This update includes characters getting more base mana per level, and the reduction of mana costs. Also summons now have more health and deal more damage. As always, thanks for your feedback and help in shaping the game!
General Changes
Increased maximum mana gained per level by 25%
Lowered all mana costs by 12%
Additional lowering of mana costs of Fire tree
Increased health and damage for player summons
Skill Changes
Fuel for the Flames I now increases mana costs by 15% (up from 10%) and increases damage by 30% (up from 20%)
Fuel for the Flames II now increases mana costs by 25% (up from 15%) and increases damage by 50% (up from 30%)
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue with Shield of Retribution not working properly
We're excited to release this small update that enhances the health and mana pickups dropped by enemies. We believe this should be helpful for those who are still struggling with the absence of recovery in their builds. We hope this change along with decreased enemy health and damage at later levels and a reduced cost for refunding skill and stat points will allow people to find and enjoy a variety of builds.
We understand that removing recovery was controversial and we appreciate the honest feedback that was shared. We've heard you and we're excited to work with you to make Stolen Realm the best it can be. Nothing here is final and if you want to know more about our reasoning we've included an explanation after the patch notes. We hope we can keep an open dialogue that makes everyone happy.
General Changes
Enemy pickups left on the battlefield are now automatically picked up upon battle victory
Summons can now trigger enemy pickups
Summons now benefit from enemy pickups
The last enemy defeated can now drop a pickup
Reduced cost of refunding skill and stat points by 50%
Decreased enemy health and damage at later levels
Increased effectiveness of mana potions
Features
Gold send window now has a 'Set To Max' button
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue that caused Redemption not to work on the caster's death
Fixed incorrect health regen value on Dragon's Blood amulet
Fixed issue where Consumption was only giving 5% increased damage instead of 10%
Fixed issue where you could send all of your gold except 1
Fixed issue where consuming a potion would sometimes not expend the item
Fixed issue where items over level 100 couldn't be reforged properly
Problems with Recovery
Less Strategic Choices
One of the major issues recovery caused was that it didn't feel like we had to watch how much health and mana was lost, because we would eventually regain anything used. This happened on the battlefield and on the world map. We found that with recovery you cared less about taking big hits of damage or spending a lot of mana on spells, because you would naturally gain it back in the current fight or in the next. We found that we would rarely try to grab health and mana pickups dropped by enemies. We found that on the world map we rarely made the choice to regain health and mana for the same reason. This made choices both on and off the battlefield less strategic. Without recovery we find that we use shrines, pickups, actions and positioning more strategically than before. Without recovery we find that we more carefully choose our way through the world map so that we have enough in the tank to defeat the last boss.
Prolonging Battles
A common complaint we found caused by recovery was that it prolonged battles. There were situations where our characters couldn't die, because the amount of health we'd recover was greater than the damage the remaining enemies could deliver, but we'd still have to finish the fight with 10 more turns to go. There were also fights where you could kite enemies while your recovery regained you health and mana, but one misstep in 10 or 20 turns would cause you to suddenly lose the battle. Not to mention the desire for an adventuring party to leave a single weak enemy alive until everyone regained their stats. The consistent feedback was that these situations felt boring and broken.
Unbalanced Stat
Another main problem with recovery was that it was a stat that was simply too strong. It's probably one of the reasons this change has come with so much pushback. We found that putting very little into recovery at later levels would solve most health and mana problems. It was easy to attain 20% health and mana recovery per turn which rendered healing, life steal and mana steal unnecessary. It also forced us to severely spike the damage enemies did. If everyone in your party recovers their entire life pool in 3-5 turns we can no longer make enemies that slowly defeat you. Any enemy must defeat you instantly or not at all. There wasn't much middle ground between being one shot and invincible.
Open Dialogue
We honestly believe the game is better without recovery as a main stat, but we know not everyone agrees with us. We'd like everyone to keep that honest feedback coming to us. Together we can make a better game with everyone's opinion. Nothing right now is finalized. We're going to continue to improve the game with your help.
