Aura of Worlds News

Hi folks! We hope things are going well for you in the lead-up to the festive season.

We've just rolled out a patch which:

• Fixes two rare dead-end bugs with the level generator.
  
• Reduces superfluous ladders and other terrain pieces of ascension (e.g., moving platforms right next to each other, moving in parallel). Thus, encouraging a bit more planning in navigating each level and cleaning up the visuals.
  
• Tiled structural rooms are now more extensive and more common in the Grotto of Guidance.
  

We're looking forward to finally make the ice world available within the next 1.5 months
(without giving too much away, here's a thumbnail teaser):

Hi folks,

We hope you're doing well during these unusual times.

[h2]Level Generation[/h2]

We've been finding ways to drastically improve this through several methods. Such includes:

• The path to the exit branches more, further moving away from the predictable zig-zag path.
  
• Levels have grown, with more seamless connections between segments.
  
• Rooms no longer need to be locked to grid cells, allowing for more fluid layouts.
  
• Several of the dynamic template types have had their creation patterns rewritten.
  
• Fixed various bugs with inaccessible rooms generating the past.
  

[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
Some people who are already quite familiar with roguelites/roguelikes have asked for additional challenge.
We want to accommodate this while still allowing the game to be accessible for people who are a bit more new (e.g., having an Easy mode option).

Multiple changes address such points (especially with regards to making higher difficulty modes more challenging):

• On higher difficulty modes, player damage and defense has been reduced. This is largely done to balance out the systems of dodging, luck, critical hits, and status modifiers, which made the game significantly easier.
  
• Health potions have had their potency reduced slightly. We changed this because of how numerous they are within the game. We saw some players had too many leftovers. Keeping your supply up, and discovering other healing methods, provide more reasons to explore the new levels a bit more!
  
• You've demonstrated how powerful the Chakram could be in the right hands, so much so that it was preferable to all primary weapons. As a result, we've had to nerf its range and speed.
  It's still quite an effective weapon, but the change should encourage experimentation with other weapon types.
  
• Certain hazards like lava, spikes, and a few monster attacks have had their damage increased. Such may sound brutal, but remember it can work to your advantage too.
  
• The Necromancer and Giant Worm have both been extended to be more exciting and less exploitable. For example:
  
  • Players will no longer be able to freeze lock most of the fight away.
    
  • The Necromancer is not as vulnerable when healing and will be summoned with fewer crystals destroyed.
    
  • The Giant Worm has undergone improvements to all its maneuvers and will become increasingly aggressive as it takes damage.
    
• There are some changes which make things easier, to encourage exploration more. For example:
  
  • Certain environmental weaknesses have been extended (e.g., some status effects on the Giant Worm).
    
  • Fewer enemies are spawned on the generation of a boss level.
    
• Bezoar has a chance to transfer poison enemies (as well as increasing your own resistance).
  

A special Thanks to all the testers on the Alpha branch

Thanks for reading/playing, and have a Wonderful Week ahead!

Hi everyone!

We hope you're keeping well during these strange times!

We've been working multiple new quality of life and functional changes, not all of which are 100% stable (we won't spoil them until the update is fully released).

We've uploaded said changes to the alpha branch, for
To access the branch please navigate to:
Steam Client->Right Click Aura of Worlds->Properties->Betas tab->Select Alpha from the Dropdown list.



[h3]"What's in it for me for reporting on the builds early?"[/h3]

• Progress carries over into the main branch.
  
• Our heartfelt thanks.
  
• The advantage of playing with the new features and mechanics before next major update.
  
• The gratitude of an awesome community.
  

The update is almost complete, and we estimate properly releasing within seven days.
Have a Wonderful Week ahead!

Hi folks,

Here's a breakdown of the update:

[h2]Better level generation:[/h2]

• Floating structures
• New room layout rules.

[h2]Upgrade forges:[/h2]

• Are now guaranteed to spawn once per world.
  
• Knockback modifiers can now apply to ranged weapons.
  
• New momentum modifier for ranged weapons.
  

[h2]Combat:[/h2]

• First melee strikes now (briefly) stun most enemies, disrupting their attacks (2.5 second recharge).
  
• Lowered average melee damage slightly & added a fractional slow down on hit to balance this.
  
• Updates to ranged weapons (as above)
  
• Chakram range and speed nerfed.
  
• We've enhanced the slash animation for melee weapons from this:
  
  To this:
  
  
  NOTE: If you'd like to swap between them, go to Pause>Other Option->Melee Slash Style.
  

[h2]Shops:[/h2]

• Increased range of items offered,
  
• Shops can now sell modified items (i.e., upgrades and flaws are randomly applied)
  
• locked items have a scarce chance of appearing
  
• Fixed text overflow bug with U.I.
  

[h2]Other:[/h2]

• Various optimizations and U.I. bug fixes.
  
• Luck status effect from opening all chests in the level now shows correctly.
  

[h2]Hot fix 14th of August:[/h2]
Fixed new level generation from becoming blocked.

[h2]Feedback is welcome![/h2]
Especially through the forums or on Discord:
https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4



Thanks, everyone!
Have a wonderful week ahead!

Hi folks,

A key focus of this update is making equipment much more satisfying to loot and use.

[h2]Upgrade Forges:[/h2]

These stations provide you with a way to adds modifiers to your equipment.

You can upgrade your equipment multiple times during a run, but only once per forge. Forges allow you to upgrade 2-3 items at a time, to encourage you to experiment with more tools.

[h2]Item Modifiers:[/h2]
These change how your gear behaves: from piercing arrows to recharging shield gauntlets.
Or occasionally freezing enemies to sending enemies flying!

Modifiers can be applied to any of your items (except consumables, regular boomerangs and powers). Feel free to experiment with over 15 of them across more than a dozen items!

[h2]Altars and Treasure Updates:[/h2]
An altar will generate several items that you'll need to choose between.
This may be equipment items or runes you don't have yet or consumables. There are well over 40 possible items!


In the past, most items would not spawn in-game until you had unlocked it as starter equipment. We realize this was a mistake, as it prevented players from experiencing a core part of the game until much later.
To remedy this locked items still have a chance to spawn in altars and chests, (just at 1/10th of their regular probability if locked)

To make things more interesting, equipment that you loot from the world (e.g. altars, bosses and large chests) will usually have random modifiers attached to them (not all of them positive).

[h2]New Potions:[/h2]
Potion of Luck: Increases your luck for a substantial period of time (see below)
Flask of Frost: Freezes any enemy that you attack! Just be wary of the temporary
resistance to ice after thawing.




[h2]Luck:[/h2]

May the odds be ever in your favor! Luck increases the chance of good things happening while fighting, forging, and other activities.
It's always possible to win the game with good skill and poor luck, however, it pays to have an edge.

Some of the effects that luck has includes:

• Discounts at stores.
  
• Dodging an attack (despite it touching you)
  
• The chance of getting more than one positive item modifier upon upgrading.
  
• Amount of money dropped by enemies.
  
• and more...!
  

Various actions in-game, such as opening all chests in a level or slaying a boss, will increase luck for a time.

[h2]Dodging and critical hits:[/h2]
There is now a chance to dodge attacks (despite them touching you) and a chance to deal much more damage to the opponent.
Factors such as luck, acrobatics, runes, and equipment modifiers all affect this.

[h2]More Graphics Changes:[/h2]

• New unlock menus
  
• Status effects time is now display with a darkened image meter: For example:
  Note: the crossbow here has piercing and poison element modifiers applied.
  
• Each area has it's own water colors (see image below)
  

[h2]Quick Buff:[/h2]
So you told us that during an emergency, it took too long to find and quaff down the potions you needed to survive. Drawing inspiration from other games, we found that a shortcut to drink all positive potions addressed this quite nicely. No more fiddling around with the inventory grid or weapon wheel, simply hold down on keyboard or gamepad by default (gamepad will default to using quick heal button on next load).

[h2]Other changes:[/h2]

• Orb mage retreats slower and projectiles can't damage you before they're launched.
  
• Easy mode XP percentage increased from 70% to 80%
  
• Fixed bug with mouse/cursor lock would crash the game.
  
• Fixed various glitches with help prompt displays.
  
• Fixed bug with skeletons getting stuck in shallow pools of water.
  
• Increased the range of most melee weapons.
  
• Bosses marginal increase in health due to the modifiers making things easier.
  
• Various improvements and fixes to the inventory menu.
  
  Here's what the gardens and temple water look like now:
  

[h3]Feedback is welcome![/h3]
Especially through the forums or on Discord:
https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4

A shout out to our awesome testers:

• Jessica
  
• Volnes
  
• Ata
  
• MaskedSound
• Players like you
  

Thanks, everyone!

We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well during these strange times!