Author Topic: Shattered Haven Beta 0.805 "Corners Like It's On Rails" Released!  (Read 1826 times)

Offline x4000

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Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/03/shattered-haven-beta-0805-corners-like.html

This one is actually the fifth update that we've done since beta started three days ago.  However, this is the first one that is getting its own post; I was just in too much of a hurry with everything going on to post about the other releases, despite the fact that they had significant improvements and polish.

This new version includes a lot of top-requested features, such as: not losing your inventory when you die on the overworld; some better handling of some specific annoying cases with the follower player-2-standing; some improvements to the visual clarity of the bonus objectives completion status; and having the player characters slide around object corners rather than getting stuck on them.

There are also a bunch of new music tracks in this one, and a bunch of levels that had only had ambient sound effects before now have their music tracks properly set along with that.  There are also two new weapons that are largely overworld-specific.

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.  When you  launch the game, hit the big "Play" button and then you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.
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Offline nas1m

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Re: Shattered Haven Beta 0.805 "Corners Like It's On Rails" Released!
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2013, 07:28:38 am »
This new version includes a lot of top-requested features, such as: not losing your inventory when you die on the overworld; some better handling of some specific annoying cases with the follower player-2-standing; some improvements to the visual clarity of the bonus objectives completion status; and having the player characters slide around object corners rather than getting stuck on them.


There are also a bunch of new music tracks in this one, and a bunch of levels that had only had ambient sound effects before now have their music tracks properly set along with that.  There are also two new weapons that are largely overworld-specific.


I had some playtime with the new version this morning. Here is what occured to me:

1)
The new slide around corners logic is a good thing but fails to be much of an improvement to me atm due to it being "too good". Actually it's so good that I am having trouble to simply stand (and stop) in front of a tree I want to chop etc...

2)
Literally every single time I died on the Overworld (the Deadlands) it was caused by Mary taking damage from enemies I just dodged or (and this is new) stunned using the new handgun. I can't tell you how frustrating this is - especially after successfully traversing a couple of Overworld screens and being reseted to the last completed level at respawn.

This feels like am constantly being punished for something I have no control over whatsoever.
This is made worse by the fact that the faster I am moving, dodging or fighting enemies (i.e. the better I am doing actually) the farther Mary starts to hang back which leads to her taking even more damage.

I understand that you are working on improving the AI for Player 2 if not impersonated by a human player, but maybe there is some "invulnerability flag" you can flag for Player 2 in the meantime?

If I am honest I don't really see the benefit of AI controlled players taking damage at all here =  /.
Maybe you would like to elaborate a bit on this ; )...

3)
The new handgun is fun but has a few issues as far as I am concerned. Aside from the impact on Player 2 AI mentioned above it is really easy to maneuver yourself into a corner, especially in tight passages.
As stunning a grey does no knockback to it there simply is no way to get past it without taking damage if stuck in such a corner (other than earlier when "real" consumable weapons allowed you to kill the Gray - if you had some).

Now that I think of it knocking Grays around with the handgun like Magnum sounds like fun to me ; )...

Aside from that the stun period might use a slight buff (maybe 3 seconds?). If dealing with a single Gray the current stun period is fine but dealing with 2 or 3 Grays the first one already wakes up once I am done shooting...

Other than that: Another really nice update = ). Looking forward to the things to come!   
« Last Edit: March 12, 2013, 07:33:45 am by nas1m »
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Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
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Re: Shattered Haven Beta 0.805 "Corners Like It's On Rails" Released!
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2013, 09:40:58 am »
This is actually one of the things I was planning already regarding the NPCs (after hearing what people thought):

* The NPC versions of player 2 are now invulnerable, so that they aren't contributing to the difficulty (or frustration) of any sections of the game.

More to come on this and your other things, though.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Shattered Haven Beta 0.805 "Corners Like It's On Rails" Released!
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2013, 11:59:55 pm »
I didn't get to your #3 yet, but it's on my list for tomorrow.  Thanks!

New one: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,12625.0.html
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Offline nas1m

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Re: Shattered Haven Beta 0.805 "Corners Like It's On Rails" Released!
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2013, 02:44:32 am »
You're welcome = ).
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