Interlude Patch: Till Death
Good day, Scribes - we hope you've been braving the seasons and studying up on your Inks since our last Chapter! We've heard a lot of excitement for Pink - thank you for your enthusiasm! Today, we're rolling out our newest Interlude Patch: Till Death!
This patch addresses community feedback on death, danger, performance, Bonus Objectives, and balance! We also introduce a tiny new Boss we found. Let's take a look at the patch! (And, as always, you can check out the roadmap in-game to track our progress - and see what's next!)
Revisiting Danger and Death
We love high-stakes windows in games; skill, luck, instinct, preparation - you meet the challenge with everything you've got! Victory or defeat, you face your moment of truth head-on.
In Till Death, we're making targeted changes to improve these moments. Previously, these high-stakes windows came and went too quickly without us knowing we were in them. That makes it hard for players to excel in the spotlight - to come out with a clear and earned victory or satisfying and fair defeat. The goal: You must FEEL when the stakes are high and BELIEVE you can affect them.
Our major changes: One-Shot Protection, Last Stand Removal (Solo), Last Stand Rework (Multiplayer)
One-Shot Protection - High danger hits are more likely to leave you at low health, allowing for players to react and take more dramatic advantage of moment-to-moment strategy and long-term build-making. This affects all Scribes (any levels, solo and multiplayer) and will not prevent death from intentional "Annihilation-level" events.
Last Stand Removal (Solo) - We want the "fight for your life!" drama to happen in the naturally occurring dire moments carved out by One-Shot Protection and your defensives/builds. Ink Level revives still function and have new places in the Ink Level unlock order.
Last Stand Rework (Multiplayer) - Reviving other players functions similarly to the current behavior. Downed Scribes may now choose to activate their Ink Level revives or keep fighting to fill up their revive bar. This bar is still capped and requires a teammate to stand nearby to finish the process. All downed Scribes now use a ranged Ink Torrent spell to damage foes from any range and stay engaged with the game around them.
Splice Boss - "Big" Cap
We've foraged for a new Boss to add to the Torn roster: "Big" Cap! This fun little guy is just a cute and cuddly Splice Boss.
It's probably best to let him plant all the mushrooms he wants...
Pages of Power, Balance & Tuning, and Bonus Objectives
We keep expanding the Codex! Till Death (as always) brings new Pages of Power - including an avenue for some Generator-centric builds!
We've also spent some time tuning Blue, not only with some new pages and adjustments, but a buff to the Spread keyword! Blue's ability to tackle larger threats should be enhanced, while still keeping value on multi-dotting.
Bonus Objectives have all been tweaked! Based on some player feedback and a couple pieces of new tech, we've taken a light touch to nearly every Bonus Objective. Notably, we've also taken a performance pass to help clean up some wild and unwieldy combos (or strange occurrences with ally/foes tags getting confused).
Thank you for playing Vellum and sharing your thoughts with us!
- The Vellum Team
Interlude Patch: Till Death - Full Patch Notes
Features
Danger and One-Shot Protection
-- Being at low health is now a more visible and audible state
-- Heavy damage that would instantly kill Scribes is now more likely to leave Scribes in the low health state
-- This applies to all Scribes, has an internal cooldown, and does not save from "Annihilation-level" events
Last Stand
-- Last Stand (Solo): removed entirely, Scribes will still use Ink Level Revives. (Dev Note: We want the "fight for your life!" drama to happen in the naturally occurring dire moments carved out by One-Shot Protection and your defensives/builds.)
-- Last Stand (Multiplayer): Downed Scribes may choose to self-revive, or partially fill their revive bar with a new ranged spell (replacing Generator while downed).
New Splice Boss: "Big"Cap
-- This Boss may now appear in any appropriate Tomes
- New Tooltip Icons for major Keywords: Signature Inks, Varnish, Freeze, Marked, Weakened, Impervious, Invulnerable, Parry, Silence
- Ink Level perks have been re-ordered to speed up initial access to Revives
- Pause Menu now shows players in current game
- New Ping system icons
- Adjusted placement of Region Selector in Multiplayer
- Bonus Objective Adjustments and Dynamic Text: Flag, Escort, Bear the Burden, Header, Hungering Orb, Mana Bribe, Verticality, Hidden Folk
Scribes, Pages, Torn
- Blue Keyword: Spread now transfers up to 10 stacks of Blot (was 5)
- Page of Power: Leach Shield now grants 2% of Blot damage as Barrier (was 1 flat Barrier per tick)
- Page of Power: Bleedthrough now grants between 25% - 200% bonus damage based on number of Blotted enemies (was when only 1 enemy affected by Blot)
- Page of Power: Seeped now increases damage dealt to Blotted targets (was Marked)
- Page of Power: Exposing Tether now applies Marked (was increases damage to Tethered foes) (Dev Note: This swap allows Blue to enhance Blot beyond and on top of sources of Marked - adding to the evolving potency of the debuff-centric focus of Blue)
- Page of Power: Light Leakage will now only show up in Page selection
- Page of Power: The New Author can now Flourish
- Page of Power: Abstract Details damage bonus increased to +50% (was +25%)
- Page of Power: Bounce Around should now bounce around in a more appropriate and performance-friendly manner
- Page of Power: Collecting My Thoughts performance improvements
- The following Pages of Power are now credited for damage dealt in the Post-Game UI:
Draining Force, Snap Judgement, Lasso, Set Up Shop, Crimson Slice, Molten Slag, Bolt of Inspiration, Ellipses, Ship It, Time to Duel, Damage Ramp, Exposing Tether, Blood Lance, Surge
- Torn Page: Thanks Phalanx should be more performance-friendly
- Splice Boss: Golgor should no longer inappropriately remove the Impervious status during Annihilation
- Splice Boss: Golgor should now appropriately launch ranged attacks from above ground
- Tangent Boss: Harvest ability hitboxes adjusted to be more accurate
- Tangent Elite: Huntsman's telegraph for aimed shot should now visually persist appropriately
- Tangent: Bold-er stone hand ability adjusted to impact Player Camera less often
- Tangent: Bolter powerful snipe ability now displays as High danger
- Tangent: Bold-er stone throw ability adjusted visual impacts
- Raving: Bear maul ability has more accurate hitbox and cleaner visuals
Fixes
- Post-game UI now has additional buffer period before being interactable
- Fixed an issue with Player-summoned creatures counting as Torn (leading to some shenanigans)
- Fixed a bug allowing Sub-Binding activation without base Bindings activated
- Visual Adjustment to Dusk's Sunset ability, Torn Page: Singularity, Font Power: Ultimate Insult
- Scribes should now be safe between Chapters
- Signature Challenge: Virtuoso should now appropriately trigger for Yellow Ink users
- Fixed a time-scale issue causing improper targeting of Scribes