In Co-op, players still only share a single orb of leveling (I figure having two players alone is a pretty big advantage even without them both being properly leveled). I may change this in the future but I wanted to see how it would feel for a first pass.
When a player dies they become a ghost, able to fly around and absorb the corpses of enemies in order to return to life. The higher your level was when you died, the more corpses you'll need to absorb before reviving. As a ghost, you can also spend some of your absorbed corpses to pick up and drag around items, lending a helping hand to your still-living partner.
There may need to be some performance improvements but for now it should be (fingers crossed) pretty functional!
Anticropolis still isn't quite done yet but I've finally managed to work myself out of the slump I was in, so it should be coming along without much further delay after this.
Also in this build are barrels, which can hold items (and enemies), and pipes that you can use to send items to a later floor for collecting.
Full changelog below:
Fixes
Enemies never pick up weapons
Making undead followers pick up weapons rarely works
"Loot" menu can be brought up for gorhound corpses
Using lanterns interrupts rolls
Kicking locked doors spams the failure message
Other stuff too, I'm sure
New Stuff
Co-Op!
New Main Menu
Pipes for sending items between floors
Barrels
Corn Kernels
One new meal effect
Changes
Significantly decreased steal-range of reciprocity
Can force a pilfer by manually grabbing while rolling past enemies, even if the chosen equipment slot is already taken
Can plant objects in enemies' pockets with manual pilfer
Replaced Heal with Air Dash for grumbul assassins
Removed Air Dash from skeletal spearmen
Reduced Haste charges for Undead Warriors
Changes to Versus Mode menu
Replaced Heal and Regenerate in Versus mode with Cure and Raise Dead
Added pathfinding to Versus Mode AI
Changed how potatoes are cooked
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Anticropolis???
PS: Ignore the "0.0.16 (DEV)" business in the versioning. It doesn't mean anything except that neither Stevie nor I could be bothered to spend another 5+ hours rebuilding the game to fix what's essentially a typo after we noticed it.
0.0.15
H'okay!
Unfortunately still no Anticropolis yet, but it's getting close. Co-op is very nearly done, so regardless of whether or not The Anticropolis comes out with the next update, co-op will likely be in for sure.
In the meantime, this build introduces many balance changes, including some alterations to the damage calculation formula to make both enemies and players: less likely to deal 0s and less likely to wham for 8-10+ damage in a single hit. I've also consolidated the Heal and regenerate spells into a single, less healing-oriented (but hopefully more interesting to use) Cure spell, with Heal and Regenerate being made its Overload and Trance, respectively. Overall, the result should be that being struck is less of an immediate death sentence but bears more of a long-term cost, with damage numbers being more consistent and healing being rarer.
Additionally, where before your maximum spell charges would increase by simply leveling up MAG, they now only increase once at MAG level 3, and apply to all spells both known and yet-unknown. Some changes to the way charge stars work for Overload and Trance should hopefully make those abilities a bit more fun to use as well.
In any case, there's a bunch of other changes, and some bug fixes that should make this build a bit less volatile. Guess you'll just have to read the changelog or play to find them out!
Fixes
Changing window focus while looting doesn't pause the game
Fixed(?) crash from humanoids attacking with missing weapons
Roll sound plays continuously when looking down with lanterns
Unarmed kick (dagger skill 1) doesn't work properly
Soul- weapons' dark bolt strikes miss frequently
First attack after Taunt doesn't always activate the power strike
Salting food doesn't actually do anything
Sticks continue to burn even in water
Fixed(?) Impossible trap rooms
Fixed several memory leaks
Some optimizations
Fixed wall-grumbuls
Bottles filled with water while held are drawn incorrectly
Voices of humanoid enemies wrongly positioned upon death
New Stuff
New Wizard Throw overload
Added unstable effects for:
Wizard Throw
Haste
Slow
Frost Bolt
Vampirism
Poison Blob
New Spell:
Cure
Removed Heal and Regenerate as individual spells
Changes
Changed how Charge Stars work for Overload and Trance
Stars are now shared among all overloads/trances,
rather than being spent per-spell
Changed how damage and defense are calculated
Fewer 0s and fewer unexpectedly high hits
Changed ladder sprites
Added focus strike abilities to Pounce, Downward Thrust, and Rolling Blade
+1 MIN STR instead of +1 STR at level 3
Max spell charges are now gained only at MAG level 3
Max spell charge increase applies to all spells, known and unknown
Unstable teleport is more consistently unstable
Taunt and Focus strike attacks win weapon clashes
Added different effects when pouncing with different slime balls
Changed rules of Soul-weapons
Increased range of unstable shadow cloak
Made Health and Regeneration potions rarer
Enemies use potions sooner in fights
Boiling Potions can be carried for longer before boiling away
Critical strikes made visible with a green streak
Poison damage now stacks when applied multiple times
Changed the Grumbul meal effect
Changed input of Flourish to match Heavy Bat and Dagger Storm
Improved range, knockback, and stun of Heavy Bat
Changed input for tier 3 Axe / Hammer neutral air to double-tap attack
Increased knockback on focus strike uppersmash
Removed Flourish from spears
Made byat spawn holes more visible
Soups now heal for 1 by default
Added two more ways to cook food
Smoldering foods char much faster
Shopkeepers now have classes and are smarter about catching thieves
Reduced default charge amount for several spells
Increased delay on enemies using weapon skills
Pursuing foes lose you slightly more easily
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Co-op, Anticropolis???
0.0.14
Fellow humans,
Behold, 0.0.14! Numerous changes in this one. If you missed the status update and are wondering where 0.1.0 is with The Anticropolis and Co-op, please check out the post I made on that subject right here. Long story short; they're a-comin'! Just need some more love and carressin', ya know?
In the meantime, peep this healthy changelog!
Fixes
Regeneration doesn't restore limbs if you have Overheal
Teleport always takes spell charges, even when Energized
Can't back away from ledges while shielding
Can't descend ledges while backing up with a shield
Slow fall while casting empty spell
Wrong coloration for some corpse's heads
Twins flee fights (legit fixed this time)
Grumbul Orb-Bearers can flee the floor
Having Incantation and Overload causes Vampirism and Haste to rapidly cast multiple times
Frozen food doesn't thaw over fire
Spiked equipment descriptions are wrong
Wanderers only hate hammers
Ghost spawns underwater
Bug drawing helms in ui when picking them up
Can't break fallen ceiling blocks in collapsing tunnels with weapons
Gamepad stops working on main menu sometimes (fixed??)
Hidden spikes often appear under gas traps
Grumbul Tank sometimes gets stuck behind the intro wall
Enemies can escape through barred exits
New Stuff
New Trait: Hungry
New Trait: Unstable Caster
New Trap: ████████████
New shopkeeper menu
New ghost menu
New class select menu
Changes
Improved stats of Claymores
Heavy Bat input changed to sprint+attack (same as Dagger Storm)
Ghost dialog box redone
Shopkeeper dialog box redone
Spinning attacks deal less damage per hit
Numerous changes to Weapon Skills:
Backswipe is now Flourish -- moved to tier 2 Axe Primary
Parry is a tier 4 weapon skill for Hammers and Swords
Spin Cleave removed from axes
Increased hitbox on Downward Thrust and The Drop
Numerous changes to Traits
Traits no longer occupy Skill Grid space
Positive and negative traits no longer paired
Loud is louder and increases the range of other noises
Hunger no longer universal: Moved to new trait
Hated weapons now behave like normal carried objects
Weapon hatred cannot be unlearned
Lucky Boots no longer a starting item
Significantly reduced range of Teleport
Leveling up INT increases efficacy of class abilities:
Bully gains more Power Orbs from taunt
Wanderer's Vision ability reaches further
Poet Tomes have more charges
Teleporting into walls will now kill you
Collapsing tunnels will destroy fallen crush traps and boulders
-of Removal weapons blink enemies further away, respecting knockback direction
Using items interrupts blocking with shields
Dropping through platforms requires less horizontal pixel precision
Added telefragging
Began adding Unstable spell effects:
Heal, Raise Dead, Blink, Magic Blast, Teleport, Infernus, Chain Lightning
Boulders and Crush Traps break spikes
Potions of Extra Regeneration last longer
Frozen potion shards have grace period before becoming dangerous
Reduced potency of "--of Light"
Added descriptions for footwear
Can sell items to shopkeepers
Killing a shopkeeper will return spent money
Humanoid AI dodges slightly less aggressively
Decreased LUC requirement for spiked armor to appear, and increased its frequency in general
Break made slightly more effective
Wanderer's "Vision" ability improved
Newest tracked object carries between levels
Can target items to be tracked
Pathfinder improved
Changes to Grumbul Tank
No longer jumps when player is in combat with summoned grumbuls (excepting the rider)
Tank Legs are no longer impervious to physical damage
Added more visual and audio cues for attacks
Removed time limit from chasing escaped enemies
Added indicator to exits when enemies escape
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Co-op, Anticropolis???
0.0.13b
Fixing bugs! Back on that YYC for Windows, no more black fullscreen for Linux, and you can have your soup and eat it, too.
Fixes
0.0.13b
Fullscreen is black
Crash when drinking soups
Byat meal bonus doesn't always wear off
Spicy foods aren't indicated as such in food queue
Twins can flee from the fight
Crashes with AI in reaper fight
Shopkeepers are listed as "Other Things" in the end-of-run kill list
Frequent spawning in walls
Changes
0.0.13b
Added indicator beneath hunger queue to indicate currently active meal effects
Spicy meals made more effective
Added new soup type
Improved mechanics of hot potatoes
Can use grapple on Reaper
Completing a meal shows its final components
0.0.13!
A new year, a new build!
Sorry it's a couple weeks late, mostly due to issues actually building the game and not content stuff. Which I suppose goes for the build itself as well: not too much new stuff, but it's now compiled using Game Maker's YYC (YoYo Compiler), which should hopefully help improve performance a not insignificant amount [crosses fingers].[REDACTED] Unfortunately, said issues building affected osx the most and haven't yet been satisfactorily overcome, so the Mac version is still built without the YYC and as such won't see any performance changes for the better this time around.
Most of this past month was spent getting the YYC working nicely, working on Anticropolis stuff, reordering and the optimizing level generator, and an embarrassing amount of time being sad on holidays. Hopefully finally gettin' this build out will lift my spirits a bit though!
The main visible features in this build are soups - which can be made by boiling bottles of non-slime corpses with water in them - and spices, which are sometimes found on tables and can be used to improve food. Neither soup nor spice stuff is nearly finished yet, but it's a start and will hopefully prove an interesting addition that grows over time. Really I just didn't want to put out a build with nothing new to play with in it, after so much work doing invisible backend stuff. At the moment there are four 'spices'. What they do is up to you to find out.
Also relevant: I've hired an animator to help lighten the load on me and speed up the production of all the new frosty enemies that'll be coming to the icy depths of the Anticropolis (and beyond!) His name is John and he's rad. Everybody say "Hi, John!"
You can check out some of his other work here: http://imgur.com/a/HNtO7
and follow him on twitter at @bigbooty2dcutie
EDIT: Temporarily went back to a non-YYC build for Windows, hoping to fix an issue where the game is just a black-screen. Unfortunately this means the game won't have the performance improvements I had hoped using YYC would impart.
Fixes
Humanoid enemies no longer use potions or eat potatoes
Crash upon throwing bottled charge stars
Crash upon throwing charge stars dropped by grumbul tank guards
Grumbul Tank guards causing repeated non-fatal crashes
Undead followers sometimes appear at the wrong position when going to the next floor
Loudness of byat wings unaffected by sound volume setting
Loudness of boulders rolling unaffected by sound volume setting
Bottled mushrooms still burn and give off gas
Several pathfinding-related crashes
New Stuff
Make Soup!
Spices! (WIP)
Now compiled with YYC, which should give a significant performance improvement Two new status effects
New music in ceiling trap transitional stage
Changes
Made a couple reputations slightly easier to achieve
Byat meals wear off after 2 floors, rather than lasting forever
Food queue gradually empties after a period of not eating anything
Removed COMBO input mode for class abilities
Wizard throw better aligns enemies to the tiles when grabbed
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards?
0.0.12
Build 0.0.12 time! Woo!
Golly this one took a while, and then a while again. In case you ever needed confirmation, implementing pathfinding for very mobile platformer characters through procedurally generated levels is tough. But I did it! Mostly! There are still some quirks and hiccups here and there, but I think this new AI, much like the level generation itself, will be the sort of thing that's constantly getting tweaked and improved as development continues.
However, this AI update now marks the last "Large Feature" I needed to get done before the Anticropolis + Co-op build. Does that mean the big chunky Anticroppy update is gonna be next? Well, unfortunately not. As I'm sure you've noticed this last one took way longer than I was anticipating and so I'm a fair bit behind schedule. As such, the next few updates will probably be -- if more timely -- a bit lighter on new features, as I'll be focusing almost entirely on Anticropolis and Co-op stuff. Stevie and I have also been making progress on the leaderboards, so expect those before long as well.
The 'smaller features' that I'll be working on in the meantime will be things like; more meals and food items, further additions and improvements to the new AI, more transitional stages, changes to the way traits are obtained and improved, and, as always, fixing crashes and improving performance.
Lastly, I'll be streaming some gameplay today on twitch.tv/fourbitfriday in about an hour (4pm PST), so if you wanna come by and talk about things feel free.
Without further ado, changelog below:
Fixes
Can interrupt Execute with Kick
Crash when bottling a charge star
Crash when throwing pure cracked force star
Can learn spells without the space for them
Crash in VS mode upon round end if one player's stick has burned away
Fishahna are unaffected by slow, pause, and haste
Horizontally held enemies sometimes push the carrier backwards
Byats grabbed with Heavy Lifting sometimes get stuck in walls
Crash upon casting overloaded Wizard Throw
New Stuff
New Humanoid AI
Enemies will now pathfind to their goals
[to the player, to allies, to water when on fire, etc]
Other tweaks to minimize their dying in idiotic ways
It's not perfect!
New STR Boon -- Grapple
Headgear now shows in character portraits!
Changes
Floor spikes are more forgiving when landing at low speeds; can be safely stepped on from corpses
Revised STR Boons:
Removed Overwhelming and Duelist
Pounce is a tier 1 STR boon rather than part of the default moveset
Focus Strike is a tier 2 STR boon, and more attacks can be focused
Can no longer shield-bash 0-hp enemies
Fixes and modifications to Heavy Lifting
Can climb while heavy lifting enemies
Much more maneuverable when holding small enemies
Descend while holding byats by holding down
Creatures hastened by taunt no longer gain Haste's evasion bonus
F1-F3 now toggle different information
If weird non-crash stuff happens you can turn on these layers to provide more info to help me fix things!
But don't be a cheater
'Overcharge' renamed to 'Energized' to be more different from Overload
Next Build TO-DO
More Traits and Meals
0.0.11b
Sproing! Just a couple bugfixes. Literally two.
Fixes
0.0.11b
Game crashes when bottling corpses
Completing meals of +0hp with messy eater deals damage
0.0.11
So this past month I added a couple new transitional stages, made some changes to magic, improved certain boons, and implemented end-of-run Reputations. Unfortunately we weren't able to get online leaderboards done, but I'm hoping the reputations will help tide y'all over in the meantime. I've had leaderboards in too many "next-build to-dos" without delivering yet which makes me feel bad, so I'll leave 'em off this time and maybe it'll actually get done next month! That's how these things work, right? (In all seriousness, Stevie and I have been making good progress on leaderboards so it shouldn't be much longer! <3)
Magic has changed in that all spells are now of a certain type, noted in the bottom-right corner of the spell learning screen (and to be made more clear in more places with further updates). Regaining spell charges (for the most part) is now limited to only recharging one type of spell at a time, though there are certainly exceptions to this.
Charge Stars, previously only used to replenish trance and overload spells, have also become a much more interesting item. They're not quite finished yet, but I've got some fun plans for them in the future.
And as always, there have been a number of bugfixes.
Next month I'll be focusing on a long-coming AI update, as well as improving performance issues.
Here's the full changelog!
Fixes
Pressing "O" gives all grumbuls berzerk
"Delete" crash when opening doors next to boulders
Ice from ice bolt/cold burst/glacial shoes sometimes drawn behind tiles
Game crashes if you pilfer a hated weapon
Heavy bat and Hunter's Thrust don't work with sprint bound to a button
Grumbul Tank pilot is immortal
Still can burn your own shield
Game sometimes freezes after level generation
Byats can die by touching still boulders
Hitting boulders on the back-swing will knock them into you
New Stuff
2 New Transitional stages!
End-of-Run Reputations (WIP)
Status effect icons
Changes
Improved Tier 3 Axe skill
Travels further, curves both up and down walls.
Improved Mighty Stomp
Range based on height of fall
Reduced time after stomp before you can attack again
Improved Tier 1 Sword skill
Reduced time after landing before you can attack again
Improved Disarm
Weapons are flung further away, damaging other foes along the way
Shield parrys disarm
Improved Plague
Infects corpses; infected corpses explode after time
Effect of explosion depends on the type of corpse
Hard Helms offer more protection
Stone footwear offers more protection
Haste increases attack speed
Updated some spell sprites
Fancier/improved event text
Reverted 'Sprint button' to previous functionality; release to stop sprinting
Can no longer roll with heavy lifted objects above your head
Environmental green slime bounces items
Changed Charge Stars (WIP)
Stars are hidden in walls and no longer drop from enemies
They begin as uncharged 'Hollow Stars' and must be charged before use
Spikes can be broken
Rewrote food eating and meal code (behavior is mostly unchanged)
Byat meal doesn't stack
Disease occasionally causes weakness
Crouch-attacking on top of a boulder will strike the boulder
Player no longer immune to [ ]'s destruction
Placeholder sfx for swinging blade traps (WIP)
Next Build TO-DO
Better AI!
0.0.10b+
Fixed a crash. Windows only for now but Mac+Linux should be coming soon.
Fixes:
Crash upon using Trajectory
Crash upon pressing Enter
0.0.10b
Bugfix update!
Fixes
0.0.10b
Magic Beam bending through portals
Fullscreen not centered vertically on non 16:9 resolutions
Wanderer instinct doesn't highlight stairs
Charge stars for Trance/Overload are incorrect for many spells
Stairs that look like blocks
Mixing slimes and potions with alchemy only works when holding the potion
Crash upon bottling orb of leveling
Crash upon using trajectory with bottled balls of slime and mucus
Alchemy and Dipper still say "unimplemented" in the Levels tab of the pause menu
Waterfalls flowing into lava have don't have a graphic
Heavy Lifting enemies while rolling still displays 'heavy lifted' even though it fails
Shopkeepers with Undo crash the game
Crash when looting a corpse with a burning stick
anim_swordStab crash
Learning 'Extra Tough' doesn't actually work :D
Incantation doesn't properly increase spell cost
Fixed and error with oogs that was affecting performance
Improved performance of explosions
Hits don't always connect when pouncing on enemies
Can't pounce when recharging energy
Infinite controller rumble upon death
Controller rumble when using keyboard
Unending purple sparkles when blocked energy is equal to max energy
Off-slot spell charge numbers drawn in wrong color with two-spell option
Blink Trance doesn't use charge star
Air Dash doesn't consume energy overcharge
Undo restores the energy overcharge used to cast it
Small pools of lava don't light up
Disappearing platforms insta-kill the reaper
Max mp STILL doesn't increase with the proper meal
Crash in shops selling unstable potions
Changes
0.0.10b
Push now has instant recovery
Slight changes to Grumbul Tank AI
Less lava in Grumbul Tank arena
Grumbul Tank doesn't lose as much mobility with busted legs
Break breaks boulders
Boulders break bottles
Overwhelming's speed boost lowered
Overwhelming no longer counts bosses
Changes to Hammer vs arena
Only need to tap sprint button to sprint, rather than hold
Assigning sprint to a button disables double-tap sprinting
Improved accuracy of Chain Lightning and Dark Arts Tome
