The primary goal with this update was to change the combat balance and armor/weapon progression to be more satisfying across the length of the game. This update is light on the new content because we're still working on the next major content update, but we figured we should go ahead and put out the balance changes in the meantime. Previously, armor provided percentage damage reduction, which meant early armor sets protected very little, the high level armor sets ended up providing far too much protection, and going from one tier to the next didn't feel very satisfying because gaining a few percentage points of defense at a time is really boring. The new system uses flat damage reduction, so if you pick up a helmet that has a defense of 3 it will just prevent 3 damage, which might not seem like a big change but it allows us to make the progression much more satisfying and each new tier of armor or weapons should feel like more of an upgrade. There is a cap on the defense though, and you will always take at least 25% of the damage that is dealt to you. These changes required tweaking the balance of pretty much everything in the game. Most creatures have more health, most weapons do more damage, and we've changed the way armor piercing works so that individual weapons can have specific armor piercing values. We've done a significant amount of testing, but with all the combinations of creatures and weapons we have I'm sure there will still be some balance issues, so let us know what you think. We're definitely not done tweaking the combat balance, but we decided now was a good time to start making some big steps towards a better system. Balance Changes
- Changed armor calculations to use flat damage reduction instead of percent damage reduction
- Shields no longer add to encumbrance
- Encumbrance values tweaked across the board
- Encumbrance can now slow your melee attack speed if it is high enough
- Projectiles now have individual armor piercing values
- The weird pink eyeball creatures can now only spawn spikes on appropriate block types. Also reduced their initial spawn rate.
- Sulfur gas now does its own damage type, we'll probably make a gas mask or something soon
- Tesla gun does more damage but uses more energy
- Base energy regen rate has been doubled
- Reduced energy regen rate bonus on the Jewel sets
- Increased damage of most projectiles
- Increased health of most creatures
- Increased armor on many creatures
- Fists now do more damage with better gloves
- Kicking now does more damage with better boots
- Increased rocket/grenade explosion range
- Reduced the spawn rate of creatures
- Spears no longer prevent you from moving while attacking
- Increased the amount of sand that generates on the surface of planets
Gameplay Changes
- Changed quick slots to use Z/X instead of Q/E by default, and changed the default dodge behavior so that Q/E make you dodge left/right.
- Reduced knockdown received from creature
- Spiked wall creature updated, it is now much easier to damage in the soft spot and much harder to hurt it from the back
- Fruits can no longer spawn quite as close together
- During world generation, the area between the mining base and Pioneer Station have been cleaned up a bit. This means fewer spikes, etc.
- Deposits should now only generate on flat ground
- Added some grass golems to the far side of the planet during world generation
- Toilets can now be opened
- Tweaked some bits of the Pioneer Station and Mining Base. Nothing major, but we're working on fleshing them out a little bit at a time.
- Renamed Rifle Ammo to 5.56 Ammo
- You can now click quick slots in order to select them while the inventory menu is closed.
- Sheared sheep now drop 1 piece of wool when sheared post-mortem instead of 0.
- Slightly reduced the drop rates of sticks/logs when breaking trees
Bug Fixes
- Fixed some cases where certain energy bonuses wouldn't stack. Let us know if you see more.
- Fixed some graphical issue with the spike blocks
- Fixed a crash related to fireballs
- Fixed a bug with fall damage calculation related to using multiple fall damage reduction items
- Movement buttons no longer get stuck on if you were holding them while clicking in the search box of the crafting window
- AGIS message received when you equip the entire prototype mining suit now only appears once
