Author Topic: TLF Version 1.900-2.007  (Read 21452 times)

Offline x4000

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TLF Version 1.900-2.007
« on: November 12, 2014, 01:57:33 pm »
Original: http://arcengames.com/tlf-version-1-900-tutorial-and-story-touches/

Version 1.900 is final touches in preparation for the launch of version 2.0 and the full release of the expansion this Friday the 14th (just a couple of days from now!).

The big things in this new version are that the tutorials have all been extensively updated for the new modes, and the story segments for the new modes have also been finished.  The tutorials are always one of the last things that we update when we're doing an expansion for a game, because things tend to be evolving during the beta and we learn a lot from what questions people have.  The time has come, however, for all that to finally come together in the actual game.

If you were previously having a hard time getting going in Invasion mode or Betrayal mode, you should be good to go now.  Of course if you still have any questions, please do let us know.  But the new tutorials for those modes go out of their way not just to tell you how to do the things that are unique to those modes, but also to give you some strategy advice.

 

Let us know how things are looking, if you have suggestions or bug reports, etc!

More to come soon. Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater, or if you have Steam it will automatically update it for you. To force Steam to download it faster, just restart Steam and it will do so.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2014, 10:37:42 am by x4000 »
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Offline Misery

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2014, 08:36:34 pm »
Wow, it's just about release time already.   Been an interesting beta period, that's for sure.

Here's hoping this ends up doing well.... it'd be nice to see further expansions down the line for this game.

Are you still starting the next game's beta in January?  The 4X one?

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2014, 08:41:02 pm »
Thanks Misery!  So far so good in terms of signs this will do well.  It's sold extremely well in beta, for one thing.  We'll see what happens on actual launch.

For Stars Beyond Reach, we'll probably do a very limited private alpha with just a few people we invite in mid-January, and then a larger beta starting in mid-February.  We're looking at a May release for that game; April is pretty well ruled out by now, unfortunately.  That project is still going quite well, but I just need to get this TLF stuff behind me so that I can actually focus on the new project properly, and then we'll really be off to the races. ;)
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Offline Aklyon

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2014, 09:16:41 pm »
If I'm not getting things mixed up, isn't Stars the first game Arcen's had time to not rush on at one point or another, or something similarly worded? Hows that been like if you don't mind me asking?

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2014, 09:22:58 pm »
Well, it's too early to call "not rushing" until the project is done, eh? ;)

I mean, all our projects are not rushed for at least some portion of them.  And then at some point they become rushed.  I think Bionic Dues was actually not rushed at any point, IIRC, and that was really nice.  Though we did have to get it out without time for proper marketing efforts, so there was that.  But production-wise it wasn't rushed.

Anyway, thus far it's been a great project; my huge frustration has been not getting to work on it as much as I want.  I love TLF, and every time I come back to work on it I just get sucked in for far longer than I mean to.  And the same thing happens on SBR.  So... yeah, I kind of get "caught between two masters," so to speak.  I've been trying to really give TLF some TLC so that it can be nice and stable and happy for a while, and I can just let myself get subsumed in SBR and not have that be a problem.

Anyway, on the actual question you asked me: ask me again in May or June, and hopefully I will have a positive answer for you. ;)
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2014, 10:15:59 pm »
Just booted this up, and the tutorials have done their job. I feel the "spark" of growing excitement as I learn the different playbook and tools for Betrayal mode. Wide smile here!

I no longer feel confused because I know what I can and cannot do.  Things are pretty clear.

Well done!
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Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2014, 10:17:09 pm »
Sweeeet! :D

Glad to hear it, and I hope you enjoy!
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Offline Misery

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2014, 10:21:11 pm »
Thanks Misery!  So far so good in terms of signs this will do well.  It's sold extremely well in beta, for one thing.  We'll see what happens on actual launch.

For Stars Beyond Reach, we'll probably do a very limited private alpha with just a few people we invite in mid-January, and then a larger beta starting in mid-February.  We're looking at a May release for that game; April is pretty well ruled out by now, unfortunately.  That project is still going quite well, but I just need to get this TLF stuff behind me so that I can actually focus on the new project properly, and then we'll really be off to the races. ;)

Well you certainly have my usual volunteering for whatever, whenever that all gets going.

Particularly interested in that one, as I love all of the ideas behind the 4X genre, but some of the things that seem to happen with nearly ALL of them just absolutely bug the hell outta me.  Like the loooooooooooooong production times for any unit/tech/thing, or the usual alarmingly stupid AI that plagues much of the genre...

I mean, games like Civ and such are great and all, but still.... those two things, argh.  But yeah, yours sounds interesting from what I read over on the forum section for it.  Though "interesting" is pretty much par for the course from you guys, I think, hah


EDIT:  And I might throw a stats file at you later (maybe).  I meant to test a few specific things yesterday, but Isaac and Five Nights at Freddy's both happened too much last night.
« Last Edit: November 12, 2014, 10:23:51 pm by Misery »

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2014, 10:58:19 pm »
Thanks on all counts! :D
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #9 on: November 12, 2014, 11:07:18 pm »
I still find the probe scaling to be too hard. Even with "half probes" for the first mission I still find 3 or 4 arcs of fire over the chokepoint, and that doesn't seem fun for the *first* spacefaring mission.
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Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2014, 08:46:57 am »
It's not really a mission that you have to take, though.  And if you watch the patterns, they move as the ships move.  So you fly near to them, and then keep moving through them.

Hmm.  I will have to do an LP showing those, I think.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2014, 09:05:33 am »
It's not really a mission that you have to take, though.  And if you watch the patterns, they move as the ships move.  So you fly near to them, and then keep moving through them.

Hmm.  I will have to do an LP showing those, I think.

That would help more experienced players.  But my larger worry is for newer players who just want to jump in while the iron is still hot after the tutorial.

And when I say 3 or 4 arcs of fire, i mean it forms a diamond like structure. That is at one time, because there  a dozen probes on Betrayal mode hard for mission 1.  Perhaps for a SHUMP expert there is a pattern, but I just see every right angle covered by 3 or 4 overlapping fields of fire. I understand you can wait, but after 50 turns I found no hole large enough for the 2 or 3 turns to get there.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2014, 09:12:46 am by chemical_art »
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Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2014, 09:21:31 am »
Hmm, I will have to mull that.
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Offline Misery

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2014, 09:27:47 am »
  Perhaps for a SHUMP expert there is a pattern, but I just see every right angle covered by 3 or 4 overlapping fields of fire.

No, you're right, they're uncrossable when they do that.   MAYBE in a proper bullet-hell type shmup that might make sense, but the player ship's hitbox in this game is a bloated whale compared to the tiny hitboxes used in those.  Typically the way past... or I guess I should say, the way past without taking *any* hits (if I dont do it bloody perfectly, it bothers me too much) does require a good bit of waiting, when it does that.  Or a good bit of the RNG not being a jerk.  In some cases you can try to go around the other side of the area.... but this takes bloody forever.


Hm, one suggestion:  Make it so that the probes have to stay a certain distance away from one another?  I'm not ENTIRELY sure this would work.... what you're essentially trying to do is make a maze of bullets with randomly placed firing locations that move in random directions (and fire very fast bullets, even if they have little range). Right now though it's pretty much like the old version of that mission.  They essentially project a bubble around themselves that the player cannot enter without a high chance of taking hits, which is very similar to the effect of the previous probes, that had the radar bubbles, accomplishing the same thing.   It can be possible to get through based on the directions that their firing points are facing, but with the sheer randomness, and the tendancy for there to be heaps of these things, it can very frequently produce impassible walls.  So then you have to go around looking for some that arent producing that, and that takes time....

It's not that these missions become totally unbeatable or anything.... it's that they take forever and can frustrate. And with the glowing red circles gone, players might have a MUCH harder time now spotting a point where they can approach the overall probe field.  And yeah, I know, you're not really meant to do many of these.... I usually do 2 and leave it at that... but it seems too much for being just the first or second one of these, when on the lower difficulties. New players almost definitely will find this annoying, which can be a problem when it's one of the very first battle missions they undertake after getting the game.

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.900 (Tutorial And Story Touches)
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2014, 09:28:19 am »
One thing that I've been mulling in general for Betrayal mode might solve this: and that's not allowing the players to deliver spacefaring tech to races at all.  That shuts off an early avenue for making friends and gaining credit, and I think it would be a very interesting twist on that mode that the Hydral isn't willing to divulge that sort of technology (and thematically that makes perfect sense, and the game would tell you why).

In the regular game mode, you get other combat prior to this, no matter what.  In Invasion mode, everyone is spacefaring from the start anyhow.  That would basically make the spacefaring-tech missions regular-mode-only for the moment.

Thoughts?
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