Welcome to the Redcrown Update!

This is our first major update, with new levels, bosses, (huge) system reworks and many improvements. In this MEATY post we’ll go into the nitty gritty of the major changes and let you know our thought process behind them. If you want the "short" version, see the bullet-list of changes and new features at the end!


The early part of the game from the escape from the Redfin Prison to Redcrown Proper has recieved much love, as the name of the update implies! New goals and challenges line the path to the notorious Redcrown Cavalry, giving a previously confusing and overwelming section some much needed excitement and pacing!

Items and Attributes have received a system-wise rework to simplify, concentrate and enhance the experience - without losing its core ideas! Pick-ups and loot are now much more viable to try out on the adventure to the top! The journey, and its rewards are sure to be more stimulating than before!

This is not an easy game, and we want to make sure that this is properly recognized during the experience. True satisfaction must be felt after clearing a difficult challenge! The item-rework ties into this, but many missing sound effects have also been added with updated visuals and vfx, both for communication and delight!

We will delve into more detail on all of these areas and more below!

Further, this update improves the netcode with less disconnections and improved connection quality for high-ping connections (we are hoping for feedback on your experience with this).

Aside from the major stuff, many minor additions/reworks of dialogue and level design have also been made, as well as the main shader for the environment graphics having been replaced to lighten the load on the GPU.


The path through Redcrown is suddenly blockaded, in the distance you hear foul grunts - threatening of the crushing battle to come…

Two new levels have been added to the Redcrown Woods part of The Heights; the Abandoned Ruins and Unsúrewoods! Test your Mettle (or Guile) against the mighty Oinko on the path through the Netherwoods, and Robb “Everyman” Ghillieman - if you can find him!

In addition, signs of a High Order detachment operating out of Mangrove Pits have appeared, but the path seems somewhat different from how you remember it…

Included with the update are the weapons and equipment of these bosses to obtain and more! Will you find the Hog Caller? And…Chicken Wings?

• Two new levels: Unsurewoods and Abandoned Ruins
  
• Three new bosses: Oinko, Robb “Everyman” Ghillieman and Johnny Tiger
  
  New weapons, equipment and consumable items:
  
• Robb’s Set
  
• Oinko’s Set
  
• Johnny Tiger’s Set
  
• Court Jester
  
• Deprived Paper Bag
  
• New starter class: “Deprived”, starting at level 1 with free selection of attributes.

You technically never Die in Jump King Quest! Instead you splat and fall through the platforms when you reach 0 HP. As the novel system it is, there are a fair amount of design-challenges to get around, especially taking our multiplayer system into account. For example; we can have neither checkpoints nor reset-events (like “game-over”)!

While observing people play, we noticed a lot more “snowballing” (chain-deaths) taking place than we intended, as well as people being confused and annoyed by how “death” works overall. Here is what we have done to improve it:

You will now regain a portion of health upon landing after death.

• The intention is for this to allow you to take a bit more regular fall damage before you “die” again. Together with “King’s Impact” from a previous patch this makes it more manageable to recover when landing among enemies.

New effects have been added to communicate that Death-Splat will happen when you land.

• The grey screen-effect in the image, as well as sound and animation, signifies that you will Death-Splat when you land.
  
• Many experienced the boss-ring-out death situation as a bug or were confused by it, while some also wanted it to remain in the game. We realized ring-outs were often confusing regardless of where they happened, so with this we attempt to solve it with better communication instead.
  
• When the battle is chaotic it should be easier to notice the moment of death.

The “Death-Tumble” (the state during which you pass through platforms after a Death Splat) will now cancel when falling between screens (camera cuts).

• Previously, it felt inconsistent when there could be a loading screen in the middle of a fall, and you kept falling through even more platforms. Instead, you will now be caught on the first platform below the exit you fall out of.

A certain amount of “snow-balling” is meant to exist in the game, this is Jump King after all, and there must always be a threat of falling further! But we think these changes improve the balance and experience, so we look forward to your responses!

We have added additional health consumables, as well as a special item that allows you to respawn the enemies faster…!

If you are not satisfied by the Eternial Hotdog alone, you can now visit Chef Gusto in the Boglink Shrine. Stock up on frog-legs and chicken-wings beforehand, and he’ll fry them up for you! That way, if your Hotdog runs out while in the field, you’ll still be able to satiate your hunger for a bit longer…

1. Crispy Chicken Wings
   
2. Fried Frog Legs

If you manage to obtain the “Hog Caller”, you can play an alluring tune, which makes all enemies that you have defeated return.

• This does not respawn One-time Bosses (with “Boss Defeated” screen).

The RPG system in Jump King Quest is one of dualities… You pick one stat but must then forego another! It is not the typical physical-stat system either, instead it describes aspects of the personality…

In this update, we have kept the core ideas about the system intact, while condensing our previous 14 Attributes to 8 highly distinct traits!

One of the main aims with our system is to let you naturally and fluidly create a character that develops into an archetype of its own, based on the proportion and direction of these attributes.

Ever since the beginning we wanted our system to allow for (even force!) player expression, while also keeping it more grounded than other games: We want a Barbarian to look Barbaric, a Rogue to look Sneaky, and a Hero to look Heroic! No wizards running around in full-plate armor… So if you are wondering, this is why we don’t want to make items purely cosmetic, it’s part of the foundational idea!

In-game, we try to achieve our vision via the combined effects of Armor Boosts, Weapon Scaling and Requirements. But we do want to strike a balance between our vision and player freedom/expression - as well as humor/uniqueness and understandability AND scope for production. So we are keeping a keen ear to the ground, looking at how players are interacting with it to see if it is doing what it’s supposed to do!

This major overhaul make it so that we can have our attributes be more clearly separated, connect them more with specific weapon types, and keep them all more relevant throughout the game than before! In our experience, the variation in what kind of character-archetypes can be created is still there, so we are looking forward to see what you make of it!

Reduced the number of attributes from 14 (7 dualities) to 8 (4 dualities)

• The new Attributes are; Mettle/Guile, Impulse/Composure, Refinement/Crudeness and Faith/Spite.
  
• Our intention is for this to make the system (appropriately) simpler, and let us have more consistent and meaningful patterns for weapon types/attributes.
  
• *Note: Existing saves will be updated to use the new attributes, if you are unhappy with the conversion you will also notice 3 extra Nascent Doubts in your Inventory that can be given to the Gargoyle to reassign or flip attributes. Your equipped weapon will automatically be calibrated on save conversion.*
  
• Visually, all character levels are now +3 compared to before, you may notice this on a pre-existing save. This is due to the reduction in attributes and how we calculate the display-level of your character.

Reworked attributes on weapons and Equipment

• All Weapons and Armor have had the new attributes assigned, with more understandable patterns. The system is still fluid and flexible, so weapon types are not always 1:1 with an attribute, but they should be quicker to grasp.
  
• For example: Axes and Flails now scale with Impulse, Spears and Halberds scale with Composure.

We are planning further expansions of what Attributes can do, and how they can affect gameplay, but for now these changes hopefully make the system more understandable and fun to play around with!

As mentioned at the top, the progression through the game when it comes to items and equipment has been less satisfying than it should be! Here’s what we’ve done to make this better in the Redcrown Update:

Increased the levels of Weapons, Armor and Shields according to where they are obtained.

• The purpose of this is to encourage trying out different equipment, and to make the progression through the game feel more satisfying!
  
• You can still keep using your favourite weapon throughout the game, but weapons you pick up can now be a stat-upgrade even without having to upgrade them (depending on your attributes).
  
• Improvements to the display of damage and stats are coupled with this, to make it more clear if something is an upgrade or not.
  
• You should now be able to see more clearly if newly picked up Armor will improve your defenses.

This is a difficult game, with tough enemies and a lot of new mechanics to learn and adapt to. It is really important to us that it feels rewarding and satisfying to get past a new threshold, but ultimately - you are the judge of whether we succeeded or not! Try it out and let us know if you notice the changes when getting new stuff in-game!

A clear improvement in this update is the sound and visual effects for defeating bosses and enemies. In addition, there are certain gameplay mechanics that are now much better communicated via the effects. Here’s the rundown:

Effective and Ineffective hits now have separate visuals and sound from regular hits.

• The system for resistances (which enemies also use), should now be less hidden - so you notice when you are using a weapon/damage type which is effective against a certain enemy.

• More impactful boss-defeated visual and sound.
  
• Special sound when normal enemies are defeated.
  
• More impactful Level-Up effect and added missing sound.

This is a special game, with some provocative ideas! From the very start, our idea has been to make a system where you don’t know friend from foe and have to (tensely, humorously) interact to gain allies or make enemies!

For this update, we have made changes and improvements to the netcode which greatly help connections at longer distances/higher pings. Party connections no longer disconnect repeatedly, and many game mechanics that became issues in online play have been resolved.

We have tested party-connections between our office (Sweden) and Brazil, Japan and Australia and found them all very playable! (this was not possible previously without huge issues!!) In our experience, connections can now be up to twice as fast and the connections are much more stable.

While a bunch of stuff is still on our list to get closer to the vision (emotes!), we really hope the new improvements make the core gameplay during both party co-op and stranger-connections work better for all players!

We'll be monitoring the system carefully to fine tune it further, and we appreciate all feedback we can get in this area!

General Improvements/Changes

• Player attacks no longer hit other players when an enemy is between the players.
  
• Reduced size on disk by cleaning up bloating files.
  
• Weapons now auto-calibrate when leveling up.
  
• Pickup levels are now set to appropriate levels for the areas where they are found (picked up weapons can be upgrades).
  
• Added indicator for when enemies are aiming at the player from outside the screen.

RPG System

• The number of attributes has been reduced from 14 to 8.
  
• Old save files are converted to the new attributes, and receive Nascent Doubts for respec.
  
• Humoral HP boost revised to give balance boost despite having less than 4 Humors.
  - Four balanced humors give the largest boost, but two or three balanced humors can also give a boost.
  
• Updated Scaling attributes of all weapons and Equipment to accomodate new attributes, and present logical patterns for weapon types and playstyles.

Health/Death Related Changes

• Added HP regain upon landing after death.
  
• Added effect for death-splat.
  
• Added effect for when you will death splat when you land.
  
• Changing screens (teleport) now cancels the "death-tumble".
  
• Healthbar now displays all the way through the heart.
  
• Fall Damage is now the same regardless of distance fallen.

Level Design

• Added solid corners on many thin 1-Way platforms across the game.
  
• Numerous minor level design fixes.
  
• Humoral Pots before Warden now respawn properly.
  
• Door between Upper and Lower Redcrown Woods obstructed from both sides due to level additions.

Handmaiden Related Changes

• Added explanation toggle to Handmaiden traversal screen.
  
• Revised style of Handmaiden dialogue, with improved explanations of traversal.
  
• Special Handmaiden animation on locations where upwards traversal is possible.

Combat Fixes and Balancing

• Regular enemies deal less damage overall. (bosses remain unchanged)
  
• Removed unintentional multi-hit from certain weapons (Affects Ultra Great Sword, Claymore and Zanzibart's Greatsword.)
  
• Fixed a faulty input for a special attack on Balding Stars.
  
• Fixed bug that caused small frogs to regenerate HP.

Content Additions/Changes

• Added two new levels (Abandoned Ruins, Unsurewoods).
  
• Added three new bosses (Oinko, Robb Ghillieman, Johnny Tiger).
  
• Added three new weapons (Oinko's Curved Greatword, Robb's Dagger, High Order Combat Knife).
  
• Added four new armor-sets (Oinko's Set, Robb's Set, Johnny Tiger's Set, High Order Recruit Set).
  
• Changed the level-layout of Redcrown Woods (Netherwoods, Middling Glade, Magick Lake, Twopond Clearing) to accomodate new levels.
  
• Revised first-time interactions and rewrote some NPC dialogue (Igor, Bellman).
  
• Revised Old Man's Nut Quest (hidden nuts).
  
• Revised Igor's advice (slightly more useful).
  
• Added the Hog Caller (respawns enemies).
  
• Added Chicken Wings and Frog Legs.
  
• Added a new starting inclination (Deprived).
  
• Conny can give you a Chicken Wing if you ask nicely.
  
• Fixed and improved on certain item descriptions.

UI/Interface Improvements

• Added UI for Shops.
  
• Made item details be the default view on items in the inventory.
  
• Improved layout of Level-Up screen and edits to accomodate new attributes.
  
• Improved previews of character changes in level-up screen.
  
• Improved damage and defence value display in inventory and upgrade screens.
  
• Highlighted Calibration in the UI with color-coding.
  
• Changed offset and alignment of NPC-text to look better.
  
• Added connection-feed in-game and in online menu (better communicate connection progress and state).
  
• Added important doors and Igor (camp) locations to the Map.
  
• Rewrote Attribute Descriptions.
  
• Added Attribute Explanation in Character Creation screen.
  
• Rewrote Attribute Questions to accommodate new attributes.
  
• Defensive stats for Armors and Shields now display the changes made by leveling the item
  
• Levels of picked up items are now displayed in the pop-up.
  
• Improved comparison between items, displaying character changes and previous value when possible.
  
• Display scaling attributes as Bars on weapons.
  
• Simplified Humoral Health boost display.
  
• Made the text of books in the library black to improve readability.
  
• Fixed some faulty Map-configurations.

Graphics

• Changed overall post-processing, effects and lighting to make areas more visually interesting.
  
• Replaced main environment shader to improve visuals and performance.
  
• Adjusted graphics options to prevent undesirable visual results (post processing on/off).
  
• Improved the Texture of the High Order Knights.

Effects

• Improved Boss-Defeated effects.
  
• Improved Level-Up effects.
  
• Added vfx and sfx when defeating regular enemies.
  
• Added separate effects for effective and ineffective hits.

Sound

• Generally improved mixing.
  
• Added heart-beat sound when low on HP.
  
• New Music:
  - Johnny Tiger
  - Oinko
  - Robb Ghillieman
  
• New Ambience:
  - Abandoned Ruins
  - Unsurewoods
  
• New/Improved sound effects:
  - Weapon & armor equip/unequip
  - Effective hits
  - Enemy and boss kill
  - Boss defeated
  - Hidden wall reveal
  - New enemies, bosses & weapons
  - Level up
  - Epiphany gained
  - Insight
  - Low HP warning
  - "Death" screen & splat
  - Chicken Wings
  - Hog Caller

Multiplayer

• Improved party-connections (no more auto-disconnects due to high ping).
  
• Multiple netcode-related bugfixes.
  
• Added dynamic input delay (improves gameplay on higher-ping connections).
  
• Various Bugfixes.
  
• Fixed bug that enabled parties to be joined faultily from Main Menu.
  
• Fixed animation jitter on enemies hit by attacks in online play.
  
• Raven now works in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed instances where certain items could not be picked up in multiplayer.

This is a major update with many new changes and additions, so we are excited to see your responses and hear your feedback! We are determined to improve this game further, and hope to start work on the continuation of the map and story soon!

We'll keep our eyes on all channels, but if you want to reach out to us personally - we are stay most up to date on our discord[discord.com] and here in the steam forums!

/Nexile

P. S.
If you missed the previous patch notes, you’ll find them here on steam!
Here are some highlighted posts:
Added King’s Impact (hit enemies on splat) and Persistent Aura (enemy spawn timers save).
Added yield fading (connection-spawn safety for enemies and players).
Added Igor’s storage (deposit items).
Added Insight Grace (experience loss safety on death), rebalanced stagger/poise.

We are hard at work on some major stuff and new content, which will arrive in the Redcrown update as mentioned in our last patch notes - but today's patch brings some fixes to problems with joining parties, and other minor fixes.

• Faulty party invites no longer cause infinite loading times
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to not be able to connect to each other without restarting
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause spawn timers to extend for longer than intended.

• Added the ability to skip the dialogue with Shadow of Krulk.
  
• Minor level edits in Lower Gurglevale and Sewers.

In addition to the content, features and reworks in the Redcrown update, we also have a fix in the works which makes high ping connections more stable (not disconnect as often).

It will take some more time and a lot of hard work to get cross-continent connections to play more smoothly: Jump King Quest is similiar to a fighting game in precision/speed and uses a custom rollback solution (among many other technical reasons), so it is quite the task to get it to work well on connections that are ~100 ping and above!

If you want to play in a party we currently recommend playing with friends that live closer to you if you can. The closer the better, preferably on the same continent (but coast-to-coast in USA can sometimes also be too high ping).

Thanks for your patience while we try to make the experience better!

/Nexile