Order Of The Gatekeepers News

Been doing a lot of playtesting with people the past few days and made a few changes based on what we encountered.

Patch Notes:

• Scoreboard no longer obstructed by end game stats screen.
  
• Levelups are now calculated at end of frame in one go rather than recursively levelling up one level at a time. This is a performance optimization for builds that can have mass simultaneous levelups/leveldowns occur due to certain Towers.
  
• Levelups no longer send an individual network packet for each levelup, they are now sent as a batch of all Towers that have levelled in the last tick.
  
• Fixed Raygun failing to apply its spell damage per level bonus when instantly levelled via a Door of Janus or Pipe of Clarity.
  
• HUD now updates once at the end of each frame. Prevents a call to update the HUD contents multiple times in one frame if multiple Tower stats change simultaneously.
  
• Corpse Flower Plague Swarm mana cost from 20->35.
  
• Corpse Flower Plague Swarm damage from 55+25/Lvl->85+25/Lvl.
  
• Monocle, Telescope & Sharpshooter's Spot items now have autocast enabled by default.
  
• Fixed Vendetta item bug caused by owning multiple on the same Tower and moving/selling the item.
  
• Prism Network damage gained per node from 16+1%/Lvl->12+0.5%/Lvl.
  
• Fixed Pipe of Clarity buff tripling the Tower's XP instead of doubling it.
  
• Modified timing of waves on the SP & MP versions of Tree & Spicy Stronghold for increased action.
  

I've been playing the game quite a lot over the past few days with different people and I'm really starting to like the direction the game is headed. Feels like it gets more polished by the day.

Things we've noticed during our playtime have lead to these changes.

Patch Notes:

• Black Hole Insatiable Mass mana cost from 7.5-0.2/Lvl->7.5-0.1/Lvl.
  
• Calamity Mayhem duration from 5->12s.
  
• Calamity Mayhem can no longer trigger Joint Trauma.
  
• Increased difficulty of waves beyond 50 for endless mode or custom levels. It is now nearly impossible to go beyond wave 150 due to exponential growth that begins around wave 100 which is something to keep in mind if you want your custom map to have a lot of waves.
  
• Time Machine Relativity slow distance from Tower needed for max slow increased by 100. This makes the slow reach max strength when the enemies are one block away rather than in the Tower as that's not possible.
  
• Time Machine Relativity radius can now be increased with Cast Range Bonuses.
  
• Vacuum Empty Buff can no longer have its duration increased with Buff Duration Increases.
  
• Vacuum Turbocharge mana cost to buff strength conversion rate from 1.7->1.4%.
  
• Lowered sound effect priority of levelling up a Tower. The audio engine has a limited number of available slots for sound effects so their priority has been lowered. This prevents the issue of mass-levelling of towers using the Door of Janus taking channels from other sounds effectively muting the game for a short period.
  
• Altar of Ker Weakpoint damage from 1.2+0.08%->1+0.07% with a damage cap per tick of 5000.
  
• Life Guardian Impotent Mercy now causes enemies that die from the bubble expiring to gib.
  

Patch Notes:

• Altar of Ker Weakpoint damage from 1+0.07%/Lvl->1.2+0.08%/Lvl.
  
• Updated decal visuals for most explosions.
  
• Volcano & Artillery Abilities cast range bonus converted to bonus explosion radius from 50->25%.
  
• Slot Machine Fortune's Favor duration from 7->12s.
  
• Sapient Scripture Evangelize XP Given from 65->50.
  
• Sapient Scripture Study XP gain from 15-0.4/Lvl->12-0.3/Lvl.
  
• Thinner Specialty damage penalty to bosses from 40->20%.
  
• Ash of the Scholar is now an Active Item. On cast siphons 5% of the owner Tower's experience and gives it to the chosen target.
  
• Ash of the Scholar no longer provides XP to the owner of the item, its share is distributed among all nearby towers.
  
• Combat Syllabus now provides XP beyond level 10, but only a fifth as much.
  
• When a Tower hits max level all XP gained through kills is ignored and spread evenly among all nearby Towers.
  
• Tome of Knowledge passive XP generated from 5->6.
  

Having a lot of fun adding this new layer of polish to the game. Here's some patch notes for the moment, still more to come!

Patch Notes:

• Targeting Algorithm threading fixed, previously it had a race condition against the main thread which could cause it to provide less than desirable targeting on levels such as Strikethrough.
  
• Shifter Earthhammer damage from 325+75/Lvl->325+100/Lvl.
  
• Shifter Earthhammer stun time from 2.5s->2.5+0.1s/Lvl.
  
• Whirlwind Pillar Drop now waits until it detects an enemy below it to cast if autocast is enabled.
  
• Fixed Whirlwind Pillars not converting their attack range from game units to engine units.
  
• Reality Shard damage conversion rate when toggled on from 70->60%.
  
• Reality Shard mana cost per attack when toggled on from 5->4.
  
• Inhibitor Buff Duration Increase fixed, previously it was not being applied to the Tower.
  
• Self-Buffing abilities like the Penguin Mech's Overdrive now wait until the Tower is attacking to cast if autocast is enabled.
  
• Cosmic Entity Nullify autocast logic will no longer consider enemies without specialties.
  
• Guardian Impotent Mercy no longer causes a stack overflow when triggering another Guardian's Impotent Mercy bubble.
  
• Guardian Impotent Mercy visuals no longer slowly become larger & further from their target.
  
• Guardian Do No Harm now waits until at least 10 mana is generated before giving it to nearby Towers.
  
• Guardian Do No Harm given a visual indicator of amount transferred above each Tower that receives mana.
  
• Slot Machine Test Your Luck:
  • Ability now waits for enemies when autocast is enabled.
    
  • Gold cost per cast from 5->7g.
    
  • Gold bonus for a jackpot from 25+6->100+10g.
    
  • Tooltip updated to include sections for each possible outcome.
• Telescope, Monocle & Sharpshooter's Spot Items:
  • Mana cost increased from 35->50.
    
  • Cooldown decreased from 60->40s.
    
  • Truesight buff duration increased from 21->25s.
    
  • Truesight buff now provides 25% damage amplification against all invisible enemies.

Here is the start of many changes that will come based on feedback. There's still a bunch more to do but I thought I'd get these out there before I start on the rest.

Patch Notes:

• Tower Sell Mode is now a general selling mode. If you click a Tower or an Item while the selling cursor is active it will sell them. Previously Items were sold by middle-clicking them.
  
• Added audio cue for selling an Item.
  
• Reality Shard: Item is now Toggleable. When enabled 70% of your Tower's normal attack damage is converted to Magic Damage at the cost of 5 mana per attack. If your Tower does not have at least 5 mana, it will act as if the item is toggled off.
  
• Manifest Sorcery: Item is now Toggleable. When enabled 100% of your Tower's Magic Damage is converted to normal attack damage. Increases cost of all Abilities by 40% while toggled on.
  
• Build Tooltip has a label that roughly describes the role of the Tower. As certain Towers are quite flexible in their builds it mostly serves to improve the new player experience.
  
• Ability Tooltip now shows at a glance what the damage type of the Ability is.
  
• Buff & Debuff stats are now clearly marked in the Ability Tooltip. For example, Volcano's Eruption now clearly differentiates between the damage dealt by the initial blast and its DoT burn. If an Ability solely provides a Buff or Debuff this marking is not included as it is redundant.
  
• Invigorator chance to buff on Ability cast from 20->25%.
  
• Fireball Concentration mana to damage conversion percentage from 40+2.4/Lvl->35+0.2/Lvl.
  
• Inhibitor Buff duration from 7->8s.
  
• Pipe of Clarity Buff duration from 10->12s.