This is the longest I've gone between updates, but it's not for lack of activity; I have been working hard on some experimental changes to the game's combat system, and I think I'm finally ready for your feedback. Combat flows a bit differently now. There are three slots on each side of the battle: a melee slot, a ranged slot, and a support slot. The slot that a character is placed in determines the ability they will use (some characters only have a melee or ranged ability, and some fit into multiple slots), and they will only use that slot's ability during that battle--no more order shuffling. The current target will cycle between slots instead of always hitting the character in front. Here are some of the anticipated advantages:

• Players will have more direct influence over the outcome of a battle; the order shuffling previously obfuscated a lot of tactical decisions
• 3v3 with ability restrictions will help keep character counts more manageable
• Characters will generally be using their best stuff, rather than cycling through weaker or absent abilities to get to their "good" turn--this means fewer wasted rounds
• Color-coded slots and icons should better convey the slot-to-ability connection, and be easier to explain when I get around to updating the tutorial

The tutorial isn't the only thing that I'd like to be improve, though. Every character received a stat pass, mostly to revise abilities into those three categories, and will require balancing--and overall hero wave strength will undoubtedly need to be tweaked, too. I'm not completely sold on all of the UI changes, either, so please chime in! With your help, I expect the next couple updates will come much more quickly. If you haven't already opted in to beta updates and would like to try it out, you can do so on the Betas tab of the game's Properties in your Steam library. You shouldn't lose progress, and you can revert back to the standard release at any time (with perhaps a little weirdness in the initial load). Oh, and if you have a Steam controller, might I recommend checking out this thread; a wonderful community member is looking for feedback of their own =). There are a ton of other fixes and revisions in here (including a single-icon option that should aid color-blind players). As always, this is thanks to your reports and support! ːtotcordialː

Changelog

Additions:

• Option to use a single icon to represent each of the game's resources (Bone, Leaf, Bolt, Steak, Helm, Staff, Column, Moneybag)
• Physical damage (replaced melee and ranged, which now describe ability slots)
• Arcane damage (replaces shadow damage--some of these attacks have been turned into fear attacks, as well)

Changes:

• Lots of core combat rule changes
• Battles are 3v3
• Passives folded into support abilities
• Relevant combat slots are highlighted while dragging a character
• Character recovery speeds have changed to Average, Quick, and Rapid (no more Slow)
• Characters draw fatigue after being targeted; they also heal at this time (if they are not dead)
• Healing no longer reduces poison
• Reduced hero counts
• Heroes no longer "fight fair," requiring them to engage in equal or lesser numbers
• Changed several resource and combat icons, mostly to avoid similar graphics for different things
• Lots of character ability revisions
• Some hero class names have changed, to avoid using the same class twice
• Floor movement and access rule have been moved to the floor's nameplate
• Floors can no longer be moved during a battle
• Floor movement cost has been reduced to 2 scrap per move
• Mystic Kunai banner adds arcane damage to ranged slot
• Quicksilver Quaff boosts ranged slot damage (regardless of type)
• Adamantiserum boosts physical damage (regardless of slot)
• Character legacy rules have changed; players now keep 1 minion per fortified floor in the dungeon--selection is by level then strength (a level 10 T-rex is worth more than a level 10 kobold, but a level 10 koboldwill be selected over a level 9 T-rex)
• Legacied character portraits are now marked with orange backgrounds
• Floor buttons now use the character button scrolling
• Floor and character buttons will no longer overlap the message log
• Floors no longer grant resource cap bonuses (these could be re-introduced later, with another mechanic I'm working on)
• A few improvements to rendering performance

Fixes:

• Scrolling over the surface above the character buttons would scroll the buttons, even though the cursor wasn't over them
• Legacy character rules weren't always obeyed; sometimes, legacy minions would die during destruction--sometimes, non-legacy minions would survive
• Unbuyable character buttons are now hidden during Tomb destruction
• Character portraits could report armor values incorrectly
• Dead minions awaiting respawn would still render on the minimap
• Some UI particles were freezing with the pause button
• Item appearance per session wasn't loaded when restoring a game
• The top floor of the dungeon wasn't properly clipping tall characters (most noticeable with extra short floors, like the Hallway or Hut)
• Gift-bearing heroes weren't always retreating
• Icon tooltips on floors were displaying where the floor tooltip goes
• Character render order wasn't maintained on elevators
• The game could assign duplicate checkpoint names
• Codex tooltips could break
• T-Wrecker idle particles emitted incorrectly when facing left

[ 2016-04-15 02:17:03 CET ] [ Original post ]