This is the “real” relic upgrade build. Links to the right have been updated as usual. :) There actually aren’t many changes from the 6/25 “preview” build, as it turns out: just a fix for the nasty Consume and Recycle bug, a fix for a negotiation sacrifice bug, and a scoring model change.

Before I get into details about the build itself, a small announcement: Demon development’ll be going mostly dark for roughly a week or so coming up. Short version is, I’ve had some pretty heavy real life stuff happen recently and I need to digest it. I wanted to meet my obligations to you folks before running off to do that though. If you want more details, I’ve posted about it here in the off topic section of the forum: http://forum.ferretdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=165

So, Relic Upgrades!

Relic Upgrades are a new feature that add new or tweak existing relic functions. Every relic begins with 2, and new upgrades can be chosen upon reaching 5th level, 15th level, 25th level, etc. They have a wide variety of effects ranging from simple discounts to existing functions as Copy Ability and Fuse Demons, to offering entirely new functions such as Soul Armor (the ability to make a demon’s resistances and Speed your own), Revelation (teach demons abilities from their modifier’s list), and Enemy Sense (can see enemy positions on your map.)

This build also includes several balance changes of note: “defeat X enemies in Y turns” capture mechanics have been made more challenging, multi-element attacks have had their SP costs reduced, Breath weapon cooldowns have been reduced a bit, and demon resistance tables in the mid and late Tower have been adjusted with a particular eye to making Fire vulnerability a bit less common. In addition to these bigger adjustments, some smaller tweaks were also made.

Finally, there have been reports of some new demons being added, creatures out of urban legend rather than proper mythology. But, sightings have been rather rare, with the notable exception of those chosen by the Vodun Mask: summoners of the Mask seem to much more frequently report sightings of these strange new demons than other summoners. Eh, it’s probably all nonsense though.

I hope everyone enjoys the new relic upgrades system, and as always, good luck in the tower.

This is going to be a short for a build post, and also a bit of a weird build post, bear with me.

* The 6/25 builds have been added to the usual download links. However, the 5/3 builds have been left up as well. The dates are clearly marked in the file names, it should be easy to grab the right ones. (This is a bit of a change from my original plan of making a separate download link that I discussed in the forums, sorry for the confusion.)

* This is because I have unexpectedly been called out of town for a few days, and will not be here to address any bugs, even very very bad ones, that may be present in the 6/25 build. If you run into problems, you can always re-download 5/3 and play that until I return and can fix such bugs.

* I need to leave for the airport very soon, so unfortunately I can’t really say much else here. That’s okay: when I return, and when I fix any bugs that have come up, I will do a more “formal” release of the build, including my usual posts on RogueBasin, Twitter, etc, and a more in-depth discussion of what’s new in the build here. However, I *did* update the changelog included with the builds, so you can read all about there right now if you like.

* This is a pretty significant balance change for Demon, similar in scope to the addition of currency a few months back. Like with currency, I expect that despite my best efforts, some things will end up out of whack and need adjustment. This means two things: 1) Don’t get attached to the current versions of anything yet, 2) Don’t assume anything is “intended” to be the way it is, especially if it seems crazy over or underpowered.

Apologies again for the odd circumstances surrounding this release. It was either this weirdness or put off releasing until I got back late next week. I decided to take a bit of a risk and go ahead and release oddly so you folks can try out the Relic Upgrades a bit sooner. Thank you for understanding, and good luck in the tower!