Demo Patch v1.3 introduces Difficulty Modes!

🐺 Greeting Huntresses & Hunters!

This is a little developer update about the latest Demo Patch (v1.3.26.0627) to bring more improvements to the demo! Check the patch notes below for details!

⚙️ Demo Improvements

New Content

• Introducing 3 Difficulty Modes:

  • Story Mode - For shorter & easier battles (Enemies start with more Fear)

  • Hunter Mode - For balanced battles (Players & Enemies both start with 1 Fear)

  • Tactician Mode - For more challenging battles (Enemies start with a Buff/Passive)

• Starting a New Game will allow players to select their starting Difficulty Mode

• Players can change their Difficulty Mode at anytime in the Pause > Options > Gameplay menu (only while in the Library Hub or Main Menu)

• You can view your current Difficulty Mode shown in the top center of the exploration HUD

Character HUD

• New icons for the Health and Fear on the character HUD

• Health is now represented by whole hearts on the character HUD (1 heart = 1 health)

• Updated ticker text to use a thick outlined font style for better legibility on the character HUD

• Updated tutorial images to use the new Health / Fear iconography

• Added tooltips to the Health / Fear icons to give players more information on those stats

• Updated tooltips on the player's combat actions UI to better provide information that the attack's Total Damage = Target's Fear

Gameplay

• Player characters are no longer limited to 1 move per turn in combat (can now move as many times as you have AP for that character)

• Reworked exploration trails pathing to shorten the distance to travel to find the level's exit rift and also ensures each trail goes through 2-3 combat zones (starting from easy to harder encounters)

• Reduced total trails in Ghastly Graveyard level from 4 to 3 (1 correct trail, 2 decoys)

UI / UX

• Added text to label the Hunt Contracts quest board in the Library hub

• Added signage to point players towards Party Upgrades (to the left) or towards Level Selection (to the right) for ease of navigation in the Library hub

• Changed the Back input to show [ESC] for world interactions (no longer uses [E] input to exit)

• Updated the World Book in the Library to show the selected Level's Title on the rift UI and added [E] input to enter the currently selected level (still can click on rift to enter as well)

• Only show the book platforms leading to the World Book after collecting the first Hunt Contract from the quest board (prevents confusion of trying to enter book before getting hunt contract)

• Added # button inputs for selecting party recruit to deploy to battlefield

• Updated party deployment UI to better match player's combat actions UI

Tutorial

• Added tutorial popup for first time deploying party recruit to the battlefield

• Updated the 3 tutorial battle popups to allow showing them in sequence (click "Next" on the tutorial popup to continue viewing all battle tutorials)

Difficulty Tuning

• Tuned the Barghest starting Fear to be 1 instead of 0 (since it was difficult to stack Fear on a character who can gain the Brave Status Effect)

• The below tunings were to create a difficulty uptick from the Barghests & Cat Siths in the Misty Grove level to the Ghastly Graveyard level

  • Tuned Barghests in the Misty Grove level to change their Health from 8 to 6 and increased the cooldown of their Menacing Growl attack (add Fear to targets & apply Brave to self)

  • Tuned Cat Siths in the Misty Grove level to change their Health from 6 to 4 and increased the cooldown of their Hissing Clawback attack (knockbacks target & apply Regen to self)

🔨 Demo Bug Fixes

• Fixed UI in Progress Book (accessed from [TAB] input) on the Worlds tab: the Title banner is now highlighted for the currently selected Region (shows level completion stats on adjoining page)

📢 Have feedback to share?

📋 Feel free to keep on sharing your Feedback on the Google Forms survey!

🐞 And if you encounter issues, help fill out a Bug Report on Google Forms so I can fix them!