Hey/Hola,
It is time for the next blog on Decrypting the Station. Time to talk about Meta-Progression and how it has evolved in these past months.
Before entering the details about how the current Meta Progression works right now and the changes we made, it may be interesting to explain to you how the system worked, the problems we (and the community) perceived and the solutions we are bringing.
Today we will host Armand, Expert Game Designer on Endless™ Dungeon:
Hello, my name is Armand, I'm Expert Game Designer. I joined the team at the beginning of 2023 to help finish the development of the game (especially on the meta progression and the balancing).
Previous Meta Progression
Here is a quick summary of the elements that are part of the Meta Progression (spoiler alert, some of them have changed)
- District Keys: During your game, you will find different District Keys that will unlock new district to explore, new bosses to encounter, new heroes to unlock (not directly, but maybe they would like if you to explore certain districts for them > like Shroom ;) )
- Beverages Recipes: During your exploration, you will be able to gather new recipes that will unlock new Beverages to try (we will have a separate blog to talk about these).
The idea is that some of them will be a sort of challenge for players, while others can be helpful and others will encourage you to try a new playstyle (as it will change your way of playing a bit) - Blueprints: When collecting a blueprint it would have granted a random Saloon improvement, or Crystal & Hero chips
- Scraps: These were awarded only at the end of the district (based on your score) and their use was to upgrade weapons at the Workshop
- Crypto Key: For the moment you haven’t seen these, but their main purpose is to weaken the Station’s Core (the last level)
But with the system, we noticed 3 main problems (and it was confirmed by the feedback from the community), that drove the team to make some adjustments.
- Randomness in how things were unlocked
As the blueprints were unlocked randomly, players felt they lacked control of the upgrades for heroes/crystal/saloon (like the feeling of unlocking upgrades of a hero that you don’t like that much). - The usefulness of Scraps
Spending scraps was not having enough impact for the following run. - Tempo of unlocks and Beverages
We saw that certain elements, like the Beverages, were unlocked too early in the game, and could confuse some players about their use.
Changes to the Meta-Progression
Blueprints as a Currency
It was time to say goodbye to the Blueprint and the randomness that could cause and say Hello there! to the “Cells”
Cells will be collected on a similar way as the Blueprints, which means, you will find them in chests during the run, but it won’t be random, it will be a currency that you will be able to choose when and where to spend (if you like Zed then you can expend all your Cells on Zed).
By adding the cells, my goal was to make death a little less painful, by inviting the player to spend them as soon as he returned to the saloon in order to prepare his next run.
Also, we have included the weapon chips to be bought with Cells, but we have moved the Saloon improvement to be bought by Scraps. That way, we follow the same logic that we apply on the Hero & Crystal upgrades.
On the other hand, Scraps have 2 main uses: the Saloon improvements (that we can consider a mid-game goal) and we are introducing a Booster Chest (more details later) that would make an impact on the next run for the player.
Tempo of unlocks and Beverages
We have made some tweaks to the unlocking process, so it feels more natural.
At the start of the game, players will be able to see (in the Workshop) the main weapons that the heroes use, the rest will be visible once you find the weapons during the runs. At the same time, the upgrades of the weapons will be visible and readable (so you are aware of what they do) but they won’t be unlocked. The upgrades to the hero (Hero chips) will be blocked until you complete the first quest of the hero (and some upgrades will be attached to their quests).
The cost of Cells in the workshop will depends on the type:
- For the Crystal: each chip has a Cells cost depending on its power
- For the Heroes: each chip has a Cells cost depending on its power
- For a Weapon: the first mod cost 2 Cells, the second mod cost 4 Cells
How does this unlock process work in a multiplayer game? If you play with your friend both of you will get unlocks (Beverages, district keys, etc.). Only the hero quest will be “individual”. The hero quests, as you can imagine, are tied to the hero you are using. Let me illustrate with an example > You are using Bunker and your friend Zed, you will be able to progress the quest of Bunker while your friend is on Zed. It would be a bit strange if you could progress on both :)
Earlier we mentioned the Beverages. So, what about them?
We see beverages as a challenge presented by the bartender to experienced players with only maluses or a combination of small bonuses and big maluses but with a motivational reward for the players looking for challenge.
The first time you finish a run with a Beverage, players will be rewarded with some Cells and each time after that with a large amount of Scrap. As it’s a challenge, we prefer to move the unlocks of the beverages to the later districts (floor 2 or 3).
After the Open Dev, we decided to take a stronger bias towards beverages by targeting players who have finished the game several times and would like to spice up their next run a bit more.
Boosting the next run
We are adding the use of Scrap as a short-term reward that allows the player to better prepare for their next run. To do that, we add a new stand in the Saloon: The Stranger Kiosk
Before starting a run the player* can buy a Booster Chest with a selection of random content: Turrets, Weapons, Devices, or a Resource Bonus (FIDS + Medkit). Players will find the purchased Booster Chest in the first room.
*Note: In the case of a multiplayer game, the host will be the one that will be able to buy + select a Booster chest if wanted.
The objective of the Booster Chest was to satisfy both core and hardcore players by enabling them to start their run with few additional resources/tools and thus potentially progress faster in the first few stages, while adding some tension to the run (it would be sad to lose your investment in scraps at the first wave).
The remaining question you might have: When will you get access to this Booster Chest?
As it is intended to be a help for players, we envision some sort of prompt of “Hey, I see that you are struggling a bit, do you need some help?”
That is everything we have for you today, hope you like the changes to the Meta-Progression.
If you have additional questions about the meta progression do not hesitate to ask, we will do our best to answer.
Have a nice day ^-^
.png)
