Hotfix 1.1.4.5 is now live!
[h3]1.1.4.5 PATCH NOTES[/h3]
Bugfixes:
Bugfixes:
- Fixed an issue that could break character details in some situations.
Shardpunk News
1.1.4 release: character bonds
[h3]1.1.4 PATCH NOTES[/h3]
New features:
Thanks for reading!
New features:
- Added character bonds to the game. You can read more in my latest devlog entry.
- Reinforcement tweaks: they tend to have more rat grunts starting from chapter 2, and the reinforcement appearance rate is slightly randomized.
Camera now does not pan to newly uncovered enemies if they are on the screen already.
- Poison mortar rats should now behave more aggressively (they tend to hunker down a lot if they were in a close proximity of an explosive barrel).
Thanks for reading!
Devlog #144: Character bonds
Hello everyone!
Now that the dread mechanics are in place, I am focusing on adding one extra major feature to the game: character bonds.
After characters fight a few missions together, they will form a bond. A bond is a connection between two characters that provides some nice bonuses. Every time a bond is created (or upgraded, which happens automatically every few missions), the player can choose a bonus.
A character can be bound to only one other character. If the bondmate dies/leaves the party, the bond is, well, broken (at least in most cases, but you will see it for yourself).
As for the bond bonuses, I do not want to spoil them, so let's focus on the ones from the gif above.
The overwatch bonus allows you to make even better use of overwatch reaction attacks. Combine it with the support bot's aura to stop worrying about overheating weapons for maximum efficiency.
The damage bonus pumps-up your damage output when bondmates are close together - so you're getting a free weapon damage upgrade, as long as you don't split.
If all goes well, the bonds feature will be added to the game during the next update that I am planning to release on August the 10th. I will be taking some time off next week, hence the longer wait period.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
Now that the dread mechanics are in place, I am focusing on adding one extra major feature to the game: character bonds.
After characters fight a few missions together, they will form a bond. A bond is a connection between two characters that provides some nice bonuses. Every time a bond is created (or upgraded, which happens automatically every few missions), the player can choose a bonus.
A character can be bound to only one other character. If the bondmate dies/leaves the party, the bond is, well, broken (at least in most cases, but you will see it for yourself).
As for the bond bonuses, I do not want to spoil them, so let's focus on the ones from the gif above.
The overwatch bonus allows you to make even better use of overwatch reaction attacks. Combine it with the support bot's aura to stop worrying about overheating weapons for maximum efficiency.
The damage bonus pumps-up your damage output when bondmates are close together - so you're getting a free weapon damage upgrade, as long as you don't split.
If all goes well, the bonds feature will be added to the game during the next update that I am planning to release on August the 10th. I will be taking some time off next week, hence the longer wait period.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
1.1.3 release: dread mechanics
[h3]1.1.3 PATCH NOTES[/h3]
New features:
Bugfixes:
Thanks for reading! Enjoy!
New features:
- Added Dread mechanics to the game, expanding the way stress is handled. You can read more in my latest devlog entry.
Bugfixes:
- Gunter's Focus action now receives stress reduction from the "Face the danger" Team Skill.
- Fixed missing glyphs for the Japanese fonts.
- Fixed some missing cover issues on one of the map pieces.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy!
Devlog #143: Stress and Dread mechanics
Hi! First of all, Shardpunk has nearly reached 400 reviews on Steam, and with very high positive rating! Thank you, everyone!
Now, let's talk about expanding the stress mechanism.
Note: the below changes were (well, they still are) available on a beta branch, and I managed to get some nice feedback about them (and fix a few interesting bugs). They will be added to the main game in the upcoming update, which will probably land on Thursday.
Until now, stress was a stat that - if not reduced - could make the player's life difficult. If character's stress meter was too high, the character would panic (meaning that the player would lose control over them), or gain a negative quirk.
Characters gained stress in different situations, the most common ones being getting hit, healing with stimpaks and uncovering new foes. Stress could be reduced by killing enemies or using certain combat/shelter actions. Also, there is one combat tactic that reduces stress.
All in all, more experienced players were able to easily manage stress levels during combat with clever usage of skills and combat tactics, which greatly reduced the impact I would like it to have on the game. Characters were not receiving that many stress-related quirks (if any; I was able to finish a run on Hard with no quirks) because of that.
What is more, players fairly noticed that receiving stress for simply spotting new enemies might be a little too exaggerated. In some cases, characters would receive stress for a single uncovered enemy, in others - the same amount of stress for a pack of rats.
After one of the players suggested that stress could behave similar to hit points (hit points in Shardpunk only get temporarily healed during combat - you then have to "really" heal them in shelter), I've decided to explore this design more - and that's how the dread system was born.
How the dread system works:
1) Every character has a dread bar next to the stress bar. Dread can have a max of 6 points.
2) EVERY stress point that the character gains during combat is remembered, and then is counted after a mission ends. If a character healed some stress during combat, it does NOT reduce the number of remembered gained stress.
Example: if a character gains 10 stress and heals 5 stress during combat, they end up with 5 stress points. Still, at the end of combat, the total number of cumulated stress by a character will be 10.
3) Stress still needs to be managed during combat. If a character gets to max stress, they will panic/go berserk. That being said, a character can no longer gain a quirk due to maxed stress level. Also, characters do not longer gain stress by spotting enemies.
4) At the end of combat, cumulated stress for every character is counted, and for every 5 cumulated stress, the character gains 1 dread point. All stress points are zeroed after combat.
5) Before progressing to the shelter phase, the player needs to perform a quirk roll. The % of receiving a quirk depends on the number of Dread points.
6) Dread can only be taken care of during shelters. All shelter skills have been altered so that they deal with dread, and not with stress (which is always zero during shelter phases and does not really matter there).
7) Quirks that characters receive during combat are now treatable. The "Rest" shelter action allows the player to partially treat a random quirk. After a quirk is treated 3 times, it disappears.
So there you have it! I believe that this new approach makes the stress-related stuff more fun and will make stress-reducing (well, it's dread-reducing now!) shelter skills more useful.
Introduction of dread mechanics will not affect existing saves, so if you want to try them out, start a new run.
As always, do leave me as much feedback as possible! I'd like to know whether you enjoy the new stuff. Take care!
Now, let's talk about expanding the stress mechanism.
Note: the below changes were (well, they still are) available on a beta branch, and I managed to get some nice feedback about them (and fix a few interesting bugs). They will be added to the main game in the upcoming update, which will probably land on Thursday.
Until now, stress was a stat that - if not reduced - could make the player's life difficult. If character's stress meter was too high, the character would panic (meaning that the player would lose control over them), or gain a negative quirk.
Characters gained stress in different situations, the most common ones being getting hit, healing with stimpaks and uncovering new foes. Stress could be reduced by killing enemies or using certain combat/shelter actions. Also, there is one combat tactic that reduces stress.
All in all, more experienced players were able to easily manage stress levels during combat with clever usage of skills and combat tactics, which greatly reduced the impact I would like it to have on the game. Characters were not receiving that many stress-related quirks (if any; I was able to finish a run on Hard with no quirks) because of that.
What is more, players fairly noticed that receiving stress for simply spotting new enemies might be a little too exaggerated. In some cases, characters would receive stress for a single uncovered enemy, in others - the same amount of stress for a pack of rats.
After one of the players suggested that stress could behave similar to hit points (hit points in Shardpunk only get temporarily healed during combat - you then have to "really" heal them in shelter), I've decided to explore this design more - and that's how the dread system was born.
How the dread system works:
1) Every character has a dread bar next to the stress bar. Dread can have a max of 6 points.
2) EVERY stress point that the character gains during combat is remembered, and then is counted after a mission ends. If a character healed some stress during combat, it does NOT reduce the number of remembered gained stress.
Example: if a character gains 10 stress and heals 5 stress during combat, they end up with 5 stress points. Still, at the end of combat, the total number of cumulated stress by a character will be 10.
3) Stress still needs to be managed during combat. If a character gets to max stress, they will panic/go berserk. That being said, a character can no longer gain a quirk due to maxed stress level. Also, characters do not longer gain stress by spotting enemies.
4) At the end of combat, cumulated stress for every character is counted, and for every 5 cumulated stress, the character gains 1 dread point. All stress points are zeroed after combat.
5) Before progressing to the shelter phase, the player needs to perform a quirk roll. The % of receiving a quirk depends on the number of Dread points.
6) Dread can only be taken care of during shelters. All shelter skills have been altered so that they deal with dread, and not with stress (which is always zero during shelter phases and does not really matter there).
7) Quirks that characters receive during combat are now treatable. The "Rest" shelter action allows the player to partially treat a random quirk. After a quirk is treated 3 times, it disappears.
So there you have it! I believe that this new approach makes the stress-related stuff more fun and will make stress-reducing (well, it's dread-reducing now!) shelter skills more useful.
Introduction of dread mechanics will not affect existing saves, so if you want to try them out, start a new run.
As always, do leave me as much feedback as possible! I'd like to know whether you enjoy the new stuff. Take care!