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Author Topic: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.  (Read 8282 times)

Ultimuh

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Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« on: November 10, 2013, 10:47:44 am »

I am quite surprised a game like this isn't even mentioned on the forums, at all.
Maybe a look at the recently made Kickstarter page would attract a following.

The vids included there would probably explain more than I could here.. Altough there is one thing I would like to point out.
Would you play a game where you can hunt skywhales, mine their carcasses and build airships out of them? I know I would.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2013, 11:12:21 am by Ultimuh »
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xaritscin

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2013, 11:34:47 am »

been following for a while, looks very promising, i hope the reach all the goals.......you know, because ISLAND TURTLES!
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Rhodan

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2013, 06:22:32 am »

The game has been officially pre-released, though apparently it needs a lot more publicity.

I've been flying about in my little airship and grinding up flying wolf things with my propellers and so far it looks very promising. The only complaints I have so far are the short/unfinished main quest (unless I missed something) and some issues with the blocks themselves.

The main quest tells you all the basics and dumps you in the nearest town, but there's no clear objective after that. Being on a floating island makes it a bit less inviting to just head down or sideways like in other side-scrolling sandbox games. (Turns out I did indeed miss something. Advancing dialogue is tricky, pressing 'E' sometimes starts the conversation over. Jumping works better.)

The blocks feel a bit weird because of the angle the game art uses. It's hard to tell where you have to click to dig a certain block at times. The game also uses a foreground mask to hide terrain blocks until you start digging, which can look confusing at times. Nothing that can't be solved with some clever highlighting though.

Everything else looks really good. The graphics are nice, the town has shops and trainers, the acid-breathing giant lizards have gliding flaps and let you ride their back while you shoot them,... Good times.

Edit: I fell down into the void and managed to latch my grappling hook onto one of the flying wolf thingies, slowing my descent enough to land on another floating island.  The wolfy thing I pulled down with me was a bit less fortunate, as a physics glitch smashed it right through the nearby rock. I tried to see if I could get a larger flying animal to lift me back up, but unfortunately I fell down to the lower levels where I suffocated before hitting the floor, if there was any. I think I saw a kraken on the way down.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2013, 01:07:21 pm by Rhodan »
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Silicoid

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2014, 12:53:41 pm »

Necro... since I am bad at making opening posts.

I am considering getting this game.  Is it any good?
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jocan2003

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2014, 01:09:10 pm »

You can make airship out of whale corpse, nouf said :)
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Farce

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2014, 04:07:09 am »

I've got this on Steam, but I think there's an issue with either crappy laptop integrated graffix cards, or crappy Intel cards.  Either way, I can't actually play it.  Pretty annoying!

Kagus

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2014, 11:49:38 am »

Howdy, figured I'd necro this thread since it hasn't been that long since the last post, and because I've recently picked up Windforge and been plugging hours into it ever since.


For anyone who plays this game and knows what I'm talking about...   Kraken can be tamed.

Cthulhu

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2014, 04:03:44 pm »

Likewise, little bimp.

I got it yesterday and I'm pretty surprised.  The reviews were pretty bad but I'm figuring the patches might help out.   I, uh, tried out an alpha version and liked it a lot.  Financed my adventures by killing the crews of bandit ships and then dismantling them for parts to sell.

This turned out to be a pretty hazardous occupation.  The most valuable parts of the ships I'm looking also happen to be the ones keeping them in the air.  I wish you could keep your grappling hook on while you do other things, it would make for a very valuable safety net.  I may also try grabbing an extra balloon or two and attaching it to the ones without their own balloons for a little extra safety.

As it is I'm basically playing Jenga, trying to remove as much as I can  while maintaining the ships aerodynamics, then frantically jumping and hooking my ship's gun turret (which serves as a handy alternate entrance) to get to safety.  I haven't died yet, but I've come pretty close!  Maybe there's some tethers or something in the full version, that would make this a lot safer.
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darkflagrance

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2014, 03:05:12 am »

I think the reviews don't really do the game justice. It's really liberating to just soar through the skies and murder whales and enemy airships. The temples and main-quest don't really attract me, but there's enough sandbox just flying around, participating in the hunting economy, and slowly upgrading the airship. When I see the detail and work put into the temples and fortresses, it makes me wish that effort had been put into making the aerial gameplay REALLY shine.

If you really want to be a dedicated miner, whale hunter, or pirate, the starter ship is extremely awkward. There are some efficient designs that make it really easy to reduce sky-islands to rubble, or capture whale corpses before they hit the ground so that they can be harvested, or ram enemy ships and chew them up into easily looted pieces. It's reminiscent of Elite in that way.
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Cthulhu

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2014, 03:48:29 am »

Yeah, I've moved up to one of the bandit ships I captured and I'm still working on making something of my own.  It's the one that kind of looks like a bigger version of the default ship, but with two machinegun and two cannon mounts.

Not the best but it'll do for the moment.  I'm not really interested in doing things super-efficiently, I want to do them my way, even if it's not necessarily the right way.  Like, I figured out pretty quickly that I could just park my ship next to a disabled enemy and use the dismantle tool to strip it from across the screen, but that's not as fun as doing it the dangerous way.

As for whaling, I was thinking some kind of giant armed barge with an open bay on the underside to catch whales and enough propellers and balloons to hold one, but that'd be a serious undertaking to design.
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Stuebi

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2014, 04:27:56 am »

Metacritic isn't very kind to Windforge Review-wise. User-Reviews are better tough.

Can someone give a little overview to see if the game is worth buying?
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Kagus

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2014, 04:48:24 am »

There's been talk of having ship-mounted grappling hooks, both to keep your own ship in place when you're investigating islands (particularly in the tradewinds, bloody nuisances...) and to potentially hold on to other craft while you're stripping them.

Much as I admire doing things the creative way and making your own cool ship the way you'd like to see it, well...  I'm at a point where that's not really possible anymore.  Not to say that the game is too difficult to allow for non-efficient designs, certainly not, it's just...  Well...   *I* am too difficult to allow for non-efficient designs.  So now I'm tooting around in my multi-hulled deathbox with internal propeller rooms (props just need 32 squares of free space in front of them to not count as obstructed...  They don't care if those squares happen to be on the inside of your ship).

Also, certain materials are only unlocked by going through the main quests for a while, stuff like the all-important vulcan steel.  Also also, while the blue whales drop when killed, the gray whales in the upper atmosphere have enough blubber in them that they do actually float.  Also also also, the jackhammer is actually really somewhat inefficient for mining, at least in the late game (that includes its upgrades).  If you really wanna dig fast, you gotta use a knife.

No, really.  I have 100 strength on my character (I found out how to farm heartstone, and I've been making trips to town where I sell it off for 1-3 million credits at a time, so money isn't really a problem anymore and I can just train my skills to max), along with the best craftable knife in the game, a cloudstone vibroblade.  Everything short of adamantine is instantly dug out in a massive swathe in front of me every time I swing, allowing me to hollow out sky islands in moments.  Earlier in the game you don't have the stats or the resources to do this for mining and such, but a standard knife will still work wonders on carving up whales.


Metacritic isn't very kind to Windforge Review-wise. User-Reviews are better tough.

Can someone give a little overview to see if the game is worth buying?

I just got up, so I'm not really feeling the oomph needed to do a proper overview right now...  Also, as mentioned, I picked it up in the Humble Bundle where I got it for next to nothing.  But while I was a bit confused/disappointed with some details of the game, overall I was pleasantly surprised after the low ratings I'd seen and I definitely think it was worth getting and experiencing.

Cthulhu

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2014, 05:06:48 am »

It's pretty good.  A little wonky and phys-killy, you should save often because early on you'll die a lot, often to silly things.

Like I killed a whale after it got stuck next to an island, and it ended up floating in midair.  I dropped out from the bottom-hatch of my ship to start the harvest and fell straight through it.  I ended up dropping all the way to the next zone and somehow managed to hook an island.

So I ended up marooned on an island in the middle of nowhere, with no way to reach my ship.  As I sat around trying to figure out what the hell I was gonna do, my whale fell from the sky and landed right next to me.  Praise Cordeus!
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Moogie

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #13 on: August 07, 2014, 10:38:38 am »

Goddamn, do the enemies just keep spawning nearby the entire time? I couldn't let go of the wheel long enough to run and do any repairs before another stupid firebreathing flying thing came charging in. And then a whale showed up. And then two enemy ships started shooting at me. No matter where I went, there was no peace, no downtime. I just wanted to explore a bit, not constantly be shoving things into my propellers and dodging projectiles.

The platforming is very wonky. The controls are floaty and low-friction, making platforming very difficult. The camera swings around like drunk-o-vision which ended up making me feel ill.

I really wanted to like this game. Terraria-like and Steampunk? Sounds like a match made in heaven, but the execution is pretty terrible.
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Ygdrad

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Re: Windforge - A 2D steampunk adventure in the skies.
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2014, 02:53:49 pm »

Hmmm. To buy or not to buy... This looks interesting, but there are so many other things/games that 15$ could be spent on.
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