Author Topic: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)  (Read 11768 times)

Offline x4000

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New version: https://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach_Beta_Phase_2_Release_Notes#Version_0.907

All right, so this one is absolutely huge, but it's still not what I would consider a complete build and it's not ready for the next batch of beta testers yet.

Known Issues
1. A ton of buildings have been "repurposed," but their new purpose actually isn't coded in yet.  That's just a matter of us not having time yet.

2. The new combat model functionally works the way we want and I'm really happy with it, but the interface for it is a rough draft, so to speak.  It's getting there, but we've mainly been focusing on clarity (for someone who already knows how it works, not for new players yet -- which is all of you now) and actual function.  Making this truly user-friendly and pretty and whatnot is low on my list until some of the other items here get dealt with, but it will shoot way up to the top after that.

3. The three new outputs (financial, cultural, and industrial) are currently pointless.  It's a good chance that they will actually be subsumed by something else.

4. The thing with buildings where they say "Provides: {Whatever}," for instance "Provides: Fresh Produce" is something that is not finished yet, but will be very important to you soon.  I'm super excited about it. :)

5. You should be seeing plenty of events now, although the ones from other races are showing up really garbled and to the side for some reason.  That's on our todo list already: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14XQ61PpOfTHiusfdy0D6Vjq2OjNN04GkKddpYV7ZrJE/

6. Enemies don't yet attack you, although they do attack one another.  The mechanics for them harassing you is a bit different and we've not had time to code that yet.

7. The AI for battles is going to get a complete overhaul in terms of what decisions the AI decides to make, so if they are targeting inexplicable buildings right now, all I can say is I know. ;)  Coding that better AI is a thing for during the polish period, though, for us.

8. In general there is just a lot of half-completed stuff at the moment.  We'll have this tidied up before too long, but this is a major transitional period for a lot of systems at once.  This makes the game somewhat unplayable in some respects: there is no way to win right now, for instance!  You can still play all the citybuilding stuff like before, though, and you can check out the new combat model, which is the main thing we wanted to go ahead and get released.  You can also see some of the new events, which was another big item.


All those caveats aside, for this being an "unplayable" incomplete build, this is actually the most fun I've had playing the game to date.  I hope you feel the same as you get your hands on the new combat in general.

TLDR: This is not the build at which to jump majorly back into the game for testing purposes.  It's a great time to check out the new combat model in particular, and in general to take a peek at what is coming down the pike very very soon on other fronts.

Enjoy! :)
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Offline kasnavada

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2015, 09:19:08 am »
That sounds interesting. New battle system :o

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2015, 09:21:31 am »
That sounds interesting. New battle system :o

You know it.  8)

It's way way waaaay closer to what I had originally imagined for the game, actually.  But I never could figure out how to get all the elements fitting together until the rest of the game evolved a lot more first.  Territories had a big hand in that.  The new system is a lot more like a more sophisticated Risk or Rampart model.
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Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2015, 09:30:13 am »
Dont really understand the whole event or combat thing yet but it will be a pleansant surprise tonight :).
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Offline kasnavada

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2015, 09:32:29 am »
Rampart ?

I don't actually like Risk, but not really due to the combat system itself. Mainly because some players are bound to to be eliminated early and games having a huge "last forever potential" even after a few players died. I prefer by far euro-type games like Smallworld, Eclipse or Runewars. It's one of the major flaws of with Civ-likes when playing multiplayer IMO.

Still it's really a good news, the combat system needed some more love :P.

Offline Aklyon

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2015, 10:16:46 am »
TLDR: This is not the build at which to jump majorly back into the game for testing purposes.  It's a great time to check out the new combat model in particular, and in general to take a peek at what is coming down the pike very very soon on other fronts.
You're sending updates via fish now? :P

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2015, 10:35:20 am »
A few various responses:

1. I generally prefer Eurogames as well.  And the bog-standard Risk is not something I'm too fond of either.  I mean, it's okay, but it's not great.  I much prefer the more complex versions, in particular LOTR Trilogy Risk.  Players don't get eliminated early, and it's not about "painting the map your color."  There's also an inherent but uncertain time limit (when Frodo and Sam reach Mt Doom), plus a variety of cards and extra holdings to keep things interesting.  In teams of 2 (good vs evil in that case), I particularly enjoy it.  Risk 2210 AD is also pretty cool, although I don't like that you only get 5 turns each.  Each turn is freaking massive, but it doesn't allow for too much finesse.  Still, it's a lot more complicated than regular Risk, and more interesting, and nobody is out early most of the time.

2. Rampart is a classic NES game where you build bases around castles in a Tetris-style fashion, then shoot the mess out of the guy on the other side of the river or pond or whatever with cannons, and he does the same to you.  Evilest strategy is to put teeny holes in lots of spots especially against mountains or the edge of the map, because those are hard to fill up.  Anyway, the only real similarity here is the whole "barrages of stuff back and forth, during which offensive capabilities may dwindle due to being destroyed."

3. Apparently "coming down the pipe" is becoming more popular of an idiom than "coming down the pike" since the year 2000 or so: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2413/which-is-correct-coming-down-the-pike-or-pipe ;)
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Offline ptarth

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2015, 11:47:32 am »
I'm a little scared that Prairie dogs are using flying transports to attack me. Then again everyone else uses Missiles to deal with their prairie dog problems, so maybe I'm out of touch. Then again, these guys are also sitting on an island in International Waters, so I can't attack them at all anyway. Clever Girl.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2015, 11:50:25 am by ptarth »
Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2015, 11:59:49 am »
Ha!  Oh, that's funny.  It's actually them leaping at you for incredible distances, but yeah. :D
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Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2015, 12:00:19 pm »
Then again, these guys are also sitting on an island in International Waters, so I can't attack them at all anyway. Clever Girl.

This part is a bug, though.  If you have a save where we can repro it, that would be great.  Thanks!
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Offline ptarth

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2015, 12:05:54 pm »
Posted on the mantis.
I also effectively just lost me first game due to prairie dogs. That's a first.
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2015, 12:11:50 pm »
wowzers what a big up date but any way I like the grand majority of the stuff that's being done here although I'm curious what's going to happen to the diners but I'm sure something's going to happen to them but any way I'm glad you've replaced the social progress system with something that's going to (hopefully) be more interesting the sp system was pretty boring especially the government (military buffs yawn) and I especially like the water generator thingy idea.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2015, 12:32:40 pm »
Awesome!  And that is hilarious that prairie hogs killed you. :D
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2015, 12:54:27 pm »
I've encountered my first event and I think I rather like it a lot although toltips to says what's actually going to happen when you make either choice would be nice I've already put it down as ass a suggestion in mantis.(asides from the ignore option of course that's pretty self explanatory)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.907 (New Battle System, EXP, Food, Scouting, and on and on)
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2015, 01:13:12 pm »
Sweet!  Yeah, there's still some jiggery pokery going on with that interface, too.  But it's getting close. :)
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