Welcome, Scribes!
We hope you've been reading well and often - whether it's with a newfangled e-reader or old school... By Candlelight! Today's interlude patch includes a lit new Movement Spell: Flicker, Photo Mode, Monologue Tuning, and some community-inspired QoL, Balance, and Performance improvements!
Interlude Patch: By Candlelight... is our freshest patch, but be sure to check out the in-game Roadmap to see how far Vellum has come - the Library's work continues!
Movement Spell: Flicker - Hi Lighter!
Light danced across the pages, illuminating words, phrases, meanings... was it trying to tell me something?
Flicker enters the Scribe's Spellbook quick as a flash! This spell is blink-and-you'll-miss-it fast and starts with 3 charges - but beware, they aren't the fastest to recharge!
Vanish, then flare up a short distance away toward your input direction. 5.25s cooldown with 3 charges.
Flicker is a flexible addition to our slate of movement spells; Rush your foes, dance through their onslaught, or just cruise around with an extra charge in your back pocket!
Photo Mode + Upgrades - Quality of Still Life
Freeze a moment in time... before another thought comes to drive it away.
While we've been busy working on our new project, Roads & Riches, we're also always looking for clever ways to use the things we build! Photo Mode was a clear candidate from our Roads & Riches Demo - so now it's live in Vellum! We'd love to see your Scribes, Nooks, or epic battles in our Discord!
Multiplayer is getting a nice quality of life improvement; rejoining a game will maintain your stats. No more falling behind if you have to join back into a run (now what's my excuse for doing the least damage?)! Optimization has been another point of focus for this update, so performance should be improved for later, more action-dense sessions.
Further Adjustments - Community-Inspired Tuning
At this point, I wondered if I had spoken for too long. Perhaps some shorter monologues from now on.
We're really excited with the build possibilities that Monologue added in the last update, but it has proven to be a bit too powerful in certain scenarios. So - we're reworking the ability to still allow for powerful spikes, but more difficult to maintain full Monologue effectiveness. Monologue will now stack up to 10 times, but costs 1 additional mana for every stack over 3. This makes it so that pages like Breath Control or any Temporary Mana gains can help you build a stronger Monologue, but you won't be able to maintain it indefinitely.
Rendition continues to prove more difficult than we'd like, so we're making a few targeted adjustments to smooth out some particularly challenging moments. We're hoping these changes will help make the fight more approachable, especially on Normal mode. As always, please let us know your thoughts in the discord or comments!
We're also making some targeted adjustments based on player feedback to some pages. Dusk and Dawn damage will now scale based on their Scribe's number of pages of power. Blue's Signature Spell now has an additional effect of doubling Blot applications for 5s.
Much of this tuning has come from the fantastic discussion and feedback in the community - thank you so much!
Epilogue
As always, we've really enjoyed working on these last few patches! Your feedback on all things Vellum makes our job easier and - more excitingly - a ton more fun! We hope you enjoy By Candelight... and we can't wait to hear your thoughts and see what fantastic moments you capture with the new Photo Mode!
Happy reading, and please don't leave lit candles unattended. Books hate that.
- The Vellum Team
Interlude Patch: By Candlelight... - Full Patch Notes
Flicker
Vanish, then flare up a short distance away toward your input direction.
Starts with 3 charges.
3 Charges, 5.25s cooldown
General
Photo Mode added - Default 'O' keybind to activate
Monologue: Consumes 1 additional mana per stack over 3 stacks.
Monologue now stacks to 10.
Monologue: Attack Speed bonus now starts 25% stronger but scales 50% less per stack.
Monologue Page: Breath Control - Rarity Increased
Manifest: Base Attack Speed adjusted, starts slower but ramps to max speed faster. Attack speed at Max Stacks increased by 15%.
Manifest: Base Damage increased to 15 from 12.
Manifest: Manifest Stacking Attack Speed Bonus is now applied first before applying any other effects are calculated.
Yellow Inscription: Artisan's Fee: Now increases Mana Generation when Flourishing by 35%. (Was a chance to generate Yellow Temp Mana.)
Dawn and Dusk: Now scale with the number of pages the Scribe that summoned them has.
Blue Signature Spell: Now doubles Blot applications for 5s in addition to sending out blot projectiles at all Torn.
Blue Signature Spell: Now fires a minimum of 10 projectiles (was 15).
Misc. Performance Improvements to Torn and Player Abilities. (Please let us know if you experience any multiplayer syncing issues in this update)
Rendition
Phase 1: Number of Pools reduced to 18 on Normal, 27 on Hard. (Was 30 for both)
Phase 2: Arena fills over 70s on Normal, 65s on Hard. (Was 60s for both.)
Phase 3: Grid spawns every 5 seconds on Normal (Was every 4s)
Phase 3: Players now have 3.8s to get to safe area, was 3.6s
Vignette: Thesis, A Ship Rewritten small edits
