Difficulty in Fabular has been a hot topic of discussion ever since we released our first public demo. Internally there has been a lot of back and forth on this, as some players find the game too difficult, while others find the game too easy.
That’s why we’re excited to present the latest update for Fabular: The Ways of the Flow. This update focuses on letting players customise their own difficulty settings. This will open the game up to more casual players and continue to challenge hardcore players who have already invested many hours into the game. It can also help to 'ease’ players into the game and gradually introduce them to the harder mechanics.
Other features of this update are enhancing the game's meta progression and revamping the star map.
There’s an introductory video here that will talk you through everything included in the update or there’s a written version further down.
The Starmap
We’ve had a lot of feedback about the star map since launching Fabular last year. This began with our week 1 patch, where we limited punishing dead ends and increased the amount of fuel you start with, as well as drop rates.
But we didn’t think this was enough. We’ve now implemented an improved starmap, which now features icons attached to each node. This will be familiar to you if you’ve previously played games like Slay the Spire and Cult of the Lamb. The benefit of this is that you’ll now have agency over your journey as you’ll be able to make a more informed decision on which nodes to take on your route toward the boss.
The Starsmith and Alchemist both have their own icons, while previous event/battle encounters are now marked with a ?. We've also introduced instant outcomes nodes: when you fly there, there’s no event, and you simply get the reward or punishment by entering it. You can unlock more types of these nodes at a throne room vendor.
Flow Modifiers and Spiritus Rank (aka Difficulty)
The new difficulty settings are accessed via a new Modify Challenge button on the ship select screen.
They allow you to change a number of the base aspects of the game, including increasing or decreasing enemy or collision damage, max hitpoints, energy slots, and more.
If you would prefer gameplay to be easier, then set modifiers towards the green diamonds, while hardcore players should select red diamonds to increase the game’s difficulty. Combining both green and red diamonds can help to keep your Spiritus rank balanced while fine-tuning the gameplay toward your personal preferences.
By making the difficulty harder, you will increase your Spiritus Rank. This, in turn, increases the chance of getting additional meta-currencies, when you gain at least one during a run.
Four new types of meta-currencies have also been added to the game and can be used to unlock Flow Modifiers or Boons in the throne room. These are:
- Token of Exploration: gained when revealing starmap nodes
- Token of Valor: gained after victorious battles and doing good deeds in events
- Token of Glory: gained after defeating realm bosses
- Token of the Void: gained after completing the game
This is just the beginning for the Spiritus Rank, but we’d really appreciate any feedback so we can continue to expand and improve the system.
We really hope you enjoy this new update. Full update notes can be found below.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/645720/view/3689048990891269847
Fly safe, space knights!
-- Spiritus Games