Battle for Venga Islands v1.1

Within a day or two after BFVI went live, I knew it wasn't up to my standards.

The main problem was that the difficulty was too high... once the map was all filled it, it was very difficult to make forward progress.  And if you did happen to capture a region that extended into enemy territory, it was extremely easy for the enemy to take it back.  This lead to pretty deadlocked maps.

In spite of that, there were some really dedicated players who captured many hundreds (and one of a thousand) regions in the war for their monarch, which was awesome.

So, I put out a patch version 1.1, which had the following changes:

  • Regions were generally made easier to capture.
  • Ocean regions now counted as friendly when calculating difficulty
  • Added a global percentage to show how much land Blue and Red both held
  • Added the ability to change teams once
  • Added anti-hack measures.
  • Made healthballs show up slightly more often, and last longer before despawning
  • Your own name shows up in red on the high score list
 I think that's it.

I had to wait a week after my initial release to even begin Peer Review for the patch.  The Peer Review itself took about two weeks.  So during all that time, people were buying the game and being greeted with a world that was extremely difficult to make any headway in.  I haven't gotten any hate mail, but I feel bad for people who dove in and paid a buck and were unpleasantly surprised.

Finally, last night, I got my final peer review and the game went live.  Through the night and into today, about 30 people have logged in and started capturing territories.  Since the map and high score list started fresh, it's been fun to watch those fill up.  Some enterprising players captured regions in such a way as to make a smiley face, a frowny face, and the worlds "FU" and "LOL".

The leaderboard looks like this:
321
268
260
233
221
200
188
82
78
52

I'm totally shocked that people are playing the game for hours on end to capture that many regions.  That's really rewarding.

I'm pretty bummed that the changes in 1.1 weren't released initially, since lots of people have bought the game and are no longer playing it, but I hope it's not too little too late, and remains fun for those who are still playing it, as well as the last stragglers who join up before it falls off the New Releases list and into oblivion.

But I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  Unless something goes horribly astray, I'm done.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F is for Femanx and Forlarren

Image
Back on July 1st, I blogged about the alien race known as the Femanx that caused onto Porphyra. It you didn't read it you can find the entry here . I believe I called them Femiax but I believe that name is closed content so in the final Races of Porphyra and Lands of Porphyra they will be address as Femanx. The other race that we have worked up for the letter F is the forlarren. Forlarren are the unfortunate offspring of demonic forces and nymphs. They are a very troubled race. We first worked with the folarren as a playable race back in Monstrous Races: The Second Wave and they turned out something like this. FORLARREN RACIAL TRAITS (0 RP) +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence: Forlarren are graceful and intuitive, but possess only a low cunning that serves their cruelty. (2 RP) Fey: Forlarren are of the fey type. Forlarren possess no racial hit dice and exchange the features of their fey type for the class features of a PC or NPC class. (0 RP) Medium : Forlarren are Medi...
Read more

Megadungeons...

We need more megadungeons for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. There is Dungeon-A-Day, obviously and Paizo has just released Dungeons of Golarion (but its more of an overview). We need a classic megadungeon You know the kind... It doesn't have much in the way of plot or even make a lot of sense from level to level but it does have: - pathways to the darklands - prisons for eldritch demons - ancient ruins - lost civilizations - legendary weapons - unexplainable magic (lost magic) - mines - slave pits - elemental nodes - water-filled passages - mazes - one way doors (heck secret doors) - traps - haunted levels - classic monsters (ropers, trapper, mimics, otyughs [especially otyughs], owlbears) - dragons - monsters too big to have ever fit down those hallways. - artifacts A classic megadungeon with everything wrong and right about it. Who is with me!
Read more

Forest of Gora

The Forest of Gora sits between the kingdoms of Illaya and Grismor and serves as their border. Trade routes circle either side of the far stretching forest. Outposts can even be seen within sight of the forest, but none are ever directly next to it. Both kingdoms have learned nothing built near Gora will last the season without being ransacked or razed by those living in it. Both nations have tried on numerous occasions through the generations to lay claim to the land, either by force or in cooperation. Ill prepared for the guerrilla tactics of those that reside in it, they were held back every time. When the native occupants took out their building hostility on the private trade caravans that passed near their borders a quick, unofficial truce was quickly made with the impending threat of economic collapse a lack of trade would cause. Ecology Much of the flora and fauna of Gora is what one would expect from a temperate forest. A mix of broadleaf and evergreens provide a balance of wax...
Read more