Messages

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: So why am I killing the overlord anyway?

« on: July 31, 2012, 06:40:19 AM »

Because his name is next to the 'badguy' slot in the menu?

The lack of motivation to kill the Overlord is one of these consitant imersion breaking but somewhat amusing things about the game as is. Theres nothing like that first moment you go up to the tower.... And find you don't know what the overlords called, let alone what your fighting it.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Feeling railroaded into secret missions

« on: July 17, 2012, 06:42:57 AM »

Now that we have lost the old tier system, and theres less of the 'planning the exact missions and materials you get at a reward vs increased difficulty' it seems to me there is less need for the 'show every material' that said gameplay required (Though I must admit, I did enjoy that aspect).

Perhaps missions could ive a combination of shown and hidden rewards. A shown spell + 1-3 scrolls/mats/dohickys

I think generaly the main theme here is that the reward types need to be less segmented, while somehow keeping them distinct feeling.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Feeling railroaded into secret missions

« on: July 16, 2012, 07:15:25 AM »

I almost wonder if we need 1-2 more /types/ of collectables, so that you can have things like world map missions giving one material and a commen spell and a scroll and some X while secret missions give 8 materials, lots of Y, rare scrolls and orbs. And both X and Y are rarely found in stashes and so forth and so on. It would give more to play with when balancing the rewards.

Or alterntivly, have both missions give spells/scrolls/e.t.c. But secret missions give more/rarer/better.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Lousy Update

« on: July 09, 2012, 07:01:29 AM »

I'm on the side of disliking the current mechanics.

I'm able to play with my friends probably 1/2 the time they're playing. That means every time I go on, I'm behind, and thus either people need to go farm for me, or I have to tag along being a burden (more monster hp) untill my gears up to scratch.

This scenario is /increadably/ unfun. And can be very regular if you play even just 70-80% of the time the average person does. And it's even worse when your playing with people unwilling to go out of their way to aid powering you back up.

Starting each session with catchup isn't fun.

I think you're overestimating the 'ability to give spells' as a way of handling this issue. It reminds me of the ninja-loot problem. People want their loot. And their rewards for their time. People are going to want to drop the guy who only pops on for half the time, as so much of it would be gearing them up.

Also, this is emphasized further by the old system, which was much liked for solving this issue with the shared crafting. (Which was great if people were very drop in and out).

As someone who enjoyed playing together in the 'working together towards strategic goals' aspect, I think I cna safely say that the system could use some improvements.

Either some kind of constant catchup mechanism needs to be in play, or the whole system be looked over again. It's fine for those who always play at the same time, in the same square, but anyone who plays a bit more casually, or enjoyed the strategic side to crafting is going to find this update less fun overall.

I also agree with eRe4s3r, that the MP feels a bit more like singleplayer with other people, now that more things are localised rather then global.

I'm almost wondering if perhaps there should be a combination of both systems, in such a way that multiplayer you do get that emergent stratigic game play while adding more reasons to explore locally.  Between 4 people we had a lot of fun organising ourselves so one person was hunting building materials while others hunted down the gems and missions needed for the spells we collectively wanted. And if someone joined part way through? No Problem, they would just have a larger array of spells to choose from from all the gathered materials.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Thoughts on New Crafting/Spells

« on: July 03, 2012, 06:50:42 AM »

Instead of just removing missions, could we get some (but a reduced amount) of the missions seeding in windy areas once they don't fit in the cleared area? Had some fun with an essential hp time limit due to the wind in the past.

My main gripe on pritty much the whole new system, is while it's excelent for single player, I tend to play multiplayer these days with people who liked to split up and do /diffrent types/ of content.

We would often have one guy running missions who liked that, one person cave delving, one person gathering cherries e.t.c. And the end result is everyone got new spells, buildings and such (and a rather faster progression rate)

The 'freedom' of doing multiple things feels a little strained now. But on the other hand the new mechanics are cresting and look like they have a lot of potential.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Crate-based Propulsion

« on: June 25, 2012, 06:52:33 AM »

I once had a cliff -> undergtround area gen in such a way the only way out was to stack ~100 crates, or use this glitch. (or have tripple jump + flatforms, which it was to early in the game to have)

It's a cool way of moving when you work it out, but honestly with platforms as good as they are, it doens't seem too bad to be able to crate jump.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: AVWW Post-Release 1.102 "Stop Wiggling!" Released!

« on: June 21, 2012, 06:27:34 AM »

I'm trying to work out why you would stop Douse Monster Nest from working in NPC rescue missions. Seems to me that the spell was pretty much /built/ for that kind of mission.

Playing at less then the highest difficulty most of the time, it seems unessassary or unhelpful in a lot of scenarios, yet that was the perfect place to use it.

What is the intended goal of that spell, if not for use to temporarily disable the spawners in missions where it's dangerous to stop to destroy them?

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: 1.1 Official is out in patch form!

« on: June 20, 2012, 06:34:44 AM »

I think part of what inspires discusion is just how /intresting/ the base idea for the game is.
I mean, I bought it just to see how it had been implemented. I wasn't even expecting the game to be good! (which it very much is)

The genre and mechnics lend themselves well to having a community full of ideas, and attracts the kind of people who have some idea of how to balance/design/e.t.c

Throw in the interaction with the Devs, and their own ideas (You guys are really creative in your solutions at times) and I've probably had more fun discussing this game then actually playing it ^^'

It's inspiring honestly. Reminds me that I need to get back into game development asap.

9

A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Increased difficulty?

« on: June 18, 2012, 06:49:38 AM »

I've not tryed it in a few versions, but with upgrade stones gone, can players get upgrades in the tutorial anymore?

Took a few health upgrades to make the caves easy back when I last played it.

Personaly I think it's a pritty dran good tutorial. Anyone who's too fustrated by having to go get new spells isn't going to get very far overall.

if they already know the mechnics, then the tutorial is skippable anyway.

If they don't, then they need to go through it, else honestly the game seems confusing as heck.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: 1.1 Official is out in patch form!

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:21:47 AM »

After reading through the writeup, there was one thing that clearly stood out to me as odd.

That was namely on the Guardian scrolls/City Building and the repeat instance it was a matter of perception and length of time to get them and so on.

This seems half at odds with what I've seen where people /do/ do the city building. I have a lot of friends who built up the city for the sake of building up the city, but even then, the actual scrolls were considered things that were two low in duration to be worth gathering, there being too few situations where they're worth using, or were just uninteresting.

While I /love/ the solution to the city-building problem, even with that solved the scrolls themselves are relitivly uninteresting compared to say hunting after new spells. Their effects are dull, short and they become something people just stack up before a overlord.

Giving them potentially longer durations (with perhaps a smaller buff), having them do more interesting things (applying area enchants perhaps, more varyed effects, randomised combinations) or just well anything might be a good idea to look at in 1.2. They're a cool idea, but I feel they could really use some spice to make them something one would consciously seek out or plan around using.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Battleground Missions Too Hard? [Master Hero]

« on: May 30, 2012, 06:14:37 AM »

Generaly I found these one of the quickest misison types.

thing to remember are that peircing is disbaled, so some spells put out a lot less damage, and using the bots as meatsheilds is only effective if you can kill towers/rhinos or such quite quickly.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Enemy Melee, posisble refactoring?

« on: May 28, 2012, 07:35:07 AM »

One to look into early on os the leafy whip, more dps and range then miasma whip, but not so expensive that most charcters can't cast it a good 2-3 times.

Usualy 1-2 hits to kill anything and very quick. it's over shadowed by ice burst though.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Confusing behavior from shield and dash spells

« on: May 28, 2012, 07:20:58 AM »

if that time was a lot /lower/ with a fixed mana cost, it would feel a lot more like the intended short block it was.

Actually, it'd still be just as exploitable (if not more).

Players could simply learn the exact timing, and just pop it right back on when it goes off.


There was an actual REASON that it was allowed to stay on for 12 seconds, but I dont recall just what it was, one of the devs mentioned it at some point.

I said 'feel' not balanced for a reason. You'd have to balance the cost, cool-down and such to a point it may not be possible. My point being that the shields don't even feel, let alone work, as intended.

I do like the idea of disabling regen and costing to maintain. That would make them /amazing/ for trying to get through crowded or trapped areas, but quickly remove your ability to fight back. Combine that with a 2nd more bursty shield (fixed cost with a cooldown?), and perhaps a ouple other sheild types and they would be a very intresting thing.

As it is, everyone just recasts every 12 seconds.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: What Am I Missing?

« on: May 28, 2012, 07:15:26 AM »

Multilayer goes a /lot/ faster then single player if everyone splits up, amking for faster progression.

On the current scaling, I have to agree the reasoning is a little flawed. 2 players fighting 2 separate monsters in a chuck results in each of those monsters being threatening for 2X the amount of time. Yes, it take the same number of shots (well, not even that's true, they often take 1 extra) to kill the same number of mobs, but the time is usually more then double, the threat goes up more. It gets worse as you deal with more people, as you find yourself each trying to fight 3 seperate monsters with 3X the health which in the case of mobs like bats, is quite likely to result in a melee hit you wouldn't otherwise.

It is notably easier to do a lot of content solo then together.

I do like the gist of that idea by Martyn. If only because it would have other applications to things other then multiplayer scaling. I think darkspore did this well. If you were in multiplayer you got a few new types of mobs (hoolder type mobs that requires a team mate to rescue you), more 'mini-boss' type mobs with more bonuses, a few more mobs in general and more but not liner health if I recall right.

Alterntivily, reducing the hp scaling a little would work wonders, to take account for the less then perfect efficency of humans and the increased danger of certain mobs that get a lot more deadly 1 on 1 when scaled.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Confusing behavior from shield and dash spells

« on: May 27, 2012, 09:41:54 AM »

Personaly, I'm not a fan of the 12 second change to it. It's annoying, boring and still leaves the sheild confusingin it's purpose.

I would much rather see a massive mana drain sheild, a mana regen reduction sheild, partial damage reduction sheild or anything that adds to the gameplay more then the 'this is absuable, lets make it switch off every X seconds' which honestly still leaves it reallly darn powerful.

if that time was a lot /lower/ with a fixed mana cost, it would feel a lot more like the intended short block it was.

Definatly needs some work and expansion at some point. They look like a great way of making gameplay more varyed,