Retromine Demo v1.5 Balance Patch Notes

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback on the first version of the demo! Having a small but engaged community has been really great. Here is the very first balance patch - it contains only adjustments and reworks of existing content.

I hope you enjoy it - that said, I am still learning and growing as a developer, and if you have opinions on the new balance, please leave your feedback in the discord and comments section so future patches will be even better.

This patch is aimed to address the primary criticisms of the demo, as follows:

The game is too hard.

I agree! The game feels frustratingly difficult and too random, even on Adventure difficulty. In my eyes, a skilled player should be able to win a run on adventure every single time, and not have to repeatedly restart the game until they get lucky. To combat this, I have done a few things:

• Scorium requirements are generally lower across the difficulties
• All cards in the game now cost less, to encourage deckbuilding 
• Reroll costs have been slightly reduced in the mid and late game to improve player agency.
• Nearly every card in the game has received a buff, so purchased cards should feel much more impactful 
  
  

The game lacks depth. I can win without buying almost anything.

This is probably the biggest problem with the demo as it stands right now. This mostly stems from Prospect being way too powerful - the vertical scaling it provides is simply too strong, and combined with the cheap utilities, it warps the entire game around it.

With that being said, I have made the decision to adjust Prospect’s energy cost and power to 1 each. This reduces prospect’s power significantly, and it may feel weaker as a result, but when prospect is too strong it simply destroys all the meaningful decision making in the game, which goes against my vision as a developer.

Some cards are useless, and others are too overpowered.

This is totally normal for the first release of a deckbuilding game, and I’m also only a solo developer. Now that I have more playtesting data from a public release, I can get cards progressively more balanced with each update.

• Most cards in the game have received a buff
• Zero cost cards have been nerfed
• Some cards have received entirely new abilities
• Prospect has been adjusted
• Utility costs have been adjusted

New Features

• Hold R on the expedition screen to quick-restart the game
• Added a feedback form. Click the button during an expedition, map, or shop to give detailed feedback on the game.
• The web version now has a fullscreen button

Balance Changes

Difficulty

Relaxed

• Now scales to a maximum value of 200

Adventure

• Now scales to a maximum value of 250

Brutal

• Depth 3 difficulty increased
• Depth 4, 5, 7, 8 difficulty decreased
• Now scales to a maximum value of 300

Secret Difficulty

• Now scales to a maximum value of 350

Actions & Tools

• Aquifer
  • Cost reduced from 15 to 10
• Axe
  • Cost reduced from 20 to 18
• Axolotl
  • Cost reduced from 12 to 9
• Best Friend
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 8
• Brush
  • Cost reduced from 20 to 16
• Cave Cat
  • Starts at +1 Ore and +1 Score instead of +5 and +5
  • Energy cost reduced from 2 to 1
  • Cost reduced from 22 to 16
• Compass
  • Cost reduced from 14 to 10
• Corkscrew
  • Upgrade reduced from +4 to +3
  • Cost reduced from 37 to 18
• Drill
  • Energy cost reduced from 3 to 2
  • Cost reduced from 31 to 18
• Helmet
  • New ability: +10 Score. +3 Score for each action in play.
  • Energy cost increased from 0 to 1
  • Cost reduced from 20 to 13
• Ingots
  • Ore gain reduced from 10 to 5
  • Cost reduced from 21 to 16
• Jerboa
  • Cost reduced from 14 to 13
• Lens
  • Card draw removed
  • Cost reduced from 25 to 15
• Mattock
  • Cost increased from 11 to 15
• Minecart
  • New ability: +3 Ore, +3 Score, +2 Cards. If there are at least 2 actions in play, +1 Energy.
  • Energy cost increased to 1
  • Cost reduced from 35 to 15
• Mineshaft
  • Now only requires 2 actions in play to activate secondary ability
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 9
• Mole Rat
  • Energy cost reduced from 2 to 1
  • Cost reduced from 15 to 13
• Pet Mole
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 9
• Pickaxe
  • Ore gain increased from 10 to 15
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 9
• Prospect
  • Energy cost reduced to 1
  • Upgrade reduced to +1
• Salamander
  • Cost reduced from 40 to 34
• Screwdriver
  • New ability: +10 Ore. Upgrade a resource by 1.
  • Upgrade reduced from +2 to +1
  • Cost reduced from 18 to 11
• Shield
  • Cost reduced from 16 to 12
• Shovel
  • Score gain increased from 10 to 15
  • Cost reduced from 12 to 10
• Smeltery
  • Cost reduced from 23 to 18
• Sword
  • Cost reduced from 23 to 20
• The Creature
  • Cost increased from 21 to 30
• Torch
  • Cost reduced from 30 to 25
• Treasure Map
  • Score gain now starts at an initial value of 10 instead of 5
  • Cost reduced from 22 to 17
• Trowel
  • Cost reduced from 7 to 5
• Waterfall
  • Cost reduced from 11 to 8
• Wrench
  • New ability: Mine a resource. +15 Ore or Score for each tool in play.
  • Cost increased from 12 to 18

Resources

• Amber
  • Cost reduced from 19 to 16
• Corite
  • Initial value decreased from 6 to 5
  • Upgrade bonus increased from +1 to +3
• Cubite
  • Ability increased from double upgrades to triple upgrades
  • Initial value increased from 8 to 2
  • Cost reduced from 23 to 12
• Gems
  • Initial value increased from 5 to 8
  • Cost reduced from 15 to 12
• Geode
  • Cost increased from 7 to 10
• Katzite
  • Initial value increased from 4 to 6
  • Cost reduced from 12 to 10
• Meteorite
  • Cost reduced from 12 to 9
• Ore
  • Initial value increased from 10 to 11
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 7
• Pandorite
  • Slightly increased max luckiness and max unluckiness
  • Now Inert: Cannot be upgraded past 30.
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 9
• Quartz
  • Initial value increased from 6 to 8
  • Cost reduced from 12 to 10
• Scorium
  • Cost reduced from 10 to 9

Utilities

• Dynamite
  • Cost 3 increased from 70 to 75
  • Cost 4 increased from 95 to 125
  • Cost 5 increased from 130 to 250
• Hammer
  • Cost 1 increased to 20
  • Cost 3 reduced from 80 to 65
  • Cost 4 reduced from 125 to 95
  • Cost 5 reduced from 170 to 125
• Hourglass
  • Cost 2 reduced from 150 to 130
  • Cost 4 reduced from 999 to 600
  • Cost 5 reduced from 4999 to 2000

  
  

Bug Fixes

• Actions & Tools have visual separation from resources in the shop
• Version will be faintly displayed on victory screen
• Clicking the background on the main menu will now close any open menu
• Fixed a bug where Aquifer didn’t work properly with Corite or Cubite
• Fixed a bug where Jerboa didn’t work properly with Corite or Cubite
• Fixed a bug where pressing end turn and immediately pressing start would draw 10 cards at the start of a round
• Fixed a bug where cards wouldn’t pop up when playing a 0 energy tool on a 2 energy resource or higher
• Fixed a bug where the energy cube wouldn’t display energy gain properly with Mineshaft
• Fixed a bug where VSync was disabled by default
• Fixed a bug where VSync settings would cause screen tearing
• Fixed a bug where fullscreen mode wouldn't appear on certain browsers