This is a smaller update, but I found a couple game-breaking bugs this morning that I really wanted to get patched out, and I figured I'd send up some smaller changes I've been working on with it. The biggest gameplay change is that I'm bringing back store levels being playable, because it just seemed like too much skipping. I may revert this change in the future if I decide to implement multiple acts, but right now the game is just too short if you skip half the levels.
Visual Updates
Updated several boss sprite palettes for consistency.
Added custom mouse cursors for normal play and manual aiming mode.
Improved item and off-screen indicators to be visible over the HUD UI.
Map and Shops
Increased the number of specialized shop rooms generated on the map.
Changed shop rooms so they are entered as gameplay rooms from the map, then route into the store afterward.
Adjusted unlock pacing for a few progression rewards.
Combat and Upgrades
Reworked Fire damage so it scales from the attack that applied it instead of using flat damage only.
Updated Lava Orb so its fire trail damage scales with snake length.
Increased the offer rate for multishot upgrades.
Improved upgrade offer weighting so owned minion types and matching minion roles appear more reliably.
Manual Aim
Improved projectile collision behavior in manual aim mode.
Added a manual-aim cursor to make that mode easier to read.
Balance Changes
Adjusted several minion and evolved minion stats.
Fixes and Improvements
Improved save/load bug where upgraded minions were getting deleted.
Fixed boomerang-style projectiles creating impacts when they returned without hitting anything.
Improved enemy knockback position tracking.
Fixed a bug in manual aim mode where you couldn't fire next to a wall.
v0.7.3
I have mostly a balance pass for you today, but there's still some cool new stuff that I wanted to go over. I really liked the way the debuff affinities worked out, allowing diversity in the group while still encouraging strategy around minion matching, so I extended the system with three new minion affinity groups: Grave (Zombie, Death Knight, Hell Hound), Crypt (Skeleton, Spider, Vampire), and Hex (Ghost, Lich, Devil). After recruiting a minion in one of these affinity groups, you'll unlock upgrades that apply to the whole group. In addition, all debuff affinities will appear twice in each group, so if you pick carefully you can double-up with both types of affinites applying to your minions.
With all these new changes, I took a fresh look at balance and difficulty. Bosses should now be easier to defeat in close-combat, but are more resistant to damage that ignores walls (the ignore walls flag now also reduces hit stagger). This should hopefully address the issue where the only really viable build for late-game bosses was just going full zombie. In testing, I've found a good mix of 2-3 minions works really well now to handle all situations.
Maps are also now a little bit larger, which should help with things feeling a little tight in the later levels, and also give your minions more room to fight. As a counter-balance to this, more shops have been added, with unique shops that sell a certain type of upgrades. Entering a shop no longer has an associated combat for the level (although I may change this back, let me know how it feels), which can be a bit of a double-edged sword since there is an opportunity cost to choosing a shop now since you'll miss on the level's loot.
If this feels like it's making the game a little too easy, don't worry, as I've added ascension level unlocks. Every time you beat the game, you'll unlock another ascension level that increases the overall difficulty and map sizes for all levels.
Major Additions
Added Ascension levels as a new post-win difficulty system.
Added new specialized shop room types: Minion Shops, Relic Shops, and Upgrade Shops.
Added new minion role affinities: Grave, Crypt, and Hex.
Added shared role upgrades that improve groups of minions by damage, range, or speed.
Ascension and Difficulty
Winning runs now unlocks higher Ascension levels.
Ascension increases room difficulty, enemy health, boss health, shop prices, and reroll pressure.
Minions and Upgrades
Grouped minions into Grave, Crypt, and Hex affinities for broader build synergies.
Added new role-based upgrade icons and UI indicators.
Rebalanced many minion base stats and upgrade values around the new role system.
Updated minion cards, tooltips, and store details to show role and elemental affinities more clearly.
Adjusted Shattered Mask to execute enemies at a lower health threshold, with repeatable stacking.
Gameplay Changes
Level timers, spawners, enemy pressure, and waves now wait until the player first moves.
Some bosses can now fire projectiles that ignore walls.
UI and Visuals
Improved damage number scaling so larger hits read more clearly.
Updated store build display styling and minion detail formatting.
Fixes and Improvements
Improved dungeon generation behavior for high-difficulty rooms.
Improved shop item pricing, selling, and combining calculations.
Improved projectile and hit-stun behavior for high-hit-rate attacks.
Improved enemy movement fallback when direct movement would hit walls (fixes a bug where enemies would sometimes get stuck on walls).