The December Update! New features + first major balance patch!
Today's update brings a bunch of new features, changes and fixes to the game!
[h3]Updated Art[/h3]
Daredillo clean poses added
Noizard clean poses added
Opposur poses added
9 new hairstyles added to player customization
9 new options added for player face feature customization
11 new hats added to player customization (some are not available by default and can be found in shops) 11 new tops added to player customization (some are not available by default and can be found in shops) Riley character art cleaned up
We'll continue adding more art and animation throughout Early Access. Lots more stuff is actively in progress and on its way for future updates!
[h3]Level Cap Setting[/h3]
This is available in settings menu at any time, from the beginning of a new game or even in the middle of any match. This setting will artificially reduce the levels of your Beasties when they exceed the level of your opponents. They'll still receive EXP as usual.
Beastieball was intentionally designed with peaks and valleys of difficulty; we think there's great joy in venturing to difficult areas, growing stronger, and then returning to easier areas where you can win matches easily. But some players would prefer an experience that's more difficult, slow and consistent. By enabling this setting you can ensure that you're never "overlevelled" and always have an interesting strategic match whenever you encounter any opponent at any time in your adventure.
[h3]Random Team[/h3]
In Team Setup (available in Sportnet or during certain post-game challenges), you can save pre-set teams or download teams created by other players. There's now a "Random Team" option on this menu, which will generate a new random team for you at the beginning of every match you play. You can use this new option to quickly jump into high-level PvP matches without building your own team!
[h3]Mountain Expedition Redux[/h3]
This Roguelike post-game challenge has been particularly popular among players, and we thought it could use a little more TLC, so we spent some time adjusting it. In particular our goal was to enable a greater diversity of playstyles and better reward careful planning. The original version was great fun but pushed players towards using only a small handful of Beasties to succeed. The new version is completely reworked and a lot more strategic! We hope you enjoy it.
Note that records set in previous versions will have to be wiped if you want to continue playing Expeditions. We don't intend to wipe progress like this with every update we make, but in this case we felt it was necessary since we've changed how the mode plays and also how it scores a "win" for some Beasties.
[h3]Other Little Things[/h3]
After completing the story, players earn significantly more Social Battery from defeating Away Teams or their own reserve Beasties.
Tower Tourney and Draft Challenge now yield much more SP, especially after defeating bosses
You can now preview opponent Beasties' Free Ball
This is the first of what will be many adjustments to balance.
In general, our goal with these changes was to reduce the effectiveness of some combinations which could consistently create 1-turn 50/50 or no-win scenarios regardless of matchup. Combinations which were strong in the previous patch should still be strong, but slightly easier to play against, allowing for more diverse match dynamics. These changes are subtle and will only impact players deep in postgame or PvP, such as those competing in the upcoming fan-organized Bring the Heat! tournament.
We also aimed to better distinguish some Beasties' roles by adjusting their plays/traits/stats. Kassaleet and Broslidon now have clearer separate specialties, while other Beasties like Armantis and Musselbound have been given more options to expand their playstyles.
[h3]Core Mechanics[/h3]
Rival Combos: The power of some rival combos was mistakenly higher than intended. They’ve been adjusted to match their intended values. Some have also been made a touch stronger.
Across the board, text has been updated in Trait descriptions to better distinguish how damage is calculated by different factors. This goes hand-in-hand with the following damage calculation changes.
Jazzed: Now adds +50% to your POW instead of multiplying the resulting damage by 1.5. This change keeps Jazzed in-line with other similar buffs.
Rally: Now adds +50% to your Spirit attack POW instead of multiplying the resulting damage by 1.5. This change keeps Rally in-line with other similar buffs. Note: Mind attacks under Rally still have their damage multiplied x3/4
The difference between "+50%" and "x1.5" is subtle but meaningful. For example, in previous versions, if a Beastie was at the net (+50%) and jazzed (x1.5), their power bonus would be 100% + 50% x 1.5 = 225%. Under new balance change, where jazzed is +50%, the same state would yield a power level of 100% + 50% + 50% = 200%.
Effectively this means that power growth will be more linear rather than exponential when stacking certain effects.
[h3]Traits[/h3]
Avenger: Attacks are now 1.2x stronger when an ally is Wiped (from 1.3x)
Determination: Attacks are now 1.3x stronger when user has a bad feeling (from 1.5x)
Blocker: Name has been changed to “Power Forward”.
Performer: Defense is now increased 1.3x during Rally (from 1.25x)
(New for Armantis!) Monster Block: Using “Block” also makes the target feel 2 Shook.
[h3]Plays[/h3]
Juggle: Although its type is still "Volley," this play no longer counts as a "volley" for most calculations. This impacts many areas including relationship building, as well as interactions with certain plays such as Zigzag, which will no longer be strengthened by juggling.
Airblast: POW reduced to 115 (from 130)
Blaze: Spirit POW Boost reduced to +2 (from +3)
Hex: Tired inflicted increased to 8 (from 4)
Hyperspike: Tired inflicted on self increased to 3 (from 2)
Patience: Now grants +1 to user's DEF stats after clearing stat changes
Pump Up: Body POW boost reduced to +1 (from +2). The move now also advances the user toward the net.
(NEW!) Ricochet: Mind Attack with 80 POW. Used from net. POW x1.5 if user received the ball.
Shake Off: Stamina recovery increased to +20 (from +15)
Toppler: Damage multiplier increased to +100% POW for every boost on the target (from +50%)
Ultimate Attack: POW increased to 220 (from 200)
[h3]Movesets[/h3]
Armantis:
- Added: Ricochet, Spike, Quick Set, Distraction (now learned by level up)
- Removed: Mighty Yell, Roll Shot, Shake Off Skibble / Skarmok / Boldlur:
- Added: Ricochet Leobro / Broslidon:
- Removed: Quick Breath Calcroach / Debugly:
- Added: Numbshot
- Removed: Telekinesis Kichik / Ostrisigh / Kasaleet:
- Added: Smack Sefren / Zefyre:
- Added: Net Rush (now learned via level-up)
- Removed: Cut Shot Musselbound:
- Added: Patience, Grit
- Removed: High Five, Pump Up
[h3]Stats[/h3]
Broslidon:
- Body POW: Reduced to 100 (from 105)
- Spirit POW: Increased to 50 (from 45)
- Spirit DEF: Increased to 58 (from 53)
- Mind DEF: Reduced to 75 (from 80)
Armantis:
- Spirit POW: Reduced to 23 (from 27)
- Body DEF: Reduced to 75 (from 85)
- Mind DEF: Increased to 75 (from 60)
Fixed an issue with trash cans not appearing in Geo City on some operating systems
Beasties that come from trash cans don't float anymore
Fixed an issue preventing some Beasties from metamorphing via special conditions if their metamorph was rejected previously
Away Teams server logic has been updated to correct a few issues that caused incorrect teams to be distributed in some cases (spoiler Beasties, wrong level, etc).
Fix for issue where away teams would appear on the map before spawning in the game world
Away Teams that have been waiting for longer to find an opponent now get a boost in priority for spawning. This means lower-level teams may sometimes appear for players, but in general Away Teams should spend less time waiting to find opponents.
Fixed an issue/crash with loading/unloading Beastiepedia field sketches. This fix might have also fixed several other seemingly-unrelated issues with broken models appearing in some places and other random issues/crashes.
Fixed a softlock that was possible during an endgame story sequence
Fixed some control description UI not updating correctly to custom controls
Fixed an issue with mixing keyboard/mouse input on the name entry in the character creator, which would close the menu when a player typed a letter corresponding to a "back" button
Fix for render order on the crown of captain Beasties in captains mode
Fix for player face frozen on a concerned expression if they talk to certain NPCs in Rutile after getting their first jerseys
Fix to Riley being uninteractable during a particular hangout if it's initiated after registering for the Crown Series
On the file select, Beasties now render behind important labels noting ironman/randomizer settings
Beasties establishing a new close bond and breaking an old one are now ~500,000x more likely to break a relationship with a Beastie that isn't on your active lineup
The player can no longer clap while hugging
When booting up on Steamdeck, the game always sets itself to fullscreen regardless of ingame settings. This is to correct a potential issue with switching between devices; on a console like Steamdeck we expect players would never want to play windowed.
Stopped away teams from spawning in Cordia Lake as this is inconvenient
Enforced scenes that should be skippable which sometimes weren't. This was mainly impacting speed runs.
Adjusted/updated many Beastie encounter movesets to reflect the new balance changes
Added safety checks to prevent various other common crashes
Many typos and area adjustments
These first few weeks have been exhilarating for the team! Working on the game and adding all these things feels extra amazing thanks to the enthusiasm and encouragement of players. More to come!!!
New Stuff
[h3]Updated Art[/h3]
Daredillo clean poses added
Noizard clean poses added
Opposur poses added
9 new hairstyles added to player customization
9 new options added for player face feature customization
11 new hats added to player customization (some are not available by default and can be found in shops) 11 new tops added to player customization (some are not available by default and can be found in shops) Riley character art cleaned up
We'll continue adding more art and animation throughout Early Access. Lots more stuff is actively in progress and on its way for future updates!
[h3]Level Cap Setting[/h3]
This is available in settings menu at any time, from the beginning of a new game or even in the middle of any match. This setting will artificially reduce the levels of your Beasties when they exceed the level of your opponents. They'll still receive EXP as usual.
Beastieball was intentionally designed with peaks and valleys of difficulty; we think there's great joy in venturing to difficult areas, growing stronger, and then returning to easier areas where you can win matches easily. But some players would prefer an experience that's more difficult, slow and consistent. By enabling this setting you can ensure that you're never "overlevelled" and always have an interesting strategic match whenever you encounter any opponent at any time in your adventure.
[h3]Random Team[/h3]
In Team Setup (available in Sportnet or during certain post-game challenges), you can save pre-set teams or download teams created by other players. There's now a "Random Team" option on this menu, which will generate a new random team for you at the beginning of every match you play. You can use this new option to quickly jump into high-level PvP matches without building your own team!
[h3]Mountain Expedition Redux[/h3]
This Roguelike post-game challenge has been particularly popular among players, and we thought it could use a little more TLC, so we spent some time adjusting it. In particular our goal was to enable a greater diversity of playstyles and better reward careful planning. The original version was great fun but pushed players towards using only a small handful of Beasties to succeed. The new version is completely reworked and a lot more strategic! We hope you enjoy it.
Note that records set in previous versions will have to be wiped if you want to continue playing Expeditions. We don't intend to wipe progress like this with every update we make, but in this case we felt it was necessary since we've changed how the mode plays and also how it scores a "win" for some Beasties.
[h3]Other Little Things[/h3]
After completing the story, players earn significantly more Social Battery from defeating Away Teams or their own reserve Beasties.
Tower Tourney and Draft Challenge now yield much more SP, especially after defeating bosses
You can now preview opponent Beasties' Free Ball
Balance Changes
This is the first of what will be many adjustments to balance.
In general, our goal with these changes was to reduce the effectiveness of some combinations which could consistently create 1-turn 50/50 or no-win scenarios regardless of matchup. Combinations which were strong in the previous patch should still be strong, but slightly easier to play against, allowing for more diverse match dynamics. These changes are subtle and will only impact players deep in postgame or PvP, such as those competing in the upcoming fan-organized Bring the Heat! tournament.
We also aimed to better distinguish some Beasties' roles by adjusting their plays/traits/stats. Kassaleet and Broslidon now have clearer separate specialties, while other Beasties like Armantis and Musselbound have been given more options to expand their playstyles.
[h3]Core Mechanics[/h3]
Rival Combos: The power of some rival combos was mistakenly higher than intended. They’ve been adjusted to match their intended values. Some have also been made a touch stronger.
Across the board, text has been updated in Trait descriptions to better distinguish how damage is calculated by different factors. This goes hand-in-hand with the following damage calculation changes.
Jazzed: Now adds +50% to your POW instead of multiplying the resulting damage by 1.5. This change keeps Jazzed in-line with other similar buffs.
Rally: Now adds +50% to your Spirit attack POW instead of multiplying the resulting damage by 1.5. This change keeps Rally in-line with other similar buffs. Note: Mind attacks under Rally still have their damage multiplied x3/4
The difference between "+50%" and "x1.5" is subtle but meaningful. For example, in previous versions, if a Beastie was at the net (+50%) and jazzed (x1.5), their power bonus would be 100% + 50% x 1.5 = 225%. Under new balance change, where jazzed is +50%, the same state would yield a power level of 100% + 50% + 50% = 200%.
Effectively this means that power growth will be more linear rather than exponential when stacking certain effects.
[h3]Traits[/h3]
Avenger: Attacks are now 1.2x stronger when an ally is Wiped (from 1.3x)
Determination: Attacks are now 1.3x stronger when user has a bad feeling (from 1.5x)
Blocker: Name has been changed to “Power Forward”.
Performer: Defense is now increased 1.3x during Rally (from 1.25x)
(New for Armantis!) Monster Block: Using “Block” also makes the target feel 2 Shook.
[h3]Plays[/h3]
Juggle: Although its type is still "Volley," this play no longer counts as a "volley" for most calculations. This impacts many areas including relationship building, as well as interactions with certain plays such as Zigzag, which will no longer be strengthened by juggling.
Airblast: POW reduced to 115 (from 130)
Blaze: Spirit POW Boost reduced to +2 (from +3)
Hex: Tired inflicted increased to 8 (from 4)
Hyperspike: Tired inflicted on self increased to 3 (from 2)
Patience: Now grants +1 to user's DEF stats after clearing stat changes
Pump Up: Body POW boost reduced to +1 (from +2). The move now also advances the user toward the net.
(NEW!) Ricochet: Mind Attack with 80 POW. Used from net. POW x1.5 if user received the ball.
Shake Off: Stamina recovery increased to +20 (from +15)
Toppler: Damage multiplier increased to +100% POW for every boost on the target (from +50%)
Ultimate Attack: POW increased to 220 (from 200)
[h3]Movesets[/h3]
Armantis:
- Added: Ricochet, Spike, Quick Set, Distraction (now learned by level up)
- Removed: Mighty Yell, Roll Shot, Shake Off Skibble / Skarmok / Boldlur:
- Added: Ricochet Leobro / Broslidon:
- Removed: Quick Breath Calcroach / Debugly:
- Added: Numbshot
- Removed: Telekinesis Kichik / Ostrisigh / Kasaleet:
- Added: Smack Sefren / Zefyre:
- Added: Net Rush (now learned via level-up)
- Removed: Cut Shot Musselbound:
- Added: Patience, Grit
- Removed: High Five, Pump Up
[h3]Stats[/h3]
Broslidon:
- Body POW: Reduced to 100 (from 105)
- Spirit POW: Increased to 50 (from 45)
- Spirit DEF: Increased to 58 (from 53)
- Mind DEF: Reduced to 75 (from 80)
Armantis:
- Spirit POW: Reduced to 23 (from 27)
- Body DEF: Reduced to 75 (from 85)
- Mind DEF: Increased to 75 (from 60)
Other Fixes
Fixed crashes that occurred for some players visiting the Team Setup menu or attempting to download a teamFixed an issue with trash cans not appearing in Geo City on some operating systems
Beasties that come from trash cans don't float anymore
Fixed an issue preventing some Beasties from metamorphing via special conditions if their metamorph was rejected previously
Away Teams server logic has been updated to correct a few issues that caused incorrect teams to be distributed in some cases (spoiler Beasties, wrong level, etc).
Fix for issue where away teams would appear on the map before spawning in the game world
Away Teams that have been waiting for longer to find an opponent now get a boost in priority for spawning. This means lower-level teams may sometimes appear for players, but in general Away Teams should spend less time waiting to find opponents.
Fixed an issue/crash with loading/unloading Beastiepedia field sketches. This fix might have also fixed several other seemingly-unrelated issues with broken models appearing in some places and other random issues/crashes.
Fixed a softlock that was possible during an endgame story sequence
Fixed some control description UI not updating correctly to custom controls
Fixed an issue with mixing keyboard/mouse input on the name entry in the character creator, which would close the menu when a player typed a letter corresponding to a "back" button
Fix for render order on the crown of captain Beasties in captains mode
Fix for player face frozen on a concerned expression if they talk to certain NPCs in Rutile after getting their first jerseys
Fix to Riley being uninteractable during a particular hangout if it's initiated after registering for the Crown Series
On the file select, Beasties now render behind important labels noting ironman/randomizer settings
Beasties establishing a new close bond and breaking an old one are now ~500,000x more likely to break a relationship with a Beastie that isn't on your active lineup
The player can no longer clap while hugging
When booting up on Steamdeck, the game always sets itself to fullscreen regardless of ingame settings. This is to correct a potential issue with switching between devices; on a console like Steamdeck we expect players would never want to play windowed.
Stopped away teams from spawning in Cordia Lake as this is inconvenient
Enforced scenes that should be skippable which sometimes weren't. This was mainly impacting speed runs.
Adjusted/updated many Beastie encounter movesets to reflect the new balance changes
Added safety checks to prevent various other common crashes
Many typos and area adjustments
Thanks!
These first few weeks have been exhilarating for the team! Working on the game and adding all these things feels extra amazing thanks to the enthusiasm and encouragement of players. More to come!!!