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Hopoo Games Development Thoughts #11



Happy Holidays to all wet poison dog players!

This week we released our Hidden Realms update, which was a bit of an experimental update for us. We covered a lot of risky ground, like giving monsters items and equipment, dedicated server support, and a new mini-gamemode in the Void Fields. With the deployment of the update going so well, we had a fun day in the office watching streams, reading Discord, and even joining in on some runs with players in Quickplay and their Dedicated Servers.



Not only that, but after launching the Skills 2.0 Update we heard a lot of feedback from players wanting more content unlocked as part of the base game. We tried this in the Hidden Realms update by reducing the number of unlocks dramatically - and from what we have observed, players are really digging this.

===Steam Awards and Winter Sale===
Over the weekend we were also thrilled to hear that we are one of the nominees for Better With Friends in Steam Awards 2019. We’re up against some heavy hitters, and we’re so happy that our fans voted and believed in us. This game’s reception is still such a shock to us - thank you all again. If you feel like Risk of Rain 2 is truly better with friends and you want to take us all the way, here is a link to vote for us in the finals:
https://store.steampowered.com/steamawards

Not only that, but to celebrate our nominations in the Steam Awards, Risk of Rain 2 will go on sale for the first time - starting today! Get your friends involved!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/632360/Risk_of_Rain_2/

===Major Points for CU 3===
• Noting players are really enjoying both Void Fields and Scavenger, which is awesome!
• Noting players are loving Stage Variants, which is great to hear. Huge shout-out to the Ghostpunch team for handling both Stage Variants in their entirety!
• Acrid was a returning fan-favorite character, which puts a lot of pressure on us to do it right. We’re happy with the results and the feedback!
• Seeing some players wishing Acrid’s poison was lethal - we’re watching it, but it’s very unlikely to change unless we dramatically make the poison’s damage worse. There’s many item synergies that work especially well with Acrid’s poison, such as Gasoline, Sticky Bomb, and Guillotine that can still kill enemies. Having that feeling of ramping up in power as you obtain more of these unique item synergies makes Acrid’s item prioritization different from other Survivors.
• Players want the Engineer Mastery Skin - so do we! The reason it’s not in the game right now is because the skin system doesn’t support skinning projectiles and minions. Since that feels particularly important for Engineer, we didn’t want to release a half-baked skin that doesn’t affect his Turrets or Mines.
• Golems still spawn as TP bosses occasionally - whoops. We’re not entirely sure why. Not even we can stop them.
• A lot of players are asking for a Linux Build for Dedicated Servers - we don’t totally know the implications of having both a Windows and Linux version of RoR2DS, but we’ll take a look.

===Minor Points for CU 3===
• Animation canceling Acrid M1 is both wacky looking and tiring for the players. Will most likely be fixing that.
• Monsters receiving a Tesla Coil in Cells may be a bit too much
• Want to make sure Unique Bosses like Aurelionite and Alloy Worship Unit are still threatening
• Watching some specific Scavenger combinations to make sure they’re all still fun
• Players are enjoying REX buffs

Thank you all again for the love and time you spend in Risk 2. You’ve all helped take this game so far - and we’re excited for what could come next. Thank you all so much. Happy Holidays!

-Hopoo Games Team

Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update - December 17, 2019

This is the third major content update for Risk of Rain 2 on PC. With this update we are focusing on expanding the base game with fun and exciting content that the player will see right when the update lands. While Skills 2.0 had a bunch of challenges and unlocks, some players preferred to have content unlocked in the base game, and we’ve heard the feedback!


This Content Update will be coming to consoles in the near future - for details on how our Content Updates get ported to console versions, check out our previous Development Thoughts here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/632360/announcements/detail/1588003708938246571


Changes with the ‘🌧’ icon in front of them are changes or additions suggested by the community. As always, if you want to stay up to date on the game feel free to join the discord at https://discord.gg/riskofrain2


==== Major Content====


• Added Tool: Dedicated Server Tool
○ We’ve been working hard to support the growing community we have for Risk of Rain 2. We’ve seen many players play together with rulesets they enjoy the most - this tool allows community servers to be hosted and connected to, similar to other games. Please note that this Tool is still in Alpha!A tutorial on how to use the tool is available below: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1938378081


• Added Survivor: Acrid
○ Acrid is a melee-range hybrid who uses powerful poisons to melt tanky enemies.

• Added 2 Stage Variants
○ ‘Stage Variants’ is a new system for CU3 that allows stages to have multiple layouts. We chose the first stages as a test ground for Stage Variants since they are the maps you see most often - our hope is that this system can help keep the game fresh, even when entering the same maps!
○ Titanic Plains Variant
○ Distant Roost Variant

• Added 2 Hidden Realms
○ New Hidden Realm: Void Fields
○ New Hidden Realm: Secret Hidden Realm

• Added 3 Skill Variants
○ New Skill Variant: REX Utility
○ New Skill Variant: Loader Utility
○ New Skill Variant: Acrid Utility

• Added New Skin: Acrid Skin

• Added New Monster: Void Reaver

• Added New Boss: Scavenger

• Added New Boss: Secret Boss

• Added 9 Items and 1 Equipment to the game
○ New Item: Razorwire
○ New Item: Fresh Meat
○ New Item: Ghor’s Tome
○ New Item: Resonance Disc
○ New Equipment: Jade Elephant
○ New Lunar Item: Visions of Heresy
○ New Lunar Item: Beads of Fealty
○ New Boss Item: Genesis Loop
○ New Boss Item: Pearl
○ New Boss Item: Irradiant Pearl

• Added Chest: Adaptive Chest

• Added Chest: Overgrown 3D Printer

• Added Shrine: Cleansing Pool

• Added Drone: Emergency Drone

• Added 3 Challenges to the game
○ New Challenge: ...To Be Left Alone
○ New Class Challenge: REX: Dunked
○ New Class Challenge: Loader: Earthshatter

• Added 2 Environment Logs to the game
○ New Environment Log: Void Fields
○ New Environment Log: Secret Stage

• Added 6 Lore Entries to the game
○ New Item Lore Entry: Sticky Bomb
○ New Item Lore Entry: Visions of Heresy
○ New Item Lore Entry: Strides of Heresy
○ New Item Lore Entry: Gasoline
○ New Item Lore Entry: Personal Shield Generator
○ New Item Lore Entry: Brainstalks


==== Gameplay Changes ==== • General
○ Update regens to not be multipliers, but scaling flat bonuses to decouple benefits of regen items from base regen
○ The result of this is that all characters regardless of their baseline regeneration all benefit the same from regen items. This will only affect melee characters WITH regen items - nobody else is affected.
○ Reduce Boss Encounter (Aurelionite, Alloy Worship Unit, etc) health scaling by ~20%
○ Reduce Boss Encounter (Aurelionite, Alloy Worship Unit, etc) damage scaling by ~75%
○ Change ‘One Shot Protection’ calculation to include barrier
○ Our intent in changing OSP in this manner is to make sure that it is a hidden mechanic, not a reliable one to build a strategy around. We know there’s still edge cases that are abusable - but as long as it’s not ALWAYS the best strategy, we don’t mind having some end-game builds that are extremely powerful.
○ If you have 100% Health and 100% Barrier and take a billion damage, previously you would remain at 100% Health and 10% Barrier. You will now be at 10% Health, as intended before the inclusion of barrier in Scorched Acres.

• Survivors:
• MUL-T
• Scrap Launcher
○ Cooldown: 3s ⇒ 1.5s.
○ Animation Duration: 0.4s ⇒ 0.3s.
○ Grenade Speed: 50m/s ⇒ 70m/s.

• REX
○ Update “Smoothie” skin to have fall colors and unique textures

• DIRECTIVE: Inject
○ Burst Duration: 0.3s ⇒ 0.2s
○ Animation Duration: 1s ⇒ 0.6s
○ Heal Percentage: 30% ⇒ 60%

• Seed Volley
○ Renamed DIRECTIVE: Drill
○ HP Cost: 30% ⇒ 0%
○ Tweak visuals and icons so its more mechanical and less flowery

• Loader

• Knuckleboom
○ Add small forward lunge
○ Extend size of hurtbox and effect

• Grapple/Spiked Fist
○ Minimum Length: 5m ⇒ 1m
○ This just means that the tether won’t break as easily from being really close to the grapple point

• Items

• Predatory Instincts
○ Remove proc effect growing in size for each stack.
○ Buff Duration: 2s ⇒ 3s

• Happiest Mask
○ Ghost Damage Boost: 300% ⇒ 1500%
○ Ghost Proc Chance: 10% ⇒ 7%

• Eccentric Vase
○ 🌧Thicken zipline visuals
○ 🌧Zipline Acceleration: 20 ⇒ 30
○ Cooldown: 100s ⇒ 45s

• Personal Shield Generator
○ Shield Health: 25(+25 per stack) ⇒ 8% (+8% per stack) maximum health

• Shaped Glass
○ 🌧Add special death message for dying while carrying Shaped Glass

 • Brainstalks
○ Buff Duration: 3s (+2s per stack) ⇒ 4s (+4s per stack)
○ 🌧Add slick camera effect when buff is active

 • Queen’s Gland
○ Spawns all possible guards at once when stacked, rather than one at a time

 • The Backup
○ Increase size of Backup Drones

• Frost Relic
○ 🌧Add area sphere to to clarify that it does damage in a sphere, not a disk

• Red Whip
○ 🌧Getting hurt no longer disables the buff
○ 🌧Update whip model, texture, and icon
○ Move whip movespeed over to a buff so it shows up in the bar

• Brittle Crown
○ Remove flat gold reduction on Brittle Crown

• Warbanner
○ 🌧Remove ‘Damage’ tag so it no longer spawns in Damage Chests

• Rusted Key
○ Increase lockbox size by 50% and make slightly shinier

• Stages

 • Abandoned Aqueduct
○ Reduce spawn cost of Clay Templars to match other maps with Clay Templars
○ Fix some collisions

• Scorched Acres
○ Add Alloy Vultures to the spawn list post-loop
○ 🌧Reduce spawn distance of Imp Overlord

• Bazaar Between Time
○ Update shop visuals

• Rallypoint Delta
○ Double frequency of Drones spawning in the map
○ 🌧Reduce spawn distance of Imp Overlord and Magma Worms

• Monsters
• 🌧 Add Grovetender to Wisp Family Event

 • Wisp
○ Spawn Cost: 9 ⇒ 10
○ Base Damage: 4 ⇒3.5

• Elites

• Malachite
• 🌧Add visual effect and overlay when affected by Malachite Debuff

• Drones
•🌧 Make all Drones resistant to AOE attacks, reducing their incoming damage by ~70%
•🌧 Purchased Gunner Turrets now persist between stages

==== QOL ====

• Update a ton of old particle effects to match new visual quality since release
• 🌧Prevent Golems from ever being chosen as a Teleporter boss
• 🌧Force Teleporter Boss to initially target the player who activated it
• 🌧Add ‘Are you sure you want to quit?’ confirmation dialogs
• 🌧Add selected difficulty to the stat sheet at the end of a run
• 🌧Prevent multishop terminals all having question marks
• 🌧Bypass ping cooldown for single player games
• 🌧Add option to enable/disable exp and money effects in the settings
• 🌧Add "Total Minion Kills’ on end of game report
• 🌧Add execution damage to Total Damage stat
• 🌧Update the visuals for items taken during 3D printing to be a bit clearer
• 🌧Add collider on Loader’s pylon to trigger pressure plates
• 🌧Raise wwise max memory pools from 32 to 64 to accommodate additional sound banks
• 🌧Force loadout button to always be visible even if you have no skills unlocked
• 🌧Update right edge of execution threshold bar not lining up with the actual value
• 🌧Shift Radar Tower/Scanner effect closer to green to make it not confusing with Vagrant Nova
• Fix inconsistent prices across maps for Missile Drones, Clay Templars, Beetle Guards, and Elder Lemurians
• Update Golem to match new visual quality since release
• Update a bunch of item displays that were too big or too small
• Add pickup droplet for Boss items
• Increase highlight threshold to increase outline clarity of items near walls
• Fix some items having incorrect outlines

==== Bug Fixes====
• Fix Teleporters not using the correct decal layer
• Reduce chance of camera clipping into walls
• Reduce particle count on Beetle Queen spit FX
• Fix vulture attacks creating particle systems that wouldn't clean up themselves
• Fix Crowbar sound not playing over the network
• Fix Medkit sound not playing over the network
• Fix Guillotine sound not playing over the network
• Fix Shattering Justice buildup sound not playing over the network
• Fix Predatory Instincts effects not playing over the network
• Fix Merc Blinding Assault sound not playing over the network
• Fix Greater Wisp Death transmitting explosion effect for each client in multiplayer
• Fix a bunch of items not fading when close to the camera
• Update Engineer Turret not destroying itself for clients
• Add check to make sure a monster spawn is valid before adding to weighted selection (could affect early game spawn frequencies to be higher)
• Ensure Nano-Bomb state stops charging animation if interrupted
• Add missing Korean characters that previously defaulted to ‘?’
• Add missing French characters that previously defaulted to ‘?’
• Add "IMMUNE" hitmarker for translation
• Add extra life "REVIVED!" text for translation
• Add scoreboard headers for translation
• Add "Lv:" HUD text for translation
• Add "BLOCKED!" damage hitmarker message for translation


Thanks for clawing your way through our patch notes - we hope you all enjoy the Hidden Realms Update!

Please consider Risk of Rain 2 for the Steam Awards!

Hey everyone, it's that time of the season when we look back at the year and settle on favorites. 2019's been amazing for games, but if Risk of Rain 2's been a source of fun, challenge, and joy for you and your friends, please consider nominating us for a Steam Award. We'd be truly grateful.

it's been an incredible year since launch and we're genuinely thankful for your support, feedback, ideas, and precious game time. We're looking forward to dropping another big content update in December and shipping 1.0 in 2020. Stick around, because there's much more to come :)

Hopoo Games Development Thoughts #10

Hey everyone! It's been a bit, and we wanted to give a big update on WHEN future updates will be landing on both PC and console. There has been lots of excitement and questions so we thought would clarify those now.

**=== PC Update ===**

Since Early Access release, we’ve gotten into very a solid rhythm of development. CU3 has us really excited - we think players will enjoy all of the content we are adding. We took notice that some of the content we added into CU2 might be a bit difficult for players to unlock, and felt like a bit of a grind for players who have been with us since Early Access launch. For CU3, we are focusing on adding a lot of BASE content to the game to make every run feel fresh and exciting for all players. Not only that, but we plan on revisiting some old content and making sure they're hitting the same quality level as our newest content.

It's also no secret that the Fall update landed veeeery close to the end of fall, same with the Spring update. Calling them the Winter Update, Spring update, etc has led to some confusion of when those updates will actually release. As such, we're updating the roadmap to reflect for CU3 and CU4 the actual month that releases are planned so it's less confusing across the board. We're holding steady on updating it to the exact month for 1.0 until we get closer.



**===Console Update===**

On the console side, we’re also starting to find that the team at PlayEveryWare needs a bit more time to port to all three consoles. The team currently has TWO patches in flight right now:

1: Our first patch on consoles will include bug fixes, performance updates, and a few QoL updates. Not only that, but the first patch will include a couple of unique features, including gyroscopic aiming for Switch and voice chat for Xbox One. **This was submitted to certification a few weeks ago, and is planned to show up near the end of October.** Stay tuned to our social media channels where we will share when this patch arrives. Additionally, to ensure that you know you have updated to the latest patch once it is live, see below each console version:
Switch: 1.0.2
Xbox One: 1.0.5.0
PlayStation 4: 1.02

2: The next patch is, and includes the Skills 2.0 content update (see roadmap below) which will also come with the patch that came shortly after it was released on PC, addressing regen and bugs. **This patch is currently in progress, and is planned to show up mid-December.




While we were a bit optimistic with the initial pace, we are hopeful that this 3-month cadence is something we support going forward for consoles. Not only that, but we hope that as we practice more, the turnaround time gets less.

I hope this clarifies our outlook going forward. We feel that we always have room to improve, especially in communication - please let us know how you feel. As always, thanks for playing!

-Hopoo Games Team

PC Early Access Patch (Build ID #4233443)


Hi!

The past few weeks we have been watching the feedback from Skills 2.0 and we're so excited with the reception of the update! Overall we're happy with the balance and design of the content we included, but we reduced health regen too much. This patch includes changes to health regen, a few items updates, some slight changes to Survivors, QOL updates and bug fixes.

We will be doing another Dev Thoughts in a week or two going into detail on more future content plans and console updates.

 === Gameplay Changes ===
  • Health Regeneration
    • Increase Player's Health Regeneration by +66% in Rainstorm difficulty.
    • Increase Drone Health Regeneration by +150% in ALL difficulties
      • All these regeneration changes have been highly confusing and affecting difficulty too drastically – as a summary, Drizzle and Monsoon are the same as Skills 2.0 Release, while Rainstorm is now a bit easier.
  • Items
    • Monster Tooth
      • Heal: 6 ⇒ 8
        • Now that we're encouraging players to value healing items more, the healing items themselves should be a bit more decent
    • H3AD-5T v2
      • Now activates by holding "Use" (E key by default)
      • Improve consistency of bonus falling damage
      • Now shows little lights when ready
    • Commando
      • Frag Grenade
        • Animation Duration: 1s ⇒ 0.5s
        • Can now interrupt your other abilities
    • MUL-T
      • Power-Saw
        • Improve vacuum effect to pull towards enemies
    • Artificer
      • Plasma Bolt
        • Update proc coefficient, travel speed, and fire rate to match Flame Bolt
    • Engineer
      • Carbonizer Turret
        • Walk Speed: 6 ⇒ 7
        • Now scales laser tick rate with attack speed

=== QOL ===
  • Add details to difficulty text to show what actually changes between Drizzle, Rainstorm, and Monsoon.
  • Update a few of our internal workings to better help modders
  • Update 'Warm For Life' challenge text to be more clear
  • Pre-Game Lobby now properly shakes physics objects around

 

=== Bug Fixes ===
  • Fix Quickplay matches only filling up to 3/4
  • Fix Loader's "Swing By" challenge using 25 real-time minutes instead of the in-game timer
  • Fix 'Keyed Up' challenge no longer unlocking
  • Fix Alloy Worship Unit preventing you from activating the teleporter
  • Fix 'VFX Culling Bias' not saving when closing the game
  • Fix 'Warm For Life' challenge not displaying the correct value when in progress
  • Fix Equipment Drone not firing their equipment
  • Dying while traveling in Volcanic Egg and Eccentric Vase no longer causes you to pop out the other end alive
  • Fix flying AI wandering towards the ground
  • Fix the character select always showing Commando skills when restarting a run
  • Fix Clay Dunestrider's Tarball attack not networking its position correctly
  • Fix MUL-T's buzzsaw caching attack speed and crit chance on starting the attack
  • Fix Preon Accumulator and Fuel Array sometimes missing in multiplayer
  • Lemurians no longer sprint if very far away
  • Fix Loader disappearing when ragdolling
  • Fix Loader's wrists spinning around during certain animations
  • Fix melee characters being able to infinitely strike ragdolled players
  • Add missing Korean characters
  • Fixed a variety of typos

 

enjoy!

 

-hopoo