In this latest edition of Designer's Notes, we'll go into detail about the balancing changes that'll come with the Y8S3.3 Update and give you some insight into the reasons behind them.






Please note that we are using presence to gauge the popularity of an Operator. This notion had to be introduced to reflect the implementation of the pick & ban.

Presence definition: pick rate of an Operator when not banned. Win Delta: The Win Delta is aggregated from Operator's Win Deltas per Bomb Site.







An earlier iteration of these changes was released on the Lab Test Server and two main lines of feedback were identified from the community:

Players don't want to lose the ability to bait extra attackers into reviving the victim trapped in the Welcome Mat.
Players are afraid that these changes will make the game more run & gun oriented.
We have heard your feedback and made some tweaks aimed to tackle these issues:

Teammate Revive: Players caught in the Welcome Mat can choose to wait for a teammate to perform the revive, if they do so, they will not receive the debuff when leaving the trap. This should grant Frost opportunities to hunt teammates willing to help trapped players while attackers are rewarded for playing as a team.
Stronger Debuff: In addition to not being able to sprint we've added a movement speed reduction of 20% and increased the duration of the effect to 1 minute. This will cripple the run & gun capabilities of reckless players that separate from their teams and fall into Welcome Mats.
Slower Revive Animation: Trapped players will now need 4 seconds to exit the trap regardless of the revive method. This should grant extra time for defenders to finish off trapped enemies before they can stand up.

• Welcome Mat Removal by Teammate takes 4 seconds (was 4.3 seconds). No debuff applied.
  
  
• Welcome Mat Removal by Self takes 4 seconds (was 2.5 seconds).
  
  
• If players remove the trap by themselves, a debuff will be applied to them. The effects are as follow:
  
  
• Duration is 60 seconds (Was 20 seconds on the Lab Test Server).
  
  
• Will move 20% slower
  
  
• Won't be able to sprint.
  
  
• Will leave a trail of blood behind them.
  
  
• Health is set to 20 hp.
  
  
• Being caught by a Welcome Mat is considered entering the Down But Not Out state. R6 allows DBNO only once per round, this means players that have already been DBNO will immediately die if they fall into a Frost trap.

We have two main objectives with this set of changes, the first is to make the placement of Welcome Mats more strategic and less "deploy and forget." The second is to make being caught by Welcome Mats less frustrating by giving more options to players.

Players will have now two options to escape from a Welcome Mat, they can wait for a Teammate to help them, or they can release from the trap by themselves at the cost of receiving a penalty with several negative effects that will impact their movement speed.


As mentioned in the Y8S3 Designer's Notes, the next few changes are in preparation for a more definitive solution that intends to address the Frag Grenades issue.

• Gadgets: Stun Grenades will replace Frag Grenades.
  
• Secondary Weapon: Added Gonne-6.

Iana has been the top Attacker for almost a year since we removed Frag Grenades from Finka and changed Sledge's and Zofia's armor rates. It is time for a change that leaves more space for other Operators to excel. We are replacing the Frag Grenades with Stun Grenades to retain Iana's aggressive playstyle and adding the Gonne-6 to keep a bit of her destructive power.

• Gadgets: Added Frag Grenades as 3rd option.
  
• Secondary Weapon: Removed Gonne-6.

We needed to add another 'competitive' operator to replace Iana during this transition period. We already know that Finka is a good fit and could take this spot. Now that the LMG-meta has been adjusted, we believe that she can have Frag Grenades again.

She won't keep the Gonne-6 however, as the combination of it and Frag Grenades will be limited to special cases.

• Reduced vertical recoil.
  
• Reduced lateral recoil.
  
• Reduced recoil increase after long bursts

We believe that Sens is an operator with great potential, but it looks like they'll need a push to shine. We made them a 1-Armor and 3-Speed operator back in Y7S4, and softened the POF-9 recoil for Gamepad in Y7S3, but that wasn't enough. Operator weapons have a lot of weight on their performance, so we are taking a second look at the POF-9, but this time for both Mouse and Gamepad.

This weapon has been considered challenging to operate for a long time, and we've decided to soften its recoil. With this change we are aiming to have a weapon that feels way more forgiving to use. This should allow players to perform better with the POF-9 at longer distances and grant them more freedom to pick its weapon attachments.

• Damage: Increase to 60 (from 49)

Despite the high damage, the time to kill is much higher than average regardless of enemy armor because of the low rate of fire. We never increased it because we didn't want to go lower than 3 bullets to down a player with any automatic weapon, but the recent changes on the Extended Barrel have proven that this is fine for certain operators.

So, with this change, the DP27 will be closer to other weapons with higher rates of fire in terms of time to kill a full health operator, especially against high-speed operators.

• 1-armor: 0.218ms (faster than average)
  
• 2-armor: 0.218ms (faster than average)
  
• 3.-armor: 0.327ms (slower than average)

• Armor: 3 (from 2)
  
• Speed: 1 (from 2)

We changed Warden to 2-Armor and 2-Speed by the end of Y4 to increase his mobility and allow him to react faster to the Attacking team. With the evolution of the game, and defenders playing more loosely than back then we will drop his speed to reduce his roaming capabilities.

We believe the 1.5x on the MPX, synergizes well with his kit to counter Smokes from far away, so rather than change that we are going to reduce his speed. He will be slower and louder while running around the map, which will make him an easier target to take down by more coordinated teams.

We want to encourage players to play him closer to the site, where he can use his ability more effectively because flashes and smokes are easier to predict. He should be a critical operator to keep alive until the end of the round because can counter most of the attacking strategies. He shouldn't be the one to go for roaming and dying too early.

Follow us and share your feedback on Twitter and Reddit.

The demo has been released! We kindly ask you to share your impressions and report any bugs and suggestions in the forum section on the main game page. We are aware of many localization imperfections. If you manage to catch something, please provide specific examples. Thank you in advance, and we wish you a pleasant gaming experience!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/998400

Prepare yourself for a heart-pounding adventure that will send shivers down your spine. "Spectator 2 Prologue" is the much-anticipated sequel to the acclaimed horror game series, and it's poised to take your fear to new heights.

🌞 Team Up : For the first time in the Spectator series, you can team up with friends in cooperative mode!



🌟 Spread the word and share this thrilling news! Invite your friends and dive into the horror!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2358620/Spectator_2/

- we fixed stopped time after playing a minigame.

Hello, Studio215 here.

We are excited to announce that "Dark Matter: The Strange Messenger" will be available for Early Access on November 29th.

We have been working diligently to prepare for this release and will do our best to ensure a smooth gaming experience. While the road to the full release may still be long, we will persevere and maintain a steady pace.

You can currently play a demo of the game at Steam Next Fest.

We would love to engage with you on Discord, where we can exchange ideas and continue developing the game together.
Discord: https://discord.gg/hDyZNJJ36t

《MechCrisis》It's a Roguelike shooter game

Warriors, hold on for 20 minutes! Resist the invasion of intelligent machinery

In a Roguelike extreme survival game, choosing different skills to level up makes each battle a new and exciting experience, with different characters having their own unique active skills, around which we can build our own gameplay each turn

We are thrilled to announce that Power Champions, our exciting hack-and-slash RPG game, will be launching tomorrow, on October 10, 2023! Get ready for an unforgettable journey filled with epic battles, unique powers, and a captivating storyline.

In the world of Zarion, you are the chosen Champion to confront terrifying mechanical threats. Battle relentless enemies, empower yourself with mystical artifacts, and embark on a mission to restore peace to your realm. The Goddess Ellora sacrificed herself to create this universe, and now it's up to you to protect it.

We want to ensure that your journey in Power Champions is always thrilling. We are committed to providing regular updates that will include:

✨ New Maps: Explore intriguing new locations on Zarion and other planets, filled with challenges and secrets to uncover.

💥 New Powers: Unlock even more incredible abilities as you progress, expanding your combat repertoire.

🌟 New Characters: Meet new allies and adversaries that will deepen the story and gameplay.

🎮 New Game Modes: Experience new ways to play, testing your skills and strategies.

We appreciate you joining us on this journey thus far and hope you'll enjoy Power Champions as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates, and in the meantime, get ready for action!

Link to Power Champions on Steam

Let the battle begin! 🗡️🛡️

Hello, check out our Steam Next Fest 2023 official live stream for the entire event!

And if you like what you see, don't forget to add the game to your wishlist! Each download, comment and wishlist matters so much to us, so please consider adding Storybook of Tactics to your wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2511340/Storybook_of_Tactics/

Enjoy and consider joining our Discord if you wish to share your feedback!

Have fun!
Laughing Fox Games

Hi everyone! The v0.8.3 patch is out. The goal to fix a critical bug and improve various small things.

- Fix Lighthouse scenario not unlocked after completing Battleship scenario
- Fix can't send horse/car to other cities when main city is full
- Fix achievements not unlocking when unlocking multiples achievements at the same time
- Fix tutorial not finishing by itself when buying the upgrade (it needed to close menu)
- Reduce consumption of the city in the early game
- Increase the probabilities for spawning artifacts on ships in Librarian scenario
- Increase distances of other cities
- Horses/cars in autosend will not change their destination until autosend is disabled. It allows having 2 vehicles going in autosend in main city while having 1/2 vehicles in reserve to send manually in other cities
- Add a small text when select horse/car to tell where it is going

Thank you for your support!
Have a great day!

In this update, we want to show you the new creature of the Ranch: Owls!
We want to include different types of owls you can care for on the Ranch, and here is one of them:



We've also implemented the following features to the ranch system:
You can build different houses for your creatures in dedicated spaces near your cottage.

• Owls, Rabbits and more creatures to come will wander around these houses and will have different states. For example, the owls sleep during the day and are more active when the sun goes down
  
• Rabbits sleep at night and are graciously livid, jumping and running during the day.
  
• All creatures will take cover when it's raining!

You will have to put food on their houses, clean them and interact with the creatures.

We have a special guest on this blog: The quirky Apothecary shopkeeper!
You will find this intriguing character if you pass by the apothecary shop in the apprentice town.
The shopkeeper will happily sell you seeds, ingredients, and other witchy trinkets for your journey to become a wizard.
You might remember that the shopkeeper is not just the regular shopkeeper; it hides a (well, it's not so well-hidden) fluffy secret under their attire...👀




In the following pictures, you can see the player interface, with a clock on the right side, which indicates the time of day, the weather, and the date...



We've added a broom indicator that will tell you whether you can ride the broom in certain areas. At the bottom, there are 2 different hot bars, the hot bar for items and a secondary hot bar for the spells.



We've also added a mana indicator, indicating how much mana you have left to use with spells. Look at the new interface for the inventory and workstation such as the cauldron.



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