[Live Preview] 0.12.3 - Infested Pattern Repair and UI Improvement

Hello, Fellow Survivors!

This week we'd like to share what we have in store for our next Live Update.

As we've mentioned in previous Dev Notes, most of the team is currently working on the new gameplay and narrative features for our next major overhaul.

However, we've heard of a lot of frustrations and bugs in both reviews and on Discord currently, so we felt that it was necessary to fix them.


[h3]Modifying Infested Patterns[/h3]

First, we're changing the way the Blister's "Bile Explosion" deals damage. It will no longer have the Ignore Armor attribute and will instead have Armor Damage added to its base damage.

Since the main gameplay intent of the Blister is to trigger an instant death on Collision, and knowing and utilizing this adds fun to the game, the initial intent was to have a strong penalty for "Direct Kills" when not using this method.

However, depending on how the enemies are coming at you and the general lay of the land, it can be difficult to trigger a collision death, so we decided that the penalty is a bit harsh. When the player reaches the "Monastery" map, which requires an understanding of the Blister, many players are still finding their feet so it’s quite difficult to pull off the collision conditions.

Additionally, we've received feedback that since the narrative of the Blister is literally a "spewing of digestive fluids," it would be more in keeping with the concept to have it do "more damage" to armor rather than completely ignore it.

We've changed the damage of the Blister so that it no longer "ignores armor," making defensive play a more viable option in certain situations.

Of course, the old damage is still there, but the “armor damage” is a new addition, and this additional damage ramps up quite a bit as the difficulty increases. So, on “Despair” difficulty, you still need to understand/exploit the collision conditions just as before.



There's also a change to the Skulker's (enemy that appears from mid-game) escape ability. The escape distance is reduced from 2 spaces to 1 space, and the diagonal escape will only check for the "diagonally behind" tile to be empty.

Actually, the diagonal escape condition in the original Skulker was overly complicated, so I think there was something inherently wrong with this design.

Due to the design intent of "2 spaces escape" and the idea that "2 spaces diagonally is too far", we made it so that Skulkers could only get away if they had a clear path of 2 tiles, even when they were attacked diagonally." (If you don’t get what we mean here…we understand your confusion!)

After the change, “the Skulker, when attacked diagonally, check to see if there is an escape route in the opposite diagonal direction", and flee by moving 1 space diagonally, like Edwin's "Side Step".

The straight-line escape pattern remains unchanged, except for the reduced number of spaces to move, so we expect to see fewer cases of "counterattack when you shouldn't have to" as a result.


[h3]Additions and Changes to Weapon Modifiers[/h3]

The existing weapon modifiers are all randomized, similar to a roguelike game. Since the game was basically balanced without weapon modifiers, the idea was to introduce some randomness into the modifiers that could be considered "additional".

However, with the limited opportunities to acquire weapons in the current linear structure, we noticed that many players felt the game was unfair when a modifier that was best suited for a two-handed weapon was attached to a one-handed weapon or an offensive modifier was attached to a shield, etc.

We've also found that players who acquire a weapon with a more complex set of usage requirements at an early stage, such as Blackthorn/Monastery, are often unable to learn and utilize the weapon's intended use.

For the fixed weapons drops that can be found in the campaign's weapon crates from the first stage, Blackthorn Village, to the Barracks, we're making sure that the modifier options are as "weapon-specific" as possible. We're also making sure that the early drops have modifiers that make them easier to use and stronger without penalty.

However, the “Recurring Nightmare” option will still have the same randomized selection for crate drops, as we want to give players a chance to experience combinations that are “unlikely to happen in the base campaign” through randomized options.

Also, even in the campaign, the weapon selection that Jaymes the Trader brings in or that Cultists drop will still be randomized.

In addition, we've added a total of five New Weapon Modifiers, which we'll save describing until we release the patch notes on the day of the actual live update so you can experience them in-game :)


[h3]Other UI changes[/h3]

In addition to the changes mentioned above, we're also making changes related to convenience that many of you have mentioned in your feedback.

First, to improve the problem of not being able to check the Keywords of "Weapon Attributes" we’ve added a feature. When you press the CTRL key, you can see the Keywords of Weapon Modifiers, and when you press the ALT key, you can see the basic description tooltip Keywords of Weapon Skills.

We're also adding the ability to open the Settings Menu with the ESC key, as many of you requested.

The original reason for the F10 shortcut was to minimize situations where ESC was pressed for other purposes (disabling a skill, closing the UI, etc.) and unintentionally opening the Settings Menu, and we're trying to have it both ways by temporarily disabling the ability to trigger the Settings Menu when there is “meaningful input” such as closing the UI.

Also, when there are multiple interactable objects on a tile, such as Weapons and Infested body parts dropping on an open door, we're making it easier to interact with the desired object. For now, interacting with the “Item on the tile” will be prioritized, but if there are multiple drops, a selection menu will be displayed.

We've also fixed a few other identified inconveniences and bugs, such as fixing the color of floating text and fixing text, and we'll be releasing more details in the patch notes later.

The above updates are currently in full QA and are expected to be available to the public as early as next week and no later than three weeks from now.

More detailed patch notes will be available at the time of the live update, and starting next week, we'll be back with a "Lab" segment to show you how the long-term overhaul is progressing.

Thank you,
REMORE