Hi! First of all, Shardpunk has nearly reached 400 reviews on Steam, and with very high positive rating! Thank you, everyone!
Now, let's talk about expanding the stress mechanism.
Note: the below changes were (well, they still are) available on a beta branch, and I managed to get some nice feedback about them (and fix a few interesting bugs). They will be added to the main game in the upcoming update, which will probably land on Thursday.
Until now, stress was a stat that - if not reduced - could make the player's life difficult. If character's stress meter was too high, the character would panic (meaning that the player would lose control over them), or gain a negative quirk.
Characters gained stress in different situations, the most common ones being getting hit, healing with stimpaks and uncovering new foes. Stress could be reduced by killing enemies or using certain combat/shelter actions. Also, there is one combat tactic that reduces stress.
All in all, more experienced players were able to easily manage stress levels during combat with clever usage of skills and combat tactics, which greatly reduced the impact I would like it to have on the game. Characters were not receiving that many stress-related quirks (if any; I was able to finish a run on Hard with no quirks) because of that.
What is more, players fairly noticed that receiving stress for simply spotting new enemies might be a little too exaggerated. In some cases, characters would receive stress for a single uncovered enemy, in others - the same amount of stress for a pack of rats.
After one of the players suggested that stress could behave similar to hit points (hit points in Shardpunk only get temporarily healed during combat - you then have to "really" heal them in shelter), I've decided to explore this design more - and that's how the dread system was born.
How the dread system works:
1) Every character has a dread bar next to the stress bar. Dread can have a max of 6 points.
2) EVERY stress point that the character gains during combat is remembered, and then is counted after a mission ends. If a character healed some stress during combat, it does NOT reduce the number of remembered gained stress. Example: if a character gains 10 stress and heals 5 stress during combat, they end up with 5 stress points. Still, at the end of combat, the total number of cumulated stress by a character will be 10.
3) Stress still needs to be managed during combat. If a character gets to max stress, they will panic/go berserk. That being said, a character can no longer gain a quirk due to maxed stress level. Also, characters do not longer gain stress by spotting enemies.
4) At the end of combat, cumulated stress for every character is counted, and for every 5 cumulated stress, the character gains 1 dread point. All stress points are zeroed after combat.
5) Before progressing to the shelter phase, the player needs to perform a quirk roll. The % of receiving a quirk depends on the number of Dread points.
6) Dread can only be taken care of during shelters. All shelter skills have been altered so that they deal with dread, and not with stress (which is always zero during shelter phases and does not really matter there).
7) Quirks that characters receive during combat are now treatable. The "Rest" shelter action allows the player to partially treat a random quirk. After a quirk is treated 3 times, it disappears.
So there you have it! I believe that this new approach makes the stress-related stuff more fun and will make stress-reducing (well, it's dread-reducing now!) shelter skills more useful.
Introduction of dread mechanics will not affect existing saves, so if you want to try them out, start a new run.
As always, do leave me as much feedback as possible! I'd like to know whether you enjoy the new stuff. Take care!
Hotfix 1.1.2.2 is now live!
1.1.2.2 PATCH NOTES
Bugfixes:
Fixed the issue with rescuable characters being of the same type as characters in player's party. Note: this fix only affects new runs; the existing ones might still have it. If you encounter it, do contact me and I will fix the save file for you.
1.1.2 release: a (temporary) party of six is now available!
1.1.2 PATCH NOTES
New features:
It is now possible to encounter a rescuable character even if the party is at full size (5 characters plus an automaton). Rescuing such a character will allow the player to finish a mission with six characters. After a mission (and before the shelter phase), the player will have to choose which character gets left behind. Such a character might still appear later on as a rescuable character. I've written about it in more detail in one of my previous blog posts.
Bugfixes:
Explosive barrels now have proper graphics upon game load.
Fixed a few issues regarding how flanking is displayed/calculated.
REMINDER: DREAD MECHANICS ON THE BETA BRANCH
The beta branch holds a version of the game with overhauled stress system, which introduces the dread mechanics. This version should remain in the beta branch for one more week, and then I'm gonna be incorporating it into the main game.
If you'd like to playtest it and give me pre-release feedback, do jump into the beta branch.
As always, thanks for reading! I still have a few ideas that I want to introduce into the game, so stay tuned!
Hotfix 1.1.1.3 is now live!
1.1.1.3 PATCH NOTES
Bugfixes:
Fixed the issue with regular reloads reducing the number of free reload charges.
Version 1.1.1 release + beta branch launch!
Hi! First and foremost, a new version has landed.
1.1.1 PATCH NOTES
New features:
Added a possibility to rename characters. A character can be renamed in-game via the character details screen.
Difficulty/balancing:
Suicide bombers now should not explode in front of bleeding out characters that often.
Bugfixes
Gunter: corrected the effects of the "Focus" skill on Wait it Out and Take Cover combat tactics.
Combat bot: fixed the issue with ground slam not consuming an AP if the bot had 1 AP left.
BETA BRANCH: DREAD MECHANICS
I have finished overhauling the Stress system for Shardpunk, and I would like to hear your feedback on it before it goes live - that's why there's now a public beta branch available, with the new Dread mechanics in place.
Dread mechanics separate combat stress management from shelter stress management, change the way the quirks are acquired and adjust shelter stress-reducing skills.
Switching to the beta branch will NOT remove your existing profiles - you will be able to see them again when you switch back.
There's also a separate channel on our Discord server for discussing beta changes.
Thanks for reading! I am looking forward to your feedback! Take care!
Rat Pack is now AVAILABLE!
Hey everyone!
Rat Pack is now AVAILABLE and FREE for everyone!
Your squads are about to get shocked!
Leah, the Electromancer enters the roster with arsenal of electrifying abilities. Sacrifice Health for Action Points, set a Trap, Blink around, Drain Life from the Rats, and Discharge the power within her body!
The Rat Forces also recruited some new members to their ranks. Shock Troopers will make sure you are stunned for the Elite Variants of Grunts, Shotgunners, Machinegunners, and Snipers to hunt you down.
New playable character - Leah, the Electromancer.
She mastered the power of electricity and wields it to fight off the vermin hordes.
Leah's abilities:
Shock Trap: Stuns enemies who enter its range
Blink: Teleports Leah to a selected tile in range
Life Drain: Drains life from enemies, damaging them, and healing Leah
Sacrifice: Grants Leah additional AP at the cost of HP
Energy Discharge: Damages and stuns multiple enemies around Leah
New Enemy Type - Stun Lancers
Rat Pack introduces a brand new type of enemy - Stun Lancers, melee enemy units that stuns your squad members when it gets too close. When encountered, it’s best to keep them at a distance… as if being a rat didn’t make them repelling enough.
Elite Variants
Stun Lancers enter the roster of the vermin horde accompanied by Elite variants of Grunts, Shotgunners, Machinegunners, and Snipers. Elite units can appear as a part of a special encounter in map location. They are a bigger challenge, but drop more useful loot.
We hope you will have tons of fun playing with Leah in your squads, tackling Shock Troopers, and finding creative ways to deal with Elite Variants!
Let us know what you think about the shocking additions to the Shardpunk roster!
If you haven't yet, make sure to check out Blood Pack DLC, which is also completely free and adds a layer of gore to Shardpunk!
Fixed an issue that could randomly not spawn a loot point that was necessary for the tutorial level.
Rat Pack Releases Next Week!
Hey everyone!
As we mentioned in the past, we are dedicated to release regular updates for Shardpunk and work on additional content.
Since launch, Shardpunk: Verminfall has been accompanied by a free DLC, Blood Pack, which added a layer of gore to the game. It allows you to splatter the rats all over! If you haven’t yet, make sure to check it out!
Shortly after the release we started working on additional features we could introduce to the game as regular updates, but also began work on a more substantial addition - such as a DLC. That DLC was one that we felt would be something that would come with a reasonable price tag and be available sometime after launch. Player response, reception and feedback shared both on Steam and Discord steered us in a direction of adding a new playable character, as well as a new enemy type and elite variants of already existing units.
Last month we announced Rat Pack at Tacticon, giving you a glimpse of what’s coming. Now, it’s time for two key pieces of information regarding Rat Pack's launch.
First: Rat Pack will be available on June 29, a week from now. It is the first DLC to introduce a brand new squad member and new enemies.
Seeing you all excited about the game, sharing your experiences in the reviews, on the forums, and on Discord, led us to a decision to make Rat Pack completely FREE for everyone!
Rat Pack Content
New playable character - Leah, the Electromancer.
She’s a truly shocking addition to the Shardpunk roster.
She mastered the power of electricity and wields it to fight off the vermin hordes.
Her abilities include:
Shock Trap: Stuns enemies who enter its range
Blink: Teleports Leah to a selected tile in range
Life Drain: Drains life from enemies, damaging them, and healing Leah
Sacrifice: Grants Leah additional AP at the cost of HP
Energy Discharge: Damages and stuns multiple enemies around Leah.
New Enemy Type - Stun Lancers
Rat Pack introduces a brand new type of enemy - Stun Lancers, melee enemy units that stuns your squad members when it gets too close. When encountered, it’s best to keep them at a distance… as if being a rat didn’t make them repelling enough.
Elite Variants
Stun Lancers enter the roster of the vermin horde accompanied by Elite variants of Grunts, Shotgunners, Machinegunners, and Snipers. Elite units can appear as a part of a special encounter in map location. They are a bigger challenge, but drop more useful loot.
Check it out in action: https://youtu.be/duZSgiZ0yJk
We hope you’ll have tons of fun playing Leah and plowing through new Rats while we are working on future updates and content for Shardpunk!
Update: explosive barrels, Ironman mode and balance/skill changes
Hello everyone! Let's get straight to the interesting part - here are the release notes for 1.0.31 version:
1.0.31 PATCH NOTES
Difficulty/balancing:
Added an Ironman mode, which prevents the players from reloading a mission. Actually, that was the default way the game was played until now, so maybe the correct way of saying should be "added a non-Ironman mode". All existing saves are treated as Ironman modes. Non-ironman mode allows the player to restart any mission (except the tutorial one). Unlocks and achievement progress does not get rolled back though (as they are bound to a profile, not the current game-in-progress).
Ironman settings in the difficulty window. The window has been expanded, as more stuff will start to appear there.
Increased the number of enemies that can appear in chapters 2 and 3.
Increased the base HP of chapter 2 boss.
QoL
Added a numeric HP display in combat. It can be altered in the Gameplay Settings.
Numeric HP display mode. Some might love it, some might hate it. Do let me know what you think!
New content
Added explosive barrels on maps. A map can spawn a random number of such barrels. Barrels will appear in existing saves as well from now on.
BANG
Balancing
Rose: “Salvage bandages” shelter action has been replaced with the “Heal everyone” shelter action, which allows to heal every character in a shelter. In existing saves, the old action has been replaced with the new one.
Stryk3r has fairly ranked Rose quite low in this awesome Guide to Characters, so maybe this will help making her better.
Rose: “Rush It!” action now simply grants a regular extra AP instead of adding that “non-movement AP” thing.
Hector: increased the amount of enemy misses in the “untouchable” skill.
Michael: “Clean weapon” skill now adds extra damage (it was extra max damage until now), but the bonus is reduced.
Note to localization modders: when an action description changes, its translation key gets changed in the localization file. If the game does not find a matching key, it falls back to the English translation. Therefore, if there's no matching translation to, say, an updated skill description in the game, it will be displayed in English (instead of showing an outdated translation).
As usual, thanks for playing Shardpunk! And do share all your thoughts/ideas on the game! Take care!
Version 1.0.30 is now live!
Hi! A new language has arrived and the gamepad controls have been tweaked.
1.0.30 PATCH NOTES
Localisation:
Added Polish language version.
QoL
Improved controller support - the game should be now playable without the occasional mouse support.
I'm starting to work on new features and balancing updates now. Take care!
