Update 35 - Hi, I’m C-SAR!

Is this on? Great.

*Ahem*

Contestants!

I am C-SAR, the Computer Simulated Arena Referee, and my Human Interaction chip has finally been fixed.
I no longer need to rely on human intermediaries in relaying updates for my show(down, hehe).

Anyway, you’re probably here to fight, aren’t you? And what a fight it will be!

Now we even have Camera bots to record the whole thing. Your deaths will be immortalized in my ever-growing archive of gladiatorial greatness!

For this update I’ve streamlined the whole procedure so we can get contestants through the programmes much faster. One death and you’re out, so you better pull it together!
I also managed to convince some more Titans to start talking a little more, and Ratbo to stop his annoying fake high-pitching.

And by the way, since I’m back the whole show is now in Beta, and I’ve locked access to the advanced programs while I set up the last few things for the audience.

Here’s the list of changes:

Features

• After getting a bunch of ingame sponsors from Raff Cola, Slimé Beauty and other love to hate products - C-SAR could finally afford awesome cutscenes, giving the audience extra flair for their points.
• Seats on the edge of the arenas are now for sale when the SHOWDOWN visits the Rat world - Giving an enhanced experience for the ones with enough gold in their pockets.
• Camera Bots are now present in the arenas, taking pictures and celebrating your victories!
• C-SAR - the Computer Simulated Arena Referee - has gotten his old sound chip fixed, enabling him to comment the contestants’ progression in the game.
• Players now start the game with 500 gold and a few extra cards (beyond the default deck) for more initial deckbuilding options.
• Campaigns reworked:
  • Fame is eliminated.
  • You lose after one death.
  • Battles in a chamber are all of the same base difficulty (except gatekeeper).
  • All battles have at least one special rule.
  • Gatekeeper unlocks after 2 successful battles.
  • Boons are unlocked by the point drops from enemies.

• Major quest rework:
  • Completing any quest in a questline now reveals the reward
  • Players now start weaker and build up to their full strength through quest rewards.
  • Supreme boons now have to be discovered/unlocked through quests.
  • Most quests now have a minimum difficulty (campaign) they must be completed on.

• More cards, boons and special rules added.
• Campaign menu reworked with cool posters for each of the 3 programmes
• Locked programmes 2 and 3 while we finish up the last things.

Balance

• Reduced Brutus health by 20%.
• All contestants now have 100 health (150 after all quest rewards).
• Health globes now scale less with increased max health (+40 max health now gives +1 healing instead of +2).
• Added a lot of randomness to how many enemies are spawned each arena of a battle. Some battles will turn out way harder or easier than usual. Most will have some spikiness that can be recovered from in other parts of the battle.
• Special rules are better balanced with the overall difficulty of a battle, e.g. a special rule that buffs all enemies will be considered more difficult in a tougher battle with many enemies.
• All battles of the same tier now have the same average point drops, even if more/fewer enemies are spawned to balance out the special rules.
• Constant damage effects (fire, lasers, graw slime) now only trigger reaction procs when you take damage from them.
• Deadline now deals (and increases) damage every 0.5 sec instead of 0.3 sec. Short walks outside it should be a lot more forgiving - i.e. 3 seconds outside deadline is now 40 total damage, down from 74.
• Treasure Goblins now drop both profile gold and campaign points.
• Knights in Garden World 2 are now easier to keep in check with constant damage.
• Overcharge damage increased from 25 to 30. Radius increased from 4.5 to 6.15. Casting time slightly increased. Cooldown lowered from 8 to 6 seconds.
• Fusion Power now increases Overcharge damage by 50%, up from 40%.
• Flamenado cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds.
• Magma shield cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
• Ravager Enrage now lasts 4 seconds up from 3.
• Legendary Awareness buffed from 6 to 8% attack speed and damage per enemy. Radius increased by 30%. Mana cost increased from 5 to 6.
• Power Generator reworked: "Kill: Each skill has 50% chance of reducing cooldown by 4 seconds."
• Feast mana cost reduced from 2 to 1.
• Stalking mana cost increased from 1 to 2. Now gains frenzy every 2 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
• Combustion damage increased from 10 to 15 per card.
• Anti-Barrel Boots mana cost reduced from 1 to 0.
• Taunt health bonus per enemy decreased from 3 to 2.
• Rage Potion now lasts for 8 seconds (down from 10) and kills extend it for 4 seconds (down from 5).
• Fairy Bottle healing increased from 2 to 3.
• Chain Reaction rule now increases summoning portal efficiency instead of reducing player damage.
• Rebel Whirly Rats rule increases number of enemies more than before.
• Brofist Power Glove (the community card) changed to supreme rarity (from common).
• Power Generator changed to rare (from supreme).
• Untouchable changed to common (from rare).

Quality of life

• Player ability descriptions made clearer and shorter.
• Ability descriptions now display cooldown.
• Added/tweaked loading screen hints.
• You can now search for card text (e.g. “reaction”) in the deck builder.
• New fitness facilities for the characters in the game - they now sound more impactful.
• Ravager now grabs pickups while strafing through them.
• Scroll of Raining Daggers now also destroys all barrels.
• If you have multiple stacks of Emergency Spleen, only one of them will trigger when you go below 40 health.
• Emergency Spleen will now trigger instantly if played below 40 health.
• GUI now shows how the special rules modify the number of enemies in a battle.
• Raff’s death made more spectacular.

Fixes

• Fixed a memory leak that was causing performance drop and occasional crashes.
• Speed of Light is no longer giving its old movement speed bonus in addition to the attack speed.
• One By One and Combustion cards no longer lose their buffs on arena transitions.
• The recover mechanic on many consumables should now work more reliably.
• Garden World hedges can no longer lock the player’s controls.
• Various quest text fixes.
• Gold spins were sometimes showing wrong colors on rewards.
• Spawner shrines no longer move around when cloned by the bosscard ability.
• Chaotic Illumination now ignores shields and immunities.
• Consumables with the recover mechanic should now work correctly when you have no charges left.
• Duobots and Fairy Bottle can no longer be used while the previous charge is already active.
• Desperate Survival will no longer kill your companion when it is an enemy (Desperate Survival+Supporting the Wining Team+Companion Curse was a bit too nasty).
• Fixed some enemies (e.g. zeppelin tanks and spawner shrines) that were not working correctly when summoned by cards or boss abilities.
• Ratworld bounce tanks no longer knock themselves through walls when firing.

Remember you can follow the progress of my Dwarf Development slav- I mean, servants, at:
https://trello.com/b/m8udgXeV/forced-2-main-board

Enjoy!