Whew - it’s here! It’s been a long week filled with 4am wakeups to try and get everything finished around work and family - but I’m really excited to get this out! So excited in fact that I really don’t have a full “Patch Notes” list, as I kind of just went on a tear with things and forgot to document everything down (doh!). But the “Visual Upgrade” patch (as I’m now calling it) is finally live.
Before I go any further however - wow, what a response to my post last week! You are all so amazing and I truly appreciate the support and kind words you all left on last weeks dev post. I was bummed to not get things out last week but now seeing where things are at, I’m glad I waited just that extra 7 days! Thank you again - it really does mean a lot, and I hope you enjoy what's coming!!
So to start, I will mention that I’d call this a “Phase 1”. There is still a lot more I want to add, mostly to do with enemies and unique attack/sound effects across the board. I’m also monitoring performance, and ensuring that all the new particles don’t bottleneck things too much. Most of the improvements have been around the Battle screen. This is where you spend most of your time in Vault, and it really needed the most work. I’ve done as much as I can to try and make it more immersive, more digestible and overall, just give it more life.
Let’s checkout the highlights!
Enemy Animations
I previewed these last week! Only a handful done so far - I’ll be adding new ones each week as the animator finishes them. I did have the option of holding them all back until they’re done - but they’re just too awesome! I really think this adds so much life to the combat, and is well worth the time and money investment moving forward. Let me know what you think!
New Background Particles and FX
All backgrounds now have had custom lighting, particles and effects added which - to put it simply - are there to just look damn cool. The slight bits of movement and lighting help breathe life into things as well. I still have more I want to add - with the Cursed Swamp for example - I’d love to get some glowing eyes on the skull off to the side! More to be added to all as I keep pushing things along.
Please note: if your PC starts to struggle with the new Particles, you can turn them off in the options menu. Please reach out however as I'd love to see where things are falling down!
New Threat Stack
So this was a bit out of left field - didn’t expect to jump onto this this week, but I’m glad it got done.
There's been some concern over Vault of the Void’s “streamablity”. Everything in this patch is aimed at helping that problem - make the game more fun to look at. One thing that a lot of people have had issues with in the past is the Threat/Block/HP related stuff. Where is the HP? What is Threat, and how does that translate to HP loss? Also, when watching on mobile, you literally have NO WAY to see the HP (it's so tiny!).
Enter Threat Stack 2.0
Not only does it have a super sweet animated portrait (more on that later!) - but it also has a much easier way to translate the Threat -> HP interaction, with an interactive HP bar (which is viewable on mobile!). Add in a splash of particle effects, a bundled in fight progress orb (moved from the top bar), and I really think this is a step in the right direction. Is it perfect? Probably not! There's been comments about a lot of circles in the UI now, and a lot of similar textures, but I think overall the presentation is much better for new and verteran players alike. I’ll continue to iterate on it in the coming weeks based on feedback!
Another thing this does is remove the Debuff orbs, which generally, was a pretty heavy confusion point for new players. As you all can probably guess, your Debuffs will now sit where your buffs are, but have a nice purple tint to their frame to show their nastiness.
New Deckbacks and Achievements
So for the Achievement hunters out there, I’ve added 6 new achievements - Perfect Fights vs each of the Vault Guardians currently in the game. Of course, I would never ask you to do something without a reward - how's 6 new exclusive themed deckbacks sound?
Various FX and Sounds
All characters have had various sound and animation effects added to their quiver. Bleed has cool new blood drops squirt out, all cards have a “hit” animation play. Corruption grows with little particles and unleashing will send motes of purple out towards the target. Zen and Chain have their own thing going on as well.
Not to mention just a rework across the board. Breaking fortitude has its own sound effect and animation. Enemies with Vulnerable, Weak or Slow also have custom particles that appear, as well as an overlay effect. Lots and lots in there - and as I mentioned, more to come in the following weeks!
Animated Character Portraits
So, let me expand a bit on future plans now. I never started the design for the new Threat Stack with the intention of having a character portrait, it was really just a happy accident. However now it's there, there has already been talk in the Discord about unlockable portraits and frames. I really, really like this idea - and am going to put some things in motion!
One area I really did think it could expand however, is the Streamer/Content Creator Community content. Some of you may have seen the previous examples of Content Creator deckbacks that have been released for various streamers - hidden behind a code, a great way for their community to share something special. I really like the idea of expanding this to Content Creator animated portraits as well, almost like a bundled package. Just in case it isn’t clear as well - this isn’t paid content! It’s all free, hidden behind a “code unlock” in the Unlocks screen.
It's no secret that with Vault, its success is going to be tied pretty heavily to Streamers/Content Creators. I knew this from the start - I don’t have a marketing manager/publisher etc - its just me when it comes to that side of things! For that reason, I really, really wanted to show my appreciation to anyone who streamed the game to their community, or published YouTube content etc - which is why the deckback program exists!
I’d love to expand this more, so if you know of anyone currently creating content, feel free to reach out, I’d love to touch base and see if we can do something up! Also, if you have a favourite content creator you think would like Vault, feel free to pass it along in the hopes we can get something of this ilk going!
Other than that - I think we're done here for now! I'll be monitoring things over the weekend of course and hotfixing anything that shows up as quickly as possible! I'm really happy with this patch, and I think it does a LOT for the game in terms of visibility and playability. I even knocked up a new trailer to celebrate - so I'll get that uploading on the main store page!
Also a few little bug fixes were addressed, however next week I'll really be focusing on all the reports made in the Discord, and also tracked through the crash logs.
Thank you all for making Vault what it is today. To celebrate, I wanted to show a quick little 1 min recap of Vault and its first 3 months.... The change from launch to today's patch. Enjoy!
All for now!
- Josh
