Demigod: end of July status report

By Frogboy on July 24, 2009 10:25:05 PM from

All this week I watched GPG and Stardock QA going back and forth on the demo build. Just little things.

We also went into great detail on the 2 new demigods that are in development. I am anticipating being able to go into significant detail on these in the next couple of weeks now that they’ve moved beyond a bunch of “assets” and are starting to come together.

Tentatively we are looking at one general and one assassin. One will be of the forces of light and the other the forces of darkness. One will be melee oriented, the other projectile oriented.

In addition, version 1.2 is the next major milestone GPG is working on. It’s due in August so that we can show it off at PAX where we also expect to be showing off the 2 new Demigods.

Prior to version 1.2 we are also very close to a post v1.1 update. I had hoped we were going to release it this week but there’s still a bit more to do. The post v1.1 update is expected to fix a LUA decompression crash that some people have run into (and by some people we mean those people get it a lot) as well as some fixes to stats. There may also be some balance tweaks to the bishops-related idols but not sure if they’ll make it in time.

For version 1.2 itself our list is:

Replays (managed)
Rematches
Additional items & balancing
New Demigod #1 (may be released separately)
New Demigod #2 (may be released separately)
Squelch (silence users in game) /squelch frogboy (right from SupCom)
Option to turn off Arena background
Various Bug fixes
More AI improvements (if anyone in the community wants to make LUA suggestions I’ll forward them on)
New AI options (on death)

1. Gold/ XP: High (= to what it is today)
2. Gold/ XP: Normal (= 50% what killing a human player would be worth) [default]
3. Gold/ XP: Low (=25% of what killing a human player would be worth)

New AI option:

1. Hitpoints: Very High (2X what they are today)
2. Hitpoints: High (1.5 what they are today) [Default]
3. Hitpoints: Normal (1.0 what they are today)
4. Hitpoints: Low (0.75 what they are today)

Modding Support:

1. Quickie SDK that explains how to make maps
2. Quickie SDK that explains how to make demigods
3. Quickie SDK that explains how to make items

New Option: Use Mods (allows mods to be used in single player)
Hosts would select which mods to use.
We would begin including mods submitted in updated builds.
If a player does not have a mod, then it’s not used.
More robust Pantheon and Skirmish handling (slot time to work with us to make this system work better).
Connection Info would display a player’s rank/experience to better balance custom games

Other things that are being discussed without a consensus yet:

Should custom games be ranked?
How do we make it easy for people to create team games (that doesn’t involve a lot of UI work)
How do we make pantheon/skirmish games more flexible (1 on 1, 2 on 2, etc.)
Ways of handling pre-made teams
Ways for hosts to ban people from joining their games. (personal ban lists)

Ironically, the biggest development resource limitation right now is in the area of UI. So solutions that require new screens and such are more problematic. In the long run, we’ll add as much as we can to Impulse’s overlay which is getting a significant revamp in August for better handling for friends and such.

Also high on our list but will probably not make it into v1.2 but likely v1.3 are the Clan Wars. It was decided that getting modding out earlier rather than later was important because in doing so, Stardock itself can start to create maps and demigods to release as well as let players create their own demigods if they want and in a pinch we can take care of the exporting for them.

So that’s where things stand as we start to near the end of July.

+897 Karma | 109 Replies

Really great news

Frogboy, Are the new demigods female? Seeing that currently there's only 2 I think it would more than fair.

The beast is female I think.

The upcoming patch sounds awesome. I would love to see some new maps in play. Can't wait for August!

Great post, don't know how I missed it. As for players having a harder time finding matches because of high win rates, that's just the way it is. Those players should be playing with a smaller percentage of the population. Even if the matchmaking had an automated, invisible hand it would still take longer to pair the higher ranked players.

The problem with not implementing it is that currently anyone who knows about stats can look up players already which means it's only beginners who get shorted here, as they don't know how to avoid unwinnable games.

The beast is female I think.

Where's her bow then?

Double post

Frogboy: I'd kiss you but my wife would object!

Stardock itself can start to create maps and demigods to release as well as let players create their own demigods if they want and in a pinch we can take care of the exporting for them

So does this mean that if we "build" a new level in lets say 3D Max, we could post it off to you & you'd convert it to a Granny 3D file for us (assuming it's good enough, that is)?

Quoting StAcK3D_ActR,

reply 17

Option to turn off Arena background what does this mean exactly?

It will probably help reduce the load on the CPU & give people a better response time...

Quoting Istari,

reply 2

Frogboy, Are the new demigods female? Seeing that currently there's only 2 I think it would more than fair.
The beast is female I think.

Bitches are soooooo mean

good stuff.

one request: can we fix the forums at some point so the "Demigod" forum is viewable more than 50% of the time? It feels like the site is just being hammered but there can't possibly be all that much load with this playerbase...

What´s up with fixing random crashes (Lobby, ingame) and other gameissuses...ah wait noone of GPG got such problems so they wont be fixed...sry i forgot.

These upgrades are fantastic. All hail the frogboy & co .

Making your own demigods sounds nice. But I've read some of the posts in Demigod Ideeas (and have also created two demigods of my own) and I have to say....some of them are really original and have strange powers. I don't know how exactly you can make a DG that fits your imagination. But if you manage to pull it off I will start climbing walls in excitement.

Quoting cosma,

reply 10

What´s up with fixing random crashes (Lobby, ingame) and other gameissuses...ah wait noone of GPG got such problems so they wont be fixed...sry i forgot.

From Brad's post:

Prior to version 1.2 we are also very close to a post v1.1 update. I had hoped we were going to release it this week but there’s still a bit more to do. The post v1.1 update is expected to fix a LUA decompression crash that some people have run into (and by some people we mean those people get it a lot) as well as some fixes to stats.

Please read before trolling.

I don't believe Bara has been able to reproduce it yet, however I've never had any issue with the recent posts page. So you might try using that.

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 19

I can say, the game NEVER crashes on us here and the reason GPG hasn't already fixed it is that it doesn't happen there either.

Thats all - do you believe in your own words? ...we will see after releasing 1.2

Quoting cosma,

reply 14

Thats all - do you believe in your own words? ...we will see after releasing 1.2

If you have an issue, send a bug report and the dump files to stardock support. Unless you have don this many time (+3), please shut it.

Trigeminal I do not think it`s your place to tell others to "shut it" people pay their money to get service, or product, we come on here complain etc hoping things will get better, we don`t just "shut it" and buy/play some other game >> if i had a business i would be more then happy to have customers that shows up everyday with complaints, but does not give up on me !! The more complain the better my business will be in future, if i listen to my customers complaint and try to help it, that is !

He said please. And he's right.

Quoting AndreLetang,

reply 16

Not sure any business wants all their "shows up everyday with complaints". I am simply stating that if anyone has an issue that prevents them from enjoying the game that they should submit that to support so SD/GPG can fix it. If they have done that, that they can bitch all they want. However if someone has a crash in-game repeatedly and has never once submitted it to support and simply complain, then they are part of the problem. If they gives stardock no way to correct the problem, by not sending bug reports, how can they expect SD/GPG to troubleshoot and fix problem they don't know exists?

MAKE MORE MAPS! I won't play this game again until there are more maps! Do you realize how redundant it is to only have this tiny handful of maps? And maps would be the easiest thing for you to add!!!! DO IT and myself and several other people will come back to playing Demigod!

Say please...

New content is always great! For certain this kind of commitment makes me want to continue giving my business to the companies responsible. Thanks! You rock Star Dock! Which means Frogboy also rocks by default.

As for ban lists, I think the best way is a simple "/ban username" like squelchThe ban list should also be a text file so you can simply add the username into it manually while offline etc...

For consensus of ranked games... please just track all stats separately. Would it really be hard to show 3 sets of win/loss ratios and have 3 ladder ranks? The ranks have more meaning when applied to the context of where they were achieved.

You should also have a map maping contest when the SDK is released. The prize is you get to have your map officially included in the game if they are deemed worthy. (and credit in the readme file for being so awesome). If anything, 3rd party communites always show that there are several members capable of creating content that is the same quality as the developers.

Quoting cosma,

reply 14

Quoting Frogboy, reply 19

I can say, the game NEVER crashes on us here and the reason GPG hasn't already fixed it is that it doesn't happen there either.

Thats all - do you believe in your own words? ...we will see after releasing 1.2

I have played with 10 different people and all have crashing issues.

When I tab out of the game the chance I cant go back is like 10% and this is the same for everyone I know.
There are some crashing issues in lobby too, but not that frequent.

The chance that it does not crash on any stardock or gpg computer is so small its unbelievable

Quoting Bhaal,

reply 22

Quoting cosma, reply 14
Quoting Frogboy, reply 19

I can say, the game NEVER crashes on us here and the reason GPG hasn't already fixed it is that it doesn't happen there either.

Thats all - do you believe in your own words? ...we will see after releasing 1.2
I have played with 10 different people and all have crashing issues.

When I tab out of the game the chance I cant go back is like 10% and this is the same for everyone I know.
There are some crashing issues in lobby too, but not that frequent.

The chance that it does not crash on any stardock or gpg computer is so small its unbelievable

If one person crashes, it can cause everyone to crash. And play in windowed mode.

Looking forward to the NEW UPDATES and the NEW DEMIGODS. Thanks FROGBOY. GAME ON!!!

Bhaal, I won't pretent I don't have crashing issues, but almost none come from alt-tabbing, I can alt-tab all I want. Most crashes come from a crash by one person which fukes up the other people.

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Demigod: end of July status report