Messages

1

Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.990

« on: Today at 10:20:08 PM »

Downplayed, yeah - but not completely eliminated. Nicky's comic is going to be the first thing the game pops up for new players once the fifth page is in (he's almost done with it), so some degree of that is inevitable. Also, we're still referencing the master in game descriptions, with the line "when the master calls you home." The adding back of the score and score gating has made the return of be master to a bit more prominence required. Still not in be spotlight, but you know he's there sort of thing.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.990

« on: Today at 10:12:48 PM »

I'm an "explore the low-hanging fruit" sort of guy.  Basically, if there are game systems that have not yet been fully explored, I want to explore those before adding new ones.  And when I do add new ones, I want the internals to support lots of new functionality rather than just one thing.  Aka, I rarely put in something like 5 hours for content that just does one thing; I might spend 5 hours on the underlying framework that adds ten things, for instance.

Eventually as things grow, though, the low hanging fruit gets higher and higher up the tree.  And the crazy sideways things that can be done with internal changes start coming to light more, too.  That's basically what happened with AI War in essentially the 3.0 time period and onwards.  With 1.0 to 2.0, it was all just exploring the game space more.  Then 3.0 it was getting into more stuff.  4.0 was a giant revamp.  5.0 was a big polish and yet higher fruit.  6.0 and on have just been higher and higher fruit, plus the general maintenance balance and polish and so on.  Plus of course some more revamps of subsystems here and there, but you could argue that those are split between both being higher fruit and balance/polish.

Anyhow, one step at a time.  First I'm just waiting with bated breath to see how this game does at all!

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.990

« on: Today at 10:01:18 PM »

Do you remember the first two I suggested?  Granted I didn't put them where I was supposed to.  "Song of the Siren" and "Malice and Mead".

Yeah, both of those were super complicated.  Completely new AI in the first case, for a super specialized use.  And then the second one would require rewiring of the entire targeting system, literally.  Those fall under the category of "way harder to implement than you might expect."  Meant to respond, but you know how it's been.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.990

« on: Today at 09:55:08 PM »

Hahaha.  Seriously, Josh has been through all of them and they are all fully functional.  The question is how they will mess with your games; but of course, given that woes in general have a wildly varying effect, that's nothing really new.  What this should do is keep things fresh and not happening over and over again with the same thing.

I'm still interested in more woe ideas if people have them, by the way; but ideally not things that require any new art.  Or lots of complicated decision trees, for lack of a better way of putting it.  "Do this and then four turns later it remembers some data and does this other thing based on it," etc.  Again, I think of this a lot more like pulling up calamity cards in various boardgames.  It's kind of a "this thing happens now" or "this thing happens for the next while" sort of mechanic to me, unless we greatly expand it (which I don't think there's cause to do just yet).

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Skyward Collapse / Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.990

« on: Today at 09:48:30 PM »

Whoas, big one right at the end: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Skyward_Collapse_-_Pre-Beta_Release_Notes#Alpha_0.990

1. There are twenty new woes in this one.  For reference, there were only twenty-seven woes in the game prior to this release, and a goodly number of those were "same sort of thing, but different particulars."  So it was more like 17 or 18 unique woes previously, I forget.  And some of those were expert-only.  (And yes, we have tested all these woes individually, so there should be no nasty surprises as with the first round of god tokens stuff).

2. The catastrophic woes that you've been accustomed to in general are now only on hard mode or higher.  Those were... rough.  Great for hard mode, not great for anyone learning or kind of middling.  All-new catastrophic woes are now in place for the lower difficulties, and as a bonus they are almost all monster-themed (you know, to fit with the whole "age of monsters" thing).

3. Undo button!  The thing everyone has been waiting on for so long!

4. More useful mythological creatures in the late game!  Basically, you can upgrade them now, and they even come out pre-upgraded in the later ages.  That way they retain that "what, just one minotaur? Auugh!" feel to them throughout the game.

Beyond that it was a really long day of setting up store assets, talking to distributors, and so on.  I'm amazed that somehow there was still time to do the stuff in this version, frankly.

Still to come prior to 1.0:
- I need to integrate Nick's comic once I have the final page for that.
- The names of the alpha testers need to be put into the credits.
- Anything absolutely critical that is found overnight, or that is useful and absolutely superfast to do.
- Demo version so that we have a demo pretty much right at launch.

That's pretty well my to-do list for the morning, any things that crop up here aside.  Cheers!

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Cataclysm (now Woes) ideas

« on: Today at 08:27:15 PM »

All righty.

* Drug lord has been renamed to "Cult of Dionysus."

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Cataclysm (now Woes) ideas

« on: Today at 08:02:10 PM »

Preferably in another thread, as this is already getting mixed purpose enough.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Cataclysm (now Woes) ideas

« on: Today at 07:52:23 PM »

I had the thought the woes needed to be Greek/Norse themed across the board.  I was politely reminded that these two factions aren't likely to be the only two factions in the game.

It would be cooler, I think if things were correctly themed across the board.

My statement was: give me a better name that explains what the thing is in the theme, for any of them that you find out of theme, and I'll at least consider them.  So far I have had zero suggestions.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.907

« on: Today at 05:43:18 PM »

Choke points are kind of a boon, too!  But in a lot of respects, that's what flood and upheaval already do, minus the holes bit.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.907

« on: Today at 02:45:49 PM »

So maybe a woe that smites all ruins, leaving gigantic holes in the landscape?

That wouldn't really be a woe, that would be more like a boon, heh.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Official Trailer

« on: Today at 12:16:06 PM »

Yep, it's true about the tutorial bit... but people won't remember it if it's not relevant at the time.  I'm not sure where to sneak that in.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Official Trailer

« on: Today at 12:03:04 PM »

It does not, no... but that's pretty much the same as in every RTS game ever, right?

It is in the control settings, too, but that's a bit more obscure.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Skyward Collapse Alpha 0.954

« on: Today at 11:14:29 AM »

You asked for it...

* Frost Giants now cost 3x as much incense as before, as well as having a new requirement where they need bread.
** Their health has been increased by more than 3x, however, making them by far the sturdiest mythological creature out there.
** Their attack power has not gone up, however their AP cost for attacks has been reduced from 3 to 1.  This means that once they get in close, they do a lot of damage fast the next turn.

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Skyward Collapse / Re: Nick Trujillo Presents: Skyward Collapse Comic Page 4

« on: Today at 10:24:40 AM »

My favorite part is that this is all stuff that's in the game, and he makes it so funny.

Fun fact: Vegetarian Uprising (the woe) was actually inspired by page 2 of his comic, when I'd seen the script for it weeks ago.  Then that came full circle and now that made it into page 4 of his comic.  I love it.

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Skyward Collapse / Nick Trujillo Presents: Skyward Collapse Comic Page 4

« on: Today at 09:51:43 AM »

Original: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2013/05/nick-trujillo-presents-skyward-collapse_22.html

The fourth page of Nick Trujillo's comic is now up!  Here are page one, page two and page 3 if you missed them.  One more page is in the works and will be available shortly. The release of Skyward Collapse is on the 23rd -- that's tomorrow!  Enjoy!