Alpha 0.802 out.

[x4000]

The notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Skyward_Collapse_-_Pre-Beta_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.802

A few specific comments:

1. Most likely a lot of the existing savegames are going to be pretty out of whack with all the unit cost and health changes.  It's not that they will be mechanically broken or something -- you can still play them -- but I doubt they are going to be at all representative of the revised experience.

2. In general people were having waaaaay too large of military and civilian populations because of how the costs were set up, and that makes the game turn tedious and confusing.  Fixed.  Also, units were getting killed so fast that damage bonuses were kind of pointless.  Also fixed.  These might need to be MORE fixed (higher multipliers), but they are at least far better than before.  About 3x right now.

3. Even being completely distracted by all the player feedback, I did manage to get four new mythological tokens in place.


I'm largely going to be out tomorrow, but will be working Sunday.  To some extent I am going to try to ignore a lot of what is in mantis and actually get the remaining pre-beta features in place, then circle back around to mantis.  Except where the mantis stuff needs fixing sooner than later in order for testing to happen properly.  It's a chicken and egg problem: if I don't get all the features in place asap, they can't be tested and the game experience isn't really complete anyhow.  But if I don't deal with a lot of the nits that are coming in through mantis, it's kind of the same thing.  At the moment I think I've gotten the worst of the nits (knock on wood), so here's hoping for my sanity that doesn't continue at the deluge rate that it has been thus far today.

That said, obviously if you have something to say, report it -- don't hold back on my account, as that's not helping anybody in the end.

[Cinth]

So you have replaced one dilemma with another 

1:  Truth.  Do start a new game.
2:  Go big or go home right?  General comment, only need 2 or 3 chaps now vs the 15 or 20 we had before
3:  Awwwww YEAAAHHH!

And I've already hit the infinite loop averted thing again with the update (mantis report has been updated).

I'm done for the night (unless something needs to be tested).  Gonna pick up tomorrow and actually play the game without trying to break it

[x4000]

There's always a back-and-forth of dilemmas until the dust settles.

In terms of #2, I'm glad to hear it: that's way more reasonable in numbers of chapmen.  Maybe slightly on the low side, but it depends on when in the game you're talking about and exactly what you were trying to do (how many towns, etc, etc).

[JAlfredGoodwin]

I'm liking the changes so far, much easier to figure out now.

[Cinth]

My dilemma is when to make light of the situation.  Finding the humor in a stressful situation isn't an exact science either

The comment on 2 was directly related to one of my mantis reports, one city type stuff.  I haven't tried to go for multiple cities on each side yet.  There is a lot more to the game than I've had a chance to explore.

[x4000]

@JAlfredGoodwin: Excellent!

There is a lot more to the game than I've had a chance to explore.

As per usual, I always tend to worry that there's not enough when it's already fricking huge.  The gods and the mythological tokens and such are hardly in there, and it's already a really sizeable game.  And challenges and edicts and all that still to come, too.  The groundwork is in there for all that, and it's all designed in spreadsheets, I just have to make it function in the game itself.

[Cinth]

There is a lot more to the game than I've had a chance to explore.

As per usual, I always tend to worry that there's not enough when it's already fricking huge.  The gods and the mythological tokens and such are hardly in there, and it's already a really sizeable game.  And challenges and edicts and all that still to come, too.  The groundwork is in there for all that, and it's all designed in spreadsheets, I just have to make it function in the game itself.

Well, if you have seen anything I posted over in the AIW forum, you know I take things to the extreme.
With Skyward, I've been testing, not really playing the game.  Tomorrow I want to actually explore the game.

[PokerChen]

The biggest question I have right now:

 - Is it possible to repair/rebuilding buildings without (1) smacking it and laying down a new one, or (2) via some token that hasn't been implemented?

 I have a half-sacked Norse town from the previous game with, like, 6 dead barracks because I had to defend against an Sfendonitai throwing adamantine rocks.

[orzelek]

The biggest question I have right now:

 - Is it possible to repair/rebuilding buildings without (1) smacking it and laying down a new one, or (2) via some token that hasn't been implemented?

 I have a half-sacked Norse town from the previous game with, like, 6 dead barracks because I had to defend against an Sfendonitai throwing adamantine rocks.

I sign up for this question. Hera appeared close to Norse city and leveled parts of it. It left 3/4 of city with white flags.

Also from what I can see buildings don't have self heal and I couldn't find any way to repair them.

[Hearteater]

I couldn't install the patch.  I loaded the game up for the first time and saw the patch button, but the music was too awesome and I could not click on it until the track finished.

[Aquohn]

I couldn't install the patch.  I loaded the game up for the first time and saw the patch button, but the music was too awesome and I could not click on it until the track finished.

Ha! Same thing for Valley 2. Wonder what the lyrics are for this one though. Clearly not in English, so what are they?

[Aklyon]

All I've heard is 'Drifting......'

[orzelek]

What is the role of gods meant to be?

Currently they spawn and stay there creating area of denial. Is that intended behavior ?

[iozay]

The new artefacts are great, so far I haven't experienced any new Win8 crashes I will try to alt-tab a bit more

[tigersfan]

I couldn't install the patch.  I loaded the game up for the first time and saw the patch button, but the music was too awesome and I could not click on it until the track finished.

Ha! Same thing for Valley 2. Wonder what the lyrics are for this one though. Clearly not in English, so what are they?

The lyrics are in Old Norse. Pablo really went the extra mile there, IMO.

They are from the Havamal, which is an ancient Norse poem (think Proverbs from the Bible). Roughly translated, they are:

Cattle die,
kinsmen die
you yourself die;
I know one thing
which never dies:
the fate of the honored dead.