Heyo,
This update is a big one, where we're addressing some of the biggest points of feedback we've consistently been receiving since the demo first launched.
Big change nr. 1 is that we've added 4 difficulty modes, which should help keep the game accessible for beginners whilst keeping things interesting for more advanced players.
Big change nr. 2 is that we've significantly changed the way the game responds to defeated heroes. Previously, when a hero was defeated, they would just be gone forever, which caused a bunch of balancing issues, confusion and generally didn't quite fit with our design goals.
So, instead of the old permadeath system, we've changed it up so that (in most difficulties) defeated heroes will turn into ghosts. Hero ghosts will still be able to fight, but they will have ghost-specific, generally less powerful skills & stats, rather than the hero's usual stuff.
As part of the ghost system we're also introducing a new NPC: The Mystic. The mystic deals in the occult, allowing you to trade skill points for gold & vice versa, as well as allowing you to restore your ghosts back to life.
And in case you lack the funds to restore your ghosts back to life, or just got tired of one of your heroes, the game now also allows you to swap your current party members with heroes you've previously rescued.
Besides those big changes. this update also contains some smaller ones, as seen in the full list below:
Changelist
- Implemented difficulty modes (4 total)
- Implemented hero ghost system
- Implemented Mystic (Quest + Shop)
- Implemented in-run hero recruitment
- Rebalanced enemies, in line with new difficulty modes
- Rebalanced hero skills and progression
- Bonus objectives now scale with run progress & difficulty mode
- Implemented controller inspection mode
- Improved enemy AI (Better performance, faster decision making & more situational awareness)
- Implemented 'auto speed up enemy turn' gameplay setting
- Implemented 'skip dice animations' gameplay setting
- Implemented (experimental) keyboard hotkeys for action management (Categories: Z-M, Actions: F1-F8, Dice: Alphanumerical 1-0)
- Implemented a 'critical health' UI overlay
- Fixed issue where enemies could spawn in inaccessible positions
- Fixed a glitch where action category buttons visually messed up their ‘selected’ state after executing an action
- Improved clay texture mapping on characters
- Fixed dialogue appearing in front of pause menu during cinematics
- Added cloud shadows
- Fixed an issue with ambush quests where heroes could occasionally spawn inside obstacles
- Fixed some inaccessible bridge issues
- When the boss node is discovered, all other uncompleted nodes now become inaccessible
We'll continue to improve these systems as development continues, so make sure to keep reporting any issues you might encounter.
Happy dobbeling!
- Jimbo