Build 24

[rob]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the longish wait for this build. I was at GDC Online in Austin. Here are the changes:

* New enemy fortress: Grid Control Tower
* New enemy fortress: Drill Station
* New class: Phantom
* Disallow same-account multiboxing
* Change color and nerf range of Wolverine corner lasers
* Add experimental driveover pane highlighting
* Have fortresses spawn with full minion hordes
* N key mutes pewpew sounds
* Cap building level at 10; cap town level at 20
* Introduce local resonator buffs (see formula below)
* Nerf global resonator buffs
* Change enemy minion wander AI
* Make town pane pattern circular
* Add chat notice when changing control schemes with C
* Turn off small town names when zoomed way out
* Remove edit button on splash screen
* Nerf tutorial drone range
* Make tutorial tanks handle like regular tanks
* Increase Juggernaut range
* Increase sight range on enemy tanks
* Set respawn cooldown of enemy fortresses to 10 minutes
* New lens award formula (see below)
* Many minor bug fixes

Local resonator buffs: each resonator gives a 10% buff in an area around its town. The radius of this buff depends on the level of the resonator. The radius is about 5 panes per resonator level beyond town boundaries. Local buffs from resonators are all added up. There is still a global resonator buff: the total of all resonator levels times .1%.

New lens formula: each shape or color pair gives one point; multiply by the square root of the average brightness (this is between 1 and 2); multiply by 1000 gridshards. Max award is for 5 matching shapes and 5 matching colors of brightness level 4: (10 + 10) * 2 * 1000 = 40000. Minimum award is 2 color matches at minimum brightness: 2 * 1 * 1000 = 2000.

About local buffs: We added this because the global buff made it so that people didn't want to end the game. The incentive was to buff everyone up so they could collect gridshards with maximum efficiency. Also it made it so that people were more effective on older servers. We wanted to eliminate this effect. We also wanted to make resonators feel more powerful, at least in the vicinity where you've built them. As with many things in Grid 12, this is an experiment that may work well or go horribly wrong.

Please let us know what you think of this build. Your feedback is very important; without it, Grid 12 would not be able to grow better over time.

Thanks for playing,
Rob

[amitp]

Drill stations, oh my!! A drill station to the north. A drill station to the west. I was being chased by ~20 tanks. They had me surrounded. It did not end well. I'm really looking forward to having other players around

I like all the changes so far.

[amitp]

Drill station was lots of fun!

[linkshot]

* New enemy fortress: Drill Station

"I'LL MOW YOU DOWN LIKE GRASS!"

* Disallow same-account multiboxing

MAFIA sheds a tear.

* Introduce local resonator buffs (see formula below)

Yesssss

* Nerf global resonator buffs

Oh we'll still have these?

* Change enemy minion wander AI

Curiouser and curioser!

* New lens award formula (see below)

Again?

Must check these out. and break them

A shadow of what once was

[frogboffin]

OH MY!




Wonder what the reward for destroying these are?

[linkshot]

Oct 18, 2012 10:34:54 GMT -5 frogboffin said:

Wonder what the reward for destroying these are?

You get to live another day.

[remm]

Fantastic improvements.
Just reading through the changes got me really excited about what I was about to try out.

First impression was surprise at the sheer number of minion tanks that were about. The tanks that hit multiple targets have instantly become superior. Cobra is easily the best tank out there, although I found that parking a Hurricane inside a drill station did some pretty significant damage.
Maybe the Cobra is too strong now. There's little reason to use the other classes. It was already a great class before the number of enemy tanks was increased, and because it's not slowed down by having to fire at many tanks, it's been unaffected (even helped) by the recent increase in enemy tank numbers. The Cobra has a shotgun style of fire, so did you intend for it to deal damage like a shotgun (more damage dealt at close range)?

I took out a drill station that was next to a town, and acquired 50000 gridshards from the assault. It took a while, and just successfully taking it down was really rewarding (not counting the gridshard reward from it).
One important comment with the drill stations though. The walls give a lot of loot. I think...22000 gridshards for destroying all the walls? They also spawn tanks, giving more gridshards. But most importantly, is that they can be farmed. Destroying the walls *but not the central tower*, and then letting the drill station go out of sight will cause the walls to respawn, ready to be killed again. With the Cobra, you can hit 3 or 4 wall sections at once, so it doesn't take long to destroy the walls, and repeat.

I found I was always levelling resonators to 10, because it gave the maximum bonus. I wanted to be the least restricted by range, and getting them to 10 allowed me to explore further, and be less tethered to a town.

I like the new lens award formula. It feels more natural now. I have noticed though that because there are more minions tanks out there, the tanks are now my dominant source of gridshards (whereas before it was lenses), and I'm not getting nearly as many lenses dropping as before (because I'm spending my time fighting the tanks in order to get to the enemy buildings).

Suggestion:
Can you please make the bomb on the Hercules have the ability to pierce enemies? If I'm circling a drill station for example, I get a swarm of tanks following me. The bomb is perfectly timed to detonate inside the swarm, but it'll only hit one or two enemies, because they absorb all of the fire (even though the bomb's damage output is far more than what it takes to kill the tank). If the bomb shots could each hit multiple enemies, it could be quite useful in this circumstance.

Bugs:
If I level a building up to 10, it gives me the option to level it to 11, but doesn't let me put in any more shards. Since 10 is the limit, the next target shouldn't exist.
While switching tank in a town, the game froze. i.imgur.com/4dS85.png

One last comment. Ground Fortresses are pretty redundant now. There is a very low chance of me stopping to kill one.

Edit.
Some extra thoughts.
I had an idea for how to come up with new tanks easily and comfortably. Make multiple versions of the same tank design. So, for example, the Hurricane V2 would fire just like the original Hurricane, does 50% more damage per shot, but can only hit 8 targets at once. Or the Cobra V2 would just have a small shield or small laser addition to the back end. The benefits of a system like this are that:
- The 'new' tanks are clearly similar to the other models, and so are instantly familiar.
- It shows a clear progression for new users, especially with something like a second version Silver
- There can be tanks with lots of alternate versions (Silver), and unique tanks that don't have different versions (Spectre).
- The different versions don't always have to be upgrades of previous versions, just something in the same style, which allows for quick creation of tanks, with easy balancing.
- If the game grows to have an enormous number of tanks, it makes it easier for a player to decide which tanks to use if there are clear groups of tank types.

Edit2. A little story of an event.
Was playing with randomg. Sven found a town on the edge of the buff zone that had a Drill station right next to it. Good shit. We levelled the town up to 3, so that the town limits were pushed next to the Drill, and then built a couple of resonators (no more than level 3) to help us for the upcoming fight. Cobra was the tank of choice for breaking down the walls, although Hurricane, Spectre, Scorpion and Wolverine did feature. The problem we had was that if we let the Drill walls go out of our collective sight, then they would reappear rebuilt or fully healed. And if we were within sight of the Drill walls, then we could be attacked thanks to their range buff.
i.imgur.com/xh7Nu.jpg
We won eventually (both on Cobra), but it would not have been possible for the two of us to do it without using the exploit that gets you healed whenever you change tank.
It was really disappointing that when the central drill building went down, that all the walls disappeared with it, meaning we couldn't get any loot from them.

Edit3.
I have been focusing so much on buffing the resonators that I pretty much forgot about exploring and researching. This means that the bonuses they give are definitely worthwhile!

[sven]

Worth the wait!

The enemy's behavior are astounding where they surround the player with form of intelligence to act as a group. Like wasp who defends their nest from danger. Including the wanderers. Enjoyed the moment of confronting the Drill Station within the battle ring. i.imgur.com/uoqee.png
I find the Grid Control Tower entertaining as walking through a beach except a flock attacks you if seen nearby. They're almost similar to Ground Fortress except for unpredictable bomb placement. Still the low Gforts pose no threat even when attacked by player, can just be ignored and move on. A known threat is that a Buff Gfort with ranged attack from the eye lazer can be lethal.

Very fond of driveover pane highlighting as if a person walking on a moon, it's quite the sensation!

New class: Phantom, another fascinating class! It's fully capable of aiming all sides and it's great for easygoing players who don't often rotate position.

B, N, and M, Users are now in control of these setting with a press of a keys. (Right next to each other) ^^

I'm curious about the mechanics of how the Local resonator buffs process goes, of course it encourages users to supply loads of gridshards on towns/ resonators/ extractors & lab in-order to progress through the game. I myself have taking accustom to that effect while handling a reasonable restraint. It bides me down from exploring further into the wilderness where in the deep end are filled with brutal buffed foes. It does saves me time to rethink on my action over trivial matters where I'm going to face countless of death from continuing the same routine repeatedly. I believe it's a great change of pace! Hmm, I wonder if I'm going to die less from here on out...

Bug Report: (Mostly Interface)

• Certain Tooltips can't be shown when the Tank Selection screen open.
  i.imgur.com/RzyLD.png
  
• Updating the resonator while having the tooltips shown, it doesn't update itself once leveled up.
  i.imgur.com/n8YPb.png
  
• While clicking when the socket tooltips shown without making any cursor movements, it remains there until a sudden movement made.
  i.imgur.com/bKRSN.png
  
• This is one of the example a player can farm gridshards from Drll Tower at a far distance. With the Scorpion continuously shooting upcoming enemies it's projectile off it's momentum.
  i.imgur.com/lPG9Q.png
  

[remm]

Some bugs.
In town, but unable to switch vehicle. This is because the town area is defined as a circle, but the visible town shape is made of square tiles.
i.imgur.com/aeP8V.png

Immediately upon respawn, I do not have full health. Maybe the portion of health I am missing is the same size as the resonator buff?
i.imgur.com/J29KX.png

The highlight area to bring up the tooltip box for the Adjunct Drill Station is far larger than the building size.

If I sit stationary at the maximum range of a Grid Control Tower, it will only occasionally fire at me.

If a Drill Station is located on the edge of two buff zones (I saw one between the first and second buffs), its walls will not be buffed evenly. The far walls have a higher buff than the nearer walls.

(Screenshot request: two adjacent Drill Stations)

(bug existed in previous builds) Sometimes when destroying an enemy building, the purple tiles that are associated with it will immediately all return to normal tiles, rather than returning to normal one-by-one. Maybe it happens with 5% of buildings? Not an important bug, but it certainly does happen.

Also, not sure if a bug or not, but if I orbit a Grid Control Tower at the same rotational speed as its turret, I cannot be hit by it. All tanks will also follow behind me, so if I have a side firing tank, this is an extremely easy way to destroy them. If I have a forward firing tank, I can usually sit beyond the firing range of the Control Tower, and ignore any damage that I take from its blue minions.

[sven]

While these features are wonderful addition to have, especially town looking so refine with circular pattern. I've forgot to mention about few gripes I've experienced...

Gripes:

• Since towns have the peculiar shade of blue like the text in the chatbox, they tend to be confusing at times to interpret.
  
  
  
  Enjoy the blue text but it can be hindering if having a conversation on towns, perfect on the wilderness.
  
• The sights of super tanks where they spawn are monotonous... Everywhere I go or encounter it's the same position, not much variation going on which is disturbing or unnatural. I guess it takes time for me to get adjust to.
  

[tarbomb]

A few first impressions.

(Note that I just accidentally wiped my flash LSOs, so I'm writing this as a level 3 tank with zero pulchs)

The new enemies are really cool. Grid Control Tower is a fun enemy to fight, and while I haven't successfully fought a drill station yet, it seems well-designed and well-implemented.

The new local buff scheme is a much-needed change, although I'm not sure if that's adversely affecting the amount of scouting going on by weakening scouts that go too far away from origin. Right now, with the map at research 5, we only have 8 towns discovered, rather than 20+ like we did previously, and all the towns are heavily leveled up and close to origin.

The new lens formula is more intuitive (matching shapes/colors is better) but I'm not enjoying the nerf in amounts. To be exact: in the past it was fairly easy to get 40k gridshards in five minutes by lens acquisition. Now, it's more difficult to get that, and 40k is the new max combo as opposed to 100k a while ago. IMHO the formula should be doubled (multiply by 2k instead of 1k) in order to make leveling less of a grind.

On minions: while I like the pre-existing minions, my concern is that they make single-targeting tanks (specifically the first two tanks) extremely weak, even when fighting close to Origin. It's difficult to destroy an enemy building when all your gun wants to do is shoot the minions. The fact that four of the five enemies - building, supertank, Drill Station, and GCT all heavily spam minions, which the first two tanks are poorly equipped to take upon, provides a bit of a deterrent to new players. Either the first two tanks should have some kind of mob-control ability, or there have to be more enemies without minions.

Edit: so I found and fought several drill stations. Here are my impressions:

The enemy itself is very well-designed, with multiple layers, of fire, minions, and of course the big boss. The design really encourages teamwork (a cobra or other heavy to batter down one of the walls, a scorpion to handle minions, and an avenger, spectre, or scorpion to batter the main boss down once the walls are destroyed). The loot is also worth the effort.

The only real problem with the DS is the walls. The problem is that the walls grow back as soon as they leave visual rage, which means that if you batter one down, back out to recover a bit, and come back, the wall will be right there again waiting for you. A duo can avoid this by leveraging teleport (player TP's to town and regens while his buddy stays and fights, and then the buddy does the same), but IMHO it doesn't make sense to force players to rely on constant teleporting (which breaks the flow of the game) in order to bring down one of these things. Furthermore, it makes the walls too easy to farm - just destroy, collect 2k gridshards + minion shards, back out, and go right back in. I think the walls should have some kind of a cooldown before respawning in order to prevent this.

The bug with land being instantly reclaimed after an enemy is destroyed is still there. Here's a screenshot I took right after I destroyed a groundfort - note the presence of the lootbag and the completely reclaimed territory:

[tarbomb]

Enemy not gone after being killed (known since build 23):



Tank shooting wildly at nothing:



Notice the lootbags littering the ground in the screenshots. I already picked up the contents of all the lootbags, but some of them didn't dim and still "looked" live.

[sven]

Ack, I know I'm forgetting something...

Gripe:

If only an extra space was provided when teleporting a town to prevent accidental deposits on unintended socket. I was few steps off from dropping gridshards, happens to me more than a few times...

Bizarre Bug:

I can't really describe how this happen but as Tarbomb mention, it's like shooting nothing but it's still something. I've been taking damage from the annex who's suppose to be dead. So I did go on a different browser and see through a different perspective...
After being overkill up to a 0 HP on my own, I became invisible. One shot from the physical dmg. from actual enemy I'm good as dead, the other side will see me as full health. Well that's how I end up invisible on the screen above.

Edit:

"* Have fortresses spawn with full minion hordes"

Well, enemies who are near towns don't have this function.
i.imgur.com/ciDMO.png, i.imgur.com/jsN7y.png