Author Topic: .909 now out.  (Read 4695 times)

Offline x4000

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.909 now out.
« on: September 13, 2013, 03:11:58 pm »
Big long list of notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bionic_Dues_Alpha_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.909

If you want the update immediately, as always just exit and restart Steam to force it to update.

Well, goodness, this one covers a lot of ground:

EMPBots: If there is still anything wrong with them, please do let me know.

AOE: Some AOE weapons got nerfed, some got a shape change, and all of them got some bugs fixed (which, actually, counterbalances the nerf pretty well I think).

Emma: She has a completely new special ability, way more useful.

Difficulty Level Scaling: You have Misery to blame for this, but Hard and Expert are now, well, way harder.

Amount of Stuff on Individual Parts: This went way down, because it made the individual parts pretty confusing, and made it so that you were getting too many cross-system bonuses from unrelated systems.  Almost all of the underlying prefixes and suffixes are still possible to get, but their chance of having one or both went through the floor.  This is a pretty key simplification for the management of the parts in your Exos, but do let us know how it feels.  Existing parts you already have are not affected, by the way.

And then a bunch of bugfixes and similar.
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Offline Tridus

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2013, 03:37:18 pm »
Quote
Emma's new commander ability is now more impressive:

    Instead of getting 8 Rares and 16 Epics in the store, she gets 6 uncommons, 6 rares, 6 epics, and 6 legendaries. The ability to buy uncommons is nice because they're cheap, the ability to buy legendaries is nice because... we shouldn't have to tell you that.
    For Emma, when the store rolls a new part it has a higher chance of rolling a part type that is not already present in the store. Rolling an already-present type is still very possible, though, since you may want more options of the same type.
    Now the store only normally pays you 75% of an item's value when you sell it, but for Emma will still pay 100%.

:D

Offline madcow

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2013, 03:52:10 pm »
This weekend I'll be able to play (knock on wood!). Sounds like some good stuff since I last gave it a spin.

Offline orzelek

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2013, 06:03:21 pm »
I seen large announcement that game is single player now..
To my surprise I found multiplayer check box on new game screen :D

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2013, 06:10:22 pm »
I seen large announcement that game is single player now..
To my surprise I found multiplayer check box on new game screen :D
Apparently it's really just Schizoplayer ;)
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Offline orzelek

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2013, 06:22:15 pm »
Is hacking meant to be a bit.. useless at the start?
On first mission can't even hack scavenging terminal. And can hack at max 1 door.
It was very nice feature rewarding exploration before  :-\

Offline Misery

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2013, 08:48:04 pm »
Just a quick note, after a couple of quick test missions, I'm thinking the change to the new part stats might not work, for a few reasons.

Firstly, new parts, they've become VERY underwhelming.  I think the test missions are the first times where I didn't get even one part that was worth equipping, and that goes both for the big pile of loot, AND the stuff in the store, which is equally useless.   The "base" stats between items are often just not different enough to warrant upgrading (or to warrant a new power cost), or also not strong enough.  I look at something like the explosion boosters, right, well chances are that a level 5 booster really isnt going to be much different than a level 10 booster (if at all).  Maybe a couple of percentage points... but that's it.  There's no reason to upgrade until the level is really dramatically higher.  On top of that, some part types are kinda worthless with this, the explosion boosters being a good example.  I found that most of the time, you needed two or three of those to produce an effect;  what made them worth using was the side stats, so they werent JUST gobbling up slots.  In the current version, there's no point in using these, or a few other types of parts, as they'll actually lead to a weaker Exo if you take up valuable slots with them.   Not to mention this all just being alot less interesting than the way it was before;  I can already tell I'd only end up equipping something every now and then, sticking with individual items for silly amounts of time while money just builds up.  And finally, with a loot system of this type, the prefixes/suffixes are the entirety of what makes one part different/unique as compared to another.  As it is, players will likely keep an eye out for those rare parts that DO have those, and only use those when they can, dropping everything else.

But even more than that, the game as a whole was balanced around the stats as they were before.... and it was working out pretty well, honestly.

I dont think the problem was in the stats themselves;  you say that the parts were often confusing and such, and I can agree with that, but it's not the stats that were really doing that, as much as it was the way the stats were being displayed.   Example, you've got an Exo who has 20 hacking points, right?  You go in, and in some slot, you equip something that has a bonus of 6 to hacking.  Well, the window for equipping isnt going to show the 20 hacking points going to 26;  instead, it always would show 0 going to 6, because it was displaying only from THAT subsection instead of the main stat.   This can be pretty darn confuzzling, and is actually something I kept meaning to bring up (and of course kept forgetting to do, hah).  There are other, similar issues related to the way that it displays things.   Beyond that though.... there's alot of different stats in the game, and one way or another there might be a little confusion.  Stat-heavy games are like that, and it's honestly something that the player just has to get used to with them.   I actually think it's not bad at all in this game, if the stats are displayed properly.  Particularly since you dont have to go crazy with them when playing on lower difficulties, so the game gives newer players plenty of time to get used to how everything works, and what everything does, and so on.   If you go and fix the display to make it less confusing, I dont think you'll have much of a problem.


So, my suggestion is:  Roll back this one, and make a few changes to the customize interface and such to make it a little easier to deal with, and a little easier to understand exactly what any part is going to give.  That's not to say that there couldnt be a few tweaks to the stats though;  for example, a few too many items give boosts to the "ability" stats, like giving you more sentries (as opposed to increasing the strength of sentries, which is very different) or viruses or stuff.  That bit is the one that could be lowered a little, particularly on less rare parts.  Other than that, I honestly cant think of any problems with the stats and items as they were before. 

Offline Tridus

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2013, 08:49:37 pm »
I think it's a side effect of the hacking cost now being 5+, early on you don't have the scaling in hacking points to deal with that.

Maybe that needs to scale in, or maybe the starting points need a slight boost. That said, scavenging terminal is super expensive so it might not be a problem. Can you hack other stuff like doors?

Offline Aquohn

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2013, 09:28:11 pm »
Firstly, new parts, they've become VERY underwhelming.  I think the test missions are the first times where I didn't get even one part that was worth equipping, and that goes both for the big pile of loot, AND the stuff in the store, which is equally useless.   The "base" stats between items are often just not different enough to warrant upgrading (or to warrant a new power cost), or also not strong enough.  I look at something like the explosion boosters, right, well chances are that a level 5 booster really isnt going to be much different than a level 10 booster (if at all).  Maybe a couple of percentage points... but that's it.  There's no reason to upgrade until the level is really dramatically higher.  On top of that, some part types are kinda worthless with this, the explosion boosters being a good example.  I found that most of the time, you needed two or three of those to produce an effect;  what made them worth using was the side stats, so they werent JUST gobbling up slots.  In the current version, there's no point in using these, or a few other types of parts, as they'll actually lead to a weaker Exo if you take up valuable slots with them.

I agree wholeheartedly. There was a time when I had a Mk VI which does exactly the same thing as a Mk I, except it costs more. And part of the reason why inventory management is so headachey is because the difference in stats is small, so comparisons have to get down to a really nitty-gritty level.
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Offline Winge

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2013, 12:25:38 am »
Is hacking meant to be a bit.. useless at the start?
On first mission can't even hack scavenging terminal. And can hack at max 1 door.
It was very nice feature rewarding exploration before  :-\

I noticed the same.  I immediately made a beeline for the nearest Science Facility.  Which only gave me one or two hacking parts.  And then I found the terminal that drains hacking points  >:(

I personally think that the basic hacker part should be available from the start, or that the Science Exo should start with a few more points.  That said, it's not gamebreaking, as early-game parts aren't all that great.


@Misery
I agree with your stance on the customization screen (don't remember if I or someone else Mantised it yet).  I would much rather see totals for the Exo, as opposed to the subsystem.  The only reason I would want the subsystem would be if it used the old-style of parts boost (% bonus to the parts in the subsystem, rather than those stats).  Even then, a summary is better overall.

I also would like to see part stats rise a bit more quickly, at least to keep on-par with their power costs.  The weird thing is that the part stats have seemed better to me recently than before.  The main issue is reactor parts; higher level versions of those are only rarely better than their lower-level counterparts.

I actually liked the +% AOE items, although I think they took a big hit with the Rocked Launcher AoE nerf.  Before, I enjoyed nuking entire rooms with Rocket Launchers.  Now, it's just not as effective to use those items--it requires too much for too little benefit.
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Offline nas1m

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2013, 05:57:32 am »
Just a quick question: I noticed that bot types that are not part of the robot army (as stated by the city map) receive level-ups in the Mission summary. Are those bots I will encounter in the next/another mission?
Or am I missing something here?
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Offline x4000

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2013, 06:04:31 am »
Just a quick question: I noticed that bot types that are not part of the robot army (as stated by the city map) receive level-ups in the Mission summary. Are those bots I will encounter in the next/another mission?
Or am I missing something here?

Yep, that's all!
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Offline x4000

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2013, 06:05:07 am »
Changes incoming:

* The changes to how many prefix/suffixes/stats each part grants have been rolled back to the way they were in .908.

* The prefixes and suffixes that granted ability points had previously been removed in .909.  That has now changed so that:
** Stealth-related and self-destruct ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in propulsion slots.
** Hacking, virus, sentry turret, and mine ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in computer slots.
** This returns the ability to get more hacking points without it being quite so crazy in terms of getting things from all systems and sides: it was previously far too easy to get too many abilities very strongly on even an exo with a cruddy computer.

The hacking cost has been returned to just the level of the tile, rather than 5 plus the level of the tile.
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Offline nas1m

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #13 on: September 14, 2013, 06:11:52 am »
Changes incoming:

* The changes to how many prefix/suffixes/stats each part grants have been rolled back to the way they were in .908.

* The prefixes and suffixes that granted ability points had previously been removed in .909.  That has now changed so that:
** Stealth-related and self-destruct ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in propulsion slots.
** Hacking, virus, sentry turret, and mine ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in computer slots.
** This returns the ability to get more hacking points without it being quite so crazy in terms of getting things from all systems and sides: it was previously far too easy to get too many abilities very strongly on even an exo with a cruddy computer.

The hacking cost has been returned to just the level of the tile, rather than 5 plus the level of the tile.
Sounds good!
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Offline Aquohn

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Re: .909 now out.
« Reply #14 on: September 14, 2013, 06:26:44 am »
Changes incoming:

* The changes to how many prefix/suffixes/stats each part grants have been rolled back to the way they were in .908.

* The prefixes and suffixes that granted ability points had previously been removed in .909.  That has now changed so that:
** Stealth-related and self-destruct ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in propulsion slots.
** Hacking, virus, sentry turret, and mine ability points in prefixes/suffixes only come in computer slots.
** This returns the ability to get more hacking points without it being quite so crazy in terms of getting things from all systems and sides: it was previously far too easy to get too many abilities very strongly on even an exo with a cruddy computer.

The hacking cost has been returned to just the level of the tile, rather than 5 plus the level of the tile.

Oh, thank heavens! This certainly makes customisation a lot less irksome :)
Arcen in Summary:
thank you so much, RNG
It aims to please!

Or is that "to kill"?  Hmm.