What's next? And what's going on with those reviews?!

[Jas]

Hey all! Jas here! I'm the lead-dev on Backpack Hero! I wanted to give you all a few updates on what's next:

Yes, we're still working on Story Mode. There's a lot there and I really hope people like it. It should be in public testing sometime late this month or October.

Our next update will address a lot of the issues we've heard from players. It includes removing ALL curses from enemies. Yes, curses will still exist, but mostly they'll come from events or special items. If you don't want to interact with them, you can avoid them entirely.

We've noticed a lot of negative reviews recently. It's great to get the feedback and hopefully we can address and solve some of these issues in the upcoming updates. Just want to clarify that I personally read every single one and it is 100% my intent to listen to them and make the game that the community wants. If we do address your concerns, I hope you will consider leaving us more positive feedback in the future!

Of course the game will never be perfect for everyone, but that's why we have lots of options/different game modes/ and mod support! We really hope this lets you customize the game to your liking!

Anyway, feel free to leave feedback here and I'll be sure to check in!

[Kito Ballard]

Originally posted by Jas:

Our next update will address a lot of the issues we've heard from players. It includes removing ALL curses from enemies. Yes, curses will still exist, but mostly they'll come from events or special items. If you don't want to interact with them, you can avoid them entirely.

Was wondering if you guys would of actually done som'in about this when it was hinted at being liked back earlier this year. Been lurking to see if anything was about to change about the system and was ready to just move on, but seeing this has given me pause and am interested to see more.

[Zuruas]

I hope the drop rate of the lantern and little lamp is severely nerfed then, it used to clog up all my rewards very frequently. And if it is nerfed it could make curses finally threatening and truly a good player choice whether or not they want to take them in these events

Do enemies that used to curse you have a new attack or do they use one of their existing attack patterns now?

[Aerroch]

A few thoughts from a guy who's really enjoying the game for the most part.
1. The relic overhaul was a real mixed bag. I definitely appreciate you trying to mix up the relics and not focus so much on damage, but now that they primarily focus on energy, there are so many useless/underwhelming ones that I honestly either skip choosing one, or just sell it as soon as I can. Tusk is awful, for example, as are most of the relics that are very restrictive while only providing 1 energy. Particularly when there is the relic (can't remember the name) that gives scaling energy based on gold saved. 40g is pretty easy to bank, and 200+ gold is definitely achievable by the 3rd floor, so you essentially get 5 extra energy with no mechanical drawback. Ideally, I would like to see relics buffed, rather than the gold relic nerfed. The relics should feel like a reward, not a double-edged sword.

2. A short and simple one - take locked chests off the loot table for boss floors. I don't want to defeat a boss and miss out on the chest simply because there weren't any keys available to me yet that run.

3. Poison sucks, big time. Let me dodge it, or give me more tools to mitigate it. For that matter, let me dodge curses, too. I don't think taking them off enemies is the answer, especially when there are multiple ways of dealing with curses, and even just running with 1-2 curses doesn't make all much of an impact. I still have plenty of items to choose from.

4. I just ran a quick game with the new CR-8, and I have no idea what overheating does/is for. Is it just a restrictive mechanic to prevent semi-infinite loops? Because that's an awful way to deal with it. If I can develop a near infinite loop that's effective, based on my item selection and placement, then artificially restricting that just feels like punishment.

I know this is just a random mix of thoughts, and I know there are probably numerous counterpoints to what I'm saying, or maybe I'm just seeing some small portion of a greater issue and missing the point on some of these, but I wanted to share. I do like the game, I will continue to play it, and I eagerly await the story-mode or some system of meta progression. Thanks for the continued work on the game, and best of luck!

[RandomEnchanter]

I would like to see the introduction of more hazards, items that produce hazards mainly.

the robot's item overhaul would have been perfect for this as instead 'breaking' the item you instead create a hazard next to it that can hurt you. something that can be mitigated if you have the right items.

[guobagooilyk]

a small little annoyance but, could we get cr8s charges to move faster again, alongside making his turn end automatically? he feels even more sluggish to play than he usually does :<

[Lumios]

Originally posted by Zuruas:

I hope the drop rate of the lantern and little lamp is severely nerfed then, it used to clog up all my rewards very frequently. And if it is nerfed it could make curses finally threatening and truly a good player choice whether or not they want to take them in these events

Do enemies that used to curse you have a new attack or do they use one of their existing attack patterns now?

That is true actually. I have nearly stopped taking lanterns in advance because within 4 to 5 fights I usually find them. As a result, there was never a time where I got stuck with a curse for too long to need to pay the Healer for it. The only time I paid the Healer is when my inventory is full and I have more than 1 curse to worry about.

@Jas
If you're gonna replace enemy curses, then I hope you will be more mindful with hazards, because already there are a couple of fights that are annoying because of them. Notably Boss Badger, plus 2 Polar Bears in Frozen Heart.

Moreover, there are fights that are somewhat obnoxious already, i.e: 6 enlightened cultists, that will become definitely more frustrating if their curses are ever replaced by hazards.

[Kya Frostpaw]

Originally posted by guobagooilyk:

a small little annoyance but, could we get cr8s charges to move faster again, alongside making his turn end automatically? he feels even more sluggish to play than he usually does :<

I dunno, I kinda like having his turn not end automatically, so I can fire off a disposable battery or something if I need that little bit of extra juice.

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by Lumios:

Originally posted by Zuruas:

I hope the drop rate of the lantern and little lamp is severely nerfed then, it used to clog up all my rewards very frequently. And if it is nerfed it could make curses finally threatening and truly a good player choice whether or not they want to take them in these events

Do enemies that used to curse you have a new attack or do they use one of their existing attack patterns now?

That is true actually. I have nearly stopped taking lanterns in advance because within 4 to 5 fights I usually find them. As a result, there was never a time where I got stuck with a curse for too long to need to pay the Healer for it. The only time I paid the Healer is when my inventory is full and I have more than 1 curse to worry about.

@Jas
If you're gonna replace enemy curses, then I hope you will be more mindful with hazards, because already there are a couple of fights that are annoying because of them. Notably Boss Badger, plus 2 Polar Bears in Frozen Heart.

Moreover, there are fights that are somewhat obnoxious already, i.e: 6 enlightened cultists, that will become definitely more frustrating if their curses are ever replaced by hazards.

curses leaving enemies is a part of a much larger complete enemy and encounter rebalance of the game

[Logic]

Hot take, I thought curses were relatively balanced nowadays with all of the "destroy target item" items, like the flame and dynamite. That said, I do have one change I'd love to see:
Please add a few dedicated keys to the keyboard / controller layouts. Something like "End Turn" might be able to at least overcome some of the annoying bugs that crop up from time to time that basically make me quit a run due to freezing mid fight etc

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by Logic:

Hot take, I thought curses were relatively balanced nowadays with all of the "destroy target item" items, like the flame and dynamite. That said, I do have one change I'd love to see:
Please add a few dedicated keys to the keyboard / controller layouts. Something like "End Turn" might be able to at least overcome some of the annoying bugs that crop up from time to time that basically make me quit a run due to freezing mid fight etc

space bar ends turn, but yes we need to add more hotkeys.

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by Jas:

Yes, curses will still exist, but mostly they'll come from events or special items. If you don't want to interact with them, you can avoid them entirely.

Uh, don't make curses less prominent just because people don't like dealing with them. They are, after all, curses. People are SUPPOSED to not like dealing with them and having them. That's the whole point. Some people complained about them, but MANY of those people were doing so simply because they added an element of genuine challenge. They're the same people who want all the enemies and bosses to be easy so that they don't really have to think or work for something when they play this, or any other, game. They shouldn't be playing any sort of game or engaging in any sort of competitive or challenging activity, anyway, let alone trying to make all the games they do play worse by convincing devs to nerf the difficulty until a game is so easy that it's just tedious for the rest of us to play. There's nothing wrong with a diversion like that, "games" that are more like toy boxes instead of games. But this is both advertised as and (from what I can tell) intended to be a game first, and a toy box second.

However, since there IS supposed to be a "creative mode" that allows us to treat this game as a toy box, too, when is that coming? A few people who complained about the curses weren't actually opposed to them, they just also wanted a toy box. But they didn't bother to check the Kickstarter and didn't know that this game was going to include both types of play. So I think that would help mitigate several complaints about curses, even more so than mod support.

Also, summer is basically over already, so where are the promised summer-themed items?!

And when are we gonna get the "hamburger" items?!

Originally posted by Jas:

We've noticed a lot of negative reviews recently.

Well, yeah. Most of them seem to get written because you keep breaking things in each content release without doing enough to make sure things work before you send it out. And then you work on more new stuff without fixing what's broke. Several of these problems render parts of the game, or even the whole game, unplayable. It's understandable. I stopped playing because the game just won't save for me anymore, and in order to get it to work, I apparently have to go into one of the folders where save files are kept and delete all my old saves, or something like that. Which, first off, I don't want to do, but also, I shouldn't HAVE to do. It should be fixed, and it should've been fixed for a while now. So, has that been fixed, yet?

Originally posted by Aerroch:

Tusk is awful, for example

I actually kind of like the new Tusk better than most of the others relics. Maybe if it disabled the mid-battle reorganizing button or something like that, instead, it would feel better and still in some way keep a similar effect (you can't rotate items, DURING BATTLE), but as it is, Tusk still feels like something I can incorporate and work around with almost any build (just like the old one did), which is the goal. But most of the items changes did fail at that, imo.

Originally posted by Aerroch:

The relics should feel like a reward, not a double-edged sword.

I think they should feel like BOTH. But last time I played, they did feel a lot more like the latter and not nearly enough like the former. They technically work for more builds, overall, but each one feels kind of niche, rather than some feeling very niche and others not feeling even remotely niche at all. And even when they do work for a build, they often feel like they require WAY more pivoting around them than it's worth to incorporate them. If I already have something good going, I don't want to sacrifice a huge chunk of the power I have just to get that little bit of extra power they afford me, and then hope that I can maybe get the power I had to sacrifice back, later. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and too often, these relics feel like they're forcing me to choose the two in the bush. That's NOT a sensible choice.

Originally posted by Aerroch:

2. A short and simple one - take locked chests off the loot table for boss floors. I don't want to defeat a boss and miss out on the chest simply because there weren't any keys available to me yet that run.

+1

Actually, I think pretty much everyone agrees with this. In fact, if anything, I feel they should be some new type of special chest, with more and/or better and/or synergistic loot in them.

Originally posted by Aerroch:

3. Poison sucks, big time. Let me dodge it, or give me more tools to mitigate it. For that matter, let me dodge curses, too. I don't think taking them off enemies is the answer, especially when there are multiple ways of dealing with curses, and even just running with 1-2 curses doesn't make all much of an impact. I still have plenty of items to choose from.

Fair point. Something the devs should reconsider.

Originally posted by Gang$Robin:

but yes we need to add more hotkeys.

Yeah, you do. Thanks in advance for getting on that, though.

-----

EDIT: Fine, I'll take out the name-calling if you want, but I don't think it changes much.

[G.C.Stargazer]

That makes me sad. I've been dragging my tail so I wrote a quick positive review. I just got here recently so I can't vouch for how updates have went, but I'm generally enjoying my experience so far.

[Lumios]

Originally posted by Gang$Robin:

Originally posted by Lumios:

That is true actually. I have nearly stopped taking lanterns in advance because within 4 to 5 fights I usually find them. As a result, there was never a time where I got stuck with a curse for too long to need to pay the Healer for it. The only time I paid the Healer is when my inventory is full and I have more than 1 curse to worry about.

@Jas
If you're gonna replace enemy curses, then I hope you will be more mindful with hazards, because already there are a couple of fights that are annoying because of them. Notably Boss Badger, plus 2 Polar Bears in Frozen Heart.

Moreover, there are fights that are somewhat obnoxious already, i.e: 6 enlightened cultists, that will become definitely more frustrating if their curses are ever replaced by hazards.

curses leaving enemies is a part of a much larger complete enemy and encounter rebalance of the game

Glad to hear.

Originally posted by G.C.Stargazer:

That makes me sad. I've been dragging my tail so I wrote a quick positive review. I just got here recently so I can't vouch for how updates have went, but I'm generally enjoying my experience so far.

This is neither the first nor the last time; the game did receive a lot of unwarranted/petty criticism.
The earlier example I can give was when Cleavers were introduced: players would complain that enemies had spikes. Now, keep in mind that without those enemies Cleaver builds could go well beyond floor 100, I doubt this is possible anymore with the way the relics were nerfed, which coincidentally is the the most recent mass-outrage directed at the game. For the record, I don't think all of them are good: a few are too situational and when they do meet the right situation, they are too strong. Gem of Anna for example, but I don't understand why half the community went berserk because they were neutered.
However, this happens most commonly anytime the developers update the curses in any way what-so-ever, everybody immediately loses their mind while raving that the curses right before, which they complained about back then, were better.

I suggest you pay no attention to them, and enjoy the game. These people have existed for as long as the game did.

[SimplyGnome]

I am a large complainer on the forums, bc I do enjoy the game.
I wanted to pipe in with a non feedback comment for once - Thanks for all the hard work. I already have way too many hours in this game and appreciate all you've done.

I am SO curious about the enemy rework, so we'll see how things land.

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by SimplyGnome:

I am a large complainer on the forums, bc I do enjoy the game.
I wanted to pipe in with a non feedback comment for once - Thanks for all the hard work. I already have way too many hours in this game and appreciate all you've done.

I am SO curious about the enemy rework, so we'll see how things land.

I agree, but I'll add I'd like some more smart work, in addition to the hard work. There's some things I've seen which indicate to me they aren't thinking things out as much as the should.

CR-8 using Belt of Knives to go infinite (lol, but good news, I don't hate that relic's rework as much, anymore!) and certain interactions the new Tusk has are examples.