Glyphica: Typing Survival News

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Hello Survival Typists!

We’re back sooner than expected, with a much smaller update this time around.

[h3]Balancing and Late Game Adjustments[/h3]

We are honestly are shocked at how many of you are getting so far into the game, reaching level 1000+ in some cases. This was never our intention, so we’ve made some balancing changes to the game like stronger enemies that should make the late game more challenging.

[h3]Word Rush Bonus[/h3]

We wanted to reward fast typers, so we added a word rush bonus so that they can take advantage of their fast typing skills.

We also added a fix for when fast typers type an enemy word that has been killed by another weapon. We now delay the disappearance of that enemy to allow you to continue typing seamlessly.

[h3]New Enemy : Splitter[/h3]

This update brings a new enemy to torment you! The splitter acts like a regular drone, but the secret is once you destroy it, it splits into…more drones! Make sure you deal with a Splitter before it gets too close because you might suddenly have more enemies than you can deal with.

[h3]New Augments[/h3]
We plan to add new Augments to the game on a regular basis, and this update is no different. This set of Augments brings improvements to D.O.T. and Remote weapons, amongst others.

[h3]Even More Relaxed[/h3]
The relaxed difficulty of the game is now even more relaxed, to give new players a chance to get used to the game mechanics before moving on to more difficult challenges.

[h3]Wiki[/h3]
We now have an external wiki that you can read to understand the core concepts of the game and plan your runs better. The wiki corresponds to your chosen language, but note that not all of the wiki has been localized at this point.

[h3]Licence to Kill[/h3]
Keen eyed speakers of the Queen’s English will note how we spelled license, which means we’re excited to share that we’ve added a version of the wordlist with British spellings of words. We’re updating this over time with suggestions from the community, but till then, the subjects of the King can get cosy in their pyjamas, have a cuppa, and type to survive!

[h3]Future Plans[/h3]
Our solo dev XM is taking a long needed vacation before slowly getting back into building a much bigger update for you in January. Until then, we will still be doing maintenance and bugfixing for the game.

Changelog
BALANCING
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- Higher level version of existing enemies added for late game.
- Added 'Word Rush' bonus to the game.
- Added button to access official wiki from main menu.
- Damage taken from Omen V no longer destroys Shields.
- Adjusted difficulty scaling over time.
- Adjusted enemy health and damage.
- Reduced Warder range.
- Added additional levels to existing enemies to smooth out the difficulty curve.
- Removed end game ramp of fast enemy chance.
- Nerfed end game ramp of large enemy chance.
- Nerfed difficulty for Omen VI.
- Lowered difficulty further.
- Pushed introduction of high-level enemies to later.
- Nerfed difficulty more by spacing out the introduction of high-level enemies.
- Make games start with 3 re-rolls.
- Cap some uncommon items from spawning too often.
- Added .25 second grace period after enemy dies before removing word.

BUGFIXES
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- Fixed "Max Ammo!" effect on Barrage Resupply pickups not using localized fonts.
- Fixed Hunter and Tesla Mine SFX still playing at main menu.
- Fixed "invisible wall" bug caused by Warder protection hitboxes not destroyed properly.
- Fixed untypable character in Indonesian Poet passage.
- Fixed Level up prompt showing wrong count when using Eager augment at game start.
- Fixed dash character not skipped when spaces and punctuation turned off.
- Fixed Cipher not updating words when enemies enter range.
- Fixed crash when collision detected with armor that is no longer valid.
- Show boss intro only if boss has not been defeated before.
- Fixed Cipher boss words not generated for Japanese language.
- Fixed enemies and pickups affected by Cipher boss not displaying their words correctly.
- Fixed boss intro description too hard to read in dark mode.
- Fixed Warder not clearing protections when it dies if its word is partially completed.
- Fixed Omen selection page counter display inconsistent when max.
- Fixed "ghosts" of previous round's enemies lingering in new games.
- Fixed consecutive games having significantly more enemies.
- Fixed Poet boss passage can be progressed while in menu.
- Fixed certain variants in Japanese Poet passages cannot be completed.
- Fixed crash due to Cipher's interaction with new Splitter enemy.
- Fixed turret locked text bleeding out of UI in east asian languages.
- Fixed Close Combat Augment crashing game.
- Fixed Splitter word appearing faint because it's detecting overlapt with its own children.
- Fixed Poet double word curse not working properly with Splitters.
- Fixed Drones not targeting Stalkers and Warders properly.
- Fixed Level Up prompt still showing after level up sometimes.
- Fixed health added by Vampirism is not a whole number.
- Fixed powerups overflowing the bottom of the screen.
- Fixed Tenacity does not increase when equipping two copies of it.
- Fixed additional letters taken for Tesla/Blade Trap/Minefield changing when load game.
- Fixed possible crash related to the above additional letter issue.
- Fixed Infector not increasing when taking additional copies of it.
- Added additional halo around Augment buttons in focus because it looks the same as equipped Augments.

FEATURES
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- Added Caustic Ammo Augment.
- Added Conviction Augment.
- Updated official wiki.
- Lamprey augment now functional.
- Added D.O.T. Augments (Lamprey and Conviction not working yet)
- Added Remote Augments (Caustic Ammo not working yet)
- Added Splitter Enemy.
- Added boss intro splash screen.

BUGFIXES
--------
- Fixed "Max Ammo!" effect on Barrage Resupply pickups not using localized fonts.
- Fixed Hunter and Tesla Mine SFX still playing at main menu.
- Fixed "invisible wall" bug caused by Warder protection hitboxes not destroyed properly.
- Fixed untypable character in Indonesian Poet passage.
- Fixed Level up prompt showing wrong count when using Eager augment at game start.

BALANCING
---------
- Damage taken from Omen V no longer destroys Shields.

BUGFIXES
--------
- Fixed Loot screen crash when a certain rarity runs out of items.
- Fixed crash if Augments have been selected before changing language.
- Fixed wrong numbers in Ice Beam evolution description for Heat Ray.

BUGFIXES
--------
- Record total mistypes even if Scapegoat takes the hit.
- Fixed Sentry turret does not respect pause.
- Fixed Turkish translation for augments is broken.

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Hello Survival Typists!

As promised we are bringing you the first of our planned monthly updates. Update 1 brings you Augmentations, a new weapon, and a host of other small additions and improvements.

But first, we want to thank everyone who has bought the game so far. Glyphica has sold over 17,000 copies so far, with an 85% positive rating. We appreciate all the feedback so far, both good and bad. Now, on the update!

[h3]Augmentations[/h3]

The main event is Augmentations! Our trials get super hard as you advance, so we built the Augmentations system to complement them. As you play the game, you’ll now be able to pick up coins, which you then use to buy augments that you equip at the start of a play session.

For example, if you are super confident with your perfect input, choose the Immaculate Augmentation to improve your Crit chance. On the other hand if you make mistakes a lot, choose Scapegoat to automatically sacrifice a drone instead of losing your perfect input streak.

This is only the first batch of augmentations, and more will be added over time.

[h3]Barrage[/h3]

Update 1’s new main weapon is Barrage. Unleash a flurry of Robotech style missiles at your enemies to cause AoE damage. But it takes time to reload, so it will be a matter of skill and timing as to when you unleash your rockets. To unlock barrage you will need to have finished at least Omen 3 on one of the other main weapons.
Difficulty Settings

[h3]Easier Difficulties[/h3]
We’ve been reading the reviews and discussion on the forums and on Discord, and we know that some of you have been struggling with the difficulty of the game! So we’ve created two modes to ease you into Glyphica until you’re ready to take on our trials. Omens will not unlock and Achievements will be disabled when playing in either mode.

Typist
Typist mode is the purest form of Glyphica. Type to shoot, and that’s it. No other weapons, no upgrades, no experience, just typing. Only basic drones will spawn, and while they will increase in word length they can be taken out with one shot. This is probably best for the person who wants to just practice their basic typing skills.

Relaxed
Relaxed mode is basically like our normal mode, but with 50% less enemies to deal with. This is best for the person who is more confident with their typing now and wants to practice engaging with what the full game has to offer.

[h3]Spaces and Punctuation[/h3]
We initially removed the need to type punctuation and spaces for our Poet boss because during our playtests people we’re having a hard time with the game. But it turns out some of you really want a legitimate typing experience! So we went ahead and added an option to toggle spaces and punctuation (very original, I know) in the options menu.

[h3]Special Characters Fallback[/h3]
A lot of you were having trouble with special characters like ë or é in the game. And some of you just plain hated having to type with accented letters! Since we are dealing with so many possible different keyboard configurations, we made the decision to simplify everyone’s lives by making the game default to the “base” letter while playing the game. So for example if you see an é and freak out, don’t worry just type e.

[h3]Music[/h3]
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Our talented sound partners at Imba Interactive are at it again, providing not only new sounds for the barrage weapons, but boss music as well! The Poet mixes classical music with a modern edge (think witcher + drum and bass), while the Cypher, as a sort of codebreaking kind of boss, takes its influence from morse code, of all things!

[h3]More Poetry[/h3]

We saw that some of you were getting bored of the Poet’s poetry (and we can’t blame you) so we’re slowly working on adding to his repertoire. Currently we’ve added some more poetry to the English, Spanish, and French versions. We are actually using public domain poetry for this, so if you have any suggestions for popular poetry in one of the languages that is in public domain, let us know!

That's it for now! We plan on another smaller update at the end of this month, so keep an eye out for that!

Changelog

BUGFIXES
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- Fixed unlocalized "Damage" string in weapon details.
- Fixed pickup boxes cropped on larger resolutions.
- Fixed crash on Omen select if you have beaten Omen VI.
- Show "All Trials Completed" when you beat Omen VI instead of Omen VII.
- Fixed Barrage pickups and ammo reload does not respect game pause.
- Fixed Heat Ray rotation does not respect game pause.
- Fixed full-screen resolution doesn't stick. (Please re-set full-screen option, this time it should stick)
- Fixed crash at the end of Poet paragraphs when it tries to match empty character.
- Fixed inaccurate description on Spectre Self-Assembly upgrade.
- Fixed Pickup offset and box does not scale with resolution.
- Fixed Shield icon offset above main weapon does not scale with resolution.
- Fixed Barrage turret shape not scaling with resolution.
- Fixed Regeneration loot item not adding whole numbers to health.


BALANCING
--------
-Added Typist Mode.
-- Only basic drone spawns, but they increase in number and words increase in length faster.
-- No level ups, evolutions or loot.
-- No double damage or reroll drops. Freeze and Shield remain.
-Added Relaxed Mode.
-- Game plays as normal but 50% enemy threat increase (reduces amount of all enemy types)
-No Omen unlocks when playing on Typing and Relaxed mode.
-Achievements disabled on Typist and Relaxed mode.
- Added 2 additional pages of Augments

FEATURES
--------
- Added boss music for Poet and Cypher bosses.
- Added Barrage main turret (no audio yet and rough balance)
- Added reworked Augment system and one page of Augments. (More coming tomorrow)
- Re-added Coin pickups and adjusted amount to take into account Trial and Omen.