Summary: Take a good, hard look - it's a motherflippin' boat!
Recommended level: 26-30
Update Description
Note: This is one of those real Frontline updates, where sounds are missing, some graphics are placeholder etc! The gameplay should hold up well, though!
About making a boat
The boat is here, continuing the story! Let me start out by saying we're very happy with how it turned out, and I think most of you will find a few enjoyable hours in there.
Quality aside, though, we're not at all happy about how stupidly long this took to make. Vilya wrote about it on her blog a week ago, and it's worth a read I think: http://www.vilyaroo.com/2019/12/monday-meeting-reflection.html
TL;DR: We started off designing this dungeon like monkeys and it bit us in the behind. We had to remake probably three times as much for this update than in any other. Some of it was due to our approach to the dungeon planning, and some was just bad luck - not everything that's cool in your head works out in game. We usually end up scrapping 10-20 % of things we thought would turn out nicely, but damn, this time we scrapped half the things we made, maybe more.
Aaanyway, enough of the process and back to the patch!
It's a boat!
We hope you enjoy The Lost Ship, despite it taking so long to get! Remember, this is a frontline update so it's missing that final layer of polish, and we also welcome all feedback to improve the experience before the Stable patch!
Next Up: As always we'll be fixing bugs, and then we're going to finish up the polish for the ship - sounds, missing graphics, and a pretty big side quest we've got planned. After that's been on Frontline for a few days, the whole ship will run ashore into Stable and we'll continue on with the rest of the game!
We're not 100 % yet if we'll power through to the story-end before touching Arcade Mode again. It kind of depends on if I (the programmer) get some extra time on my hands - Arcade Mode is mostly programming after all.
PATCH NOTES
Additions
Recommended level: 26-30
Update Description
Note: This is one of those real Frontline updates, where sounds are missing, some graphics are placeholder etc! The gameplay should hold up well, though!
About making a boat
The boat is here, continuing the story! Let me start out by saying we're very happy with how it turned out, and I think most of you will find a few enjoyable hours in there.
Quality aside, though, we're not at all happy about how stupidly long this took to make. Vilya wrote about it on her blog a week ago, and it's worth a read I think: http://www.vilyaroo.com/2019/12/monday-meeting-reflection.html
TL;DR: We started off designing this dungeon like monkeys and it bit us in the behind. We had to remake probably three times as much for this update than in any other. Some of it was due to our approach to the dungeon planning, and some was just bad luck - not everything that's cool in your head works out in game. We usually end up scrapping 10-20 % of things we thought would turn out nicely, but damn, this time we scrapped half the things we made, maybe more.
Aaanyway, enough of the process and back to the patch!
It's a boat!
We hope you enjoy The Lost Ship, despite it taking so long to get! Remember, this is a frontline update so it's missing that final layer of polish, and we also welcome all feedback to improve the experience before the Stable patch!
Next Up: As always we'll be fixing bugs, and then we're going to finish up the polish for the ship - sounds, missing graphics, and a pretty big side quest we've got planned. After that's been on Frontline for a few days, the whole ship will run ashore into Stable and we'll continue on with the rest of the game!
We're not 100 % yet if we'll power through to the story-end before touching Arcade Mode again. It kind of depends on if I (the programmer) get some extra time on my hands - Arcade Mode is mostly programming after all.
PATCH NOTES
Additions
- Hit the deck - we're on a boat!
- When 100 % completion has been reached, the 'how to get completion' zoning tips will no longer show up
- Guardians will no longer shield Loods
- Having 10 quickslots filled in Arcade Mode will no longer push the map down, blocking some things in game
- In Arcade Mode, the quickslots now remember the player's preferred bindings per spell instead of per slot
- When players are trying to zone (showing the gather prompt), they no longer collide with other players
- Charging Smash after a Perfect Guard now properly spawns a Smash Ball
- Blinking into a new Arcade Mode room will no longer confuse the enemies in that room
- Gold Charged Smash no longer bugs out the Red Spinsects in the Big Boulder challenge
- Facegear equipment comparisons now work properly while masks are equipped
- Fixed a bug where a specific timing of turning around with the shield put it up in the wrong direction