Hi Everyone!
It's been almost a month since the game released, and I've had fun with making semi-regular updates, but I think it's time for something more substantial. To that effect, I've been working on an update for the endgame of Raccoons to Riches for the last little bit, and now it's ready for beta testing (if you're keen to check it out).
Here's a quick summary of the upcoming changes:
Added Early Retirement and Endless Mode, for more ways to play out the end game! Wrap up a run quick, or go long!
Generally buffed day off events to be worth choosing over the supply shoppe
Made some balance tweaks to a few over/underperforming tactics and decorations
Tweaked uncommon customers to be a bit more interesting in terms of their dislikes for greater build diversity
A few nice quality of life changes to text/ui rough edges + some minor bugfixes
How to get Beta Access
If you'd like to test out these changes, they'll be on a beta branch you can choose to opt in to in Steam for about a week. To do that, Right click Raccoons to Riches in your Steam Library and select Properties
Then, choose Game Versions & Betas from the sidebar menu, and then choose the beta option
If you check out the beta and run into any issues, please let me know! Now, onto some more in-depth explanations on what you'll find in the beta.
What's in the beta?
Early Retirement
It's been fun watching people find some cool infinites/other ways to break the game in half, but I think it's a bit unsatisfying that you still need to play out the rest of the game after you've effectively already won the run. So, the first of the big new changes is Early Retirement. When you finish a Market Day with more Gold than all remaining rent payments for the month, you'll now be asked if you'd like to Retire Early!
If you do, you'll end the run early as a winner (after paying all remaining rent payments)! You can also choose to keep playing to run up your score instead, if you prefer. Additionally, once you're able to retire early, you can choose to retire early from the pause menu, or at the end of any subsequent Market Day. I think this should also add a bit of extra fun if you're trying to speedrun the game too.
Endless Mode
The next endgame related update is Endless Mode. Did you get a particularly good shop build going, but thought the game ended too soon for you to really enjoy your huge numbers? Hop into endless mode after winning a run, and see how well you can keep up with some rapidly increasing weekly goals.
See how many more months you can survive! After each month, the goal scaling gets even tougher, so you can either bow out a victor at the end of each extra month, or go for an even harder goal for more glory. The faster scaling get pretty crazy, so I'm interested to see if anyone can get past the 4 or 5th month.
There are a ton of other updates in 1.1 as well to improve the game balance (and hopefully make the game a bit more fun as a result). Once it goes live, I'll leave the 1.0.x version up as a legacy version you can choose to play if you prefer the old version's balancing. Saves should be compatible between both versions. Here are the full 1.1 beta patch notes:
v1.1.0 - The Endgame Update
New Feature - Early Retirement
When you finish a Market Day with more Gold than all remaining rent payments for the month, you'll now be asked if you'd like to Retire Early! If you do, you'll end the run early as a winner (after paying all remaining rent payments)! You can also choose to keep playing to run up your score instead, if you prefer. Additionally, once you're able to retire early, you can choose to retire early from the pause menu, or at the end of any subsequent Market Day.
New Feature - Endless Mode
Did you get a particularly good shop build going, but thought the game ended too soon for you to really enjoy your huge numbers? Hop into endless mode after winning a run, and see how well you can keep up with some rapidly increasing weekly goals. See how many more months you can survive! After each month, the goal scaling gets even tougher, so you can either bow out a victor at the end of each extra month, or go for an even harder goal for more glory.
Day Off Events Balance
In general, buffed most outcomes of day off events to be competitive with just going to the Supply Shoppe. All outcomes should now come with at least some benefit, and most outcomes have been improved.
The Armor Auction event now rewards Polished Heavy, Medium AND Light Armor if you win the Auction (was just Heavy Armor)
The Armor Auction event now grants 3 Speedy Rummages if you skip the auction instead.
The Business Seminar event now costs $70 to attend, and shows you 12 Upgraded tactic options (was $35, with 20 normal options)
The Business Seminar event now grants 2 Markup the next day if not attended (was 1)
During the Equivalent Exchange event, you may no longer turn down the wizard
The "Thought to Matter" option in the Equivalent Exchange event now grants a Restockable Item of the same rarity (was previously a normal item)
The "Matter to Thought" option in the Equivalent Exchange event now grants an Upgraded Tactic of the same rarity (was previously a normal tactic)
Entering and winning the Pie Eating Contest now grants 3x Restockable Hearty Food (was 2)
Entering and losing the Pie Eating Contest now grants 3x Hearty Food (was 1)
Watching the Pie Eating Content now grants +1 Patience to customers on the following day (was previously no benefit)
Sponsoring and winning the Pie Eating Contest now grants $250 and 1x Restockable Hearty Food (was just $150)
Sponsoring and losing the Pie Eating Contest now grants 3x Hearty Food (was 1)
The "Burn it for fuel" option for the Forgotten Refuse event now grants 5 Speedy Crafts (Was unlimited Speedy Crafts - should be functionally the same in most cases, but prevents a few easy infinite combos)
The "Search it for treasure" option for the Forgotten Refuse event now always grants 2 Upgraded Items (Was 70% to find a single upgraded Item).
The "Haul it away yourself" option for the Forgotten Refuse event now grants all Customers an extra Patience during your next Market Day for your hard work and cleanliness.
Taking the deal in the Shady Dealings event now grants $500 and 6 Tax Bills (was $150 and 3 Tax Bills)
Fleeing the deal in the Shady Dealings event now grants 2x Speedy Rummages on the following Market Day (previously had no benefit beyond a clean conscious)
The Supplier from the Supplier Arrives event has a better deal. You now gain 2 extra copies of the Restockable Item when you make a deal with him. The base event cost is now $100 (was $50)
Not making a deal with the Supplier from the Supplier Arrives event now grants 5x Temporary Markup on your next Market Day (previously no benefit)
If the Shiner polishes your Item during The Shiner event, your customers will also gain +1 Patience the following day (previously only polished the item)
If the Shiner runs off with your Item during The Shiner event, you gain 2 Speedy Crafts the following day (previously, the Item was lost with no benefit)
If you ignore the Shiner during the Shiner event, you gain the effect of the All That Glitters motto on the following day (previously, no benefit beyond not risking an item)
Reduced the cost of forgetting a tactic during the Wizard of Lethe event to $35 (was $50)
The Wizard of Lethe event now allows you to Downsize an Item (previously, allowed you to remove Restockable from an Item)
The Wizard of Lethe grants you the effect of the Storewide Sale motto on the following day when taking one of his deals (previously, you just removed a card from your Stockpile)
Refusing the Wizard of Lethe grants you the effect of the Counteroffers motto on the following day (previously, no benefit)
Keyword Balance Updates
I found that in general, Consigned felt like too much of a punishment, rather than something you might actually want on some of your items. So, it's getting a buff to draw an extra card and not hurt quite so much at the till.
Consigned now draws you 2 cards from Today's Goods when the consigned Item is sold. It now also only reduces the final value of the sale by 40% (was 60%)
Supply Shoppe Balance Updates
In general, the changes here are to Word of Mouth costs, to disincentivize saving up your Word of Mouth for a big supply shoppe day of tons of rerolls for a perfect build. The initial costs of rerolling should be cheaper so that you'll reroll a bit, but it'll scale up the cost as you go now (a little). Also, upgrades seemed a bit too cheap for how good they were, so that got a little nerf.
Rerolling Wholesale Item Crates now costs 3 Word of Mouth to start (was 4). The cost now increases by 2 per reroll (was 1)
Rerolling Business Tactics now costs 3 Word of Mouth to start (was 4). The cost now increases by 2 per reroll (was 1)
Rerolling Decorations now costs 4 Word of Mouth to start (was 9). The cost now increases by 4 per reroll (was 1)
Upgrading cards via the card upgrade service now costs 9 Word of Mouth (was 6)
Tactics & Motto Balance
Mostly just some adjustments to tactics and mottos that were over/underperforming, and to address a few too-easy infinite combos.
Nerfed Loss Leader: Loss Leader now Exhausts
Buffed Storewide Sale: Storewide Sale now costs 1 Patience (was 2). The Upgraded version now grants $35 per item sold (was $25). This status can now stack.
Buffed Garbage Day: Reduced Garbage Day's Patience Cost to 1 (0 Upgraded). Was 2 (1 Upgraded)
Buffed Haggle: Haggle now Haggles 75% (was 50%).
Nerfed Business Tutor: Business Tutor now costs 1 Patience (was 0)
Nerfed Special Order: Special Order now costs 1 Patience (was 0)
Reworked Infinite Growth: Infinite Growth updated to grant 2(4 Upgraded) Temporary Markup/turn for 1 Patience. (Was 1 Markup/turn for 2 Patience.)
Reworked Surge Pricing: Surge Pricing now costs 1 Patience (was 0) and grants 3(5 upgraded) Temporary Markup (was 2/4 upgraded)
Buffed Anticipate Argument: Anticipate Argument now costs 0 Patience (was 1)
Buffed Market Research: Market Research now costs 0 Patience (was 1)
Decorations Balance & Changes\[/b]
Again, just some adjustments to over/underperforming decor items.
Added item type tags to many more decorations, so that you'll get a new shop background more often
Buffed Innkeeper's Menu/Blacksmith's Seal/Barbarian's Bowl/Enchanter's Wand to now Haggle $30 if you sell an item matching either item type (previously, only haggled if you sold an item matching both types)
Buffed Darkflame Torch to draw 2 cards on Rummage (was 1)
Buffed Garbage Chandelier to Polish the added Trash
Buffed Short Order Sconce to activate every 3 Food drawn (previously every 4 Food drawn)
Buffed Dirty Carpet to make the added Trash an Easy Sale
Nerfed Music Box to draw 2 cards on satisfied customer exit (was 3)
Nerfed Rhatbarg's Hammer to grant 5 Speedy crafts on Market Day start (previously made crafting permanently Speedy)
Reworked Recyclomatic to give an extra temporary Hearty Food when crafting with Trash (previously altered crafting to grant a Hearty Food if the result would be Trash).
Buffed Rented Forge to grant $60 per crafted consigned Item. (Was $25 per consigned Item)
Customer Balance
In general, made uncommon Customers a bit "spikier" in terms of their preferences to help better differentiate shop builds a bit, and moved up a couple more complex customer to uncommon
Town Crier now starts with 2 Patience (was 4) and has 4 Influence (was 15). Now costs 5 Word of Mouth at the Supply Shoppe (was 9)
Boisterous Bard now hates armor, no longer dislikes potions.
Cleric now hates weapons, but no longer dislikes food
Mercenary now hates potions, but no longer dislikes food
Wandering Knight now hates food, loves potions, feels no specific way about weapons, and starts with 2 Patience (was 3). Bumped his rarity to uncommon.
Brewer now starts with 3 Patience (was 4), hates weapons, and has 8 Influence (was 6)
Lumberjack now starts with 4 Patience (was 3) and hates armor
Blacksmith now hates potions, but has 8 Influence (was 6) and costs 6 Word of Mouth in the supply shoppe (was 7)
Archivist now hates weapons but does not dislike food. Now has 4 Influence (was 6)
Innkeeper is now uncommon, dislikes armor has 8 Influence (was 6), and costs 6 Word of Mouth at the Supply Shoppe (was 4)
Old Man is now uncommon, and has 6 Influence (was 4), and costs 5 Word of Mouth at the supply Shoppe (was 3)
UI
Updated the player status Icons for a number of mottos to match their card art
Adjusted the positioning of counters on workshop decorations
The Card Upgrade and Removal Services in the Supply Shoppe no longer close themselves after you pick a card to upgrade/downsize. This should make bulk upgrades and downsizes a bit smoother/require fewer button/mouse clicks.
Updated the Show Choices button to visibly pulse after hiding sidequest choices to draw players' eyes to it a bit more and maybe make it less confusing why their clicks in hand don't do anything
Text and Misc. Changes
If customers have multiple stacks of a dislike, selling an item they dislike will now indicate their level of dislike in their sale calculation popup text animation (dislike -> hate -> loathe)
Clarified the text on Infinite Growth to state that it affects you Today
Clarified that Market Forces only affects you Today
Clarified that the Trash generated by Dumpster Dive are Temporary
Updated and fixed the text for the Consigned keyword
Moved the Food Fight motto to be in the correct spot in the compendium's list of tactics
Bugfixes
Added a missing crafting recipe for Heavy Armor (Medium Armor + Heavy Armor)
Fixed a few sources of revenue during a market day not updating the daily wrapup panel's revenue label (quest rewards, a couple decorations)
Fixed a few crafting recipes not benefiting from crafting bonuses
Fixed some decorations with counters for gold not showing a $ sign in front of their counter
Fixed the tutorial popup for selling items always appearing after an item sale until you also satisfy a customer's preferences for the first time
Fixed a few instances of typos here and there, as well as a few missing color tags and bits of clunky wording
Fixed a subtle bug causing some newly created items as a result of a few decoration effects to cause crafting with those items as ingredients to exponentially increase the value of the resulting crafted item
Fixed some restockable items gained from a run starting bonus not counting as upgraded
Fixed a counter for item crates purchased in a single day not resetting, causing the Stock Up quest to be rewarded after 9 crates purchased in a single run, instead of a single day