Build 806 - Tweaks, Fixes, Mad Ballistas - POLL

Fwiw I don't like the water not entering buildings and it was all MM's idea please send the hate mail to Poland not Australia :^) We'll see how the popular opinion of it develops but I'd much rather a different way of clearing water out of an area than just spamming backwall.

Re: Spikes - for the moment we will not revert them to how they were in vanilla. The old spikes are useless meaningless content that only kills one noob per game by accident, probably as a teamkill. I would much rather a powerful game changing construction (which is very very vunerable to bombs if you hadn't noticed) than something useless that minecrafters spend time on that doesn't help their team. I want minecrafters to be an asset if at all possible, not someone you try to votekick.
That said, there are a few bugs with them that will need to be fixed and the price may still need to be adjusted. I dont mind them being expensive, I dont want them to be pointless and weak. I want the enemy knights in my spikepit to CRY THAT ITS NOT FAIR AND THAT THEY WANT THEIR MUMMY, THEN GET KNEECAPPED AS THEY TRY TO ESCAPE. I also want this balanced of course :^)

Re: Support - I'll be looking into how to do the thickness thing this afternoon. In the meantime we'll probably reduce support somewhat. The people telling you "it's pretty easy to shoot down a skybridge guys" are right though, it is pretty easy to shoot down a skybridge (especially with ballista and bomb bolts, or bomb arrows).

Re: Kegs - the bomberman explosion is likely here to stay, but I'm thinking about making it thicker and less long so that it blows out more of a circle than a plus. I dont want the circle explosion back completely because it gives no chance to avoid a keg for the other classes and is really shitty for breaking down towers. Making the explosion larger will cost too much for performance. With regard to them tunnelling, this has been somewhat curbed by them only eating 5 tiles in any given direction.

Re: Ballista - it breaking bedrock isn't intended, will be fixed. The bolt acting wierdly is also a bug, will also be fixed.

Re: Dead but not gibbed migrant - nice catch. Fixing now.

Re: Sprite bug at ammo factory - this is no bug, it just shows the queue of items to be created. Same thing happens at explosive factory or any factory making more than one item.

Re: funny red square bugs - they're to be expected with quick builds, I'll look into them today of course.

Re: terrain erosion - I'm considering reducing the damage from regular bombs, at least to dirt, but I think it's important that they destroy wood and stone block tiles in one hit because it improves the knight's ability to breach. We had this issue ages ago in classic, the solution there was just making them not eat dirt so much.

 

derp

Re: breaking bedrock with ballista, I'm not able to do that now (dev build), is there some way to reproduce?

 

Yes. I've made some modifications since then so maybe they contributed a fix, or maybe it's something janky going on over net.

 

I just couldn't reproduce it, no stress.

We're looking to get a new test out tonight, not sure if it'll be public or not but it's got a bunch of fairly handy fixes in it so we might push it out to public.

 

Yes we are (there isn't formal testing of every feature), and yes you are. You are test subjects. This is a test version. The gigantic red text as the map loads THIS IS A BETA VERSION should make this reasonably clear. We are in the process of stabilising stuff, but we dont have time to spend 3 days after introducing every feature deploying to testers and having 1 hour test session. We make the thing, test local, discuss it, push to test every few hours and will release to you. If you aren't comfortable with the game experience being in a state of flux, wait for it to be released on steam or something. This is a test version. You are our testers now.
Reverting changes is instant and easy, as we have done for the backwall flooding already.

The spikes are now even more expensive, 30 stone (meaning 40 stone for a working retracting spike)

Fixed the mine thing just now (nice catch, easy fix too), war boat collision stuff is something we'll need to look into more.

No worries about your english, as long as its understandable I don't really mind.

Today I added a sponge item to replace the backwall blocking water which you can use to clean water out of an area, which is much more fun and sensible. They have a satisfying swell up animation as well and eventually become "full" of water and must be replaced, adding to the cost of building underwater bases.
I cant wait for the first boat to sink due to sponge bombardment :)

MM added sand tiles which act as a natural barrier to construction on an area - mainly for use on beaches. We're more or less sick to death of "castle on cliff on side of lake" as the trope of water dominated maps, hopefully we'll get more "omaha beach" situations. You cannot build on sand tiles, they provide zero support and actually suck support out of things built across them, meaning if you want to suspend a castle above the sand you'll have to do so at your own risk.
The sand tiles also fall downwards when you dig under them and are more or less indestructible, meaning they help prevent erosion in the area they occur and that it takes a lot of effort to move them (so if you want your beach base you basically have to excavate the whole beach first).
MM's currently looking into how to make the falling sand actually hurt you since it's instant and getting buried in it makes you glitch through the terrain instead of getting hurt.

I think the sand needs some more work but I think that combined with sponges it'll force bases to either extend into the water or sit back from the beach a little more, either one is fine by me.

The support requirement has been increased again from what it was to further combat skybridges.

I think it'll be going public later on today if other stuff doesn't take our attention for too much longer, so you'll be able to give opinions on the keg and ballista bolt changes.

The keg feels far meatier for what it's worth, and has less of an obscene range - it's a compromise between "circle" and "bomberman"