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Alpha v0.56.1 - Difficulty Tuning

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@binary-knight binary-knight released this 15 Apr 03:23
v0.56.1
1a99114

v0.56.1 - Difficulty Tuning

v0.56.0 closed the class-completeness gaps; this release addresses "the game is a breeze and very easy." Champions feel like mini-bosses, floor bosses survive past round 1, Old Gods scale with your gear, and stamina actually matters.

Champions

Solo champions used to have 1.5x everything — the feedback said they felt like trash mobs with better loot. Now they're a real mini-boss encounter.

  • Solo champion stats: 2.2x HP (was 1.5x), +30% damage (was +50% — was overtuning because the old 1.5x multiplier applied to damage too), +20% defense. Separated HP from damage/defense so they're tanky without one-shotting.
  • Champion loot guaranteed 2 items (was 60% chance for 1). If you survive a real mini-boss fight, you get real mini-boss loot.

Floor Bosses

Feedback said floor bosses die to a single crit or full-party burst. Now they're boss-tier.

  • Floor boss HP 2.0x → 2.8x, damage 1.25x (was also 2.0x — damage scales less aggressively now), defense 1.2x. Multipliers are separate so HP can grow without turning damage into a one-shot cannon.
  • First-3-rounds damage cap: during the first 3 rounds of a boss fight, incoming hits are capped at 15% MaxHP per hit (regular cap is 85% MaxHP for bosses, 75% for regulars). Prevents one-shot crits in round 1 while letting bosses ramp up.
  • Boss rewards bumped +40%: XP multiplier 3x → 4.2x, gold multiplier 3x → 4.2x. Matches the difficulty increase so bosses remain worth fighting.
  • Champion rewards bumped +20%: XP/gold 1.5x → 1.8x. Matches the champion difficulty bump.

Old Gods

Feedback: "once you get your gear/stats going, Old Gods become easy. Veloura onward trivial with tank+healer." Most loved fight was 1v1 Aurelion where stamina actually ran out. Two mechanics preserve that:

  • Divine Scaling: every Old God artifact you've collected makes remaining Old Gods harder. +10% MaxHP and +5% damage per artifact, capped at +40% HP / +20% damage (hit after 4 artifacts). Prevents gear-scaling trivialization.
  • Solo Old God adjustment: when you fight an Old God alone (no teammates, no companions), the god hits +15% harder but you take -20% damage. Net result: solo fights stay tense and the stamina/mana pressure the stays intact; with a party, the god hits normally but its raw output is enough without the solo buff.

Resource Management

Feedback: "I have been out of mana/stamina exactly once." Now stamina is a real constraint.

  • Stamina regen reduced: was 5 + Stamina/10 + armor, now 3 + Stamina/15 + armor. Abilities feel like a real resource during extended fights.
  • Ability tier cost scaling: level 50+ abilities cost +25% stamina, level 75+ cost +40%. Your signature high-level abilities now carry weight. Applied via a new ClassAbilitySystem.GetEffectiveStaminaCost() helper so all three ability paths (single-monster, multi-monster, PvP) share the same rule.
  • Potion prices doubled: healing potion base 50 → 100 (+5 → +10 per level); mana potion base 75 → 150 (+5 → +10 per level). At level 100 a healing potion now costs ~1050g instead of 550g — meaningful at endgame when previously trivial.

Bugfixes

  • Tank buffs leaked between combats: new tank ability properties (TempDamageReduction, TempThornReflect, TempPercentRegen) weren't reset at combat start. Now reset in all three combat init paths (PvP, multi-monster, end-of-fight) and for teammates.

  • Monster ability damage bypassed tank buffs: Shield Wall Formation / Divine Mandate were useless against boss abilities because the ability damage path didn't apply damage reduction or thorn reflect. Fixed in all three monster-ability damage branches (DirectDamage, DamageMultiplier life-steal, DamageMultiplier non-lifesteal).

  • First-3-rounds damage cap missing from boss abilities and companion damage: the round-gated cap only applied to basic boss attacks. Now applies to boss abilities AND companion damage intake too — companions get the same early-round protection as the player.

  • Healer spec bonus didn't apply to spell healing: the +20% bonus only worked on class ability heals. Now also applies to self-cast healing spells, ally-targeted heal spells, multi-target healing spells, and Bard party songs.

  • NPC teammates used base stamina cost: the tier-scaled cost was only applied for the player. NPCs could cast level-50+ abilities without paying the +25/+40% cost. Now CanUseAbility, all NPC ability filters/spends, PvP computer AI, shaman abilities, and UI displays all go through GetEffectiveStaminaCost.

  • Noctura (betrayal fight) missing Divine Scaling: the Noctura boss is created through a separate code path that didn't apply the artifact-based scaling. Now scales just like the main Old Gods.

  • NG+ cycle scaling missed WeapPow/ArmPow: monster HP/Str/Def/Punch scaled per NG+ cycle but weapon power and armor power didn't. NG+ monsters dealt less weapon damage and had less armor than intended. Fixed in both single-monster and group-monster paths.

  • Multi-monster Backstab still at 2.0x: the v0.56.0 Backstab double-crit fix reduced the multiplier from 2.0x to 1.75x in the single-monster path but missed the multi-monster path. Assassins in group fights were still dealing the overtuned damage. Now 1.75x in both paths.

  • Divine Mandate thorn reflect didn't credit kills: if the reflected damage killed a monster, the kill wasn't added to result.DefeatedMonsters. Player lost XP, gold, and quest kill counts on reflect-kills. Fixed in all 4 reflect sites (player basic attack, player boss-ability, player ability-multiplier path, companion basic attack).

  • Deluge of Sanctity could fizzle despite healing component: v0.56.0's heal-spells-never-fizzle only protected SpellType == "Heal" spells, but Deluge is typed as "Attack" and provides a 100 HP self-heal. Players relying on Deluge for clutch healing could eat a fizzle. Now also protects Deluge, Prison Siphon, Devour Essence, Consume the Fallen, and Cycle Rewind — all hybrid attack+heal spells where reliable healing is the design intent.

  • PvP Backstab still at 1.5x: both v0.56.0 and the first two audits missed the PvP path. The single-monster and multi-monster paths were corrected to 1.75x, but arena/faction-ambush combat was still using the pre-fix 1.5x value. Now 1.75x everywhere.

  • Steal Life (Sage L11) could fizzle despite healing half: the hybrid-spell exemption list added to prevent Deluge from fizzling missed Steal Life — same pattern (Attack-typed spell with heal component). Added to the exemption list.

  • Tank buff recast wasted the duration refresh: Shield Wall Formation / Divine Mandate / Rage Challenge used Math.Max on duration when reapplied mid-buff, so a recast with the same duration as remaining would not refresh the timer. Now always writes fresh duration on recast.

  • Mending Meditation description lied: claimed "Scales with WIS+INT" but the underlying heal formula uses CON+WIS like every other heal ability. Description corrected.

  • Solo Old God +15% damage missing from boss abilities: the solo-fight adjustment (Old God hits +15% harder, player takes -20% less) was only applied to basic monster attacks — boss abilities (DirectDamage, life-steal, non-lifesteal multiplier) bypassed it entirely. Solo runs against Aurelion etc. had abilities that ignored the tension-preservation tuning. Now applied to all 3 boss ability damage paths consistently.

  • PvP AI ability selection used base stamina cost: MapCombatActionToAbility checked HasEnoughStamina(a.StaminaCost) against the pre-scaling value, so a tier-50+/75+ ability could be selected when the player didn't actually have enough stamina to pay the effective cost. Now checks GetEffectiveStaminaCost.

  • PvP "not enough stamina" message showed base cost: the error toast reported selectedAbility.StaminaCost instead of the effective cost, so players saw "need 20" when the real tier-scaled requirement was 25 or 28. Now shows effective cost.

  • Inn ability-equip menu showed base stamina cost: the quickbar display at the Inn listed each ability's base StaminaCost — so players setting up a level-50+ ability saw a lower cost than they'd actually pay in combat. Now shows effective cost.

  • Healer Location and Dungeon Merchant used hardcoded old potion prices: the v0.56.1 potion price doubling landed on GameConfig.HealingPotion* but Healer had local constants (HealingPotionBaseCost = 50, HealingPotionPerLevel = 5) and the dungeon merchant hardcoded 40 + floor * 5. Healer and merchant were selling at roughly half the shop price — an economy exploit. Both now read from GameConfig.HealingPotion*; the dungeon merchant keeps a small floor-deep discount.

Files Changed

  • Scripts/Core/GameConfig.cs — Version 0.56.1; OldGodDivineScalingHPPerArtifact/DamagePerArtifact, OldGodSoloDamageBonus/PlayerDamageReduction, BossFirstRoundsDamageCapPercent/Rounds constants; HealingPotionBaseCost 50 → 100, HealingPotionLevelMultiplier 5 → 10; ManaPotionBaseCost 75 → 150, ManaPotionLevelMultiplier 5 → 10
  • Scripts/Core/Character.cs — RegenerateCombatStamina formula changed from 5 + Stamina/10 + armor to 3 + Stamina/15 + armor
  • Scripts/Core/Monster.cs — Boss XP/gold multiplier 3x → 4.2x; mini-boss 1.5x → 1.8x
  • Scripts/Systems/MonsterGenerator.cs — CalculateMonsterStats now uses separate hpMultiplier / damageMultiplier / defenseMultiplier values; bosses 2.8x HP / 1.25x damage / 1.2x defense; champions 2.2x HP / 1.3x damage / 1.2x defense
  • Scripts/Systems/OldGodBossSystem.cs — CreateBossMonster applies Divine Scaling based on ArtifactSystem.GetCollectedCount()
  • Scripts/Systems/ClassAbilitySystem.cs — New GetEffectiveStaminaCost() helper: level 50+ cost +25%, level 75+ cost +40%
  • Scripts/Systems/CombatEngine.cs — Boss first-3-rounds 15% MaxHP damage cap; solo Old God +15% damage / -20% player damage taken (now applied to all 3 boss ability damage paths, not just basic attacks); champion loot guaranteed 2 items (was 60% for 1); ability stamina cost tier scaling wired through single-monster and multi-monster ability paths; PvP Backstab 1.5x → 1.75x; tank buff duration always refreshes on recast (Shield Wall Formation / Divine Mandate / Rage Challenge); PvP AI ability selection and error message use GetEffectiveStaminaCost instead of base StaminaCost
  • Scripts/Systems/SpellSystem.cs — Steal Life added to hybrid-spell fizzle exemption list
  • Scripts/Systems/ClassAbilitySystem.cs — Mending Meditation description corrected from "WIS+INT" to "CON+WIS"
  • Scripts/Locations/InnLocation.cs — Ability quickbar display uses GetEffectiveStaminaCost (shows tier-scaled cost, not base)
  • Scripts/Locations/HealerLocation.cs — Removed local HealingPotionBaseCost/HealingPotionPerLevel constants; now reads GameConfig.HealingPotionBaseCost/LevelMultiplier so Healer stays in sync with shops after the v0.56.1 price doubling
  • Scripts/Locations/DungeonLocation.cs — Dungeon merchant potion price now derived from GameConfig.HealingPotionBaseCost/LevelMultiplier with a small floor-deep discount instead of the hardcoded 40 + floor * 5
  • Tests/MonsterTests.cs — Updated boss/mini-boss XP multiplier tests for new 4.2x / 1.8x values
Assets 11
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