Author Topic: All Quiet on the Arcen Front  (Read 30217 times)

Offline goodgimp

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All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« on: October 31, 2012, 06:06:20 pm »
Alright, Happy Halloween, you hooligans!

Now that November is right around the corner, do we get any news/updates/tidbits/teases/infodumps regarding AVWW2 beta? Don't give me any silly excuse like you've been busy with the Ancient Shadows release or Shattered Haven development, that'd just be ridiculous and silly. I know for a fact that Chris and Keith have split their brains into multiple VMs that are working non-stop on all these projects, even when other portions of the brain are sleeping, so no excuses!

Offline doctorfrog

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2012, 07:34:01 pm »
As someone who waited patiently while AVWW was in the spotlight for some time, sit tight there, pup, they'll get to you.

Offline x4000

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2012, 07:57:09 pm »
We're definitely working away at super speed these days, heh. 

- All 200 spells are fully implemented (except for their damage stats and ammo costs), including something like 90 new animated particles used in particle effects.  The final spell roster is a bit different from what I last posted; as implementation finished up, we found ourselves shifting some things to make everything balanced out.

- The new way that the health display works on the HUD is implemented, and I'm really pleased with how that turned out.  It's kind of like the health tanks in metroid, except with hearts as the "tanks."

- Keith is tearing through the implementation of all the strategic macrogame/citybuilding stuff, and that's coming along swimmingly.

- I've been working on the physics for the player movement and the enemy movement and all that lately, and I think that's feeling a lot better than it was before.  Probably still in for some more tuning, but it's worlds better than it was.

- The art itself is all over the place still in terms of how far along it is, but there's around 3,000 pieces of it so that's understandable.  More and more of it is hitting either final quality or beta quality, though, so I'm really excited about that.

- The animations and so forth for the new characters are partially implemented in code, but it's far enough along that I can tell how ridiculously much better these characters look not just in stills but also in motion.  That alone really changes the feel of everything.

- We're at somewhere north of 800 "slice" definitions, thanks mainly to Josh and a hardy band of contractors working on these, and what a difference this makes in terms of the feel of the levels, too.  Still more to do there, but so far this is panning out exactly as I would have hoped.

- We have an awesome new logo for the sequel, which I'll attach below.

- We've also been having a lot of success making the GUI look tons better, all the way down to the font quality.  I've attached a screenshot showing the world map with the isometric tiles (in an early form, some of which are still placeholders -- level up towers, in particular, plus the GUI icons in the upper left), and you can see how awesome the GUI looks from that.

- In general, lots and lots is going on, but because we don't have full screenshots that show beta-quality or final-quality art yet, I've not wanted to share much on that front.  We're looking to have the beta out in public early the week of November 12th if at all possible; fingers crossed on that, as we still have tons to do.  But it's certainly a feasible goal, rather than an impossible stretch goal, which is nice at least. ;)
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Offline x4000

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2012, 08:00:28 pm »
Also, if you like, here are a few previews of a few of the new spells in action (they look even better in motion).  These are being shown in a test chunk with a black background and a ground texture from the old game, as well as characters from the old game; I use this for testing new spells or enemies.  So the only thing to really pay attention to in this is the spells themselves.

Note that none of the spells use "additive blending" anymore, and yet they still look this good.  That means they'll actually look this good on lighter backgrounds, too.

EDIT: Here's what the spells actually do.

Reckless Forest (Level 1 reckless): These are powerful straight shots that cleave through multiple enemies, but their extra power comes at the cost of draining part of your character's own life.

Solar Punch (Level 4 touch-range): This spell is one that damages enemies that are within range of your reaching out and touching them.

Summoned Glacier (Level 5 unique ultimate): A twisting, whirling mass of sparkling ice is summoned, and it lasts for around 30 seconds.  It blocks all enemies and incoming shots that run into it, but you can walk back and forth past it, thus being able to hide from enemies until the timer runs out or they knock the glacier down.

Bolt Implosion (Level 5 unique): Six slashes of green lightning appear in the air around you.  Two come in from each side, slicing through any enemies past you, while two angle up above you and two angle down below you.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 08:02:33 pm by x4000 »
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Offline LayZboy

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2012, 08:08:07 pm »

- The new way that the health display works on the HUD is implemented, and I'm really pleased with how that turned out.  It's kind of like the health tanks in metroid, except with hearts as the "tanks."


So they are like hearts in Zelda: Link to the Past?

Offline tigersfan

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2012, 11:38:43 pm »

- We're at somewhere north of 800 "slice" definitions, thanks mainly to Josh and a hardy band of contractors working on these, and what a difference this makes in terms of the feel of the levels, too.  Still more to do there, but so far this is panning out exactly as I would have hoped.


Actually, current count is north of 1,200. Even if I don't include a few slices that are there just to make the game work better and don't really add any variety. :)

Offline mrhanman

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2012, 12:15:20 am »
I'm really digging the new logo.  That's the only part of the first one I was never very comfortable with.  I think the isometric map will work out a lot better, too. 

I can't wait to get my hands on this!

Offline Nanashi

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2012, 06:38:06 am »
The new logo is aesthetically pleasing, but abbreviating it to "Valley 2" somehow makes me think oh my god, like, you are totally, like, making a game for like, a different audience, duh.

Offline x4000

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2012, 07:56:05 am »

- The new way that the health display works on the HUD is implemented, and I'm really pleased with how that turned out.  It's kind of like the health tanks in metroid, except with hearts as the "tanks."


So they are like hearts in Zelda: Link to the Past?

Not really, although we considered that. Each heart has 100 health points in it (like a health tank in metroid), and you see the current amount of health points in the current heart that you are using.
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Offline x4000

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2012, 07:56:35 am »

- We're at somewhere north of 800 "slice" definitions, thanks mainly to Josh and a hardy band of contractors working on these, and what a difference this makes in terms of the feel of the levels, too.  Still more to do there, but so far this is panning out exactly as I would have hoped.


Actually, current count is north of 1,200. Even if I don't include a few slices that are there just to make the game work better and don't really add any variety. :)

I'm behind the times! :D
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Offline x4000

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2012, 07:59:58 am »
The new logo is aesthetically pleasing, but abbreviating it to "Valley 2" somehow makes me think oh my god, like, you are totally, like, making a game for like, a different audience, duh.

The abbreviation serves a really important purpose: making the logo more legible at really small scales, such as in the steam store listings. But it still has the full name in the logo down underneath. If you look at some of the older Zelda games in particular, they did something similar with their logos.

I'm not sure whether this game is being made for a different audience or not. To some extent yes, obviously, since it's a very different game that emphasizes different things. But in terms of the core Arcen audience, honestly I think the sequel will appeal more than the first one did. :)
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Offline LaughingThesaurus

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2012, 11:02:21 am »
I can definitely see the Zelda in that logo, and I rather like it. I also quite like energy tank layouts for health, and you've gotten me looking forward to the slice system of map design.
I think something that slightly bothers me is the appeal of touch range spells. I literally never used them in Valley 1, and they always struck me as too much risk for not enough reward. What is the appeal of them as opposed to, say, classes with whip spells? Significant damage, powerful secondary effects, invincibility frames? Otherwise I can see myself not making full use of all 200 spells, which would be such a tragedy in a game as full of content as your games are.

Offline LayZboy

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2012, 12:10:58 pm »
I can definitely see the Zelda in that logo

Really? I more thought of this

Maybe it's just the two.

Offline icepick37

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #13 on: November 01, 2012, 01:03:50 pm »
Logo looks awesome! A little shiny for my taste, but overall very awesome.

UI stuff looks really good!

Offline madcow

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Re: All Quiet on the Arcen Front
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2012, 02:01:26 pm »
I like the direction of these spells. It looks like a lot of thought is going into making them interesting and different!

I'm curious what the tags like reckless/ultimate/unique/ultimate unique mean. Care to elaborate on those? I'm guessing reckless refers to the fact that it does self damage (is that the name of the mage class?), and ultimate spells are the ones that use up ammo?