Developer Comments:
I really like the new skills system, it adds a ton more strategic depth. There are still very obvious skills to use for certain scenarios, I'm hoping to fix that after more playtesting. As it stands now the first 30 scenarios are very close to what I want them to be like. So let me know what you think of the new skills system.
Moving forward I want to balance and playtest the game one chunk at a time. So this update I focused solely on the first 30 maps (essentially the entire Novice challenge). In the next update I want to focus on the next challenge level. I feel like this method of balance will improve the quality of the game faster. The way I was doing it before, ment that I redid almost everything whenever I changed some aspect of balance. This way I shouldn't have to change as much, but even if I do, you will have a more complete experience in the early-game.
Some modifications to how the gamemodes work have been made. I plan to make the gamemodes even more distinct and add a 3rd gamemode in the near future. I haven't decided how much of my time working on the next update will be spent on gamemodes and how much will be spent balancing the Apprentice challenge.
*Sorry for the delayed update. I decided to move the weekly updates to Saturday, and last Saturday my internet died. It's fixed now, so expect weekly updates to resume.
Changelog:
Major changes:
* reworked the order things are unlocked (primarily redistributed skills to help enable strategic choice)
* most skill unlocks have been temporarily removed (I will add the remaining skills over the next few updates)
* rebalanced many scenarios (hopefully they are more inline with the intensity)
Polish:
* reworked "dream X", changed buildable locations, and available towers
* minor modifications to other scenarios
Balance:
* unspent willpower now gives exp gain (1% per)
* fire tower aura skill now actually applies burning instead of just dealing damage
* reduced the base level up cost to 250 exp (was 500)
* increased the intensity of most vision quest scenarios
* sell refund has been reduced to 80% (was 90%)
* removed skill point reward for completing Vision Quest scenarios on higher challenges (they now all give exp gain instead)
* removed reward for completing Lucid Dream scenarios
* changed how quickly Lucid Dream modifiers are unlocked from completing Lucid Dream Scenarios
* burning damage no longer scales with elemental resistances/vulnerabilities
* increased dark towers % health damage to 10% of max health (was 5%)
* reduced light towers damage to extra enemies to 30% (was 50%)
* reduced light towers damage per speed to 5% (was 10%)
* absorbers essence tear ability now increases with tower damage