NEXT FEST IS HERE!^
With Next Fest finally here, we wanted to first say thank you to everyone who has given feedback and played our game. It means a ton to us. This patch is pretty large so we'll keep it short and sweet. We have quite a few new features for you like reviving battle units, healing between waves, a ton of balance changes, quality of life improvements, new sounds, new FX, new UI, and the beginning of controller support + some other changes here and there.
As more and more feedback rolls in, we'll continue to add to and adjust the gameplay, squash bugs, and build a better experience. We really hope you enjoy your time with this patch. A big big thank you for playing our game and keep an eye out for more updates this week and leading up to release.^^
Patch Notes - Demo v0.5.6
Highlights
This patch is big so we'll give you the highlights just in case.
Reviving Battle Soldiers and Archers after each wave
Day and Night cycle for farm vs defend
Early controller support with virtual cursor
Major wave and economy tuning
Tons of UI and co-op fixes
New
Defenses
We're making a lot of changes to the defenses in this patch, particularly the human ones. Previously, if a human defense died, they stayed dead. In this patch, we'll be giving them a revive after each wave.
Battle Soldiers
Revive with 25% health after each wave
Battle Archers
Revive with 25% health after each wave
The Swinging Axe
New Passive: Range Resistant
Takes half damage from ranged enemies / ranged attacks
FX
We've been hard at work learning particles and how to tweak the ones we own. This patch we're introducing a few new ones.
New Level up Particle added to All Defenses when leveling up
New Flame Shield particle for the hero when selecting the Flame Shield Pal upgrade
Controller Support
Controller support is really important to us and so we've been hard at work to put it in for you. These virtual cursors have unintended side effects so we'll roll out more and more compatible screens with each patch. For now, you can start the game completely without interacting with the keyboard.
New virtual cursor added for controller support
Loot
This just kind of looks and feels better. We hope you like it.
When touching loot, it floats toward you rather than instantly picking it up
Day & Night
With this, you'll now be able to tell when the enemies are attacking more easily.
Day & Night cycle
Daytime occurs when it is time to farm
Nighttime occurs during attacks
Sound
New War Horn sound effect when enemies are coming
New Trumpet sound for defeating the wave
New Victory sound effect for completing the demo
New Defeat sound effect when your crystal is destroyed
Lighting
New and improved lighting with better/lighter shadows
Tutorial
New tutorial "Helpful Inputs" panel will sit on the home screen and adjust to the current input
Changes
Waves
Waves are always tricky but one thing is for certain, the first wave is too large and the final waves are too small. We'll tweak that a bit.
First wave is reduced from 14 enemies -> 6
All waves after that are increased by an average of 25% up to a max of 50 enemies per wave by wave 20
Farm time increased from 40 -> 45 seconds
Main Crystal
The goal here is to make sure you can experience a max level run. Previously, the numbers didn't allow that considering the amount of monster souls that were dropping. With this new cadence, you'll be able to upgrade often and reach max around wave 17 if all monster souls are gathered in time.
Level up costs reduced from 10, 25, 75, 130, 180, 210, 250 -> 5, 20, 35, 85, 105, 150, 200
UI
Battle Upgrade UI
Now displays reroll icon for rerolling battle upgrades
Title Screen UI
Now displays the word "Demo"
Loading Screen UI
Now displays the word "Demo"
Heroes
Updated skill descriptions for Derek and the Battle bot to include the word "Also" for application of buffs and bonuses
FX
Added impact to the Boss Creeper's particles when they reach their range
Added impact to the Boss Creeper's particles when they hit a wall
Added smoke effect under Gatling Turret when placing it
Trail behind player is now more white instead of gray
Key Binds
Battle Upgrade key binds are now set to 1, 2, and 3 for keyboard with 2 being the middle choice
Note: Reroll remains unchanged (R)
PS5 controllers now use R1 for reroll during Battle Upgrades
Xbox controllers now use RB for reroll during Battle Upgrades
Player
The Ninja's ultimate doesn't scale well and can feel underwhelming at the later stages of the game. We'll fix that. We also know that sprinting and dashing around is really fun and we want to encourage that.
The Ninja hero's ultimate damage is increased from 1 Flat -> 100% of current damage
Reduced the cost of jumping from 10 -> 5 stamina
Reduced the cost of dash from 20 -> 10 stamina
The dash is a bit snappier now
Economy
Gold is still a bit rare middle to late game so we're making some adjustments
Added 6 more gold mines across all crystal levels
Defenses
The swinging Axe spins 50% faster
Battle Soldier attack damage reduced from 1 -> .25 (scales 0.25 per level)
Battle Archer attack damage reduced from 1 -> .5 (scales 0.5 per level)
Battle Soldier health reduced from 25 flat -> 3 (Scales 3 per level)
Battle Archer health reduced from 17 flat -> 2 (Scales 2 per level)
Enemy Balance
The strength of enemies is always on our mind and we'll always be happy to nerf things that make the game less fun. This patch, we'll target the Lieutenant Death monsters with a few whacks of the nerf bat.
Lieutenant Death ability damage reduced from 1 -> .25 per ball
Note: An Lieutenant Death ball will still take an entire shield from a hero when hit
Map Changes
Gameplay can get a bit cluttered during the last few waves. While we plan to make adjustments to what UI is visible in a patch or two, this should help a bit.
Pushed Barracks and Archery Ranges away from the main trail a bit
Removed treasure chests from map temporarily
Sound
Removed 2 music tracks from the game temporarily
Fixes
Critical
Fixed being able to pause the game during the end of game screen which could brick the game
Fixed being able to pause the game during the Title Screen which could brick the game
Fixed applying settings and it causing the game to permanently freeze
In-Game UI
Fixed the Crystal Health bar flickering
Fixed the Home crystal showing the incorrect resources for Player 2, 3, and 4 if you didn't touch it yet
Fixed player 2, 3, and 4 not being able to see upgrade costs on the Barracks at level 1
Fixed player 2, 3, and 4 not being able to see upgrade costs on the Archery Range at level 1
Fixed player 1, 2, 3, and 4 being stuck on the screen even during single player
Fixed Farm and Defend icons overlapping and not hiding during phases
General UI
Fixed the controller not being able to touch any buttons on the final demo thanks for playing screen
Fixed using the controller to touch buttons and it opening 3 of the same window on the title screen
Fixed the Thanks for Playing screen not cleaning itself up on close
Fixed image anchors on the Loading Screen UI
In Game
Fixed a level 2 Gold Mine showing the 'Hold Button' tutorial
Fixed villagers farming during Battle Upgrade choices
Fixed validity checks for the tree resource health bar
Fixed validity checks for the gold resource health bar
Fixed an issue where the cursor would survive and chase the player after closing the Multiplayer window
Heroes
Fixed an issue where x2 rockets upgrade were on by default
Player
Fixed the dash being inconsistent when dashing from a cliff
Fixed the dash being inconsistent when dodge rolling while jumping
Fixed an issue where player 2, 3, and 4 couldn't see the police car from the Deputy's ultimate
Fixed being able to get stuck in the walls on first load (like being in a maze) prior to releasing the crystal
Sound
Fixed Player 2, 3, and 4 hearing a forever rocket when the Deputy uses their ultimate
Fixed Battle Music not playing after activating the crystal
Fixed music not remembering previously playing song / sound
Fixed Barracks playing purchase sound on title screen
Fixed Archery Range playing purchase sound on title screen
This patch covers all of the changes from the last week. We really hope you enjoy your time with it. For what's next, we did complete the bigger map with 2 lanes but it feels a bit unpleasant from a solo perspective so we're still tweaking it. We hope to release it during Next Fest. We also have environmental issues, a new hero, more controller support, and finally introducing our home island with player upgrades. Please continue to leave feedback. We read it all and will happily implement anything that fits the game and our own goals for it. We'll continue to make it more fun and more interesting. Thank you so very much for playing our game. We really appreciate it a lot.^^
