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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0007441Valley 1Suggestion - Balancing IssuesMay 3, 2012 7:41 pm
ReporterMisery Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version1.007 
Fixed in Version1.008 
Summary0007441: Wind shelter missions are nearly impossible in current state
DescriptionCurrently, wind shelter missions are pretty much unbeatable due to numerous issues, without resorting to changing the difficulty.

Enemies do far too much damage, particularly since they appear in such great numbers, and considering this, the game generates too many areas for the mission. Even just ONE area (after the mission entrance) would be very, very difficult to complete in the current state, provided that the player can even reach the mission entrance, but the game often creates 4 or 5, each with 3 or so microbosses and countless smaller foes. These missions are also pretty much the only mission type you really cant avoid eventually having to do, so having them be the most difficult is probably not the best idea, since the shelters are so important to the overall game.

The game also has a bizarre tendancy to spawn many of the enemies (including microbosses) in a heap over on the side of the area where the player spawns. Enemies tend to then just hover around that space without ever actually moving away, so that even if the player tries to wait for a good moment, such a moment wont come, and trying to move in any direction other than back out causes near instant-death. Testing this with lower difficulties, I've often seen this happen, and if you actually DO get past the monster heap, much of the rest of the area (usually the second half of it) is mostly devoid of monsters, aside from things like the eagles that travel far.

Enemies and microbosses often spawn either on top of or right next to the player. Microbosses often spawn much too close to each other.

Fixing the strange spawn issues would go a long way towards making this mission type feasable. Perhaps set it so that the enemies can only spawn in such a way that leaves them at least somewhat spaced out over the current map; this gives the player a fighting chance at dealing with them somehow. Particularly the microbosses: considering their high level of power, plus the design of the maps used in each area in this mission type, and the presence (and high numbers) of other enemies, microbosses are dangerous enough when there's only one of them, but they often all spawn really close to each other. Forcing them to space out over the given map (and stay that way) would make it possible for the player to sneak by (or even defeat) them. Lowering the number of areas in each shelter mission might also be a good idea. Finally, removing monster spawners (if they're in there; I suddenly cant quite recall) might also help; the monsters are more than tough enough without the ability to constantly replace themselves.

Changes like those might work without having to change the way the windstorm actually effects enemies and players.
TagsAVWW, difficulty, mission, shelter, spawn, Wind
Internal WeightFeature Suggestion

Relationships

parent of 0007405 resolvedChris_McElligottPark An alternative approach to windstorms 

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Chris_McElligottPark

May 3, 2012 7:16 pm

administrator   ~0023384

Thanks!

Thanks!

* The presence of windstorms was previously increasing the tier of a region by 1 or 2 tiers depending on the difficulty level. There is no longer any tier buff from windstorms, meaning that enemies are no longer any tougher or more dangerous inside windstorms than they would otherwise normally be.

* When you venture into a region being affected by a windstorm, the negative effect of the windstorm is now felt as a constant drain on your health.
** This drain varies by difficulty and by whether or not the chunk is a higher tier than you, as well as by how many regions' depth into the windstorms you are on the world map.
** In other words, the drain doesn't go up when you go further into the chunks of a given region, but rather when you go into regions on the world map that are further from non-stormy areas.
** The drain is something that also scales downward the lower your health gets, and finally it stops all together once your health has reached 1. So the windstorm by itself won't ever kill you outright -- however it will put you on the teetering brink of death for sure.
*** This makes it increasingly dangerous to venture into windstorm areas that are further from your wind shelter network, but it doesn't make it instantly lethal like it could be before with the supercharged enemies.
** Also, it is important to note that you can keep your health up either by coming in with a high-health character or by simply making efficient use of killing "trash mobs" fast for health, thus keeping yourself going even in such a hostile climate.
** Unlike ambient cold or ambient heat damage, no popups show right on your character (because that would be incredibly annoying), and there are no suits or other magical means that will ever protect you from the wind -- aside from expanding your wind shelter network, of course!

Chris_McElligottPark

May 3, 2012 7:17 pm

administrator   ~0023385

And let us know if you still find some unusual difficulties in the next version, but I think you'll find this far better.

Chris_McElligottPark

May 3, 2012 7:41 pm

administrator   ~0023388

Also:

* Previously there was an issue with outdoor areas having their "ceiling" set too low. This caused problems most notably in the wind shelter missions where there could easily be almost no room to maneuver because of this.

* The number of microbosses in each outdoor section of a wind shelter mission has been reduced from 3 to 2 so the player is not so easily swarmed.


Thanks!

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
May 2, 2012 8:23 am Misery New Issue
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: AVWW
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: difficulty
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: mission
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: shelter
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: spawn
May 2, 2012 8:28 am Misery Tag Attached: Wind
May 2, 2012 9:34 am tigersfan Internal Weight => Feature Suggestion
May 2, 2012 9:34 am tigersfan Status new => considering
May 2, 2012 9:51 am zebramatt Relationship added parent of 0007405
May 3, 2012 7:16 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0023384
May 3, 2012 7:16 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status considering => resolved
May 3, 2012 7:16 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 1.008
May 3, 2012 7:16 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
May 3, 2012 7:16 pm Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
May 3, 2012 7:17 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0023385
May 3, 2012 7:41 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0023388