Final Stardust: Cosmic Nexus update for 6 March 2024

Battle Modes

Yes, I was greedy as usual haha, hence the delay. This is a BIG update because I decided to add new battle modes on top of adding tons of overdrive effects.

The current mode is now called "Supersonic". This is a very fast paced format made for digital games.
The first new mode is called "Paragon". This is a slower format, made for a TCG format.
The second new mode is called "Apeiron". This is a very simplistic and very slow format. This is for people who want old school mechanics.

The great thing about this is that you can use the different modes to slowly learn how to play the game. Apeiron > Paragon > Supersonic. We are just missing a rulebook now and it'll be perfect.

I noticed the Supersonic mode was dumping too much info at once so I hope these new modes will make the learning curve smoother. Apeiron for example doesn't have Mazai/Overdrive effects and attacks only work if your Plano's EP is higher than the rival's EP.

Effects

I have added so many new effects so bugs might happen. Thanks for those always sending feedback for that.

I haven't added all the Plano effects yet but one thing I started to realize is how big the game is getting especially for a solo dev. The effects are going towards 400+
and I am definitely starting to feel the technical debt (the game was never meant to go this far).

There are 100 Planos, so 100 effects. Each Plano has an overdrive effect. So 200 effects overall. Each Plano has a Dark form so an extra 100 effects (coming soon).
Each Dark Plano has an overdrive too (coming soon) so it'll add another 100. Overall, we have 400 effects. This is without mentioning the 20 Mazai effects that are now complete.

I hope all of this gives tons of deckbuilding options, especially with Regular & Dark Planos having cross-compatible evolutions.

I will give more details about the battle modes later, for now have fun testing things and see how they work.

TCG Ideas/Discussion

Balancing will always be done around the Supersonic format to keep battles dynamic.

In a paper/TCG format, I think all the values being divided by 100 will simplify all the battle calculations. Another concern in a TCG is calculating the HP/EP for each
Plano. Since this is a "digital" format, it's ok to let the game handle big numbers like it is doing now. However, I am thinking of bringing back effects to only work with the player's Vortex and not both (which is another indirect nerf), so each player will have his own Vortex once again.

As for the space counter resource I would expect it to be some extra cards that you have as an extra deck. Then you put them below your field and each turn you add a new card there. To consume a space counter you just rotate the card to the side and at the end of the turn it goes back to normal.

We are still far from having anything physical but it was fun testing some new ideas.

It's worth mentioning that some Plano effect can be obsolete in certain battle modes. For example those that are involved with residual space counters.
So the utility of a card can vary depending on the battle mode. Not only these battles modes will add more game content but they will also give you a reason
to utilize more deck slots in the deckbuilding UI. I might bring back the 9 space counters to the Paragon and Apeiron modes though because residual space counters don't work.

I will eventually add a sort of a one page rulebook later that covers all the small details like "Celestial Planos can't be debuffed". Like with the battle tutorial I don't want to add a guide that keeps changing.

CARD FRAME

Using the cards more often will change their frame. You can check the usage number in the card preview with right clicks (outside of battle).
Default = Black.
Silver = 50 uses.
Gold = 100 uses.
This will be covered later when I add a tutorial about deckbuilding.

CHANGES

• FEATURE: Card frames now change color after using the card a certain amount of times (black = default, silver = 50, gold = 100).
• FEATURE: Added a new battle mode called "Apeiron" that focuses on the basics.
• FEATURE: Added a new battle mode called "Paragon" that's closer to a TCG format.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where some Mazai effects don't work if there is only one Plano in the lane.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where Fenroar (mercury) effect didn't update the enemy stats.
• FIX: Fixed Kisurai effect working for level 1 instead of level 2.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where tooltip didn't work for status effects in battle.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the Planodex would crash sometimes.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the Harimoru line was showing wrong info in the tooltip.
• TEXT: Current battle mode is now called "Supersonic".
• TEXT: Fixed all Mazai effect descriptions.
• TEXT: Updated all effect descriptions.
• TEXT: Updated all overdrive effect descriptions.
• TEXT: Updated tooltip for all effects.
• TEXT: Updated tooltip for all overdrive effects.
• UI: Added a UI to choose battle modes before starting a battle.
• BALANCING: Tanno Mazai now gives 300 MG instead of 500.
• BALANCING: Decreased all Awakened Planos costs to 4 instead of 8.
• GAMEPLAY: Turns now start at 40 with the Apeiron mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Overdrive effects now don't work in the Apeiron mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Mazai effects now don't work in the Apeiron mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Mazai slot positions now aren't randomized in the Apeiron and Paragon battle modes.
• GAMEPLAY: Lane positions now aren't randomized in the Apeiron and Paragon battle modes.
• GAMEPLAY: Attacks don't decrease HP unless the attacker has higher EP than the defender in the Apeiron mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Turns now start at 28 with the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Only one card is now drawn per turn in the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: The second player now draws a card in his first turn in the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Hand cards are now not discarded at the end of the turn in the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Mahgi now starts at 8000 in the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Mahgi now starts at 10000 in the Apeiron mode.
• GAMEPLAY: Residual space counters now are unusable in the Paragon mode.
• GAMEPLAY: The Musa Mazai effect is now moved to Geno.
• VISUAL: Overdrive effects don't show in the Apeiron mode.
• VISUAL: The RSC is now only visible in the Supersonic battle mode.
• VISUAL: Fixed Mazai name typo in card tooltip in battle.
• VISUAL: Removed Manga loading animation before battle.
• VISUAL: Changed the info UI when right clicking on a field Plano in battle.
• VISUAL: Added lanes in battles.
• CONTENT: Removed all overdrive effects for Dark Planos (will be replaced by unique ones later).
• CONTENT: Added new Mazai effects (x9).
• CONTENT: Added new Plano effects (x6).
• CONTENT: Added new Dark Plano effects (x2).
• CONTENT: Added new Overdrive effects (x37).
• SAVING: Leaving the deck list UI now triggers file saving too.
• AUDIO: Disabled SFX for residual space counters.