Summary: Arcade Mode additions + changes, and enemy balance changes
Recommended level: N/A
Update Description
Note: This is one of those real Frontline updates, where sounds are missing, some graphics are placeholder etc! The gameplay should hold up well, though!
About the changes
So while Fred and Vilya have been making graphics for the upcoming Story Mode polish phase (wrapping up loose ends in the game world), the programming budget has been put towards a last push at making Arcade Mode a more pleasant experience, and in the process improving some enemy behavior for both Arcade and Story.
If you've been on the fence about Arcade Mode before, please do give it a try to see if you enjoy it more now!
Enemy Changes
A bunch of enemies have received changes of differing magnitude, and the shield has become stronger in general - especially shielding without perfect guarding. All these changes are basically "quality of life" changes that remove certain jank scenarios, especially for people playing close-range builds.
You can see the details in the patch notes, but the kind of changes we're talking about is stuff like more readable indicators, less disruptive randomness, more clear windows of vulnerability, etc.
Arcade Mode
In what will be our final attempt at sweeping changes to Arcade Mode to make it more accessible, we've made three significant additions to it: Pins, Length Reduction and Catalysts.
Pins
When playing Arcade Mode, it's easy to fall into a groove of doing the exact same thing over and over, and it can become quite monotonous. Pins is a mechanic that, when unlocked (happens early), will give the player various modifiers that can make them very powerful if used the right way. Your arrows might suddenly explode on impact, basic attacks might empower the next spell, or you may simply get a cloud summon for free! The idea with the pins is to give a little bit more uniqueness to every run.
There's currently 100 different pins available, and four can be equipped at the same time.
Length Reduction
Before this update, Arcade Mode featured two floors per biome. The floors also increased in size as you went, resulting in one complete run being an endurance test that could last well over an hour. Looking forward, with the Dragonbone Dunes and Lost Ship being added, the double-floor layout seemed unsustainable.
So, we've now made each floor represent its own biome, and also capped the maximum amount of regular rooms that can be created each floor. We hope this will result in less fatigue when playing!
As a part of this we've also introduced "gauntlet rooms", which is basically regular rooms but with different types of enemy reinforcements arriving! These rooms are generally much tougher than the normal battle rooms, and adds some variation to the run.
Catalysts (Difficulty Range)
Lastly, Arcade Mode has been way too difficult. A player that could easily beat Story Mode might struggle greatly to get even halfway through Arcade.
We still wanted the skill ceiling in Arcade Mode to be very high, so we decided to implement difficulty looping (like Dead Cells' loop mechanic Boss Cells, etc).
By beating Arcade Mode (a proposition that's no longer a Herculean achievement) you will unlock a Catalyst that can be inserted into the Grindea-statue in Arcadia. Beating the mode again will unlock another Catalyst, up to a maximum of 3.
With this, there are now four difficulties in Arcade Mode. The new "vanilla" difficulty should be a decent challenge for people who are used to Story Mode. With all three Catalysts equipped, it's extremely difficult, yet more fair than the old Arcade Mode thanks to the reduction of absurd situations.
What do you mean "final attempt" at Arcade Mode?
Obviously this is not the end of Arcade Mode in terms of actual content; the new floors must still be added, and we'll also be adding a little final segment for those mad enough to beat it with all three Catalysts. Content pieces like additional pins or new event rooms is also very likely to get added, as well as changes to dysfunctional sub-systems (like more interesting bets made by Bishop during the runs).
However, as mentioned above, we don't want to make any more big overhauls after this. We feel like we've done what we can to make the mode approachable now, and any further effort into widening the appeal will likely not be worth it.
Next Up: Apart from fixing bugs that appear in relation to the new stuff, I'll probably do some additional quality of life-improvements before putting these things on Stable.
After that, I'll shift most of my focus towards Story Mode-related stuff for the time being!
PATCH NOTES
Additions
Recommended level: N/A
Update Description
Note: This is one of those real Frontline updates, where sounds are missing, some graphics are placeholder etc! The gameplay should hold up well, though!
About the changes
So while Fred and Vilya have been making graphics for the upcoming Story Mode polish phase (wrapping up loose ends in the game world), the programming budget has been put towards a last push at making Arcade Mode a more pleasant experience, and in the process improving some enemy behavior for both Arcade and Story.
If you've been on the fence about Arcade Mode before, please do give it a try to see if you enjoy it more now!
Enemy Changes
A bunch of enemies have received changes of differing magnitude, and the shield has become stronger in general - especially shielding without perfect guarding. All these changes are basically "quality of life" changes that remove certain jank scenarios, especially for people playing close-range builds.
You can see the details in the patch notes, but the kind of changes we're talking about is stuff like more readable indicators, less disruptive randomness, more clear windows of vulnerability, etc.
Arcade Mode
In what will be our final attempt at sweeping changes to Arcade Mode to make it more accessible, we've made three significant additions to it: Pins, Length Reduction and Catalysts.
Pins
When playing Arcade Mode, it's easy to fall into a groove of doing the exact same thing over and over, and it can become quite monotonous. Pins is a mechanic that, when unlocked (happens early), will give the player various modifiers that can make them very powerful if used the right way. Your arrows might suddenly explode on impact, basic attacks might empower the next spell, or you may simply get a cloud summon for free! The idea with the pins is to give a little bit more uniqueness to every run.
There's currently 100 different pins available, and four can be equipped at the same time.
Length Reduction
Before this update, Arcade Mode featured two floors per biome. The floors also increased in size as you went, resulting in one complete run being an endurance test that could last well over an hour. Looking forward, with the Dragonbone Dunes and Lost Ship being added, the double-floor layout seemed unsustainable.
So, we've now made each floor represent its own biome, and also capped the maximum amount of regular rooms that can be created each floor. We hope this will result in less fatigue when playing!
As a part of this we've also introduced "gauntlet rooms", which is basically regular rooms but with different types of enemy reinforcements arriving! These rooms are generally much tougher than the normal battle rooms, and adds some variation to the run.
Catalysts (Difficulty Range)
Lastly, Arcade Mode has been way too difficult. A player that could easily beat Story Mode might struggle greatly to get even halfway through Arcade.
We still wanted the skill ceiling in Arcade Mode to be very high, so we decided to implement difficulty looping (like Dead Cells' loop mechanic Boss Cells, etc).
By beating Arcade Mode (a proposition that's no longer a Herculean achievement) you will unlock a Catalyst that can be inserted into the Grindea-statue in Arcadia. Beating the mode again will unlock another Catalyst, up to a maximum of 3.
With this, there are now four difficulties in Arcade Mode. The new "vanilla" difficulty should be a decent challenge for people who are used to Story Mode. With all three Catalysts equipped, it's extremely difficult, yet more fair than the old Arcade Mode thanks to the reduction of absurd situations.
What do you mean "final attempt" at Arcade Mode?
Obviously this is not the end of Arcade Mode in terms of actual content; the new floors must still be added, and we'll also be adding a little final segment for those mad enough to beat it with all three Catalysts. Content pieces like additional pins or new event rooms is also very likely to get added, as well as changes to dysfunctional sub-systems (like more interesting bets made by Bishop during the runs).
However, as mentioned above, we don't want to make any more big overhauls after this. We feel like we've done what we can to make the mode approachable now, and any further effort into widening the appeal will likely not be worth it.
Next Up: Apart from fixing bugs that appear in relation to the new stuff, I'll probably do some additional quality of life-improvements before putting these things on Stable.
After that, I'll shift most of my focus towards Story Mode-related stuff for the time being!
PATCH NOTES
Additions
- A new mechanic - Pins - has been added to Arcade Mode!
- Arcade Mode has received a rebalance and slew of changes, including reducing the number of floors
- In-game chat command /overrideinput added, to help in setups where the keyboard resumes command - type '/overrideinput 1' for default controller slot
- Beating Arcade Mode with 100 % or more score multiplier unlocks Catalysts, increasing the difficulty
- Bee and Bird attacks now deal significantly reduced damage to shields, so blocking many of them is much less risky
- Enemy projectiles reflected by Perfect Guard now passes through most obstacles
- The shield now recovers much quicker when broken
- The shield breaking now offers a small window of invulnerability
- Bombs spawned from Presents are now much easier to push around while moving
- The Wisps have had their projectiles reworked
- Brawlerbots now show an indicator if they are about to flank you
- The Power Flower-battle has been adjusted slightly to make it easier to avoid a certain death-state
- Tornadoes spawned by Autumn and Autumn Mages are now nearly static but can appear anywhere
- The spin done by Autumn Knights can now be interrupted by shielding
- Thorns summoned by Summer Mages now get removed in one hit
- A bunch of enemies now idle for a little while extra if their attack is shielded (non-PG)
- Spinsects should now behave a bit better in multiplayer
- Echoes of Madness now telegraph their flanking intention, and will not flank on Normal difficulty
- Changed the timing of elite Statues on all difficulties, and added shockwaves on harder ones
- The Plasma Bracelet has been slightly nerfed
- Enemies in Arcade Rooms now have a (very) short delay before taking action upon entering the room
- The winds in Arcade Mode Seasonne are now much less oppressive
- The Tier 2 rings now cost a bit less in Arcade Mode
- The Lantern Jack projectiles should no longer sometimes get past your shield in weird angles
- Fixed an issue that sometimes made clients unable to drink potions
- The Mimic Shockwave challenge in Arcade Mode should no longer disrupt Shadow Clone or Cloud
- Mini-Bubbles spawned from perfect guarded Bubbles vs Captain Bones no longer damage players
- Gold Smashing a Spinsect into Power Flower should no longer displace it
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