A small, but happy update: I have a four day weekend coming up, which I hope to use to finish up the next build. The release date target is therefore 5/31.

Whew: all the ability related work is Done. Every ability is implemented. Every ability has been distributed across modifiers and demons new and old, and every one that should have a place, does. The only things left between us and the release are some promised bug fixes and tweaks, and of course, a bit of testing.

In the mean time, here are some examples of existing demons whose ability sets were upgraded/changed as part of the pass discussed in the last post:

Another change coming in the next build: Demons across the Tower will have more abilities!

Previously, demons had these ability counts based on Tier:

Tier 1: 3-4
Tier 2: 3-5
Tier 3: 4-5
Unique: Max for Tier +2-3
Hero/Summoner: Always 8

After the next build, the counts will be:

Tier 1: 4
Tier 2: 5
Tier 3: 6
Unique: Max for Tier +2
Hero/Summoner: Always 8

This in effect means that some Tier 1 demons will be gaining a new ability, some Tier 2 demons will be gaining one or even two new abilities, and that all Tier 3 demons will be gaining at least one new ability, possibly two. (Uniques, demons, and summoners will largely not be changing.)

In rare cases, some existing abilities may also be replaced, in addition to the new abilities being added, but this will be infrequent. The goal is to enhance, not redefine.

Soon, I will post some samples of the changed demons. Cheers!

Also coming in the next build: four new sets (three each, one for each ‘tier’ of the Tower) of modifiers. Like most non-unique modifiers, these will be able to show up throughout the Tower at random, pre-applied to the demons you encounter. Additionally, existing demons will be reviewed and, where appropriate, will have one of these new modifiers replace their current inherent one.

As a preview, here is the tooltip of the lowest tier member of each new modifier set:

Finishing up abilities, so here’s a few more previews.

Work picked up a bit, but I’ve still been making progress on abilities. Over 3/4ths done with them now, so here’s a few more previews to celebrate.

Hey folks.

A small announcement: I’ve decided to split the upcoming end-game build into two builds.

The first build, which will come relatively soon, will include most of the new abilities, distributed throughout the Tower’s existing demons and modifiers, as well as some new modifiers and a few bug fixes.

Then, work will continue on the second build, which will strictly be about the end game content. This will also be where the remaining abilities are introduced.

To clarify: the only abilities not introduced in the first build will be those that only appear in end game content. Most of them will be available even in the first build.

I decided to do this because I have come to realize that the end game content is still a fair ways off, and I wanted to release something new for folks to enjoy during the remainder of that wait, and as it turns out, this is a pretty good solution to that.

I’ll try to get a release date for the first build posted in the near future, for now it is “soon(tm)”

I’m about halfway done implementing the abilities. Here’s a few previews that, with some extrapolation should reveal a fair bit of what’s in the list:

And now, they’re all done. 118 new ability icons! Once these are actually added to the game, we’ll be pushing pretty close to 1000… though not quite there. Work has begun on actually implementing the abilities these’re tied to, so future progress updates will include some of their in-game tooltips as content previews. Until next time, good luck in the Tower!