(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com) [table noborder=1] [tr] [td]
[/td] [td]Hey Dungeoneers, v1.4.0 has been released on Google Play, the App Store, Steam, and GitHub! The game is also currently on sale on Steam in celebration of such a large update![/td] [/tr] [/table]

The Duelist! (and more fixes!)

[hr][/hr] v2.0.0 includes Shattered's first ever new playable character! The Duelist is a melee weapons specialist who has a unique ability for every weapon in the game. Just like the other heroes, she has 2 subclasses, 3 armor abilities, and 26 talents! Adding a new hero ended up being more work than I expected, but I'm very happy with the result. Over the years Shattered has slowly expanded gameplay for the existing heroes, adding loads of new mechanics and gameplay options, and I'm thrilled to finally bring that to an entirely new character as well! I expect that the Duelist will need tweaks over time, given how new she is, but overall I really hope that her new weapon abilities will make weapon-focused builds more interesting for experienced players.
Despite it not being intended as a focus of v2.0.0, I've also managed to fix just as many bugs and various smaller issues as I did in v1.4.0! I chalk a lot of that up to v1.4.0 clearing out much of my queue of smaller fixes, which made it easier to keep on top of various little issues as they were reported. I'm also getting more messages from players than ever, which means even incredibly specific and obscure things are getting reported to me. I talked about this update in two previous blog posts:

• Coming Soon to Shattered: The Duelist!
• Coming Soon to Shattered: A New Hero!

Here's a condensed runthrough of the major changes this update. You can check out the changes screen in-game for a fully detailed list.

• v2.0.0 releases 160 days after v1.4.0, and 413 days after v1.0.0.
• The Duelist has been added, with a unique ability for every weapon!
• The Duelist also releases with two subclasses: Champion and Monk.
• The Duelist also releases with three lategame abilities: Challenge, Elemental Strike, and Feint.

• Changes to the ascension challenge to better smooth out difficulty.
• 25+ misc. changes
• 60+ bugfixes

• Buffs to: pickaxe, rings of energy and arcana, glyphs of repulsion and flow, and horn of plenty.
• Buffs to: shrug it off talent and wild magic ability.

• More significant nerfs to: shields, wands of corruption and regrowth, chalice of blood, and ethereal chains.
• Smaller nerfs to: rings of furor and evasion, blocking enchantment, timekeeper's hourglass, alchemist's toolkit, and wand of fireblast.
• Nerfs to: Warrior's ID talent, heroic energy talent, double jump talent, and smoke bomb ability.

What's Coming Next?

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• My current plan is for the next major update to be v2.1.0, which will mostly be focused on responding to any balance or general gameplay issues that appear as dust settles from the Duelist's release.
• The largest changes in v2.1.0 will be focused around the game's heroes, with a big emphasis on the Duelist. I'm generally happy with how she performed during the beta, but such a large addition to the game is definitely going to need some refinement over time. I may also make some smaller changes to the other heroes as well, depending on how things shake out.
• v2.1.0 will also include some amount of side content, but it will probably be fairly small. I plan to add a couple new exotic enemies, and there might be room for one or two other little things as well.
• There will also be more miscellaneous changes and bugfixes! Despite all of the fixes I've made in v2.0.0, my list of things to do has actually grown! I'd like to spend a bit of time keeping that list in check.
• And no I haven't forgotten about the blacksmith's quest! I will likely do some concepting or internal technical work for it during v2.1.0's development, but the quest rework itself is more likely to be part of v2.2.0.

I don't yet have a specific timeline for v2.1.0, but I think it's a safe bet that you'll hear from me about it sometime in late April or May. Please keep in mind that while I always try to keep to the ETAs I provide, they are just estimates. If you don't hear from me by the ETA, it means I'm still busy with the update! In the meantime you can follow me on Mastodon or Twitter if you'd like more frequent updates.

[ 2023-03-13 16:55:40 CET ] [ Original post ]