Author Topic: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!  (Read 2618 times)

Offline x4000

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Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« on: February 07, 2013, 09:15:17 pm »
Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/02/valley-2-beta-800-soundscapes-released.html

This one finally starts work on the sound effects for the game, as well as having numerous refinements for the adventure and strategic portions of the game.  Lots of art updates in this one, too.

The big thing on the strategic side this time is that there is now a better-defined early game period (as opposed to the middle and late game).  Basically Demonaica comes out much later than before, but other monsters spawn in the meantime.  This really changes the strategy of the start of the game so that it's less rush and more thoughtful.

Anyway, the sound effect improvements are a big deal, and are about 40% done at this point.  I think you'll agree once you hear them that the aural landscape is vastly improved now, and that it makes a huge difference to the feel of the game in general.  I'm rather surprised by how much this improves things, honestly.

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 LayZboy

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2013, 10:40:02 pm »
Hey are whips classed as melee spells, because they don't hit any of those "melee/ammo only" monsters.

Also we've been playing AI's wars recently with marginal success, so we haven't really been reporting MP bugs.

Offline x4000

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2013, 10:48:08 pm »
Whips are not classed as melee, no.
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Offline LayZboy

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2013, 10:49:26 pm »
Oh.

Well they should be.

Edit: I like the new sounds though, getting hit sounds really weird (but in an okay kinda way) and some spell sounds are like the attacks in "LJNs Terminator 2" for NES but I do like the vast improvement so far from what I've seen.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 11:02:19 pm by LayZboy »

Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2013, 11:35:23 pm »
Oh.

Well they should be.



Gotta agree with this one.

The whips not only SEEM like they're melee spells.... they are whips, after all.... but there's two other important reasons for why I think they should be melee:

1.  They're really not of much use otherwise.  I tend to not use powersets that include these, because it ends up being like having a spell slot that really doesnt do anything.   

2.  There arent enough melee spells in the game.... it's actually not only possible, but very likely, that at some point in a typical game you are going to get to the next spell tier..... and have zero melee spells in it.   In my last 3 worlds, this happened in all 3.   The Ocean Shallows areas are WAY too important (farms) to be locked out of going through them simply because the RNG was being a snot with the tiers.   These areas are not doable with ammo spells only.  Currently, getting through them when the RNG does that requires an extreme amount of luck, and most of the time, it's simply not going to work, as the game really is designed in such a way as to make you actually fight all the monsters, rather than just dodging around them and running past.   The only current strategy that really does work when you dont have melee with these is just dropping the difficulty to nothing and crashing through.

It's not just the shallows areas though.   Level-up towers, and particularly boss rooms, can be *really* nasty with these sorts of enemies.


Other than that.... most players are likely going to attempt to use the whips on these enemies, and then wonder if the spells are just outright glitched.

Offline Panopticon

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2013, 11:39:27 pm »
Wow, I thought whips were melee spells too.

Seems like another poster already said something along the lines of whips being broken and not working right in Ocean Shallows tiles, so the perception is probably pretty widespread that whips are melee spells.

So I guess the touch and punch spells are melee. Are there any others?

Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2013, 12:56:53 am »
Wow, I thought whips were melee spells too.

Seems like another poster already said something along the lines of whips being broken and not working right in Ocean Shallows tiles, so the perception is probably pretty widespread that whips are melee spells.

So I guess the touch and punch spells are melee. Are there any others?

There's that weird backwards one, but it's not good for much.   If there's others beyond that, I've not seen them.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2013, 07:18:01 am »
I actually took it for granted that whips were melee attacks while updating one of my spell reports. I think they should be classed as melee, too. As long as the whip-attack caliber is kept low they shouldn't completely dominate the touch attacks (which are handy defensively).
« Last Edit: February 08, 2013, 07:20:33 am by Pepisolo »

Offline x4000

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2013, 07:36:45 am »
Coming changes of interest. ;)

* The description of whips and tridents have been improved to note that they can bypass certain enemy blocks.

* Whips and tridents are now considered melee spells.

* Draught Reversal is now called Draught Touch, and hits in front of you rather than behind you.

* All of the touch/punch spells have been updated to note that their high caliber is great for blocking enemy spells.
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Offline Misery

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2013, 09:29:41 am »
Coming changes of interest. ;)

* The description of whips and tridents have been improved to note that they can bypass certain enemy blocks.

* Whips and tridents are now considered melee spells.

* Draught Reversal is now called Draught Touch, and hits in front of you rather than behind you.

* All of the touch/punch spells have been updated to note that their high caliber is great for blocking enemy spells.


Wait, the whips bypass what now?    Sounds like these do something that I wasnt aware of....


Sounds like good changes though.   That should fix the "not enough melee spells" bit, with the Shallows areas.


The Shallows areas right now are pretty interesting, by the way.   A bit of a departure from the gameplay found in most other places, more "dash at things and punch them" rather than the careful selection and aiming of other areas.  Those bubble things though.... yes, I can see how they're inspired by the "Bubbles" in Zelda 2.... ah, how I remember those things, they were freaking EVERYWHERE, bounced off the walls, drove me crazy, took a zillion stabs to kill, gave you hardly any experience.....  The bubbles in this game arent quite that annoying, heh.



Also noticing in general that pretty much every biome differentiates itself quite nicely at this point.  One thing I really like is in the abandoned towns, the little "mini-caves" that generate in the surface sections, that tend to contain equipment in them, those are pretty neat.   Adds a little proper exploration to the otherwise linear sidescrolling areas.   I dont think I've seen mini-caves in other biomes?   Wouldnt be a bad idea to have one show up in those every now and then.   

Seems though also like the abandoned towns are definitely the place to go to get equipment in general.   Always alot to choose from there.

Offline x4000

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2013, 09:48:20 am »
Cheers!  Lots of stuff on my plate, so just responding briefly to the critical things while I try to whittle down my list...

Wait, the whips bypass what now?    Sounds like these do something that I wasnt aware of....

They strike right through things like Auroch shields. :)
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Offline Nanashi

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2013, 04:48:03 pm »
Always did, hence I didn't really think high caliber was necessary for them since I found them useful enough to get rid of those freaking steamships. I just assumed they had lower caliber so that punches would have a point.

Btw: Stonebinder is a terrible terrible class, please rebalance it.

Stone shot is obnoxiously weak. It's as weak as storm drone, except at least Draftlock can use clinging gust and completely ignore its primary spell. Using stone shot on an enemy walking casually towards you will very frequently fail to kill it before it hits you.

Stone charge, like all charge spells, is pointless because charging it doesn't result in a significantly larger projectile both sizewise nor caliberwise, you can't hold it for when you need it (it eventually autofires), the charged damage is pathetic, and charging the stupid thing for 5 seconds only to see it ping harmlessly off a crawler bug shot is aggravating. Charge spells are hopeless in their current incarnation. For them to be useful, they usually either 1) need to do damage while charging 2) need to pierce 3) need to grow significantly larger and more powerful enough to justify not shooting any other spell while charging, which equals a one (and two at the most) shot kill on most trivial enemies, not charging a stupid rock for 5 seconds and realising you need 4 more to kill an eel.
 
Stone fusilliade, like the other fusilliade spells, is largely a waste of a spell unless trying to kill idiotic robo spiders, because the damage actually manages to be worse than stone shot, which is quite a feat.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2013, 06:12:08 pm by Nanashi »

Offline x4000

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Re: Valley 2 Beta .800 "Soundscapes" Released!
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2013, 09:38:28 pm »
New one!  http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,12428.0.html


And I've put the stonebinder on Josh's list to look at.  Thanks!
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