Hey everyone! Zag here.
This latest hotfix carries with it some weighty changes, so let's have a little chat about those changes, and The Tribunal as a whole.
Over the last few days we've been gathering a lot of feedback! No matter which side you land on with The Tribunal, one thing is very clear; nobody feels like it influences the game enough for the impact it has on the round. We agree with that sentiment, and much like we have throughout development, we're listening closely to feedback and acting on it. So what's happening next?
After this balancing hotfix, we will continue monitoring the situation and make a decision on adding in additional options for The Tribunal, including potentially turning it off as server setting and additional changes to rounds with lower player counts.
However, for the time being, we'd like to state our design intentions clearly: First and foremost, Unfortunate Spacemen is a social deception game. Secondly, it is a shooter, but it is not a deathmatch. Third -- and this is generally related to the latest Monster HP tweaks and weapon nerfs -- we have no intention of balancing the game to make 1 Spaceman vs. 1 Monster be a viable option except under the rarest of circumstance. The Spacemen must work together in some capacity to win the round, including sustained team-fire on The Monster. That is our design philosophy.
Bear in mind, this hotfix includes some additional balance tweaks we think many people will enjoy, so be sure to read the patch notes in full.
With that out of the way, let's talk about The Tribunal changes.
We like The Tribunal. Players seem to like The Tribunal. We like the direction it pushes the social aspects, and the pacing that it brings to every round. Not only does it pull everything together in a cohesive way and bring an ebb-and-flow to the gameplay, it quite literally pulls people together in a way that we only previously saw with Weapon Canisters -- and they didn't do a very good job of that.
The Tribunal has done what we intended and it's working correctly.
HOWEVER, we didn't go in as hard as we should have when we were designing it. Now some of you might be going "What, you mean doubling down on the idea?!" Well, yeah, basically. We believe more people would've liked the idea if it had a larger effect. We sold it short.
You see, by giving it too gentle of a touch (because - understandably - we were a bit nervous about the effect it might have) we wanted to disrupt the moment-to-moment gameplay as little as possible. So we settled on having The Tribunal only do one thing; it just marked colors. We (rightly) figured players could extrapolate that information and turn it into a social witch hunt. We've seen some hilarious ones unfold already! But it wasn't quite there, as many people have noted.
Turns out the majority of criticism were things we vetoed in the early design phases of The Tribunal;
What if it actually does something when it marks someone?
Well, now it will.
In 1.2.1, the Spacemen don't actually GAIN anything for guessing who the Monster is. And the Monster gains NOTHING when the Spacemen mark someone else.
These are both plays that should be rewarded.
So here's what we've changed to both The Tribunal voting and Body Reporting in 1.2.2:
- When a color is marked as Suspicious, the Monster can no longer disguise into that color. Ever. For the rest of the round.
- However, the Original Color of the Monster can not be locked.
- When a color is marked as Suspicious, the Spaceman who owns that color receives a health debuff, much like the debuff murderers receive when killing someone. This includes being outlined in the Monster's vision. They are now marked as a SUSPECT, and weaker to boot.
- When a color is marked as Suspicious, if the Monster is wearing this color at the time, they are forced out of their Disguise and into Monster Form.
- When the Monster's ORIGINAL COLOR is marked as Suspicious, the Monster receives a 25% decrease in all major stats; Max Human Health, Max Monster Health, and Max Disguise Energy.
- Reported bodies will now show on the Overhead Map to everyone, and everyone will see which color was reported.
- Security Bots will now treat Suspects as hostile targets, and they'll strafe a bit more during combat!
- Tribunals will no longer trigger shortly after one just ended (such as after you finish objectives)
With these changes we feel The Tribunal is in a much better place than it was on 1.2's release.
We'll be closely monitoring these changes and probably make additional tweaks in future updates -- as always!
Oh yeah, and we made the Rocket Launcher a little less wild. Sorry about that! Please continue to send us feedback (good or bad!) and keep reporting those bugs. We're listening -> Discord.gg/NewBlood
Be sure to leave a review if you're loving the game, and get your friends to join you for some SPACE MADNESS!
If you'd like to read more about 1.2.2, including other changes, buffs, nerfs, and bug fixes, you can check out the Patch Notes here.
If you haven't yet seen our long-term plans with the game, you can check out the Development Starmap.
1.3 is now beginning development, where we'll be upping the max Rank, overhauling the Perk System for a more diverse and interesting meta, and adding quite a few more perks as well.
Be good to each other and happy hunting! See you in space!
-Zag
https://store.steampowered.com/app/408900/Unfortunate_Spacemen/