Hey everyone, Volibar here with our first major GOING LIVE FRIDAY @ 7:45pm - 10pm Irish Time
If you didn't read the preview, along with a recap of the first week, you can catch up right here
tl;dr - this is the first major update, less than one week after the demo is live, and we're committed to continuing to work hard and keep the improvements and fixes coming.
As a reminder, our Steam Contest is open and running now! Compete to get immortalised in the game. More details can be found HERE.
Now, onto the details!
Demo Version 1.1
Introducing Core Powers BETA
OVERVIEW
As Lotus leads the Luum Sentinels across Lumerea to retrieve shattered pieces of the ancient Evercore, its power grows and grants our Heroes with new enhancements.
As this system is just coming online, Skye and Cloud-EE have enabled the Sentinels to access this power for early Battle Testing!
Core Powers are permanent and will transfer to whichever hero you select in Hero Mode or Co-Op.
CORE KEYS & GEMS
Collect these rewards by completing the challenges behind the teleporters. Keys are used to unlock Power slots, while Gems are used to purchase the actual power. You can earn both in Co-Op or Hero Mode.
CORE GAME LOOP - LUUM REGENERATION
NOTE: Luum was always intended to be a way to allow players to have agency over their own ability rotation, but also let skilled players flow through combat. Your feedback has been clear and we've made changes!
All Heroes now have passive Luum regeneration. This allows skilled players to still get into a flow through combat, but collecting Luum is no longer a chore or requirement, but now optional.
You should be able to use a lot more abilities in combat, combined with the Luum regeneration Core Powers if you choose. Please let us know what you think!
MAJOR BALANCE CHANGES
NOTE: With such major changes to player power coming into the game, we needed to make changes across the board. Early game should be harder now, so be careful out there!
The world of Lumerea is more dangerous! Players and Enemies generally are more deadly now, so use those Core Powers to grow in strength and survive!
Enemy Health has not been modified for Hero Mode, but has been increased across the board in Co-Op, to account for a lot of increased team damage.
Please let us know what you think as we continue to iterate and improve the system!
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Players can now play Hero Mode and Co-Op without having to exit the game.
NOTE: this was caused by an underlying issue that would potentially ruin Co-Op games if you had played a certain type of game prior to entering the queue.
- Fixed a wide range of issues with Keyboard Mouse Beta Controls, including not being able to Escape menus all the time, repeated VO lines playing, or activatable shards triggering reliably.
- Fix for enemies targeting invalid targets such as dead players. Enemy should stop attacking these targets and, in co-op, immediately switch to a new target in their aggro list if one is a valid target.
- Fixed an issue that would cause enemies to try and path around objects they shouldn’t.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing Thrashclaw from killing on the Snowgobbler minions by stepping on them. Bring on the carnage!
- Fixed a rare instance of sometimes players having two encounters in one island.
- Fixed a rare instance of sometimes players going through a Gold teleporter, but ending up with the wrong encounter or reward.
- Fixed an issue with the Dash ability that would allow you in certain circumstances to extend your invincibility.
- Fixed a few levels where players were able to escape the boundaries in side areas.
Heroes
NOTE: All heroes have generally grown in power, with a bit more differentiation between them. As you progress through the game, we want each hero to have their own identity, and these changes push a bit more in that direction.
FYN:
NOTE: Fyn overall wasn't living up to his big persona, and so has been given a range of changes to make him better at his core role while adding gameplay. We've removed some of his passive Overshield and instead given him ways with two of his abilities to earn temporary Overshield in combat.
- Charge: Charge now does 50% bonus damage when fully charged. It also generates a small amount of temporary Overshield upon moving.
- Get Behind Me: now generates temporary Overshield on cast and re-casting, as well as a small amount for each projectile blocked by the shield.
- All temporary Overshield lasts for 15 seconds.
LOTUS:
NOTE: We're fairly happy with Lotus in the game at the moment, but want to make her a little more active, and also increase her healing power with the introduction of Core Powers.
- Reduced Lotus's starting base health down from 70 to 60.
- Increased her Seed of Light Healing by 2x.
CYNDER:
NOTE: We really want Cynder to be the glass cannon of the trio, so we've slightly reduced his starting health, which should make it even more dangerous as enemies now generally do more damage. But we've also increased his damage output directly and through additional improvements to ability power via rewards.
- Increased the base damage output of all his spells.
- Lowered starting health from 35 to 30.
Rewards
NOTE: Rewards in general have been buffed, or in some cases adjusted to be more engaging. We've also done a pass on visual and audio feedback on some shards, and will continue this effort. Also, several Shards have had their feedback improved when active, and we will be continuing this.
- Chemical Reaction (Flame) damage increased
- Team Wildfire (Flame) bonus damage increased
- Hero Moment (Fury) damage increased, duration of the effect down
- Jagged Stoneskin (Fury) damage return increased
- Steadfast Vengeance (Fury) effect has been increased
- Bounty Hunter has been removed from Fury, had its healing amount reduced, and is now available in the shop
- Focused Wrath (Fury) has been changed to now apply up to 5 times per target
- Auto Mitigator (Invention) percentage of damage as Overshield up, duration up 5->6
- Luum Generator (Invention) has been slightly nerfed
- Weak Spot (Mischief) base chance is now 50% across the board, and the duration scales
- Explosive Crit (Mischief) damage increased
- Parting Gift (Mischief) has had the cooldown removed and damage increased
- All Poison (Wild) effects now stack up to 4 times per target, increasing this entire category's potency
- Max Health has been removed from Soulbound Blooms, but is now available as a scaling Core Power
KNOWN ISSUES:
We have temporarily removed Shield Battery (Invention) from the game, as occasionally players were able to get more shield than intended (DH).
Enemies
NOTE: we wanted to make enemies more dangerous but not more grindy. So aside from all damage being adjusted upward, the following changes have been made.
- Tank Golems now are less likely to Stun lock players. The base AOE attack no longer stuns but instead applies a Fracture debuff, increasing damage taken to players affected.
- The large Wolf has had the Howl ability increased in size and now applies 2 Frost stacks to players affected.
- The duration of Freezing Fog has been increased to 15 seconds. The duration of Ice Block (when a player reaches 5 seconds of Frost) has been increased to 5 seconds.
- The Roller, Yeti, and Wallumps the Wicked now cannot be Stunned or Displaced during certain special abilities.