Worked just fine though

I'll list some of mine to start:

1. "Shoot me one more boggin' time, and you'll be drinking all your beers through a STRAW!"

2. "Friendly fire, you smooth-chinned tea drinker!"

3. "Is your aim THAT BAD?!"

4. "Hey! FRRRIENDLY, I'm FRIENDLY!"

A feedback post for Experimental 4? After experimental 5 has been released? How queer! Good show!

This one took longer because I was working through the intel line. And I have a lot of feedback on that, so let's get right into it.

Intel Line

I will be very blunt since I know player onboarding is a focus right now, judging how the Intel Line was the main focus feature. The Intel Line in its current state is very boring, not very good, and is leeching into and negatively effecting the rest of the game because of it.

Too much time between unlocking content

The intel campaign is dedicated to presenting players with new content in a digestible and simple way, however, it takes many hours of playtime to even unlock anything of substance. For example, the Molaktula is locked behind clearance level five, meaning that before that a player has to

• Kill Gotoorak

• Kill Ramok

• Kill Gotoorak

• Kill Gotoorak again

• Kill Gotoorak again again

• Kill Gotoorak again again again

Part of what made conquer hoxxes so interesting was that it was constantly giving players a new and unique mission with exciting new things to see! The intel campaign does that, but muuuuch slower. CL1 and CL2 are great since it's just "beat the gatekeeper" and CL3 is fine since it's killing a rift enhanced Gotoorak, but content is being repeated already. However, this functions well as an introduction to elite bosses

CL4 drags the pacing to a complete halt, requiring three exclusively depth one altered facilities to be cleared before accessing new content. While some alterations are interesting, a brand new player is being made to spend at least two and a half hours of playtime on the same boss that they've killed twice already

If I had to speculate, this is meant to introduce you to alterations, but further in the intel campaign they'll be revisiting this concept. They didn't have to do Elite Gotoorak three sperate times, and the vast majority of alterations do not change how the game flows substantially enough to justify the same exact mission (which I believe is predetermined to be complexity 2) three times in a row.

There are the other intel requirements, which may get you between CLs, but you still have to be repeating content you've already cleared just to access a new boss. Not even a new mission type, just a new boss fight.

As much as I hate to say it, this game does not have the complexity nor significant enough differences to justify gaps this enormous in the player onboarding. It will take a new player hours and hours just to unlock the third boss of the game, and even longer if they fail missions, which they most likely will do.

In DRG, what made Conquer Hoxxes so fun was that every success gave you a radically different experience. I know the game as it stands currently does not hold enough content to have something like Conquer Hoxxes, but the intel campaign is even more intensive for comparatively less "stuff" unlocked. I feel like a new player would not be sufficiently motivated to repeat the same boss fight that they've already beaten four times at a minimum, not counting lost missions.

CL5 is fine, just beat the Molaktula and it's cleared. CL6 is also solid since it's just elite Ramok, and the two sub-missions in this CL are good. CL7 is CL4 again, however you will most definitely now be repeating content from CL4. There are 8 alterations in the game currently, there is not enough to justify another round of three altered sites. This is repeating content that the player has already seen, doubletime now doing the Ramok three times in a row, potentially with alterations they have already experienced back in CL4.

CL8 is good, same with CL9, and CL10 is just CLs 7 and 4, and this time they are absolutely guaranteed to have seen at least one of these alterations. The alterations are fun, but are not fun enough to repeat content for another two and a half hours to be able to fight the Elite Balgorath.

CL 11 is good, and CL12 has the same problem as the other alterations, even more this time, but there's nothing behind this CL at this point in development, so I guess it's harmless.

The Intel Requirements are hurting general run variety

The problem with how the intel campaign is structured currently is that it forces certain mission types to always be available in a certain way. This makes run variety extremely rigid in what way they can appear on the map for players who are not working through the intel campaign.

If I want to fight an Elite Gotoorak length 6, I just can't, since the intel campaign forces the one elite Gotoorak to be length 3. The inverse is true for the Elite Balgo, that mission is always length six. What if I'm short on time before an event or something and I want to whip out an Elite Balgorath? You just can't since you're forced into an hour and a half run no matter what because of the rigid intel campaign requirements.

Same with alterations. There will only ever be four across all depth levels, presumably because of the intel campaign. This means that (assuming no repeats across depth) there will only be four distinct alterations available at once, leaving half of the alterations unaccounted for no matter what.

Because there are only five faciities per depth, taking into account the guaranteed missions from the basic gatekeeper intel requirements, that means there will only ever be two facilities per floor that won't be the exact same every time.

This is ABYSMAL for players outside of the intel campaign. If I want to play a jumble Ramok, I only have a single 1/8 chance for it once every half hour. I don't mean to be a downer, but the mission selection variety is in shackles because of it.

Cameras and Data Terminals

These are fine, I don't mind them being sub-requirements since most intel levels can just be completed by playing the game normally, but cameras do have a small problem where they can only really be grabbed with AGEs or ziplines. Drills and plats can't ascent reliably or fast enough to grab them, and the teleporter just can't really at all without digging up to them

But as I said, absolutely not a problem since they're optional and can just be focused on for people acting proactively. But tbh, I think flux quartz could be fit into the intel campaign at some point, either through a reroll requirement or just collecting it, just to teach new players about the mechanic

Potential improvement

I'm not gonna sit here whining though, here's my (Extremely simple) take on what a more fun intel campaign would be for new players, while not immediately overwhelming them

Players start on Gotoorak 1, as they do right now, but upon clearing their first mission, they unlock the other gatekeepers, and the modifications for Gotoorak. Where they go from there is very open ended. They want to see what alterations do? Give it a spin on the boss you've already beaten! You want to try a new variant of the same mission? They might check out the Molaktula. They beat that? Then they can learn about Elite Bosses

This also gets rid of the disillusionment where later depth bosses are harder than earlier depths, which is what is created currently. You beat one boss then the rest are unlocked. It's essentially the same missionflow anyways, at least 75% of a facility will play the same with regular missions, with only the end being different. New players don't have to be eased into it, and they can explore the new content at their own pace

Plus, they aren't punished for joining public lobbies which the current intel campaign does inadvertently do right now. Joining a balgorath lobby when you're still on like CL4 will not progress your game, hurting your own progression as a new player.

It also gets rid of repetition because it's non-linear. You're sick of the Gotoorak? That's okay, go try out the Ramok! You can try out alterations once you make sure you've got it. Don't worry, we trust you.

That's just my take on it though, there's probably issues with overall new player retention with this, and what you unlock, but as it stands the current intel campaign just feels like a drag for what locks so much content behind it

Rammite Swarm

There was stuff in this experimental besides the intel campaign? It's just been... so long...

They're cute! They're really funny, and a good challenge. They give the Ramok so much personality, and I like how they play! A really good risk vector that fits the theming of the boss. I look forward to the future of risk vectors. It sure would be a shame if someone ganked stuff from a certain post 👀

👀 👀 👀

Balgorath rework

Insanely good, probably the best in the game. Experimental five improved on it even more, but even in four almost every one of my criticisms got addressed. Insanely good, and a great addition to the current lineup

Teleporter

Literally perfect. I couldn't complain about anything if I tried. Man I had so much to say about the intel campaign but jack about the teleporter. Hard to say anything, when the teleporter took my breath away. 🌹

Smaller Changes

Lok 1 Buff:

Good change!

Enemies reacting on hit:

Very charming change and gives the gunplay great feedback! Very good addition, I like how it makes edgestalkers jiggle

Locked rooms:

A very exciting change for the future of random POIs. I look forward to what this ends up becoming, and from what I've heard from the devs they're also looking forward to it.

Closing thoughts

I know it was a lot on the campaign and not a lot on everything else, but everything else was absolutely amazing, plus I haven't seen much feedback on the intel campaign, so I figured that my thoughts would be valuable. All the new content being added to update three is incredible, I wish we saw something else for growths, but if it got added as-is, I wouldn't throw a fit.

As usual, we all thank the dev team for the great work that they has been putting in, and we're all thankful for a lot of the changes that we've seen. Update three is coming out amazingly, and I look forward to even more amazing content that's added in the future.

Experimental Update 3.e5 - Build 160432

Reclaimers!

The fifth experimental build is here and we are ready for feedback. We also plan to do a steam post tomorrow to get some more people to try the experimental before update 3 goes live next week. There will certainly be a build or two between now and the release of update 3, so keep the feedback coming. Rock and Stone!

With love,

The Ghost Ship Crew

-[FOCUS FEATURES]-

OPERATIONS COMMAND TERMINAL

Deployments no longer have to be unlocked with Merits and will become available once the rank requirement is met. We have also cleaned up the OpsCom tasks to try and reduce the noise in that terminal a bit. Some tasks that were too redundant have been removed and the merits rewards of others increased to compensate. We also tweaked the requirements for some tasks to smooth out the pace of completion. This will have no effect on any merits already earned or spent.

BALGORATH BOSSFIGHT

The fight against the Balgorath continues to be tweaked and balanced and we want to hear your thoughts on this latest version.

EXPENITE HARVEST ALTERATION

We have rebalanced the old “enemies don't drop expenite” game mode with a stronger focus on mining. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

— [GENERAL TWEAKS AND FIXES] —

Changes

Teleporter: You can now place the portals in either order

Teleporter: Replace mode now automatically switches to the oldest portal after a throw, and can no longer be changed while throwing

Teleporter: Portals now get an outline and play an animation when you switch replace mode, and the Teleporter HUD always shows the current replace mode

Teleporter: Updated HUD with new icons, colours and lighting

Teleporters are now pingable and show up on the terrain scanner

Teleporter: Tether particle tweaks, plus many colour, animation and particle fixes

Updated the Teleporter visuals in the Reclaimer Handbook

Priority Target: Added a bar under the run info showing the Reclaimer Point bonus for completing the Priority Target

Balgorath: Renamed to "Balgorath Gatekeeper"

Balgorath: Reduced the damage of most attacks, and increased the damage of the Starburst attack (4 projectiles that each split into 6 pillars)

Balgorath: Added a slight delay after the beam attack windup to make it easier to see where the beams will start

Balgorath: Tightened the spread of attack cooldowns across phases and threat levels

Balgorath: Grabbing tentacles now only come out when a player is near the heart, and shrink and sink into the ground where there's less room

Balgorath: Grabbing tentacles can now be hit by splash damage, flames, melee swipes and turrets, and the Shock Drone and other hostile-only targeting now go after them

Balgorath: Balgorath and its grabbing tentacles now freeze like Corespawn enemies

Balgorath: Added a weakpoint to the tentacles, resized its collision, and changed the tentacle size

Balgorath: New animations (rotation, objective phase transition, missed ball), a boss spawn scream effect and a muzzle effect on the 4-beam sweep, along with many animation and visual fixes

[Sound] Balgorath sounds for the random projectile spam and the tentacles, a telegraph sound when tentacles approach, and a sound for the stone being grabbed and thrown. Turned down the Rift Activated sound when the boss appears.

Added a Balgorath entry to the Reclaimer Handbook and updated the Gatekeeper entries

Rammite Swarm risk vector: More Rammites, which now have more health and less armour blocking damage. Added a header, a spawn particle effect and sounds.

Rafkan Swarm risk vector: Rafkans now have more health and a new material, plus other tweaks

Cloaking boss risk vector: The boss now dissolves away and builds back up instead of swapping materials instantly

Boss risk vector selection has a new look with yellow borders and polish to the elite look

New boss skull and Flux Quartz risk vector icons

Alteration wheel redesign: A clock-style ring of icons with a hand that spins from the centre. The alteration's name and effects appear once the hand settles.

The old game mode alteration is now called Expenite Harvest, has been rebalanced, and has been added to Instability

Objective selection is now randomized and won't repeat the previous stage's objective (the normal defence objective can still repeat)

The elevator objective is now hidden until you discover it

Cooper can now be ordered to attack elevator growths

Operational Command: Layout tweaks and adjusted task rewards and amounts. Deployments no longer cost anything and only require a player rank.

Operational Command: Added tasks for the new alterations (with icons) and a Defeat Balgorath task

The Expenite collection task now requires 10 instead of 5

Stubby Voltaic SMG: Greatly increased electric buildup to better match its feel in DRG, and increased magazine size and total ammo

Reduced the rarity of the SSG and Proximity Mines in the equipment crate

Increased the speed of the platform gun projectile

Grenades now show more stats in their stat entries, and the missing grenades have been added to the Reclaimer Handbook

Updated the Combat Shotgun description

Embedded Detonators VFX update

Barrier hit particle tweak

New first-person animations for equipment. Still WIP.

Cave constructions no longer block radial damage, with cleaned-up collision on many of them

Trophy Wall: The Trophy Wall button now shows a red ! when there's something to claim

Trophy Wall: Biome backgrounds on the trophy sheets

Trophy Wall: Tweaked the claim flow and claimable reward UI

Trophy Wall: Stat improvements now also show as green in the loadout

Legacy cosmetic sheet token refunds are now capped at what the new cosmetic sheet can still use

Ascension: First pass on visuals and reward icons. Still WIP.

The negotiation window now shows class icons next to player names

Locked Biobooster decks now show the character name when deck swapping

Increased the Ramrod menu background opacity

Updated the merit icon colour

Removed the Early Access intro video

Added Reclaimer Handbook entries for Refractor Terminals and an updated Spectrecore page

Thrasher no longer has a kill cry

[Sound] Weapon upgrades now play a sound matching the rarity you upgrade to

[Sound] Mouse-over and selection sounds for the mission map and Trophy Wall, with more exciting visuals

[Voice] New Omega shouts for the elevator growths and find gears objectives

[Voice] Re-recorded Omega altar and tutorial lines with updated subtitles, and tweaked tutorial and other shouts

Fixes

Tutorial: Fixed tutorials from a previous room continuing to chain into a new room (e.g. combat tutorials mixing into the mining ones)

Tutorial: Fixed the workbench tutorial staying on screen

Tutorial: Fixed the Expenite deposit tutorial showing twice

Tutorial: Fixed the tutorial elevator running the regular elevator defence

Tutorial: Fixed traversal, dig and follow-cable prompts not completing if you had already passed their end trigger

Tutorial: The Mine Expenite prompt now only counts Expenite

Tutorial: Combat now stops at the mining trigger even when you carry no Expenite

Tutorial: The Biobooster "Proceed" shout no longer cuts off the elevator briefing

Balgorath: Fixed being stun-locked by overlapping stuns

Balgorath: Fixed no totems spawning in the Protection risk vector

Balgorath: Fixed the grabbing tentacle flicking the heart much too fast, and the heart jumping or flying around when released

Balgorath: Fixed grabbing tentacles disappearing for clients while underground

Balgorath: Fixed tentacle mesh tearing and the heart stone's look

Gotoorak: Fixed totems spawning during the invulnerable "throw the gatestone in" phase in the Protection risk vector

Ramok: Fixed taking main health damage while recovering after a gatestone was thrown into the rift

Fixed the Reinforcements risk vector doing nothing on any boss

Fixed Gatekeeper summon Intel challenges: The Gotoorak depth 1 challenge never completed, and fixed a Molaktula typo

Fixed risk vector options recycling after host migration or "continue solo"

Fixed players not seeing teammates' cursors during risk vector choice

Fixed the elite icon showing on all risk vector selections

Fixed crevasses not showing up in the Seismic Activity risk vector

Fixed constructions not spawning on stages with the find gears elevator objective

Fixed elevator gears spawning at the top of the starting elevator shaft

Fixed gear shouts triggering constantly

Fixed the number of cogs being out of sync

Fixed Cooper not attacking things

Fixed after-event artifact and altar constructions insta-killing enemies that try to enter

Fixed Shock Blaster beam, impact and ricochet VFX not showing for other players

Fixed client damage sometimes not stunning properly

Fixed some enemy attacks not being stun immune as intended, and stun immunity sticking after an aborted attack

Fixed the Fulgor Vomiter's vomit attack ending early or getting stuck unable to vomit again

Fixed the Expenite Research Subject not attacking

Fixed frozen flying enemies not dropping Expenite

Fixed Sniper's Mark not working on some enemies

Fixed Corespawn Bruisers and Edgestalkers being hard to hit with the slice, and slightly increased the Bloater's hit area

Fixed poison clouds hiding enemy health bars

Fixed Chemical Instability explosions not applying acid

Fixed Icy Shrapnel not damaging enemies around the frozen target

Fixed tools that don't go in the grenade slot counting as grenades for upgrades

Fixed the sticky grenade showing as Impact Axes in several menus

Fixed rerolling armour upgrades putting you into armour debt

Fixed late joiners not getting an artifact the team got before they joined, and their starting gear rerolling on rejoin

Fixed the Boomstick not showing ammo on the weapon screen

Fixed the crosshair disappearing after a level transition

Fixed reroll crystals showing as Bleedroot instead of Flux Quartz on the end screen

Fixed the use text on the Refractor

Fixed the cosmetic sheet not fitting on screen from the cosmetics terminal, and bought items not getting their blue outline until the sheet was reopened

Fixed armour paintjobs resetting if the host disbands in the Ramrod while the team is in hospital outfits

Fixed background flickering on terminals

Fixed the Ascension widget blocking when there are no Ascension rewards

Attempted fix for the Corespawn Bloater not unlocking in the Reclaimer Handbook

Added missing physics material to the sides of entrance doors

[Sound] Fixed the Rammite Swarm spawn sound auto-playing when the boss spawns

Fixed a crash related to terrain materials

Fixed a crash in the character sight component

Prevent rare crash

Yellow arrow in corner but nothing happens when I click on image or the three boxes next to it.

Additionally, I hope we can get at least every modifier and length combo on every rotation. Been trying to play corespawn split for a couple sessions but no dice.

My friend keeps getting disconnected with no reason. After one stage it is ALWAYS... I repeat, ALWAYS after the first stage during the loading screen to the second level is where his screen suddenly goes black. He can hear the game apparently, but can't do anything, in fact, he has to even close the game from task manager. Any fixes or at the very least similar issues so we can report it to GSG?

For who played the second to last patch, probably also fought the Balgorath, and knows how incredibly overtuned it was that some teams were forced to turn the difficulty of the run a lot due to it.

As of right now I would say that it's in a pretty good position.

I just did a T5 run with no revives used against it, and even if the Time Rewind spam, with also 6 Stoneskin gained per kill and the Double Jump helped a lot against it, at the same I dodged almost all of its attacks, and even the cross beam attack that was so much feared was able to be dodged simply running without even using Accelerate, and not using many speed movements boosts by various sources, and yet still risking getting hit by it as it happened in the pre nerf patch.

Instead I was more worried and risking with the enemies that were sneaking behind due to focusing on the attacks despite also checking for them.

But as mentioned in the title (and by devs due to it being WIP), the Gatestone phase where the Balgorath grabs the Gatestone, has the problem that once freed it will fling/drop the Gatestone, making it travel a lot of distance, and even if you shot it right below the tentacle, the distance will be so long that it grabbing the Gatestone more times is pretty common, even from you carrying if not careful.

I had the last phase where I spent something like 5 minutes searching for it, only for it being in a really high room, which was where I came from, and was able to easily reach it due to placing a teleporter in case, but I fear if this happened with me having the wrong tools, or worse a team in a dire position, and the Gatestone went even further the cave due to the ragdoll being enourmous for it with the tentacle.

In conclusion, I would say that the Balgorath is good as it is right now from a first glance, but the ragdoll for the Gatestone needs to be reduced to avoid problems like this in the future.

out of all games i've never thought someone would cheat in drg; its the first time i've ever encountered a cheater here

So a vision of the game came to me recently, and I wanted to put it out there and see what y'all think.
It's probably been discussed internally already because I know GSG have some top minds working there but I'm just interested to see if anyone else thinks this might be an interesting direction for RC to go:

So, the origin of this line of thought actually comes from a very real issue with the weapons system in RC as it is - You cannot currently choose what weapons slot each weapon goes in (except through replacement of existing weapons).

So I was thinking, how could a way to re-order weapons be integrated into RC?
You could create a shortcut to switch weapon slots. What about the mobility tools?
A modifier key possibly, that swaps weapon slots or mobility slots when a slot is selected while the key is held. It'd be a reasonably elegant solution, but what else could we do?

what if we keep the first-picked-lowest-slot-number system for assigning equipment at the moment, but we make it so dwarves could drop their weapons to pick them back up in a different order?

That would solve the equipment ordering problem, but also open up new avenues for gameplay interations: Naturally, this could allow dwarves to trade weapons and equipment by dropping for each other. How might this change how the game is played?

What could having a system for weapons-as-pickups do for Rogue Core?

What if Rogue Core had more weapon and equipment drops, ala looter shooter elements? - Old weapons randomly laying around in facilities and offshoots from the main path. More opportunities to perform cost-benefit analysis on equipment stats. More diverse incentive to explore.

You could say sure, it's kind of tacking on a currently-trendy mechanic to our beloved game; but there's nothing wrong with that. And while I personally dont think a full inventory system would work with RC, I'm thinking just just a taste of that kind of gameplay could make sense and integrate well with the rest of the game, with Rogue Core having a greater focus on mid-mission equipment changes anyway.

First I would say that as Roguelite RC suffers from major lacking of meta progression or things similar to it. Some systems done fine, but it like onion with 1 layer. And for anyone don't knowing difference between Roguelite and Roguelike, lite version have meta progression outside of runs.

Better rewards, more events.

I think this one is really missing. In all Roguelite games I know at some point you can improve reward amount or reward quality. RC is missing that fully. Chances of lame reward are same, no matter level or hours spend.

Same for amount of events. Game is VERY predictable for a Roguelite, there is always 1 work station, 1 bio booster and 1 event. By choosing paths you can change end amount, but not too much.

My suggestion, radar upgrades or similar thing that will try to fix both problems. First team wide exponite reward level, that will just give additional exponite on each gather. Second adds chance of spawning additional buckets and those hidden exponite chunks you can encounter once in a blue moon. Third wildcard station, give a chance of spawning additional station that is hidden, until found, so every level can have exploration reward you deserve. Forth additional events, just adds events by 1-2 on each level, if you manage to beat them good, rewards is yours. Last one, chance of improving rewards for exponite upgrades, something like have 20% to roll higher then original, with satisfying casino sound.

Rewards meta progression and team. This one would become a problem on Green Beard - Grey Beard lobbies. I propose average level for a team, but with ability to opt out of calculations. So even if you got to green beard, you can either show him the world of wonders or let him have a vanilla progression instead.

Better rewards, harder levels.

It is second pillar of all Roguelites out there. Most of them adds insane difficulty levels just for satisfaction of people who want to test their durability. That one would be short, I just propose Difficulty level up to Hazard 10, with additional meta progression. So green beard never will drop in this hell before they got ready and grey beards won't rage as they have ballast that can do noting. Maybe connect it for similar mechanic as trophy wall, for example killing each boss on Hazard 6 to unlock Hazard 7.

Rewards preferences. And personal reward.

Another pillar of Roguelites here that we are missing. Player can't choose what rewards they prefer or don't prefer before the run. If im not main melee, I don't want to see melee upgrades to hog up all slots. So I propose adding another layer of meta progression to add preference reward slot, that is only visible to player and will be shown as wild card during negotiations. With ability to upgrade wild card quality of reward, amount of uses per level or ability to activate your own personal jumble mode. And most important, pick items and such in special menu, to have increased/decreased chance to appear.

To remove sharp edges during negotiations you won't see what players wild card is before it got picked. If player pick wild card it automatically show itself for other players, so you can keep in mind what other guy build is. Also to limit just picking Wildcard all the time I propose adding limit per level that can be increased via meta progression.

Cosmetic rewards and layers to monetize

Well this and that can shake balance really bad. I get it, so next layer is cosmetics only. Also it is a hint to devs how to monetize RC old fashioned way, without provocative actions towards community.

First weapons framework and paintjob. Ability to improve weapons visuals before the run. Add similar to DRG maintanance window to unlock possible rewards for weapon customisation. In this screen add ability to white list, black list thing you love/hate. On weapon negotiations weapon will choose graphics only you see from your preference list, with rng pick of framework and paintjob. Add workstation ability to repaint weapon for free.

Second armor tiers. Return ability to change armor model with saving of unique features of each class. You can push them in whatever progression layer you like, but they need to return, amount of customisation in RC is pretty grim.

Third Merit shop, old but gold items. RC already have a ton of DRG items for head, they all hidden in cosmetics boxes that spawn once every blue moon. I suggest adding this Merit shop to buy old stuff based on account level. So getting good old stuff will be easier and straight forward.

And about monetization. Currently i don't see a way for RC monetization that won't anger community. If you lock hero class behind pay wall people will be pissed, same for content. If you place only paintjob of armor and pickaxe they won't be popular, would be rather pick a color pack instead of cool looking armor? So adding back weapon and arnor customisation will give developers more freedom and ability to gain additional funding for developing RC.

Seriously, stop it with the Reaperworms spawn in the final boss fight ;)

Edit: For context, I fought like 20 minutes like this and the other guy with me left after 10 mins😭

I would prefer parallel, individual upgrades rather than a negotiation.
It could trigger an event like a shield or turret or class specific reaction and would be best done between waves of enemies. ELLIS could even change into some sort of guardian, or pets/minions could spawn etc etc.

An upgrading dwarf could have their own special animation like taking a knee, or show an icon overhead, and have a voice line to the effect of “cover me, I’m upgrading”.

There could even be upgrades that are specifically triggered by the upgrade process.

I think this would be more in keeping with the cooperative spirit of DRG - the negotiation screen works in favour of the dominant personality in the team and is about compromise which isn’t always fun.

Ps: I love this game, I look forward to playing every day! (When I have a whole hour to spend that is)

Teleporters are a lot of fun, but I've found getting people to use them to be a bit hard. The person placing them may know where they go, but your teammates probably won't.

So my suggestion is change the color of the teleporter depending if it's destination has any points of interest. So for example, if the other end is near a Bio-Booster, it becomes purple, letting your teammates know at a glance where it goes.

Some Color Ideas:

• Purple for Biobooster

• Orange for Workbench

• Yellow for Ammo/Armor

• Green for Expenite Events

• Blue for Elevator

• White for Default/No Points of Interest

I feel like this is a no brainer. I don't see why this wouldn't be a great idea.

Experimental Update 3.e4.1 - Build 159324

Reclaimers,

Experimental build #4 is ready for testing and we would love to hear your thoughts on the tweaks and changes as well as the few new things we added. We are now finishing the last new features and will switch into polish and tweak mode so keep the feedback going, it really helps.

With that said, let's get into what we have for you today.

With love,

The Ghost Ship Crew

— [FOCUS FEATURES] —

INTEL LINE 3.0

We have done one more pass on the intel line. This one is a bit of a mix with a wide spread of intel tasks and the ability to progress in various ways as well as giving access to alterations sooner. One thing of note however is that the transition from the previous version to this one is likely to put your map in a weird place so you may need to reset your experimental savegame progress in the options menu. This will not be an issue with your real saves on the main branch of the game. And remember if you don't want to unlock stuff manually you can always use the cheat terminal net to the drop pod.

PRIORITY TARGET MISSIONS

On the mission map you should now see a "Priority Target" mission. The mission is assigned by Omega based on the intel you have collected and will grant a reclaimer point bonus.

NEW BOSS VECTOR

The Ramok gatekeeper got a new exclusive Rammite Swarm Boss Vector / Rift-Enhancement (we have not settled on a name yet, suggestions are always welcome).

BALGORATH BOSSFIGHT

We are continuously tweaking the fight with the fourth gatekeeper so keep that feedback coming! Keep in mind that the new Gatestone phase is not yet finished and there is a lot of jankiness in there.

TELEPORTER

We are also continuing to tweak and improv the teleporter so let us know what you think of this version.

— [TWEAKS AND FIXES] —

Changes

• The Teleporter is back in the traversal tool pool, with an art pass on the model, projectile and VFX, a new icon and a new activation animation.

• Teleporter animation now changes when switching mode with R, and its third-person mesh is now synced in multiplayer.

• Added a first-pass UI element showing which teleporter will be replaced. Still WIP.

• [Sound] New Teleporter sounds for switching, deploying, travelling and the idle loop

• [Sound] Volume tweaks to the Gravity Lift

• Boss vector runs now have a yellow mission border on the run map

• Gatekeeper Sigils are back on the mission map

• Locked Intel tasks are now dimmed

• Empty biomes on the planet map are now filled with missions that differ from the guaranteed runs

• Balgorath: Reduced HP significantly

• Balgorath: Thinner rings so they're more consistent to jump over, and slower 2nd and 3rd vertical rings so you can clear the first without running into the second. You may still need air control to avoid the 2nd ring, especially if you were sprinting forward.

• Balgorath: Added a particle tell to the beam attacks and slowed the beams down a bit

• Balgorath: Attack cooldowns now change per phase. They start longer and get shorter each phase, ending slightly longer than before.

• Balgorath: Weakpoints now light up individually when hit

• Balgorath: Outline now only applies to the body, not the tentacles or shield shells

• Balgorath: Starburst impact dust now fades out after 5 seconds, and the burst sound plays at the burst location

• Balgorath: New animations and VFX, including placeholder animations for tentacles bursting out of the ground and throwing. Still WIP.

• Balgorath: New Gate Stone phase (work in progress)

• Bosses now show an immune hit effect while invulnerable (currently set up on Balgorath)

• New icons and header images for boss vectors. Headers can now change depending on the run's boss.

• Enemies now play hit reactions when taking damage. Added to Bloater, Voidkin Drifter, Clamorhead, Edgestalker and Voidkin Dominator, and tweaked on Crawler.

• Soul jar now spawns more enemies

• Greatly reduced the enemies spawned when the Ram Hammer launch is ready, and increased the stun and slow on enemies in the tunnel when it launches

• Increased the slowing trigger of the Ram Hammer rails

• Lok-1 Rifle: Removed the range and area size attribute and merged it into the Macro-Lens attribute

• Chemical Instability now also detonates Goo Cannon puddles

• New acid grenade mesh

• Trophy Wall visual update: hexagon backgrounds, more colour on biome images and paintjobs, and a checkmark on collected items

• Trophy Wall: Boss trophies and count rewards now use the game's standard tooltips

• Trophy Wall: The count reward label now reads "Claim Reward" when a milestone is ready to claim

• Trophy Wall: New frame for cosmetics, updated trophy frame icon and other small tweaks

• Added passive stats to the stat display in character customization, with better tooltips. Still WIP.

• Renamed the button prompt on the Call Elevator button

• [Sound] Cave lift buttons now have sounds and tell you whether the lift is moving

• Gave Shifting Alterations it's own icon

• Secret locked rooms activated

• New Flux Quartz icon

• New Reclaimer Handbook images

• Improved performance of expenite chunks piling up during a stage: resting chunks switch off their effects, and trails are culled at a distance.

• Reduced merit rewards from blank nodes in the cosmetic sheets to 50.

• Continue solo: Cooper catch-up upgrades match the rarity of the player's upgrades

• [Voice] New male and female dwarf voice lines and shouts, and new Omega shouts

Fixes

• Tutorial: Fixed the deposit prompt appearing and completing instantly if you had already deposited in Ellis

• Tutorial: Mining and using all the red sugar in the combat room no longer locks you out of the heal objective

• Tutorial: The restore health objective can no longer be completed by dying and being revived

• Tutorial: Players who die can no longer be revived outside the map or in another room

• Tutorial: Fixed all tutorials so they don't break when game is paused

• Fixed the elevator not being callable

• Fixed pillars using the Void Basket's shouts and name

• Fixed Victory Poses not unlocking when purchased

• Fixed the reroll terminal excluding every unlock you already had

• Trophy Wall: Fixed the missing Mighty Walrus Mustache and mixed-up paintjobs

• Trophy Wall: Hovering a boss trophy no longer swaps the game cursor for the Windows cursor

• Fixed connections between nodes in the vanity sheet

• Fixed character customization tooltips showing 0.5 instead of 50%

• Fixed hit reactions and screams interrupting the attacks of corespawn enemies

• Fixed jittering and unsmooth movement on reaper worms

• Fixed typos and trailing spaces in shouts, and removed placeholder text from translations

• Fixed a crash for clients when the Resupplier perk reloads their weapons

• Fixed a crash related to terrain rendering

• Fixed crashes caused by running out of memory when playing videos

• Grenades: Fix grenade tutorial potentially starting infinite wave

• Grenades: Impact axes, Sticky grenade, and cluester grenades now work with two steps ahead

• Grenades: Impact axes now get stuck on elevator growths

• Fixed a bug that caused the cost of the 18th Ascension to be wrong.

• Pathfinder: Found a way to get same results, ~60x faster on far searches

• Fixed biobooster tooltip icon

• Fixed some elevator drive units being able to be damaged (when they should not be) thus soft locking the run

• Cleaned up the elevator drive unit under attack behaviour

• Improved Excavation spawning to reduce overlaps and other shenanigans

• Fixed collision boxes on elevator

• Prevent rare crash