Demo Update v0.0.3

This is the first balance patch for the game. Hooray!

With this patch, I’ll be improving some underperforming relics, reworking a few systems to address gameplay complaints, and implementing some quality-of-life features to make the game easier to understand.

The game is still very early in development, so you may see some experimental balance changes. Please don’t panic if something sounds heavily overpowered or underpowered. I want to use this period to observe the results of the balance changes I’ll be making.

I also want to add that I’m slowly shifting my focus away from the programming and design side of the game and more toward the art side. Unfortunately, that side is progressing quite slowly due to my lack of talent there. The demo will remain available indefinitely for now while I continue pushing changes, and we’ll see what the future brings.

-Lethion

Balance Changes

Classes

I’ve consistently received feedback that Mage feels overpowered. However, I’m currently hesitant to nerf Mage.

Mage has very high perceived power because they can level up and buy items much faster than other classes. However, due to their low base numbers, Mage has much lower kill pressure compared to Warrior and Ranger. It takes a lot of farming for Mage to reach the same kill potential as those classes. While accumulating gold and experience quickly makes Mage feel very powerful, they also need much more of those resources than the other classes do.

Another issue is that Mage’s game plan is much simpler compared to Warrior and Ranger. Warrior and Ranger have more complex strategies, and when players don’t fully grasp those strategies, the classes can underperform greatly. I’ve observed that when Warrior and Ranger are played optimally, they can even greatly outperform Mage thanks to their high kill pressure.

I like that the three currently available classes represent three distinct strategies: Mage is a late-game focused farming class, Ranger is an early-game focused PvP class, and Warrior sits somewhere in the middle. I want to keep those strengths clear.

Ultimately, instead of nerfing Mage, I’ll be making system improvements around the other class strategies to help them fulfill their class fantasy more efficiently (see the System Changes section below.) That said, I’ll continue keeping a close eye on Mage.

Warrior

Warrior isn’t in a particularly bad spot, but the power they gain when stacking over +20 Skill Modifier is lower than one might expect, especially considering the difficulty of getting there. I’m increasing the overall power gained from +Skill Modifier to make handling that mechanic well feel more rewarding.

Decimate

Damage Increase per +Skill Modifier:
8% → 10%

Whirlwind

Extra Spin Base Damage:
0.75–0.9 → 0.8–1.0

Battle Resolve

+Skill Modifier to Durable Stacks:
100% + 20% per Rank → 150% + 25% per Rank

Relics

Relics were tested less than other parts of the game and changed much more throughout development, so there were some clear outliers that were heavily underperforming. I’m buffing those relics to hopefully bring them closer to the power level of other options.

Punching Bagel

Cost:
80 → 70

Durable Stacks:
1 → 5

Durable Duration:
1 round → 3 rounds

Bro’s Metabolism Booster

Cost:
85 → 40

Far-Sighted Scope

Minimum Range:
2 → 1

Cost:
120 → 130

System Changes

In the Classes section, I mentioned how Mage’s ability to buy relics early can make the class feel stronger than it actually is. Although I don’t currently see this as a major balance concern, I still think the game is a lot more fun when players can buy relics and interact with the rank up systems more often. Because of that, I’m adding a passive Gold and Experience gain feature.

I don’t expect this change to affect Mage too much, since Mage already reaches the point where they need a lot of Gold and Experience for their next upgrades and levels. However, for other classes that often spend a long time at level 1 with only one relic, I expect this change to make the game more fun and interesting by allowing them to interact with the level and relic systems more consistently, without taking away their early-game class identity. I’m also hoping that this change will prevent games from dragging on for too long by adding an exponential power increase.

New: All players now earn 10 Gold and Experience at the end of every round. This amount increases by 5 every 4 rounds.

Creatures

Dragon

It didn’t make much sense for Dragon to reward 2 badges while having only 20 more Health than the Demon Lord. A lot of games were ending abruptly because a player could slay the Dragon out of nowhere. I’m buffing Dragon to better fit its status as an end-game Legendary Creature.

Damage:
30 → 50

Health:
120 → 200

Rewards:
300  Gold & Experience → 500 Gold & Experience

Mercenary & Bandit

I added power scaling to Mercenary and Bandit to make sure interacting with them stayed relevant throughout the game. For Mercenary, the hiring option didn’t feel meaningful when the damage threat was low. For Bandit, when it was weak, players could simply choose to stay and slay it to get their gold back with little risk. However, it’s clear that their scaling can easily get out of hand, sometimes reaching stats higher than even the Dragon.

I’m removing the scaling feature and giving them higher base stats instead. With this change, I’m also hoping to nerf Mage’s very powerful Flame Surge first-row opening by reducing the reward they can get in the first round and creating a downside to letting other players finish off these high-reward targets.

Starting Damage:
10 → 20

Starting Health:
10 → 40

Removed:
Damage, Health and Gold & Experience rewards no longer scale at the end of rounds.

Bug Fixes & Quality-of-Life Changes

Skillbar Quality-of-Life Changes

Knowing whether your skill will land the killing blow is extremely important. It can be the difference between winning and losing the game. However, as the game progresses, there can be many elements that affect damage. Correctly predicting the outcome requires a lot of calculation and understanding of game mechanics. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the game, and I would rather have the game’s difficulty come from decision-making rather than math skills.

You should now have a much easier time figuring out your damage. There will also be a special indicator when your skills are temporarily amped up. I’m hoping these changes will particularly help Warrior and Ranger players and even the playing field against Mages.

New: Numerical values on skill tooltips are now context-sensitive, excluding chance-based effects.

New: Skills modified by a temporary effect are now highlighted with a special effect.

New: Skills that the player does not have enough resources to use now have a unique indicator based on the required resource type.

Updated: Rank-up text for all skills has been updated to make it easier to compare the next rank’s values with the current rank.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where removed relics kept their effects on the player.

• Fixed a bug that prevented overridden status effects from updating in the game UI.

• Fixed a bug where Premium Wand of the Unskippable was not increasing status effect duration correctly.

• Fixed a bug where +Skill Modifier was not changing the dice roll range correctly.

Working On

• Unique creature sprites and animations

• Unique skill VFX and SFX

• Unique board tiles

• Missing skill and relic icons

• Missing player animations

• Emote system

• Rogue class