Demigod weekend update

By Frogboy on July 18, 2009 1:00:02 AM from

Greetings!

So, what’s been happening in the world of Demigod this past week?

Gas Powered Games has been working on the demo version of Demigod. There’s been a number of iterations to nail it down to be as small as possible a download while at the same time enough of a demo to give players a good idea of what the game is like.

Meanwhile, we’ve all been working hard on some issues that I know only bug a minority of the community but bug me a great deal as being something so blatant that I made it a very high priority: The stats.

The concede option introduced in v1.1 apparently did some bad things with the stats. This week, they’ve gone back and forth every day on fixing this. Yes, I know everyone has their own wish list of what they’d like to see next but the stats were something that really bugged me.

As of today, they have a new build they think they’re happy with. We will not be resetting favor points but we might reset the win/loss stuff because frankly, it’s fubarred IMO. I know a lot of you don’t care about that kind of thing but frankly, the stats not being robust is an embarrassment and not tolerable. It’s a classic case of too many chefs in the kitchen.

The demo is, by far, the biggest thing being worked on. We all agree it should have gone out sooner but life is what it is and we don’t always get what we want.

Once the demo goes out (next week I hope but no promises as every time I try to predict something it ends up blowing up) we can get back to addressing fundamentals.

The question beyond that is more murky. My opinion is that I’d like to see additional demigods released for like $9 for 2. BUT at the same time, I’d like to see an SDK kit so that modders can make demigods too that they can give away or what have you. There are some complexities since the demigods make use of Granny so we need a way for people to import and export these without having to buy a Granny license. I’ll keep you updated on how that part goes.

But Stardock (where I work – the North American publisher) and Gas Powered Games (the developer of Demigod) agree that modding is going to be crucial to Demigod’s long-term future. So it’s only then a question of how much modding and how soon really.

There are plenty of other things that need to be looked at sooner rather than later. I’d like to see path finding improved, AI improved, and other item tweaks. My understanding is that the pathfinding is done in LUA (as opposed to say A-star in C++).

Now, that said, if anyone here has a mod or a change to the game they think is good, post it in the forums. I have found GPG to be very open about integrating things into the game that make the game better.

So that’s where we’re at as the weekend starts.

Cheers!

+912 Karma | 81 Replies

I missed you, Frogboy

Bug fixes should probably come first.

Thanks for the update!

Wow finally an update.

Same ol' story, but something is better than nothing. There's only 1 1/2 months left of the "summer" so get that Clan Wars update in ASAP guys

Thanks Frogboy, hopefully the demo will rejuvinate the community.

hurray for demo

More UI customizablility. As long as mods allow it, and as long as those mods are allowed in Skirmish/Pantheon then I will be a very happy camper.

Thank you so much.

The bees didn't take him to their hives!! He lives!!

quoting post

The #1 thing on my list are getting more demigods out there. Everyone who reads these forums knows my position. Lots of new demigods, often.

I TOTALLY AGREE!

and also dont forget some more map

Quote from other topic (https://forums.demigodthegame.com/359368/page/2/#2305540):

Well IMO, the "problem" here are stats. I really don't know why people care so much about their winning streak (i'm not talking about particular players, just generally). IMO, the best way to fix that is... to change how stats works.

We really don't need winning streaks, losing streaks etc. I heard an idea (from Shkval), that ranking should be based on kills / deaths from particular person. Then no one will say he got weak team or sth. You just wouldn't care if you lose or win, you just care about YOUR game. You can be good in losing team, you can be weak in winning team.

So IMO current stats are USELESS. People just care about their winning streaks to go higher in ranking. How many people got 100+ winning streak right now ? And you guys think they NEVER used host DC bug to achieve that ? Later they make topics here to show "how good they are", because they have 100 wins in a row.

Well, my question is - why do we need those winning streaks in stats ? Take it away, and people won't care so much about winning yet another game.

I'm glad to hear that both parties acknowledge that modding is crucial for long-term succes. A great way to make use of their work would be to release a mad editor, demigod editor etc for free, and let them fiddle some. That's a nearly a million potential "developers" for free for demigod. And once in a while Stardock/GPG could pick one some popular/succesful maps and make them official i.e. including them in the official builds.

This will hopefully save some of the budget to implement things that can only be done by the real developers.

Thanks Frogboy,

Yes some new DGs will be fun and new maps will be awesome as well.

Keep up the good work guys.

Long live the OAK

He's back, and in full throttle...

Frogboy

The #1 thing on my list are getting more demigods out there. Everyone who reads these forums knows my position. Lots of new demigods, often. The issue there is that Demigods are, well, expensive to make but as far as I’m concerned, 2 free ones were promised.
The question beyond that is more murky. My opinion is that I’d like to see additional demigods released for like $9 for 2. BUT at the same time, I’d like to see an SDK kit so that modders can make demigods too that they can give away or what have you. There are some complexities since the demigods make use of Granny so we need a way for people to import and export these without having to buy a Granny license. I’ll keep you updated on how that part goes.
But Stardock (where I work – the North American publisher) and Gas Powered Games (the developer of Demigod) agree that modding is going to be crucial to Demigod’s long-term future. So it’s only then a question of how much modding and how soon really.

In my opinion, Demigod does not need new content at all. A good game lives on its repetition, replayability, not on new content. A game that needs new content in order to be playable in the long term, is not a good (multiplayer) game, since it can't live on its own.

For Demigod bugfixes are much more important than new content, at least right now, since it is already very addictive.

quoting post

I’d like to see additional demigods released for like $9 for 2.

Okay...to that I have 3 words : no freaking way. Ever. Or then, make an expansion, with 6 maps and 6 new demigods, and make that available for 20$.

Damn the inventor of the DLC.

I hate to be a nuiscance, Frogboy, but has any headway been made that you're aware of on the ping spiking issue? For a small fraction of your players, the game is unable to be used to its fullest potential, which is a shame because we really enjoy it (and thus bother you about getting a fix from GPG )

What about fixing all the bugs that still plauge this game? don't get me wrong the situation now is much better then release but the game still crash to desktop pretty often, game freezes, and there's still issues with specific demigod (fire TB autoattack) that could be solved rather quickly. seems more importent to me then modding support or stats fixing.

and what about new items\maps? the game has been out for 3 months and we still didn't get a single item of added content. all those promises were just blowing words in the wind???

and btw - no chance in hell i'm paying 9$ for 2 demigods. too expensive.

Do GPG have QA??? I think that the "Concede" button is the fifth feature that screw up something else. All this should have been found in QA...

This game needs better QA...

Quoting FidelCastrol,

reply 15

quoting post
I’d like to see additional demigods released for like $9 for 2.

Okay...to that I have 3 words : no freaking way. Ever. Or then, make an expansion, with 6 maps and 6 new demigods, and make that available for 20$.

Damn the inventor of the DLC.

Must agree on that, considering the thousands of sales you'll make anything over $2 per would fall into my "Thats extortion" range...this isn't Consoleworld where we blindly accept being ripped off.

quoting post

My opinion is that I’d like to see additional demigods released for like $9 for 2.

Honestly, i would definetely buy it. Think about all the work, hiring voice actors, working on balance and stuff, making animations, it's not as easy as a new map, even thought DG maps are very elaborated.

Maybe thats why Valve dont release a new TF2 character, its too expensive to release for free. But i also think that this kind of content would split the comunnity, like "no-DLC dg" custom games or such, people can be a real pain in the ass when it comes to this kind of matter; i would not blame them thought, they have the right to complain about something they paid for.

Quoting XSive_Death,

reply 19

Must agree on that, considering the thousands of sales you'll make anything over $2 per would fall into my "Thats extortion" range...this isn't Consoleworld where we blindly accept being ripped off.

Wow guys, they are offering something that will grow and improve the game, add another bit of depth, and give gpg a reason to continue to invest in bug fixes and balancing. $9 bucks for 2 demigods and 1/2 maps is a great deal.

I for one look forward to good, high quality dlc. No horse armor please!

Regarding extra Demigods:

I'd like to see modders being able to make more demigods.

But if you expect GPG (or Stardock for that matter) to put guys on making them, $9 for 2 is likely your best case scenario. So if the feeling that they should be a couple bucks (or free) indefinitely is widespread then you just won't see those demigods.

Re people who say "fix bugs". I think it goes without saying that when bugs are found, they're added to the list of things to address.

Re modding. When we talk about modding we mean letting people do what the developers do. There isn't likely to be a map editor or demigod editor. Making a demigod, for instance, would involve creating a 3D model of the demigod, texturing it, lighting it, animating it and then writing the LUA scripts for its powers, skill tree, etc. It's all doable by modders but obviously not the casual ones.

The maps are big 3D Studio models with layers that outline where you can and can't move.

We've looked at both and if we can talk GPG into it and get support from RadTools we'll put out an SDK that walks modders through the process.

Quoting Trigeminal,

reply 21

We are all entitled to our opinions, I prefer to look at the overall picture rather than from an individual standpoint. Sure $9 sounds fair and isn't a lot but considering (doubt Frogboy wants to reveal user numbers but lets say theres a small 1-2,000 purchases) that could generate possibly $18,000...for 2 demigods, i consider it slightly steep. Lets face it, Demigod came with 8 gods (apparently retail value of $36) maps, UI, and all the code...and you got that for $40, so why do 2 paultry Demigods cost so much? Its a disparity in pricing.

DLC for me should be free, its a thankyou, a bonus, to the customer for purchasing the game in the first place and not an extra way to fleece them. This is especially true with multiplayer focused games that lack interactivity (Demigod, DoW as example) where the increase in DLC forces those who would not normally purchase them to do so, just so they can get a game.

If you want to charge for stuff, make it something that substantially alters the game and allows for non-purchasers to interact with those who do without problems (ala...expansions). I'm all for micro-expansions that -everyone- will be interested in.

Did that all make sense? I hope so :/

9$ for 2 Demigods is a fair price !

its buyable for the gamers and profitable for the developers !

its more important to release them as fast as possible to give the community a sign, that this game is going to growth

GPG has put nothing new into the game since 3 months than a random DG option, a concede option and some balance fixes.

and thats poor because the game was released with a huge lack of important multiplayer-features.......i know they are all in work, but..... come'on, its 3 months after realease, most games have these features @ release !!!

8 DGs + 8 maps + 0 mod/replay/clan-support = FUN for 2 months, but now the community is tired and thats why the community is shrinking slowly since 2 weeks.

Good to hear updates from you!

IMHO, bugfixes and low production cost improvements should be on the top of the stack. Then a couple of demigos as well as a couple of new maps next. And then, how not, mini-expansions if you want at the cost I think you got in mind.

Just my 2 Malta cents. Keep up the good work!

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Demigod weekend update