Privet, bortsy!
SURPRISE! Sudden update time! As of right now, update 1.3 - The Grimoire Update - is out!
1 - THE OCCULTIST
It's a bit small compared to the last one, but it adds a new character: The Occultist! Check out some gameplay here!
She's rather complex.
The Occultist has up to 9 different spells that she can quickly switch between. These can do a huge variety of things, from spawning effects on the battlefield, to buffing or protecting her for a short duration, to creating a wide variety of other effects.
Her spells are grouped into 3 "runes," each with a mechanical and elemental theme. For example, her 3 starting runes are Fire, Steel, and Shadow (with 1 unlockable rune in this update: Ice).
The Occultist can customize her spell list, selecting up to 3 runes from all of the ones she has available. This gives you a ton of control over which options you want to make use of - choose wisely!
The downside of all this is twofold: first, to really leverage the full potential of the character, you need to fully understand your spells and combine them in effective ways. Secondly, all of her spells have fairly noticeable cool-downs - which also pressures you to constantly switch between them.
However, if you put in the effort to truly master her, you'll find she is one of the most varied, flexible, and powerful characters in the game - especially when she can have a little breathing room.
2 - SOFT PROMPTS
Additionally, the other major feature in this update is a small quality-of-life feature for new players - something I'm calling "soft prompts." Now, when first playing characters, small tutorial prompts will give hints on how to perform "complicated" moves.
For example, when charging up the Viking's attack or Warrior's lightning blast, a small prompt will indicate that you can keep holding the button. Or, when aiming as the sniper, a prompt will let you know that "jump" will fire the gun. This feature is particularly necessary for the Occultist, as her spell selection is particularly unorthodox.
By default, these prompts no longer appear for any individual character when you achieve 50+ kills with them - they can be permanently turned off (or permanently turned on in the options menu).
PS: The Xbox version should FINALLY be updated. Yay!
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The Next Update
So, the Occultist actually jumped ahead of the rest of the content I planned to put into the "Grimoire" update (mainly due to the xbox release schedule). So, unforunately, the next update will not have a new character.
Instead, it will focus on 3 things:
- Some combat changes and improvements (primarily centered on making "weapon clashes" more solid and varied)
- Finishing the basic AI (including putting this on a separate thread! Which should make the game handle hordes WAY better)
- Revamping Wave Mode
That "Revamping Wave Mode" is going to be the real "meat" of the update, especially since that's like, you know, the main "thing" in the game right now. I'll do a post on my plans for this in the near future - stay tuned!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the update! Have fun, Brawlers!