Heyyyy!
Got another fun patch for you guys this week! We've got a bunch of changes to bosses, some long-overdue fixes (lookin' at you, Lucky Scrolls), and some new aesthetic features to help with inventory management! Then after the changelog, we can talk about some of the changes coming soon to Ephemeral Tale!
Ephemeral Tale 1.10.4 Changelog
- Gribbler is now more resistant to normal attacks
- Psychopomp Empress is now more resistant to magical attacks, and weaker to normal attacks
- Bobbity-Boo now does ever-so-slightly more magical damage, and less normal damage
- Tyranis is now significantly beefier, and is much more resistant to normal attacks
- Darune is now slightly weaker to magical attacks
- Darune’s fight is now possible to be Escaped should players accidentally trigger it
- Lucky Scrolls now improve the quality of item drops for the duration of that fight
- Mire’s Gambit has had its point distribution adjusted
- Gribbler’s boss-specific loot pool has been adjusted to lower those rates a pinch
- Touched up a bunch of attack animations for both current and future pieces of equipment
- Moved item generation function off of items into a separate file for better save file sizes moving forward
- Adjusted enemy scaling to be a better fit for the current state of Ephemeral Tale
- Adjusted placement of some chests
- Enemies of the Great Palace have received a balance pass
- Enemies of the Great Palace are now weaker to their weakest elements by an additional 20%, bringing the weakness to a total of 40% (this varies, depending on the enemy)
- Noryuto is now more resistant to normal attacks, and weaker to magical attacks
- Miresite is now more resistant to magical attacks, and weaker to normal attacks
- Miresite now deals Shock damage instead of Physical
- Doorky now deals Spirit damage instead of Physical
- Additionally, Bootwalla has had it’s evasiveness tuned to be more forgiving
- Bibbity also now deals Fire damage instead of Physical
- Candlenap & Upholstergeist now deal Spirit damage instead of Physical
- New items will now show a new item indicator
The Path to Progress
Ephemeral Tale has changed significantly during its time in Early Access thus far, and continues to every week. In fact, next week will mark our FIFTH MONTH in Early Access! This week is our 27th patch, and the amount the game has changed from your feedback is astounding. Last week, I said that we’d speak about a plan to address some inadequacies in the gameplay loop, so let’s do that shall we?
Soon, it will be time for another fundamental shift in the bedrock that we stand upon. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a new approach to leveling up, attribute distribution, and player progression. It’s not ready for the big time yet, but will be a fundamental part of the next big patch for Ephemeral Tale: Major Update #4. With that update will come a new element of crafting the perfect loot-hunting Hero: the skill tree.
This is a big change in my approach to the game, and has far-reaching implications and consequences. So let's talk about how we got to this point, shall we? As said previously, consistently outpacing your gear is a bad feeling. It can also lead to players not wanting to level up, or feeling like it's actively a detriment, and the point of RPGs is to serve as a power fantasy first and foremost. You should feel yourself becoming stronger! The current system of leveling up, choosing an attribute, and doing this a bunch of times doesn't feel rewarding, it doesn't give you proper visual feedback that what you've changed is fundamentally important, and is in general very much... not satisfying.
The skill tree is an effort to address multiple issues at once with the gameplay of Ephemeral Tale: dying feels annoying, because you're made to feel like you're losing progression. Since you'll access the skill tree at Campfires once this change occurs, this should help alleviate that. Now, every death is an opportunity to examine the path you've chosen, and decide what to spec into next. In addition to this, you will automatically level up as you're adventuring!
This is a much more traditional approach, but makes a lot more sense as well (especially for a loot-driven RPG). No more doing a dungeon-dive, collecting a bunch of gear, and then going back, leveling up and all of that gear now being fodder! Your gear will have more value, for longer, and better encourage build variety and trying new stuff. The Keeper of the Respite will now serve as a vendor not for leveling up, but for acquiring a new sub-currency called Skill Gems. By channeling the Power you've gained throughout your adventures in to Skill Gems, you'll be able to spend these in the Skill Tree to unlock new passive and active bonuses to your character: do you want Double Strike, or Arcane Bolt? Do you want Heal, or Taunt? Maybe you want all of the above! These are all valid options for players to choose from, and these choices fundamentally alter the gameplay in a way that increasing your Luck or Attack just... doesn't match!
Watching your character grow in Power as you write your path is the ultimate goal of Ephemeral Tale. Major Update #4 is about that goal, in every shape and form. This is still several weeks out, as I've been working on some surprises for you guys in the interim. Once I know when this update is launching, I will let you know ASAP!
Until next week, stay safe and have fun!
-- Ryan