Hello everyone! It’s been awhile since our last update, but not without good reason!
First off, we’ve completely overhauled the spell upgrade system. Before, each spell got slightly better with each upgrade, which, while functional, wasn’t very interesting. Instead, we’ve had a lot (a LOT) of design discussions and the end result is that now, each spell gains new functionality with each upgrade!
For instance, upgrading the Chain Hook gives you the ability to hook enemies to objects instead of yourself, and upgrading Wind Walk will spawn a wizard decoy while you turn invisible! In other words, each upgrade for each spell is almost an entire new spell in itself!
Aside from that, we’ve also added a couple of new things. There’s a new spell called Side Step, we’ve added immolate as a permanent spell that every player has, and we’ve made some big changes to the spell shop to give you more information about each spell. Add hundreds of tweaks to each spell, improving some, nerfing some to account for the new upgrades, making all of them more interesting and (hopefully) more balanced, and you have this week’s update!
Spell Overhaul
General changes
- All spells have been modified, with new features being added to their upgrades. Almost all spells have had their stats tweaked.
- The spell descriptions have been updated to reflect these changes and you can check the new stats and descriptions for each spell in the in-game spell shop.
- Changed Immolate into a base spell that all players have by default. This spell cannot be bought, sold or upgraded, though it can be rebound to any of the spellcasting keys.
- Removed the Melee category.
- Removed Punch spell due to the removal of the Melee category.
Offensive
- Bouncer - At rank 3, bouncer will now target Static objects if no valid player target was found.
- Chakram - At rank 2 and 3, this spell will refund cooldown based on the number of bounces left if caught by the player.
- Crescent - At rank 1, Crescent now only has 180 degrees flight, rank 2 has 360 degrees and rank 3 now shoots 2 birds instead of 1.
- Fireball - At rank 2 and 3, this spell will now grow over its flight increasing AOE, Knockback, and Damage.
- Frostbolt - At rank 2, Frostbolt now leaves a patch of ice on hit that continues to slow players inside of it. Rank 3 now also leaves a trail of frost in its flight path.
- Homing - At rank 2 and 3 Homing Missiles will now stop and explode after a short duration if they reaches their max flight distance.
- Magic Missile - Rank 2 and 3 now have increased charges, letting the player shoot a barrage of Magic Missiles.
- Shock - At rank 2 and 3, shock now pierces objects (does not pierce players) hitting players behind them, but with a damage and knockback reduction for each object pierced.
Defensive
- Counter Pulse - You can no longer aim at rank 1, rank 2 is now aimable, rank 3 now increases the projectile speed when rebounded.
- Energy Shield - Rank 1 shield size has been reduced and Energy Shield increases in width depending on the spell rank.
- Phase Shift - Rank 2 and 3 refund cooldown based on the duration left of the spell if it is canceled early.
- Rock Pillar - Rank 2 and 3 can now be recast within 5 seconds to spawn baby pillars.
- Time Anchor - Rank 1 is now visible for all players, rank 2 is now hidden for all enemy players, At rank 3, Time Anchor can be retriggered to instantly return to the anchor position before the spell ends.
- Windwalk - This spell is now moved to the Defensive Category. Rank 2 now spawns a decoy of the player and, at rank 3, the decoy will continue running instead of standing still. It is instantly destroyed when hit with a spell.
- Lockdown - This spell is now moved to the Defensive Category. This spell now gives you 100% knockback immunity instead of having chains holding you to the ground. At rank 2 and 3, you can now slowly move during the spell.
Area
- Lighting Strike - Rank 2 now fires an additional projectile. At rank 3, the second projectile will try to automatically hit a nearby enemy.
- Meteor - Rank 2 and 3 will now spawn Shrapnel shooting out of the meteor’s side after ground impact, damaging nearby enemies on hit.
- Acid Pool - At rank 2 and 3, Acid Pool will now grow during the spell's duration.
Utility
- Chain Hook - Now breaks if the target is damaged, rank 2 chain hook can be reactivated to attach it to the ground instead of yourself. At rank 3, you can throw the attachment a short distance.
- Dimension Gate - Reworked and moved to the Utility Category. Only projectiles can pass through the Dimension Gate now. Rank 3 Dimension Gates duplicates the spells instead of teleports them.
- Gravity - Rank 2 and 3 can be reactivated with a small reactivation cooldown to temporarily increase the pull area and strength for a short duration.
- Speed Boost - Rank 2 and 3 will now get faster depending on how much damage the caster takes during the speed boost.
- Fetch - Rank 2 now covers a larger area, Rank 3 now slows everything within this area before the teleportation.
Travel
- Blink - Rank 2 and 3 gives the player a knockback reduction buff for a short period after the blink.
- Charge - Rank 2 will no longer get destroyed after hitting a player but keep on going, Rank 3 will now also pierce static objects making travel a lot easier to do.
- Swapball - Rank 1 will now swap on projectile hit, rank 2 will now ignore projectile collision, rank 3 will no longer get destroyed on player hit (but still swap!)
- Added new spell: Side Step - Using several small dashes, you move across the battlefield.
New Spell: Side Step!
Features
- Added Main Menu button to the Match Summary screen
- Players connecting via hotjoin should no longer have duplicated old particles and decals on the ground
- Added more stats to the Match Summary screen.
The Item Reward window in the Match Summary no longer automatically closes. - Added new icons for all spells that have a retrigger effect.
- New music to the Main Menu & Lobby screens.
- Updated shop UI by centering all the spells.
- Updated casting decals for all the spells in the game.
- [Bots now care about Line of Sight when shooting.
- Updated the particle effects on almost all of the reworked spells.
- Updated the tooltips to be visually easier to read with the new rank specific changes.
- Updated spell tooltips for all the spells.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a crash when accessing your inventory with bad timing.
- Fixed scoreboard sorting bug.
- Fixed crash for people connecting while someone's Windwalk effect was ending at the same time.
- Fixed client spell animation bugs
- Fixed issue causing bots to stop upgrading their spells.
- Bugfix to chat scrolling
- Bugfix for gravity for clients that have a poor connection to the server.
- Fixed issue with temporary effects like frostbolt slow not being removed properly.
- Fixed another crash in Windwalk
- Fixed bug where players would receive the incorrect score for killing an enemy player.
- Fixed bug where a player could get visually stuck in windwalk for other players.
- Fixed bug where fetch could place a player slightly under the floor.
Studio News
Outside of the game, we’ve also had a busy time: we’ve got our first office! We’ve been accepted to the Malmö-based game incubator program MINC Game, and through their program, we’ve got a small office and a lot of professional assistance for our studio management! Currently, they’re helping us put together a roadmap for Spellsworn and looking into possible investors and publishers, as well as ways to get more players, and whether Spellsworn should be Free-to-Play (with exclusive bonuses for those who purchased the game prior to release) leaving Early Access.
So, as you can see, there’s been much going on and we’ve a long road still ahead. That said, we’re super excited about what’s to come and are delighted to be bringing this extensive patch to you!
Thanks as always for your patience, kind words, and support and let us know what you think of the new changes in the comments below and on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or the Spellsworn Fan Community on Discord!
Peace!
Jonathan Gard
Artist and Founder of Frogsong Studios