Thank you all for playing Operation Octo during the Next Fest! I have watched many playthrough videos, and have cooked up some major reworks to the early economy as well as turrets - Hope these will help improve a new player's experience!
If you encounter any bugs while playing, please report them to me on Discord!
Demo Changes
Turret Rework - Blobfish
Blobfish cost increased from 40 to 60 pearls
Blobfish now gives a Large Pearl (worth 15 pearls) for every enemy it kills
Blobfish's explosion has been splitted into two less damaging explosions w/ a slight pause in between (total damage unchanged)
Blobfish is now immune to all status effects
Added a flavor text onto the explosion VFX when Blobfish managed to earn back its cost
Blobfish has always been the least viable (yet most destructive) turret, which renders him a major noob trap (He is the second unlock!) I'd allowed Blobfish to remain in its broken state thus far, because most playtesters quickly figured out that Blobfish are to be used sparingly. With the massive influx of new players from the Next Festival, however, I've seen too many new players spam Blobfish (and rarely build persistent turrets) - The levels become unplayable for them as a result. Having an early turret which players need to actively be taught to NOT use is far from ideal - Besides, "actively engaging the enemies by throwing bombs that them" is a desirable player behaviour in my books. It is time for a major Blobby revamp.
What's the simplest way to make people "build more Shrimps & less Blobs"? George Fan taught PvZ players to build Sunflowers via a simple human tendency: Whichever button lights up more often is the one people will constantly want to click on (This fact has never been more clearly demonstrated to me than during the Festival). Because OO does not have build cooldowns on turrets, Blobfish's cost will have to be increased above Pistol Shrimp's (in order to have Shrimp's build option light up more frequently).
To prevent Blobby from becoming ultra-F-tier (and ruin the run for anyone who still dareth deploy him), some compensations are in order. Years ago, my mentor had suggested that Blobfish should produce pearls on enemy kills. I was reluctant about introducing too much complexity early on, and disliked the fact that unlike all pearl producers in OO, Blobfish does not look mollusk-like. However, watching (a small percentage of) players' painstaking struggles has finally convinced me to take the leap. In the past, Blobfish had acted as a means of comeback "at a permanent cost". Now, players with weak lines of defense will be making serious bucks out of the enemies overrunning their base, while skilled players can also spot "profit opportunities" for timely Blobfish drops. Blobfish is now an interesting economy option that can more reliably act as a secondary source-of-damage.
And hopefully, all this will incentivize new players to save Blobfish for large enemy swarms (instead of dropping him on a single already-dying enemy like sooo many people do).
Turret Rework - Bumper Fish
Bumper Fish no longer blocks Odin from moving through it
Bumper Fish now bumps Odin out of itself if Odin either stopped inside of it, or spent longer than 0.4 seconds moving through it
Bumper Fish shakes as to indicate how close it is to bumping Odin
Slightly increased Bumper Fish's hurtbox size (which is also used for blocking & deflecting)
Slightly lowered Bumper Fish's hurtbox
One of the most common complaints from the Next Fest players was the fact that Bumper Fish "had collision", while other turrets didn't (Many players thought some turrets were "randomly" blocking their movement). The reasoning behind Bumper Fish's collider was to prevent the player from hiding inside a Bumper indefinitely (else he'd be completely immune to all projectiles). I never liked the inconsistency with movement blocking either. During OO's conception, I had intended for Bumper Fish to bump the player away upon contact, as to communicate the fact that you cannot hide inside this specific turret type. I thought accidental bumpings would feel too obnoxious, and gave Bumper a static collider instead. I am now bringing back the original "bumping" concept, but tuning it way down. The player will now be able to pass through Bumper Fish like it was any other turret. But, if the player made an attempt to stay inside a Bumper, he would be bumped out quickly, by no more distance than is necessary. I hope the new bumping behavior will accomplish the intended purpose in a natural & well-communicated way, without feeling obtrusive to those playing the game normally. This change may take away some of the satisfaction of ducking around then behind a Bumper to deflect a pursuing missile, but I think the trade-offs are worthwhile.
Other Balance Changes
When Crâne Exalté slams down to launch orbs, it now deals damage to turrets placed immediately next to it
Early Economy Rework
Shop now unlocks after level 1-6 (Originally unlocked after 1-10)
Added a Metal Detector shop item - Upon purchase, unlocks random coin-drops from defeated skeletons
Bubble Parrot & Pleco-llector shop buying price increased from 30 to 50 coins
Treat Bucket now enters the shop after level 1-7
Treat Bucket quests priority re-arranged, fish requirements adjusted
Sandy Shallows levels coin reward & drop-rates adjusted
This is the beginning of a larger round of adjustments to the game's early economy. A glaring current issue with the economy is that players have nothing to spend coins on for a significant stretch of the game (while a reliable economy sink isn't introduced until Twilight Zone). Players can now start earning coins and interact with the Shop much earlier on. After the number adjustments, people should be able to buy off Bubble Parrot & Pleco at roughly the same time as before (while anticipating the purchase far in advance).
Moreover, the "Treat Bucket" will give players more things to do inbetween early levels. More early purchasing options will be added in the future! (starting with extra optional turret slots, "gemium" turrets, and unlockable Odin abilities - Probably after the full release though)
Misc Changes
Added Dr. Finn animations & sound effects
Reworked enemy terrain preference logic during pathfinding
Reworked how a random-drop item determines the position where it lands
Star VFX displayed above knocked-out turrets are now placed lower
Added feedback texts for when attempting to drop turrets onto already-occupied tiles / terrain tiles
Added light beams behind end-of-level rewards
Suggestion by Creeps20 to make rewards easier to spot
Demo info window will only pop-up when exiting back to main menu
Idea by Renegade Cactus - I've gotten enough wishlists now, I'll stop bugging demo players inbetween levels XD
Reworked pop-up tutorial messages for "Use Blobfish sparingly" and "Place ranged turrets far from skeletons"
Adjusted Clam spawn timings for Level 1-6
Changed victory screen text fonts & positions
Bug Fixes
Fixed a glitch where by rapidly skipping dialogue texts, newer texts can gradually grow larger
Fixed a glitch where tutorial messages can still display after the player has won / failed a level
Fixed a glitch where Frosty Clam does not accurately lob large pearls onto its surrounding ground tiles
Fixed a glitch where Pleco does not cause Turret Clam to close up as soon as its card has been collected
Fixed a shader issue where decor object sprites get cut off at mesh borders
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Changes to Later Biomes
Spoilers ahead! The sections below are meant for people who have early access to contents beyond the demo.
Balance Changes
Zappy Jelly cost reduced from 20 to 15
Now that Blobfish serves its own unique role, I can finally balance Zappy in a vacuum!
Hollow Clam changes:
is no longer stealthed by default
now becomes stealthed for 5 seconds after taking any damage that could be shared with Odin
is now immune to most adverse status effects
A few players who got early access to Twilight Zone have convinced me that Hollow Clam is game-breaking. Giving stealth to "outlier" Clams allows you to circumvent the map design, and neglect entire chokepoints consequence-free. This enables players to concentrate all their turrets at one chosen spot, creating an unbreakable "death ball". Upgrading to Hollow Clam already comes at a huge cost to your "offensive momentum" (to borrow Creeps' terminology) - "Fixing" Hollow Clam by making it unaffordably expensive would not be ideal.
I liked the "temporary stealth" idea suggested by the PvZ YouTuber Creeps20, which is aimed towards reducing the benefit of stealthing a Clam instead. Now, if you "give up" on defending a Clam by turning it Hollow, said Clam is not truly invincible, and could interrupt your regen at inopportune times. Certain enemies (especially ranged ones) can even repeatedly poke at the same Clam every time it de-stealthes, unless there are turrets nearby for them to lock onto.
Hollow Bumper Fish changes:
is no longer stealthed by default
now becomes stealthed for 3 seconds after taking any damage
now regens for 20 HP per second (out of its max HP of 230)
is now immune to most adverse status effects
does not bump away Odin if Odin hid inside it
With the introduction of temporary stealth, Hollow Bumper can break free from feeling like a downgrade from regular Bumpers. Hollow Bumper will essentially remain a (mostly) invulnerable deflector, while retaining his ability to attract cannon fire as long as he is not threatened by non-deflectable attacks.
Hollow Death Ray now receives 4 seconds worth of charge (instead of a full charge) for each knocked-out turret
Hollow Death Ray had unstoppable synergy with the already-strong cycle decks. I wish to tune down Hollow Ray's special trait to a manageable, but still powerful level.
When using Hammer Shark to demolish a Clam, said Clam's remaining HP will now deal a significant amount of shared damage to Odin (Shared damage cannot kill Odin)
While it is undesirable to demolish Clams early on (which leads to a major economic deficit), demolishing Clams right before the final wave felt like too broken of a move - Doing so would remove significant late-game threats to Odin (i.e. the shared damage from inadequately-defended Clams). I am adding a risk to the trade-off - Removing Clams during late-game now causes you to start the final wave with less HP.
Diver Skeleton now has a strong preference towards lake tiles during pathfinding
Leaky Dropship now creates acid tiles under neighboring turrets while it is not moving
A Dropship whose path has been blocked by turrets will no longer be completely harmless, and will eventually break down the turrets in its way.
Tangler Skeleton's total tangled turret cost calculation now caps each individual turret's price at 100
There is an upper limit to what total cost of turrets a Tangler can paralyze at once. Death Ray will pose less of a limit to Tangler's tangling capacity now.
Economy Changes
Battery shop buying price decreased from 15 to 10 coins
Charge Station Pod shop buying price now starts at 2 rubies, then increases with each purchase (would eventually increase by 10s)
A sink for your late-game rubies ;)
Bug Fixes
Fixed a glitch where Diver Skeleton could not jump out of / into lakes via a diagonal movement between tiles
Fixed a glitch where Captain Phantom's first attack could fail to land on a turret right underneath the hammer, if Captain Phantom himself was on top of a different turret
Fixed a glitch where if Captain Phantom was stunned during his spawn animation, he'd immediately turn ghostly at the end of the spawn animation, without appearing translucent
Fixed a glitch in Level 3-4, where a Dropship could be force spawned onto an unsuitable tile where it'd become stuck from the beginning
Fixed a glitch where Graveyard timer texts display missing characters for some localizations