Author Topic: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816  (Read 1628 times)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« on: May 16, 2013, 01:14:24 pm »
Hoo boy, this changes a ton: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Skyward_Collapse_-_Pre-Beta_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.816

General things:

1. Defensive towers are not so OP anymore.

2. Gods are just about useless in a fight now, except when they're on a rampage.  This changes EVERYTHING about the latter two rounds of the game, making them way harder (and getting back to our original concepts, and away from the impossible-to-lose scenarios that some folks could create).

3. All of the god and mythological tokens now have cooldowns that vary based on the difficulty group you're playing in.  This changes a HUGE amount of the game as well, because now you can't spam the powerful ones.  You have to consider the opportunity cost of using them now versus later.  And if you've already used them and now find yourself in a corner... well, that's a crutch you can no longer lean on.  You have to use something else instead, and that might have more side effects than you want (aka, the crazier god powers). 

I'm increasingly thinking that having god-specific Woes really isn't going to be needed, thanks in particular to the new cooldowns stuff and the fact that god selection is random now.  I think you'll need all the crazy abilities you can get, in most games (at a high level, anyhow).  Not every ability every game, but that's not the idea.  Anyway, that makes me want to divert all efforts to general-purpose woes and catastrophic woes rather than getting into a third category that you see less often.

4. There are some key interface additions that we made, particularly to town centers but also somewhat to the sidebar on the right.  Hopefully those are happy-making.

5. Oh yeah, the way the unit AI works in terms of evaluating risk is now really different.  This is going to make battles play out completely differently since the guys are cowardly now and don't want to engage stronger units if they can help it; instead preferring to go attack enemy buildings if there's not someone weaker than them.

So between that and the god changes, combat is really just a completely new thing now in terms of the flow of it.  Should be a lot more challenging and interesting, actually.  Hopefully not too challenging on Easy, though.


And there are other minor tweaks, as well.

General thoughts:

- At this point it looks like the Woes are being well-received and accomplishing what they were supposed to, which is a huge relief and quite gratifying to see.

- At this point, Josh and I are both thinking that the game is not in need of more woes as the very next thing.  We want to do tons more before 1.0, but this isn't the highest-priority thing right this instant, we don't think.

- Instead we're going to focus on getting some of the stats and other grognard-specific stuff in place, along with some of the other tweaks and tuning that will affect the feel of the game in general.  And finishing up multiplayer.  Please give us a day or so on these before flooding us with suggestions on this, as we're still reacting to your last batch (many of which are already addressed, but not remotely all).  But then let's see what makes sense to do from there.

- Balance and bugfixing are of course ongoing through anything and everything else.

- Then it's back to more woes, and adding in some achievements while we're at it.  And that's pretty much the path to 1.0 at this point.

Cheers!
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 YoukaiCountry

  • Newbie Mark III
  • *
  • Posts: 49
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2013, 01:25:44 pm »
Fantastic, the AI changes sound great, can't wait to try it out when I get home tonight!

Also, really looking forward to the Grognard stats stuff in coming updates!

Offline PokerChen

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,088
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2013, 01:41:44 pm »
A good step!

I'm actually a bit worried as to how the AI changes will affect Greywolf's Veteran system. ;) You allow us to create a monster, and then remove ways that allow us to try to take them down. I'll go check out how that pans out - can commandment be on ordinary enemy units as well (wasn't in notes)?

My opinion has been that some woes could be more intricate. There's the "wham!" kind of disasters which we currently have and work fine, and then there's those scheming, Machiavellian types that can inspire developing dread. The kind such as in UFO:Aftermath where you know the world is being taken over by an all-consuming biomass and there's nothing you can do to eradicate it, only delay it long enough to get to the finish line.

Although, these things can wait until your returns dictate an expansion.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 01:44:04 pm by zharmad »

Offline nas1m

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,268
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2013, 01:48:51 pm »
I just want to say that the changes introduced in the last couple of patches are sounding *really* nice.

A couple of patches ago I lost a good chunk of my interest I have to admit =  / - the fact there was no mechanic in place (yet) to keep me from simply mirroring what I was doing with one side with the other reduced my urge to play on quite a bit....

I really felt bad about this as I felt my feedback up to that point had not been worth the copy of the game I was given for free =  / - lucky me I planned to buy a "Arcen is awesome" support copy anyway ; ).

But look at the game now! I am positively *itching* to try the new stuff!
And now there is no time to try them until next Sunday (likely) =  /....

Serves me right ; ).

Keep up the awesomeness!
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 01:51:50 pm by nas1m »
Craving some more color and variety in your next Bionic run? Grab a boost and a couple of custom floors!

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2013, 02:00:05 pm »
@zharmad: Regarding the super monstrous guys and the veterans and so forth, I don't think you need to worry about them not taking damage or whatever.  Unless they are immune to counterattack, the other units will be all up in their grill, heh.  I may need to make it so that guys will "heroically sacrifice" themselves against units that are immune to counterattack, though.  Actually I'm putting that on my list right now.

@nas1m: Awesome!  I think that's one of the risks of getting in early with an alpha, and if you recall I said as much at the start: "The game won't be fully fun at first, and will go through a lot of painful upheaval."  So I mean, it's natural to react to that, and actually the reactions that people have to that are what help make it better.  Finding the parts that lose people's interest or aren't fun or whatever are a big part of what we go to players for in the first place.  So all good! :)
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 PokerChen

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,088
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2013, 06:01:35 pm »
The humans cowardice are now so great they would rather be kiled by range 2 mythological creatures than strike back... :P that's been largely fixed.

Oh, has anyone else's Gods stopped responding to tokens?
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 06:15:16 pm by zharmad »

Offline chemical_art

  • Core Member Mark IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,952
  • Fabulous
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2013, 06:59:01 pm »
Dare I ask:


Can I finally wade into this as intended?
Life is short. Have fun.

Offline Pepisolo

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,511
Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.816
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2013, 07:11:42 pm »
Dare I ask:


Can I finally wade into this as intended?

Tutorial is all in place (and pretty nice) as far as I can see. Looks like you're good to go.

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk