This update may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you but we want to stress that this update comes after a long window of testing and thinking through which best way to incorporate and combine seemingly contradicting feedback about the inclusion of i-frames. The inclusion of i-frames does not go against our design philosophy, which is to try and respect player expression and give them various options when deciding which tools to best tackle the Omnistructure with. In this respect, the update includes i-frames as a way to avoid damage in combat. There are items and builds that offer other benefits at the cost of losing i-frames. In this way we have opened a fork in playstyles by offering players an option between reaction and positioning when it comes to avoiding damage. This is not a hard line, as veteran players know that blocking, jumping, crouching, and many abilities already offer reaction-based complete avoidance of damage. All playstyles are equally valid and require a different approach to combat - this is simply an inclusion of an additional tool in your wide arsenal of choices.
In this way we hope to further the conversation in hardcore ARPGs about how different approaches to combat should feel. This new change forced us as developers to evolve the way we think of the player base and better understand that our systems are a conduit to player expression, not a limitation to it.
Of course the update contains many rebalances, tweaks, and fixes as well.
Be on the lookout for another update before the year is up!
Invincibility Frames:
- Short duration I-Frames added by default to the rolls.
- The Amulet of Evasion can increase the duration.
- Dashes still don't have I-Frames.
- Reduced the distance of Dashes/Rolls by 60% while I-Frames are enabled.
- Tactician's Amulet (found from the first loot in the game or from handler) will restore previous dash/roll distance at the cost of removed I-Frames.
- Tactician's Amulet is the only accessory item that can be improved through Handler.
- Certain Abilities and Mechanics (Such as shockwaves or Nurgei the Blademaster grand AOE) still have to follow proper mechanics.
Changes:
- All stamina actions can be performed as long as stamina is above 0, but a minor penalty of delayed regeneration is inflicted.
- Sprint no longer costs stamina outside of combat even with the weapons unholstered.
- Stamina cost is now being taken once hitboxes are activated on weapons instead of when animation starts.
- Separate keybind added for dashes.
- This keybind is disabled if using Dash&Roll setting.
- Default setting for Roll Input changed to Separate Input.
- New default controller scheme: Simplified.
- Removed "Center Camera" keybind. Using "Lock-On" while no target in range will now center the camera instead.
- Next/Previous Lock-On target for gamepad no longer affects quiver ammo.
- New keybinds on the gamepad for quiver ammo have been added.
- Attribute windows now display additional Attributes as bonus(Green) or penalty(Red).
- The Amulet of Experience is now "The Scholar's Ring".
- Ring of Evasion has been renamed to Ring of Swiftness.
- New Amulet: Amulet of Evasion.
- Increase the duration of Invincibility Frames.
- New Amulet: Tactician's Amulet.
- Increase the distance of Rolls & Dashes at the cost of removing Invincibility Frames.
- New Amulet: Bulwark Amulet.
- Upgraded Tactician's Amulet with +225 Health.
- New Amulet: Piercing Amulet.
- Upgraded Tactician's Amulet with +10% all penetrations.
- New Amulet: Nimble Amulet.
- Upgraded Tactician's Amulet with -0.5 seconds delay before stamina regenerates and +50 stamina recovery per second.
- New Amulet: Amulet of Focus.
- Upgraded Tactician's Amulet with +90% Base Weapon Damage.
- All amulets received new icons.
- Handler will now appear in Monastery in NG+.
- Leech and Vampirism no longer display overhealing.
- New Setting under Video & Graphics : Fog Scattering; Default: ON
- Toggles Fog Scattering on and off.
- New Setting under General & UI : Show Cloak; Default: ON
- Toggles cloaks visibility on and off.
- New Setting under General & UI : I-Frames Timing; Default: ON
- Whether to display I-Frames Timing as transparent effect on Player.
Balancing:
- Speed up regular dual wield attack animations.
- Offhand weapons in regular dual wield now deal full damage instead of the previous 35%.
- Slightly tweaked critical chance obtained from Agility Attribute.
- Agility now also grants increased critical damage at 15+ in the Agility Attribute.
- All weapon abilities now scale based on the weapons Mk. tier and associated Attribute.
- All active abilities now scale based on Players Level and associated Attribute.
- Technomancy projectiles still scale as before, purely based on Intelligence Attribute.
- Nodachis tornado have increased speed when chasing non-player targets.
- Increased maximum amount of leech from Soul Reaver.
- Flux arrows are now part of the regular quiver instead of previously only appearing when the quiver is empty.
- Flux arrow can now be obtained from base Archery Mastery perk.
- Flux arrows now scale based on Intelligence Attribute and Technomancy Penetration.
- Mobius Blade damage now scales based on Players Level.
- Weapon leeches now leech additional amounts based on weapon base damage.
- Crow cloak now gives +100 Health and +150 Health Leech Rating.
- Stamina Leech now returns the portion of the stamina cost for that attack.
- Vampirism perk now adds a flat leech amount instead of doubling the current amount.
- Armor Buster passive now reduces target's current Armor Rating by half.
- Expose Armor debuff now reduces Armor Ratings by 20% instead of putting them at 0.
- Decay now only reduces the target's attack power. Armor Rating reduction was moved on Debuff Mastery perk.
Fixes:
- Removed slightly rooted in place after roll animations has finished..
- Crescent slash properly shoots second projectile now.
- Removed negative floating text leech from Soul Reaver.
- Fixed stamina cost reduction happening only at 2nd attack.
- Fixed rotation sometimes being disabled while having a bow equipped.
- Improved FPS in the Machinarium zone.
- Fixed Konrads The Traitors AI being stuck in place.