Adding a tactics component to a deckbuilder means two new avenues of defense: moving out of enemy range, or taking aggro with another unit.
It also adds new restrictions on offense: your own attack range, and line of sight.
This naturally led to more defensive play.
For a while, I was thinking of a way to reward aggressive play to balance this out.
This update, I'm trying a new thing where the faster you finish a battle, the more Stars you get.
Please let me know how this feels!
Also, the third layer of Curses is implemented.
Also, the third realm should feel much different in terms of build choices.
Also, the story continues.
CHANGELOG
v0.8.3 -> v0.8.4
BUG FIXES
Per-turn and per-battle effects are reset for cards on battle end, so they don't look misleading in post-battle upgrade menus.
Fixed damage preview when an enemy would push a blocking party member off a ledge.
Descriptions for inverted DoTs now correctly state that they occur at start of turn.
Absorption Tonic now behaves as described.
Effects that boost or scale with debuffs now handle statuses that can only be gotten from inverting buffs.
Strand Eater no longer sometimes fails to act when it has no allies.
Fixed minor raycast zone issues on the run start menu.
Shard terrain now behaves as intended.
STORY
Added Act II Scene II.
Added Act II Scene III.
VISUALS
Added new realm banner art on the run start menu.
Added more card play VFX.
Moved max Curse level indicator to above the Bond indicator.
When you copy or create multiple cards in quick succession, they now spread out rather than stacking on top of each other.
Added slight time dilation and sound effect when defeating the final enemy of an encounter.
Large Memory sprites (e.g. in the draft and list menu) are slightly smaller.
GAMEPLAY
The number of Stars rewarded in each battle is now 3 or 10 minus the number of rounds the battle took. Boss battles still always reward the full 10. The reward cannot be less than 1 Star.
Having fewer Actions now increases your chances of Actions appearing in drafts.
Actions are more likely to appear as upgrade choices.
Added additional challenge modifiers.
Curse of the Scale of Lament: Glitch terrain, which inflicts Fray to party members on step, is occasionally generated.
Curse of the Arrow of Time: Party members lose 1 max HP per room, down to a minimum of 1.
Curse of the Sum of Knowledge: Enemy abilities have increased potency.
Curse of the Notion of Eminence: Enemy difficulty ramps up faster.
Curse of the Design of Denial: Party members have a 1 in 2 chance to gain Void on battle start.
Added many new path choices for realm 3.
Gain items that permanently:
Increase a unit's movement range by 1.
Increase an Action's charges by 1.
Remove the Exhaust keyword.
Turn a movement card into a teleport.
Increase an attack card's potency by 3.
Increase a status card's potency by 1.
Reduce a Gambit's cost by 1.
Increase a push/pull card's knockback by 1.
Add the Innate keyword.
Reduce an Action's cooldown by 1.
Add the Persist keyword.
Increase a unit's draw count by 1.
Gain 10 Stars.
Gain 15 max HP and heal.
You can now only stay in the same realm (after beating a boss) once per run.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Statuses now show their source in the battle log.
You can now click a button next to "X steps until [boss name] approaches" to examine the upcoming boss, if you have defeated it before.
The camera controls codex entry now also describes smooth rotation.
The current Curse level is now shown on the Curse selection menu.
Cards are deselected after using an item to destroy them.
On the card draft menu, Mighty choices are now always to the left, while Magical choices are now always to the right.
The game now defaults to the cursor only seeing tiles.
CARDS
Butterfly's Impatience has been reworked: It now starts at 30 potency and decreases each turn, rather starting at 5 and increasing each turn.
Seagull's Keenness now has 2 charges rather than infinity, but its cooldown has been reduced by 1.
Overthrow now Exhausts rather than shuffling a curse into your draw pile, and it now steals 5 stacks of all buffs rather than 10.
ITEMS
Discarding an item with multiple uses now multiplies the Stars given by the uses discarded.
Intimidating Aura now works for pull cards too.
Water: Splashbolt is now given as 1 use rather than 3, but it now increases a movement card's potency for the entire battle rather than just one turn.
MEMORIES
Promise of Renewal has been reworked: Battles award 1 more Star.
Resilience now grants 3 Form instead of 3 Grit per 3 attacks taken.
Sunflower Seed now grants Block before DoTs tick.
Seagull:
Polishing Cloth now gives 3 Focus per 3 ally-targeting cards played, rather than 5 per 5.
Sharpened Wand now gives 3 Focus per 3 zero-cost cards played, rather than 1 per 1.
ENEMIES
Behemoth:
Telegraph now gives 2 Critical and Exposed rather than 3.
Wild Swing now does 14 damage twice rather than 16.
Shell Guard now removes 1 Dulled rather than 4 Dulled.
Fire: Rebalanced several enemies to have slightly lower HP but spawn slightly more numerously.
Wood:
Pedant's attack starts off weaker, but its Pause now gives it Focus.
Dampener's attack starts off weaker, but its moves now give it Critical.
Strand Eater has slightly lower HP and is more likely to buff its allies rather than giving the player Banes.