Major changes
Music
All new music and sound effects has been added to the game thanks to the wonderful Nicole Lyria! You can expect tracks to automatically adjust themselves as the combat gets more intense and about every action to feel better as you will hear a response.
You can listen in the demo to the music or find out more about the artist below:
https://www.nicolelyria.com/
Resolve
Before you would get abilities at the start of the game and they would all work independently and often be confusing for new players. This has now been changed into the resolve system.
You can now use fame to buy Resolve abilities, either ways to get Resolve, abilities that use it or upgrades to those abilities. You can have a maximum of three Resolve at once.
Plot Armour: Gives you two block for one resolve.
Pocket Sand: Increases the time of an enemy so you can sneak in dodging or blocking before they hit you.
Versatile: Drag a card to your deck to swap it for a new one at the cost of two time.
An option to gamble at the Fame map event has been added. This gives you a chance to get these abilities earlier, but at a risk.
The tutorial has also been reworked to include these abilities better and will be constantly improved.
Herbert
A new super has entered the scene! Herbert is a slimy fellow who can shapeshift in order to become either harder to kill or more deadly!
Herbert shows us two major parts of the game that you will see more of moving forward:
- Herbert has a unique card that changes how Shapeshifting (through Tough and Strong) work. Some cards just don’t work well for the AI, so cards like this will help make more interesting enemies while keeping the design space of cards open.
- Aspects! Shapeshifting is designed to be a mini set of cards, so you can add them to other larger sets. You could choose to be a shapeshifting Martial hero, or a shapeshifting Scientist for example.
It was a tough choice but Shapeshifting is going to be saved for the full version of the game and Magic is being removed from the demo as well.
Bugs
Fixed a bug where sidekicks could sometimes skip a second and be ready too early
Fixed a bug where enemies drawing cards would swap to their hands
Made it so map event groups will always be unique from each other
Generally improved performance.
Clarity
Added right click to investigate a card. At any point in combat you can right click on a card to get a closer look at it and find out what is changing numbers on it. This includes cards that are moving across the screen which you couldn’t check out before.
Many art updates to improve the look and clarity of scenes.
Testing having defensive statuses shown above the status bar, allowing you to get a faster idea of how much damage you will take or deal.
Removed Energy. It was annoying to play around Energy ignoring Durability and making cards boost energy felt parasitic, so it has been removed.
There was a collection of statuses that made it more difficult to predict what was happening with the enemy and have been removed or changed:
Removed Haste (this is ongoing and some might still be in the game)
Removed Weak (this is ongoing and some might still be in the game)
Drain now is removed on damage instead of each turn.
Changed Momentum to reduce on card play not on turn end, this mainly make it clearer on how many stacks you will have and helps it when the enemy uses it.
Removed rupture from Possessed boss. Typically, this represented 6 damage to the boss only and didn’t realistically change anything. For clarity it has been removed.
Increased the length of time buffs/debuffs from drawing stay on the screen for enemies so you can have time to read them.
Adjusted Timeline so you can see cards next to the portrait easier
Added an icon to the Timeline for when you use Versatile.
Added gear back to the combat deck check.
Balance
Enemies
Removed Threshold from all enemies. This was a check to keep focus decks in line but felt confusing, especially for new players. Expect experiments on similar systems in the future.
Theurgist -1 Crimson Aegis +1 Blood Wall +1 Kick. It was too easy to ignore him and burst him down so these will increase his danger level.
The Mist: Removed Teleport and replaced with Manifest Will and removed Disperse Energy. Having the enemy apply slow on itself just made fights more confusing.
Removed one "Possession Intensifies" from the Possessed boss, -3 cost on all cards was a annoying and would often result in instant cards.
Gear
Comms Link, Streaming Set and Sponsorship were removed for the demo. With only two acts they felt too swingy when you would encounter them and usually a bad choice.
Removed the relic which gave 2 block on Recovery, changed Alchemist's Brew to give 1 Barrier and 1 Focus on Recovery instead.
Cards
Changed Twin Palm Strike from requiring a fixed amount of focus giving a fixed amount of negative Focus to giving it equal to your focus. This makes it a better choice for “fair” decks and in Blue Scroll decks.
Sidekicks
Removed the Momentum 3 sidekick power and added a Momentum 1 secondary power. The starting power was too much of a high roll for a Magic momentum build, now it should be weaker but more consistent to get.
Changed micromissiles in the sidekick draft into a Active not on recovery. Typically, Sidekick abilities on Recovery didn’t feel like actually having a sidekick so they have been removed.