Version 0.610apple

[Teddy]

Patch 0.610apple - Sounds Like Stable

Summary: Sounds! And hints! Mostly. Oh. And automatic backup restoration that hopefully won't do anything stupid instead of helping out!

Update Description

Since the Festival arc + the dragon cutscene has received their sounds, this update brings the game up to a polished enough level that we can put it on the Stable branch! However, it will chill on Frontline for a few days to hopefully weed out any major issues before pushing it live on Steam, followed by a DRM-free version.

Apart from the sounds, another major addition is an automatic backup recovery system, which on a load failure will attempt to restore the latest non-corrupt backup for the affected slot.

We've also thrown in a bunch of extra game over hints (where Bag usually just taunts you) for a couple of bosses where some players were having trouble wrapping their head around the patterns. To help distinguish between Bag's disses and his actual tips, he will now say "LISTEN UP!!" when he has something important to say. If the tip is something the player hasn't seen before, it can't be skipped for ~3 seconds. We much prefer improving readability before nerfing stuff, so hopefully this will help players overcome the more troublesome bosses through improved strategy!

There's also a pretty experimental network addition that's currently disabled by default, but might be enabled in the next frontline patch. You can enable it manually by typing /netauto to have the networking respond to ping spikes by lowering the network update frequency. You can also enforce a setting by typing /netset X where X is a number between 1 and 5 (such as "/netset 3"). 1 is the normal (frequent) update mode, and 5 sends updates about 30 % as often. Note that this won't lower ping caused by distance, but is rather there to help with stuff like bad routers or network cards that totally flip out if receiving too many packets! In short, it might help if you're having trouble with ping spikes, but probably not if you just have a high (but stable) ping.

Additions

• If a save file becomes corrupt, the backup system will automatically restore the latest possible backup
• Most events at and around the festival have received their proper sounds!
• (Apple patch)Moar sounds!

Changes

• The Enraged Toy Machine's phases can now be advanced through dealing damage to it, not only defeating its minions
• Added some Game Over-tips for the Toy Machine, Queen Bee and Season Hydras
  
• When Bag gives a specific Game Over-tips based on the situation, he will say 'Listen Up!!' first to draw attention
  
• Saved health orbs/health potions in Arcade Mode are now marked on the minimap so you remember them
  
• When using a potion for the first time AND when overwriting one, you now get a BagTips warning you that only one can be active at a time
  
• The festival end battle has been made a bit more forgiving
  
• Katarina no longer tries to scam the Collectors with fake statue work after the festival
  
• The /loweffects command now also disables lighting/darkening, making the festival into a daylight festival

Bug Fixes

• You can no longer teleport away from the HQ after dying against the Black Ferrets
• Killing Teddy or Freddy right before they receive an order no longer deadlocks the battle
  
• Overriding a potion with another as a client now correctly removes the buff indicator of the old one
  
• The ice spike charge effect is now the correct color
  
• Clients disconnecting at bad moments should no longer risk taking the server down with them
  
• Enemies should now be a bit more considerate and not knock players out of important dialogue (Frostlings, I'm talking about you!)
  
• Cowering in the corner will no longer save you from Vilya's giant spin attack
  
• Farming for a long time in the same area using Insect Swarm no longer causes ever increasing lag

Next Patch, 0.615 Frontline: We'll probably patch in a barebones version of Mt. Bloom when we've prototyped all the "main challenges" of the cave!

 

[Yuuki]

Changes

• Katarina no longer tries to scam the Collectors with fake statue work after the festival

about time!
or you should have made a mini quest out of it ^^

 

[The G-Meister]

or you should have made a mini quest out of it

Perhaps she needs her chisel sharpening and her hammer's head is loose. She's ordered a new set, but they're not arriving until tomorrow! She asks if you can go and get them repaired while she's on her break, and if you hand them to Wyl, he'll ask for either some materials or a bit of money, and he'll get the job done for you. Once you hand them back, she'll finish off the job, and once she's done, she gives them to you!

Sharpened Chisel: 1h weapon, +55 ATK, +5% ATK SPD, and has a 5% chance inflict bleeding, dealing 2% of your ATK every 1/2 seconds for anywhere from 2-5 seconds, for all enemies. Description:"Some new life found in Katrina's old chisel gives it a nice slice. Has a chance to inflict bleeding, too!"

Hardened Hammer: 2h weapon, +80 ATK, -5% ATK SPD, and has a 5% chance to stun the enemy you're attacking for 1-2 seconds. Description:"The might of this repaired hammer will leave enemies stunned!"

Sadly, this won't happen, because you have to pay lots of money for a sidequest and a weapon :/

 

[Own]

Personally I'm happy to see NPCs move around and things get things done without it being a side-quest, makes the world feel like things are being done without your influence.

As usual, thoughts as I encounter them:

The new sound effects for many of the skills are pretty nice. I thought Whirlslash Gold Charge would have like a tornado whirr or something, but this sounds nice and sharp. (Of course, if you use a blunt 2H weapon like a Slime Hammer, Club or Smashlight, a sharp slashing sound is a little strange, but not a problem. )

I thought Fireball was getting it's max sound effect, though. https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/667053247710912512/pu/vid/1280x720/LQTcJHbLQv9S0gFo.mp4 I was so looking forward to this.

I keep hearing a rubber nose honking, but I see no clowns. Where is this demon clown lurking? It must be slain.

Photograph person doesn't have a sound effect when they snap a picture, but maybe that's still to be done.

Bikke doesn't have a chomping sound, but maybe that's for the best. There's enough sound effects going off.

What is that constant, hard 'tick-tick-ticking' sound going off in the background? It stands out sharply from everything, even with the music going.

On Hard, the Black Ferrets died... what felt significantly easier than the last patch? On Normal they just ate dirt. Though my main character does have all cards, +13% pet damage and damage potions.

I can still walk everywhere after leaving the HQ before ending the festival, but that's a low priority bug.

When Bag gives a specific Game Over-tips based on the situation, he will say 'Listen Up!!' first to draw attention

I'd go look at these, but that requires starting over and running through the game. I'll do it when I get the chance.

The festival end battle has been made a bit more forgiving

Any specifics? Attacks changed, HP / damage nerfed by what % on Normal Hard? I still think Shady Merchant should be tucked away in some corner of the festival to sell stuff since the player is locked there, but maybe they're now easy enough that it won't be necessary.

 

[Own]

Also, for testing purposes, could we get a command to skip the first two tutorial trials during the exam like with the festival events? The Fishing/ Puzzle are a little tedious when you're just speeding a character through the game to test stuff.

 

[Teddy]

What is that constant, hard 'tick-tick-ticking' sound going off in the background? It stands out sharply from everything, even with the music going.

I think it's supposed to be the torches... is it massively annoying?

I thought Fireball was getting it's max sound effect, though.

The fireball (and some other spell sounds) were part of another batch! We've received the sounds now, so we might put them in for the real Stable patch!

Any specifics? Attacks changed, HP / damage nerfed by what % on Normal Hard?

On Normal, both Vilya and her cohorts does a bit less damage and she has a bit less HP. The real nerf actually appears over time the more you lose to them. It's a weird system, but you are currently stuck there with no way to grind and stuff, and that was the best compromise we came up with. Basically, her stats lowers gradually by about 30 % over the course of 15 losses (where the nerf max out). I'll watch the Let's Players tackle that boss with much curiosity!

As for the merchant, we'll probably add someone like that anyways, and maybe soften the nerfs at that point.

Nothing should've changed on Hard, really, except for maybe some slight collateral. We're talking ~5 ATK tops, unless I've made a mistake somewhere! Maybe you're just 2 gud for those clowns?! :O

Your full completion character is kind of a beast even when he isn't wielding that secret, forbidden axe of murder

Also, for testing purposes, could we get a command to skip the first two tutorial trials during the exam like with the festival events?

I'll throw that in for the real patch!

 

[Own]

I don't know if it's annoying, it's just really... sharp. It stands out well above everything else, those sharp pops. Best to see if other people notice it, not just me.

Also, I was comparing this match with Vilya & co with my last one in the old patch. They felt a lot easier this time, but that could be due to the fact that I had the fight down easily after throwing my flamethrower speedrunner character at it so many times.

I do have a habit of forgetting that axe was swapped out in favor of a flower wand. I'll switch that out for a Smashlight.

And I was wanting to see the dragon cutscene / bee boss again, but those commands no longer do anything. The dragon reset makes the screen fade to black and nothing changes. Huh.

Is this a bug? If I shield cancel out of Blade Flurry, the sound effect stops instantly. If I shield cancel out of Whirlslash, the sound effect continues playing out.

 

[Teddy]

Patched in a bunch of additional sounds and changed the version suffix!

Is this a bug? If I shield cancel out of Blade Flurry, the sound effect stops instantly. If I shield cancel out of Whirlslash, the sound effect continues playing out.

Yyyyeeeees I guess that could be called a bug, or at least "lack of polish"! The flurry is a chopped up sound that triggers its parts on certain frames, while the whirlslash one is one long sound. I should probably add a little microsystem that allows for locking sounds to a specific animation so that they cancel if the animation gets interrupted!

 

[Ardeof]

New Frontline update is not launchable. On top of that issue, the only way to terminate the process is by restarting the PC. Process itself is 80kb.

Edit: Not the 0.610a "Anders" patch. Was using frontline Anders and an 8.5MB patch came through, presumably as a new version update.

 

[Teddy]

New Frontline update is not launchable. On top of that issue, the only way to terminate the process is by restarting the PC. Process itself is 80kb.

Edit: Not the 0.610a "Anders" patch. Was using frontline Anders and an 8.5MB patch came through, presumably as a new version update.

Is anyone else experiencing this? For me the Steam Frontline version seems to download and work properly!

Have you tried verifying the integrity of the game cache? (Right click the game in the Steam library, go to properties, go to Local Files and then click the Verigy Integrity-button)

 

[KoBeWi]

Works fine for me too.
But I discovered that when you aggregate too many patch notes (since 0.55c for me, somehow) the game starts to lag.

 

[Ardeof]

Is anyone else experiencing this? For me the Steam Frontline version seems to download and work properly!

Have you tried verifying the integrity of the game cache? (Right click the game in the Steam library, go to properties, go to Local Files and then click the Verigy Integrity-button)

I've tried verifying, and deleting the entirety of the folder. SoG also works fine when going from the frontline to the stable version. So it's specific to the patch.

 

[The G-Meister]

I was having some issues last night trying to get it to launch, but I had to close it in task manager and relaunch a couple times before it worked.

 

[Teddy]

I've tried verifying, and deleting the entirety of the folder. SoG also works fine when going from the frontline to the stable version. So it's specific to the patch.

If you opt into the translation beta (you have to type "translatethis" into the access code box to make it show), can you run the game through that?

 

[Ardeof]

Yep, translation beta works fine.

 

[Teddy]

Interesting... they should be basically identical versions, with the exception of the translation beta currently pointing to the Stable 610apple vs. the Frontline 610apple!

I'm kind of suspecting some rare bug with Steam's backend. I mirror the translation branch with the frontline one, so just hang tight on that one for now until the next frontline update

 

[Own]

Undocumented changes:

- James Plott now Senic Plott. Subtle.
- Ray Charles now Ray C. Someone, somewhere in the world, is 0.017% less offended by Secrets of Grindea.



- Dad now regrows a hand in the opening cutscene just to use jazzhands at you. Which is weird because before this version he had no animation here, it went from standing still to laughing. I wonder what happened here?

 

[Teddy]

- Dad now regrows a hand in the opening cutscene just to use jazzhands at you. Which is weird because before this version he had no animation here, it went from standing still to laughing. I wonder what happened here?

What the heck

I think it's Oldman's ghost who's back to haunt us! He had a "wipes glasses" animation he did at that point in the cutscene, but the new dad couldn't wipe his glasses on account of his lost arm, and so there was no animation for him to change to!

When his younger incarnation got a bunch of animations, suddenly the cutscene rejoiced and could finally do its job again, except the animation was a "young dad digs gold"!

 

[Own]

Cloud shadow and Shadowclone flames are visible in the cutscene here.