Author Topic: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.  (Read 39294 times)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #15 on: August 21, 2015, 12:03:11 pm »
It should be popping up periodic events allowing you to choose market items, but for some reason seems not to be.  The one with the enterprising Burlust prison guard (you have to be playing as Burlusts) is definitely something I've seen pop up multiple times.

There may be a bug at present in the current version, I'm not sure.  Have been very distracted with the new combat stuff.  Glad that looks 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 Captain Jack

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 808
  • Just lucky
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #16 on: August 21, 2015, 12:17:09 pm »
I appreciate the kind words. :)

In terms of an ETA here, some of that is still vague.  But the bulk of the new combat model will be in next week, and is all defined here if you are interested in it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14XQ61PpOfTHiusfdy0D6Vjq2OjNN04GkKddpYV7ZrJE

For the events stuff, that's going to be an ongoing thing with more stuff coming in.  Within 2 weeks we should have a super hefty amount of it done.  Ideally another big bulk of that next week.
"Battle mode" sounds a lot more cohesive a system for combat than what's in game now. Seems like you found a pretty good answer to the problem.  :)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #17 on: August 21, 2015, 12:34:57 pm »
Thanks!

Yeah, it actually gets back a bit to what I originally wanted to do:
1. Have Risk-like encounters between territories.
2. Have the bubble-wrap-popping-fun of clicking something and watching an attack happen right after I do.
3. Not have to fiddle around with units (that was a key point from early on in).
4. Not have to stare at a bunch of stats trying to figure out how to micro what I'm doing (that was never explicitly stated, but was kind of an implied goal from various things).

And most recently of all, I was kind of realizing that I enjoyed those sort of "Rampart" like volleys of fighting back and forth.  But the problem came when just I was allowed to do it, and the AI couldn't hit back.  Interceptors were originally added to address this; in Risk, you have the potential to lose anything you attack with, but I never could come up with anything that I felt comfortable with for here that met with that on a building level.  So instead there were interceptors, and that dealt with population death and reduced damage in.

Getting excited about a combined-arms approach was something that happened later based on interceptors being a thing.  And of course I like for there to be a reason for players to use one type of attacker versus another, and if there's just numerical differences in stats that doesn't work.  Anyway.

Territories also solved the original Risk-style combat problem I had of attack ranges and gaps between buildings.  This has been solved for a while, but what I didn't realize until recently was that this would also allow Risk-style full encounters (which is what this new battle mode stuff is).

I also hadn't realized until recently just how annoying it was to have to hit end turn a ton in order to keep doing attacks.  With this sort of model there's a limit to how much damage the AIs can do to each other and you in a given interturn, but during a battle you can string that out as long as you and the AI have buildings and staff to throw at it.  So that makes again for that style of Risk-like engagement where you go "do I press my luck and keep attacking here?  What happens next turn?" etc.

People have been bringing up things like plundering for quite a while, and that sort of thing will help to differentiate various attack types quite well right there.  As one of several things that will need to be done.
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 nas1m

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,268
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #18 on: August 21, 2015, 02:43:51 pm »
It should be popping up periodic events allowing you to choose market items, but for some reason seems not to be.  The one with the enterprising Burlust prison guard (you have to be playing as Burlusts) is definitely something I've seen pop up multiple times.

There may be a bug at present in the current version, I'm not sure.  Have been very distracted with the new combat stuff.  Glad that looks good. :)
Cool, thanks!
I just started a fresh Burlust game - should I have seen an event at turn 88 110?
Just 'cause these little buggers still evade me ;)...
« Last Edit: August 21, 2015, 02:53:10 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: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #19 on: August 21, 2015, 02:58:54 pm »
It's hard to say for sure.  I am absolutely flooded with events to an inappropriate degree in my burlust and skylaxian games, I will say that.

In the attached 3.save, you should get a Skylaxian stockbroker bothering you pretty fast.  And then she comes back waaaay too frequently (oops).
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 nas1m

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,268
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #20 on: August 21, 2015, 03:01:54 pm »
It's hard to say for sure.  I am absolutely flooded with events to an inappropriate degree in my burlust and skylaxian games, I will say that.

In the attached 3.save, you should get a Skylaxian stockbroker bothering you pretty fast.  And then she comes back waaaay too frequently (oops).
Weird. I am in turn 131 and still nothing.
I put a save up here in case you want to have a look.

I will try your save now ;).

EDIT: Your save worked in terms of triggering an actutian stock broker handbook event. I am intrigued ;). Still nothing in 250 turns in my game, though.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2015, 03:13:21 pm by nas1m »
Craving some more color and variety in your next Bionic run? Grab a boost and a couple of custom floors!

Offline crazyroosterman

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,558
  • Cluck.
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #21 on: August 21, 2015, 07:04:38 pm »
okay so 2 points I want to make here 1 your pushing the release date........AGAIN?! I have a strong feeling that that amount of months this game have been pushed roughly equate to a year 2 I don't really have an opinion on weather the game is going in the right direction since only Chris truly knows what the end product of this is going to be heck with all the changes this game has gone through I wouldn't put it past Chris to decide hug it! I'm not going to make a 4x after all I'm going to make a cat collecting exploration game!.(not that I would ever expect Chris to terrify everyone and abandon all this work)
c.r

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #22 on: August 21, 2015, 07:44:50 pm »
It's been about half a year of delays, yep -- lenthening the entire dev cycle to about 14 months instead of 8ish.
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 crazyroosterman

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,558
  • Cluck.
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #23 on: August 23, 2015, 11:13:06 am »
hey so the news feed on steam says this game is due to release in September is that true? or is steam being silly?.
c.r

Offline Captain Jack

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 808
  • Just lucky
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #24 on: August 23, 2015, 01:25:44 pm »
I bet it's the RPS thing from last month. Steam builds its news stream from the devs and from specific websites that it scrapes. It's literally old, out of date news.

Offline Tridus

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,305
  • I'm going to do what I do best: lecture her!
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #25 on: August 23, 2015, 04:59:19 pm »
Wow this seems like it's been a tough project. Hopefully it gets easier soon!

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #26 on: August 23, 2015, 09:10:22 pm »
Yep, that's the old RPS article.  I haven't wanted to post anything too noticeable yet because I want to get things in a better shape where I can start doing LPs and thus be saying more than just "delays again!  changes again!" to the news.

I'm feeling really positive about the new combat model, so we'll see how that shakes out.  Some of the biggest challenges with events are now behind us, too, so that's also really exciting.  Fingers crossed it get smoother from here on out...
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 Sounds

  • Full Member Mark II
  • ***
  • Posts: 193
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #27 on: August 24, 2015, 08:15:11 pm »
I just got back from O/S and was about to resume testing today when I saw this post. This news is giving me flashbacks to my own project crunch times and the alarm bells are going off in my head making me want to go into a fetal position. :)

Not sure I should open the new version now. My plan was to wait until the last month prior to release. Should I wait a little longer?

Please take care of yourselves and don't push the envelope with doing too many insane hours a day - that is unless pain == fun. :D

Also I see you haven't yet changed the new release date on your homepage, you might want to look at updating that for those who don't visit (or in my case lurk ;) ) your forums.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #28 on: August 24, 2015, 08:29:04 pm »
Yep, I'd hold off for now.

The good news is that the new combat model is everything I'd hoped it would be, so that is a big relief for me. :)  There is still lots more interface polish that needs to go into it in the short term before it feels completely correct, but it's the sort of thing where all the solutions to me feel obvious rather than like stumpers.  So that's a nice change of pace, heh.

On the release date, I've been kind of keeping that away from a big blog post and whatnot, because news outlets tend to pick those up and I'd rather have something positive like some new video or something they can show with it.  I'll definitely update on that before too long, though.
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 crazyroosterman

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,558
  • Cluck.
Re: Release Date now Oct 21st, next beta wave later, subtractive design.
« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2015, 08:35:04 pm »
Yep, I'd hold off for now.

The good news is that the new combat model is everything I'd hoped it would be, so that is a big relief for me. :)  There is still lots more interface polish that needs to go into it in the short term before it feels completely correct, but it's the sort of thing where all the solutions to me feel obvious rather than like stumpers.  So that's a nice change of pace, heh.

On the release date, I've been kind of keeping that away from a big blog post and whatnot, because news outlets tend to pick those up and I'd rather have something positive like some new video or something they can show with it.  I'll definitely update on that before too long, though.
you know considering how many times this games release dates been pushed I personally at this point would stop saying .its being released at such and such a time. and just set a deadline for its release when I would think it to actually be .finished.
c.r

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk