Hi everyone! Time for another update.
I would like to take some time to discuss the changes and why they are made.
If you are just interested in the full changelog, it will be at the end of the post.
Endless Mode
Let's start with endless mode.
I have always disliked endless mode in games and didn't want to add it into Crop Rotation.
However, Balatro showed me that Endless mode isn't always that bad.
You can now enter endless mode from non-turbo run once you paid the final payment.
The payment will then double after each week.
You will also get a generic trade-in every week.
Not a perfect solution, but it will work for now.
If you have ideas/suggestions, feel free to drop them in the forum or hop on to discord to discuss.
Custom Mode and Replaying runs
A suggestion about custom mode came up in the discussion forum, and I thought it was a good idea.
Custom Mode is now upgraded to allow you to specify the cards you want in the draft.
There is a minimum number of cards that is required for the game to work, but other than that, you can make it however you want.
All fruits, or no fruits, it is all up to you.
You can then share this with others and they can do the same run as you.
On top of that, you can now replay past runs via custom mode.
This allows you to test if there is a better way to build the farm.
Dusk Cardset
A new cardset has been added to the game. This set features 10 new crops, 1 animal and 1 permit.
The set mainly focuses on positioning of cards in the active area.
Previously, there were only a few cards that cared about positioning in the active area, like Mulch and Honey Fungus.
I always find this mechanic interesting but underused.
This set explores the idea further.
Cardset shuffling and new cards
I also decided to use this patch to shuffle cards around.
This is to give each set a focus mechanic of some sort, but if you have already unlocked everything, this should not make a difference.
Other than adding a new set of cards from Dusk, additional permits and animals are added to the previous cardset that does not have any.
Some cards are also removed, which I will talk more about in the Balancing section below.
Balancing
Before talking about the individual changes, I would like to first talk about how I balance and what the goal of balancing is.
Last year I balanced the game around rating 2k. This year, I got slightly better at the game, so I decided to balance the game around 2.5k instead.
The goal is to balance the cards, specifically animals and permits, so that they are all useful in some ways.
When I consistently avoid a card in my runs, it means that the card is less useful than others.
Set bonuses are also rebalanced.
Some are just minor number changes to make them useful, like Support/Climber or the 4 flavours.
Others were overhauled.
The goal is also to make all set bonuses useful.
This way of balancing was applied to mutations last year, and is now applied to other parts of the game.
The goal is to make choices between cards more meaningful, and also allow more strategies to be viable at higher ratings.
Set Bonuses rebalancing
There are a few balance changes to set bonuses but I would just focus on the 3 overhaul.
Seed Bonus
Seed bonus in the past gives you common/uncommon/rare seed as you increase the levels.
I rarely use the 2nd and 3rd tier, and I feel that it is too greedy to take at higher ratings.
This is now changed to give 1/2 extra crops per day, and the rarity is based on the current week.
Although I like this change, it is still an experiment and I will have to play with it longer to see if it is better.
Do share your experience for the new seed bonus.
Wet Bonus
Wet set bonus now gives maximum water in additional to the water gain.
This is one of the weaker set bonuses, so it definitely deserves a buff.
The increase in maximum water make it easier to gain "Farm Water" while maintaining a high water threshold.
This also enables strategies where the water cost goes beyond 150, which previously requires you to have mid-day water gain.
Dry Bonus
Dry Set bonus now also makes all dry crops count as empty plots.
This opens up interactions with various cards and should also make Dry bonus much better.
Similarly, Dry mutation now also makes the crop count as empty plots.
Card rebalancing
Removal
3 cards are removed from this patch - Squirrel, Herb Permit and Fruit Permit.
Squirrel is generally weak compared to other animals/permits.
It also slows down the game by a lot, as optimal play with Squirrel means you have a lot of draft to go through every day.
There were also many new ways to gain crops since 1.0 and that made Squirrel even worse.
Herb and Fruit permits are generally weak, and even when they are fully utilised, they are just average compared to the other permits.
Permits and Animal
Salad Bar, Alcohol and Tea permit has been changed.
In the past, they required you to hyper-specialise into the specific types to make them useful.
The new versions still work with their respective types, but in a more general way.
By changing this, it makes them generate some values in the early game and not just a dead card waiting to be traded in.
This is especially true when you don't have crops from their specialised types.
There are also other number changes to the other permits. You can check them out in the change log.
Crops
Now that the macro level abilities of permits/animals/croptypes are balanced, I can focus on rebalancing individual crops next.
This patch, I have only swapped a few cards around, like Enoki and Beansprouts.
I have also changed a few types around, like changing Cactus 3rd type to Dry.
More of this will likely happen in the future patches (if any).
Self Promotion
Before I add my closing thoughts, I just want to promote my next game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3678600/Curse_of_the_Abyss
It is a Traditional Roguelike with a mechanic twist.
It will be coming out next year, and a demo will be available soon.
If you are interested in the game or the demo, do wishlist it.
This is one of the best ways to support me if you like Crop Rotation or the games I made.
Closing Thoughts for Crop Rotation
The game now has 120 crops, 20 animals and 20 permits.
For animals and permits, this should be the maximum number that I can have.
Adding any more would likely make the pool too diluted to be playable.
As for crops, there are still some that I want to change, and I am just looking for new ideas.
It is likely that no more new cards will be added.
The focus now is to then make all cards viable and open up new strategies by rebalancing the cards and types.
I am still playing the game, although not as much compared to the past, especially after I start working on my 3rd game.
I don't expect that CR will have a 2.1 patch next year, but I said the same thing when I launched 1.3 last year, so we will have to see.
Similar to past major patches, 1.3 is archived and is available on a separate branch.
I would suggest copying the archived branch to a separate folder instead of playing it together with the 2.0 branch.
(The game is DRM-free if you haven't realised.)
And also, as there are a lot of changes, bugs are expected.
Endless mode will likely have bugs, because the game is not designed to be endless to begin with.
If you find any, do report them in the discussion and they will be promptly fixed.
If you like the changes, give this a like, or if you hate it, let me know why.
And lastly, the changelog.
New Features
- Cardset: Add Dusk cardset.
- Mode: Rework custom mode.
- Replay previous runs in Custom Mode.
- Enable endless mode in the normal rating mode.
- Add Portuguese translation.
Balance Changes
- Set Bonus: Wet set bonus now increase max water capacity.
- Set Bonus: Dry set bonus now make dry crop counts as empty plots.
- Set Bonus: Change Dry set bonus to 2 levels -> .
- Set Bonus: Add a 4th level to Support and Climber.
- Set Bonus: Change Support and Climber set bonus value -> .
- Set Bonus: Change mushroom set bonus from -> .
- Set Bonus: Change Invasive crop count from -> .
- Set Bonus: Change Vegetable set bonus value gain from -> .
- Set Bonus: Change all flavours set bonus value gain from -> .
- Set Bonus: Change Seed bonus to grant additional crops based on the current week.
- Rating Mode: Increase number of available cards 52 (24/16/12) -> 60 (28/20/12).
- Animal: Change Duck to start of day.
- Animal: Change Duck water gained -> .
- Animal: Change Butterfly value gain -> .
- Animal: Change Cat value gain -> .
- Animal: Cat now increase chance to get higher rarity crops.
- Animal: Change Crow value gain -> .
- Animal: Reduce horse crop gain requirement from ->
- Animal: Reduce horse contract reroll from ->
- Animal: Remove Squirrel.
- Animal: Change Fish gold gain -> .
- Animal: Change Sheep value gain -> .
- Animal: Change Cow gold gain -> .
- Animal: Add Bat to Base cardset.
- Animal: Add Frog to Moon cardset.
- Permit: Change Salad Bar Permit ability.
- Permit: Remove Fruit and Herb permit.
- Permit: Change Flavouring permit.
- Permit: Change Flavouring permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Dual Flavour permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Alcohol permit ability.
- Permit: Change Tea permit ability.
- Permit: Change Small farm permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Withering permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Invasive permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Spacious permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Support permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Support permit to adjacent only.
- Permit: Change Climber permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Spacious permit value gain -> .
- Permit: Change Spacious permit icon.
- Permit: Change Root permit requirement -> .
- Permit: Add Trade permit to Commerce cardset.
- Crop: Change Cactus 3rd type from Bitter -> Dry.
- Crop: Change Fig ability to gain value based on water level.
- Crop: Swap Enoki and Beansprout ability.
- Crop: Change Apple ability to based on active set bonus.
- Crop: Add variant to apple.
- Crop: Change Wasabi ability to based on active set bonus.
- Crop: Add variant to wasabi.
- Crop: Swap Pomegranate and Grape ability.
- Crop: Add variant to grape.
- Crop: Change Rhubarb ability to based on cost.
- Crop: Change Dill ability to playing crops from storage.
- Crop: Change Portobello Mushroom and Kiwi ability to spreading.
- Crop: Slightly buff hop at higher tier.
- Crop: Change Pear to Papaya.
- Mutation: Crop with dry mutation counts as empty plot.
- Cardset Shuffle: Some Crops/Animals/Permits are moved into different cardset.
- Unlocks: Swap Invasive and Farmer unlock order.
- Mechanic: Draft now checks for flower's inactive types.
Bug Fixes
- Fix Oat's weeds triggering invasive permit.
Quality of Life
- Quick filtering of crops via mechanics.
- Add small dot on the hud to show distributions of rarity on croptypes.
