Patreon Weekly #52 - June 1st, 2020

Hey Patrons!

Content Poll #6 has finished, with the Wand of Magic Missile as the winner! Here are the full results:
Wand of Magic Missile: 53% Support
Ring of Wealth: 40% Support
Footwear of Nature: 33% Support
Master Thieves’ Armband: 27% Support
Based on these results magic missile will be getting a new ability based on the poll description, and I’ll also see about some simpler buffs to wealth given its low winrate. The other two choices are doing well balance-wise atm and so won’t be getting any balance changes.

I spent most of last week working on smaller changes that aren’t worth mentioning here, and on bigger stuff that I can’t quite share yet. There is some info on the wand of regrowth though, so read on if you’d like more details!

Patreon Tax Changes

Sadly this isn’t Shattered news, but it’s important to talk about regardless. Starting July 1st Patreon is going to start charging sales tax for several countries, and so your monthly charge may increase slightly. Patreon should also be emailing you guys about this today, but in case things aren’t clear from their email here’s a simplified breakdown of the changes based on my understanding:

• If you live in the EU then there is no change, as you should already be paying VAT.
• If you live in one of the following countries you will start being charged regular sales tax: Australia, Belarus, Iceland, India, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Canada (Quebec only), Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE.
• If you live in the United States the tax you pay will vary depending on your state. The benefits I offer are tax exempt in the majority of states, so most US patrons should pay as little as 0% tax, but the highest possible should be 11%.
• If you live elsewhere, you should continue to not be charged sales tax.

Wand of Regrowth

Since it won Content Poll #5, I’ve been thinking on how to adjust regrowth. Currently the wand is the top performer for non-mage users, but is one of the weakest wands for the mage. This paints a clear picture of a wand that helps the player win by giving them functionally infinite seeds/potions, but no direct power. So, for this rework I’m trying to focus on pulling some of regrowth’s power away from pure farming, and into combat utility.

I’m reducing the number of charges regrowth consumes each use to match the wand of fireblast, and I’m also giving it a thinner but longer cone effect. The number of plants spawned and farming limit is becoming tied to charges used and wand level, instead of just charges used. Finally grass will still become furrowed after a time, but this is now more dependant on the wand’s level, and hits infinite at +10 instead of +12. All of these changes are intended to tie more of the wand’s farming power to its level, and to give the grass sprouting effect more use in combat.

The biggest design change will be regrowth’s new unique capstone plant, tentatively named the Golden Lotus. Instead of being trampled, this plant will act as a sort of AOE buff for other plant-based effects. The wand of regrowth will summon one whenever it expends three charges (which is when 7 or more charges are available). I haven’t pinned the specific mechanics down, but amping up plant effects may include letting seeds instantly trigger and giving a high chance to recover seeds and tipped darts. I’m also debating have two or three lotus plants, which would let me create more varied effects, but I worry it would also make the wand a bit too RNG-focused.