Curse of the Dead Gods News

This week’s content update brings you more room variations: you thought you knew the Temple well? Watch it play with your mind. PS4 pads are also fully compatible now!

[h2]Version 0.17.3 – March 24th, 2020[/h2]🍉 = Community additions

[h3]New features[/h3]

• New Rooms variations in the Jaguar Temple (tiers 2 and 3): Traps, secret rooms, treasure chests and gold piles have more variations, making the Temple even less predictable.
  
• New Weapon skins and icons:
  + Sidewinder Sword
  + Seeker’s Mace
  + Forge Hammer
  + Steel-Tipped Talons
  + Incandescent Claws
  + Venomous Fangs
  + “Gambit,” Xbeltz’aloc’s Gauntlet
  + Whispering Aegis
  + Duelist's Shiv
  + Serpent Blade
  + Malicious Skewer
  + Windfury Pike
  + Feathered Spear
  + Scorpion Spear
  + Swift Bow
  + Jaguar Bow

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• Relic - Chalice of Vigor: Healing effects are now increased by 33%/66%/100% (from 20%/40%/60%)
  Design Note: This relic naturally requires a combination of gear pieces to be really effective, it will allow more effective healing synergies now.
• Blessing - Will of Sich’al: Corruption threshold back to 120 (from 110)
  Design Note: Previous change wasn't very relevant, 120 fits well the "6 curses instead of 5" feeling.
• Blessing - Brutal Temper: Fury activates now if 2 or more enemies are killed within a 2 seconds window (instead of with a single blow)
  Design Note: Brutal Temper was very hard to trigger, it should be more rewarding now for aggressive behaviors. The text has changed and has not been translated yet for non-French or English language. Will come soon!

[h3]Visual changes[/h3]

• Summoned Enemies: Lurkers summoned by Blood Priests and the Blood Hunter's Jaguars now have a special aura, and disappear in a shadowy smoke burst.
  Note: Since summoned enemies do not trigger the same effects when they are killed (incrementing greed kill, heal on kill effect, etc.), we had to give them a proper visual that emphasized their "immaterial" nature.
• Enemy - Bats: Tuned down the Bats’ death VFX

[h3]Fixed bugs[/h3]

• 🍉 PS4 pads: Fixed the PS4 controllers issues, they are now fully compatible
  
• 🍉 PS4 inputs: Fixed an issue that wouldn’t display PS4 inputs
  
• 🍉 Fire Grids: Fixed an issue when being stuck in a room because fire grids would trigger before crossing the door

[h3]What's cooking in the Temple?[/h3]

Hello everyone,

After seeing some messages about the miscalculation of increased Difficulty of the new Hard Mode (Path of Cruelty), we did some digging and we actually spotted the error. Enemies hit points and damage dealt should only be increased by 20%, not 40% like it's in the game currently. Obviously, that was not intended. Hotfix to the rescue!

[h2]:: HOTFIX ::[/h2][h3]Version 0.17.2.2 – March 19th, 2020[/h3]

• Fixed the correct value to 20% instead of 40% of increased damage and hit points of enemies in the Hard Exploration Mode (Path of Cruelty)

--------------

Additional notes on Balancing:

It's been brought to our attention that some people were disappointed in our balancing/design choices in our last patch. Let us explain our choices.

About the game becoming harder:
We've purposely made the Hard mode, well, harder. Like we explained in the patch note, differences between Long and Hard exploration were minimal and not what you should expect for an increased difficulty experience. There are still some tweaks to be made (plus having an error in the calculation doesn't help), but in general, it is our intention to add challenge for skilled players (and future skilled players) for this mode.

However, we strongly believe that Curse of the Dead Gods can be played by anyone, no matter what their skills are in roguelites and games in general. Of course, other Difficulty modes are planned and already in development. They will all bring their fair share of challenges, as well as accessibility. Not all modes are designed for every player. We want people to find what suits them, but we have to start somewhere. That's why we need to experiment with the existing modes before creating new ones.

About buff/nerf:

We also see a lot of unhappy messages about the buff/nerf of certain items of the game. We are experimenting with things, it is subject to change again depending on many factors (feedback from players, own self-reflection on life...). Buff/nerf should be expected during development, but this is not the only way we can balance the game. We are also making those changes in anticipation of new content, that'll add more variety and a lot of new synergies to build.

Anyway, thanks for your positive or negative feedback! It helps us no matter what, and we're looking forward to adding new content for you to discover 💖

Today’s update brings our first patch for fixes, balancing, and quality of life in Curse of the Dead Gods!

[h2]Version 0.17.2 – March 18th, 2020[/h2]🍉 = Community additions

[h3]Weapons balancing[/h3]

• Evisceration Claw: Low-life threshold set to 30% life (from 50% life)
  Design Note: Evisceration Claw can build crazy synergies on top of being a weapon of choice for Champion/Boss fights.
• Colt .45 Rainmaker: Raw Damage increased by 10%
  
• Smith & Wesson Schofield: Added Off-hand combo as a Fire Attack on top of Perfect Shots
  
• Blazing Blade: Combo Finishers are now Fire Attacks on top of Charged Attacks

[h3]Relics balancing[/h3]

• Temple’s Heart: reduced Healing effect to 3/6/9% of max health (from 5%/10%/15%)
  Design Note: Relic does not require any specific condition to trigger and was a little too strong compared to other Healing sources.
• Humble Tiara: Healing effect is now a fraction of Gold Offered (5/10/15%) instead of a fixed percentage of max health
  Design Note: Relic could give a huge amount of heals by just offering a small amount of Gold to get the Gold Offering done. New text will give incentives to make big Gold Offerings.
• Golden Mask: reduced Gold gain to 50/100/150% (from 100%/200%/300%)
  Design Note: This relic could guarantee a too-strong source of Gold, making perception less useful once acquired.

[h3]Blessings balancing[/h3]

• Indomitable: reduced damage reduction to 20% (from 50%)
  Design Note: the previous reduction was giving too many incentives to just attack enemies without caring for taking damage.
• Fury Effect: reduced effect duration to 6 seconds (from 10 seconds)
  
• 🍉 Reptilian Hunger: removed Gold bonus reduction
  Design Note: Text has been also adjusted to clearly state that the timer is active when you are in combat, therefore to keep stimulating players to be proactive in fights.
• Grace of the Tempest: reduced Dexterity bonus to 1 (from 2)
  Design Note: Gaining 2 Stat per room was snowballing too quickly, it has been adjusted to fit the overall blessings' level of power
• Will of Sich’al: reduced Corruption threshold to 110 (from 120)
  
• Radiant Fire: increased damage reduction to 20% (from 10%)
  Design Note: Radiant Fire was giving too little advantage regarding its unlock price, it should be better now.

[h3]Enemy balancing[/h3]

• Renegade: Elite version gains a new move when players are behind them. Removed natural attack buff speed for Elite version
  Design Note: expect more Elite enemies variations in future updates, this is just a taste!
• Guardian Eye: Elite version base hit points reduced to 450 (from 540)
  
• 🍉 Summoned enemies can no longer activate resource gain effects such as Healing, Corruption reduction or Gold gain
  Design Note: Summoned enemies could be exploited with certain Weapons/Relics to regain a lot of resources with very low risk. The same way they didn't count for "Greed Kill", they now can't give any stackable game resource.

[h3]Path to cruelty (Hard Exploration) balancing[/h3]

• Removed the passive +50% damage taken by players
  
• Enemies now start with +20% Hit Points and +20% damage dealt
  
• Traps now start with +20% damage dealt
  
• All Elite enemies gain +20% attack speed

🍉 Design Note: Previous Hard Game Mode wasn't different enough from Normal Mode, basically just adding more damage taken on players. These new settings should give a very different feeling now, especially when considering that basic enemies will no longer fall to one starting weapon simple combo. Elite now gain a deadly boost in power, making Tier 2 & Tier 3 fights much more difficult and skill demanding. We will continue in further updates to add new features to / adjust Hard Mode, making it the place for high skill challenges.

[h3]Visual balancing[/h3]

• Sanctuaries: Buying Stats now plays visual feedback on the explorer and in the user interface.
  
• Torch: While inside the aura of a Dark brazier, attacking with the torch no longer plays a fire VFX
  
• Trap: Reworked the flamethrower trap's VFX to illustrate its damage bursts more accurately.
  
• Trap: Reworked the fire grids VFX to differentiate them from the burning cobwebs, making them more aggressive to visually match their damage
  
• Boss Arena: Removed the braziers in the Boss Jaguar arena: grids fully illuminate the arena when burning.

[h3]Fixed bugs[/h3]

• 🍉 Black pixels: Fixed an issue with AMD (Radeon) graphic cards that would create black pixels on the screen
  
• Tutorial: Fixed the Cross-combo tutorial UI when a main Weapon or a secondary Weapon keys are rebound
  
• Graphics options: Display screen and resolution options are now updated when “Set default” is triggered

Note: We are still working on a fix for the Connectivity issues that some of you encounter with your PS4 pads and other branded or unbranded controllers.

[h3]Localization[/h3]

• Localization in all languages for the Bloodstake and the Moonblade Weapons
  
• Localization for missing words in all languages

[h3]What's cooking in the Temple?[/h3]


[h3]Fan arts[/h3] Post your fan arts of Curse of the Dead Gods on Steam or on our Discord server for it to be featured here each week!


@NERV

Today’s update brings our first content addition of the UNLEASH THE JAGUAR UPDATES series. Let us introduce you to the lootable Champions' Weapons, dropped by filling mysterious conditions that will only give you a chance to get it...

[h2]Version 0.17.1 – March 11th, 2020[/h2] 🍉 = Community additions

[h3]New features[/h3]

• Blood Hunter’s Bloodstake signature Spear can be dropped by the Champion under one special condition: I, the CM, don’t even know what it is. That’s how devilish our Game designer is.
• Night Twin’s Moonblade signature Sword can be dropped by the Champion under one special condition: we'll let you figure it out ;)
• New relics: Gleaming Sapphire. Relic giving +base damage per 1000 Gold Stack in stock now exists in all rarities. Bonus has been adjusted to +2%/+4%/+6% (up to 100%)
  Design Notes: Increasing damage with Gold is a fun synergy that was only available with a very rare relic and was quickly too powerful. Relic will now present more frequently with more adequate damage increase.

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• 🍉 All bows raw damage have been increased by ~20%
  Design Notes: Bows compared to pistols were a little low damage-wise, even with their better fire rate. Taking your feedback into consideration, we decided to increase their damage.
• Daggers Finishers now deal a regular hit stun rather than a heavy stagger (unless breaking an actual enemy attack)
  Design Notes: Always staggering with dagger finisher could lead to easy combo loops while consuming little stamina. Breaking an enemy attack is still rewarded by a staggering effect, allowing a chain with another combo.
• 🍉 Looted Weapons’ VFX are now colored according to their rarity.
  
• 🍉 Items dropped by the Explorer are now less eye-catching to differentiate them from new ones.

[h3]Fixed bugs[/h3]

• 🍉 Black screen issues linked to DualCore processors have been fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug on Cursed Sword “Abnegation” that was making the Explorer always take passively 100% more damage when having it in hands.

[h3]What's cooking in the Temple[/h3]

• Always thanks to your feedback, expect more balanced things amongst our “balancing list” of stuff to balance:
  + The overall balance of all the aspect of the game
  + Balancing of Relics and Blessings
  
• Game modes: Hard Difficulty runs to be improved and have stronger differences with Normal Difficulty runs (additional moves or behavior for Elite enemies, Champions and Bosses…)
  
• More diversity in rooms
• Check our Roadmap for more!

[h3]Known issues[/h3]

• Perfomance issues: low FPS in-game
  
• Connectivity problems (PS4 and unbranded pads)
  
• Getting trapped OOB while using Claws or sending foes OOB due to overly skilled players

Notes: Fixing the FPS and Connectivity issues is our priority! Our team is dedicated to finding a solution for players encountering these problems. If you want to help, you can check this post.

[h3]Fan arts[/h3]We’re extremely lucky to already have some fan arts of Curse of the Dead Gods! If you’d like your fan art featured here each week, send it at [email protected] or on our Discord server!

@RogueJustice

@FaervalTV


@Lullu

Curse of the Dead Gods has been acclaimed by players and press alike, with a Steam user review rating of over 87% following its first week in Early Access. Thank you so much everyone, we are all incredibly thrilled! Sylvain Passot, Director of Passtech Games, has this to say:

"The whole studio would like to thank our community of players who helped us bring Curse of the Dead Gods to the top of Steam sales charts for the entire week of its release! We are delighted and will continue to give everything to ensure our game lives up to this initial reception."


[h2]There’s more content to come and we are hungry for your feedback!
[/h2]



After a first patch released last week thanks to your feedback, we are already working on a new update that brings new content, along with further optimization and bug fixes.

The official roadmap is available now on the Steam store page for Curse of the Dead Gods.

Everyone is invited to share their feedback via Steam, the official forums or the official Discord channel!

[h2]Watch our Beginner and Advanced Tips Videos now!
[/h2]
For both newcomers and seasoned explorers, we are pleased to share two new videos. The first is aimed at new players looking to get started in Curse of the Dead Gods. The second goes over more advanced techniques for experienced explorers looking to improve their skills and take on the deadly gods of the temple.

https://youtu.be/F7ZEgpL8_Hk
https://youtu.be/ewQKlDoHzWQ

Curse of the Dead Gods is available now in Early Access on Steam.
The game is set to release later on consoles. For more information, visit https://curse-of-the-dead-gods.com.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123770/Curse_of_the_Dead_Gods/