AVWW Post-Release 1.116 "Another Balance Pass" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/07/avww-post-release-1116-another-balance.html

This one is our fifth release candidate for 1.2, meaning that if there's nothing majorly wrong with it then this will be the 1.2 official version on tomorrow morning and we'll then continue working on 1.3 instead.  We'd planned on doing the 1.2 official today if there weren't any major issues, but there were some balance issues that came up yesterday that we decided to devote today to.

If you haven't seen them yet, we also put up two new strategy guides:

A Strategy Guide For Citybuilding In A Valley Without Wind 1.2
A Guide To Upgrading To A Valley Without Wind 1.2 From 1.0 Or 1.1

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.

[Brise Bonbons]

Thanks for the help with settler moods. I came here to grumble about how hard it is to get the mood up to the point where every task isn't a suicide mission, but I'll belay that until I can test more.

Otherwise things are looking good!

[Penumbra]

To prevent people falling behind in multiplayer, now when a player that hasn't been in the world for a while (30 minutes of the world running; paused time counts, but time not loaded does not) now has their spellgems upgraded to the world level.

Does this mean it is now possible to bring forward previously outdated spells that had desirable affixes?

[keith.lamothe]

To prevent people falling behind in multiplayer, now when a player that hasn't been in the world for a while (30 minutes of the world running; paused time counts, but time not loaded does not) now has their spellgems upgraded to the world level.

Does this mean it is now possible to bring forward previously outdated spells that had desirable affixes?

In theory, yes, but it's not intended for that purpose, only to help people who haven't played in a world for a while to catch up and be able to jump back in more quickly.

It would be entirely possible to save the game, quit, load it back up under a different profile (and thus player account), leave it paused for 30+ minutes, quit, and load it back up under the original profile to "modernize" all your spellgems.  That would, however, be what I would call "cheating"

[Penumbra]

  That would be what I would call "cheating"

I get this. But, those really nice spells you have on a popular MP server (or even one that only 2 people play on, just not at the same time) will never expire.

[keith.lamothe]

But, those really nice spells you have on a popular MP server (or even one that only 2 people play on, just not at the same time) will never expire.

Yea, the difficulty is that the alternative is that you come back and you have no effective offensive weapons (unless there's someone who's on and willing and able to give you some), which seems like it would cause greater problems.

[Penumbra]

But, those really nice spells you have on a popular MP server (or even one that only 2 people play on, just not at the same time) will never expire.

Yea, the difficulty is that the alternative is that you come back and you have no effective offensive weapons (unless there's someone who's on and willing and able to give you some), which seems like it would cause greater problems.

What if they were older than the "auto" upgrades (1 for uncommon to 4 for legendary) they would lose their positive modifiers?  Still current, but not so defeating the point of getting new gear.

[SerratedSabre]

Sweet, I can buy mood items in the store! I didn't even mind the 60% survival max for the overlord either, I wondering about the way to deal with the massive bottleneck that is being forced to scrounge stashes for hours to get enough mood items just to break 20% survival.

Heck keep the 60% max for higher city building difficulties and it's a deal. Course now I need the option to buy mood items in bulk, but that's being nitpicky anyways. 

[alexxkay]

I'm on continent 4, and have cleared all Lieutenants.  City-Building is at default.  Everyone's mood was basically in the dumps, compared to the job of going after said Overlord.  Almost everyone's mood seems to start under 100, but it takes about 750 mood to have max survival against an Overlord.  That's a lot of Gifts, but not necessarily unreasonable, taken by itself.

But you seem to have a goal of encouraging us to spread around who does the missions, and that goal is *not* being met.  Being "unhappy at others not shouldering the load" drops mood by less than 100 points, enough for 1 gift to make up.  Getting even one more character up to survivability would take between 6 and 7 gifts.  It's no contest at all, right now.

[BobTheJanitor]

I like most of the new sounds but I really miss the old item pickup noise.

Edit: After further play time, I think I highly dislike the new sound. It's just such a dull weak little pop noise. Every item I pick up I miss the old clunk sort of noise that really fit the action of 'getting a thing'. The new sound doesn't even make sense. I used to slice through whole forests just to pick up every thing I could. Now I find myself actively avoiding picking things up just because that noise makes me cringe.

[nanostrike]

Thanks for nuking Puzzle rooms into oblivion.

I will now unlock all the lore entries.



Seriously.  Thanks.  I've wanted that forever.

[Hyfrydle]

I like most of the new sounds but I really miss the old item pickup noise.

Edit: After further play time, I think I highly dislike the new sound. It's just such a dull weak little pop noise. Every item I pick up I miss the old clunk sort of noise that really fit the action of 'getting a thing'. The new sound doesn't even make sense. I used to slice through whole forests just to pick up every thing I could. Now I find myself actively avoiding picking things up just because that noise makes me cringe.

I also prefer the old sound for pick ups.

[Misery]

Thanks for nuking Puzzle rooms into oblivion.

I will now unlock all the lore entries.



Seriously.  Thanks.  I've wanted that forever.

I agree, to a point.


I like the idea of the puzzle rooms;  the problem was that the execution didn't work.  They werent actual "puzzles".   Not to mention, there was the fact that if you'd already seen the story stuff all before, say, in a previous world, on any new world, you could completely ignore these.... they'd have no point.

Perhaps come up with some other type of "special" room that could give something when completed?  I'm not sure just what this would be.... but the puzzle rooms in concept broke up the gameplay a bit, having you stop just exploring/fighting/doing missions, and gave something else for you to do for a short time, that still involved the use of the spells you had available. 



Anyway, beyond that, I think 1.2 has shaped up to be pretty darn great.   There are some improvements I think could be made to the citybuilding system to make it more interesting..... did a seperate topic and a Mantis thing for this, and a couple of others have added their own very interesting input to it, not gonna repeat it all here.

And I'm definitely interested to see what else is gonna be done with the dispatch system (the multiple-dispatch thing sounds interesting).   Also looking forward to the graveyards.


And really, really liking the procedural effects on the spells.  Some of these are pretty darn strong/useful;  the more I see of the system, the more interesting it gets, and I find myself going well out of my way to get orbs and ingredients to use for alot of my favorite spells.   The "only works during night/day" one is a nice touch too.  Moonrise has a POINT now!   I think this part of the game, including exploring/dispatching for these ingredients, is particularly well done and thought out.

I'm also noticing that the worldmap isnt absolutely DRENCHED in missions now.... that's another really good point, heh.

[Ulrox]

I'm going to have to agree with the pickup sound being cringe worthy. Otherwise a nice beta patch.

[x4000]

I'm really surprised at the comments on the pickup sound. We had people actively saying how much they hated the old pickup sound grating on them in much larger volume in the past. Apparently we'll need to figure out a third way of doing this, but for now I think that the current one is generally an improvement over the prior one in that there's nothing actively abrasive about it. I can see why it might not be your favorite, but cringing? It really gives you a visceral response at that level? I didn't think that was possible with a soft, non-sharp sound like this.