Nov 3

V0.8.4 | RIVAL! + New items, UI Improvements, Bug Fixes (And dev plan update!)

Sculplings - ConorBoltDev

This is a big update with a lot of changes. Some of the big ones are:

- RIVAL: Each run, there is a 30% chance that one of the bosses with be replaced with your RIVAL. Your RIVAL has a team that is built to counter your starter Sculpling. We're working on a rival Emblem and unique reward(s) for defeating the rival but for now you just get more coins. That stuff will be in next week or later this week :)

- Additional base items and item changes throughout run: I have added several new active items you will find in runs and have made it so HALFWAY THROUGH A RUN(after the first opponent of the second zone) the item pool for end of battle items changes to include more powerful items.

- Clay UI changes: We are transitioning to more of a clay UI look and a lot of that has been implemented into the current UI, this week I'm going to continue going through all the game's UI to get all the menus looking good and consistent. Think it's a big improvement on the existing UI :) lmk what you think

- Bug Fixes: Thank you all for the bugs and QOL ideas you have reported. Many of the reported bugs are fixed in this patch, a few of them we are still trying to test but will continue to upload patches this week :)

Additionally- I have sat down and thoroughly planned out the remaining development for the game. We have been working on the game for over two years and are aiming to hit 1.0 in late January/ early Feburary(exact date coming soon) This gives us 3 months to finish the game and put it in a state we are proud of. I believe this is plenty of time for us to get it there, but it did mean being realistic about what we can add to the game.

There's this planning method I learned as a web developer called MoSCoW map- essentially sorting all features of something into - "MUST" - "SHOULD" - "COULD" and "WONT" categories. This is our current development map based off that for the next few months:

(subject to change obv)

Essentially, other than the game's final two bosses, there isn't any major new features I want to add to the game, rather I want to focus on improving what is there already. This means still plenty of new things to look forward to: like new items, Sculplings, Events, Emblems and QOL features, but also it means cool things I wanted to add, like "Legendaries" realistically probably won't be there for the 1.0 release.

Now, depending on how the launch goes, I'm willing to maybe add these things post launch, but to be frank I've been working on this game for close to 3 years, full sprinting for a least this last year of that, and I am getting pretty burnt out. I think how the launch goes is very determinanite of whether or not that additional content gets added after 1.0. I still think v1.0 will be awesome but just wanted to let you guys know there's some things(but honestly not many) I originally planned on having in there that I don't think will be in for v1.0.

This month, we're working really hard on a lot of cool things, including trying the get the game's final two bosses in by the end of the month, lots of new pins, Controller Support, a few new Sculplings and new events. As well(as always) as working on squashing bugs you guys are reporting

Thanks all for the support as always.

Conor

Nov 3

Square Meals & Space Supplies Update

Ostranauts - Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Hey Folks!

Update v0.14.5.17 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our "Inventory Overhaul" update, which adds a load of new sprites, quality of life improvements, and some fixes.

Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

Note: 📢 indicates changes inspired by community feedback!

General Changes

New item sprite art for food and drinks.
New item sprite art for medical injectors, EVA supplies, batteries, and O2 candles.
📢Main Menu and Quit buttons now have a confirm dialog.
📢Options Screen now has a Reset All Settings button, to restore all default game settings.
📢NAV station ship labels no longer overlap.
NAV and other UIs no longer close after using super fast-forward and then unpausing.
MegaTooltip no longer blocks clicks in the world where it is invisible.
MegaTooltip item list now scrolls instead of overflowing down screen.
Dropping an item on an incompatible slot no longer traps it behind the inventory UI.
Training manuals now report/display correct skills.

Over the past few weeks, the team's priority has shifted more towards 0.15 development. But that doesn't mean we're done with 0.14!

Today's update includes a large batch of new item sprites, continuing our effort to get clearer artwork for smaller items in the game. This batch includes most of the foods and drinks available in-game, plus several of the other consumables and personal batteries.

We also added some player-requested features to the main UI. The game will now prompt you for confirmation when exiting to the main menu and exiting the game. And for cases where the game has stored settings that are hard to find or edit again later, we added a nuclear option to wipe all user settings data for Ostranauts on the machine.

In the NAV station, you'll now notice that ship labels will adjust to avoid overlapping, hopefully improving legibility in crowded spaces. The UI will also remain open if you've used super fast-forward and then unpause.

The Megatooltip has also received a few updates. First, we fixed the issue where it would block mouse clicks in areas where it was invisible. And we changed the way it lists multiple items in the same spot, so it uses a scrollbar instead of an endless list crossing the screen.

Finally, we fixed training manuals showing the wrong skill, plus a case where the item on the cursor got trapped behind the UI, getting stuck.

As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!

Best,

Daniel Fedor

Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

PS: Also, Ostranauts is on sale this week. So if you (or a friend!) has been eyeing-up the game, now is a good time to pick it up. And if you know anyone who might dig what we're making, please spread the word!

Nov 3

Update day Renaissance Hot-fix

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened - AlsoCoolGamer

Announcement:

Dear Defenders of Etheria,

Apologies for the disruption and we appreciate your patience while we hot fixed as quickly as we could. The last patch caused serious problems for many of you: multiplayer access was broken and our anti-cheat system incorrectly flagged players as hackers after the stat and gear-roll changes. That prevented people from playing online and caused a lot of frustration. We prioritized a hot fix to get multiplayer back online and to stop the false positives

I want to be transparent about the tower reorder and why we made the change. Before touching anything we ran full play-tests from start to finish and found clear problems: the Guardian did not unlock a damaging tower until level seven, her primary and secondary damage magnitudes were low, and Shield Slam had a long cool-down and slow cast, which made early Guardian play feel slow and unrewarding. The Warden, despite having strong towers on paper, felt clunky as an active hero because of high cool-downs, low magnitudes, and a poor seed pickup range. At the same time we saw many towers that were solid in isolation being overlooked because a tower in a previous tier was simply better early on. Rather than patching balance with a dozen quick buffs and Nerfs that only chase one another, we reorganized tower order and tuning so each hero’s defenses feel meaningful and fun from the start. This was a choice for the long-term health of DD:A and we will continue iterating based on play tests and your feedback.

We also reworked the Lycan King fight because it was being trivialized. A bug allowed players to phase him into a howling state and let the game auto-kill him in under two minutes at multiple progression stages. The Keep encounter should be a cornerstone challenge that tests gear and strategy, so that exploit had to go. When we fixed the trivial kill the encounter became too slow and passive, so we redesigned the mechanics to encourage active play and to act as a proper gear check. We buffed healing auras and fairy heals and improved items like the Obsidian Gemstone and the Happy Hera so skilled groups can sustain the fight. Expect cornerstone fights to reward thoughtful builds: higher armor or vitality helps, mobility matters, and using the fight mechanics matters. We did find some issues with test-mode scaling after the rework and we will give those modes extra attention in the next major patch.

This update also brings new pet content and a little bit of fun. New pets begin appearing in Survival at wave 250 and then every 50 waves up to wave 500, and we tucked a small Easter egg into the tavern that reveals a secret message once it is cracked for everyone to see. A few honest call outs on things that did not make this hot fix: there is an item-box duplication glitch we are actively investigating, some pet and item tool-tips are not displaying correctly, and starting manna values on Lost Metropolis and the forge and foundry maps are higher than intended. Those fixes were planned for this patch but needed more testing than we could give while rushing the multiplayer hot-fix. They remain high priority and will be included in the next patch after proper testing. We also hear you about consoles; Xbox and PlayStation updates will come, but our first focus is overhauling and stabilizing the game on PC so the console ports land in good shape.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. The Community Development Team is currently two people working day in and day out on this game because we love it and we care about this community. We read your posts on Steam, Discord, and social media, and your feedback—good and bad—shapes what we do next. If you want to help, please keep sending clear bug reports, leave feedback on our Steam posts, join the official Discord to talk with us and meet your fellow Defenders, consider leaving a positive review if you’re enjoying the fixes and content, share the game with friends and family, or support us by buying cosmetics. We truly cannot do this without you and we appreciate every bit of support and feedback.

With gratitude,
The Community Development Team (two people, one huge amount of love)

Patch notes:

Hero Changes:

Squire:

Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes
Bowling Ball Tower damage decreased by 30% to reflect the DU change
Sniper Cannon Damage decreased by 5%

Apprentice:

Arcane Blast Damage Coefficient from 1.0 - 1.5
Manna Bomb Damage Coefficient from 1.0 - 2.0
Manna Bomb Cool-down reduced from 20 s to 12 s

Warden:

Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes
Wrath gives the Hero a 25% Melee Damage increase
Wrath gives the Hero a 10% Speed Increase
Roots of Purity Wrath now gives a 25% boost armor, up from 15%
Roots of Purity Wrath damage, increased by 25%
Shroomy Pit Wrath damage, increased by 25%

Guardian

Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes
Divine Judgement Rune Stun lasts for 1.25 s, Maximum of 2 stacks
Guardian takes 75% damage from nearby Hero’s during Divine Protection

Weapons:

Obsidian Sword-

Increased Hero Stat Scalars by 1.0
Increased Damage Scalar +10.0
Knock back Scalar of 0.05
Increased Attack Rate max by 0.2
Crit Chance Scalar increased by 0.1
Crit Bonus Scalar increased by 5.0

Obsidian Staff-

Increased Hero Stat Scalars by 0.5
Increased Damage Scalar +10.0
Increased Projectile Roll Count Scalar to 0.4 from 0.2
Added Knock back with a Scalar 0.005

Obsidian Pole-arm-

Increased Hero Stat Scalars from 2.5 to 3.5
Increased Weapon Damage Scalar from 33 to 50
Crit Chance Scalar + 0.1
Crit Bonus Scalar + 0.1
Crit Bonus Maximum Scalar increased from 25 - 40

Obsidian Bow-

Rolls with 5 Projectiles from 3 (U.I reflects 6?)
Attack Rate Maximum -0.1
Added Knock back of 0.05

Pets:

Topaz gemstone is functioning properly, (replaced its skeletal mesh with the gemstone) (Change the description to: Gives nearby Heroes 15% increase to Move Speed and Attack Rate for 4 s, with 2 s Cool down )
Lapis gemstone now applies the correct status effect to enemies, making them deal less damage. (There was a bug where the applied effect would give the enemy armor,

- Mista Mine:

Added a Rift Variant to Ancient Mines
Gold Variant has a 50% Cast Rate, and a 50% Move Speed Reduction
Rift Variant has a 40% Cast Rate, and a 40% Move Speed Reduction
Normal Variant has a 30% Cast Rate, and a 30% Move Speed Reduction
With Increasing Hero Stat Scalars per variant

Corgi’s:

With permission, we’ve added a family of Corgi pets to Survival drop tables. These are special: they are the first pets in the Dungeon Defenders franchise to grant the player an extra jump. You can find these good boys darting through Survival starting at Wave 250, and a new Corgi is added to the drop table every 50 waves up to Wave 500. Currently these drop only on Massacre difficulty, Hardcore, and Bonus Waves, and they can appear on all maps.

Base/Rift Corgi:Provides the Hero with 10% Versatility, 40% Cast Rate, and Hero Scalars of 2.75, Rift Corgi gives 5% Rift Armor, and an EXTRA jump!
Fightin’ Corgi: Provides the Hero with 15% Weapon Crit Chance, Hero Scalars of 2.8, and an EXTRA jump!
EdE CorgE: Provides the Hero with 15% Move Speed Boost, Hero Scalars of 2.85, and an EXTRA jump!
Chubbs The Corgi: Provides the Hero with 15% Hero Damage Boost, Hero Scalars of 2.9, and an EXTRA jump!
Milton’s Militant Mutt: Provides the Hero with 2 x Vitality increase, Hero Scalars of 2.95, and an EXTRA jump!
Golden Douglas: Provides the Hero with 15% Attack Rate increase, 10% Move Speed increase, Enemy Knock back, Hero Scalars of 3.0, and TWO EXTRA jumps!