v1.4.0 Side Content | Patreon Poll #31

Hey Patrons!

In what’s becoming a pretty common poll topic, let’s look into some side content options for v1.4! This is a larger-scale counterpart to the previous poll, which was more about tiny tweaks.

The strength of support for each option will determine what side content I work on in v1.4!

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Please vote for all the options that you like, not just for your one favourite! I allow multiple votes as it means that a higher proportion of people will end up voting for the winning choice.

All patrons are encouraged to share their opinion by commenting and voting, but currently only the votes from Golden+ Supporters are counted when determining a poll winner. Votes from Shattered Supporters are worth double!

A New Challenge

The reception to the two new challenges Shattered has added so far has been very positive, so I’m definitely looking to add a third!

Another poll might be used to help pick a specific one, but here are a few rough ideas: A ‘speedrun’ challenge that gives the player a real-world timer while playing and consequences if it runs out. A challenge which makes levelgen harsher in some way (without just littering in more traps and secret doors). A challenge that harshens the strength system in some way.

Item Rework / Addition

There’s always room for more equipment additions or changes! If this option does well, I will likely run another poll for a specific item to add/rework, but here are some potential options:

For item reworks, I think a few artifacts are still in a spot where they could use some love. In particular the footwear of nature have a very boring active effect, and the chalice of blood is the only artifact without an activated effect at all.

As for item additions, I don’t have a specific best idea for a new item yet, but I think a new ring, artifact, weapon, or wand is most likely. As some quick examples, we don’t currently have a potion counterpart to the unstable spellbook, we have plenty of rings that give stats but relatively few that offer utility, and it might be interesting to have a wand that’s themed around water or chaos in some way.

Interface Shops

Once again, interface shops are an option, as a technical improvement and a precursor to more shop improvements in future updates.

The plan here is to move shops away from having items spread across the floor and instead contain them all in a list that exists in an interface, not the game world. This would be a more extensible system that I would expand on in the future with more shop types and would also let me add a buyback option!

Early Lore Additions

Lastly, there isn’t a particular reason why lore additions need to all be bundled into one big update. It might work well for me to start doing lore additions incrementally, as that would also let me ease into writing and gather early feedback before everything is set in stone.

I can’t say what exact form this would take, but findable documents that talk about the dungeon or the heroes would be the most likely. They would function similarly to guidebook pages.