AVWW Beta 0.933 "The Classic Choice: Orb Or Slice" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/04/avww-beta-0933-classic-choice-orb-or.html

This one is probably the second-to-last release prior to 1.0.  There will be another release later tonight, and hopefully that will be the last one unless some critical bugs are found overnight.

The current release has a variety of fixes and tweaks that players had asked us for, as well as a fairly good-sized list of things that we kept meaning to get to but never had time for until now.

Lots of sound effect additions again, and both the mechanics of The Deep and of stealth sections have been dramatically improved.  Also energy pulse has been split into two spells: energy orb and energy slice.  See the release notes for details as well as the full list of all the other changed stuff!

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.

[mrhanman]

I'm confused.  I thought 1.0 was set to launch Monday the 23rd.  Is it launching early?  Will it just not be redeemable on Steam until Monday?

[tigersfan]

I'm confused.  I thought 1.0 was set to launch Monday the 23rd.  Is it launching early?  Will it just not be redeemable on Steam until Monday?

The plan is to freeze our code tonight, so we can spend tomorrow doing all the work that a release takes, including uploading stuff to the distributors and such. Then the plan is to take the weekend off. Chris has had like one day off since, I think late January (don't remember exactly when, but, it's been a long time). And he deserves a weekend off.

[keith.lamothe]

There's also the benefit of a roughly 3-day gap between freeze and release for y'all to find any real showstopper bugs that have just been really sneaky thus far

[x4000]

Most aaa developers freeze code a month or three in advance for manufacturing and reviews. Some indies freeze maybe a week or two before for reviews, if they are on big sites. Us? A three day gap is unusually long for us.

[keith.lamothe]

Most aaa developers freeze code a month or three in advance for manufacturing and reviews. Some indies freeze maybe a week or two before for reviews, if they are on big sites. Us? A three day gap is unusually long for us.

Yea, whaddya mean you're not supposed to replace the rendering pipeline 24 hours before code-freeze?!  Back in my day... *mercifully trails off*

[TechSY730]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

Anyways, looks good. Especially with the tab-targetting improvements and the much needed love for the stealth missions.

Probably will wait until next version though, when the "fire where mouse is at when triggered through a mouse button, regardless of control mode" behavior is fixed for the special place crates/platforms keybinds. Unless that behavior now works for the standard "on the inventory row" keybinds, in which case I will just bind spots 9 and 0 to left and right mouse button for now.

[x4000]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

[TechSY730]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

Aw, that was my primary go-to spell, primarily because it was easy to aim.

I will probably keep using energy slice, though. Going from mostly 2HKOs to mostly 3HKO won't be much of an issue for me. (Previously, it was doing about 80% of most enemies health, so now it will do about 40%, which is in 3HKO range)

[tigersfan]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

Aw, that was my primary go-to spell, primarily because it was easy to aim.

I will probably keep using energy slice, though. Going from mostly 2HKOs to mostly 3HKO won't be much of an issue for me. (Previously, it was doing about 80% of most enemies health, so now it will do about 40%, which is in 3HKO range)

It was mine too, for the same reason. But, the new one hits harder and is just the same to aim. I'm happy with it, I think you will be too.

[Professor Paul1290]

I got an error while doing an "Umbra Vortex" mission.

I didn't notice anything going wrong, but I've attached the error file just in case:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=7181

[x4000]

New one!  http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,10283.0.html

[LintMan]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

[x4000]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

When that's your reaction, it's really clear why we had to rebalance it.   Not really joking, either.

[Oralordos]

Is (or rather was) energy pulse the spell that was bright white, in a crescent shape, crawled along walls, the projectile was fast as crap, and could hit multiple enemies?

That's the one!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Wouldn't http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com be better?