Build 120

[rob]

Salutations, Brave Testers! Today we pushed build 120. Changes include the following:

* Classify regions by threat level: green, yellow, orange
* Add green regions
* Add missile firing script to Delta redoubts
* Refine graphics and numbers for minions of Drill, Alpha and Beta
* Buff Silver's shield regen delay
* Add Vela and Corvus shields
* Double the tracking range for blue ally arrows

The biggest change this week is the addition of the new green threat level regions. They should contain almost all small forts, with a few mediums. We added these because the difficulty of the "normal" regions has increased a lot over recent months with the introduction of all the flying missiles and bombs we've been putting in. It's now at the point where even veteran players can have trouble soloing, and new players are hit with a wall of frustration.

The new green regions are meant to be a place for new players, or solo vets. We've reduced the rewards you get for leveling towns, connecting minerals, clearing routes, etc in these regions. So if you have a group, we are hoping that you'll find it more rewarding to fight in the yellow regions. We are currently working on new orange and red threat level regions as well. The maze regions are still around and have been classified orange.

I spent a fair amount of time updating some of the oldest enemies in the game, the minions of the drill station and the alpha and beta processors. They got some combat upgrades, but they are still not very dangerous. I cleaned up the graphics as well -- they are less muddy and fuzzy and more clearly defined.

The new shield items are not all-around shields like the Pyxis is. We debated whether this was a pro or a con. The con argument is: they cover less of you! The pro argument is: they can recharge in combat because they have holes in them. So we made them the same strength as the Pyxis. The two new shields drop from the Annihilation-class Warp Relay in one of the wormhole dungeons.

As always we appreciate your help in testing Grid12 and we look forward to your comments and opinions. Thank you!

Rob & Tim
Jetbolt Games

[sven]

I've roamed around for a few hours, it's a whole mass of improvements from my last year experience.

The graphical revamp itself is aesthetically pleasing it draws my attention without fatigue. (Such necessary contrasting) Very subtle geometric-esque wars. The era with the plain colored tiles, I wasn't able to complain because I grew accustom to the look.

My current selection of tanks are limited yet I feel it's unintended for getting access without the proper module. After my death with Phantom then Avenger, I was devastated that I wasn't able to hold them long enough until I reach the requirements. Speaking of death, the death screen is quite horrid. Spending merely a second of time to deploy in origin. There's a death message on chat, why not continue there? Say, a secret message designated to dead user who got killed by whom?

Out of any tanks, I was able to try Trailblazer as a last trial. From zero to level seven about half an hour, of course with the help of prism boosts. I think Trailblazer benefits the user themselves than others. Minerals are sort of like valuable materials, it would be a shame that someone out there were to outsource them. I perform this stunt when no was around, so no complaints.

I adore the threat level indication, it's like setting a landmark on where to proceed and advance.

[sven]

I don't mean to douple-post, I have a gripe I would like to share.

While playing Silver, there's a few near death experience I encountered where teleporting to Origin delays.
It works as it suppose, there's no guarantee that it helps users get their safely. (unless out of enemy range)

1. I was bombarded by barrage of projectiles or missiles from minions, then teleported which takes a few seconds to get reach Origin with half of my HP intact.

2. When I traveled into fortress territories, I'm down to minimal health due to being careless. As a last resort I pressed the Origin button. By the time I get there, I ended up being a debris and presented with a death screen.

I propose teleporting to Origin should have at least two seconds protection from further damages. In the process of protection, users are unable to use triggers or projectile within the duration. As in a protection against unforeseen circumstance such as lag or delays. I feel the sense of security is practical for testers. If death happens, there's no excuse for not using this safety net as emergency.

If anyone's bothered about my sudden appearance, it's only temporary. Carry on.

[rob]

Thanks for the feedback Sven (also, nice to see you again). Teleport to origin currently requires a round-trip message and is thus subject to lag. We'd obviously want to make this client-side only but we haven't gotten to it yet. It annoys us too.

[sven]

Yikes, at the current state I'm making the best out of Silver. The strongest tank I have left is Corsair and no way I'm risking it even with the confrontation convoys or any other tasks. :<

Thanks for the explanation. I'm looking forward to the update in the upcoming weeks.

[gingerbear]

I would gladly test the game again, but the browser got wiped and I forgot my password, lul.

Edit: oh wait i still have the log-in in another browser. Now I have to save this...

[Deleted]

I think one of the problems with the current 'drop everything at level 1' system is that there is a strange difficulty curve for new players. At the beginning, the game is ridiculously hard, as your only tank is an unaugmented, prism-less silver. You are forced to take on the same fortresses fought by others, but with frustratingly-low damage and some of the worst shields in the game. The low drop rate of unlocks means that a new player may have to fight many, many fortresses before unlocking a single level 1 tank. I suspect that many new players would quit long before unlocking 1-2 new tanks.


However, as soon as you start to unlock a few decent 'clearing' tanks (Mustang, Predator, Valkyrie, etc.) and start finding augments and prisms, progress becomes much easier. You can start to unlock more tanks, augment your 'main' tank and increase your storage. During this 'phase' of the game, you have a clear, set, achievable goal, and every drop is useful to you.


After a while, you will have unlocked almost all the tanks, or perhaps just the ones you think you'd like to play. Either way, you probably have an idea of which tank you want to focus on upgrading. The problem is that it is quite difficult to obtain specific modules without a moderate amount of coins (which a new player would not have).

Convoys and subcommanders can both drop valuable loot, but without a long, cleared convoy route, modded tanks or knowledge (the sources of which are somewhat lacking), it is almost impossible to reliably kill convoys. I would say that the Hornet is the most realistic way to solo convoys without mods, but even then you must have a decent convoy route and need to know the limitations of the tank (How much damage can I tank? Which convoys can I do? Will I finish this convoy in time?).

Subcommanders (and dungeon bosses) are easier to kill, but have a very short window of time in which they are available, meaning they cannot be farmed in the way convoys can.
This seems to be the second 'cliff' of the difficulty curve, in which there is much slower progress. The items you need to progress can only be reliably obtained from the enemies for which you need the items to kill in the first place.
Minerals are a viable source of coins and mods, but are often just dead items sitting in your storage.


(Assumptions)
Once you have modded a tank for clearing and another for convoys, you will start to earn coins and mods much faster. You can clear regions and make effective use of the subcommanders and convoy routes that result. This allows you to 'snowball' into stronger tanks -> more mods -> stronger tanks -> ...
Higher level mods and the shield items are the endgame of Grid12, as they have essentially no limit, unlike augments and prisms.



I don't really know where I was going with this, but I guess these are my ideas on Grid12's progression slope, and perhaps one of the reasons for its low population.

[amitp]

Cardz, hm, yes, this may be an inherent problem in games where everyone plays the same areas. The game is hardest for the new players who have neither the skill nor the equipment. This may change with the new regions having different difficulties; I don't know. It's also hard to gauge when most of the testers have been around for a while, so they've built up some skill, even if they lost their equipment.

[gingerbear]

Okay, played around a bit, here is my feedback about the current some updates:

- Overall, I like the changes. Creating different difficulty zones is good, I personally play mostly in the orange one for loot.

- I like how straightforward the drop system is: "Are you in a shield buff region? You get shield augs.", "Are you killing X kind of enemy? You will most certainly get X drop.". Makes decision making a lot easier, because you won't grind the same area for getting maybe something you want but can hop to another area directly.

- I like the storage changes, the first two pages are not that hard to farm up ( I still need lvl 6 storages, but it is a lot less grind than it was before). Assuming people (mostly thinking newcomers) use the augments / stuff they pick up, that should be enough initial space for a comfortable gameplay.

- I don't know whether lvl 4 augments doing it. I mean, even prisms go up to 20% bonus, you lose them the same way, and are kind of easily replacable (no need to grind 8 ones for 1 upgrade). Yes, farming the augments is not that much of a work now, but something still feels ... odd. I don't really want you to buff/nerf either of them, just stating that something doesn't feel right. (Maybe add 1 "usable" augment level every 25 level after
lvl 60? Even with only 1% extra bonus? Or lose only random 3 augments upon death?)

- I like how the convoy drops are nerfed, so players don't feel that bad if they don't join fighting them (more gameplay choices). However, aside from coins (which will be removed) and map finishing, there is no real interest in fighting them either, aside from the thrill. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it could also mean that people only go for the "easy convoys" and ignore the harder ones... Maybe some extra loot in this cases? Modules, extra shields? With a very low drop chance, of course.

- I don't know whether the "0 loot" is a bug or intended mechanics now, but it's really annoying seeing a drop, moving over it and getting nothing (I think I get the XP, though sometimes I don't see the text for it). This has happened several times against large fortresses, and once even at a convoy (ladybug)! I know I was in range.

- I don't like some of the tower buffs. I understand that the targeting projectiles are intended to make "face sitting" on turrets impossible, but that's kinda bad for the following reasons:
1. Tanks that have invulnerability or invisibility can face sit all the same.
2. Every other tank has just a LOT harder time fighting. The map is full of extra projectiles and minions, and the aiming AI is still stupid shooting a bit randomly to annoy the players: you never get to have a steady DPS on the targets you really want to kill, unless you sit on it... which you CAN NOT DO anymore. I propose a rethinking of the aim system, just a slight change: give an "interest value" to every target, something along this scale (bottom < up)
turret minions < walls, destructible obstacles < turrets < convoy minions < convoy mains < subcommander/boss minions < subcommander/boss buildings. Then of course you can fine tune which tank prioritizes which targets, or maybe make it selectable by the user? (only giving 2-3 battle modes would be enough, though. ) Also could make the turrets linger on the same target a bit longer, if possible, preferably at higher prioritized ones.
3. Stationary tanks cannot really play in the clearing game, not alone at least. Hornet, anyone? I only see it appearing sniping at convoys (it's perfect for that, albeit pretty risky), but on the map? Not a chance. All the homing missles and bombs get through the front shield hole, and by the time a hornet player gets to put an extra shield on it, he will be long hating the game...

- Also, you might want to reconsider what do you want to make money of. Microtransactions are fine, but selling... what? Upon death we lose augments and the tanks. Augments drop abundantly, but for level 4 everyone can just farm them, no need to buy. Tank items drop rarely, and I think everyone rather stocks up with them thanks to the new unlocking mechanics. Storage items? With the new system you will rather keep them because unlocking new slots seems to be a lot easier than before, even in larger scope. All you have left to really trade are modules and module materials. Which of course are a lot of grind to obtain else. And temporary buffs, but are they worth it? And yeah, extra shields, but I think everyone just rather keeps those as those are even harder to obtain. My point is, if you want people to trade (and thus get money), you might want to add stuff that they can have a good excess of, and not making everything either rare or something you have to replace sooner before you are overloaded with it.

Sorry for the wall of text.