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Devlog KAG KAG Build 1830 - A Few Weeks' Tweaks and TR Offer

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Geti, Apr 21, 2016.

?

How do you like the ballista changes?

Poll closed Apr 28, 2016.
  1. Great!

    16 vote(s)
    51.6%
  2. Ok, but I'd like to see some changes...

    7 vote(s)
    22.6%
  3. Bad! I loved spamming ballistae!

    3 vote(s)
    9.7%
  4. Bad! I never see them any more!

    1 vote(s)
    3.2%
  5. I haven't noticed a difference.

    4 vote(s)
    12.9%
  1. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Hey guys! With the Trench Run release out of the way, we’ve been able to spend a little bit of time rounding out a KAG release. It should be out in the next hour or so on all platforms.

    This release features a round of bugfixes and “finally” some balance measures on the ballista!

    [​IMG]
    Still deadly, but less spammable!


    • Ballista and bolts now cost quite a lot more. The upgrade is also more expensive.
      This is intended to allow them to keep their role of dominating the battlefield in short bursts, without being prone to bolt-spam and spawn spam.
    • Several bugs fixed with overlapping multiple Ballistae.
    • Chat “…” bubble is now back – except for team-chat, which can be used for stealth tunnel planning
    • BunnieTDM lighting has been modified by 8x after community complaints
    • The “Surrender” vote is no longer bugged – please check this is indeed fixed but all investigations we’ve done show it working as expected. It seemed to be relying on a bad seclev. Hopefully this means less end-of-game griefing and gives players a better “gg” out than nextmapping – a team can decide to throw it in together rather than relying on the enemy accepting.
    • TDM no longer “soft locks” when everybody dies at the same time
    • v_camera_ints setting saves now for those who prefer the camera working that way

    [​IMG]
    Officially extending the hand to KAG players everywhere to try Trench Run!


    There is also a one-time popup window which we will use for giving important information as required – we’re currently using it to plug an offer extended to KAG players for 30% off Trench Run! Use the code KAGLOVE30 when buying Trench Run here to claim your discount. As always, you can retrieve a steam key from the panel should you prefer to play your games through steam.

    Have Fun!

    Max & Michal
     
  2. Potatobird

    Potatobird Haxor Forum Moderator Mapping Moderator Tester Official Server Admin

    Messages:
    777
    Yess!!! At this point I'll probably keep accidentally turning on camera ints, it's become muscle memory to check the box instantly whenever I start kag haha!

    Also, cool, didn't know about the steam key. That's convenient :]
     
  3. an_obamanation

    an_obamanation The boss Donator

    Messages:
    392
    This update sounds amazing! Nice job you beautiful people
     
  4. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Sorry for the delay on getting the build out! There's been (typical) issues with the windows build node. Should be out soon but I'll keep you posted.

    Edit: build's out everywhere now! Enjoy!
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2016
    Joiken likes this.
  5. piercebob

    piercebob Shark Slayer

    Messages:
    5
    I all ready bought TR ;-;

    2 people playing on the aus server if anyone wants to join
     
    PUNK123 likes this.
  6. 8x

    8x Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité Forum Moderator Staff Alumni Tester
    1. The Young Blood Collective - [YB]

    Messages:
    1,325
    The Ballista changes, oh yeah.
    Just saw a bug with menus: ingame, press ESC > then click on Settings > you can't click on any other menu button unless you close the settings window. This doesn't happen on main menu.
     
  7. Lava

    Lava Former Lag King Staff Alumni Donator Tester

    Messages:
    230
    \o/ kag update!!!
     
  8. l3afysamz

    l3afysamz Ballista Bolt Thrower

    Messages:
    63
    One of the best updates of 2016 :') so far ._.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2016
    Magmus and EhRa like this.
  9. ShnitzelKiller

    ShnitzelKiller Haxor

    Messages:
    590
    Can you put the player counts back in the scoreboard? I don't get why they were removed.
     
  10. Lava

    Lava Former Lag King Staff Alumni Donator Tester

    Messages:
    230
    And score/add kdr from tdm
     
  11. ShnitzelKiller

    ShnitzelKiller Haxor

    Messages:
    590
    The TDM scoreboard is an utter joke right now. You can't even see who is on which team if they're dead. But this isn't a content update so much as an attempt to advertise their DOA game in the form of a nag screen.
    As for the balance change, making bolts more expensive doesn't change the fact that whoever gets them first wins. If anything, it makes victory even more dependent on memorizing where the gold is in every map.
     
    Blue_Tiger likes this.
  12. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Interesting. Those menus do work completely differently though, so I'm not exactly surprised.. I'll put it on the list but I cant promise anything will be done about it.

    Indeed, but it does prevent whoever gets them first from getting three of the damn things with an endless supply of bolts that pay for themselves tenfold. The "defenders" get at least some chance now to fight back and there's more of an impetus for use of a ballista to end the game, as they're pretty costly.

    You can leave your salt at the door though. The "nag" is a one time thing and the content present has all been a fair time coming.
     
    Magmus, PUNK123, SirDangalang and 3 others like this.
  13. EhRa

    EhRa Ooooooof Staff Alumni Donator
    1. KRPG

    Messages:
    810
    There should be some way to take away the TR code advertisement if you don't want it. I have the game and it can be annoying when it pops up. I realise this is a short time thing, but just something that could be added if something like it happens again.
     
  14. PUNK123

    PUNK123 Hella wRangler Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    1,275
    Honestly it kinda feels like you were asking for the salt. There has been criticism at lack of kag work for over a year so it should be understandable that kag players would be upset that you are advertising in their game. Couldnt you just do what some developers do and give coupons to players who own your game on steam? Or do you get alot more money from drm-free stuff on your own site?
     
  15. Mazey

    Mazey Haxor Global Moderator Forum Moderator Staff Alumni Donator Official Server Admin

    Messages:
    1,914
    30% off on Steam is 60% off the full price, from the website it's 30% + ~15.6% (the 1.25$ from BMT)
     
    SirDangalang and PUNK123 like this.
  16. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    ...It does only pop up once?

    As long as you safely quit the game, it saves your "viewed state" for the popup when it saves all your other settings. If you're using multiple computers or installs, it'll pop up one time each, but we're not going to store that kind of thing in your account.

    KAG's been "out" and "done" for multiple years now. Criticism of not continuously/full time supporting a five year old game from two person dev team years after release is, frankly, not something I consider very reasonable. That the game continues to receive updates is indeed good for us and for you, but there's nothing "big" left to do in KAG, in our eyes.

    Also, a small correction: we are advertising our game in our game.

    Valve has been unresponsive about steam coupon options; we considered this to be the simplest option in the short term. As Mazey points out, it'd also put even more of a dent in earnings.
     
    kaizokuroof, SirDangalang and Clev like this.
  17. PUNK123

    PUNK123 Hella wRangler Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    1,275
    It is obviously your game but you could atleast understand that we purchased a game to play it not get an ad for your other game. I just think the backlash towards the advertisement is because it just isn't commonplace. Also i think it is abit dishonest to say that it is unfair for us to "want a 2 person team support from a 5 year old game". I thought the whole point of the interns were to help fix kag and make it better. Then there is the small problem of terrible terrible maps that take no effort to quality control. Yes i understand the whole "the community chose it" but for fucks sake some of the maps picked are literally a cancerous mess. Finally if it is all about earnings from your new game then why even continue to work on it. The game has a playerbase problem(ie there are very few players ever online) and if people on steam purchase the game they will just get a refund. You wont get thousands of players from advertising to modern kag's playerbase, but if you give a coupon to everyone who ever bought kag you might have more success. That said, i wonder why steam would be so unresponsive about the coupon topic.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2016
    Clev likes this.
  18. an_obamanation

    an_obamanation The boss Donator

    Messages:
    392
    That depends on what you declare as "big". If you're talking about having a game that's functional and not very buggy, ehhhh I guess you're right in that department. However, if you're talking about a game having fully functioning systems/mechanics + servers then KAG certainly has more big things to be done. The builders pickax priority is insanely random for instance, I've had moments where i'm trying to kill another builder and instead of hitting them I hit a dead corpse behind me, or my teams door. Trap blocks are still a huge issue in CTF matches often leading to the death of many teams when a noob joins and makes bad traps. These bad traps in turn, lead to many refunds because the people didn't see their flaw in the trap block, and got kicked, then get the "banned" message that makes them freak out. There has been a glitch about rarely floating in midair and being unable to move other than with the archers grapple hook, supposedly reported for over a year that still hasn't been fixed. Getting more than 30 arrows at the start as an archer is awkward because sometimes all the arrows just decide to disappear, and sometimes when a new ctf match starts you aren't resupplied so you're stuck with 0 materials, otherwise your materials just decide to drop onto the floor at the start leaving you confused and mat-less. There's plenty of other things I could mention but they've all been mentioned before a dozen times over. These may seem as "small" things to you but they're very big issues to the KAG community and may actually contribute to many lost sales/refunds. And the other small issues are so numerous that they become a big problem. Even if you think that KAG has nothing left to really be done with it, I got one word, additions. You always have something big to do when it comes to game development, you could bring back single player tdm for players who enjoyed that, you could make zombie fortress an official mode again instead of having modders bring it back, you could add new classes or class mechanics, etc. I could be sounding silly because i'm very tired as of writing this but maybe I made a legitimate point or two, you run your business how you want though, it's your business, not mine. Have a great day :D
     
  19. joshua12131415

    joshua12131415 Bison Rider Tester

    Messages:
    190
    Didn't see anything about trampolines..... Does that mean tramp flying is a feature not a glitch? 2525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525
     
  20. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    25 25 no, it doesn't; that should be fixed next build but the fix needs proper testing. If it turns out to work with no other issues I might push it through as a hotfix to cull the abuse of it and stop it getting "blocked" by other changes.

    I've long since given up on the idea of KAG working like everything in it was "designed". It is what it is, a cobbled together collection of fun things that the lot of you have enjoyed enough to keep playing, develop strong feelings about, and come here to tell us how it could be better :) that's great and all, but it doesn't mean we're going to endlessly develop this thing, and that's something the community definitely needs to become accustomed to.

    I dont want to make big additions to a game that's finished. I want to make new games. I've talked about this elsewhere, not going to rehash things again.

    If we ever do a "big redesign" of KAG, it'll be a completely separate game. That'd avoid erasing what we have with KAG currently (a problem that I'm sure all the classic players have really strong feelings about), and allow us to build something new without the current context and expectations of KAG. However, that's not currently our plan, it's just a possibility for the future.

    Indeed, but you are still completely able to play the game you paid for, as you have in many cases for years. The ad comes up once, gives you a tangible benefit, and then lets you get on with the game.

    They are, but you'll have to hold them accountable for that too. Motivation only goes so far, but in all cases the intern's contributions have improved the game.
    My point about expectations is that in many larger, more expensive game's cases, in 2 years (or less) you'd have a sequel released and slim-to-none chance of getting updates for the original game. Expecting a complete reversal of that from a smaller, poorer team on a game you paid less for, a longer time ago - that's blind.

    Not going to argue there, but you guys are accountable for that outcome. I'll see if I get time for a maps pass this week, some of them really are bad :)

    That is indeed the question of the hour. At the moment we're focussing on giving it the best chance it can have after an honestly botched release - if it doesn't pick up, we'll be ceasing throwing money after bad.

    We uh, literally have done that with the emails sharing the KAGLOVE30 coupon code going out to everyone who ever bought or played kag, which is significantly wider reach than simply the steam players. Good point, but perhaps a step behind.

    They've been unresponsive about a lot of things, it's nothing new. Just standard industry treatment for smaller indies, we're low priority :)