Some of these have some pretty horrifying potential Archons (Tier 3 Mind) are my guess for what will end up the most deadly, especially now that the higher-end Mind damage attacks will finally be available. But, we’ll see how it plays out… soonish.

As promised, a review of the things I still need to do before I release this build:

x Capture mechanic setup for the new demons
x Create Tier 3 modifiers.
x Create hybrid modifiers for Tiers 1 and 2.
x Create modifiers for uniques.
x Place new abilities into old modifiers when appropriate.
x Create/update spawn tables to account for the new demons and new floors.
* Small (but numerous) balance tweaks I’ve noted, but not yet implemented.
* Small adjustments to Relic starting packages to account for attenuation mechanic and some new abilities I want to insert.
* Various small bug fixes.
* Testing… testing… testing…

Good news: None of these are particularly big tasks except testing! Bad news: There’s a fair number of them still. But, we’re closing in on the end, nonetheless. Hang tight, I think this one will prove worth the wait.

Edit: Crossing things off as I finish them.

Not a long post given the late hour, but I wanted to announce that all 166 new abilities for the next build have been implemented.

I’ll post again soon with some details on what work is left to do before this build’s ready to go out the door. Following that, we’ll have some previews of some of the new demons featuring Geminimax’s versions of the character sprites.

Until then, time for Nioh and sleep.

The new top of the Tower is bringing all sorts interesting abilities into play. Let’s look at four that together should prove interesting: Miracles!

First, the three Miracles themselves. Miracles are rather remarkably powerful abilities, often combining 3 or 4 different effects at once and applying them to all enemies or all allies. However, they use the Miracle cooldown: like the Soul cooldown used by Eternal Glory, Miracle only cools down as you gain experience: gaining 10% of a level decrements a Miracle cooldown by 1. (So, the miracles below recharge after gaining 40% of a level.)

The first Miracles being added are for Light, Healing, and Dark, but this is not to say that all future miracles will be of these types.

Anyway, here are the three initial Miracles:

Also being added is one passive related to their use. A passive that only works with 3 abilities is a dicey proposition, but no denying it has a huge impact:

Channeler helps in two major ways: by reducing the SP cost to 0, it virtually ensures Miracles will be available in a pinch, and halving the cooldown also lets you use them much more often: at a cooldown of 2, you’ll probably be able to use a Miracle every other fight instead of only twice per floor.

You shouldn’t have to look hard to find most of these, should you reach the new floors of the Tower, as three of the four are on the same new non-unique demon!

Cheers!

Lots of new abilities are coming in the next build. While I work on finishing things up, I thought it’d be nice to do a few previews of some of my favorites. First up: Glacial Shell!

Already we see something new: a 100% reliable Block!

Of course, similar to Lucky Dodge, it has a cooldown that will trigger when it used. (Also like Lucky Dodge, the cooldown will only trigger if Glacial Shell was required for the Block. If you had other ways of blocking the attack, they may trigger first, sparing your sure-thing block for a later attack.)

But… there is more to see here still. The Cold cooldown is in most respects a normal time-based cooldown. However, if you use Ice abilities…

…the cooldown decreases by 1, immediately! This works even with free actions like Flash Freeze here. Which means, if you have a free action Ice ability and a normal Ice ability to use, like Chilling Touch there in slot 1…

…you can use 2 Ice abilities in one round, rapidly bringing your Cold-cooldown ability back into play.

You won’t have to get far into the game to incorporate Glacial Shell into builds: one of the new lower Tower demons, the Alma, possess knowledge of it. (Funny enough, they also know Flash Freeze…)

I’ll try to post a few more of these before release to preview more of the new abilities you’ll be seeing in game soon. Cheers!

130 of the new abilities are implemented.

Between the amount of stuff going in with this build and starting the new job at the top of the month, this has been a bit longer of a cycle than I originally planned, but we’re definitely getting closer to release. Main things left after I finish the ability implementation: spawn tables, the Tier 3 random modifiers, the new hybrid-themed random modifiers, bug fixes, and finally, testing.

Still a little bit to go, but it’s coming, I promise. Stay tuned, and good luck in the Tower!

I’ve finished implementing 50 of the new abilities so far. Considering I’m working these days and it isn’t even the weekend yet, this is pretty good progress.

Speaking of abilities… here’s the icons for every ability that will be in the game as of the next build. Crazy

Now I just have to implement them… whew.

Almost done. Then I just … have… to… implement them. Though oddly, that will probably go faster, because I’m pretty slow at art.