The build went from 6.66.2 to 6.66.24 today, and most of what was worth learning came from the measurements.
Too many waves, then back toward what was fun
Clearing a chamber used to stop the horde. It was made continuous, like a survival game, and within the hour that was judged too much. It became a few waves per area with breaks between them, then the guardian, then the next area. The first waves were made gentler, and a level 1 character now starts with two attacks and two spells, with the rest unlocked every other level.
Then the left mouse button stopped attacking, and the build had drifted from 6.66.1, which had played better. Hold-to-attack was restored, and a Classic Vigil mode now plays the 6.66.1-style run. The breaks between waves were also dragging:
| setting | before | after |
|---|---|---|
| break between waves | 14 s | 7 s |
| intro | 6 s | 5 s |
The longest a wave can run was cut from 50 s to 35 s at the same time, and went back to 50 s later in the day alongside the threat rating.
The Enter key pressed twice
The Level Select map opened and immediately started Level 1, without anyone choosing a level.
Enter confirms the character on the previous screen. The map opened while that same keypress was still being handled, so the map read it as its own confirmation. The map now ignores input for 300 ms after it opens.
Standing still was the game's fault
Two new rules were meant to stop anyone standing in one place and blasting. Every power except a class's first attack now has a cooldown floor of 3 s for attacks and 4.5 s for spells, and casters have a mana bar. A new stillness rule roots anyone who stays within 1.6 m of one spot for 2 s with enemies near: telegraphed eruptions at their feet every 1.5 s for 9% of life each, and damage taken rising 12% a second up to 60%. Moving clears it.
The AI player kept getting rooted anyway. In the first 40-second test it stood still for 16 seconds and was rooted four times. The cause was not the AI. Every attack set a cast lock that froze movement completely, so a caster firing nonstop was frozen about 70% of the time. A human player had the same problem. Primary attacks can now be thrown on the move at 60% speed, while big swings and spells still root.
| 40-second run | metres moved, before | after | seconds still, before | after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Witch | 17 | 79 | 17 | 6 |
| Knight | 59 | 104 | 16 | 4 |
Mana in the Witch run stayed between 33 and 100.
"The Wizard's staff doesn't work"
It was reported as a broken weapon. Every power was cast and counted for the Wizard and the Witch, 16 in all, and every one landed. The staff sweep landed 28 hits.
What was broken was when the AI chose to swing it. The rule needed three foes within 4 m and refused to chain the sweep, while the Wizard keeps its distance, so the staff was never swung. It now sweeps when one foe is within 2.8 m or two are within 4 m, and in a 40-second run it swung five sweeps. Seeing nothing from a tester is a result about the tester as often as about the thing tested.
30 times more damage than needed
Two long runs of the Watch AI, one with a party of four and one with a solo Knight, showed the same thing:
| run | game time | kills | damage dealt | damage taken |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| party of four | 11.8 min | 18,120 | 49.5M | 18,530 |
| solo Knight | 10.8 min | 18,118 | 42.1M | 22.7k |
The party ended at player level 25 with no one downed. The solo Knight died once, to a guardian. Both runs killed almost exactly the same number of enemies, which means the supply of enemies was the limit, not the players. Waves melted in about 2 seconds, early damage was about 30 times what was needed, and almost nothing reached melee range. Only the guardians and the Mega Boss were real fights, and they fell in 30 to 60 seconds. The power was coming from area-of-effect kits, not from stat multipliers.
The answer is a threat rating, re-evaluated every half second:
| term | value |
|---|---|
| base | hp x2.4, damage x1.3, speed x1.1, bodies x1.4 |
| each player level after 3 | +10% hp, +4% damage, +0.3% speed |
| the party's stacked offence | raised to the 0.55 power on hp, 0.22 on damage |
| each extra Keeper | +50% hp, +10% damage, +30% bodies |
| caps | hp 70, damage 7, speed 1.4, bodies 2.8 |
Guardians take 55% of the extra and the Mega Boss 50%. The rating is off in Classic Vigil. It reverses a rule written earlier, that enemies never scale with the hero's level, and it shipped in 6.66.22.
A dodge roll, and what it cost
Space, Circle on PS5 or B on Xbox rolls. The price is the third attack slot, which every class gave up, and the primary attack moved to Square or X.
| value | |
|---|---|
| distance | 5 m |
| duration | 0.35 s |
| invulnerable | 0.25 s |
| cooldown | 0.9 s |
The invulnerability is shorter than the roll, and a test shows the gap: no damage taken 0.1 s into a roll, 87 taken at 0.31 s. Rolling through a telegraphed blow counts as a perfect evade. The AI player and its teammates roll out of telegraphs and crowds on their own, and 45 checks pass.
Levelling up stops the game
Every level-up freezes play and offers three cards. There are 14 stat cards, plus 145 power cards generated from 11 templates for the four classes in the game at the time.
The curve had to change. With the old one (200 xp for the first level, then 100 more each level), the Watch AI's horde of about 43 kills a second was drawing a card every 3 seconds or so:
| level reached | kills needed, old curve |
|---|---|
| 2 | 39 |
| 5 | 261 |
| 8 | 657 |
| 12 | 1,449 |
| 16 | 2,544 |
The curve is now 1,000 for the first level and 500 more each level, expected to be about five times slower. A level 1 foe is worth 5 xp, rising 10% per Level.
Horrors of The Abyss gets faster, and breathes
The first Mega Boss was made more aggressive. Its speed went from 3.1 / 3.7 / 4.4 across its three phases to 4.6 / 5.3 / 6.1, and it gained moves:
- A rush from 11 m or more: a crouch, a line telegraph, a charge with knock-back.
- A halberd chain: a sweep, a second sweep that reverses it, then a winding spin slam. The body turns a full revolution into the slam, and a shockwave ring and a crater follow. In phase 3 the chain ends in a rush.
- A green breath: the head rears, the throat glows, and a swept cone leaves up to seven burning patches that last 7.5 s and take 5% of life a second. Phase 2 and later add a second breath back the other way.
One caveat from the tests: solo, the Watch AI died to the faster fight in about 30 seconds at Level 1, because it dodges telegraphs poorly.
Unnatural Carnage got a new trick as well. At half life it halts for 2.9 s, invulnerable, and doubles over. The flesh tears and four extra arms unfold. After that it is 25% faster and swaps its cleaver for a six-blow flurry and a double overhead slam.
Teammates that act on their own
Up to four players now share a field, and AI teammates have their own skills and their own brain. They share the leader's level, and a downed teammate gets up beside the leader after 10 s at half life. They work as a team: at least one goes for a boss, half the party for the Mega Boss, the rest clear its retinue, and one cuts the crowd off the leader when the leader is below 35% life or a dozen foes close in. In a 40-second test the first guardian went from 11,097 life to 6,429 to dead while the other teammates cleared the add waves, and the teammates stayed within 1 to 13 m of the leader.
Smash the generators
Gauntlet gave us two ideas, and both are in. Bone piles in some chambers pump out one of the area's own enemies every 4 to 6 seconds, up to five alive per pile, and burst into bones when smashed. The first one smashed in a chamber drops an iron key, and keys open locked vaults in side corners.
The map
The Level Select is built on a painting, with a padlock over every level not yet unlocked. Each level has three diamonds, earned for opening all its chests, finishing without a death, and finishing fast. Earned diamonds glow gold.