Novus Orbis News

No new cards this time!
I decided that for the sake of the game looking more professionally done, having the hand in a fan shape would be a better choice.

That took me basically one week.

Other than that, I made some slight visual improvements, and added a few variables to the end game to make it more interesting. I may need to power up The Maker even more to reflect that.

Enemies:

• The Maker's mupliple attack now deals more damage and has one more hit.
  

Misc:

• Added some new outcomes if you beat certain enemies before level 4.
  
• Made damage numbers slightly bigger and slower to disappear.
  
• Made the camera shake a little more when attacking.
  
• Made all attack and power up/down and heal effects snappier.
  
• Made the hand into a more natural, fanning shape.
  

Not a huge update, but there were a few issues I needed to fix, and I took the chance to add four new Mage cards!

Cards:

• Changed the combo value for a few Mage cards.
  

New Cards:

• Close Book
  
• Flush
  
• Page Replacement
  
• Recall
  

Misc:

• Changed how the game handles the number of enemies in normal combat rooms.
  
• Changed the icon for shop rooms.
  

Nothing much for this update, but since it also includes some bug fixes, and that I won't have any big juicy update for at least a few days, I'll just push it.

Enemies:

• Lowered The Maker's initial HP.
  
• Zakuro set to always be the first boss in a run.
  

Misc:

• I made the cards' movements during fights prettier (hopefully).
  
• Added a brief particle effect every time you click with your mouse.
  

A small update to address a few issues with the mage general balance.

Cards:

• Discharge now loses 10 thunder charges instead of all.
  
• Increased damage for Fire Arrow and Fire Ball.
  

Blessings:

• Removed All you can do blessing.
  

Enemies:

• The Maker's shield destroying attack now comes BEFORE attacking.
  

Misc:

• Capped SP to 9.
  
• Fire Element Status' last tier's Great Strength boost decreased to x4.
  
• Mage's starting HP raised to 35.
  

A few words on the state of the game and the mage in particular:

I'm happy with how things are going. On one hand I know I shouldn't focus too much on balance for the demo, when I know that the final game will have a completely different flow from start to finish, and so I'll need to rework the balance again.
At the same time, I'd like people playing the demo now (and in the future) to have fun and balanced experience.

In these past few days of testing I realized that one thing that felt off was the amount of SP you could gain late in the game (and especially with the mage).
While I love the idea of being able to become OP, when becoming OP becomes the norm (and not a lucky run), the game turns boring pretty quickly.
So I decided to cap the max amount of SP you can have to 9. I may add a blessing to increase the cap in the future, but I think that with 9 you would have enough room to play a lot of cards, without making the concept of SP completely irrelevant like it often becomes now.
Linked to that, I decided to (at least temporarily) remove All You Can Do because it was the biggest cause of too much SP.

One more thing that is quite OP with the mage is that you can achieve a damage multiplier that is just..too much. And it's not completely fixed yet. I don't want to be forced to cap that too, but for now I decided at least to decrease the boost from the fire element status.

I will add a few more things and probably balance a little more in the next update!