Community Requested Additions and Balance Tweaks.

Hi folks,

This is a small patch that implements some community-requested additions and balance tweaks. But it also opens with some personal thoughts on these changes, and you can safely skip to the patch notes.

I thought now was a perfect time to implement them before adding the more bulky resources for the upcoming DLC, which I'd like to do in the coming days.

Hopefully, there won't be any need for urgent patches, so that we can save unnecessary bandwidth. But do let me know if you come across any glaring issues.

So, the first change regards reinforcements.

I understand it can be a stressful experience for new players. Perhaps they just started to tackle more serious difficulties and haven't yet been acquainted with all the tools at their disposal, as using them in lower difficulties wasn't that crucial, or haven't analyzed in the log the patterns of how, when, and why reinforcements arrive.

With this patch, all the vanilla modes will receive reinforcements after 6 turns instead of 4.

This will give everyone more leeway and time to observe the now more consistent pattern: The very first wave can't arrive unless x or fewer enemies remain on the battlefield. That x is now 2 in all modes.

In practice: card-slinging will most likely lead to reinforcements at turn 7 (instead of 5) if 2 or fewer enemies remain. Or, reinforcements will arrive at turn 13 (instead of turn 9) if you 'rounded the enemies for mass execution' instead of killing them one by one each turn. There should be plenty of time to do both now and play the way you prefer.

For those who still dislike the reinforcements system or want a more chill experience, there is an easy solution below to customize reinforcements to their liking and play style. (see patch notes). For me, seeing reinforcements always means that I played my cards sub-optimally, and it's an excellent reminder to tweak my deck or re-evaluate my tactics.

The second regards Debuffs like Stun and Bewitch getting resisted in a row.

We may prefer to believe that we did the best we could and died from lousy luck. That can happen. But, if we didn't bother to prepare early on our Deck, Backpack, and Collection for things we knew we'd face, and we skipped on these cards to squeeze a +2 damage we didn't really need at that point. If we din't prepare for the various obstacles the game will throw at us eventually, while mistakes can be more easily forgiven, then it won't be bad luck, but lack of planning when that Stun fails and cause our character's death.

It's that death that comes out of nowhere yet could have been prevented; with more experience and by utilizing crucial tools available in all skills, i.e., Fracture, Resolve, Inevitable/Delayed, Adjust/Multiply, Effects that apply inevitable Debuffs, Switching Decks, having alternative debuffs. Etc.

Anyway, it is never fun "luck" killing our character when we still don't know how to change that luck, so with this patch, all the vanilla modes of 4 skulls and below have a "Fracture 5% upon failing to Debuff" setting. This, in practice, means that every time any Debuff fails in that turn, the lucky enemy will be +5% more susceptible to all your Debuffs for the entire turn. When the 2nd fails by another +5% (10%), stacking all the way to full Vulnerability.

This, I hope, will help prepare new players better for the need to invest in cards with Fracture, Resolve, and other methods, as they move on to more challenging difficulties without this setting, and give you some creative ideas on solving the various problems the game throws at you to solve.

Alternatively you can read in the patch notes below how you can add this setting to other modes, remove it, or change it's value to something higher or lower.

Patch Notes - 27/10 # 1.046.6

Balance Tweaks - Reinforcements changes

• Enemy reinforcements will appear every 6 turns (changed EnemyReinforcementsEveryXTurns:6 in all Vanilla modes). [instead of after 4 turns].
• Enemy reinforcements will appear if there are 2 or fewer enemies on the battlefield. (changed ReinforcementsIfEnemiesLessThan:2 for all Vanilla modes). If PunishingReinforcements:true, this setting is ignored after 12 turns (2 x EnemyReinforcementsEveryXTurns) [instead of after 8 turns].
• If PunishingReinforcements:true, Reinforcements will progressively become increasingly deadlier than before as the player's level increases and every 12 levels.
• Note: If the reinforcements are something that stresses you out, you can modify them quickly (and permanently) in the mode of your choice through the console: f10, then, i.e., for Conquest type:
• ModifyGM Conquest=>EnemyReinforcementsEveryXTurns=>60
• ModifyGM command creates a modded copy of the vanilla mode with any flags you set through this command, so you only need to do it once. In this case, it tells Conquest mode reinforcements to arrive every 60 turns.
• (If you typed the command correctly, it will return something like: "New Value Set: EnemyReinforcementsEveryXTurns => 60. (Feel free to modify a different value)".

Balance Tweaks - Fracture upon failing to Debuff

• Modes of 4 skulls or lower have the "FailedDebuffsFracture":5; this means that each time an enemy resists a debuff, they automatically get 5% Fracture, which will make subsequent Debuffs easier.
• Modes with 5+ skulls difficulty that are aimed at advanced players have this setting = 0 (off) and assume that the player will instead use all the tools at their disposal [i.e., Fracture, Resolve, Inevitable/Delayed, Adjust/Multiply, Effects that apply inevitable Debuffs, Switching Decks, etc. to bypass those resistances (and any need for luck) through skillful planning of their build.]
• Custom modes of 4 skulls or lower created through the Custom Modes UI (from now on) will also include "FailedDebuffsFracture":5.
• Note: You can further modify this setting (permanently) in the mode of your choice through the console: f10, then, i.e., for Conquest type:
• ModifyGM Conquest=>FailedDebuffsFracture=>25, or whatever percentage you feel should be there.
• The value of FailedDebuffsFracture will always display at the end of the mode rules, even if it's 0. (Resisted Debuffs apply x% Fracture.)

Misc Changes/Additions

• Cards can craft random Maladies, using: 'Invoke:x, InvokeDiscipline:Malady'
• Treasure Map, Adventurer's Journal, Knapsack, Adventurer's Knapsack, Tome of Knowledge, Tome of Greater Knowledge, Memoirs of a Hero & Schematics will now all Ignore Synergies.
• Added 3 early Enemy kills progression perks at 30, 60 & 120 kills for earning fast some extra Schematics (for your Equipment upgrades)
• Completing the Ironman Gauntlet will also give the 'Quest Complete!' achievement.

Bugfixes

• Fixed some card and perk typos.