Due to an extension in the maintenance, we will be compensating everyone who logs in during After Maintenance - March 13th 23:59 (UTC+0) with Compensation Chest 1 by mail.
Hello, Heroes of Bermesiah! We plan on having a scheduled maintenance for content updates.
<Maintenance Schedule> March 13th 04:00 - 08:30 (UTC+0)
<Event> 1. Growth Support Event (March 13th After Maintenance - April 3rd Before Maintenance (UTC+0)) 1) Growth Support Attendance Log - Players can login for 30 minutes daily for 15 days to acquire Login Rewards. - Players can acquire Raid Dungeon Entry Ticket, Single Stat Change Scroll, Single Stat Drop Protection Scroll, GP Item Property Scroll, Coordi Fusion Scroll, SP All Reset Card, and other various rewards.
2) Character Growth Mission - Players can select 1 character per account to go forward with the mission during the event period. - Rewards will vary depending on the character. - Once a player makes the selection, they cannot change the character anymore. Players must choose the character for the event carefully. - Players will receive rewards based on the selected character's level growth. - Players will acquire Lv.85 Achievement Gift Box, Phantom Phoenix Equipment Select Box, Selected Character's Job Mission, Ring of Beefiness, Advanced Rune Summon Chest, 1,000,000 GP Coupon, Premium GC Club, Blacksmith's Protection, Princeon Coordi Full Set Select Box (21 Days), and other various rewards. - [Lv.85 Achievement Gift Box] Contents: Iron Dragon Outfit Box x6, Hellstrom's Demon Core x12, Naamah's Demon Core x12, Grandiel's Demon Core x18, Hero's Bullion x60, Epic Reinforcement Box x1, Archimedia Monster Card Box x30, GP Item Property Scroll x2, and Advanced Rune Summon Chest x10
3) Growth Support Chain Mission - Players can clear a total of 11 missions in order and receive rewards. - Chain Mission can only be cleared 1 time per account. - Login Missions will only count 1 time and will reset daily at 00:00 (UTC+0). - Login Mission will start counting on the next day the mission is registered. (Login Mission will not count on the day it is registered.)
2. Sweet Candy Event (March 13th After Maintenance - April 3rd Before Maintenance (UTC+0)) - Clear Daily Repeat Mission to acquire [Romantic Gift Box]. - Event Daily Mission: Clear Dungeon at Appropriate Level Range 1 time to acquire [Romantic Gift Box] x1. - Daily Mission can be repeated up to 10 times. - Players will receive 1 of the contents of [Romantic Gift Box] on a chance. - [Sweet Candy Box] contains Strawberry Candy x3, Grape Candy x3, and Banana Candy x3. - Excluded Dungeons: The Crucible, Sanctum of Destruction, Wizard's Labyrinth, Berkas' Lair, Tower of Disappearance, Land of Judgment, Dimension Door, Void (Invasion), Void (Taint), Nightmare Circus, Monster Train 301, Hungry Pets' Revolt, Moonlight Village, Angry Bosses, Talin's Revenge, King Slime Dungeon, Trial Forest, Trial Tower
<Shop> 1. Petit Picnic Seal Breaker Coordi (March 13th After Maintenance - April 3rd Before Maintenance (UTC+0)) - Seal Breaker Season 8 Stats & Set Effect - Applied Season 8 Seal Breaker Season Stats and Set Effects - Stat Details may be subject to change.
2. Hyperspeed Mission Package Sale (March 13th After Maintenance - April 3rd Before Maintenance (UTC+0)) 1) Hyperspeed Skill Mission Package (Purchase Limit: 1) - [Hyperspeed] Reduced Quicksave Cost Select Box - [Hyperspeed] Thirst for Power Select Box - [Hyperspeed] Unleash the Extreme Select Box
<Bug Fixes/Improvements> 1. Growth Improvements ■ Improved the Difficulty of Normal Dungeons Reduced the attack and HP of boss monsters in Normal Dungeons. Reduced the hitbox of monsters in Normal Dungeon that knock down players or push players back. Adjusted the hitbox of attacks from monsters to fit the visual effect.
■ Improved Void (Invasion) Dungeon Improved the Voidal Devourer's breath pattern after flight. The position of the breath attack after flight (left or right) will depend on the direction of the wind. Improved the fire zone pattern after Voidal Devourer drops the Void Sphere. Fire Zone will only occur on the 1st floor or 2nd and 3rd floor based on the signals and will have reduced duration.
■ Reduced the Craft Time Needed for True Iron Dragon Increased the number of drops for Demon Core and Hero's Bullion from Hero Dungeons.
■ Phantom Phoenix Equipment Select Box and Iron Dragon Equipment Select Box Phantom Phoenix and Iron Dragon Equipment will now be changed from random drops to select boxes. Available Equipment will be adjusted from Rare Grade to Epic Grade.
■ Reduced the Daily Play Count for Another World Dungeon Reduced the daily play count for 'Siege of Teroka' and 'Temple of Time' to 1 time. Rewards will increase for playing the dungeon and the daily fragment acquisition limit will be retained. Increased the [Another World Entry Ticket] count for additional rewards have been increased to match the increase in rewards. - Siege of Teroka: 2 Tickets - Temple of Time: 3 Tickets
■ Crafting Another World Boss Monster Card Players can now use Dimension Guardians Earring and Dimension Guardians Piercing Fragment to craft Gaian Card and Belile Card. Players can now acquire fragments from dismantling [Dimension Guardians Earring] and [Dimension Guardians Piercing].
■ Adjusted the Taint Resistance for Another World Dungeon
■ Enhanced the Guides for Contents that Open Based on Growth Guide System, Reward, and Missions will be added for Contents that Open Based on Growth. Players who have already met the conditions will receive all the guides, rewards, and missions upon their first login.
■ Changed the Content Requirement Display Changed the play requirement for certain dungeons from Rank display to Total Battle Power display.
■ Added the Display for Recommended Battle Power for Dungeons at Level 85 or Higher Added Recommended Battle Power Display and Taint Resistance Information for Dungeon Entry Window so that players can get an insight into the difficulty of the dungeons.
■ Added Rune Total Battle Power Comparison Added a comparison function where players can compare the total battle power equipped with the total battle power for runes in the inventory.
■ Added Safety Nets to Hero Bullion Shop Equipment Upgrades Equipment with Monster Card and Reinforcement Stones equipped will no longer be used as crafting materials when upgrading in Hero's Bullion Shop.
■ Rune Guide will be added to Guides on Getting Stronger.
2. Character Balance Changes 1) Elesis ■ Knight (Basic Job) ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. ◇ Skill Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range of [Sword Fire LV1]. Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range of [Sword Fire LV2]. Adjusted the attack range of [Critical X LV1]. Increased the damage of [Critical X LV3].
■ Spearman (Basic Job) ◇ Command Increased the distance covered by [Dash]. ◇ Skill Adjusted the duration of player motion for [Compact Slash] upon hitting the target.
2) Lire ■ All Jobs ◇ Command Increase the number of arrows fired for [Double Attack] by 1.
■ Archranger ◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Hyper Shot].
■ Nova ◇ Skill Increased the damage and changed a part of the damage structure of [Buster Shot]. - Increased the damage of consecutive arrows while using the skill and reduced the damage of the final arrow. - Players can now press Z key while firing consecutive arrows to consume additional MP up to 3 times to deal additional attack.
3) Arme ■ Mage (Basic Job) ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. ■ Alchemist (2nd Job) ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Double Attack].
4) Lass ■ All Jobs ◇ Command Improved [Super Jump] so that pressing X while Dashing or Running will allow the player to use Super Jump.
■ Thief (Basic Job) ◇ Command Improved so that [Dash] can be used in midair. Increased the damage of [Paralyzing Kunai] and improved so that [Paralyzing Kunai] will stun normal monsters that do not have Super Armor applied. Fixed a bug where attacking the target with [Double Shuriken] Paralyzing Kunai did not activate the display wording "STUN!" ◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Impact Slash] Increased the damage of [Impact Slash LV2] Increased the damage of [Scorched Earth]. Increased the damage of [Hornet's Sting].
■ Dark Assassin (3rd Job) ◇ Command Increased the travel distance of [Grounded Dash]. The same effects and visual effects of dash are applied to this command.
■ Striker (4th Job) ◇ Skill Changed the damage structure of [Phantom Blade], - Players can now input Z key while drawing the sword to perform an additional attack towards the front.
5) Ryan ■ Druid (Basic Job) ◇ Skill Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range of [Twin Blade LV1]. Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range of [Twin Blade LV2]. Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range of [Twin Blade LV3]. Improved the [Hammering Crusher] to match the axe position with the visual effects and adjusted the attack range.
■ Sentinel (2nd Job) ◇ Command Increased the height of [Jump Dash].
■ Viken (3rd Job) ◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Nature Frenzy]. Increased the damage and changed the damage structure of [Spiraling Rage]. - Adjusted the size of the spikes. - Adjusted the damage hitbox based on the size of the spikes. - Adjusted so that spikes will appear at faster rates. - Fixed a bug where floor effects appear to be abnormal if players look towards the left.
■ Transformation Form Increased the height of Jump Dash for [Wolf]. Increased the height of Jump Dash for [Magnus Dan].
6) Ronan ■ Spell Knight (Basic Job) ◇ Skill Increased the movement speed of the magic circle for [Blast Bomb]. Reduced the special skill pause effect upon using [Kanavan Strike]. Increased the damage of 1st bar Special Skill for [Erudon's Sword]. Increased the damage of 2nd bar Special Skill for [Erudon's Sword]. Increased the damage of 3rd bar Special Skill for [Erudon's Sword].
■ Dragon Knight (2nd Job) ◇ Skill Changed the damage structure of [Blast Wave]. - Increased the attack speed of the dragon while using the skill. - Adjusted the attack so that the skill starts right in front of Ronan.
■ Abyss Knight (4th Job) ◇ Skill Increased the damage of each hit and changed the damage structure of [Tempest Blade]. - Adjusted the duration to 7 seconds. - Improved so that Commands and Skills can be used during the duration.
7) Amy ■ Muse (2nd Job) ◇ Skill Adjusted the damage of [Amy Kick] so that the damage is less reliant on back attack. - Increased the damage of first attack. - Reduced the damage of second attack.
■ Siren (3rd Job) ◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Scream]. Changed the damage structure of [Idol Stage]. - While skill is used, damage is dealt for every visual effect that rises from the floor.
■ Sistina (4th Job) ◇ Skill Adjusted the damage of [Pink Desperado]. - Increased the AOE damage caused by Amy's stomping. - Reduced the damage from Amy's lasers.
8) Jin ■ Fighter (Basic Job) ◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Fist of 10,000 Hells]. Adjusted the attack range of [Enhanced Fist of 10,000 Hells].
9) Sieghart ■ Gladiator (Basic Job) ◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Sword Fire LV1]. Increased the damage of [Sword Fire LV1 (Rage)]. Increased the damage and adjusted the range of [Grinding Punisher LV1]. Increased the damage and adjusted the range of [Grinding Punisher LV1 (Rage)]. Adjusted the attack range of [Grinding Punisher LV1 (Rage)]. Adjusted the attack range of [Grinding Punisher LV2 (Rage)].
■ Ares (3rd Job) ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Dash Attack]. Improved [Power Stance] to allow frontal dash. ◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of the final hit for [Death Punisher]. Increased the damage and adjusted a part of the damage structure of [Power Liberation]. - Adjusted the duration to 10 seconds. - Improved so that invincibility will still be active even while in standby during the duration. - Adjusted so that skill can be used during the duration.
■ Prime Knight (4th Job) ◇ Command Changed so that [Critical Attack] is possible towards the opposite direction of the attack. Increased the damage of [JF during Dash Attack]. Increased the damage of [Upper Attack JF during Dash Attack]. Increased the damage of [JF during Critical Attack]. Increased the damage of [JF during Double Attack].
10) Mari ■ Gunslinger (2nd Job) ◇ Command Improved the timing so that next motion for [Combo Attack] happens faster. Adjusted the max stacks for Command Attack. Increased the damage of Command Attack. Reduced the accumulation Heat Gauge for Command Attack by half. Adjusted the activation speed for [Magic Bullet] to be faster.
11) Dio ◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Rake Hand LV1~LV3]. Increased the damage of [Necrotic LV1~LV3 / Increased Number of Hits]. Increased the damage of [Black Space / Black Space Damage LV1~LV2].
12) Zero ■ Shared ◇ Reduced the pause for the attacker for certain Commands and Skills by half. This adjusts the stun duration of the hit in PVP. ◇ Improved Grandark's Domination so that players can manually activate it while in Stance by pressing C key.
◇ Command Basic Stance Increased the damage of [Combo Attack 1~3]. Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. Improved the timing so that next motion for the first hit of [Additional Combo Attack] happens faster. Improved the timing so that next motion for the first hit of [Dash Attack TYPE 2] happens faster. Sword Stance Increased the damage of [Enhanced SS Combo: Sword Stance Combo Attack 3~5]. Increased the damage of [Sword Stance: Thrust]. Increased the damage of [Sword Stance: Jump Slice]. Increased the damage of [Sword Stance: Spin Slice]. Offensive Stance Increased the damage of [Combo Attack 1~4]. Increased the damage of [Dash Attack 2~4]. Increased the critical damage of [Offensive Stance: Critical/Double Attack]. Increased the double attack damage of [Offensive Stance: Critical/Double Attack]. Increased the damage of [Offensive Stance: Trace LV1]. Increased the damage of [Offensive Stance: Trace LV2]. Special Skill Increased the damage of [Loss LV1~LV3]. Increased the damage of [Loss: AP Absorption LV1]. Increased the damage of [Loss: HP Absorption LV1]. Increased the damage of [Rude Pressure LV1~LV3]. Increased the target check range for [Orchid LV1~LV3 / Orchid Thorns LV1~LV3].
◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Gran X LV1~2 / Gran X Attack LV1~LV3]. Adjusted the attack range of [Twohand Smash]. Increased the damage and target check range for [Zero Domain].
13) Ley ◇ Command Improved the timing so that next motion for [Combo Attack 1~2] happens faster. Increased the projectile speed for [Combo Attack 1~3] by 30%. Improved [Jump Attack] so that players will be able to jump to the upper platforms. Improved [Jump Dash] so that players will have to input command keys at the end of the motion to turn to the other direction. Improved [Jump while Dashing] so that players will have to input command keys at the end of the motion to turn to the other direction.
◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Tear Drop LV1~LV3]. Adjusted the attack range nad removed the screen zoom in effect for [Real Dark].
14) Rufus ◇ Command Removed the dungeon cooldown time for Attack while in Combo.
◇ Skill Fixed the motions of [Make it Rain] so that attack timing happens faster. Changed the damage structure of [Explosive Shot]. - Separated the minimum shot damage to bidirectional damage.
15) Rin ◇ Command Fixed the Skill Description of Active Special Skills. - Added Defense Reduction Effect in dungeons. Changed a part of the structure of [Charging Attack] for Light Rin. - Improved the timing so that Charging Time is reduced. - Increased the projectile speed of Charging Attack. - Added a system to apply different levels of defense reduction based on the time charged in dungeons. - Fixed a bug where the Command did no damage in PVP. Changed a part of the structure of [Charging Buff] for Dark Rin. - Improved the timing so that Charging Time is reduced. - Reduced the HP Cost for Charging to half.
◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Flash of Light]. Improved [Enhanced Wailing Gust] so that dashing, running, and combo attacks can be used during the duration.
16) Asin ◇ Command Removed the cooldown of [Flowing Double Kick] in dungeons and added Jump Attack for additional hits after use. Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. Changed so that if [Coursing Steps] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack.
◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Hanuman]. Adjusted the damage of [Eastern Rain Liquid Jade]. - Increased the AOE damage. - Increased the damage at center.
17) Lime ◇ Command Increased the damage and improved the timing for [Combo Attack 1~3] so that next motion happens faster. Increased the damage and improved the timing for [Increased Combo Attack Speed: Combo Attack 1~3] so that next motion happens faster. Increased the damage and adjusted [Dash Attack] to no longer knock down enemies hit in dungeons. Increased the damage and adjusted [Whirlwind] to no longer knock down enemies hit in dungeons. Increased the damage and adjusted the attack range in dungeons for [Jump Attack]. Increased the damage and adjusted [Critical Attack] to no longer knock down enemies hit in dungeons. Increased the damage and adjusted [Double Attack] to no longer knock down enemies hit in dungeons. Increased the damage of [Acrobatics]. Changed so that if [Acrobatics] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack. Changed [Self Attack Aura] as follows. - Increased the damage of Combo Attack 1~4 and improved the timing so that next motion happens faster. - Increased the damage of [Double Attack] for [Self Attack Aura Additional Effect LV1]. - Increased the damage of [Double Attack] for [Self Attack Aura Additional Effect LV2]. - Increased the damage of [Double Attack] for [Self Attack Aura Additional Effect LV3].
18) Edel ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. Changed so that if [Retreat] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack. Changed all the [Flintlock Type] dungeon cooldown to 5 seconds. - List of Affected Commands: [Flintlock], [Flintlock while Comboing], [Air Flintlock], [Enhanced Jump Attack TYPE1~3] Adjusted the dungeon cooldown for [Evade] to 4 seconds and PVP cooldown to 9 seconds.
◇ Skill Adjusted a part of the damage structure for [Moon Slash]. - Adjusted the attack range by enemies hit. - Added damage when Edel slashes the full moon while skill is used.
19) Veigas ◇ Command Increased the damage of [Double Attack]. Changed so that if [Back Step] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack.
◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Absolute Dark].
20) Decanee ◇ Command Increased the distance traveled by [Dash]. Changed so that if [Evade while Attacking] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack.
◇ Skill Increased the damage of [Dark Astraphe]. Increased the damage of [Dark Astraphe: Cooldown].
21) Ai ◇ Command Increased the movement speed of [Walking, Running]. Increased the distance traveled by [Dash] and increased the acceleration of dashing. Adjusted the attack range of [Dash Attack]. Added Hyper Armor in Dungeons and Super Armor in PVP for 0.5 seconds when [Standby] is used. Increased the damage of [Standby]. Increased the damage of [Standby: Breaching]. Increased the damage of [Standby: Install Cutter]. Increased the damage of [Standby: Setup]. Changed so that if [Evade while Attacking] is deactivated, the player can use [Critical Attack] and [Double Attack] in the opposite direction of the Combo Attack.
◇ Skill Adjusted the attack range of [Flare TYPE1]. Increased the damage per hit and adjusted a part of the damage structure for [Electronic Pulse TYPE1]. - Adjusted the location of orbs created. - Adjusted the damage of orb hit to be consistent. Increased the damage of [Electronic Pulse TYPE2]. Increased the damage and adjusted a part of the damage structure of [Chain Blast TYPE1]. - Adjusted the attack range. - Adjusted so that all attack is created at once. Increased the damage and adjusted a part of the damage structure of [Chain Blast TYPE2]. - Adjusted the attack range. - Adjusted so that all attack is created at once. - Increased the damage reduction debuff in dungeons to 10% and adjusted the duration to 7 seconds. (In PVP, the defense reduction debuff is adjusted to 5%.) Adjusted the attack range of [Shock Detonation TYPE1]. Adjusted the attack range of [Shock Detonation TYPE2]. Adjusted a part of the damage structure of [Local Devastation]. - Reduced the time until the central explosion occurs. - Adjusted so that players can end the motion early with a dash at the end of the skill.
3. Pet Balance 1) Havoc - Adjusted attack range 2) Scar - Adjusted damage 3) Raven Soul - Adjusted attack range - Adjusted damage - Adjusted stun duration
4. Other Fixes - Fixed the icon error for certain Sylph equipment - Fixed a bug where a part of Mari's Soul Taker did not move - Fixed a bug where Rin's Heaven's Light causes monsters at the location of the damage to be launched in the air - Fixed a bug where Kallia did not have the same Hero's Bullion Cost as other characters in crafting parts of certain items - Fixed a bug where Kallia did not have the same Crafting Tab position as other characters for certain items - Fixed the tooltip error for certain title items for certain languages - Fixed the tooltip error for certain Kallia's Seal Breaker Coordi items for certain languages - Fixed the display error for titles in possession in Collections under certain circumstances - Fixed the display error for party member levels in rooms under certain circumstances - Fixed the display error for quantities of certain items under certain circumstances - Fixed a bug where the game client would shut down under certain circumstances - Fixed a bug where the Rune Reinforcement Help Tooltip did not close under certain circumstances - Fixed a bug where Chaser Pass Reward Preview Window did not have the weapon and Job motion did not match - Fixed the Team Banner to go on display depending on the team selected in PVP - Adjusted the position of stat display below the icon for rune tooltip - Fixed the red dot notification mark to go on display only when there is an unclaimed item in the mailbox
<List of Items to be Deleted> 1. List of Items to be Deleted during Maintenance on April 3rd (UTC+0) - All [Exploration] for Aernas Great Exploration will end during maintenance on April 3rd. All unclaimed mail will be deleted. Please claim all rewards before the maintenance begins. - Princeon Coordi Full Set (21 Days) Box - Princeon Coordi Full Set (21 Days) Select Box - Lv.85 Achievement Gift Box - Romantic Gift Box - Strawberry Candy - Grape Candy - Banana Candy - Sweet Candy Box - Unknown Pet Box - Epic Glyph Box - Relic Glyph Box - Brilliant Diamond Box - Ornate Gold Box - Gold Box - Silver Box - Copper Box
<Banned Players Notice> Number of players banned for using and/or promoting hack tools: 71 (Permanent Bans)
We will strive to create the best experience possible. Thank you.
This blog post will be focused on the advancements made in the last few weeks toward update 0.10. As some may know, the beta for update 0.10 started about 2 weeks ago, so let's see what's already done:
Weapon modifiers
This is one of the main features for 0.10. Weapon modifiers are cards you can equip on weapons. Weapons have unlimited slots for modifiers, but a modifier can only be attached to a single weapon (there are ways to increase this limit).
This feature was already half-coded into the game, so adding the missing stuff was quick, which is the reason it's the first thing added in this beta.
However, attaching all the modifiers to a single "god" weapon is not the most optimal way. Some modifiers like Thunder Spirit would be better equipped on slow but heavy-hitting weapons, while Ice Spirit would be better on AoE or high attack speed weapons.
Weapon modifiers can be equipped in the Weapon tab in the pause menu. The game will try to automatically equip newly obtained modifiers on the most optimal weapon.
In addition, card now display what type of card, whether it's "Stats", "Weapon", "Effect" or "Weapon Modifier"
Many already existing cards got changed to become weapon modifiers and a few new cards got added.
I plan to slowly increase the pool of weapon modifiers during the beta. Any suggestions for new cards are welcome.
RogNGesus
This started as a semi-joke avatar I thought of, but I ended up really liking the concept. RogNGesus is a direct reference to RNGesus, which is the meme personification of luck in video games and role-playing games.
The main gimmick of this character is that each stage, a random effect will be rolled, there is 20 different results, each having either positive or negative results
In Survivor's mode, the stage roll is instead rolled every minute (affected by the player time).
In addition, his card tag drop chance is randomized from -50% to +100% at the start of a run.
Amber dune alternative zone, "Behemoth Graveyard"
A new alternative zone has been added to the game, a western-themed zone.
This zone also introduces more impactful terrain generation, with the addition of cliffs that prevent grounded enemies from spawning there (and walking over the void).
This pushed forward 2 problems that didn't exist before and that were required to be fixed to properly start working on the second zone. I'll come back to these in the next section.
Next Zone - Manor
This is likely the most awaited addition and the main subject of this Dev-blog.
The 5th zone (and by extension B-rank world) is currently in development and is the most unique zone in the game.
Let's talk about the 2 problems that appeared previously.
Terrain Generation rules
The first issue was to handle more complex terrain generation.
The terrain generation was created following a "Wave function collapse" algorithm, which is basically picking a first random (or non-random) module of terrain, and then for the next surrounding module, pick a compatible one and repeat the process until all the pieces of terrain required were generated.
Each module size is 100 meters by 100 meters and the game generates a 3x3 grid around the players, which is enough to handle every case in the game.
In 0.9.1, the terrain generation only handled and checked 4 borders, South/West/North/East. It was good enough for what was used (basically generating some variant of the same terrain or simple path generation), but it wasn't enough for situations where the northwest was different from the west and south-west; it wasn't possible to convey the 3 stages of an entire side this way. An example being the cliff with 1 third of "hole" and 2 thirds of desert terrain.
There was still the possibility of creating some special border that basically said "Cliff/Desert/Desert," but it would mean a ton of additional complexity and lack of flexibility, especially if I added more types of terrain later on.
This led to me reworking the system deeply to handle the 4 borders and the 4 corners, but also handle varied sizes of grid in case I want to reduce the size of terrain for some zone to be 20x20 or anything I would want.
Valid Spawn Position
With the addition of holes (and walls), this led to many positions in the game where enemies shouldn't be allowed to spawn, like a grounded enemy being spawned over a hole, or any enemies being spawned in a wall, but also to avoid spawning enemies on the other side of a hole/wall as proper pathfinding would be too expensive with the amount of enemies in the game.
Thanks to a friend of mine who found the following solution:
Each hole/wall has a collision area that is set to them, called "Terrain Collision". Each frame, I check every terrain collision visible on screen and detect angles where no terrain collision exists. This ensures that enemies always spawn in a direction that doesn't have holes to spawn in, but also that no major obstacle would obstruct them.
The blue sphere is the distance at which new enemies are spawned, in green, the valid angle generated
As you can see, the detection of valid angles is not perfect, but it's good enough to prevent...
The new varied terrain required handling things that weren't planned at all, like collectibles dropped from flying monsters in inaccessible areas or shrines spawning in walls/holes.
For the former case, the solution was simple: slowly move the collectible toward the player until it reaches a valid position. For the latter, the same solution wasn't viable. I didn't want generation to vary depending on how the player would approach the terrain spot, so the final solution was to use "safe spots" in the terrain generation. These are positions that are known to be in the playable area that I manually set. When the shrine is generated in an invalid position, trace a line from the original position to one of the safe spots, and take the first valid position on this line. I preferred this solution over a "socket" one since it allows for a lot of different objects to use the same safe spot as a reference and still have different final valid positions.
Other Minor Things
Reworked "Game Options" Menu
Something that I have noticed, and that always frustrated me, is how often players would miss the drop-down on the top-left of the menu and then miss out on the multiple tabs of game options that exist. Some workarounds have been tried to improve on it, like making the drop-down yellow/golden, but it was mere patchwork that wasn't enough.
This was a clear indication that the way it was presented was fundamentally wrong and this led me to redesign the game option menu to make sure players don't miss the tabs.
Similarly, the Mod option menu got the same changes.
Slight Anachronistic Rework
Due to a lot of factors (mainly visual bugs) and upcoming content, I had to refactor how anachronistic was working.
Until now, when anachronistic was activated, it slowed down the timescale of projectiles and enemies, which didn't affect the game speed. The main issue with this approach is that particle effects weren't affected by this change (and there was no way to manually affect them without a massive overhaul in the game code).
The new approach is to slow down the entire game and speed up the player character accordingly. This fixed the issues with particles and made the entire process lighter to handle (it's easier to speed up the player than having to slow down every enemy and projectile, even if they were using a global variable).
In addition to that, there is now a small visual transition when activating anachronistic.
Shrines Are Now Affected by Tag Drop Chance
That's it. I believe it makes tag drop chance have more impact on the game and gives more control to the player.
Artifact Reroll in Reward
This was requested a lot and always pushed back. But I believe it'll become important as more and more artifacts are added into the game.
From now on (and on the condition you have the required Soul-Shop upgrade), you'll be able to reroll any random artifact in the reward screen once (per artifact). (This only applies to random artifacts and doesn't affect set-artifacts like event rewards).
Content
As usual, a bit of additional content has been added to the game, even if it's not the focus at this phase of the beta: 3 weapon modifiers, 2 passive talents, as well as 1 new artifact.
Beta Roadmap
There is still quite a lot of things planned for this beta, but the biggest chunk of it is mainly the 5th zone, especially as it was quite heavy on the modeling and texturing. Here is a rough idea of what I plan to add:
Shop-Lock Feature Similarly to many auto-battlers, the ability to lock one or multiple things in the shop for the next shop or reroll. This will only affect shops of the same type (blacksmith to blacksmith, shop to another shop, shopkeeper level-up to another level-up). And it'll only work on cards, consumables, and artifacts (you won't be able to lock a limit break or a card selection). This should be the next thing I work on and should be part of beta update 3.
Equipment System Test In a few beta updates, I'll implement a rough version of the equipment system to check if it properly fits into the game. This will be an experimental change that may or may not be kept in the game.
Twitch Integration This is something I want to investigate for a long time, but I think it's time to add Twitch integration into the game. I'm still not sure how I want it to be implemented, but I'll likely open a Community Feedback about it in the upcoming week on the game discord.
Of course, additional content is also planned as usual. I also expect this update to be (yet again) delayed by the enemies' sprites/animations.