Vault of the Void News

We made it! I know I said October 6th, and I think it’s still the 6th somewhere in the world...

Sorry about things being a touch later than I thought - some final last minute tweaks to sort out! The Tempest is officially out, and before going any further, a massive thank you to everyone who had a chance to play test her on the Beta Branch. There were well over 1,000 runs done, and that really helped to fine tune a few things in terms of balance. That said, I'm still keeping an eye on things here, and expect a few small tweaks here and there over the next few days.

So let's talk about the Tempest quickly, then I’ll dive into a few overall changes that will make their way to the live branch with this update.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


So firstly - how many cards? The Tempest has launched with 70 cards in her kit. This is by no means the final number, as with all the other classes we’ll be looking to add more over the next month! She also has a fair share of Artifacts (14 Elite, 11 in the shop pool) but expects that to flesh out again over the next few weeks.



She also has 44 unique Zeal powers.

What is Zeal? Basically, The Tempest has the ability to trigger certain automatic powers when she reaches different levels of Zeal. You gain a point of Zeal for every energy you spend. Play a 1 cost card, gain 1 Zeal. Play a 4 cost card, gain 4 Zeal.

What’s cool about Zeal powers is, each run, your Zeal tree is randomly generated. You always start with the 3 and 7 power unlocked and equipped, however as you progress more, you’ll gain Fervour (from clearing Heretic sites... those nasty, dirty Heretics), which you can spend to buy new powers for the run. Make your Zeal 3 stronger? Or pickup something new in the Zeal 5 slot? The choice is yours.



A little more on Heretic sites. 4 Mob fights on every floor will be marked as a “Heretic Site”. These rooms, when cleared, will grant you one of those sweet Fervour points, which you can spend on your Zeal powers. This adds just another layer to map pathing. Oh boy...



Other than that - you’ll see Tempest make a lot of use from Overcharge, Discharge, Rage and Shock. All of these combine to lay out one hell of a lot of damage at times. Expect big numbers.

[h2]Yo, I don’t like new classes! What else has changed? Love from, imainhidden[/h2]
Thanks for your question imainhidden. Quite a few things actually. You’ll be interested to know that the Bleed kit had a card swap out! Lots of small balance tweaks all over the place, as well as the inclusion of the new Artifact Chest, which can spawn on either floor.

But possibly the biggest change is to Elite nodes. So its been no surprise that Elite nodes contained ... A LOT of value. High value Artifact, Rare or Uncommon card, extra Essence and Souls etc. Not to mention, a chance to hang out with a cool Shark.

From now on - Elites don’t offer any card rewards. However, there is a guaranteed 1 Rare and 3 Uncommons spawned into a map, and scattered somewhere around on regular Mob rooms. This was a pretty wild change, but the feedback has been pretty positive overall! People now feel they have more choices and decisions to make when looking at pathing options, which sometimes just became “Where’s the Elites? Okay cool go go.”

Also, to everyone who’s been struggling with OP Bruce since the last patch (sorry!), the Piranhas are now Minions :)

[h2]Thank yous![/h2]
I’m not going to type too much more honestly - its been an extremely busy last few weeks to get all this ready! I also don’t want to spoil too much of Tempest and how she plays, rather let players jump in and experience things!

However the Tempest wouldn’t be here without a few key people! Firstly, to all the Beta Testers - you have no idea how valuable you all are! Many bugs were squashed, and much balance was balanced. This also extends to the Internal Testing team, who logged a bunch of runs before it even made it to the Beta Branch. This alone has made this process so damn smooth.

To my fellow artist Mengo, for pulling out all the stops when it comes to card artwork, and to my animator friend Sanjeev who has really brought things to life! And last but not least, Dabor (who many of you know from the Discord and Forums) for all the work on the Tempest so far.

Dabor started working on the design for the Tempest in November last year, after a few discussions we had around how it should work and slot into the ecosystem. Since then, they’ve become a major contributor to the games content and balance, and also has been doing a great job making Trello lists of problems and changes every day throughout the process. Many hours spent in calls the last few weeks, and probably many more to come!



Thanks everyone - I will post this up and get a full change log added below in the next hour or so, as I organise my notes.

Now go bring the Thunder !

- Josh

It’s time.

Thank you so much for all the positive support on the announcement post! I’m glad you’re all excited to dive into some Tempest gameplay. It’s been a blast to put together, and everyone has really helped out to get things done in such a quick time period. The Tempest will be released on Oct 6th as planned.

[h3]However, as of today I can officially say, she is playable right now on the Beta Branch![/h3]

I don’t want to go into too much detail on her mechanics and play style - I’d love to ensure that all comes across okay in game! But if you like BIG numbers, then I think you’ll enjoy the Tempest.

You’ll also notice that the Tempest actually sits in between the Hidden and the Enlightened in the class pool. This isn’t a mistake! The Tempest is supposed to bridge the gap between these two. It’s no surprise that, after playing The Hidden, the jump to ol’ Monk man was a bit ... OH MY KEYWORD OVERLOAD. The Tempest was purposely designed to smooth that jump. She only has 3 unique keywords, and makes use of things players should already be familiar with (Overcharge, Rage ... and a lot of both).


A few things to note:

• Your profile will have no problem switching back and forward between both version (beta and live)
  
• MOST save games will be fine to continue on both branches. The exception to this is if you’re midway through a Tempest run, and then switch back to the live Branch, you might need to use the Delete Save option from the debug menu.
  
• Any progress you make (Mastery) will carry over to the live version.
  

To access the Beta Branch, all you need to do is right click on Vault of the Void in Steam -> Properties. There will then be a tab right at the end called “Betas”, where you’ll have the option to opt into a branch, aptly named, “Beta”. By doing so, Steam should go ahead and download the latest version, which is 1.3.87.





I’ll go into this in more detail in the launch post, but there's a few global changes to the way Vault works which are present on all classes on the Beta Branch. I’ll expand on these change more later, but things to keep an eye on:

• Elites: no longer have a card reward! The combination of an Elite Artifact, extra Souls and Essence an Uncommon/Rare card was a bit too much for these. It lead to not much choice when it came to pathing. Instead, a Rare card has been scattered among the standard mobs, as well as 3 Uncommons each floor.
  
• Treasure Chests: Treasure rooms have been changed a little, and now there are Common Artifact Treasure rooms available as well. These have the same icon, just slightly different colours!
  
• The Bleed starter kit has changed again as well. It now contains Lick the Knife
  

A huge shoutout to my Internal Testing team who have logged over 100 runs already in a short period of time, finding and alerting me to as many bugs as they could find (there was a lot!). This also really helped with balance, to find a nice spot. The further runs over the next few days on the Beta Branch is going to help immensely with this also - I’ll be monitoring all the data as we go!

And a few extra special thank you’s - firstly to Mengo, my fellow artist, who REALLY pulled out all the stops to get all the card artwork done so quickly - they all look beautiful! Sanjeev also - my animator friend who crushed it with the animated version of the Tempest, and also who rushed to help out with the Chest animation and various other things as well. And of course Dabor (who many of you know from Discord and the forums) who carried a lot of the early design weight when it comes to the Tempest (including the first card batch!), dating all the way back from her initial inception nearly 12 months ago. For putting up with constant Discord calls the last few weeks, and managing the testing team and bug reporting as well - it’s been a major help, we wouldn't be here without you!

I couldn’t do it without you all - and it would be pointless without all the amazing players. I hope you all really enjoy her gameplay - as much (or more) than I have enjoyed getting it all put together!

All for now!
- Josh

Two exciting things to announce. I guess I'll lead off with this...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I’m not sure there's much more for me to say there :)

Stay tuned for a Beta weekend coming up - most probably over the weekend of the 1-3 of October. Exciting stuff!

[hr][/hr]

The other big news is, Vault of the Void was officially selected for the PAX-Aus Indie Showcase ! This is a huge honor, a massive thankyou to all the players who have helped craft Vault into what it is today. I’m not 100% sure what the full details entail right now, but expect more information as we move closer to the date!



Thats all for now - again super sorry about no updates the past few weekends - but everything is being poured into getting Tempest ready to go!

See you all soon

All for now!
- Josh

I planned to have this patch out on Friday - but decided to give it a little more time on the Beta branch - both to smooth things out but also for me to get on top of a few bugs which seemed to have snuck in recently.

As soon as I finish typing this, I’m switching back to getting the next class setup and ready for play. That’s not to say that this is the final patch before the Tempest drops, but more so just an acknowledgement that there probably won’t be any major changes until I have things sorted. Of course, I’ll still be hotfixing any bugs or major issues that crop up - but my focus is going to be 100% on the Tempest, and getting it ready for public testing!


I sat down in a call earlier last week and started working through each and every one of the fights in the game at the moment. Two data points were used - player feedback and player metrics.

One goal I wanted was to shift Hard a little closer to Normal. The jump from Normal to Hard was pretty steep, but the jump from Hard to Impossible was no where near as daunting. I know I’ve copped some negative feedback in regards to Hard being a little too back-breaking of a jump, so hopefully that curve is much smoother now.

Numbers were changed, modifiers tweaked, and lots of little things were adjusted. I’ve put a full list at the bottom of this post.

[h3]Elites[/h3]
On top of the stuff above, Elites were a big focus. Right now, a lot of power comes from Elites (the Artifacts are really that good). But at the same time, some of them just felt like freebies. There should be some challenge when it comes to Elites, and fear of taking a few points of damage at least.

The major shakups were Dolus, Bruce and the Hag, the first two getting a pretty considerable redesign - so make sure you re-read those passives! The Hag just had the Thorns toned down a touch to make it less hard country vs certain decks, and a few more tweaks thrown in.

Corpse Beast on Imposible was a run ender. He’s been nerfed quite a bit .. maybe a touch too much, will keep an eye on him.

A few other fights also got decent reworks. Death Knight will have his AP gain happen passively so there won’t be a huge “gotcha” moment around turn 4 or 5. Also Swamp Misteress has had her Totem spawn conditions altered a little as well.


Now, on the character select screen, you should see another option next to Win Streak - Highest Difficulty. This was a suggestion made by the community to allow players to see what the Highest Difficulty they had won on either spec on was. Thanks for the great suggestion!


I’ve also taken the chance to throw a few new Impossible+ modifiers into the game! The big focus on these was to not just be more deprivation of resources, but more so the ability to actually change and shape the way you play. Some of these include Fog of War, which hides what type of tiles are in front of you, and Ambush, which gives all encounters a Turn 0. Still looking to gather feedback on the costs for these - some are particularly scary! Hopefully they’re enjoyable for those who look to those high difficulty modes !

[hr][/hr]

And with that - I shall return to the code bubble and make progress on the new class. Still no exact dates just yet - but all going well I should have something to show next month!

Thank you everyone for making Vault of the Void what it is! Without you all I’d just be an old grey hair man, making code for no one. All the positivity and great feedback is what keeps this rolling - so huge shout out to you all! I’d rate you all 5 stars if I could ...

...actually now we’re turning into a Black Mirror episode I think...

Oh no.

All for now
- Josh



[hr][/hr]

[h3]Full(ish) Patch Notes[/h3]

Balance Notes
- Bruce: Changed significantly. No longer Vuln immune, but he's now a summoner! Fish are friends!
- Dolus: Has a strong static AP value, and will cause you to gain and lose poison based on the costs of what you purge or play, occasionally siphoning that poison into her own AP.
- The Priest: Passive just deals damage when drawing non-afflictions now.
- Swamp Mistress: Will spawn with 1 offensive and 1 defensive totem, and not deal free damage when you draw a Bane
- Flame Ward: 1 less burn at all levels
- Big Bertha: Her passive is also triggered by a Piglet dying. Angry piggy.
- Birth Pit: Passive also triggers when an Ally dies. Feed also increases own AP by 1.
- Pinkie: Killing 7, instead of 10, fills the Battle Progress bar
- Voidling: 7% less HP
- Pirahna: 7% less HP
- Dragon Whelpling: 25% more HP, and +1 AP and adds 1 less Bane on Impossible
- Dragon Mother: "It could be more on fire." Also +2 AP at all levels.
- Veiled Watcher: No longer scales to all Afflictions, just Banes
- Beast of Malice: 33% more HP
- Hag: 2 less Thorns damage on all levels. Starts with higher frenzy and attacks more often. Her Hex move also burns, and her Bane move also haunts.
- Obsidian Golem: Right Arm has +1 AP on Hard and Impossible, and will use Red Void Stone more often. Significantly more AP on main body across all levels (+2 to +5)
- Death Knight: Instead of an active buff, he passively gets AP when you draw Banes. Starts with higher damage output but 1 Frenzy. No longer uses Shield of Bone, instead forcing reshuffles periodically. He also no longer perma-vulns, instead just applying it as part of the reshuffle move.
- Starcallers: 25% less HP, +3 AP at all levels
- Void Spiders: Only need to kill 3 to fill Battle Progress bar. Higher HP, lower AP, higher Frenzy and Frenzy gain (actual damage output only marginally lower)
- Queen of Ages: No longer cleanses when the player loses HP.
- Scoutlight: Applies 1 more Poison on Hard
- Unholy King: 1 less AP on Hard
- Exalted Warrior: 1 less AP on Hard
- Knight - 1 less AP on Hard
- Nightmare Steed: 2 less AP on Hard
- Skeleton King: 1 less AP on Hard
- Forged Soldier: 1 less AP on Hard and Impossible, and 9% less HP
- Infecti: Passive buffs their AP by 1 less on Hard and Impossible
- Skeleton Minion: 1 less AP on Hard and Impossible
- Forsaken Puppy: Adds 1 less Bane on Hard and Impossible
- Drowned" 1 more AP on Hard and Impossible
- Gloomshroom: 1 less Poison on Impossible
- Bloated: 1 more AP on Impossible
- Blightwort: 1 less AP and 1 more Frenzy on Impossible
- Corpse Mound: Changed from 8x2 to 16x1 attack on Impossible

Bugs/Other
- Highest Difficulty now tracked across all Specs
- New Impossible+ modifiers
- Fixed a small memory leak in the Deck Manager
- More typos
- Then Again will now have the Follow Up glow
- Fixed a bug on re-rolling a card, and it showing the wrong energy cost on upgrade
- Then Again will now only correclty give Delay Block inside of Zen
- Forbidden Pact will now correctly set your Threat based on Card Energy
- Circular Logic Purge is now working correctly
- Fixed a bug which caused cards to go LARGE when prompted with Discard.

Okay - so it's been nearly 2 weeks since the Sins and QP crossover event went live. In that time there's been a lot of great feedback and positive responses! There's also been a lot of little hotfixes, including one I just pushed last night. I figured it would be a good chance to recap them all, and let everyone know about what is being worked on next.


Thank you everyone for the great feedback on these few things. So it looks like the change to Max Instability is a positive one, so I’ll be keeping that as is for now. Same with the new Discovery stuff in the compendium, and the air of mystery.

However there are a few who would like to tweak options like this. And so I’ve added a new “options.json” file:

%LOCALAPPDATA%/VaultOfTheVoid/

Here you can tweak your Max Instability to be higher if you like, alongside turning off Card Discovery in the Compendium. This won’t affect you actually discovering cards, it will just disable the “???” released in the last version.

To be clear, the games goal and intention is I+Custom capped at 50. That's where decisions will be made around. However, for the people who want to remove the breaks, there is now a way.

Keep in mind, you'll still need to work your way up to your set Max Instability. Setting it to 100 doesn't mean that 100 will be unlocked automatically - you'll still have to work your way up there! It just moves the upper cap.


So as we edge closer to the 500 Steam Review mark, I can reveal a little more about what I plan to release in celebration. It won’t be a Deckback this time, instead, it will be the first code unlocked Battlefield.

But, it won’t just be any Battlefield. I’m currently sorting out the technicals, and once I have things locked down I’ll start showing previews. But expect something fun and interactive.


So next week I’ll drop a small patch which will have a few things. Firstly, a couple of new Instability Modifiers, generally aimed at changing the way the game is played, rather than deprivation of resources. These won’t be for everyone, and for some people they’ll be a great addition. The beauty of the I+ system is being able to pick and choose what you’d like to play with, so trying to lean into that a bit more.

Also want to get some stat tracking across specs on the Character screen, a full balance pass on all encounters, smoothing out that difficulty curve a bit. A few other small things, and then...
Work officially begins on the Tempest, the next class.

And when I say begin, it’s more just implementation. The design has been there for a good 12 months now, I just decided to prioritise UI, readability and fleshing out the content already in game first. I can truely say I'm happy (proud?) of this stuff now... so let's get rolling!

What's the timeline? It won’t be a 1 week turn around, but it also shouldn’t take as long as you may think ... stay tuned!

[hr][/hr]

Other than that, thank you everyone for the kind words and excitement over the two new events - it seems they are very well received. I’ve included a full patch notes below re: all the bugs I’ve managed to fix over the last 10 days. A few new ones were reported this morning, I’ll try get those fixed up later tonight as well!

All for now!
- Josh



[hr][/hr]

[h3]Full(ish) Patch Notes[/h3]

Overview
- Fixed some issue around Shii, Rage and the damage preview showing odd things. In a twist of events, the damage preview was actually correct, but th e application was wrong. It was, for some reason, doing (Shii * Rage) + Fatigue. I've now changed that to (Shii + Fatigue) * Rage. Not sure how I screwed that up and missed it - sorry about that!
- Fixed a crash that seemed to be from returning players and the old void stone system.
- Sin cards can now correctly be duped at the Dark Mime, and they'll go to your Deck as intended!
- Dragon Mother's Sweltering Heat will no longer effect Shield Ward
- Dragon Mother's Sweltering Heat should no longer effect Artifacts
- Dragon Mother's Sweltering Heat should no longer effect Ice Wall's Purge
- Passing Pawn wasn't working correctly on cards with Expel. That's now been fixed (it's a Purge ability, so Expel shouldn't have been blocking that).
- Fixed damage preview not accounting for Band of Resilience.
- Fixed Recycling Bin erroring on Expel cards (same bug as above)
- Forged Soldiers Blessed Plating will now correctly be popped by Artifacts like Cracked Sundial etc.
- Fixed a lot of incorrect interactions with Expel, Haunted and the new Void Stones.
- Fixed Haunted not ticking down correctly for additional triggers. At Haunted 2, a Swift card with a Red stone with 2 Combo will now correctly tick down 2 instances of Haunted, and give you 25% Rage for the last trigger.
- Fixed Inert not working on spawned/upgraded cards in some instances.
- Fixed Loop not being completley random (was seed locked)
- That'll Sting had a few problems with previews. All resovled.
- Abandon Run popover has had the buttons switched to be in the correct order
- Flaying Flesh now shows upgrade number in green
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to hold CTRL and play a card as upgraded. (yikes)
- Upgraded Gluttony will give delay draw for Volatile Cards/Afflictions
- Fixed an interaction issue with Celerity, Theifs Tools and Discarded Keys
- Compost correctly returns on purge, rather than create a copy.
- Fixed Afflictions gaining the Rebound arrow
- Fixed the Rebond Stone not working with Inert cards
- Adjusted the text on Kings Stone
- All card artwork is now in! There's probably a few I'd like to still look at, but for the most part - it's all done!
- More typo corrections