Welcome, Scribes!
We hope you've been enjoying all the cozy additions to the new Illuminated Library! Today, we're publishing Interlude Patch: In The Edit! With the sheer amount of new goodies in our previous Major Chapter - today's patch was the perfect opportunity to take a hard look at every nook and cranny of Vellum, dip into the magic ink, and come up with a myriad of improvements.
This update takes a massive step in the Performance, Balance, Reworks, Polish, and so many aspects of Vellum!
Performance, Art
We're addressing one of the Torn's greatest weapons against the Scribes - Framerate.
We've made absolutely massive strides in the performance of the game. Playing through a Tome, picking upgrades, waiting for the enemy to begin a battle, casting spells - there are thousands upon thousands of connections between the host of systems in Vellum.
Reducing the performance cost in any single item could have huge gains.
We've reduced the cost of: Projectiles, Area Effects, Scribe Passive Stats, Torn Passive Stats, Status Effects, Pages of Power, Signature Ink core mechanics, User Interface items, Screen Effects, Fog, Lighting, every action Scribes and Torn take - oh and the small item of networking all these things.
Multiplayer Games, High Appendix Runs, Steam Decks, PCs of varying power - no matter how you enjoy the magic ink, Vellum just became that much smoother to play!
Balancing Spells and Ink
Spells and Ink... dripping with potential!
We're buffing many spells in many ways based on feedback and the continually awesome community discussions! This also comes with some strategic redistribution of power of some spells (Eclipse) and a handful of minor (but needed) nerfs (Ghostwrite, Vault). You can read the huge amount of changes in the patch notes a the end of this blog post.
Affected Spells - Punctuate, Quip, Draw, Swoop, Passage, Blossom, Eclipse, Foreshadow, Flutterstep, Ghostwrite, Vault
Our goal with these changes is to make these spells all more competitive, while opening up their viability when combined with different signature inks (e.g. Draw)!
On the Signature Ink front, MANY inscriptions have been rebalanced and Green Ink has been the recipient of several quality of life changes (like a hud indicator) and significant buffs.
Remastering Tomes and Pacing
The Scribes explore magical strengths, collecting powerful Pages - and the Torn rise to meet them...
Tomes are the battleground of our colorful conflict with the Torn! Bigger and more compelling threats invite stronger choices and more dynamic strategies.
We've refactored the way encounters happen throughout the Tomes - strangely, it's a lot of work that hopefully fades into the background! You'll see a larger variety of foes as you play and the danger ramps up - setting you and the Torn up for more dramatic, compelling, and fluctuating battles!
For new players - we're also opening up the choice to jump into Appendices from the very start!
The Clarity of Bindings and Bosses
Deeper evils fester and brood!
Bindings have been rebalanced - we're upping the point values to give you more customization AND clarity in the ever-evolving battle with the Torn. Many Bindings now contribute much more to the Attunement goal while playing - though be warned, the Torn still grow stronger!
At the end of these newly re-organized Tomes, held together with reevaluated Bindings - who better to test your rebalanced Spells and Ink against than the Torn Bosses?
We'll be focusing (and talking) more on Bosses in the future - but In The Edit brings some fresh polish to our grand foes! There are visual and audio feedback enhancements across the board, with some behavior and cooldown adjustments thrown in - all in service of boss fights that put your Scribe skills to the ultimate test (while being clear, fair, balanced, and satisfying).
The Polish of Pages - and All Other Things!
Details on details on details...
This interlude patch includes so much additional detail - Chapter endings, UI sound effects, fanfare, feedback, and so on! One of the most noticeable changes will be Pages of Power, now much more clearly identifiable in their grandeur!
Magical Pages will now be appropriately decorated as Storied, Renowned, Epic, Legendary, or Unique (if you're lucky enough to read one)!
If any details stand out as your favorite or you have feedback to share with us, please do! So much of this update was driven by feedback; it is truly helpful to us.
Epilogue - One Big Library
Interlude Patch: In The Edit also brings a handful of new Nook items - and introduces the community-requested ability to place items under tables (push in your chair, create your own dioramas, get creative)!
This update went through a fluid process with a lot of builds going on the testing branch. Hunting bugs, giving suggestions, breaking things in brand new ways - thank you everyone who tested In The Edit ahead of time!
As we look to the horizon, Vellum's full launch is drawing closer - and you can definitely expect it to be a rather large update! In preparation for 1.0, we'll be targeting smaller, Interlude Patch-sized updates (a truly hilarious thing to say in this particular blog post - yes) that will allow us to stay responsive to feedback, squeeze in some cool extra stuff, and keep focused on the next verse of this saga!
Thank you for playing Vellum - go read a book!
- The Vellum Team
Interlude Patch: In The Edit - Full Patch Notes
Features
(Dev Note: Changing the format of today's patch notes to accommodate the amount of different items and categories.)
Gameplay Balance
Spells
Quip
- Mana Gen increased from .5 to .75.
- Page of Power: 'Snap Judgement' - Damage increased from 15 to 20. Now affects closer to center of impact point allowing Scribes to hit their target with the effect of Snap Judgement.
- Page of Power: 'Blowback' - now pushes Torn slightly back instead of the Scribe.
- Page of Power: 'Lasso' - Now slows enemies and causes Torn to take 30 damage over 3s instead of pulling the Torn to the Player.
- New Page: 'Lasso 2' - Torn take +30% Damage while Lassoed
Draw
- Based Damage per Card increased from 13 to 15.
- Base Mana Gen per Card increased from .3 to .34 (Hitting all shots baseline grants one full mana crystal)
- New VFX for when its spread resets.
- Impact SFX are louder.
- Base recoil reset time reduced from .95s to .9s
Punctuate
- Charge time decreased from .9s to .75s.
- Cooldown after firing a Charged shot reduced from .5s to .1s (Still .5s when rapid firing uncharged shots.)
- Fully Charged shots now knockback Torn slightly.
- Page of Power: 'Knight's Patience' - Added Charge Time reduced from .3s to .25s.
- Page of Power: 'Phalanx' - Now grants 20 Varnish while charging Punctuate and the Phalanx Shield persists until the Lance is fired.
- Page of Power: 'Follow Up Fling' - 100% chance to fire an extra projectile when fully charged.
- New Page of Power: 'Just a Scratch' - Lance impales the target dealing damage over time and increasing damage taken by Punctuate.
Swoop
- Page of Power: 'Albatross' - Damage Increase from 25% to 50%. Size Increase from 50% to 75%.
- Page of Power: 'Writer's Flock' - Bonus per Bird increased from 10% to 20%. Max bonus of 200% unchanged. Buff duration increased from 3s to 4s. (Should be quicker and easier to maintain the bonus.) Now unlocked by default.
- Page of Power: 'Murder' - Summon 2 extra birds down from 4. Damage reduction of 70% removed. Now unlocked by default.
- New Page of Power: 'Murder 2' - Summon 2 additional birds.
Blossom
- Blossom AoE Size increased from 8 to 12.
- Page of Power: 'Overgrowth' Damage bonus increased from 50% to 80%.
- Page of Power: 'Trunkate' Radius of Trunk AoE increase from 3m to 5m.
- New Page of Power: 'Every Rose' - Increases base damage of all Blossom effects by 50 (Scales with other multipliers.)
Eclipse
- Eclipse procs mana effects every 3s up from 2s.
- Eclipse procs additional effects every 3rd hit up from 2nd
- Eclipse base damage increased by 20%.
- Eclipse now correctly displays purple ink material
Passage
- AoE Size increased 50% baseline.
- Projectile Speed increased from 15 to 25.
- Improved VFX for Signature Ink infused casts.
- Page of Power: 'Once Upon a Time' - Now also increases damage based on distance traveled. Quality increased from Superior to Epic.
- Page of Power: 'Timelord' - Torn take increasing damage from Passage while in its AoE.
- Page of Power: 'Flashback' - Now also Increases Passage Damage by 35%.
Flutterstep
- Improved functionality and resolved issues where Scribe could get stuck on obstacles during the movement.
- Distance increased from 40 to 50.
- Cooldown reduced from 6s to 5s.
Scribe, Library, And Other Spells
- Movement: Foreshadow now applies a Debuff that causes the target to take +10% damage. Can only be applied to one target at a time.
- Movement: Ghostwrite cooldown increased by time spent in ghost form
- Inscription: 'Reclaimed' grants 5 Barrier per Mana on Secondary Cast.
- Signature Spell: Teal will now only play the active cancel/auto cancel SFX locally
- Effect: 'Impervious' now has a 1.5s CD
- Effect: 'Parry' now has a 1.5s CD
- Generator: Manifest has an updated preview video in the Spellbook
- Font Power titles are now colorized based on rarity
- 5 New Nook Furnishings
- Open areas underneath Nook Furnishings can be used (e.g. push in a chair!)
Signature Inks
Blue
- Elastic Inscription Removed
- New Inscription: 'Leidenfrost' - Gain 1 Barrier per blot tick.
- Page of Power: 'Seeped' - Typo fix to clarify it increases Torn Damage Taken by 30%.
- Blue Ultimate visuals have been improved.
Yellow
- Burst of Speed and Vaulted Inscriptions removed.
- New Inscription: Defensive Flourish - Grants 3 Barrier on Flourish Spell Cast
- New Inscription: Bursty - Deals 7% of Flourish Damage to nearby Torn
- Economical Strokes, Defensive Flourish, Polished Performance, and Routine Inscriptions now proc when a flourishing spell is cast instead of flourish damage instances.
Green
- Your Inkling now has an indicator over it.
- Inkling Primary Damage increased by 40%
- Inkling Cast Size and Damage increased by 33%
- Inkling Cast deals more damage to the Inkling's Target
- Inkling gains base damage when the Scribe's Ink Level grants damage bonuses
- Propellant Inscription Removed.
- New Inscription 'Guard Dog' - Gain 3 Barrier per Inkling Cast
- Inscription: 'Racer' - Now Procs from Inkling Casts and grants the Inkling Movement speed as well.
- Page of Power: Fore! Bonus reduced from 250% to 200% (The total damage between Fore! and the Inkling Cast buff results in the same damage bonus)
Pink
- Inscription: 'Rendered' - Now grants 6 Varnish down from 8 per Pink Mana Cast.
- Inscription: 'Stratum' - Now grants 5 Barrier up from 3.
Orange
- New visual indicator for Atlas and all Atlas effects use the same range.
- Proximal Talent (+10% Damage) now applies to all nearby Scribes
The Torn
- Torn Damage scaling reduced slightly at Binding levels 1-10 and Appendix 1 and 2.
- Golgor now aims his main blade slash at his primary target with the Broken Spines binding enabled
- "Big" Cap Mushroom Spawning Visual improvements
- Missra now shows a warning indicator ! above the Scribe she targets for dropping Erupt pools
- Fractalux has additional visual and audio feedback for Tail Blasts and the Grand Orb attacks
- Harvest has additional visual and audio feedback for Swipe, Swipe Portals, and Reap
- Harvest has additional visual and audio feedback for the spawning and successful collection of Dispelling Gusts (used to combat the Death Winds slow)
- Harvest has updated movement behavior and a more dynamic dodge
- Klastron has additional visual telegraphing before his global Backflip Pull
- Klastron has additional visual and audio telegraphing for Slam attacks (should now properly appear)
- Klastron will now Backflip Pull half as often and will use other attacks more frequently
- Crombul has additional visual telegraphing before his global Spin Pull
- Crombul has additional visual and audio feedback for Rock Throw, Ground Spikes, and successfully being stunned by Scribes
- Shards of Crombul now properly function when below Binding 7+
- Shards of Crombul now flash when Crombul is in range
- Tserak has additional visual and audio feedback for Lifeflash, Lingering Blast, and Memory Flood attacks
- Tserak's Reverie Crystals have additional visual and audio feedback
- Tserak has updated movement behavior
- Blaze: 'Eruption' - Fixed issue where the boulder target circles were not always appearing.
- Mummy: 'Embalm' - (Primary projectile attack) wind up is .2s longer and has new VFX and SFX.
- Ogre: 'Charge' - Fixed issue where Charge would not be recast.
- Dire Zombie: Adjusted animation speed on movement and added new SFX to abilities.
- Acolyte: 'Dark Orbs' - (Primary projectile attack) Orbs now scale over time like the Overflow orbs.
- Scorpion: 'Burrow's poison pool now follows the Scorpion if it's knocked away.
- Crab: 'Bubbles' - Adjusted visuals so that it should be more visible.
- Shade: 'Shade Throw' - Projectile timing matches up closer to its animation.
- Glint: 'Slice' - New VFX and SFX for its wind up
- Zombie: New SFX for abilities
- Bindings: Point Values for a large majority of Bindings have been reworked
- Bindings have been re-organized in the Binding interface
- Binding: Revolution now increases damage from Minor Torn (was health and damage)
- Binding: Red & Black now adds health to Minor Torn (was just damage)
- Bindings: Unlock requirements for Toxic, Amorphous, Excessive Edits are now visible in the UI
Pacing, Visuals, and Misc
- Tomes: All now have significant updates to combat pacing and enemy variety (including Appendices)
- Facing the Appendices is now available in all Tomes from the start of the game (ie. first-tome players can try endless!)
- Torn Page Selection Screen now reveals choices faster
- Start of Game: Total Binding level will now be displayed, and Binding lineup will overflow to a new line
- Pages of Power now indicate their quality level (Storied, Renowned, Epic, Legendary, Unique) with text, fanfare, and additional visual elements
- Picking up a new Page of Power (from Elites, Bonus Objectives, etc.) will now display information in the top left corner of the screen
- New "Victory" fanfare and splash when completing a Tome
- Additional end of Chapter and end of Tome visual and audio fanfare
- Additional end of Chapter and Page of Power Reward sequence visual and audio fanfare
- Challenge Stat tracking only tracked during Waves now. (Used to track when hitting training dummies spawned after clearing a tome/appendix.)
- Excalibur Quality changed from Legendary to Unique
- Tome: On the Nature of Seasons now grants a jump buff to Scribes who pass through leaves in Autumn
- Tome: Prologue has an updated pacing, combat area selection, and enemy set
- Tome: Quarry will now properly indicate the Quarry's Chosen foe
- Vignette: Mycelium Quarry fixed typo
- Vignette: A Giant, Felled fxed typo in lore page
- Tutorial now has additional audio feedback
General Gameplay and Performance
- Performance: Reduced the cost of using Signature Mana vs Neutral Mana
- Perf: Reduced the cost of damage numbers from Scribe damage taken
- Perf: Reduced the cost of high volume of projectiles
- Perf: Reduced the cost of "randomly placed" location effects from circles/spheres
- Perf: Reduced the cost of "randomly moving" and dynamic effects
- Improved Save File validation and recovery flow
- New visual effects on Boss spawn
- Steam Deck: performance enhancements and font scaling, adjustments for lower resolutions
- Improvements to Floating Combat Text performance
- Improved visual and audio fanfare for unlocking Signature Inks
- Torn Pages now display "Applies to Boss!" if they will applicable to the upcoming Boss
- Improved audio feedback for Bonus Objectives starting
- Open areas underneath Nook Furnishings can be used (e.g. push in a chair!)
- Improved visual and audio fanfare for Scriptorium interactions