Howdy, everyone!

A new patch for DF CONNECTED has released. Originally, this was just going to be another small patch like the previous two have been, mainly to address some shenanigans that were being caused by cheaters.

Instead, this patch ended up becoming a mini-update of sorts! Let's talk a little bit about what's new...

Introducing the new Quest system!

The most notable addition of this patch is the new quest system. You might remember in the May 2023 Progress Report that there were teaser images at the end for upcoming content that I was working on.

One of those teasers was a brief look at what a "Main Quest" would look like in 2.8:

At the time, I was planning for the "quest" system to be more like a reminder for where you are in the game's story, rather than an actual quest system. It would just be a small bit of text that would explain roughly what you should be doing at that point in the narrative.

However, I decided that it'd be a lot cooler if DF actually had a genuine quest system, where you could receive proper quests to view in your quest menu, and be notified when they change or get completed.

So... that's exactly what I added!

If you head over to your QUESTS menu in your CELL, you'll now be presented with three new options: "Trial Quests", "Side Quests", and "Trophies".

For this patch, I've added 15 new "Trial Quests". These are just temporary quests until the actual story quests get added in v2.8.0, and mainly exist just to test the new quest system and see what you guys think of it.

From your quest list, you can select a quest to view some more details about it.

Most of the Trial Quests are designed primarily to help new players learn how the game works. I realized that DFC hasn't really been beginner-friendly for a while, especially for players who never got the chance to play Undertale themselves. These new Trial Quests should hopefully help beginner players get acquainted with the game and its unique mechanics much more effectively.

For example, one of the new trial quests is "The Apple of My Eye". It is the first trial quest that new players will be able to complete, and requires completing a new tutorial battle against a training dummy.

Up to this point, DFC didn't really have a battle system tutorial, and this caused a bit of confusion for players who didn't understand how the new EN or SKILL mechanics worked. This new tutorial fight should hopefully eliminate this problem!

The training dummy will talk you through the battle system's essential mechanics (don't ask how).

Along with the trial quests, I have also implemented a system for side quests!

I've only added four side quests for now, just so you guys can test them out and tell me your thoughts. In the future, I'll be adding plenty more of them!

While I was at it, I also decided to tackle a quality-of-life improvement that has been suggested for a while. It is now possible to view your trophies at any time using the new Trophies menu!

There are even new descriptions for the trophies you can read, to make it clearer what exactly you need to do to earn that trophy.

I hope that these new quests will help provide a bit more structure to the game, and improve your gameplay experience while you guys wait for the upcoming story content in v2.8.0.

Let me know what you think of them!

Changes to the PvP system...?

This patch also introduces some much-needed changes to the PvP system.

Before you ask, no, this is not the PvP revamp that has been planned for v2.8.0! The new attacks and new spells are still being worked on.

However, there are some major changes to PvP in this patch. In particular, these changes are intended to help speed up the pace of PvP battles significantly.

DFC's PvP has a bit of a reputation for being slow. Like, really slow. I wanted to fix that, so here's what's changed:

• The amount of damage you can deal to your opponent when fighting has increased from 5 to 6. But that's not all - if you can hit the reticle near-perfectly in the center of the target, you will deal 9 damage instead! This adds an extra layer of skill to PvP, and is pretty satisfying when you pull it off!

• When your opponent's SOUL gets hit by a projectile, it will now deal 3 damage to them instead of 2. Doesn't seem like much, but it does add up!

• You can now only heal up to 2 times in one fight, instead of up to 3. Being able to heal three times just prolonged the battle for too long.

From our testing, PvP battles now seem to take roughly 6-8 minutes on average, compared to the 15+ minutes they used to take.

I'll be listening out for feedback from you guys to see if there are any adjustments I need to make. Let me know how your PvP experience goes!

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.6b

EDIT: Heyo, future Ricky here! The launch of v2.7.6 went very well, thank you to everyone who stopped by!

There weren't any major issues thankfully, but there were still a few things that I wanted to address based on what I saw, so here's another quick patch for ya!

This patch actually adds some pretty cool stuff on top of what's new in v2.7.6. For example, v2.7.6b now has an ending you can reach!

...Well, sort of!

When you reach LV 20 or 2000 spares, you will unlock the ability to view the staff credits underneath the tree in the starting area. But now in v2.7.6b, there's a new photograph that will appear at the end of the credits. The photograph will change depending on what route you did. So technically, it's now possible to get one of four "endings" in DFC!

The photographs are not canon, and are exclusive to this version of the game. The true endings will be added in v2.8.0. But for now, I hope you enjoy this patch!

Here's the full changelog:

• Added a new costume for Lancer that gives him a fake mustache, referencing his "disguise" from Deltarune Chapter 1.

• Added new local chat emotes for Lancer.

• Added the talking sound effect from Cave Story for the Quote vessel to use in local chat.

• Added "ending photographs". Once you've reached LV 20 or 2000 spares, there is now a (non-canon) photograph at the end of the in-game credits, which changes based on your route.

• When you reach LV 20 for the first time, there is no longer a pop-up message telling you that you reached it. Instead, you will now hear the bell chimes of the judgement hall. You'll also hear it when you reach 2000 spares for pacifists.

• The first trial quest, "Once Upon A Time", will now update once you've reached LV 20 or 2000 spares, informing you that a strange light has appeared in the starting area. This is so you'll know when the credits are available to view.

• Previously, the Glitch Ticket reward for the Spider Bake Sale side quest would not be given to you if you already had all 56 partners. This has been changed, so you will now receive the Glitch Ticket regardless.

• Fixed an issue where using poses for certain vessels would trigger the "error sprite" that was only intended for cheaters.

• Fixed an issue where the ability to copy your online save files was not working.

• Fixed an oversight where Hathy's and Jigsawry's costume counts were incorrect in the vessel menu.

• Fixed a visual bug where the rainbow soul wasn't appearing correctly in the Battle UI shop and in the PvP ACT menu.

• Fixed a bug where mobile players weren't able to complete the Daily Quest for updating their UnderNet status.

• Fixed a collision issue with one of the Whimsun NPCs in the Ruins.

• Fixed a collision issue with some trees in the Snowdin Gold Grind room.

• Fixed a collision issue with one of the trash cans in MTT Resort.

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.6c

Also, a non-mandatory patch was released shortly after, v2.7.6c. This patch was released just to fix this one issue:

• Fixed an oversight where reaching LV 20+ or 2000+ spares would make the Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and New Home doors in the starting room inaccessible.

If you encounter this issue, I recommend downloading v2.7.6c. Otherwise, no need to update!

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.6

There are plenty of other additions and improvements that I'd like to talk more about, but I'll just let the changelog do the rest of the talking! Here it is:

• Added a NEW QUEST SYSTEM. There is now a proper quest system implemented into the game, divided into "Main Quests" and "Side Quests". The "Main Quests" won't be ready until v2.8.0, so for now I have added temporary "Trial Quests" exclusively for this version. These are just some simple quests to help establish goals for new players, and give the game a bit more structure until the next update. I've also added four new Side Quests, just to test the new system. Many more side quests will be added in the future!

• Added a TROPHY MENU. It is now possible to view your achieved trophies outside of the Trophy Room. There is a new "Trophies" category in the Quest menu, where you can view all of the trophies you've earned and the ones you've yet to obtain.

• Added a TRAINING DUMMY. In the first room of the Ruins, there is now a training dummy you can fight, which will give you a playable tutorial for the battle system.

• Added the SPIDER BAKE SALE. You can now purchase a "Creepy Crepe" or a "Crawly Cuppa" from some spiders in the Ruins.

• Added BESTIARY PERCENTAGES. You can now see your progress in completing each section of the bestiary via a percentage for each area.

• Added the ability for mobile players to join parties.

• Added a new costume for the Annoying Dog vessel, which gives him his regular appearance (no car).

• Added Lancer's Room and Rudinn's Room to the Card Castle in the Dark World. The first room of the castle has also been changed to resemble how it appears in Deltarune Chapter 1.

• When starting a new save file, the door to the Ruins will now be the only one open at first. The other area doors will be locked until the player has at least reached the first save point in Snowdin. This is to help make the game less overwhelming at the start for new players.

• Increased the amount of damage you can deal in PvP battles. You can now deal 6 damage instead of a maximum of 5 by default, but if you hit the reticle near-perfectly in the center, you'll deal 9 damage instead. PvP battles should now be faster as a result.

• You can now only heal a maximum of two times during PvP, rather than three.

• Getting hit by a bullet in PvP will now deal 3 damage instead of 2.

• Daily Gifts now provide higher amounts of GOLD, UNDERCOINS, and POGS depending on your LV or spare count.

• Rewards from Daily Quests now provide higher amounts of GOLD and UNDERCOINS than they did previously.

• The chances of getting a Glitch Ticket from Daily Quests are now slightly higher if you've reached LV 20 or 2000 spares.

• Existing items have received some changes to accomodate the newly-introduced bake sale items. The amounts they heal and their prices have been tweaked.

• Choco Diamonds now give a bit of extra HP if your LV is 20 or above.

• Hearts Donuts now give a bit of extra HP if you have 2000 spares or more.

• Vessels from EarthBound (Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo) now use the text sound from EarthBound when speaking in local chat.

• Changed the nametag color of players on your friends list from dark purple to a much lighter shade of purple, to make it easier to read their name.

• Replaced the "Obtain all six RUNES" trophy in Offline Mode with a new "Finish all 15 TRIAL QUESTS" trophy.

• In the Dark World, there is now a pop-up with the name of the music playing that appears for the three main locations, just like the one that appears at the start of Deltarune Chapter 1 in the Field.

• Gave the Annoying Dog some new local chat icons.

• There is now a small cooldown after you stop posing before you are able to move again.

• The values for the Fullscreen Scaling and Border Scaling settings now go up in increments of .01 instead of .05 for more precision.

• You can now use the left and right arrow keys to change the values for Fullscreen Scaling and Border Scaling.

• Attacking an enemy in a regular encounter now only gives you a bonus of up to 5 EN instead of 10 EN.

• Gave a slight ATK buff to Final Froggit and Whimsalot.

• It is now possible to view the staff credits in-game by reaching LV 20 or 2000 spares and then interacting with a sparkle effect under the tree in the starting area.

• The Credits sequence has been updated so that past team members are now credited under their past roles instead of a separate "Past Team Members" section at the end.

• Rewrote the information sign in the starting area to have a cleaner layout and give more up-to-date tips on getting started with the game.

• On the UnderNet homepage, when you move your cursor onto the activity feed, it will now display the ID of the user you're about to select.

• Changed the Connection Lost screen so that it gives you options to check the server status or DF GameJolt Community before closing the game.

• Improved the "blocking" system for online players by making it so local chat messages from blocked users will no longer appear at all.

• Fixed an exploit where cheaters could disrupt the PvP battles of other players.

• Fixed an exploit where cheaters could cause a regular enemy encounter to crash.

• Fixed an exploit where cheaters could forcefully join any party.

• Fixed an exploit where cheaters could change their overworld sprite into a large one that covers the screen. If the game now detects that a player's sprite is too big, it will forcefully change it to a unique error sprite, making it easier to be able to click on the user to view their UnderNet profile and report them.

• Fixed an oversight where Frisk's local chat icons were higher up than Gold Frisk's local chat icons.

• Fixed a bug where the BRACE skill was not working correctly. It seems like this skill has actually been working incorrectly all this time... whoopsies!

• Fixed a bug where you could unlock Harlow as a partner in an unintentional way.

• Fixed a bug where highscores were not being saved for the Splat2D minigame.

• Fixed a bug where the member list for your party might not update after someone has left the party.

• Fixed a bug where typing before the login screen pops up would still register what you typed instead of clearing it.

• Fixed a bug where the opponent's SOUL may use an incorrect sprite if there was a connection delay during PvP. It now defaults to the red soul if it can't retrieve the correct sprite.

• Fixed a bug where the Game Over theme could sometimes continue playing after dying in certain battles.

• Fixed a bug where having custom battle music would cause the game to crash in triple-enemy encounters. You should no longer have any issues with custom music!

• Other minor fixes and improvements.

Conclusion

Thank you all for your patience while waiting for v2.8.0!

I didn't plan on making v2.7.6, but certain shenanigans led me to decide to work on it after all. I figured that if I had to make a patch anyway, I might as well make it interesting!

I hope that the new additions and changes in this patch help to improve your experience with the game while you wait for what's to come. There's some exciting stuff in the works!

Welp, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and as always, stay determined!