[Experimental Update] - 391295

[Kevin]

Hey Grifters,

This next update cycle is a bit shorter than usual. We're mainly going to focus on some Rook quality-of-life stuff while building up content for his next day (which will probably be the next update after that).

To that end, we've added a new experiement to test out his alternate day 1 boss. Actually, the test gives you either the new or old boss randomly, because from our metrics it seems like he's a bit too easy, and we need to adjust both of their difficulties to a new, slightly higher level.

• Added a new boss test (day 1 Rook alt)
• (behind-the-scenes) Reexported all background and character art with a new tool that is much faster and more reliable.
• Hooked up a bunch of art for specific melee and gun items
• Cleaned up a lot of unused textures to bring the build size down slighlty.
• Fixed issue with the confirm button not showing up for people with the Confirm Card option enabled
   

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[ArtixBot]

I don't see the new boss fight in the experiments?

[Kevin]

Oh, my bad. It was disabled outside of the dev branch. I'll enable it and re-upload.

[pacovf]

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

Actually, the test gives you either the new or old boss randomly, because from our metrics it seems like he's a bit too easy, and we need to adjust both of their difficulties to a new, slightly higher level.

 

About this, is the current length of D1 and D2 for Rook going to stay this way for the final release? They are about 50% longer than Sal's, if you look at time played and number of battles/negotiations. I assumed you were just padding the days so that we would get a better feel for Rook's gameplay.

I'm asking because if you intend to shorten D1 (and in turn, D2), then our decks won't be quite as ready for the D1 boss as they are right now, which will increase the difficulty of the fight. It wouldn't make sense to finetune the balance for an artificially longer D1.

...I guess I'm also assuming that Rook's story will also be 5 days, maybe I'm wrong about that.

[Kevin]

 

3 minutes ago, pacovf said:

About this, is the current length of D1 and D2 for Rook going to stay this way for the final release? They are about 50% longer than Sal's, if you look at time played and number of battles/negotiations. I assumed you were just padding the days so that we would get a better feel for Rook's gameplay.

I'm asking because if you intend to shorten D1 (and in turn, D2), then our decks won't be quite as ready for the D1 boss as they are right now, which will increase the difficulty of the fight. It wouldn't make sense to finetune the balance for an artificially longer D1.

...I guess I'm also assuming that Rook's story will also be 5 days, maybe I'm wrong about that.

Good observation! From the metrics we can see that sal's days take about 30 minutes, vs rook's 45. I think we're going to go with 4 (longer) days for rook. It will help him feel different, because the pacing is a bit less whirlwind.

I'm not yet sure how many days long the 3rd campaign will be. We're trying to vary the structures to reduce player fatigue.

New build has been pushed. Give it 20 minutes or so.

[pacovf]

Ok, hopefully it's more like 3+1 days for Rook, kinda like Sal is 4+1 (last day being much shorter than the previous ones). I find that it takes me about 3h to finish a run with Sal, which already feels a bit on the long side for this type of game.

Although it's true that part of the reason I take (apparently) longer than average with Sal is because you're kinda rewarded for grinding. More battles / negotiations means more card offers, more xp, and a higher score. I also check every location before choosing a quest, looking for people to provoke. None of this is really necessary unless you are trying to go for a high score though, Sal's campaign is not that hard.

Anyway, back to the question of balance: if this is the intended length of D1 and D2, then it's not just the D1 boss that needs a difficulty increase, it's most of D2 too, especially the latter half.

EDIT: I'm getting people that clearly were using the mutator to replace the starting combat deck for a selection of drafts. I don't think that's very representative of the usual boss fight experience. It would be good to filter out those decks from the experiment.

Edited January 23, 2020 by pacovf

[TF3]

I think I randomed into my own deck with the seed 157981050. I had First impressions on during that run and wound up getting Threekwa to hate me, giving me his "Informed Enemies" bane (Take 2 damage every card you play first turn). I assume he's since been given plot armor since Ive been getting him neutral over and over.

Had fun with the new boss. Really interesting fight

[pacovf]

I've tried the new Boss at prestige 6 a few times. He's interesting/odd, in that he *will* kill you if you don't have a way to get rid of your charge quickly, or a way to leverage large amounts of overcharge into enough damage to kill him before he klls you (which will be quick, given Rook's low HP). On the other hand, he's kinda trivial with the right grafts/cards.

Threekwa by comparison is more even. He's less dangerous for sure, but it's never a walk in the park either. His "aggressive" stance would like some kind of buff though. By the time he switches he's already almost dead, and the +20% damage he receives just amplifies that.