Build 265 released!

and its getting very annoying fighting teams of archers, which seems to be happening more and more. Its just frustrating to buy a game and get skill at it and be good just to get the rug pulled out from under me and get the game more geared to your average person who didn't do well to begin with. I was amazed an indie game would get this much of my time and be one of those games where if you are good it shows. Now i don't feel that way its just jump jab, jump jab, jump jab, jump jab pray you're the one who gets the hit.

 

What are you talking about ? It's just a 5% increase. It doesn't add luck to combat. It doesn't make noobs stronger and elites weaker...

Knights fights have always been semi-random, there always were annoying undetected hits, it's nothing new :/

 

Hm, I did think I was doing better at archery, but maybe it was the build?
Anyway, I've been playing knight and I haven't seen much difference. I mean (I don't mean to brag) but I still get more kills than deaths, and slashing really hasn't changed for me. I haven't even noticed the 5% difference. You may have to memorize small numbers of frames for other games, but it's the same charge bar, the same dots, the same ques for when you can slash before, during, or after the charge bar is filled up.

Also, something weird I noticed: While buying arrows and moving at the same time, I stumbled over to the Siege shop. The siege shop building sound played, and wood was (supposedly; I didn't have any) taken away, but I still got the arrows that I wanted.

And (this may just be me) but it seems like bombs are working... differently. A few reds were holed up in what was going to be an upward tunnel, and we threw several bombs to flush them out, but they didn't get hurt at all. It's like they were shielding in the direction of the explosion, but it didn't look like that.

Also, invisible outposts.

Other than that, I am quite content with the build. Good job!

 

Movements are much better again.

But lag + clash make playing knight a complete lottery again. 5% slower charge encourages jabbing and that's what most of the knights do. Jump, shield, jab, jab, jab, jump, shield, and hope you will get the hit first. Sometimes enemies are in positions where you can't hit them at all, even from the sides.. And not to mention slashes rarely register. Some people seem not to experience this, but it can't be all lag since I've usually got a good ping. I wish I could record my gameplay D: Bombs used to differentiate good knights from bad knights after the clashing update, but now they're a bit screwed too.
The cooking time has increased, they sometimes blow just randomly (may be due to lag) and they are like superballs when they bounce off walls. There is no skill factor in knight anymore, really.
Heck, it's worse than in build 90. Luckily I can still play archer.. and as a few people have pointed out in this thread, archer wars are getting a bit annoying when everyone is archer and a huge stalemate occurs.

How the knight could be fixed imho:

-Revert back to the old bombs if it's possible, you could properly control them back at the day.

-Make charging a slash 5% faster, to discourage jab spamming.

-Remove clash; It's a fine feature without any lag and in 1vs1. But as this is a PvP game, there will always be lag and big knight blobs. You can't have a proper shield + jab combo when you can't retreat for slash, it just clashes and becomes a lottery. Clashing gives a huge luck factor to the game, and it is too newbie friendly imho. It was made to stop jab spamming, but they actually can do that all day now, since it's not so rare that slashes don't register, and they are slower too in this build. They don't even need to shield because the clash will protect them, no matter what. Also, jabs clash with builders hammering?? Please, please be the first indie game to remove a bad feature :x

-Fix the bug where you can't damage anyone below you in the right spot. As seen here: http://i.imgur.com/NUsYB.png

-Jab seems to have a longer range than slash, this should be opposite. Another thing encouraging stabby stabby jumpy jumpy play.

-It may be the nostalgia giving me the wrong picture of those days, but: Make us able to slash twice in a row again without hitting someone. It made the knight combat much more dynamic, and increased the skill cap. You had to time it perfectly and know how the game works to be succesful with it, so I don't see a reason why vets shouldn't be given that. If you're worried about knights breaking doors too fast, the second slash could be removed if the first one hit a door.

-Stun stacking is goddamn annoying, say you get blown away by a bomb, arrow hits you while in midair, you then hit a wall and bounce off it, hit another wall and bounce off it, and you are immobilized for at least 5 seconds. If there's an enemy knight around you, he can just stab you to death and all you can do is watch the slaughtery. The stuns shouldn't be longer than half seconds (maybe not able to shield or jab for a second after stun), or you could make them not to stack.

-You can shield bash an enemy to death from only four blocks. It doesn't make sense, since when you're falling from a higher distance you make less damage. Even when you don't go to the stunned falling sprite. And the damage dealt overall seems to be very random, I assume it's bugged also.
Imo it should go like this: 4-6 blocks bash; 1 heart damage, 7-9 blocks bash; 2 hearts damage, 9+the amount of blocks it takes to get into falling sprite bash; 3 hearts of damage. This wouldn't be bad because when they fall off from higher distances, you have more time to react and raise your shield up. Archers and builders in the other hand, well, they just need to run away :p

There are a lot more minor issues regarding knight to knight combat, but those are the major ones I can remember
off-head.

The tournament showed well how overpowered bombjumping is. You can fly over just everything, kinda like at the days when you could jump over everything. I am talking about the bombjump where you need to do nothing but hold your shield up, and you will get boosted.
Archers have arrow ladders sure, but it's not any issue since they have to first work it through enemies, and they can't do much damage once they're inside.
Knights have their sword and can destroy OPs and workshops and kill enemy builders. So in my opinion, you should just blow up when not shielding to the bomb directly.
This regular bombjump isn't overpowered, because it leaves the knight very vulnerable to enemies, and you need a good spot to do it. You can do the shield-up jump from anywhere. The superhero jumps would still be possible however, they would just need a great amount of skill: light your bomb and right before it blows, throw it in the air. Timing would be very important, so it would be possible to actually fail.



Oh and as I said, movements feel much better again. Those knights just need a fix. Please pull out one boring bugfix build more, then I can wait for zombies again ;)
By the way, arrows would look 50% cooler if they were behind the sprites, not in front of them.

I apologise from my rage beasts in the test build thread, I was so fed up with everything at the day. Still shouldn't have raged, I apologise again.

Keep up the good work!

P.S and please hop in IRC more often

 

Yeah, it is all same, in large servers you just get some hiccups and teleports more.

Longer slash isn't a major issue in itself, the issue is a large combination of small things which greatly encourage spamming jabs. And not even that, but jab spamming is more effective than strategically planned movements and perfectly timed slashes.

By the way, forgot to mention that my chat currently looks like this:



I can live with that though.

 

Just for the record, what does "clashing" mean? I don't know any of the lingo yet. :p

... Does it just mean to parry someones attack?

You say people spam more because of the 5% increase, but in the 40 or so matches I've played so far most people seem to charge their attacks instead of clicking repeatedly. I am a new player so I haven't played in any tournaments where it may be different.

 

Monsteri, you said it all perfectly. This current build in regards to physics isn't bad. Notching is more fluid and it being toned down isn't bad. I think everything as it stands now works GREAT, somewhat different but works very well. Its just knights that hurt me in the soul. I to apologise for any rage i had but KAG is just...so...good. It sucks to see something so great get bogged down in that manner, even when all issues will most likely be fixed in the end.

 

When I wait in lobby for a few minutes trying to join a full server, the client eventually crashes. Only since these last few days, confirmed by several other people.

 

I'm also having that problem... Although, changing most of my in-game sounds to Warcraft 2 ones seems to have stopped it, but it's probably just a coincidence.

 

I get a number of random crashes as well. The chance for this to happen seems to increase every time I open the console.

I'm also someone who has been having trouble with knights since the last two days. The night before the update I was able to score at least 3 or 4 solid kills on anyone before retreating or being killed. The night after the update I'm lucky if I land a hit anymore, and it's been frustrating.

Never mind lag or lack of skill. My ping has remained otherwise the same (crappy at that, due to me connecting to a server half way across the world), yet after the update I've been unable to hit anything. Literally, I've charged and released a slash against a completely defenseless builder, and none of my attacks register. It's even worse now against knights, since I can no longer break their guard with said slash anymore.

As a result, I've relegated to the back of the battle firing arrows as an archer. It's mechanics have remained otherwise the same, and I still keep scoring kills as usual. However, since the new default chat box position really annoyed me (I've always seen chat at the bottom center, left or right side of the screen, not the top), I had to move it back to it's old position. But when I do so, while aiming with an archer the chat won't fade, which is pretty annoying because now I can't accurately kill anything that is standing directly below me.

Another bug that I've noticed from time to time is that it's sometimes impossible to build outposts or catapults, unless you have EXACTLY the amount of gold necessary (not too little, nor too much).

Finally, one more suggestion would be to have an option to set directly down a catapult or outpost to your feet, as well as the option to throw it around. Trying to set up a catapult in a high yet short ledge is always dangerous. You either land the catapult too far from the desired position, or it falls off the ledge and down into the hands of the enemy army.

Finally, one more thing I'd like to know (which I'm pretty sure everyone who's had the chance has already asked you... yet I have nothing to lose asking anyways): do you have an ETA on how much longer will this game remain at it's current price? A gaming community I frequent has recently taken interest in your game, and often I've been asked if I knew anything about it.

Regardless, thank you for your attention, and for all your hard work. Have a nice day.

- Krono

Edit.- Are there any plans for releasing this game on Steam?

 

I think the chat box should be changed in game. As in you go into setting> video> chat box> and you could choose top or bottom. Just an idea though.

Also Monsteri, 'i leik ur picture of da bomb jumpin'. :D

 

Because digging diagonal and block cliping in old build wasn't bad enough:

 

BUGS:

- There is no unit counter. I don't know if it has something to do with me changing the chat back to bottom.
- The customization isn't working until you die for the first time on the server.
- The cursor is moving towards the shop when you're buying stuff, which is kinda annoying if you buy 200 arrows and the cursor is flying back and forth.
- There is no logo in the pre-game launcher.
- Stats don't reset properly. When exiting KAG and then joining a server you played on previously, your stats are there , along with the material you had before you left. They don't reset after a map either.
-When you place stone wall on spikes you gain 8 stone.

SUGGESTIONS:

- The Chat/Scoreboard font is just awful. 228 was better. Also, the scoreboard font isn't showing some characters properly. For example % looks like a face, etc. Really frustrating when it comes to clan tags.
- Empty shop should cost less due to the fact that you have to pay to convert it. (Preferably 40 stone/wood)
- The amount of rescources needed to build the arrow shop/bomb shop/quarters should be equal, (50 wood 50 stone)
- Walking through doors should be more fluid
- Arrows sticking to a body are overkill. Looks messy + The arrows don't even stick in right places. I may shoot somebody in front and the arrow appears on their back.
- Bomb aim, the arrow should follow the movement of the mouse better.
- The helping text that hoves above shops every time you pass it should be an ON/OFF option.
- More customization regarding the HUD/CHAT (size, position, transparency) Maybe ability to mod the HUD just like in Soldat?

 

-I'm pretty sure knights double slash doesn't really work anymore. Everytime I hit the first time the second time it does absolutely nothing, even if the knight/builder/archer is right next to me. Occasionally it has worked, but it's extremely bugged. Works in swordfight, but that's about it.

-There's a weird spawning bug where you will spawn in a random place not on an outpost. Just last game a bunch of people from red team were spawning in a blue team spike pit for no reason at all, including me.

-Still getting a bug where a random block will be left in for only you. Like a dirt block somewhere. It's obvious it's not there for other people as they can just walk straight through the block.

-You can very easily squeeze through one block gaps as any class now, not just diagonal and through jumping but say you've destroyed one door block and you push yourself you can probably get through.

-Heads aren't saved as every time I load up kag again and join a server I have a normal class head. It comes on a few deaths later, but still, gotta be a bug as it used to work. EDIT: what ilaks said, I also confirm every bug he mentioned.

-Still getting the issue where if someone disables guards on a server all guards that join it have premium disabled as well.

-Bombs just don't have momentum anymore. You have to walk for at least a second and a bit before you can even throw them anywhere. You used to be able to slightly tap left or right and press f and your bomb would be thrown lightly but now it just drops on the floor like derp. Fix this please.

 

Yeah, a lot people (me too) have FPS drop when there are 40+ player. In servers witth less player the game goes perfectly so would be nice fix it for enjoy epic battles :)

Another bug which i guess nobody post about it is "bomb jumping" bug, when someone throws a bomb and it stands bewtween 2 tiles,one up and other down, the bomb sometimes jumps. Sorry, cant explay very well, I hope u can understand a bit :)

Edit: Add a picture :3

 

This is un-playable for me.Knight combat lags like crazy.People hit me when there not there.Slash doesnt work good.Taking on moe than 3 knights is almost immpossible.And there is no skill involved.All people are now the same on this new build which is bad.

 

me: ZOMBIES
265: nope
me: aww
265: well I moved the chat so you can shoot down easy
me: what about up?
265: whiner

 

Workshops are too vulnerable to bombs and catapults. 1 bomb will destroy 2 workshops in a row. A catapult shot is enough to destroy a workshop.


You can squeeze through gaps like these:

 

I think the chatbox would just make so much sense more to be on bottom left corner.

It could be a little transparent to avoid giving red too much of a disadvantage, and the help text could be moved to right.

It's in all games in some of the corners, it feels so weird to have it on top. Plus it's distracting when you're writing, blocks off all the middle area of the screen where the most action is.