Version 6.5.1 - Patch Notes!

Some final *final* changes to this game before I can truly package it for good :)

And Blocks TD 2 devlog at the end!

General Changes

• Invisible projectiles (like explosions) and mines lifespan no longer scale with range multipliers
• Most invisible projectiles lifespan reduced 0.1s → 0.06667s
  
• Extra damage debuffs now apply after damage multipliers
  • Just highlighting this as it is a major shakeup to spam strategies.

Game Mode Specific Changes

• Tower Morph
  • Max price value of new towers increased 1.2x → 1.214x
  • Can no longer get multiple tier 5s of the same type
    • The price ranges I chose initially for this game mode tended to slightly downgrade tower value over time, resulting in each upgrade creating new towers cheaper than expected on average. This would explain why seemingly spending thousands of dollars on upgrades yielded much cheaper towers not in that price range.
    • I ran some simulations to test this out, repeatedly upgrading will result in more expensive towers >5% of the time compared to ~0% before.
• Roguelite
  • Jester
    • Max price value of new towers increased 2.16x → 2.185x
      • Consequential buff from the tower morph change.

Game Mode Specific Changes

• Strength cap reduced 2,000,000 → 1,000,000
  • Another small fix to ultra-lategame to make rounds much shorter.

Boss Specific Changes

• Some boss speed and stats will now be increasing slightly per tier, just to differentiate each tier slightly and ramp up difficulty a bit faster.
• Playing with multiple bosses now makes them spawn across each path
• Red Diamond
  • Speed increased 2.25 → 2.25 / 2.3 / 2.35 / 2.4
  • Tier 2 Blue Skull count increased x13 → x15
  • Tier 3 Double Skull count increased x7 → x9
  • Tier 4 skull Saturn count increased x5 → x7
  • Tier 5+ base Diamond count changed x16+16 → x20
  • Tier 5+ skull Saturn count changed x22+44 → x25
    • The galactic reworks coming up will result in them having drastically increased base damage, making these spawns far too trivial to deal with. While the diamond spawns scale quite well into later tiers, the elite spawns don't.

• Rutrix Cube
  • Speed increased 3.6 → 3.6 / 3.7 / 3.8 / 3.9
• Shield Prime
  • Regeneration per second increased 1% → 1% / 1.1% / 1.2% / 1.3%
    • Increasing regeneration seemed more interesting than just a speed increase so :P
• Kukri-X
  • Shield speed multiplier reduced 5x / 5.5x / 6x / 6.5x → 4x / 4.5x / 5x / 5.5x
    • This boss's speed multiplier was actually bugged to be 1x faster than intended, this was originally intended to stay as an unintended mechanic. However Kukri-X is already harder than the other bosses by a wide margin so I've decided to patch it.
• Encrypted Disgrace
  • Speed reduced 3 → 2.85
  • Pulse range reduced 100 → 90
  • Skull no longer makes existing blocks immune to movement reduction effects
  • Skull now spawns 5 Shielded Blocks from the entrance
    • Inherit 1.5x resistance of the boss currently
    • Shielded Blocks HP: 250 / 1,200 / 6,500 / 35,000
  • A mechanic that didn't fit well with rest of the boss's toolkit was the movement negation, that has been swapped out for a more engaging effect each skull that should also give the resistance mechanic more of a time in the spotlight. The boss speed and stun range is being lowered so there's more potential counterplay against its other abilities.

Tower Specific Changes

• Misc
  • All planes flight algorithm reworked again and bugfixed
    • Planes were intended to have a retarget cooldown after reaching the target block, but this was never functional. The most noticeable improvements will occur to ship planes, with tier 3 hangars remaining largely unchanged.
• Galactics
  • Levels in sandbox can be set to decimal values
  • Added cash slider! (as efficient as spending cash normally)
  • Damage bonus against bosses reduced x3 → x2
  • Damage per level increased +0.5% → +1%
  • Damage per 20 levels increased +10% → +20%
  • Now gains pierce per 10 levels (+10%)
  • Reworked scaling formula to be quadratic instead of cubic - this means lower levels are slightly harder to obtain
  • Removed power bonus from upgrades
  • Cash required per power increased (cost / 40,000) → (cost / 30,000)
  • Damage required per power increased 40 → 50
  • Max power from damage increased 112,500 → 125,000
  • Power bonus from cash increased 1x → 4x
  • [Buffer] Power multiplier reduced 2x → 1x
  • Galactics have long since lagged behind in terms of infrastructure, especially with the lack of a cash slider like in BTD6. On top of that, stat values are being changed to encourage higher level galactics, while reducing the importance of accruing damage and completely removing the necessity of spamming low tier towers to fill up upgrade requirements.
  • All galactics will receive additional buffs due to being nerfed in power by the reworks.
• Basic
  • xx5 Instability large explosion pierce reduced 40 → 36
  • 205 Instability crusher damage and elite bonus reduced 27 → 18
  • 205 Instability small explosion damage and elite bonus increased 4 → 6
  • 205 Instability large explosion damage and elite bonus increased 36 → 54
  • Galactic crusher damage and elite bonus increased 20 → 30
  • Galactic bolt pierce increased 2 → 3
  • Instability is in a very usable state as it is but could do with slight stat adjustments. Explosion damage will now scale with the 2xx crosspath but at the cost of some base damage from 205.
• Cannon
  • Galactic main bomb damage increased 25 → 75
  • Galactic stun bomb damage increased 200 → 250
  • Galactic all attacks aerial and elite bonus increased +200 → +250
  • Galactic last resort initial damage increased 25,000 → 30,000
  • Galactic last resort aftermath damage type changed Omni → Explosion
• Splitter
  • xx5 Hyperdrive cost increased $2,800 → $3,800
  • xx5 Hyperdrive damage increased 2 → 3
  • xx5 Hyperdrive pierce increased 2 → 3
    • This change was made so it's less tedious to max out the omni tributes for the xx5 flamethrower. To compensate for the large price hike and the debuff mechanic change, the splitter's damage and pierce is increasing significantly.
  • Galactic nail damage increased 20 → 25
  • Galactic ring damage increased 100 → 120
  • Galactic meteor explosion damage increased 500 → 1,000
  • Galactic meteor burn tickrate reduced 0.625s → 0.5s
  • Galactic meteor burn duration increased 2.55s → 3s
  • Galactic razor damage increased 45 → 90
• Freezer
  • 3xx Ice Weakening attack cooldown reduced 0.72s → 0.64s
  • 4xx Skull Weakening attack cooldown remains at 0.64s
  • 5xx Cold Front pierce increased 2 → 4
  • 5xx Cold Front extra damage increased +3 → +4
  • 510 Cold Front pierce increased 4 → 5
  • 520 Cold Front pierce remains at 8
  • 501 Cold Front extra damage remains at +5
    • The 3xx attack cooldown is reducing so both crosspaths have more consistent stepping stones after the rework. Meanwhile, Cold Front's stats are getting fine-tuned again so both crosspaths feel less clunky to use. I'm aware of it also being blatantly overpowered after the freezer rework, but the debuff mechanic change has addressed that issue.
      
  • x4x Hail Storm slowdown on single-skulls increased 50% → 60%
  • [bugfix] 240 Hail Storm tick cooldown increased 0.8s → 2.4s
  • 041 Hail Storm slowdown on single-skulls increased 65% → 80%
  • x5x Avalanche damage increased 4 → 8
  • x5x Avalanche slowdown on single-skulls increased 85% → 95%
  • 250 Avalanche damage increased 16 → 32
  • 250 Avalanche tick cooldown reduced 1s → 0.6s
  • 051 Avalanche slowdown on single-skulls increased 90% → 97.5%
  • 051 Avalanche slowdown on multi-skulls increased 65% → 75%
    • Middle path freezer's slowdown being weaker than the bottom path didn't feel right for having such a long cooldown, so to separate these two paths the damage and slowdown strength is being increased on lower tier elites, especially for the bottom crosspath, to provide more utility against large rushes. 
  • Galactic cost reduced $50,000 → $45,000
  • Galactic pierce reduced 40 → 25
    • I wanted to try a price drop for the freezer galactic instead of ordinary stat buffs, as the cheap tier 5s don't reflect the fairly high price of the galactic.
• Flamethrower
  • 4xx Blockrangs cost increased $1,800 → $1,980
  • 5xx Ultraviolet Rangs seek range increased 66.6 → 99.9
    • Blockrangs, being as spammable as it is, is so cost efficient that it has prevented other strategies from coming into usage. Ultraviolet Rangs seek range ended up being lower than its attack range with the 520 crosspath so this is being fixed.
  • x4x Fire Lord damage increased 4 → 5
    • x5x damage remains at 20
    • Could use a buff to prevent it from falling off so fast against multi-skulls.
      
  • Galactic and tributes (except basic) buffed ~50%
  • Galactic splitter tributes buffed an additional ~60%
    • Improving balance between some of the cheaper tributes as the basic attacks overperformed while the splitter attacks were much more visually appealing than actually useful.
• Buffer
  • Galactic income increased $2,500 → $5,000
  • Galactic income now scales (like damage)
  • Do you hate having to spam thousands of buffers every lategame run so you even have a chance at affording the towers you want? Hopefully this will make that less necessary :D
• Ship
  • [bugfix] x3x Piracy bomb pierce reduced 19 → 18
  • 031 Piracy bomb pierce increased 27 → 36
    • Middle path boats with the bottom crosspath haven't put in as much work as they should, so pierce bonus is increasing for this interaction.
  • Galactic fruit attack cooldown reduced 0.6s → 0.48s
  • Galactic fruit damage increased 120 → 200
  • Galactic bomb damage increased 300 → 400
  • Galactic frag damage increased 150 → 200
  • Galactic plane lifespan increased 3s → 4.5s
  • Galactic income now scales (like damage)
    • Silver has figured out a better plane model that lasts longer on the battlefield!
• Hangar
  • Galactic bullet attack cooldown reduced 0.05s → 0.045s
  • Galactic bullet damage increased 100 → 150
  • Galactic missile impact damage increased 3 → 12
  • Galactic missile explosion damage increased 3 → 6
  • Galactic missile explosion elite bonus increased +36 → +54 (39 → 60 total)
  • Galactic cube damage increased 3,000 → 4,000
• Acid Launcher
  • Galactic queen count increased 1 → 2
  • Galactic acidpool tick cooldown reduced 0.2s → 0.1s
  • Galactic acidpool tick damage reduced 300 → 150
    • The queen spray attack is receiving the brunt of the buffs, as it was heavily overshadowed by the far less impressive looking acidpools.
• Friskus
  • Galactic base damage increased 20 → 30
  • Galactic transform1 damage increased 40 → 60
    
  • Galactic transform2 damage increased 100 → 120
• Light Keeper
  • 4xx Solar Power damage increased 10 → 15
  • 4xx Solar Power elite bonus increased +10 → +15 (20 → 30 total)
  • 5xx Hadron Collider unchanged
    • Solar Power for an upgrade of its price provided no extra base power to the tower, which often made it feel underwhelming.
  • x3x Lazar Power cost increased $125 → $225
  • x3x Lazar Power damage increased 4 → 8
    • 230 Lazar Power damage increased 6 → 12
  • x4x Ray Burst passive target range increased 76.8 → Infinite
  • x4x Ray Burst passive laser lifespan increased 0.1s → 0.8s
  • x5x Power Divergence main laser damage increased 4 → 40
    • 250 Power Divergence main laser damage increased 6 → 60
  • x5x Power Divergence passive amount reduced 16 → 12
    •  Lazar Power, over many updates, has been knocked down to a very low price point for such an expensive base tower, similar to what happened with middle path flamethrowers. The rest of the path is getting all around stat bumps to compensate.
  • xx2 attack cooldown increased 1.333s → 1.4s
  • xx3 Manual Control attack cooldown remains at 1.05s
    • As the bottom crosspath has dominated over the other two crosspaths, the attack speed is being nerfed very slightly to give the other crosspaths more of a fighting chance.
  • Galactic beam attack cooldown increased 0.066s → 0.1s
  • Galactic beam damage increased 80 → 160
  • Galactic burst attack cooldown increased 1.76s → 2s
  • [bugfix] Galactic burst count increased 4 → 6
  • Galactic burst damage increased 80 → 160

• Airhorn
  • Galactic blast attack cooldown reduced 0.25s → 0.15s
  • Galactic pulse damage increased 1,000 → 1,500
  • Galactic now also creates mines on closest track
  • Galactic mine pierce reduced 50 → 30
  • Galactic overheating now occurs less often
  • Galactic inferno beam damage increased 8 → 20
    
  • Galactic burn damage increased 700 → 1,500
    
  • [bugfix] Galactic burn duration reduced 350s → 10s and no longer gets overriden easily

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Encrypted Disgrace stun pulse sometimes not increasing nearby blocks' resistance
• Fixed friskus galactic base frisbees not rehitting blocks after 0.3s
• Fixed xx4 light keepers not visually following the mouse
• Fixed airhorn galactic inferno beam damage not scaling with heat

Blocks TD 2 Devlog!

I expect to release a couple more small updates like this for Blocks TD 1, mainly so I can share the progress I'm making on Blocks TD 2.

screenshot didn't work, so you'll have to wait until the next devlog for those 

Blocks TD 2 will return to a numbered enemy health system like in WWTD3 (one of my oldest games that I've since unlisted), as well as introducing elemental properties in the later rounds! You'll have to play around with strengths and weaknesses to maximise your synergies.

And of course, everything that made its predecessor so iconic will be returning too, with a massive amount of extra content, all in a more efficient and more moddable code!

Release date N/A currently but likely not this year :)