Playtest Version 0.3.122 Release Notes

Overview

• Added alternative interactions that change mutated behavior

• Updated several Enemy behavior patterns

• Updated Palpitate, Heartburn, and Hypertrophy with new move identities

• Updated Enemy Move Preview window

• Updated UI Element behavior and clarity

• Replaced the Data-Reset debug feature with a "Reset Run" button

Gameplay and Combat Changes

Updated Mutation's role in combat

• Added a hidden conditional interaction in each combat encounter where you can interrupt the mutated behavior.

• Updated Mutation Helptext to indicate when this hidden interaction is possible

• Updated Mutation Helptext to list the exact % chance you have to break the Mutated state

• Breaking Mutation by damaging an enemy now adds a Debuff of 1/2 their base fatigue

Someone's feedback included something along the lines of "I'm not sure how to unmutate this enemy" - I realized it'd be kind of cool to have a hidden conditional behavior, which lends to the "hidden puzzle" feel I wanted the combat to go for in the first place. When the conditiuonal is met, a little triage blurb will appear to indicate that the behavior has changed. Adding in these secret behaviors should hopefully add a bit of strategic depth to the fights, as well as adding in a risk/reward choice of "go for the beneficial behavior, or go for the disruption/fatigue debuff".

Updated The Manglerfish combat encounter

• Blood splashes and splatters have been changed to appear less jagged and square

• Eyetillery art updated

• Cast Away Hemorrhage replaced with Bleed: -5 HP for 3 actions

• Thrash changed to Tailbone's primary attack, Damage updated to 5-10

• Impale changed to Tailbone's mutated attack, Damage updated to 15, Bone reduction updated to -15 bone for 99 turns

• Allure now prioritizes getting all characters fixated on them

• Tailbone no longer mutates by itself unless Manglerfish is dead

The Manglerfish was a bit of a difficult case to adapt without a minor rework, it offered too little coordination and too many different points of focus - changing the threat from damage to a fight-long debuff, and one that only kicks in during a specific point, seemed like a good direction to take the fight, and opened up the room needed to implement its conditional behavior.

Updated several of Vasculurch's moves Palpitate:

• Removed Regeneration effect

• Increased Ichor cost to 50

• Updated Scaling of the heal to [16/20/25/35/50] each level

Heartburn:

• Removed Regeneration effect

• Updated Hemorrhage effect to use [4/8/12/16/20]% of Vasculurch's current Ichor value as the % of Max HP damage

• Added an Ichor cost of -[20/25/30/35/40]

Hypertrophy

• Updated HP buff to only effect [40/80/120/160/200] Max HP

• Added Regeneration Effect of [4/8/12/16/20] HP for 5 actions

I felt like there was some overlap going on with Vasculurch, and Hypertrophy was being choked out of a use-case. Changing Palpitate to a full-on strong heal with an ichor cost, and Heart burn to an offensive Ichor-reliant attack, opened up the room to make Hypertrophy a heal-over-time and Max-HP buff vector. Now each move has its own role/identity without any overlap, and I was able to create a new classification of a dynamic move/damage value.

Menu and UI changes

Enemy Move Preview Window changed to be more specific

• Now highlights the next move instead of the full list of moves

• Specifically lists damage, damage type, and effects/effect values

• Hovering over an enemy now persists this information no matter the state of the combat flow

The information this view offered was initially useless - a list of moves with shorthand information didn't help the player prepare or strategize as much as I hoped. This new view gives a better idea of what one can expect from an upcoming attack, and can be used to check if that behavior has changed.

Updated popup information persistence

• Status effect and loot popup information now stay open no matter the state of the combat flow until the status effect data changes

• Updated how the windows close to be a little more graceful vs just snapping out of existence

Popups used to close every passing turn which was frustrating to see, this change allows players to keep info pages open for as long as they're able to accurately display the relevant information, only closing when a turn amount or effect value changes.

Added information entry for the Fluids and Trauma icons in the Combat screen

• The helptext that is used in the character select screen now also appears for the icons int he combat screen, with some additional text.

From player feedback, nothing fancy to say on this one.

Replaced the Playtester "data wipe" tool with a Reset Run Button

• Resetting data no longer quits the game

• Resetting data returns the player to the main menu and wipes all run progress

Some feedback requested a Run Reset button, while I initially thought it'd be antithetical to the desired experience of "sticking it out", I want to see if it's positively received - the button that wiped data and quit was almost this button in essence, so I fixed it up and placed it in the character select window. The button now gracefully returns the player to the main menu without forcing a quit/restart. It should also still fix soft locks, if encountered.