Patch 0.715a is out on Frontline!

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: Everyone's invited

Summary

Support Utility Skills yo!

This is one of those real Frontline updates! All the sounds are either placeholder or missing, and some effects aren't final etc, but the functionality should be enough for testing!

Details

The Utility Skill prototypes have arrived! There are nine of them: three defensive, three offensive and three regular ol' buffs!

The utility skills differ a bit from regular skills in two ways: first off, they have no charge levels, meaning they will cast at full power with a tap of the button. Second, they only need three skill points to reach max level. We did this to make each level a bit more worthwhile, since unlocking charge levels is no longer the main goal with leveling. Also, it makes it so it's a bit more viable to skill for full support playstyles. It makes the support skills a bit less of a "silver point dump", but we're considering other mechanics for that instead!

Our hopes with these skills are not only to allow for people to go for supporting playstyles (buffing friends, debuffing enemies, crowd control, etc) but also to add more options for tweaking play styles in single player.

Now we'd love to hear your feedback on all sorts of things! Please share both if you dislike something, or if you enjoy a skill! Is the skill satisfying to use? Is it nice visually? Is it confusing? Does it seem too weak or too powerful?

For us to be able to evaluate the feedback properly, remember to add the circumstances when you played! Such as if you played alone or with friends, where you were fighting and if you were under- or overleveled compared to the enemies!

Something to note: This patch does not include some of the Utility-related talents we've planned. These include talents that heavily reduces EP cost when casting many buffs in a row, for example, and they will primarily make it more viable to play a full support. Right now managing EP for such play styles is a bit too tough!



Additions

• The real Utility Spell Page has been added! (formerly known as 'Support')
  
• Most importantly, you can now do a new emote by typing /annoyed
  

Changes

• The Haste and Protect spells have been removed (if you've put points in them, they've been refunded)
  
• If Marino runs through a player during the chase sequence, the player will get shoved away instead of just run through
  
• Santa Fae now counts as a safe zone and entering it refills HP and arrows
  

Bug Fixes

• Naniva's introduction banter with Bag is back after disappearing a few patches back
  
• Quinton no longer keeps his quest update icon if you don't talk to him when returning with Amalet
  
• Tai Ming's second zone's farming spot now properly counts statues as active enemies when deciding whether to add more respawns
  
• When defeating Freddy and Teddy on the bridge, the fist one defeated no longer 'bonus twirl' when the other faints
  
• Housing: You can no longer confuse the Carpenter to give you a couple of billion lumber and some pocket money to go with it
  
• Housing: Entering and exiting the housing menu quickly while moving Miki's ball no longer create multiple copies of her
  

If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



We'll see what we'll do with the Utility spells based on all of your feedback! I imagine we'll be tinkering some with effects and numbers based on what comes up during testing. Whenever the spells are ready, we'll move on to the giant balance overhaul (called "Skill Balancing" in the list below)!

The current list of non-story content:

• Player Housing Done!
  
• Support Skills (< Here we are!)
  
• Skill Balancing
  
• Arcade Mode Updates
  
• Skipping quests completed in multiplayer Done!
  
• ...and other stuff!