Hey MASSIVE CHALICE backers!

It’s 2015 and we’re coming down the home stretch! Thanks so much for all of the feedback that you guys have been giving us on the forums. It’s been really helpful and the game is in much better shape because of it. :D!

State of the Game

We’re fixing bugs, optimizing the game, and adding new features on our way to 1.0! We’re still looking on track to complete the game in the spring - just a few months away. Here’s a look at some of the new things that are coming in the next patch! :D!

Difficulty Modes

Right now we consider the current difficulty to be “Normal.” Ok it’s actually pretty difficult, but we want the game to serve up a challenge even on the standard difficulty and be known as a generally difficult game. We think the game is a lot better when you have to earn your victories over the Cadence and you’re not just cake-walking through it!

That being said we totally recognize that the game can be pretty brutal for new players. So the new Easy mode will really help this out. Here are the stats that we’re modifying:

• Enemy Health - easier to take down!
• Enemy Evasion - easier to hit!
• Enemy Damage - less punishing for getting your heroes smacked in the face!
• Hero XP Level Requirements - easier to level up!
• Research Times - easier to unlock tech!

We've also introduced a Hard mode for our seasoned players. That’s probably you if you’re reading this? :D We modify the same variables in the list above but we just tweak them in the other direction to make the game even more brutal.

Hard mode also features one additional savage twist. Your strategy map will start with 5 randomized corruption strikes already applied to your outside regions. We’re hoping that this challenge really forces people to come up with some new, optimal strategies! :D!

IRON Mode

Plenty of gamers “scum save” their way through strategy games. For those unfamiliar, this process involves reloading an old save game every time you make a mistake in order to ensure your success. This is fine as long as you’re still having fun, but some players just can't help themselves from reloading every time. They never end up trying to live with their mistakes and this can drain significant fun out of the game!

In order to battle this we’re introducing an IRON Mode into the game. If you start a new game with this setting you’ll only have ONE save file for that entire run. After every one of your decisions, whether that’s a Regent appointment, a marriage, or a move on the tactical battlefield, your old save game will be overwritten with the results of that decision. There’s no going back! You’ll have to live with every mistake, miss, and especially those errant Alchemist flasks! :D

We’re not the first strategy game to include this feature, but it feels especially at-home in MASSIVE CHALICE. The game’s all about long-term consequences and with the IRON Mode you’ll really be locked in. Give it a shot in the next patch and give us some feedback!

 Tactical Tutorial

MASSIVE CHALICE can be pretty daunting for new players. If you've been following Teamstreams then you've probably figured out how to play, but if you’re a brand new player that didn't even know about the Kickstarter it can be pretty tough! We've been working on a simple Tutorial during the first tactical battle that will help you learn the controls and the basics of the game. It’s not quite finished but we thought we’d get it out to you guys to get some feedback on it before we polish it off.

We’re also including a new “Enable Tutorial” checkbox on the New Game screen that you can use to turn off this amazingly helpful walkthrough at the beginning of the game if you’re an experienced player!

Timeline Improvements

Programmer Silvio Terra has made some stunning improvements to the Timeline. Multiple events now stack up on the timeline into what we call a “multi-event.” You can click on a multi-event to expand it and investigate all of the individual events that happened around the same time. We have a lot of things that tend to happen on the same day (for example at the very beginning of the game you’ll usually have a tactical victory, a Regent appointment, and a marriage all on the first day!). This new system allows you to see all of the details of your history.

We've also put in the ability to pan the timeline left and right by using a left click drag. This is incredibly useful for referencing things that happened a long time ago. You can also zoom the timeline in and out using the mousewheel to get a better look at things. It’s pretty useful when you’re trying to find a specific event, and it’s also just really awesome to zoom all the way out and see your entire 300 year run on the screen at the same time! :D!

Controller Support Preview

We’re going through every screen in the game and tweaking them out so that they can support a controller. This is key for the forthcoming Xbox One port, but it will also transfer right over to the PC build so that you can enjoy MASSIVE CHALICE in Big Picture Mode! :D

Brad’s not exactly an artist, but you can see what his quick mockups look like here. MASSIVE CHALICE has a TON of UI so it’s going to take us a while to grind through it, but we’ll get there! :D!

 Teamstream #31 Friday February 6th!

We've been away from the stream for a bit but we’re coming back with a new one on Friday February 6th at 4pm Pacific. We’re going to start a brand new Hard IRON run on stream and play for a bit… probably until our first team wipe. That might be sooner than you think, so tune in at www.twitch.tv/doublefine if you can! :D!

Share Your Feedback! Report Bugs! Get Involved!

Make sure to check out the official bug forum here (http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewforum/76/). That’s the place to check if a bug you’re experiencing has already been reported or to report a bug of your own. And if there’s anything you want to talk about MASSIVE CHALICE in general, feel free to come to the MASSIVE CHALICE FORUMS and start a discussion! In case you can’t make our live broadcasts you can find all our Twitch streams on the Double Fine YouTube channel.

Thanks for supporting MASSIVE CHALICE!

Sincerely,

Brad and the MASSIVE CHALICE team! :D!

Hey MASSIVE CHALICE backers! 

“We’ve talked about it” long enough! We’ve been digging into the Hybrid Class system and we’re just about ready to unveil it!

But first… we’ll just give you a quick reminder that we are in Steam Early Access RIGHT NOW. http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110

If you backed the game at $20+ and haven’t received your code for MASSIVE CHALICE then please email us at support@doublefine.com or you can contact Humble directly to get your code! https://support.humblebundle.com

State of the Game

We’ve issued multiple patches to the game since we launched our Premium Backer Beta back in November. And right now we’re in the middle of our biggest patch yet! We’re prepping a big update that features the long-awaited Hybrid Classes!

Hybrid Class Overview

Starting in the new patch all heroes will have a Primary Class and a Secondary Class. Your initial batch of heroes will be Pure Classes - Caberjack, Alchemist, Hunter. These are the Classes that are in the game now with no changes! For the sake of this system, a Pure Class is a character that has the same Primary and Secondary Class.

Hybrid Classes are created when two heroes with different primary classes have a kid or adopt one. The Regent’s Primary Class becomes the baby hero’s Primary Class and the Partner’s Primary Class becomes the baby’s Secondary class.

Here’s a totally sweet graphic that shows how the system works!

Note that this generates 6 unique hybrid classes. Why did we choose to do it this way? With the way relic weapons work we wanted the Primary Class to determine the weapons and armor of the hero. So this way if your Regent was a Caberjack/Hunter and you are a Caberjack/Alchemist (because your other parent was an Alchemist/Alchemist) then we want you to end up using Caberjack armor and fighting with your Regent’s Caber.

Hybrid Skill Trees

For each hybrid we started with the Primary Class’s tree. Then we worked in as many abilities from the Secondary Class’s tree that made sense. After that we started brainstorming brand new abilities that felt like cool variations of the Secondary Class being applied to the way that the Primary Class operates.

The simplest example is the Hunter/Alchemist. We removed the ability of this Hunter flavor to use the Follow Up shot and replaced it with the Flask Shot. This ability lets the Hunter/Alchemist fire an arrow tipped with an explosive Alchemist flask at a target to deal AoE damage. It feels significantly different than an Alchemist flask throw. You can fire it at a much longer range than an Alchemist throw, but you can’t shoot it over walls and you lose the ability to position the explosion exactly where you want - it always has to be centered on the target that you’re aiming at. This opens up a lot of additional strategic depth where you can breed a Hunter to become an AoE threat capable of killing multiple Seeds at once!

Alchemist/Caberjack Hybrid Deep Dive

The Alchemist/Caberjack is turning out to be one of my favorite Hybrid Classes in the game. We wanted to take the Alchemist and focus much more on the melee aspect of the class.

For starters we decided to remove the Free Throw ability from this class. That ability is all about Flask Throwing so taking it away opens up space on the tree and allows us to create new things. In its place we added a double melee attack called Hack n Slash. This ability has similar rules to the Hunter’s Follow Up ability and lets you deal out two melee attacks on the same target if the first one hits. It really stresses the melee ability of the Alchemist!

We also wanted to get more of the Caberjack’s abilities into the tree. So we took the standard Alchemist Flask and replaced it with a custom Knockback Flask. This explosion only knocks characters 1 tile away and doesn’t guarantee a stun, but if you position your bomb just right you can knock enemies into walls or each other to get a stun. This turns the Alchemist/Caberjack into a much more controlling character.

At lvl 4 we replaced the Alchemist’s Spirit of the Dart Falcon (again, another Flask-focused ability) with the Caberjack’s Fury skill. This skill encourages you to get your Alchemist up into the action taking some damage so that they get a big damage boost on the next turn.

At lvl 6 we replaced Throw Items with the Caberjack’s new AoE Prime Target. I thought this would be especially sweet on an Alchemist that’s wearing the Cadence-fueled Volatile Carapace. Taunt a ton of melee enemies, get a defensive buff, and watch them rush you and trigger multiple explosions!

At lvl 8 we replaced the Fertilizer Flask with a brand new AoE Claw Swipe ability. This is another melee-focused move that lets you deal AoE damage at close range. It’s great to have an AoE option for when you run out of flasks!

We’re leaving all of the lvl 10 abilities unchanged, so the Alchemist/Caberjack will still have the Mad Bomber skill, allowing them to carry a ton of Knockback Flasks into combat for maximum control!

Did I fail to mention that there are a ton of other changes in the patch like increasing the base Alchemist Flask to a 3x3 explosion? :D!

We’ll have an in-depth look at the rest of the hybrid trees and abilities during the Teamstream! :D!

Hybrid Class Armors

Geoff had a sweet idea to do custom armors for all of the Hybrid Classes. He did a custom set for the base, refined, and advanced armors for all 6 of the hybrids. This is a TON of art but it’s looking really close to being finished! Here’s a sweet shot of some of the heroes with their upgraded hybrid armor! :D!

In this screen you can see the 3 Alchemist flavors with their Advanced armor together. Alchemist/Hunter left, Pure Alchemist middle, and Alchemist/Caberjack right.

Relic Art

Chad, Geoff, and Jeremy have cooked up a sweet system to give the Relics of MASSIVE CHALICE some unique visuals. Geoff and Jeremy have modeled a bunch of Throwers, Cabers, and Crossbows based off of Derek’s designs. These weapons are all split into two pieces. When a Relic is created, two of these pieces are grabbed at random and assembled into a Relic weapon. This should give a lot more personality to Relics. It’s also backwards compatible with old saves so if you load up an old game that has Relics they should all get unique visuals applied to them! :D!

Check out Whiskeybreath with the Atkinson Relic, The Fleeting Smile! :D!

Initial Bloodline

Selection Silvio, a new programmer on team MASSIVE CHALICE, has completed the Sigil Picker! This screen is used to select your Core Bloodline when starting a new game. It’s really rad to see all of the sigils that were created by the backers of the game. Thanks again for your creativity and hard work!

The Future

We’re not done yet! Here’s our original Early Access list of things that we’re still jamming on!

• Difficulty Modes
• IRON Mode
• Controller Support
• EFIGS Localization (French, Italian, German, Spanish)

We’re looking forward to the continued balance tweaks in future updates. Thanks for all of the feedback on the forums!

Teamstream #30 Friday December 12th!

Our next Teamstream (number 30!) is set for this Friday December 12th at 4pm Pacific. We’re going to go through the rest of the hybrids and discuss our thoughts on each of them while showing off their unique skills!

Come join us at twitch.tv/doublefine if you can! :D!

Back This! Thimbleweed Park!

Our old buddy Ron Gilbert has a new Kickstarter! It’s called Thimbleweed Park and it looks amazing. It’s intended to be a true return-to-form for old school Adventure Games! Complete with big-ass chunky pixels! :D!

I totally love this mockup of the game on a 5 ½” floppy!

If you were into Maniac Mansion back in the day then you really owe it to yourself to check out Thimbleweed Park! Here it is straight from Ron’s pixelated mouth:

Share Your Feedback! Report Bugs! Get Involved!

Make sure to check out the official bug forum here (http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewforum/76/). That’s the place to check if a bug you’re experiencing has already been reported or to report a bug of your own. And if there’s anything you want to talk about MASSIVE CHALICE in general, feel free to come to the MASSIVE CHALICE FORUMS and start a discussion! In case you can’t make our live broadcasts you can find all our Twitch streams on the Double Fine YouTube channel here. You can always check out the MASSIVE CHALICE blog for the latest updates from various team members.

Thanks so much for supporting MASSIVE CHALICE!

Sincerely,

Brad and the MASSIVE CHALICE team! :D!

Hey MASSIVE CHALICE backers!

Today we have a huge surprise for you! We’ve been getting a ton of requests from our $20+ backers (that aren’t part of the beta) to play the game. So we’re sending out codes for MASSIVE CHALICE to EVERYONE who backed it! And we’re sending them out TODAY! :D!

If you backed the game at $20 or more you’ll be receiving an email from Humble Bundle with everything you need to get your Steam key for MASSIVE CHALICE. If you’re a $20+ backer and you don’t see an email from Humble today feel free to contact them here! https://support.humblebundle.com

$35+ Double Codes

The $35 Kickstarter tier of MASSIVE CHALICE included an extra code for the game. We've released these codes to you guys! Check your Humble page for your second copy of the game and share it with someone you love! :D!

$50+ Soundtrack

We’ve fully mastered the MASSIVE CHALICE soundtrack and it’s amazing! Brian Trifon and Brian White of Finishing Move did an absolutely fantastic job with our music. Backers in the $50+ tiers should see the the Soundtrack available in their Humble page for MASSIVE CHALICE! :D! The soundtrack will also be available on Steam for non-backers!

Early Access

We’ve also had quite a few requests over the last few weeks from people who missed out on the Kickstarter asking about when they can get the game. We decided that the best way to do this was to get the game on Steam Early Access RIGHT NOW! :D! http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110

MASSIVE CHALICE isn’t complete, but the game is stable and playable from beginning to end. We expect to launch a polished 1.0 version in Spring 2015 and we are fully funded through that period. We’re super excited to involve all of our backers, along with some brand new players, on our way to the finished game.

Stream Away!

Our beta backers have been streaming MASSIVE CHALICE on twitch over the last few weeks. It's been great to drop in and talk balance with the chat!

Special shoutouts to Joeydevaux and HatchXXII for streaming the crap out of MASSIVE CHALICE. You can follow their shenanigans here! :D!

www.twitch.tv/joeydevaux

www.twitch.tv/hatchxxii

If you're just getting the game today let us remind you that we're totally cool with you streaming the game. Playing MASSIVE CHALICE with an audience is pretty fun, and we love dropping in and seeing peoples' reactions! Stream away! :D!

Teamstream #29 TODAY! Stream Invasion 2: The Invasioning

We’re going to be doing some streaming of our own TODAY with Teamstream #29! Tune in at 4pm Pacific TODAY at twitch.tv/doublefine where we’ll be playing MASSIVE CHALICE and invading other people’s MASSIVE CHALICE Twitch streams!

Share Your Feedback! Report Bugs! Get Involved!

Make sure to check out the official bug forum here. That’s the place to check if a bug you’re experiencing has already been reported or to report a bug of your own. And if there’s anything you want to talk about MASSIVE CHALICE in general, feel free to come to the MASSIVE CHALICE FORUMS and start a discussion! In case you can’t make our live broadcasts you can find all our Twitch streams on the Double Fine YouTube channel here. You can always check out the MASSIVE CHALICE blog for the latest updates from various team members.

Thanks so much for supporting MASSIVE CHALICE!

Sincerely,

Brad and the MASSIVE CHALICE team! :D!

Hey MASSIVE CHALICE backers!

Teamstream #29 Tuesday!

Come join us TOMORROW at 4PM Pacific (24:00 UTC) Tuesday, November 11th at http://twitch.tv/doublefine! We’ve been making a ton of balancing tweaks and the game is more balanced than ever! We’ll have various members from the team joining us, and of course we’ll be invading various MASSIVE CHALICE Twitch streams. So make sure you’re streaming because we come bearing FREE STEAM CODES! YEAH! :D!

Share Your Feedback! Report Bugs! Get Involved!

Make sure to check out the official bug forum here. That’s the place to check if a bug you’re experiencing has already been reported or to report a bug of your own. And if there’s anything you want to talk about MASSIVE CHALICE in general, feel free to come to the MASSIVE CHALICE FORUMS and start a discussion! In case you can’t make our live broadcasts you can find all our Twitch streams on the Double Fine YouTube channel here. You can always check out the MASSIVE CHALICE blog for the latest updates from various team members. Thanks so much for supporting MASSIVE CHALICE!

Sincerely,

Brad and the MASSIVE CHALICE Team! :D!

Hey MASSIVE CHALICE backers!

Our Premium Backer Beta period is going great! Tons of people are playing the game, writing up lists of feedback, and streaming the game on Twitch. We couldn’t be happier with the current state of MASSIVE CHALICE development! Thanks so much for helping test the game. The feedback that we’re getting is invaluable and it’s really helping to make the game a whole lot better.

We’ve also had a lot of requests from Mac and Linux backers asking when they would be able to play the game. We diverted some programming resources to get these two builds off the ground ASAP. With patch 0.83 you’ll be able to play the game on both Mac and Linux! These versions are pretty fresh and unstable but we thought it would be best to get it out to our beta backers that haven’t been able to play the game yet. Thanks for the help testing out these new platforms, and remember to submit bugs to the bug forum! :D!

For the rest of you guys that don’t have access to the beta yet - please bear with us! We want to make sure that the game is in a stable, balanced place before we unleash it. We’ll have more on it soon, and we’ll be back with another Teamstream next week! :D!

And here’s a copy of our complete patch notes! You can find these on our forum here: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/15436/

BALANCE CHANGES

GOOD GUYS

Alchemist Relic Flask Crits - Alchemist Flasks thrown can now deal Critical damage. This uses the standard crit % chance and damage % as the base Thrower. 

Alchemist Free Throw with Cadence Weapons - Free Throw now supports the two Cadence Throwers: Anarchy Slinger and Pillar Pitcher. 

Ramcap Caber - Collision damage was at 2x for knockback attacks! This was out of control. We’re reigning it in to 1x damage for now, but it might still be a little high. We’re keeping an eye on this one! 

Hunter Chalk One Up - Bonus reduced to +5% damage per kill. Added a hard cap of +50% damage (ie 10 kills). 

Wünderpants - Now protects from memory loss (XP) attacks from the Lapses as well as aging attacks from the Wrinklers! 

Fainthearted / Avenger Cap - Set the max cap to +/-50% when stacking Fainthearted or Avenger. This is really only relevant in the Final Battle! :D 

NOTE: we’re still looking into Alchemist buffs! Please explore the Alchemist as much as possible and keep sending your feedback. It’s really helpful! 

BAD GUYS

Advanced Twitcher Swap - Fixed a bug that was stopping Advanced Twitchers from using their Swap ability. 

Advanced Twitcher Knockback - Fixed a bug that was stopping Advanced Twitchers from dealing Knockback damage to their targets. 

Twitcher Knockback - Added a 1 turn cooldown for Twitcher and Advanced Twitcher Knockback attacks. 

FINAL BATTLE

!!!!!BEGIN SPOILERS!! IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ THIS SKIP TO TECHNICAL STUFF SECTION!!!!

Less Waves! - There are now only 5 waves instead of 10 in the Final Battle. 

More Frequent Waves! - Waves now spawn in every 3 turns, down from every 5 turns. 

Flatter floor! - Removed some of the pits in order to give the enemies and players some more breathing room in this battle. 

Chalice Attacks! - Enemies now attack the Chalice much more aggressively! 

NOTE: we’re still looking into ways to make the Final Battle better! Please keep submitting save games and feedback! 

TECHNICAL STUFF

Mac and Linux Builds! - We’ve propped our first Mac and Linux builds! They’re still in the early phases of testing but we wanted to get them out to you ASAP! See below for a full list of Known Issues about these builds. 

“F” key works while hovering - Added the ability to “Shift Position” for a melee attack while you are hovering over an enemy. Hover over a valid target and press F a few times, then right click! BAM! KNOCKBACK! :D 

Keyboard shortcuts for Cam Zoom - Mapped R and T to zoom the camera in and out. (note: you might have to delete your “prefs.sav” file to get these changes!) 

Options for “Lock Cursor to Window” & “Use Edge Scrolling” - Added these two options that are super useful for tuning your setup when playing in Windowed mode or Borderless Window mode. 

TONS of small visual improvements - For sure there are too many to list, but our art team has been doing a great job of adding polished textures and lighting to the game! BUG FIXES 

Tons of enemies crash fix - Fixed a crash that could occur when more than 40 enemies were visible on the screen at once. 

Flarrow Softlock - Fixed a bug that could cause the game to become completely unresponsive after firing a Hunter’s Flarrow. 

Child Regents - Child Regents are now only allowed when CONTINUING an existing Bloodline. You can no longer start a new Bloodline with a Child Regent. 

Bookworms! - The Bookworm genetic trait is now a personality trait. 

Fainthearted Trait - Fixed a bug that was causing Fanithearted to buff your heroes instead of debuffing them! 

Random Events and the Timeline - Some random events can now create events on the Timeline. 

Deployment Lighting - Fixed the lighting in the deployment screen to be consistent. 

Beards!!! - Fixed a bug that could cause an Old Hunter’s beard to float off of his face. 

ESC not working bug - Fixed a bug that might cause your ESC key to not bring up the main menu. 

NaN kills - Fixed a bug that could show your total kills as “NaN” in the mission results screen. 

MAC AND LINUX

These builds are super early but we’d love your help getting some testing on them! Please be aware that they are are early and they might be destroyed. Please submit your bugs on our bug forum! Thanks! :D! 

Unsigned Build - The game has not been “Signed” so you may need to click through an preferences authorization on first launch from steam 

No Mouse Wheel Support - Use T and R to zoom camera - mouse wheel is not yet supported. 

Windowed Mode - Windowed mode works in 1280x720. Other resolutions may have UI/mouse pointer bugs. 

Unsupported Borderless Window Mode - Borderless window mode is not supported (currently crashes) 

Fullscreen issues! - Fullscreen mode is buggy. Dont switch resolutions while in full screen. 

Enter on Save Game Naming Issues - Try not to hit Enter when typing in your save game name, just use the mouse to click the buttons. This is causing various issues that we’re looking into. 

Lighting Artifacts - There are some black bar stripes on the lighting from the torches and in the chalice room. 

Linux Only: Visit Forums Link - This link might be broken on the Linux build. Please go to http://http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewcategory/53/

Back This! You are now Earthbound

Our friends at Fangamer, the amazing people who make sure you get all your Double Fine t-shirts, posters, buttons, and schwag delivered to you on time, are running a Kickstarter RIGHT NOW that celebrates EarthBound and the fans who have created tons of amazing content inspired by the game.

Be sure to check out Fangamer’s EarthBound Kickstarter here: http://fangamer.com/kickstarter

Share Your Feedback! Report Bugs! Get Involved!

Make sure to check out the official bug forum here (http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewforum/76/). That’s the place to check if a bug you’re experiencing has already been reported or to report a bug of your own. And if there’s anything you want to talk about MASSIVE CHALICE in general, feel free to come to the MASSIVE CHALICE FORUMS and start a discussion! In case you can’t make our live broadcasts you can find all our Twitch streams on the Double Fine YouTube channel here. You can always check out the MASSIVE CHALICE blog for the latest updates from various team members. Thanks so much for supporting MASSIVE CHALICE!

Sincerely,

Brad and the MASSIVE CHALICE team! :D!