[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/50e1648d9a346e5386bc80c0db2ff877f119abb3.jpg[/img] It's been quite a while since the last update- this will most likely be the pace moving forward: larger updates every 1-2 months delivering a nice chunk of new content to explore! As mentioned in previous patch notes, I have been continually updating the Beta branch with changes every few days so if you feel like trying out every little addition (with the possibility of them being unbalanced) then feel free to opt into that branch. There has been an amazing beta community growing on Discord and it's been fun to see the reactions to each element as I add them. With that said, lets get into all the changes! [h1]Patch Highlights[/h1] [b]DIFFICULTY MODIFIERS[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/81d1dbcb751e90c2516a4f99c9c53303b8de50d5.png[/img] With a surprising amount of players asking for a challenge beyond Nightmare, I have added 12 new difficulty modifiers that can all be enabled at once for the ULTIMATE test of skill! Keep in mind that these are intended for seasoned players and (especially on higher challenge levels) will most likely require a lot of attempts to win. Each weapon gets a medal when winning (the medal awarded depends on the challenge level) which contributes to your overall account medal (seen next to your name in all games). [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/3e44c21847bc2bbf67e8c246841968c2415022f1.jpg[/img] [b]NO MORE COOLDOWNS: COMPLETE LOOT REBALANCE![/b] There have been countless rebalances to loot in this patch (details in the full patch notes below), but the main things to be excited for are: [list] [*] Almost all mods that previously had boring cooldowns (meaning you could only trigger them once every few seconds) now are chance based, allowing you to trigger them multiple times in a short timespan. Each additional level of these mods both increases the trigger chance AND the effectiveness of the mod. This should allow for previously underwhelming mods like Dagger Arc or Bubble Blast to scale nicely into the end game [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/5a7ef4a7c2824f08516b82f7e91b16b796858e90.gif[/img] [*] Damage increasing perks now affect the damage of weapon and grenade mods that spawn secondary projectiles (again like Dagger Arc / Bubble Blast) which makes more sense AND again allows for better scaling [/list] These changes mean that finally the more "fun" mods are a viable choice over straight up flat damage boosts as for a long time these mods just couldn't keep up and weren't worth taking. This should introduce far more build variety than before. [b]PHYSICS BASED DESTRUCTIBLES[/b] These add a new layer of chaos to islands compared to the existing static explosive rocks! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/79836e299cdfd26cb47920f2c080b09abe5db961.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/6df99ef059e9b93c5fbbfd2ddb3ce1a6f6520186.gif[/img] [b]TONS OF QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS[/b] This update is packed full of highly requested quality of life features such as: [list] [*] You can now press Q (by default) to Auto Loot every piece of loot and chest on an island without having to manually open and choose each pickup (which could really slow down late game runs especially with perk combos like Big Chests and Faulty Chests) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37274156/0288f62fd96ab9d4d1f6bceb7ec77d1c11f6894f.gif[/img] [*] The same amount of crystals given to all players in multiplayer when eliminating enemies to prevent unlucky players from falling behind in a run [*] You can no longer be frozen for 2+ seconds, leading to unfair deaths [*] Many common and frustrating bugs have been fixed such as Key Totems not working if you aren't hosting in a multiplayer game, getting eliminated by totems if you had a perk that increases incoming damage, glue shot not damaging consistently etc. [/list] [h1]Patch Notes[/h1] [b]GENERAL[/b] [list] [*] Added 12 difficulty modifiers that each add a challenge level to the run to allow you to rank up in exchange for greatly increased difficulty. I tried to make each modifier interesting while keeping the core gameplay loop intact while also trying to avoid "curse" or straight up debuff modifiers like "chests spawn less loot", those never feel very fun to me. If you thought Nightmare was getting too easy, try a few runs with all modifiers active! [*] In multiplayer, all players now receive an equal share of crystals when enemies are eliminated. This even occurs when a player has been eliminated and is spectating. The main reason for this is to prevent situations where players are left behind due to one overpowered player dealing all the damage and scooping up all the crystals! [*] Added new “Auto Loot” keybind that will automatically pick up all available loot (if a chest it will pick the highest rarity option) and will salvage all remaining loot- great for late game runs with a lot of loot to sort through that previously took a lot of time per island [*] Damage line of sight checks now ignore enemies so grenades, explosive weapons and melee will now all damage ALL enemies within the damage radius (before, only a fraction of a group of enemies would take damage, the others blocking the damage entirely) [*] New XP system: for every 10000 score you get in a run, you level up! This is a permanent account level that can be infinitely leveled up. For each Challenge Level you get 5% more XP [*] Added physically simulated barrels and landmines [*] Added new enemies (only seen with the Evolved Enemies difficulty modifier active): Elite Barrel Skull, Laser Crab, Minigun Crab, Homing Grub [*] Perks that increase damage now also scale the damage of ALL other damage sources (including things like Dagger Arc or Poison Aura). Because of this I have rebalanced the damage numbers of ALL “secondary” projectile weapon mods, grenade mods and perks (too many small tweaks to list here but they have all been rebalanced with this new scaling in mind) [*] Most mods that had cooldowns are now fully chance based, allowing you to trigger them multiple times in a short timeframe. Grenade mods that do have cooldowns generally have much shorter (around 1 second) cooldowns to allow for grenades to trigger mods much more frequently when using Grenadier or Clone Explosion [*] Perks that increase or decrease incoming damage (like Hot Shot or Hard Target) no longer have an effect on unblockable damage sources such as from spiked chests or totems. This means you can no longer get eliminated by using a totem or opening a spiked chest! [*] When aiming with the crossbow, the arc spread is now tightened [*] Heavily optimized the maximum amount of individual FX instances that can be visible at once which should reduce late game frame drops with a lot going on [*] Heavily optimized the maximum amount of individual damage text numbers that can be visible at once which should also help late game performance [*] Projectiles now hit the blue island border walls which means improved performance in cases where lots of projectiles are being spammed (as projectiles that missed enemies and flew out into the distance got simulated for far longer than they were relevant to gameplay) [*] Optimized the Shrapnel challenge modifier projectiles as it could cause noticeable frame drops when many enemies were eliminated at once [*] Greatly improved the responsiveness of physics objects in multiplayer [*] Added new weapon mod: Landmine Shot [*] Added new Grenade Mod: Barrel Explosion [*] Added new rideable barrel to the lobby- hop in and find Tony! [*] Added new challenge modifier: Homing Barrels [*] Added new destructible rock type: Max Health Rock (gold) [*] Improved gold skin visuals to be brighter and more vibrant [*] Dagger Arc, Piercing Wave, Arcane Blast, Shotgun Blast, Mace Shot, Firework Shot, Thorn Shot, Torpedo Shot, Fireball Shot, Sharpened Axe and Triangle Shot are now chance based instead of cooldown based. This should make them far more interesting and fun to choose instead of straight up stat boosts [*] The maximum ice stacks a player or enemy can ever have at once is 25. This is to prevent extremely long freeze periods on both incoming and outgoing damage which could result in players getting unfairly eliminated [*] All “bad thing happens when taking damage perks” now won’t trigger when taking constant fire damage and will only happen on direct hits from enemies or other strong one off damage hits like from totems. Your combo will also stay safe here as losing a hard earned 5x combo due to a tick of fire never feels fair [*] Enemies can no longer change targets while in the middle of an attack and facing another player [*] Interact cooldown has been removed from portals to prevent situations where multiple players interacting with portals in a short time frame wouldn’t count every player [*] Improved controller navigation on the Difficulty selection UI to make it easier to see which modifiers are being selected [*] Added 3 new achievements and skins [/list] [b]BALANCE CHANGES[/b] [list] [*] The maximum time a Horde island can be has been reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds as they could often drag the pace of a run down a bit. Since they are now shorter, I've adjusted the enemy spawn curve to be more intense [*] Whenever multiple elites or bosses spawn due to looping or difficulty modifiers, they can now be all different types of enemies [*] Reduced the amount of bounces that Elite Lightning Crab projectiles can do and also increased the time between their attacks [*] Poison Crab health reduced by 15% [*] The key totems in the lobby are now much more likely to drop Legendary loot [*] Auto Rifle damage increased from 28 to 30 [*] Orb Launcher damage increased from 35 to 36 [*] Grenade damage increased from 275 to 350 [*] Bouncing Shot now works slightly differently- each level of Bouncing Shot adds +1 bounce (previously no matter what level it gave +4 bounces) [*] Made reaching max combo much easier: Combo Level 3 = 50 eliminations (down from 100), Combo Level 4 = 125 eliminations (down from 250), Combo Level 5 = 225 eliminations (down from 500) [*] Homing Shot now has a much shorter homing range which should prevent it completely breaking the game- it’s still powerful when used on lined up enemies with piercing but it should make situations where all you have to do is fire into the sky to clear an island less common [*] Scavenger is now fixed at a 5% chance for enemies to drop health pickups but the amount of healing increases with each level so it can scale better into the late game [*] Poison was extremely overpowered so it no longer affects damage from non direct damage (like fire damage). This makes flat damage mods more consistent and prevents unfair deaths where you get set on fire while also poisoned, leading to insane incoming damage. Poison stacks have also been adjusted to be closer to fire in terms of balance as before landing even a single bullet with the Poison Shot mod active would grant a +25% damage bonus when hitting that enemy again- way too overpowered in comparison to the other elements! All poison based mods and perks have had their poison stacks rebalanced to be more in line with the other elements [*] Iron Claws negative debuff (melee cooldowns increased) reduced from +100% melee cooldowns to +50% melee cooldowns so it should be more viable to use now [*] Valued Customer now increases max health instead of just healing, making it much more useful [*] Fortitude max health gain increased from +20 max health to +25 max health [*] Personal Space and Bullseye eliminations needed to trigger reduced from 10 to 8 [*] Damage Aura damage increased from 15 to 20 [*] The health of all turrets has been increased from 100 to 10000 [*] Reduced grenade knockback strength to make grenade mods such as Spike Strike or Crystal Barrage more useful (since before it would often knock enemies out of the way, making these mods useless) [*] Shotgun Blast damage per pellet increased from 125 to 400 [*] Ultra Shot base trigger chance increased by 50% and damage increased from 400 to 500 [*] Time Bolt damage increased from 600 to 1000 [*] Firework Shot damage increased from 500 to 1000 [*] All Aura perks (other than Damage Aura) now have a larger radius which should make them much more useful [*] Poison Aura cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds [*] Lightning Aura cooldown reduced from 9 seconds to 6 seconds [*] Ice Aura cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds [*] Fire Aura cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds [*] Fire Shot fire stacks per hit increased from 40 to 100 [*] Random Shot debuff stacks per hit increased from 10 to 25 [*] Critical Chain cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds [*] Gemstone damage increased from +5% after each island to +6% after each island [*] Dagger projectiles (used by Dagger Blast / Dagger Shot / Dagger Dash) now move 50% more slowly but have a 50% increased radius so should be far more useful + effective [*] FMJ damage increased from +50% damage to armored enemies to +100% damage to armored enemies [*] Ghost Ammo chance to not use ammo per shot reduced from 20% to 15% (to balance it better with Efficiency as that has the same chance but you have to actually hit something for it to take effect) [*] Bouncing Shot now starts with a few extra bounces to prevent cases where it could get stuck on the ground and appear to not bounce at all [*] Bribe, Damage Seeker and Double Edged Sword will no longer trigger when stepping into non damaging poison / ice zones [*] Health Rocks and Max Health Rocks now scale their bonuses by +20% per island [*] Increased melee knockback strength by 50% [*] Grave Dodger has been removed for now as it was extremely broken at high levels and basically prevented a run from being lost with 60+ seconds of invulnerability when reaching 1 HP on each island [*] Melee knockback strength has been toned back slightly as the previous buff caused enemies to get stuck in crevices around the map [*] Removed Lightning Slugs from the Challenge Crystal enemy pool and added Laser Crabs and Minigun Crabs instead [*] Ultra Mushroom now has the same spawn weight as other grenade mods [*] All turret projectiles damage increased by 50% [*] Mace Ball projectiles have less gravity [b]There were a few things causing damage numbers to SKYROCKET and make other mods that deal flat damage essentially useless very quickly. I’ve toned these back so that a wider range of build options are viable Critical hit calculations were unintentionally extremely strong: Power Punch was multiplying the original critical hit multiplier which then got multiplied again by Mega Crit! This resulted in insane inflations to damage when the multipliers should have been additive. This has been corrected now The adjustments below were made as a balancing response to damage increasing perks now being able to affect secondary projectiles such as Dagger Arc[/b] [*] Power Punch critical hit damage increase reduced from +25% to +20% [*] Critical Thinking damage boost reduced from +100% to +25% [*] Critical chain active duration reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds [*] Power Armor damage boost reduced from +50% damage per armor plate to +25% damage per armor plate [*] Damage Combo damage boost reduced from +20+ per combo level to +15% per combo level [*] Reduced damage bonus for Oil Can, Ice Cube, Metal Rod and Poison Vial from +50% damage to +25% damage [*] Reduced damage bonus of Red Fury from +50% to +33% [*] Reduced Brute Force damage increase from +250% to +100% and reduced the incoming damage penalty from +50% to +25% [*] Reduced Damage Seeker damage increase from +250% to +150% [*] Reduced Glass Cannon damage increase from +400% to +250% and reduced the max health penalty from -90% to -80% [*] Reduced Leap Of Faith max health increase from +300% to +250% [*] Reduced Up The Ante damage increase from +200% to +75% [*] Money Is Power damage buff decreased from +10% to +5% per 1000 crystals [*] Fire Aura, Ice Aura, Lightning Aura and Poison Aura damage increased from 50 to 150 [*] All “Strike” mods have had their damage increased from 100 to 400+ [*] All “Strike” mods have had their cooldowns reduced (cooldowns may be removed entirely in the future but since they all last quite a while it feels right to keep them cooldown based for now) [/list] [b]BUG FIXES [/b] [list] [*] Fixed issue where non-host players in a multiplayer match couldn’t use the key totem to get a free perk before a run [*] Fixed issue where teammates could be damaged if triggering a damaging mod when eliminated (like crystal barrage) and your damage became “unowned” [*] Fixed issue that caused Aura perks to not trigger when reloading an autosave unless dropped and picked back up again [*] Poison now correctly increases damage of lesser projectiles such as Dagger Arc / Bubble Shot etc. [*] Fixed issue where Glue Shot wasn’t dealing damage on some weapons [*] Fixed issue where leaking destructible FX weren’t being attached properly [*] Made many improvements to prevent enemies spawning under the ground (some may remain especially around barrels but I'm working to fix those in the future!) [*] Fixed keys spawning under the ground when defeating bosses [*] Fixed Damage Seeker reducing future max health gains from hearts when it shouldn’t [*] Fixed enemies not calculating debuff damage correctly (Fire Skulls now will apply more fire stacks in general for example but these fire stacks will be far less damaging than before). This fix will make debuff damage consistent with all other sources (such as from fire rocks). Previously a poison skull would apply 10 stacks of poison from a projectile on island 1, and the same 10 stacks of poison on island 100 when they should have been applying far more [*] Fixed exploit where players could win infinitely in the Game Over UI [*] Fixed floating rocks on some islands [/list] That's all for now, see you in the next update! 🦀