The Death of Endless Mode: Chapter 2

Today I released the next chapter in the progressive update I’ve been working on for the past month.

I’m releasing this update in the smallest – and least polished – chunks possible, in order to get your feedback as early as I can in the development process. As such, please expect each update (including this one) to be incomplete, imblanaced and buggy as hell.

In this update:

• Endless mode is officially dead. 
• All games will now end at wave 60 50 (assuming your team doesn’t die before then).
• Players will no longer be able to join starting at wave 41 31.
• I’ve added a new “Difficulty Track” to the Lobby – Starting at 1 and going up to 12.
• Upon beating a map, the Difficulty Track will move up 1 “Tier“.
• Upon being defeated, the Difficulty Track will move down 2 Tiers.
  • If the team reaches wave 40, they will instead only move down 1 Tier
  • If the team is defeated on wave 50, they will stay at the same difficulty
• Badges are no longer awarded for beating a round. Instead, you will earn 1 badge for each Difficulty Tier you’ve completed on each map (for a maximum of 108 possible badges).
  • Beating later Tiers will automatically award the previous Tiers’ badges.
• Shard and Essence rewards are directly tied to the current difficulty
• Starting at Round 4:
  • The barracks grants 150% normal experience
  • Enemies deal 150% base damage to the guard/barracks
  • The Altars on Dune Gauntlet and Frozen Steppes grant 10% experience (up from 5%)
• Starting at Round 5:
  • Players receive twice as much power from power orbs while in the barracks
  • Enemies deal 200% base damage to the guard/barracks
  • The Altars on Dune Gauntlet and Frozen Steppes grant 20% experience

Many of these features are not currently explained via the game UI. Again: I wanted to get you this build as soon as it was playable, so you can help direct the development process as early as possible.

Please leave any feedback (or bug reports) in the forums. I only ask that you give the new changes a try (at least a few games) before rushing to opinions. Change usually feels bad at first.

Added September 12:

• All players will now contribute an equal amount to the game’s difficulty (how long you’ve been in the game is no longer a factor)
  • Instead, joining late will grant you “late-joiner” XP. This may take some time to balance.

Moving Forward

If this feel incomplete, remember: this is just one piece of a much larger update. I have some ideas to add rogue-like features to the game that I’m really excited about, but first I want to make sure these fundamental changes work.

Please bear with me as I move the game closer to a finished state. I believe the end product will be better than the sum of its parts.