WWAATD EA v0.86 Balancing Patch

AVE ASPIRANTS!

1 day 1 patch! The Anniversary Update was released yesterdayand met with a lot of kind words and valid feedback- thank you!

On Difficulty

I've been rebalancing the game (trying to avoid resorting to dumbing down the AI) to match the added difficulty, this patch continues that.

First - I want WWAATD to be a challenging game, it's part of the DNA of the game - but it has to be hard in a fun way, and not feel 'just unfair', of course. The previous version had the AI very passive and static, so this is definitely an improvement, we just have to finetune it.

There's 3 pretty fundamentally different difficulty modes and a very detailed Sandbox Mode for you to tailor your experience as well. Everyone has different skill levels, time-in-the-game, preferences and so on, so I figure more options helps as we refine the "base game".

New Combat Changes

Balancing a physics based animation driven combat game with a complex damage model is a bit like defusing a bomb, and with a total AI rework, it's like we threw a live grenade into the mix. In many ways we are balancing from scratch so needing a patch (or a few) makes sense - bear with us and keep giving feedback as we finetune!

So tl;dr today I injected some coffee into my veins and got to work to bring you a first patch. Let me know your thoughts on how these changes feel so we can keep making the game better. Best place to do so is in the game's Discord, link at the bottom of thist post (and every post!)

Changelog - Balancing

Impactful

• Rebalanced damage model for more consistent damage

  • Less penalty for bad hit contact point, short hold-time, stamina state and "fumbles" (hitting with back of the weapon etc), damage should overall be closer to stats on each hit

  • Exact Impact point now counts a bit less vs overall weapon velocity for damage calculation (from 50% to 30%) - this should especially help shorter weapons

  • Note: the AI has the same changes, as they have the exact same damage model as the player

• Increased backwards speed for player a tad

• AI movement skill/speed reduced across the board

• Light weight status now also gives +10 Stamina skill (along side Dashing and Movement previously)

  • This should make early game less of a Stamina pain, while also making sure Stamina management is still a part of the game if you equip heavier gear

• AI spends a lower extent of time in "retreat" mode recovering Stamina

• Reduced the character physics body layer intensity (Should reduce some floppiness, jank, buggy movement, ...)

• Weapon weight has a bit less impact on Stamina Cost of attacks - should primarily make heavier weapons (polearms etc) less of a brutal Stamina drain

• Increased stamina recovery from receiving damage to 1.5x the damage (from 1x)

Subtle

• Increased player base attack speed slightly

• Increased camera zoom-out max

• Equipment Weight affects AI the same as Player now (was off by a tiny bit)

• Rebalanced weight impact so the Stam Regen numbers and color coding UI make more sense

• Counters by the AI (when you hit them, usually when they're tired) will now more often be regular attacks vs double attack or dash attacks, to reduce them getting stuck in low stamina as you hit them & reduce glitchy movement

Bugfixes

• Clamped the maximum knockback on characters to reduce crazy knockbacks

• (Probably) Fixed a bug causing Multicultural to stack up Patron