Novus Orbis News

Hello!

I've come to the realization that, while hardcore players seem to have fun with the game in its current state, some of the choices I've made create a thick wall for new players.

This update goes to hopefully address this issue.

Easy Mode was there just for people who are having a hard time with the difficulty I consider normal for my game, but it turns out most people would rather fail 100 times (and then probably quit) rather than setting a game to easy mode.
And to be honest, I would be one of them.

So, I've made a big change to how the game handles difficulty for new players:

The game will now start in what used to be "Easy Mode" (from now on, I'll refer to it as "Normal Mode"). Once the player wins the game once, they will be presented with the option to activate "Hard Mode" (what was currently the normal game's difficulty). Once the game is cleared twice (either in Normal or Hard Mode), the player will be presented with the challenges selection screen on a new run (with one challenge unlocked if the game was cleared in Hard Mode).

This change won't impact existing players, but hopefully new players will have a smoother beginning.

I'm also adding three new blessings, and the usual difficulty balance and bug fixes.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Blessing) Courage
  
• (Blessing) Craving
  
• (Blessing) Red Eyes
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (General) Reworked the game's difficulty for new players.
  
• (General) Added "One Pet Item Card" to the possible initial rewards. Note that the selection won't contain Minic (because it's slightly stronger than other pets) and Fu/Florasanctum (because there is already a chance to get them from the Bird event). Future pets will be added to this reward.
  
• (Achievement) Since I removed Easy Mode from the game, I had to change what is unlocked when losing two times. Now, the achievement "You Can Do It!" will unlock the new blessing Courage.
  
• (Balance) Challenge 5 will now give a choice between 3 Affliction cards, and you have to pick only one.
  
• (Balance) In the first level, both the "hurt creature" and "bird" events have now a 50% chance of not being in the events pool.
  
• (Balance) Normal Mode (previously Easy Mode), additionally to giving you 5 SP and making enemies weaker, will now also NOT include Mimics. Moreover, the "Lose Blood" pixies are replaced with "Healing" ones.
  
• (Card) Nuclear Blast now multiplies each element 10x instead of 2x. Cost out of combo raised to 9.
  
• (Enemy) Decreased Pond Monarch's second form's damage.
  
• (Enemy) Dreadspinners will now be able to spawn max 2 eggs per fight in total.
  
• (Blessing) Removed "Innate" from Fortify's description.
  
• (UI) Changed the color for some keywords (like Burn) to match the same color of they statuses keywords (for better readability).
  
• (UI) Cards and Blessings that mention Affliction and Special cards now will show a tooltip that gives a short explanation about them.
  
• (UI) Increased the space between name and description for Blessings and Statuses tooltips.
  
• (UI) When winning a run, the score page will now give you only the option to go to main menu (and not to restart).
  
• (Others) The speed selector can now be clicked even when the game is in "no input" state.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where, when opening and closing the draw or discard pile while you should be choosing a card to discard, burn or copy, cards would be played instead of the supposed function.
  
• Fixed the fact that drawing Paper Airplane twice in a single draw would lock the game on the next draw.
  
• Fixed a bug that would reset the combo state of the game when alt tabbing.
  
• Fixed a bug that would lock the game trying to draw cards forever when using a Tonic card.
  
• Bite Mark card would show a "Great Strength" tooltip for no reason. Fixed.
  

Aside bug fixes, I think I will finally start to focus on making a new level, as well as implementing the system I have in mind for branching levels in the world map.
So, it may take a while until the next official update. If you want to follow my progress more closely, I will post stuff in the Discord server.

The 0.1.4 update was a bit of a mess, I had to remove it temporarily, I managed to fix the major bug it had, but it still had a few "new" issues that I needed to address.
Hopefully things will go more smoothly this time!

The main dish for this update is a new, alternative boss for the Abyss level, Husk!
I decided again to go for a modification on the same visual design of the original boss, while giving it completely new mechanics.

Considering it's in the third level, testing it organically is a little tricky, so please let me know what you think about it and if it needs adjustments!

As always, a lot of changes and bug fixes too.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Enemy) Husk (Abyss alternative boss)
  
• (Card) Parasite
  
• (Status) Veinlink
  
• (UI) Portals will now specify their content (aimed to new players who seem to get confused about which portal contains what).
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Card) Renamed Quintessence Grimoire to Penta Grimoire
  
• (Card) Random Page now gives a random number of SP from 1 to 9 (was 1 to 5).
  
• (Card) Raised cost for Center of Gravity to 6-2 from 4-2.
  
• (Card) Fancy bottle can't be found anymore in normal fights in the first level (can still be found in other ways, like the trash event).
  
• (Blessing) Completely reworked Fierce Cuteness. It used to have your pets act before the enemies actions (instead of after), but I realized that with statuses that disappear at turn start (like block) you would basically waste the status most of the times. I couldn't find an elegant solution to the problem, so now the blessing will have one random pet act twice.
  
• (Others) Events that can damage you (Firepit, Dummy, Masochist) can't be interacted with anymore if you don't have enough HP. As a result, you can't die from them anymore.
  
• (Others) You now can't find a third pet item room if you already have 2 pets (or 1 pet and 1 pet item card). The third pet must be obtained from the Great Mimic.
  
• (Language) 日本語翻訳をアップデートしました。 (updated Japanese translations)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that would leave the enemy without visible intents in rare cases.
  
• Fixed a bug that would take you out of "discard a card" (making cards playable instead of discardable) when pressing TAB or defocusing/refocusing the game's window.
  
• Fixed a bug that would (often) softlock the game when drawing cards.
  
• Fixed Zap stating Swift when it wasn't supposed to have it (nor it was actually acting as a Swift card).
  
• Added a tentative general system to avoid (or at least reduce) the amount of unexpected interactions that may cause softlocks during fights.
  
• (Probably) fixed a bug that would show the wrong combo value, sometimes. Please let me know if this happens again.
  
• Fixed the fact that if an enemy was performing a multi attack that gives you an Affliction card, and you had Evasion, the attacks would happen at the same time.
  
• Solved an infrequent instance where the vignette effect during enemies attacks would not appear.
  
• Fixed Wind Blades showing its base damage value in green.
  
• I recently changed the game so that it wouldn't give you duplicate grimoire cards. That was working in normal circumstances, but you could still find them as a shop item. Now the shop also accounts for that.
  
• Discharge card wasn't taking into account the recent added requirement of 5 Thunder charges. Fixed.
  
• Phoenix Soul's elemental variable wasn't correctly set: the card was showing it as a fire card, but the game was treating it as a wind card, so you could find it with a wind related grimoire (and couldn't with a fire related one).
  
• Copying a Slime card would lead to bad interactions. I've set the game so that Slime can no longer be copied (can be selected but it wont be copied).
  
• Fixed the fact that killing an enemy with an attack card that draws cards, would draw them before ending the fight. This would create bad interactions, for example with Slime card.
  
• Fixed the fact that Bouncy status would activate even when having Evasion.
  
• Fixed the fact that you would lose Bouncy charges when damaged from entities other than enemies.
  
• Fixed a bug that would show the attack arrow for non single target cards, when using the old card selection system.
  

That's it for this update.
I don't think I want to have an alternative boss for the last level, so with this update I've reached the amount of bosses I want to have for these four levels. More may be added in the future, but now I think I should start working on the new levels.

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]Remember, if you like the game,
each single positive review helps me a lot![/h3]

If you have any feedback or want to discuss about the game, join my Discord server.

[h2]NOTE:[/h2]
I realized a number of new bugs were introduced with this version, I'm temporarely reverting to 0.1.3 and will fix the new bugs ASAP. Thank you for understanding.

[h2]Note 2[/h2]
The game is now back to version 0.1.4, the bugs should be fixed, with the addition of a few more bug fixes that will be reported in the next update's announcement.

Hello!
The Steam Spring Sale starts today, and Novus Orbis will be 10% off for one week!
Alongside the sale, we're also releasing the Digital OST! Sorry for the delay.

I'm very happy with the music that was made for the game by St. GOGO and I can't wait to hear what new stuff he'll make for the future levels!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/51454/Novus_Orbis__OST/

All the revenue from selling the OST will go directly to him! If you enjoy Novus Orbis' music and want to listen to it outside of the game this is your chance!

[h3]To the update's contents:[/h3]

The game has had 5 pets in total for a long time now, and I really wanted to make new ones.
It's not as straightforward as it may seem: not only do I need to think of mechanics that make sense and are not redundant with other pets, I need to make the sprite, code them, add the "event" for when you find the card, need to make the card, and then implement everything.

Additionally, I needed to change how the game handles them, because there is no more "free" space for them. So, from now on, pets will share a "slot" around the player, and new pets will be in the same place as other ones. Which means that during one run, you'll be able to find only one of the pets that share the same slot.

For this event I'm adding one new pet, but more are coming in the future :)
With the pet comes its card and a new status.
Then, unrelated to the pet, I'm also adding one new Blessing.

There are also A LOT of changes and bug fixes.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Pet) Fu
  
• (Card) Mysterious Bean
  
• (Blessing) Ignorance
  
• (Status) Bouncy
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Important) The current last boss will now be an easier version of itself until the player defeats it once, with either class. Once defeated, it will be at its normal difficulty from the next run.
  
• (Enemy) Deep Worm's "creep" action will now only give it 1 evasion instead of 2.
  
• (Enemy) Mentamanoki HP raised to 800 from 500.
  
• (Enemy) Rafflesia HP raised to 700 from 500.
  
• (Enemy) Abyss Gaze HP raised to 300 from 250.
  
• (Enemy) Mentamanomi HP raised to 50 from 30.
  
• (Card) Familiar Fury now has Swift ability.
  
• (Card) Zap now requires 1 thunder and consumes 1 thunder.
  
• (Card) Shock Blast cost increased to 7-3 from 4-2.
  
• (Pet) Increased Genryuu's damage when having All For One blessing.
  
• (Others) Added Angel Form as a good interaction card with the hurt creature.
  
• (Others) With the introduction of new pets, the mechanic behind which you find has now changed. They used to be 5 in 5 differents positions. From now on, new pets will be in the same position of an existing one. This means that you will only be able to find one of the pets that share the same position. For example, the newly introduced Fu is in the same position as Florasanctum (in front of the player), so if you find Fu you won't be able to find Florasanctum, and vice versa.
  
• (Others) Bird event will now have a chance to drop a Mysterious Bean card.
  
• (Others) The game used to always force an item chest and an equipment chests as the first 2 events in Lands (in random order). Now this will happen only until you beat Lands for the first time (for new players), after that, any even will be findable from the first room.
  
• (Others) Added an "angry vein" to the shop's eye to signal that the next reroll will trigger its fight.
  
• (Others) Removed the possibility to click on a card during fight to make it stick to the cursor. From reviewing play sessions, it didn't seem anybody was actively using it, on the other hand it could make some misplays happen. You can now double click on the card for the same effect.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to find the blessing Fierce Cuteness.
  
• Fixed a bug that would break your deck (and softlock the game) if an enemy that removes cards from your deck (for example Pond's Monarch) removed a card created during the fight. These enemies now will not be able to target these cards.
  
• Disaster Recipe didn't have "Limited" specified in its description. Fixed.
  
• Fixed Reactive Poison making the "electrify" sound when obtained by the enemy, instead of a poison sound.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes not show the enemy's intent damage doubled when the player had Fragile status.
  
• Fixed a bug that would call a boss' blessings after the player and boss die at the same time.
  
• Fixed a bug that would softlock the game when trying to draw more cards than the total you own.
  
• Fixed a bug that (under certain circumstances) would not show the attack arrow when placing an attack card not on an enemy.
  
• Tentative fix for a rare bug that could try to draw an infinite amount of cards, softlocking the game and then making it crash.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that would softlock the game when an enemy is deciding its new action, after losing vs a multi hit attack, and starting a new game.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that would make it impossible to check the contents of your deck and discard pile.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that, under rare circumstances (a mix of the player clicking repeatidly and with lower spec machines), would play a card when clicking on it even if not dragged above the set treshold.
  

That's it for this update.
For the next one, I have the alternative boss for Abyss well planned in my head :)

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]Remember, if you like the game,
each single positive review helps me immensely![/h3]

If you have any feedback or want to discuss about the game, join my Discord server.

The main dish for this update is a new mini boss for Hell, Rafflesia!
Now each stage has two mini bosses.
With it there is also the addition of GachiTachi, a buffier version of the bees in the first level.

I'm also adding two new simple blessings and two new cards for the Warrior.

And as always, a lot of changes and bug fixes :P
Thank you everyone for playing and reporting bugs, the game is definitely not without issues, but with your help it's getting cleaner and cleaner :)

Remember, if you're enjoying the game a positive review really helps a lot!



[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Blessing) Spikes Repellant
  
• (Blessing) Hearts Attractor
  
• (Card) Warrior - Cherry Picking
  
• (Card) Warrior - Sheathe
  
• (Enemy) Rafflesia
  
• (Enemy) Gachitachi
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Card) You won't find duplicates of the same Grimoires anymore. This should make the Academy Graduate achievement more easily obtainable.
  
• (Card) Center of Gravity cost increased to 4-2 from 3-1.
  
• (Card) Distraction now gives 3 Boost instead of 2.
  
• (Card) Deflect now lets you also discard one card to your deck, cost increased to 1-0 from 0-0.
  
• (Card) Overflow cost increased to 5-3 from 5-2.
  
• (Card) Concrete Barrier can be found only starting from level 2.
  
• (Card) Ornate Equipment cost decreased to 1 from 2, and now has Swift ability.
  
• (Card) Shield Bash now costs 9-3 from 4-2.
  
• (Blessing) Hard Bones now reduces damage by 10% instead of 25%.
  
• (Enemy) Raised Zakuro's initial block to 75, to balance the recent nerf to Permanent Armor status.
  
• (Enemy) Necrosphere will start with 1 Reactive poison, and increase it by 1 at every turn (caps at 5).
  
• (Enemy) Necrosphere's countdown increased to 5 from 4.
  
• (Enemy) Decreased the HP for the first form of Pond's Monarch.
  
• (Others) The mirror door pixie won't appear anymore in the first level.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed Yellow Flame not working.
  
• Fixed Shield Throw card not showing "x3" in green during combo.
  
• The changes made to Life Essence enemy were badly implemented, causing issues with its intents. Fixed the issue.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that could make an enemy appear without its intent.
  
• The fix to the blessing Nothingness introduced a new bug where costs would flicker. Now the blessing should be working as expected.
  
• The recent change to Permanent Armor status made it so Center of Gravity card would only remove half block from enemies with Permanent Armor. Issue fixed.
  
• Fixed the fact that you could use ctrl and shift to show the combo versions of cards while having the menu open (which could lock the game in the "showing combo" state).
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow you to reroll the shop too quickly, causing it to sometimes lock the shop open at the same time of a fight.
  
• Fixed the fact that blessing Thick Air could set enemies' cooldown to 10.
  
• Fixed the fact that Agile Observer event could be found more than once per run when it wasn't supposed to.
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent you from discarding (or burning) a card if you drew Paper Airplane or Slime with a card that lets you draw and discard (or burn).
  

No new content for this update, but I wanted to push a few bug fixes, together with a few balance changes that are necessary for how the game is evolving.

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Blessing) Gracious moved to the strong blessings pool.
  
• (Card) Overflow cost increased to 5-2 from 3-2.
  
• (Card) Updated Hell's Gaze description to specify the total damage received.
  
• (Status)Permanent Armor (both for player and enemies) will now remove half Block points, instead of leaving Block intact. This status used to work well when enemies decided their actions only one turn before attacking (making it possible for some bosses to react to the player having too much armor), but as the game is structured now, I realized that having Permanent Armor would be a sure way to never take damage. I hope this change will balance things out.
  
• (Enemy)Life Essence will now alternate a heal/electrify turn with a normal attack turn.
  
• (Enemy)The Core's second phase will now have a countdown of 8 (instead of 5) but will also gain Haste status (remove 2 cooldown at each card use instead of 1). This is a change I made to avoid abusing "countdown up" cards, while keeping the amount of playable cards before it attacks roughly the same.
  
• (UI)You can now exit the menu in game both by using the "Back" button and the menu icon in the top right.
  
• (UI)The current level map will expand its hitbox to its whole size once open, to avoid closing it by mistake.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that would lock the map for the current level with no way of removing it.
  
• Fixed a bug that would break your savefile if you exited the game while in the Enigma room. The game now won't save when in the room, and until you exit the room the savefile will remain as it was before entering it.
  
• Fixed a bug that would need you to click 3 times on the Enigma room when skipping a blessing (instead of 2).
  
• The game now properly asks you if you want to skip the blessing if you try to exit the Enigma room without taking its blessing.
  
• AoE Up status would show "x1" instead of just "1" as value.
  
• Fixed an issue that would let you access the menu during "no input" state, with the possibility to lock the menu open with no way to close it.
  
• Fixed Ebonactite's Death Wish status showing "Stun" as a secondary tooltip for no reason.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug where the game could softlock when clicking on a mimic.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that could make you find duplicate blessings, and make some stop working.