wastenauts

[wastenauts]

Rock the Vote 2021

Ahoy Divers!

Changes to event cards have landed. We get it, some of the narratives are long af. We’ve added some bolded color moments for the most important words that tell you the card’s effect to let you skip to what’s important faster.

And, we’ve changed how voting works. For event cards that require a vote between two options, *only* those players with a character in the party will be able to vote. Fight the scavs or abandon the plan? Put down the Flitstorm or deal with the consequences later? Your friends shouldn’t sign you up for something you don’t wanna do! 

If your vote doesn’t count, don’t worry - you’ll still need to indicate you’re ready to proceed before the event card effect triggers. That way, you get to read the narrative on your own time. 

Several new event cards will be added in an upcoming build, for more variation in each session!

[wastenauts]

Panic at the Dirigible

Ahoy Divers!

You might’ve noticed our little game got a big face lift. Make sure to check out these links before you go:

* Kickstarter Page (launches March 23!) * Trailer Video * Wastenauts Website

This week we’re preparing some new content for the Kickstarter, and we’re starting with a major “Panic”! The new Panic status can be inflicted on characters with sinister effect; panicked characters *cannot end their turn early*, and must draw as many cards as they are able before ending their turn. What’s worse, Panic is not removed until characters return to camp. So long as a character is Out After Dark, they’ll remain Panicked, lost, desperately searching for friends.

Panic can be inflicted a variety of ways, including by event cards and monsters. While some characters can stomach status, others that rely on drawing the correct, specific cards will be in trouble.

How are YOU planning to handle this new challenge? 

[wastenauts]

[wastenauts]

Build 23 - Patch Notes

Hello Hello Divers!

The alpha goes live on Friday, February 12 and will run until Sunday, February 21. Full patch notes are below. If you do not have an alpha key, pop into the Discord and ask for one!

Build 23 - The Wantnauts Build

Partial Wipe - accounts have been partially wiped. What has been reset:

Crowns have been set to 0

All zones and modes have been locked except for Wastes Story Mode

All rare resources on the extractor have been locked with the exception of the Ferromagnetic Sprocket. If you had previously unlocked the sprocket (by progressing through the tutorial past the Dunes story), it remains unlocked.

All character XP has been set to 0; characters have been unequipped and their levels have been set to 1

Nearly all cards have been removed from inventories

What has not been wiped:

If you had purchased Delilah, you still have her

All character metrics / achievements have been preserved - this means that if you had a character already at level 3 (for example), the only thing you will need to do is get enough XP to level them

Progress through your tutorial has been preserved

If you had unlocked any of the following cards, they have been preserved, but their level has been set to 1:

Backup Singer

Brace for Impact

Overwatch

Scout Ahead

For this build we’ve again made a substantial Unity upgrade. As a result various technical changes exist throughout that are not documented here.

Art and Animations

Additional Card Art has been added for:

Mask Bandit

Rock’em

Scav Warmonger

Sock’em

Terrified Scav

Violent Scav

Attack animations have been added for:

Crackler

Cultist

Electric Storm

Flit

Mask Bandit

Rock’em

Sand Skimmer

Scav Diviner

Scav Party

Scav Warmonger

Scrapper

Screaming Scav

Sock’em

Terrified Scav

Violent Scav

Additionally, new backgrounds for the loading screen, store, and church have been added.

Augments

Augments will be the subject of an upcoming patch this year, but for now:

The type-restriction on Augment slots has been removed. Augment slots are generic and can hold any type, to further allow you to customize your builds for each character!

Augments are no longer sold in the store. Currently the only way to obtain them is as drops in Adventure Mode

Catalog

The Catalog UI has been substantially overhauled:

Salvage is now included in the catalog

Filters have been added, including filtering by zone, and viewing cards with only drop in Adventure Mode and cannot be purchased

Cards in the catalog now indicate whether they can be upgraded

Unobtainable Cards, such as core monsters, Delilah’s stances, and more have been added to the catalog.

Church

The Church UI has been substantially overhauled:

Cards are now separated by character, and can be further filtered based on affordability and cards that are at level cap

The amount of each rare resource you have is now displayed in the Church UI

A display has been added that immediately shows which cards are at level cap without having to click into each

Tabs and filters have been added. To choose which cards in the church are displayed, choose either a character; the infinity symbol for all ability cards you have unlocked; or the extractor icon to further upgrade the rare resources you can harvest

Upgrades are only available if you have sufficiently improved the Church’s rank at the Construction screen. Generally, each rank unlocks the following (although exceptions apply):

Rank 1 - Upgrade cards to level 2. Rank 1 is acquired by completing the Clergy’s quest to obtain a Ferromagnetic Sprocket.

Rank 2 - Upgrade cards to level 3

Errors

A speech bubble has been added next to character portraits. It is where most errors will be displayed, instead of in the middle of the screen.

Game Creation

At present, the matchmaking system isn’t serving our needs or yours. It’s our belief that players who are clicking matchmaking are primarily doing it to play a game, ideally with other players but not necessarily. Requiring other players to be in the queue at the same time as you, and bombing out if they weren’t, was unduly limiting.

The “Find Divers” button has been removed from the map screen and the “Dive Now!” button has been added

Clicking Dive Now! will automatically add you to any open game if one exists; and if one does not, will create a new open game using the chosen zone and mode on the map screen

Currently, if Dive Now! would add you to an open game, it will not respect the zone or mode you’ve selected on the map screen. This is intentional, as our goal is to get you into a game as soon as you click that button. But we’re eager for your feedback on this, and will reevaluate as the player base grows.

With the addition of Dive Now!, it is possible for players to join your game even if you were looking to play single player or only with friends. Additionally, there may be circumstances where you are willing to play with others, but need to do a specific zone or mode. As a result, we have modified Custom Game creation and Join Custom Game as well.

Clicking Create Custom Game in the map screen will now open a small window prompting you to name the game, and providing an opportunity to supply a password

There are no character or length restrictions on session passwords (although they are capped at 20 characters) and we encourage you to use something simple and new since you will be providing this password to friends who want to join your session.

Password protected games cannot be joined using Dive Now!; they can only be joined from the open game list in the Join Custom Game menu

All games, whether created via Dive Now! or Create Custom Game, show up in the Join Custom Game menu

The Join Custom Game menu UI has been overhauled; as part of this, it displays whether a game in the list is password protected.

When joining a password protected game from the Join Custom Game menu, you will now be prompted to enter the password - get it from your friend who created the session!

Additionally:

Player sessions are less likely to time out while waiting for additional players in the lobby

Seats occupied / maximum seats displayed in the Join Custom Game menu should be faster to update on the server

Havilah Upgrades

Buildings on the Havilah can now be upgraded at the new Construction screen. Right now, both the Store and Church can be upgraded to unlock additional content.

Upgrading requires Salvage, a new type of resource introduced in this build. See below for how to obtain Salvage.

Leveling

Type and power restrictions on augment slots have been removed; any augment can be equipped into any slot

Glory slots have been added; see below for a description of the “Glory” keyword. Cards with this keyword can only be equipped in a “Glory” slot

The level cap has been raised to 6

Requirements to reach levels 4 and 5 have been reduced for each character

Leveling unlocks have been homogenized - every character now unlocks the same slots for things at the same levels

Each character starts with an ability slot (except for Delilah)

At level 2: unlock an ability and augment slot

At level 3: unlock a glory slot

At level 4: unlock an augment slot

At level 5: unlock an ability slot

At level 6: unlock a glory slot

Loadout

The Loadout UI has been substantially overhauled:

Cards are displayed in a fashion similar to the new screens on the Havilah

Current stats, as well as progress to the next level, are always displayed for the selected character

The equipped display has been changed to accommodate additional ability, augment, and other types of slots in the future

Cards are added by dragging them to the loadout panel, and removed by clicking the X to remove them

Progress bars in the Next Level display now correctly cap the text at the maximum value required

Lobby

The Lobby UI has been cleaned up to better mirror the style of other menus.

The Session Info panel in an Adventure Mode lobby now displays the drop rate for common, uncommon, and rare cards given the currently assigned monsters; increase the zone level to increase the chances that rarer cards will drop.

Ability icons have been shrunk to accommodate more of them

New Cards - Glory

The “Glory” keyword indicates that an ability can only be used once per session, and then is discarded. New Glory cards are designed to be more impactful than other ability cards given their limited use.

Eyes Wide Open (Buster) - Glory: Join all parties’ first combat of the day

For the Hoard (Andrea) - Glory: Double the current amount of stored scrap

Glutton for Punishment (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Gain +1 Strength on your next roll for every injury you've taken this game

Lingering Words (Lena) - Glory: At the end of the day, heal all injuries on all characters

The Luckiest (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Take no injuries from monsters for the rest of the day

One in the Chamber (Buster) - Glory: Go first in any combat you fight today

Rallying Cry (Lena) - Glory: Target character joins the current combat

To Smithereens (Delilah) - Glory: Kill target non-boss mechanical monster. Gain 300 Scrap.

Steady (Buster) - Glory: Gain the Aim card for this combat

Tenderize (Delilah) - Glory: Kill target non-boss biological monster. Gain 5 random salvage cards.

Uppercut (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Kill target non-boss monster

Aim (Buster) - Action: Double your Strength on your next roll. This effect can stack multiple rounds in combat, and is removed at the end of combat.

New Cards - Salvage

Salvage cards have replaced most Scrap in adventure mode games. Salvage can be discarded for Scrap while at camp, or can be saved and brought back to the Havliah to upgrade your ship. The following Salvage cards have been added to the game:

Hinge (replaces 50 scrap in Adventure mode)

Canvas (replaces 20 scrap in Adventure mode)

Canned Food (replaces some 40 scrap in Adventure mode)

Fuel (replaces some 40 scrap in Adventure mode)

Wire Spool (replaces some 40 scrap in Adventure mode)

Netting (replaces 10 scrap in Adventure mode)

Zone availability of each can be found in the Catalog. Note that Hinges can only be obtained in adventure mode lvl 4 and above, and Fuel and Wire Spools can only be obtained in adventure mode lvl 6 and above.

Rewards - Dice Skins

A new menu is now available on the Havilah for rewards. The rewards menu is unlocked after you have completed the tutorial.

In the rewards menu you can choose a skin to apply to your dice. In all of your games, your chosen skin will be applied to any dice rolled by characters you control.

You can swap between unlocked skins any time from the Havilah.

Our intention is to offer various ways to unlock additional dice skins. The first skin available is the TempArt skin. This skin is only available to players who log-in during this alpha (Feb 12-21). Once unlocked, it will remain on your account and be preserved even through wipes.

We anticipate additional, different skins will be available in future alphas.

Specific Cards

The following cards can now be upgraded to level 2:

Blaze of Glory

Load Flashbang Ammo

Load Radioactive Ammo

Wind Up

The following cards can now be upgraded to level 3:

Animate Scrap

Backup Singer

Brace for Impact

Called Shot

Fight Through the Pain

Fresh Meat

Load Big Ammo

Look For Trouble

Momentum

Patch Yourself Up

Save Your Strength

The Long Watch

Up to Eleven

Various card texts have been updated without an impact to their effects. This broadly includes:

Making sure the status applied by a card matches the text of the card itself

Phasing out the “roll long” “day long” “camp” “damage” and “injury” icons and replacing them with text

Ensuring remaining icons are actually used where appropriate

Making sure all keywords are displayed in orange

Adrenaline Surge: now correctly costs resources to upgrade to level 2

Auto-Injector: fixed a crash when previewing this card in the gear menu

Called Shot: now Exhausts, and is correctly affected by Ability Lock

Fight Through the Pain: level 2 now correctly cannot be used outside of combat, and is correctly affected by Ability Lock

Load Big Ammo: the buff is correctly no longer removed if Buster takes an action other than attack before attacking in a day

Load Explosive Ammo: the buff is correctly no longer removed if Buster takes an action other than attack before attacking in a day

Load Radioactive Ammo: now uses the correct icon in loadout

Look for Trouble: now Exhausts

Momentum: now correctly cannot be used while KO’d

Overwatch: the tooltip for the status applied to parties is now clearer

Patch Yourself Up: now correctly unexhausts when targeted by Wakeup Call

Ready 4 Round 2: the damage from this card can no longer be negated by Dodge

Ready 4 Round 2: this card cannot be used if you have set yourself to stay Out After Dark

Resourceful: this card cannot be used if you have set yourself to stay Out After Dark

The Long Watch: Fixed a bug where Buster’s portrait would disappear if you tried to assign him to a party after using this ability

Thrill of the Fight: now uses the correct icon for draws in the character sheet

Wait For Me: can no longer interrupt the current player’s turn even if Delilah has higher Speed than them

Store

Store UI has been overhauled.

Cards can only be purchased if you have upgraded the Scrap-N-Go to a sufficient rank. Generally, each rank unlocks the following (though some exceptions apply):

Tabs and filters have been added. To choose which cards in the store are displayed, choose either a character; the Meeple icon for generic gear like Treads; the Scrapper to show Monsters; or the infinity symbol for all cards available for purchase.

Buying and selling have been decoupled from entries in the store. The Crowns tab at the end of the store list is for selling, and you can now sell cards that aren’t otherwise purchasable in the store.

Several additional cards have been added to the store, including several ability cards that could previously only be obtained via drop. As always, to determine how to obtain a card, visit the Catalog.

Augments have been removed from the store.

After returning from a session, cards in the store should correctly preview in the center of the screen.

Display of already owned cards is now displayed on the store cards themselves for clarity

Rank 2 - Uncommon Abilities

Rank 3 - Level 3-4 Monsters

Rank 4 - Uncommon Gear

Rank 5 - Level 5-6 Monsters

Rank 6 - Rare Abilities

Rank 7 - Rare Gear

Tutorial

Additional lines have been added and modified in the tutorial to reflect the new systems and layouts in this build

Fixed a bug during tutorial session 2 where it was possible to activate Scout Ahead too early and cause a soft-lock

Completing tutorial session 2 will award you with 500 crowns (up from 100)

The Construction Menu will be available after completing Adventure Mode for the first time

The Rewards Menu will be available after completing the first two tutorial sessions

Bugs and Misc

Costs and rarity of nearly every card and upgrade have been adjusted (again); the cost to upgrade cards has been substantially lowered for most cards

Crafting costs for gear have been updated throughout

Fixed a bug where Event Card text was cut-off by the confirm/cancel buttons

Fixed a bug where the first night of a session displayed “Night 1/1”; the correct max days until the boss is now displayed

Fixed a bug where the Day/Night display did not advance correctly if an entire day was skipped (all characters resting)

Fixed various places where font was rendering incorrectly

Fixed some layering issues on Havilah

Fixed a bug where party assignment spaces could sometimes fail to appear on the first camp phase

Fixed some scaling issues that occur on Andrea and Delilah’s portraits

Fixed a combat turn order display issue

The display of blueprints in the gear menu has been improved

Fixed some bugs related to the display of cards in the hand

Victory Panel no longer crashes if one of your characters is at level cap

Fixed an issue where non-Steam players would not be able to advance the tutorial the first time they create a new account

Cleaned up some missing curly quotes in tutorial text that would cause it to fail to appear

Fixed a bug where upgraded cards would display the wrong text in-session

Defeated bots that were summoned into battle can now be dragged in your hand and mashed at camp

Fixed the tooltip for Refresh to reflect the fact that it restores Draws, not Speed

Cursor no longer changes to Grab when hovering over an open character sheet

Tooltips for party statuses no longe display off the screen

Monster cards in the lobby during adventure mode can no longer be dragged after you’ve readied

Character portraits can now hold significantly higher numbers for stats

The Lone Clergywoman in the Dunes and in the tutorial has been replaced with a Lone Clergyman.

Improved stability for chat

Shrapnel Whirlwind’s card placement is more on-the-screen

Fixed the missing combat portrait for Booby-Trapped Weather Sensor

Websockets

Due to our current server architecture, we’ve been unable to support a lot of traditional features for online games, from friends lists to server notifications. The Unity upgrade has finally unlocked the first step towards this. While you won’t see a change as a player on this just yet, we include it here for those more curious about development on this front. We’ll continue to add these improvements in the future as we use the websockets!

On log-in, a websocket is opened

All current players logged in is now recorded

[wastenauts]

Skinned Alive

Ahoy Divers! For a while we've been wanting to come up with a reward system for those who join our alpha testing, to show off their dedication to the game. And we finally have one! Starting with the next alpha, every event will be accompanied by a unique dice skin. Log in during that period and it will unlock the skin on your account forever - even surviving account wipes. What's the first skin? We couldn't resist our wonderful standby - TempArt.

These TempArt dice are totally impractical and do not, in fact, show you what you've rolled. But rest assured they function just like regular dice. Just waiting on the art for them. Any day now... A new building has been added to the Havilah for Rewards. Here you can swap between the traditional dice skin and the new TempArt skin any time you want. Your chosen skin will be applied to all dice you roll in any multiplayer session, so as you participate in more alphas you'll be able to show off your collection! The TempArt skin will only be available to players who log in for the alpha February 12-21.  

[wastenauts]

[wastenauts]

Can We Build It?

Last week we previewed the new Salvage cards, and where you can use them on the Havliah. Specifically, a new building for construction has been added to the ship - but what can you construct?

On February 12 ranks will be added to the Store and to the Church. Using the construction menu, you can improve the ranks of each of these buildings - up to Rank 2 for the Church, and up to Rank 7 for the Store. Each rank upgrade requires Salvage, and at higher tiers, the type of Salvage required will only drop in high-level adventure mode sessions. If you want a fully upgraded Store, prepare to fight for it.

The initial offerings at the Store will be pretty slim once you complete the tutorial, and will include only common abilities and gear, and level 1 and 2 monsters. More will be unlocked as you increase its rank. Generally, each rank unlocks the following:

Rank 2 - Uncommon Abilities

Rank 3 - Level 3-4 Monsters

Rank 4 - Uncommon Gear

Rank 5 - Level 5-6 Monsters

Rank 6 - Rare Abilities

Rank 7 - Rare Gear

A small number of cards have been designated as "Epic" rarity, and can never be purchased in the Store. You'll need to find those cards as drops in Adventure Mode.

Improving the Church's rank will allow you access to another tier of power - level 3 card upgrades. We've had the ability to upgrade your cards to level 2 in the game for a while, and this bumps up your power even higher. Thirteen ability cards will have level 3 versions available to you, but they won't come cheap. To start, you'll have to upgrade the Church's rank just to earn the privilege of paying for level 3 versions, and the Salvage required to do that requires you to search both of our playable zones at every level to gather enough.

But oh boy are these cards powerful. Here are some of the new abilities you'll be able to power up:

Backup Singer - Give another character +6CP on their next roll

Fresh Meat - Attack a biological monster; if it dies, heal 3 injuries

Patch Yourself Up - The next time you would be KO'd this battle, survive with 3 injuries remaining

Save Your Strength - End your exploration and stay Out After Dark; for each draw remaining, gaining 3x that much EP the next day

The Long Watch - All characters gain +6CP for the day; you must remain at camp

That's all for this week! Next week we'll be shifting gears and talking about new rewards unlocked for playing each alpha!

[wastenauts]

[wastenauts]

Get What You Can

Ahoy Divers!

Coming up in our February 12 alpha is a new category of cards called "Salvage." Salvage cards are resource cards that can be traded in for scrap at camp. But they're also more.

These cards let you take a play with a little risk/reward. Use them just like scrap and craft whatever gear you can to take on the boss. Or, keep the salvage in your hand until you beat the zone, and bring them back to the Havilah. At the new Construction menu you can see all of the salvage you've managed to take back skyside. You can use these to improve both the Store and Church, which will open up more options we'll be previewing next week! Each rank of improvement to each building costs specific salvage resources, and you'll  need to run different zones at different levels to keep the Havilah afloat.

For our first debut of this system, you'll have 6 different kinds of salvage to gather:

Canned Food

Canvas

Fuel (only found in the Wastes at level 6+)

Hinge

Netting

Wire Spool (only found in the Dunes at level 6+)

Salvage cards are only available in Adventure Mode, and replace nearly all of the scrap cards you would've usually found there. We've tried to make sure that the total scrap available to you at each level is about the same as before. But whether you take advantage of it or not is up to you!

PS: Unlike other resource cards, salvage stays in your hand even when you're at camp, until you actively use it. The freedom to stack your hand with a ton of resource cards might be beneficial to a certain manic mechnomancer...

[wastenauts]

[wastenauts]

Glory, Glory!

Hey Divers!

It's been a bit, ain't it? With the world imploding at the end of 2020, we took the time to disappear for a bit and crank out new features, polish, and everything we possibly could. It's a new year, and what a great time to share one of the first major new systems in the game: Glory.

Glory is a new keyword added to several new cards that will be available in the next alpha. This keyword is reserved for powerful effects (like Uppercut pictured above), and means that the card will be discarded after it is used. These are once-per-session only cards, and deciding when to use them will be an important moment in each game. Right now, we have 9 Glory Cards in the game, with more to come before the next alpha:

Glutton for Punishment (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Gain +1 die on your next roll for every injury you've taken this game

The Luckiest (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Take no injuries from monsters for the rest of the day

Uppercut (Lucky Jack) - Glory: Kill target non-boss monster

Eyes Wide Open (Buster) - Glory: Join all parties' first combat of the day

One in the Chamber (Buster) - Glory: Go first in any combat you fight today

Steady (Buster) - Glory: Gain the "Aim" card for this combat

Aim (Buster) - Action: Double your dice on your next roll. This effect can stack multiple times, and is removed at the end of combat.

For the Hoard (Andrea) - Glory: Double the current amount of store scrap

Rallying Cry (Lena) - Glory: Target character joins the current combat

Lingering Words (Lena) - Glory: At the end of the day, heal all injuries on all characters

With their power comes new restrictions. Characters equip Glory cards separately from other abilities in the loadout.

Equipping Glory cards unlocks at level 3 for each character, and as you continue to level, your hand of cards will continue to be fleshed out with more options. Happy scavenging!

[wastenauts]

Progress Update

Hello Divers!

Back in July we thought we were going to knock out an alpha every 3 weeks. This time, because literally everyone on the dev team is moving, we went for 4 weeks. And can I tell you it helped massively? So we're likely to stick to a 4 week schedule for now to make sure alphas are stable.

Our big focus right now in the game is metaprogress - how do we create the sense of progression typical in other dungeon crawlers in our card game? How do we make each session feel like you've done something towards that? We've implemented a lot of systems over the past year, and all of them are on the table for tweaking in this:

Leveling - we love our leveling system right now that's based not just on XP but on achievements as well; while it obviously needs some balance this is likely to stay. However, the rewards for leveling, and what a level "means" is something that needs another pass.

Card Upgrades - some cards in the game can be upgraded to a level 2 version, and that's a really nice way to handle vertical progression, especially with a built-in task of getting rare resources; but what is the expected cap on upgrading cards?

Augments - we have augment slots for +1 and +2 bonuses to stats, which is a direct vertical progression, but how they are expected to scale along our difficulty levels isn't clear to players

What is set in stone is that we want Adventure Mode to be the primary method of working towards progress in the game, and we've made some changes to achieve that:

Monster Cards display their level - this was necessary to help players create an adventure mode deck that they want, and target a specific level for their next session

Monster Cards are easier to obtain - nearly all monsters are in the store now, and it should be no issue to build a deck of the correct level; if you are at level 4 with all your characters, grinding on level 3 to get enough level 4 monsters isn't fun, because you're grinding at a level lower than you can tackle

Monsters have been buffed - we've had a lot of power creep in the game on the player side with lots of new cards and cool effects, and monsters were starting to fall behind

Adventure Mode now drops 3 cards instead of 1

Crown rewards in all modes have been reduced by 90%

We want you to get Crowns by getting cards and selling unwanted ones, instead of primarily by just beating a session. This is more in line with traditional CCG models, but also makes sure that players will play Adventure Mode regularly. Story Mode is designed to introduce players to new concepts introduced in that zone.

What's next on this topic? Coming soon in future alphas:

A massive overhaul to the Augment system

Lots more Level 2 versions of cards, and some Level 3s

An overhaul to the upgrade screen to display rare resources