Version Update 2.3

I would like to welcome you back to the humble changelog.

Today we will take a look at the contents of version 2.3, which focuses on improving the boss fights, or at least giving them a way to fight back.

It is going to be a relatively small patch, so let us just get into it!

Boss Abilities

Every mini-boss now has an ability that they use periodically to attack the player. This may include shooting a projectile or creating an explosion under the character or in the area around the player.

Stage bosses have multiple abilities, but the principle is the same.

You could kind of see this already with the first mini-boss on the Capital Outskirts map.

For those of you who prefer AFK gameplay, or for those like me who dislike dealing with enemy projectiles, I have also included an unranked modifier that disables enemy attacks.

Better Environment and Weather

I have also added more weather conditions to all outdoor maps.

The terrain is now also reactive to the weather. When it is snowing, the ground will accumulate snow, and during rain, puddles will form.

Now, if you play with weather conditions enabled, you will be able to enjoy much better variety and visuals.

Additionally, Forbidden Zone now also has dynamic weather, so it is not always impossible to see!

Terrain Detail

To further improve the visuals, a new setting has been added.

For now, this only takes effect on the Forbidden Zone map. When enabled, it allows textures to deform the terrain, like so:Steam post imageDunes get a bit more volume, and stones pop out of the ground.

Settings Improvements

There was one change I wanted to make to the settings page that is now going live with update 2.3.

All setting tabs have been merged into a single scrollable page, but more importantly, that change allowed me to implement proper settings search.

You can now type any text into the search bar, and it will display all related settings from every section.

This should make it much easier to find the exact setting you are looking for!

Projectile Transparency

Speaking of settings, there is a new option players can adjust called projectile VFX transparency.

As the name suggests, it adjusts how visible the projectiles created by the player character are.

It has been a long-running issue that visual clutter gets insane as the game progresses, with explosions and glow stacking up to the point where you cannot really see anything. That, combined with bosses being able to attack back, and the need to actually see them throw things at you in order to dodge, made the existence of such an option necessary.

Here is an example of a very late-game build with perfect clarity thanks to this setting.

There are some visual issues when using this option, but nothing too bothersome. I hope you enjoy it!

Local Leaderboards

Local leaderboards are now a thing too. The scoring rules are the same as with the online leaderboard. This list can store up to 1,000 best scores.

I also think it can double as build loadouts, lol.

Fixes and Adjustments

• Enemies will now deal significantly more damage in Recurrence+ difficulties to compensate for the high base health and defense provided by the Passive Tree.

• Enemies will no longer drop Gold or Gems when the character has a high Luck stat. This is mostly an optimization workaround, since these do not merge like EXP shards, but the amount also felt very insignificant and has been transferred to end-game rewards instead.

• Characters will now have their HP set to MAX HP at the start of a game.

• Fixed Focus Fire keystone failing to trigger when the cooldown keystone was unlocked and failed to refresh cooldowns.

• Rolled back to using DirectX 11 by default, since DirectX 12 could cause crashes in the Underground Dungeon map.

• Renamed weather settings to Static/Dynamic from Clear/Random.

• Menhir buffs no longer grant element-specific buffs, and the buffs they provide have been increased from 1-10% to 10-100%. Armor and Attack Count remain unchanged.

• Improved Binding Field VFX.

• The default keybind for using items from the inventory has been changed to Q.

• Chest minimap icon will now disappear upon interacting with a chest.

Afterword

It is a bit of a weird patch containing a bunch of random changes I wanted to make for a while, and since I had some time on my hands, I got to work.

The enemies may still receive more changes later down the line, since I think they are still not quite where I want them to be. Call me too lazy to care for now, I guess 😭

The next patch, though, should be a much bigger one, including a complete rework of how upgrades function... unless I fail badly at implementing my ideas or decide the idea is trash in the first place.

Which means expect the next patch to take some time to come out — like, a lot of time.