Hey folks, some big changes this time around.

Overview:

• Combat system now allows moves to use ranges of values in damage and status effects
• Most moves have been updated with new values or designs
• Added a Critical Hit system
• Enemies have been nerfed in health and power to avoid fight stagnation
• The Hive Mind fight has been reworked
• UI updates/changes related to information communication
• Encounter titles

Combat Updates:

The system that damage and status effect number/turn values are calculated from has been upgraded with the ability to roll values from number ranges. Moves no longer are forced to deal a set amount of damage, and the hidden “scaling” of moves has been removed; instead now a move will either take its flat value, or a rolled value from the provided range, and add it to the base damage value of the acting character. For example, A move that deals 0-20 Trauma damage from a character that has 15 base trauma can do between 15 and 35 trauma damage. A large number of moves and effects have been reworked with this system in mind, and in relation to other changes, to make them more interesting or align them with the character identity better.

These changes came about from pain points I ran into while working on the Terratumor stat blocks and behavior logic - I noticed there was a lot of conflict in how “fair” the strength of moves seemed; moves initially were calculated off a system that used Fluids or Trauma as a base value and divided the value by a set number. This lead to many issues in balancing where small tweaks could make something either worthless or way too strong. By swapping over to a numerical range instead, not only does it allow for more variation, and a new mechanic and condition to bounce loot ideas off of, but it also makes it a little easier to tweak enemy damage if the balance is off.

Cyclopos

Bloodshot:

• Removed Multi-Target level upgrade and damage reduction
• Updated Hemorrhage damage to [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]% Max HP damage
• Updated damage per level to [5-10, 5-15, 10-20, 10-25, 15-30]

Luxation

• Updated damage per level to [0-15, 3-14, 6-13, 9-12, 12]
• Updated Fatigue applied to target per level to [1, 1-2, 1-2, 1-3, 1-3]
• Updated Fatigue applied to self per level to [1, 1, 1-2, 1-2, 1-3]

Polycoria

• Updated strength of the 1-turn Trauma/Fluids debuff per level to -[0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25]% Damage

Mock Distress

• Updated Type from Effect to Fluids
• Added Damage per level of [-20-15, -15-10, -10-5, -5-0, 0-5]
• Updated Fixation duration per level to [2, 2-3, 3, 3-4, 4] actions
• Updated Regeneration strength and duration per level to [+5, +5-10, +10, +10-15, +15] HP for 2 actions

Delirium

• Updated Fluids buff per turn to +[50, 55, 60, 65, 70]% Fluids
• Updated Fatigue to self to be 3 at all levels

I wanted Cyclops to be both a little more dependable and utility based, while also adopting an identity that focuses on fatigue. I’ve started building out ideas on how to capitalize on this; one example would be an upgrade that will give an increasing damage buff for every turn order that passes where they’re inflicted with “lethargic”.

Dopplegrabber

Finger guns

• Updated damage per level to [0-50, 5-45, 10-40, 15-35, 20-30]
• Updated Bleed per level to -[1, 2, 3, 4, 5] HP for 5 actions

Bile Bomb

• Updated damage per level to [1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 4-5, 5-5]

Bone Splinter

• Updated Type from Effect to Trauma
• Updated damage to [-15-10] for all levels
• Updated Bleed applied to target per level to -15 HP for [2,3,4,5,6] actions

Blood Oath

• Updated Trauma and Fluids buffs applied to self to +[125-150, 150-175, 175-200, 200-225, 225-250]% damage for 1 action
• Updated Bleed applied to self to -[10, 7-10, 5-7, 3-5, 1-3] HP for [3, 3-4, 3-6, 3-8, 3-10]

Vampiric Veins

• Updated Damage to 0-10 for all levels
• Added a Bleed to Target of -1 HP for 10 actions

Dopplegrabber has always been designed to be focused on bleed, I want to continue to work on capitalizing on both attacking bleeding enemies and on being affected by bleed. On top of this I had seen Dopplegrabber as a risk-taking type of personality, giving most of its moves a side focus on rolling high helped adhere to this design more.

Vasculurch

Hypertensive Crisis

• Updated Damage to [5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25, 25-30]
• Updated Ichor gained to +[3, 6, 9, 12, 15] Ichor

Tachycardia

• Updated Damage buff to +[5,10, 15, 20, 25]% damage
• Removed Hemorrhage effect applied to self
• Added Bleed effect applied to self for -[10, 8-10, 6-10, 4-10, 2-10] HP for 2 actions

Heart Burn

• Updated Regeneration to +[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]-15 HP for [2, 3, 4, 5, 6] turns

Vasculurch was pretty well established, I wanted to add a little more power to its only real offensive move, and add a bit more of a potential offensive capability. I can imagine several upgrades that reduce or increase the healing rolled to facilitate the different utilities. Of that move alone. Tachycardia getting a bit of a gamble was also a good change in my opinion, a % based damage applied to the character who was meant to have a lot of HP seemed antithetical.

Critical Hits

Characters that hit the highest value of damage with an attack that has a range of possible values will get a critical hit - This is a ~5% chance, with upgrades in the works to capitalize on them and increase their rate of occurrence. Critical hits will multiplicatively reduce the current resistance value against the incoming damage by 20%, so for example an 80% bone value will act as if it’s only 64%, while a 10% fluids value will act as if it’s only 8%. It also shakes the screen a bit more and changes the color of the number.

General Enemy Updates:

Across the board, enemy HP values have been reduced by about 20-30%, enemies have also been made slightly weaker in base damage, and moves and some effects have been given broader damage ranges. I plan on reworking the enemy move preview to later show the damage to facilitate planning better (and to better understand if you got lucky/unlucky when you were hit). The reasoning behind these general nerfs were to reduce the number of turns each encounter has where the combat situation has not changed. This beginning weak state also helps account for enemy scaling as the player gets further into the game.

Hivemind Rework:

• Mass Reproduction updated to Refined Reproduction
• Reduced the number of spawns before the fight moves to phase 2
• Mawsquito base HP, Armor, and damage reduced
• Mawsquito Resistance increased
• Refined Reproduction now will increase the HP, resistance, and damage of the spawned mawsquito, ramping up to a set value at the end

The hivemind was a sort of grindy fight - which didn’t reflect the mounting pressure I was hoping for. By making the mawsquitos gradually tougher I’m able to make the base form weak and easily killed while still retaining the sort of “elite guard” end-fight role I saw in them. Reducing the number of spawns also makes the fight less grating, and with the new damage range system it’s no longer “kill a bunch of the same enemy over and over” with no variation.

UI Updates:

Damage and Effect Icons:
Incoming damage now gets its type of damage displayed beside it, hybrid attacks will display both trauma and fluid values separately. Status effects that will either appear on the UI or influence what is on the UI (such as remission) will now show a related icon next to their name.

HP bars:
The damage preview has been disabled - with damage ranges now being in effect there’s no concrete “this move will deal this much damage” indicator anymore. I’m going to refine the concept as more of an assist feature and possibly add it in as an accessibility option later down the line.

Encounter Titles:
So I can properly just talk about an encounter in less vague terms, and to pay a slight homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure books they’re inspired by, I decided to add titles to encounters, which will appear at the top of the screen as they load up - The encounter with the pulsing mass of flesh has been titled “A Wakeup Brawl”, and the puzzle chambers have been titled “The Gaunt Gauntlet”.