As mentioned before, this patch focuses on making the early onboarding smoother and improving the difficulty curve. This is the first of multiple balance updates, so please forgive the lack of bug fixes or new features in this one.
While I can personally enjoy a hard difficulty curve, the line between fun and annoying is pretty thin. DeadWire slipped into the annoying side of that line (tunnel vision is a hell of a thing).
Most of the problems were in the first three levels. These are the levels where the player is still focused on learning the hacking mechanics, but some situations forced sudden decisions players weren’t ready for. Instead of just removing enemies or dumping more tutorial text, I wanted to do a little design exercise. The changes are mostly about enemy and object placement. Sometimes just turning an enemy to face another way can, in theory, fix a lot of what was frustrating.
I hope these changes make the game feel more welcoming to new players, while also bringing back anyone who bounced off earlier. For those who already beat the game, more content is still coming.
Changes
- Level 0: Made tutorial actions clearer with the old trusty arrows. Realigned enemies in the first room to avoid a too-early shootout.
- Level 1: Replaced enemies in the first room so the speaker can actually be used for distraction as intended. Also replaced a generator by the door since people kept missing it and thinking they were softlocked.
- Levels 2, 3, and 6: Rebalanced enemy placement and numbers. There are fewer enemies now, but I adjusted their pathfinding zones to cover the gaps the extra ones used to cover.
- Level 8: One of the few puzzle levels in DeadWire, but way too many people dropped out here. What was supposed to be a palette cleanser had the opposite effect. Players clearly don’t want to spend a ton of time solving the few puzzles that exist. I’ve added some new lights and decorations to nudge players more clearly toward the solution.
- Backend: Tweaked how shooting works, especially with burst-fire weapons. This is groundwork for future content. Shouldn’t break anything… but if it does, oops, let me know.
That’s it for now. I’m working on more, and as always, let me know if you have feedback or find something broken. Thanks!