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11/10/2015

Up Next and (Ver 1.07)

Edit: There was another change in this update that I forgot to mention. Achievements now have clues, but the game has to have been beaten for those clues to show up. Starting a new game or reloading your save after completing the game are both valid options.

Its been a few days past the one month anniversary of the DT3 release. I figured wait a few days after the anniversary considering how long it took for the game to come out after my first projected release date.

With the anniversary comes a small patch that doesn't really do much. Yay!
- It makes a few minor level design adjustments for quality of life purposes, but nothing really gameplay changing.
- CV Heart pickups (the heart energy restore ones) now recover 5 hearts instead of 3.
- Actually here's a bug fix. I found a piece of ground that had no collision... It has collision now. If you saw the stream where I was playing Gate 3, then you saw that bug and saw it fixed on camera. OH MAN!
- Birds, so many birds. Like lots of birds now. SO MANY OF THEM!!

What is Zephyr Doing Now
Mainly playing video games and trying not to open the DT3 project anymore. I've been prototyping lots of things. I've messed around with making physics work in GM:Studio. I got a multiplayer network test that works. I might combine the two and see if I can reliably sync multiple clients with a bazillion physics objects everywhere. It'll succeed, but there's a 99.9% chance it won't be used for anything other than personal amusement and experimentation, especially considering the next thing I want to do has nothing to do with physics based gameplay. Multiplayer stuff, yes. Even though right now it may not be THE next thing, but I am experimenting a lot with getting multiple clients to sync up.

If I do go the multiplayer route, a bit about that. I've mentioned this before, but I'm a huge fan of asymmetrical gameplay, wherein multiple players (in my case, two) have differing play styles and are working together toward the same goal. The game Evolve does this really well. Planetside of course is another. (Which is totally free to play... you just need a fairly decent computer to run it. By the way, play on the Emerald server.) I've had a few ideas on multiplayer games using the above thing for quite some time. One of them involves a bird. I'll just stop there.

I've recently gotten into Life is Strange, which is super great. It centers around this girl that gets the ability to reverse time. It's primarily a story based game where you reverse time to change the outcome of events to your liking. So far, changing things has certainly had an impact on future events. The other game is Yoshi's Woolie World, because I like the yoshi games. (Though some of the recent ones have been less than... decent.) Woolie World is super adorable. I play it whenever Jeremy is around so we co-op it.

I just mentioned 4 games to you guys, go play one of them, preferably Life is Strange, because it's great.

32 comments:

Kamil said...

Can somebody explain me how the interface during Final Boss battle work? I just noticed he have 2 kinds of life bar:
1. Shorter - 4 parts in 1 color. I have no idea what it does? Maybe some rage attack or something. I thought maybe it's for switching forms but I think I'm wrong (I was fighting blue one, maxed bar and he still was flying like nothing happen. Wierd.
2. Longer - 10 parts in different colors. I believe it's his actual life bar but I'm not sure.
3. Green crystal that somehow blinking - is this for something or not?

NegativeZeroZ said...

The shorter one is a super meter of sorts. For every 5 normal attacks he does, he can do one super attack, which is different depending on what form he's in.

The longer one is in fact the life bar. For every 10% down, something about the fight changes. The background also flashes so you can just count those instead of watching the lifebar go down.

The color of the crystal shows what form he's in... this is pointless.

Unknown said...

Nightmare gate G beaten so here are my thoughs: When I first saw the boss it was one of the biggest surprises i ever had butit was amazingly nostalgic and fun, after 1 hour struggling with him, all i can say is that boss is not as hard as many think the only reason i got killed over and over was my own fault for not parrying his attacks correctly so the only one blaming for dying is just me XD but on the other hand this game is amazingly fun i know its insanely hard and over the top sometime but the feeling after beating something after 1-2 hours of struggling is so good and i can't wait to beat it but at the same time i will feel sad for beating it.

Steveroxyou said...

I finally beat the game today. I didn't expect this game to take as long as it did (my playthrough clocked in at 86 hours), but it was definitely worth it. I'm happy I finished this game before I got my new computer; otherwise I might have put this game on hold for a while. The final two bosses of the game were interesting but some of the most enjoyable fights in the game. Sure, sometimes things got pretty stupid, especially during the end of the final boss, but it made the payoff that much more rewarding when i won. I ended up equipping all damage on one character, and all defense on another one and switching between them whenever I was in/out of danger. I think it was a pretty effective strategy. One thing that surprised me was how much I was relying on Claire instead of Jerry ever since gate 5. I thought I would use each character equally, but whenever I didn't have to use Jerry I just didn't use him. I'm kind of torn on how I feel about the ending though. Something about it just bothers me.

A short story: I ended up getting pretty sick in February of this year and I had gone to the doctor to see what was wrong. I found out that day I had kidney failure and had to go to the hospital immediately. At the time I honestly thought I was going to die because I felt so bad. However, kidney failure is pretty easy to treat, so it was just getting through the beginning that was the toughest. During my time in the hospital all I ended up thinking about was video games that I might not have stuck around to play. DT3 was definitely on that list. When I had first tried the demo, I thought the game was something special. I think I ended up clearing the demo 2-3 times during the duration I was waiting. I'm really looking forward to see what else you can make. Thank you so much for the enjoyable experience.

Oslash said...

@steveroxyou

well.. i still think i got the bad ending, or at least the not-so-bad ending... maybe the "cheese" will get me a better ending?

Kamil said...

I'm fighting Final Boss for 3 hours and he's killing me so much. The battle wouldn't be so hard if the interface of battle would be explained. Even with help of NegativeZeroZ I still had problem with main life bar:
1. I thought that colors of the parts explaining what form will be next. But all colors are different.
2. I thought about a reason behind 10 parts. I thought after beating each part boss switching form. But sometimes switch is at the middle of part, sometimes 2 parts without switching. It's completely random. Argh...
Another problem is with the mechanic:
1. When I'm on ground and get hitted my character is minimally floating in the air. Visually it looks like he still on the ground. But sometimes after getting hitted I use back dash I'm ending using forward air dash instead. It screwed me so many times. Gah...
Maybe erasing this mechanic of floating or giving back air dash would help.

Kamil said...

Another 2 hours of battling this bastard Final Boss and... Why I'm starting battle with just 20 missiles? Any other ammo is at full.

Cyn said...

When it comes to some resources (most noticeable with heart energy, but I suspect it works the same with arrows/missiles too), it seems that when you game over and restart from checkpoint, you'll have either the amount you had when you died, or roughly half, whichever is higher. Its more easily seen in harder than hard mode (You'll start really counting how many daggers/holy waters and the like you have left since on some fights you'll need every single one) but it occurs on all difficulties. Maybe that's that's going on when you 'only start with 20 missiles'?

As for the final boss, the 10 part bar simply separates his health into 10% chunks. As NZZ said, every 10% something changes, but its probably something you're already sub-consciously accounting for as you get further in, I never noticed it consciously until Zephyr actually told me about it. As you get further into the fight, there will be a couple of things you can track with the bar, but it has no bearing on form swaps or the like. Its a fight where you'll find you have to track a lot of different percent health points because he gets harder and harder, so the bar is useful, but don't read into the colours of the bars too much, they're just going from green (he's doing fine) across a range to red (he's on his last legs) to show how close you are to closing out the fight. And don't worry that its taking a long time. It took me something like 400 attempts and 10 hours, its a fight you have to get very intimate with and understand in order to clear.

@Oslash: Please no. I barely have any cheese and I've almost closed out the game again (End of DCS, then the end of chap 19 and 20 and I'm done, thank you Zephyr for plateauing at three-shotting the player) and the prospect of going cheese hunting when I'm so vulnerable is going to suck.

Anonymous said...

I finally get 100% of Items and beat the game. (That secret item helps too much :P).
That minigame defense the base its really get harder in the optional to get every items (Especially the 2 last part and 3).
About that final boss fight the problem is when he has less than 30% of HP. The battle becomes a little crazy haha. Many deaths has been for that blue form, he spams a lot of attacks in little time and sometimes that wind form attack that chase you is very annoying. Good Luck with that.
Zephyr, maybe in a future patch can you give more save slots for us to try to get that Achievements? It will be nice to have like DT1 in number of saveslots.
Thank you Zephyr to give us a really great game.

Kamil said...

Finally beat the game. The ending was really surprising and great. I like it. For me this game was definitely too long. I would cut the most irritating and boring levels without mercy. The story was the weakest part of the game. It really started at the half of the game (Chapter 10). Then takes a break until Chapter 14, break and again resume at Chapter 17. Also the story is too much focused on romance between Claire and Jerry. Because of that beginning dialogs were really annoying. It felt like the end of the world is like a little add-on to romance. Also I missed humour from DT1. Also reasons for bad guys moves in the story aren't logical at all. Even so DT3 has very climatic story in few chapters. That's good game but I prefer DT1.

Worst player stats: 100% items (I was really surprised that I did it - I couldn't do it in DT1 because crazy chain air dash shenanigans and underestandable graze system in Touhou minigame), 30 achievements, 4861 deaths and 133 hours of gameplay. Most bosses were played at assist mode and from Chapter 17 most levels.

Now some pointless awards:
Three the HARDEST BOSSES:
1. Abomination - 5 hours at assist mode. While it's not really epic battle cause he's not moving I like that we must control the terrain.
2. Final Boss - 5,5 hours - he just don't feel to be the hardest. On one side think and act fast with little bullet hell, on other side unexplained interface and mechanic issues.
3. Decimator 10000 - 2 hours - the reason I didn't put here Chapter 20 first boss is I didn't like split party system, cheap tricks and also very idiotic ending. Decimator deserve this place because...
THE MOST OVERWHELMING BOSS - Decimator 10000 (there is so many thing going, he has so many skills and parts and healing that after 1 hour of fighting him I thought he's impossible to beat and cried for help on blog.
FAVOURITE BOSS - Sera
THE BEST DESIGN AREA - Highland (loved change of scenery and secret passages)
THE BEST ROOM - Subconscious Filter last room
THE MOST FRUSTRATING AREA - Chapter 17 facility
THE MOST FRUSTRATING ROOM - Nightmare G third room
THE BEST MUSIC - Highlans first music (if I would know this music will vanish in future I would definitely make copy of save)

Suggestions: make a control info for the guy after Final Boss (I discovered laser by a mistake), also credit music is ending way too fast, also make achievements for getting all equipments and max all skills.

NegativeZeroZ said...

There's like a combined 5 minutes of actual romance though?? They even both agree in the final chapter where it actually does get addressed that the end of the world is a more pressing matter. I just don't see it, so I'd like to know where you're getting that vibe.

Sera is in the top 5 for me though, easily.

Kamil said...

About romance: I'm not talking specifically about Chapter 20 but more about beginning Chapters 1-9, Chapter 12. last Nightmare Gate is showing psychological aspect of romance (while it is interesting idea why to show that in Nightmare Gate?! There are also some dialogs after beating bosses (they don't refer to any danger but they are more just a flirting). Also we have Dream Woods with memory cutscene out of nowhere and a little less romantic cutscenes from Subconscious Filter (could it be psychological aspect again?).

This story is like Sweden criminal book - there is a little of story (though it can be interesting), most of the book is: know family of main character, his/her girlfriend/ boyfriend, friends, psychological aspect of them and... these books are hard for me to read. The actual story (murder/kidnap) is scattered and it's like 10% of the whole book. It's a little similar in this game. Sorry, but that's what I think.

Cyn said...

Its interesting to hear that perspective, actually. While I agree that there felt like there was a lot of time in the script devoted to showing the relationship (in the broad sense of how two characters are connected) between Jerry and Claire, the grand majority of the time it felt more like banter to me, two friends who had bad blood but had since gotten over it and weren't above ribbing one another and taking potshots without really intending offense. It felt like an extension of the Jerry-Jeremy banter, which showed up in this game but was more prevalent in DT1 since it was just the two of them. It may be a bad question, but did it always feel like the conversations between them was romance? Or did you only start thinking that after seeing Nightmare H, Dream Woods, etc.?

As for bosses, the final bosses all felt like they tested different things. Abom was raw endurance. Longest fight in the game, four distinct phases... shifting terrain and attacks... Not going to like that when the boss three shots, urgh. The final boss I have talked until I'm blue in the face about, much to Zephyr's chagrin I'm sure, but Decimator was an interesting fight, really. Big test on your element usage, sometimes you can't afford to wait and use other elements to kill add-on parts, have to use the proper elements. Half the fight is killing pieces before they can make life hell.

Sera was a really well put-together fight, a favourite for many I bet. Everything from the first piece to the actual fight itself to the point in the story combined into an excellently done encounter. That chapter is all about knives though, learn to be accurate and quick with knives and the zone is made three times easier.

It is an absolute shame you can't go back to the Filter, but I get the story reasons. Amazing place, backup your save when you go in so you can do it again later for sure.

Kamil said...

For me romance started from teasing between Jerry and Claire. It felt like they were flirting. And these dialogs were really annoying to hear (I mean read).
About story I also like multiple endings (I missed the first one, gonna see that in the second playthrough). and while romance appearance in story is big I think the story is like 20% of the game and the rest is mindless exploration (that's propably why ZephyrBurst is calling this game Metroidvania).
What I missed: Sentries - from reading the blog I understand they will appear in game early and appear randomly like shrouds. They never appeared though.
Bubble Tower B - is it going to appear or not. The game feels (even after ending) that there would be created add-on (maybe with third ending).
Kirby Gate - at the beginning there were plans for that but it never happened.

Kamil said...

Cyn, you can go back to Subconscious Filter from Farreaches - Envision map.

Kamil said...

Subconscious Filter - PANIC room - at the very beginning if I fall into pit and try to grab left wall I'm going inside rock. Is it supposed to be like this?

ZephyrBurst said...

I'm not seeing the romance thing at all, it's much closer to what Cyn said there. Now if we go by one of the definitions of romance, then the entire game is that. :P
"A baseless, made-up story, usually full of exaggeration or fanciful invention."

I'll state it now, don't bother thinking there might be some hidden ending, there is not.

Bubble Tower B, if it's ever gotten to, will be short tester submitted maps. As for things like the Shrouds randomly appearing, there was an idea for something like that waaaaay back, but it wasn't necessary. It doesn't have a place in DT3 and would have taken away from it.

Kamil said...

That's kinda embarassing but I discovered HELP menu right now with all credits and controls. OMG, sometimes my stupidity really amaze me.

ZephyrBurst said...

Nah, there's a lot of info scattered all over the place in the game, makes sense various bits of it would be overlooked.

Cyn said...

@Zephyr: No hidden ending? Well that's good. Shadow Eura on Nightmare Mode is kind of being a brick wall. Then again, almost every boss after the first couple of gates is a wall of re-progression on that difficulty. Still, I much prefer that you made the difficulty happen by denying the ability to overgear the content and narrowing the room for error that way, rather than taking away core pieces of the character power (do these lategame bosses with no dash, or without ranged ability sets, etc) or (like Distorted did) adding back in all the broken unfair stuff that was taken out because it was just infuriating. Although seeing some of the original designs might have been interesting (especially when you brought up that they'd been nerfed down somewhat, eg. Sigma).

@Kamil: From Envision? That's good to know, thank you. I ended up actually trying to go back in through DCS once, that was fun. Getting back out was even more fun.

Kamil said...

So today I overcome myself. Really funny way to get this achievement. Did I learn something? Kinda. Looks like ESC button works until it is said to not work. That's interesting exception to PAUSE button which not work from the beginning. Is there some achievement/hidden blockade by leaving room earlier I don't know. But that was very funny place. Bravo for creativity, ZephyrBurst.

Herbethe said...

Hey Kamil, so you got lucky with that achievement?

NegativeZeroZ said...

I think the banter between Jerry and Claire comes off that way because the game takes no time at all to build any kind of atmosphere like, say, a JRPG would, so it's a bit of a mood whiplash when you finally finish off that boss that took you 2 hours to beat (seriously, guys, you're troopers) and seconds later they're already poking fun at each other, like literally before their feet hit the ground. The scenes occur in roughly the same, between-major-gameplay-event places, but the pace of DT was kept sacred throughout development, because Zephyr didn't want the addition of story to take away from the game. So those early scenes feel crammed in and out of place next to the lategame storytelling which is all about things happening unavoidably while the player is still in control of their character. Looking at the game as a whole, it feels to me like there was a lesson learned there, so I'll look forward to seeing it in action when Zephyr tries telling a story in a non-DT formatted game.

Kamil said...

While watching Whattayabrian's let's play I noticed that in battle with Warmaster no matter how many times he dies he always starts with 40 missiles. So I goes to boss hub and also no matter I died I started with 40 missiles. But I remember that when I fought with Warmaster at Warship I always had 20 missiles at the beginning of the battle. So what the hell had happened to me? Damn stupid glitch, I guess.

NegativeZeroZ said...

I think the issue occurs when leaving the boss encounter to change equipment while your ammo count is at less than half. This doesn't happen in the Boss Gallery because that map maxes out your health and ammo just by existing in it.

Kamil said...

I'm very sorry for annoying you about Warmaster. I watched again fight with Warmaster and realized something. Wat's the point behind shorter bar? NegativeZeroZ explained that when it maxed Warmaster will use super attack. But oh... he's not using super attack immediatly. No he's waiting. Sometimes he's using super attack after 5 normal attacks, sometimes he will switch to another form, sometimes he will do it immediatly. That's completely random. So, wat's a real point behind this short bar?
Also I think ammo should be remembered at the checkpoints in the same way like life. Because otherwise it's bullshit. And before Warmaster we can't check our ammo (so how to guess we are starting with half of missiles?).
Again, I'm really sorry for botheing you (anyone who will read that).

Cyn said...

You're right, he does wait sometimes, and you'll see some supers more than others (I saw thunder and fire all the time, ice only sometimes and blade pretty rarely). Think of the bar less as a timer and more like a cooldown, if its not full he can't use one, rather than 'if its full he will use one right away', because the latter simply isn't true. It's more useful at the start of the fight than at the end, since it becomes more and more intense, but its still a help. As for checking ammo, you'd have to go back to the crossroads to check, there's a portal, don't worry. I would suspect its a holdover system from back when missiles and arrows didn't regenerate, since a failsafe to ensure you at least had some would be a good idea there.

Kamil said...

Whattayabrian finished the game on 1.08 patch. How to get this one?

Anonymous said...

nightmare mode ending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM_M1ct554U

lordalexander74 said...

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h163/LordAlexander74/dt1%20error_zps80mnwzyc.png

Anyone know why I get this error when I try to run DT1?

ZephyrBurst said...

The 1.08 patch has super minor changes that I was experimenting with, so only 3 people got it, Brian included. They'll go into the next patch, which may come up in the next few days.

As for that error, lordalex, I've seen it before, but not sure what causes it for some people. Try placing the game folder in your Program Files directory and/or running it in compatibility mode for either XP or Windows 7.

Also that nightmare mode ending link is legit.

lordalexander74 said...

Compatibility mode did the trick. Thanks Zephyr. I'm ashamed to admit it took me a while to remember Jerry can't jump on mario enemies in DT1.
And Distortion Windows is still an amazing level.