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Author Topic: Darkwood - top-down survival horror. Beta 3.0. Full release on August 17th!  (Read 22508 times)

nenjin

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Re: Darkwood - top-down survival horror. Put down the Monster Smack. Alpha 1.3
« Reply #105 on: August 05, 2014, 07:42:55 pm »

Alpha 1.3 is out. A lot of bug fixes, and a lot of balance changes in the player's favor to address difficulty. Me, I dunno, I was starting to groove on the difficulty. We'll see where it's at now.
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

nenjin

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Er mah gerd, Darkwood update!

http://www.acidwizardstudio.com/?p=413

Biggest change: the forest in Chapter 1 has gone from looking like this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With the added bonus of being about 50% bigger than the original. On the one hand, my gut reaction is to not like hard boundaries. Boxes tend to ruin the magic in my mind. But on the other, there were zero obstacles in Alpha 1, which left the world feeling very flat. And at 50% bigger than it was, the chances of getting lost in just a single section are actually pretty high. The best of both worlds? Remains to be seen.

With the different areas of the chapter sectioned off, there's better pacing and a sense of enemy and loot progression, instead of just the spew of items randomly across an open map.

They've tweaked combat too, although I've yet to test it out. The melee secondary attack and the dodge ability are available from the start, whether that means after mutation or by default is unknown. They've tried to make it more responsive as well.

Included as well:
-Optimizations
-New hideouts
-New content out in da woods
-Wood is more available now but has to be made into planks with a saw.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2014, 06:00:59 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

nenjin

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Darkwood - top-down survival horror. Alpha 3. That wot goes bump in the night.
« Reply #107 on: December 20, 2014, 06:52:30 pm »

It's you!

Alpha 3 is upon us.

Haven't made the time to check it out yet.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/274520/announcements/detail/127556162231613644

Stealth got a big update. Light and sound now play a bigger role in whether you're detected or not. Staying in the dark at night for too long will cause...spirits I guess to start circling you, and I assume eventually kill you. Shedding some light on them makes them go away. Gasoline consumption has been tweaked, because they want players using the generator way more often than they are.

There's mutated plants to find at night now, and more mushrooms. Although now only some rare mushrooms give essence (as opposed to just varying levels of essence gain.) Consumables like mushrooms now decay, so no more stockpiling 800 essence worth of mushrooms while you explore the area and find our comfort zone.

You'll also drop everything you're carrying on death now, so if you're not playing permadeath you have to go back to that spot to get it. Not a huge issue for those that already played carefully, but, it makes shifting supplies around a bit more of a pain in the ass.

With this update they said they're more or less done with mechanical changes, and want to move on to new content and the rest of the game. I'm guessing these probably won't be the last mechanical changes but, after 6 months of playing and tweaking Chapter 1, I don't begrudge them the desire to make some real forward progress.

The game is on sale on Steam for $11.24, btw. It is eminently worth the money at this point.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2014, 07:14:48 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

nenjin

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Alpha 4 is here which brings yet more changes to how nights work. At this point I think the Acid Wizards have spent way more time on the early game than I think they intended, but it's all trying to find the balance for systems that will extend throughout the rest of the game so I think it's worth it, and I appreciate that they're still willing to fiddle with things instead of feature locking and moving on to making the game's other chapters.

Patch notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm planning on writing up a Survival Guide for Alpha here, as plenty of things have changed which makes the old one unreliable. But I want to put some more time into this build first. Turtling is increasingly becoming harder to do, which has been my way of playing so far, so a best practices way to survive the night on as few resources as possible is something I need to work out, again.

But the event system is really cool and has already resulted in a moment like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think the game is in a pretty playable state at this point. The balance feels right on resource collection (consumption is another story) and the woods now have tons of little points of interest and some structure so it doesn't feel like you're wandering around a 256x256 grid anymore. The game has lost just a hint of that sandbox vibe, but I think that's partly because the Acid Wizards have built more structure into the game to meet people's expectations (particularly of night time, which has gone through many, many iterations to hit the right balance of random terror. Where it is now is a far cry from the first night at the house being the site of a pitched battle between dogs and savages.) It's also gotten more user friendly, which is nice, but has again made it feel less like a sim/sandbox. For example, the map now shows you which PoI you're at by highlighting it red, which between that and the new shape and structure of the woods, means it's a lot harder to get lost now. I daresay impossible until you're in the Old Woods. You might not know exactly where you are while walking around, but you're guaranteed to know the instant you hit a PoI in the relatively smaller sections of the map. You can even sort of figure out where you are by the contour of the walls of each area.

So while perhaps the game has gotten a little less hardcore survival sim, I think it's come quite a ways as a playable game.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2015, 05:59:22 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Crabs

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Man I havent played since alpha 1. My shitty machine couldnt handle the game very well. The patch notes state that they did perfomance improvements, can you confirm this? I will test out all the new changes soon.
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pondicherry

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This is a pearl in the deep ocean .
I want to play this.
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"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then Stop."

nenjin

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Man I havent played since alpha 1. My shitty machine couldnt handle the game very well. The patch notes state that they did perfomance improvements, can you confirm this? I will test out all the new changes soon.

Can't really say. It never ran poorly on my system, and I've done a massive upgrade since then.

edit

I should add, my enthusiasm for the game has dwindled due to a newer couple mechanics. They really don't want people hiding during the night, they want you fighting and patrolling your house. So that stupid fucking bug that creates corruption everywhere is wrecking my shit. Day 2 or 3 and the entire house is covered with crap. I find it really annoying to deal with that mechanic. Then they added the Shadows on top of that. So basically night time is a clusterfuck of special monsters designed to make camping the night out harder/impossible after a certain point. And I simply haven't gotten around to adjusting my play style to deal with it.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2015, 02:48:06 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

nenjin

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Another alpha build is upon us. The big theme of this patch is how you make items. Now, all hideouts have a crafting bench. All blueprints found in the world are gone, instead you upgrade your bench to make more stuff. All hideouts share the same bench. You cannot craft more than simple items from your inventory now.

Secondly, you get a grace period of stopped time at the end of the night to repair your hideout, rebarricade, etc...I imagine this is because players reported it taking half an-ingame day to fully fortify their hideout after a night attack, basically stealing away the already short time they get to explore and stock up on resources. Plus the added time of running back and forth to your crafting bench. I'm not sure I like the idea of stopping the clock, but then again, I'm a chicken shit who tries to hide in an unsecured house rather than stand and fight. I'm going to try to play the game "their way" for once and do the whole "secure your house and fight in the light every night" (poetry), since most of their changes toward monster AI and night seemed directly designed to punish people without light who are hiding.

Spoiler: Patch Notes (click to show/hide)

If I had to characterize the Darkwood EA process so far, I'd call it one of non-stop change and iteration. Everything about this game has changed since release in some way. First the forest, then the Well, acquiring Mushrooms, the Night Events, now Crafting and Mushrooms again. For the next build, they're going to do away with the Well mechanic entirely. (Really glad about that last one. Thematically it made little sense even with all the weirdness of Darkwood, and secondly it felt like a gamey requirement to get you near a house near nightfall....which is totally unnecessary based on how the game work has worked pretty much from the beginning.)

Compared to other EA games I've been playing, that seem to have a pretty solid idea of what they're going to do (or at least they're very committed to a particular design) the Acid Wizards seem more more focused on real iteration, scrapping functional stuff in favor of a different approach constantly. It's why we still have pretty much the same core content now as we did when it released....almost a year ago. I can see why, of course. You don't write and create Chapter 2 and 3 when half of the mechanics being tested in Chapter 1 are constantly changing. But there is a cost. This isn't the first time they've said "Alright, AFTER this patch, we can finally get back to making real content." If you're the kind of gamer that chafes at delay, this would probably be pretty irritating. But since I take a more placid view of EA development (and I've specifically not seen everything in the first chapter exactly because of this scenario), I actually approve. Too few devs are really willing to change their core game mechanics or to experiment, because of the time already invested and the additional time to create new stuff.

Anyways, toodles, I'm going to go take a stroll through the woods.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2015, 06:07:40 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Fniff

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Ooh, this game.
This is a good game. Reminds me a lot of STALKER. I think I could get very into this game. Hope it gets better as it expands, though. A few more weapons wouldn't go amiss. I like my plank with nails in, but sometimes I want a little variety in my shitty weapons that barely do anything against the incoming horrors.
By the by, anyone know a good place to find sticks? The wiki tells me to look in the forest, but I can't be certain that the info is accurate.

nenjin

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The only place I remember getting sticks in the older versions was off dead Savages who were wielding them.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2015, 07:07:42 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Cthulhu

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Little bit of a bimp, I'm playing this again.  It's different, I like it though.  Night is always my favorite time, it's genuinely pretty scary and the absence of spoilers makes it even better.



EDIT:


Spoiler (click to show/hide)


I answered.  I won't say what I found on the other side.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2015, 11:11:52 pm by Cthulhu »
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Shoes...

nenjin

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I haven't personally been back to Darkwood in some time. I think I OD'd a little in Early Early Access and so I find it hard to casually come back to the game. It's owed more play time by me, for sure.

So, Alpha 7. The Acid Wizards continue to polish the shit out of Chapter 1. I honestly don't think I've seen a game spend this much time on its first couple hours. Sometimes I wonder if Chapter 2 is actually in the cards. You could argue for Chapter 1 being a complete game and occasionally I worry that they'll start to move that direction too.

Here's the patch notes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I find it interesting how iterative this game has been with some of its core systems. Wells are gone, apparently, in a previous update, replaced by this weird red mist thing. Bonuses and penalties seem to arrive in one version then disappear in the next. Sometimes I think DW is more of a sandbox design than it gets credit for.

Maybe I'll try and spend some time with this over the holidays. And to note, Dankwood currently is NOT on sale during the Steam Winter sale. But for $15 I still don't think you can go wrong.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2015, 06:22:02 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Blaze

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Re: Darkwood - top-down survival horror. Alpha 7. Mo' polish, mo' dank woods.
« Reply #117 on: December 23, 2015, 09:53:37 pm »

Just finished downloading, pretty fun.

The only problem is that I can't seem to find a stick anywhere. I nabbed a axe head and salvaged the other necessary parts, but it's day 9 and no stick at all.

Also, there are two code-locked boxes that I just can't seem to find the answer to. The one in the Hideout 1 and the Cottage between Dry Meadow and Old Forest. I looked up and down but can't seem to find the code.
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nenjin

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Sticks as far as I know only drop off stick-wielding savages.

I've never found the combos for those lock boxes either. It wouldn't surprise me if they actually don't have a code and the Acid Wizards just put them there to screw with us. :P

So I haven't played this in a long time and I feel bad for it. Partially because they changed night mechanics and I've been too stubborn to even try and play it since. But I'm going to try and get through it because they're working on Chapter 2 now.

I'm pleased to see a lot of changes that shore up some of the more glaring issues of the game. Dynamic night events. Destructible (it looks like?) furniture. No more stupid well and drinking and yadda yadda. Now the oven just gives off vapors to justify you staying in a base. Crafting makes a little more sense now. There's some nice new effect touches though like a nice dawn light level with morning fog and stuff, very atmospheric. The game is probably more playable now than it's ever been despite night-time stuff. So I am going to try to play more of it.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2016, 01:29:55 am by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Fniff

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I've been playing this again. How long has the village been in the game? It's great. I love how it's a safe place (...right?) yet that trademark Darkwood feeling of wrong bleeds through, making it very sinister indeed.
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