Author Topic: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now  (Read 7942 times)

Offline Mick

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #30 on: May 23, 2013, 07:40:47 pm »
I kinda like how all units and buildings have a flat point reward for death.

There are definitely reasons to upgrade units already, you pretty much need it to take on the bandits in the higher difficulties.

Offline Misery

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #31 on: May 23, 2013, 07:50:16 pm »
Given that bandit camps in round 3 are now much more threatening, I think the lockdown woe on not hard difficulties can be reduced to 7 or even 5.

I prevented mass chaos in my tutorial game only through spamming mythological creatures.

Another thing...

Can the points values for units scale with level in some way.

Yet another thing...

Should mythological creatures be worth 15 (correct me if thats wrong)? I think they should be worth 50.


I agree that mythologicals should be worth a bit more than other units.  They can be pretty darn tough!  And can sometimes be even stronger based on certain god effects.  They have alot of good uses, but more inherant risk than human units, so increasing their score by a bit is probably not a bad idea.

Offline madcow

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #32 on: May 23, 2013, 07:52:35 pm »
I just checked and you're the number 4 seller on mac at the moment. So congrats there!

Offline Misery

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #33 on: May 23, 2013, 08:11:22 pm »
Congrats on the release in general, I think.

It's been bloody fascinating watching this game take shape, and though it's taken ALOT of time to test and retest and everything, I was quite happy to be able to participate in that.


REALLY hoping this does well.   Want to see expansions for this!  I like strategy games alot, but this one really grabs me even more than most of them do, and that's saying something.   So... yeah.  Expansions!


Good luck!

Offline Cinth

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #34 on: May 23, 2013, 08:29:53 pm »
Congrats on the release in general, I think.

It's been bloody fascinating watching this game take shape, and though it's taken ALOT of time to test and retest and everything, I was quite happy to be able to participate in that.


REALLY hoping this does well.   Want to see expansions for this!  I like strategy games alot, but this one really grabs me even more than most of them do, and that's saying something.   So... yeah.  Expansions!


Good luck!
This. Exactly this.
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Offline x4000

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #35 on: May 23, 2013, 08:33:15 pm »
Thanks very much folks!  I think that, at this point in time, it's 99% chance that we'll be working on expansions.

A big mistake we made with Valley 1 was just working on free DLC for three months straight after release without any form of expansion content.  That was bloody expensive and ultimately did a number on our ability to actually break even on that game (aka, we didn't).

For Skyward I think what my most likely course of action will be is to both start work on major free DLC post launch (aka more woes and all sorts of good stuff, along with general balance), as well as starting on larger expansion stuff that would be in a for-pay package.  It may be worth it to make a thread about what people would want to see there.  Personally I'd want at least one more faction, but I think limiting it to one might be best so that the rest of the new additions could be core ones that affect all factions: ie new buildings that everyone can use, new land tiles, etc.  So you get the variety of a new faction, but also the increased scope across all factions (without directly adding units that would be exclusive to preexisting factions).  If that makes sense.

Pricing for the expansions would be a tricky thing.  If its $5 for the base game, is the expansion the same price?  That's kind of going to cause customer rebellion.  Is it $2.50?  Holy heck, there's a limit to how much we can put in an expansion for that low of a price.  Either way the expansion needs to be the same sort of "OMG this is a great value" sort of thing that the AI War expansions always have been.  And I guess one thing of note is that the cheapest of those expansions was the one that was least impressive on that score.  So that says something right there.

Anyway, it's not kosher to talk about expansions on day one I guess, but I think that doing that plus loads and loads of new free stuff for everyone is always the best course.  I want to see the woe count in the triple digits!  I want each of the ages to become increasingly distinct for reasons unrelated to the gods themselves (and the gods are just icing).  I want, if at all possible, a more robust citybuilding sim that is more economy-for-economy's sake rather than everything backing the military.  And I want, essentially, alternate win conditions relating from that.  Still "survive to the end and reach a certain score," don't get me wrong.  But a completely different way of accomplishing that.

Quests or great works of some kind could be interesting.  Those literally could be alternate win conditions, like building a ship to alpha centauri in civ.  Dangerous ways to win the game before the clock runs out could be interesting.

I've just described several expansions' worth of stuff, really; if we're going to do mechanics like that right, and really give each one a lot of details and variance, then each thing there would have a ton of sub-components that would warrant an expansion on its own, probably.  The great works expansion, with tons of complexity on those lines, and lots of other things thrown in.  The citybuilding expansion with economic paths to victory, and this whole "separate from the military" type of gameplay in it.

Who knows.  There are a lot of things I've thought about, and a lot of things that I'm sure you guys have ideas for, too.  I'm not sure what I'm most interested in pursuing yet, as my focus has been so tunnel-vision on this release (and not knowing how it would do).  But I do want to do something.  And in the meantime, of course, free DLC while we figure that out.  Unless something drastic happens to our current sales trajectory.  Knock on wood!
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Offline Misery

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #36 on: May 23, 2013, 08:45:24 pm »
That all sounds pretty good to me.

In particular, I'd like to see more options for city building.  More building types or additional mechanics or whatever.   Though, I dont think any changes need to be made to the base mechanics on that one.... the way the citybuilding works right now and it's underlying mechanics are quite good, by my view.  There's alot of strategy there already.  But yeah, adding more to it, that'd be pretty great.

More factions though I think is the one thing I'd like to see most, definitely, even more than more city stuffs. 



Anyway, quickly going back to the patch and balance stuffs:

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=11648


I wanted to bring that one up because it's kind of a nasty balance issue that seems to have gotten overlooked.   Both of those tokens (Norns & Brokkr) are WAY too strong for the fact that they both have no downsides (and they GIVE you points....).   I'm thinking, change these in the same way that you changed Palladium/Cornucopia for the Greek.   These are powerful and useful as heck, and should be much tougher to use, and have a strong negative score to them.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #37 on: May 23, 2013, 09:08:52 pm »
Quote
Pricing for the expansions would be a tricky thing.  If its $5 for the base game, is the expansion the same price?  That's kind of going to cause customer rebellion.  Is it $2.50?  Holy heck, there's a limit to how much we can put in an expansion for that low of a price.  Either way the expansion needs to be the same sort of "OMG this is a great value" sort of thing that the AI War expansions always have been.  And I guess one thing of note is that the cheapest of those expansions was the one that was least impressive on that score.  So that says something right there.

As a point of reference, The Binding of Issac is a $5 game and the Wrath of the Lamb DLC is priced at $2.99. I think there's a LOT of content in that DLC, though. Exactly the same pricing for Dungeons of Dredmor and its DLC. Seems to be working for those guys. A DLC of the same price as the main game would definitely get you hauled over the coals, I think.

Very pleased to hear that you are going to probably be working further on this game. A more robust citybuilding would be great! New factions! New Woes! Nice!

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #38 on: May 23, 2013, 09:43:22 pm »
On the dangerous-alternate-way-to-win-early thing, the idea that came to mind first was some kind of deal where if you place/secure/whatever these X special tiles, then it forces some kind of end boss to come out that's stupidly, stupidly powerful and dangerous (like "can end your game in a few turns" dangerous) but if the combined military of the world takes him down you win instantly.

... (looks at last AIW patch) ... maybe I'm not always very original ;)
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Offline Misery

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #39 on: May 23, 2013, 09:47:22 pm »
On the dangerous-alternate-way-to-win-early thing, the idea that came to mind first was some kind of deal where if you place/secure/whatever these X special tiles, then it forces some kind of end boss to come out that's stupidly, stupidly powerful and dangerous (like "can end your game in a few turns" dangerous) but if the combined military of the world takes him down you win instantly.

... (looks at last AIW patch) ... maybe I'm not always very original ;)


That actually sounds pretty cool, really.

I havent seen all of the woes in the game yet, are there any that do something like that?  Like a rampaging boss, sort of thing, that you have to then find a way to kill?  If there isnt, there SHOULD be, since that just seems like it'd fit the "woes" concept perfectly.  Sounds like it'd be a fun one, and satisfying to beat.

Offline Cinth

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #40 on: May 23, 2013, 09:48:51 pm »
Siegfried Is Hired

It is pretty close to that.  Siggy is a bastard.
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #41 on: May 23, 2013, 09:59:42 pm »
Maybe it would be like a "minor faction" where there's some bandit-like units out there who move (from random spawns, or from a particular spawn zone) to a particular tile and that pushes up some progress bar.  When progress bar hits 100% the boss dude pops out.

So either you try to make sure they don't accomplish this at all, or you actually make it easier on them so they can get the guy out and you can kill him and win.

Maybe one of the two normal factions producing a particular resource (or other activity you can influence) increases the spawn rate of the "cultists" mentioned above, so if you really don't want to deal with it you have to be careful about that resource.  Or if you're trying to bring things to a head you may want to crank it out.  Maybe which resource this is changes from game to game, or from "phase" to "phase" of the progress bar.

Not trying to over-complicate things, but I think the above would be relatively lightweight as expansion-anchors (or mini-anchors, at least) go.
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Offline Cinth

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #42 on: May 23, 2013, 10:07:34 pm »
And everyone would love it at release and gripe more and more as the next epo draws near?
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Offline Misery

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #43 on: May 23, 2013, 10:28:33 pm »
Maybe it would be like a "minor faction" where there's some bandit-like units out there who move (from random spawns, or from a particular spawn zone) to a particular tile and that pushes up some progress bar.  When progress bar hits 100% the boss dude pops out.

So either you try to make sure they don't accomplish this at all, or you actually make it easier on them so they can get the guy out and you can kill him and win.

Maybe one of the two normal factions producing a particular resource (or other activity you can influence) increases the spawn rate of the "cultists" mentioned above, so if you really don't want to deal with it you have to be careful about that resource.  Or if you're trying to bring things to a head you may want to crank it out.  Maybe which resource this is changes from game to game, or from "phase" to "phase" of the progress bar.

Not trying to over-complicate things, but I think the above would be relatively lightweight as expansion-anchors (or mini-anchors, at least) go.


Hmm, I like this concept.  It'd fit the theme of the game, too:  Being able to decide for yourself wether you want to stop them in this particular game, or allow them to summon the boss.   Where in most strategy titles you'd pretty much ALWAYS want to stop them, not as much choice.

If you can do this one to where there's benefits (and downsides) to both options, I think it'd be a pretty great addition.   A bit more "intense" than the usual bandits.   Yet of course, the usual bandits would still interfere!

Offline Zeyurn

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Re: 1.0 out for alpha testers. Edit: 1.001 now
« Reply #44 on: May 24, 2013, 12:12:52 am »
Grats on release!  I picked up 3 copies so me, my wife, and my friend that always play AI War together can give this one a go!  Looking forward to trying it out this weekend!

 

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