Update 4.3.0, A New Game from Downfall Devs, and SO MUCH ART!
Celebrating ONE YEAR since Downfall's Steam release!
It's been awhile since our last major update, and while there isn't a new character to show at the moment, this patch is still MASSIVE, and also comes with an equally MASSIVE announcement - a brand new GAME!
[h2]Announcing Tales & Tactics[/h2]
Before we get into the meat of this update, first, a personal message from the creators.
I'm Michael Mayhem, the original Downfall creative lead. Two years ago, I decided to embark on a journey towards development on a new indie game, and couldn't think of anyone I'd rather take that journey with than Vex, the very first collaborative partner who rapidly became primary developer of Downfall. We have been working on this new game (while still providing support and administering updating Downfall, our original passion project), and we're very proud to have recently announced it - Tales & Tactics!
We've often been asked over the years from passionate players how they can support us financially, and that has never been something that has really interested us for a mod project. However, today we're asking for your support in our new endeavor, and all we need from you is a simple Wishlist add.
Wishlists are massive factors to the likeliness of a game's success as they drive Steam's algorithm in showing the game to potential players, and just by wishlisting our new title, you are immediately supporting us financially, for free! We'd love to have you join us as a player for the launch of the game itself later this year, but just adding to your Wishlist truly means more than most players realize.
Tales & Tactics is a fresh roguelike strategy game, though not a deckbuilder! It uses the squad-based autobattler format as its core instead of a deck of cards, but offers many similar drafting & strategy elements you'd find in something like Slay the Spire. Join our Discord (link available in the Steam page below) for more information!
[h3]Click Here to Wishlist Tales & Tactics! Thanks for your Support![/h3]
[h3]TinyURL Link (Steam Library will not link to Steam pages right now)[/h3]
And now, onto the Downfall Update!
[h2]Downfall Update 4.3.0[/h2]
[h2]Full 4.3.0 Patch Notes[/h2]
This update is brought to you by many contributors, but a few special shoutouts to the people most involved:
[h3]Art, So Much Art![/h3]
This update features an ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS amount of brand new fresh card art from our incredible community art team. Almost 200 core character cards have new art, and over 400 beta card art submission have been added!
It's truly unbelievable how far the project has come in the quality and quantity of the art available. I can't thank the artists enough for their continued efforts.
A full list of every card that has been changed can be found in the full Patch Notes.
Oh, and as an extra bonus, two new character skins have been added, fully unlocked and ready for use! One for Hexaghost, and one for the Automaton.
[h3]Balance & Polish[/h3]
This update features, perhaps more than any in the past, a massive collection of balance & polish adjustments that focus on numerical adjustments, rarity adjustments, and other simpler changes that don't require a massive-scale character rework. Nearly every character has been touched, with most receiving a large quantity of changes to better balance the character.
Champ in particular has been taking the spotlight since the last update, and while he's been brought down in some of the more problematic areas, other cards have been brought up to fill some of the void. We expect his overall winrate to slightly decrease (down to match the other characters who all have been in a relatively stable and on-target winrate), but his variety of viable builds and strategies to improve.
One major note I'll call attention to is the change to the Heart Blessings (the reward you get for breaking the keys). These have been changed to only affect Boss Fights. This change is happening because, while we have tuned the Downfall mode boss fights to assume you have been breaking keys, the rest of the game does not factor in those extra free stats from the key breaks. Hallway encounters and Elite fights, the things Downfall doesn't interfere with, end up being slightly easier as a result, and has always skewed the overall game difficulty. The keys also are "effectively free" to break, in that the total cost to break them is the same as the total amount of Souls you get from defeating the Merchant. Downfall adds both a currency sink, and a currency reward that balances out that sink, so the net result has simply been that hallway and Elite fights are easier than the base game balance intends. This change addresses that once and for all.
[h3]The Future of Downfall[/h3]
Some time ago, Vex and I announced to our community a relative departure from the main development process, instead handing Downfall to a new excited team of volunteers and contributors, such as the members mentioned above who are responsible for 4.3.0. While our personal capacity to contribute has slowed, we haven't forgotten about the project - in fact, we often find ourselves unable to take a break from Tales & Tactics and come back and chip away at future updates.
What does the future hold for Downfall? EVERYTHING. While it may still take some time, every single remaining Boss has a branch with some prototype of mechanics and potential decks in place, as well as larger reworks to existing characters. Needless to say - we aren't done yet! Downfall being a free, volunteer project with no revenue stream means it still remains a hobby, but I won't be satisfied until every single boss is in that playable roster. It will happen!
I will tentatively commit to at least one new character at some point this year, though likely it would be much later in the year after Tales & Tactics has released and we find ourselves with a little more spare time. The Downfall Project also remains fully open-source and community-driven, so if you are passionate about the mod, know a little bit of Java code, and want to contribute, please, join our Discord! We are always happy to have new contributors.
[h3]Until Next Time...[/h3]
Thanks so much to the nearly half a million players that have sampled Downfall. The never-ending glowing reviews are always a highlight to our day. We hope you can join us on our new project, but if not, we'll be right back here with more Downfall before you know it.
Thank you for playing!
It's been awhile since our last major update, and while there isn't a new character to show at the moment, this patch is still MASSIVE, and also comes with an equally MASSIVE announcement - a brand new GAME!
[h2]Announcing Tales & Tactics[/h2]
Before we get into the meat of this update, first, a personal message from the creators.
I'm Michael Mayhem, the original Downfall creative lead. Two years ago, I decided to embark on a journey towards development on a new indie game, and couldn't think of anyone I'd rather take that journey with than Vex, the very first collaborative partner who rapidly became primary developer of Downfall. We have been working on this new game (while still providing support and administering updating Downfall, our original passion project), and we're very proud to have recently announced it - Tales & Tactics!
We've often been asked over the years from passionate players how they can support us financially, and that has never been something that has really interested us for a mod project. However, today we're asking for your support in our new endeavor, and all we need from you is a simple Wishlist add.
Wishlists are massive factors to the likeliness of a game's success as they drive Steam's algorithm in showing the game to potential players, and just by wishlisting our new title, you are immediately supporting us financially, for free! We'd love to have you join us as a player for the launch of the game itself later this year, but just adding to your Wishlist truly means more than most players realize.
Tales & Tactics is a fresh roguelike strategy game, though not a deckbuilder! It uses the squad-based autobattler format as its core instead of a deck of cards, but offers many similar drafting & strategy elements you'd find in something like Slay the Spire. Join our Discord (link available in the Steam page below) for more information!
[h3]Click Here to Wishlist Tales & Tactics! Thanks for your Support![/h3]
[h3]TinyURL Link (Steam Library will not link to Steam pages right now)[/h3]
And now, onto the Downfall Update!
[h2]Downfall Update 4.3.0[/h2]
[h2]Full 4.3.0 Patch Notes[/h2]
This update is brought to you by many contributors, but a few special shoutouts to the people most involved:
- Stanek for a bulk of the character tuning updates, also AlexMdle and Mwalls
- LethargicWeirdo and CartesianCanvas for the new Character Skins
- Our incredible card artists, including Opal, CartesianCanvas, LethargicWeirdo, and ez for continuing to manage the art submissions
- The ever diligent localization team, including nyamnyami, Rucodeby, Nitablade, MisterShaokan, and Mwalls for the ongoing efforts to remain localized.
- Ocean, for an ever-expanding feature list to the community Discord Bot, and being a supportive generalist for Downfall.
[h3]Art, So Much Art![/h3]
This update features an ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS amount of brand new fresh card art from our incredible community art team. Almost 200 core character cards have new art, and over 400 beta card art submission have been added!
It's truly unbelievable how far the project has come in the quality and quantity of the art available. I can't thank the artists enough for their continued efforts.
A full list of every card that has been changed can be found in the full Patch Notes.
Oh, and as an extra bonus, two new character skins have been added, fully unlocked and ready for use! One for Hexaghost, and one for the Automaton.
[h3]Balance & Polish[/h3]
This update features, perhaps more than any in the past, a massive collection of balance & polish adjustments that focus on numerical adjustments, rarity adjustments, and other simpler changes that don't require a massive-scale character rework. Nearly every character has been touched, with most receiving a large quantity of changes to better balance the character.
Champ in particular has been taking the spotlight since the last update, and while he's been brought down in some of the more problematic areas, other cards have been brought up to fill some of the void. We expect his overall winrate to slightly decrease (down to match the other characters who all have been in a relatively stable and on-target winrate), but his variety of viable builds and strategies to improve.
One major note I'll call attention to is the change to the Heart Blessings (the reward you get for breaking the keys). These have been changed to only affect Boss Fights. This change is happening because, while we have tuned the Downfall mode boss fights to assume you have been breaking keys, the rest of the game does not factor in those extra free stats from the key breaks. Hallway encounters and Elite fights, the things Downfall doesn't interfere with, end up being slightly easier as a result, and has always skewed the overall game difficulty. The keys also are "effectively free" to break, in that the total cost to break them is the same as the total amount of Souls you get from defeating the Merchant. Downfall adds both a currency sink, and a currency reward that balances out that sink, so the net result has simply been that hallway and Elite fights are easier than the base game balance intends. This change addresses that once and for all.
[h3]The Future of Downfall[/h3]
Some time ago, Vex and I announced to our community a relative departure from the main development process, instead handing Downfall to a new excited team of volunteers and contributors, such as the members mentioned above who are responsible for 4.3.0. While our personal capacity to contribute has slowed, we haven't forgotten about the project - in fact, we often find ourselves unable to take a break from Tales & Tactics and come back and chip away at future updates.
What does the future hold for Downfall? EVERYTHING. While it may still take some time, every single remaining Boss has a branch with some prototype of mechanics and potential decks in place, as well as larger reworks to existing characters. Needless to say - we aren't done yet! Downfall being a free, volunteer project with no revenue stream means it still remains a hobby, but I won't be satisfied until every single boss is in that playable roster. It will happen!
I will tentatively commit to at least one new character at some point this year, though likely it would be much later in the year after Tales & Tactics has released and we find ourselves with a little more spare time. The Downfall Project also remains fully open-source and community-driven, so if you are passionate about the mod, know a little bit of Java code, and want to contribute, please, join our Discord! We are always happy to have new contributors.
[h3]Until Next Time...[/h3]
Thanks so much to the nearly half a million players that have sampled Downfall. The never-ending glowing reviews are always a highlight to our day. We hope you can join us on our new project, but if not, we'll be right back here with more Downfall before you know it.
Thank you for playing!