This 0.2 update features changes and additions to the event mechanic, alongside various quality-of-life patches and bug fixes.
Please note that all patches on the demo version are subject to changes. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or concerns regarding the 0.2 update or the general gameplay, please feel free to share them on the Discord or the Steam discussion page.
As always, thank you for keeping up with the patches and enjoying Insider Trading.
The changes on 0.2 are as follows:
Events:
There have been mixed suggestions and feedback regarding the weekly events. Some found it enjoyable, while some found it to be overly punishing without many workarounds or simply too complicated. I've been experimenting with different ways to modify the event system, to come to the conclusion that better designing of individual events and improved visual clarity are all that is necessary for now.
The general event mechanic will remain the same, with minor additions and changes to its details.
Five new events have been added to the game
Events are now displayed in the bottom center, next to the date. This visual change was made to differentiate it further from regular perks.
The event pool has been slightly modified, so certain events only spawn on specific weeks. This feature was added to prevent certain events having too much impact, or too little impact when spawning early into the game. This feature will gain more presence in the full release, where the game will extend to 8 weeks or beyond.
Recession event, enabling Short Selling, will be treated as the one and only 'special event'. To go into the details, UI will be modified more clearly when this event is active, and its spawn chance will scale based on how much the stock price has risen in the past week. This change was made due to the impact short selling had, compared to all other events. This will allow Recession to spawn at a good rate, regardless of how many events there are in the game.
Recession events will no longer spawn in the last week. This will allow players to always shoot the price with no limit on the final week.
Manipulation event has been reworked to Short Sponsors event. This event will now give or deduct tokens based on the daily price change, whereas the previous version changed tokens based on the week's starting price.
Quality of Life:
Saturated Colors Options has now been added to the game. Disabling this option will desaturate the game slightly, making the visuals less stressful for the eyes.
Daily Price Change is now displayed in the 'price' bracket at the end of every day. This will give you an indication of how the price changed, even when you skip.
Shine Effect on 'Market Value' bracket has been reduced. It will no longer blind your eyes even at higher % changes.
New Normal will now turn green when it can change the price by a positive amount.
Deleted Cards in the Queue will now have more visual clarity.
Picker's Market, when active, will visibly show the first five cards in the queue are deactivated before the queue is played.
The icon for the 'Null' Card has been recreated.
Price changes for 'Chimp' and 'Champ'(change price by a random amount between +/-0%~10%), are now displayed in the corner of their cards.
Bug Fixes:
Dates will now change at the proper moment, after the daily report bar has been filled up.
Feeder perk will now trigger as intended, triggering max 5 times for EACH card it may affect. There has previously been a bug that limited the trigger count to max 5 times a day.
Fixed a corruption issue in the game's settings file.
Fixed game starting with a price that's slightly off $100.
Fixed Mirror card not copying internal data (stacks, upgrades, etc.).
That's it for this patch. I'd love to hear what you think of the changed and added events, and make further adjustments based on it. Also, I'd expect the event pool to change around a bit until the final release, as more cards and perks get added on.
Talking about cards and perks, a bit of a change in the card pool is expected over the next few weeks. I am taking notes on a few synergies and cards that are overpowered at the moment, such as the monkey deck, or the final sprint perk, and will make balance changes as the card pool gets altered.
I am paying close attention to all the feedback that is left in the Discord, or the Steam discussion page, and will be on constant lookout to improve the game based on that. Seamless background music with more variety, collections screen, meta progression, more content, past game log, cat cards, UI tweaks, and so on will be implemented as the development continues.
Again, thank you all for playing Insider Trading. For bug reports, feedback, and suggestions, please use our official Discord.