Hey everyone,
Two big ones this week: the end of a match is now a wall of darkness sweeping the dungeon, and dying no longer takes you out of the run. It puts you inside an enemy.
The Darkness
The last thirty seconds used to be the clock hitting zero. Now the dungeon goes dark, starting at the farthest room from where you spawned and closing on the exit. Rooms strobe before they go, lights and campfires fade out as the front passes over them, and standing in the dark takes your health away fast enough that you will not survive crossing much of it. Monsters die to it the same as you do. The escape door stays lit, so the one thing you are running toward is still findable when everything else is gone.
Running out of time is no longer an ending on its own. The clock reaching zero just means the whole map is dark and the damage is everywhere, and the match keeps going until every last person is out or dead. If you are the last one left with nobody whose death could pay for your escape, the sweep compresses and the screen tells you there is no escape.
Take Over an Enemy When You Die
Dying used to end your raid. Now you wait out a short countdown and take control of a live enemy, back in the match on the other side of the fight. The other enemies ignore you and treat you as one of their own, so the raiders you are hunting have no reliable way to tell you from the dungeon, until you kill one and the death log gives you up by name. When your enemy body dies you take over another.
The only real difference is the door. An enemy cannot escape, so there is no getting out for you once you are on that side, but you can make everyone else's escape a great deal harder. Escaping leads into the same loop, so getting out ends your raid rather than parking you on the end screen while the others are still inside. Spectating is automatic in the meantime: the Next button is gone, you watch whoever killed you or a random survivor otherwise, and the camera moves on by itself when the person you are watching dies.
Other Notable Changes
Unarmed attacks now play through their timers like every other weapon, so a punch reads as one continuous motion through the moment it connects. Fists swing slightly slower as a result, at one attack per second.
Sprout's Gambler's Folly has new star and smoke effects.
Item cards read title first and stats second, with smaller text throughout.
The selected item card now fades down after five seconds without touching your inventory, instead of sitting over the world at full strength all match.
Inventory tiles in the HUD respond to a click, selecting and equipping that slot the same way scrolling onto it does.
The inventory cooldown is a vertical wipe rather than a radial sweep.
A private self-hosted game needs a second player or a bot before it can start, and the host is told what the lobby is missing.
Bug Fixes
Fixed audio crackling and clipping during busy fights.
Fixed pressing Play after finishing a match leaving you on the loading screen searching forever.
Fixed clicking a HUD button also swinging your weapon.
Fixed the pickup prompt staying on screen after someone else took the item.
Fixed hitting the boss flashing the screen as though you were the one taking damage.
Fixed the run clock's countdown callouts never drawing their text.
Fixed the UI being stretched vertically on Steam Deck.
As always, please share your thoughts on Discord and follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/ballardgames
-- The Ballard Games Team