Patch 0.11 - Burdens and Balance

I thought I'd have a couple days to relax after release, but I heard the feedback, and I immediately got to work to address every issue from bug to balance that I could. It can be easy to get lead astray by my own mastery of the game from months of testing, and forget how it might feel to be a new player. That's why I like to enter Early Access so - well - early. It's much easier to rapidly iterate when 90% of the game isn't locked in from years of work.

The next update will be adding the first unlockable meta upgrades for you all to play around with, and I'm excited to build on it further in future updates beyond. I'll also be trying to add more content to every aspect of the game that's already available with smaller patches along the way. Keep the feedback coming, and please leave a review if you're having fun with the game.

On with today's patch!

Patch Overview

Across the board, changes have been made in this patch to speed players along in the game. In testing the launch build, average stage times were around 1.5-2.5 minutes, but many players seem to be in levels for 5+ minutes. It's important to the gameplay that players still have to focus on balancing level completion speed (to mitigate the ever increasing threat meter) with need for resources, but these changes should keep players from feeling stuck.

Burdens, Sacrifices, and Portal mechanics have also seen a large rework and rebalance, and hopefully they'll offer a more consistent, smoother difficulty curve. See the notes below for all the ways these have changed. Oh, and you no longer slow down when you recharge your staff!

Beyond that, you can expect a menu/gamepad control overhaul, simplified and clarified tutorials, even more balance changes, and bug fixes, and even a few small optimizations.

One last note (before more patch notes): The 2 new burdens have been moved to patch 0.11a. They need a little more time cooking, I need a little more sleep, and I really wanted to get all these other changes out ASAP. There are still a pile of burden updates, and all the new/revised sacrifices to keep things interesting.

Patch 0.11 Notes

Note: You can always just jump into the new, simplified tutorial, to learn about most of the major changes

Video Update

• A small number of users, including those that previously had no issues with my last game Gunlocked, have reported frame stuttering issues. I've made an adjustment to see if there is an improvement. If your gameplay experience improves (or gets worse) please let me know.

Portal Update

• Portals now always passively charge after burdens are completed, and no longer reset if you step outside of their radius. The passive charge is very slow.

• The base charging radius is slightly smaller. Because the portal auto-charges, and sacrifices are no longer permanent (see below), this change is not the increase to difficulty that it might seem.

• At each major portal checkpoint, extra gems spawn around the portal itself, and extra portal phantoms appear. The amounts scale with the level you're on.

• Being directly on the portal will charge it slightly faster

• Threat increases ever so slightly faster while the portal is unlocked to account for how much faster the game speed can be.

• Achievement Update: The Portal Dancer achievement now says "Spend a total of 45 seconds standing directly on the portal while it is charging in a single game."

Burden Updates

• Burden of Blood: Required kills is reduced at higher threat levels.

• Burden of Restraint: Fairies now move much faster when you're inside their radius, and slightly faster when left alone. They take +2 hits to destroy. Required fairies reduced at higher threat levels.

• Burden of Traps: Mines take -2 attack to trigger, and detonate much faster. This should make them less tedious and more dangerous. Mines needed reduced at higher threat levels. Note: Mine damage was previously not registering properly, but this should be fixed. With that fix in place, and the rapid detonation time, damage from the mines has now been decreased from what was previously stated.

• Burden of Haste: Haste totems now spawn faster, and grant 3.5 seconds of haste up from 3 seconds. Required totems is reduced at all threat levels.

• Burden of Patience: Now always 120 seconds at all threat levels, and no longer increases.

• Burden of Bounties: Bounties required reduced at all threat levels. Bounty Runes spawn twice as fast.

• Burden of Phantoms: Needed phantom triggers reduced across all threat levels.

• Burden of Brevity: Now always 25 seconds at all threat levels. The passive portal charge speed is increased to account for the new portal changes.

Sacrifice Updates

All sacrifices are now either temporary, or have a goal/limit that will remove them. Note: In the future I may add permanent sacrifices back into the mix at higher difficulties.

• Each burden will now be paired with a unique sacrifice. Duplicates should no longer appear in a single burden selection screen.

• Sacrifice Choice: -2 boon choices for the next 3/4/4 rolls. This effect can stack, but you will never go below 1 boon choice.

• Sacrifice Destinations: -1 burden choices for the next 2/2/2 rounds. This effect can stack, but you will never go below 1 burden choice.

• Sacrifice Almost Everything > Sacrifice of Half: Lose 50% of your current health. If you survive the round, you're restored to 100% health.

• Sacrifice Space: The portal radius is 15% smaller this round, and portal phantom damage radius is 50% larger.

• Sacrifice Time: The portal will not charge passively and takes 20/25/30% longer to charge this round.

• Sacrifice Rerolls: Rerolls cost 30/50/100 more in the upcoming shop phase
  New Sacrifices

• Charges: You only get a maximum of 2 charges for your next 20/35/40 staff recharges.

• Loot: The next 5 chests you open are empty. This effect can stack.

• Dinner: The next 5 chickens don't heal you. This effect can stack.

• Speed: While recharging your staff, your movement speed is reduced by 50% this round

Gamepad Controls

• You can now freely move between menu zones where it makes sense, no longer requiring the quick swap zone buttons, but they still work to speed up the process

• You can now press cancel in any menu with a side bar to jump to the side bar

• D-pad should now be properly functioning for movement/menus

Mouse and Keyboard

• Left click should no longer skip texts or the end game menu if you bind it to both "shoot" and "accept"

• Esc should now properly quit from all menus even if not bound to menu cancel

Misc. Balance

• Gem collection range has been increased 60%

• You no longer slowdown while recharging (but there are cursed boons and a sacrifice that can add this back in)

• Portal Phantoms now detonate after 1.5 seconds, down from 2. Note: With no movement slowdown while recharging, escape is now much easier, and this may need to be even faster.

• Chargelight Curse: Every time a beam is created, there's a 50% chance a random enemy takes 30 damage. Expend 1 staff charge whenever this triggers. This will not trigger if only 1 charge remains. Old Ability: 100% chance to do 25 damage, and could reduce your charges to 0.

• Final boss has had his health slightly reduced

Tutorials and Text

• All texts for the starting area and the in-game tutorial have been streamlined and simplified. New information has been added, especially regarding some of the gameplay updates while flavor text has been mostly removed (except the very first intro text) for brevity's sake.

• New tutorial tip added to explain the talent tree previews in the Boon menu, and how talent pools/unlocking work

• Some of the early battle tips are a bit more spread out

• When you pause in-game, you'll now see a text box explaining the burden goal and the current sacrifice

Quality of Life

• The Exit button is now clear in the boon menu

• The "press keyboard key" prompt has been adjusted so it's not confusing. I currently do not have sprites for every available keyboard binding, so the game uses a generic "accept" key.

• New visual effects and sound triggers at each portal checkpoint

• Your class portrait will now flash red while your health is at or below 20

• If you have the popup health bar enabled, it will remain on screen when at or below 20 health

• A sound now plays when your innate ability is available, in addition to the swirling orb visual

• Various enemy sprites have been optimized in memory

• The game icon has been updated on windows. Was using accidentally placeholder, instead of the icon seen in Steam.

Bugs

• The game should no longer remain dim after beating the final boss and returning to the main menu

• Auto-Aim should no longer default to chickens and chests that are too far away, when enemies are close, and has better respect for various threats

• Fixed an issue causing the recharge meter graphics to desync

• Boons that have been purchased can no longer be locked

• You should no longer need to press accept twice when text boxes first pop up.

• The boon "Solicitotem" should no longer break collectibles, leaving them floating around you

• Pyromancer could dash in the wrong direction when using keyboard. Not able to replicate the issue, but attempted to put in a fix.