Patch 0.2.2 [v.402975]
ːsteamthisː ⇒ Community-inspired change
Hey! We've got a whole bunch of languages available for you to play the demo in for this new patch. All of these languages (
plus Russian, the localization is still underway and will take more time) will be available in our Early Access launch:
Deutsch (German)
Italiano (Italian)
Español-España (Spanish-Spain)
Polski (Polish)
Українська (Ukrainian)
한국어 (Korean)
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
Français (French)
日本語 (Japanese)
Português-Brasil (Portuguese-Brazil)
You can try it out right now in these languages.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3256480/As_We_Descend_Demo
Apart from the language update, we've focused on improving learnability and clarity. One major change is that we've added in the new Tip system.
There's also new content and balancing adjustments, as well as an increased frequency of upgrades and forgets in the City. In general, you should find the game a bit easier than it was before.
For those of you who are already playing, this will invalidate your current run save after you update.
[h2]ːsteamthisː Tips (Soft Tutorial)[/h2]
Designer notes: The metaprogress screen should be a bit clearer now with these changes. Maximum challenge level is still Descension 5, but it's now a tiny bit more forgiving at base difficulty with the change to the Fatigued mechanic while also streamlining the base experience.
- Added a new system for "Tips" which introduce a number of core gameplay mechanic to new players!
- If you've already played before, see how these feel to you.
[h2]ːsteamthisː Staggered Adjustments[/h2]
Designer notes: The Staggered state now behaves much more consistently for most players. While players could optimize their Staggered durations in the previous behavior by allowing units to trigger Staggered with auto-attacks instead of triggering preemptively on their own turn, it frequently created unintuitive gameplay states.
- When Staggered is triggered, the enemy is guaranteed stunned for the current turn
- Enemies now uniformly recover alongside other enemy actions instead of after your unit auto-action phase
- Lasher and Husk recover from Staggered slightly faster than before, but no longer do a revenge attack; their recovery grants them a minor amount of Barrier
- Behemoth's revenge attack now happens on the second Staggered turn rather than the first
- Plague Soldier's initial revenge attacks have been replaced with an Affliction intent
- Various visual adjustments on the Staggered state
[h2]Progression Screen (Purifier)[/h2]
Design notes: Due to its complexity, it's best that Purifier doesn't show up until a player's 2nd or 3rd descent. The unlock condition should be quite easily attainable.
- ːsteamthisː Purifier must be unlocked before it's available in the Rare unit pool
[h2]General Gameplay[/h2]
Design notes: Improved recovery rate for both the starter Innkeeper's Blessing and the Battle Fatigue variant to ease the healing pressure a bit.
- ːsteamthisː Innkeeper's Blessing: Healing from visiting the Innkeeper improved. Cost reduced from 20 → 15 and healing amount increased from 10 → 15
- ːsteamthisː Innkeeper's Blessing (Battle Fatigue enabled): Between-cycle healing amount for units without Fatigued increased from 5 → 10
- ːsteamthisː On the Expedition Map, you can now find scavenge sites where the primary reward is guaranteed Copper
- ːsteamthisː It is now mandatory to spend all Scavengers at an scavenge site
- ːsteamthisː When entering a new Depth, you automatically start at Cycle 1 rather than Cycle 0. (You no longer have to press End Cycle to start the new Depth!)
- ːsteamthisː Adjusted various impact SFX across the board
- All effects which say "Draw a card (for a specific unit)" will always prioritize non-Reposition cards (and similar cards) if possible
[h2]City & Events[/h2]
Design notes: Adjusted both Old Mentor and Lantern Researcher choices to be a bit more streamlined in the interest of reducing low-importance gameplay complexity.
- ːsteamthisː Shopkeeper: Now sells slightly fewer Favor and Bandage items initially, and sells an AVA Miracle draft (once per Depth) and a Lantern upgrade or remove (once per Depth)
- ːsteamthisː Collector: No longer sells one-time buffs for Attack Power, Armor, or Stagger Power; instead, sells an assortment of Unit Forget, Unit Upgrade, and Unit Perk (once per Depth)
- ːsteamthisː Librarian: Added a Unit Card Draft (once per Cycle)
- ːsteamthisː Apothecary: Increased the number of potion types sold from 3 → 4
- ːsteamthisː Market Plaza: Can no longer trigger the Gambler Event
- Old Mentor: When redeeming an Ancient Manuscript, no longer offers a specialized choice of what to draft
- Relic Researcher: No longer offers a sub-choice of what to draft (always offers cards from the whole Lantern pool)
- Mycologist: Now properly starts with 1 mushroom
- Caretaker: Will no longer accept the Dreamfruit to forget a card if no cards can be forgotten
[h2]HUD & UI[/h2]
- Unit Display
- [New] Compact cards have modified visuals based on rarity
- Compact cards no longer show their card type (unless you hover them)
- Perk display has been updated to be larger and clearer, and shines during the unit draft screen
- Progression screen
- Unlocking a modifier now shows an overview of the reward
- Updated the animations that play when unlocking new modifiers
- Updated the way modifiers show their information
- City events and pins
- ːsteamthisː City events now properly display output for most location actions
- City events no longer show the full log of all past events
- You can now right-click city pins to open the full log of past events
- Pins can now show a small dialogue bubble in certain cases
- Small fixes and changes to the portraits next to the dialogue panel
- Combat HUD
- ːsteamthisː Long HP bars are no longer arbitrarily split into 3 parts
- Enemies with an "Enrage" effect (altered behavior when health is 50% or lower) now have a single split
- Fixed issue where the number of buffs/debuffs could be desynced from the number of displayed buffs/debuffs when hovering an enemy
- [New] Added settings button in top bar
- We've changed several fonts in the game in preparation for localization; see if you like the new fonts!
- Overhauled Cycle meter visuals
- The deploy screen now shows the number of offense, defense and support you are bringing into battle, rather than the total card count
- Increased size of combat SCTs and updated various SCT icons
- Hovering units in the Forces listing now shows their name tooltip
[h2]Units & Cards[/h2]
- [New] Added various card arts added for many cards
- [New] Field Promotion (Commander)
- ːsteamthisː Empower now tries to draw a card for the chosen unit if possible
- ːsteamthisː Radiant Formation: Attack Power applied increased from 1 → 2
- Hunting Blade: Damage decreased from 4(5) → 3(4) and Fleeting Attack Power increased from 2(3) → 3(4)
- Crushing Blow: Damage increased from 4(6) → 5(7) and Stagger increased from 4(6) → 5(7)
- Fire Bomb: Burning increased from 4(6) → 5(7)
- Shoulder Bash: Stagger from Armor multiplier increased from 4(7) → 5(8)
- Battle Hymn: Fleeting buff stacks increased from 3(5) → 4(6)
- Rally: Fleeting Stagger stacks increased from 3(5) → 4(6)
- Grit: Fleeting Armor now applies to all friendlies instead of just the Vanguard
- Adjusted various Navigator animations
[h2]Perks[/h2]
- [New] Hallowed
- [New] Weapon Ablaze
- [New] Heavy Metal (Knight)
- [New] Violent Entry (Zealot)
- Quick Guard: Now only learnable for Guard Zone auto-attackers
- Strongarm: Stagger bonus increased from 1 → 2
- Trailblazer: Dizzy stacks increased from 2 → 3
- Blindside: Feeble stacks increased from 2 → 3
- Absorbent Mass: Barrier received bonus increased from 1 → 2
- Monster Hunter (Arbalist): Damage bonus increased from 2 → 4
- Crossbow Crank (Arbalist): Ephemeral attack power increased from 3 → 4
- Removed Feel No Pain (Zealot)
- Oathsworn: No longer learnable for Purifier
- Harmonic: Now only learnable for Navigator
[h2]Techs[/h2]
- [New] Energy Exchanger
- [New] Cyclic Dial
- Hallowed Sphere: Barrier applied increased from 8 → 16
- Reactive Armor: Fleeting Armor amount increased from 1 → 2
- Soma Tablets: Barrier applied increased from 2 → 4
[h2]Enemies & Encounters[/h2]
- [New] Worm (Depth 1 Enemy found in 2 Expedition Encounters)
- [New] Various introduction animations for enemies
- ːsteamthisː All enemies which use Lock-On Intents now have a VFX indicator when it's active (Kraken's Devour, Abomination's Slimequake)
- Lock-On Intents are now sorted properly before other intent types (like all other Attack Intents)
- Molter King has a new weakpoint that can be destroyed to Stun it for an extra turn
- Dire Vermin no longer show up in Depth 2 (but this won't be the last you see of Dire Vermin...)
- Vermin Broodmother can now spawn by itself as a Trio encounter, later encounters include a pair of Vermin
[h2]Rendering & Optimization[/h2]
- [New] Added Upscale Mode: “Stretch”
- ːsteamthisː VRAM usage further optimized
- Fixed several issues with exclusive fullscreen mode
- Fixed AVA on lantern being visually cut off when FSR is enabled
- Fixed AVA on lantern visual blurriness
- Fixed tooltips going through pause menus
- Fixed several objects wrongly being affected by camera fade occlusion
- Fixed Lantern having inconsistent targeting reticle sizes
- Fixed a bug where a default tooltip showed up in several screens
- Fixed bug where settings menu did not respect the main menu framerate
- Fixed several graphic setting slider bugs
- Render resolution slider is now capped to 1x display resolution, when FSR is enabled, it is capped between 3x-1x upscaling
[h2]Miscellaneous Bug Fixes[/h2]
- ːsteamthisː Fixed issue where units wouldn't play the proper SFX when absorbing damage with Barrier
- ːsteamthisː Fixed bug where the Forge Smith would breakdance
- ːsteamthisː Fixed issue regarding missing animation & VFX for Disruption Wave and Incinerate
- ːsteamthisː Fixed the odd overlaps that could happen between unit displays, perk modules, and the expedition map
- Fixed bug where a Stunned enemy would lose the guarding effect
- Fixed bug where Behemoth had an extra target reticle
- Fixed issue where Dispel Intent shared an icon with Recovery Intent
- Fixed bug where certain cards would play a dissolve effect in the City
Wishlist and
Follow As We Descend to make sure you get all the announcements as well as a notification when the game launches:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1769830/As_We_Descend
If you are itching for more experimental content, you can
signup for the closed beta. You can also
join the Discord to talk to other players and have a greater chance to earn a beta key. Thanks for following along in our development journey, looking forward to seeing you in the Demo (and hopefully the Beta too)!
Cheers,
Kev
Game Director at Box Dragon