Gameplay Content Update

Introduction

This update rounds out most of what I wanted in the game, but couldn't include in the initial release. It also includes changes made to accommodate feedback from players.

I hope you all enjoy it! :)

Single-world Scenario

This new scenario connects all the existing campaign sectors and zones into a single playable world. The victory condition is closing all twenty rifts. Each rift is a separate quest with a reward, which can include unlocking combat parties and rooms.

Deciding what rifts to close first will be an important part of the experience!

Monsters and rifts have a much higher level cap, and you only start with one allied party (the recon team). Distant monsters in the world will be leveling, fighting, and possibly conquering rifts while you deal with monsters and rifts closer to your teleporter.

Unlike the campaign, you start with most buildings, paths, projects, and gear unlocked. Just the high-level magic buildings like the Hall of the Archmage are locked; you'll need to conquer rifts to unlock them.

Note that this scenario is not included in the demo.

Perk System

Perks are a new kind of progression that can provide additional stats, add stats to other stats, or unlock new functions. All combat paths get a choice of perks every 5th level.

For a mage path, you choose between perks that increase affinity/mana, or power/pierce/steal/accuracy, or condition stats, or resists/health, or robe/foci/staff proficiencies.

The tech/weapon paths are similar, with weapon proficiencies instead of affinity, and gadgets/armor instead of robes/foci/staff.

Some paths get innate perks, such as the Dark Mage path, which gets Shadow Sense.

Perk Shop

The perk shop provides very expensive but powerful perks, such as the following:

• Loot Vacuum, which allows looting all corpses and items in your zone in one go;

• Cultivator, which regens calories per turn;

• Electric Personality, which regens charge per turn;

• Prismatic Spring, which adds +10 to all types of mana per turn;

• Reaper, which adds Death affinity to the magnitude of all negative status conditions inflicted by the player;

• Divebomber, which doubles Physical power if flying;

• Miser, which adds unspent prestige to your max health;

• Credit Check, which adds unspent credits to your tech power;

• And more:

Ability Shop and New Abilities

The ability shop allows you to purchase levels in magic abilities you've already unlocked, such as Fire Bolt.

New abilities added include cleanses and dispels for all magic types. Cleanses remove debuffs of a magic type from allies, while dispels remove buffs of a magic type on enemies.

Most magic types attack the opposite school, so Fire magic gets Cleanse Water and Dispel Water. Note that monsters get these abilities too, and the endgame monsters get a greater version of dispel that can attack persistent buffs.

New Persistent Buffs

All existing buff dispensaries in the various barracks on base now offer multiple exclusive buffs; you can have no more than one per dispensary. (Selecting a different one will replace the current one.)

Additional dispensaries were added to more rooms, including the gymnasium, illusionarium, library, and medbay.

Most dispensaries have at least one option that should be interesting to most builds. As usual, the buffs sold get stronger (and can be upgraded) as the rooms are upgraded to higher levels.

New Items and Reworked Consumables

Added rings that regen health and stamina, as well as rings that allow toggling conversion of mana into calories and charge. Also added a physical resist ring.

To simplify things, there is now only one type of battery (based on the previous large battery).

Health, stamina, charge, and calorie consumable effects were increased, and you can now scale more restore from various affinities. Earth affinity is added to the calories gained from a ration cube, for instance.

System Beacon

This mechanic allows the player to place a system beacon in the wilds, allowing a one-time teleportation to the zone later.

• Setting a beacon costs credits (except on easy); prices are 0 (easy), 10 (normal), 25 (hard), and 50 (extreme);

• You can set a beacon in the wilds, as long as you're not in spatial disruption or in a zone with an existing permanent teleporter (or in a zone with your beacon set already);

• You can teleport once to the beacon from anywhere, as long as you're not in spatial disruption, or in a party (or in the same zone as the beacon);

• The beacon is consumed on use;

• You can see your beacon in your drone information screen, as well as in the zone information itself (in the primary interface);

• Right-clicking the activate beacon action (on zone) shows cost;

• Right-clicking the teleport to beacon action (on drone) shows target zone.

Condition Rebalance

Condition stacks, accrual, and duration can no longer be reliably boosted by the character (though some perks will still do so).

Instead, each magic type has its own configuration. Hostile water conditions, for instance, have a bonus to duration.

Stacks and accrual also no longer apply to buffs and debuffs: they use a single stack. (This is to prevent scaling nightmares.) Damage and heal over time still use stacks.

Monster Territory Behavior

Rebalanced how monster territorial behavior works:

• Monster growths provide 3 ambient mana per level now (base + added environment);

• Monster scout classes go anywhere, and just roam;

• Monster ranger classes go anywhere, and plant/tend growths to level 1;

• Monster bruiser classes require 3 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 2;

• Monster assassin classes require 3 ambient mana, and just roam;

• Monster support classes require 6 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 3;

• Monster grower classes require 9 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 100 (based on grower level);

• Monster siege classes require 9 ambient mana, and just roam;

• Monster guardian classes don't move off rift, and plant/tend growths to level 150 (based on guardian level).

The basic idea is that monster territory represents layers or rings of ambient mana, each of which allows more monsters to move within them, and monster territory can shift over time.

The limit to growths is so monsters don't generate environments that will actually harm them.

Details

• Reworked difficulty settings to support multiple world scenarios, and also to display a description for the selected world; the turn bonus setting is also dropped if the scenario is a single sector;

• Savegame metadata now includes scenario and sector labels (and the old scenario label is the new sector label);

• Tweaked the underlying quest handlers and scenario creation funcs to accommodate the new one-world sector mechanic (instead of unlocking things by completing sectors in a campaign, you now unlock things by closing rifts);

• Secondary quest modals now show additional rewards, if in a single sector scenario;

• Log history dialog now sorts entries alphabetically;

• Recon leader should now move toward lowest threat attacker, if out of ammo and attacker is ranged;

• Adjusted names of some zones in mountain and crater sector, to make joining them work better;

• Choosing thaumaturge or robes as starting equipment path now provides a prismatic diadem or prismatic cape respectively;

• Updated scenario name handling to reflect whether it’s a campaign or a single sector; also updated victory dialog to only include campaign data if a campaign;

• Updated quest description handling (can now have custom if needed); also added new dialog for quests with rewards for the system base;

• Ring of Capacitance now has the toggled ability Atmospheric Recharge, that converts air mana into a small amount of charge regen; note that the “heal” provided cannot be boosted except by gadget proficiency (tech power doesn’t apply);

• Added Ring of Cultivation that increases max calories and includes the toggled ability Cultivation, that converts earth mana into a small amount of calories;

• Added Ring of the Troll (increases health and health regen);

• Added Ring of Vigor (increases stamina and stamina regen);

• Allocated the new rings to some NPCs;

• Increased cost of capacitance rings (crafting now includes monster cores);

• Duplicate toggled abilities from rings will only show the highest level between them (the abilities don’t stack);

• Adjusted action info modal to be clearer about ability power;

• Firethorn now adds to fire ambience, not dark;

• Increased most view progress-required lengths (proportionate to sector);

• Added ambient monster version of the cleanse/cure abilities, and added them to bosses and support monsters; also did a bit of tweaking/bugfixing on monster abilities (a few were innate, not ambient); note that monster cleanses also apply to conditions only inflicted by users (such as from the infinity cannon);

• Dark mage path now has the dark mana stealth ability Shroud (as opposed to sneak, which costs stamina);

• Shroud now only costs 1 dark mana per turn (sneak costs 5 stamina);

• Affinity bonuses on mage paths increased; Lancer, Medic, and Starguard paths no longer provide affinity per level;

• Civilian extract and gather paths now provide their respective sidearm tool as starting gear (instead of an attribute amulet);

• Reworked the elemental, primordial, orthogonal, and primsmatic wards (from the mage barracks), such that there is now a condition class for each, and one condition each (not one condition per magic type);

• Added new persistent buffs for each mage barracks: one for direct power (Focus), and one for conditions (Conduit); you can only have one persistent buff per barracks (out of its Focus, Conduit, and Ward buffs); buffs from different barracks stack, however;

• Moved physical reflect stat trainer and shop listing from gym to soldier barracks;

• Moved max health and health regen shop listings from gym to medbay;

• Adjusted combat user orders on base to allow adding another buff dispensary to the medbay without triggering odd behaviors;

• Added buff dispensers to assault barracks, artillery barracks, gym, library, illusionarium, and medbay, with at least two persistent buffs each appropriate to the stats/paths they support;

• Existing buff dispensers in engineer, ranger, scrapper, and tanker barracks now have at least two persistent buffs each; tweaked existing buffs;

• Persistent buffs and debuffs no longer gain max stacks or accrual from leveling;

• Added dispel abilities for users and monsters;

• Fixed some incorrect shop tooltip text;

• Added ability section to the shop; this is mostly for innate magic abilities unlocked via mage paths; ability levels for purchase are unlocked by room levels;

• Innate abilities no longer have a double stat bonus (but you can buy more than that from the shop);

• Bugfix for some monster abilities (they were stronger than they should have been);

• Magic shield buffs now provide some physical resists;

• Added more shield buff abilities for monsters, and adjusted some orders so that bruisers can buff with shields;

• Earth armor and physical shield buffs now include critical difficulty;

• Buffs and debuffs now by default do not use stacks or accrual (for balance and scaling); stacks and accrual are still used by damage and heals over time;

• Conditions now show the level at which they were created, and level is now used as primary information in the condition lists in character dialogs;

• Adjusted condition details text to flow a bit better; DoT and HoT conditions now show actual damage/heal then base damage/heal then stacks (which is how actual is determined);

• Stacks, accrual, and duration are no longer trainable in rooms or buyable from shop, and investiture no longer increases them;

• General rebalance of condition classes; each can have a custom configuration of stacks, accrual, and duration for beneficial or hostile effects; monsters gain beneficium and maladium;

• Enabled perk mechanic;

• Fixed some incorrect text in tooltips;

• Updated equipment slot text;

• Torso armor equipment is now labeled torso, not armor (for clarity);

• Updated dimension gateway comment to remove old text and be clearer;

• Default font size is now set to “10% larger”;

• Player currency in drone status now has correct color, and adjusted text;

• Populated perk choices to all combat paths;

• Added/updated info windows for perks as needed;

• Added support for perks that can take one stat and buff others with its value, including a type that queries a stat boolean on the character first; can pull stats from user or zone; perk level acts as a multiplier;

• Added support for perks that regen fill (like mana or health);

• Added new singleton perks to the shop (drone-only for now);

• Added system beacon one-use teleport mechanic;

• Wanderer path gets the Operator perk;

• Earth Mage path now gets a Tremor Sense perk; Primordialist and Archmage paths also include this perk;

• Disabled the Shadow Sense ability for the Dark Mage and Investigator paths and replaced it with the Shadow Sense perk; the Illuminate ability is now a primary award for the Investigator path (not just for investing Light mana);

• Shielder path now gets a perk that adds zone terrain difficulty to physical resists and critical difficulty;

• Each level of mana investiture in Shielder adds a perk that adds ambient mana of that type to the corresponding resistance;

• Added a couple more corvid monsters to start of campaign;

• Added default physical attack for corvids;

• Player can now use consumable heals even if they are configured for no overfill, as long as they would heal something (the setting was really so NPCs don’t waste consumables);

• Rebalanced cafeteria food/drink buffs such that they no longer scale off user stats; instead, multiplied overall effect of buffs by 5 per level;

• Multiplied effect of jukebox buffs by 5 per level;

• Added power buff back to wyvern food;

• Adjusted some food/drink text;

• Food and drink abilities in cafe no longer show unnecessary data in right-click pane;

• Improved output of heal ability info pane;

• Adjusted monster territorial behavior;

• Adjusted the food/drink items found in the world to be better than the corresponding items you can buy;

• Buff stations now show ability level for each offering;

• Action info modal now shows ability (with link); means you don’t need to leave the modal to go to drone info pane to find details;

• Added Loot Vacuum perk that allows looting all items and corpses in the local zone in one action;

• Monster growth tending is now locked to tending skill level: if it’s not higher than the level of the growth, monsters can’t add HP to the growth;

• At least for now, tending speed is no longer skill-gated, which means higher-level monsters will grow things faster (even though grow skill is hard-locked to a low level);

• Looking at a tending action on a visible monster should now display total progress properly;

• Bugfix for two excluded zones in the mountain cave;

• Monstrous growths now have separate professions based on magic aspect that use character magic power as speed stat (instead of dexterity), and growers now get extra power instead of dexterity;

• Increased resistance and health of growths; growths now have a physical resistance strength and weakness (weaknesses have no resist at all);

• Monster growths provide 3 ambient mana per level now (including 1 from the environment they inflict);

• Monster scout classes go anywhere, and just roam;

• Monster ranger classes go anywhere, and plant/tend growths to level 1;

• Monster bruiser classes require 3 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 2;

• Monster assassin classes require 3 ambient mana, and just roam;

• Monster support classes require 6 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 3;

• Monster grower classes require 9 ambient mana, and plant/tend growths to level 100 (based on grower level);

• Monster siege classes require 9 ambient mana, and just roam;

• Monster guardian classes don't move off rift, and plant/tend growths to level 150 (based on guardian level).

• Adjusted starting growth levels slightly;

• The scavenger and gatherer party leaders no longer loot objects; that’s entirely up to the player now; note that scavengers can still get loot via items discovered through scavenging;

• Scavengers will not scavenge objects that can be looted;

• Consolidated batteries into one type that does 250 base recharge, and gets character air affinity added; costs as much as medium batteries used to;

• Health syringes now do 500 base heal, and get life affinity added to base;

• Stamina syringes now get death affinity added to base;

• Ration cube now does 250 base refill, and gets earth affinity added to base;

• Adjusted colors/text a bit on consumables;

• Repair ability now uses gadgets as proficiency (not tech power);

• Added physical resists ring (gadget proficiency, used by tanks in arty/assault parties);

• Rift zone quests now show occupying horde;

• Boosted non-elemental monster innate resists to their own element;

• Adjusted how growers and guardians accrue monstrous growth skill (capped at 100 and 150 respectively);

• Bugfix for remove buff abilities validating even if there were no buffs to remove;

• Bugfix for condition origin not processing properly; should be a bit more efficient;

• Monster growers will now attack hostile characters and growths before planting/tending.