When we were preparing the game for the 1.0 release, attempts were made to bring the gallery screen into some kind of order. One obvious criteria for being "in order" was having the very last row of each section fully filled.
We mostly succeeded with that, although there was one node that didn't make it into the release build. That node was:
I find it quite ironic that the one node which didn't make it on time was the one named Deadline. I wanted to use this as a segue into a postmortem-like post. I mean, I wanted to do that, but that was 2 weeks ago.
I've missed quite a few deadlines throughout my life. Contrary to the name, that didn't make me "dead" or anything. But it did make me feel bad about myself. With 1.0 out of the way and the release behind us, there's no reason to go through the stress of having deadlines anymore.
I have a lot of plans (and passion) for NET.CRAWL still. So, there will be semi-regular updates of different sizes leading to the final 2.0 Update some time next year or even later. I think we should be able to add at least a hundred more smaller things (nodes/aspects/items) into the game without compromising its essence.
But content for NET.CRAWL can be really unpredictable. Cores often require multiple redesigns, the right artwork occasionally takes weeks to find, and, of course, there are always technical issues plus good old not being smart enough to handle all the complexity. A hundred isn't a low number either.
What I'm trying to say is that there's too much uncertainty at the moment to make concrete promises about the update's cadence. I wanted to make this clear.
The next 3 months, I'll be mostly in the _dev branch, designing new content. There will be smaller updates to the release branch, but the exciting stuff will have to wait until version 1.5.
With that out of the way, let's talk about yesterday's update to 1.1.
Secret Achievements
Feedback on Discord (thanks guys) led to a post-release rework of RC Car and Dynamic Library.
The node is now as fun as a basic 2 Data node can possibly get.
But there's an edge case. What happens when the node moves into a wall and can't make the 2nd move?
Instead of ignoring this move, there's a "secret" interaction that makes the node drop 1 Trace instead. This interaction isn't in the tooltip initially, but it gets added (along with an achievement) after the first time a player sees it happen.
There's another one: Charging Station now refreshes all adjacent Transport nodes.
Both of these secret interactions are completely unnecessary. But there's some fun to be had here, and it protects new players from being overwhelmed by a massive tooltip when they first see the node.
We can't take this concept too far, though. The game is hard enough to grasp already, and hidden interactions only add unnecessary complexity. But with Dynamic Library, it solves a very practical problem, and it might be useful to have this in our arsenal.
Depth-3
Speaking of secrets, in 1.3 we should add an optional secret (not so secret now, I guess) TRUE true ending to the final boss fight.
Right now Depth-3 often feels more like a victory lap than a challenging culmination. The lore also requires a more fulfilling resolution.
Overall, the gimmick of the 3rd Depth seems to work fine. It was also cleaned up a bit after the release. Nodes with Limited no longer reappear after a reboot, the whole thing doesn't break if an effect moves the Home node out of the center, and farming Crystals from Beholders is less free.
I'd say I'm moderately satisfied with how Depth-3 turned out.
Text Scaling
UI text scaling options were added, primarily for Steam Deck users.
Players on desktop with smaller monitors might also benefit from setting text scaling to ~15-20%.
Run History
A Points column was added to the Run Results screen, and by the power of our beloved programming demigod Andrew, each row is now fully expandable.
The feature only works for new runs, though.
Nerfs
There were some balance changes since release, and most of them can be qualified as nerfs (full patch notes should be somewhere below this post). People, generally, don't like nerfs. I don't like making them either. It's especially daunting when a nerf makes the description wordier.
I really like the nerfs to Archivist and Curator, though.
Curator was clearly OP, but my issue with it was that a player could just jump back and forth between two nodes and essentially convert Callbacks into Trace reduction with perfect granularity (and with any +1 Drop modifier the conversion would be twice as effective).
This nerf not only makes the aspect slightly weaker, but leads to a more interesting play pattern overall.
What I'm getting at is that the nerfs are usually done not to limit fun options, but to make optimal play look more healthy. Curator could make the game trivial with any decent Callback's generation. After the nerf it's still very strong, but at least you can't autopilot it that easily. It should be more fun this way, not less.
Grounding was nerfed because of the infinite value combo with Tesera (and semi-infinite with Heatsink).
Dial-up (use Callbacks to activate nodes with Remote) almost certainly will need a more substantial nerf later, but maybe there aren't enough nodes with Remote to make it consistently OP. I want to replace Cloud Database with something else first (as an upgrade to regular Database), since it's the thing that provides the most consistent value to Dial-up.
Overall, I'd say we are doing good balance-wise. The game is for sure unbalanced, but mostly in the right spots.
Localizations
We're looking for community members willing to help with localizations. The game is currently localized to English, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. If you speak another language, and would be willing to help, please, reach out to me on Discord (obsolete_one).
Conclusion
That's it for today's update. Once again, I want to thank everyone who reached out with feedback at any point. If you have suggestions, ideas, or criticisms - feel free to DM me on Discord.
Denis (obsolete_one)