rarity: 2->1
Chaos Frag
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Removed all movement effects
Self-Fragile: 99->9
Self-Poison: 40->20
I intended for it to be a silly challenge, but most people did not have fun with it and it could ruin runs. This should make it much more viable for normal runs, and a nice pick for Self-Fragile builds.
Icing
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Rarity: 1->2
Pet Kitty
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Rarity: 2->3
Resistant Strain
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Rarity: 3->1
--Characters--
Saffron Gen
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Artifact: None->Soul Food
HP: 100->300
Gunner Default
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Slightly increased cooldown for Default Gunner's weapon.
Hazel Alt
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Weapon now deals true damage equal to structure's HP instead of 999
Selicy Default
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HP: 900->1000
Mana Regen: 0.4->0.45
Selicy Alt
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HP: 900->1000
Mana Regen: 0.1->0.15
Violette Default
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Weapon back Shield: 30->40
Weapon bot Mana: 2->2.5
Player should be rewarded more, the change from 30->40 shield makes Corset easier to trigger without being punished for it. I thought it might be too strong at first, but I think the risk/reward justifies this change.
--Enemies--
Decayer
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Now takes 5 true damage on hit
Shield on hit: 50->40
This enemy is pretty annoying, the 5 true dmg on hit will give players something to do instead of just waiting until it kills itself.v
Artillery
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Loop delay increased
Healdon
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Poison attacks made more visible
Avenger (Cactus)
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projectile speed decreased to give player more reaction time
--Other--
Added an extra chance for branching paths on the 4th zone, my intention is to make the paths less "strict"
Increased loot rarity in early game. You should be seeing a few more epics in the early game and legendaries in general. One of the reasons is to increase diversity and options at the start of the game.
Campfire Healing: 40*5->50*5
Increased a few enemies attack delay, giving the player more time to dodge.
Reduce enemy shield regen buffs and hell pass 9 health regen
Removed +5maxhp from upgrade pool for Ping (could be used to gain infinite health)
Missile Silo hazard time: 35s->40s
Gate's hit-shader is 30% opacity instead of 70% since the sprite is so large
Time Slow/Stop now affects shuffle time
Hell Pass 04 now reduces boss healing by half instead of removing it completely
Modding
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Added support for custom descriptions
Moved uploading and updating to the "YourMods" folder instead of the workshop folder
Quality of Life
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Added a sound effect to Reva's assist
Added a "quit" button the pause menu
Improved logic for previews, like moving when doublecasting structures
Dark zones will now color future zones "red" when highlighted to show that the rest of the world will be dark.
Increased visbility of broken tiles
Lowered Gate HP, but increased it's defense - multi-hit and flame builds were having too easy of a time while most other builds were having a harder time against the Gate. In the end it's toughness is about the same but it should be easier to beat in general.
Player tile will be extinguished from flames when downed
Violette's music boss attacks are now "green" with a cross.
Last picked skins/loadouts will be saved as defaults even after restarting
--Bugfixes--
Major
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Fixed gunner's changed weapon disappearing on load
Fixed memory leak with generated spells
Fixed logic for the Bravely Default achievement, you can now use Removals. Which I don't agree with but it's worded that way so..
Fixed a softlock where battles would get stuck when Soul Gun killed a structure and died at the same time
Shopkeeper skin will now unlock properly (it's nothing special, just the old version of her from the demo)
The end credits will now appear properly in all languages after cutscenes
Removing dueldisk and candywrapper will now properly reset their effects
Removing pacts will no longer softlock the game
Type of battle reward will correctly show up after shiso/chest rewards
Fixed a softlock where the player could get trapped in a corner during Violette's battle
Effects can now be properly searched in the library (Anchor, Flow, Fragile, etc.)
Changed most attacks to spawn relative to the player's position if they are on the other side of the field
Stasis did not remove shield from the player in some cases
Minor
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Grail will no longer heal outside of battle
Hired gun and other spells will no longer trigger executions on structure
The gate can no longed be pulled
Character alt kits are now chosen when hovered over
Pet's will now follow the owner's facing direction
Mana regen text in stats screen is rounded
Disabled Hoarder achievement during previews
Added an extra frame of delay when opening the map, before selecting a zone, allowing players to use the same button for accept and map
Damage values will now show up for consecutive spells with the same damage under cast slots
Preview for Stasis will not work properly, losing the shield
Fixed a bug where the Shopkeeper was showing up twice in the previews
Doubling poison on an enemy will no longer show up as a stack of 0 poison
Spell and artifacts count will now show properly in the statistics screen
--Ending Notes--
Coming soon:
Accessibility options
Larger font sizes
UI Options
I know Co-op with separate characters is requested, but this feature may take a while. I will try to work on it soon.
We just hit 1000 reviews! Thank you all so much for your feedback, positive and negative. It all helps make the game better.
Fanart
Saffron by TinaCao
Saffron by JaxMagnetic
Saffron by Setzeri
Thank you so much for the art! And thanks to inkcurry for the banner!
Feel free to leave us a review on Steam!
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