Update #9 - Bosses, Bookworms, and Balancing

Hey all, FCC's 9th update is finally here! I apologize for the delay on this content drop - life got pretty busy there for a minute. I hope that the new additions make the wait worth it. Here's what's new:

• New Enemy - The Pointdexter - This nerd-type enemy has no interest in directly attacking the player - rather, they enjoy pulling the strings from the sideline. If not properly dealt with, the buffs they doll out to other replicants can counteract the player's efforts and leave them in tricky situations. 
• New Boss - The Bully - Flower Crown Chaos's first boss joins the game with this update, in the form of a schoolyard bully. If the player is skilled enough to survive the onslaught for long enough, the bully will appear. While it is spawning, enemies will begin to ignore the player and move towards its spawn location, offering themselves to boost the boss's health. Anything the player can do to stall or prevent replicants from reaching the boss will make the engagement much easier. Once it has fully spawned, it will attack with a series of moves that will take quick thinking and crafting mastery to conquer!
• New Flower - The Poppy - Defeating the bully for the first time will unlock FCC's first rare flower! Aside from strong base stats and a much rarer rate of appearance, the projectiles of this flower will permanently lower an enemy's speed. However, this can be counteracted by the Pointdexter's buffing powers.
• Temporary Ending - Upon beating the boss, the shift will end. This is a temporary mechanic but one that should provide the player with a sense of completion for now. As more enemies, bosses, and mechanics are added, this finish line will permanently be pushed further.
• Crown Craft Canceling - Due to the challenge posed by the new crafting mechanic, players could get caught in situations where they have no agency to avoid incoming threats. To combat this issue, the player can press E at any point during crafting to cancel the minigame. While this will reset any progress the player has made towards a complete crown, it will allow a bit more flexibility in a pinch.
• Enemy Scaling Changes - While the old enemy scaling system is largely still in place, I have changed values here and there to make the progression of each shift a little more smooth. Additionally, enemies all have a speed cap that cannot be exceeded - in the past, this was scaled off the player's current speed. Permanent upgrades purchased from the Catalog should feel much more meaningful now. 
• Save Data Updating - Unfortunately with this update, any previous save data will be corrupted. I was planning for any added content to not cause issues with previous data - however, I had a Y2K situation with crown id's now that there are more than 10 flowers in game. Hopefully, future content will not cause issues for save data from here on out.
• Emphasis on New Items - Upon unlocking a new menu in the Homebase, it will grow and shrink until hovered over. This change was implemented due to feedback that players did not know what to do after initial dialogue. It's a little buggy at the moment, I will iron it out in a future update. 
• Various bug fixes and improvements
  • The game now has an Application Icon
  • Catalog prices and values have been tweaked
  • Catalog values should properly round to 2 decimal points
  • Flower Head hitboxes are now much larger to allow for easier crafting
  • A "Space to continue" prompt has been added to the bottom of all dialogue boxes - I am aware that they currently expand beyond their bounds - this will be fixed in a future update.
  • The Essence Seed Counter in gameplay will only appear after the player picks up their first seed. It will then appear permanently
  • The Essence Seed Counter now has a seed next to it to signify that is what is being tracked
  • Enemy Spawns have been moved beyond the edge of the screen to remove jarring spawns
  • Removed Description and Control Menus from the main menu - the game has grown beyond these placeholders
  • Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting oopsie

What's next for FCC?

• Full Sound Implementation - This has been a backburner issue for a long time, it's finally time to tackle it!
• More upgrades and research opportunities
• New Flowers
• New Replicants
• Post-Boss gameplay

The next big update for FCC will be Floral Mastery - however, I think it will be healthy to focus on bugfixes and sound implementation to make the experience more complete before jumping a colossal upheaval of the core systems. Future updates may take a bit longer to ship as school begins picking up, but I hope to keep working on FCC in the background. 

As always please fill out the feedback form with any bugs you find or suggestions you have. Your input has already helped transformed this game far beyond what my imagination could have come up with - thank you so much! Keep on Crafting!