Hello folks. April is Arttista birthday on Steam. 2 years has passed from first day around here, and since then we have released version after version and received a lot of good feedback and excelent features requests. This is what is different on Steam: The Community that is part of it. It is not a simple relationship between a software vendor and their clients. This made Arttista growing up so fast. We just want to thank you all and say that Arttista 1.8.3 is ready to rock.
Thus, you can watch this video where we talk about whats new in this version
Changelog:
Now is possible to hide old objects when new objects are merged to your draw even if they dont belong to some bone. Before this version, only objects that belong to a bone could be automatically hided when new objects that belong do same bone are merged to current drawing.
Now when Arttista is merging new content to an existing drawing, Arttista will hide old content on your drawing only if new content bones contains objects even if you has marked "hide" option before merge. What is does it mean? It means that, you can have in your shape library, only part of your characters like a hand for example, assigined to a skeleton. Then, when you will merge this hand and it's skeleton into your current drawing where this character is on screen, only the current character hands will be hided giving place to the new hand imported. And this will happen cause the rest of skeleton has no objects. Only the bone assigined to the new hand has object, that is the new hand of course. This way, for example, lets you have a lot of separeted parts of same character, in different angles or poses, inside shape library. Then you could use as the situation demands.
Now when you do bones interpolation between poses inside keyframes, every bone that belong to other bone will obey hierarchically the parent bone. Before this version, you'd have to select every related bone to do an interpolation. Now, for example, if you select only the 3th bone from a skeleton and do an interpolation, every bone after the 3th bone of this skeleton will be interpoladted too. This means the 4th, 5th, 6th, etc... Also, if you have another skeleton that belongs to this 3th bone, it will be entirely interpolated too.
Hey ladies and gentlemen, I've almost completed work on the final level, The Island! I'm bugtesting it now, so hopefully barring any massive bugs that take a lot of work to track down, it should come out soon. Depending on performance, I may end up remodeling some of the bigger buildings that take up way more processing power than they should, so those may change.
There are a few bugs that will be fixed as well, to include the mission menu bug which sometimes pauses the game without pulling up the mission menu. FYI, for now you can just press the button again to unpause, and then wait a few seconds before pressing it again to pull it up.
Thanks for all the support, and I hope you enjoy these pictures!
First off, thank you to everyone who has supported the game thus far. It's very exciting to see so many people express an interest in it.
Secondly, I just want to let you know that I am very open to feedback and criticism on the game as it exists as well as comments on ideas for the future of the game. I view this whole process as being somewhat collaborative. I obviously had/have a vision for where I want the game to go and be, but I am genuinely interested in what you, the player, wants it to become. So never hesitate to let me know. I obviously won't be able to make it fit everyone's vision, but I would very much like it to become the best version of itself.
All of that being said, I am currently working a more comprehensive patch. Some of the things I'm working on include: -Reworking the Germany economy. It's functioning, but it needs balance. I also want it to better respond to the player's efforts in damaging different aspects of the economy.
-Better balance for dogfights. I've been trying to get it balanced, but this is probably the trickiest thing to balance.
-With balancing the dogfights, I have plans to improve the dogfighting AI. It's a little too simple right now. Plus, improving the AI should help with the balance that is seen in the dogfights.
-Different performance for the bombers. Like a WWII vet once told me, 'If you wanted to get to a target farther away and get there faster with more bombs, you took the B-24. If you wanted to get home, you took the B-17."
-Similarly, different performance characteristics for the fighters.
-Warp option available to speed up flight times in the mission portion of the game. Once the enemy engages, however, the game speed reverts back x1.
These last two weeks there has been a focus on playtesting some of our levels as we prepare to have a batch of them finalized. In addition, we have been adding finishing touches with prop models, and reworking the UI.
Decorating E2 and E3
As mentioned in our previous update, The Watchtowers was formerly a place for the scholars of this world. We’ve been crafting an orrery that will hang in one of the tower atriums, and it is currently in its last stages of texturing. You can see some of the in-progress proof-of-concepts and updates below:
We’ve also been adding statues to Episode 3, with some of them depicting the image of a character that some may know as The Shepherd of Wayward Souls:
UI Improvements
As mentioned briefly in the previous update, we have been conducting a UI overhaul. There are more changes to come, in order to get the new graphics added (cursor, quantity, detail, etc), but here’s a look at one of the bigger changes: the Artifact Inventory.
Old Artifact Menu:
New In-Progress Artifact Menu:
Some other quality-of-life changes have included cleaning up the item messages, such as announcing the quantity of a pickup rather than flooding multiple messages to the HUD.
Old:
New:
Extensive work has also been done augmenting the presentation of text in the interface. One major advantage of this will be localization:
In other news…
Aside from new props, UI improvements, and other fixes, tweaks, and polish, here is a look at some of the things we’ve worked on the last two weeks:
LEVELS
E2M1 - The Crystal Dunes - has been thoroughly playtested, and all that remains is balancing items, particularly in secrets, and some bugfixing
E3M1 - Boundary Of The Living - has also been playtested, with a few entity and aesthetic changes made as a result.
BOSS3 map has a finalized layout, with detailing and item placement underway
ENEMIES
Boss 3 has had several expressive, creepy, and sinister animations added, as well as another form of attack
The AI for the Widow was improved with a small but significant bugfix
The Heretic now drops the correct number of Fangs
PROPS & TEXTURES
The Episode 3 Relic circle is now being modeled
A new model has been made for Fang Spitter ammunition, so the visual corresponds with the amount collected
A few more industrial textures have been made for E3M3. Blood and iron!
That’s it for today’s update! We hope you enjoyed these progress images, and we’ll see you in two weeks!
CHANGE - If a player crosses an enemy campfire while exploring, the AI will break chase of the player if the AI get beyond 10k units away from their campfire. This will at least allow players to avoid the battle if they can run away or drive away. In this case, the AI will go back to their campfire. FIXED - Mike issue with taking stones off the forge, cause forges and mike to be in a bad state. FIXED - Mike could no longer open/close doors and gates. FIXED - Mike would not loop through all available AI chest to deposit food he harvests from plant beds.
Welcome again to another Blog post, I will detail the current state of Light the Lamp Hockey and some future updates along with a bit of story time, tips, and how I personally play the game!
The Current State of Light the Lamp Hockey
So far the game feels pretty good, gameplay wise I am quite happy with it. I do have some things that annoy me as imperfections but I'll work to eliminate those qualms before the eventual release to 1.0
During the month of April, I have worked to smooth out some controls with the players, worked on evening out pressure with the two onscreen teams, you can see some zone time go either way.
I was experimenting with passing and can't exactly maneuver myself to an upgraded + Fun mechanic then what we have here. But I am continuing to look into it and if I find a perfect balance, it'll certainly be in a future update.
I have also added some new music, worked on Franchise mode, and currently getting our first batch of achievements out.
Where are we going?
The future of Light the Lamp Hockey is not really so blurry as it once was. I am working on updating the Arcade mode. As I'm sure a few players have noticed, but there is no way you can play arcade mode in regular mode which sounds silly when you put it that way. But really the only measuring stick you would have currently with the Regular mode of play is simply in Franchise and while that might seem trivial to some, I do know that a whole lot of us have no time to do any of that and just want to see their favorite team go up against some other teams and have a battle of different line combinations and it actually mean something. So I will be working on getting that implemented so we can have two leaderboards with different modes. I'm also working on a "Live" Mode inside Arcade Mode that will actually have evolving scores as you progress through your games. The chase will feel very much ongoing as you go from game to game and wait to see how your rivals are playing. The real challenge I have with making this change is... well.. how would the playoff aspect work? So I'm thinking of going on to exchange 20 Rank Points to enter said playoffs. And a time limit for when the Rank Point Scoring Closes. So obviously, yes you take a hit of 20 points but get a chance at the Keg or stick it out and stay on top of the leaderboard and win the Pitcher, or heck do both because if you are really freakin good, I don't think a 20 point deficit would affect you long. As for franchise mode... I still need to make a bunch of systems for it since you are losing players, gaining players, getting subs, scouting open hockey, Playing teams that have ringers on their team. It will be awesome when I ever get it functioning at least and I'm close to getting the basic loop down!
Story Time
So I love playing retro hockey games and obviously making them too. One of the inspirations for Light the Lamp Hockey is "2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge" I don't care what anyone says, boot that game up today and tell me those are not the BEST DARN Puck physics you have ever done seen (especially when you block a shot) and those clutch goalie saves (chef's kiss). Anyway, I co-oped several seasons with several friends, one of which was with my brother and goodness the amount of high fives you give each other from the massive amounts of goals you score together or blocking a shot and getting the puck down the ice to your bro and he wiggles the player up and down and gets that game winner in OT, boy those are the memories... and then it hits you...that was 10- 15 years ago.. maybe more. Well I was out and about in public and wearing my LTL Hockey Shirt (not sold publicly maybe one day) and some people know me here in our small town and they know of the journey this game has made when it was just blocks passing a black dot on the screen and me going.. "YOU SEE DAT!?" Well Someone stops me and says " I have played your game, its awesome..me and my brother co-op it every chance we get." And how floored does one feel when you hear that your game is making those same memories that a game like Open Ice Challenge, arguably a god of hockey games made with me so many years ago. While LTL Hockey is not like the most successful thing on earth, that doesn't mean as much to me as the fact that someone also enjoys this style of play and heck plays this game with their brother or a friend and I'm sure... give those high fives at will like we did back in the day.
How I play Light the Lamp Hockey!
In case anyone was ever wondering, how do I play this game officially.
Display: 4:3 Monitor- That's right, if you have a 4:3 monitor, bust that thang out. The game was meant to be played this way, the screen stretches naturally in this fashion.
Sound: if yall haven't played this with a subwoofer... you should, I mastered the game to have bassy pops and also some of the music is pretty sweet too! It's kind of a mix of 90s hockey game presentation and the 8-bit era but cranking it up is recommended.
Controller: if you have an xinput controller, use that, I only play with dpad though. I developed the game to be best played with a dpad, so keyboards and dpads are the best. You can use the joystick but you will be active on that given the threshold only reads in absolutes.
Game Modes: I pretty much only play Arcade Mode. And I mostly play it in a locked player position because at least to me, I love it when something sweet just happens organically and its really a thing of beauty.
Rules: Definitely a preference but Period length at 6 is a great medium. I like all the rules on as well. I play at normal everything..
*If y'all want closer to average shots, always do period length 9. It's Really fun in Regular Mode just to sim games.
Tips and Notes
Wondering why you can't get through the neutral zone, or out of your own zone? -The game is built with the aspect of knowing when to dump the puck. Sometimes, the best thing to do is fire that puck and see what happens. When you are in your D zone and need to get out, players automatically fire the puck either off the boards or chip it in front, you need to mitigate these risks however.
Playing Goalie is hard! - it is indeed but its also in the same area as mitigating risk, when you press the save button, you have a speed boost and also have greater coverage at a less chance of a save. so moving cross crease, it is imperative to at least use that save button to get across quickly to make that save. The save percentage is divided into 3 tiers
Save 1 = Standup, 100% chance of a save (normal) Save 2 = Butterfly, 75% chance of a save, more coverage, small speed boost (press save once) Save 3 = Desperation Drop 50% , Minimal speed boost (Press save twice)
Glove = works when the puck is in air.
Shootout rule = these rules are amplified in a shootout. You must use a glove for an airborne shot. all ground pucks can be stopped with a save button.
Why do my AI never pass to me? -Depending on the mode, in Arcade Mode, the personas of each team kind of cycle around as the game goes on, so sometimes they might be selfish and sometimes they are like the ultimate playmaker, the key is finding out which and playing to that strength. If its a shooter, go to the net, if its a patient player, go to your position, if its a passer, set up a back door play. in Regular Mode putting guys in the right slot can really determine your overall success.
Center (Usually a playmaker or the first line of defense) Forward ( first to the puck, always attacking the net) Defense ( Needs to be solid physically, But needs to also know when to pass and when to dump)
We get absolutely pounded in co-op. -Its best to start out with you and your buddy to play Center and Forward. But be keen on cycling out, once the defense pinches you will always be in a world of hurt if it fails. The game is based on mid 90's trap game style so watch your positioning at all times. If you are doing a full team co-op, communicate and watch positions and you will be doing good in no time! And watch out for the AI running interference on you to create space to a cherry picking Forward.
Why are the playoffs brutal? - In hockey if the cup is on the line, the physicality is always the first thing to ramp up. In LTL Hockey when you make the playoffs, the hitting aspect is more prevalent while regular season is more skill based.
Do my fans leave when I suck? They do. especially if you are trailing, they might just hit the exits. Fan levels are kept up with in Arcade Mode it ranges from 1-5 where 1 is d league game attendance and 5 is playoff c league type of attendance with maybe a special guest ex ahl player signing autographs somewhere.
Also finally, I change the Scalded Dog Games Logo in honor of our dear Louie, the sweetest dog ever. Which shall be revealed officially on the next LTL Hockey Update! But I'm sure anyone can find it on the YouTube or Facebook page if ya can't wait haha. Till then, take care everyone!
