The Desert Update had a few minor issues that we'd like to address. Below are the changes. As always, the latest build can be found on our Download Page. If you do not wish to redownload the entire client, we have also provided a manual patching option.
Patch Notes:
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the new materials did not have alchemic properties
- Fixed an issue where the Grudge Talisman artifact would fail to improve damage
- Slightly altered flavor text on some materials, as well as fixing some typos.
--Whoa Constrictor
Hey guys! You're awesome. But one thing, why do damage and orange effect increasing materials (i.e. Philosopher's Stone, Soul Contract) increase damage and orange effects for wands more than they increase damage and orange effects for spells? It seems like you got their effects mixed up.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question! First, I will quickly explain the underlying system that determines the strength of a spell or wand's attack: The damage and strength are both determined by a stat we call "Spell Power". A default spell has a base of 100 Spell Power (100 SP). This means that if you were to use a spell with no materials, it will do 100 damage. Orange effects are modified by the Spell Power. Let's use an F-Grade Fire Crystal material as an example: Applied to a spell, the Orange effect of damage over 5 seconds is 15. That means that fire damage scales 15% off the Spell Power. If you were to apply the same material to a wand or benign spell that has a base Spell Power of 10, you would get 15% of 10, or 1.5 fire damage added to the spell. (We round up fire damage, so that's why you'll see a 2 if you try it in game.)
DeleteNow that we have a better understanding of Spell Power, let's look at the different ways we can modify it. Some materials (like Soul Contract) adjust Spell Power by a flat amount. If you were to apply 1 F-Grade Soul Contract, you get 8 additional Spell Power added to your wand or spell. On a wand, going from 10 SP to 18 SP is an 80% increase, while going from 100 SP to 108 SP on a wand is only an 8% increase.
On the other hand, we have materials like the Philosopher Stone that increases Spell Power by a percentage. An F-Grade Philosopher Stone increases Spell Power by 45%. On a wand, this only increases the damage by 4, but a spell gets a damage boost of 45!
Here's where things get a little tricky: Multiple percentage increases like Philosopher Stone are added together, then applied to the base SP all at once. Two F-Grade Philosopher Stones increase SP by 90% (45% + 45%). The end result is a spell with 190 SP. If you were to try this yourself, it might look strange at first. The first material will increase damage and orange effects by 45%, but the second one will only increase it by 31%. Why is that? Well, it's because after the first material, the spell has 145 SP. We know that the end result is 190 SP, which just so happens to be 31% more than 145 SP!
To summarize, materials that give flat bonuses benefit low Spell Power attacks more than ones with high Spell Power, while the opposite is true of percentage bonuses. The order you apply these Spell Power boosting materials also affects the description as you are adding them.
I hope this answers your question and explains some of the things you've been seeing in our game. If you have any other questions or have suggestions for ways we can make this more clear in game, feel free to let us know.
~Splininka
Voted for you on Greenlight! Some notes:
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of making spellpower modifiers explicit, so Quicksilver Gear F on a wand:
"Increases power by 10 (+100% to damage and orange effects)"
Lots of weirdness with the Optic Lens (which is a shame as I dig it in general):
Seashell+Optic Lens combo always ends up absurdly overpowered (and in this version, it doesn't even seem to branch properly - it remains a single beam, except breaking in odd ways when it hits a wall).
The Optic Lens beam length seems longer than it's supposed to be? It says it has a range of 20, but if you make it reflect you can see that it's much longer than that.
Optic Lens + Rainbow Prism results in some faint visual artifacts (areas of flickering darkness).
Higher grades of Optic Lens seem fairly pointless, at the moment. I would suggest Optic Lens upgrades affect the beam length (better focusing!), and the Gear boosts the beam's width when applied to a beam spell (since it already provides a primary usefulness of power upgrade).
When combining a multi-projectile material with the ninja sword, the additional projectiles' travel distance is not shortened.
It feels wrong to me that an explosive spell doesn't explode if the projectile expires (such as by a ninja sword) before impact.
Lastly, I'm getting the agonizing bug of saves not being loadable (and in fact, if I try to start the game with a save file existing, it freezes on a blank screen).
Thanks for voting for us!
DeleteOptic lens is currently very buggy and these issues will be addressed in the next update.
Your save game issue is probably due to the game writing the savefile improperly. If you could send the offending SAVEFILE file to tastystewdios@gmail.com I can take a look at it and I should be able to easily figure out what's going on and fix it.
-Laddo D