On the road to version 1.2

By Frogboy on June 26, 2009 6:37:27 PM from

Greetings!

Version 1.1 is out! A few house keeping things:

We have put up: http://www.demigodthegame.com/opengames.asp for people who want to keep up with the number of people online which includes also the number of current games, open games, and lurkers.

Second, with v1.1 you can kind-of control the AI with the P (ping) key. Just mouse over where you want the AI to go and it will tend to go there unless it decides there’s a higher priority objective but it works decently (about as well as it does on humans <G>).

Now, with that discussed, let’s talk about version 1.2.

Gas Powered Games is on board to open Demigod up to pretty significant official modding support which I think would be totally awesome. I don’t know if anyone reading this has had a chance to check out the LUA code (scripts). A few mods have already been made but obviously modding right now is a problem because you can’t use them online. We would solve that by having officially sanctioned mods (players would submit them to DemigodTheGame.com and once accepted would be treated much like extra “Game options”). I’d be curious to find out if modders could add new units and such.

But what we are particularly interested in doing with v1.2 is nailing down “features” that users want changed or fixed. So please feel free to use this journal entry as a means to tell us what things you think we could do in v1.2 that would make the game even more fun. Whether that be things I’m already aware of like improved path finding or better queuing up of spell actions or anything else that you feel detracts from the experience.

+912 Karma | 138 Replies

It's surprising that this hasn't been fixed yet, but action priorities are very unintuitive and need to be changed. Command abilities need to not cancel out the previous action.

Yes, the action que is also a little buggy. When i select spit, then try to change to foul grasp, i have to move or the spit command won't cancel. It's more intuitive for the new command to override the old one.

Also, the game needs to stop freezing when I try to sign on but it can't connect.

Replays
Team-chat in lobby (Custom)
Lobby after a match has finished (Custom)
Movement bug from 1.1 fixed
Favor fixed (lol...? I just don't know anymore...)
Minion AI improvments (nooo, don't run into that tower...fuck!!)
No AI online. Just kick someone if that's what it takes to even out the teams.
70% of all items need to be buffed or have their price lowered.
Several citadel upgrades needs to have their price lowered or recieve a buff.
AI pathfinding.

- unhandled exceptions when starting a custom game, damn often (almost always by now)!!! followed by invalid user error, while trying to log in (some mates even cant get the game closed in this situations, neither with ctrl+alt+del, nor with alt+f4) <--- makes the game unplayable!

I have seen this a lot. Have to power down the computer to recover from the lock up. I have pretty much stopped playing online until this is fixed.

Balancing, especially buff the summonable minion of Sedna and Qot, and nerf HP items, because they are much too strong.

Quoting JuareZz,

reply 4

Balancing, especially buff the summonable minion of Sedna and Qot, and nerf HP items, because they are much too strong.

Or if you don't nerf hp items, buff dps items and add spell dmg items (rods and rings?).

Bugs and Balancing for v1.2 - https://forums.demigodthegame.com/354365

Updated minor/major bugs list (most with links to the according topics). I update this every week or so.

Oh, here is another one, vote to kick someone. There is no telling how many games i lost because one idiot kept feeding the enemies.

It would be easy for me, I just dont want to see my demigod blocked anymore...

So focus on path finding because that's the base of RTS game and so far from being correct

Features I'd like to see:

Replays, of course.
Random Demigod selector (and perhaps a game mode option where everyone is given a random DG).
A slight buff to spawned minion stats - I played for a while with the 'tough' minion setting, and found that they quickly became part of my assault strategy when they were strong enough to actually survive a shot or two from a tower. This would also buff Sedna, QoT, and General-style Oak, by virtue of their area effect buffs and debuffs.
An improved UI for generals. As you mentioned in your discussion of whch demigods would be added next, Generals seem to be least popular. With UI improvements and minion buffs (summoned and spawned - the purchased ones are already fine), that could change.
Fix the handful of nearly useless skills. Unlike many other games (*coughD2cough*), almost all skills in Demigod can be used, and can be used effectively. There are a couple exceptions, though - most notably Regulus' Vengeance, which, while cool in concept, does far too little damage far too infrequently to be practical. QoT's Uproot is another skill that is widely considered useless - with the armor reduction from Ground Spikes, her auto-attack can easily out-damage it.
Favor items need work - I'd love to see actual stats on it (can that be done?), but the vast majority of players use one of about eight favor items: Swift Anklet, Blood of the Fallen, Amulet of Teleportation, Mard's Hammer, Furious Blade, Blade of the Serpent, Ring of Divine Might, and Pendant of Grace. A couple others, like Cloak of Night, are usefull for specific demigods on specific maps, but most are simply not comparable enough to ever be used.
A couple Citadel upgrades need reworking - most notably, the Gold upgrades, which are almost always useless beyond the first. The death upgrades are rarely used, since the central tenet of good playing is "don't die", so they might be better off replaced by a more general 'demigod upgrade' that gives a small (emphasis on small) boost to several key demigod stats, effectively turning your citadel into a flag.
While I'm not a modder myself, I'd like to echo the earlier suggestion that the 3d exporter be made available to increase modder flexibility. I've seen the awesomeness that can arise in modding communities when this happens, and it is something to behold. I know there may be licensing issues there, but... It'd really be a huge resource to the community.

I would like the ability to play unranked games, so they do not count as a win or a loss. Sometimes I wish to experiment or test a strategy and it would be nice if I could do so without the risk of messing up my rank or the rank of a friend. Especially with the possibility of modding in 1.2, this would be a good feature to add since not all custom games would be created equal, so to speak.

In game lobby:

-Option to have only 1 specific demigod per group

-Option to hide the opposing team's demigod selection, so that teams cannot attempt to make counter classes prior to just starting the game

-Show simspeed for each player

-Show region for each player

Shrink the Rook's graphic, can't see a damn thing when he's in there on top of people.

PLEASE RESTORE FAVOR ITEMS. They are now useless. Having to purchase them every time means we only get to use them every 2-4 games or so, and those are the cheap ones. If you totally dominate a game you get what, 200 points? So you would have to do this four times to use the Blood of the Fallen?! And that is if you are really good. In an even game, most players are leaving with around 100 ponits are so which is not even enough to use the Charm of Life every game. V1.1 basically took favor items out of play, which is really stupid. One of the great things about DemiGod was that there was some reward for playing a lot, but not enough that new players had no hope. The system worked. This is a classic case of IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT! Now, some of the items themselves might need to be recosted, and the General-specific items need some help, but the solution was not to take away the whole system, it was to fix these specific problems. If you want to make them harder to obtain, make them cost more, but as the system stands now, it rewards players who play tons of easy games against the AI to get enough points to buy the best items and gain an advantage over normal players who don't have time for that crap. And if some people's accounts are not retaining points, then obviously that needs to be fixed, the solution is not to break everyone else's. This seems so obvious to me I kinda can't believe I have to write this.

Also, (and I've seen this on other posts already) PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me see my minions HPs!!!! Just a stack on the side where I can see how many units are actually under my control and of what kind and how fast they are dying. This is one of the major things handicapping Generals right now, the inability to know if your army is at full strength in a melee, so you either assume it is, only to find out too late that it isn't, or you waste time summoning units that you don't have room for or dropping extra banners just to be safe, all while the Beast is wailing on you. Being able to see allies would also really be useful, especially for Oak, Sedna and the Queen.

Lastly, and this might just be the realist in me, but PLEASE, PLEASE make equipment slots dedicated. I know it is just a game, but Torch Bearers running around with 5 caps on is just dumb. You should be able to wear one armor, one set of boots, one set of gauntlets and one helm. There could be two slots for trinkets and artifacts after that, or even three if it seemed necessary, but, I mean, c'mon, seriously did no one think that it seemed silly to have 5 suits of armor on a character? I know some players will complain because it will effect some beloved combos, but it effects everyone equally and makes the game a lot more "realistic" (I use that term loosely, since, yes, it is a game about semi-divine characters fighting in space and such.)

Items (and some skills) need a major overhaul.

Remove or enhance bad items (over 50% of the items in Demigod are terrible and should be ignored)
Change the % mana regen mechanic (as of now, nearly all items with % mana regen are nearly worthless)
Cap statistics and effects (health, regen, speed, etc.) in order to limit "stacking" of certain attributes or debuffs (diminishing returns for snares and stuns as well)
Redesign terrible skills like Uproot and Yeti

On an unreleated note, Impulse Reactor needs a major overhaul. Messages from friends need better alerts, shift+tab needs to work for all windows opened by Impulse Reactor (not just the main menu), and some sort of game-tracking system for friends should be added. We know that Impulse Reactor was released before it was ready, but that's no excuse. We need a working in-game community system.

Replays didn't come with games that are ten years old.

Age of empires had replays...

I should note: I did not wish to make it sound all bad; I hate whiners. The game is really, really good, really fun, really playable. There are just a few (to me) obvious things that could make it one of the better games of all time.

I don't know if this has been said yet, but I really want to see the rage quit tracking implemented

Also Pantheon/skirmish games are still taking far too long to get started

Finally, connection still needs to be improved. Last night I was playing a game and it just froze for a good couple of minutes for everyone

One thing I hadn't seen mentioned yet is I'd like to see Oak's shield not work in conjunction with items that have their effect break on being hit (Wings of the Seraphim, Heart of Life, etc). Or if it's an intended mechanic I'd like it to at least be confirmed that it's intended.

Quoting FalseMyrmidon,

reply 18

Yes, this would be nice.

Allow the Steam overlay to function in-game. It's rather frustrating to not be able to use Steam to coordinate games, especially since the Impulse overlay falls so short in this regard.

Quoting Maktaka,

reply 20

Allow the Steam overlay to function in-game. It's rather frustrating to not be able to use Steam to coordinate games, especially since the Impulse overlay falls so short in this regard.

Use Xfire (the Xfire overlay is better anyway).

It would be nice to have items that are created by combining other items. (Yes, like Dota)

That way you can slowly build up to a really great item

Quoting wertu_234,

reply 22

It would be nice to have items that are created by combining other items. (Yes, like Dota)

That way you can slowly build up to a really great item

I really, reaally hate this idea. With 80% resale on items, there's absolutely no reason to need to go through the unmitigated hassle of recipes in a 5-slot inventory.

Alt tabbing is rather clunky, with the game crashing occasionally.

Also, even though the each demigod is balanced, there are many useless skills/items/favor items in the game. This leads to more "cookie cutter" builds than are really necissary. The most glaring examples are Charm of Life vs. Blood of the Fallen and Yetis for sedna, however a good 80 percent of the favor items are too weak for a competitive player under the best of circumstances.

For regular items the ratio is probably 40 percent useless, and on skills maybe 20 percent with a high concentration in QoT's tree.

-add an option in customs games for favor items: "all favor items can be bought 4 free" it makes games with beginners more fair.

-option: /no AI matches

-nerf erebus, his bite slow is still too strong

-more maps

-more DGs

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On the road to version 1.2