Ahoy captains,
Exciting news! We have just released the first major update for the game. Thank you for everyone who has picked up the game and given it a go. If you haven't yet, make sure to leave a review on Steam, it really helps small teams like us.
Updates
New random events in runs. Random events put your skills to the test, but yield legendary rewards! Look out for these new suspicious areas on the map, and challenge if you dare.
Escort: escort a merchant vessel as it makes it's way through uncharted areas.
Hold: capture a zone, but be careful, you will be an easy target!
Cargo: help find lost cargo and deliver it safely into port.
Land attack: disarm land defences so it's safe to land ashore.
Storm: unfortunate navigation has resulted in less than desired circumstances...
New secondary stats. Secondary stats are stats which already had an impact on your runs, but you could never see exactly how they were determined. Look out for this new panel in the shop to gain more insight into what your build is doing for you.
New weapon, rune and mod will appear. How to get them is up to you to discover...
New traits have been added to some weapons to help with clarity.
[ADRIFT] targets a random location
[UNIQUE] provides no additional bonuses when stacked
Balances
Thank you to everyone who opted in to share your run data with us, it has helped massively with adjustments made to the game in this first patch.
Run duration. The average duration for a successful run was around 70 minutes, ranging from 60 to 120. This is longer than we anticipated and has driven a major re-tweak of how runs are scoped.
Wave counts have been reshuffled. Stages are now shorter, meaning you will spend more time focusing on the interesting decision making in the shop, as opposed to feeling like some stages never end. 4->3, 6->4, 8->5, 10->6, 12->8.
Experience gain has been increased to account for less waves.
We now expect a successful run will take between 35 to 50 minutes, meaning you are more likely to complete a run in a single sitting.
Chest and scrap drops are re-distributed. Previously, chest and scrap chance was taken directly from your stats and applied to every enemy death. The drop rate for both now also depends on how many have previously been dropped within the stage. This naturally reduces the number of drops and stops 'chance snowballing', an unintended favourable strategy.
Dodge and armour are re-distributed. Previously both stats were capped at 60%, which lead to undesirable items appearing once you reach your caps. The cap has been removed and instead replaced with a diminishing returns system. Armour and dodge are no longer treated as percentage base stats but are instead used to determine your final percentage (in tandem with luck).
General balances:
Leech now scales with cooldown
Repent projectiles move faster
Jellyfish radius increased
Voyage acts are now 1 battle shorter
Hauler enemy hp reduced
Breacher enemy hp reduced
Artillery enemy speed increased, reworked AI to stop artillery from 'hugging' the edge of the arena
Removed breacher enemy attack indicator
Made landmines more visible
Raiders can now shoot through trees
Fixes
Raiders only appear in the shop if islands are present
Golden acorn did not impact Seadog aura
Re-joining after a save auto-complete a battle
General performance fixes
We hope you enjoy the update, we have plenty more to share in the coming weeks so stay tuned captains!
Orange Acorn Games.