[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/2623ee5b8bea6c43e1e475f0a66b6bb8437d0cb6.jpg[/img] [h1]Loot Overhaul[/h1] As I playtest Crab Champions daily to get it ready for the upcoming beta, one thing that really needed improving was how loot system worked. Previously when you cleared an island, a loot chest would appear near the exit portal: It could be a chest of any type, meaning that you often got a health chest while already at full health which was frustrating. Players also ended up with too much loot early on in a run since they'd get a chest after EVERY island which messed with the balance of the game. I'd rather combat islands be short and sweet with more spaced out loot instead of having to slow down every island, spawning tedious amounts of enemies to compensate for the high frequency of loot. To solve this issue and also allow for more player choice, I've added a new reward based island type: Treasure islands! When entering a Treasure island, players are given a choice between two pathways, each with a different reward type. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/8323a1680c1873ed8fb31b08773222741bb6a63d.jpg[/img] After choosing a pathway, players will find a selection of locked loot chests with varying rarities. Keys are now earned after clearing each combat island and are saved for Treasure islands to open chests. [list] [*] [b]Rare Chest - Costs 1 Key:[/b] Drops Rare loot with a very small chance of Epic or Legendary drops happening [*] [b]Epic Chest - Costs 3 Keys:[/b] Drops Epic loot with a small chance of a Legendary drop happening [*] [b]Legendary Chest - Costs 6 Keys:[/b] Drops guaranteed Legendary loot [/list] Since there are new perks that synergize with keys, it's possible to open multiple chests in a single Treasure island which creates some difficult decisions: "do I spend all 6 of my keys on that Legendary chest or do I open 6 Rare chests?" You may notice that the Common rarity is missing: I've decided to merge Common and Rare loot as in general getting a Common drop felt very underwhelming. My goal is to make all loot feel fun or useful even at the lowest rarity. All previously Common loot has been heavily buffed and many underperforming mods have been combined together such as Light Shot and Fast Shot to make them more enticing choices. Overall these changes should help players avoid being at the mercy of RNG while still not having TOO much choice (as there's always fun in not knowing what you'll get). With limited mod and perk slots, the game has several build stages: [b]-[/b] The early game malleable stage where large changes to your build don't matter [b]-[/b] The mid game flexible stage where several potential builds are forming [b]-[/b] The late game hardened stage where you have committed to a specific set of mods and perks that work well together. Changes in this stage are much harder to pull off without messing up your damage output. This brings a lot of skill into the late game rather than having unlimited slots and just picking up everything and spamming it- you can’t rely on the same strategy to work every run. [h1]Final Island Progression[/h1] Previously after clearing an island, you'd choose a portal to the next island and get a matching reward for clearing it. This caused things to become unbalanced as once you got powerful enough to consistently choose the harder portals, you could get Epic / Legendary loot much more often than intended. Waiting for everyone to vote on a portal also slowed down the pace between islands. There is now a set route of island types but still of course with randomized locations, enemies and loot to make every run different. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/39f95450ba2ae63621cfda08fd9803969d343abd.jpg[/img] [list] [*] [b]Island 1 + 2 - Horde[/b] Eliminate waves of easy enemies (1 key reward per cleared Horde island) [*] [b]Island 3 - Treasure:[/b] Choose one of two reward types to spend your keys on [*] [b]Island 4 - Horde[/b] [*] [b]Island 5 - Challenge:[/b] Face more difficult enemies with a randomly selected challenge modifier active (2 keys reward per cleared Challenge island) [*] [b]Island 6 - Shop:[/b] Spend your crystals (earned from eliminating enemies, getting island clear bonuses and destroying crystal rocks) on loot! [*] [b]Island 7 - Horde:[/b] [*] [b]Island 8 - Elite:[/b] Eliminate a powerful elite enemy (2 keys reward per cleared Elite island) [*] [b]Island 9 - Treasure:[/b] [*] [b]Island 10 - Horde:[/b] [*] [b]Island 11 - Defense:[/b] Hold an area down for 60 seconds against increasingly intense waves of enemies (2 keys reward per cleared Defense island) [*] [b]Island 12 - Treasure:[/b] [*] [b]Island 13 - Temple:[/b] Navigate through an ancient temple facing powerful enemies (3 keys OR a gold heart OR a large crystal bundle reward per cleared Temple: the player can choose) [*] [b]Island 14 - Shop:[/b] [*] [b]Island 15 - Boss:[/b] Fight a menacing boss before moving on to the next biome (6 keys, a large crystal bundle and a gold heart reward) [/list] [h1]New Mechanic: Armor[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/d87d0a1f192310ca1de872305a1dfa9500aaaf04.jpg[/img] Armor is a simple but important addition to the game: players can now find and equip armor plates as part of the health loot pool. Armor is always damaged before your health bar and any excess damage on a hit that breaks an armor plate is ignored, making them a very useful protective tool. Armored enemy variants can now also appear but there are plenty of new armor related perks mentioned below to help counter them! [h1]New Perks[/h1] This month I added all of the remaining perks on my list for the beta. There are over 100 perks in the game now which offers just the right amount of variety that I was hoping for from run to run: enough that you aren't getting the same builds often but not too many that you can't develop favorites and plan out builds. A big focus was on giving players more melee and elemental damage build options as both of these are fun ways to play that didn't have a lot of room to scale up previously. [list] [*] [b]Damage Aura:[/b] Deal constant damage to enemies near you [*] [b]Reinforced:[/b] Gain additional armor plates each time you pick up armor [*] [b]Vampire:[/b] Heal after each melee elimination [*] [b]Sentry Gun:[/b] A friendly sentry gun spawns at the start of each island [*] [b]Mortar:[/b] A friendly mortar spawns at the start of each island [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/34ae961250a58b394a8fa3181335cc331660dad9.gif[/img] [*] [b]Explosive Armor:[/b] Create a large explosion whenever breaking enemy armor [*] [b]Flammable Armor:[/b] Ignite all nearby enemies whenever breaking enemy armor [*] [b]Regenerator:[/b] Health regenerates over time while in an active island [*] [b]Clearance:[/b] Random goods in shops are free of charge [*] [b]Power Armor:[/b] Damage increased for each equipped armor plate [*] [b]Regenerating Armor:[/b] Gain armor at the start of each island [*] [b]Double Vision:[/b] Chance for loot to be doubled [*] [b]Critical Thinking:[/b] Critical hits deal more damage but non critical hits deal less damage [*] [b]Red Fury:[/b] Damage increased for a short time after eliminating an enemy [*] [b]Silver Lining:[/b] Health and damage increased for each greed perk that you have [*] [b]FMJ:[/b] Damage increased to armored enemies [*] [b]Thrusters:[/b] Dash speed increased [*] [b]Sledgehammer:[/b] Regular enemies (not a boss or an elite) are instantly eliminated when at low health [*] [b]Damage Control:[/b] Incoming damage heavily reduced for a short time after taking damage [*] [b]Gold Coupon:[/b] Your first purchases in shops are free of charge [*] [b]Freezing Enemies:[/b] Enemies freeze all nearby enemies when eliminated [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/aac9b011061dec0bfd9eb9a653f90136acddd997.gif[/img] [*] [b]Flammable Enemies:[/b] Enemies ignite all nearby enemies when eliminated [*] [b]Electric Enemies:[/b] Enemies shock all nearby enemies when eliminated [*] [b]Poisonous Enemies:[/b] Enemies poison all nearby enemies when eliminated [*] [b]Sharp Claws:[/b] Melee damage increased [*] [b]Ice Claws:[/b] Melee deals ice damage [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/f136bba1d06a57385ea811f8b8dedb24a0e8d65a.gif[/img] [*] [b]Fire Claws:[/b] Melee deals fire damage [*] [b]Bonus Keys:[/b] Gain additional keys each time you pick up a key [*] [b]Regenerating Keys:[/b] Gain keys at the start of each island [*] [b]Ice Cold:[/b] Increased ice debuff stacks [*] [b]Firestarter:[/b] Increased fire debuff stacks [*] [b]High Voltage:[/b] Increased lightning debuff stacks [*] [b]Toxic:[/b] Increased poison debuff stacks [*] [b]Dagger Dash:[/b] Dashing sends an arc of daggers wherever you are looking [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/0fdcb40a8b7f0c53610d217070008dc70a619c94.gif[/img] [*] [b]Layered Armor (Greed Perk):[/b] Gain 100 armor plates but max health is greatly reduced [/list] [h1]Final Weapon Mods[/h1] Last month I mentioned that the final batch of weapon mods for the beta had been added.... but I really wanted to get a few more interesting ones in that weren't just stat increases. These took more time and care to implement than stat increase mods but I think it was well worth it as they open up many new build options. [list] [*] [b]Glue Shot:[/b] Shots stick to enemies and deal more damage but there is a short delay before damage is dealt [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/2ebd2dc437c1121091e7906ef1bc4b532337c30c.gif[/img] [*] [b]Bubble Shot:[/b] Shots are surrounded by bubbles that deal constant damage [*] [b]Bomb Shot:[/b] Chance to spawn bombs when hitting enemies [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/da841df0e8375ddd2ac2d8d63d9207e1cbc8ab1e.gif[/img] [*] [b]Health Shot:[/b] Chance to heal when dealing damage [*] [b]Targeting Shot:[/b] Shots that hit enemies spawn new shots that target other nearby enemies [*] [b]Recoil Shot:[/b] Shots deal more damage but firing knocks you back [*] [b]Money Shot:[/b] Gain crystals when hitting enemies [*] [b]Piercing Shot:[/b] Shots pierce through enemies (allowing you to deal damage to multiple enemies with a single shot) [*] [b]Double Tap:[/b] Shots have a chance to deal damage twice [*] [b]Triangle Shot:[/b] Fire powerful triangle projectiles along with your shot that regenerate over time [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/528adf6adc355cba6d8ff30fa93155ed151b0b5f.gif[/img] [*] [b]Aerial Shot:[/b] Damage increased when airborne [*] [b]Uppercut:[/b] Every fifth shot deals more damage [/list] Now that the vanilla mods and perks are finished (other than the last of the grenade mods which will be done early this month), each major update during the early access period will focus on new biomes adding themed enemies, mods and perks to the game with the goal of adding additional content in focused areas without bloating the original biomes and loot pool. [h1]The Future Of Racing And Duel[/h1] After a lot of consideration I've decided to focus on finishing the beta / early access version of Crab Champions with Survival mode being the main and only mode, and market the game accordingly (as a Third Person Action Roguelike). There are a lot of conflicting opinions on what the game actually is and it's important for me to get a focused game out with bonus modes being a consideration for the future. It makes little sense to release a deep and fully featured Survival mode with Racing and Duel tacked on as side modes, having a fraction of the content. Both require a good deal more work before they are worthy of being standalone modes whereas Survival mode is in great shape, so it makes the most sense to me to double down on it. Having said that, I still love the Racing mode and it's something that I plan on finishing as a future update when people already have their hands on the game. As for Duel mode: many of the latest Survival additions do not translate well at all over to Duel mode. That coupled with the fact that true competitive PvP gameplay (requiring dedicated servers, anticheat and many more features which are out of the scope of this project) was never really the plan has made me realize that if I was to release a Duel mode it would need all of these things to be successful. I definitely don't want to disappoint people in this regard, so the game being released and marketed as a PvE game meant to be played with friends will help clear up any false expectations. That said, there'll be a 1v1 area in the Survival lobby so that you can duel your friends while waiting for a run to start- this is exactly the kind of lighthearted dueling that I had imagined when originally announcing the mode anyway, so it's the best of both worlds! [h1]Other Stuff[/h1] [list] [*] [b]New Temple Design[/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/4026793958cc8b287919dde55de8daab01a75ab2.gif[/img] Temples have had a big rework in terms of level design: they are much more tactical than before and offer a refreshing slower pace compared to the chaos of most other island types. Players slowly advance, peeking corners, checking sightlines and playing more carefully in temples- getting knocked off into one of the many pits of lava sends you right back to the temple entrance so skillful aim and movement is required! [*] [b]Survival Victory Crown[/b] The Survival game loop is now complete! Players can choose to go to Crab Island after beating the Lava biome boss (or choose to keep going endlessly) and end their run by picking up the new gold crown that awaits! [*] [b]New Salvage Feature[/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/7d01a3e20b08b3aafdb41c7cae5d7fd7e5d6c47b.jpg[/img] You can now salvage loot directly from chests without having to make room for it in your inventory! This becomes especially useful in the late game when you have no free slots left in your inventory (previously you'd have to just leave loot behind which felt like a big waste). [*] [b]Difficulty Scaling Changes[/b] I've been making tweaks to how the game ramps up in difficulty after each playtest to try and find the sweet spot between too easy and too challenging while still feeling like you are able to make an overpowered build. I noticed that near the end of each biome, player builds started heavily outperforming enemies so there is now a hefty bump in difficulty when moving to the next biome in addition to the per island scaling. [*] [b]Stats Pedestal[/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/9f03b6ca4a79d73860c6f2608876a38e3cc585bd.jpg[/img] Some simple player stats have been added to the Survival lobby- nice to compare your own stats with the players that you have matched up with! [*] [b]Damage Area Improvements[/b] Previously only a single damage area (fire / acid / crystal barrage etc.) could spawn after a grenade explodes. With the changes made this month, any number of damage areas can spawn: this allows for more grenade mod synergies that create potent damage area combos. [*] [b]Jump Flip Animation Returns![/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/02233944eac81a3522249f1e00e6563533bfbb4e.gif[/img] While the feedback was very positive to the new animations showcased last month, it was clear that the classic front flip animation was missed so I created one with the new rig! [*] [b]Fast Island Clear Bonus[/b] In addition to the Flawless Clear Bonus (clearing an island without taking any damage), I've added a bonus for players that complete islands quickly. Ideally this is a tradeoff: players that like to play fast but are willing to take a few hits will be rewarded while others that prefer a slower and more careful approach can also get a reward. The most skilled players will be able to consistently get both bonuses! [*] [b]Healing Rocks[/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/314bf61fd7dc1c27a189c075e4bf3daeb5d3df3f.gif[/img] This new rare type of rock creates a healing aura when destroyed, healing anything inside it- including enemies! When playtesting I realized that there was actually quite a bit of strategy around using these effectively: when spotting them on an island I tried to keep enemies away to save the rocks from being destroyed so that I could break them when needed after getting hit. [*] [b]Quality Of Life Changes[/b] [b]-[/b] Enemies have had a huge balance pass, from health, damage and speed to the minimum and maximum islands that they can spawn on, giving a much more varied and balanced experience [b]-[/b] Enemies now credit the player that damaged them last and award crystals as usual when they are eliminated due to fall damage [b]-[/b] A restart run button has been added to the pause menu to prevent having to go back to the main menu each time [b]-[/b] Confirmation prompts when pressing the restart or quit buttons when paused have been added (I ruined so many runs by accidentally clicking the wrong buttons before this was a thing!) [b]-[/b] New Greed Totem type: Claw For A Claw: Lose 33% of your health but gain a key [b]-[/b] Greed Totems are now free of charge as they all come with a hefty downside [b]-[/b] Health bars are now only visible when you are looking at an enemy instead of all enemy health bars cluttering up the screen [b]-[/b] Damage areas no longer propagate randomly which led to unfair situations, instead they spawn secondary projectiles which explode into matching mini damage areas (this gives you time to dodge before they reach the ground and explode) [b]-[/b] You can no longer dash while shocked, making getting hit by lightning a bit more punishing [b]-[/b] Knockbacks can now only be registered once every 0.1 seconds to prevent spam and to allow for more consistent knockback damage [b]-[/b] Plenty of bugs fixed, new sounds, FX and other visual content added this month also [/list] That's all for this month, thanks for reading! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/78e2b742f8ea6c519c8fc7ab815add39e6990c73.gif[/img] Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/