NEW DIRECTION
Not even 2 months in and the battle system is a different beast already. The new Steam trailer will be postponed until some of the new mechanics are added so it can reflect the actual state of the game (since the game changed a lot from release). I tested so many mechanics since launch so it was chaos for a while. However, I think that now I have a clear vision for my what I want and all the future changes will go in the same direction.
First, all the card types will be removed, and only Plano cards will remain (a small exception with Mazais). Cards like Saiments for example have effects that can be triggered by Planos themselves. I also think that focusing on Planos only will force me to come up with more interesting/original mechanics. The more you play Final Stardust the more you will realize it's just a monster taming game but with cards. Since there is a limited card pool (100 Planos + 100 variants) most of the focus will be placed on mechanics. I think the game will become even simpler but you will have more "playstyle" options overall. More on that below.
To keep the casual approach, my final goal is to reach a point where the player does nothing but place Planos and let the magic happen. It might seem like it's going to be more boring that way but the game flow will improve drastically. Don't listen to me, just give it a try.
IN-BATTLE TUTORIAL
With all the stuff that I talk about, I can understand how most people can be confused (especially if you don't read any of these posts or aren't in the Discord). This is why I will slow down the work on mechanics and work on an in-battle tutorial for the next patch. Even if not all the mechanics are present, I think the basics should be enough to get people going.
UPDATE
Upon loading, your Saiments and Mazai cards will be automatically deleted and replaced by Gold Stardust plus Blue Stardust. In the next patch I will remove Spells and Eishougis. All the Planos are now available in game and crafting was added. Celestial Planos can only be obtainable via crafting. Dark variants of Celestial Planos will be unlocked later via the Astral Link levels. Keep in that mind that not all Planos have an effect yet, especially with the Overdrive.
FIRST MECHANIC
The new mechanic that was implemented this time was the "Random" field effects. The previous Mazai cards were a bit useless most of the time, so I decided to rework the whole mechanic. Now, each battle will have random field effects that will activate after a certain number of turns. The number of turns are also random (either 3, 6, or 9 but the positioning is random). These Mazai cards can't be collected, they are only present in battle. Since I just added the mechanic, there are only 3 Mazais that rotate. Penetrating the enemy defense is usually the most difficult part, and this will become more apparent when Spells and Eishougis will be removed. Therefore, I added Mazais that destroy Planos. I tried to prioritize the losing player in terms of conditions to always favor comebacks.
Mazai effects happen at the end of the turn. I am not sure I want to have "continuous" effects that work all the time since I think it'll add a good amount of complexity and interfere with the "simple" design I am going for. In case it's not clear, Mazai effects work in lanes (all the Planos on the left, all the Planos in the middle or all the Planos on the right).
NEXT MECHANICS
These are the next mechanics that will be implemented.
1) Random slots. The overdrive effects are triggered when a Plano is summoned in the middle slot and it usually impacts the side Planos. However, I am thinking of randomizing slot positions at the beginning of the battle, like I did with Mazais. So when an overdrive triggers it'll specify a "type" of slot to impact and that slot can be in any position. I know it's confusing so I think it's better to wait until you see it in action.
2) Another idea is to use Planos as Spells. If you use a Plano that doesn't work as an evolution, it gets detected as a Spell instead and it just triggers its effect on the slot. This means you sacrifice a Plano in your hand to impact a Plano on the field (triggering the effect of the sacrificed Plano, for example). Just an idea for now.
3) With Mazai effects having such an important role now, I might add the option to attack them too (to counter their effects).
4) Elemental skills. This will be similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links skills and it'll be a specific effect that triggers at the beginning of the battle. This can help with diversity especially when the different AI Astral Link levels are enabled.
NEW QUOTE
In the future, the main quote will change to "Choose your element(s)". After a lot of experimentation, I realized Final Stardust will be about combining elements and not just picking one. This will be more and more obvious when all the Plano effects are implemented.
- FIX: Fixed an issue where Mahgi decreasing after being increased led to weird values.
- FIX: Fixed an issue where the Harimoru line effects didn't work.
- FIX: Fixed an issue where the battle doesn't end after reaching 0 MG via a status effect.
- FIX: Added a security check when opening deckbuilding to remove duplicate entries.
- QOL: Cards in deckbuilding are now sorted by space counters.
- INPUT: The extra settings UI in battle can now be closed with the right click.
- UPDATE: Saiment and Mazai cards in DECK are now removed from your deck and replaced by 100 gold stardust and 10 blue stardust per card.
- UPDATE: Saiment and Mazai cards in STORAGE are now removed from your deck and replaced by 100 gold stardust and 10 blue stardust per card.
- LOGIC: Changed logic for Plano death.
- LOGIC: Reworked evolution logic for Celestial Planos.
- LOGIC: Level 4 Planos can now be summoned directly.
- LOGIC: Deckbuilding UI can now be left even if the deck isn't complete yet.
- LOGIC: Added a check to verify that the current deck is valid (20 cards) before starting a battle.
- LOGIC: Added a battle over check in the end phase.
- LOGIC: Removed all logic related to Saiments.
- LOGIC: AI now only has one state to choose which hand card to use.
- VISUAL: Changed count display of deck cards in deckbuilding UI.
- VISUAL: Added Plano images in deck cards (deckbuilding UI).
- VISUAL: Added an animation for loading similar to the saving one.
- VISUAL: Changed Plano death animation.
- VISUAL: Removed Plano evolution animation.
- VISUAL: Changed the victory text animation at the end of battle.
- VISUAL: Removed Saiment filter button in deckbuilding.
- VISUAL: Changed deck icon in cutscene UI.
- VISUAL: Added a warning icon in cutscene UI when your deck isn't valid for battles.
- VISUAL: Reworked card layout.
- VISUAL: Removed category ID and Type for card preview info.
- VISUAL: Removed deck details from starter deck info UI.
- VISUAL: Removed deck details from cutscene deck info UI.
- VISUAL: Removed deck details from deckbuilding.
- TEXT: Changed Fenroar (001) effect description.
- GAMEPLAY: Added crafting mechanic.
- GAMEPLAY: Changed AI to summon the weakest Plano in hand to favor evolutions.
- GAMEPLAY: Overdrive now doesn't work for higher stages summoned without evolution.
- GAMEPLAY: The opponent can now start first too in battle.
- GAMEPLAY: Delete Dreadshadow & Hexbane status effects.
- GAMEPLAY: Changed Maikuji effect line to inflict Shockwave instead of Dreadshadow.
- GAMEPLAY: Added the new Mazai field effect mechanic.
- GAMEPLAY: The kooroga line has a new effect that drains the opposing Plano of 1000 HP per level and gain the equivalent as EP.
- GAMEPLAY: Changed the Ihebi line effect to automatically get the first Plano it finds without opening a selection UI.
- GAMEPLAY: Changed the Muroni line effect to increase the EP by the sum of all Plano levels on the field.
- SETTINGS: Changed card preview's default settings to false in battle.
- CONTENT: Removed Saiments from Booster packs.
- CONTENT: Removed access to Mazai cards.
- CONTENT: Added the elemental robots to booster packs.
- CONTENT: Added the strongest (level 4) elemental Planos to booster packs.
- CONTENT: Removed Saiment and Mazai cards from all Elementalist decks (x21).
- CONTENT: Removed Saiment and Mazai cards from all starter decks (x4).
- CONTENT: Added 3 new Mazai effects (03, 14 and 16 IDs).
- BALANCING: Nerfed the Saijin line to exclude itself from the count.
- BALANCING: Capped Kunshukuma's effect at 2000.
- BALANCING: Tsunkame line effect buffed by 100.
- BALANCING: Nerfed Nueko line effect from 1000 to 700 per level.
- AUDIO: Decreased SFX volume.
- AUDIO: Increased OST volume.