NEW SOUND EFFECTS

A whole heap of new sound effects for skills, gaining block, UI effects, etc. There are still more I need to add.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a minor bug where you could select an enemy after deselecting a skill, and it would execute your last selected skill
• Fixed an error where you could repeatedly end the turn by pressing E
• Fixed an error with Combo triggering when you clicked a skill, and not when you used it
• Fixed rewards not aligning towards the top of the reward popup
  • You should be able to keep clicking on the same spot to collect all of your rewards now
• Fixed a bug where the block roll on Phalanx would reroll itself as soon as you played the skill
• Fixed Sanctuary consuming Reinforcement
  • Non-skill sources of block shouldn't interact with buffs (unless the buff states otherwise)
• Tried yet another fix for the secondary monitor error
  • When setting it to fullscreen/borderless, it will now explicitly set the screen to the primary monitor as well
  • It's been reported as a problem with Godot 4.2 unfortunately
  • If the problem persists, I will continue to search for solutions
• Fixed an issue with the skill queue and buffs not being calculated into queued skills
  • It was especially noticeable with Moxie

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• Skills now have conditional effects
  • This should open up a lot more interesting design spaces for skills
  • I originally avoided conditions on skills, as I felt with a limited number of skill slots, you'd want your skills to be able to do something at all times
  • However, you just need to incentivize the player to use these skills

NEW SKILLS

• Intimidate
  • Common, 0 cost, if enemy intends to attack, inflict 1 Hesitation
• Second Wind
  • Uncommon, 0 cost, gain 1 energy
• Brittle Blade
  • Common, 1 cost, deal 4-7 damage, if enemy intends to attack, gain 3 Shattering
• Just endure it
  • Uncommon, 1 cost, gives 3 Numbness, 2 charges
    • Numbness is a buff that gives block at the end of your turn, you lose 1 numbness whenever you lose health

NEW SENTIMENTS

In general, I felt that even for a single act, the sentiment pool was too shallow. So I wanted to add more sentiments for this update.

• Retail Therapy
  • Common, recover 5 health whenever you spend money at a shop, triggers once per visit
• Endurance Training
  • Common, charge skills gain +1 charge
• Extra Kindling
  • Common, resting now restores 50% health, rather than 33%
• Daunting Presence
  • Common, inflict 1 hesitation on all enemies at the start of combat
• Bloodthirsty
  • Uncommon, at the start of combat, gain 1 vampirism
    • Vampirism is a buff that restores health whenever you deal damage, you lose all vampirism at end of turn
• Small Fortune
  • Uncommon, instantly gain 200 gold
• Good Luck
  • Common, increases your chance of finding uncommon and elite skills by 5%

BALANCE CHANGES

GENERAL

• Uncommon and elite skills have a higher chance of appearing
  

PLAYER

• The maximum number of skills a player can have is now 8
  • This is to limit the player's overall power slightly in act 1
  • However, when future acts are available, players will gain an additional skill slot after defeating climaxes
  • This means the maximum number of skill slots in total will be 10

ENEMIES

• The hexxer enemy now uses her ritual knife attack earlier
  • I felt she was a little too slow in her earlier iteration
  • This should make her feel more threatening
  • Functionally, she uses her ritual knife attack one turn earlier

SKILLS

• Block now gives 2-5 block, rather than 3-6
  • Due to the player having unlimited access to this skill, this means turtling is the correct play in most situations
  • So this small nerf should make the player take more punishment from playing too passively
• Dark Purpose no longer has a limited number of uses
  • This skill always seemed like a bad pick to me, as +2 might in total is hardly worth a skill slot
  • With this change, Dark Purpose now gives a bigger payoff the longer a battle goes
• Broken Shell now triggers Shattering without breaking your block, but the order of activation is reversed
  • The tradeoff for breaking your block (especially as an activation condition) was rarely worth it
  • I feel like an uncommon should give you better bang for your buck too
• Embrace the Pain now gives 4 extra Shattering if used below 50% health
  • I felt this skill was a bit dull in its old iteration
  • Ultimately, due to its high energy cost, this is a skill you use if you want to take a hit to your life
  • This change also plays thematically into the idea of the skill (purposely taking damage to hurt your enemies)
• Anticipation has been changed
  • 1 Energy, gain 3-6 block and 1 Fortification
  • The skill pool in Act 1 has been lacking alternatives to just hitting Block over and over
  • So, this change to Anticipation should help give the players more options for blocking attacks
• Iron Shards can now appear in the skill pool
  • Shattering as a buff is currently underrepresented in the skill pool
  • So I think allowing players to gain additional copies of Iron Shards can't be a bad thing
• Psyche Up now costs 0 energy
  • Moxie as a buff is intended to be used to get in a well timed strike
  • Without an 9th skill slot, this skill didn't feel like it was worth taking
  • So this small change ought to make it more attractive compared to other options
• Rusty Blade's cooldown has been nerfed to 2
  • With a cooldown of 1 at common, this is a strong skill
  • Especially if you have two of them at once
  • This should curb its power a bit

SENTIMENTS

• Cursed Steel is now an elite sentiment
  • I underestimated how powerful this particular sentiment was
  • So this should place it somewhere more appropriate for its power level

GUI CHANGES

• Charge skills now have a charge tooltip
• The mouse cursor now has a small trail that follows behind it
• Choices in events now have tooltips
  • Part of the fun of roguelikes like these is weighing the potential risk of each choice you make
  • Making blind choices or memorizing what each individual event doesn't feel fun to me
• When a skill is selected, it now has an arrow that points towards your cursor
  • People told me they had trouble telling what skill was selected at a glance
  • This change should help with visibility
• Sentiments are now aligned at the top left of the screen
  • They will be visible during events and other locations
  • Sentiments also play an animation when you first acquire them
  • I felt that a LOT of different things were being packed into the bottom of the screen, this change should make it feel less crowded
• Enemy sprites now have a very slight breathing animation
  • It's nothing fancy, but one issue I had with the enemy sprites was how static they were
  • This should help them feel less like statues

OTHER CHANGES

• Skill nodes have been optimized for when the player replaces a skill
  • I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but there would be a short (and noticeable) frame drop when replacing a skill
  • I won't get into the technical jargon, but this frame drop should be gone now
• If either fullscreen or borderless are selected, the option to change resolutions is disabled

UPCOMING FEATURES

• H-scene gallery
  • All of the programming is done for this, it works exactly as intended
  • However, it has no graphical assets and it looks ugly as sin
  • It'll be in as soon as I have assets for it
• Character sheet
  • A screen to display your current stats/skills
  • Also no graphical assets yet, but soon enough
• Select screen
  • As there is currently only one class/role in the game, there isn't any point in a select screen yet

FUTURE PLANS

Futaboros will enter early access once all three acts are in a playable state. This means all of them will have enemies, memories, music and climaxes, as well as the overarching story of Futaboros.

I'd like to end this post with a preview of Act 2's backgrounds. Behold the dark city of Stygia, where demonkind reigns supreme.