Author Topic: .928 now out - difficulty changes galore!  (Read 1869 times)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
.928 now out - difficulty changes galore!
« on: October 01, 2013, 09:50:05 am »
Release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bionic_Dues_Alpha_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.928

Restart steam to force an update if you want it quicker.

Well, there are a ton of smaller balance tweaks and bugfixes in this one, which is really good.  But there are also three major things of import that you should definitely visit the release notes to see:

1. There is a new Misery difficulty level above Expert, and it's Really Hard(tm).  There are no achievements associated with this, and honestly I think we should keep it that way, since some people like collecting all achievements and I'm not sure that is possible on Misery difficulty.

2. The difficulty has been ratcheted up across the board a bit, from Normal/Medium on up.  I understand some folks were feeling like it was too easy lately after some of my other balance tweaks, so let me know what you think.

3. The balance for the final battle and the lion's den and the way the robot forces build up is pretty completely overhauled in terms of the number of forces and their composition.  It's a lot closer to what it was a week ago, but with different ratios of kinds of bots.  See the release notes for details, but I think you'll be pleased in terms of it giving a more satisfying conclusion to the game than the last couple of versions were.  But still without it being mindless cutting through a thousand chaff robots.
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 Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: .928 now out - difficulty changes galore!
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2013, 09:56:03 am »
Looks like a good patch overall.

That third change is definitely a good and necessary one, I think.   As it is I started a new Expert game earlier in the night with the previous version to see how that developed, and it started out with not very many bots in there, and as for the bot choices, well.... that battle would be like fighting grass with a lawnmower.  If the grass had lasers and was insane.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: .928 now out - difficulty changes galore!
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2013, 09:56:41 am »
Hahaha.
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 Winge

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 601
Re: .928 now out - difficulty changes galore!
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2013, 07:17:04 pm »
Looks good.  The numbers buff was definitely a good thing.  I was wondering why there were so few bots in the enemy's army while playing Expert...
My other bonus ship is a TARDIS.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: .928 now out - difficulty changes galore!
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2013, 09:28:57 pm »
Awesome!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!