Messages

1351

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #25: Game Economy Changes

« on: January 21, 2014, 02:50:59 pm »

I can understand that Styg but let me put it in this perspective. How worth is it going to be to add a very rare component to a gun (assuming you even have the skill to put it on the gun if it's something that rare) if at the end of the day the gun's damage is going to be that much inferior to the damage of a gun that the merchant sells me?

If you found some low quality component early game, crafted a gun out of it and then traveled to say Junkyard and compared it to the higher level gear there, that's not enough to draw a conclusion that all crafted gear is inherently worse than what's available for purchase.

The equipment that the merchant sells is typically of the same level as the components the merchant sells. The equipment that the merchant sells is generated by using the same blueprints that the player uses when crafting and is crafted out of components of the appropriate level. So you see, the crafted equipment is not inferior in stats, it's actually, on average, the same level. Same goes for loot you find.

That about puts the crafting and purchasing on the same level power wise. The reason why it would be beneficial to a character to spend points on tech skills is as I stated in the previous posts - blueprints and components that are exclusive for crafting, or just very rarely found in a finished product. Not to mention that the crafting is both a cheaper way to obtain gear, can create profit when selling and can be used to craft consumables and such.

1352

Suggestions / Re: Shroomhead alternative?

« on: January 21, 2014, 08:20:44 am »

Melle + heavy armor doesn't goes well with psi, it's uust a grab that specific psi to use mellee at 3 squares distance. That isn't what I'd call a psi build, it has a minimal psi assistence and it isn't even because the abillity is that good, it's mostly flavor as the abillity only gives you a little bit of range in punches but gives you no bonus to damage or anything else. then again wouldn't make sense to give bonus because for that it would be dependent on your psi skill and if you're going heavy str based forget having a high psi bonus.

As for most builds having a limited amount of resources at the start... well true, but here's the thing. If I build a mellee guy, money won't be too much of an issue early on. If I buld a guy that uses guns, money will be an issue early one, but it will allow me to keep up with the expenses on bullets. If I make a psi guy I just will not have enough psi early on to get me through all battles because the boosters are very expensive and the psi reserves are incredibly small and non regenerative. You just hurt a lot in the beggining to make a psi based character because you nearly cannot use psi at all and instead have to use whatever secondary weapon you are okish at. You can still get through it I have no doubt, but you are severelly gimped by comparison to any other kind of build.

Not really. Matter of fact, during the internal testing I played a psi character that wore a metal armor and used a sledgehammer. It IS a psi build as most of my feats were psi feats and most of my damage came from there. It worked very well. The only problem that I had is low movement points so ultimately I think having a high agility psionic is better.

I had no trouble purchasing psi boosters. I even forced myself to skip biology, which I almost always take, just to see how much of a problems psi boosters are. And they are not, especially in the new economy.

I think what you're having problems with is that you cannot be a 'spell caster' from the get go and just kill everything with psi. This is intended. Psi takes a bit of time to get rolling.

1353

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #25: Game Economy Changes

« on: January 21, 2014, 08:13:41 am »

In the future I will introduce crafting components that will not be available for merchant generated items or are very rare. Actually, I already started with this process in the current patch - for instance crawler poison caltrops and bear traps (which are very useful, btw) are very rarely found on merchants.

1354

Bugs / Re: Thugs preferring hand to hand combat?

« on: January 20, 2014, 01:57:33 pm »

Yeah, there was a bug that prevented them from equipping/switching weapons. Fixed it. Thanks.

1355

Bugs / Re: Corrupted saves

« on: January 18, 2014, 11:29:01 pm »

1st post

Died. I picked load menu to pick one of previous saves (I was obviosly lost looking for GMG compound) and all had black preview screens. Look kinda strange so I picked one of them and dang... error, save corrupted. Luckly last save load worked and I was back in the game. Unfortunately during area transition I had error with autosaving.
I think I will wait with next playthrough.
Cheers!

EDIT: To precise things: Game on steam with y-day update.
EDIT2: New update I saw is on steam. Is it safe to start game? Maybe my saves are needed? And I have noticed transitionerror*.log in saves folder.

As far as I understand, the save corruption can sometime occurs due to process running out of memory (even if you computer has enough memory, the game is limited by the address space of a 32 bit application). I'm currently unsure what I'm going to do about this, as controlling .NET application's memory is something I've attempted in the past without much result.

All I can tell you is save often and in different slots and you should be fine.

1356

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #25: Game Economy Changes

« on: January 18, 2014, 11:26:24 pm »

What Unlimited is trying to say (and what I agree with wholeheartedly) is that it's not players responsibility to balance how challenging the game is.

If a certain game mechanic is available in the game which grants the player a certain advantage if used correctly, it should be used by the player without them fearing it will unbalance the game to the point where it won't be challenging anymore. The players fun should come from figuring out how to best utilize and combine different mechanics to overcome a challenge. The player should not have to worry about which mechanics he should avoid in order for the game to still be challenging.

That said, what I might consider doing is allowing players to lift various restrains for a particular play-through. I'm not convinced there's value in this though.

1357

Bugs / Re: Merchants no longer restock after Core City cut-scene?

« on: January 18, 2014, 02:53:51 pm »

I'll check it out on monday, but I really doubt there's a bug there, you probably didn't allow enough time to pass still (90 mins, as epeli said).

Boots have their separate category, it's possible that I didn't assign any merchants to it, I'll check.

I can never guarantee save game compatibility. The quests are there because it's easier for us to implement stuff related to them in the existing areas now than to retrofit it later.

1358

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #27: Version 0.1.10.0 released

« on: January 18, 2014, 02:27:02 pm »

Just trying the new version with a new build (melee only character) with the new experience style system, it does make you think more about picking your battles as the only thing you'll be doing is spending the durability on your armour although with the potential rewards of getting better items like leather to make better armour or even a heart to produce some sort of item using crafting it really makes you think that much more.

I really love the fact you've given the player a choice in terms of experience type and difficulty, it shows you are listening to the fans of the game and allowing them to make the choice rather than forcing it upon them.

Keep up the good work, how have you settled into your new office?

Glad that you're enjoying the game. We settled well, thanks.

1359

General / Re: Health gained per level

« on: January 18, 2014, 02:24:45 pm »

Yes, health gains from constitution work retroactively.

1360

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #27: Version 0.1.10.0 released

« on: January 18, 2014, 08:50:33 am »

....

You gotta read what i have written. I have started a fresh game (never imported any character) and i am doing what i do with the classic system. I kill everything loot everything and explore all areas except for those limited by stats. And i am still level 2 (nearly 3) but with classic system i would be level 4 already after finishing the hopper quest (the one where you have to capture three cave hoppers). I am not talking about later in the game because i have not even started GMS compound quest. Its the early game that i am talking about.

This is from my experience of patch 1.09 with classic where i got to level 4 after the hopper quest but maybe in this patch 1.10 Styg has reduced the amount of experience gained. Maybe in later levels the oddity system would be faster/ equal to the classic system but early on the leveling feels really really slow.

I'm aware that there's a bit of a gap here. From my experience it is possible to be about 3.5 level when you enter GMS with the new system, but it's not the most obvious road. So I might add a few oddities in between to make sure players are not underlevelled when accessing that area.

1361

Bugs / Re: New Game Failure

« on: January 17, 2014, 05:01:21 pm »

Hi, I found that bug just minutes ago. It's a bug in the new hotfix that I released on Steam to fix other bugs. :/

Anyway, I rolled back the change until I fix it, so you should be able to play it now (I sometimes need to restart Steam for it notice that a game has been updated).

1362

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #26: Alternative Experience System

« on: January 17, 2014, 12:25:57 pm »

The oddity system is not meant to simulate the real life studying and skill increasing more accurately than the classic. They are both abstract and gamey and can never be anything else as long as there's a single input for power progression - XP.

The purpose is, as I stated multiple times, to remove the need to kill for the sake of getting experience and progressing in levels.

And killing is the way you get most of your XP in the classic system and that forces the player to adapt a certain attitude towards the game and threat it as a zoo of enemies to be slaughtered. I'm completely fine with people playing the game that way, that's why the classic system is there.

But for those who don't want to spend the time clearing out this zoo and like to pick and choose their battles and take a more meaningful approach to challenges than "kill everything" the new system is there to provide them with equal experience.

1363

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #27: Version 0.1.10.0 released

« on: January 17, 2014, 10:36:42 am »

Deep Caverns aren't in the game yet. It's going to be a different high level set of areas with a new tileset.

The cave system around SGS and Junkyard will be expanded in the next content patch.

1364

Bugs / Re: Zone transition failed

« on: January 17, 2014, 08:45:56 am »

Never mind. Found it.

1365

Bugs / Re: Zone transition failed

« on: January 17, 2014, 08:19:24 am »

Yes, and it also occurs when going back with another tunnel leading NE back to the zone where path splits when going to Rail Crossing to "south" and "north" routes and zone in question is first in the south route, didn't notice it before since I either go back by train or via northern route.

Ok, I got the first one, but I don't understand the direction for this one. Could you explain how I get to that zone from say Rail Crossing? And make sure you use the same north-south system as the compass