Greetings Nubheads.



Welcome to Weekly Nubby News #3!

In this edition, I'm looking mostly to inform nubby enthusiasts of where Nubby's at in terms of updates and talk about the next big update (V1.4).


So, V1.3 came out last Sunday and so far, things have been going pretty well. For the most part, people seem to be happy with the changes made. Obviously nerfing items isn't something I like doing, but in order for the game to meet my final vision, adjustments must be made. To be frank, the game is in a bit of awkward stage right now. I have some top secret documents that describe "phases" that I'm putting Nubby through. These phases are all working towards my final vision for Nubby, where I could finally be satisfied with the game.

Right now, Nubby is sort of in between phases. While some people are happy with NNF in it's current state, I'm striving for something more. All you need to know is that Nubby hasn't taken its final form yet. We're gonna get there one day.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about the near future of Nubby, address some criticisms I've been receiving, then finally finish off with what's to come for the next big update.


Near future of nubby (patches):
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I have a patch planned for Nubby to fix up some bugs/crashes, and rebalance some things. I assume this will most likely be out some time next week. It's not going to be a big content update, just some tweaks.


Criticisms of V1.3:
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The biggest criticism I've been receiving from V1.3 is that the Nubby physics feel bad. This one actually surprised me a lot. To understand why this surprised me, I'll explain the context of Nubby physics, and why I changed it.

So basically, one of the biggest complaints pre-V1.2 was that Nubby's physics felt too random. I found myself agreeing. Nubby's physics do actually have a small amount of RNG involved. Pre-V1.3, every time nubby bounces, his degree of reflection was offset by (-2 degrees, -1 degrees, 0 degrees, 1 degree, or 2 degrees). I thought, well in that case if its too random, I'll just reduce the maximum offset.

The reason why the large blowback from this surprised me, is that the physics were only changed by 1 degree! In V1.3, Nubby's physics are offset by (-1 degree, 0 degree, or 1 degree). That was the ONLY change made to the physics and I'm astounded that so many players noticed a degree change of just 1! Maybe I just don't play my game enough to notice, but I just cannot, for the life of me, notice a difference.

Usually, I'd listen to my heart and do what I think is right, but considering I can't notice a difference, and the player base is split 50/50 on this, I'm going to provide a compromise. I'm not going to explain exactly how I will compromise, mostly because I haven't figured out a compromise yet. I will eventually stumble upon a solution that pays respect to both opinions. That will be for the next patch. You are heard in the nubby community.




The future / Looking ahead at V1.4
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There's still plenty of work to be done with Nubby! I've got big plans for the next update.

In V1.4, I'm choosing to emphasize QOL systems and progression.

I will divide these two topics and talk about each one separately to give you a vague idea of what to expect in the next update.

V1.4 Quality of Life:
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-Implementing a stat tracker that would allow the true nubheads to closely monitor data such as: Item activations per round, pops/halves/doubles per round, and total activations/pops/doubles/etc. throughout the whole game. If there is a chunk of data that YOU would like to see visually displayed on the stat tracker, leave it in the comments below! (this was originally a feature meant to come out in V1.3, but I didn't think it was comprehensive enough, so I didn't add it in yet)

-Perk stacking (clumps similar perks together so you can actually see what perks you have in the late game instead of seeing a mess)

-Various GUI / UX / visibility improvements

-More explanatory item effects. People often get confused between peg popping and peg halving, and I'd like to explain concepts like these more thoroughly in the game. This is just an example of one of the places that I want to be more descriptive.

-POSSIBLY: The warehouse! This is going to be accessible from the title screen and is adjacent to a "bestiary" or "collections" tab in other games. This is a MAYBE for this update. I'd like to have it done soon because it works with game progression.


V1.4 Progression:
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-The biggest change to progression that I want to make is implementing a game mode called "Promotion mode or Overtime mode" where you will ascend to higher levels upon beating the game, and each level has increased difficulty, maxing out at ~20-30 levels, where you'd beat the final challenge. Ideally, after each level there would be some sort of item/perk unlock. I want to add this mode because I feel like after beating the challenges, there's not much left to do.

-As for steam achievements, I think this is the update that will bring those into the game. They will most likely be scattered throughout the game, rather than focusing on one specific aspect of the game. For example, I will NOT be centering all the achievements on beating challenges.

Additional notes for V1.4
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As for new items/perks, there might be a few, or there might be a lot. I'm more focused on adding new ways to interact with the systems already at play, rather than bloating up the item pool. Though, I think we still have a long way to go before I would consider the item pool "bloated". V1.3 was an improvement on build variety, but I still think we can do more. It will not be the focal point of V1.4, but you will definitely see more items coming in future updates.

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Also, the soundtrack for Nubby is out on bandcamp! Go check it out and support Vinegart. All moneys go directly to him!


That's all for Weekly Nubby News! Thanks for reading and thanks for playing!


-Mog



(Unrelated, but here's a free screenshot of the beta version of Nubby, if you're interested!)

V1.3.1 Patch Notes:


Hello! There was too many issues with the update put out yesterday to ignore, so I just put out a patch that fixed some really inconvenient things. Apologies for all that.


These are not all the changes that need to be made, but I wanted to fix some big ones and non-time-consuming ones quickly so you can enjoy the update sooner. I will be putting out more patches in the days to come to address some more balance concerns. THANKS FOR NUBBIN' IT UP TONYSTYLE DAWWG!

Bug fixes:
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-Fixed springy perk's trigger name visual bug
-Fixed "mimimal" typo
-Fixed save file issues (issues with stars, supervisors, challenges, and high score saving)
-Fixed fava bean incorrect item labeling
-Fixed charity perk adding points instead of subtracting points
-Fixed crash caused by toy fish and toy fish+
-Jake no longer appears in mystery box because hes a black market item
-Croissant cant be found in "Pol's Bane" challenge
-Fixed item pool issues with criminal tony


Re-balances:
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-Hunter tony gives +6 coins instead of +3 when hitting bullseye
-Buffed E-Block additional force-trigger odds
-Dupe mystery box doesn't show up as often in amnesiac
-Donut costs 5 less coins
-Fixed pointer's trigger (that was an accident, my bad)
-It is now "peg fully popped ->"
-Mollusk is ultrarare (probably will be revisiting this item)