Greetings, Wavecrashers!
One update ago, we told you it would be the final demo update. Apparently, another Tide had other plans. So here we are.
We have continued expanding progression, improving combat encounters, refining the interface, polishing presentation, and addressing performance and stability as we move closer to release.
Here is what has changed:
Talents
The Talent system has received one of its largest updates yet.
Talent trees across the entire hero roster have been expanded, reworked, reorganized, and rebalanced. Several talents have received new effects or mechanical changes, while numerous interactions and individual issues have been addressed.
And now, you can upgrade your Talents!
Talent progression is also much easier to understand and manage. Talent entries now provide clearer upgrade and level requirement information, point allocation is faster, and your active Talents are reflected directly in skill indicators and tooltips.
Bosses and Enemies
Enemies and bosses have received another major balance and functionality pass.
Boss scaling, enemy abilities, stat progression, crowd control ranges, and enemy spacing have all been adjusted. We also fixed several issues that could cause spawned enemies to receive incorrect stats.
The later Tides should now offer more consistent and challenging encounters as a result.
Bots
Bot players now interact with progression systems much more naturally.
Bots can now gain Talents based on the host's progression, while several artificial stat advantages have been removed in favor of the same Tide related modifiers used throughout the game.
Their movement and navigation have also been improved, including fixes for situations where bots could become stuck near the Core.
Ordeals and Damage
We continued refining Ordeals and the systems surrounding them.
Several stat calculations, damage multipliers, secondary damage effects, and individual Ordeal interactions have been corrected or rebalanced.
Ordeal selection and presentation have also received improvements, including fixes to interaction detection and visibility at the beginning of a match.
Tutorial
The tutorial has received a broad rework.
Tutorial windows and guidance elements have been repositioned and improved to make instructions easier to follow during gameplay.
Progression tutorials have also been adjusted so returning players are not repeatedly shown information they have already seen.
Several issues involving replayed tutorials, boss information, shops, portals, and progression guidance have also been fixed.
Interface and Quality of Life
A large amount of work has gone into making the game clearer and more comfortable to use.
The character selection screen has been updated, voting controls have been improved, Tide information is easier to access, and locked heroes now clearly display their unlock requirements.
Reward presentation has also been reworked both during gameplay and in the main menu.
We have added automatic chat messages for many important events, helping players better understand what is happening during a match.
Tooltips have been expanded and improved across items, skills, and Talents, while additional visual feedback has been added for selections, confirmations, rewards, loading, and interactions.
Presentation
Several parts of the game's presentation have received another polish pass.
The startup sequence has been improved with new splash videos and presentation changes.
Visual effects across abilities, enemies, hazards, and environmental effects have also received further improvements to make combat clearer and more satisfying.
Performance and Stability
A significant amount of work has gone into improving performance during busy matches.
Pathfinding related stutters and several frame time issues have been addressed.
Visual effect pooling and lifetime handling have been improved to prevent unnecessary effects from remaining active and affecting performance.
Run cleanup has also been improved so weather effects, hazards, Ordeal effects, and other temporary systems are properly cleared when a match ends.
We have also made improvements to resolution handling and player spawning.
Fixes and Polish
Alongside the larger changes, we fixed a wide range of smaller issues throughout the game.
Tower activation, automatic voting, portal movement, cursor behavior, interaction detection, Core health presentation, and several other gameplay interactions have all received fixes.
We also completed another large localization pass across Talents, tower upgrades, Ordeals, menus, and many other parts of the game.
Demo Content
The demo now unlocks more of Wavecrashers’ progression systems:
Account Level 5
Tide Levels 0-3
3 Talent Points
5 Perk Points
Moving Forward
These changes represent another major step toward the release version of Wavecrashers.
We are continuing to improve balance, clarity, performance, presentation, and overall game feel while expanding the systems that give every run and every hero more room to develop.
As always, thank you to everyone playing, testing, reporting issues, and sharing feedback with us.
And Kevin.
See you on September 25!
With our love,
Eightfold Team
