It's time for another edition of well-respected publication (the) New Gnorp Times.
Today is the start of the Idler Fest on Steam, and I thought it cool to also provide a couple of new things to mark the event.
Hats (and a bundle of balloons)
The first batch of hats are now available! It's been a long time coming, but the first ones are finally here! There will be over 20 hats implemented into the game, but we're starting with six of them. These first six hats are amazing and they all look great in-game. They're unlocked by completing certain achievements — for example the SPEED achievement unlocks the snail-gnorp (snorp?), made by Joy. Fitting!
Thank you to submitters Joy, Sleepyhead, Doshige, Zymosan99, and Popgoes! More hats coming soon.
Beta update
A new beta update has just been made available. You can access it by right-clicking the game in your Steam library -> Properties -> Betas, and then write 4gnorplovers in the private beta field.
Please note that the localization for the beta has not been updated to match the changes.
The goal of this update is to meaningfully improve units and talents to make your choices a bit more interesting and to enable new and cool builds. With the Epilogue Update on the horizon, ensuring a solid base-experience to further build upon is very important.
Slammers, Mountaineers and Drones have all received updates. Here are some of the highlights:
— Drones now consume shards to spawn baby drones
— Mountaineers can now, with the help of a talent, designate an area of the pile sacred
— Slammers have can now deal significantly more damage with the help of the redesigned talent Remembrance of the King
— Reclamation Nullification has been replaced with a new, more interactive upgrade called Don't touch my pile!
— A new talent called Melty Bullets. How does it work? Really well!
The changes touch on many parts of the game, and I'd love to hear your feedback if you end up trying the beta update. The best place to provide feedback is in the Gnorp Discord, in the #beta channel. However, I will also try to check for feedback in the Steam forums now and then.
Below you'll find a comprehensive list of the changes.
Outro
(the) New Gnorp Times, well-respected publication, will now be released roughly every 14 days until the release of the Epilogue Update/Mini-expansion. The work on the Epilogue is going well, and I might tell you more in two weeks. Thank you for your patience, and I'll talk to you soon.
<3
And here's the beta notes
Reclamation Nullification has been replaced by something better. The something better is intended to allow for a more interesting way to work around reclamation.
Don't touch my pile!
The rock might be fighting back, but the mountaineers (and drones) resist.
— Prevents reclamation where mountaineers (and drones) are planning to go
— When told to rest, Mountaineers now rest on the pile, as long as there is space and the pile is worthy of climbing
A replacement to clicking on drones
Roboticide
Would be a shame if anything happened to one of these drones.
— Murder a random drone
Drones have been modified to no longer eat shards for no gain. Instead they spend some time eating, then spawn a baby drone.
Drone
Get yourself a drone, but be careful — they're hungry! Drones are auxiliary units that need some help to succeed.
— Drones pick up a fixed amount of shards, based on the current tier
— Drones consume 70% of their capacity over 3.5 seconds. If Drones finish eating, they spawn a Baby Drone
— Baby drones deal damage equal to the consumed amount, with a range of 7-10, then die
— Drones die during compression events
Higher the pile has been replaced by:
SACRED MOUNTAIN
The gnorps bless the pile, for it represents the fruit of their labor.
— Mountaineers now consider the rightmost area of the pile sacred, and attempt to build a large mountain of shards there
— Mountaineers do not dig the sacred area
This new talent replaces drone targeting. It gives bullets an interesting effect.
MELTY BULLETS
Perpetuate that fire with some melty bullets! How does it work? Really well! Pyromaniacs pick this.
— Bullets that hit the rock while it is on fire deal their damage as fire damage
Descent of the king has been redesigned to empower the king when he is present and to also empower slammers when he is not.
DESCENT OF THE KING -> REMEMBRANCE OF THE KING
When will He return?
— The King of the Pile will always dig an additional 2ø of the current tier
— Slammers gain a bonus to their damage when the king is gone
— Bonus starts as +10, increasing by +2ø every minute
— To facilitate The Return, slammers halve their range when Remembrance is active
The flow has been modified to give slammers a bit of extra damage and now they only fly farther when they actually combo
THE FLOW
Allow slammers to unlock their latent power, displaying the power of dumb determination.
— After having meditated, slammers deal +3ø damage, plus an additional +3ø damage for every slam in their current combo
— Slammers fly much, much farther away after a combo
Supershatter has been modified and moved in the talent tree! Old supershatter took away the ice multiplier, but this version does not
SUPERSHATTER
Let's put this rock on ice.
— Ice arrows immediately freeze the rock
— When ice shatters, an additional 60 shards, doubling with every tier, is dealt. This additional damage has a range of 0-6 or 4-10, picked randomly with every occurrence.
— Ice arrows striking the rock when frozen deal 4x damage, up from 2x
— Frozen duration increased to 20 seconds, up from 4
— Shattering the ice with fire effects allows the rock to be frozen again immediately
Combo power has been renamed, and now has an additional benefit when combined with baby drones
COMBO POWER -> SLAM 2: RE-ROCKENING
Starring: The slammers, and the baby drones in a guest appearance.
— Slammers gain an additional 1% chance to combo every time they do a preparation jump
— When triggering Combo Power, slammers cause baby drones that are attached to the rock to explode for 2x their total damage
Drone capacity is adapted to fit the new drone behavior
DRONE CAPACITY
Drones get more capacity and they spawn more baby drones, but at a cost.
— 2x capacity to drones
— Drones eat twice as much and now spawn 2 baby drones
— Descent speed reduced by 50%
A redesign to fit with the new drones, and a name to highlight potential synergies with zygnorps and baby drones.
DON'T EAT THAT -> BABIES TOGETHER STRONG
United by the power of shared suffering!
— When drones spawn a baby drone, zygnorps gain energy equivalent to the consumed amount
— Zygnorps never collect from the left side of the pile
This used to be a talent. Now it's an upgrade that costs gnorps.
New upgrade: Drone Targeting
By default, drones are directed to target the highest points on the pile. With some additional gnorp-power, additional targeting modes can be unlocked.
— Drones unlock the FAR and NEAR targeting modes
Redesigned to fit with new drones
Inspiration: Drone-Bomber
Drones enter efficiency mode, reducing their overall movement speed and consumption.
— Descent rate is halved
— Consumption reduced by 30%, without affecting baby drone damage
Redesigned to fit with new drones
Inspiration: Drone-Rocket
Drones enter burn mode, increasing their overall movement speed.
— Descent rate is doubled
— Acceleration is doubled
King of the pile has been modified to give the king some additional power and now also affects his mobility.
King of the Pile
A zybellium crown with powerful effects is granted to a single mountaineer: The King of the Pile.
— The King digs 10x faster
— The King digs twice as much
— The King has significantly increased mobility
— The King will not rest
Acid has been modified slightly to avoid instances of it being doubly good for both damage and compression.
Acid
Puke flowers create Spewers. Spewers explode on the rock, leaving Acid. While acid is present on the rock, it has the following effects:
— 1.5x increase to all damage
— The minimum range of damage is reduced by 3, ex: 7-10 -> 4-10
Rest in piece: Adaptive Learning
Rest in piece: Terathrusters
Rest in piece: DRONE.TARGET = FAR |DRONE:TARGET = CLOSE