Trying to get your game to be 'just right' sometimes takes quite a while. The good thing with the Steam client if you're a dev is that you're able to quickly reach and replace your player base's copies of the game, which sadly is tough to do someplace else. Getting JAC's difficulty correct is always a concern of mine, for example. First I made a level cap of 16, but the existance of those invisible stat icons sort of made this moot. So I've tweaked this mechanic a bit now (more below).
I've been watching a lot of Just a Cleric 'Let's Plays' lately and have noticed some things that I wanted to address in the game. I've also noticed some other things that have popped up due to my 'fixing' the weapon hit boxes that needed fixing because they were TOO accurate. Let's say for example the animation of the mace went from up diagonal to down diagonal in the other direction. If there was a monster right in that spot in between you wouldn't hit it. And that's no good!
So here's a list of all the changes, some I think you will like and some we'll let history decide for itself:
THINGS YOU WILL PROBABLY LIKE
- Mace, Club, and The Defender all got improved hitboxes (these all count as small, mace-class weapons).
- Healing Touch got a power boost. The new formula is (Faith x 2) + random (1 to 7) points of healing. Too many times players will have to spam healing- which is understandable given this isn't an easy game- but this new tweak will not only make the healing less needed, it means the prayer gets stronger earlier.. leaving more opportunity to invest in another stat should you choose.
- Cross Toss also got a damage boost. For a huge, spinning, magical cross that can go through walls it just didn't have quite the POP it needed. The new damage formula is (Faith) + 5. Everything else about it is unchanged.
- Every cursed item at the hidden shop except Ryu's Mitt had its price significantly reduced. I figure all of these could be really helpful to newer players but most are outclassed by gold gear. Except Ryu's Mitt which can be mighty useful in a lot of applications without too much of a negative side.
- The Rental Bat (remember him!?) now has more life during NG+ (10 -> 15) and will stick around longer should you decide to have him at your side.
- The Gauntlet mission now gives you 500 XP and 2 Demon Eyeballs for a quest reward (used to be a Gold Ring and XP, which still happens at NG+).
- Treasure chests in Grind-O-Rama got an HP decrease from 8 to 3. I figure since you start out with nothing for these challenges, who wants to beat a chest to death for 10 seconds straight, right?
THINGS YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT LIKE BUT HEY WHO KNOWS
- Hidden Stat Icons can still be found in NG+ as long as you are level 15 or lower. You will still be able to get the Stat Point rewards during the Who's The Boss mission and rarely from black Magic Boxes. I feel this was necessary as going through NG+ again and again can quickly net you a tremendous amount of power and robs the game of a lot of the challenge. Even still, with this new change you'll be able to amass quite a little powerhouse cleric it just won't be to the levels of insanity like before.
THINGS YOU PROBABLY HAVEN'T NOTICED YET AND THAT'S GOOD
- Fixed a bug where opening your prayer book up while at the very bottom of the Cult of No Personality mission obscured the prayer names when the 'BIG BOSS' HP bar was showing. Thanks to Hobidowo as I noticed this while he was fighting the Cult Leader the other day.
- Fixed a bug where hitting the Grind-O-Rama weights in the Badass challenge sometimes wouldn't register as a hit (if you were standing too close it'd count as you being on top of the weight and it's not supposed to take damage if that's the case as a safety thing).
- Fixed a bug where if you OHK'd the Albino Bat with Fryar Fry while he was still sleeping it'd SCREW EVERYTHING UP. Thanks to old buddy KALUROTH who came out of retirement to let me know about this!