Greetings, Void Hunters!
Welcome to another Soulstone Survivors Devlog! This one is a week late as we have been hard at work on the new [REDACTED], but today we wanted to bring more details to you about a few cool changes we are working on!
Ascensions Rework
When we first introduced the Ascensions system, we wanted those to feel like impactful gameplay mechanics unique to each character, to further distinguish their playstyles. They intentionally have varying levels of reward and demand, some might basically happen automatically while others might be more involved, and we like that they feel different. However, with your feedback and our own testing we know that some ascensions felt just underwhelming or cumbersome to interact with. We have already improved in many ways quite a few of those powers, but there are two that are getting major overhaul to how they work in the next update.
Hound Master’s Ascension
While we definitely want to make his dogs a main part of his ascension power, right now it is probably the least interesting ascension in how it works. You basically feed your dogs and they get stronger, which conceptually is fine, but in practice what happens is you feed them so much that it is never a decision, it is just about “get a few beefs now and then and they will be fine”. We wanted to keep the general concept, but make it more visually interesting and exciting to play with.
New Mechanics and Visuals
To begin with, we completely remade his Ascension bar, which now looks like this:
The overall concept is still very similar: your goal is to make sure your doggies are well fed, but here’s how it works in the new system:
You might have noticed that the doggie is on a sort of track. The doggies will always be walking towards the blue bowl, and your objective is to fill it with food (that still drops from the monsters) before the doggie gets to it! Whenever you pick up a piece of meat, it will show up on the blue bowl at the end of the track, and once its done, the doggie will rush to eat and will be very pleased to enjoy a nice meal, gaining a major buff and increasing in size:
He will then go back to his little house, but now that they are bigger they will get hungry faster… so you have less time to fill the bowl again. If you do it, they will keep getting more and more buffs and growing bigger and bigger and becoming real killing machines… however, should you fail to feed them in time before they are hungry, the doggie will be very sad indeed, and lose all its buffs and go back to his original size:
The ascension still has different power levels to it, which can go on forever. The higher the level, represented by the number above the doggie in the images, the bigger the buff the dogs receive to their stats and the larger and hungrier they will grow, which means they need to eat more frequently and eventually will go back to their original form.
We believe that this new functionality will bring those surges in power you expect to see from an ascension, where at times they will be absolutely destroying everything, and then you get a lull period where you start to build up this momentum again. This also makes it so beefs are relevant for the whole match, and you might want to time them so you give your dogs a mega boost very quickly to deal with Lords of the Void, or just get them stronger more often and for longer with more balanced feeding.
Allan also wanted to share a few words about this new mechanic:
“The Hound Master has always been one of my favourite characters and I’m glad we are giving him and these little doggies they love they deserve. This rework is especially dear to me, as I’ve recently lost my great friend Zippie, our little family doggo, the greatest little Westie we could have, that Alex referenced in the new UI… so now every time I play, Ill remember my little buddy.”
Legionnaire’s Ascension
When we first came up with the original Legionnaire’s ascension, we always knew it was a bit of a risk. We knew it would feel different from the others due to its ramp up which then becomes entirely passive, and while conceptually the idea sounded cool, building catapults that crush your enemies, in practice the ramp up is so gradual that once again, you never have that “power surge” we wanted to create with ascensions, so it was time for a major rework.
New mechanics and Visuals
Again, lets begin by checking out his new Ascension bar, that now looks like this:
Now, while you fight against the creatures of the void, you are going to come across wounded legionnaires. Your objective is to help them get back into shape to fight by your side. Once you have enough soldiers fighting at your side, you are able to call the full support of your army by carrying your war banner to battle!
But that is not all, of course. As the worth leader of a strong legion, enraged and encouraged, your lust for carnage will change even the scenery around you, transforming it into a deep red, where you will hear the sounds of the rough battles ahead, befitting of a legion commander. You will be given extra legionnaires to fight for you along with powerful buffs, while your army fires catapult boulders and bursts of arrows over the battlefield with a very high frequency, making it rain on your enemies. The ascension will have a set, fixed duration and will grant you a huge, and temporary, boost in power.
Once it ends, the war banner disappears and all extra legionnaires along with it, and you can start forming a new legion once again. With these changes, we are not only bring the major swing in power you get from other ascensions, but also the epic feeling of being a legion commander and being in the middle of an all out war, making it as exciting as it should be!
Closing Thoughts
While we are excited about these changes to these two ascensions, we still have a lot of new stuff to share with you! You can check our post earlier today for a liiiittle sneak peek of what is coming up soon...
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2066020/announcements/detail/4441207839043617780
We will also FINALLY publish our revised roadmap tomorrow alongside a proper content sneak peek of something… a bit different… so if you are interested in learning more about what is coming make sure to check it out!
We hope you have a lovely day or night,
~ The Soulstone Team
