2.1.0 Update - Intents and Balance


This update took me way more than I expected.

After probing around, I figured out that being stubborn about purposely excluding enemies intents from my game was going to do harm rather than make my game "better".
I think I was losing many potential players just because "the game has no intents so I won't even bother understanding all its other mechanics".

So, I decided to implement my version of the enemies intents, adapting it to my game, in a way that it would make the game appeal to people who want them, without ruining the balance and the aspects I want my game to have.

And honestly, I'm happy with the result. It gave the game a slight upgrade in the tactical aspect, and it also now feels even more dynamic, coupled with the Countdown system.

Here's an overview of how it works:

Enemies will now show intents ONLY when at 1 Countdown (which means that you won't see it if you end turn when the enemy is at 2 Countdown). The Intent icon will appear instead of the Countdown one, and they will switch back once the enemy has performed its action.
Intents will tell you the type/types of action, and how many actions the enemy is going to perform. Intents won't tell you an exact number for attacks.

Possible intents are:

  • Aggressive  (the enemy is going to attack).
  • Defensive  (the enemy is going to perform a Block or Evade action).
  • Support  (the enemy is going to perform a buff or action that is not under other categories).
  • Debuff  (the enemy is going to perform a debuff status, or an action that affects your cards).
  • Healing  (the enemy is going to perform a healing action).

Together with this new system, I decided re balance many aspect of the game, partially to adapt it to the new changes, partially because I think some cards, especially when found in an early, would make a run way too easy.

Cards

Reworked cards drops balance, now some cards cannot be found before a set level (for this update, I set this limit for non item healing cards and for cards that raise enemies' Countdown Value.

  • Firefly Pendant now heals for 40 and 15.
  • Potion now heals for 30.
  • Candy now heals for 15 and 3.
  • Vampiric sword now heals for 10.

Enemies

  • Zakuro doesn't get stunned when losing tail anymore. It will get +2 Countdown instead.
  • Wealthy Abomination will now always use Weak Spot after resurrecting, and the (random) number of actions he can do per turn increases with lower HP.
  • The Maker's action that removes your blessing will now leave a shadow of the removed blessing.
  • Slight changes of behavior to most bosses.

Others

  • Fountains now heal for 33% of max HP up from 25%.
  • Normal blessing rooms are now more common.
  • Made tutorial easier to follow.
  • Fixed some problematic characters in the font.

Please let me know if you have any feedback about this update!
It is very possible that I introduced some new bugs, I'll be testing for a few days to minimize issues.

Files

Novus Orbis 2.1.0.1.zip 102 MB
Dec 10, 2023

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