Jul 30 2015

CARDINAL QUEST 2 PATCH 1.16: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Patch 1.16 is now live on Kongregate! The Android and iOS patches are heading into submission tomorrow and will go live within a few weeks. 🙂

If there’s a unifying theme to this patch, it’s that every class and just about every play-style is getting a few new toys, a few new options. There’s a new perk for each class! Loads of weak talents and builds have been improved! Even if you play a build that hasn’t been updated, the equipment you find will be more varied—and enemies a little bit smarter…

In addition to the changes I’ve gone over here lately, I’ve done a few last-minute fixes to The Tower. I’ve tweaked it to make later floors more interesting, give melee classes a helping hand and (reluctantly) nerf a few things that could make the game a bit one-dimensional. This means a slight extra buff to the Wizard’s talent tree for the Acts, amongst other things!

Of course, with all these little tweaks everywhere, these patch notes are going to be pretty long! Here goes:

GENERAL TWEAKS

  • Permanent allies (Form Wisp, Enslave) will now follow you to new levels instead of being left behind.
  • NPC AI improved. Ally NPCs will follow you more closely.
  • Reduced “Continue” score penalty from 25% to 10%.
  • Updated level exit artwork.

INTERFACE

  • Overhauled character creation screens.
  • Added “Random” character option when you have more than one character unlocked.
  • Added unlock notifications when you unlock a new Act (or The Tower).

THE TOWER

  • The Squire’s bonus chests now have a chance to appear on any level of the Tower based on your Achievement Rank. For example—a rank of 31 gives a 31% chance of a chest on each new level.
  • Enemies now increase in awareness in advanced floors, countering 1/2 point of Stealth per tier.
  • Reduced enemy Attack, Defense, Int and Faith scaling per Tower tier.
  • Increased enemy HP from floor 61+.
  • Adjusted high level scaling of talent-based damage from Fireball, Icebolt, Leech, Pistol, Bow and Pugilist.
  • Advanced tier weapons are now more likely to have upgraded damage.
  • Rebalanced consumable drop rates in advanced Tower floors.
  • Tower bosses will now toss their keys onto a nearby ledge if thrown into lava.

CLASSES AND SKILLS

  • Added a new unlockable perk to every class.
  • Fighter: “Intimidate” redesigned as a targeted skill.
  • Fighter: “Charge” cooldown is now much faster.
  • Wizard: “Willpower” talent cap raised to 2, but no longer scales in the Tower.
  • Thief: Added new Gear option “Merchant’s Pack”.
  • Thief: Removed “Discount” talent. Added talents “Flurry” and “Dagger Mastery”.
  • Thief: Now starts with two Scrolls of Find Treasure instead of one.
  • Pugilist: -1 base Defense.
  • Pugilist: Replaced “Celerity” talent with “Lightfooted” (+1 attack, +1 speed).
  • Pugilist: “Headbutt” skill now only dazes you one time in ten.
  • Pugilist: “Come At Me” skill now applies -4 defense to target instead of -2 defense.
  • Pugilist: “Fatality” talent redesigned. Now paralyses adjacent enemies with terror.
  • Pugilist: “Toughness” now gives +7 hp instead of +6.
  • Pugilist: “Fightin’ Shoes” Gear item now has +1 speed instead of +2 speed.
  • Pugilist: “Fightin’ Mitts” Gear item now gives a damage buff.
  • Pugilist: “Fightin’ Stuff” Gear pack now gives an extra Potion of Invincibility.
  • Alchemist: Repeated applications of Potion of Carapace now give diminishing returns.
  • Reduced Polymorph’s effect on target’s HP.

ITEMS

  • Repeated drops of the same weapon or armor items are now much less likely.
  • Windrunners: Added +1 speed.
  • Restless Blade: Now gives 1-3 damage, +3 attack, autocharge.
  • Reduced extra stat buffs given to Wizards by Tomes.

MORTAL PERILS

  • Adjusted most enemy “Intelligence” stats to reflect general sentience and ability to communicate.
  • Smarter enemies will now deliberately target your more fragile allies.
  • NPCs can no longer cast spells on other NPCs unless they have a clear line of sight.
  • Nearby tentacles will no longer prevent Shadow Walk.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Replaced “Unlock X classes” achievements with achievements for unlocking each specific class, plus one achievement for unlocking all of them.
  • All win streak achievements now ignore Tower runs.

BUGFIXES

  • XP system no longer fails for XP levels higher than 47.
  • Fixed achievement “Poison Running Through Your Veins”.
  • AIs will no longer lose track of targets flying over pits or lava.
  • Fixed bugs caused by doing yourself lethal or near-lethal damage whilst wearing “Lover’s Necklace”.
  • Charming your Dog no longer makes them hostile.
  • Dog is no longer immune to Scroll of Nova.
  • Dog now shows hearts when polymorphed.
  • Pugilist’s “Headbutt” is now properly reset by Orb of Renewal.
  • Orb of Renewal will no longer drop you to 0 hp or below.
  • Several stability fixes, especially fixes for crashes on late floors of The Tower.

29 Comments on “CARDINAL QUEST 2 PATCH 1.16: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE”

  3. Does the “Spitting Blood” perk still grant 25% extra crit chance when your health is at 50% or less?

    Also I like the Thief changes, the Flurry talent is godly but is risky if you mess up or have a bad build lol.

    The new perks are amazing, haven’t tried hellhound yet.

  4. Hey great update, the chat in Kongregate was interesting as always as people loved the perks.

    Now at the moment I have 1 question:
    What does paralysis do to the enemy? The enemy can’t move of course but they also can’t attack or defend?

    Also Intimidate says “weakening an enemy’s defense” but its takes away 3 attack so shouldn’t it say offense instead of defense?

  5. If you are next to the enemy when using Mania then it will also do critical damage to you also. Is this intentionally?

    Great update.

  6. Excellent update, love the perks. You might want to fix the description on Kong if possible, it’s still talking about six classes, not seven.

  7. A lot of these changes are very welcome but at the same time new unnecessary difficulties have been introduced.
    Wizard:
    Scaling of willpower was vital for keeping the wizard alive in the tower. While it is nice that allies can go from level to level this is undone by the changes in AI that causes enemies to target allies – why not target the easiest target of opportunity – and this forces the direction of wizard creation because enemy scaling of magic resistance insures spells are more likely to be resisted at higher levels.

    Perhaps you could make it that resisted spells don’t cost the caster anything. Then magic resistance levels could be left in their current incarnation.

    Classicist:
    I like this basic idea, but it seems buggy. Why should spells like enslave and will’o’wisp rob the overall mp total and then only be replenished through kills? This makes the advantage very difficult to play and again directs the construction of the character.

    Perhaps instead of increasing mp total with both intelligence and spells mp total could be increased with intelligence and spell cost could be reduced with intelligence. Otherwise the character is easier to play at lower levels and more difficult to play at higher levels which seems counter-productive.

    Thief:
    Everything you have done with the Thief is welcome. It is nice to have the option of building a true assassin if you desire.

    Paladin:
    What has happened to consecrate?!? This talent is no longer a worthwhile trade off for Wrath of God. Only one point per level are you for real. Please change this back. Consecrate was one of the great talents of this class and now it is a joke. As you can see I feel very strongly about this. If you want to balance it out maybe the structure could work like this: plus one to base damage every 2 levels and plus one to max damage every other level. If that still feels to powerful then perhaps plus one to base damage every three levels and plus one to max damage for the rest. Plus one max damage per level is a fast way to die.

    Mania:
    This is an interesting idea however it is also a fast to get your character killed. I feel like this would work better as a talent available at a higher level. Perhaps you could have it where you choose between Wrath of God and Mania and consecrate is a free floating talent.

    If paladins are truly dedicated to eradicating magic users can they get some kind talent to improve magic resistance?

    I haven’t tried out the other classes post patch in depth yet but I will post my comments when I have them.

    Overall I love this game and I am very happy that you as a developer are so attentive to keeping the game fun and interesting.

    Keep up the good work.

  8. One more thing:

    Why can’t increase spell damage apply to any damaging spell the wizard uses? Just a thought.

  9. LOL, i like to play with rangers and i like to be “dog-based”, and dat hellhound can help me alot 😀 (will be sad if morph into a wisp… near ogres…)

  10. Great update, but the one character I expected to be buffed was the wizard. The wizard is viable in the tower because of the tome stacking & inspiration/willpower (willpower scaling and tome stacking got nerfed in this patch), but in the acts, compared to the Ranger, the wizard is strictly worse, and in desperate need of a buff.
    at level 1:
    compared to wizard, ranger has +1 att, -2 def, +1 speed, -3 int, -1 MR, +1 stealth
    the ranger tries to avoid int spells, so the -3 int is not noticeable
    played right, the dog can help ranger escape, so the -2 def still hurts, but a lot less than -1 speed
    (-2 with dagger), speed is the best stat in the game; it directly increases score, extends buffs , and it gives you a free turn (very useful if you count the opponents moves & memorize their speed).
    Like you said about the thief, the wizard’s speed is tactically viable, but base 4 speed destroys his score.
    Also without speed, the wizard has no escape mechanic. I usually take blink, but the sheer randomness of this spell often backfires.
    Also, early on, the enemies do not target you with spells, so the +1 MR is useless early, and the ranger can find 3 MR items before MR starts to be a problem. 4 MR is questionable and 5+ is pointless. The wizard will have to direct his build a bit less, but this is only helpful in mid game, and early +1 stealth is much better. with even 1 more stealth, Ranger can single out enemies, taking them on 1 at a time, or build stealth items and get backstabs.
    So Ranger has slightly better base stats, but what makes these characters comparable is because they
    have the exact same play style, both center around their original, ranged, instant damage spell.
    Wizard’s fireball recharges in 11 turns
    Ranger’s bow recharges in 7
    10 and 6, respectively, if you count the turn it takes to cast them
    The Wizard can reduce this with intellect, but he is forced to worsen his other stats while he builds intellect. However, the ranger has a very direct way to reduce the cooldown: the archery talent. In addition, you have to think about the cooldown in terms of percent, not direct turns. Due to this, the archery upgrade gets better every time you upgrade it , up to a cooldown of 4. This is unheard of for a skill, easily the fastest cooldown in the game.
    on the other hand, the wizard gets more damage than the lvl 3 archery with a single spell damage upgrade. With inspiration (so much better than leech) and frost shot (enslave is still terrible btw) the wizard seems to be the better scaling character, however, the ranger still has two tricks up his sleeve, and while they are not immediately visible, that makes them no less deadly
    1: Magic resist vs flat accuracy
    the wizard’s greatest enemy and greatest downfall. No matter how powerful your spell, it can always be resisted. This is especially bad because stronger enemies have stronger MR, crippling the wizard’s scaling. The wizard is forced to waste a point in willpower, and even then, the enemies still resist very often(How much does willpower lower enemy resist btw?) Ranger has a 80? percent hit chance, 90? with sniper, which makes not only for hitting more often, but you have the ability to rely on your bow
    2: Dog Damage
    8-12 damage
    would if you had a passive that said, every turn, you get a free attack against an enemy. If it hits, you deal 8-12 damage. This makes the ranger skyrocket during his final upgrade points.

    The wizard can still beat all acts, but the ranger just does it better, and gets a better score.

    In conclusion, the wizard lacks the speed to get a legitimate score, a reliable escape mechanic, and magic resist cripples his scaling. Compared to the ranger, who has +1 natural speed, +1 spd from his dagger, and can get +1 spd +1stealth boots. The speed allows him to escape, and when his speed fails him, his dog can tank while he gets away. The ranger has a flat 90%? with sniper hit chance, the lowest cooldown in the game, and op dog damage scaling, the ranger is too much better than the wizard. Thank you for reading my tirade, and please buff the wizard in the next patch.

  11. On another note, the pugilist gets +50% health orb drop rate, but the warrior gets +100% bonus hp from orbs
    if the pugilist needs his other skills to be a lot better to balance unarmed, how is chi mastery justified?

  12. Thanks all, glad you’re enjoying it! I’ll look into these little issues ASAP.

    ElijahW8: lots of great feedback, thank you! I didn’t intend to make any changes to Consecrate, so I’ll look into what’s happened and change it back.

    Xander: You make a solid case! I’ll look into giving the Wizard a flat upgrade in 1.17.

    As for Chi Mastery, I figure reliable consistency is more valuable than getting more health occasionally (though I guess it could use some improvement).

  13. Here’s a interesting question, why not fuse pugilist’s chi mastery and the fighter’s regeneration into a “recovery” talent for both classes?

    Also here’s a visual bug: When I using the classicist perk with ice blast, all the other skills will get the cross target selection but only with no enemies visible.

  14. Glad to hear about the wizard!
    I know what you mean about the chi mastery, it’s just 50% seems a little harsh.
    more often than not, I get less than 12 hp from orbs on a stage, making the toughness talent more viable. now that toughness is buffed, you need to get more than 14 hp in a stage.
    also, flat hp increases the health regenerated from full healing potions & the heal spell, in addition to aid boss fights, none of which are accomplished by chi mastery.
    a buff to 75% would drop the hp needed to balance to 10.5
    of course, I don’t know how the mechanics of hp orbs work. A word on that?
    Also, are multiple upgrades of chi mastery cumulative?

  15. Hi All,

    Big thanks to the author for the updates!

    However I had to change my Mac and I lost all the data 🙁
    I spend a lot of time on this game and really enjoyed it.

    Is there any plan to save the data to the kongregate account or any other server?

    It would make life so much easier and maybe allow to have cross-device save in the future.

    Regards

  16. knosh: I prefer keeping the classes different, you know? Every unique little thing they have helps.

    Xander: Yeah, they’re cumulative! I don’t want to explain how orbs work though 🙂

    Trandel: No plans to do that at the moment, sorry. You may be able to transfer your save from the old machine – here’s a guide on where you can find it.

  17. The new perks and skills have all been entertaining and good fun to mess with, but most of all PUGILIST!! 😀
    My thoughts so far:
    The Pugilist is well balanced in the Acts, blasting through early floors while the -1 base defense made it so I had to be more careful in the mid-late floors than previously when I could casually stroll up to most monsters as long as there were only 1-3 of them.

    Light-Footed and the new Headbutt daze chance really helped the Pugilist actually be viable as a puncher rather than having to make sure his skills are up before he can actually connect with any of his attacks.

    Fatality doesn’t often trigger for me though, so I was a little disappointed when I couldn’t get even half a room’s population paralysed in the few times there are actually a nice bunch of enemies together. I’m guessing there are level differences between enemies even if they have the same sprite?

    The lower cooldown for Charge is great, like an Uppercut for the Fighter in terms of frequent guaranteed damage with bonus utility. Getting it as Pugilist from a dead Merchant was awesome, and allowed me to rush in to OHKO almost everything or finish them with an Uppercut/Vital Strike/Sweep combo.

    The 1 less speed on the Fightin’ Shoes is ok, and I suppose it makes it more balanced as a gear option compared to other classes. But if the Pugilist gets extra buffs to his skills because they have to do double duty, I think it would have been fine to leave the shoes as is: better gear that combines two items in lieu of a weapon. On the same line, I think the Fightin’ Mitts could have given a bonus to Crit chance instead, because minimum damage is just too weak compared to Dodge chance especially when the Pugilist already boasts a high minimum damage anyway.

    The tower. I know I’m occasionally stingy on item use but I feel like the tower gives a lot of my melee characters a hard time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot more fun and challenging to make melee characters in the tower, but I’ve only managed to get a Paladin to reach the 65th floor challenge and even then it was because I had the Weeping Katana topping off my health the whole time. On the flip side, I find the tower trivial with the ranged Alchemist and the Wizard. The Alchemist and the extra 30% mixing chance lets me buff his stats to hell and once I have Mind Control and reach Gunpowder 2 (Ice Blast in the Wizard’s case) he’s nigh unstoppable even with the new AI because everything either dies, is mind controlled, or near death before they reach him. Maybe I’m not cautious enough, but I feel like there’s a large gap in balance between ranged and melee in the tower and is sometimes seen in the Acts when you are forced to chase down that archer that’s kiting you to death.

  18. So does give Spitting Blood give +25% crit chance at 50% health or lower? It was stated before and I’m just being curious.

    Also how does the future look so far?

  19. So how’s the new patch coming for IOS and Android? Did it get approved?

  23. Nice update.

    Did the price of perks and gear go up? Kinda seems like it.

    One thing that I would really like is that if when the boss dropped the level key, that it wouldn’t have to take up an item slot. I often end up having to throw away something quite useful just to unlock the door to the next level.

    It would be really nice if the level key was it’s own “thing” and didn’t have to take up a valuable inventory slot.

  25. I played as the wizard with the form wisp spell (on iOS) and it seems like half the time the wisps are impotent. I hear the funky spellcasting sound but they don’t do anything, so they often end up getting killed before they cast fireballs.

  26. Tower is a fun time-waster. How about a High Sea/Underwater themed Act IV?
    The Village level is my favorite because the use of terrain.
    More levels could use terrain effects like +stealth or dangers like -speed/-defense.

    Ranger’s Dog is a pain to control.
    How about a reuseable/unremovable sixth item slot for dog whisper to order dog to stay still or get moving?

    For a new class, how about a Eco/Geomancer character who uses terrain to power/harness unique spells like a Lavawave, Ice Javelin, Rock Throw, Poison Spores, Tremors, etc.
    Each new level, gives access to a new spell that works differently.

  27. I was just wondering about the interaction between classicist and inspiration

  28. I agree with the Boss keys being a problem taking up item space. Those Invulnerability/Reflect potions are crucial on higher tier levels. Why not just have door open after the Boss is defeated?

    Also, the skill trees are forced. There aren’t even a lot of skills to choose from. Some are just small stat boosts.Why not remove high level skill restrictions?

    So far, only Berserk, Critical Strike, and maybe Sweep are the only physical non-magic skills that can be found randomly on floors..
    How about more found skills that aren’t mage/holy spells?

  29. I’m enjoying your CQ2 very well, but I have some bug to report. My tinkerer talent isn’t working properly.

    In the tower, I invested 2 points to tinkerer, but it only buffed +1.

    So I tried to use orb of renewal, and invested 3 points to Tinkerer. After that, tinkerer stopped to work.
    Now it doesn’t upgrade my items.(I passed about five more stages to confirm, no upgrades anymore)

    I’m using iOS 1.16 version.

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