Hey everyone! I'm back with another update:
Events
One of the most common complaints I've gotten in feedback are that the events are too punishing or underwhelming, and for the most part I agree. I wanted to take this opportunity to improve the events in the game, and in doing so add a little more variety to runs. Here are the changes that impact the demo:
Area 1:
For the most part, I think the Area 1 events are fine, but did want to make a few changes.
Golden Scroll: Gain Random Rare Spell -> Choose from 3 rare spells (This was to reduce the instances of taking a downside to gain a useless spell)
Innate Power: Added an option to swap your current unit ability with a different character-specific unit ability. (More on this: Each character will have their default starter and an alternate unit ability unlockable through this event)
The Crown: Added an option to choose an uncommon spell. Removed the option to leave without doing anything.
Area 2:
In my opinion, Area 2 was where the events are the weakest. There are some extremely powerful events here but also some real duds. Sometimes an event is going to be a dud, and it gives choosing an event more risk/reward, but the amount of duds here was too high.
Blades of Shadow: 50% chance to gain 12 random runes -> 50% chance to gain 6 random rare runes. (The rare runes reward moved from Area 3 to here. Rare runes are typically quite good and have strong build-around potential. So getting them an area earlier is much stronger and the downside for it is much lighter)
Cursed Blood: Number Vampire Runes from 10 -> 6. (This one was already a dud, but in the right situation 6 is actually insane and the difference between 10 and 6 doesn't matter. But thinking more about the worthiness difficulty modifiers, I would want to be able to lower it appropriately and that amount would have to be less than 6)
Fate Weaver: Added an option to gain 6 dice faces of a chosen value. Removed the option to leave without doing anything. (Another move from Area 3 to Area 2. Fate Weaver was so lame. I think the addition of this new option actually makes the event more interesting while still maintaining the utility of the other options)
Mind Piercer: Gold Gain from 250 -> 275 and added an option to gain a new dice. (Yes! The first gain a new dice option (in the demo). I think it's cool to have the option to just overload on dice. It's fairly well balanced by Origin of Sickness and to a lesser extent Avatar of the Soul).
Minimalism: Gold per rune from 30 -> 45. Changed gain 15 HP per rune option to gain 7 Max HP per rune. Added an option to leave without doing anything.
The Pillow: Added an option to gain 150 gold. Removed the option to leave without doing anything. (It's nice to have another option if you don't need dice bodies)
Area 3:
Area 3 events were already the most interesting and worthwhile, but I had to move a few to Area 2 and why not take the opportunity to make them even better?!
Chaos Implement: The option to randomize your dice now has no cost. Removed the option to leave without doing anything.
Vitality Transfer: Added an option to get a full heal. (Arguably, this is the area where a full heal is worth the most, given the existence of Origin of Sickness. This made sense to add as an extra option to the event)
Tome of Focus: The original effect was moved to Area 2. Now offers the effect to get a powerful upgraded character-specific unit ability. (This will offer you an upgrade to your character's default unit ability. For Gaiamancer, it will upgrade Gaia's Protection to Gaia's Protection+ which gives 8 or 15 Grounded, depending on DV just like the original. If you changed your unit ability with the Innate Power event, you can get an upgraded version of that ability here too)
Cursed Runes: Now called Glimpse of Power. The original effect was moved to Area 2, but the replacement is so much cooler. It gives the other character classes occasional access to a taste of The Archon's power in the form of a special rarity spell that the 3 main characters can only get from this event.
Room of Mirrors: Max HP Loss 25 -> 28.
The Rose: Removed the option to leave without doing anything.
General Event Changes
Event texts now animate in.
Improved animation flow for some events where you select a dice
Event flavor texts have been rewritten where appropriate, given the mechanical change to many of the events.
Slightly increased the chances for both area-specific events and unit ability swap events.
Slightly decreased the chance for a random event to be a chest event.
Due to the large amount of event changes, run compatibility has been affected in this update. Previous runs cannot be continued. This will not affect your win rate in the stats.
Quality of Life Improvements
New Feature: You can now drag the dice onto the spell and it will automatically place it into an available dice slot that meets its requirement (when multiple slot requirements are met, a priority system is used based on the type of dice requirement).
New Accessibility Option: Click to Drag (Off by default).
The "Auto-target single enemies" option is now on by default. This will help speed up the game, at the expense of no longer being able to cancel out of single-target non-countdown spells. You can change this in the settings menu. This will not affect you if you have already played the game, but I suggest turning this on to help speed things up.
When you gain Max HP during an event or in the shop, the game will spawn text particles indicating how much.
When you hover over your player icon in the top UI bar, it will now show a tooltip for your current unit ability.
Balance
I've held off on making a balance update for a while to collect a lot of data. I only use data from runs outside of a player's first run for data quality reasons, so it takes time to collect information on combats, especially in Areas 2 and 3. But I feel comfortable enough with the level of difficulty I'm targeting and the amount of data I have to make some changes again. Most of the major changes are coming from Areas 2+, since that was where I was lacking the most in information.
Area 1 Enemies:
Tiny Ogre: Large attack - damage increased 7-8 -> 8-9
Armored Rat: HP - increased 16-19 -> 17-21
Hextress: Damage and Curse dice attack - damage increased 4 -> 4-5
Punch Warlock: Damage attack - damage increased 21-26 -> 22-26
The Replicator: HP - increased 102 -> 103
The Replicator: Damage and inflict vulnerable attack - damage increased 5-6 -> 5-7
Area 2 Enemies:
Bladed Dancer: HP - increased 47-52 -> 49-54
Spore Shroom: Added an attack to cycle - Attack equal to barrier and inflict 1 Weak
Luck Feeder: Multi attack - repeat count increased 1x3 -> 1x4
Golden Armadillo: Damage attack - damage increased 6-8 -> 7-10
Golden Armadillo: Damage and curse dice attack - damage increased 5-7 -> 6-7
Thorned Demon: Damage and gain barrier attack - damage decreased 11 -> 10
Thorned Demon: Damage and gain barrier attack - barrier gain decreased 15 -> 14
Emerald Demon: HP - decreased 101-111 -> 97-105
Ruby Demon: HP - decreased 101-111 -> 97-105
Demon of Misfortune: HP - decreased 213 -> 201
Demon of Misfortune: Basic attack (pre turn 10) - damage decreased 18-22 -> 15-19
Demon of Misfortune: Strong attack (post turn 10) - damage increased 18-22 -> 26-30
Area 3 Enemies:
The Orb: Gain Roll Up and Barrier attack - barrier gain decreased 25 -> 20
The Orb: Damage equal to barrier and gain barrier attack - barrier gain decreased 25 -> 20
The Orb: HP - decreased 81-92 -> 81-89
The Sacrifice: HP - decreased 140 -> 130
Ogre Husk: Damage and curse dice attack - damage increased 8-10 -> 9-12
Ogre Husk: Damage attack - damage increased 13 -> 14
Ogre Husk: HP - increased 69-78 -> 72-78
Cleric of Beauty: Damage and inflict weak attack - damage decreased 10 -> 6
Cleric of Beauty: Damage and inflict weak attack - weak increased 1 -> 2
Cleric of Beauty: Damage attack - damage decreased 11-15 -> 12
Doom Wizard: Damage and gain barrier attack - damage decreased 30-35 -> 30-32
Chaos Mass: HP - decreased 315-335 -> 303-323
Chaos Mass: Flat damage attack - damage decreased 45 -> 42
Chaos Mass: All variable damage attacks - damage decrease 20-40 -> 20-36
Chaos Mass: Variable damage and gain Hexproof attack - Hexproof gain decreased 3 -> 2
Volatile Being: Unit ability countdown cost - decreased 18 -> 16
Volatile Being: HP - decreased 405 -> 397
Deathless One: Damage and gain might attack - damage decreased 25 -> 24
Origin of Sickness: Damage and inflict many debuffs attack - damage decreased 22-24 -> 22
Origin of Sickness: Damage and gain barrier attack - damage decreased 25 -> 23
Origin of Sickness: Damage and gain barrier attack - barrier gain decreased 25 -> 23
Origin of Sickness: Begin combat with Impenetrable - Removed
Area 5 Enemies:
Avatar of the Soul: HP - decreased 620 -> 610
Avatar of the Soul: (Attack 1) Damage and curse dice attack - damage decreased 35 -> 30
Avatar of the Soul: (Attack 2) Multi attack - damage decreased 10x4 -> 9x4
Avatar of the Soul: (Attack 3) Damage attack - decreased 50 -> 45
Avatar of the Soul: (Attack 4) Inflict many debuffs, gain Might and Hexproof attack - Might gain increased 5 -> 6
Avatar of the Soul: Begin combat with Hexproof - decreased 5 -> 4
Dice Bodies:
Growth Dice Body: Max HP Gain per combat - increased 3 -> 4.
Misc Fixes and Improvements
Fixed a visual issue where refresh prices in the shop did not have an outline.
Fixed a visual issue where the Defeat text on the defeat screen did not have an outline.
Now that events can spawn extra dice, up to 12 dice are now attainable (in the full version. Only 1 extra attainable dice was added to the demo).
The pause menu is now on the topmost visual layer, and will no longer be hidden by the screen transition during gameplay.
The top UI bar and the dice discard during combat will now properly display large amounts of dice.
Dice modification tutorial highlight panels are now properly placed.
Shield enemy now animates when giving barrier to another unit.
Bladed Dancer enemy now plays a debuff sound effect when its unit ability is used.
Restock buttons in the shop will now refresh slots that have already been purchased.
Charge and Consume tooltips will now display the maximum charges / consume uses for the spell it's attached to.
Thanks as always for playing my game!
-Thomas, PolyGryph