Author Topic: Valley 2 Beta .724 "Keep Running When You See That Triceratops Mage" Released!  (Read 3793 times)

Offline x4000

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Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/02/valley-2-beta-724-keep-running-when-you.html

This one is all about both monsters and multiplayer.  And fixed slices.  And nobody expects the Spanish Inqui... nevermind.

Clearly I've been working on this too long.  Anyway...

Monsters
This is a really good batch of monsters, I have to say.  The feral chicken is just awesome, and the hopping locust is such a crazy different monster, too.  I'm also a big fan of the hungry ghost.

All in all 18 new monsters were added in this release, bringing the total up to 96 monsters in the game (not counting bosses).  4 out of the 12 biomes now have their full set of monsters (the others temporarily pull monsters from other biomes, as has always been the case so far with this game).

It's interesting, because several of the biomes are complete, a few others are nearly complete, and a few others are really barely started.  The desert, for one -- until tonight, it only had the Ceiling Asp out of its set of monsters.  Now it has three out of its total roster of 9 uniques planned, but that's still not much to get a sense of what the desert will really feel like at all.  Funny how these things work out.

At the rate I'm going, I'm going to need two more days rather than one.  I've decided to just bite the bullet and do that, rather than just cutting this off after one day and having 10ish fewer monsters than planned.  That's because...

Key Multiplayer Fixes
Keith was also working today, and hoo boy did he knock out some key bugs affecting multiplayer.  He also managed to get rid of that lockup that could sometimes happen when you were first creating a new world.  He got rid of so much stuff from the roster for next week, in fact, that's why I feel like I can take an extra half day or a day to finish off the monsters properly.

Slice Fixes Continue
Last I heard today, Josh had it down to about 900 errors being reported by the unit tester of slices, down from 1100 yesterday.  He was also a real presence today, helping out with some buildings stuff as well as that.  Long weekend for Arcen, for sure.

Lots More Art!
There's a ton of polished art in this one, mainly in the variety of buildings in terms of what you will notice.  And ohmygod does it look awesome.  A lot of the most sketch-like buildings are now really superbly finalized.  There's still many more that have to be updated to a minor or a major degree, but this was around a third of them all in one jump today, I think.

Other Miscellaneous Good Stuff
You now can:
1. Drop equipment from the escape menu.
2. Build clinics on the sites of destroyed robotic towers and thawing towers.
3.  Have a much better chance at actually completing the robotic research facilities without having to turn down the difficulty (do let us know how that feels now).

More monsters coming tomorrow -- as many as I can stuff in.  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!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline MouldyK

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Homign works in multiplayer...****ing hell! Took about a year and 2 games, but I am finally happy that it works.


BEST.PATCH.EVER! ;)

Offline LayZboy

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I really like "my monster" , they should be in every Biome though and not just the desert.

Offline tigersfan

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I really like "my monster" , they should be in every Biome though and not just the desert.

When he put that in the change log, I went looking through the game to see what it was.... You're mean for coming up with the idea, he's mean for implementing it. :)

Offline MouldyK

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Try having two next to each other. Knew it was too good to be true. :)


Also, what's all this about mentioning how it was a busy weekend for Arcen? YOU should be working EVERY weekend and expect no thanks for it!!!
« Last Edit: February 02, 2013, 09:55:07 pm by MouldyK »

Offline x4000

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I really like your monster too.  I think it's good to have them be a little more limited rather than being everywhere, because the rarity makes them all that much more surprising, heh.  But I really am keen on them. :)
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Offline madcow

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While I haven't played yet. All I can say is... triceratops mages and feral chickens!? Why doesn't every game have that!?

Offline x4000

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Offline LayZboy

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That's true. Although it wouldn't hurt to have them in one more biome, and don't even say what one it is lol.

Also we need mechanized dinosaurs shooting lazers from cannons on their backs!

Offline x4000

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 :D
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Offline MouldyK

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That's true. Although it wouldn't hurt to have them in one more biome, and don't even say what one it is lol.

Also we need mechanized dinosaurs shooting lazers from cannons on their backs!

Here you go

Offline Panopticon

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Just completed a run through a Robotic Research Facility, successfully I might add. :P

It was a lot of fun too, it felt kick butt and not frustrating in a bad way.

Taking out the knockback is something I am really happy with too. I think it was probably one of those ideas that sounds good but in practice the game is all around better off without it.

Great update, the game is really starting to get fun now.

edit: BTW I love the Laser Spiders! That's a really fun enemy, guaranteed to strip your concentration, both in the game and in real life!
« Last Edit: February 02, 2013, 10:54:16 pm by Panopticon »

Offline Misery

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One thing about the spiders:

There NEEDS to be a limit on these guys.   They're very broken.... but not in the way that you might think.

Here's an example:




That looks like a pretty nasty situation, right?   Wrong....

This wasnt an unbeatable situation.  This was a situation I COULDNT LOSE.  I literally finished off the boss by just hopping up and down in the middle of that and squashing buttons.   The spiders caused absolutely everything else to not matter.  The boss, the swamp guys, various other nearby enemies.... they couldnt hurt me at all.    The spiders caused LOTS of on-hit invincibility, and it was very easy to get health in that room, so the whole time, I was basically invincible AND constantly healing.  The boss and everything else there didn't stand a chance.

Even that's not the real problem though.   These guys are LITERALLY undodgeable, in every situation I've yet seen them in, which is never a good thing.   Generally, upon encountering these, strategy and tactics go out the window;  I just crash right through them and leap up and down under the spawner and hit buttons until they all go away.    If they had a higher level of attack power, they'd likely be impossible to beat.

Offline Coppermantis

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I just encountered what I believe to be the monster of which you guys are speaking.

Josh is right, you guys are mean.
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline Misery

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Hah, I just ran into it myself as well;  I wont spoil what it is or what it does, but it was certainly.... unexpected. 

Easy to kill if you get the drop on it, lots of pain if you arent paying enough attention.


The mean one so far in my experience is those scorpions... those guys are nasty!