Sep 1, 2023

Deceive Inc. State Of The Build (Post Upper Echelon)

Deceive Inc. - Yoshiro

Upper Echelon Community Notes
Agents, welcome back for some community notes as we discuss the hot topics around the Upper Echelon update. We’ve received a lot of feedback in a short period of time and we wanted to tell you a bit about what we will be doing in the short term and where our focus is right now. Let's get to it:

Echelon Issues
We are aware of issues with inconsistent behaviors between players regarding echelons. Some players seem to have had an XP overflow, making them skip many ranks while others did not. We are currently investigating the situation and will have clearer news as we get a better understanding of the issues surrounding this. We are deeply sorry that this occurred and we are actively looking for the best path forward for everyone affected.

Balancing
Let’s not beat around the bush: The reaction to the lack of Yu-Mi changes and the spyglass change has been very strong. We wanted to talk a little bit about why it happened, and what we are doing on that front.

Let’s start with Yu-Mi.

Yu-Mi has been our worst performing character for every single update for a very long time. While she was perceived as strong since Catalog 2, we wanted to let her breathe a bit and not be too reactive with a character that suffered for as long as she did on the power scale. Another major aspect that leads to this is the timeframe on which we work on updates. We’ve been working on upper echelons for a while at this point and while finishing up updates, we can sometimes lose track of more recent development in the meta. This can lead to a situation where decisions we made many weeks ago are no longer the right call in light of current information. Because of all this, we simply did not weight the frustration of the community on Yu-Mi correctly for this update.

We will be tweaking Yu-Mi in the very short term to make her less oppressive and we will also bring a major fix for her healing bubble that did not make it in the initial update. We will look at how to better avoid situations like this in future updates and we thank you for bringing it to our attention.

And now for the spyglass. We knew this change would be controversial: The spyglass is the most picked gadget by an extremely wide margin in the game. Our original thinking was this: The Spyglass is a big contributor to speeding up games. You not only hack safely, you save travel time in between intel. We wanted to introduce a balancing factor to this equation and we were confident that time saved by moving between intel would still make the spyglass extremely useful while slowing down game speed.

It’s very clear at this point that this was the wrong call. We will restore the spyglass to its past glory in an incoming hotfix. We value the place of the spyglass in the meta as a stealthy tool and a good entry point for newcomers to avoid risks and do not want to remove this from the game. We will focus our future efforts on making other gadgets more appealing rather than nerfing the Spyglass.

While these two items have been a few notches above the rest, there are other items we are looking at including the still overbearing presence of umbrella shield quick drop strats and expected fixes of long standing agent related bugs. We are looking into those and will review priorities on agent bugs that are more disruptive to overall gameplay to make sure they get looked at.

As always, we thank you for your continued feedback .

Health UI
This one is going to be very simple: The reaction to the updated health UI has been strongly negative and we will be tweaking it in the upcoming hotfix. We are bringing back the notches and the bigger numbers to make it easier to read at a glance.

We will keep you updated on our next steps on all fronts as soon as we have more news to share. Please keep your feedback coming and we will do our best to look into addressing the biggest issues around Upper Echelon as soon as we can.

Sep 1, 2023

The Mechanics of the game

The Mildew Children: Chapter 1 - Jesse Kellor

Hello everyone!

Let's discuss the main game mechanics and how they were created.

The following video includes and demonstrates all of the core mechanics:

This information would be particularly interesting for those who would like to dig deeper into the background of the development:

Since the game is largely based on dialogues and conversations, I wondered how I could add dynamic elements to the plain text? Obviously, I realized I couldn't do anything radically different and started thinking about other games I know, their elements that might work well for my game...

A few rules were immediately set for myself - the controls should be as simple as possible, with a comfortable way to play with just a keyboard, while also being easy to adapt for smartphones.

Making choices
This example illustrates a moment in the game when you need to convince the boy to open the door. The portrait at the bottom of the screen displays the face of the speaker while also displaying various emotions. Currently, there are more than 100 different portraits available.

The most obvious mechanics that instantly came to mind have been used in various RPG/Adventure games for centuries, such as choosing between multiple answers in a limited amount of time. Persuading other characters when you can clearly see their attitudes (like in Deus Ex: Human Revolution).

I added another narrative technique to this list: the ability to lie. The player may find it more profitable to lie than to tell the truth, but they may also get caught if they exercise some of these choices. Many dialogue branches revolve around the choice of lying or not lying. I wanted to convey the sense that the world itself does not accept lies, and that deceiving can negatively affect your destiny.

Casting the incantations

An idea that emerged fairly quickly was to make the player maintain a rhythm when going through lines of dialogue. A spellcasting gameplay evolved from this idea - spells are chanted rhythmically word by word.

It was important to allow the player enough time to read the words, so the timer was made quite forgiving. Additionally, it was placed close to the text to make the reading easier.

Health mechanics - marker to the left of the portrait

This gameplay mechanic caught my attention a long time ago, while playing a 2D platformer called Celeste. There is a point in the story when the heroine has a panic attack. Keeping the heroine calm is achieved by holding a feather in a moving frame up and down.

I decided to implement something similar in my game - the heroine, due to a inborn disease, becomes physically ill during rituals. In order to monitor her condition, you must keep a marker constantly moving up and down.

The main benefit of this mechanic is that it adds the necessary degree of tension to the text. In addition to being very easy to learn, it can easily be made more difficult by making the movements more abrupt and making the marker less responsive. Meanwhile, the player can keep track of the heroine's condition without taking their eyes off the text, watching the moving marker with the side vision and orienting by sound (if the marker reaches a critical point, the accelerated heartbeat rate and tinnitus could be heard).

Casting spells successfully with declining health. Persuasion level is the marker on the right.

As all mechanics are simplistic enough from a gameplay perspective, they can be combined to create tension without overloading the process.

As an example, the combination of dialogue choices and incantations creates situations where you need to choose between several options quickly.

By casting the incantations while the heroine is unwell, you are tasked to keep an eye on both rhythm and condition at once.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Hope this information was helpful to you.

You are welcome to join the Discord server, ask your questions, and participate in the discussions

Sep 1, 2023

Weekly Update 153 - Thoughts on Competitive Play

Path to Prosperity - Essence Games

Hi everyone,

I realise that I am uploading this post quite late, so you will get more or less of a double-post with tomorrow’s update again.

While the majority of our players have been interested exclusively in single-player and co-op play, there is a small minority of players who are still very excited (and insistent to tell me) about the possibility of competitive gameplay for PtP. Even though this is a minority, I still think that there are ways of making some competitive gameplay work, and my holiday has given me some time to think about how this could be realised in the (far) future.

One of the main issues I’ve had in adjusting from our initial competitive gameplay to the coop modes have been balancing and timing. In general, competitive gameplay lends itself more easily to quick matches (or at least somewhat contained timeframes), with fast, predictable, and balanced progression. For 0.9, I am intending to move away from this even further by embracing random resources and adapting to what you find even more - which makes competitive play yet more difficult.

However, I think that there is a possibility for a sort of player vs player vs environment gameplay. Rather than simply pitting the players against each other with randomness potentially allowing one to beat the other early on, pitting two players against each other in getting the artefact from a well established pirate fortress may be a better bet. In this situation, players will both be slowed down by having to overcome the AI, and both players will have enough time to adapt to what they find and make the most of it.

This could lead to rather interesting gameplay, where a dominant player needs to consider not only how to advance against the AI, but also how to protect themselves against their human opponent. Likewise, the player who is lagging behind may get opportunities to disrupt the dominant player, or to simply steal the artefact away from them as they are weakened by the AI.

Of course all of this will be far in the future, after creating a fun and balanced gameplay loop for singleplayer and coop - but I think the possibilities for competitive play are still there in the long run!

Until tomorrow!

Sep 1, 2023

Major Content Update #3: New Features, Weapons, Characters, Stages, and More!

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood - Mega Cat Studios Inc

Behold, Creatures of the Night!

We have thrilling tidings from the dark domain and wish you to join us for this lavish luncheon of our au courant additions.

We shine some moonlight on the features that make Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood special and the fresh blood they pump into the genre. Join us as we peek behind the curtains and see incoming machinations and innovations the team has planned for Major Content Update #3.

Incoming Features for Content Update #3

We have such sights to show you! Here are our content and feature highlights for Content Update #3, which is just around the corner. The visuals posted here are subject to change.

I. Weapon Evolutions

We don’t just look for new ways to squash, crush, blast, and dismember our enemies, but we’re also doing evolutions! Once you attain the highest level of a specific weapon, you can evolve them into stronger and meaner versions, all to destroy your enemies with.

Here are some examples of what is to come:

Coasting Guillotine
What’s next after chopping heads and limbs using a decorative platter? Well, it’s the Coasting Guillotine. Of course, it’s always fun to dismember parts in five different directions!

Critical Cutter
Turn those Positive Thoughts into razor-blade musings! Tear through enemies with this cloud of blades.

Unholy Conduit
The upgraded version of Devil Breath has you melting enemy faces in four directions!

II. Familiars

Familiars, or summoned creatures, are companions players can acquire in any stage. Familiar Summoning Rooms will appear as part of the random level generation. If you can survive the special challenges here, you’ll unlock one to follow you for the rest of the level.

Like you, they can receive damage from enemies, but they attack incoming opponents as well. They can also be upgraded at the shop!

Without further ado, here are some of the incoming Familiars coming in for Content Update #3:

The Shadowcat
A creature borne from the shadows, the Shadowcat sends out beams of destructive energy from the front and back. Its powers also enhance your Projectile Range. Just don’t rub its belly, and avoid putting glasses on the edges of countertops.

The Hellhound
A beast from the depths of hell itself, the Hellhound will bite anything in front of its master. It also leaves a curse called Hell-Mark, which causes enemies bearing this curse to receive additional damage. Its innate malice enhances your base power as well. Unlike the Shadowcat, this one loves belly rubs.

III. Nightmare Mode

We have new additions to the Nightmare Mode for daring players who yearn for more. You can activate challenges in exchange for lovelier rewards. For Content #3, here is a sneak peek into the new modes:

Exterminated
Can you even finish a run without the bugs you dearly love eating, Renfield? Power-ups will not spawn at all in this mode. That said, stay hydrated and don’t skip meals, players!

Talentless
It might seem like we’re describing you, Renfield, but that’s not the case at all. In this mode, all talent upgrades are banished from your reach.

IV. Challenge Rooms

Also added to the random level generation, a Challenge Room is a specific area that tests the players’ innate strength and mettle. Each room has its unique design and rewards.

Vault of Valuables
Would you dare enter its doors in exchange for a chance to good fortune? Gold collected is nonrefundable or transferable to any modern currency.

V. New Characters

We’ve got new places, and we have new faces, too! We’re dropping new characters, each with its distinct playstyle and challenges!

Mark, our beloved group therapy leader!
This trusty support group leader puts his words into action. Stop the cycle of abuse!

Sun-kissed Dracula
Is he OK? No.

Cheerleader
Damsel-in-distress? Midnight snack? She’s neither, not with these deadly pom-poms!

Sister Charlotte
She brings divine retribution to the forces of darkness.

VI. New Stages

We’re ecstatic to reveal two new stages for players to explore and conquer.

Murder Room
There’s no escaping this time. With no exit in sight, the only way forward is through your ultimate opponent!

Dracula’s Castle
It’s every gothic fan’s dreamland. Aged flagstones, intricate candelabras, and lingering creatures around the corner waiting to suck your blood—yes, it’s Dracula’s dominion. Enjoy this throwback level if you dare!

Ever your servants, we’re more than happy to entertain you to your heart’s content. Nothing pleases us more than the contentment of the Dark Lord, Dracula, and our dedicated players of this humble game. The team expresses their absolute gratitude for trying out Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, and for the critical and relevant insight you’ve provided so we could improve this title.

If you have any questions or suggestions, hop on to our Discord and let us know. We’d be more than happy to see you there! Happy slashing, everyone!

Sep 1, 2023

Major Balance Patch & Weekly Quests

Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense - AutoAttackGames

Expected patch release: September 5-6 (Pacific Time)

News & Updates

Check out Lisk's Developer AMA and Jules' Gameplay & Balance AMA from this past month! These AMA ("ask-me-anything") events are run every month, so keep an eye on reddit for the next ones.
Next Nova Cup: September 23-24
Join the Tournament Discord to participate and receive tournament notifications. View all past Nova Cups here: Legion TD 2 Esports Portal.

New Features & Content

New Feature: Weekly Quests

Each week, you receive 5 random quests. These work similarly to New Player Quests: complete the quest, and you receive 500 Essence!
Weekly Quests are earnable in both Ranked & Classic
If your New Player Quests are still in progress, you must complete those before unlocking Weekly Quests
You can turn off quests via Options → Interface if you prefer to keep them hidden (Screenshot)

New Skin: Fatality Infiltrator

Get over heeeeere!

New Skin: Deathwish Orchid

Looking for a new playmate ;)

Game Balance

General

Systemic Changes
- Mythium rate increase per wave starting wave 11: 7% → 6%
- Long saving mythium is now less likely to make your opponents go on fire
- Fixed a bug where upgrading the king and taking Investment, Loan, and All Out Assault did not correctly affect power score

Saving mythium has been a dominant strategy because mid & late-game workers have been more powerful than income. Sacrificing income to keep your opponents from pushing workers has been too strong. These changes tip the scales slightly towards income.

King

- Health increased by 60% (75% in 4v4)
- Tenacity removed

While Tenacity had benefits, it also had unintended effects. We’ve heard enough feedback from the community that we’re testing a complete removal. This is an experimental change, and it may be reverted.

Legion Spells

Press the Attack

- Mythium: +70 --> +75

Pulverizer

- 34% chance to stun (17% for ranged) → stuns every 3 attacks (every 6 attacks for ranged)

Removing a source of frustrating RNG.

Fighters

This patch we’re buffing cheap units and nerfing strategy-limiting openings to increase opening variety, encourage 2+ unit openings, and create a more dynamic early game.

Pollywog

- Damage: 8 → 9

Seraphin

- Damage: 50 → 51

Devilfish

- Health: 1120 → 1100

Shifting power from Devilfish to Pollywog and Seraphin.

Bone Warrior

- Health: 140 → 150

Fire Archer

- Attack speed: 0.91 → 0.93

Bone Crusher

- Health: 1140 → 1120

Shifting power from Bone Crusher to Bone Warrior and Fire Archer.

Buzz

- Damage: 9 → 10

Peewee

- Damage: 8 → 9

Proton

- Health: 140 → 130
- DPS: 9.4 → 10.5
— Damage: 8 → 9
— Attack speed: 1.17 → 1.16

Atom

- Attack speed: 1.17 → 1.16

High win rate.

Chained Fist

- Damage: 8 → 9

Masked Spirit

- Damage: 7 → 8

Harpy

- Health: 220 → 200
- Damage: 14 → 15

Bazooka

- Attack speed: 0.75 → 0.76

Ranger

- Attack speed: 1.15 → 1.2

Daphne

- Health: 1050 → 1080

Chloropixie

- Damage: 49 → 50

Slime Larva

- Attack speed: 0.77 → 0.79
- Mini Slime: Attack speed: 0.77 → 0.79

Fire Elemental

- Attack speed: 0.8 → 0.78

Howler

- Health: 380 --> 360
- Damage: 16 --> 17

Sunfang

- Health: 2000 --> 1970

High win rate.

Golden Buckler

- Health: 550 → 560
- Fixed a bug where it didn't have Deflection (15% reduced damage against ranged units)
- DPS: Unchanged
— Damage: 21 → 18
— Attack speed: 0.75 → 0.87

Warg

- Health: 950 → 960

Dwarf Banker

- Compound Interest: Mana lost when dying: 25% --> 20%

Big Wig

- Aggressive Portfolio: Mana lost when dying: 50% --> 40%

Very low win rate and pick rate. We intend to keep these units slightly on the weak side due to their unorthodox gameplay, but they were still performing worse than expected.

Sacred Steed / Pegasus

- Mana regeneration decreased by 4%

High pick rate.

Sea Serpent

- DPS: 66.4 → 67
— Damage: 75 → 65
— Attack speed: 0.88 -> 1.03

Now has stronger thresholds against waves 2 and 4, but worse against wave 3

Seadragon

- Health: 870 → 830

Lifebinder

- Health: 2610 → 2530

High pick rate.

Treant

- Health: 980 --> 960

High pick rate.

Cursed Casket

- Damage: 28 → 20
- Iron Hail: Damage: 20x3 → 20x2
- Mana cost decreased by 40%
- Mana regeneration decreased by 15%

Cage of Pain

- Damage: 49 → 35
- Iron Hail: Damage: 35x3 → 35x2
- Mana cost decreased by 40%
- Mana regeneration decreased by 15%

Iron Maiden

- Damage: 70 → 50
- Blade Storm: Damage: 43x3 → 40x2
- Blade Storm: Damage Reduction: 1 → 2
- Mana cost decreased by 40%
- Mana regeneration decreased by 15%

More power budget in the ability and now casts more often.

APS / MPS

- Attack speed: 1.39 → 1.32

High win rate.

Gatling Gun

- Health: 1050 → 1020

Vulcan Cannon

- Health: 2950 → 2860

Very high win rate.

Priestess of the Abyss

- Attack speed: 0.97 → 0.95
- Burst Attack: Now also deals 0.035% max health damage

Priestess has long dominated as an opening. We’re nerfing her opening in exchange for slightly more power in the mid and late game.

Mercenaries

Lizard

- Health: 320 → 350

Lizards have been outshined by Dragon Turtles. This change makes Lizards more viable early game, makes their health consistent with other ranged mercenaries, and rewards saving mythium on wave 1. This is an indirect nerf to upgrading the king on wave 1, which is currently a dominant strategy.

Mimic

- Plunder: 2-7 gold → 2 → 9 gold

Very low usage rate. Now stronger from waves 10-21.

Witch

- Witchcraft: 3 mana per any unit dying → 1 mana per enemy unit dying
- Summon Froggo mana cost decreased by 70%
- Effective mana regeneration increased by 50%
- Froggos now decay after 40 seconds, consistent with other summons

Now viable on elite and boss waves. Previously, spam and summoner builds were too strong on these waves due to the lower wave spawn count. Also, Witch + Snail spam is no longer a powerful synergy.

Ogre

- Attack speed: 1.34 → 1.31

Four Eyes

- Attack speed: 2.24 → 2.2

Ghost Knight

- Health: 4050 → 4100

Centaur

- Attack speed: 1.85 → 1.77

Siege Ram

- Health 5600 → 5700

Needler

- Rapid Fire: Attack speed bonus: 35% → 25%

Kraken

- Ancient Power: Bonus damage and damage reduction per wave: 0.9% → 1%

Shifting power from high-performing DPS mercenaries to underperforming tank mercenaries.

Waves

Wave 6: Rockos

- Damage: 38 → 39
- Impale
— Damage amplification: 3% (1.5% to king) → 4% (2% to king)
— Now only affects damage from Rockos. No longer affects mercenaries

The recent Impale rework pigeonholed you into sending DPS mercenaries and heavily incentivized huge sends, making the wave weak on its own but too strong with a Drake, 2x Brutes, or even worse, 3x Brutes. This change should open up more viable sending strategies.

Wave 10: Granddaddy

- Attack speed: 3.704 → 3.636

As a boss wave, Granddaddy is intended to be strong, but it’s been a little too strong. This nerf should rein it in, while still keeping it a threat.

Wave 18: Wale Chiefs

- Damage: 170 → 180
- Poison-Tipped Pole: AOE Damage: 20 → 30
- Fixed a bug where Poison-Tipped Pole was unexpectedly resetting mana on-kill

Cheaper tank fighters are more viable on this wave now.

Balance Watchlist

The dev team is constantly monitoring game balance, between looking at data and listening to community feedback. If specific units/spells are being more closely monitored than usual, they will be listed in this Balance Watchlist section. For this patch, the following are on the watchlist:

Summoners
Healers
Ramping units
Pawn Shop

Improvements & Fixes

Improvements

HUD: Now displays Wave 22, 23, etc. for waves after Wave 21. (Screenshot)
Ping Wheel: Now displays Wave 22, 23, etc. for waves after Wave 21. Also now displays wave number as text to help differentiate waves. (Screenshot)
Guilds: Guild tagline can now contain slashes & links. Good place to put your Discord link!
Takeover Bots: Now should save on Wave 21+ if their adjacent lane ally saves
Campaign: Locked campaign maps are now previewable in-game
HUD: Reenabled different-colored bars for units unaffected by mana restoration (i.e. Dwarf Banker)
Modding Support: Most internal classes are now public, for better modding support (requested by BoSen)

Fixes

Dwarf Banker & Big Wig: Fixed a bug where the estimated total gold tooltip after wave ends was doing incorrect math when they were at max mana
Login: Fixed a bug where logins failed if Steam servers were extremely backed up

Community Highlights

Nova Cup: Today We Fight For Glory! (August 2023 Highlights)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1n6gzsqJ7Y&feature=youtu.be
Wondering what these "Nova Cups" are all about? Shadowings' hype video captures the excitement of epic holds and epic sends in a tightly edited 90 second video.

Game Translations

Legion TD 2's translations continue to be greatly improved, thanks to major contributions from community members! If you'd like to contribute to improving the game's texts further, visit the following link:

{LINK REMOVED}

HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped up to this point!

Closing Remarks

With this update, we are bringing some systemic balance changes to diversify the meta at all stages of the game and address some pain points. Systemic changes often have far-reaching effects, so we will be monitoring closely and hotfixing rapidly as always.

We're also excited to introduce Weekly Quests, which builds upon the New Player Quests feature introduce a couple patches ago. The goal of this system is to give players achievable, fun goals to shoot for and feel rewarded for completing them, without being overbearing or too in-your-face.

Thank you again for playing Legion TD 2! We hope you continue to enjoy the game.

If you've enjoyed the game, but haven't left a review yet, please consider posting a short (hopefully positive

) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = more freelo better matchmaking!

If you enjoy these updates, please give it a Thumbs Up, too!

And as always, if you have constructive criticism, let's chat about it. Discord and reddit are our main channels of communication, and aside from the development team, there are community helpers who can ensure your feedback is heard, as well as answer pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about the game. If you want a guaranteed answer from the devs, the monthly AMAs on /r/LegionTD2 are your best bet.

Sincerely,
The Legion TD 2 Team