Ziggurat 2 News

Update #5 - Balancing and detailed perk descriptions!

Welcome, wizards and witches of all planes!

Today we're pushing a small update bringing an important bugfix and a much requested feature, perk detailed descriptions!

Now you'll be able to know how much a perk increases your stats, so you can make better guesses.

It's not fully complete, as A) shrine effects won't show detailed data yet and B) perks with random effects (such as Golden Weapon) don't show yet which weapon was selected. However we wanted to push the update anyways in order to deliver the bugfix before the weekend.

We've also added a way to upgrade items from the campaign results screen, and enhanced the visual effects on elemental damage so it's easier to know when you're dealing reduced or extra damage.

Finally, we've done a quick balancing pass on enemies, in order to have them perform at their expected strength.

Bugfixes:

Fixed a bug where enemies wouldn't spawn in small rooms.

Improvements:

Changed visual feedback of elemental resistance and vulnerabilities so they're easier to detect.
Perk descriptions now show numeric values for their effects
You can now open the equipment upgrade screen from the mission results screen.

Gameplay changes - Balanced enemies:

Carrots: More health
Peppers: Less damage, a bit slower
Radishes: Fewer of them spawned
Bronze Warriors: More damage
Ghosts: Less damage, a bit slower
Lost souls: Less health
Burning souls: Less health, less damage, fewer of them spawned

Update #4 - Burning hatred

Welcome back, fellow wizards. Today we're releasing a new update bringing a new enemy, as well as a plethora of fixes and improvements.

Whatever little humanity that remained in these old bones has been long consumed by flames.

An eternity in the underworld will get anyone to their nerves.

After this update, we'll start work on one of the most requested changes, which is to add specific details to perk descriptions. We want to do it properly so it may take a while, and we may take the chance to tune some perks to make them more useful or interesting while we're at it. Stay tuned for more updates!

New enemy: Burning Soul

Improvements:

Added a progress bar showing duration of timed character and amulet skills
Added upgrade level of items in the in-game inventory
Changed respawn behavior of special combat rooms (obelisks, scavenge). Enemies should take a bit longer to respawn once killed.
Added sound and visual effects to moving platforms.
Perks dropped by treasure chests now have to be picked up manually. They will show their icon and description when looking at them.
You can now rotate monsters in the bestiary
Rewards for main quests are now shown in the campaign map.
Changed icon for the Master key drop in the minimap so it's a key, not a lock.
Increased FPS cap to 500.

Gameplay changes:

Glyndor no longer recovers mana for damage over time effects (such as lava or poison)
Reduced healing penalty of Regeneration perk
Increased damage time of bosses' stomp attack, so it's more dangerous to bait them.

Bugfixes

Fixed Celestial Horn icon
Removed pain sounds when you're invulnerable (for example Glyndor while using Shell)
Fixed Scavenge items counting towards progress even if not picked
Invulnerable enemies will no longer show the hit confirmation effect.
A weapon that changed its category (for example because of a shrine effect) will keep the new category if dropped and picked up again
Fixed issue with hundreds of enemies being spawned if it took some time to load their model.
Should have fixed issue with Lights Out not working as intended.

Update #3 - Screams of pain!

Welcome back, young apprentices!

Today we're releasing a new update, bringing a new batch of fixes and minor improvements. The most important one is the addition of character sounds when jumping, being hurt, etc. (Sorry, no voice acting yet).

Fortunately we're quickly emptying the list of critical bugs and will be able to get to work a bit on balance before starting with new features and content. This update also brings a few changes to that.

Stat of the day: Wizards have fired over 16,000,000 shots so far.

More Curiosities: Over 200,000 Peppers have been spawned so far, dealing almost half a million points of damage to the unfortunate wizards that stood in their way.

Bugfixes:

Fixed Nostalgia pixelated effect being upside down when render scale was not 100%
Fixed (this time for true) total money count shown in mission rewards screen
Changed vertical platforming room so they have ground below. This way they can't push you down the floor.
Made it so if you somehow fall out of bounds, you're repositioned back in the room.
Fixed floor intro not showing "Last Floor" or "Single Floor"
Fixed an issue with text width
Fixed some items not showing up as unlocks in the mission rewards.
Fixed Carrots feeling a bit dumb when Kira uses her Shroud.
Fixed wizards' cloaks acting weird sometimes

Improvements:

More accurate room culling when outside of combat, should improve overall performance.
Changed a setting that could be adding some input lag in specific circumstances.
Increased maximum vertical sensitivity to 2.
Changed location of the War in the North mission so it's in what mundane beings would think it's North.
Added a button to skip the reward popups after a mission.
Added an indicator for objects that can be leveled up, but can't be afforded yet.
Changed the way perks are determined on level up: Now they shouldn't repeat as often (except the ones you already have and can level up).

New features:

Added wizard sounds when being hit, jumping, etc.

Gameplay changes:

Bosses will still perform some attacks against a shrouded Kira.
Increased a bit difficulty for Novice and Apprentice. Lowered a bit difficulty for Scholar.
Reduced death explosion damage of Peppers a bit. Reduced the amount of peppers spawned.

Update #2 - Fixes and small improvements

Welcome back, young apprentices!

It's been an intense weekend! From what we've read, looks like you're enjoying the game and that's great! We've got plenty nice feedback over the weekend and have a long list of issues and improvements to fix over the next days.

Today we're releasing a quick update that should address the most glaring issues, such as serious performance drops, and other things that could be fixed quickly.

We still have a long list of things to do, and in some point in the future we'll post some kind of roadmap with the intended features/content that we'll be working on. But for now we're still focused on fixing things and small improvements.

Stat of the day: So far, wizards have started over 150,000 fights. Of those, approximately 10,000 have ended in defeat.

More curiosities: The favorite perk choice so far is Sure Shot (Ignore elemental resistances), with a 95% selection rate. Second one is Enraged (Increases damage), with 82%. The least favorite is Black Market (exchange 1 weapon for Shields), with a 10% rate.

While we won't make changes yet (still working on fixes), we'll make some adjustments at some point to make these perks a bit more interesting.

Bugfixes:

Fixed internal error when enemy health bars are disabled.
Fixed error in map description
Fixed reported typos
Fixed Render Scale not being properly applied upon starting a new floor.
Fixed incorrect color for an amulet.
Clamped accuracy to 100% (could get higher because of explosive/piercing weapons)
Fixed performance issues when game telemetry started failing.
Fixed enemy shot prediction not working when walking against a wall.
Fixed Master key disappearing if not picked up before leaving the room.
Fixed homing attacks not aiming at the Obelisk base when only one piece remains.
Changed Mission Start button to X/Control key to prevent issues with the Space key.
Added a small delay to Perk choice screen, should help when the interaction key is bound to Space.
Fixed being unable to skip cutscenes with the mouse.
Improved item popup behavior when picking several weapons at the same time (now only the last one will be shown).
Fixed homing projectiles not working properly in Disruption fights.
Fixed mission complete screen counting twice the Money rewards.
The curse that causes the rooms to be hidden wouldn't hide the minimap.
Fixed missing collision in a corridor that could allow player to go out of bounds.

Improvements:

Slightly increased size of enemy drops. Added a setting to make them larger/smaller.
Added a setting to disable low health/mana warnings.
Changed Mana color description to be white instead of Purple (so it's not confused with Wands). Changed Experience color to be yellowish.
Increased maximum sensitivity (again).
Changed Barrier color from purple to Green so it's not confused with Shield.
Increased a bit visibility of the Pillars in the Sequence fights.

Gameplay changes:

Increased Argo's Syphon range from 30 to 40 meters.
Halved Mana and health price to use Shrines.
Increased available characters from 2 to 3 on the mission briefing.

First-person magic-shooting rogue-lite 'Ziggurat 2' enters Early Access

Ziggurat 2 from Milkstone Studios has arrived in Early Access, letting you jump into the shoes of a mage and blast through some freaky creatures with all sorts of wands and staffs in gorgeous first-person action.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/10/first-person-magic-shooting-rogue-lite-ziggurat-2-enters-early-access