Final Stardust: Cosmic Nexus update for 2 March 2024

PUBLISHER

I am glad to say that I found a publisher (Freedom games) to help me with console releases. I can talk more about this in the future, let's go back to the game itself for now.

I was going to make some updates related to Plano effects but I ran out of time. Therefore I will push a quick update in 1-2 days with many new Plano effects. This patch was mainly about having the possibility to create multiple decks (30 slots overall).

Now I want to cover some features we can implement in the future. Let's discuss!

1) NEW BATTLE MODE?

Since I slowed down the patch release pace a bit I started with some clean up in the project and I added a couple of changes to the cards to make them more "understandable".

I am also planning on adding a new game mode that is based on a TCG format. I think for a digital game it's better to have very dynamic battles, however, TCGs are a different story.

Since I would like to experiment with a TCG someday, I think it'll be cool to add a game mode now that we can experiment with. The TCG format should still keep the "simple" aspect of the game while making battles a bit longer. I think this is also a good way to add more content since every battle can be played in 2 different ways.

The only problem with this is the game wasn't conceived with other game modes in mind so there might be some bugs and changes will happen over a couple of patches. The most
tricky part is definitely the Plano effect descriptions.

For now here is the concept I have:

a) New win condition. Turns will start at 40 instead of 16 and if you don't have any card left to draw you lose.
b) Each player will have his own Vortex (previously Black hole)?.
c) Only one card is drawn each turn instead of 5.
d) Cards in hand don't go to the Vortex (previously Black hole) at the end of the turn.
e) MG increased to 8000?.
f) All stats and effect numbers are divided by 100 for easier calculations? For example a 2200 HP will be 22 HP only. 500 effect damage will become 5 damage only.
The MG will be 80 instead of 8000. I am not sure about this one.
g) Disable residual space counters? A bit tricky since some Planos have effects related to it.

Let me know if you have some extra ideas.

2) STORY MODE?

So it seems like many people are interested in a Story mode but I am still not sure about this one. This is why I would like to get more feedback about it.

Here are a couple of problems:

a) I don't want to spend time on a story only for people to skip all the dialogue.
b) The story won't be as good as the manga version and will have an alternative ending that's more adapted to a video game.
c) Late release. This is definitely my mistake. However, if I release a story and the difficulty slowly increases with it most people will find it boring
because they already have maxed out decks before playing it. The only way I can see this working is if the story mode is after the Astral link mode (winning against
all the characters in the map) and will have maxed out difficulty (very strong decks) from the start.
d) Player freedom. Initially I wanted to have characters unlock one by one but I think that's a bit limiting in terms of what you can do. It might be more interesting to have all the characters
unlocked at once and you choose your own way of making progress (especially once there is actual progression). This is especially true for a game without a story mode (at least for now).

This is why I am hesitating a bit with a story mode. If you have other ideas for the story let me know. I want to make sure I spend my time on features that people want.

WHAT'S NEXT

• It's about time I add the avatar creation haha. I will add it and the battle tutorial will be a must watch with it before starting the game.
• Player level system with a choice of 3 random Dark cards after each level up.

CHANGES

• FIX: Fixed Dark forms not having the same stats as Regular forms for costs.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the Jupiter starter deck has non-Jupiter cards.
• FEATURE: Unlocked all deck slots (x30) with EDIT, DELETE, MAIN, COPY actions.
• GAMEPLAY: All level 2+ Planos can now overdrive even without an evolution.
• GAMEPLAY: Card usage is now a stat that is tracked for each card (the card will border changes at some point, not implemented yet).
• BALANCING: Nerfed the Chiiru line effect to 30 EP per level instead of 100.
• BALANCING: Nerfed the Nendochi line effect to 200 per level.
• TEXT: Renamed "PlanosGod" to just "God".
• TEXT: Renamed "Number of possible attacks" to "Number of attacks".
• TEXT: Renamed "Black hole" to "Vortex".
• TEXT: Changed "Training" in menu to "Tutorial" (until image tutorials are added).
• TEXT: Fixed playstyle descriptions when selecting decks.
• LOGIC: Changed Plano naming system.
• LOGIC: Changed Mazai naming system.
• CONTENT: Added new Plano effect (x1).
• CONTENT: Removed Plano Zodiac Signs.
• CONTENT: Removed all Dark Plano effects based on regular Planos (x100).
• VISUAL: Updated card boxes for effects and overdrive.
• VISUAL: Added pre-evolution image on cards.
• VISUAL: Changed Vortex animation in battle.
• VISUAL: Fixed a glitch on menu button images.
• VISUAL: Changed settings button in menu.
• VISUAL: Added comma to high blue stardust currency numbers.
• VISUAL: Card previews now show how many times a card has been used.
• VISUAL: Cards in deck viewer are now sorted (element selection).
• UI: Changed the "Roadmap" button to a "manga" button.
• UI: Removed disabled buttons in menu.