Talented News

Greetings Talented Gamers!

Now there's been plenty of time to look back on Talented's 1.0 release, we've collected all of the feedback both in the Steam Discussion Forums and our Discord and Alchemist has stood out as not meeting your expectations for a Talented Class.

Alchemist was always the most experimental design. Combining Ability Crafting, Ingredient Gathering, Runes and the harsh limitation of absolutely no Basic Attack upgrade Talents.

There are many parts of Alchemist's core kit we are proud of and we're still confident in the variety offered by the Ability Crafting system (even if we understand that Charges can be frustrating sometimes) - but the way each of these components mesh together doesn't quite sit right with us...

...So we want to revisit this Class in a surprise Mini Update to the game coming before 1.1!

[h2]Alchemist Rework Time![/h2]

So what are the main issues?

• Gathering Ingredient can be a tedious process and figuring out which ingredients to go for when can be unfun.
  
• Crafting Abilities can start interesting, but quickly becomes tedious - especially when you want to craft the same Potion over and over again.
  
• Having absolutely no way to improve your Basic Attacks means that at certain enemy health breakpoints, basic attacks suddenly cannot be relied upon. This means if you don't have enough ability charges, you become overwhelmed in a single day - this has always felt unfair.
  
• The random nature in which most Runes spawn can often make them appear out of range of Abilities which can be extremely frustrating.
  

And what are we doing about it?

We're overhauling the way you gather ingredients. Instead of two different Ingredient Talents, there will be a single Forage Talent that grants two random Ingredients. This will mean easier access to ingredients overall and no more tedious selection of Ingredients as you traverse the tree.

The Alchemy Talent will now allow you to craft as many Potions Abilities as you like - you will even be able to craft multiple copies of the same potion at the same time. The tradeoff here is that Alchemy will appear on the tree less often (we're currently thinking around the same rate that Bandit's Shops appear).

We'll be adding some simple support for Alchemists Basic Attacks. This isn't intended to be a win condition in its own right, but should make the fall-off less sharp. For starters, Alchemist will now have access to the Attack Speed Up Talent.

We'll be reworking all of the Sigil Talents - instead of a % chance to Activate they will now require a number of enemy kills. Once that number is reached a Rune will appear in a random lane but, unlike the previous iteration, the Rune will always appear in a spot designed to be easily accessed by any Ability.



[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

The Mini Update will also fix a few of the more glaring issues with the 1.0 build.

We know Divinity has been a bit of a run-ender in Endless Mode, so we'll be reducing its potency to bring it in line with the other Enemy Curses. We're also keenly aware of the Bandit Shop bug that causes Talents to have negative costs!



[h2]Supporter Pack[/h2]

Talented has always been a labour of love for everyone involved - we certainly didn't expect to reach the amazing audience we have and I know I am speaking for the whole team when I say the opportunity to continue making games and improving our craft is one we will always be grateful for.

Given the low price point, throughout the development of Talented we had the occasional request for an additional way to support the development team and the number of requests has substantially increased over the last few weeks. For this reason we've decided to begin work on a Supporter Pack!

The main purpose of this pack is to support our continued development of Talented and future projects, but it will include a unique Character Skin for each of the 6 original Classes and a special Thank You Note from the team. Keep an eye out for more information in a future update.



And that about covers it! The Mini Update should be on its way in the next few weeks, as with our Early Access updates we'll be uploading it to the Community Beta Branch to get as much feedback as we can before it goes live.

Next Devlog will be a return to more reveals for what's coming in the Wave of Shadows DLC, until then...

Stay Talented

Hello Talented Gamers!

The first DLC for Talented now has a Steam Page and is ready for your wishlisting purposes!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3423250/Talented__Wave_of_Shadows/?beta=0

As announced in the previous Devlog, Wave of Shadows will contain a new Ninja Class, new Mode, Challenges and new Achievements to add to your collection.

We'll continue to reveal the new features as we're working on them in our Devlog series!

Stay Talented

Hello Talented Gamers!

We're deep in the development process for all of the upcoming features coming to Talented and it feels like the perfect time to announce our DLC!


Wave of Shadows will be introducing our 7th Class along with a new mode, 6 new Challenges and an additional environment!

So.. I won't keep you waiting... Let's jump right in with the headline!

[h2]Ninja joins the Party...[/h2]



You heard it here first, the 7th Class coming to Talented will be a Shuriken throwing, Soulflame unleashing, Talent Tree dashing assassin.



As usual we've explored a number of new combat mechanics, the Ninja's basic attack will use the ammo system introduced with the Bandit. This time, however, a barrage of Shurikens (each dealing a small amount of damage) is released followed by a reload time. There will be a handful of ways to increase your clip size, making the barrage larger and larger!



Couple this with Talents that synergise with tons of hits and you will be tearing your enemies apart in not time!

[h3]Soulflames[/h3]



Another new mechanic coming to Ninja is the Soulflame. A rapidly orbiting projectile that pierces enemies but only lasts for a fixed duration.

Unlike other Orbitals in the game, a healthy number of Soulflames will require constant upkeep and truly standout Soulflame builds will be allowed to break the usual cap of 50.



As with all things in Talented you'll be able to empower your Soulflames in a variety of ways, including the Starting Ability - Manifestation.

[h3]Prisms[/h3]



While Ninja won't have access to the Attack Damage Up Talent, whenever a Shuriken passes through one of your Prisms, it will become enhanced - increasing its size and doubling it's damage.

Multiple Prisms keep doubling your damage, allowing your damage to quickly reach values with true oneshot potential. But that's not all...



Enchanted Prisms will add extra effects to create some truly spicy Basic Attack synergies.

[h3]Navigation[/h3]

Another core part of Ninja's identity is Talent Tree rule bending in the form of mobility. We've explored this a few times in the past with Talents like Magical Hat, but Ninja will take it to a whole new level.



You'll be leaping to the top of the tree in no time with Talents like this... Of course we want to keep some of the toys as a surprise for release, but I can reveal this nod to our other mobility Talents.





...so those are a few of the things you can expect to encounter if you pick up the DLC early this year...

You may have noticed the suspicious absense of a resource like Magic Points or Charges... We'll be talking about exactly why that is next time! Until then...

Stay Talented

Greetings Talented Gamers!

We're continuing to see an amazing response to the 1.0 release! Although we can't respond to every comment and post, we've loved seeing your broken builds and endless adventures. We're also keeping an eye out for bug reports and feedback as we develop our post-release plan.

This time I want to talk a bit about what will be coming in the 1.1 update (which will be released along side our upcoming DLC).

[h3]Key Rebinding[/h3]

Whether it's for a regional keyboard, accessibility or just because you don't like the keys we chose - we've heard you loud and clear! Talented needs Key Rebinding!

The 1.1 update will allow you to change all of the default bindings to anything you like. This will also have the positive side effect of having somewhere that each of our shortcuts are on show. (shout out to Hold R to restart run)

[h3]New Environment[/h3]

For all of Talented's history there has only been one Demonic Conveyor Belt. We certainly like how it looks, but we can definitely understand how playing 100s or even 1000s of run in the same environment can get old - so we'll be adding support for new Environments in the next update.

This will come with a brand new look available for anyone who has beaten the game on our original 6 Classes. We're experimenting with a few different styles at the moment, so we'll have more information on exactly what it looks like coming in a future Devlog.

[h3]Mastery 30[/h3]

Still hungry for more Challenge?

With the combined release of Endless Mode and our latest balance pass - it seems breaching Night 50 in Endless has become the true test of Talented skill (or luck depending who you ask!). With the 1.1 update we want to try and fold some more of the difficulty cap into the Standard 20 Night run while making sure it doesn't become about executing a perfect Night 1-5.

We'll be experimenting with new rules modifiers that push both combat and strategic skill further. These will come packaged with some balance changes aiming to broaden the number of viable strategies available to each class and deal with some pain points we've heard from your feedback.



On top of everything mentioned above, we will be grouping up some bug fixes and QoL improvements to continue making Talented a better experience for everyone.

Once again, from the whole team, thank you so much for joining us on this journey and...

Stay Talented