Another big one. Big enough to jump to from 0.19 to another version number: 0.20.001 Vac. Let's break it down!

(Note: This breaks your running save game and will tear some holes into your card collection...)

Follower Speech Bubbles

I have been thinking for a while about how to make the characters of Nowhere Prophet stand out a bit more. One of the most obvious ideas was some actual voice recordings when the characters enter battle - sort of like Hearthstone does for its higher tier cards. However that's a) expensive and b) an issue once you start to localize the game.

So it always ended up on the backburner. However Speech Bubbles are a good alternative, so I took some time to implement the feature and write some cool lines for the different cards. (There's also some fun references buried in there). Now when you (or the enemy) play a Legendary or Mythic follower, then you get a short text, picked randomly.

I'd love to hear how you folks like this new side to your followers, and which one's your favorite!

Daily Challenge Mutators

The Daily Challenge was always a fun mode to compare yourself with others. (With the caveat that there is no itch-based leaderboard system so you were limited to comparing yourself manually). However one of the original features for the game mode never made it in: Mutators!

Every daily run has two unique modifiers that change the way the game plays. These can affect a wide variety of things: Route generation, follower behavior, leader health, combat rules etc.

You can see a preview (with work-in-progress icons) of a few of those above, and as a teaser, here's three of them:

• Sleepy: Exhausted followers do not deal retaliation damage when attacked.
• Battery: The Energy maximum in combat starts at 10 but is not refilled. At the start of each turn: You regain 5 Energy.
• Reshuffle: Scrapping a card discards all other cards in that hand, and draws a new one for each.

Oh, and along with the change in game mode, the GameMode Selection was adjusted accordingly.

Massive Rebalancing

This was triggered by player Blatm providing a lot of insight and feedback in the state of the game. This motivated and inspired me to redo the balancing in a big way. 

A lot of cards were changed: Followers had their stats adjusted and many got completely new effects. And some names and images got shuffled around, so you might be a bit confused at the beginning. This was done mainly to fit the effects better, and to provide a great set of variety on Legendary & Mythic rank to get some good voice lines going.

Leader cards were also affect, with many of the legendary and mythic cards becoming stronger. Levelling up should be a lot more rewarding now. And of course this also meant that the starting convoys and leaders had to be changed and adjusted. And there's a smattering of changes going out from there: Enemies have changed, equipment had its cards changed etc.

And then the economy was touched up to make some of the less interesting nodes more tempting: Hard fights can now drop wounded followers, so you might want to run into those red notes more frequently. And teachers now provide higher level cards so they may be worth visiting earlier.

Changelog

Major Changes

Follower Speech Bubbles

• Added speech bubbles for Legendary & Mythic followers when they enter battle.
• The design goal was to make the different characters stand out more while also exposing more of the world
• I've already got some favorites :D

Daily Challenge Mutators

• Every day features two unique modifiers that change the way the game plays
• Different Energy systems, different follower behavior etc. etc.
• Game mode selection was changed to show these

Massive Card Rebalancing

• A huge chunk of convoy and leader cards were changed - way too many to list
• WARNING: This will break running save games and punch some holes into your collection. Sorry about that.
• It also included a bunch of name & image swaps so you may have to get used to the new cards. Sorry about that too.
• The goal for the followers was to remove weak effects, make the really good ones have a more appropriate rarity and add some cool new effects
• The goal for the leader cards was to make leveling up better. Non-attack Leader cards have gotten better all around and there are some all around new ones!
• This also affects most of the starting convoys and leaders: All have some new cards.

Economy adjusted

• Rewards from short fights have been reduced a tad
• Hard fights can now drop (wounded) followers of the faction you fought
• Followers gained in events can end up being wounded (or rarely blessed)
• Non-hard fight rewards have been pushed down a tad
• Heals have been moved around a bit: Temple & Mineral Springs only have 3 heals, but at a cheaper price. Milestones have 5 instead.
• Teacher now has higher level cards
• Teacher cost for forget points was raised
• Starting convoys generally start with fewer followers now
• Wounded followers now start play with 1 damage, but are 1 cost cheaper.
• Added "Advantage" obstacles to combat

Minor Changes

Gameplay

• Change the event drop rates and chances to reduce duplication

Interface

• Added about the game screen to main menu
• Hotkey support for game mode and loadout select
• End turn button now folds out as "done" even if you can still scrap
• Smoother loading into the game scene - no stuttering loading symbol or fade in.
• Fine Dust Weather FX added
• Convoy details now show active status effect from luxury items
• Can now enter convoy details from conflict prep screen to allow pre-combat luxury sharing
• Lower quality settings now reduce texture size more drastically for older machines

Bugfixes

• Can no longer attack with already dead followers if you are quick enough
• Quick reflexes now has proper First Strike tooltip (not Push)
• Aborting the cutscene at the start now triggers the proper fade out animation
• Game now starts smoother without stuttering at the end of loading
• Fixed issue with hotkeys and tutorial page breaking