The Desolation Weekly (06/17/21)

Subject: The Desolation Weekly (06/17/21) Thu Jun 17, 2021 4:16 pm

This week, New Lights are igniting...

Hello everyone! How do you like the new format?

So this is essentially gonna be like weekly newsletter, of sorts, detailing various things that's going on in the Roleplaying world here on New Arcana, in case you missed anything, and they'll also contain Balance Patch Notes in regards to the actual gameplay portion of the site, I.E Buffs, Nerfs, New Mechanics changes, and so on. I'll try to post these each week, with a minor update as to what's currently going on, for those of you who're coming back, are new, or just have a bit trouble keeping up with the general narrative.

Awakenings and Schemes

Currently in the Desolation, we have two ongoing awakenings which progress the Individual Narrative of Snow and Jackdaw. In these two threads, one new NPC in Les Matthews has entered the fray. He's going to become available once Jackdaw's awakening fully concludes, which looks to be sometime next week. In his awakening, we're getting a bit of introspection into what awakening as a Forgotten Experiment is like, and where the class identity is going moving forward. Snow's awakening highlights the stress and tumulus that is the existence of a shadow. Tormented by hallucinations, Snow struggles to find peace with himself, as his own body seems to reject him. Overcoming this ordeal will be mentally taxing, and his entire identity comes into question. Will he see it through? Or succumb to his inner torment?

The Hunt for Sudra is still going on, with Retuo, Helanna, Autumn and Cherry braving the Glacial Zone border in search for the demon. So far the journey hasn't been without its struggles, but confidence is high after their last few battles. The group still has a few more encounters left to go before they reach their end goal... unless they want to risk it and go for the extra objective, which could be rewarding. Is it a risk worth taking?

Armando is still waiting for them to finish, as Sudra poses a potentially large threat to his plans of escaping the highrise with the remaining survivors of Vault Lemuria. Both him and Rosario have set their sights on Vault Dorado, hidden somewhere deep with the deserts of the Western Dryrange. The duo seem rather optimistic about their chances of making it to their destination, given they have Retuo's promised aid, with the possibility of even more people helping.

A Few new Personal Quests have also been discovered:

"Repairing Abzu" is one of these quests which holds major story significance down the line. Picked up by Cherry Clear during her interaction with Abzu, the young Experiment is looking for ways to aid the slowly decaying android. Her sights have been set on the supposed Halcyon Collective's "Foundation Building", located somewhere within The Cradle.

Meanwhile, the LeBeau siblings are spending most of their time exploring the Fields of Glass, looking for "Elysia's Garden", a place which Sonia's been told to find by a voice in her dreams. Guided by the visage of a White Tree, this plotpoint have yet to be properly pursued by the Playerbase at large, although its only a matter of time before the twins become relevant again.

That's all the major plot-points currently going on in the Main Narrative of In Search of Salvation.

The Summer event is still going on, and while I know I haven't posted for it, new items will be up for grabs this weekend, this batch will be tied to the Heroes and Villains of Endymion and Ueitawa's sequel, so Look forward to that. Remember that this event is purely for fun, and to celebrate the legacy of this site, so please, enjoy yourselves, and don't stress it. The event doesn't conclude until September 1st, so there's still plenty of time to earn those tickets!

Next, lets talk balancing.

Balance Patch Update: Nyarlathotep Children and the "Double Dex" Strength.

I'm not going to waste any more of your time, so lets just get into it. Nyarlathotep Children, as they are right now, require some minor tuning. Seeing as their class ability is now on a cooldown, rather than once per thread, I think it's time we hit their class ability some, not just for balance reasons, but also to give room for the Mutated Soul Ability later down the line. To preserve Class Balance, Tainted Soul Recieves the following Change:

Tainted Soul now increases all stats by 50% rather than doubling them. After Tainted Soul ends, all stats (except HP and SP, and the corresponding endurances), go down by 20% until your persona has fully recovered.

Another big pain-point for balancing is the ubiquitous "Double Dex" Strength, a character trait which allowed a character to attack twice with their soulbound in a single turn. This has for a long time been a very powerful strength to take, as it's early-game power is undeniable. Seeing as it's so ridiculously strong in the early-game, I've decided to apply the following change to any character that currently has this trait as a Strength:

—Strength Name: [Double Dex]
—Description: Allows the user to attack twice with their soulbound weapon in a single turn, at the cost of exhausting themselves the following turn (Unable to act).

This change still allows for some utility, as it now stays as a Burst-damage option for those of you who build around dexterity. You still suffer the accuracy penalty. The reason behind this nerf is due to its previous power in the early-game, making skills like Double Fangs completely pointless, as this strength takes no commitment, or resources to use and abuse. To further make single target Physical Skills without special effects more attractive, I've decided to also apply a 10% Damage reduction when using your Soulbound or Gun against Shadows and Demons (Not against players, mind). That way, I can rest easy knowing that skills like Bash now serve a purpose other than just being "Dex but Bad" in the earlygame. If you wish to build around Dex, you can take a strength that negates this drawback, with the caviat that you also take more incoming damage from another source (say fire, etc).

That's everything I had to say this week. Please do sound off with some feedback regarding this new Formatting. I'd like to make it as digestible and pleasant to read as I can.

Good luck out there in the Desolation!

- Jerry <3

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