This marks the SECOND major update to this game! A majorly content update with some notable improvements to graphics and performance!
This patch is designed to be the great bridge between updates. Putting in some much needed content in places to really round out the experience thus far! I hope you enjoy playing through the new stuff, revisiting the current stuff, and messing around with the new Vessel!
Ver 0.5 BLUE
HIGHLIGHTS
NEW VESSEL - Fie appears! Bringing her squad of Knights, you can create a very powerful mobile defense and control your units directly!
4 NEW MAPS - Challenge yourself with various new maps that test your TDS fundamentals! Continuing after the Grand Aquilla
5 NEW CARDINALS - Ranging from haha teehee to very nice abilities. And one challenge one for those that seek it.
NEW REGION - Explore the HIGHSPHERE... a region that feels... Unstable
GRAPHICAL/STABILITY/NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS! - Global Illumination and better networking! The game should feel a lot more smooth. And have more frames!
ALSO NEW
Added a new prefab point in the mod system "Mainmenu" will spawn prefabs into the main menu
A new localization pop-up is available on the main menu and in the settings respectively, this is for when proper translations soon come!
Improved lighting! A new global illumination feature has been added to a few maps and areas to give them abit more depth! This feature is present in graphics High + Very High, and can be turned on/off in Custom.
Keep in mind, MSAA is currently disabled when using this feature, but there is now FXAA and SMAA as additional options for anti-aliasing!
General graphical and performance improvements!
Massive performance boosts to low-end machines (hopefully). Turns out I did a silly and some maps had some oddly unoptimized effects! This is now fixed
Gridhead's layout has been revamped to be much more beginner friendly! Don't worry about the other version, it is still safe!
Various maps mechanics and layouts have been adjusted to be easier! (Details below)
CHANGES
'Fixed' the long-standing 'issue' of movement spamming (The sweat drop effect) this has been a bug in the game for quite some time and the source has been now fixed! It especially was notable on slower units since you could just movement spam to speed them up to your 'click per second' rate which can be unfair. So I've fixed the issue but in it's place I've added it as a more controlled FEATURE, making it alot easier to execute aswell!
Clicking repeatedly on the same spot will now have the same effect as the classic spam click effect
Clicking repeatedly on a spot will now 2.5x your movement towards that spot every few clicks! Roughly taking 3 clicks, the sweat drop is indication of this happening
Added a 'one-shot' protection for the Basin! you will receive a single additional hit if something were to destroy your basin (Cough... Excalibur)
>Generally I don't like these TRULY unexplained hidden mechanics but I do think it will make clutch scenarios in the game feel better in this regard being hardly noticeable in normal play, theres a very slight visual effect when the protection triggers
Cardinal Processing Plant Jr Conversion rate increased 1.5 Ore -> 4.5 Ore
Cardinal Sport Drink Attack speed per wave adjusted to be 4% -> 3%
Cardinal Fluffy Slippers now works with Buster's Dash ability (it was always supposed to actually oopsie!)
Cardinal Fluffy Slippers speed boost is increased by 50%
Cardinal Pig Named Bank's sell value increase is now better 5->10 (Should be 100% cash back in 10 Tides, x1.5 at 20 Tides... So on)
Cardinal Frail Titan's per tier scaling has been adjusted, dealing 500->1000 damage at Tier 5, and health penality reduced by 25%
Cardinal Wave Breaker Range increased by 1
Cardinal Torrid Badge, merchant now has 100 health and deals... some damage
Cardinal Blurry Photo's Speed debuff has been slightly reduced (aka made less bad) by 25%
Cardinal Gavel's Range adjusted slightly from 15 to 12
Cardinal Money Bag's projectile now can pierce up to 4 enemies
Buster's Dog (including him) damage per speed scaling is now considered a 'Base' value, meaning it can be effected by more damage modifiers
Buster's Checkpoint Quick Pass cost reduced & increased effect, granting roughly 0.15 'hits' per speed past 3 speed (up from 0.1)
Buster's Checkpoint Strong Start now grants triple the gain at the start, rather than double
Buster's Lap 1 and Lap 2 Resource capacity gain has been increased, with their compound effect being much more notable
Buster's Lap 3 capacity increase removed, increased the ramping effect 100% -> 200% and can now only be collected after the bar has filled atleast half way (this is a good thing as it will always have a positive effect albiet delayed)
Dog house price has been reduced and various Dog house upgrade prices have been reduced
Buster pad's speedpad circuit upgrade's reduction radius has been significantly reduced (aka its more effective)
Buster's Airtime can now fly to any position within the front of itself, including up and down as long as it has line of sight
Buster's Blink Effector now deals increased damage +25%
Buster's Burst Effector now has increased base damage
Buster's Final Lap has a special case with other Final Laps that they will only 'boost' them if they're already above the collection threshold (this is simply to prevent infinite Aura loops!)
The Dash Command for Buster's hotkey now activates instantly (but now has a 0.5s cooldown between activations)
- Buster changes geared towards spreading out his strength over a wider selection of upgrades. and making his costs more in-line with other Vessels when playing together
Boutman's 1 Inch Bout (Ramp up damage) upgrade ramps up 25% faster
Boutman's Recruiting related upgrades are now cheaper (Iron Fish, The Way of the Bout)
Boutman's Regeneration abilities buffed by 33% allowing boutman to heal much faster (Enter the Boutman, The Way of the Bout)
Boutman's Iron Fish upgrade increases fish damage by 50% more
Boutman's Shao-min hits slightly less total enemies 8->5 (the same as the AoE)
Boutmom now gains additional damage (25%) per additional Raft in play, and now has a Tooltip for what she does
- Boutman changes also focus on making the Iron-Fish Shao-min upgrade path not as dominant. Mostly by buffing the other items in terms of recruited fish and self-preservation
Sno Sno's Sno Cannon Blower upgrade projectiles now scale with Range! and their hitbox now extends ever so slightly outside of their regular range
Sno Sno's Sno Box's Fall upgrade projectiles hit radius is now a point. So they should now hit their target location much more consistently (Radius 0.3 -> 0)
Sno Sno's Snoble Health drain rate increased by 25%
- Sno Sno changes are generally just to tone certain abilities. But I am looking at scalability + the Ice wall paths closer for the future!
Smacky's Death Mark's damage per kill x2.5 and made slightly cheaper
Smacky's Assassin shots made slightly cheaper
- Assassins are in a good place, just too expensive for the effect they give now! The scalability of Death Mark is better to feel more rewarding during normal play
Excalibur now has a new trick up it's sleeve. The first hit object's explosion is 3x the size and 3x the damage
Claymores are now much more spooky. If placed in the 'Death run' state (the state which they can't be hurt) they will now only trigger prematurely when there is a building. Mobs and resources no longer trigger them until their death run expires
Onagers base health slightly increased to just be a nicer number
Adjusted Map the Hunt to allow for certain buildings (such as Checkpoint) to retarget if they end up targeting the nest
Reduced the difficulty of
Manafold - Boutman is significantly weaker, added a fourth ore to the map
Teri Tori - Early Halberds are much weaker and have a longer respawn time
Blasthead - Red and Blue ores initial aura increased to 15 rather than 10
Woozy - Barrel's health reduction effect even higher, damage slightly increased in compensation
Hydroplane IX - Reduced the lag, removed the speed debuff on underwater effects
Changed the orange ore to large and evened out the water-rising to be slower (it still will end up at the same level by the end, but the tides moving up to it are easier)
Artrio Watermark - Replaced the Blue ore to Purple ore to smooth over the overall economy gain
Gridhead - NEW LAYOUT!
Adjusted the unlock conditions of Flood style maps to match the silver medal requirement, rather than requiring just as many tides completed as other maps
Most 'Debuff' and 'Buff' visual effects now persist when the visual model of a thing changes, such as Upgrading or such
Significant rework to networking and handling! Weird situations like wrong maps/wrong cardinals in multiplayer should be fixed up and the game should be much more consistent in this way
The enemy basins in general 'pulse' their enemy path much more often prior to a wave starting
Chat now should be much better to click on and automatically scrolls to the bottom of the page upon reset
BUGFIXES
Fixed an issue where some locales/mines/towers would permanently no longer be targeted by certain units
Fixed a bug with Buster's Speed pad refuel upgrade that Blocked enemy navigation, and also will remove the upgrade if the pad is destroyed/sold/removed
Fixed a Bug with Smacky's Mining Hut whereas you could obtain a extra miner if you spammed an upgrade as soon as a building spawned
Fixed an issue related to stat changing that could double/half certain stats past their originals
Fixed a spot in Bountyward that could not be walked/placed on
Fixed an issue where the UI preview of a unit stays when going into pause or other menus
Fixed some niche interactions w/ Sno Sno's wall and collection causing soft locks
Fixed a bug with Boutman's Barrel Gutter ability granting infinite spots
Clients should now be able to cycle selections for mobs on the same block similar to the host
Made saving safer when opening and closing the game quickly, it wont wipe a save (oops!)
Various backend important upgrades to code have been done, that should improve things in the long run!
Much prep work for future patches...
Finally, at the time of posting this, TDS is on SALE! While a bit late as the sale has been going on for the week prior to this update! Better late than never! :D
