Content Update 10: “Escalate”

Happy December, friends! Project Director Luke here with the last content update for 2022, “Escalate.” Thank you all for playing and enjoying MythForce in 2022. I hope you’re all looking forward to the updates coming in the new year.

In today’s update, if you’ve been playing the PTR, you’ll already recognize the new difficulty settings feature—we already demoed the easy modes. In this release, we are also giving those of you who have mastered the game in Standard difficulty something to crack your teeth on. “Mythic” difficulty modes increase the difficulty of the game and also add a curse to your session, an additional challenge that tests your adaptability. For example, Battle Scars reduces your maximum HP when hit, and Gambler’s Delight replaces all non-resurrection shrines with discounted gambler’s portals.

Along with the brand-new difficulty modes, we are also releasing a set of holiday skins that are sure to light up your cold winters battling through Deadalus’s minions. And what’s a holiday without a little celebration? Start a spontaneous dance party at any time with a set of new dance emotes, all now available from the Eldryth Emporium.

Check out the notes below for more details.

Improvements

Introducing new difficulty modes.

• Difficulty is selected at the beginning of adventure selection.
• Two new easier difficulties have been added.
  • Casual Difficulty:
    • Enemy stats are reduced by 50%.
    • Enemies are less aggressive (fewer enemies will actively attack at once).
    • Enemy level and population scales 50% as quickly.
  • Easy Difficulty:
    • Enemy stats are reduced by 25%.
    • Enemies are less aggressive (fewer enemies will actively attack at once).
    • Enemy level and population scales 75% as quickly.
  • All changes are relative to Standard difficulty.
  • Easy difficulties are available to select by default.

Three new harder “Mythic Mode” difficulties have been added

• Harder difficulties increase monster power and apply “curses” to your session, but also add increased rewards.
  • Mythic I increases gem & XP rewards by 30% and adds one curse.
  • Mythic II increases gem & XP rewards by 45% and adds two curses.
  • Mythic III increases gem & XP rewards by 60% and adds three curses.
  • All increases are relative to Standard difficulty.
• The following curses can be encountered in Mythic difficulties:
  • Attrition: Lose half of current HP after transitioning to another floor of the dungeon.
  • Battle Scars: Lose 5 Max HP every time you’re hit.
  • Eldryth Inflation: All gold costs are increased by 50%
  • Gambler’s Delight: All shrines except resurrection shrines are replaced with Gambler’s Portals. Gambler portal gold cost is reduced by 50%.
  • Highly Trained: Increases the maximum number of champions that can spawn in each room, and the chance that champions will spawn is increased.
  • Leaky Coin Purse: Lose 5 gold every second.
  • Lethality: Champion monsters do 50% more damage.
  • Potion Drought: Reduces Potion spawn rate by 50%
  • Predators: Champion monsters move 50% faster.
• Mythic I is available after completing Bastion of the Beast Lord on Standard difficulty.
• Additional mythic modes become available after completing a session on the previous difficulty level.

Winter Skins

• Each of the four heroes now has a festive winter-themed skin.
  • Victoria now has the “Sun Racer” skin available.
  • Hawkins now has the “Red Nose Slay” skin available.
  • Maggie now has the “Living Doll” skin available.
  • Rico now has the “Off the Shelf” skin available.
• The new skins can be purchased from the Eldryth Emporium for 15 blood gems each.

Added four new “Dance” emotes

• New emotes can be purchased from the Eldryth Emporium for 10 blood gems each.
• Dances must be purchased individually for each character.
• Improved performance of many of the game’s VFX.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in the targeting mode of the fire spell charged attack (fireball).
• Fixed an issue where Redcaps could physically move players when walking into them.
• Fixed an issue where players could open up the escape menu “behind” a loading screen, delaying level load.
• Fixed an issue where the effects of Vitality Link would not properly award Max HP or party healing if rapidly drinking a potion while the effects of another potion are still being applied.
• Fixed a visual issue where an exterior tree would appear, then be removed from the start room on level load.

Known Issues

Performance Issues

• As multiplayer in MythForce is peer-to-peer, you may experience lag or “choppiness” depending on your connection to the host and the power of their computer.
• On first launch, performance can be low on mechanical hard drives while building shaders in the background.

Gameplay Issues

• When selected as an infusion in Victoria’s infusion tree, Divine Healer only grants a reduction in revive time and does not properly grant additional healing on revive.
• If the host player is disconnected from the internet when returning to the main menu, it is possible for the game to become stuck in an unresponsive state.
• The game can crash on rare occasions when playing the game with out-of-date device drivers. Please ensure that your drivers are up to date to play MythForce.
• The effects of Vitality Link do not properly award Max HP or party healing if rapidly drinking a potion while the effects of another potion are still being applied.
• On occasion, rooms will open before all enemies have been defeated, allowing players to progress and leave enemies behind.
• On occasion, enemies will recover from a staggered state sooner than expected.
• Infrequently, Beastor’s animation at the beginning of the boss fight does not play for clients.
• On rare occasions, it’s possible to get stuck in a knocked-down state after being hit by Beastor or being caught in the explosion of a spore pod.
• It is possible to get temporarily stuck at “walk” speed after shield-bashing an enemy or breakable. Raising and lowering the Shield will fix this.
• On rare occasions, after falling into a pit, the player may permanently lose the ability to rotate left and right.
• Rift Arrow can sometimes cause colliding creatures and players to be launched into the air.
• Jumping on top of certain creatures can cause players to be launched into the air.
• It’s possible to exploit a “safe zone” at the entrance door to rooms, allowing you to shoot into a room without enemies’ being able to fight back.
• There are some rare instances in which players can become stuck in world geometry and be unable to return to the playable area.
• Clients will occasionally get kicked from the lobby while loading into the game.

UI & Text Issues

• The floor-depth indicator can sometimes misreport the number of total rooms on a floor, causing it to appear as if the player has traversed more or fewer rooms in a floor than actually exist.
• There is no confirmation dialogue on the Early Retreat menu, making it easy to select an undesired choice by mistake with no way to undo.
• Ping indicators persist to the end of their normal timeout even if the pinged object is removed.
• On rare occasions, the hotbar can appear empty after reviving. Picking up or dropping items repopulates the hotbar.

Visual Issues

• Some door frames and walls where door frames could appear do not appear properly lit, looking darker than expected.
• In certain rooms, it is possible for a group of spore pods to spawn in the same location hovering above a thorn vine pit.
• There are rare instances of sections of grass mounds, rocks, and foliage from outside the playable area appearing visible within the playable area.
• When viewing a higher area from below, it is possible to see enemy shadows on the ceiling above where they are standing.
• Some breakables and treasure boxes intersect with the environment, making them hard to see.
• Some environment geometry is larger than its collision, allowing smaller items to become hidden within environmental elements like stairs and raised flagstones.
• Sporefolk clouds that appear on death are opaque, making it difficult to see through.
• Some status effect particle systems can be difficult to see on Sporefolk.
• On occasion, after level transition, the “time of day” may appear inconsistent between players.
• Some seams are visible on ground textures, particularly in connecting corridors.
• Some enemies can appear to “jitter” back and forth when approaching in combat.
• There is no “key” to pick up when you defeat Beastor. You can just proceed to the final room and use the pedestal.
• VFX not playing in some instances when Sporefolk exit idle animation, making it appear as if they are unintentionally stuck in the floor.

Audio Issues

• Beastor’s combat music may briefly start up again for clients while progressing to the next room after Beastor has been defeated.