Hey everyone!
It is only a few hours until the launch of the BattleJuice Alchemist alpha playtest on Steam. You will then be able to click the "Request Access" button on the store page. More infos will follow very soon.
Some people from our community (join Discord here) have already been playing for a few weeks. Since then, a lot of things have been changed and added, so here are the most important updates.
General Notes
Update 0.15201 includes all changes from 0.14101 and above. After updating, your graphics, keybinding and other settings will be reset. Playing with your older characters should work.
Gameplay
Maybe the biggest change to the gameplay is direct input: You can now move your favorite Alchemist with WASD or any keybinding you like. Classic action RPG movement via mouse clicking stays untouched, you just have the choice to also use keyboard movement, if you like. You may also bind the "movement click" any key and are not restricted to left clicking. Note that the default key bindings have been changed due to the addition of direct input controls.
The second big change is that we now have video quality settings, so you can squeeze more fps out of your computer. Please keep in mind that the inner workings behind these settings themselves still need to be worked on throughout development and are not at all perfect yet.
Items
We recently re-worked the Shell flask, because it was not that popular with the players. The flask is now cheaper to use, the damage reduction was buffed and it now has the ability to prevent one debuff. The thorns damage was buffed and now hurts enemies no matter if they attack with a melee or ranged attack. We also added a new alchemical affix "Of Icicles" which enhances your Shell flask's thorns effect.
The Frog Hop flask also got a bit of love: The base damage and bonus damage from items for it was straight up doubled.
Furthermore we added a new alchemical affix called "Of Fury". I don't want to spoil too much, but it is meant to facilitate close combat oriented builds.
Enemies
Enemies who defeat the player now only turn into demons 50% of the time to prevent a quick downward spiral because of the buffs demons provide to all enemies.
Another change to enemies was that their attack speed in close combat now improves with higher enemy levels, which just seems fair, as it is usually the same for the player.
Visuals
There have been many visual changes that I won't bore you with, you can will see them yourself ingame. Let me just say that the focus was to make the environment easier to read and reduce very dark areas.
TL;DR
For those of you who want to dig really deep and know all about the minor changes, you can find those listed below. I hope you are as excited as I am for the alpha playtest to start!
Alain
0.15201 Important - Options will be reset upon updating to this version. Various - Exclamation marks on new quests and new craftable items replaced by "NEW" sign. Quests that were completed before quest menu is opened are not marked as "NEW". - Fixed minor visual issues in crafting menu. - Optimized inventory & storage slot performance. - Added various quality settings to video options menu. Not all of them are perfectly balanced at the moment, because the game itself is still at an early version. - Fixed a bug where resetting settings resulted in duplicate entries in dropdown menus. - Fixed a bug where default settings were not restored properly. - Fixed a bug where resetting to default settings would cause trouble with left clicking. - Fixed a bug where camera could be moved via direct input in close combat. 0.15101 Items - Alchemical effects do not roll on items before level 10. - Reduced chance for rolling alchemical effects on items in general. Enemies - Porcupine walk cycle animation fix. - Enemies who defeat the player in close combat only turn into demons 50% of the time. World - Opened chests and used altars are now shown on map for orientation. Note that quitting the game resets chests and altars. Various - Implemented direct movement input for movement (default: WASD). - Added custom key binding for direct movement. Note that due to the addition of new controls all settings will be reset automatically when patching. - Custom key binding for moving towards cursor (default: Left Mouse Button). - Feedback form at end of playtest content. Link to feedback form auto-fill game version and playtime. - Minor tweaks on main menu, social media links added. - Added tutorial after dying three times. - Fixed tooltips for HUD buttons showing "None" when no secondary key binding was set. 0.14802 Items - Fixed a bug where "Of Ice" items caused all flasks were supercharged for free, not just Freeze flasks. Enemies - Increased maximum health of enemies on higher levels. Various - Corrected Devil's Bane tooltip stating now that it greatly reduces damage taken. - Fixed sound concurrency of sound effect "negative badunk". 0.14801 Mechanics - Fixed an issue where Juicified Health flask cancelled effects of Juicified Liquid and Juicified Juice flasks. - Overhauled Juice per second calculation, which was unbalanced on higher levels. Items - Overhauled Juice per second boni from items. - Thorns of Juicified Shell flask now hurt enemies no matter if they use ranged or melee attacks. - Replaced "Of Turtle Doves" affix by "Of Icicles": Spikes of Juicified Shell flasks freeze enemies and apply ice damage over time. - Reduced Juice cost for Juicified Shell flask to 20 Juice. - Buffed Shell flask Damage reduction. - Shell Flask now prevents a debuff, but gets canceled by the debuff it prevented. - Fixed bug where Shell flask damage reduction boni from items were calculated wrong. - Base damage and all item boni for Juicified Shell flask thorns doubled. - Base damage and all item boni for Juicified Fro Hop flask doubled. NPCs & Story - Overhauled visuals of Exhibitchee character, also renamed to Xen. - Fixed a bug where companions would not cast debuffs while showing items on ground was deactivated. - Minor fixes in quest descriptions. Enemies - Stronger enemies' size in close combat reduced a bit so icons over head stay visible. - Enemies' level now influences their attack speed: Reduced attack cooldown in close combat. - Fixed calculation of enemies' attack speed according to their affixes (in fact, enemies that should have been faster were slower before). World - Overhauled visuals of starting town, also renamed to Caribou Creek. Various - Overhauled lighting & water & particles with regards to day- & night cycle. - Minor cosmetic changes in equipment section of inventory UI. - Reducing ingame video tutorials to necessary ones and re-recording of these - Overhauled NPC and player walk cycle (more weight). - Fixed sound concurrency of sound effect when learning multiple recipes. - Various debug features for internal playtesting. - Fixed that picking up items was possible while player was dead. - Added a tutorial box with link to feedback form after one hour playtime or after completing the playtest's story line. - Reduced Devil's Bane damage reduction from 50% to 34%. 0.14401 Mechanics - Fixed a bug where flasks did not get drawn if they were the second of two in the cauldron. Also fixed that last used not last drawn flask was considered when determining which flask not to draw. Items - Changing equipment resets last flask drawn. - Drop- & craft chance for alchemical effects set to 10% (alchemical effects rolled disproportionally often compared to regular affixes). - New alchemical effect affix "Of Turtle Doves" Various - Fixed a bug where using explosive flask while "Of Fury" item equipped caused a fatal error (might need more investigating). - Fixed a bug where game window was not focussed when starting in fullscreen mode from Steam icon in task bar. - Added negative badunk sound when trying to move item to storage but storage is full. - Fixed demon counter on map (was not taking killed demons into consideration). 0.14101 Mechanics - Random flask drawing a bit less random: In case you have more than 3 flasks in your cauldron and use a random one from your belt, you cannot draw the same flask type again instantly. Items - Item description changed: If all equipment is of same rarity, item's description now correctly states "2x amount of dust found." (any dust, not only of that rarity). - When determining if dust (magic, rare, unique, legendary) is dropped, enemies with the "Minion" affix now drop Sand. "Minions" did not drop anything on this drop slot before. - "Of Barrels" affix can now roll on items - New alchemical effect affix "Of Fury" Enemies - Demons only spawn when player is level 5 or higher. Demons spawned by the ritual Devil's Bane are excluded from this rule. - Fixed an issue where enemies could get stuck in debuff animation loop in close combat. NPCs & Story - Minor dialog changes Danielle, Exhibitchee, Lord Bishop and quest descriptions. - Minor text fix Allen's Notes II. World - Area behind tent in town should not be reachable by Frog Hop flask anymore. - Fixed an issue where particle systems such as fires stayed visible when entering the Crossroads (close combat). Various - Brighness of ingame camera increased for better visibility on dark monitors (use gamma settings to tweak). - Implemented smoother camera movement when moving vertically (less rough "bobbing" when walking over uneven terrain).