Hopoo Games Development Thoughts #16
Hey! Being the final Dev Thoughts before 1.0 release, we thought it’d be fun if we got into a bit of the details of how we design stuff. This is a long one, so buckle up.
=== Player Agency===
‘Player Agency’ is a term that we use to describe how much influence a player has over the result of their game. Internally, we refer to player agency, or player choice, to be on a ‘micro’ or ‘macro’ level.
On a micro level (using abilities, dodging enemies, hitting attacks, etc), player agency is high in RoR2. You have many opportunities to land good hits, or to dodge powerful attacks.
On a macro level (what build you’re doing, how quickly you want to progress, etc), RoR2 has always been a little lacking - and we’ve received feedback on that. Although it is a roguelite - and therefore random to a degree - it always felt a bit that you’re along for the ride, and that you pick a similar pool of items every run.
For 1.0, we’ve tackled this issue in two different ways:
1: We’ve touched up a lot of items - and introduced new ones - in hopes that more meaningful build decisions can be made.
2. We’ve introduced new avenues to allow more player agency on a macro level - with the star being the new ‘Scrapper’ interactable, which we will touch later on.
=== New & Redesigned Items ===
We’ve carefully combed through items for 1.0, and we have a few fun examples to show our direction going forward when it comes to items.
Example #1 - New Items
For this update, we focused on making sure that all of our new items had interesting synergies with both items and survivors.
Not only that, but all new items in the 1.0 release are Lunar, Equipment, or Boss drops. We found that those item categories struck the right balance between being chase items and being core items. We also didn't want to pollute the standard item pool with a bunch more of synergy-dependent items. Boss drops for higher-level bosses makes some of the most difficult encounters the most exciting as well.
Example #2: Bleeds
Sometimes you can make great changes from small tweaks. For 1.0, we’ve updated bleeds so that when a new stack of bleed is applied, all existing stacks of bleed are refreshed in duration. This means that you can maintain way higher stacks of bleeds than before - and that at high bleed chance and attack speed, bleeds never fall off as long as you keep reapplying fast enough.
For the specific meta details of how bleeds work in RoR2, bleeds:
- Bleeds do not scale from critical strikes
- Bleeds do not scale from proc-chains
- Bleeds do scale from damage boosts, such as Focus Crystals and Shattering Justice
- Bleeds, specifically from Tri-Tip Dagger, do scale with attack speed, because it lets you apply more bleeds quicker.
- Bleeds do need maintaining to keep at ludicrous stacks, which we have found is challenging in a fast-paced game like RoR2.
We’ve found that just that one change for bleeds dramatically improved the value of bleed items, attack speed items, and high proc-rate skills, and has added a new way to scale in the game that is also still fun and engaging. Bleeds require a different set of stats to maximize compared to stacked proc-chaining.
Example #3: Kjaro and Runald
A heavier change we made was to Kjaro and Runald’s elemental bands.
For 1.0, they no longer operate with a small chance-on-hit, but are always guaranteed to proc on any attack that deals “large” damage. After proccing, they undergo an internal cooldown before they can proc again. This allows for a bit of strategy for when you consume your rings, especially if you have heavy-hitting attacks like the Rebar Puncher, Frag Grenade, or Nano-Bomb.
Kjaro specifically has also been changed a bit, making the AoE of the tornado much larger but weaker, giving it a more defined niche as the AoE option.
Example #4 - Just ol’ Buffs
There were also some items that we just buffed because they underperformed. A few of these items are Monster Tooth, H3AD-5T v2, Effigy of Grief, and yes, the Interstellar Desk Plant. We don’t expect these items to become top-tier, but the gap should be smaller.
Example #5 - Doing Nothing At All
One of the biggest changes we noticed for 1.0 is that some underperforming items have improved simply because there is a proper final boss to prepare for. We’ve found that all items now have to be viewed through the lens of its viability in the final boss fight - items like Old Guillotine, Ukuleles, and Ceremonial Daggers, incredibly powerful items today, do little in the final boss.
Not all items will be the best, or the most “meta” - and we’re sure that there will still be a best build anyways - but we believe that at 1.0, more items will become more viable to use.
=== Scrapper ===
A small but influential piece of content we’re adding in 1.0 is the Scrapper.
The Scrapper allows you to select any number of items of your choosing, and convert them into Scrap. Scrap is prioritized first when using 3D Printers.
This adds a bunch of strategy to the game - when scrapping items, you become immediately weaker. However, it allows you to get rid of items that you know aren’t important for your build. Scrappers aren’t super common either, so you can’t always rely on being able to convert the scrap immediately. You may have to go through a few stages with scrap in your inventory instead of an item.
The goal of this interactable is for players to be able to identify what items are important to them right now, and to risk being weaker now for being stronger later.
There’s also been a few more supplemental changes aiming towards inventory management - 3D Printers are more common in general, and the Bazaar Between Time now has 5 pods instead of 4 to compensate for the significantly larger lunar item pool since release.
=== Eclipse ===
Well gee, that sounds like a lot of stuff. But I obliterate on Monsoon all the time, being the god gamer I am… so what can I use all these brand-new options for? In comes Eclipse.
Eclipse is a new game mode, similar to Prismatic Trials, that adds stacking challenge modifiers each time you beat the game, up to a maximum of 8. This is tracked separately per survivor.
In the same way that Artifacts are designed towards novel and fun experiences, Eclipse is designed entirely for challenge enthusiasts. Eclipse has no unlockables, achievements, or trophies. It’s purely for the challenge.
Eclipse was a bit of an experimental weekend project - and we’re considering the initial release of Eclipse as a test for whether or not this type of gamemode is any fun. Please let us know!
=== Here we go! ===
Having said all that… we’re very excited to see player reception for 1.0. This has been our most challenging update yet, and for so many reasons. We really hope you like it - and we’ll see you on the planet August 11th!
-Hopoo Games Team
