Skyward Collapse 1.503 Beta "Unstoppable Demon-Hag" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/08/skyward-collapse-1503-beta-unstoppable.html

If you've not yet read about the general changes in the 1.4 beta line, now is a good time to do so. It's expected that we'll stay in beta for the new features until we release the 2.0 version of the game in late August, alongside the new Nihon no Mura expansion.  A lot is different in the base game since 1.4, so we want to make sure and give this time to mature before we put this out to everyone.

This one has a bunch of updates that really improve the list of implemented features so far for the new expansion.

Previously, only a quarter of the Japanese god-related stuff was in the game, and all of the Japanese functionality was only semi-tested in general.  We've now implemented every last aspect of the Japanese faction, and have done detail testing on all the units.  This is a really crazy faction, in a fun way.

This release also adds the last three of the bandit-only mythological units, too.  These are all... kind of crazy, really.  One is a giant fish under the mud that thrashes around, knocking holes in the earth (even in buildings).  Another is this kind of zombie infestation that you have to clean up before it gets too intense.

And the last is Onibaba, the "unstoppable demon-hag."  She is unkillable via traditional means, but this is a case where things like the god powers can knock her out.  Or you can do something clever like cordon her off just by smiting.  Before anyone calls OP on her, just make sure you think a little sideways: she is tricky, but there can only be one of her at a time on the map, and she can definitely be dealt with.  She also won't bother gods, mythologicals, or buildings, so her threat is only so much even if you can't deal with her properly.

There are also a number of bugfixes that should prove very welcome for the base game, even.  Specifically, the "jumping over units" bug in particular.

In other news, work continues on the hamlets implementation.  Nothing to share publicly on it yet, but we're a goodly way through the implementation and have discarded yet another model that this would work under.  Not unexpected for even late prototyping phase.  Josh and I came up with a revised model for the hamlets just an hour or so ago, one that learns from the mistakes in the prior models, and I think it's really strong.  Once I've got it all implemented and am satisfied that it's ready for public testing, then we'll push that out.  Hopefully tomorrow, but we'll see!

More to come soon.  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, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.

[Misery]

.......YOU FIXED THE JUMP BUGS.   Most excellent.  Hopefully that's the end of them.

Those bugs were even more annoying than all of those crawler glitches in Valley 2   


The game as a whole seems to be doing very well right now as far as glitches and bugs go.... there dont seem to be many right now to find.


Anyway, the update looks quite good!  This Onibaba unit in particular sounds interesting, I'll be looking forward to experimenting with strategies against that one.  And I gotta say, the Japanese mythology sure has some funky and interesting stuff in it. 

I'll give more feedback over the weekend.

[x4000]

Yahooo!

[tigersfan]

And I gotta say, the Japanese mythology sure has some funky and interesting stuff in it. 

Yes... yes it does!

[Misery]

OK, I'd have a bit more feedback here, but I ran into this nasty bug:   http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=12050

And cant actually proceed any further.  For now, my save file is locked up.   2 turns before the next gods show up, as well, so I havent seen more of the new god token units yet.

One thing that did occur to me though is that the fire chicken could use a bit more base health.  Maybe 6 or 7 thousand instead of the 3 or 4 that it starts at.   Maybe even higher.  I think certain Norse units may be able to overpower this guy in a single turn due to their high base damage and multipliers against myth types, and I'm thinking a god creature type shouldnt be that easy to kill.  Particularly when it costs so very much...  Fun unit once he gets going though.

Also, Kirins dont die during Shinigami if there are human units getting obliterated at the same time.  Dunno if that's intentional.

The one thing I also havent been able to really test is the whole "rampaging Japanese gods" thing since Kagutsuchi seems to really like destroying buildings, one small brick at a time.

[x4000]

New one!  http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13700.0.html


Misery I haven't had time to get to your other comments, but I have archived them for getting at after I finish up large towns and the Idyll mode tomorrow.  Thanks!

[Misery]

New one!  http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13700.0.html


Misery I haven't had time to get to your other comments, but I have archived them for getting at after I finish up large towns and the Idyll mode tomorrow.  Thanks!

Not a problem.   Heck, if I'm posting a bit too much at a time here with these, do feel free to let me know. 

That and it'd be good to see input from others than just myself I should think.... been quiet here for the most part recently. 

[x4000]

You're definitely not posting too much -- it's actually been freakishly quiet around here, and we could use all the feedback we can get.  I'm not sure if it's the time of year or what, but this has been one of our least-successful betas thus far.  I don't think that means the expansion will do badly -- to the contrary, interest and excitement in it is actually unusually high from the press in particular, which means word will get out.

I'm not sure if people are just waiting until it's done because they don't want to deal with bugs, or don't have time, or what.  But the beta feedback has been very limited, much less than if we had just done a private alpha.  Maybe that means that largely there are no problems and people are just having fun; that's a possibility.  But the last thing I want is a storm of annoyed comments coming in right after we push this to 2.0 and a bunch of people start commenting on it.

The game is mature enough that it probably won't be a big issue there.  With AI War 4.0 and 5.0 there were some major things that too a long way to refine, all the way to 7.0.  And that was fine, it was just a longer process than could possibly fit into a beta.  So maybe that's where we are with this game.  Most things wind up being about balance longer-term in AI War, and with Skyward that's just not an issue in the same way since things are intentionally out of balance.  Except for things like the token costs and such, but there's a limit to how far off those can usually be.

[Misery]

Aye, freakishly quiet here indeed.   I keep wondering if enough people here are fully aware that this beta is happening, particularly the usual group that tends to be around these forums.   Yet at the same time, you are getting bug reports from others on Mantis, I can see that easily on there, yet I seem to be the only one doing balance-related feedback, which is rather baffling.    Not to mention difficult... it's one thing to come up with feedback based on my own playstyle, but trying to think of how other playstyles might work or not work with it is tough.   More input from others on this would help quite a bit. Currently there's no way for me to tell if the suggestions I come up with are good ideas or not, though I imagine that you consider things well enough before actually implementing any of it.

Though, didn't you also have another AI War expansion that just came out?  I wondered if that distracted people away from this one as well, that game being pretty darn good and all.  That game seems to have the same addictive quality that this one does. 


Good to hear that the press and such are excited about it though.  And not surprising, since this game got tons of positive reactions from pretty much everyone that tried it. I cant imagine that you'd have much trouble selling this, particularly since it's a huge amount of content for such a small price.

[Fluffiest]

I've got the demo, but I've only had time to play a little bit of the tutorial. I feel kind of lost, honestly; this isn't quite like any other game I've played in that "keep two sides balanced" is an utterly unfamiliar objective - normally it's "stop the other guy".

But I'll try to give some feedback when I get the full version and get a bit further into the game!

[Misery]

I've got the demo, but I've only had time to play a little bit of the tutorial. I feel kind of lost, honestly; this isn't quite like any other game I've played in that "keep two sides balanced" is an utterly unfamiliar objective - normally it's "stop the other guy".

But I'll try to give some feedback when I get the full version and get a bit further into the game!

If you've got any questions at all on it, do feel free to ask them here.   They'll be answered quickly as best as possible! 

The game does take some getitng used to and some of the possible tactics can seem a little obscure at first, but once you get the hang of the basics it should all flow together pretty well.   Simple experimentation can go a long way here.

[x4000]

Cheers both!

In terms of the AI War expansion; that came out in early June; so I can't fathom it would still be an issue. August is the second worst month for sales for us generally, behind September as he worst, though. So maybe it goes beyond sales to just general availability.

Regarding the usual crowd for the core of this game, I noticed that most of them seemed to buy in right away. But it's been no feedback after that, which would support the whole general lack of time thing.

[x4000]

Okay, now made it back to your notes here --

1. Great point on Basan, I tripled the health.

2. For Kirin, yeah, that's intentional -- anything that saves him saves him, you know?  The thing causes them all to die, and then he regenerates right after that thanks to the humans dying.

3. Understood on the gods thing, I'll take care of that today as it really does block testing.

[nas1m]

I really did not have much time to spend with the new expansion yet, but what time I had I enjoyed myself .

Not much in terms of high granularity feedback yet, but one thing occurred to me: At first glance it feels like the Japanese faction does not really
have any weakness whatsoever.

In the two games I started since the faction got activated (one vs. Norse, one vs. Greek) I always had more trouble to keep the other faction alive than vice versa. This might be related to my playstyle, though (I tend to go for barracks units first  and those are fairly powerful both in terms of defense bonuses and overall stats as far as the Japanese are concerned). And I did not even get around to use many Japanese tokens, let alone God tokens/units.

The only thing that stood out for me on that front was Otoroshi. This one is so insanely cheap in terms of cost and cooldown that I was always tempted to place one whenever I had an action to spare just to generate some easy points. Not sure whether preventing it from targeting buildings is nerf enough to reign them in...
I would either go for increasing their currency or soul cost up to around 10/5 or significantly boost its cooldown.

Anyway - having fun so far! And I am really itching to give those hamlets a try now that they are in .

Cheers!

[x4000]

I really did not have much time to spend with the new expansion yet, but what time I had I enjoyed myself .

Awesome.

Not much in terms of high granularity feedback yet, but one thing occurred to me: At first glance it feels like the Japanese faction does not really
have any weakness whatsoever.

In the two games I started since the faction got activated (one vs. Norse, one vs. Greek) I always had more trouble to keep the other faction alive than vice versa. This might be related to my playstyle, though (I tend to go for barracks units first  and those are fairly powerful both in terms of defense bonuses and overall stats as far as the Japanese are concerned). And I did not even get around to use many Japanese tokens, let alone God tokens/units.

I think that the weakness of the Japanese is best expressed as "it's hard to push back against the other side without pushing too hard."  Which is to say, yeah, they are stronger in most respects, but they don't have the tools to deal with midlevel/light threats without going overboard.  This means that you're either hurting the other faction way too much, or you're having trouble fending off enemies because you don't want to hurt the other faction too much.  I thought that having to deal with your own power in a game like this was pretty interesting.

The only thing that stood out for me on that front was Otoroshi. This one is so insanely cheap in terms of cost and cooldown that I was always tempted to place one whenever I had an action to spare just to generate some easy points. Not sure whether preventing it from targeting buildings is nerf enough to reign them in...

Ooh, thanks -- I just increased their cost 10x and gave them a big damage penalty against buildings.

Anyway - having fun so far! And I am really itching to give those hamlets a try now that they are in

Awesome!  And a lot more hamlet and culture stuff is coming hopefully today.