AVWW Beta 0.578 "Battlefield Glow" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/02/avww-beta-0578-battlefield-glow.html

This one is mostly just a maintenance release with a bunch of polish and bugfixes.  However, as part of that we've also decreased initial load times, decreased RAM usage, and changed how the glows work when characters and enemies are casting spells.

Also, battlefield missions have gotten a substantial upgrade in that they are now wider, include enemy towers that you have to work through in order to be able to damage the enemy base, and have a more randomized component in the form of the elements of said towers.

More to come soon, more along the line of missions next time.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 0.500 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.  If you don't have 0.500 or later, you can download that here.

[Souls-Stream]

Lol, updates are too fast for me, can't try a version that 2more are already out.

Glad to see an update to the battlefield, it needed one ! They were a bit too easy and repetitive :/
That's going to be way more fun !

Also, didn't try and didn't have the occasion to try multi yet, I'd really love to, to see how it
Plays and how it is with other players! Battlefields in multi must be awesome !

Anyway, another step towards greatness I say ! Thanks to your explanations I am now playing more fluently through the game and the defaults I was annoyed with just diapered. Just have wished for more info about it in the game though. The game is so rich it is a bit difficult to get into but once we're in there, its just amazing ! (got in troubles with my wife because I wanted to do that "one more mission and I'll come to bed" and then just one more and ... Well, she didn't like it ! Lol)
My son is 5, but he loves watching me play this game for some reason ! He'll be converted too when he will be older !!!

Thanks a lot to the entire team of Arcen games for bringing us this amazing game !

[tigersfan]

Lol, updates are too fast for me, can't try a version that 2more are already out.

Glad to see an update to the battlefield, it needed one ! They were a bit too easy and repetitive :/
That's going to be way more fun !

Also, didn't try and didn't have the occasion to try multi yet, I'd really love to, to see how it
Plays and how it is with other players! Battlefields in multi must be awesome !

Anyway, another step towards greatness I say ! Thanks to your explanations I am now playing more fluently through the game and the defaults I was annoyed with just diapered. Just have wished for more info about it in the game though. The game is so rich it is a bit difficult to get into but once we're in there, its just amazing ! (got in troubles with my wife because I wanted to do that "one more mission and I'll come to bed" and then just one more and ... Well, she didn't like it ! Lol)
My son is 5, but he loves watching me play this game for some reason ! He'll be converted too when he will be older !!!

Thanks a lot to the entire team of Arcen games for bringing us this amazing game !

Really glad you like it!

As far is in-game teaching, we know that needs work. I've spent a lot of time thinking about ways to make it better, and Chris and I have spent a lot of time discussing some of the ideas I've had. I think he plans to implement some of them soon, while others I need to do a bit more work on. That's my next project.

[ChristopherRC2000]

Just started following your game. It is very interesting and I like the updated art a lot. It looks very cool. Also the nice little touches in the menu's and the enchant progress meter, the new warp portals and haven't used the transfer glyph yet, but read your article and it sounded like a nice way to keep as you say a stable of characters for different kinds of things.  Very neat.

Beautiful job, just wanted to let you know.

[c4sc4]

I think the RAM changes fixed the Dragon crash issue, I tried to duplicate the same way I did before and everything was fine.

Also, because of the RAM dumping, it now loads ~70 items when I enter a new region compared to before when it usually only loaded ~20. I know why this is doing it and it's not a really big deal but it just seems like maybe you'd be able to keep some textures that are shared among the different regions in memory instead of dumping them too. But then if you do do this, it seems like the RAM issue may appear again, I don't know, just thought I'd point it out.

[x4000]

I think the RAM changes fixed the Dragon crash issue, I tried to duplicate the same way I did before and everything was fine.

Very excellent!  I suspected as much.

Also, because of the RAM dumping, it now loads ~70 items when I enter a new region compared to before when it usually only loaded ~20. I know why this is doing it and it's not a really big deal but it just seems like maybe you'd be able to keep some textures that are shared among the different regions in memory instead of dumping them too. But then if you do do this, it seems like the RAM issue may appear again, I don't know, just thought I'd point it out.

Yep, that's to be expected.  In terms of keeping around stuff that is shared between regions, there's not really a way for us to know that, in the main.  Because of things like monster migrations, and even different tilesets within one region (not to mention the xml-based way we load objects into regions), there's literally no way for us to deterministically know what might be in a region.  And while some things are shared between, when you switch region types it might be less than 5% of what you were loading before.

Most of that 20 vs 70 stuff is because you were on your second load the other times; or because something that randomly happened to be loaded for the main menu background was reused in the new region, or what have you.  I figure the slight increase in load times for going into a region (what, just a second or two in most cases, right?) is more than counterbalanced by the RAM reduction.  And with all the changes to the outlines going away so that the load time on most enemies and objects is lower anyhow, it might even be closer to evening out unless your disk is under heavy contention.

[x4000]

And ChristopherRC2000 -- welcome to the forums, and thanks for the kind words!  Glad you're enjoying it.   Lots of new stuff coming soon, so stay tuned!

[c4sc4]

Yep, that's to be expected.  In terms of keeping around stuff that is shared between regions, there's not really a way for us to know that, in the main.  Because of things like monster migrations, and even different tilesets within one region (not to mention the xml-based way we load objects into regions), there's literally no way for us to deterministically know what might be in a region.  And while some things are shared between, when you switch region types it might be less than 5% of what you were loading before.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Most of that 20 vs 70 stuff is because you were on your second load the other times; or because something that randomly happened to be loaded for the main menu background was reused in the new region, or what have you.  I figure the slight increase in load times for going into a region (what, just a second or two in most cases, right?) is more than counterbalanced by the RAM reduction.  And with all the changes to the outlines going away so that the load time on most enemies and objects is lower anyhow, it might even be closer to evening out unless your disk is under heavy contention.

Yeah, the load times are fairly short, not really much longer than before just that they appear more often now.

[x4000]

Great!

[Souls-Stream]

Game runs smoothly but sometimes I have that "transparent" line running across the screen when I travel here and there, nothing really dramatic but it makes me feel like the game will crash sometimes.
I think it's a frame rate issue when the character goes too fast ?!

As for the tutorial, it would really need to be extensive and guide the player until the end of the first continent.

I still can't use any of the guardian powers because I always lack of the citizen with the required skill I keep saving them but I think they mainly have all aquaurgy 1... And 2 with stone binding 1.
Is it a normal ?

Thanks

[x4000]

Game runs smoothly but sometimes I have that "transparent" line running across the screen when I travel here and there, nothing really dramatic but it makes me feel like the game will crash sometimes.

I still can't repro this, so can't do anything about it until I can see it, unfortunately.

I think it's a frame rate issue when the character goes too fast ?!

Yes, are you seeing this on the world map or elsewhere?

As for the tutorial, it would really need to be extensive and guide the player until the end of the first continent.

Definitely not going that far with it, heh.  But we will be doing a bit more than what it does now, plus also making it possible to figure out what is going on in the game yourself through tooltips and other guides that are always there.  We've made a lot of strides in that already, but still more to go.

I still can't use any of the guardian powers because I always lack of the citizen with the required skill I keep saving them but I think they mainly have all aquaurgy 1... And 2 with stone binding 1.
Is it a normal ?

Make sure and build the structures that your NPCs need.  Otherwise, all will always be skill level 1!  If you look at the NPCs in your settlement view, you can see what each one needs in order to reach each skill level.

[Souls-Stream]

For the vertical line, it happens when I run with the lightning power (double tap the movement key I mean) accross a screen, it doesnt happen in buildings, only in exteriors.
Doesn't happen on the map either.
It happens when you go a couple screen across and run and jump as fast as you can.
I tried to take a screenshot of it but it happens so quickly that I don't have time.
The line pass across the screen as if it was trying to refresh the graphics but the character is too fast for the frame rate. Thats what I believe anyway.

For npc, I have already a large number of guardian powers but I can't really use any because none of my npc have the required skills I need certain skills level 1 to build a structure I be able to build another one that would level the npc. I dont know if you've encountered that kind of problem yet, I was think that when you get a new npc, you can chose which skill he should train into rather than setting his default skill ? I don't know if you like that idea ?

Ya, right now, I keep unlocking guardian powers and doing missions, I get a lot of new npc but they always have skills I dont need. 90% of them have aquaurgy and I have 2 with stone binding and another one with technology I think... So I cannot build any of the basic buildings. I could take screenshots if that would help ?

For the tutorial, I was just thinking to some messages that would pop up after some action on the first continent, like after defeating the first evil outpost showing something like : you should continue to do so and then go defeat the overlord... Not something too fancy, just indications about what to do exactly until the first overlord is defeated maybe ? Just an idea.
Giving new players a couple advices on how to play and what to do here and there and what they should look forward doing as a general direction. That would just tell them, okay if you want to move forward, right now you're doing the right thing.

Anyway, thanks x4000

[x4000]

For the vertical line, it happens when I run with the lightning power (double tap the movement key I mean) accross a screen, it doesnt happen in buildings, only in exteriors.
Doesn't happen on the map either.
It happens when you go a couple screen across and run and jump as fast as you can.
I tried to take a screenshot of it but it happens so quickly that I don't have time.
The line pass across the screen as if it was trying to refresh the graphics but the character is too fast for the frame rate. Thats what I believe anyway.

Oh -- that's not a bug, then.  And screenshots would never capture that.  That's just a lack of vsync.  If your GPU can handle it, I suggest turning on vsync in the settings menu, and that will go away.

For npc, I have already a large number of guardian powers but I can't really use any because none of my npc have the required skills I need certain skills level 1 to build a structure I be able to build another one that would level the npc. I dont know if you've encountered that kind of problem yet, I was think that when you get a new npc, you can chose which skill he should train into rather than setting his default skill ? I don't know if you like that idea ?

You need to choose which NPCs you rescue more carefully; you can see what their skills will be when you accept the mission in the first place.  But the way that NPCs are going to be found is really going to be changing later today anyhow (new kinds of missions, all secret missions rather than on the world map), so it should be less of an issue.

For the tutorial, I was just thinking to some messages that would pop up after some action on the first continent, like after defeating the first evil outpost showing something like : you should continue to do so and then go defeat the overlord... Not something too fancy, just indications about what to do exactly until the first overlord is defeated maybe ? Just an idea.
Giving new players a couple advices on how to play and what to do here and there and what they should look forward doing as a general direction. That would just tell them, okay if you want to move forward, right now you're doing the right thing.

Well, essentially as long as new mechanics are being introduced, we'll have things like that -- for sure, yeah.

[Souls-Stream]

Thanks a lot for the vsync advice, I'll definitely try it I didn't know what it was !
I think my Gpu should handle it well.

I'm glad to hear about the npc change but I always look at the kind of npc there is and there never is the one with the skill I need same for guardian powers, I pay attention to a lot of details.
But it still appear as a problem... I'm in a hurry to see the new update coming, thank you so much !!!

Also, glad to hear this about the tutorial I just remember lots of poeple leaving games behind because they were too complicated ... Well, the best example I think is X3 ... Blah to that game ! Can't figure out anything except basic fighting.

Edit : by the way, the new battlefield is really great !!!! Thanks !

[tigersfan]

Also, glad to hear this about the tutorial I just remember lots of poeple leaving games behind because they were too complicated ... Well, the best example I think is X3 ... Blah to that game ! Can't figure out anything except basic fighting.

Well, I'm doing a lot of work with the tutorial and the new player experience, I'm pretty sure I can do a better job than X3.