Author Topic: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!  (Read 3220 times)

Offline x4000

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Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« on: January 15, 2013, 09:12:47 pm »
Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/01/valley-2-beta-715-gimme-shelter-from.html

This one adds a massive twenty new monsters for your enjoyment.  I thought that last time having eleven monsters was a huge update, but this one certainly tops it.

Monsters!
We're now up to a total of 53 monsters in the game in general, and I'm pretty sure that makes it so that Valley 2 now has more monsters than Valley 1.  In that ballpark, anyway.  And we've still got a lot of monsters left to add; around 60ish.

The effect that all this variety has on the game is surprising even to me; as some players have pointed out, it really makes you consider your tactics and loadouts for each area differently.  With each of these releases with monsters in them, the variety of challenges you face and how you deal with them really increases.

A few existing monsters were also improved a bit.

Strategy!
This release is a big one on the strategy front, too -- our third major round of strategy updates for this game during beta.
  • Round 1 made the game harder and more condensed; basically a more intense experience.  
  • Round 2 vastly improved the flow of the interface, and laid the foundation for a more in-depth strategy game.  However, it also temporarily over-simplified the game; merely a byproduct of us not being done yet, not an attempt to "dumb down" the game (though definitely an attempt, and I think a successful one, at making it more surface-accessible).
  • Round 3, aka this release, is focused on building back up parts of the strategy game that got a bit stomped-on in the interface redo of round 2.  In general there's a lot more clarity here, and the difficulty and interestingness of the strategy situation has also gone back up.
This version also gets rid of the "population cap" mechanic, which was something from early in our strategy game designs that really just didn't fit anymore after the evolutions the strategy game had during our internal alpha.  Your resistance members are constantly on the move -- when do they have time to care about housing!?

In place of the population cap, there's a new "shelter" mechanic.  This mechanic, plus the fact that you can no longer stack NPCs on one tile, basically changes the whole focus of the strategy game.  The details are in the linked release notes, but I think it's pretty cool; it's a good example of the sort of "depth, not breadth" we're going for in the strategy design.

The problem with the strategy game before we went into Round 1 of the changes was (aside from interface irritations) that it was too easy to get into a rut.  Aka, you learn that when the overlord does A, you do B.  When he does C, you do D, and so on.  It's the sort of system that is interesting to learn because it's complex enough to be satisfying, but once you learn it you're basically done with it.

It's the sort of thing I think is the worst thing that can happen to a strategy game, and with AI War we have a lot of practice at avoiding the issue (people are still playing AI War after nearly four years, after all).  In the case of this game, it was clear that the threat from the overlord against your buildings and survivors, and the constant "rebuild after he trashes the place" was not enough.

There needed to be more long-term consequences (so no building reconstruction), plus more things to weigh against one another: so now the ambient threat and shelter; the way the overlord only attacks useful-to-you tiles once you start using them; and the way that buildings no longer passively generate income but instead have to be worked by NPCs.

Cumulatively, these changes make it so that instead of just super-stacking your NPCs and dragging them around on missions, you now have to really weigh how much they go out alone versus in groups.  You can't stack them, but NPCs on tiles near to one another help shelter each other -- safety in numbers.  That's good when attacking the enemy, but what if you need those same NPCs back at your farm or clinic?  And so on.

There is inevitably more that we'll need to do to really polish the strategy side of the game, but it's hitting a point that Keith and I are both really pleased with, pending further playtesting.  Sometimes the only way to really iron out all the logical kinks is playtesting, and that's a big part of why we do betas in the first place!

Art!
Lots of art updates in this one, too.  Mainly the backgrounds to buildings, but some enemies also have updated art (aside from all the new enemy art for the new enemies, of course).

Mouse Support In Menus!
We've re-enabled mouse support for menus, which we know a lot of people were wanting.  I felt it was annoying to be tempted to constantly switch back and forth between being keyboard-only and using the mouse, but it's something a lot of people wanted.  And to be honest, I kept finding myself reaching for the mouse in menus, too.

Enemy Names!
When you kill enemies, it now pops up the name of the enemy you just killed (like it does the amount of damage to them).  Now people can actually know the names of enemies and refer to them by their real names, rather than calling Snow Wererats everything from "monkeys" to all sorts of other stuff.  It's so much clearer for all of us when we're all using the same names for things, especially with so many enemies!

Henchmen!
The henchman boss rooms have been improved a lot to no longer cause issues with their AI or exploits with cover for the player.  The physics for the henchmen have also been improved such that they are now a more interesting threat in how they move.  Hopefully this will help boss battles feel more well-balanced than they have been, although more refinements will come later; right now it's mainly a push to get all the base content in there so that any issues with any of it can be identified.

More to come soon.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the  in-game updater itself, if you already have any version of the game.  If you have the beta on Steam, it will automatically update for you.  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 the standalone game, you can download that hereIf you already own the first game, just use your existing license key to unlock the sequel for free!
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Offline madcow

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2013, 09:29:38 pm »
Looks cool!

I'm not a huge fan of RNG in strategy, but I'll give it a try and see how it looks. I kind of wonder if morale might almost be too easy right now as well. I'll give it some play before any real conclusions, all the new monsters sound like an amazing addition!

Offline MouldyK

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2013, 10:20:40 pm »
Controls: Still awkward with a controller (I know nothing was changed, but yeah).

Enemies: Great variety I saw with varying degrees of running away from them.

Boss level: No water = Much better and felt like a boss battle with the dodging and running under him or over the boxes. :P Though now that I think of it, a water-based Henchmen which had the levels only have water would be pretty cool, maybe in Valley 2: Marine Mania. XD

Strategy: Only did one move, but love how it tells me what would happen to someone if they were on the tile and the 2 turns after that, allows planning ahead. :D

Offline Penumbra

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2013, 10:21:47 pm »
I love being able to use the mouse in the menus! It's a small thing, but when I see buttons like that, my hand just goes for it :) And, some of these new monsters are really creepy....

I started up a new game, and the Resistance Member I have stationed there got wounded. If the clinic only heals people when a non-wounded survivor is there, how do I heal him? I need two clinics then?

Offline madcow

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2013, 10:42:45 pm »
Incidentally, its possible to move your survivors to the wrong places in the tutorial - in which case you'll never be able to embark into a new spot. It should only be possible to move them to the farm or clinic site (and then the third one you can move anywhere)

It actually could maybe use spacing - order the clinic move, then the farm part pops up instead of saying them both at once at the beginning.

Also Demonica's healthbar in the opening segment is: OverlordDemonicaIntroPassive :D

I do love the new enemies (that I've seen in my -very- brief playtime) and the backgrounds even more. Was the stormy area touched up in this last patch? That part in particular stood out as really looking fantastic.

Edit: The difficulty is really cranked up as well, I'll need to rethink how I go about things, heh. And I do hope boss fights get some platforms to make the rooms more interesting to dodge around in.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 11:10:52 pm by madcow »

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2013, 11:15:52 pm »
Incidentally, its possible to move your survivors to the wrong places in the tutorial - in which case you'll never be able to embark into a new spot. It should only be possible to move them to the farm or clinic site (and then the third one you can move anywhere)
It was preventing incorrect moves before, I guess something regressed.  Thanks for letting us know :)
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Offline madcow

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2013, 11:19:10 pm »
Incidentally, its possible to move your survivors to the wrong places in the tutorial - in which case you'll never be able to embark into a new spot. It should only be possible to move them to the farm or clinic site (and then the third one you can move anywhere)
It was preventing incorrect moves before, I guess something regressed.  Thanks for letting us know :)

I might have accidentally lost the game in the first turn due to forgetting about the farm being done in the first turn now. Oops!

Edit: Want me to post that one on mantis as well so you have a tracker on it?

Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2013, 01:09:10 am »
Ran into a game-breaking bug with the tutorial pretty much instantly.    If you move and build the clinic on the same turn (is that even supposed to be possible?), the tutorial will glitch out and refuse to let you enter any tiles at all.   

One other thing that I'd wanted to mention, is that I'm wondering if the pace of the game might be TOO fast at this point.

In my previous game, I was able to get tier 2 spells, and be almost to tier 3 spells, before the overlord had even left his castle.

In this new world I just stated, it looks like I can get the second tier within a mere 2 turns; I can do one tower on the very first turn, open up the area around a second tower by purifying, and then on turn 2, go through that second tower.   It kinda makes the first tier (and maybe the second as well) seem completely pointless, because it's there for all of 10 minutes, if even that.   I actually thought the pacing of the game was much better the way it was originally.

This is happening now with EVERY world I've generated.


Also:   I hate to say this, but crawlers are STILL buggy.  Probably half of the ones I find right now simply dont move.  Sometimes they'll stop moving after taking damage, and then just sit there.

Aint seen any glitches other than that and the tutorial thing yet though!



EDIT:  On the note of the tiers there... is it just me, or are all of the tier 1 classes *really* underpowered?   It seriously seems like the earliest part of the game is balanced for tier 2 and above.   Enemies take 8 billionty hits with the tier 1 spells, and the ONLY class that's capable of accomplishing much of anything is Forgician, as the others have no useful high-caliber spells, and even that has alot of problems.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2013, 01:56:51 am by Misery »

Offline Gemzo

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2013, 03:26:40 am »
Honestly, the balance of pretty much all combat related things is pretty rough, if existent at all. It's hard to find a balance point with enemies' constantly changing stats (even mid-game, due to the danger level going up every turn). Or you could even flip things around, and say that it is too hard to suggest how to balance the enemies because of how the mage classes and their spells are so wildly imbalanced as well... I guess if all the classes were balanced against eachother, you could then balance the enemies against them.

Guess I'll have to submit some more class feedback. I did some testing and wrote up summaries for 2 of the tier 1 classes, then decided I wanted to go to sleep. So for now I'll just post those here, before they become obsolete due to Arcen's patch frequency. :P

Most stated values (like DPS) are approximate and not exact.

-> Forgician

Primary: Ember Shot (400 DPS, 32 Caliber)
While the DPS is good post-buff, the rapid-fire low-caliber style spells just aren't that fun to use. Yes I'm aware the idea is that you skillfully get your shots in past theirs, but no. It does not play like that in practice. If they are shooting at you, your shots will only connect rarely. And because it is low damage, high RoF, you will deal very little damage. The only way these spells actually utilize their full DPS (which isn't usually very high) is if the enemy is not shooting you and you can continuously hit them. If Ember Shot is to be considered a "standard" shot it really shouldn't be this fast firing, and neither should all other "normal" shots. Fast firing spells should be great for taking out enemies that can't block your shots/dodge, but they shouldn't be the standard shot of this game in my opinion.

Secondary: Explosive Crescent (170 DPS(?), 140 Caliber)
While this is a very useful spell, it needs work. And not in the balance department, actually. I've said this kind of spell is really unreliable many times. Depending on where you are standing many explosions might not happen at all, or maybe even nothing will happen. I think all the explosions should happen no matter what. Instead of just detecting if a full line can be drawn between the origin and the explosion's position, I think it should put the explosion at the furthest point along the line if the line gets interrupted. This would make the spell many times more reliable. After that it would probably need some balancing, but it has to be fun and intuitive to use above all else anyway.

Special: Campfire (N/A DPS, 140 Caliber)
This spell can be handy, but it's usually not that great. I don't think it needs to be adjusted currently. Maybe after Forgician's other spells get changed or something.

Ammo: Flameout (Up to 1700 damage per use, 120 caliber)
Flameout is really too powerful for its cost. Flameout can get caught on surfaces easily and end up being useless because the fire goes nowhere. However, with a little open space, you can deal extreme damage at the cost of 5 ammo. I know the kneejerk reaction is to make it cost more ammo and do less damage, but it really needs to not get caught on surfaces in return. I'm not saying it should pass through walls but it should slide along surfaces properly. If I were the one calling the shots I would decrease damage by 35-40% and increase the ammo cost to 8-10. That way it would still be useful but you can't nuke bosses to death without any chance of losing, but it's still a force to be reckoned with. The other thing is that it only does amazing damage if you use it just right. This spell, like all(?) others inherits the user's momentum. So you just jump at the enemy and use it and it will fly forward and toast anything in front of you. Is this how the spell is intended to be used?

Summary: Ember Shot's low caliber makes Explosive Crescent extremely important for dealing with enemies that shoot back. Campfire can sometimes comes in handy. Ember Shot kills non-shooting enemies relatively quickly. Flameout is a tier 1 super nuke that makes bosses die.


-> Lumbermancer

Primary: Lumber Shot (240 DPS, 32 Caliber)
A vastly inferior version of Ember Shot. Comments on Ember Shot apply here, but Lumber Shot needs to be buffed in general. Also, its description is incorrect, as it does not have to accelerate to reach full speed.

Secondary: Leafy Whip (70 damage per hit, 50 Caliber)
I remember reading about how whips can pierce shields or something... Well sure, this spell could just be situationally useful. Or it could be an actually all-around useful melee spell, if its damage was actually good enough to be worth using.

Special: Clinging Nettles (55 damage per hit, 70 caliber)
Its low damage and rate of fire make it useless for any enemy not made of tissue paper. But for those that are, it handles them with no effort. You can sit in a safe spot and use this to kill tougher enemies, too, but it's boring to just sit there and use homing spells. I think its range could be reduced to discourage that. If that were to happen the damage would probably need a buff to compensate for that.

Ammo: Reckless Forest (~2000 DPS, 80 Caliber)
The cooldown is too low. It should be increased to about 0.7 seconds, IMO. Even the fire rate wasn't so fast, it still eats bosses way too easily, so it probably needs an HP/ammo cost adjustment.

Summary: Lumber Shot may be rather weak, but it's still the best non-reckless spell this class has for dealing damage. Leafy Whip can RARELY be useful for hitting multiple enemies, or breaking weak shots that Lumber Shot cannot, but it's pretty lame for the most part. Clinging Nettles is batbane incarnate, but otherwise ineffectual. Reckless Forest is useful for killing normal enemies, and wrecks bosses (but costs a chunk of HP, so it's not as OP as Flameout).
« Last Edit: January 16, 2013, 05:37:58 am by Gemzo »

Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2013, 06:50:26 am »

Big buncha stuff with lotsa words


Aye, I think the spells and such need some more balance yet.   Some of it, though, is going to be dependant on the player, which can make this tough.  For example, you mention Campfire being just okay.... but in my case, Campfire is 80% of the reason I use the spell set, with Flameout being the other 20%.   I've found that most of the tier 1 classes are REALLY AWFUL and simply cannot get the job done most of the time (particularly any class with one of those blasted charge spells).  Flameout is also the only major high-damage spell at that tier, and on higher difficulties (I'm on hero currently), this isnt just a good idea to use, it's a NECESSITY.   Bosses on this difficulty are basically impossible without a spell like this, as their patterns are literally undodgeable, with the only exception maybe being the sine attack, and even then, it's really bizarrely easy to get hit by that alot ANYWAY.   The one, and only, strategy that I've found for beating bosses on this difficulty is to pump up full of health and ammo-attack perks, choose a very heavy damage spell like Flameout, and just crash through the boss's shots and blast them point-blank with it.   Nothing else works.... heck, nothing else can even HIT them most of the time.

Since Campfire and Flameout are so good in my view, Embershot being kinda weak is fine by me, balances it out a bit.   I do find though that while I dont consider straight shot spells to be all that great, I do attack many types of enemies with them.  The enemies that that does not work on either get hit by Crescent, blasted by Flameout (usually those accursed balloon things with the spiked balls), or sometimes I'll use Campfire to enhance my chances of hitting with Embershot (I'll do this more often than the other two options).   The straight-shot spells arent very interesting or powerful, but for this sort of game I do think they NEED to be there.  But there might be a few too many of them.... there's an Entropy-based class at tier 1 as well, and that one has not just one, but TWO straight-shot spells.... and THAT doesnt work very well.  Straight-shot is fine to use, but in this game you NEED more options than just that.


Aside from a few spell types being useless, or at least SEEMING useless (bomb types are a good example... I only JUST NOW found out how to really use these, and what sorts of foes to use them on;  their tiny effect radius makes them very hard to use), I think the main balance issue right now as the spell classes go is their calibers.  More spell classes need better options for dealing with enemy shots, and they need some options that ARENT just ammo spells.   The caliber system itself is very good;  but the actual numbers on various things are what needs tweaking.

Not just that though.... many enemy patterns need altering (or outright replacement), particularly as the difficulty goes up.  Like this Clockwork Pigeon thing.   On Adept, it's a pretty normal enemy.  On Hero, it's a nightmare;  you either have a very high caliber spell, almost always only ammo spells will work on it, or you *will* get hit.  There's no exceptions to this.  You WILL get hit.  It's pattern is utterly undodgeable in the sorts of areas it appears in (almost exclusively buildings, the worst possible type of place for anything that spams a zillion bullets).    Much of the time, when one of those horrid things shows up, I either have to spam ammo shots till it pops (usually crashing through many of it's bullets to get to the right place to fire), or hide behind things until it goes away.   It's attack pattern is OK for normal difficulty.... but it scales so badly at higher ones that it's utterly broken.   You cannot dodge it's attacks because there is literally no SPACE in which to dodge them, and you cannot hit it with ANYTHING that doesnt break it's shots, because there's no space for your attacks either.    This particular enemy is a pretty extreme example, as there arent many enemies that are THAT spam-tastic, but there are some, and that blasted bird is unusually common.  On difficulties even higher than Hero, I'm betting there are more that get broken.

Bosses are the worst though right now.   There's a couple of problems with these guys right now.    Firstly, most of their patterns are pretty much broken.  It's like the thing with the pigeons, there's simply no way to dodge because everything is clustered so tightly and fired so rapidly (on Hero, again).   My one and only strategy against these guys is crash into them, go nuts with strong ammo spell, hope to not die.  Most other spells are literally incapable of hitting them, no matter what goofy angles you fire at.   I know these guys arent finished, but the current patterns arent even good starting points;  frankly, the bosses in the previous game were much better.    There's also the irritating bit of having to WAIT at the start of the fight every blasted time for them to walk AWAY from where I'm standing;  there's no point in attacking them when they're super close.  You want SOME room to move after firing the ammo shot to reduce the amount of stuff you gotta crash into.    To be honest, these guys should almost just be disabled until they get fixed.  They're THAT broken.

There's other stuff to go on about, balance-wise, but I'll go into it more after more testing.   I'm liking most of the new enemy types too, by the way.   Though those urban droid things.... crap but they're ANNOYING!  They're currently the ones I'm now using the bomb spells on most;  hard to time that, but it WORKS.    Goddamn bats, indeed!   I am finding more use for some spells now that previously did not get used much, as more and more new monsters show up.   A very good thing.

EDIT:  One other thing:   Bosses.... just a BIT incredibly ridiculously annoying to find in caves.   Due to their unbreakable patterns, I *have* to leave the cave, going back aaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllll that way, to go grab whichever spell class has the "boss wrecker" ammo spell for that tier, and to change up my perks.   Caves are pretty tough as it is.... I dont think these guys need to be here.   At least not until they've gotten some MAJOR changes.   Leaving the caves takes SO long that what I usually actually do is just die, and never enter that cave again ever.  Easier and less extremely aggravating to just go find another cave.   

EDIT 2:  Actually, I'm pretty sure this particular cave is unbeatable on Hero.  Completely unbeatable.  The ONE spell that might kill that guy (and again, his shots are absolutely undodgeable) is in the blasted Littorist set, which is completely worthless in caves (aaaaagh charge shots, why do these exist).   He's impossible to even hit with anything else, but the other 4 sets are the ones that could GET to him;  Littorist simply cant.   Yeah.   Bosses.... just a BIT broken right now.   Pretty annoying.

EDIT 3:  Oooookay.   The pigeons are NOT the most broken thing on this difficulty.   These things that look like werewolves are.   Pigeons are technically dodgeable in big, open areas.... these wolf things AREN'T.    Instant strike attack (like the Crescent shots, that sort) everywhere around them with monstrous range (most of the screen!) and very rapidly fired?   ......Yeah.   Right now, any area that has even ONE of these is probably unbeatable.  Hmm, I might have to actually start a new world yet again.... I'm finding that Hero, at least, may be too broken to play through.   Far too many screwed up enemies.   
« Last Edit: January 16, 2013, 07:11:59 am by Misery »

Offline madcow

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2013, 07:01:53 am »
I experienced what Misery mentioned about leveling up to quite quickly in my previous save file, this one has been less insane in speed though. I think some logic to space out the windmills might help there. It can be fairly common to find a bunch of them many grouped up together, which can lead to quick bursts in strength.

Offline Billick

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2013, 09:26:19 am »
The changes are going in the right direction I think.  I'm loving the new monsters.  The boss fights are now more interesting.  For the record, on adept difficultly they feel about right (for adept).  I can't speak for any of the harder difficulties.
I think the strategy side is more interesting now.  I like that you got rid of the housing thing.  The shelter mechanic is both more interesting strategy-wise and makes more sense lore-wise.  I like that you changed how moving survivors works.  It makes it way easier to see which one you're moving.  I also like the extra info about what will happen by leaving your survivor on the tile.  Things are much clearer now!

Things I don't like:
The more I play, the more I'm thinking you shouldn't be stuck in place when pushing down+left/right unless you're actively firing.  I mapped movement to the d-pad and I still get stuck sometimes when I don't intend to. 
Your ally talking smack when you die.  I know I died, just shut up already! It's like that stupid dog from Duck Hunt.   :D
« Last Edit: January 16, 2013, 09:29:12 am by Billick »

Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2013, 10:01:53 am »
The changes are going in the right direction I think.  I'm loving the new monsters.  The boss fights are now more interesting.  For the record, on adept difficultly they feel about right (for adept).  I can't speak for any of the harder difficulties.
I think the strategy side is more interesting now.  I like that you got rid of the housing thing.  The shelter mechanic is both more interesting strategy-wise and makes more sense lore-wise.  I like that you changed how moving survivors works.  It makes it way easier to see which one you're moving.  I also like the extra info about what will happen by leaving your survivor on the tile.  Things are much clearer now!

Things I don't like:
The more I play, the more I'm thinking you shouldn't be stuck in place when pushing down+left/right unless you're actively firing.  I mapped movement to the d-pad and I still get stuck sometimes when I don't intend to. 
Your ally talking smack when you die.  I know I died, just shut up already! It's like that stupid dog from Duck Hunt.   :D


I think part of the problem is that everything seems like it was actually designed entirely around Adept, and that the scaling seems to be automatically handled by the game engine.

Wheras with the previous game, an increase in difficulty often changed the actual patterns.  An enemy that shot one bolt at a time would suddenly shoot 2 at once, or 3 at once, in a spray pattern.  THAT type of thing, is what needs to be happening here.   The patterns should get more complicated.... not more rapid.  For some enemies more rapid works fine, but when that effect is used on something like the pigeons, it falls apart.

.....and I really dont know about that crazy werewolf thing.  I dont even know what it's called, as it was absolutely unkillable.



On the note of the strategic stuff, I havent seen enough of the new changes yet to make a proper judgement on them.   But, with what little I have seen, I do believe that now I at least somewhat see where the devs are going with it.   This new system finally makes the "wound" mechanic a part of the game (just ignored it before), and I like the way that mechanic now works.   Some might argue that RNG stuff shouldnt be too prevalent in something like this, but it makes sense.   The best your guy can do is make an evaluation on the situation in an area.... it wouldnt make any sense if he ABSOLUTELY KNEW wether or not someone going in there was going to get hurt or not.  This also adds some more risk-reward trade-off, which is a very good thing in most any game.    The one-guy-per-tile bit is also a welcome change. 


One thing occurs to me though:   There is now absolutely no reason to ever purify a warp tile.   Directly the opposite.... there's reason to specifically AVOID them, if Demonaica can use them but your guys cant.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2013, 10:23:33 am »
Looking forward greatly to testing .716. Seems like you might have actually nailed the controller problems. Definitely starting to look like an elephant now.

Offline tigersfan

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .715 "Gimme Shelter... From Monsters" Released!
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2013, 11:09:55 am »
As for the balance stuff, it's kinda fallen behind. I've been having some health issues the last week and a half or so. But, I'm getting better (slowly) and I'll be working on that soon. Gemzo, thanks a bunch for your feedback.