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Game board size reduced from 11x11 to 9x9.
- 11x11 was too large given the costs of attacks and abilities. It was also too easy to play cat and mouse in the end game, forcing stalemates. 9x9 should reduce the number of stalemate scenarios, and encourage offensive strategies.
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Dream Catcher concept finalised, now called ‘Sigil’.
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Added Spectre (support)
- Spectre is the first Conjure that focusses entirely on movement.
- Added ‘Dissipate’
- 20 damage attack that moves Spectre 2 tiles back opposing the line of attack, 3 use cost, 3x3 area.
- Added ‘Void Field’
- Passive ability that Spectre and its allies in a 5x5 area around Spectre to move 1 additional tile for free between them, per turn.
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Multiple Conjure reworks:
- Apocalypse: Alpha’s ‘Assimilation’ reworked to ‘Injection_Bomb’.
- Attack that deals 15 damage to all enemies in a 5x5 area around Apocalypse: Alpha, and prevents them from moving next turn. 5 usage cost.
- Assimilation was far too powerful - early game usage effectively guaranteed Apocalypse: Alpha would either put an enemy in range of a single finishing attack, or outright one-shot them.
- Reworked Imperium’s ‘Matter Displacement’.
- Now only affects allies.
- This ability could effectively force a stalemate by forcing the opponent to continually have to move closer, and never be able to actually attack Imperium.
- Amalgam:
- Health reduced from 130 → 115
- Amalgam felt ever so slightly too bulky considering its damage potential, so I’ve cut its health back a bit.
- ‘Sequence Slash’ damage reduced by 5
- For an attack that costs 2 actions, 30 damage felt too high. Instead of rebalancing to 3 actions, I opted to add more variety to the Conjure’s through lower cost, but lower damage attacks.
- ‘Berserk Gene’ reworked
- Berserk Gene was far too powerful in its previous iteration, and there was effectively no way to balance it in concept.
- Berserk Gene now takes 5 health from all Conjures on your side, and adds 15 damage to Sequence Slash on the next turn. 4 usage cost.
- Neurogenesis:
- Neuroplasticity healing reduced to 5.
- Neuroplasticity was far too potent at keeping allies healthy. Neurogenesis effectviely promoted a passive playstyle that was extremely hard to break through, as you would have to spend all of your actions trying to focus it down to prevent its healing, at which point the criteria for Neuroplasticity to heal would already be met.
- Removed ‘Recall’ and added ‘Psychospace’
- Psychospace is a passive ability that nullifies the additional effects of enemy attacks used in proximity. 5x5 area.
- Imprisoned:
- Health massively reduced from 170 → 120.
- Imprisoned is capable of negating incoming damage, thus making it effectively unkillable given its huge health pool.
- Impervious:
- Bulk Modulus is now a passive ability.
- Belief:
- Health reduced from 130 → 100.
- Belief felt too bulky for an offensive Conjure, especially given its large damage potential.
- Destiny:
- Precognition threshold reduced to 30.
- Precognition did not get much use in the previous version of the game. This is to give players a greater incentive to utilise Destiny’s full kit.
- Sleep Paralysis (placeholder):
- Stun Lock area massively reduced from 11x11 to 5x5.
- Playtests showed that Sleep Paralysis could completely nullify the offensive potential of any Conjure on the field. Reducing the range increases the risk of Sleep Paralysis spending a large amount of actions on Stun Lock, giving it a much larger drawback.
- Construct:
- Beckon is now an attack with the same effect as previous, now deals 15 damage to enemies caught in it.
- Beckon did not get as much usage as I would have liked, so I have upped the usage incentive, as it allows Construct to chip away at multiple enemies simultaneously.
- Fated Snare damage increased from 25 → 35
- Fated Snare was incredibly hard to use, thus the 25 damage wasn’t particularly worth the effort, even if it could hit multiple enemies. Defensive counterplay to Fated Snare was also too easy, so increasing the damage should up the incentive to let it loose on even 1 enemy, rather than waiting for the ‘perfect’ opportunity to hit multiple enemies for 25.
- Area of effect is now conveyed through illuminated squares above an attack or ability.
- 0 squares = 0x0 area
- 1 square = 3x3 area
- 2 squares = 5x5 area
- 3 squares = 7x7 area
- 4 squares = 9x9 area
- 5 squares = Infinite area
Reflection & Next Steps:
- Reducing the board size has seemed to be a good change. End game scenarios seem much more winnable now rather than simply being forced stalemates, so I am happy with that.
- The addition of the area of effect indicators has proven successful, but there is still the issue of communicating what the indicators actually convey - a guide will fix that.
- My inexperience with card games has shone through once again however with the addition of Spectre, as it is apparent that it is too good early on. It’s mobility has caused many issues already, and is thus in need of a nerf asap.
- I’m beginning to worry about my documentation however. I don’t actually know whether or not I’m doing the right thing by focussing purely on balancing and artwork. These are the two most essential aspects of the game, but I feel like putting documentation on the back burner is going to shoot me in the foot. But, at the same time, 12 weeks simply isn’t enough time to do this project to the fullest extent. I think the best thing to do is focus on the game itself, and leave documentation as a secondary priority, since I’ll have nothing to put into my portfolio if I focus on written work.