AVWW Beta 0.584 "Supply Train Map " Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/02/avww-beta-0584-supply-train-map.html

This one has a lot fewer bugfixes than the last few days, which is a great sign that we're really nearing beta phase 3 -- in fact, we hope for the next release, to come out tomorrow, to be the last release from beta phase 2.

This release is mostly focused on polish, clarity, and the planning menu.  The minimap has gotten a minor visual upgrade, there are some tweaks to the intro mission, and there are a number of opt-out messages that pop up to explain new game mechanics as those mechanics arrive.  More of that sort of thing coming tomorrow; my wife got a lot of those written, and I just haven't had time to actually code them into the game today.

The planning menu itself is also really coming along, although there's still more to do in terms of having it make good recommendations about things to do given your current situation.  But 98% or more of the encyclopedia-type content is now in place, and the same is true of the "where to find stuff" section.   The "things to do" section currently only has recommendations about

A hugely important addition to the planning menu has been the cataloging of "supplies" like suits, acid gills, wood platforms, and the like.  This lets you know the best place to find these sorts of things (some of which, like the acid gills, is just a very low-chance luck of the draw, which isn't much help).  But for things like transmogrify-into-bat scrolls, and transfer glyph scrolls, there are places that you can reliably go to get a bunch of those, and I bet most people didn't figure that out (I'd forgotten about it, myself, and I coded it in).

Tomorrow we aim to get a last bit of polish and bugfixing in, to get the last bits of the planning menu and the opt-out popups in, and then it's going to be time to do new installer builds and a major press push starting tomorrow night.  Then we're into beta phase 3, and the focus shifts to more enemies, more spells, more missions, and so on -- multiplayer server browser, too!  And of course more polish and fixes, but honestly at this point it seems like we're done the lion's share of that in advance (though that's a neverending job).

More to come soon.  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.

[TechSY730]

Awesome. I've mostly sat beta cycle 2 out, but I plan on trying it again once beta cycle 3 comes along.

[Greywolf22]

I had to post to say that I REALLY like the additional information screens.  Especially in the tutorial and when you arrive at the first settlement.  I'm excited that even more of these will be finding their way into the game in the upcoming release(s).  The few paragraphs have really cleared up a lot of the initial questions I've had going through the game and have made a world of difference.  Keep up the good work, the game is coming along great!

[Minotaar]

The new planning menu is broken for me. Already put it up on mantis, just posting here so people know there might be issues with this patch. Hope it gets resolved soon, really want to try all the new stuff 

[Saolite]

I seem to have gotten an error and crashed when attempting to open the ' View Things You Should Do ' menu. Already reported it on Mantis, but it was my first time doing so -- not sure if I did it properly or uploaded the right txt error, so just wanted to make a second post here to be sure.

[Toll]

I seem to have gotten an error and crashed when attempting to open the ' View Things You Should Do ' menu. Already reported it on Mantis, but it was my first time doing so -- not sure if I did it properly or uploaded the right txt error, so just wanted to make a second post here to be sure.

From a very unofficial point of view, that issue looks pretty spot-on to me!

EDIT: The only thing to comment on was that there already was an issue about the same error, but yours had more details than the other one anyway. And the occasional duplicate here and there isn't the end of the world.

[Saolite]

I seem to have gotten an error and crashed when attempting to open the ' View Things You Should Do ' menu. Already reported it on Mantis, but it was my first time doing so -- not sure if I did it properly or uploaded the right txt error, so just wanted to make a second post here to be sure.

From a very unofficial point of view, that issue looks pretty spot-on to me!

EDIT: The only thing to comment on was that there already was an issue about the same error, but yours had more details than the other one anyway. And the occasional duplicate here and there isn't the end of the world.

Ahh, sorry about that! I didn't realize there was already a report about it. I've never used mantis before, so I was just trying to send in the error report without messing anything up and didn't see other reports when I was filling mine out.

[Dizzard]

And the occasional duplicate here and there isn't the end of the world.

I think duplicates can be good, at the very least they show problems that are widespread and not just something one person is having issues with.

[BobTheJanitor]

Inevitably, no matter what keyword you search for when checking if you're posting a dupe, you will always pick the wrong ones. If you search for 'can't jump' the other person will have reported 'inability elevating'. Don't sweat it, better to post dupes than no report at all!

[zebramatt]

I rarely encounter that problem myself.

But then I do it for a living, so...

[tigersfan]

Inevitably, no matter what keyword you search for when checking if you're posting a dupe, you will always pick the wrong ones. If you search for 'can't jump' the other person will have reported 'inability elevating'. Don't sweat it, better to post dupes than no report at all!

Absolutely! As the guy who sorts through all those, if someone in the community doesn't mark something as a dupe, I typically will catch it. That said, if you aren't sure it's been reported, I'd rather have a dupe to close than have a bug we don't know about.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I don't mind duplicates anymore, Josh handles them for me!   *dodges thrown thing on your foot

There was actually some bug in AIW that we weren't in a position to fix at the time (some unity restriction that we could eventually get around by rewriting some whole subsystem) that keeps getting reported over and over as new issues (sometimes more than one in a day).  I just laughed and set up the duplicate relationships, seeing how high it could get

[Dizzard]

I was wondering something about AVWW recently.

Is there any intention to make the npcs vary more in appearance? On a generated basis rather than something you do yourself with the character you're playing as.

I guess not at this late stage but it's something I'd love to see in the future. Coming across npcs that genuinely look different to ones you've found before. It would open up a different sense of discovery and give each settlement even more of a unique look.

I feel at the moment, in terms of immersion this is one of AVWWs greatest weaknesses. It's not game breaking or anything though.

[x4000]

I was wondering something about AVWW recently.

Is there any intention to make the npcs vary more in appearance? On a generated basis rather than something you do yourself with the character you're playing as.

I guess not at this late stage but it's something I'd love to see in the future. Coming across npcs that genuinely look different to ones you've found before. It would open up a different sense of discovery and give each settlement even more of a unique look.

I feel at the moment, in terms of immersion this is one of AVWWs greatest weaknesses.

In terms of being able to customize NPC appearance -- giving them hats or whatever -- that will probably never come as it's artistically impossible with this art style.  In terms of having more kinds of NPC base appearances, that's something I do want to do, yes.  Right now there are 30-something appearances, and my original goal for 1.0 had been more like 120.  However, there are simply more pressing things and that got shelved until later.

However, depending on how far you've played, you probably have not met many of those 30-something NPC appearances, even.  And in terms of this being a substantial weakness to the game: I think that a lot of classic RPGs (my favorites, even, including FF6) included about the same number of character models that we already have.  In the same ballpark, anyhow, in a lot of cases.

[Dizzard]

And in terms of this being a substantial weakness to the game: I think that a lot of classic RPGs (my favorites, even, including FF6) included about the same number of character models that we already have.  In the same ballpark, anyhow, in a lot of cases.

Is it fair to compare those games to AVWW? They're not procedurally generated. Eventually the player will finish them and move on to the next game. They're not expected to keep going indefinitely.