Hello bosses! There’s a new update available on Steam. This is a foundational patch, so we’ve included several massive reworks and changes to the base flow of the game to improve progression, output inflation, and set the stage for future updates. Additionally, we’ve toned down cooldowns across the board to make the game more intelligible when you have tons of facilities ticking. We highly recommend starting a new save to experience the game from the start. Note that existing saves may also not load, depending on what loadouts you had previously.
Also - MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Content
Missions
Over 100 new missions have been added to the game, to better give a structure for players and add more progression beats as they climb levels. We intend to use the mission log even more in the future, so the current crop of new missions are relatively basic (eg, get this many credits, reach this level, etc.) But expect both new missions in future patches as well as new types of missions to keep things interesting and spice up your playthroughs. In the meantime, do let us know how you feel about the new missions!
Output Panel
There is now a new Output Panel that can be visible by hovering over the previous ‘link bonus’ (now renamed to Output Bonus) display. We will add tutorial text for this in a future patch, but for now, this will be where players can check their current Output Bonus. Output Bonus is a new variable that takes into account your current active links and then multiplies it by a new variable called ‘Studio Power’. At present, it is impossible to increase Studio Power, but this will be coming along with more difficult missions as a reward for completion.
As a note, we are also going to be implementing tooltips on every facility to show your expected output and all contributing sources of output amplification as a result of a cleaner calculation formula. Here’s a sneak peak of what that will look like:
Floor Unlocks
We added some tapping. Enjoy!
General
Renormalization
Our renormalization project is well underway, and we have made adjustments to core output systems to combat number inflation in most cases. We have a new standardized formula for all facilities (you will also see some updated facility effects and functionality to fit) that will help with both player clarity and debugging. As a result of this, expect output numbers in the mid game to be vastly reduced. Our aim is to bring down progression to more reasonable levels, while still allowing players to get some crazy builds off if they set their board up the right way. The fun is still in tact - but we are aiming for progression currently to top out around the trillions for now.
NOTE that this rework is still ongoing. In the next patch we will update the workshop upgrade system, as currently it is still far too cheap just to get all of your facilities to the Legendary rank and accelerate your build. Additionally, there may be some cases we haven’t found of abuse loops that can still technically generate way more credits than intended. If you do find any of these, let us know in the bug reports!
Planetarium Updated
We feel good about the current Planetarium, and have now done a second balance pass on the progression to make it feel more impactful. Expect points to come fast and often just like before, but the actual costs of things have risen quite a bit to match! You’ll need to really pick and choose your selections more carefully moving forward. We will continue monitoring this system, and though we feel the pacing isn’t quite there just yet, we are certainly getting closer to our ideal form of the planetarium.
Levelling
Rebalanced level requirements for smoother progression
Balance
Summon Skeletons now grants credits based on CPS rather than percentage of total credits
Critkeeper Effect reworked to now gain a flat amount of Credits based on Rank.
Windmill cooldown increased to 8 seconds, charge reduced to rank x 0.5
Loaded Dice's effect reduced to 10+Rank*5 down from 40+rank*10
Overworked Artist cooldown increased to 11s
Motivational Poster cooldown reduced to 18 from 20s
Cooling Fans cooldown up from 7 to 15s
Project Manager cooldown up from 10 to 16s
Psychologist cooldown up from 5 to 15s
Catgirl maid cooldown up from 8 to 14s
Robot Assistant cooldown up from 8 to 14s
Idea Guy cooldown up from 12 to 15s
Ninja Stars cooldown up from 8 to 9s
Sales Associate cooldown up from 8 to 9s
Revolver cooldown up from 7 to 9s
Sprinkler System cooldown up from 4 to 6s
Magic Wand cooldown up from 12s to 150s AND redesigned. It now casts the last spell you previously cast when activated.
Stuffed Bear cooldown up from 8s to 12s
Game Console cooldown up from 10s to 20s
Slot Machine cooldown up from 10s to 20s
Gachapon redesigned, and now provides a global buff based on a roll chance.
Bodyguard cooldown up from 10s to 15s
Bank Vault cooldown down from 20s to 18s
Briefcase cooldown up from 8s to 10s
Guard Dog cooldown up from 10s to 12s
Padlock cooldown up from 5s to 10s
Suspicious Van cooldown up from 7s to 14s
Pool Table cooldown up from 9s to 18s
Calculator cooldown up from 8s to 12s
Streamer and Overworked Artist both redesigned, and no longer scale with tetration
Clover’s Starlight enhancement effect removed. We will add this back in later, but needs tweaking
ATM disabled while we redesign it
Catgirl Maid’s effect now only counts stacked buffs as a single buff (eg, 200 Starlight stacks only count as 1 ‘buff’ for her effect)
Bugfixes
Fixed Swiss Army Knife functionality
Fixed workshop looping issue
Fixed draggable facilities spamming the board with ‘press to activate’ visuals
Updated Printer text and output flow for visual clarity
Selecting to downgrade all of your facilities at a certain point in the story now works as intended
Known Issues
Sometimes the ‘Pick 3’ selection has void art
Motivational Poster interaction with Fancy Couch
Fancy Couch ranged not affected by Influence increasers
Two bathtub debuffs can reduce Credit gain to 0
Finance Chart + Nodes that count as spells are breaking idle
Story cutscene skip is too sticky
Red Skull has incorrect buff amount in its tooltip
Summon Skeletons shows 5 minutes of CPS, but is now in fact 1 minute
Spell visuals do not show their correct tiers in the planetarium