It sure has been a while! The development might've been slow, because life happened and all that, but now I'm back, stronger than ever - and so are the crabs!
This update is Ambitious in many ways. It removes a number of old things that did not click, adds a whole new layer to the game and leans much heavier into the "MMO raid" thematic. It brings the game much closer to its original idea, while refining everything that's been implemented so far.
So - what changed?
Starting from the basics - the control scheme has been updated greatly, making it MUCH more forgiving than it used to be. Clicking anywhere on the screen will now select the nearest crab, so missing clicks would be literally impossible.
The Pause / Details menu has also received a facelift, and is now functioning as a full-on Tactical Pause, with the ability to control crabs during the pause, setting targets for them.
One of the biggest changes in this update was related to how crabs level up. A lot of choices Raid Leaders made when it came to rewards were drowned by the amount of stats crabs got from levelling, and it was quite hard to balance encounters' challenge.
Additionally, there was that "Loot Share" which was confusing everyone while solving the issue that should't have existed in the first place.
So - Loot share is gone, level ups are gone too. Crabs no longer get additional stats from levelling, but instead they "Find" trinkets and put them in a Treasure Bag - a new reward distribution system. Instead of per-crab choice on each level up, you would now open the Treasure bag, review found items and choose, which crab would receive them. It also plays nicely into the "MMO raid" thematic, giving you the control over distribution of the spoils of the raid.
The UI for the reward distribution was also updated to have similar control elements on all of them - hopefully, making it more clear how they actually work and making them easier to adjust to.
The previous change also removes the necessity to skyrocket the "Hostility", buffing the monsters with every encounter. Their stats are now static, and when you see a familiar monster - you can expect to know its power level. The variety is not too big, as of now, but it builds a better foundation for balancing encounters in a finished game, while presenting you with a fair challenge.
The way monsters are selected for the encounters also changed drastically. Behind the scenes, it gives me much better control over the game balance, while reducing the amount of configuration I have to do. For you, it means fairer challenge and more interesting fights, that scale well as the game moves forward.
A number of old trinkets were reworked, and new ones were added. We got from 8 to 18 trinkets available to crabs, introducing more build options, as well as synergies with new mechanics.
Since there are no level ups now, Abilities can now be found as Room Rewards, and there's a whole new reward type - Aspirations.
And now, for the headliner of the update, and a biggest functional change so far - Aspirations.
I have been very cautious with taking control from the players before, but when I prototyped this system after a friend's advice, I just couldn't see the game otherwise.
See, the idea is - crabs are greedy and somewhat silly. So them standing there obediently and following every command didn't really make sense. So now, they have Ambition - a bar that slowly fills with every useful action they perform.
Aspirations are a new customization type that provide passive buffs and ways to lower Crab's ambition - but they also determine what kind of a scene would a crab make when their Ambition reaches the limit. And they will make a lot of scenes now.
Additionally, crabs now react to their surroundings, commenting various events. It's a tiny thing that adds a lot more character to each of them and to the game in general. Making crabs more alive was a big focus, so they also got some updated animations.
I'm deliberately not including any screenshots this time, because I genuinely want to surprise all of you :) You can check out the new trailer for a glimpse of how it all plays now - and don't be shy to launch the freshest demo and see all of it for yourself! As always, I am happy to hear your feedback - here on Steam or on Discord.
GL;HF! Stefan, Your Dungeon Master