Executive Decisions Update - Notes

major update

Have a Nice Death · published 4 years ago

Dear recruits,

We are excited to announce the Executive Decisions update will be available 12/15 for Have a Nice Death in Steam Early Access. This new content drop marks the final major update for the Early Access version of the darkly charming roguelike before it launches on Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam and Steam Deck) on March 22, 2023. With tomorrow’s Executive Decisions update, Have a Nice Death Early Access players will find a slew of new content, like new bosses (including a secret mini-boss!), weapons, spells, story content and festive winter holiday decorations. Additionally, major quality-of-death improvements have been added, such as six new difficulty modes, including a beginner-friendly mode, and a new meta progression system.

Have a Nice Death is in Early Access which means we’ve got our team working our fingers to the bone on our plans and your feedback (from Steam, Discord, and across socials). We’ve got more new content for the game, so check back for regular updates across the coming months.

Read up for the full list of changes coming in the Executive Decisions Update!

IMPORTANT
Here’s the list of important info/bugs you need to know for this update:

Localization:
- We keep adding new game text (gameplay, UI, Dialogs), but it can take some time to translate everything in all 10 languages of the game. Localization will be regularly updated in upcoming update notes.
About crashes:
- We are aware that crashes occurred on specific integrated graphics cards and our devs are working to find a proper fix.
- The problem seems to be an issue with Intel's GPU drivers and DirectX11. Please, before playing, check if your drivers are up to date. And if you still have the issue, we added compatibility with DirectX12 which seems to fix the problem on some GPUs. This option can be activated by adding the following command in the "Game Launch Options" of the game on Steam: -force-d3d12
Known Bugs:
- Some random dialogs for the new Brad version are missing. See them in the next hotfix patch.
- When using the skip of the movie bosses, there can be visual problems with their animation.
- Death passes on some of the new Christmas assets while they are in the foreground.
- Possible missing SFX - No voice at all on boss dialogues, no voice on the first line of each dialogue.
- Some elements in Will Hung's office are not the right ones.
- In the shop, if the player finds an item on sale, he can’t purchase it before getting the amount of soularies required BEFORE the sale. The amount of soularies used is still the correct one. (For example: the koffee normally costs 20 and 10 with the sales. You will need 20 soularies in your inventory to buy it but only 10 are used).
- The icons and VFX of weapons may be missing in the Secret room cairns.
- Only the first mine of PumpQuinn Omega explodes and deals damage

STEAM DECK ISSUE
We encountered an issue on Steam Deck where Death stays in the Charged attack stance leading to a soft lock. Until we can correct this bug, you can still play the prior build of the game released before the latest December update by following these steps:
- Select Have A Nice Death on your Steamdeck’s library.
- Go to the settings (the gear icon).
- Select “Properties”.
- Select “Betas”.
- Enter the following code: Have1NiceDeck.
- Press “Check Code”
- Go to the drop-down menu, and select “steamdeck - Stable branch for Steam Deck platform”.
- Back to the game, the download should start.
- Enjoy the (previous) update, no rest for the CEOs!

SPECIAL THANKS
We want to give a special shout-out to the dedicated and incredible members of our community that help our team by reporting bugs, feedback and give interesting ideas.

Note: 📌 indicates a change inspired by community feedback!

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

New Boss and Mini Boss

Depending on how you progress in your adventure, there’s a chance you may encounter one new Sorrow and one new mini-boss (Thanager)...
An alt Sorrow version:📌
- Barnaby Proudfoot - Sometimes, Brad (World 1’s Sorrow) puts on his suit and can actually do his job. If you run into him, prepare for a tough fight as he’ll unleash new attacks that’ll catch you off guard!
A new secret Thanager:
- Secret Thanager - Rumor has it that one of Death, Inc.’s most loyal and adorable employees has eaten a mysterious fruit causing them to become evil and... not so adorable.

Overall Gameplay

There are even more deadly tools to add to your arsenal, as four new spells, including “Lyberis Skull” that lets you summon a slew of tiny but mighty skulls, three new cloak weapons, like a Bow that shoots a homing arrow, and a new scythe have been added.

Add 1 new scythe:
- The Moonlit:
  - Combo with big range but low damage. Only the finisher deals strong damage
  - Down + X buff the avatar next attack, can be used at any step during the combo to replace one attack
Add 3 new cloak weapons:
- Jabelin: Charges forward
- Firebow: Shoots a seeking arrow
- Murray of Crows: Disappear into a crow’s murder
Add 4 new spells:
- Troublecross: Sends out 2 undulating spheres
- Tornadmin: Launches a deadly tornado
- Lyberis Skulls: Summons tiny skulls that detonate quickly
- Wizzalch Barrage: Summons lightning from above
New Renovator Content - Holiday Decorations
- To really get Death, Inc. in the holiday spirit, players can customize the lobby and breakroom with brand new holiday decorations via the Renovator. To access the Renovator and the merry decorations, all you need to do is speak with Muriel the Reverent in the lobby.
Add new food items to the fridge:
- Sticky Pineapple: It tastes exactly like hand sanitizer. With added sugar. Gain 50 % bonus damage as long as you don’t use any anima.
- Death Burger: Gain 50 HP and 5 defense until you kill a Thanager.
- Club Sandwichazord: Cloak deals +50 % damage and you gain +150% Mana regen until you kill a Thanager.
Add 38 new curses:
- Some examples:
  - “More Where That Came From”…Rapidly consuming an Anima summons another.
  - “Mithril® Chainmail”: Temporarily gain +10 Defense.
  - “Arsenic Pudding…”: Gain 10 stacks when applied.
  - “Perish the Thought…”: Infuse Slow

New Features

New Difficulty Modes: With these six new difficulty modes, you can choose to take a less stress-inducing adventure or really put your hack’n’scythe skills to the ultimate test – you call the shots, Boss!
- New Beginner Difficulty Mode - “Self-Fulfillment”📌 : A friendlier mode for anyone, which players can select in the Death, Inc. Lobby after they die for the first time. With this mode, players will start their run with three Anima (healing items), restore half of their Max HP when they defeat Sorrows, fight weaker minions and Anima heals will increase after each death.
- Five New “Breakdown” Difficulty Modes – With five new “Breakdown” difficulty modes (Breakdown XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV) players can choose just how challenging they want their adventure to be. Depending on which Breakdown difficulty you choose, prepare for soul crushingly difficult changes to occur, including bosses (Sorrows) and mini bosses (Thanagers) being granted even more abilities and attacks, minions becoming more powerful, having to start a run with less HP, and much more.
New Progression Systems
With these new systems, you have even more power to choose how you dive deeper into the Underworld...
- Starting Scythe📌: At the beginning of a run, you now can choose between one of two scythes - Death's trusty, original one or a randomly selected, unique scythe. It’s represented by a new GPE in the reception area (The Locker).
- Scythe Transformation: With this new scythe upgrade system, your starting scythe can now be upgraded in three different ways.
- Meta Progression: A new leveling system has been added that lets you obtain new bonuses, like additional Anima, buffs and more. It will be represented by a new GPE (The Magnificent Tree) in Death's Office (Lobby).
Quick access to Sorrows
- A new DANGEROUS elevator appears when getting enough experience, it will lead you directly to the SORROWS, skipping the previous departments.

Lore

Experience two new questlines, including a limited-time winter holiday questline:

Limited Time Event - “Secret Santa”:
- Starting today and ending on January 15, you’ll discover each Death, Inc employee has a holiday gift, including Death! Once Death opens his gift, you’ll be able to receive a Prismium in Mark’s shop.
“The Musical”:
- Some employees are preparing the annual Death,Inc. Musical this year’s musical is “The Little Mermaid” featuring two Have a Nice Death fan-favorite characters.

Quality of Death Improvements

Combat:
- New Mini Boss patterns
  - Will Hung : Faster & try to capture several time in a row
  - Leon Clean: Throws garbage ball when jumping
  - Slyma : Creates a shockwave when landing on ground
  - X4-H : Bouncing balls now split.
  - RJ Baron : Ejects projectiles when hit.
  - Denzel “King” Dengue: Now gains additional lifesteal
  - Lambert Heisenberg : Can eat several pills together
  - Camille Flage: Makes bones erupting from the ground
  - Candice : Appies slow to avatar
  - Pierce Görske: Launches homing Kunai
  - Horace Sinistrocirrus: Creates additional lightnings
- New Boss patterns
  - Brad: Now gains ARMOR when taking pictures of himself. + has a new attack that shakes the ground.
  - Gordon Grimes: Each projectile now split into 2 projectiles + has a new attack when he strikes the ground 3 times.
  - Hector Krank: Summons new enemy type
  - Maxxx: Summons projectile when teleporting
  - Major Warren Pliskhan: Bazooka are now homing + has additional missiles
  - Waldo: Summons chainsaw from the ceiling
  - Catherine Imamura: Creates tsunamis
- Rework of the parasol 1.0
  - New combo that throws projectiles
- Rework INFUSE system
  - The main INFUSE are now exclusive.Players can’t have both INFUSE Poison & INFUSE Burn. When obtaining one INFUSE, the others will not be available to select.
Level design New Content
- New and Revamped Rooms: The world of Death, Inc. has expanded with over 50 new rooms and rooms have been updated to include new traps, tutorial elements, and rewards.
- 4 new types of reward floors with the associated icons📌
UI has been improved
- Ingot indicator. 📌
- Add reroll & other pickup
- Option to skip boss cinematics by holding the B button. Works for introduction & outro 📌
- Option to skip the end of run screen by holding the B button 📌
Tutorial Improvements
- Some tutorial at the beginning of the game (new save) has been improved : Dash, Frenzy Attack arena, anima 📌
- Additional Tutorials:
- Up + Attack
- Jump + Dash
- Soulary
Visual/Art
- NPCs having new character animations that reflect their mood
- Added various new signs to tutorialize infos
- Art improvements: room Kit W01 Garden + Office

Bug Fixes

Waldo’s second phase stun animation is offset and larger compared to idle.
Final attack of the Diss Scythe’s ground combo has an extended recovery time
Player can get a duplicate malus on Difficulty 10
The Breakdown description in the Lobby, the player might notice that they don’t match the modifiers.
The curse "Tooth For A Tooth" gives 3 animas instead of 1 as expected
The player can use the Rocket Launcher endlessly in the air
Difficulty 3 defense buff is not affecting Natural Disasters Department enemies
The rest attack UI is still visible even when you have the danger "All interface elements are hidden”
There is no effect with the Lvl2 upgrade of the Jabelin
The player is able to spam downward ground attack of Billhooks weapon
Ulcermonner’s invocation may not appear and lock the arena
When the player stays nearby a Weapon GPE gains in an arena, there is no tooltip.
The Contract Approved sprite is deformed and separated into several layers
Pure heal of Koffee in the shop does not take into account injuries
If the player dashes and uses a spell at the same time, the spell does not appear but the mana is used.
At various places of the floors of world 1 kit Janitor", elements of scenery (pieces of arch) appear without reason
Some background art in World 1 are pixelated
Some bosses do not die when their life bar reaches the end
When the player with Billhooks, uses the diving attack and jump at the same time (On air, press Down+X+A), an issue occurs where the player can deal damages and jump at the same time, quicker than expected.
Inconsistent elements of the background are visible in the Lobby
It is possible to enter the Relaxation Room while in the dialogue with PumpQuinn during the "Talk to PumpQuinn" part of the Halloween quest
The Player is unable to access enemies and soul container in Natural Disasters Departement
The Player can stand on the arena border and eliminate enemies without being hit
The player may find another shop floor while he’s in a shop in the Natural Disasters Departement.
In the restroom, table and chairs in the foreground near the exit lift seem to float
The Curse Remover does not visually hide the second Malus in the Curse Menu on the Difficulty 10
In the Natural Disasters Departement, the player can encounter a few plugs that can be passed through without destroying the GPE.
Hitbox of the Imposters while jumping is located at ground level
When the player gets a heal collectible, a decimal amount of heal can be seen.
Last worker guide entry remains visible on another save file, even if the codex entry was not unlocked yet.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

As you can add your feedback/bugs on the Steam forum of the game, you can also join The official Have a Nice Death Discord. You will meet a bunch of nice people who can help you with the game and who are more than ready to discuss ideas and critiques about Have a Nice Death with you.
We were amazed by the quantity AND the quality of your chef-d’oeuvre. Between this update and the last one, we count about +500 fanart from our community (Discord, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit etc.). That’s insane! Of course, we can’t share all of them, but here’s a glimpse of talent: