Hello all. Apologies for the lack of news over the past few weeks. If you follow me on Twitter, you would have seen that I have recently moved to Derby, England, and am now studying at the University of Derby. Of course, this has meant that I have had less time to work on Claustrophobia, but I will still make sure regular updates are released. So, Alpha 1.1.4!
Full Stat Rebalance
Since the first release, I have been almost constantly trying to rebalance and alter Claustrophobia's stats so that there is both the right amount of variation in the values to allow new gear to add significant upgrades, and enough similar valued enemy stats to keep combat balanced even if you choose to spec entirely into, say, Agility. In my opinion, this has not been entirely successful, and so, for that reason, I have re-purposed a lot of stats, and changed the scaling of almost everything. Suffice to say, it was a massive job, and one that will continue to be refined based on the feedback I receive from those of you playing the Alpha.
The new changes include a few things:
- All base stats have been doubled, meaning there is less of an impact when individual pieces of gear are swapped out, and more of an impact when higher rarity items are worn.
- A number of new mechanics are in place behind the scenes, which calculate combat figures in new and more interesting ways.
- Stamina now increases your maximum health, and your armour.
- Strength now increases the damage done by melee weapons, and increases block chance.
- Agility now increases the damage done by ranged weapons, and increases your hit and dodge chance.
- Intelligence now increases the damage done by mage spells, and increases your maximum mana.
- All enemy stats, and the way they scale each level, have been rebalanced.
- Because of these changes, save files from 1.1.3 will unfortunately not carry over, since the gear you character would be wearing would not protect him/her any more!
Somewhat related to these changes, is this screen that made its way onto my Twitter last week:
Firstly, gear now has a much nicer tooltip design, with new graphics portraying each of the stats. Secondly, although not entirely making its way into the next patch, I have begun work on ability modifiers for gear. This, coupled with stats that actually make a difference, mean you really have to consider the gear you choose.
More on these coming soon, but in 1.1.4, one modifier will be introduced: one that fans of roguelikes will love to hate.
Full Keyboard Rebinding and new Key Functions
This is pretty self explanatory. Everyone asked for it, and finally, it's in. The controls menu, found here:
Not only displays all of the functions and the key that match them, but also allows you to rebind them to any key you wish. There are also some new functions hiding in there, such as the ability to toggle the position of the tooltip away from the mouse. Please note that the numlock movement/interaction controls are still a work in progress, and the game is not quite really to be controlled exclusively with them.
New Potions, Scrolls, Enemy AI, and Bugfixes
Finally, there's a load of what that subtitle says. New stuff to find, new ways to die, and less ways to break the game. Among these changes/additions:
- Enemies will now attempt to follow you through doors you close, and will attempt to break through until they lose interest, or run out of strength.
- Added the ability to toggle permadeath on starting a new game (permadeath is on by default)
- Improved the positioning of the tooltip to ensure that it never goes off screen.
- Scrolls can now be used directly on equipped items instead of forcing you to first unequip them.
And that is that. This patch will be the one that needs the most testing by fair, as I'm sure somewhere along the line there will be a certain combination of stats/enemies which cause disruption. If you find anything like that, or have any feedback at all, drop me a message somewhere!
Alpha 1.1.4 will hopefully be out some time next week, depending on my Uni workload!
~TheIndieForge
@TheIndieForge
Sounds like a good beefy update. Keep up the great work!