Yo big update coming soon and I think you're gonna love it. Massive blessing reworks, new features, better readability, and a nice little goblin evolution rework based on your suggestion.
I'll reply to some of the blessings stuff here that may not have been touched/touched much in this update:
Rat Charm: This works! You'll notice that if you open a rewards bag/chest, gold comes out. That's the normal gold reward. But if you get to the card reward and just click continue without a card, you'll pop up on the map screen and more gold comes flying out of the node you just left. THAT is the rat charm bonus gold.
Combo: One of the most important things in the game! Higher combos empower your glyphs. A 2 combo empowers a little, and a 9 combo empowers a SHIT TON. If you do a run in the future, try comparing the amounts a non-comboing glyph would do in a socket vs a glyph that would combo and see just how much it boosts it. A good example is Smash. It's a C, so if you place it by itself (outside of a combo) it just does what it says. But if you place it as a 3-hit combo, its damage and scare applications go up a lot, like giving an enemy 5 turns of scare instead of just 3. This effects everything. Block, strength gains, res gains, heals, damage, etc.
Another good way to test it? Save an energy drink. Put in a full combo socket chain, but don't click act yet. Instead, drink your energy drink then see how it effects your forecast numbers above the enemy head. Not to mention, combo numbers vastly effects certain cards/glyphs in the game.
Chicken Charm: This one is OP as fuck! Whenever you beat an elite, you get an upgrade (reforge) option instead of taking a new card. But with chicken charm, even normal battles grant you the upgrade card option!
I also have some bad news. YouTube demonetized me! Until we get it fixed, my income is halved. So I had to cancel that meeting with the art studio. That sucks a lot. What awful timing.
Update coming very soon! Thanks again!
I read the notes on the update. It sounds like you made some EXCELLENT improvements! I didn't think you were gonna change being able to place the glyphs but I'm so glad you did. The way my brain works sometimes it's like "I know I want this glyph in socket 3 to get whatever benefit, I just need to remember that." and then I immediately forget and screw it up so being able to just put it straight in will be a HUGE help!
A lot of the blessings sound drastically improved I really like a lot of the choices you made! I'll have to go through them and read them all in game :D
I definitely appreciate you nerfing the floor 1 Maledicts too, having 2/3 sockets cursed was brutal so that will definitely help with early-game progression!
Thank you so much for the advice on how to test the combo differences. It's one thing to know it does SOMETHING but it's another to be able to see it directly.
For the rat and chicken charms I'll have to double check because I did test the rat once to see what my gold was before skipping a glyph choice and what it was after and I didn't notice a change. I thought that might be what the chicken one does but I'll have to double-check it too because at least previously it didn't seem to actually be giving the upgrade option.
Oh my beautiful dragon scale I will miss you so, but I definitely fully support your decision to limit it and Blue Moon Fang to their respective events. The werewolf event is actually my favorite one. I like the puzzle and the design of having to tap one of the 4 objects to solve it is really cool. The visual design and atmosphere of that whole event is also one of the ones that feels most true to your channel content too. The only downside is you only have a 1-in-4 chance for the werewolf fight to be a reward for hitting the right one. If the Blue Moon Fang is going to be limited to its event I think it might be better if the player can always choose to fight the werewolf if they get that event, though possibly strengthening it a bit. But maybe it'll be weakened or the player starts out with a buff if it's the correct solution to the puzzle or something like that.
And just to follow up on one you didn't mention: When the tarot deck says "devil socket" what does that mean? I've never seen that wording anywhere else in the game.
Omg I'm so sorry to hear about YouTube that's so awful. It's so frustrating to see how little they actually care about their creators and it's SO hard to get anything fixed with them. One vid is bad enough but the whole channel is just crazy. What reason did they give? (If any) I'll keep out good vibes for it to be fixed quickly!
It's really unfortunate that is going to interfere with the art meeting though. Is there any way you'd still be able to do the meeting and get a quote but also let them know you can't commit to anything until YouTube gets their shit worked out? Absolutely wishing you the best with that!
Yes I've actually requested a ballpark estimate, and they said they would see what they could do. Fingers crossed it's not insane.
I like the suggestion for the werewolf farm event. Perhaps instead of skipping if you click the wrong one, you get "punished" and forced to fight the werewolf. The werewolf also needs a unique kit because I recall sort of just tossing some abilities at him because the barn event itself took all day and night to put together.
Don't worry about the Tarot Deck! It's been reworked. The Devil Socket reference regarded an old special socket type that "craved" a glyph from your hand and would reward you for placing that glyph in its socket or punish you for not placing a glyph there. I thought it was too distracting and gameplay-irritating to keep in. Most of the time, a feature should give you an option to play a new way, not force you into it.
The game feels a tad to easy, imo, at the moment. Making a few of the encounters more challenging might help (Werewolf, Giant Rat and Chicken, Everwood Dragon are some side "bosses" that are a tad too easy, Cockatrice and the Gnome Gang don't present a challenge anymore, Sapfiend and Bone Piper feel like their HP is too low, etc.)
Also working on the enemies for Floor 2, then Floor 3, then I will likely begin work again on Ghoul.
P.S: There's a blessing that still feels like ass that I forgot to rework, so I need to figure out which it was and what to do with it. I think it was Brew of Patience. Only feels good when you have all 6 sockets and only when you've got half of them cursed or banished (only reason why you wouldn't want to use them). Thinking about just making it an escalating per turn power boost per combat. Like 5% / 8% more damage per turn with a hard cap of like 30% / 48%.
Also I can confirm now that while I swear it wasn't doing it before, the chicken charm is working correctly (fantastically). Now that I know what I'm looking for I was also able to confirm the rat is working too, though the chicken is so good in comparison that I'm not sure why one would ever go for the rat.