Greetings Duelists! Missed us? A few weeks ago, we planned to write a retrospective blog post, but after being included in this week's Wholesome Games Steam Celebration, we decided it would be preferable to concentrate on two things: finishing up some essential improvements that the community has requested, and sharing our recap. As we prepare for the upcoming full launch in the upcoming season, let me set some expectations: our publishers, The 4 Winds Entertainment, and our development team, Rogue Duck Interactive and DiceHit Games, are committed to giving our community regular updates about the game, even in its demo form. So let's get started right away! [u][b][h1]STEAM FEST RECAP AND THE STATE OF NEODUEL DEVELOPMENT[/h1][/b][/u] For the past couple of weeks since the end of the Steam Next Fest, we’ve had a mountain of data to analyze from demo players’ feedback, to suggestions in our official Discord channels, but also those that filled in the official game survey, and for that we would like to start this blog entry by thanking you all! We learned a lot from player’s feedback, ranging from what most of you like, dislike, and what exactly the general consensus felt missing in a game like NeoDuel. On top of that, the Steam annual event helped us reach a whopping 15000 wishlists, and we can’t thank you enough for it. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/7f27683f145704e52f0a8808b87a5ca5f721eafb.png[/img] Also a small visual update: NeoDuel has a new logo! The new design is much clearer, and carries on the visual style of the Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese versions as they are fully localized. We are particularly big fans of the little flairs added in certain letters to bring them more to the front. Now in the essence of transparency, we figured we share some of the highlights of what we learned mattered the most to our veteran and new Duelists: [olist] [*] [b]General Gameplay and Mechanics:[/b] The keyword that is the most recurring in the feedback is simply “diversity” and “balancing”. While Duelists are enjoying the complexity of gameplay elements, fusions and evolutions of Cosmions, there’s a certain “build fatigue” where recurrent strategies are happening a bit too often especially at higher elo. That’s why our commitment to constant build balancing will carry on as it is, and in case you have missed it on our Steam page, one of the post-launch FREE content updates will be bringing a new gameplay mechanic: elemental fusion. In a nutshell, you’ll be able to blend the power of Air and Water to create a new Element known as Ice, to freeze your opponent in the arena. That’s the first of the 4 new elemental fusions planned as an example. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/e0cd31863341b8b2943348cfefd06d24fc8fa59c.jpg[/img] [*] [b]Cosmion Evolutions and Fusion Mechanics:[/b] One thing that Duelist pointed out is the lack of set knowledge about all this aspect of Cosmion power. So far, the majority have learned it through trial and error, and we’re working on a compendium that will feature a Cosmodex (a complete list of all Cosmions and their trigger/passive abilities), as well as fusion guides and a list of “starter” builds to get you going. Expect this closer to the full launch of the game, which will endorse the updated tutorial or onboarding experience for newcomers. [*] [b]Technical Aspects of the game:[/b] Another big challenge as a developer is that our design of NeoDuel is biased to our constant involvement in its development. Listening to players has helped us realize that certain aspect of our game are rather crude, and we have identified couple of points that we are launching with this 0.9.0 update (AKA the Wholesome Patch today). This includes SFX for Cosmions and certain actions, Animations and VFX for multiple aspect of the game and localization into more languages. [/olist] There’s much more as well, but we want to keep surprises for the full launch. The ultimate goal is to keep NeoDuel fresh from now until launch and onward, adding a broader variety of Cosmions and game elements, to refresh the game and provide new strategic options. [u][b][h1]THE WHOLESOME PATCH: VERSION 0.9.0 AVAILABLE NOW[/h1][/b][/u] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/83ed8d17c81efe746ddadb471d01a2b002e6d972.jpg[/img] Today’s patch was catered specifically for our participation in the Wholesome Games Steam Celebration running from today until the 21st of August. This event is a cozy celebration and showcase of all video games that inspire optimism, joy, and introspection, and we thank them for hosting us. This new build is quite a big one, even bigger than the version that was prepared for Steam Next Fest, and we hope you like what you’ll see. Our team has been working very hard to update the meta with a ton of new features and content while keeping some of the best duelist builds available... But more balanced. [b][h2]NEW CONTENT FOR THE GAME:[/h2][/b] [b]New Languages: Hallo! Bonjour ! Hola! Olá! Privyet![/b] NeoDuel is a game that relies on a lot of reading, so not playing it in your native language might be hard for many Duelists. This update adds [b]French, Spanish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian[/b]. The game thus expands its reach beyond the initial [b]Turkish & English[/b] versions and already supported [b]Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages[/b]. [u][b]Note that the current localization is not final and doesn't reflect the final product[/b][/u], so if you do find anything that seems out of context, don’t hesitate to share your feedback on our official [url=https://discord.gg/invite/the4winds]Discord channel[/url]. [b]SFX and VFX: call in the animators![/b] We took action after hearing you Duelists claim that this is our weakest area! A ton of idle animations for our favorite Duelist avatar, a dynamic health bar that brings the combat to life, and a ton of noises you'll hear while playing have all been included. We can't wait for you to see a ton more of it in the complete launch editions! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/53b6671a481a5cf083500e4190c9e8821edd9e60.gif[/img] [b]Enhanced Battle Log[/b] Introduced in patch 0.7.1 back during Steam Next Fest, this feature was well received but felt like it could use some more… well, logs. We added in effects in the battle log as well, while changing its design for better clarity, and hopefully will be something you use more often. [b]The BIG Upgrade update[/b] This is a significant modification that will fundamentally alter how players interact. For those who don't know, Upgrades are modifiers that you can choose every few rounds to alter your strategy. An example of an upgrade would be to reduce the cost of fire cosmions. We added a ton of new Upgrades and modified nearly 90% of the existing ones, so be ready to be astonished. The fundamental justification is that, in the process of investigating balancing Upgrades, we discovered that, in order to truly make them enjoyable, we need to modify the system and remove the ones that are overused. This implies that as you advance, the Upgrades you receive after your third match will start off as somewhat "common" rarity Upgrades and will eventually scale to rarer, more potent ones. This adjustment will bring the flat value Upgrades into line with the percentage ones, improving their balance. Ultimately, we came to the realization that many of our improvements were not as enjoyable as previous ones, so we decided to embrace a chaotically joyous part of the new ones. [b]New Cosmions Evolutions:[/b] While we’re working on a bunch of new wyvern themed Cosmions [url=https://x.com/PlayNeoDuel/status/1819649727962497123]that we might have teased on our official Twitter/X page[/url], this update brings a new evolution for two of our favorite Cosmions: [b]Mira [/b]and the duo [b]Serena & Sparky[/b]. The Serena & Sparky evolution is a fun design, where Sparky now becomes a rideable electric beast which Serena mounts in battle. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/b6957eed82933e64dcbee877dcf5a00d327ac458.png[/img] The second one is for our cute yet super-diverse Cosmion Mira. While Mira was already rather jack of all trade fusion pick thanks to its ability to get enhanced to any Elemental power, its Epic evolution involves embracing another Cosmions called Khepre to make use of it as shield. We promise you, it’s an adMIRAble sight. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44786371/ca87d93fcc789cabec539810ce8d8d24785d6a8e.png[/img] [b][h2]COSMION & ESSENCE BALANCING AND CHANGES[/h2][/b] [b]ELECTRIC BASED COSMION & ESSENCE[/b] [list] [*] Knod Cooldown upped from 1.75 to 2.5 Knod, and damage has been reduced from a range of from 4-7 to now 6-8 [*] Liskers rarity raised from Rare to Epic, and changed its link effect of gain +1 damage for linked Cosmions in every 4 active links rather than 3. [*] Nikola7 damage reduced 30 to 27 when triggered by Stun. [/list] [b]Developer’s Notes: [/b][i]Bizzz… Spark…. While this patch is about all the other more “macro” changes we are focusing on, we just had to look at this particular combination which dominated the game since the Steam Next Fest build. The problem with this Knod/Liskers/Nikola7 combo is this: Knod does double attacks, Liskers gives attack damage per link which Knod doubles, and when you bring Nikola7 to the mix with 8 links its big burst match start trigger, then you’re pretty much unstoppable. When a player combined these 3 units, they halved the health of the opposing backpack in one burst, then that was followed with a quick double attack from Knod to end the Duel. So our reasoning was to first keep the intended attack amplifiers abilities of Knod, but raising its cooldown. Then when looking at Liskers, we realized its original design concept was meant at a time where the abilities for multiple links was much lower. We figured we should increase its link number, but upping its rarity to Epic to enforce scarcity in the shop. Finally for Nikola7, its tweak was mostly planned before the rise of this combo – especially because its usage in the combo was mostly for its links rather than its damage range – to make sure it doesn’t become another key Cosmions in another one shot build.[/i] [list] [*] Zapp Cooldown upped from 2 to 2.5 [/list] [b]NEUTRAL BASED COSMION & ESSENCE[/b] [list] [*] Ishu cost in the shop is upped from 3 to 4. [/list] [b]Developer’s Notes: [/b][i]We feel too much love is given to this Neutral Cosmion that others are jealous, so we decided to up its cost to reduce overperformance.[/i] [b]NATURE BASED COSMION & ESSENCE[/b] [list] [*] Duopon: Upped its restoration trigger effect from 2 to 4 [*] Hercuvine: Link trigger restoration upped from 1 to 2 [/list] [b]Developer’s Notes: [/b][i]Remember how we changed our tick rate bug in the game from 1 second to 2 back in the last patch… Well someone forgot to enhance restoration units for it to make sense.[/i] [b]FIRE BASED COSMION & ESSENCE[/b] [list] [*] Dorangutan: Conditional effect of restoration upped from 3 to 5. [/list] [b]Developer’s Note:[/b] [i]Same logic as the Duopon and Hercuvine tweak listed above.[/i] [b]AIR BASED COSMION & ESSENCE[/b] [list] [*] Capcop: Reworked condition specific effects - on every successful attack, gain 1 damage. [/list] [b]Developer’s Note:[/b] [i]Duelist and our own team didn’t really get a reason to make use of this Air Cosmion, so we decided to change it entirely into a gradually damage boosting machine.[/i] [list] [*] Aetherling and Galewing: Our air core units now do not scale with excess accuracy, but rather with every clarity you gain. [/list] [h1][u][b]BUG SMASHED![/b][/u][/h1] It's been a LONG time friends so if we wrote the full bug fixes, this already 1500+ words post would be double the size. Just know that we squashed almost all known bugs that were shared by the community, including some sneaky ones we believe none of you have ever encountered. That’s it for today! We know it’s a long read, but we believe that keeping a steady flow of communication with you all is key to the future of NeoDuel. For the most recent news, join the NeoDuel community by following us on [url=https://x.com/neoduel]Twitter[/url] or hopping into the [url=https://discord.gg/invite/the4winds]T4W Discord server[/url]. Please contact our support channel on the [url=https://discord.gg/invite/the4winds]T4W Discord server[/url] if you need assistance with typical technical issues or if you are unable to resolve your problem. Till then, keep on dueling, and good luck!