Author Topic: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!  (Read 8585 times)

Offline zebramatt

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2011, 05:01:58 pm »
Although actually that presents one way in which you might maintain the interesting factor you're after here: make the range of the spell more directly linked to its attack power; such that (somewhat as now) melee spells are very strong for their cost, short range spells are pretty good, long range less so - but obviously you still have higher-cost spells for long range which do higher damage (as now).

Of course, it's difficult to say how much of what I'm experiencing presently is down to upheaval of balance (transient), specific enemy types (tweakable), my own playstyle (somewhat adaptable) or just things like my visible playscreen (relatively fixed). But I thought I'd chuck it out there regardless!

Offline zebramatt

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2011, 05:17:17 pm »
And all that aside, one other* thing occurs to me: since it's presently possible (nay, obligatory!) to sit about in the chunk invulnerability bit soaking up mana until you're full, it might not be a terrible idea to have the chunk invincibility automatically refill you. Jumping in and out cheese should already be prevented due to current restrictions on invulnerability - although they might need to be tightened up further - and the only sensible alternative is to have no mana regeneration when in chunk invincibility... but that would just lead to waiting outside of chunks for the refresh before heading on, which is obviously a transference of the problem rather than a solution.

Offline x4000

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2011, 06:45:02 pm »
Very good point on the chunk invulnerability thing, will add that to my list for later.

On the spell range thing, I actually really like the longer-range combat options and wouldn't want to make that less viable, but I think there's a long way to go on a lot of that before the true end balance is clear.  It would be kind of like trying to balance AI War with only four or five of the bonus ship types in hand.  You could sort of approximate that balance, but the end balance is really different.  Here, as there, I think that variety is really key in terms of making for lots of ongoing tactical options, so I want to keep the balance being "pretty good, but plenty interesting" while working on more enemies and spells, and then closer to 1.0 actually nail down what the longer-term balance seems like it should be.
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Offline zebramatt

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2011, 08:02:29 pm »
Sure thing!

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #19 on: December 14, 2011, 06:09:36 am »
Chris, Keith, I have only one thing to say: Faith restored. Nuff said.
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Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #20 on: December 14, 2011, 06:19:55 am »
So when these drastics revamps are done, are there any plans on making combat feel more.. ehm, physical and the whole magic more immersive? Currently these floaty multiple projectiles feel all kinda cute and floaty, not really like attacks

And i am still missing sort of trails, glows and ambient particles from spells (so if a fireball hits some ember sparks floating around and glowing out wherever it hit, etc.)

And lastly, are there any plans to put beam-like and pulsed-beam spells in?
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Offline Toll

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #21 on: December 14, 2011, 07:39:26 am »
Did the recent change of multiplied attack power possibly affect minibosses as well? Skelebot Giants suddenly seem very weak, although it could be that I simply didn't notice before... In numbers, they've got the physical attack power roughly equal to a sniper and normal skelebot, but its magical attack is only about half of a sniper.

Offline x4000

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #22 on: December 14, 2011, 08:58:47 am »
Chris, Keith, I have only one thing to say: Faith restored. Nuff said.

Glad you like it. :)

are there any plans on making combat feel more.. ehm, physical and the whole magic more immersive? Currently these floaty multiple projectiles feel all kinda cute and floaty, not really like attacks

And i am still missing sort of trails, glows and ambient particles from spells (so if a fireball hits some ember sparks floating around and glowing out wherever it hit, etc.)

And lastly, are there any plans to put beam-like and pulsed-beam spells in?

No plans on any of that, no.  What you're talking about is largely visual polish, and we're not remotely to the point of thinking about that.

In terms of the actual combat with the multiple projectiles floating around, that's what we're going for -- that's precisely what we're talking about when we talk about shmups.  The floatiness is important to make things dodge-able, etc.  The original Castlevania, and a lot of other games of that nature, also used similar mechanics.  When the projectiles move really fast, there are only two options: 1) don't be in the way when the shot is fired; 2) get hit.  As superking pointed out, that's not exactly fun, so we've moved away from that.

And in terms of beam-like and pulsed-beam weapons, there is almost no chance of that prior to 1.0 as it would require a lot of new stuff in the physics model and I'm not really keen to do that at the moment.  But there are a variety of other kinds of spells that are planned.

Did the recent change of multiplied attack power possibly affect minibosses as well? Skelebot Giants suddenly seem very weak, although it could be that I simply didn't notice before... In numbers, they've got the physical attack power roughly equal to a sniper and normal skelebot, but its magical attack is only about half of a sniper.

No, they never had a multiplier.  Their balance was changed during the actual stats revamp in power coding round 1, so that is probably the source of why they are off.
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Offline Toll

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #23 on: December 14, 2011, 09:17:39 am »
I'll wait until all powercoding is done then and toss a mantis up if they're still this weak by then. In the meanwhile, I'll just enjoy the towers in ice ages!

Offline x4000

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #24 on: December 14, 2011, 09:29:22 am »
 :)
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Offline wyvern83

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #25 on: December 15, 2011, 01:26:55 pm »
How do you cancel a mission? I tried a level 3 mission while I was at level 1 and got absolutely murdered. I had no clue how to ditch the mission so I deleted the world and started over.

Offline x4000

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2011, 01:27:49 pm »
Just hit escape and there's an Abandon Mission button. :)
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Offline wyvern83

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Re: AVWW Beta 0.550, "Power Coding Round 4: Mission System Basics," Released!
« Reply #27 on: December 15, 2011, 01:32:17 pm »
Thanks, I'll have to remember that for next time.

Overall, I'm liking how things are much better than I did a couple days ago. My decision not to use vitality stones for the moment helped out alot as I felt more accomplished for not losing them to pointless damage like I was before when I simply applied all of them right away.

Offline x4000

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