Author Topic: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch  (Read 4197 times)

Offline x4000

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.918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« on: September 20, 2013, 12:44:16 pm »
New one: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bionic_Dues_Alpha_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.918_-_Better.2C_But_Please_Keep_Watch

Okay, as it turns out, there wasn't quite so much wrong as some of the bug reports on .917 made it sound like.  In some cases there was some "crazy AI" that was actually working as designed, but then there were a bunch of glitches centering around just a few methods, so fixing them fixed them all.

Knock on wood, it's feeling pretty clean now, so I've re-integrated the two branches that I created briefly, and everyone will be on the new latest version.  I realized belatedly that having reverted the main branch to .916 wasn't going to help, anyway.

Any questions or bug reports, please mantis them; and if they are severe, mentioning them here is also a big help to us noticing them ASAP.
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Offline nas1m

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2013, 01:52:43 pm »
Holding shift no longer shows targetable tiles for non AoE weapons.
Will be mantised shortly ;)...
« Last Edit: September 20, 2013, 01:55:15 pm by nas1m »
Craving some more color and variety in your next Bionic run? Grab a boost and a couple of custom floors!

Offline x4000

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2013, 04:31:19 pm »
Okay, .919 is now out with that fix and a variety of others!  Seems like .918 and onwards is actually looking pretty clean, knock on wood. :)
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Offline Teal_Blue

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2013, 05:26:18 pm »
No problems so far, looks very good, but i've only been playing for about an hour, so i haven't done anything very extensive. But looking very nice.

Only thing is the message log getting in the way, could you make it optional?

Thank you,
-Teal



Offline x4000

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2013, 06:31:25 pm »
Sure, is that in mantis ?
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Offline Teal_Blue

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2013, 07:29:21 pm »
yes.  let me check the number... ok, here it is. Thank you very, very, very much!!  :)

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=12542

-Teal



Offline mrhanman

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2013, 07:35:07 pm »
I never noticed the message log on my desktop, but my lower-resolution laptop made it much too obvious.

Offline Misery

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2013, 07:52:14 pm »
Well, reading the cause of some of that wackiness I'd reported was... interesting, hah.   Much like with Skyward it's interesting how some of the different types of bots and such can interact with each other to produce stuff like that.  Definitely a strong point in this game's favor, particularly when it's hilarious.


Oh, also, Overload, is the Exo carrying that supposed to violently explode when destroyed?


And yay, you fixed the sentries and the super-obnoxious sensor bug.

EDIT:  And even better you lowered the CommandBot health.   That was the number 1 thing driving me up the wall, it was.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2013, 07:59:29 pm by Misery »

Offline Winge

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2013, 12:01:27 am »
I'm still getting odd Fatal Errors when I place Sentry Turrets.  Not sure what that is all about...
My other bonus ship is a TARDIS.

Offline Misery

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2013, 02:21:44 am »
Well, I'm happy to report that I'm not encountering much in the way of bugs with this version.   The one thing that's wonky is that enemy behavior gets a little weird when mines are involved; they'll often stop moving entirely if the player is standing on or moving onto a mine.  But not always. 

Other than that though.... it's going pretty well.  Everything seems to function properly and I'm not getting any goofy errors.


And as for the ongoing testing of Expert mode, that's going nicely.   Enemy health scales up well enough, and enemy damage levels seems to be scaling up about as well as it can get, not just in relation with damaging the player, but also in relation to damaging other bots when the situation makes that happen.   Except for the Thunderbot: it's special KILL ALL THE COVER attack doesnt scale whatsoever.  Not at all sure if that's a bug or intended, figured I'd mention it.   The enemy health + attack power and range, along with the numbers of bots in a level, is working out well.  I think most players are going to find this mode pretty challenging, though I definitely still am thinking that an even higher mode is a good idea.  Not everyone will use such a mode, but it'd be great for those that want it.

I'm still for the most part not losing Exos most of the time;  usually the only one that dies is the Brawler, who just wont stop melting himself.  A bad habit, that.  I've lost exactly one mission, a Lion's Den.  I'm over halfway through the game right now.  And it doesnt get old, heh.


There's alot of issues with the balance of part stats, but I put that in the topic made for it already.

Overall, it's all going pretty well.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2013, 04:40:46 am »
Oh, also, Overload, is the Exo carrying that supposed to violently explode when destroyed?
Extremely intentional :)  Normal overload is 4-radius, on-death overload is 8-radius and like 4x the damage.
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Offline madcow

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #11 on: September 21, 2013, 01:03:30 pm »
Is it intended for virused bots to suicide into fuel canisters? It's kind of annoying.

Edit: Virused ammo-bots fully restoring everything on an exo also feels a little overpoweringly strong. There's no need to conserve ammo on the big guns if a level has them in it.

Offline Misery

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #12 on: September 21, 2013, 08:11:26 pm »
Is it intended for virused bots to suicide into fuel canisters? It's kind of annoying.

Edit: Virused ammo-bots fully restoring everything on an exo also feels a little overpoweringly strong. There's no need to conserve ammo on the big guns if a level has them in it.

Agreed on that.  Those guys should perhaps only be able to do that for one weapon per Exo, per mission (even if you try to virus more than one of those guys), since it's a useful effect, but it shouldnt be TOO useful.   They probably also need to cost more, though I already brought that one up in a different topic;  a bunch of different bots should be costing alot more as virus points go.   It's a great mechanic but that's my one and only issue with it.

Offline Teal_Blue

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #13 on: September 21, 2013, 10:13:35 pm »
This is just a thought, OK?
                                            But what if... to let players develop their own playstyle, in addition to whatever their strength (or weakness) is in the game. What could be done is have some things like viruses and or stealth be cross slotable, and by that what i mean is say, instead of being a gun toting ranger, i play up the ability to stealth and virus bots as a playstyle? I put virus parts or stealth parts in weapons slots? As well as carrying them in the computer and propulsion slots? It would let me customize my exo even more extensively than now. (but that may just ruin the game if done, so it would have to be looked at or tried and see what it does to the game)

What i am thinking is having the individual parts have low numbers, so it doesn't get out of hand, but if there were a higher limit (maybe it can already be done now?) on the number of parts an exo could carry, then perhaps we could have a 'stealth buld', or a 'tank build', or a 'long range build' or a 'virus build'?  Or whatever? This might let the players experiment with builds and see how they play in the game. (Or it might be simpler to keep things classified and stay away from customizing builds)

Or maybe i'm seeing something that is already there, i mean the exos have specialties already built in, so perhaps i am just making it redundant?

Anyway, thanks for listening,  :)

-Teal

« Last Edit: September 21, 2013, 10:17:07 pm by Teal_Blue »

Offline Tridus

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Re: .918 out -- Better, But Please Keep Watch
« Reply #14 on: September 21, 2013, 10:25:54 pm »
Iirc some of those stats can appear  on items that go in other slots as secondary effects.

 

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