😺What's Noodling - Cloudheim Dev Blog #8🍝

[p]Hello Runari![/p][p]Wow, can you believe it’s been a little over a week since we entered Early Access? Time sure flies when you’re, well, working on your 5th patch already![/p][p]This blog is hefty, so for ease of reading, the sections below are:[/p]

[p]Patch 5 & Cross-World Save Progression Update[/p]
[p]Winter Event - Frostfall[/p]
[p]Clarifications on some in-game content[/p]
[p]How Weapons Work explainer[/p]
[p]Roadmap Update + Future Plans[/p]

[h2]Patch 5[/h2][p]As promised, we are in the process of implementing cross-world XP progression. Patch 5 - coming this Saturday - will include several changes, such as the following:[/p]

[p]Highlight: Cross-World XP Progression[/p]
- [p]Hero and Class experience earned in one world will be carried over to other worlds you join. This behaves much like the Trust system, and more details will be included in the full patch notes.[/p]
[p]Game Pause for both single and multiplayer[/p]
[p]Reworked stats screen with better stat information[/p]
[p]Several fixes to bugs impacting lockbox results (including the elusive Bows) + improvements to drop results[/p]
[p]Adjustments to game difficulty and enemy HP scaling tied to difficulty[/p]
[p]Additional sources of World Stars added[/p]
[p]…and more![/p]

[h3]Update Timing[/h3][p]We are going to update the game with Patch 5 this Saturday, December 13th. I mean, we did promise to get cross save progression in by the end of the week! 😸[/p][p]Please look forward to the full patch notes detailing the changes and new content in store.[/p][h2]Winter Event[/h2][p]Shortly after Patch 5, we plan on adding the Winter Event. As shared in our roadmap (which you can view here), it's something we've had in the works. We are proud to reveal the official name…[/p][p][/p][p]Behold! The Frostfall Winter Event![/p][p]Pumpkin Fest was our very small-scale attempt at introducing seasonal content into the game. We’ve taken our learnings and have made an even better, merrier event for all Runari to celebrate this holiday season. ❄️[/p][p]A winter chill has descended on Odin Shell: get ready to venture into Frostfall, featuring a new dungeon, holiday-themed enemies, and plenty of presents galore. 🎁[/p][p][/p][p]This is also a PSA that Pumpkin Fest will be turned off with Patch 5 in preparation for Frostfall and to turn in your coins if you haven’t already. Rest assured, in case you miss the event, we plan on implementing a system that will allow Runari to replay past seasonal events and still be able to obtain the unique items.[/p][p]More details will be provided in a future announcement.[/p][h2]Roadmap Update & Future Plans[/h2][p]There have been requests for some things we unfortunately cannot do.[/p][p]One is a character creator, as it would require an infeasible amount of resources. Others have suggested the possibility of “swapping” existing character assets, but this is not possible with the way the models have been set up. Overall, it would be an extremely large amount of work that we simply don’t have room to accommodate any time soon. Instead, we are trying to explore options within the existing appearance system, such as accessories and backpacks.[/p][p]The other is the request to be able to play separately from your friends at different maps. This is not possible due to the peer-to-peer nature of how games are hosted, and that Cloudheim is ultimately a hub-based game, not open world. Nor is it an MMO, or trying to be.[/p][p]On more positive news, the following are things we can support. While we don’t have an exact timeframe, we plan on adding the following:[/p]

[p]Cloud Saves[/p]
[p]Offline Mode for Single Player[/p]
[p]Ability to place additional Bifrost Chests[/p]
[p]A new player stats screen[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Clarifications[/h2][p]While we are here, we wanted to take the time to clarify some things. We acknowledge there are many features within the game that are, frankly, not well explained or at all. Without knowing what the intended behavior of the content is, players cannot determine if something is functioning correctly or is bugged.[/p][p]While we fully intend to improve how this information is surfaced in the game, here are some clarifications and confirmations of things we have seen players frequently discuss in the past few days.[/p][p][/p][h3]The ability to move the house and/or the Treasure Gateway[/h3][p]For full context, earlier versions of the game had a fixed store building located where the square area is now. There was no free placement in the game. Stations and decor were all fixed, and with all unlocks, everyone’s stores would look exactly the same. While it looked pretty, we realized it was unscalable and would not deliver on the player desire to customize your base.[/p][p]Thus, we split things: the home was moved to the side as an optional area to decorate. The new space would be the main “marketplace” and production area where stations could be placed.[/p][p]We also added free placement, almost all of the decor you now see in the game, blin buildings and several more gadgets so you could really shape out your base. Did you know someone built a racetrack around Odin Shell during a past playtest?[/p][p]However, the new home location is admittedly a little awkward. Many players have requested the ability to move the loot chest, otherwise you were effectively tethered to a limited area with much more running back and forth if you wanted to set up anywhere else.[/p][p]Unfortunately, due to how the inventory and chest are implemented, it would be difficult to move that one chest. Instead, we’ll be letting players build multiple “child” chests, all connected to the same inventory. Though the “parent” chest cannot be moved, the “child” ones can be. (Potential better names pending.)[/p][p][/p][h3]What’s the point of the Launch feature on the chest?[/h3][p]The game initially did not have a loot box inventory. Launch was the only option players had access to, and it spit out all the loot on the ground. This was a decision in wanting to align to our “physical” philosophy. There were supposed to be zero menus in crafting, that’s what makes the game different — adding an inventory was in direct conflict with that! But of course, we knew the constant feedback left about this from our playtesters was important to heed, and added it in. We realized, while yes, the explosion of loot is fun and shiny, there was a valid frustration point in needing to launch items just to even check what you had.[/p][p]With the inventory menu added in, rather than just removing Launch, we kept it for the players who still preferred this option. It’s also useful in multiplayer so everyone can quickly sort through loot without the chaos of 4 players in the inventory menu (which is hilarious, though).[/p][p][/p][h3]Max Hearts[/h3][p]You can keep increasing your maximum hearts up to the equivalent of 30 hearts. The UI will show 10 hearts to take up less space.[/p][p][/p][p]Yellow border hearts: Each has 4 hitpoints. Your first 10 hearts are yellow.[/p][p]Green border hearts: Each has 8 hitpoints, making them worth 2 yellow hearts. Hearts 11-20 are green, and replace a yellow heart.[/p][p]Blue border hearts: Each has 12 hitpoints, making them worth 3 yellow hearts. Hearts 21-30 are blue, and replace a green heart.[/p][h3][/h3][h3]Why can’t I feed Odin Shell anymore?[/h3][p]With Early Access release, we decided to remove this feature as we plan to rework the system.[/p][p][/p][h3]Why is there a huge gap in world star requirements going from Greenvor to Frostvaldr?[/h3][p]For context, Myrkstorm is intended to be added as the next island you’re supposed to go to after Greenvor. We just couldn’t add it in time, but the stars obtained from this smaller island would have made the transition smoother.[/p][p]We do not want to lower the requirement just raise it back again when Myrkstorm is added, so instead, a handful of World Stars will be added across the previous 3 islands to help bridge the gap temporarily.[/p][p][/p][h3]What do the stats actually do?[/h3]

[p]Strength: Increases damage of Breaker weapons and skills. Strength damage deals greatly increased armor damage.[/p]
[p]Magic: Increases damage of Runeblade weapons and skills. Magic weapons restore some mana to nearby allies when finishing a combo or using an aerial attack[/p]
[p]Speed: Increases the damage of your Ranger weapons and skills. Speed damage exploits enemy weaknesses, dealing more damage to vulnerable enemies. Enemies are vulnerable after their armor is broken, or when they are executing a skill.[/p]
[p]Vigor: Increases damage of Sentinel weapons and skills. Vigor weapons slightly heal nearby allies when finishing a combo or using an aerial attack, and the amount increases with your vigor.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Various Other Things (Confirmed Broken, Missing, etc.)[/h3][p]✅ = to be fixed in patch 5[/p]

[p]✅ Bows are unobtainable in the game[/p]
[p]✅ Brimir’s Blade cannot be obtained[/p]
[p]✅ There is no weapon shrine in Greenvor[/p]
[p]✅ Some weapons have incorrect/duplicate names[/p]
[p]✅ Some merchant Blins showed up in the codex incorrectly[/p]
[p]✅ Fixes to Trust not saving for client players[/p]
[p]Unclear region borders make locating treasure chests difficult (particularly on Arcadia and Greenvor) → will need a more careful pass[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Technical Troubles[/h3][p]✅ = to be fixed in patch 5[/p]

[p]We are seeing a high report rate of GPU crashes and are still investigating those [/p]
[p]✅ Suddenly having invisible characters, loading in as Mana, or losing availability of unlocked characters → these were all symptoms of a few related issues[/p]

[p][/p][h2]How Weapons Work[/h2][p]This deserves its own section, as there is a lot. Effectively, the weapons in Cloudheim would be the equivalent of armor loadouts in other games. Several systems in the game all tie back to your weapon.[/p][p][/p][p]You’ve heard of programmer art, how about this designer graphic! Ba dum tss.[/p][p][/p][p]A - The level of the weapon. Each level adds a small improvement to damage. The level of the weapon can be increased by discovering upgrade kits, which are mostly found in chests or by defeating bosses. The number of levels increased by an upgrade kit is relative to how far below the maximum level it is. Newly acquired weapons will level faster and need fewer kits to raise their levels.[/p][p]Upgrading the El Gato Altar will increase the maximum level cap each weapon can reach by +3 per upgrade. (Note: This is the max level, so you must still earn them via upgrade kits.)[/p][p]B - The mastery track. You earn experience using the weapon. Fully mastering the weapon grants two things. One, a level to the respective class associated with that weapon, and two, the rarity of the weapon increases.[/p][p]C - The Power of a weapon. This summarizes all the various modifiers into one unified value. This value is the same across all items. For example, a 2700 power dagger is stronger overall than a 2500 axe. Of course, this does not account for DPS variations due to different attack chains.[/p][p]Power consists of:[/p]

[p]The stat a weapon uses[/p]
[p]The level of the weapon[/p]
[p]The material of the weapon (explained below)[/p]
[p]The rarity of the item[/p]

[p]D - The primary stat of the weapon, and what the weapon’s damage will scale off of[/p][p]E - This is the trait of the weapon. Each weapon has a trait that is the same across all items of that type. Note that for traits like the +2 Speed in Kama, this will influence power AFTER the weapon is equipped, and for all other weapons/skills using the same stat.[/p][p]Additionally, power from stat bonuses does not show up in the base, which means you can see power increase when you travel to a combat map. This is not intended but is a limitation we want to fix.[/p][p]F - This second slot represents an innate property of the weapon. This is fixed for all copies of the weapon. For example, every Shiverfang will have Invigorated, giving +2 hearts.’[/p][p]G - The material of the weapon. The higher the material, the more attack level is increased, which scales your damage. Material upgrade kits can be found from breaking destructibles.[/p][p]H - An enchant, indicated by the star. Enchants are sometimes randomly acquired when you get dupes of a weapon. Weapons can have up to 5 enchants. The enchants a weapon can receive depend on D, its primary stat.[/p][p][/p][h2]In Conclusion[/h2][p]If you’ve managed to read this far, thank you. We look forward to seeing the community reaction![/p][p]We are so excited to continue Early Access with you all, and sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts, thank everyone who has shown their support and willingness to commit to Cloudheim and Noodle Cat Games at this time. Without you, we would not survive.[/p][p]And to anyone who is reading this but is still on the fence: let us show you how Early Access actually should be done. 😎[/p][p]— Noodle Cat Games [/p]