💥Shots and Prayers🙏 Update is now live!

major update

LORT · build 24596796 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

LORTers,

The massive 💥Shots and Prayers🙏 Update is now available to play. Plus, LORT is on sale for 35% off until August 25. This post will go into detail on the many additions and changes to the game. But first, check out our LORTy launch trailer:

Weapons 2.0

The weapon system has been overhauled and we have added 12 new weapons to the game - more than double the previous amount. Weapons more clearly correspond to specific Attributes so you know exactly which ones to go for based on your preferred Attribute(s). There’s a new assault rifle that can rocket jump, a new katana that makes you very samurai, a new baseball bat to hit home runs, and much more. For more details on Weapons 2.0 and how it lays the foundation for Endless Mode, check out our previous post here.

Paladin Adventurer

Marcus T. Fury, the Oathbroken Justicar, has arrived. A great option in both solo or co-op play, Marcus summons a pillar of Holy Light that damages enemies but heals himself + allies. For close quarters combat, Marcus can channel his Holy Power to sprout angel wings, open a fissure in the ground, and deal massive damage. Unlock Marcus by completing the Pray to Win challenges.

New Quests

Two brand new Quest Types enter LORT to give you entirely new objectives: Sportsball and Deadline Demon. In Sportsball, enter the brand new sports stadium and protect the Goal post from attacking Football Goblins as they try to destroy it. Feeling extra sporty? Throw balls at enemies or hit them with the baseball bat to send them flying. In Deadline Demon, you’ve entered the cubicle space of mundane office life and must exorcise corporate demons. Stay near the computer to finish the ritual and banish the demons to hell. 

New Locations

The maps have been upgraded with new locations like a new Wizard Tower, Gym, and Library. You’ll notice the Goblins have upgraded their craftsmanship with new stone houses while the Canopy Cache jump puzzle got a makeover. Can you find all the new places to explore?


Visual Upgrades

The entire game has received a visual upgrade. New lighting, character shaders, upgraded environmental art, new visual effects and much more. See for yourself in the 100% real comparison above.

Performance Optimizations

The game has received many performance optimizations and now runs better on all levels of hardware. We worked on network connectivity, graphics optimizations, and tons of bug fixes. We hope this enables more players to run LORT reliably and smoothly.

Full Patch Notes

Many, many things have been adjusted in the game. The list below may not encompass the full extent of those changes.

A note on existing runs: Existing runs will be reset on launch of the new update. While this isn’t ideal, the previous run saves are not compatible with all the updates we have made to the game. All of your profile progress and unlocks will still work, it is just if you have stopped and saved mid-run, that will be reset upon starting this new update.

Gameplay

  • Attributes

    • Overhauled the Attribute level up moment with new visuals and UX to easily understand what gets stronger with each Attribute type.

    • Removed secondary stats from Attributes.

      • Secondary stats were making every build feel the same and incidentally making you too strong for little effort. We wanted to give room for builds to ultimately feel more unique and crafted. We’re not entirely there yet, but this is a big step towards creating purposeful builds.

    • Adjusted Attribute spawn ratio so you can get the one you want a majority of the time.

  • Difficulty

    • Adjusted balance across all difficulties.

    • Changed difficulties to Adventurer, Veteran, and Legend.

    • Updated Legend Difficulty skin unlocks to require killing the Final Boss as the requirement instead of delivering the final object to its resting place. This was heavily requested from players in multiplayer sessions.

    • Made Sniper Challenge only appear on Medium + Hard. 

  • Death Penalty (Multiplayer)

    • Revive Shrines now also remove the entire health bar Death Penalty from all players upon use, as well as revive all players who are dead.

    • Added a Rune Juice Upgrade called Say No to Death that reduces a portion of Death Penalty when using Healing Shrines in multiplayer.

  • Added new Sprint settings under Gameplay - you can now pick between Auto, Toggle, and Hold. 

    • Toggle setting improved - if Sprint gets canceled but you never let go of the button, you will automatically retry sprint after it was canceled. 

  • Added a temporary spawn protection for players on initial spawn so they do not get hit by enemies while loading in.

  • Added new Achievements.

  • Improved multiplayer network connectivity.

    • Increased networking timeout length for Steam Data Relay so that clients have more time before being disconnected by poor connections. We hope this will reduce connectivity issues reported by players.

  • Upgraded Unreal Engine from 5.4.2 to 5.7.4.

Quest Types

  • New Quest - Deadline Demon

    • Unlock by completing Track and Whack.

  • New Quest - Sportsball

    • Unlock by completing Deadline Demon. 

  • Adjusted all Quest Types to make completing quest objectives the main way to gain Attributes. 

  • Camp Crashers

    • Renamed Goblin Appetizer to Camp Crashers.

    • Adjusted quest objective to require you to complete Big Attribute Camps.

    • Big Attribute Camps drop 3 Attributes per camp.

    • Big Attribute Camps added to Compass.

  • Track and Whack

    • Added more Lumber Lieutenants to hunt down. 

    • Lumber Lieutenants drop 3 Attributes each.

    • Each time you kill a Lumber Lieutenant, the rest of them grow stronger.

Weapons

  • All Weapon damage, attack speed, and other stats have been adjusted for this update. 

  • Added 12 New Weapons - most are unlocked via challenges.

    • The Spray’n Pray

    • Katakana

    • Faith and Fortitude

    • Big Al’s Bonk Bat

    • Spinhammer

    • Gladiator’s Gladius

    • Monsta Hamma

    • Hallowbreak

    • Stabby McStabberson

    • Doombolt

    • Voidslinger

    • Nullpointer

  • Weapons 2.0

    • Removed Weapon rarities.

    • Added Weapon levels.

    • Weapons are colored with the Attribute(s) they scale with.

      • Multi-scaling weapons scale off the Attribute with the highest level.

    • Changed Weapon pickup visuals to now float above the ground and be more instantly readable.

    • Added imbued powerup VFX on Weapon pickups that indicate imbue rarity and stack count. 

  • Added Weapon shop - Wiktor’s Wicked Wares.

  • Added 3 new Weapon chests - one for each Attribute type.

  • Renamed many of the previous 10 weapons.

  • Improved hit detection of dagger weapons when close to enemies.

  • Improved hit detection for punches.

  • Thunder, Wand of the Wattseeker - extended Thunderbeam range.

  • Sipper’s Sledge - Added air break control to Jump Slam ability for better control. 

  • Updated multiple weapons to allow the Alternate Attack to interrupt the Primary Attack. 

  • Changed duration of “smelly” status effect from Rotten Egg to 2 minutes.  

  • Adjusted crossbow reloading to an auto reload similar to guns.

  • Guns can now headshot (weakpoint) enemies.

Adventurers

  • Added Marcus T. Fury - Oathbroken Justicar.

    • Unlocked by completing the Pray to Win challenges.

  • All weapon proficiency passives have been removed from classes.

    • With the large variety of weapons added, we did not want to limit you in which weapons you use with each Adventurer. Weapon damage has been buffed accordingly. 

  • Updated Cliff’s passive so it works with any weapon and removed the miss penalty. 

  • Added damage type (Physical or Magical) to Adventurer ability descriptions. 

  • Added physics to Astrid’s clothing.

  • New character cell shader.

  • Updated textures and added cloth wiggles on Cliff skins.

Powerups

  • Changed powerup drops from camps.

    • Increased from pick 1 -> 3.

    • Made powerup choices common. 

    • This is another change towards allowing players to more easily make intentional builds.

  • Added Common Powerup - Auntie’s Fan which reduces cooldowns. 

  • Added Common Powerup - Light Weight which increases critical damage. 

  • Keen Eye

    • Changed from Uncommon to Rare.

    • Increased Critical Damage from 25% -> 50%.

  • Cool Comfy Shorts

    • Changed from Uncommon to Rare.

    • Increased Cooldown Reduction from 50 -> 75.

  • Drowsy Dose Dropper - Increased Attack Power scaling from 15% -> 25%.

  • Beads of Bless up - Changed from Epic to Legendary.

  • Scissors of Running

    • Increased Attack Power scaling from 45% -> 55%.

    • Added 5.5% Attack Power addition per stack.

    • Removed duration increase per stack.

  • Firebird’s Feather

    • Increased Attack Power scaling from 15% -> 20%.

    • Added 2% Attack Power addition per stack.

    • Removed duration increase per stack.

  • Moonstone - Jump Height increased from 10% -> 15%.

  • Runner’s Inhaler - Increased Movement Speed from 10% -> 15%

  • Essence of Desperation - Added VFX.

  • Updated all powerup thrones with new art and visuals.

Enemies

  • New system implemented for enemy damage and health scaling. This sets us up for the future Endless Mode. As a result, we’ve done a full balance pass on enemies. 

  • Improved enemy navigation to navigate on more surfaces.

  • Goblin Thief

    • Removed slow status effect from triple charge attack.

  • Goblin Rifleman (Snipers)

    • Extended aiming period from 1 second -> 2.8 seconds.

    • Added pre-fire VFX that blinks before firing so players know when to dodge.

    • No longer can spawn as night enemies, during Escape, or from cursed shrines.

  • Leaf Daddy

    • Added line of sight check so Daddy doesn’t drop his totems behind walls.

    • Removed slow on charge attack.

    • Totem cooldown increased slightly. 

  • Big Chill Billy

    • Tornadoes now travel randomly instead of tracking players.

    • Improved melee attacks on slopes.

  • Added a new character model for Davey Bonez’ summons.

  • Final Boss

    • Lightning Line attack is no longer interruptible.

    • Removed negative status effects on Final Boss between phases.

    • Increased ping marker time on stolen weapons.

  • Improved hit detection for Slimes.

Maps

  • Reworked the following Places of Interest (POIs) with all new art and layouts. Inspect them all to find potential secrets!

    • Gym

    • Library

    • Wizard Tower

    • Chapel of the Broken Oath

    • Funkwood Hollow

      • Mushroom Tower

      • Croaks’ Giant Frying Pan camp

      • Canopy Cache tree jump puzzle

    • And more!

  • Added new POIs

    • Bonezone Basin - Gallows

    • Bonezone Basin - Chugga Chug Order tavern

    • All Maps - Goblin stone houses

  • All new Castle Kit art pieces.

  • Added visual bounce to Sunflowers when you use them.

Performance

  • Performance has been vastly improved. The game looks and runs better. The notes below are not fully encompassing of all performance optimizations we’ve made.

  • Optimized landscape material for all maps.

  • Optimized grass on all levels including terrain blending and lighting responsiveness. 

  • Moved shader model from SM5 to SM6.

  • Revamped cel shader to include reacting to lighting, receiving shadows, and being much cheaper.

  • Fog is now anchored in the terrain instead of the camera, properly affecting translucencies.

  • Disabled parallelized RHI thread work on Steam Deck for CPU and GPU performance.

  • Shadows now look and run better at all quality levels.

  • Tree LOD chains improved which greatly improved performance.

  • Disabled runtime virtual textures (RVT) saving VRAM.

  • Increased default graphics settings from Low to Medium on Steam Deck.

  • Disabled custom depth rendering on a lot of art for performance gains.

  • VFX optimizations for boss activations and landmarks, hopefully fixing issues on low end hardware.

  • Implemented Unreal’s significance manager to decrease tick rate for less significant enemies.

UI

  • Added new time of day clock.

  • Added new weapon tooltip widget.

  • Added new compass design and icons.

    • Compass icons now increase in size as you get closer to their location.

  • Added new images to the Quest Types board.

  • Adjusted location of Interact button and text.

  • Added weapon Attribute colors to weapon hotbar UI.

  • Added patch notes button to main menu.

  • Added new VFX on HUD when choosing and leveling up Attributes.

  • Added Scoreboard

    • Press TAB to view scoreboard as well as inspect HUD + powerups.

    • Host controls moved to Scoreboard.

    • Added ability to mute players in chat.

  • Defaulted lobby size to 4 players.

    • We originally created LORT with a cap of up to 8 players so that big friend groups could play together. We have found since launching that many players believe that the intended best gameplay experience is with 8 players. On the contrary, we have spent most of our effort balancing the game for 1-4 players. You can still adjust the lobby size to play up to 8, we’ve just changed the default setting. 

    • Lobby size can be adjusted when creating a new game or from the Scoreboard.

  • Added new icons to various Rune Juice upgrades.

  • Added new player portrait outlines and ping colors.

  • Added healing slot pulses when player is not at max charges in Camp.

  • Added “Dodged” text appearing on HUD when you successfully mitigate damage with a dodge.

  • Added new Boss widget.

  • Added new Alternate Attack re-activation icons.

    • Now it is clearer when you can re-activate your Alternate Attacks.

  • Made error state clearer when you cannot afford to purchase.

  • Added text to the Public Games browser to explain criteria for games to appear in the list.

  • Changed Big Distraction logo to have registered mark.

  • Updated credits.

Audio

  • Added new main menu music track.

  • Added new settings option to change main menu track.

  • Added more voice lines for Big Chill Billy.

  • Added new damage taken effort for female goblins. 

  • Added more voice lines for Stewart.

  • Improved voice line quality for Royal Rudolph.

  • Added event cone angle mixing on enemy arrows & bows, making them easier to hear when they are attacking the player.

  • Adjusted event timings and bone positions of animations, making character sounds more correctly positioned in the world.

  • Better instance limiting to enemy events, making intense fights more sonically readable.

  • Added new footsteps for semi-big goblins.

  • Mastered base ambiences.

  • Improved clarity of enemy attacks.

  • Added clearer sound to Rifleman aiming.

  • Beefed up Safe interaction. 

  • Added Quest Select sound for all players.

  • Added Lawrence Fishbird caws when interacting with the Van on a map.

  • Centered position of adventurers SFX to make room in the mix to hear enemy attacks better.

  • Clock tick during the last day now pauses volume increase during game pause.

  • Improved many weapon sounds.

  • Added landing event for Adventurers.

  • De-spammification of various powerups.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed Blinkblades Blink-Justu projectile sometimes appearing stuck mid-air.

  • Fixed some melee weapon Primary Attacks getting stuck on.

  • Fixed exploit where you could duplicate weapons by leaving and rejoining after throwing your weapon on the ground.

  • Fixed giant arrows showing up when hitting certain enemies.

  • Fixed Thunderbeam not respecting pitch on clients.

  • Fixed and improved the pistol shooting/sprint interaction.

  • Fixed bullets colliding with players and not colliding with some enemies.

  • Fixed reload starting before dodge ability has finished.

  • Fixed reload not canceling interact.

  • Fixed arrows colliding with the boss dome when standing on a tall hill.

  • Fixed Croaks’ Shadow Walk not applying to nearby players who are line of sight blocked by other players.

  • Fixed Croaks’ eye textures to be sharper sharper on Magma skin.

  • Fixed Croaks’ Shadow Walk not hiding all weapons on a player.

  • Fixed Bernie’s fire sprint VFX getting stuck on after dying or entering the Van.

  • Fixed Astrid’s Rattling Roar inheriting hit VFX from weapons.

  • Fixed Astrid’s Rattled status to include Slow status VFX on enemies to give players slowed enemy feedback for when it hits and slows them.

  • Fixed Croaks’ taunt blend-in time to avoid odd transition.

  • Fixed VFX on Boomers Blessing to be less annoying.

  • Fixed interaction animation on Big Chest to punch instead of slot pull.

  • Fixed aura VFX flickering.

  • Fixed bad collision on free powerup chest.

  • Fixed material on Big Powerup Chest.

  • Fixed VFX on weapon chest.

  • Fixed aura VFX not showing up on low settings on certain surfaces.

  • Fixed all fire and denial zones causing multiple instances of damage when overlapping.

  • Fixed Slime Boss standing around not taking any action after Leaping.

  • Fixed Goblin Fisherman anchor projectile throwing insanely far.

  • Fixed Goblin Fisherman launching you across the map.

  • Fixed Goblin Thief teleporting outside the boss arena.

  • Fixed Goblin Thief being unable to teleport out of deep pits.

  • Fixed Goblin Lobbers throwing molotovs under ground.

  • Fixed night enemies teleporting inside the boss arena as soon as the boss dies.

  • Fixed shields flipping in Goblin hands when falling.

  • Fixed projectiles getting stuck in the air after Lumber Lieutenants die.

  • Fixed slime death VFX not attaching to the skeletal mesh.

  • Fixed enemies killed by the game (not the player) counting towards kill goals.

  • Fixed Goblin Thief weapons not disappearing when they go invisible.

  • Fixed Goblin Thief tracking invisible targets during Triple Charge attack.

  • Fixed Fire Slime creating fire zones at the initial location of its attack.

  • Fixed Cliff photo spawn locations.

  • Fixed floating mushrooms in Funkwood Hollow Mushroom Tower.

  • Fixed revive graves falling inside rocks.

  • Fixed Funkwood Hollow having spawn points under the map.

  • Fixed collision issues in Trollhole Summit boss arena.

  • Fixed players being able to teleport inside rocks.

  • Fixed wrong ingredients showing up when turning into the pot.

  • Fixed gold not being able to pass through boss arena.

  • Fixed not being able to pickup item drops that get stuck inside fences.

  • Fixed players getting out of boss arena during the fight.

  • Fixed floating barrels.

  • Fixed Stewart Camp farewell voice lines being interrupted by his other voice lines.

  • Fixed Safe dial continuing to spin if the interaction is canceled without releasing input.

  • Fixed collision on Trollhole Summit geyser jumppads so you can land on them without sliding off.

  • Fixed collision on Monster Truck.

  • Fixed the bottoms of all tree types for better connections on steep terrain.

  • Fixed item names sometimes extending beyond the bounds of the tooltip.

  • Fixed ability icons on HUD sometimes showing the wrong icon.

  • Fixed player stats showing incorrect values while in the Van or spectating.

  • Fixed mouse capture being broken when alt tabbing to a non fullscreen window.

  • Fixed projectiles getting stuck in invisible spectators.

  • Fixed multiple Attribute selection screens being visible at the same time.

  • Fixed D-Pad Up causing you to press D-Pad Down multiple times to navigate Quest Types selection and Rune Juice upgrades.

  • Fixed being able to access Rune Juice upgrades menu while in the Final Boss cutscene.

  • Fixed Boss range indicator not working on low settings.

  • Fixed Boss circle indicator and sky beam VFX not showing for players who were not looking at them when activated.

  • Fixed healing slot not displaying the correct icon.

  • Fixed weapon slots staying greyed out after a player dies and moves weapon slots.

  • Fixed interactable selection specifically for shops.

  • Fixed pause screen overlay not appearing if pausing during/after character select.

  • Fixed damage numbers in tooltips for items that can scale off multiple Attributes.

  • Fixed challenges leftover from a previous run showing up in new runs.

  • Fixed run slots not updating when resetting the active profile.

  • Fixed the Van exit icon not disappearing during the fly away sequence.

  • Fixed pause breaking the crosshair for clients.

  • Fixed instances of offline play not saving the run and selected difficulty.

  • Fixed anti-aliasing option in settings not looping to the right.

  • Fixed TSR appearing in the anti-aliasing menu when no upscaling is set.

  • Fixed Primary Attack icon not always highlighting.

  • Fixed host/client inconsistency when showing melee attack cooldown.

  • Fixed in-game font so numbers show up with a more uniform height.

  • Fixed interact text for Safe to say “Hold to rotate dial.”

  • Fixed not being able to double click a Public Game to join the session.

  • Fixed various music transition bugs.

  • Fixed camp alert enemy voice lines playing for cloaked players when they enter the vicinity.

  • Fixed double select sound on Unlocks window.

  • Fixed double footsteps when having daggers equipped.

  • Fixed timing of STRONKBOW ready sound so it plays when it’s actually fully charged.

  • Fixed Quest select sound not playing when selecting Final Boss Quest.

  • Fixed double click sound playing when opening Unlocks window from the pause menu.

  • Fixed footsteps getting cut off.

  • Fixed items culling very fast when the map has over 200 pieces of gold.

  • Fixed Attribute level up VFX and SFX not playing in rare circumstances.

  • Fixed clients getting stuck when they end an interaction but the server gets stuck on.

  • Fixed Revive Shrines pulling players out of the Van.

This is our biggest update yet. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it. We'll give you more insight into what's coming next after you guys have had some time to enjoy the update.

Bless up, LORTers.