v1.8.0 Deckbuilding + Mutations Major Update

v1.8.0 is here! Build your deck, upgrade your cards, customize your soldiers, and destroy more bugs than ever before. Confusing and esoteric card evolutions are gone, bugs grow in power dynamically, the enemy commander sends more powerful and varied bugs than before, and your soldiers can reach power levels previously impossible. If you weren't sold on the gameplay before, give cardTD another shot with this update.

A surprise to everyone including myself, I did not have plans to change the gameplay loop this drastically, but after trying it out I found this new deckbuilding gameplay to be vastly superior to the "cards as equipment" style. I will be taking the time to update screenshots and descriptions across itch and the game database to bring them up to date.

Depending on the feedback I get there will be a handful of smaller updates to address anything I missed since so much changed with 1.8.0, but the new gameplay loop is here to stay. The list of changes below is extremely likely to be incomplete.

v1.8.1

Fixes enemy tooltip not updating correctly

Fixes turns not capping at 30

Fixes a crash when using Zoners

Fixes the encyclopedia not unlocking cards consistently

Removes irrelevant options menu entries

v.1.8.0

Experimental changes to thread management to increase threaded performance (threading can be disabled in the options menu if issues arise)

Adds a visual warning indicator for bugs that are far along the track

Adds a target priority override by right clicking enemies

Adds a few more stats to enemy tooltips

Adds a cost marker to the energy bar

Adds a flash to the energy bar when the unit in incapable of casting due to excess energy cost

Adds more contextual stat information for units cards and enemies

Adds mechanics for each damage type

Adds the ability to throttle unit attack speed

Adds a defeat music track (thanks buraketto!)

Adds the ability to cancel a teleport (attempting to teleport while a teleport is underway cancels it)

Adds the tiny ant enemy

Adds a tooltip to trait entries that have additional stat info

Adds a bit more tutorialization

Adds an option to auto-slow the game while considering your card choices (intended to be a substitute for constantly pausing)

Changes the glossary to reflect the new gameplay loop

Changes the card system to more closely resemble a classic deck builder

Changes stat listing to always show as a tree for consistency

Changes enemy jitter logic to be smoother

Changes most damage increasing stacks to have a maximum to reduce single stat victories

Changes projectile split to a rollover chance and added damage and stack reduction per split

Changes the card encyclopedia filter to be additive

Changes the default aura fx

Fixes the enemy hash grid not being cleared when loading a new stage

Fixes the enemy hash grid not being cleared when there are no enemies

Fixes the enemy hash grid change in 1.6.0 only working on the right and bottom of the map

Fixes enemy and projectile threads not utilizing the full thread count

Fixes a few very infrequent crashes

Fixes cascades not intuitively working with force attacks

Fixes energy not being capped at total energy

Fixes the tooltip for flying enemies (they take NO damage from forces and impacts)

Fixes the game not saving unless you enter a stage (now saves on exit)

Fixes some modifier's unregistry being skipped when clearing stat trackers (caused lingering stat changes)

Fixes units creating their auras / shooting bullets before they teleport onto the battlefield

Fixes projectiles not correctly deflecting off of shields

Fixes OnAttack stack application and removal not including Areas / Zones

Fixes teleport and teleport impact not requiring or spending energy

Fixes too many warp stacks making teleportation take forever

Fixes pointlessly redrawing bugs while the game is paused

Fixes a hilariously long standing bug with stat tracker modifiers that didn't affect gameplay

Fixes an issue with the object pooler that caused small amounts of memory to leak every tooltip refresh

Fixes a crash where multiple areas (Zone user) request energy at the same time from different threads

Fixes amplify stacks not doing anything

Fixes some longstanding tooltip issues

Randomizes enemy stack accumulator to spread out stack ticks across more frames (performance smoothing)

Rebalances (Buff) Impacts base multipliers (50% -> 75%)

Rebalances (Buff) wither tick rate (deals damage twice as fast)

Rebalances (Buff) bullet base pierce count (0 -> 2)

Rebalances (Buff) smite base cascade chance (0% -> 30%)

Rebalances (Nerf) all attack scopes to cost at least 1 base energy

Rebalances (Nerf) Impacts to have 10% damage and stack falloff per hit

Rebalances (Nerf) enemies to have more health at the start and slightly less health at the end

Rebalances (Nerf) base critical multiplier (300% -> 200%)

Removes many cards

Removes pickups

Removes the megabug (a different final wave design will be added in the future)

Replaces relics with unique cards

Replaces treasure chests every minute with treasure chests every second and fifth turn

Optimizes stack ticks (multithreaded support)

Optimizes enemy rendering (simplified logic)

Optimizes enemy health bars (moved to visual server + multithreaded rendering support)

Optimizes areas (multithreaded support)

Optimizes impacts (multithreaded support)

Optimizes pickup rendering a ton (~1575% when idle)

Optimizes pickup logic to the extreme

Optimizes unit targeting logic a ton (design change, amortization)

Optimizes damage numbers (skip sort + skip visual server updates where possible)