Hi folks,
We just deployed a new stability patch for DemonCrawl!
This update includes a new consumable item, additional balance changes for Survivor, and over 30 bug fixes. (Some much-needed housekeeping!)
Last week, we implemented significant changes to 6 masteries, most of which were well received. However, some players expressed dissatisfaction with the Survivor updates - we want to take a moment to address this and explain our solution in v1.59.
The Survivor mastery has always been about manipulating a state of injury to your advantage. We like that it creates interesting situations where you have to decide between healing to survive an imminent blow, or remaining in harm's way so that you can continue to reap the mastery's benefits.
Prior to v1.58, Survivor II provided a way to scale your build through Soul drops. While this fit the Survivor's M.O., it was a bit too unreliable - this is a class that most players unlock early on, so we think it should offer a decent amount of predictability. It and Guardian (formerly Knight) were originally conceived as "starter masteries" with somewhat boring but reliable designs.
Additionally, we were not a fan of intentionally taking damage in the first stage to activate Survivor II as early as possible, which was often the ideal strategy. It wasn't too powerful or anything, but it felt like an inconvenient and unintuitive mechanic. Plus, if you forgot to do it, your run was immediately at a disadvantage.
So, we decided to try scaling Survivor with the "Untouchable" award instead. This created a nice parallel with the Guardian mastery, but many players were quick to point out that rewarding Survivors for not taking damage was at odds with its core identity.
After some thought, we have come to agree. Here's our new solution:
In v1.59, the Survivor is once again rewarded for his injuries, but in a more reliable fashion. We also applied a quality-of-life "nerf" to Survivor I so that it provides max life instead of life - putting you in a state of injury from the start.
Survivor III is unchanged, meaning you still have the opportunity to restore all of your lives every few stages.
Let us know what you think, and we hope you enjoy the patch! Full patch notes are below.
P.S. Due to relatively long compilation times for Mac and Linux, we have decided to release updates for Windows first, with the other platforms to follow in 3-4 hours. This way we can prepare and deploy any crucial hotfixes without having to re-compile for all 3 systems. Expect to see this approach for all updates going forward.
New Features
- New consumable item: Pacifier - "Replace the stage mods on the selected stage with less difficult stage mods."
Quality of Life
- You may now begin a stage by clicking twice on the small thumbnail in stage select
- Replaced Customize screen pagination with a scrollbar
- Reduced lag in the Customize screen when switching modes
- The "item purchased" toast now states the name of the obtained item
- Updated the description of Maul for clarity
- Tweaked the description of several Bow items to improve their compatibility with autocasting
- Added current number of total status effects in the tooltip for the help menu category
- Made adjustments to the following sprites: Electromancy, Venomancy, Overgrowth, Barrels of Fun
- Desktop only: you may now close the escape menu by pressing escape again
Balance Changes
- Survivor I rework: "Begin the quest with 1 extra max life."
- Survivor II rework: "At the end of each stage, gain 1 max life if you are injured."
- Increased the droprate of Mythic Emblems by about 25%
- Reduced the density of Sanctified cells in Valhallan stages from 8% to 5%
- Starponds are now a bit more likely to offer items for coins instead of tokens
- Starpond coin price is no longer capped at 999
- Increased the price of Purify from 40 to 50
Bug Fixes
- Status effects are now saved to disk using the item name, which should make them more resilient to game updates
- Fixed a crash related to Classic Mode and the Metagate skin
- Fixed Mythic Emblem stage mod placement
- Transmogrify now randomizes itself
- Transmogrify now uses the item transformation script rather than removing/adding items
- Fixed an issue that caused the completion of a classic stage to reset your current quest stage
- Fixed crafting tooltips incorrectly showing up next to some sigil materials
- Fixed a monster count issue related to blowing up flagged monsters
- Fixed Contagion bypassing effects that reduce your omen chances to 0
- Fixed explosive effects bypassing object immutability if the cell had an aura at the time of explosion
- Fixed a rare issue with the autosolver related to its understanding of the monster count
- Fixed a couple minor issues with the stage select UI
- Fixed a crash related to using Bubble Rod on a stage with the Spellbinder boss
- Fixed a crash related to activating Bubbler III without any orbs
- Fixed Disturbing stage mod influencing the direction of some projectiles
- Fixed Voucher not providing an item if used with a full inventory
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Disturbing mod toast to show an incorrect sprite
- Fixed Quest for Necrosis not respecting Heavy Burden's reduction to total inventory size
- Fixed the log entry for "coins spent" not respecting Blinding stage mod
- Fixed Fraudulent stage mod bypassing Immutable stage mod
- Fixed a few issues related to Edict of the Old Gods not buffing Tablets
- Fixed a rare crash related to electric Dark Chests
- Fixed a crash related to Smog activating on the first turn of a stage
- Fixed resolution scale not saving to disk when using alt+enter fullscreen toggle
- Fixed Minion Wishpool not receiving buff from Electric aura
- Holograph tooltips can no longer produce a term definition panel
- Patreon leaderboards no longer observe the default version filter
- The monster density cap will do a better job of making sure there's enough space for your first move
- Added validation for external strings to prevent possible crashes
- Possible workaround for a rare crash related to a boss destroying a living object on movement
- Speculative fix for a rare crash related to burning a boss
- Speculative fix for a rare crash related to Fraudulent stage mod
Hotfix #1 @ 7:12 PM EST -
- Fixed a crash related to popping strangers in bubbles
- Fixed another issue related to explosions and monster count
- Fixed a visual glitch related to familiars trying to kill unkillable monsters