Hello Heroes!

Welcome to our new important update for the Open Beta, in which the main focus is to fix the frustrations linked to the economy of the game.

The last Beta patch sparked a lot of discussion on the game’s economy and helped us get better information on how players perceived it. We were already aware of the problems with goldmines for example, but not that production buildings were frowned upon.

However, a lot of things in the game cannot be balanced in a vacuum, especially gold sources. Thus, we had to tweak a lot of aspects of the game, and even rework the way panic is generated. For this reason, this update is bigger than what we usually do in the beta branch.

We hope the following changes redirect the dynamics of the game in a more pleasant direction than before economy wise.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1105670/view/3222896627771752948
However, keep in mind that a lot of the changes are also meant to pave the way for the next big updates, especially the Meta Rework coming later this year, so some of them will make more sense when the time comes.

Summary:

• Goldmine & Scavenger Camp rebalance
  
• Panic rework
  
• Changelog
  

GOLDMINE & SCAVENGER CAMP REBALANCE

A lot of players were frustrated by the dynamic of Goldmines: they felt mandatory if you wanted to have a good run, made the first nights pretty hard and the last nights very easy. This problem has been reinforced by recent changes to other buildings, making it possible to build and upgrade nearly all buildings in your Haven.

With the following changes, we want to make goldmines more cost effective at the start, while greatly reducing their maximum gold output. The start of a run should feel less “tight” economy wise, and the opposite will be true for the later portions of a run.

As Scavenger Camps follow the same model as Goldmines, they were also changed.

Goldmine

Gold cost: 45 => 60
Base gold production: 10 => 25

Mine action now costs 2 workers to perform.

Changed all upgrades. New upgrade list:

Production+
Costs 60 gold
Improves gold generated 25 => 35

Mine+
Costs 30 gold
Workers required 2 => 1

Mine++
Costs 40 gold
Uses per production 1 => 2

Scavenger Camp

Gold cost: 45 => 60
Base Material production: 20 => 35

Changed all upgrades. New upgrade list:

Production+
Costs 60 gold
Improves materials generated 35 => 50

Scavenge+
Costs 30 gold
Workers required 2 => 1

Scavenge++
Costs 40 gold
Uses per production 1 => 2

PANIC REWORK

The goal of this rework is to make panic less of a binary situation: up until now, you would get mostly S-Rank night clears, until one difficult night where suddenly a big part of the Haven is breached and you drop to a C/D-Rank. We want to make the Panic scale to be more meaningful and nuanced overall, with more situations where players can get intermediary rankings.

You may feel more pressured (ok, maybe not during the first nights…), but it is actually slightly easier to have better rewards than before - we tried to base our updated economy on getting an A-rank, as well as decreasing a bit the penalty of ranking lower.

On a side note, this comes together with the economic rework for a reason: hopefully, with the Gold Mines being less “resource hungry” and the potential dread of a lesser Panic rank, it might be more relevant in some cases to build a Scavenger Camp.

Panic Increase

Panic generated when an enemy hits a building now depends on how much the building was damaged by the attack, instead of just multiplying the underlying Panic value of the enemy as it used to be.

ANY building inside the Haven will generate panic when hit, including Defenses. Buildings have varying panic values, meaning that some buildings generate more panic when hit:

• Walls, Barricades & Ruins generate a very low amount of panic. The more health a wall has, the less panic it will generate with each hit, since their total Panic value remains unchanged (and Walls have also been buffed a bit, cf. Changelog section further down).
  
• Other Defenses generate a moderate amount of panic.
  
• Structures (town buildings) generate a high amount of panic.
  
• The Magic Circle generates a lot of panic, as it should!

This means that Havens open to the four winds and with a lot of structures will tend to generate more panic than Havens fortified with a lot of sturdy walls, or with a more compact design. Panic should feel more gradual than before, especially when properly defended.

Another noteworthy change is that from now on monsters within your Haven won’t generate any panic as long as they are stunned.

As usual all of this can and will probably be tweaked over time.

Rewards

S Rank now gives items with a slightly higher rarity than before..

A Rank now also gives an item! Albeit being of lower rarity (Common..Rare), this is not to be sniffed at.

All Gold and Material rewards have been rebalanced to fit the scale of the updated economy, which is expected to be less exponential.

As stated earlier, we tried to base our updated economy on getting an A-rank, as well as decreasing the resources penalty of ranking lower.

CHANGELOG

Houses

Limit on buildable Houses: 5 => 4
Base price: 40 => 30 Gold.
House Expansion price: 30 => 40 Gold.
House Expansion+ price: 80 => 70 Gold.

Production Buildings

Armor Maker base price: 80 => 65 Gold.
Bowyer/Blacksmith/Magic Shop price: 90 => 65 Gold.
Alchemist/Jeweler base price: 100 => 75 Gold.

Production+ upgrade price: 110 => 100 Gold.
Production ++ upgrade price: 130 => 120 Gold.

Help + upgrade price: 50 => 40 Gold.
Help ++ upgrade price: 80 => 60 Gold.
Help +++ upgrade price: 100 => 80 Gold.

Production buildings now give +1 and +2 items from the start.
Removed one level upgrade. New list is as follows:

Level+, costs 150, gives +2 and +3 items.
Level++, costs 300, gives +3 and +4 items.
Level+++, costs 560, gives +4 and +5 items.

Walls

Barricade price: 7 => 8 Materials.

Reinforced Wooden Wall price: 30 => 25 Materials.

Stone Wall price: 45 => 40 Materials.
Stone Wall Health: 215 => 275

Reinforced Stone Wall price: 60 => 50 Materials.
Reinforced Stone Wall Health: 330 => 385

Ballistas

Seasoned Operator upgrade price: 50 Gold => 40 Materials.

Inn

Accomodation+ upgrade price: 180 => 130 Gold.
Accomodation++ upgrade price: 260 => 200 Gold.

Boss Balancing

HARPIES

General changes

Overall pacing of the night has been improved: Harpies after the first one will appear earlier than before.

Boss minions (Alerion) now spawn in smaller amounts but more frequently.

Boss wave will spawn less high tier units than before.

Harpy

Health: 810 => 630

Armor: 60 => 100

Base attack now deals less damage.

“Enraging Scream” (zone buff) now only buffs Move Points for 1 turn and buffs Damage for 2 turns. Additionally, targets’ Resistance will now also be debuffed for 2 turns upon application. It also no longer dispels targets’ Negative Alterations upon application and only self-dispel debuffs on the caster (it could previously also dispel poison).

Alerion

Health: 270 => 210.

CETUSIA

General changes

Overall pacing of the night has been improved.

Invincibility phases have been removed from the fight.

Each phase now features one of the three versions of Cetusia, making the fight less repetitive.

Boss wave is now tougher.

Cetusia

Health: 3600 => 6000

Armor: 400 => 300

Block: 50 => 30

Dodge: 0 => 10

Resistance: 40 => 30

While not armored, Cetusia can use Putrid Water (poison attack) once again (it was changed in the previous boss balancing patch) after gaining a Charged status.

Cetusia’s tail

Health: 1800 => 2000

Armor: 400 => 300

Block: 50 => 30

Resistance: 40 => 30

Cetusia’s tail can no longer use Charged attacks.

Cetusia’s tail’s base attack no longer requires a Charged status.

Cetusia (armored)

Health: Invincible => 6000

Armor: 0 => 1200

Cetusia dives back into the water when you defeat her armored version.

Cetusia’s tail (armored)

Note: During a previous balancing patch, this version of Cetusia’s tail had been removed from the fight, but has now been brought back.

Health: Invincible => 2000

Armor: 0 => 1200

Cetusia (enraged)

Health: 3600 => 6000

The enraged version of Cetusia can now use an enhanced version of Putrid Water.

Wyrmling Egg

Armor: 0 => 600

Resistance: 80 => 60

Wyrmling

Health: 400 => 600

Armor: 0 => 300

Dodge: 40 => 30

Resistance: 20 => 30

Move Points: 8 => 7

DRYADS

General changes

Overall pacing of the night has been improved.

Total number of Dryads: 15 => 12

Putrefied Dryad

Health: 1300 => 1800

Attributes

Decreased top end of Res. Reduction:
Level-up: 7/12/15 => 7/10/12
Affix: 5/9/12 => 5/8/10
Also decreased top end of Res. Reduction on items granting it natively.

Decreased top end of Accuracy:
Level-up: 7/12/15 => 7/10/12
Affix: 5/9/12 => 5/8/10

Increased Opportunistic:
Level-up: 5/8/10 => 8/12/15
Affix: 4/7/9 => 6/10/13

Decreased Exp. Gain:
Level-up: 15/27/35 => 12/17/20 (reverted to the values preceding the Open Beta).
Affix: 10/22/30 => 8/13/16 (updated to scale).

Decreased top end of Reliability:
Level-up: 10/20/25 => 10/16/20
Affix: 8/15/20 => 7/13/16

Skills

Decreased 2H Axe's Berserker Rage: 25%..50% Dmg buff => 25%..35% Dmg buff (we’d been a bit crazy when rescaling following the Damage Rework!).

Potion of Strength: 6%..20% Dmg buff => 10%..22% Dmg buff.

Perks

Flexibility: 35% Damage => 25% Damage.

Bodybuilder: Every 15 max Health after 115: +1% Physical Damage. => Every 10 max Health 100: +1% Physical Damage.

Harvester: Every 3 enemies killed => Every 4 enemies killed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the “Berserker Rage” skill that could not be cast on heroes.
  
• Fixed softlocks happening in the Oraculum with screen resolution ratio different than 16:9.
  
• Fixed the “Potion Throw” perk that was not increasing the range of potions (how unfortunate…).
  
• Changed the text for the “ Magic Damage” Favor to be accurate.
  
• Fixed the “Legendary assassin” perk that was not displaying the right amount of enemies to kill to trigger the perk.
  
• The oraculum can now be opened in the world map with the keyboard shortcut.
  
• Fixed a softlock happening when only one crawler was left on the map without any possible path to the Magic Circle for him to choose.
  
• The “Fatality” skill cannot be used on invincible units anymore.
  

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