Ascension Curse | Patreon Weekly #158

Hey Patrons!

Firstly, there’s a new content poll, with choices on what targeted tweaks I may focus on in v1.4!

In this weekly I’m going to talk about the ascension challenge details, the recent alpha, and what’s left before v1.3 releases!

Ascension Implementation and Alpha!

The implementation of the new ascension route is mostly the same as what I’ve shared in previous weeklies, but I did pin down the last couple details relating to penalties for avoiding combat.

As the player keeps moving up between floors, a hidden counter increments, which can only be lowered by defeating enemies. As this counter goes up, various effects trigger which encourage the player to fight enemies. These effects start out more subtle but become very aggressive, though they can always be removed by defeating enough enemies. In order the effects are:

• Enemy spawn rates are heavily increased and enemy stats are buffed (this is always persistent, even at a counter value of 0)
• The amulet starts beckoning all wandering enemies to the hero’s position. This is similar to the old ascension effect of enemies getting beckoned when they spawn.
• Enemies that are wandering gain a 2x movespeed buff so they can reach the hero quickly.
• The hero gains a 50% movespeed penalty, and their speed is capped at 1x. This makes is very difficult to cheese your way out with very high movespeed.
• The hero starts taking damage over time, starting at 1 per turn and growing higher the more the hero avoids fighting.

The alpha for v1.3 also released late last week and includes all of v1.3’s content except the things I mention below. After a few more significant bugfixes, the alpha is now stable, and I’m looking forward to more feedback as golden+ patrons play through the ascension challenge and try out the new badges. I expect the alpha will graduate to beta and become public later this week.

What’s Left?

With the ascension route implemented, the alpha released, and the beta coming soon, here’s where we’re at in terms of what content is left to be done for the full release:

• Daily runs need to be implemented, which will include a daily page in the rankings (local scores only atm), and a general cleanup to the clutter that’s growing in the hero select UI. I plan to do this before releasing the beta.
• Enemy info needs to be added to the top-left corner of the desktop interface.
• I want to add a radial menu for controller users, which should make quickslot and inventory usage much smoother for them. This will likely go along with changes to default controller bindings.
• I want to adjust a few game interfaces on the desktop UI mode to take advantage of the increased space, such as the alchemy and hero select screens. I may delay this depending on timing.
• If there is time (and I can do it without a lot of design adjustments), I’d like to try and improve the current tutorialization about game controls for keyboard and controller users. This might be as simple as a visual for controls in the pause menu.