Hello dungeon friends! Apologies that this update wasn't right after Turkey time, as planned. I got sick, and have been off and on for the last couple weeks. It's the annoying fatigue sick without all the exciting other symptoms, but I don't recommend it regardless. The key takeaway: don't forget to bring a healer in your adventuring party!
Stretch Goals: Escape Mode, Alternate Dungeons
The good news is that we've locked in the gameplay updates for Escape Mode, which is a bit later than I'd hoped, but it's proven to be a really fun addition. Both of these stretch-goal additions to the Trove are aiming to make Campaign Mode play more varied. Escape mode provides a quick 5-minute cap to a successful dungeon run. How you do during the escape will affect how many checkmarks your game was worth - you can't lose outright, but if you come out of the dungeon charred and full of muck, maybe your adventure wasn't quite as impressive as it looked!
Work on the Alternate Dungeons is nearly complete also. These are exactly what they sound like - an alternate version of each dungeon in ODD, ODD: Forest, and ODD: Relics. Different floor abilities, and a modified boss fight for each one. Some are harder, some are easier (and have their difficulty rating set as such).
We will be releasing a print and play of the Alternate Dungeons and Escape Mode later in December for final external testing.
Art Complete (again)
Thanks to a miscount by yours truly, we did not in fact have all the enemy art done! This meanie here is a 4-EXP foe you'll be facing in Relics: the Prism Elemental.
It looks forward to ending some percentage of your dungeon runs in bright, colorful fashion.
Updated Schedule
Work this fall got bogged down more than planned due to sick, conventions, and by some other things we needed to do to deal with the state of the World, so we're 8-ish weeks behind the schedule I laid out in the last update. Our next update will be the PnP release later in December of the Trove materials.
Happy holiday times to all, of the variety of holidays you may celebrate or not celebrate!
