Content Patch #7 -- Quality of Life

News

Hey everyone!

The roadmap for this Content Patch and the next has changed slightly. Previously a large amount of time and effort was devoted to adding a new mode to the game (which I teased slightly in previous hotfixes and in the game's discord). Unfortunately, this mode won't be ready in time for Content Patch #7 or Content Patch #8. My apologies.

On the bright side, this Content Patch contains many Quality of Life features that have been requested for many months. A good amount of QoL features were being worked on, but weren't completed in time for this update. Those features will be added in Content Patch #8, and further QoL updates will be the primary focus of that update.

Game Balance

• Empty symbols can no longer appear on-screen if a non-empty symbol could appear in its place
• Players start with 20 empty symbols instead of 25
• Ancient Lizard Blade now gives an additional coin
• Holy Water now makes Hexes give an additional coin
• Lint Roller now gives 10 coin per removed Rabbit Fluff (instead of 6 coins)
• Red Pepper now gives 5 coins when its effect is triggered (instead of 3 coins)
• Shattered Mirror now gives 24 coins every 7 spins (instead of 20 coins)
• Time Machine now makes Golems be destroyed in 2 less spins
• Time Machine now also makes Frozen Fossils be destroyed in 5 less spins
• Void Portal now gives 1 coin for every 8 symbols destroyed in a game (instead of for every 10 symbols)
• Zaroff's Contract now makes Bounty Hunters give 20 coins per symbol destroyed (instead of 15 coins)
• Beehive can no longer add Bees and has a 10% chance of adding Honey (instead of a 5% chance)
• Billionaires no longer add Spirits when destroyed if the player has a Shrine item
• Bounty Hunters now give 20 coins for each Thief destroyed (instead of 10 coins)
• Dwarves now give coins equal to 10x the value of destroyed Ores and Big Ores (if the player has Dwarven Anvil)
• Eldritch Creatures are now buffed by Beastmasters
• Magic Key now has a base value of 2 coins (instead of 1 coin) and makes symbols it destroys give 3x more coins (instead of 2x more)
• Rabbits are now Uncommon (instead of Common) and have the effect of "Permanently gives 2 coins more after giving coins 10 times."

The above balance changes were made for the following reasons:

The changes to Empty symbols effectively make it so that if there is "room" for an off-screen non-Empty symbol to appear where an Empty symbol could, the game will make it so that the non-Empty always appears on-screen. This will not only reduce frustration, it will make counting out Empty symbols in the inventory easier, make it harder to lose in the early stages of the game, and reduce unfun randomness.

Ancient Lizard Blade has been tweaked again to provide the power one would expect from a Very Rare item.

Holy Water makes Hexes give an additional coin in order to make the item more in-line with a Rare item, as well as provide an additional incentive to be added to one's inventory if a player doesn't want to disable the effects of Hexes.

The changes to Rabbits and the Lint Roller item are in order to make builds with Rabbits more viable. Making Rabbit an Uncommon symbol also makes it synergize more effectively with the Lucky Carrot and Golden Carrot items (as it was previously difficult to find Rabbits after acquiring one of these items, due to its Common rarity).

Red Pepper has had its trigger value increased in order to make its (hard to achieve) effect more rewarding.

Shattered Mirror has had its trigger value increased in order to make the item's average "coins per spin" more powerful than the Bowling Ball item (as now it's effectively a more powerful Bowling Ball with a downside).

Time Machine affecting Golem and Frozen Fossil was primarily added since many players expecting these symbols and items to synergize anyway. Adding this effect barely effects game balance, but means players will spend less time trying to remember things like "Wait, does Time Machine affect Golems?" This logic is also the reasoning behind the Dwarven Anvil change.

Void Portal, while still very powerful at late stages of a game, was a bit lackluster for a Rare item when player would initially add it to their inventory. For this reason, the item has been buffed to increase its "early-game" potential.

The changes to Zaroff's Contract and Bounty Hunters are to make Bounty Hunter-heavy builds a more viable strategy.

Beehive no longer produces Bees as Bees were almost always a detriment to players when they were added during a spin. The chance of adding Honey was been doubled in order to further increase the potential of the symbol.

Billionaires no longer drop Spirits when the player has the Shrine item because they don't have souls.

The changes to Eldritch Creatures was primarily for the same reasons as the Time Machine changes (bringing symbol synergies in-line with what players expect). However, these changes are more likely to affect gameplay substantially if the player can achieve the new synergy.

Magic Key has had its value and multiplier increased to make the symbol less detrimental if the player adds it to their inventory and has a "drought" of Lockboxes, Safes, etc.

Please let me know your thoughts either in the comments or on the official discord!

-Dan

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Eldritch Creatures could have their display values in the inventory desynced when off-screen
• Fixed a bug where Bubbles would still play their "pop" animation after being destroyed by a Toddler under certain circumstances
• Fixed a bug where symbols that were removed from items (such as Coin on a String) weren't having their textures properly updated
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash if the player had a Seed that grew into a symbol after being pointed to by an Arrow if the player had the Rusty Gear item (help me)
• Fixed a bug where "" would appear on the Removal Tokens button when playing for very long periods of item without reloading the game
• Fixed a bug where Lucky Capsule's guaranteed rarity wouldn't "carry over" when the player reloaded the game under certain circumstances
• Fixed a bug where adding symbols from Symbol Bombs could result in the inventory becoming corrupted under certain circumstances
• Fixed a bug where Targets sometimes weren't destroyed when pointed to by an Arrow
• Fixed a bug where Targets could animate before being pointed to by an Arrow if the player had a Quiver
• Fixed a bug where multiple Keys could destroy the same Lockbox, Safe, etc.
• Fixed a bug where Comfy Pillow wouldn't add a Bowling Ball to the item choices if the player had every Rare item but didn't have every Common or Uncommon item
• Fixed a bug where Divers weren't having their Permanent Value bonuses increased after removing a Pearl added from an Oyster which was removed in the same spin
• Fixed a bug where using Removal Tokens could sometimes remove more symbols than intended
• Fixed a bug where a Chick growing into a Chicken while the player had the Birdhouse item gave 4 coins total (instead of 5 coins)
• Fixed a bug where Mrs. Fruit could sometimes eat the same symbol twice (gross)
• Fixed a bug where items weren't hoverable after reloading the game
• Fixed a bug where Shattered Mirror's symbol choice reduction wasn't applied if the player reloaded in the middle of adding symbols from a Symbol Bomb