Chronicon: Survivors News

Hey Everyone!

This is hopefully the final bit of fixes for a while - I believe all known problems to be fixed.
Do let me know if you run into any more problems, have any suggestions, etc. and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Thank you!




MISC:
*A filled out Scryer tree now has a checkmark floating above it rather than a gold icon. You need to open the Scryer tree once after this update for this to work.

FIXES:
*Fixed hitflash setting sometimes being set in correctly and causing a crash.
*Fixed issue where the Quick Chests mod could cause a chest to disappear while it was being opened, soft locking the game as no more chests could be opened, or other things interacted with.

Hey Everyone!

Thank you for your feedback and bug reports! This update has a big batch of fixes, as well as some small changes to the Shrine upgrade costs and some misc. UI texts.

Other than more fixes as needed, my next plans for this game is doing a balance pass, as the power level has skyrocketed with the addition of boons, but also been capped by the now limited item slots. I will be looking at enemy health, damage, and speed, as well as the additional scaling into Endless and Anomaly modes. After that - or perhaps in conjunction with that - I will also be looking at the game modes themselves and see if I can flesh them out a little more because of the system changes.

In the pipeline there are also new maps and other new mechanics to keep things interesting, but more on that later!

Thanks again for for your feedback & bug reports - it's a great help to make this little game as good as it can be!




SHRINES:
*Upgrade gold costs reduced to 800/1500/2200, down from 1000/2000/3000 - a total reduction by 1500 gold.

UI:
*The Seasonal Waypoint now displays the special game mode text for each of the seasonal maps directly rather than only on hovering the game mode selection.
*Changed "survive" to "Survival Mode" on some UI descriptions, to be more clear that you need to survive that specific mode.


FIXES:
*Fixed crash related to bad resolution settings carried over rom an older save.
*Fixed resolution settings carried over from older saves being able to go below the minimum required to fit the UI on screen.
*Fixed issue with completing events that grants weapons causing the chest menu to soft lock the game as you would go over the weapon cap.
*Fixed similar issue with looting the map-specific hidden weapons for the first time.
*Fixed crash from the Lightning Lash Boon (Chain Lightning Thorns) if the attacker had died prior to their attack landing on you, and triggering the CL effect.
*Fixed the Dragon Shrine displaying some boons out of order, and made the Hunger Boon position itself in the middle, as it's availbe from both Frost & Lightning.
*Fixed Anomaly Visits stat tracking not working correctly.
*Fixed crash that could occur when minimizing the game while unpaused, and leaving it for a while.
*Fixed Quick Chests map mod causing the default map chests to disappear in Anomaly Mode.
*Fixed the base enemies that always start on the map before the waves start spawning in being unaffected by the Giants map mod.
*Fixed the Physical Boon "Tank" not adding the correct amount of Health (much too little).
*Fixed the Flame Orb weapon not moving correctly bcause of a range scaling Boon giving it 1% of its intended range.

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for the quick feedback & reports - I have now updated the game with some fixes.

Please let me know if any of the issues persist, or if you have any new ones, and I'll get right on it!

(Edit: Too quick on the trigger, and solved another issue shortly after, so here is 1.302 as well)



FIXES:
*Fixed Avatars not appearing correctly if having prayed to 2 Shrines with different progress, as it would use the progress of the least completed one.




FIXES:
*Fixed not being able to select characters with a gamepad.
*Fixed Achievements for Dragon Shrine repair + all Shrine restored not popping. (also added a retroactive check that should make it pop on first startup if you previously met the criteria).
*Fixed some Avatars being able to spawn out in the sea or lava on Oasis and Hell maps.
*Fixed issue where a random item could be presented in the leftmost slot of a chest even when not having any empty slots.
*Fixed issue where the Money Bags item would be presented before rare+ items and weapons were maxed out.
*Fixed events being able to persist through anomaly runs via the Continue portal.
*Fixed a weird text offset on Banish token display.

Hey Everyone!


This update adds a whole lot of new stuff, improves on existing stuff, and fixes some issues.
The focus for this one was the new Shrines & Boons system, which is another layer of meta progression that also enables you to make defined builds during your runs.

For instance, praying at the Holy Shrine will make Holy weapons drop more often, and enable the Avatar from this Shrine to appear during your run, killing all enemies and granting you a powerful Boon. Boons are special effects that enhances and enables builds, for example by increasing the damage of a specific element, or adding a stat based on how many weapons of another element you're carrying. More advanced Boons may add extra attacks and other new mechanics to your build!

These Shrines also needs to be upgraded via Gold offerings, and "Feats of Strength", which requires you to for example survive a map after having Prayed at the specific Shrine. Upgrading Shrines unlocks new tiers of Boons, and makes the Prayer more effective, further increasing your chances of getting weapons of the matching element.

You can have two Prayers active at the same time, and the final tier Boons are often direct synergies with other elements.

Now to make all of this make sense I've also had to limit the number of weapons and items you can carry, as without limitation it doesn't matter what you pick or in what order you take things as you'll have all of it eventually... and that's no fun! Every run and build the same - yuck. But fret not, you can still carry a large amount of items. Specifically 8 weapons and 10 passive items. This allows you to carry all weapons of your primary element, and most of a secondary supporting element (or just a bunch of random stuff, you do you).

Beyond this I've also focused on general polish, changing up enemy spawn patterns and the overall game pacing, improving most aspects of the UI, a bunch of new sounds, changed some perks... oh and 42 new Scryer nodes to boost your elemental damages!

Anyway - thank you everyone for your support, bug reports, and comments!

I'm eager to make this game worthy of the Chronicon universe - as admittedly I fumbled the 1.0 release - and I'm happy to take your suggestions and wishes of what you want to see in the game.

//Squarebit


[h2]==== 1.300 ====[/h2]

NEW FEATURES:
*SHRINES & BOONS:
*Pray at the Shrines located in the Keep (in the camp) to increase likelihood of weapons with a matching element to the prayer to drop.
*Praying for a specific element also enables Boons of that element to appear during your run.
*Prayers are saved per character, so you can set each character up for different builds.
*Boons are special upgrades that help define builds.
*Boons will appear on set Time and Level intervals during the game, as an Avatar appears and offers you a choice between two of the same tier.
(in Anomaly mode, Avatars do not appear on time but on Boss kills)
*Boon Tiers are Common, Rare, Epic, and legendary.
*Legendary Boons offer special synergies between Elements & other Boons.
*To unlock new Tiers, the Shrines in the Camp must be upgraded & restored to their former glory via Gold donations and by honoring the gods through feats.
*Each upgrade unlocks a new Tier, and increases the likelihood of getting weapons of the matching element.

*ITEM SLOTS:
*There are now weapon and passive slots; 8 weapon slots and 10 passive item slots.
*You must now be more careful with your item picks and can now create synergies and proper builds for your characters rather than just picking everything.
*Beyond more interesting gameplay and build crafting, this also leads to getting more Money Bags & Coal as you'll hit the item cap much quicker.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
*Added 10 new Achievements.

SHADY DEALER EVENT:
*Now only deals in blood... as in, you can only buy his wares with health as a currency. (and it no longer uses weird button prompts)

CAMP:
*Redesigned the camp area by expanding on the keep area and moving all Shrines inside it.
*The Seasonal waypoint is now an orb like the regular one.
*Moved Fungimancer and Killbot to better spots.

ITEMS & WEAPONS:
QUAKE: The Attack Speed upgrades are now smaller.
VORTEX STRIKE: Now has a much larger hitbox.

SCRYER:
*Added 42 new nodes for Elemental Weapon Damage to the Scryer tree.
*Adjusted the positioning of many nodes for mostly aesthetic reasons.

PERKS:
FORCEFUL DASH: Now knocks away enemies at the end of the dash, rather than the start. Enemies are also damaged and stunned for a short time.
WAR MAIDEN MASTERY: Now gives the Chakram the ability to bounce off the War Maiden when no more new targets are found. The Chakram will also reset its targets when doing so, allowing you to bounce it on bosses repeatedly, for example.

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS & MODIFIERS:
*Chests now open much quicker when you have the Chest Randomizer modifier active, or if the loot is depleted and they only drop the Money Bag / Coal.
*Enemy spawn numbers now vary a lot across the map, sometimes giving you some space by producing fewer spawns, and sometimes bursting out a lot of enemies all at once, rather than the old way of just trying to keep an increasing number of enemies active at all times.
*Enemy spawn locations / directions now vary with some randomization added to it.
*You can no longer stun Swarm enemies (like bats).

OPTIONS:
*Added proper windowed resolution support, with most common 16:9 and ultrawide resolutions can be picked from.
*Fullscreen mode also works properly on Ultrawide and non 16:9 resolutions now.
*Because of how the game works with spawns and visibilty, a 16:9 view is always enforced, adding black bars as necessary to fit your screen.
*No more stretchy stuff though!
*Added more options for handling flashes and lights, such as enemy hit flashes, full screen flashes, and the boss red ambience shift.

SOUND:
*Added many new sound effects for the new features (Avatars, Boons, etc).
*Added sound effect for Legendary chests.
*Added new sounds for gold and exp pickup.
*Added menu, UI, and pause sounds.
*Added a low pass filter to music while the game is paused or in a menu, such as chest menu.
*Added direction sound to chest drops so you get an idea of where they dropped via the sound cue.
*Rebalanced audio mix.

UI:
*Updated and improved the character select screen.
*Added icons of all your weapons and items to the chest loot screens, so you can reference what you have when selecting new things.
*Added progress/timer bars for random Slime events, the Corpse Sludge event, and the Shady Dealer event.
*Added some backings to the options menu to make it more legible.
*Improved display of barriers on Healthbars.
*Improved legibility of the Event HUD display.
*Improved the item display in the HUD.
*Changed text positioning on Banish buttons.
*Improved legibility of damage numbers and some UI text such as gold, kill counter, etc, for Chinese and Korean fonts.

MISC:
*Pressing F11 while having any info card displayed will "print" this card to a .png file in the game save directory.
*Enemies who are stunned now stop their animations.

FIXES:
*Fixed being able to attack and pickup stuff as the victory/defeat screens were playing, allowing unintended shenanigans.
*Fixed some item descriptions showing unnecessary decimals (.00) for some values.
*Fixed rare crash that could happen if tabbing out or changing resolution or similar during a run.
*Fixed some UI elements not refreshing when swapping characters.
*Fixed rounding issue with attack speed on some weapons which led to fewer attacks than intended over the course of a full run.
*Fixed some UI sound effects playing incorrectly.
*Fixed item display covering the EXP bar if not having any Banish Tokens.
*Fixed Bone Scythe having its duration upgrade carry over between runs, causing a soft lock if the Overclock was used in a previous run.
*Fixed the Nomad Mastery Perk not correctly assigning the free ranks to Hit Count.
*Fixed bad scaling and poor rendering across different languages of interactable popups.
*Fixed map-found weapons such as Boots of Cataclysm's item cards being weirdly offset on smaller resolutions (anything below 1080p).
*Fixed the same cards mouse hitbox not scaling accordingly as well.
*Fixed same issues for the Shady Dealer random item purchase.
*Fixed Healthbar numbers not displaying correctly with Chinese and Korean fonts.

Hey everyone!

Update 1.200 is ready with a new map, and several improvements and changes based on your feedback!

Next planned update, 1.300, will be a big overhaul and improvement of weapons, progression, etc., and will take quite a while. But with those planned changes, I hope to bring the game up to a higher quality, and offer several unique and interesting features, as you have come to expect coming from Chronicon.

1.300 should be ready sometime in Spring 2025, and will also be available for BETA testing as I make meaningful progress. If you want to make a mark on the game's development during the 1.300 BETA, join our discord and make your feedback heard! We have dedicated channels specifically for feedback and test builds.

Of course, there's a Feedback & Suggestions thread here on the Steam forums as well, but that is not intended for feedback on the BETA stuff, and more for the current state of the game. While I am no longer as active on the forums as in the past, I do still read everything!

Anyway, the BETA builds should start popping up sometime in Feb/March next year, and I hope to see you there!

Thanks for your feedback, suggestions, and bug reports!


Here are the full notes:

[h2]==== 1.200 ====[/h2]

FEATURES:

• Added a new seasonal challenge map: Winter Arena.
  
  • Survive as long as you can vs. a horde of Snowmen during a raging Blizzard!
    
  • Features a new passive item: Lump of Coal.
    
  • Features a new unlockable mod which allows you to enable to Lump of Coal for regular maps.
    
  • Awesome new soundtrack.
    
  • Some new Achievements too!
    
• Added two new powerups: Nuke and Gold Burst.
  
  • Nuke deals 100 damage to all enemies 3 seconds after being picked up.
    
  • Nukes are quite rare.
    
  • Gold Burst grants a (high) chance of extra gold on each kill for 15 seconds.
    
  • Gold Burst is more rare than the other 15 seconds powerups, but more common than Nuke.
    
• Enemies now move slower on the first map for the first couple of minutes, gradually getting faster to their intended speed, letting new players acclimatize better to the game's pacing.
  
  • Other maps are unaffected as of now, but if the change is received well we might add a similar ramp up to the rest of the maps.
    
• Enemies now spawn slightly more spread out and further away from the edges of the screen.
  

NEW OPTIONS:

• Improved Options menu, and prepared for adding more options (such as proper resolutions) in the future.
  
• Added a "Simple Bars" option, giving minimalistic on-screen health, dash, and event bars.
  
• Added a "Quick Cards" option, speeding up all item card animations drastically.
  
• Added a "Cursor Scale" option, allowing you to make the mouse cursor either larger or smaller.
  

WEAPONS:

• Seedbomb and Unstable Elixir no longer randomly throw out their bombs and will instead always target random enemies within range (if any).
  
• This will apply to any similar effects.
  

QOL:

• Once looting all items and only Money Bag remains, you will now automatically loot Money Bag(s) without having the card menu open.
  
• This change also applies to when using the new Coal modifier and having Lumps of Coal instead of Money Bags.
  

FUN:

• Added piles of gold to the base camp, which vary in size and amount depending on how much gold you have.
  
• Added some more decoration to the camp, which appears when certain characters are unlocked.
  

MISC:

• Enemy animations are now randomized somewhat so they no longer appear to be doing synchronized dancing.
  

UI:

• Added support for progress/timer bars for events, though currently not all events have them.
  
• Also added support for warnings in the event tracker, currently only available on the Winter Arena map (DANGER warning when in the Blizzard).
  
• Added on-screen kill counter (lower right).
  

FIXES:

• Fixed Vortex Strike not knocking enemies away correctly.
  
• Fixed rare crash from some "attack enhancement" type weapons such as Zap.
  
• Fixed Halloween Challenge not always correctly recording best times.
  
• Fixed "Reset to Default" buttons in options menu not actually saving the settings that were reset to default, unless you did something else that triggered a save.