Happy Halloween everyone! In the Developer Thoughts for patch b.0.3, we’ll be addressing the survey we took for patch b.0.2, along with some of the thoughts we’ve been seeing expressed by the community.
Survey
Overall, we were extremely pleased with the survey turnout! Nearly 400 Venturers submitted a response! We greatly appreciate the feedback as it helps us gauge what you guys want, helping us build a great experience for you all.
Thoughts on Survey
Performance
Smooth like butter
We see that a fair majority of the players are having a fairly smooth experience in regards to FPS. While this pleases us, we want to make sure those who are suffering worse performance get some love too. We’ll be looking into having increased options for improving performance on lower-end devices, such as being able to turn off damage indicators.
Patch b.0.2 Balance Changes
There were changes?
Overall, you guys seem pleased about the balance changes! There was not really any negative backlash regarding the Bow and Axe nerfs (mostly neutral), while the Dagger/Crossbow/Rapier buffs were received well. We hope to continue this trend as we closely follow your input.
Enemy Follow Range
What was that?! Must’ve been my imagination…
While a decent chunk of players didn’t care too much about this being implemented, a good amount of players also feel it is slightly too limiting. While overall, we feel that adding a follow range was good for healthier gameplay, we don’t want players to feel like they’re forced to play a certain way (to a fair extent). To this end, we’ll be increasing this maximum limit slightly and seeing what everyone thinks.
Favorite Classes
I’m a dual-Shield main bro
We’re glad to see a large diversity in players’ favorite classes. One of our main goals with Venture Tale is diversity, and seemingly achieving that (for the most part, RIP Polearm) makes us very happy. We hope to be able to maintain this diversity moving forward.
Future Balance Changes
Polearm underused class? Better nerf Bow…
Overall, it seems that players still think that Bow is a fairly powerful class (even after the nerf). We’d hate to hit it too hard again, so we’ll try a lighter nerf going forward and see if that can bring it to a better place. We also think Hammer should get addressed this time around. Lastly, Shield, Staff, and Wand need some love. We’ll talk more about this in this patches’ balance notes.
Future Content
Did you just see that armor stand move?
We can see that you’re most looking forward to new dungeons, spells, and items. Having to see the same scenery for a couple of months can be tiring, we get it. We have a lot of new items and spells in store for you, but unfortunately they can’t be released until we release the level 25-30 tier for dungeons. We’re working hard on Dungeon 3, and we appreciate your patience! Keep up with #
│sneak-peeks in our community server.
Patch b.0.3
Balance Changes
Easy Goblins Durability
This Goblin is tougher than it looks…
The Goblins in the first dungeon players ever encounter are a bit too tough for our liking. The first dungeon should be an introduction to a game, rather than something challenging. We feel players should be able to go through it relatively easily. To that end, we’ll be lowering the Health of the Goblins in Goblin Cave, Easy.
Defense Lowering
Rock solid!
We’re aware that some players weren’t too keen on the minimum negative defense change. While we still like the change overall, we’ll be tweaking it slightly to be less punishing for early game players, while still limiting the Defense Cheese it meant to target from last patch. Enemies will now be able to go down to a defense level that is equal to -20 - 5x their original defense. For example, an enemy with 10 Defense will be able to go down to -70 Defense (-20 - 5*(10) = -70). Enemies with 0 Defense will be able to go down to -25 Defense.
Bow Nerfs
Mom said it’s my turn to get nerfed!
This time around, we don’t want to hit Bow as hard. However, it is still a bit stronger than we’d like it to be. We’ve seen players who are still hitting extremely hard with the bow, making it very easy for them to clear large mobs of enemies quickly, while also dealing decent damage to bosses. We hope to make it harder for bows to capitalize on this damage as easily, while maintaining the satisfaction of dealing big numbers. As such, we’re going to be increasing Snipe’s cooldown by a couple of seconds, from 12 to 16.
Hammer Nerfs
Why wasn’t this addressed sooner?
We like the ease of use Hammers have with its large reach/AoE and high utility skill, but we feel like it’s overreaching in terms of damage. It needs to trade in something in order to be so versatile. And with that, we feel like it’s okay to lower Hammer’s early game base damage slightly. This will also make it more favorable to use as a Tank, where having a more powerful Defense Shred becomes more relevant.
Ice Lance Nerfs
Ice Ice Baby
Ice Lance is too versatile of a spell compared to other spells of a similar level (Thunderspear, Fireball) despite being a more common spell. Unfortunately, we don’t like how much damage Ice Lance can output consistently. We’ll be hitting the cooldown, hard. Ice Lance will be going from 4s → 7s (2s min → 4s min). We’ll also be increasing its Mana Cost from 12 to 15.
Dagger Buffs
Murderer? No… I prefer to be called an Assassination Expert
We’re still not incredibly happy with where Dagger is. While they are now in a place where they can compete with other weapons in terms of DPS output, we feel they still need to really lean into their Backstab identity. In hopes of increasing the skill expression of Daggers, we’ll be lowering non-Backstab damage, slightly increasing Backstab damage, and giving Backstab a Refresh mechanic. On Kill, Backstab will have its cooldown refreshed (set to 0 seconds). We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this mini-rework!
Shield Buffs
The shield gives you the confidence to strike harder!
We understand that Shield isn’t the most exciting class to play, but it shouldn’t feel bad to take as an option for players who want to be a bit more defensive. We’ll be experimenting with giving all shields a Damage Boost stat, so that holding a shield in your off-hand doesn’t rob you of too much damage compared to dual wielding.
Caustic Spray Buffs
Now more deadly than hair spray!
We feel that Caustic Spray may be slightly too weak. We’ll be giving it impact damage, similar to Flamethrower. Hopefully, this makes it feel more impactful. Caustic Spray will also be able to stack the Poison effect when multiple different instances of Caustic Spray are used (i.e. when you use two Putrid Grimoires).
Flamethrower Buffs
BURN BABY BURN!
Flamethrower needs to feel more powerful when you’re using it. To let players really feel like they’re blasting their enemies’ faces to oblivion, we’re buffing its Impact Damage Spell Power scaling.
Book Changes
Spells go brr
We have heard a lot of talk about Books versatility compared to Staff and Wand, and we want to address that. Books are intentionally designed to be “cooler” in comparison to Staffs and Wands, since they are a Tier 2 Class. However, we don’t want them to be strictly stronger than Staffs or Wands. As part of the changes made to make Magic classes feel more even, we’ll be adjusting a few Books.
Staff Changes
We need more power! More power!!!
We want to give Staves and Wands a bit more power, so we’ll be increasing the amount of Spell Power they give to make them more viable in terms of making spells stronger. There are also a few weapons where the Spell Power wasn’t set to its proper value. We’ll be adjusting Staves to make more sense all around.
Wand Changes
Swish and flick!
See Staff Changes.
New Systems
Character Customization - We added Character Customization! You can now change your character’s appearance such as skin color, hair, and clothes. For those with the Custom+ Gamepass, you will have additional benefits!
Mass Selling - We added Mass Selling! Finally, no more involuntary item hoarding. You can now actually sell all your useless junk without ripping your hair out.
Equip Button - We added an equip button as a quality of life.
Damage Number Visibility Setting - We added a setting to adjust damage number visibility.
Extra Notes
Since school is back in session for most of us, our development has slowed down a bit.
However, we are steadily making progress on the 3rd dungeon for Venture Tale!
