Author Topic: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki  (Read 4616 times)

Offline Commiesalami

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Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« on: September 10, 2011, 12:03:20 am »
I just noticed that you posted a change log of your current work on AVWW up on the arcen wiki and the amount of work you've done over the past few days is quite amazing.  This post also exists to advertise the existence of the change log to those who are interested :D :P

http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AVWW_-_Pre-Beta_Release_Notes
« Last Edit: September 10, 2011, 12:15:30 am by x4000 »

Offline x4000

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2011, 12:14:52 am »
We're coming up on the public beta in a little over a week now, if all continues to go well.  Lots of good refinement at this stage!

I'm going to try to do some blog posts over the weekend about some of the new things that are in the game nowadays. And there's the beta trailer upcoming, as well as an all-new website group of pages, all probably before next Thursday.  Knock on wood.  And then hopefully beta more like the 19th or 20th or 21st.  Barring anything majorly unforeseen in our testing!

EDIT: Fixed the link to go to the full wiki page, rather than to a specific diff.
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Offline Deekay

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2011, 02:32:39 am »
Can see your working hard to get the game ready for beta  :)
Thanks for the link, I hadn't read this before.

Getting exciting now, so close! ^_^
Eagerly awaiting some more pre beta info  :)

Great work so far guys  :)

Offline Nalgas

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2011, 03:09:43 am »
I was just wondering if that was supposed to be public and all of four clicks away from the front page of the site.  I guess that answers that question.  Heh.

Offline c4sc4

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2011, 03:19:42 am »
I was just wondering if that was supposed to be public and all of four clicks away from the front page of the site.  I guess that answers that question.  Heh.

How do you get to the wiki from the main site? I can't seem to find where it is linked to.

Offline Nalgas

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2011, 03:40:36 am »
I was just wondering if that was supposed to be public and all of four clicks away from the front page of the site.  I guess that answers that question.  Heh.

How do you get to the wiki from the main site? I can't seem to find where it is linked to.

Slightly less directly than I thought, because there doesn't seem to be an explicit link to it at the moment, but I can still do it in five clicks: link to news post about AI War update, link to changelist (which is on the wiki), link to wiki homepage, link to AVWW page, link to AVWW changelist.

Offline Morslok

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2011, 10:14:18 am »
Vengeful ghosts sound scary... A good deterrent to just running straight into danger again and again (or sending others there).

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2011, 12:27:29 am »
We're coming up on the public beta in a little over a week now, if all continues to go well.  Lots of good refinement at this stage!

I'm going to try to do some blog posts over the weekend about some of the new things that are in the game nowadays. And there's the beta trailer upcoming, as well as an all-new website group of pages, all probably before next Thursday.  Knock on wood.  And then hopefully beta more like the 19th or 20th or 21st.  Barring anything majorly unforeseen in our testing!

EDIT: Fixed the link to go to the full wiki page, rather than to a specific diff.

Yay, I'll be home then :) (on vacation)

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Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2011, 02:23:52 am »
Vengeful ghosts sound scary... A good deterrent to just running straight into danger again and again (or sending others there).

I'm guessing it's also for keeping people from farming player characters for the goodies a new character gets. Otherwise you could just suicide a few times and multiply your starting gear like crazy.

Offline x4000

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2011, 08:20:42 am »
Actually, new characters have no goodies whatsoever, now. Will have details on that in a post in a couple of hours. But yeah, it is to prevent characters from being used as meat for the grinder, at any rate. :)
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Offline Jerebaldo1

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2011, 12:29:47 am »
I noticed that the iconic esper attack has changed, and I feel ambivalent about it. Presumptuous I know, considering that I'm not an alpha tester. But I suppose I just have to ask.
It looks like the lightning espers fire a set of three fanned sparks now as opposed to one railgun lightning bolt. I know that there will be espers of different elements, and that's why the new attack brings to mind either a pure magic missile or fireball type attack. I was wondering if the lightning type would get its railgun back when the other espers are implemented.
The videos of you or Keith running and jumping through packs of slow moving but menacing espers lashing out with these quick bolts that barely miss seemed exhilarating and so very metroid for some reason :-). Thanks fellas, love reading the changelogs like a newspaper.
 

Offline x4000

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2011, 05:57:55 am »
I'm sure we'll do a variety of new things with the various elemental-themed attacks, but part of the thing with the espers was that they were not really as menacing as you might think from the video; they were too easy to dodge if you knew their timing. And on the other hand, impossible to dodge if you did not know the timing.

The new way is unpredictable even if you know the timing, because now you have three railgun shots in a fan. They still look fast and lightning-like, even though they are actually a lot slower. This means that you actually have a very brief window to move and react when they do fire at you, and you can't just anticipate the timing alone; you have to watch the arcs and react to those, too. It makes it waay more tense and interesting, which was the goal.

But we'll see where other enemies go in the future; I'm not opposed to having a more railgun-like enemy like these were. I just think that this is a lot more interesting of a manifestation of the same thing.
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Offline Jerebaldo1

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2011, 10:01:44 am »
Ohhhhh, I read you. Yep, that makes sense from a gameplay standpoint while still being aesthetically on-theme. Dodging a set of lightning prongs. Alright, thanks for the clarification. Makes me also think more deliberately about how to properly present a railgun type weapon given the 'it hits you each time or never depending on skill level'.

Offline x4000

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Re: Pre-release beta notes on the wiki
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2011, 10:09:26 am »
All good!

And for the railgun type of thing, I think that would have to have a "tell" in front of it.  This is common in a lot of games, when the boss gives you a signal of what attack he's about to launch, a second or two before does it, and you're supposed to read the signal and react.  I tend not to do that sort of thing in my own games because that leads to a trial-and-error style of play where you're really relying on players to read those signals, and the player can only win after they do figure those signals out.  My way is usually to omit the signals, but then instead to give a second or two for players to react to whatever just happened; a lot of game developers do this, too.  A lot of the Mario games, for instance, are a mix of the two -- bullet bills give no warning but give you time to react, but many of the bosses have a tell before specific attacks.
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