[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36986402/ade2be8ec127386cbc23f6112de7b9d7f5d02470.png[/img] It's now more than a month since Divided Reigns was released to the world and Adam and I couldn't be happier with the reception of our players. Thank you for joining us on this journey and we are so glad so many of you have had a great time with this game. [h1]Some new content for you![/h1] There's a new very difficult mini boss wandering around on the floating continent for you to battle! The Automaton hits like a truck and has three orbs circling it that each do unique things to influence the battle. This will also give your magic users a chance to shine since the Automaton has VERY high defense (an enemy type that was lacking in the final dungeon... people were just hacking and slashing everything to bits!) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36986402/082a4040d95dc8416322bffca6f0a11e0ce984c3.png[/img] [h2]New Attack Animations![/h2] We updated the 100RP Side attack "Decapitating Swing" in the last update. We have two more ultimate attack type skills completed for you! Check out a sneak peak of "Reckless Abandon" in the screenshot with the Automaton above, and the new "Bum Rush" (inspired by Sabin's Blitz from FFVI) in the screenshot below! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36986402/81382e30739ff44af41e11ecef3ec5862480cb86.png[/img] [h1]Tons of tiny bug fixes and quality of life improvements![/h1] There have been a lot of small bugs fixed that you'll probably never notice and are too numerous to list here. Special shoutout to unknown_zzz for sending me a spreadsheet list of over 300 bugs! [*]Tiamat being broken after you lost to him one time was a major bug that took a lot of investigating to figure out what was wrong. Thank you for your patience with us fixing this. It should be good now! Let us know if you have any issues. [*]People complained that Shakar's equipment was squished because "Weapon Offhand" was too long. Now it's just "Offhand" so her equipment has the same room to be read as the other characters. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36986402/6461245bdac291d0a056d643fe72be0f2356199e.png[/img] [*]Through the game, when you gain a new character, their level will automatically match either Ailfred's or another character in your party if Ailfred is taking a vacation when you gain that character. [*]Reworked Ring of Aggression. This item was added near launch and it's never worked correctly. It was so OP it kindof broke the game. Now, it simply gives the wearer 50RP at the start of battle. [*]Due to popular demand, the damage on end-game weapons has been increased slightly. [h1]Rebalanced attack skills[/h1] We had one reviewer say that the game is balanced poorly. I (Andrew) balanced and built all the numbers/stats/skills/enemies from the ground up. I put an incredible amount of effort and care into balancing the game, but there's always room for improvement. I always try my best to hear constructive criticism with an open mind. I just rebalanced every physical damage ability in the game. I wanted to share with you the detailed specifics of how I crafted the skills in this game. While originally I used the concepts described below to create all the skills, magic, etc, through 4 years of development, numbers had been tweaked many times and the power of skills had gotten a little sloppy. Click "Show Details" for the RP skill category list. [expand type=details]0RP--(Dagger Flurry) (.5) 2+(a.atk*2)-b.def*1 0RP (Weak Attack) (.5) 5+(a.atk*2.5)-b.def*1.25 5RP (Type Attack) (.47) 15+(a.atk*4.3)-b.def*2 5RP (Master Type Attack) (.43) 25+(a.atk*4.6)-b.def*2 10RP (.46) 30+(a.atk*4.5)-b.def*2.07 15RP (Strong Attack) (.45) 45+(a.atk*5.5)-b.def*2.48 20RP (.44) 50+(a.atk*5.75)-b.def*2.53 25RP (.43) 55+(a.atk*6)-b.def*2.58 30RP (.42) 60+(a.atk*6.25)-b.def*2.63 35RP (.41) 65+(a.atk*6.5)-b.def*2.67 40RP (.40) 70+(a.atk*6.75)-b.def*2.7 45RP (.39) 75+(a.atk*7)-b.def*2.73 50RP (.38) 80+(a.atk*7.5)-b.def*2.85 55RP (.37) 90+(a.atk*7.75)-b.def*2.87 60RP (.36) 100+(a.atk*8)-b.def*2.88 65RP (.35) 110+(a.atk*8.25)-b.def*2.88 70RP (.34) 120+(a.atk*8.5)-b.def*2.88 75RP (.33) 130+(a.atk*9)-b.def*2.97 80RP (.32) 140+(a.atk*9.5)-b.def*3.04 85RP (.31) 150+(a.atk*10)-b.def*3.1 90RP (.30) 160+(a.atk*x11)-b.def*3.3 95RP (.29) 175+(a.atk*11.5)-b.def*3.34 100RP (.28) 200+(a.atk*12)-b.def*3.36 100RP+ (.27) 220+(a.atk*12.5)-b.def*3.37 100RP++ (.26) 250+(a.atk*13)-b.def*3.38[/expand] [h2]What the heck am I looking at?[/h2] This is the math behind every physical skill your characters use in the game. Let's take a look at one example: [h3]30RP (.42) 60+(a.atk*6.25)-b.def*2.63[/h3] [*]The first line "30RP (.42)" is the RP cost of the skill... in this case 30RP, and the ratio of attack user's against the foe's defense. Weaker attacks have a higher ratio of attack vs. defense. If you look down the list, weaker attacks have a much higher ratio than stronger attacks. In other words, the enemy's defense is factored in more heavily for weaker attacks than stronger attacks. The goal with this is to have weaker attacks always do some damage (especially with multi-attack skills in mind here) but have the obstacle of high defense enemies. However, if you just need to cut through a highly armored opponent, use a HUGE, single hit skill and it won't matter nearly as much. [*]The second line in the example above works like this... The first number is base damage (60 in the example). This in plain and simple a number added to an attack. Even early in the game, if you use a 90RP skill, you want it to do a significant amount of damage. That's the purpose of the first number. It becomes much less impactful through the game as you get more control to equip your characters how you want. [*]The first parenthesis is the user's attack power multiplied with the number. In the example above, if Celeste has 100 attack, this part of the equation would equal 625 damage. [*]After the - in the equation is the foe's defense which is subtracted from the first half of the equation. While higher damage skills do have a larger multiplier to the foe's defense, the ratio in the first line is consistent. Looking at the weakest skill (at the top of the list) "(a.atk*2)-b.def*1" is a ratio of attack to defense of .5 while looking at the last and strongest skill "(a.atk*13)-b.def*3.38" the foe's defense is higher, but at a much lower ratio of .26. [*]More specifics. Power is increased or decreased if there are additional effects of the skill. If a skill has a positive effect like "50% chance of Internal Bleeding," then its power is lowered by one 5RP category. If a skill has a negative effect like "Goes last in the round," then it is increased by one 5RP category. [*]Example, the Reach skill Jump is described as being very strong but goes last in the round. It costs 75RP. Without the drawback, it would be the 75RP attack power which is 130+(a.atk*9)-b.def*2.97. However, since it goes slow, I increased the power to the 80RP damage category, so it ends up being 140+(a.atk*9.5)-b.def*3.04. If a skill has multiple positive or negative effects (or a REALLY good effect like a chance at instant Faint) the damage might be increased or decreased 10RP or even 15RP categories. [*]For skills with multiple hits like Shakar's Flurry of Death, I took the total RP cost (100 in this example) and divided it by how many attacks it has (4 in this example). Therefore, the damage for each attack in Flurry of Death WOULD be the 25RP category 55+(a.atk*6)-b.def*2.58. HOWEVER, each of those attacks has a VERY strong additional effect of 15% chance of instant Faint status. Therefore, those four attacks were lowered to the 15RP category and do 45+(a.atk*5.5)-b.def*2.48. [*]One final caveat: Skills granted by equipping a weapon have a halved base damage (the first number). The reason for this is you have them at the start of the game if you equip that weapon. Doing 180 base damage with the 80RP Great Axe skill when you have 30 attack and are level 5... is a bit much. Also, I wanted the character skills and attack type skills that you learn and earn to be slightly stronger than the free weapon skills. I hope you enjoyed that detailed look into the development and balancing of skills in the game. As always, please take a moment to write a review of Divided Reigns. It helps us tremendously! Happy Adventuring! [*]Andrew