Hi, everyone!
Thank you for playing RentPoly during Steam's DeckBuilders Fest. We've still been working hard on the game and making improvements based on the feedback we received. Without further ado, here are some notable changes in 0.8.1:
1) Tenant gain & appearance mechanic
When base tenants were gained by tiles or tenants were gained by properties, the effect usually wouldn't become noticeable until the next season. Because of that, there was some disconnect between the power-up and the immediate feedback players could see and feel.
To help mitigate this issue, new normal tenants will now additionally appear whenever a tile or property gains tenants. This impacts the game across all years, so we'll keep an eye on whether this new mechanic proves problematic or helpful.
2) Item rebalance
As we developed RentPoly, it went through many design changes to make the gameplay smoother and more refined. However, with the shifting focus and emphasis in the game's design, some items started to feel outdated or relatively overpowered / underpowered.
So, we've carefully looked into each and every item to readjust its power level closer to its originally intended design. A lot has changed.
2A) Properties
Some underperforming properties have been buffed: Rental House, Flower Shop, Grocery Store, Handyman, Newspaper Stand, Taxi Station, VIP Club, Dessert Restaurant, Stadiums, Farm House, Earthen Tower, Igloo.
Some concerning or overly powerful properties have been nerfed: Steakhouse (now gives Improved Steak when built), Food Wagon (now only works on nearby food-giving properties), Beach House (no longer gives food), Cottage (fewer basic tenants), Wood Tower (now makes tenants appear instead of gaining them).
Some properties have been reworked: Zoo (now gains rent when food is consumed).
2B) Foods
Foods went through number adjustments to reduce the gap between common and rare foods being too powerful or too weak.
Also, Ramen and Spaghetti have been reworked to upgrade all properties on the board instead of building random properties. Building random properties went against our philosophy of designing your own city, so we found the design problematic and changed it.
A new food (Orange Juice) has been added to account for newly added stamp types.
2C) Tools
We've looked at tools with a fresh set of eyes and readjusted their rarity and cost based on their effectiveness and usefulness. Some items have also been entirely adjusted to better match our current expectations for item balance.
Items that went through changes include: Mezzaluna Knife, Candle, Fluorescent Lamp, Barricade, Oven Mitt, T Pipe, Bottled Plant, U Pipe, Anchor, Trowel, Wood Pole, File, Propeller, Marble, Hard Hat, Straw Hat, Keychain, Allen Key, Switch, Stapler, Gloves, Copper, Grater, Ladle, Tape Measure, Knotted Rope, Red Brick, Sack, I Pipe, Paint Roller, Light Bulb, Pan, Spatula, Yellow Crystal, Green Crystal, Lead, Flash Light, Royal Charter, Cement Chunk, Circular Saw, HackSaw, Paint, Oil Can, Slotted Spoon, Engine, Brass Cylinder, Door, Plier, Coupon Book, Chalk, Chopstick, Glue Gun, Fan, Hand Drill, L Pipe, Waterskin, Steel Square, Shovel, KneePad, Goggles, Monkey Wrench, Paint Tray, Scissor, Quartz, Red Carpet, Nut, Scraper, Lever, Flail, Brush, Coin Purse, Bolt, Leisure Layout, Residential Layout, Commercial Layout, Public Layout, Granite, Ladder, Industrial Layout, Key, Gear, Glue, Golden Broach, Beaker, Paint Tape, Gauze, X Pipe, Clear Wax, Safety Vest, Jackhammer, Window, Diodes, Backpack, Picnic Basket, Miniature House, Electrical Sign, Electrical Cords, Steel Beam, Kettle, Screw Driver, Glass, Camera, Mop, Crane Hook, Landlord Emblem, Wrench, Level, Screw, Carabiner, Claw Hammer, Welding Torch, Gasoline, Whisk, Caution Tape.
Some item functions have also changed. Lever (reverse direction) has been changed to use Hard Hat's ability (% rent when at 0 rerolls). Carabiner now collects from the lowest-rent tile.
Tools that made special tenants appear now consistently modify their behavior instead of simply summoning them: Brush, Hard Hat, Caution Tape, Bamboo Hat, etc.
3) Special Tenants
Special tenants once again went through major changes to better synergize with their related tag items. We felt some special tenants simply "did more" with tenants instead of interacting with other properties, so their abilities have been adjusted.
Painter: When painter [land]lands[d] on a tile, if painter's tile has same property as blueprint in hand, blueprints gain $100 rent and 2 tenants. Painter moves forward 1 tile each turn. This new design pushes Painter toward "hand buff" builds enabled by some commercial properties.
Tourist: Tourist generates the total rent of adjacent tiles for each [tenant]tenant on Tourist's tile each turn. Tourist moves forward 1 tile each turn. This new design makes Tourist synergize with "adjacent" keywords in leisure tag properties.
Musician: At the end of the season, obtain 1 credit per 10 tenants on the Musician's tile. Musician moves 1 tile toward the most populated tile each turn. We didn't like special tenants just spam creating more tenants per turn, so Musician was also redesigned to better support Credit builds.
4) Disaster Balance
Some disasters were more disastrous than others, so we decided to rebalance the disaster on Winter seasons as well. Certain disasters, such as Eminent Domain, had its effectiveness reduced.
Also, some wordings on the disaster description were re-written to make it clear that they are negative debuffs rather than a random modifier.
5) Other UI polish and improvements
The calendar's disaster selection, result screen, and other UI elements received visual polish to better communicate selection and feedback.
Game Start tag selection menu has been polished to feel more tactile and indicate that they can be manipulated. Also added text description of each tags.
Fixed an issue the seed could be randomized on loading a run.
Fixed an issue the disaster selected would appear differently when the run was loaded (which was the result of the seed problem mentioned above).
Also, multiple treasure chests cannot be spawned onto same tile with the new 0.8.1 patch.
We appreciate your valuable suggestions and feedback. Thank you for playing RentPoly!