There are three big new mechanics here, and they will require additional balancing and polish, so I'm not pushing them out to everyone yet. If the base game just isn't beta enough for you, you can opt into this build from the game's Properties menu in your Steam Library, under the "Betas" tab.
"Plots" join the old "Prophecies" as side objectives for you to attempt while doing your usual thing, but where Prophecies basically finish themselves over time, Plots only give you 60 seconds to complete one of 19 different goals. This number will increase over time; some objectives are far more likely to occur than others, simply because many of them rely on specific circumstances. Completing the same objective multiple times will often increase the difficulty of subsequent attempts.
Successful Plots award you Legacies, in one of four flavors: Items, Floors, Champions, and Resources. Legacies allow you to lock an asset in for your next playthrough, giving you a significant jump start. There is no penalty for failing a Plot; you will fail plenty.
Champions can also now be commanded to "Pillage," by dropping them on the surface (or over the surface floor on the minimap). Pillaging champions become unavailable for the next minute (plus some travel time), but they will be safe from harm while gone, and they will return with a reward of some sort (an additional level, an item--possibly an artifact, but maybe just a potion--, a load of resources, or even a resource cap increase; this list will likely also grow).
In addition, this update slightly bumps up the number of heroes per wave and increases the cost of higher-level floors--many of which now require you to increase your resource reserves beyond the default. In the future, greater floors will continue this trend, which makes increasing resource pool sizes an important part of the game. Earning Legacy Resources will allow you to retain some caps between sessions, making it easier to build larger and stronger dungeons across games.
The goal is to make individual sessions shorter, but allow subsequent games feel like a rewarding evolution, rather than a complete rebuilding. In general, your situation will tend to improve with each session, as starting with better stuff will make it easier to gather and keep better stuff for the next go-around. The eventual end-game mechanics will likely require multiple such Legacy sessions to reach.
This update, however, still requires balancing and polish across these features. Steam features are disabled in this build, until I have a better grasp on where the scores are; I expect them to be lower than they've been, but there are some new ways to earn points (completing plots, sending champs to pillage, and starting with legacies nets you a decent bonus), and I am considering some others (using items, buying reinforcements).
I'll be adding some special sound effects and cues to the plots to help them stand out in the message log, and the game doesn't list the number of legacies you've earned yet, so you'll just need to keep an eye out for the locks that appear when you do. Also, more tutorial entries are on the way.
I greatly appreciate all of the feedback you've all given me to date, and I hope to hear more about this update and how it affects your play style and enjoyment of the game. Thank you! :totfedora:
Changelog
Additions:
- Plots (19 to try out)
- Legacies (Item, Floor, Champion, and Resource)
- Pillaging
- Characters now shake a bit when hit
Changes:
- Slightly increased strength of hero waves
- Increased cost of floors
- Increased resource cap bonuses for completing rituals by 1
- Increased combat movement speed a bit
- More improvements and fixes for the floor-building UI (still some stuff in mind)
- Limited the number of prophecies in play at one time to 3
- Champ icons won't re-sort if you are hovering over one, so you don't accidentally click the wrong champ
- Removed heroic champion defeat message--folded this into champion promotion messages, to cut down on message log bloat
- Hovering over an item in your inventory will now offer a tip on what to do with it (hold on to it, click to use, drag over floor to deploy)
- Increased potency of 'Sploder and Mit
Fixes:
- Ability emitters weren't always firing appropriately
- Tile queue was starting a row higher than intended--minor cosmetic thing
- Characters could occasionally survive the destruction phase
- Codex was rendered behind the minimap and champion icons
- "Champion cap reached" message should only display once per time you hit the cap, rather than every time a champ could have been promoted
- Mouse over height of characters was a little too short