May 7, 2021

Spellbreak - Gouda Day 2 Die

Hey everyone!

I'm sure you've noticed we've been doing a number of hotfixes since Chapter 2 launched to improve various aspects of the release. On top of those, we've also been hard at work on a number of features and improvements that require a client update and so here we are! We've got some new features, balance changes, as well as a host of bug fixes, so let's get into them.

Custom Matches

A very popular player request is finally here! Groups of between 6 to 10 players will be able to set up custom matches of Dominion on their chosen map and server.

* Accessed from the gamemode select screen. Select Dominion and select “Custom” as the type.
* Must be a party leader of a party of 3 or more players to join or host a custom Dominion game.
* When the host creates and confirms the match settings, a match code will be generated and displayed on the play screen. This code can be entered by another party leader to join the custom match.
* Players can choose to hide the match code with an option in the Account menu (so, for example, a streamer doesn't have random folks joining their games) and use the copy button to get the code.
* Custom matches don’t grant match crowns, XP, chapter rep, or quest progress.

Dominion

* A new Banehelm map has been added. Watch your step!
* Added animation to the score bar to better show when players earn points via exile.
* Added animation to the score bar to show when points are gained by controlling objectives.
* When a player is exiled in game, a number showing how many points the team got for that exile will appear in-world at their last location.
* Updated level up alerts in Dominion to make them more noticeable, better communicate the time that the skill was granted, and what the newly gained skill does.
* Alerts stating that a zone has been captured are now much more noticeable.
* Added Minor Mana and Armor Blessings that give +5 Max Mana and +5 Max Armor respectively.
* These only appear to players when there are no other boon options left and should fix the probability of capping out boons resulting in suboptimal choices.
* Fixed end of match Dominion scoreboard incorrectly breaking ties on team ranking. In the case of a tie, it now prioritizes Exiles, then Exileds, and finally Damage.
* A large number of accolades will now show their proper values client-side.
* This is already in place on the server but now will appear properly on the client too.

* Revamped the class & talent selection screen to be much cleaner.
* Refreshed the visuals on the in-game map and portal selection screen.
* Polished the in-game notification feed that shows match exiles.
* Polished in game UI at the bottom of the screen that contains spells, sorceries, and runes.
* Added monospaced type for timers.
* Cooldown timers now show the tenth-decimal if the duration is less than 10 seconds.
* Added a notification to the play screen when a friend invite is sent.
* Added a countdown to the Chapter Screen quest panel that counts down to when Weekly Quests reset.
* Polished up the quests screen to better communicate which quests have been completed.
* Friends that are not in a queue or a match are now shown in the friends menu as being "In Menu" (previously displayed as "In Game").
* Offline friends are also no longer as eye-catching on the friends screen.

Class Unlocks

* To better onboard brand new players, classes now need to be unlocked by increasing your mage level:
* All players start with Pyromancer unlocked.
* At Mage Rank 2, Stoneshapper is unlocked.
* At Mage Rank 3, Toxicologist is unlocked.
* At Mage Rank 3, Conduit is unlocked.
* At Mage Rank 4, Tempest and Frostborn are unlocked.
* Existing players will not have their classes locked by this update, even if they are not the required mage rank.
* Mastery screen, class selection screen, and mage rank rewards all updated to reflect locked class statuses

Balance

General

* Sorcery cast animations no longer trigger mid-air hover.
* Players still hover while aiming, this only removes the hover during the cast animation.
* With the gravity reduction, this is no longer needed and just feels better overall.
* Adjusted aiming heuristic for nearby characters to make aim more important for targets that are very close.

Talents

* Athletic now also adds "Run Speed +1/2/3/5" in addition to "On reading Body Scroll: +1 Character Level".
* It was a little on the weaker side and as a bonus now makes even more sense thematically._
* Gilded now reads "On reading Spirit Scroll: Upgrade 2 random equipped items by 1 Rarity", instead of upgrading all of your equipped items.
* Gilded turned out to be MUCH stronger and prevalent than we expected and allowed players to cap out very quickly. This tones it back somewhat while still leaving it quite strong.
* Increased Fellowship shared healing radius to 12m (from 8m).
* Just making it easier to use!
* Foresight no longer "pings" Vowguard in Dominion, making it easier to see players on the minimap and get audio notifications when they are nearby.

Runes

* Teleportation
* Movement/falling is no longer locked while casting, but movement while casting is slowed to “potion drinking” speed.
* Aiming will still hover.
* With longer cast speed, it's no longer necessary to keep players "locked" but the reduced speed keeps it from being a free escape.
* Flight's amount of turn "friction" has been reduced by 50% to make it smoother and offer more control.

Conduit / Lighting

* Removed windup animation from Lightning Bolt.
* Increased Lightning Bolt cast speed by 5%.
* With the previous cast speed decrease, it left Lightning in a rough spot. Removing the windup makes it feel MUCH more responsive, especially when paired with the increase in speed.
* Reduced amount of aim assist on Lightning Bolt.
* AA on Lightning has always been good and without a windup, it turned out to be too good, so it's been dialed back somewhat.

Pyromancer / Fire

* Firefly's amount of turn "friction" has been reduced by 50% to make it smoother and offer more control.
* Increased Firewall cast animation duration to 0.8s (from 0.6s).
* With the overall buff to AoEs and no more movement penalty, this adds a smidge more commitment to casting the sorcery.
* Reduced duration of Flamewall to 6s (from 15s).
* The amount of AoE in Dominion is VERY strong for attacking/defending points and it really doesn't need to be THAT long.
* Reduced collision size of Fireballs by ~30%.
* It's often too easy to land Fireballs and feels like they shouldn't be hitting visually when sometimes they do.

Tempest / Wind

* Increased Tornado cast animation duration to 1.3s (from 0.9s)
* With the overall buff to AoEs and no more movement penalty, this adds a smidge more commitment to casting the sorcery.

Toxicologist / Toxic

* Increased Poison Cloud cast animation duration to 1.2s (from 0.8s)
* With the overall buff to AoEs and no more movement penalty, this adds a smidge more commitment to casting the sorcery.
* Reduced electrification duration of toxic clouds to 2s (from 5s).
* Again a general tamping down of AoE. Maintaining an electric cloud was trivial and offered a lot of power, but this change also makes it easier to use offensively without shocking yourself.
* Toxic Spray
* Reduced spread by 17%.
* Reduced pellet physics size by 50%.
* Spray dissipates after 0.65s in the air (prev 2s).
* Overall, this is to reduce the efficacy of Toxic Spray as a long range "gardening" tool, while increasing the power at close range.

Misc.

* Added bots to the practice map that will move around and fight the player when attacked.
* Another feature that's been frequently requested, now you can practice against moving targets that pose a little more of a threat.

Map

* Added new gate structures at the edges of Hymnwood.
* Updated the Lux Vault POI.

Store

* New outfits, artifacts, cloudbursts, afterglows, and emotes have been added to the store.
* More emotes now include sound effects.

Bug Fixes

* Primary gauntlet now appears on the correct hand in gauntlet selection.
* Fixed a bug that caused parties to disband when the party leader changed the gamemode.
* Chapter pack prices are now listed for the correct price in Chile.
* Fixed invisible Spellstorm rifts that sometimes appeared in Battle Royale.
* Fixed Fortitude talent description on boon screen to not run out of bounds.
* Fixed Runic Fluency Talent text overlapping with its icon in the Talent Selection screen.
* Fixed a number of floating chests around the map, as well as some chests that were partially submerged/buried.
* Fixed a number of floating bricks and greenery around the map.
* Fixed a few floating brilstones in various places around the map.
* Fixed a number of misaligned collisions around various parts of the map that caused players to be able to walk in the air.
* Fixed an issue where players that were blocked/reported on the inventory screen remain audible and cannot be muted.
* Players can now turn on/off the "Voice chat enabled" option in a match.
* Fixed an issue where Teammates or enemies could not be muted/unmuted on the victory/defeat screen in Dominion.
* Fixed an issue where typing an “e” in the Spellbreak friends search bar would cause the game to tab out of the friends screen.
* Party invite notifications now correctly appear on the shop screen.
* Long names no longer get cut off in notifications related to friend and party requests.
* NPCs spawned in Battle Royale matches are no longer added to the remaining players counter.
* Fixed issue where the player did not receive HUD notifications for accolades related to leveling up.
* Teammate's avatar no longer persists in the Play menu upon restarting the title after leaving a match.
* Player’s card no longer persists on the Chapters Menu after leaving Chapter Rewards Screen with the player’s card displayed.
* Fixed new players appearing in league Iron 3 instead of Bronze 10.
* Fixed a bug where the prompt to exile bots in Battle Royale would display with the revive icon instead of the exile icon.
* Pinging a brilstone now correctly shows the brilstone icon instead of a white square.
* Fixed Burning Corsair and Underworld Titan vfx remaining visible while disrupted.
* Ice trails created by ice lance now correctly extinguish toxic flames
* Fixed players being brought to the news screen after selecting the Dominion game mode through the news screen.
* Fixed party invite notifications occasionally not showing player names.
* Fixed steam vfx occasionally appearing yellow when active in a captured zone.
* Flame walls now correctly turn ice puddles into steam.
* Fixed a soft lock caused by losing internet connection during server transitions.
* Fixed default background color appearing for a moment when switching between the collections screen and mastery screen.
* Sound effects on the login screen now correctly play.
* Fixed belts sometimes giving full armor when picked up from exiled enemies in Battle Royale.

And that about does it. Cheers, y'all!

May 7, 2021

Development Update #03

Ecosystem - DanPos

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the third development update. This is a small series which aims to keep everyone up-to-date on where the game is and where it is headed.

Today's update is a little smaller than the previous two. In it we will cover:

A message from Tom about the first major update
A call for questions!
Mods
Community screenshot roundup!

There is no patch associated with today's update.

----

What Have You Been Up To Tom?

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the third development update. I'm midway through work on the first major update, which is all about better displaying information. For this post, I thought I would walk through some of the changes coming when it's completed.

I am currently reworking the ranking and history menu (opened via the F5 key) into a suite of information displays. It will include charts of animal and plant populations over time, which can be zoomed into or out of, and which also allow for toggling the display of the different species, to let you focus on just the information that is pertinent to what you're interested in at any given moment. If a plant or animal goes extinct, this should help with the investigation into why, and by analyzing trends in the data, you should be able to see if trouble is coming and act to prevent it. There tend to be interesting alternating sinusoidal curves as you go down the food chain, with crests of prey population leading to crests of predator population as its food supply booms, which then leads to valleys in the prey population as the large predator population feeds upon it, and so on.

Also coming soon are displays aimed to help pinpoint what kind of niche each species occupies and how that is changing. This will include charts of its overall diet and most common causes of death, along with info panels with every trait I can think of that might influence its fitness. It will also feature a few ways to interact with entire species at once: adjusting the mutation rate of each species, setting soft population caps, setting population minimums under which a species will not be preyed upon, and removing entire species at once. The most important visualization is yet to come though: the phylogenetic tree, which should allow for a full evolutionary history of creatures in the ecosystem, allowing you to trace all the way back to the dawn of life. If it is possible, I hope to allow for zooming all the way in to the level of the individual creature, pinpointing when key mutations occurred and the effect that they had on the individuals who carried them, whether they led to success or ruin.

I'll continue to provide these updates as development continues. Thank you for reading!

Tom

----

A Call For Questions

Normally in this spot we would have space for some pressing community questions but so far there doesn't seem to be any major burning questions for this weeks dev update. Is there something you would like to know about the game? Leave a comment below!

----

Mods

Whilst mods aren't officially supported in the game we have seen a small community pop up on Nexus Mods, where people are sharing maps for the game and we thought we would flag it here for those of you who want to share maps you're proud of!

We are currently looking into Steam Workshop support for a future update (possibly after the first major update) - whilst we can't make any promises, if we can get it up and running we think this would be a great way for players to share maps and fish with one another! But for now, Nexus mods seems like the community go to :)

----

Community Screenshots

Arara posted this tentacled delight!

TheColorAndTheChaos shared this lovely screenshot with us

Djemelhi posted this serene scene

BeanbagToad shared these two happy fish

Finally we have this GIF from Stobz over on Discord who showed his land map in action with this land fish making it's way over some small rocks!