It's been a while since we've had an incremental patch, since we've been working away on new content for the upcoming Act 4 release, but there's enough things to address that patch a 0.4.11b was warranted. This patch addresses some bug reports and introduces some new features, content, and balance updates.
New Mechanic: Instability
A major change added in this patch is a new mechanic called "Instability." As a battle goes on and energy is released, instability of local space-time increases, and so does damage dealt by both allies AND enemies. Base damage has been reduced a bit across the board to go along with this change.
The main aim of this mechanic is to help make some of the longer, drawn out battles end more decisively, but it also means the early fight is somewhat less deadly and allows ramping/setup characters to shine more.
We'd love any feedback on this new mechanic (or anything else) before it heads to the stable branch, so if you'd like to chat about it, make sure to join our Discord!
Developer Update: Upcoming Act 4
Since we're sure you're all excited for Act 4, we wanted to let you know we're still steadily progressing, and we're including a little teaser screenshot below of a couple of the new heroes in the environment they will have to contend with. We'll leave it to you to figure out what they might be. We'll definitely post some additional teasers as we get even closer to the release, both here and in our Discord.
Changelog for version 0.4.11b
Now, on to the changelog for this patch!
- Added two new shop-only relics
- Added a new Training Room option to the Inn where you can beat up on invincible bots as long as you like. This option appears after you've started at least one mission in your save
- Added a new mechanic called "instability" that causes damage values to slowly rise over time, to help lengthy fights be more decisive as they go on. Boss fights increase this value much more slowly, since they are meant to be longer
- Rebalanced a few boss fights to have more appropriate scaling, health, and/or damage with the new instability mechanic
- Added a new default Time Break skill that resets instability to zero
- Added a new distortion that interacts with instability
- Maelstrom's Chaos Storm now has a 1-turn "exhaustion" stage after it goes off
- Track skill (Assassin, Pioneer, Pursuer) is no longer resistible
- Monk's Chakra skill strength reduced from 1.5x Focus to 1.25x
- Spellblade's Spell Refraction now also copies the level of the spell it refracts
- Inscriber Form's elemental magic spells' base damage increased from 1x Focus to 1.5x
- Ranger's skills now base their damage on Technique instead of Power
- Pirate's plunder now only steals half turn progress and its charge cost scales per use
- Blizzard skill (various heroes/enemies) level 3 now hits 12 times instead of 15 at level 3
- Vul's Vulstaff and Winter's Gift skills now have level 2/3 effects
- Taunt skill lv 3 now has a chance to make opponent stumble instead of acting
- Gather Shadows (Dark Knight, some enemies) skill levels reworked, and can no longer be interrupted
- Fury distortion reworked to randomly give free attacks rather than free turns
- Shroom enemy can no longer use Strange Spores twice in a row, and will now use Flurry attack in between
- Reworked the code that handles turn loss and forced skill overrides to make them work more consistently
- Fixed Inscriber Form's Echoing glyph to only proc one extra time for each spell
- Fixed a few bugs with Big Blob that could occasionally result in a soft locked state
- Fixed a bug that could result in a soft lock if a hero was downed from certain turn start damage effects
- Fixed Jaguar's Pounce skill description referencing Ambush skill instead of Stalk
- Fixed Avatar enemy's Channel ability still casting a spell even if you interrupted it
- Fixed some calculations related to crit chance and crit damage for certain skills
- Fixed Holy Shield (Angel, Cleric) being able to target somebody who already has it active
- Fixed broken "hurt" animation frame for Doctor's Nurse summon
- Fixed Stasis time break description being too long for in-battle info box