Aug 10, 2023

Men of War II - Old Gamer

Greetings, Commanders!
The time has come and Men of War II is back with the third and final time to get hands on with the game, prior to its release. But giving you the opportunity to enjoy the game is not the only reason we are running the Beta - we need to learn what you think of the latest changes, so we can polish and tweak the game before its full launch.

We cannot stress this enough - your feedback from the first Multiplayer Tech Test in March and the subsequent Open Beta in May has been absolutely invaluable, and in this Final Open Beta, we would especially like to learn what you think about the two big features developers prepared solely based on your suggestions and comments - a new Match Setup Mode, called "Classic", and a new setting, dubbed "Realism".

We read all your feedback and each and every single player can have an impact on the final version of the game. We hope the changes implemented throughout the 3 playtests have proven our dedication to making Men of War II as enjoyable for our fans as possible.

Therefore we implore you, please, once you have played the Beta, share your thoughts with us here in the comments or Steam discussions, or come join the official Men of War II Discord server where you can not only chat with our team and other fans of the game, but also find team-mates for multiplayer matches or try to take on the Fulqrum Publishing team throughout the Final Beta.

And now, without further ado, let us introduce the biggest new features this Beta brings - both available through the custom lobby:

"Classic" Match Setup Mode

The "Match Setup Mode" is used to switch between "PvP" (the standard Men of War II playstyle, where you can choose from a wide selection of battalions), "Combined Arms" (which we introduced in the previous Open Beta, where each nation has a single battalion you can heavily customize) and now, "Classic" - which has been highly requested by the community and is reminiscent of the previous Men of War games.

Match Setup Mode selection in the Lobby Settings menu

When starting a "Classic" match, you will not be asked to select a battalion, just the nation whose army you want to play. This is similar to Combined Arms, however, there is nothing to customize before the match starts here. Once in the game, you will have all units from your nation's army available through a selection menu on the right-hand side of the screen.

You are not limited by timed echelons in calling in units either, however, each unit type has its own individual timer (so you cannot call in heavy tanks right from the start of the match, for example), and you cannot call in units without any limitations, as each of them costs a certain amount of "Manpower", which you regenerate at different paces throughout the match.

Important note about the "Classic" Match Setup

A crucial fact to remember about the "Classic" setup - the main reason for this Final Beta is for us to get your feedback on it. Developers will be changing its balancing before the final release based on your comments and suggestions. In fact, there are already 2 versions prepared and will be switched on Saturday (we will inform you here and on Discord ahead of time). It would be extremely appreciated if you played both and share your opinion with us using this form - filling it out won't take long and it will help us immensely!

New "Realism" Game Setting

We have introduced a whole new category in the Lobby, and that is "Game Settings" - which can now be switched between "Competitive" (the experience you are familiar with from previous Men of War II playtests) and the newly added setting called "Realism".

Game Settings selection in the Lobby Settings menu

This affects many gameplay features, some noticeable outright (such as different indicators on units), some more subtle (such as the inability to see if your unit has been fully detected after firing), and some major changes such as each unit having a different maximum firing range. When playing with the Realism setting turned on, even heavy artillery has to move closer to the front and will not be able to fire across the whole map.

The full list of effects when switching to the "Realism" setting:

Removed health bars for vehicles.
Changes in weapon settings - changed damage and range, higher chance of critical hits.
New vehicle destruction system.
Increased unit repair time.
Added a more realistic vision system for units, allowing them to physically hide behind objects.
The average range of vision has been increased.
Removed some indicators and tooltips in the interface.
Adjusted dynamic characteristics of all vehicles.

And last but not least, even though we have previously said there will be no new content available in the Final Beta besides these two features, we decided to give you a little bit extra anyway - one more map has been made available, so everyone, feel free to visit the Suburb!

Join the test now by clicking “Request Access” on Men of War II Steam page and the "Men of War II Playtest" will be added to your library, which you can install and run immediately. If you have already participated in the Multiplayer Tech Test and/or the Open Beta, you already have it in your library and can simply install (or update) it and play.

To sum up, here is the full list of content available in the Final Beta:

Final Beta Content:

2x Game Settings

Competitive
Realism

3x PvP Match Setup Mode

PvP (typical Men of War II experience using the battalion system)
Combined Arms (single customizable battalion for each nation)
Classic (all units from the player’s nation available in a match)

4x PvP Game Mode

Front Line
Assault Zones
Combat
Incursion - only available in PvP match setup (“Battalions”)

1x PvE Game Mode

Line Defense (listed in the lobby menu as "Special Battle Mode")

8x Maps

Airfield
Bazerville
Borovaya River
Carpathians
The Coast
Farmland
Winter March
Suburb

3x Single Player / Co-op Missions

Ambush
Battle of Coisson
Towards Freedom

Changes & Fixes:

A new enhanced lighting engine with new skyboxes and better quality of existing content.
Bunkers, pillboxes and observation towers can now be built as defensive structures on all maps.
Additional match settings in the lobby: players can choose the weather and time of day for each battle.
Added medical transport for each nation and a Soviet self-propelled heavy howitzer SU-152.
New animations for various units and situations, such as artillery reloading and infantry dying in water.
New buildings added to maps, including a supply depot, infirmary, fuel station, etc.
New models for artillery shells, grenades and bombs.
Various new sound effects.
Improved pathfinding for vehicles.
Balancing and refinement to single-player missions and multiplayer modes.
Performance improvements.
Bug fixes, general polish and small tweaks.

Make sure you wishlist the game, and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield, commanders!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128860/Men_of_War_II/

Aug 10, 2023

The Big Buffs Update - Preview

Luck be a Landlord - TrampolineTales

This preview and other posts are available sooner on The TrampolineTales Newsletter, consider subscribing!

Hey everyone! Today we're gonna be talking about Luck be a Landlord's first major update since it was released: The Big Buffs Update. It's an upcoming Content Patch with about 30 buffs to different symbols and items.

As always, there will be a complete write-up of my reasoning for every balance change in the full v1.1 patch notes. Look forward to that when The Big Buffs Update releases on August 18th!

Why so many buffs?

An unavoidable reality of a game with a lot of randomness, like Luck be a Landlord, is that there will be runs that are unwinnable even while playing perfectly. My main goal with The Big Buffs Update is to reduce the number of games where this is the case, while not making the game any less fun.

Making the game effectively easier while not making it less fun can be a tough thing to do. For example, if the Cherry symbol that you start with gave 20 coins instead of 1 coin, the game would be a lot easier. However, it would be less fun since you wouldn't have any reason to take other symbols. This is an extreme example, but even increasing a symbol's base value by 1 coin can vastly change the game's fun factor in a negative way.

That being said, there are symbols that can have their values increased by just 1 coin without unbalancing the game. Let's take a look at a few of them:

Dog

The Dog symbol is one of the first symbols I added to the game, but it was only ever really worth taking if you already had Quigley the Wolf or a Comedian. It was just too risky otherwise.

By buffing the amount it gives when triggered by 1 coin, Dog will be powerful enough to be worth taking as one of your first symbol choices, and not one that is mostly ignored.

Card Shark

I increased Card Shark's base value by 1 coin for a similar reason. While Card Shark won't appear as early as Dog potentially can, it still feels like a symbol that you only take if you already have a synergy for it.

I've found that the Joker symbol was sometimes worth taking as a 3-coin symbol even if I didn't have any synergies with it. I would sometimes add a Suit or two later on if I already had the Joker.

Buffing Card Shark to give 3 coins instead of 2 coins will help create situations where it's a symbol worth taking without synergies, and a great symbol if/when you can get its synergies going.

Speaking of Card Shark synergies...

Suits

Suits are probably the symbol archetype that could use the most love. You may notice in the above screenshot that I didn't actually change the Suit symbols at all. Instead, I changed many of the items that Suits synergize with.

I did this to effectively increase the number of backup plans a player has when they decide to take their first suit symbol. Here's an example of that:

Previously, the Flush item was only useful if players were already heavily committed to Suits. With its new effect, it can basically be an "eject button" to a failed Suits run. It can also continue to provide value since it effectively turns all Suits into strictly better Wealthy Capsules.

A common request I've gotten from players is to start with a symbol buffing item like Happy Hour or Birdhouse. This would give players a goal if they don't know what kind of symbols to take early.

This has always stuck with me as a good idea, but maybe not the right execution for it. I think starting with, say, Happy Hour, could easily lead a new player into a tunnel-vision state where they only look for Dwarves, Beer, and Wine.

I've tried a bit of a different take on this idea with two more reworked Suit items:

Rather than the previous effect of buffing a build that's probably more-or-less complete by the time you find one of these items, I reworked them into potential build-enablers.

If a player already has a single Diamonds or Hearts and they see the Red Suits item as their 1st or 2nd item choice, they're likely to want to take Red Suits. That being said, there's still a few choices to be made.

Since these items take 7 spins to be destroyable, a player may decide not to destroy one of them if they've ended up with 20+ symbols in their inventory by the time destruction is a possibility. They might not even want to take the item at all if they're already on their 5th or 6th rent payment.

Wrapping Up...

There are many more symbols and items that will become more powerful with The Big Buffs Update, but you'll have to wait until August 18th to see and experience all of them!

Do keep in mind, the biggest goal with this patch is to increase players' overall winrate without reducing the game's fun factor. After extensive testing, I think I've achieved this, and I hope you all enjoy the game as much as I have while testing it.

-Dan

Aug 10, 2023

Development Update 3

Walkies - Gaslight Mark

Hello Pupper Fans and welcome to a long overdue update for the development of Walkies!
We've been hard at work with many awesome things to show you all...

Concept Art

The area in the current prototype was built as a small, enclosed demonstration of what we are wanting Walkies to feel like. From experimenting and nailing the art style, to movement, quests and interactive elements. After nailing the narrative journey (as mentioned in our last update), we created a series of concepts for many of the key areas across the game. Here are a few we can share with you!

This first one shows the Sanctuary's visitors centre. Here you'll learn how to play, through a tutorial area and it's also where you'll curl up and snooze after a long day running around!

This second one shows "Otter Lake," an area for splashing around and helping out other critters... maybe even some Otters!

Draggables

We wanted to be able to create some puzzles for players to solve with items they can move and so we created Draggable items.
These have a rope attached to them, so your dog can pull them around and into place. Then use the different heights (or other items) to jump from platform to platform and reach higher points!

New Dog

Our new Beagle mesh has been completed, here's a side-by-side comparison with the Beagle we currently have in our prototype.

New Trees

With the Mighty Oaks sanctuary having many different species of tree across its land, we needed to have these types available to us. And so all of our trees have received an overall, including adding a few particular species for special areas.

Cosmetics & Costumes

We continue to add and update the various types of cosmetics and costumes that you can choose. Here are some of the newest additions!

Shows

In our first update, we took the prototype to a couple of shows and over the past few months, we've hit up a few more places.

First up was both FORMAT and Barclays Game Frenzy in May, with the Nottingham Game Expo in July being the latest public showcase of the game. It has been an absolute delight getting to show it to so many people!

Movement, Jumping and Bug Squishing

Hot off the events, we go through all of the bugs and feedback, generating tasks and tackling them.
A huge amount of focus has been placed on improving the movement of the dog, from tightening up turning, to adjusting acceleration, to fixing timings on jumping and climbing... all so every facet of the movement feels more responsive and enjoyable.