One More Run’s cold demo launch has been fantastic for giving the early feedback that was needed, and gave me clear direction on next steps for getting the game to a good place. There was very encouraging positive feedback regarding the depth and overall feel of the game, and also some helpful constructive criticism on areas that need to be improved. The patterns that emerged in that latter feedback gave me clear direction on what patch 0.1.22 needed to be.
Corruption Crafting
One consistent piece of feedback was that there's too many modifiers that can have a negative impact on a player's build. For an end game build, these modifiers can be extremely powerful, but something I didn’t realize due to my time with the game is that for a brand new player, they often are a net negative.
That said, the Diminishment, Sluggishness, Stasis, Invasion, and Prestige affixes have all been removed from the standard drop pool, and moved to a new mechanic: Corruption Crafting.
Now, rather than these potentially harmful modifiers being randomly selected on drop, they'll be available from a new NPC that will add them to your modules for a fee. Players can opt in to these advanced module properties when they feel ready to push their build even further, rather than stumbling on them early in their progression.
There are currently 5 different possible corruptions, and more will be added over the next few minor updates to make this system even more rewarding as an end-game crafting option.
Each module can have one corrupted modifier (for a total of 4 per loadout).
Equipping a full set of corrupted modules unlocks a powerful, but dangerous new legendary upgrade — Dark Bargain.
This also marks another first for One More Run: in-world crafting. It’s a big step toward the game having a proper world hub with service-related NPCs, rather than crafting and equipment being tied up in menus.
Early Game Balance Pass
On the whole, the early game felt too challenging for new players. My intention has always been for One More Run to have a steep difficulty curve. A bit of early game filter is a good thing — it gives a clear signal to players whether the game is for them, and respects their time. Still, that filter needs to be fair.
That said, long term, I plan to overhaul the entire early game experience. For now though, there were a number of balance levers already available that I felt can give a much better feeling first few runs, along with the above change to module drops. These were the changes that I could get into the build now, but don't represent the final end goal with early game:
A new player smart loot has been added. This will make certain that the first few modules that a player finds are A. a class match for the class the player is currently playing, and B. Average quality or higher.
The spawner buildings in and near Shoreline have had their health and armor reduced, and their rewards significantly increased. This will make it much easier to find those first modules without needing to dive deep into the map.
The flat bonus on the armor attribute has been significantly buffed. This should help early game builds feel much less starved for attribute points, especially for Mage, Rogue, and Ranger when the player wants to shore up their natural defensive weakness.
Repairing common modules now has a 100% success rate, and can repair all the way up to Pristine quality. This will make sure that once damaged modules do begin to drop for the player, they're guaranteed to be able to begin using those modules. Late game, this also opens up damaged module repair as a powerful crafting option for pursuing near best in slot modules.
All bosses have had their rare module drop rates significantly increased. This will make sure that when you bring down your first boss, you’re guaranteed a drop that helps you push into the demo’s mid-game: boss farming.
Another bit of feedback was the Rogue felt on the weak end starting out, and I can see why. Until you start really engaging with the manual reload mechanic and get a couple of upgrades that enable that interaction, it can feel like just a drawback that the rogue even has an ammo capacity. I have some design ideas for the rogue to help with this, but those will likely come later when Rogue gets its v2 - v4 update. Some may make it into earlier updates in the form of new upgrades, but I want to be very deliberate with adding new upgrades to make sure that none feel like padding.
In the meantime, Rogue's module bases have all gotten subtle improvements. Rogue at default modules will be now even faster and higher damage output, while still being fairly fragile. This will trickle down to all looted rogue modules as well.
With the UI animations now in place - added in 0.1.21d, and the early game experience dialed in a bit more via 0.1.22. One More Run has made a solid step forward over the last week in both build depth and approachability, but there's still a long way to go.
Where to next?
Next, I plan to focus heavily on the Cleric v1 to v4 update. Cleric's current v1 state is playable, but far behind the design standard that was set by Mage v3. There will be previews coming up of what a v4 class actually looks like. It's a big step up for the depth of One More Run, and I think will really surprise everyone. I hate when games overhype and underdeliver though, so for now, here's a couple very small teasers just to get everyone guessing a bit.
To be clear, these designs won't replace the existing Cleric design - they'll add to the options available to Cleric players, and make up just 2 out of the total 10 different animations that are being added in the Cleric v4 update.
I'll leave you guys to guess how these will fit into the game for now! In the meantime, the full patch notes for 0.1.22 can be found on the discord, or the in-game change log.
See you all in Azoris!
-Rek