Recent play-tests have revealed that the state of the game has tipped in favor of games being decided less by individual player decisions and more by the the game’s systems– namely halftime events, equalization, and random events such as Death’s Edge influencing games so heavily that player choice has taken a back seat. While these systems were designed to prevent snowballing and stop a single player from controlling the entire game, they pulled control away from skilled players and facilitated an environment where the game over-compensates for imbalances in net worth– As a result, this patch seeks to dial back on these elements a bit to put more control back in the hands of players.

Shipping alongside this patch are several quality-of-life improvements and clarity updates to make interactions more consistent, and overall reduce player frustration. Keep calm and read on!

GENERAL:

HALFTIME ALERTS – Chat alerts will now be displayed when a halftime event is going to occur at the end of a round.

POWERUP CHANGES:

Treasure powerups will now spawn more frequently after halftime.
Treasure powerups can now only provide items worth 105 AP or less. (Down from 180 AP).
Aegis powerup now only makes a player untargetable for 1 round. (Down from 2).

QUEST CHANGES:

The “Mad Chemist” Quest now only requires 10 consumable items to be used. (Down from 14).
The “Tourist” Quest now only requires a player to land on 6 unique square types. (Down from 7).

UNDERDOG CHANGES:

Underdog is a key part of how players who are behind can catch up– however due to how net worth is calculated, Underdog created massive AP swings for players by the time the game was over, allowing for extremely effortless comeback victories. Underdog is about giving players tools to catch up, not doing the work for them.

Underdog maximum item discount reduced from 25% –> 20%.
Underdog item discount is now based on rank in the game, rather than a flat 20% bonus.
- A player in last place will earn the full 20% discount on items.
- Players in 3rd or 2nd place with Underdog earn 15% and 10% discounts respectively.
Underdog’s item discount no longer applies to Heroic items.
Underdog now requires that a player is behind more than 300 AP –> 335 AP from the lead player. (Reminder: This is net worth, not AP on hand).

Miscellaneous:

During intermissions, a 30-second warning will now show. (In addition to the existing 10 second one).

2 new chat commands have been added:

“/rank” — Displays your current status in the game (1st place, 2nd place, etc). This is an estimate and does not factor in end-of-game rewards.
“/stats” — Displays your current base stats. Base stats are permanent, and are not affected by items.

Client:

You can now control all graphics settings from within the options menu. From this patch forward you won’t see the pre-launch dialog supplied by Unity.

CHARACTERS:

Balance-wise, most characters seem in-line this patch. Some minor changes to interactions however:

GRAMPS:

Rolling a 10 or higher but choosing not to move will no longer cause Gramps to take damage.

NURSE ANN:

Nurse Ann will no longer gain AP from “EMERGENCY” if it fails to heal a target for any reason. (IE: Caldrio’s Lifebane).

COMBAT:

COMBAT ABILITIES:

Invigorate
- Cooldown increased from 3 rounds –> 4 rounds.
Thorn Shield
- Damage decreased from 3 + 75% Defense –> 3 + 60% Defense.
Siphoning Strike
- Damage increased from 3 + 130% Attack –> 4 + 135% Attack.

COMBAT MECHANICS:

Death’s Edge being a % chance made it highly volatile and frustrating in close matches when everything else was equal. While an interesting mechanic, it will depart this patch until it can be properly reworked down the road.

SNIPPED – Death’s Edge has been removed.

STAT/SCALING CHANGES:

With Death’s Edge removed, crit builds have free reign to invest in ever-increasing amounts of damage without penalty. These changes will help counteract that and allow defense to step in as an answer to high-damage builds.

Critical Strike damage reduced from 166% normal damage –> 141% normal damage.

Defense Damage reduction cap increased from 60% damage reduction –> 75% damage reduction.

NEW – For every 10 points of defense, combat damage taken is reduced by 3. (This applies after % reduction).

Starting evasion reduced from 2% –> 0%.

ITEMS:

Not to much to see here — Heroic items will cost you more however!

HEROIC PRICETAG – All Heroic items have had their base costs increased from 200 AP –> 250 AP.

REWORK – Clever Disguise

The old Clever Disguise had a random-effect attached to it, however it rarely triggered, as the item requires that another valid target exists. Removing the randomness element makes the item more predictable both for those who buy it and those seeking to focus down ~~Atlas~~ .. priority targets.

New Effect: The next time a player attempts to target you, they will target another random player instead (if a valid target exists). When triggered, this effect goes on a 4-round cooldown.

BUFFED – Dashkai’s Blood Tome

Self-damage inflicted reduced to 15. (From 20). This damage is now dealt as non-lethal damage.

NERFED – Feathered Staff

Damage dealt reduced from 22 –> 20.

Quality-of-life:

The item preference selection window will now close upon selecting an item in the shop. (Without re-rolling the items for sale).

Bug Fixes:

Fixed a bug where the item grid wouldn’t load within the Guidebook.
Fixed an issue where Invisibilty Incense wouldn’t work in combat.
Fixed an issue where restarting a game caused character abilities to sometimes not activate properly.
Fixed an issue where returning to the main menu (after leaving a game) would prevent a player from joining quickmatch games.
UNCONFIRMED — Addressed an issue where Magic Clay would lock up the targeting UI.

0.4.4 — Agency Update!