Update: v95a

Greetings all,

We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback on our new systems and have taken time to make some improvements as well as fixes to some critical issues.

Problems with RNG

The drop rates of all items have been affected in this update, with Tier 5 items being the most affected.

I probed around for potential issues with how items are being rolled. Why was Dire Pray almost impossible to roll? It didn’t take long to realize:

  • I didn’t implement weighted random selection correctly (How embarrassing) but have corrected the error and verified that it’s now working as intended.
  • The actual drop rates were off across the board from their intended values, but Tier 5 items on Difficulties 8 and 9 specifically were WAY more generous than intended, due to the error. (Except for poor Dire Pray)

Consequently, all item drop rates have been updated, but the most significant change is that Tier 5 items will be much rarer in Difficulty 8 and 9.

Item Recycling

You can now discard and receive materials from unwanted Mail using the new RECYCLE command (and its counterpart, RECYCLENOW)

Recycling gives Gems or Gold based on the type of item recycled, and based on its Tier.

  • Tier 1: 10 Gold
  • Tier 2: 1 Gem
  • Tier 3 – 4: 3 Gems
  • Tier 5 – 6: 5 Gems

Please refer to the command help section in Item Commands for more details.

Should SMITH and PRAY share the same color?

A small Straw Poll was opened in the Discord. Nine of you responded to the survey, with all but 2 votes disagreeing that SMITH and PRAY should share the same color (Blue).

While SMITH and PRAY were originally the same color for sharing similar functionality (Prevent the Dog from losing Hearts), I also thought that it would be best, given the current state of the game, to be consistent with how COP, PET, and DIG are all separate.

SMITH Chest, Gem, Color

SMITH will no longer share the same color, gem, and chest as PRAY.

  • SMITH is now colored Indigo
  • New Gem: Amethyst

Are Charms Charming?

Because Charms last an entire game, with no way to remove them, their effects had to be somewhat limited. Charms were intended to play the role of a slow momentum gain that, if built up, would greatly improve your odds of success.

There’s a few problems I’ve observed with Charms since release:

  1. The momentum gain was slow.
  2. It’s a lot of work to type in codes.
  3. Players were picking up fewer charms every day.
This data is from the first week of v95’s release.
More recent data is on the right side of the graph.

Charm Updates

To help address these problems, we’ve made these changes:

  • Multiple Charms can be claimed at a time. You can do this by typing codes separated by spaces, such as: aaa bbb ccc ddd eee. You can claim up to 5 Charms in this way.
  • Charms now are time limited, and far more powerful. Read more below for details.
  • Claiming a Charm grants 10 Contribution. Increases the Points you receive at the end of the game.
  • Charms grant Friendship when they overflow from DIG.

Charm stacks are now limited to 5, and all Charms decay over time.

When a Charm decays, all stacks are removed. The decay is reset when a stack is added.

Charm effects previously triggered 1 effect per 10 Works (+10% Work Efficiency), and now instead trigger 1 effect per single Work, per stack (+100 to 500% Work Efficiency, depending on stack count).

Other Changes

  • Difficulty 7 – 9 have had more Fugitives, Prisoners, and Arsonists added.
  • DIG takes more Work to produce a Chest. (180 Works, up from 90)
  • Players who did not participate in the previous round will no longer be able to vote in Post Game Rewards.
  • Updated Chest artwork.

Bug Fixes

  • The Daily Quest ‘Daily Games Player V’ has had its Gold reward restored.
  • The UPGRADE confirmation after successfully upgrading an Item’s Tier now displays the correct cost consumed from your Wallet.
  • Lobby: The first Difficulty site fully worked should now prevent other Difficulties from being chosen.
  • Lobby: Updated Difficulty 7 – 9 work sites to display the correct amount of works required (60).
  • Actions that started in the Lobby will now properly be cancelled before a game starts.

Thank You

The first couple weeks of v95 have been bumpy, but a lot has been learned and a lot has been fixed.

Thank you for your time, thoughts, suggestions, and of course… Thanks for playing!

Raider