[v.397515]
ːsteamthisː ⇒ Community-inspired change
Hail, new Wardens! Kev again with new patch notes. Hope you're enjoying Next Fest so far. It's awesome to see so many players playing and discussing the game! Thanks to all those who have joined in so far, and extra shoutout to those of you who have gone the extra distance to leave a review on our demo.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3256480/As_We_Descend_Demo
(For those with a keen eye, yes, we've just updated the capsule art on it for Next Fest!)
For this patch, we've made some changes mostly focused on quality-of-life adjustments, with some balance changes as well and improvements to the metaprogression screen. For those of you who are already playing, this will invalidate your current run save after you update.
Metaprogression Screen
Designer notes: The metaprogress screen should be a bit clearer now with these changes. Maximum challenge level is still Descension 5, but it's now a tiny bit more forgiving at base difficulty with the change to the Fatigued mechanic while also streamlining the base experience.
- While unlocking, no longer focuses camera on non-demo unlocks
- ːsteamthisː Added delineation for positive & negative effects of Descensions unlocks
- Smaller icons on non-major unlocks
- ːsteamthisː [New] Tactical Retreat, available in the demo
- Grievous Wounds renamed Battle Fatigue, now available in the demo
- Dire Fatigue is no longer available in the demo
- ːsteamthisː Added new Descension Gauge tooltip on hover
- Added Sacrosanct origin logo preview and mythion circle to link the three origins
- Shifted a few other dependencies around
HUD & UI
- ːsteamthisː Max UI scale increased from 1.1 to 1.2
- ːsteamthisː UI scaling now affects City Event panel
- ːsteamthisː Added hover tooltips for the combat zones
- Updated on Main Menu exit prompt
- Combat HUD health loss changed to all-white
- Fixed issue where Combat HUD would have an aliased white pixel at certain resolutions
- Fixed typo on difficulty disclaimer
Cards
- Added card art for Doom (Mesmer - Affliction) and Under Pressure (Navigator)
- Fix for inaccurate stagger preview of Force Blast (Guardian)
- Fix for inaccurate stagger preview of Thorn Skewer (Dauntless)
- Fix for Armored Warfare+ morphing the function of the card
Innkeeper's Blessing (Starter Tech)
Designer notes: Innkeeper's Blessing and Fatigued have been slightly reworked to reduce baseline complexity and offer more consistent healing. This also provides a real decision at the Inn even at base difficulty level.
- Healing changed from 40%/20% of max health to a flat 5
- Additional healing can be purchased from the Inn
- Fatigued is only induced after Battle Fatigue modifier is enabled
- Innkeeper's Favor option Charisma check threshold increased from 7 to 8
Enemies
Designer notes: This patch includes tuning for various encounters to move some enemy damage into debuffs and utility instead.
- Enemies with Scatter Attack intents are now capped at 3 targets (mostly a visual change, behaviorally nearly identical)
- Recoil intent type for Vermin Broodmother instead of Special intent
- ːsteamthisː Vermin (Blue) Spit exchanged for Slimy Spit that deals less damage but applies Sapped
- Minor adjustment to intent cloud position of Vermin
- ːsteamthisː Dune Stalker encounter overhauled to reward more aggressive play and offer greater counterplay
- Applies Armorshred instead of Sapped
- Sweeping Strike cleave damage greatly reduced
- Staggered duration increased from 1 to 2
- Stagger threshold slightly decreased
- Weakpoint health slightly decreased
- Fixed bug with Spiky buff opacity (Spiker)
- ːsteamthisː Fixed Decimator to no longer ignore provoke effects (like Dauntless's Phalanx) (Siege Spire)
- ːsteamthisː Added VFX for Executioner's Mark (Phantasm)
Events
Designer notes: Added new events that allow more drafting and perk options, as well as removing a boring choice to remove pool dilution. Cleansing items now consistently offers more compelling choices.
- [New] Tool Schematic
- [New] Barrier Breakthrough
- No longer possible to trigger Master in Market (+1 Attack Power / +1 Armor buff choice)
- Cleansing Ritual
- ːsteamthisː 20 copper to cleanse no longer shows up if you don't have 20 copper
- New Favor option
- New Dissolve option
- Health values post-revival adjusted to be generally higher for the payment options
Major Bug Fixes
- Fixed issue where a player's event choice option could be ignored by the game's input system
- Fixed bug where the camera could freak out if the player navigated through the deployment menu too quickly
- ːsteamthisː Possible fix for bug where an uninitialized card could get stuck in the top-left of the screen, which blocked input
Wishlist and Follow As We Descend to make sure you get all the announcements as well as a notification when the game launches on March 27th 2025 (yes, that's next month!):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1769830/As_We_Descend
If you want more experimental content, you'll have to signup for closed beta access. You can also join the Discord to talk to other players and have a greater chance to earn a beta key. Thanks for following along in our development journey, looking forward to seeing you in the Demo (and hopefully the Beta too)!
Cheers,
Kev
Game Director at Box Dragon